Josie & Jack

Mr. Raeburn?

It's Cathy Delano from Social Services.

We spoke on the phone?

I want it, I want the house.

I've eaten.

See what you can find in the kitchen.

You think you know

about the nature of my parental responsibility towards you

but soon you'll realize that my parental responsibility

is not the issue.

Food is the issue.

Parental responsibility construct is irrelevant.

You're still going to bed hungry.

Do you understand?

Do you finally understand?

You've got an audience.

That's ridiculous.

They look good on you.

Got it, Jo.

Uh, 8.57.

You're those Raeburn kids, right?

No, we're the other ones.

He likes you.

Couldn't take his eyes off you.

Well, we're the mysterious recluses

who don't go to school, so.

You gonna wear those sunglasses

I bought for you or what?

Take functional relationships.

We design the experiments that define them,

we give them names,

we spend centuries proving and reproving them,

but we don't create them.

They're invisible machines existing outside of us.

I am talking, children, about constants.

Jack, gimme an example of a constant.

Gravity.

Well, you mighta been right 60 years ago

before space travel and experimental antigravity aircraft.

Josephine.

Hook's Law.

Which is?

The ratio of weight on a spring

to the elongation of a spring.

Good, the relationship between weight and tension.

Always constant, always the same.

Nature makes sense, children.

We're the ones who fucked it all up.

Countries, governments, all false constructs

created by the human urge

to carve, to parcel, to own.

Josephine.

You're not eating.

Eat.

Three more days until he's gone.

Two days, one morning.

I think you should make friends with that kid

from the drugstore.

Why?

To let us sneak that stuff behind the counter.

Maybe you can even try your hand at flirting.

Are you kidding?

You know the only boy that I talk to is you.

No, don't worry.

You can talk circles around him.

I mean, you had him the moment he saw you.

Consider.

Friday afternoon, Raeburn comes home

in a foul mood as usual,

ranting and throwing things

and there's you and me in the middle of it like always.

Except this time, we dropped a couple Valium

a few hours back, and we're feeling no pain whatsoever.

And then he throws a plate at my head

and I'm too doped to duck.

I'll catch it before it hits you.

Throw it right the fuck back at him.

Or we could just drug his coffee

and then he'd leave us alone.

Try again.

Something other than my old T-shirt.

I like your old T-shirt.

Trust me.

And take down your hair.

It's too fucking hot.

Uh, where's the toothpaste?

Uh, just on your left.

Your name is Jo?

It um, it's Josie.

It's short for Josephine.

I just, I heard your brother call you Jo

when you guys were here last.

Oh.

I'm Kevin.

So do you go to the movies much?

Not often.

I, well, do you like music?

What's taking you so long?

Huh?

Hey.

This is Kevin.

We were talking about music.

Oh yeah?

What kind?

We hadn't really got that far

but I'm really

into like early jazz, hard bop, that kinda stuff.

Oh nice.

I just picked up "Blue Train" down in Pittsburgh at Eide's.

I haven't been but I hear

that they've got everything there.

They do.

You wanna come by later, listen to some Coltrane,

have a couple beers?

Okay.

Hi.

Hi.

Um, I like your dress.

Thanks, it was my mother's.

I've never been in one of these old houses before.

My mom's crazy about 'em.

She does the historic homes tour every spring.

Are you on that?

We're not a very open to the public kind of a family.

Yeah, I guess not.

But I'm sure none of those other houses

have as much cool stuff in 'em as yours.

Greetings.

Hey.

Oh, thanks.

Yeah.

This place is amazing.

Looks like it should be haunted.

Is it?

Only by us.

Wait here a minute.

I'll be right back.

I think it's great that you and your brother

are so close.

If I had to spend more than 15 minutes with my sister,

I think one of us would kill the other.

I just think it's different with us.

Yeah, I think so too.

Jesus, do you have any more tricks up your sleeve?

Josie might have

one or two more surprises left in her.

Company first.

It's hideous, isn't it?

Looks like a friend of mine.

Why do you call your dad Raeburn?

I don't know, I guess we always kinda just have.

Is he gonna be mad that I was here?

No, he's not gonna be back for days.

He teaches physics up at the college.

And he doesn't like the commute

so he just stays there during the week.

I thought he homeschooled you.

He does, just on the weekends.

What about your mom?

She died when I was a kid.

No, it's fine.

I never met her but Jack did.

I kissed him.

You were supposed to.

Factoring polynomial equations.

It just all seems like guesswork,

like there's no process.

You're scared, girl.

You're so paralyzed with fear

that you can't even make a simple deductive leap

without a process to guide you.

Let's examine a hypothetical.

Say you were given a choice

to study with me here at home

or go to the idiot factory

with all the other kids and be spoonfed theory

like pureed vegetables.

What do you choose?

Huh?

- I... - No, you wouldn't go.

You wouldn't dare put yourself at the mercy

of the outside world.

But let's say that you were normal, okay?

A normal girl with a normal upbringing.

Doll houses, ballet, a mommy who baked cookies,

never an unhappy day in your life,

never an original thought in your skull.

What do you choose then?

I don't know.

I guess I've never been that way.

Well, thank God for that.

Thinking about your new boyfriend?

Stop.

Oh shit, you are.

Look at you.

Are you blushing?

No, I'm, no, no.

No, I'm not in love with him, Jack.

Yeah, but you like him.

He's nice.