On Monday morning, Alfred and Marcy are standing in an office over a shop, looking down on the street below. It�s a bank holiday today, so there�s no one in the office, but the owner let Alfred use it for observational purposes. Marcy says, �I have my doubts about this whole Mini and Mickey Mouse thing. If we�re going to use them in the film, we�ll have to come up with a reason why they hate Cyril so much. We�ll have to portray them as the bad guys, and if we do there�s a fair chance we�ll get sued. Even if we use them at all we could probably expect to face legal action.�

�Hm. That�s true. I suppose they don�t have to be Mini and Mickey. It could be just about anyone really� I�ve got it! Terrorists! A group of terrorists hate Cyril for some reason � we don�t really have to explain why. It�s a terrorist in a balaclava who attacks him in the pub � they use balaclavas to cover their identity rather than mouse suits. It�s the terrorists who chase him in the taxi. And� Do you think we could have another medical drama?�

�Three comas would be pushing it.�

�Yeah, you�re right� No, we�ll have a hostage crisis instead. That�s perfect! We�d have had to find room for a hostage crisis anyway. I have a feeling that Mickey and Mini will be kidnapping Cyril. It doesn�t have to be for long, just for a few minutes. They could put him in the boot of the car and drive him to the shop, and refuse to let him out unless he gives them the money for some cheese� The butler! The terrorists will be Mrs. Shaw and her butler. I�m sure Mr. Hollywood-Story Blanket said something about a butler. We don�t find out the identity of the terrorists until the end, and all through the film we think that Mrs. Shaw and her butler are the good guys.�

�But she doesn�t have a butler.�

�Artistic licence. If she has peacocks, it�s perfectly believable that she has a butler too.�

�Yeah, but she doesn�t actually have peacocks either. She has a canary.�

�It�s not that much of a jump from a canary to peacocks. And the peacocks will be played by reindeer anyway.�

�What about the monks?�

�They�re all the same colour. I might get them to play the meercat.�

�That�s not bad� And there�s virtually no chance of terrorists suing.�

�No chance.�

�What if Mrs. Shaw sues?�

�We can change her name. And the name of her canary. She doesn�t even have a meercat.�

�So why does she hate Cyril so much?�

�Hunting! It�s all falling into place. Cyril is very much anti-hunting. He saved that elk, Jason. We�re in the woods in the middle of the night. The red dot of the laser target slowly moves to the point between the elk�s eyes, until Cyril appears and scares the elk away. The gunman runs away. Or is it a gunwoman? We can�t see who it is in the darkness. Cyril tames the elk and keeps it as a pet, and all the time Mrs. Shaw�s hatred of Cyril grows, but the audience doesn�t know anything about this. We suspect something is wrong when she tries to shoot the meercat. She does that to protect her peacocks, but why does she have a gun with a laser target? If we�re going to get the shot at the elk into the film, we�ll have to get Mini Mouse to attempt to kill Cyril�s goldfish, preferably with a gun.�

Cyril turns the corner and walks down the street below them. He looks dishevelled. He hasn�t shaved and he�s still wearing the same clothes he had on last night. He didn�t sleep at all. A woman walks down the street in the opposite direction, and stops when she sees Cyril. He doesn�t even notice her, but she obviously recognises him. She says, �Cyril!�

He looks up, and he still doesn�t recognise her.

�It�s me, Deborah.�

Now he recognises her. He went out with her once twenty years ago, but she hit her head off a lamp post and spent most of the night laughing at things. It was tedious for him. She emigrated to Australia shortly after that, and Cyril hasn�t seen or heard from her since. Alfred had her flown to Ireland just for this meeting with Cyril. She�ll be the missing person in the film. She was supposedly in love with him, but she disappeared twenty years ago. She has amnesia, but she gets her memory back when she sees Cyril. She�s still in love with him, and he�ll be tempted by her. In the film he�ll be faced with a choice between her and Beatrice.

She says, �I was in love with you twenty years ago, but after hitting my head and drinking so much that night we went out, it must have just slipped my mind. But I recently got my memory back and I�m still in love with you. I want to spend the rest of my life��

Cyril screams, turns around and runs back down the street.

