The Humans by Stephen Karam Page B

to investigate . . .
    The shadow quietly reemerges in the alley, then disappears into the darkness.
DOWNSTAIRS :
UPSTAIRS :
Erik arrives downstairs, where
Deirdre and Momo exit the
it’s brighter.
bathroom.
Erik turns the lantern off,
 
places it on the counter.
 
DOWNSTAIRS :
UPSTAIRS :
He begins to pick up the pots
The main upstairs door opens
and pans . . .
revealing Aimee.
 
She holds the door open,
 
allowing light to spill into the
 
upstairs rooms.
    AIMEE
    Guys, the car’s out front . . .
    DEIRDRE
    All right, get her coat, will you? . . .
    AIMEE
    Â Â Â Â Â  (Calling down)
    . . . Dad!
    ERIK
    Â Â Â Â Â  (Calling up)
    I heard you . . .
    Aimee helps Deirdre get Momo into her coat and back into the wheelchair.
    DEIRDRE
    Where’s Brigid?
    AIMEE
    With Rich . . .
    Deirdre looks to Aimee for more information as Aimee helps Momo into her coat.
    AIMEE
    . . . she’s embarrassed, she’s . . . [I don’t even wanna get into it.]
    Â Â Â Â Â  (Calling down)
    . . . Dad! . . .
    ERIK
    Â Â Â Â Â  (Calling up)
    Yeah, coming . . .
    Aimee wheels Momo out of the apartment, exiting with Momo’s barely discernable mumbling trailing . . .
    Deirdre goes to exit, but stops, remembering something.
    DEIRDRE
    Â Â Â Â Â  (To Erik, calling down)
    Hey, can you grab Mom’s blanket and the pan we brought?
    ERIK
    Uh-huh.
DOWNSTAIRS :
UPSTAIRS :
Erik searches for the blanket.
Deirdre, alone upstairs.
 
She takes one last look around,
 
gets an idea:
 
she quietly removes the Virgin
 
Mary statue from her purse and
 
places it in the windowsill.
 
She exits.
    Erik finds the blanket near the couch.
    Puts it on the table. He goes back to picking up the pots and pans that fell.
    Having cleaned up the pots and pans, Erik searches for the specific pan they brought; finding it, he exits the kitchen and places the pan on the table by the blanket when—
    All of the downstairs lights flicker out.
    Complete darkness.
    ERIK
    Shit.
    Erik puts the blanket and pan down; he searches for the lantern on the counter as—
UPSTAIRS :
DOWNSTAIRS :
In complete darkness, the
 
phone vibrates and lights up
 
in the upstairs windowsill;
 
vibrates.
 
vibrates.
 
vibrates.
 
vibrates.
 
vibrates.
—Erik finally finds the lantern,
vibrates.
turns it on.
vibrates.
 
    The phone stops ringing.
    ERIK
    [Was that the phone?]
    The LED lantern in hand, Erik finds his way to the fuse box downstairs, located somewhere on the wall behind the staircase. He flips a switch. The lights remain out when—
UPSTAIRS :
DOWNSTAIRS :
In complete darkness, the
 
phone vibrates and lights up
 
in the upstairs windowsill;
 
vibrates.
 
vibrates.
—Erik sighs, heads upstairs . . .
vibrates.
 
vibrates.
 
vibrates.
 
vibrates.
 
vibrates.
. . . and answers the phone.
    ERIK
    Hello? . . . yeah, yeah, this is . . . yeah, bad connection . . . uh-huh—
    In the window, the sudden appearance and disappearance of a woman’s figure—what was it?! The back of an old woman’s head as she appears picking up cigarette butts in the alley? The super’s wife? She appears at the exact moment—
    â€”the rumble of the trash compactor strikes up again outside the basement door. In the darkness, it sounds louder than before, more disturbing. The image/sound jolts Erik; he staggers away from the window . . .
    . . . down the stairs . . .
    . . . he flips the fuse box switches again to no avail. The rumble continues.
    Erik heads down the hallway toward the origin of the noise when—
    â€”a new kind of thud coming from the basement hallway halts his progress—
    Erik pushes through his anxiety, opens the basement door; fluorescent light from the hallway spills in—
    the rumble of the trash compactor is now even louder but more familiar, more like a loud trash compactor.
    The trash compactor completes its