A Blip in the Spacetime Continuum Lillie Olliver, 2021 SPACE is sitting in a restaurant booth centerstage, illuminated by a spotlight. They are patiently waiting with their hands folded on the table in front of them, seeming to stare off into nothingness. WAITRESS enters the shot, a portly woman with a messy bun wearing a white apron covering a flannel shirt and jean shorts that are probably too short for any sort of respectable culinary establishment. SPACE speaks inaudibly to WAITRESS for a moment, WAITRESS nods after writing down what we assume is SPACE’s order, and she walks away into the darkness surrounding the solitary booth. Silence. Silence. TIME appears out of the darkness and slides suavely into the booth seat opposite SPACE, long limbs sprawling out beneath the table as they throw one arm over the back of the booth , the very picture of someone who should care more than they bother to. TIME: Well well well, fancy meeting you here. SPACE sighs a deep sigh of resignation. SPACE: You say that like you don’t follow me everywhere I go. TIME grins. TIME: Oh, don’t say it like that, darling! I go where the universe demands. (TIME leans forward, bracing both elbows on the table and clasping their own fingers together
in a mockery of SPACE’s posture.) Odd how that works, doesn’t it? SPACE: (Scoffs) Just because we have to work together doesn’t mean you have to be around me ALL the time. TIME: Ah, but I AM all the time, darling. SPACE: (With a look of exasperation that could only come from centuries upon centuries of hearing this same line over and over again) I’m well aware. TIME smirks and leans back again, crossing their arms across their chest. SPACE: So, what is it you want this time? TIME: Since when have I ever come to see you because I want something from you? SPACE: Every time. TIME: MAYBE onceSPACE: Every. Time. TIME: Ah, I see where our discrepancy is. SPACE: Oh, DO you now? TIME: Oh, yes. SPACE: Do tell. TIME: I believe that you are VASTLY misinterpreting what I consider to be lovely get-togethers between two very old friendsSPACE: (Flatly) Coworkers. TIME: Sorry, what was that? Anyways, that is our problem. What I see, and rightly so, is simply a date of sorts with one of my oldest, dearest friends, while you see this as a call for a favor to be fulfilled, a need to be satisfied. Maybe I just wanted to see you,