Alfred looks down on this and says, �That�s a bit odd. It�s going to cause a few problems for us. How are we going to portray that reaction in the film?� Do you think we could put it down to medical reasons?�

�What, a coma?�

�Yeah.�

�No, I still think three comas would be pushing it.�

�Maybe Mr. Hollywood-Story Blanket will be able to give us some ideas. That blanket gets the impression that there�s something sad about this film, and I can�t help thinking he�s right.�

�What if in the film, her reaction is the same as Cyril�s reaction just now. She sees him by chance on a street and her memory returns. Then she screams and runs away.�

�That�s not bad� But I still think we need something sad.�

In the afternoon they�re filming in the park again. Penelope and Chloe are feeding the ducks while talking about Colin Farrell. The rose bushes are far away now, and the rust puppy seems much happier. When Mark arrives with Mr. Hollywood-Story Blanket and his sister, the puppy is chasing his tail. Alfred comes over to them and says to Mark, �The other day you were saying that Mr. Hollywood-Story Blanket saw something sad in the film. Does he still see that?�

�Ah� yeah. I think so.�

Mark keeps looking at the puppy, who�s chasing his tail in the other direction now. Alfred is too deep in thought to notice this. And then he gets an idea. �When he said he saw something sad beneath the surface, could that be madness?�

�Oh yeah, definitely.�

�Mad as in crazy? Completely crazy?�

�Oh yeah, completely crazy.� Mark keeps staring at the puppy.

�Perfect.�

Alfred goes over to Marcy. �I�ve got it!� he says. �Remember I said there was something sad beneath the surface? Cyril is going mad � that�s what it is. That�s why he reacted like that this morning. I knew that this film was starting to become too happy. But now we could have something like �Shine� or �A Beautiful Mind�.�

Alfred goes to see Cyril. As he walks towards the front door of the house, he hears Cyril�s voice through an open window. He looks in. Cyril is sitting on an armchair, moving back and forth. He�s talking to himself.

Alfred goes straight back into town. He returns to Cyril�s house twenty minutes later with the script writers and the actor playing Cyril. He wants them to observe this behaviour. They look through the window for a few minutes, and then go back into town. On the way, the writers write some dialogue. They film the scene straightaway. All of the equipment is in the park, so they have Cyril sitting on a park bench, moving back and forth and talking to himself.

Mark and Joe go to see Lorraine, Jason�s girlfriend. They tell her that they were talking to Ted, the sweeper, and he said that he couldn�t help noticing a lot of red things lying about the place. She says, �That started a few weeks ago when I went to the kitchen to get another bottle of vodka, and I remember going from the fridge to the sink to the flowers on the worktop, and then I realised that I�d lost my glasses, but I was sure I had them at the sink so I retraced my steps but I couldn�t find them anywhere. My mind probably wasn�t at its best at the time, so I drew a little map and marked out the three points. I tried to figure out where else I might have gone in between those three points, and everyone else joined in the search too. And then I looked at my hand and I noticed that I was holding the butter, so that�s when I realised that I put the glasses in the fridge and took out the butter. They were in the fridge all along. They were never lost at all. And then one of the girls said, �If the glasses were never lost, what are we looking for?� None of us could answer that, so we started looking to see if we could find whatever it was we were looking for. We decided to go for red things, and we�ve found lots of red things, but none of them are the thing we�re looking for, whatever it is.�

�Why red?� Mark says.

�Red is really in right now. We�re hardly going to start looking for something blue when everyone else is looking for something red.�

�Who else is looking for red things?�

�Those people in the park who throw Frisbees in the evening.�

�Why are they looking for red things?�

�I don�t know. Presumably because they�ve lost something red and they don�t know what it is, like us.�

�Right,� Joe says. �And what is it about the sweeping that brings ye to the house?�

�Sweeping?�

�Yeah, y� know, Ted sweeping in the Flynn�s house.�

�Huh?�

�Never mind.�

They go to the park and there�s a woman there throwing a Frisbee to herself. It�s late in the afternoon now, and normally the crowd gets much bigger in the evening. Joe asks her if there�s any particular reason why they throw Frisbees and she says, �Ah� I�m not sure actually. Maybe there is.�

