Episode 27: Clouded

VOICE
Previously, on Timestorm…

JANELLY
I think you should give the guanín arrowhead to the museum. Doesn’t it belong here? For other people to see and enjoy?

BENI
Trust us. This isn’t our first quest. 

***

JANELLY
I think maybe I should take a break from being research captain.

***

BENI
We don’t have the artifact. What if Janelly was right and the artifact wasn’t ours to take?

***

LALO
Let me peek in this back room. Pictures up on the walls. Dad’s map? Mm. Una punta de flecha?

KAYLEE
Lalo? I think the arrowhead in the Ziplock bag—it’s mine.

LALO HEARS THE TWINS’ MUFFLED LAUGHTER.

LALO
Sounds…like the twins. 

JOSIE
(muffled) How’d it go?

LALO
That vent in the wall leads to the building next door. You’ve been spying on Josie?

KAYLEE
I just happen to set up in a room that—apparently—shares a ceiling vent with Josie’s store. 

KAYLEE STRAIGHTENS THE FRAME.

KAYLEE
I can’t stand a crooked frame.

KAYLEE GRABS HER PURSE AND KEYS.

KAYLEE
I’ve been meaning to visit the rainforest.

***

JOSIE
We’ll hike up this trail that leads up to the Mount Britton Tower.

***

ALEXA
Whew! We made it.

***

BRITTON RANGER
What’s that in your hand?

BENI
Oh, just a container.

***

KAYLEE
Lalo. Josie.

LALO/JOSIE
Kaylee.

KAYLEE
I’ve heard so much about the rainforest. I just had to check it out. What’s in your pocket?

ALEXA
Oh, just show her the secret family heirloom.

BENI STEPS TOWARDS KAYLEE AND OPENS THE TIN.

KAYLEE
That’s your secret family heirloom?

JOSIE
That patch is pretty cool, huh?

KAYLEE
Well, sure. What’s left of it. Excuse me. But I want to check out this Britton tower.

LALO
Kaylee’s lost it. She’s hiking up there to search for treasure. 

BENI
Too bad it’s in my hand. The container is the treasure.

JOSIE
How did you find about you found out about it, Lalo?

LALO
All I know is that Kaylee has an arrowhead.

BENI/ALEXA/JOSIE
WHAT?

ALEXA
Lalo, do you know where the arrowhead is?

LALO
I know where I last saw it, and I can take you to it.

MUSIC: THEME SONG - "IN THE TIMESTORM"

Witness. Find. Remember.
The hidden past seeks its dawn,
showing us that we all belong.
Horacio, Alexa, and Beni take back time,
find history in the timestorm.
Witness. Find. Remember.

KAYLEE’S PROPERTY. OLD SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO.

MUSIC: KAYLEE’S JOINT TRANSITION.
ALEXA AND BENI WALK AROUND KAYLEE’S STOREFRONT.

BENI
So empty.

ALEXA
So, this place will be filled with computers and stuff?

LALO
Mm-hm. That’s Kaylee’s plan.

A BUZZ INDICATES THE LIGHTS DIMMING.

JOSIE
Ooh. Hope she’s got a backup plan for the way the power dips like this.

LALO
She’s getting a big generator.

BENI STEPS TOWARDS A PHONE HANGING ON THE WALL.

BENI
Hey, this old-fashioned phone on the wall has a blinking light.

JOSIE
Old-fashioned phone?

ALEXA WALKS TO THE PHONE.

ALEXA
Let me see. Yeah. Yeah, no. That’s an artifact.

JOSIE AND LALO LAUGH.

LALO
I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

LALO WALKS TO THE PHONE.

Bueno, let me check this ancient landline for messages.

LALO PRESSES THE SPEAKER BUTTON AND DIALS THE VOICE MAILBOX.

VOICE
One new message.

LAURA
(voicemail) Hey, Kaylee. It’s Laura. Just letting you know I gave this number to the expert on Caribbean natural resources you contacted. He said the item you asked about is probably made from a metal alloy found in the Americas before European contact.

JOSIE/ALEXA/BENI
WHAT?

LAURA
(voicemail) It sounds really valuable. It’d be great if you could fill me in.

LALO
(sighs) Kaylee. Kaylee. Kaylee.

LAURA
(voicemail) I’m sure you’re doing all you can to find the rightful owner. Because that’s what daddy used to do with rare objects.

LALO
Kaylee’s sister.

