The Kovak Box

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[Indistinct voices]

[Distant typing]

Sorry, did I distract you?

Oh, no, no, no,

You must be brilliant,

Oh, this! Oh, yeah,

it's a masterpiece, yes,

"A throbbing fleshy

appendage

downloading data

at lightning speed,"

H mm,

Tchu!

Did you just

erase it all?

I did,

Why?

It was a load of crap,

and it won't hold

anyone's interest,

Why don't you put your

masterpiece away for a while?

You never know, You might

get a bit of inspiration,

[Female clears throat] We'll serve

dinner shortly, Have you made your choice?

Uh, beef,

Chicken,

[Screaming]

[Laughs]

Sorry! It's not my sick

sense of humor, really,

This friend of mine advised me to

take a couple of air sickness pills

before I got on the plane, and now,

well, they make me a bit groggy,

Goof number two,

Must be this, too,

Hi, I'm Kathy,

Kathy Thomas,

[Hispanic accent]

Silvia,

Vacation? They say the

island's really something,

So I've heard,

Traveling solo?

I know...

mind your business,

Sorry, sweetie,

I'm a lost cause,

I just love poking my nose

Into other people's lives,

Probably 'cause I don't

have one of my own,

It's the price we

workaholics have to pay,

Fast walkers,

The sports store?

They reward their best

salespeople with an annual trip,

This year

it's to Majorca,

(hostess)

Dinner?

Oh, sure,

can I have a couple of

whiskeys as well, please?

[Cell phone ringing]

[Hispanic accent] People

can be a pain, huh?

Third time

since we landed,

Someone misses you,

Apparently,

That ain't surprising,

I'm already missing you, and we

haven't even said goodbye yet,

[Cell phone ringing]

[Chattering]

[Speaking a

foreign language]

(David) In a world where scientists vie

to produce

the first human clone

and entire populations

can be annihilated

without even

a brick being damaged,

the question Is,

is it still possible

to write science fiction?

When reality is becoming

more and more

like a story

that has been hatched

from the twisted mind

of one of my fellow authors,

It seems reality

Is extremely eager

to put the rest of us

out of a job,

But I'm not gonna let

that happen, I can't let

that happen after 25 novels,

I still enjoy what I'm doing,

I love the process,

People ask me

where my Ideas come from,

And it's not unlike

an illness,

And what I mean

by that is, uh,

you open a window or, uh, let's

say you're taking the subway,

where you expose yourself

to virus,

Likewise in my life, uh, I can

be infected by things around me,

It could be a TV program,

I could overhear a conversation

and think, "Oh, that's interesting,"

Or I could... I mean, sometimes

it's, um, just a single image

will suffice for

the virus to, uh,

to enter my organism and, um,

start to grow and pretty...

pretty soon, It's taken

over my whole... body,

And then, before I know it,

uh, the only way to escape,

Is to write

the damn book,

Even if it means, along the

way, I created a few monsters,

I've been involved in public

utilities for 30 years,

well, 32, to be exact,

working for the Los

Angeles water authority,

Wow, that's a lot of

years, A lot of water,

[Chattering]

A pleasure meeting you,

if you'll excuse me,

Oh! Your pen,

Yes! I just... always...

thank you,

(British male voice) Could

I borrow you for a second?

Yeah, borrow away,

As you can see,

I'm an old fan,

[Womars laughter]

I've been a follower of

yours since the beginning,

1979,

Yes, first edition,

I don't even think

I have a copy like this,

You, you want me

to sign it again?

Oh, would you?

It's your finest work,

Let me tell you

a secret,

I was 20

when I wrote this,

The structure is clumsy, the

style changes every chapter,

the characters are rehashed

from books I read,

I should know,

I wrote it,

Oh, not so! It's your

most personal work,

Full of passion,

intuition, suffering,

Suffering, yes!

Oh, you got that right,

I n those days, all I ate was biscuits

stolen from the neighbor's dog,

I should've dedicated

this book to that dog,

I fear my comments

have upset you,

No, no, not at all,

Why should they?

It seems everyone believes that

I'll never write anything better,

so I just resign myself,

[Male voice speaking

a foreign language]

That's very good,

Excuse me, It's Aunt

Jo, seems very worried,

Aunt Jo is looking after

our kids, five of them,

uh, all adopted, each

from a different continent,

well, apparently, Nanook,

our little Eskimo,

had a slight mishap

sledding down the stairs,

so, unfortunately,

we must...

I'm really sorry,

Just put Nanook on the phone, Excuse us,

(David)

Hey, little buddy!

[Foreign language]

Aunt Jo, five kids, and

one of them's an Eskimo?

Yes, little Nani Nanook,

We can't forget him,

What was that about?

It must

mean something,

I never heard myself ever talk

about kids, ever, Not even in fun,

So it's probably just

a very complicated, uh,

way of wanting to ask you

a very simple question,

[Sigh]

What's that?

Will you marry me?

Now, you don't have

to answer now,

just, you,

take your time, but...

promise me

you'll think it over,

I will,

Okay, That's all, just, you know,

think it... that's all,

just... we'll leave it at that,

All right, I lied, you

gotta tell me now "yes,"

What if I say "no?"

Yeah, and what if

I jumped off a cliff?

(male voice) Excuse me, I

hope I'm not Interrupting,

Interrupting?

No, not at all,

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