�And what about the red things? Is there any reason why ye look for red things?�

�Ah��

�Or maybe ye don�t look for red things?�

�No, we do, but� There probably is some reason for that. Ask Carol � she�d probably know. I�m sure she explained it to me once. She told me about the Frisbees anyway. It�s something to do with fainting. But the red things� I don�t know about the red things. Ask Carol.�

She gives them directions to Carol�s house, and Carol is only too happy to explain about the Frisbees and the red things. She tells them about her fear of fainting. It�s always been a concern for her, even though she�s never fainted in her life. She�s always thinking up scenarios in which she faints, and the one that�s foremost in her mind is a scene on a summer day in the park when she looks up at a Frisbee flying over her head and faints in front of Darren O�Brien. Her sister, Tara, writes for the weekend supplement of a newspaper, and Carol knew that Tara would write about her if she fainted in front of Darren O�Brien. She couldn�t stop visualising that article, and she became very concerned with the size of the font. She was much more concerned with the font size than with fainting in front of Darren O�Brien. She felt that if the story must appear, then at least the font size should be right, so she decided to have a trial run. She didn�t want to faint, so she decided to go for the next best thing � she went to the park with her friends one evening and they drank until they started falling over. People were throwing Frisbees too, but they were drinking as well and they ended up hitting people on the head a lot, but the heads were too numb to feel anything. Carol came home at about one o� clock, turned on her computer and wrote about her evening, very carefully choosing the font size.

When she looked at it the next morning, she saw that she�d typed the word �tttttttttttttt� in a twenty-four-point font. That didn�t seem appropriate at all. They tried again the next night � another evening in the park with the drink and the Frisbees � and she can remember typing something when she came home, but she must have forgotten to turn on the computer first. They had to make many more attempts before they found the right one. �I woke up one morning,� she says to Mark and Joe, �and when I looked at what I�d typed I could see straight away it was the font I was looking for. And not just the font � the whole layout was perfect. I had described how the story would be told, and I even mentioned some of the incidental details that would be included in the article. Everything seemed just right. I had put in a footnote too � it described the colour of the nail varnish I�d be wearing when fainting in front of Darren O�Brien. The footnote seemed to fit in perfectly with the rest of the article, but then I started looking for that shade of red. Nothing I found was quite right, so I rounded up all the friends again, and for the past few weeks we�ve been drinking in the park and throwing Frisbees over our heads, or at our heads, and looking for that shade of red. Every time I see something that�s red, I have to pick it up and look at it. Some of them seem close to the colour I want, and I keep those things. The others I just leave alone.�

�Right,� Joe says. �So that explains why we�ve been seeing so many red things around the place. But why is it so important to find this shade of red?�

�I don�t really know. I�ve been wondering about that myself. It�s a bit of a mystery, to be honest. All along, I�d been typing words like �tttttttttttt� or �ow� or turning on the microwave, and then one night I had this perfect template for the whole article, including the footnote � that footnote seemed very important. And I had this need to find the right colour, the one mentioned in the footnote. I don�t really know why.�

Mark says, �Maybe something happened on that night that gave you the idea for the article.�

�I don�t really remembering anything happening apart from drinking and being hit on the head with a Frisbee� But the Frisbee� I can remember meeting someone who was interested in the Frisbee. Actually, he was interested in the colour of the Frisbee. It was red.�

�Do you remember who he is?�

�I can remember seeing him around the town before, but I don�t think I�d ever met him before that evening.�

�Did he tell you his name?�

�He did. It�s� I think he lives on the hill, near the handball courts� I think his name is John.�

They can�t go looking for him now because Mark has to go home � he has to visit some relatives with his parents.

Alfred has a feeling that the sight of Mickey or Mini Mouse would produce an interesting reaction in Cyril. In the evening, he asks Joe, Steve and Emily to visit Cyril and convince him to go for a walk in the park with them. Steve brings the monkey and the weighing scales with him, just in case an opportunity to settle their bet comes along. Jane�s aunt wasn�t too keen on taking the monkey back. She convinced Steve to keep him for a while, as a sort of a holiday for the monkey, and Steve is worried that he�ll get stuck with the monkey for good.

