Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hm, I am the fairy man.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The human spirit is my business. Their madness, their passion,
the wonderful and monstrous ways they burn out their brief candle.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I regret to tell you that very many American lives
in love.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
What heard to shut from the car.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
He's dead, whether he rebird to president.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
For four hours, people must cut up and go.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
If I am here in the in between, to collect
their spirits and carry them to what comes next.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
This road is not on any map. It spans the
thresholds between their most forbidden desires and their greatest fear.
All I ask for in payment is a tale and
(01:23):
accounting of their lives and the great temporary that is
the land living.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
These are their stories. This is.
Speaker 6 (01:38):
The passage.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
A survivor of unspeakable atrocities once said, the opposite of
life is not death, its indifference. But survivors are not
my business. It's March thirteenth, nineteen sixty four. A storm
(02:30):
is coming. Dark clouds enveloped this land, and the air
crackles with static smells of ozone and blood. And this
time everything America thinks it is suddenly. Its president has
been assassinated, Its children are being sent by its leaders
(02:55):
to foreign lands to kill and be killed. What little
unity held this nation together after the Great Wars, raveling.
It's fear that divides them. It's a storm that will
swell and rage for decades, uncovering the fair weather American dream,
(03:20):
pulling back the curtain, revealing it to be a nightmare.
In the intricate ugliness of the street, the alleys, the
towering apartment buildings, a singular tragedy becomes the cautionary tale
of a generation, whether or not the truth is told.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Here a soul hides from me. She's not ready.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Once such a vibrant light, she has been snuffed in
this alley right here. Her death by the hands of
another greedy and foul young man will become a cautionary
tale for the ages. No soul wishes to be a statistic,
(04:11):
So she has hidden the way from me in its
instant that stretches ever beyond and in between, and hide
still among the living. Kitty Genevie's was her name. Dozens
will be accused of locking their doors and cowardice, or worse,
(04:31):
slinking back from their windows and drowning out her screams
with their radios beneath them. Her body bleeds beneath them.
She stopped breathing. Oh here, giddy, giddy, hello, little one. Yeah,
(05:16):
two paws in your world and two balls of mine.
It isn't true that cats have nine lives, but the
one they do have. Oh, it's very flexible. Oh that's
a that's a good little feline. Yeah. Yeah, it's the
(05:40):
it's the vertical islets, the pupils. Vertical pupils. They see
through dimensions and stuff. Already, get out of here. You're
bothering me. There she is, It is time.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Jeez, you scared me, mister.
Speaker 7 (06:17):
You'd think after what happened, nothing could possibly scare me anymore.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
But I mean you've been looking for me.
Speaker 7 (06:27):
Yeah, well here I am. You got a cigarette cabby, Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Your brand too.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Well what do you know? Thanks?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Well, here happen. I'll take to where you need to go.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I got no cab, fair man, Oh yeah.
Speaker 7 (06:58):
I know.
Speaker 6 (07:00):
On me.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I'm here to provide you passage to the next place.
Speaker 8 (07:07):
Fine, how long is the drive to.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Wherever you're taking me?
Speaker 6 (07:27):
That's to be determined.
Speaker 7 (07:31):
I mean, am I going to be like judged because
I don't think that's actually fair given my circumstances.
Speaker 9 (07:41):
Hey, do you hear me, mister, because.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
I want some damn answers?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Sorry, I haven't any figures.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Why should you be any different? I want my mom.
Speaker 7 (08:09):
I can't Oh my god, I can't remember what my
mom looks like. I can't see her face or anything,
and all I should remember is him.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
God, damn it, this is bullshit. Jesus. I was just
coming home from work.
Speaker 7 (08:37):
I pulled a double on a Friday, and I was
just looking forward to getting home and running a bath.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
You know what a double is, mister. You get to
drive your damn cab all day.
Speaker 7 (08:49):
I was on my feet, mixing cocktails and making sure
Carl was getting his damn Schaeffers.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Just one more for the road, sweetie.
Speaker 7 (09:00):
I can remember Carl's stupid drink order, but I can't
remember my mother's face.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
How do you like that? Well, I don't like it
at all. And then I get home.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
And it's dark and I'm crossing the street, and then
this guy is fucking chasing me. My god, I remember
every single footstep.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I could see my door. I came down hard on
my right foot and he grabs me.
