This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:01] Caroline Aaron: Hello, I'm Caroline Aaron. And I'm Jennie Kwan. And you're listening to Around the Sun, an episodic audio drama created by Brad Forenza. This is Season 2, Episode 2, Fallout Girls. Here we go.

[0:34] Kathy: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I can't do this. I'm good at my job.

[0:39] Pat: You're costing us money, Kath.

[0:41] Kathy: The customers know me there. They look for me.

[0:43] Pat: You're not their therapist.

[0:44] Kathy: Right, but I...

[0:45] Pat: You spend too much time helping them.

[0:46] Kathy: What do you mean I spend too much time helping them? That's what I'm there for, isn't it?

[0:50] Pat: It's not working out.

[0:51] Kathy: And it's not my fault if they start telling me all their problems.

[0:54] Pat: Good luck.

[0:55] Kathy: But you know that my husband is very sick. If I lose this job, how am I going to make rent?

[1:02] Pat: Hello?

[1:05] Kathy: Hello?

[1:08] Pat: I don't believe it.

[1:10] Kathy: Problems at the video store again?

[1:12] Pat: They fired me.

[1:14] Kathy: Good riddance. You're better off.

[1:16] Pat: I just lost my job, Pat. This is serious.

[1:20] Kathy: Remember, my name is Ace while we're on the mission.

[1:25] Pat: Sorry, Ace.

[1:26] Kathy: Now, where were we? Disarmament week is next month.

[1:30] Pat: You're asking me?

[1:31] Kathy: We need a killer campaign this year. Go big or go home, I say.

[1:35] Pat: But I might not have a home by next month.

[1:38] Kathy: Oh, come on, Kath.

[1:40] Pat: What do you mean, oh, come on? I just got canned. And Chuck is very sick. You know he can't work in his condition.

[1:48] Kathy: So you'll start again tomorrow. You always do.

[1:51] Pat: Not that I'll miss that video store. They haven't had a new release in ages.

[1:55] Kathy: Nothing is the same since everything went online.

[1:58] Pat: You're telling me.

[2:00] Kathy: Something got lost in the digital age. I think people are too anxious to rent videos these days.

[2:05] Pat: If I have to move us out of the desert, I don't think Chuck could handle it.

[2:09] Kathy: I know what you mean. Patchouli has difficulty transitioning, too.

[2:14] Pat: It's not the same, though. Patchouli is a cat.

[2:17] Kathy: It's the same sentiment. Patchouli has behaviors just like Chuck has behaviors. And we want answers. So, onward goes the mission.

[2:27] Pat: Yeah, but the feds closed the site. They sold the land. What's left for the mission?

[2:32] Kathy: I still want to know what we were exposed to. What gases and chemicals did the feds pump into the air out here?

[2:39] Pat: I am an Earth warrior. You are an Earth warrior. Who speaks for Mother Earth? Who speaks for the desert?

[2:46] Kathy: Kathy and the Ace. That's who. And that's our mission.

[2:51] Pat: I don't know, Pat. All this anti-nuclear stuff feels a bit stale.

[2:56] Kathy: Well, it's fresh on Hiroshima.

[2:58] Pat: Maybe the best thing to do is for me to get out of the desert altogether.

[3:02] Kathy: Right. I'm sure the feds would love that. One less Earth warrior to speak truth to power.

[3:08] Pat: But feed your head, Kath. Maybe you needed to get fired so you could help refine the mission and expose those clowns once and for all.

[3:17] Kathy: Kath, is that you?

[3:20] Pat: Keep your voice down, Pat. I don't want Chuck to know I'm home.

[3:25] Kathy: It's a shame what happened to Chuck.

[3:27] Pat: Yeah, well, tell me about it.

[3:29] Kathy: You'd really be okay if the feds never opened their books? You think that would be fair to Chuck? And humanity?

[3:36] Pat: Who said life was fair?

[3:38] Kathy: You should see what the exposure did to Patchouli. Oh, by the way, I need you to come over again and clip his nails for me.

[3:45] Pat: He's your cat.

[3:46] Kathy: But he spits and hisses at me. I don't have time to deal with that. Anyway, back to the mission.

[3:52] Pat: We need to educate our neighbors and broaden the coalition.

[3:56] Kathy: What? You don't think they know? You don't think they drink the same water and breathe the same air out here?

[4:02] Pat: Well, they're not doing anything about it. They're not engaged.

[4:06] Kathy: Most people aren't.

[4:07] Pat: So? It's our job to engage them. That's what Earth warriors do.

[4:13] Kathy: I didn't move out here to be an Earth warrior, Pat. I moved out here because Chuck found a job with the Department of Energy.

[4:20] Pat: A good job that gave us a nice life at first.

[4:25] Kathy: That's how they hook you, those snakes. It's all about the pension and benefits.

[4:30] Pat: I was going to raise chickens. I was on my way to building a poultry empire.

[4:36] Kathy: And Chuck got sicker and sicker and all my chickens died.

[4:41] Pat: At first I thought a coyote killed them, but their bodies were all intact.

[4:45] Kathy: They just killed over on a random Tuesday.

[4:49] Pat: Even the chickens?

[4:51] Kathy: Even the chickens.

