Herbert & Isle
Frenetic thoughts on mortality, loneliness, and the ever after. This piece was later taken on as an animated short film, there scratch VO I recorded for Isle was used for the film.
Herbert & Isle
By
Cash Colburn & Matt Conely
2014
FADE IN:
(HERBERT watches the sun set over a desolate post apocalyptic wasteland. ISLE flies in and lands on HERBERT’s shoulder.)
HERBERT
You almost missed it tonight.
ISLE
I’m sorry Herbert.
(Pause)
ISLE
Hey… Herbert?
HERBERT
Yes, Isle?
ISLE
I’ve been thinking…
(A pause as ISLE gathers his thoughts…)
HERBERT
What have you been thinking?
ISLE
What do you think is going to happen to the world?
HERBERT
What exactly do you mean?
ISLE
Well the world is dying, isn’t it? And I’ve been wondering….
what’s going to happen to everything around us?
HERBERT
I am afraid I do not have the answer to that, Isle.
ISLE
Well... what happens to us... when we die?
HERBERT
Eventually my battery will expire...
because I am a machine.
ISLE
Well when will that be?
HERBERT
That will not be for a very long time.
(In HERBERT’s voice we sense he does not relish the idea of living indefinitely)
ISLE
So when your battery dies…. what then?
HERBERT
My systems will simply shut down.
ISLE
What happens to me, when I die?
HERBERT
I am afraid I do not have the answer to that, Isle.
(A pause. ISLE is obviously worrying about this.)
ISLE
Maybe everything around me will just… set? You know? And the light will start to fade. Like the sun at the end of the day, when it’s low in the sky and its beams escape across the horizon. And just before it melts, the sky is filled with all kinds of colors that the rest of the day just never had... and there's that moment where the sun seems like it’s clinging to the clouds. And then you blink. And the light is gone. And it’s sad because the day is over, but it was all so beautiful that… you don’t mind so much.
(During the monologue we witness surreal and beautiful imagery of the sky as the sun sets, disappearing over the horizon of the landscape.)
(HERBERT contemplates ISLE's thoughts.)
HERBERT
I think you are probably right, Isle…
ISLE
So do you think something like that will happen to you too? …
When you — shut down?
HERBERT
I hope so, Isle..
(Pause)
ISLE
Well, It’s getting kinda late Herbert, I think I’m going to turn in
(ISLE begins to fly away)
HERBERT
Isle? Can you stay a little longer?
(ISLE settles back down on HERBERT's shoulders. They watch the moon rise and the stars fill the sky.)
END