LAURA
(voicemail) Call me when you can.

ALEXA | BENI
(overlapping) Metal alloy? | Rightful owner.

LALO
I think Kaylee’s got some explaining to do.

JOSIE | BENI | ALEXA
Mm-hm. | Oh yeah. | Right?

LALO
Vengan por acá. Follow me. This way.

LALO WALKS TO THE BACK ROOM. ALEXA, BENI, AND JOSIE FOLLOW.

LALO
We’ve gotta get into the back room and grab the arrowhead before Kaylee’s back from the rainforest.

LALO OPENS THE DOOR, FLICKS ON THE LIGHT, AND WALKS INTO THE ROOM.

ALEXA
Oh, furniture. Sort of.

LALO
It’s a temporary setup.

ALEXA AND BENI WALK INTO THE ROOM.

JOSIE
Uh, should we be going inside here?

LALO
It’s where Kaylee’s keeping what she stole, so fair game.

JOSIE
I just feel strange if she’s using it as her office and we’re—

LALO
Okay. I gotta tell you this. You see that vent up there? Kaylee’s been using it to eavesdrop on you.

JOSIE
Whoa, wait, what? Why would she do that?

BENI
To find out where she can find guanín.

JOSIE
She thinks she can just buy the building and spy on her neighbors?

ALEXA
But what is she gonna do with the guanín?

LALO
Sell it.

ALEXA AND BENI GASP.

JOSIE
Ah. Pero, she can’t sell what she doesn’t have.

JOSIE WALKS INTO THE ROOM.

LALO
Exactly. Okay. Déjame ver. La punta de flecha was in a baggie right here—

JOSIE
Lalo, ¿qué pasó?

LALO
It was on top of this table.

ALEXA
Maybe she took it with her?

BENI
Or maybe she hid it?

LALO LIFTS THE LAPTOP.

LALO
But where? I was here with her.

JOSIE ROLLS OUT THE CHAIR.

JOSIE
No drawers on this table. And looks like she spent more time setting up what’s on the walls.

BENI
Do you know who’s in these picture frames, Lalo?

LALO
I don’t know. Probably Kaylee’s family.

ALEXA
What’s the world map about? Dad’s map. Why do you think she wrote that across the top?

BENI
Hm. Probably has something to do with all these pins marking locations. Hey, there’s one in Puerto Rico.

JOSIE
She must be tracking these locations for her organization.

LALO
The Hellinger Foundation.

BENI
The foundation belonged to her dad.

ALEXA
Oh. And this is dad’s map.

ALEXA/BENI/JOSIE/LALO
Dad.

ALL FOUR OF THEM STEP TOWARDS THE HANGING PICTURE FRAMES.

LALO
See that picture frame in the middle? This morning, Little Miss Kaylee straightened it out. Mm-hm.

LALO WALKS TO THE WALL.

LALO
Could this be Dad?

HE TAPS THE FRAME AND THEM LIFTS THE FRAME.

LALO
Voila!

LALO SIGHS

LALO
Nada. No safe. No secret bookshelf.

LALO PLACES THE FRAME ON THE TABLE.

JOSIE
Just a wall.

ALEXA
It was a good idea though.

BENI
Wait a minute. There’s something tucked into the back of the frame.

BENI TUGS ON THE PLASTIC BAG UNTIL HE’S ABLE TO RELEASE IT WITH AND THE ARROWHEAD INSIDE.

LALO | JOSIE | ALEXA
Mira, eso! | Nice catch! | You found it!

TAÍNO COMICS AND GAMES. NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

MUSIC: TAÍNO COMICS AND GAMES - NEWARK TRANSITION.
DOOR OPENS/LASER BELL/CITY STREET SOUNDS. SONIA ENTERS.

SONIA
Datu.

DATU
Hey there, Sonia. I heard your song on WNRK again. (singing) I don’t know what you are like.

SONIA
Wow. You know the words.

DATU
It’s catchy.

SONIA
Thanks. Have you seen Alexa and Beni?

DATU
Oh, yeah. They came through this morning. But they had something to take care of…um…something outside of…Newark. I think Janelly’s on the patio.

SONIA
Maybe she knows where they ran off, too.

DATU
Those Ventura twins. Always on the move.

SONIA WALKS TO THE BACK OF THE STORE, PASSING THE GAMING TABLES. SHE OPENS THE BACK DOOR AND WALKS OUT ONTO THE PATIO.

