Too Late, It's Already Begun

You enter a room and the ceiling obligates you into a debate with the floor; eventually, you are threatened with nudity.

Too Late, It's Already Begun
Written by Sean Dance Fannin

You arrive at the venue.
An usher greets you on your way into the theater.
They speak to you as they check your ticket...

USHER

Welcome. Please place your phone in this bag.

The usher gives you a Faraday bag.
You put your phone in it.
They lock the bag, giving it back to you.

USHER

The performance should take about fifteen minutes but is open ended. Do not speak or you will be escorted out of the room. No matter what they say to you, there is no nudity in this performance.

The usher guides you inside.
You are now standing alone in a room.
It is big, larger than you expected it to be.
Every wall is the same color, a dingy Baker-Miller pink.
Any objects in the room are painted the singular shade.
It's cold.
If you didn't bring a jacket you wish you would have.
There is nowhere to sit, but there is one dedicated spot-light, the only source of light.
Nothing happens until you walk into it.
Then someone unseen removes a ceiling tile, and a new small dim light appears from above.
You look. You can make out their shape.

CEILING

Oye. What are you doing?

From now till the end, if you speak the Usher comes in and takes you out.
You can either get back in line or leave the theatre.
If you don't speak...

CEILING

You want to hear something interesting about me?

You don't say anything.

CEILING

Did they tell you not to speak?

YOU

...

CEILING

I used to steal a lot of liquor from my parents and they never noticed not once. Did you ever do that?

YOU

...

CEILING

I would hide it in the back of my closet. I never drank it not a bit of it. I didn't want to be an alcoholic. They'd never notice. Do you have children?

YOU

...

CEILING

You were at least a child, once, yeah?

YOU

...

CEILING

Do you remember the first time you could learn something. That you could operate under something you knew, or like you made a choice based on something you thought was true, but then learned you were wrong or it was wrong. I'm not talking about the first time you learned something. I'm talking about the realization that it's happening. When you become self aware that you can choose. Do you remember a moment like that?

YOU

...

CEILING

Some people believe in a deterministic universe. Cause is always proceeded by effect and each effect is a cause so on and so forth forward and backward in every direction. Like everything down to your neurons and synapses and the order in which they were created because of your conception because of your mother and fathers conception cause effect cause effect. You lifting your arm or putting it down. What if you lifted your arm right now? Would it be because you wanted to? Why would you want to? What would cause you to want to? What caused that cause?

CEILING

Are you going to lift your arm in the air?

Whether or not you do...

CEILING

Curious.

A trap door in the floor opens on the other side of the room opens so quickly it startles you.
The corner is in the dark, and you can only make out the top of a head and piercing eyes.
The floor dweller stares at you. They whisper...

FLOOR

Have you told them yet

CEILING

No I haven't told them yet go away it's not time yet.

FLOOR

Huh. Ok.

CEILING

I have something to tell you. Would you like to hear?

YOU

...

CEILING

I'll tell you if you ask.

YOU

...

Back to full voice.

CEILING

I don't think it's true, the determinist view. It makes sense but there's no way to prove it wrong. You might call that infallible but I call it suspect. Anything you can't prove wrong is suspect. If there's no if/then then there's no way to operate under it. It's not actionable. You can't make decisions based on that. You don't need to with that theory though, your decisions don't matter so there's very little to no point. But that's the kicker, no one operates that way because you can't. It's the most immediate apparent thing to you each morning. The choice to move your feet. Your choices are essentially the only thing you have most certain in your logical mind. You are them.

The floor dweller whispers again...

FLOOR

Alarm clocks.

If you turn and look you'll see their head is full out of the floor.
You can see their shoulders. They seem naked.

FLOOR

Alarm clocks wake you up

CEILING

But who set the alarm clock

FLOOR

You need to get up for your job in the morning

CEILING

Who chose the job

FLOOR

Why do you need a job

CEILING

Who chose which one though

FLOOR

How did you get that job? Up there.

CEILING

You're not supposed to come out yet.

FLOOR

Well you haven't said it yet and I wanted to see.

CEILING

I'm not going to say it while you're out like that they're not supposed to know you're naked yet.

FLOOR

Don't worry you won't see me naked. That was just a joke.

CELIING

Liar. You got naked in front of the last person.

FLOOR

Why would I do that? They could sue.

CEILING

They probably will.

FLOOR

They wouldn't have let you in if I had done that.

CEILING

They wouldn't know until you got in here.

FLOOR

I haven't done it, really. Not yet.

CEILING

Please get back in your hole I haven't finished my story.

FLOOR

The first real thing you do when you wake up is open your eyes. And you don't think about that.

The floor dweller is gone and the trap door thuds closed behind them.

CEILING

...I forget what I was talking about. But I wasn't really disagreeing. It might be true. We might be fatal, all of us every one. Every decision may have already been deemed terminal on the march towards death. What I'm saying, is that it doesn't matter. It's not worth conceiving; the truth that is inactionable is irrelevant to your action. Your you, the doing of you. Arguing about it keeps you buried in the mud. Choking on that which you can't control. There's freedom in understanding that which can be true and that which matters. I've said this same thing beat for beat a hundred times at this point and I still like talking to people and seeing their reactions. Sometimes people resent being preached at by a shadow in a ceiling. You are a good listener though. That I do appreciate.

...

I don't think I'm going to say it. I don't want to ruin what we have. What's happened. Just...promise me to think about it, yeah? Think about what's worth thinking about. Get back to me if you can find me.

ACTOR PLAYING THE FLOOR DWELLER

You can go the play is over. That shit ass didn't say it. Again.

The floor dweller hollers...

ACTOR PLAYING THE FLOOR DWELLER

AYE WHERE'S THE USHER?