RAIN ON THE ROOF SCRIPT EXCERPT
[The player character / narrator, a house on wheels, has rescued the people left behind in the wake of a brutal hurricane. These are WILL, a homeless veteran, JULIA AND CIRCE, a young couple, ALBERTINA, an immigrant child, and GERALD, a middle-aged man. Now this patchwork family journeys onwards, toward calmer skies.]
NARRATOR: As we struggled down the highway, the wind plucked away my shingles and rattled my windows.
NARRATOR: On we pushed, around the husks of toppled cars and through the maze of fallen trees.
NARRATOR: Until finally, stillness…
NARRATOR: …and silence…
NARRATOR: …and sun.
JULIA: Well. We made it.
WILL: Not quite yet. The wheels have almost fallen off and there’s a hole in the roof the size of my head.
JULIA: Oh, please. You’ll fix it.
WILL: Guess I’ll have to.
CIRCE: I’m more worried about whether my socks will ever dry out.
GERALD: Podes vir, Tina! The clouds are clearing!
ALBERTINA: Pensava que esta chuva nunca iria acabar. Obrigada por me trazeres aqui.
GERALD: She wants to thank you all. For helping her out of the storm.
WILL: So… what now?
CIRCE: I want to find a place just for us. Once we repair the wheels, let’s see if we can’t get this thing up in the mountains.
JULIA: A cabin just for us, babe?
CIRCE: And for anyone else who wants to come along.
WILL: I think I like that. I’ve breathed enough city air for one lifetime.
GERALD: Would you like that, Tina? Viver nas montanhas? Uma casa só para nós?
ALBERTINA: E a minha mamã e papá? Assim eles nunca me vão encontrar.
GERALD: She’s worried about her parents.
WILL: Gerald, I’m not sure… I’m not sure they’re gonna come for her.
WILL: That was a bad storm.
GERALD: We could look.
GERALD: There were still some buildings standing when we left.
GERALD: They’re going to need help rebuilding.
JULIA: Gerald, those people never wanted us in the first place.
CIRCE: They tossed us out.
GERALD: I think it’s worth a try.
NARRATOR: And so we…
CHOICE:
REBUILT WHAT WAS BROKEN
NARRATOR: And so we returned to a broken city.
NARRATOR: I set myself down in the ruins of the town, bolted my foundations into the shattered earth.
NARRATOR: And the people I rescued set to work. Raising walls, giving out food.
NARRATOR: Will furnished some of my empty rooms for families whose homes had fallen in the gale.
NARRATOR: Never before had so many grateful people passed through my door.
NARRATOR: It took some time, but the family did find Tina’s Mamã.
NARRATOR: …but I still keep her bedroom ready for when she visits “Tio Gerald.”
NARRATOR: Julia and Circe are okay. They still get odd looks from some of my tenants.
NARRATOR: But every Saturday is poker night, and the girls cackle when they out-bluff Gerald, so they’re doing alright.
NARRATOR: I have a new coat of paint now, and all my hinges are oiled.
NARRATOR: The smell of dust has been replaced with baking bread and garden soil.
NARRATOR: I still remember being lonely.
NARRATOR: But it is only a memory.
STARTED ANEW
NARRATOR: And so we headed for the mountains.
NARRATOR: I planted myself on a lakeshore between the evergreens. Drew fresh lake water into my plumbing.
NARRATOR: Will fishes off my porch every evening.
NARRATOR: On alternate Tuesdays Gerald goes into town to buy groceries. He stays out longer and longer every time.
NARRATOR: I think he’s growing restless. He has things in this world he needs to do.
NARRATOR: I think restlessness is a good thing, for him.
NARRATOR: I can tell that Albertina loves her new family, but I can also tell that she wonders.
NARRATOR: I don’t know if her parents made it out of the storm. I’m not sure we’ll ever know.
NARRATOR: Gerald is looking…
NARRATOR: …but sometimes people fall through the cracks.
NARRATOR: As for Circe and Julia…
NARRATOR: The love that those two women have for each other is contagious.
NARRATOR: It fills the forest like a song.
NARRATOR: My windows, once boarded, now glow with mountain sunshine.
NARRATOR: I still remember being lonely.
NARRATOR: But it is only a memory.