Script excerpt - Leda and Jane

JANE
Certainly you understand that you're in custody. We've discussed this before.

LEDA
Yeah, prison. Doing time. We've discussed it many times and it still doesn't make sense. How long have I been here, again?

Jane doesn’t answer.

LEDA
Humour me.

JANE
Ninety seven years. Give or take a couple of months on either end.

Leda starts to laugh.

LEDA
That's absurd. Humans can't live that long, even with gene therapy.

She circles Jane, like a hawk, trying to get a reaction, but Jane remains expressionless as her eyes follow Leda’s movements.

LEDA
Why don't you just tell me? What have you done? Am I a clone?
(to herself)
Maybe he actually did it.
(to Jane)
That would explain the lack of memory, but it wouldn't explain the time that's passed, unless you've hacked my nervous system. I vaguely remember seeing a documentary about neuroanatomy. They had this woman lying on an operating table with the top of her skull removed. The doctors were poking different parts of her brain to make her limbs move. Like a puppet, yet she was totally awake and commenting on the experience.

JANE
When did you see this?

LEDA
Before, I guess.

She looks around, as if trying to remember.

LEDA
Before this place.

She looks over directly at Jane.

LEDA
Before you.

She pauses, as if trying to remember. Then, dejected, she sits back down on her cot.

JANE
You say you may be amnesiac – that there is no "before." Yet you profess to have a memory that predates your current predicament.

LEDA
You know, it's almost comforting to hear you refer to this whole mess as a "predicament." Almost like you sympathize.

JANE
And what makes you think I don't?

LEDA
Stop it. Just stop it. Leave me alone.

JANE
How long would you like to be left alone?

LEDA
Until I'm able to forget you.

JANE
That's exactly what you said the last time.

She makes a note of it on her pad of paper, and exits the room, as Leda leans back against the wall, and closes her eyes.