Chapter Text
(Sound of turning off car, car door opens and shuts as someone gets out, fumbling with phone then it starts ringing with an outgoing call.)
(General soundscape: quiet, woods, distant river flowing)
LAVINIA: (nervous, annoyed) : Come on, Mae, ya gonna pick up or what?
(Few more beats of outgoing call ringing)
MAE: (Sound of call being answered, bright and extremely cheery) Hey! There’s my girl! How’s it going, La? You make it to the site?
LAVINIA: If by site you mean the absolute middle of bumfuck nowhere, yeah I made it.
MAE: Ooh - cheerful as ever, my dear! And - (fake gasp) Lavinia! We’re at work ! You better watch your fucking language! (Mae laughs)
LAVINIA: (reluctant chuckle) Okay, yeah, just walk me through this again please. I am feeling wildly underqualified and out of my depth here.
MAE: Oh it’s stupid easy, you’ll be fine. Okay, you got the bag from the back seat?
LAVINIA: Yeah, it’s here.
(Sounds of bag unzipping and rummaging around, paper, glass bottles, fabric)
MAE: Well there’s some protective gear in there, you got your hazmat suit, a respirator, some goggles, gloves, your little booties (Mae snickers, Lavinia sighs) and your personal dosimeter, right? Start suiting up.
LAVINIA: Right, gotcha.
(Sounds of fabric rustling and effort as La puts on the protective gear)
MAE: So, look around, you see those sign posts around the area?
LAVINIA: Yeah?
MAE: Each one of those is a site where you gotta take some soil or water samples and get a reading with your geiger counter. Label the sample, write down your reading, take some photos, and voila! You’re done! Move on to the next site.
LAVINIA: Just casually sending your local fuck up to measure some radiation. Right. Excellent.
MAE: Oh calm down, you’ve got your protective gear, and the clean up of this place was finished years ago. There is nothing here to worry about. I gave you a total softball for your first one!
LAVINIA: (muttering under her breath, annoyed, sound of zipper, voice now slightly muffled by respirator) This hazmat suit was made for giants. I feel like a kid wearing their dad’s clothes or something.
MAE: Yeah well it was sized for Nathan who called out today. Best we could do on short notice. And ya know, I don’t think they even make suits for pipsqueaks like you. (Mae snickers)
LAVINIA: Ugh. Fine. Just- What’s next?
MAE: Is your personal dosimeter on?
(Fabric rustling, beep as button is pressed)
MAE: Great! So in the bag you got those papers (bag and papers rustling) And those papers are the form you fill out for the inspection! It’s pretty self explanatory. You got your basic overview of the site, timeline of clean up actions, estimated ranges of radiation to be expected, what to take photos and samples of, etcetera.
LAVINIA: (papers flipping) Makes sense.
MAE: And the little glass containers in your bag! (bag rustling, glass clinking) they’ve got blank labels on ‘em to fill out as you take the sample. You with me so far?
LAVINIA: Yeah, uh, (papers flipping) are you sure this place is safe? Radium? Isn’t that the shit that killed Marie Curie?
MAE: (long drawn out groan, footsteps through grass as La begins walking) Trust me, you’re fine. This place is already cleaned up, you’re gonna get some radiation levels slightly higher than expected background but nowhere near as bad as like an x-ray or taking a long flight or (pointedly) smoking cigarettes everyday, Lavinia.
LAVINIA: Fine, fine. Point taken.
MAE: We just have to do this song and dance every few months cuz the government says so. Between you and me, the property owners are just waiting for the radiation to decay enough so they can build something shitty here like “luxury” apartments or another Walmart or something.
LAVINIA: Right.
MAE: I know you’re just the shop mechanic, but there really isn’t any special training you need to do this job.
LAVINIA: (footsteps stop) “Just” the shop mechanic? (audible smirk)
MAE: Oh christ, (heavy sarcasm) Lavinia Clarke you are the most glorious and genius mechanic of automobiles this side of the Mississippi. All of the guys’ work trucks would simultaneously implode without your expert guidance. We would be doomed without you! Better?
LAVINIA: (laughing) You were laying it on a little thick. But, better. (Footsteps begin again)
MAE: (also laughing now) Good.
LAVINIA: (Footsteps stop) I’m at the first sign now.
MAE: Great! Just let me know if you need help with anything.
(Various sounds of La getting to work, digging, glass, camera, writing, papers. Notably, sounds of geiger counter turning on and slow clicking begins.)
LAVINIA: So what was this place exactly?
MAE: Well, way back when before the glorious advent of backlit screens, people needed to be able to read certain stuff in the dark, right?
LAVINIA: Okay.
MAE: Like their watch or dials on an airplane. Important shit. So they used radium. Because it glows in the dark and how bad it was for you wasn’t super known at the time. And this place used to be where they painted the radium on that stuff.
LAVINIA: Oh, yikes.
MAE: No wait it gets worse.
LAVINIA: (with emphasis) Oh, yikes.
MAE: So they tended to only hire women to do the painting. And, get this, they instructed the women to use their mouths to get their paint brushes to a fine point.