Speaker 7 (09:34):
He'd been drinking cheap wine, and I could smell it
all over him, and his hand was gripping on my
elbow like he was trying to break it off, and
he punched me real hard twice.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
In the back, like pop.
Speaker 9 (09:47):
But my god, you ever been stabbed, mister?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
It's funny. I don't know from funny. Most people wouldn't
say that.
Speaker 7 (10:02):
It's not funny, but I mean, it don't feel like
you think it would. I never thought about it before
it happened, but it's pretty funny to mean anyway. I
didn't know I got stabbed when it happened. I kept thinking,
this guy's punching me real hard. Why does he keep
(10:28):
punching me? And then I felt all wet.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I didn't have time. I couldn't tell what was going on.
Speaker 7 (10:39):
All I could think was I gotta get the hell
away from this crazy son of a bitch.
Speaker 9 (10:44):
And then my blouse was all wet.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
And I just.
Speaker 7 (10:49):
Didn't know.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
I didn't know he was trying to kill me. I
just didn't know. It's like it wasn't me. I could
hear my voice though. I just ran.
Speaker 7 (11:07):
And then he stopped hitting me, and I didn't see
him after that, and that's when I fell down, And
that's when I knew the first breeze that blew through me.
That's when I knew, because I remembered that one time
I dropped the glass in the sink and I sliced
my hand open, real bad. That hurt worse than this,
(11:29):
at first it did, but I recognized the.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Feeling of air hitting me.
Speaker 7 (11:35):
It was sharp, and I was lying on the grass
and I was all wet, and I touched my sides
and my hands came up all red, and I started screaming.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I didn't know what I was saying. I couldn't control it.
I was just stimming. He was killing me.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
He was killing me. I'm sorry, mister, my god. Look,
I don't know why I'm telling you all this. I
just got to catch my breath. I thought I saw
(12:27):
a guy come to his window, but he ducked back
in and turned up the radio. So I crawled to
the nearest door and it was locked.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I was on the ground, crawling. Jesus Christ. There was
so much blood like an oil leaf behind me. And
then and then he was back.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
I came looking for you then, but I couldn't find you.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (13:07):
Well, I wasn't done yet. I knew I was going
to be dead, but I didn't want to let go,
not like that. I stood up and I backed away
from myself and everything, and I watched over everything, and
watched him finish his business with me and run off again,
(13:30):
a coward, And I felt you, you know, the way
you feel lightning in the sky. So I slipped into
the cracks and I waited for you to pass.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
And I waited.
Speaker 7 (13:48):
I were cops everywhere talking to the neighbors. Poor Missus
Ferrara across the hall She was always real good to me.
She cried real hard, She never did anything wrong. And
those cops, they didn't write nothing down. They're supposed to
be taking statements. My damn blood was all over the hallway,
(14:11):
all over Missus Farrar's clothes, and she's trying to tell
them what happened, and they're not listening.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
What's wrong with them? No good bums? What's the matter
with all of them?
Speaker 7 (14:25):
And then things got confusing, like I was spread out
all across time.
Speaker 9 (14:34):
I took a walk and found myself.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Back at the bar.
Speaker 7 (14:39):
Where else would I go? I spent most of my
time there. They were like family, almost. There was Carl
and his damn Schaffers and he's reading the paper, and
then I saw it me in the paper. Looks like
they used a mugshot. Even then, I was upset about
my damn picture. And what's it say, thirty seven who
(15:02):
saw murder didn't call police? Now that couldn't be right. No,
that's Missus Ferrar was with me in the hall. She
got my damn blood all over. I know she got
one of her kids to call the cops. I mean,
how were the cops even there in the first place.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
I mean, the.
Speaker 7 (15:23):
Nerve of that birdcage liner of a paper to say
that about her. Missus Ferrar was a saint God as
my witness, and you can't just make stuff up about her.
Speaker 9 (15:34):
That ain't true.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
She used to sit with me some nights.
