Swiped
April 8th, 2021
Starring: Vera (female, 18ish), Alek (male, 13ish)
Alek’s room. Alek (in quite a gangly and awkward stage) is playing a computer game, completely engrossed. There’s a knock on the door. He keeps playing:
ALEK
Who is it?
VERA (voice)
Me.
Can I come in?
…
…
Ok I’m coming in.
Vera enters. Alek briefly glances up, but keeps playing:
VERA
Hey.
ALEK
Yeah?
VERA
Nothing.
Just...taking a packing break.
ALEK
Ok.
VERA
I uh
Well you know I’m leaving tomorrow
For college—
ALEK
Yeah…
VERA
So I wanted to talk.
ALEK
About what?
VERA
Stuff.
ALEK
What stuff?
VERA
Can you pause for a second?
Please?
Alek doesn’t really want to, but he pauses. He up looks at Vera.
VERA
Well
I know we haven’t ever been super close.
With the age difference. Different interests. Older sis, little bro, that kind of thing.
ALEK
Ok…
VERA
Well um
I’ve been thinking about that. How I haven’t really been there for you. And with me going away and all, I’m worried it’ll only get worse. And if it does that’s on me because….well, I’m older. I set the standard. And I do care. About you.
ALEK
...so…?
VERA
So...I wanted to give you this.
From her back pocket, Vera pulls out a rectangular external hard-drive. She hands it to him:
VERA
I’ve been wanting to for a while.
But now I feel like you’re ready.
ALEK
Uh
What is it?
VERA
Plug it in.
Alek plugs it into his computer. The hard drive icon appears on the desktop, which is named “Swiper No Swiping.”
ALEK
I don’t get it.
VERA
It’s my archive. Two terabytes of everything I’ve ever ripped.
ALEK
Wait...like
Stolen?
VERA
Like, torrent. Take a look.
Alek clicks into the first folder of the hard drive. He scrolls through a long list of movies, alphabetically ordered:
ALEK
That’s a lot of movies—
VERA
Like your own Netflix.
TV too. Check out the old Nickelodeon and CN cartoons—
Alek browses through the other folders:
ALEK
What’s “high-school shit?”
VERA
What it says. Textbook PDFs, classic literature, old exams. Everything you need to get through.
ALEK
Jeez.
VERA
There’s also a list of the best streaming sites, if you need to find anything that’s not on here.
...
I know you don’t want everything but...think of this is a starter pack. So you can start your own someday.
…
…
ALEK
This is really illegal.
VERA
Or resourceful. Getting what you want.
ALEK
I don’t know what I want.
VERA
Which is why you need this.
ALEK
It’s pirated.
VERA
It’s awesome.
ALEK
I don’t want to get in trouble. Or get some virus on my setup.
VERA
You won’t.
ALEK
Prove it.
VERA
I can’t.
ALEK
Then I don’t need it.
VERA
You do.
Look, I get it. But you’re taking the web for granted. Even “legally,” you have access to to more stuff generations before you couldn’t dream of, and you think it’s enough.
But it’s not. You don’t know the internet’s power. It’s depth. The amount of stuff you can find! Stuff to get smarter, get inspired. To find yourself.
It’s all there. It’s all there, and you deserve it! You just have to take it.
Alek takes this in, thinking it through. Vera offers up a hand to take the drive back. Alek puts his hand on it.
ALEK
I think I’ll keep it.
Just in case—
VERA (shrugging)
Whatever you want.
...
Just don’t tell anyone ok? Don’t want any feds tracking you.
ALEK
Actually?
VERA
No.
I’ll leave you to it.
Vera turns to walk out of the room:
ALEK
I am. Gonna miss you.
I don’t know when or how, but I will.
VEERA
Thanks.
I’ll miss you too.
They share one little moment, then Vera leaves. Alek goes back to his game. After a minute, he pauses it again. He boots back up the hard drive, scrolling through the endless depths of content. The more he scrolls, the more his eyes start to widen.