EMMA
: Well, it’s not normal to have lightning flashes coming out of your body, is it?
HAYNES
: It’s not lightning, it’s static shock!!
EMMA
: All right, all right! Golly.
(Pause.)
HAYNES
: I’ll just go back down in the basement until Frank comes up. I never should have left the basement in the first place.
(HAYNES heads for basement. EMMA stops him.)
EMMA
: No, please. Don’t go back down in the basement. There’s no windows down there. No air. I feel like such a bad hostess.
HAYNES
: No, not at all. It’s not you, it’s me. I just need to be alone for a while. Please—
(HAYNES tries to go past EMMA to get to the basement. She grabs his elbow, trying to stop him, and another bright blue flash comes from HAYNES. EMMA steps back quickly.)
Don’t keep touching me!
EMMA
: I’m sorry. I just—I’m very sorry. Jeepers.
HAYNES
: I never should have come here!
EMMA
: No, please—please—it’s so nice to have some company for a change. We never see anyone out here. Me and Frank. The mailman now and then. The propane delivery truck. The driver. They wave to us from the road. We wave back. But we never talk to anyone.
HAYNES
: Don’t you have some neighbors?
EMMA
: They never come out. It’s too cold.
HAYNES
: How ’bout summer?
EMMA
: Summer they stay in the air-conditioning.
HAYNES
: Don’t they farm too?
EMMA
: Nobody farms anymore. Government pays them not to. We’re the only ones left.
HAYNES
: How come you and Frank do it?
EMMA
: Frank loves his heifers.
HAYNES
: Oh—
EMMA
: He lives for his heifers.
HAYNES
: I see—
EMMA
: Don’t you want more coffee?
HAYNES
: Well—
EMMA