Speaker 7 (15:39):
She's got a place full of kids and laundry to do,
but she'd come sit at my table when my parents
couldn't make it into town for my birthday. God, they
didn't want me moving out here away from home. And
you know why, Oh jeez, it's all because my mom
(16:00):
saw some guy get stabbed to death outside our place
in Park Slope.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
How do you like that?
Speaker 7 (16:07):
Mom and dad dragged everyone up to Connecticut except me.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
I told him, I'm a grown up now. I can
take care of myself, and.
Speaker 9 (16:17):
You can go live in a Saturday evening post painting.
Speaker 7 (16:20):
But that ain't for me. I wasn't gonna be some
housewife or secretary or damn bartender forever.
Speaker 10 (16:31):
You know.
Speaker 7 (16:32):
I was going to open up my own place. I
was going to make a place for myself. It talked
about me on the news. It was a strange feeling.
Speaker 9 (16:46):
They showed my picture, that same terrible one from the paper.
Speaker 7 (16:51):
My god, and he's mispronounced my name, Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Then he said the phrase, the one that just.
Speaker 7 (17:01):
He said, no one did nothing, like people didn't care
to do nothing. He forgot to mention the guy who
stabbed me to dathy in the hallway. The story was
all about my goddamn neighbors and how they did nothing. Well,
I died right under their noses. And it was just
(17:23):
the same bullshit story over and over again. Everywhere I looked,
thirty seven neighbors, forty people, almost fifty.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Onlookers, they couldn't even get the number right.
Speaker 7 (17:35):
Why are they so obsessed with these scared people at
home trying to sleep in the middle of the night.
What about the murderer and Jesus Christ in case they forgot,
what about me?
Speaker 3 (17:47):
What about kitty? Mister? You ever get the feeling you've
been cheated?
Speaker 7 (18:01):
I mean, I heard of people cheating death, but never
heard of death cheating them. Fifty years of news stories
using my face, saying my name, telling a story that
ain't my story. I mean, the one asshole with the radio,
(18:22):
but blaming people for doing nothing in it just ain't true.
It's weird knowing this now, Mister mosey your way up
on the seventh floor. He yelled at the bastard to
scram and that's why he ran away that first time
he did something. Missus grunt saw us on the street
and she called the cops. People cared, they did something.
(18:48):
The world didn't leave me there to die. But you know,
even if they did, I understand. If I went bleeding
into my own hallway and no one came to lift
a finger while I screamed my head off, I understand.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Dying is scary. I should know.
Speaker 7 (19:08):
And as far as I'm concerned, every single one of
my neighbors did the right thing, whether they called the
cops or not. Those aren't nice people, good people, and
they aren't the ones who stuck me and left me
there like a dog.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
And they're not the ones who sold.
Speaker 7 (19:25):
Papers off some dead girl's story and got people all
scared to come to the city for fear they were
going to be next. My dad was afraid of me
living on my own there. He didn't want me to stay.
He told me the city was a big, scary place
and I had to watch my back wherever I went.
(19:47):
I can't imagine how he must have felt after that,
Like how can people be so right and so wrong
at the same time. The world didn't kill me, people
(20:08):
not caring enough didn't kill me.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
One guy killed me. One person.
Speaker 7 (20:17):
But nobody wants to fix that problem because it's too
hard and it's too scary, and it's easier to look
around at everybody else and go, why didn't you people
asleep in your beds?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Why didn't you do our job for us?
Speaker 7 (20:31):
And you tell this story over and over again until
it just becomes the truth, and you scare people away
from these nice places, these good places, and instead of
fixing our problems, you get to sell papers.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Look, I know I wasn't.
Speaker 7 (20:54):
No angel had to leave a husband behind because I
prefer for the Company of Women got busted for taking
bets on horses.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
But all's I wanted was enough scratch to open my
own place.
Speaker 7 (21:12):
Kiddies with nice tablecloths and classy wine, not that rot
gut I've been pouring, and the best goddamn carbon era
you've ever had in your life. Believe me, a place
where all my neighbors would feel at home. I'd greet
(21:34):
them at the door, wearing a fine tail coat like
a proper gentleman, and show.
Speaker 9 (21:39):
Them to their regular tables.