[4:53] Pat: And you don't think the government owes us an explanation?

[4:56] Kathy: I don't care anymore, Pat.

[4:58] Pat: Ace.

[4:59] Kathy: Sorry, Ace. I have bigger problems.

[5:02] Pat: We all have problems. I didn't want to tell you this, but I think Patchouli is mutating.

[5:07] Kathy: No, he's not.

[5:09] Pat: Yes, he is. I can feel an extra toe.

[5:12] Kathy: That's common. He's a polydactyl cat.

[5:15] Pat: And last week he ate all my drapery.

[5:18] Kathy: That's not so common.

[5:20] Pat: Would Chuck like a therapy cat?

[5:22] Kathy: Ace.

[5:23] Pat: Ace. Chuck would not like a therapy cat. How's he going to take care of it?

[5:27] Kathy: He wouldn't. You would.

[5:29] Pat: Of course.

[5:31] Kathy: This lady from Coven, she read Patchouli's skull. She said the spitting and hissing was probably just a phase.

[5:38] Pat: I've got enough on my plate without taking in your neurotic mutant cat.

[5:42] Kathy: Patty!

[5:45] Pat: Oh, God. What happened to me?

[5:49] Kathy: I just wanted peace and quiet.

[5:52] Pat: I just wanted to raise chickens.

[5:55] Kathy: Was that too much to ask, Pat?

[5:57] Pat: There's no one here by such a name.

[6:00] Kathy: We tried to tell the world, but no one heard us.

[6:03] Pat: We screamed from the rooftops.

[6:05] Kathy: We wrote letters to Congress.

[6:07] Pat: No one cared.

[6:09] Kathy: I care. Chuck cares.

[6:11] Pat: The people of Three Mile Island care.

[6:13] Kathy: And what about the local news running stories on us last year?

[6:16] Pat: Yeah, but even they stopped covering us.

[6:18] Kathy: When the site closed, face it, Pat, we're old news.

[6:23] Pat: But they featured Chuck instead as one of the survivors. So don't say nobody cares.

[6:29] Kathy: The mission has been abandoned.

[6:31] Pat: Why? Because a tweet at Greenpeace is the same as social action?

[6:35] Kathy: That's what you call being an Earth warrior now?

[6:38] Pat: I'm too old to picket outside the post office or to chain myself to a cactus in the middle of nowhere.

[6:44] Kathy: I wouldn't even know what I was fighting for.

[6:46] Pat: For humanity.

[6:48] Kathy: But no one cares about humanity now.

[6:51] Pat: Just themselves.

[6:52] Kathy: Fine. Then we're fighting for ourselves.

[6:55] Pat: For Patchouli and Chuck.

[6:57] Kathy: The mission continues.

[6:58] Pat: The mission is dead.

[7:00] Kathy: Just like my chickens.

[7:01] Pat: And all I have to show for it are a few herniated discs and an overdrawn checking account.

[7:06] Kathy: And a very sick husband.

[7:09] Pat: But if you're not solving the problem, you're a part of it.

[7:13] Kathy: I don't have to be stuck in the desert forever, you know.

[7:15] Pat: I could get out of here if I wanted.

[7:18] Kathy: You said yourself Chuck couldn't handle a move.

[7:20] Pat: Who would take care of him if you left?

[7:22] Kathy: You.

[7:23] Pat: Me?

[7:24] Kathy: Or the Department of Energy, maybe. Someone would have to.

[7:26] Pat: Anyone but me. I'm done.

[7:30] Kathy: Well, who would clip Patchouli's nails then?

[7:33] Pat: He scares me.

[7:34] Kathy: I've started sleeping outside.

[7:36] Pat: Kathy, the mission is the only thing I have going for me right now.

[7:42] Kathy: And what's my mission?

[7:44] Pat: To be everyone's full-time nursemaid?

[7:46] Kathy: Maybe I need my own mission, Pat.

[7:49] Pat: Away from you.

[7:50] Kathy: Away from Chuck.

[7:51] Pat: Away from the desert.

[7:53] Kathy: Maybe it's time to get out of here and do something with my life for a change.

[7:57] Pat: I could too.

[7:58] Kathy: I could.

[7:59] Pat: I could start over somewhere.

[8:01] Kathy: I could...

[8:04] Chuck: Chuck!

[8:05] Pat: What happened?

[8:06] Chuck: I'll be right there, Chuck. Just stay where you are and don't move.

[8:10] Kathy: Kathy!

[8:11] Pat: Aw, poor thing.

[8:13] Kathy: It's not his fault, Pat.

[8:15] Pat: This is what happens when you let things go for too long. It just gets worse and worse.

[8:19] Kathy: Listen, Kath.

[8:21] Pat: You've got a lot on your plate today. Why don't I come back tomorrow and we can build a coalition from there?

[8:27] Kathy: Fine.

[8:28] Pat: I'm not above occupying the minimart this year.

[8:30] Kathy: Go big or go home, right?

[8:32] Pat: Right.

[8:33] Kathy: So we'll start again tomorrow?

[8:35] Pat: Yeah.

[8:36] Kathy: We'll start again tomorrow.

[8:38] Pat: But tomorrow never comes.