They try to convince Cyril to go for a walk, but he's very reluctant to leave his house. They persevere because it looks as if he really could do with some fresh air, and he finally gives in. As they walk into town he tells them about the things that have happened to him since last night � the car chase and the meeting with Deborah. �Something is definitely going on out there. Something beyond my control, something I can�t see. I get the feeling that no one can see it. It�s a higher power that�s just toying with me. Do you know what started all this?�

�What?�

�Our discussion of free will. I must have sounded so arrogant, claiming that none of us have free will. And then all these things started happening to me. It feels like a higher power who�s making these things happen just to teach me a lesson. Maybe we do have free will. This could be a test for me to use my free will. A challenge. All of these things happen to me and I�m supposed to respond. I have to transcend the circumstances and my past experiences and do something really free.�

�That doesn�t sound very free to me,� Emily says. �It�s these circumstances that are making you react like this. You�re still a victim of circumstances.�

�But what if the circumstances are controlled by a higher power? I haven�t been put into this situation by a series of causes and effects, or by mere chance. This situation has been manipulated by something higher than anything on this earth, and I have to transcend everything on this earth to respond.�

�How can you transcend everything on this earth? You can only see this �higher power� through earthly things. All you can see is earthly things, and only earthly things will influence your reaction.�

�I can see the influence of the higher power on earthly things. And that higher power will influence my reaction.�

�Well it�s hardly free then, is it? It�s either earthly things or a higher power that influences your reaction. It�s still not you. And what if you�re just reading this higher power into earthly things? I think it�s just as likely that the circumstances have made you believe in this higher power, and the circumstances will determine your reaction� I can�t believe I�m saying all this. I sound like you, and I didn�t believe what you were saying. Do you see how easy it was to talk about not having free will when you were just sitting at home watching the world go by? It�s very easy to control your destiny through knowledge of the world when your world is just sitting at home or going to work. You don�t have to know very much then.�

�Yeah, well I can see now that I was wrong. I�m learning my lesson now.�

When they get to the park, Cyril notices some exposed wires leading from a generator that the film crew are using. He says, �I could touch those wires. That�d be something free. All of my past experience tells me not to touch exposed wires � they could be live. I might get electrocuted. Everything we�ve experienced about live wires on this earth tells us not to touch them. If I touched them I�d be rising above my past experience. I�d be free. This is the challenge that�s been laid down for me. You�re the one who said that if we have free will, it might look as if we�re bound to choose one course of action, but we really have a genuine choice. Things really could go differently. This is a moment when I�m faced with a genuine choice, a call to action. It�s down to me to answer that call.�

�I don�t really know whether or not there�s free will,� Emily says, �but that still sounds like a load of rubbish to me. And I know you�re only saying what I said. But you�re the one who said that we�ll always act according to our past experiences anyway because there�s no point in doing anything else. Even assuming that you touching the wires isn�t influenced by your past experiences or your personality, what�s the point of it? You�ll only get electrocuted. I�d rather have that freedom where you have some control over your life through knowledge of the things that control your life, because at least then you won�t get electrocuted. And this looks like something that�s completely determined by all these events that are happening around you. Because of all these events, you think you have to do something you�ve never done before. And then pure chance throws this opportunity in your path � it�s something you�ve never done and would never do if you went on past experience. And it comes just at the time when you want to do something that has nothing to do with your past experiences. That�s still as determined as anything.�

�You�re absolutely right. But if I did it anyway, that would be free.�

Amy sees what�s going on. She goes over to him and says, �Don�t do it, Cyril. Who cares if it�s free? It�s stupid.�

�That makes it even more free. I�ve never done anything stupid before in my life.�

�You could kill yourself. There wouldn�t be any more life.�

Cyril is starting to waver. Joe and Steve are whispering to each other � this is the perfect opportunity to settle their bet. Steve bets the twenty-euro on the wires being live, and Joe says they�re not live. Alfred doesn�t say anything because he doesn�t want to be seen to be influencing Cyril, but he�s desperately hoping that he�ll touch the wires. This would definitely be a sign of insanity. They couldn�t have two electrocutions and three comas in the film, but they could cut the last electrocution if this one is successful.