Speaker 7 (21:41):
Missus Farrar would be right by the window because she
loved watching all the neighborhood kids playing stickball. Hell, maybe
I could sponsor a team, you know, buy them kids
all proper uniforms and put the teen pictures up on
the wall. I got a pretty killer arm I could
toss out the first pitch of the season.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Just really bring the neighborhood.
Speaker 7 (22:01):
Together, make everyone feel welcome like they did for me.
Speaker 9 (22:08):
I had a path.
Speaker 7 (22:11):
I knew where I was going. I knew I'd tell
you what if I'd have had my restaurant. I felt
you drive past a few times. Actually, you want to
know where I was hiding.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
That old radio shop.
Speaker 7 (22:30):
Closed down three years back, before this happened, I had
my eye on that place. I was going to start
my business. That's where Kitties was going to be. Just
needed the money to start. We really could have fixed
things up around here, you know, get enough folks coming
out to stickball games, and maybe we could have cleaned
up the park, put a proper field out there, got
(22:54):
them kids some gloves. No one makes trouble in a
place like that. I could have.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Done that me, Kitty Genevie's. I could have built something.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I was.
Speaker 7 (23:16):
And now I'm riding in the back of your cab
with you, miss sir, on the way to nowhere.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
I'm famous.
Speaker 7 (23:26):
I never got the chance to prove myself to do
something big, something that mattered, to make a name.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
I died real big, though.
Speaker 7 (23:39):
I got the life stabbed out of me, and people
know my name all over this place, but it ain't
about me at all.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
I got robbed, and the robbery was.
Speaker 7 (23:51):
So much worse than the ninth because my death don't
belong to me no more. It belongs to all these
fantasy writers, folks who don't know me from Adam, and
they get to say what it all means, and I
get what a lousy.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Cab right and a shirt full of holes? How do
you like that?
Speaker 9 (24:15):
What do you hear in the best of circles?
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Shaefer all around?
Speaker 7 (24:21):
Damned Carl, you know they really were the best of circles.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
The whole world can be wrong about them.
Speaker 7 (24:31):
Missus Ferrar, missus grind, mister Moser, even Carl, let them
be wrong. I know the truth, Ain't it just the
way the whole world lets you down? And the only
folks you can count on and are the folks you
chose to be your family, who.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Were there until the end.
Speaker 7 (24:52):
Of course, the papers are gonna get us wrong, and
they ain't never gonna love you till you're bleeding.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
But I know that truth.
Speaker 10 (25:11):
What's this?
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Is this a joke?
Speaker 10 (25:16):
This is the old radio shop, This was my place,
This was kitties.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
This door will lead you on.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Well, ain't you the trickster?
Speaker 10 (25:37):
Let me ramble on and the whole time you know
that this is where I'd end up anyway, the place
I was hiding being the.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Place i'd end up.
Speaker 10 (25:48):
Well, bravo for the theatrics. So what's next?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
What now?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Now you walk through the door.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Or.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Maybe this time around I'll get where I'm going.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
To those are newer, kind and decent soul, giving funny
good to those who didn't nobody statistic such as the
American Way. That's an unfortunate truth that in this vast
(26:54):
country you do not entirely own your own stories. In
a different times, I'm lye Kitty Geneviez could have been
that restaurant tour, the Little League sponsor, the woman who
fixed the park, the school, the city. She'd have gone
far but for the man who's stolen her life, leaving
(27:18):
history to assign her meaning. But now she finds her
own way forward on her passage.
Speaker 11 (27:51):
The Passage stars Dan Fogler as the Ferryman. This episode
features Ali McDonald as Kitty Genevie's written by Michael Alder June,
with additional writing by Dan Bush and Nicholas Dakoski. Our
executive producers are Nicholas Dakoski, Matthew Frederick, and Alexander Williams.
First Assistant director, script's supervisor and production coordinator Sarah Klein.
(28:12):
Music by Ben Lovett, additional music by Alexander Rodriguez. Casting
by Sunday Bowling, Kennedy and Meg Mormon. Editing and sound
design by Dan Bush, dialogue editing and sound mixing by
Jan Campos, additional sound editing by Racket Sound. Our supervising
producer is Josh Than. Created by Dan Bush and Nicholas Dakowski.
Produced by Dan Bush. The Passage is a production of
(28:33):
iHeartRadio and Cycopia Pictures