LAVINIA: No, they were basically eating radioactive paint?!
MAE: Yep! I did a whole paper on this in my freshman year of college. Basically the only reason we have worker’s compensation laws now is because some of those women who got really sick sued the shit out of their employers.
LAVINIA: Good for them.
MAE: Yeah! I mean they all pretty much died out before or shortly after the cases were settled, but they did win in the end. There’s a whole book about it I have at home if you’re curious.
LAVINIA: I might actually take you up on that. Okay that’s this site down I think.
MAE: See? You’re a natural!
LAVINIA: Yeah this is… not terrible.
(Footsteps begin again, geiger counter clicking very slowly begins to pick up pace as La walks.)
MAE: (with exaggerated customer service voice and intended sarcasm) We here at Aster Remediation Co. take the happiness and welfare of our employees seriously.
LAVINIA: (laughing) Okay next sign. Looks like it’s in the middle of where a building used to be?
MAE: Yeah, if I’m looking at this right, (papers flipping) you’re in the middle of the old workshop.
LAVINIA: Oh weird.
(Repeat sounds of La working)
MAE: Yeah, they had to knock down all the buildings here because they were too contaminated to be repurposed.
LAVINIA: Is that common? That sounds really bad.
MAE: Oh no its super common. It’s usually the easier route to just knock it down and remove the debris. Actually scrubbing down a whole building and then managing the waste water and all that is a huge undertaking.
LAVINIA: Right. Okay.
MAE: Besides the workshop wasn’t the biggest problem spot here.
LAVINIA: No?
MAE: Yeah the company went bankrupt and had to close down real quick. But they had all this radioactive material and no money to dispose of it properly.
LAVINIA: I think I see where this is going.
MAE: What is a poor corporation to do? The answer was dig a big hole in the backyard and dump everything in it.
LAVINIA: Right. Of course. We’re literally steps away from the Susquehanna river.
MAE: Yeeeup.
LAVINIA: I feel like it would have been better if they just left everything as it was? Instead of going out of their way to hide it.
MAE: Funnily enough, yeah. Would have made clean up a lot easier. And it wouldn’t have leached radiation into the local water supply via said river.
LAVINIA: Christ.
MAE: But don’t worry! It’s all fixed now. Because we cleaned it all up. Now comes the boring stuff that you’re doing.
LAVINIA: Right. And this couldn’t have waited for Nathan to get back or you to do it why?
MAE: Because today’s the report due date! If we don’t send in everything today we could get in trouble with the EPA or something. I don’t know. I just do what I’m told.
LAVINIA: And you?
MAE: Pfft. I’m dispatch. I can’t exactly schedule and monitor all our guys from the middle of a field in rural Pennsylvania.
LAVINIA: I guess.
MAE: It’s not that deep, and you’re really helping me out of a bind here.
LAVINIA: True. You and Nathan both owe me one for this.
MAE: That I can’t deny, but good luck getting that grumpy asshole to buy you a drink or something.
LAVINIA: Right. That’s it for this one. Last one is… (papers flipping) in the woods behind these buildings. Oh this is the dumping site hell hole you were talking about.
MAE: Yup!
LAVINIA: Great. Fantastic.
MAE: It’s a hole in the ground not Chernobyl.
LAVINIA: Easy for you to say from your office, and not here in a hazmat suit with a geiger counter.
(La begins to walk towards the last site, and the geiger counter sharply increases as she draws near.)
(Sudden sounds of someone shouting for Mae in the background of the phone call.)
MAE: Oh shit what now. Okay. I gotta run. I’ll call you when I’m done. Sorry! (call ends)
(La sighs and keeps walking to the site. The quiet of nature interrupted by the geiger counter is deafening and La begins to feel uneasy.)
(La with breathing audible and shaky, begins humming/singing under her breath to help fill the silence Mae left. Song: Science Fiction/Double Feature)
(La’s personal dosimeter begins to sound an alarm out of nowhere. La begins cursing out of surprise and fumbles with it)
LAVINIA: Error? Stupid piece of shit.
(Sounds of beeping as La begins pressing buttons and then the alarm is silenced. Footsteps continue and La begins humming again.)
(La makes it to the site and the geiger counter is the strongest it's been yet.)
LAVINIA: Okay. Made it. Just gotta-
(Repeat sounds of La working.)
LAVINIA: Right, now just gotta get a sample from the river.
(Footsteps start. Background noise of river becomes louder.)
(Sounds of La crouching down, bag, glass, hand in water etc.)
(There is a sound as if someone stepping on a twig uncomfortably close. La makes startled sounds and curses under breath.)
LAVINIA: Hello? (beat) Anyone? (beat) Fuck this. I need to get the fuck out of here.
(Sounds of La packing up her gear and starting to briskly walk back to the car.)
(Suddenly the geiger counter sounds are maxed out and the personal dosimeter begins to alarm again.)
(inexplicable sound effect, like static, distortion, geiger counter, alarm all blending. La screams but it is cut short.)