It looks as if this one could be successful when Cyril says, �What�s the point of it all if we can�t do anything for ourselves? We�re bound by circumstances, or pure chance. Or if not circumstances and chance, then by some higher power toying with us. Even if we know everything about the world, and can control everything that happens to us, how can we do things any differently?�

But then Amy says, �Come with me, Cyril. I need to talk to you.� She leads him away, and Alfred�s hopes of another coma fade. After they leave, Mini Mouse appears from behind a bush holding a baseball bat. Alfred says, �Sorry Mini, but you�re too late.�

Emily stares at the wires. Over the past few days, the feeling that she�s close to her big break has been getting stronger. And the past two electrocutions have been getting stronger too. This electrocution could be stronger again � this could bring her closer than ever to her big break. She walks towards the wires. She slowly moves her hand towards them, and keeps moving.

Joe turns around when he hears the sound. He sees Emily falling backwards and he runs over to her. �Emily! Are you okay?�

She�s lying on the grass, and she seems a bit dazed. �I� I��

�You touched the wires.�

�I, ah� I touched the wires.�

�Are you alright?�

�Yeah, I think I am.�

�It�s the bloody smoking ban again. When will they learn!�

Joe helps her to her feet and she says, �Yeah, I�m� I� I feel� Oh my God! Amy is in the film now too!�

She goes over to Alfred and says, �Amy is in the film now too!�

�Ah, Amy was always in the film. She�s playing Beatrice.�

�But no, she�s actually in the film herself now. She�s the one who convinced Cyril not to touch the wires. She led him away. She stopped him from electrocuting himself. She has to be in the film.�

�Oh yeah.�

�So can I play her?�

�Well now I��

�I�d be perfect. My sister is playing me � you said that would be a great gimmick. Wouldn�t it be even better if I was playing my sister as well? Amy can�t play Beatrice, me and herself.�

�I suppose not, but��

�And it�s only a small little role. I�d just have a few lines. Just a few minutes and then I disappear.�

�Well� Okay. Yeah, this might work. Be here tomorrow morning and we�ll see how it goes.�

Amy takes Cyril to a café. She gets two coffees and they sit at a table. She says, �Cyril, there�s something you should know. I�ve been trying to figure out if I should tell you over the past few days, but now I know for sure. You should definitely know. Cyril� I�m Beatrice.�

�You�re�?�

�I�m Beatrice. I wore a wig and pretended to be her.�

�No!�

�It�s true. I�m not proud of it, but Alfred wanted to do it for the film. He thought the film needed a love story, so he added it into your life.�

�But how could ye manipulate my life like that?�

�I can see now that it was wrong. The more I got to know you, the more uncomfortable I felt about deceiving you. You really didn�t deserve to be deceived at all. I tried to forget about the deception and enjoy the time we spent together, and I did. That bit wasn�t acted.�

Emily is over the moon after finally getting her big break. She goes over to Joe and Steve, and she asks Joe why he�s paying Steve twenty quid.

�We had a little bet on whether or not the wires were live,� Joe says. �But I don�t mind losing at all, as long as you�re okay.�

�That�s very sweet of you to say, Joe� I�ve got a part in the film.�

�Really?�

�Yeah, I�m playing Amy in that scene.�

�Congratulations. I knew you�d get your break sooner or later.�

�Thanks Joe� Do you want to go for a coffee or a drink, and I can tell you all about it?�

�I�d love to.�

Before they leave, a woman walks by with her two young sons. When she sees the monkey she stops and says, �I don�t believe it! Look boys, it�s our monkey!� She goes over to the monkey, then turns back to her sons and says, �John, Don, say hello to Mr�.�

She doesn�t get to finish that line because the monkey jumps on her head. He sits on her shoulders and hits her on the head. She says, �John! Don! Help Mummy. John! Don!��

John and Don just stand there and stare. They�ve never seen the monkey act like this before � he was never this entertaining. The woman eventually knocks the monkey off her head and she runs away. Her sons follow her.

Emily and Joe go to a café, leaving Steve alone with the monkey. He says, �So we still don�t know you�re name� I think I�ll call you JD and let people guess what the initials stand for. Most people would probably go for Jack Daniels� Let�s go for a drink, Jack.