SONIA
Ooh. Is that the Loch Ness Monster, Janelly?

JANELLY
It’s my own underwater cryptid creation.

SONIA
Nice. Hey, do you know where Alexa and Beni are?

JANELLY
Uh...I’m not sure.

SONIA SITS ON A CHAIR NEAR HER.

SONIA
What’s up? Did you and Beni have a fight again?

JANELLY
We just disagreed on something yesterday.

SONIA
You disagree with him all the time.

JANELLY
This was different. He and Alexa took something that wasn’t really theirs.

SONIA
Whoa. They stole something?

JANELLY
Stole? No. That’s not the right word.

SONIA
So they borrowed it?

JANELLY
It’s really complicated.

SONIA
What did they take?

JANELLY
All I can say is that the thing they took doesn’t belong to one person. It belongs to a group. And Beni and Alexa—they kind of belong to that group. I just thought they should share this thing—that’s all.

SONIA
So, they’re not thieving bandits? Or mastermind swindling crooks?

JANELLY
(laughs) Definitely not.

KAYLEE’S PROPERTY. OLD SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO.

MUSIC: KAYLEE’S JOINT TRANSITION.

LALO
Kaylee’s a thief!

JOSIE
I can’t believe she stole from us.

BENI
But the arrowhead doesn’t belong to us.

LALO
Then who does it belong to?

BENI
I don’t know. Maybe all Puerto Ricans?

ALEXA
Hello? We’re Puerto Rican.

BENI
But we don’t live here.

JOSIE
Hey, it’s your culture, too.

BENI
Of course. But I don’t think that means we get to claim this artifact that belonged to Taínos living in Tibes hundreds of years ago.

LALO
Okay. But it’s not like you can travel back in time and bring it back to them.

BENI/ALEXA/JOSIE
Actually...

LALO
No me digas.

ALEXA
We’ve got this cousin.

BENI
He’s in a timestorm.

LALO
You three can travel in time?

JOSIE
Just them.

ALEXA
But even though we can travel in time, we can’t bring this artifact back to when it already exists.

BENI
We could give it to the indigenous center now.

ALEXA
But that wasn’t part of the quest.

JOSIE
Can we can all agree that it doesn’t belong to Kaylee?

LALO | ALEXA | BENI
Claro. | Yep. | Yeah.

BENI
I guess we’ll bring it into the timestorm.

LALO
Travel is real. Wow…wow. I’m fine.

JOSIE
And what do we do about Kaylee? We can’t exactly call the police to report a theft if you’re bringing the evidence into the timestorm.

LALO
Pero, I still want to know why she’s contacting a Caribbean natural resources expert.

ALEXA
And what her plan is for all the places on this map.

BENI
And why she’s hiding stuff behind this picture of dad.

LALO
Speaking of—dame acá. I’ll put it back.

LALO HANGS THE FRAME BACK ON THE WALL.

LALO
Y así. Looks like I never even touched it.

ALEXA
Can’t tell anything’s missing.

BENI HOLDS UP THE ARROWHEAD IN THE PLASTIC BAG.

BENI
And this arrowhead in a baggie should have never been there in the first place.

JOSIE
But we got it back. Thanks to you, Lalo.

LALO WALKS INTO THE HALL. THE OTHERS FOLLOW.

LALO
Ay. Pero, we did it together.

A PHONE NOTIFICATION INDICATES THE TIME. JOSIE PULLS OUT HER PHONE FROM HER PURSE TO CHECK IT.

JOSIE
It’s already three o’clock? Lost track of time with all the running around.

BENI
Welcome to our world.

THUNDER RUMBLES INTO BAROMETER BUZZ.

LALO
¿Qué es eso?

BENI
Mystical barometer made of guanín.

JOSIE
You’re traveling into the timestorm now?

ALEXA
That’s what it sounds like—

THUNDERCLAP INTO BUZZ, INDICATING THE LIGHTS HAVE GONE OUT. KAYLEE OPENS THE FRONT DOOR.

KAYLEE
Ugh. Another blackout?


THE TIMESTORM. ANOTHER DIMENSION.

MUSIC: TIMESTORM TRANSITION.
THE TWINS LAUGH AS THEY LAND IN THE TIMESTORM.

BENI
We found the arrowhead!

ALEXA
We followed the clues—

BENI
—and they led to Kaylee’s dad.

HORACIO
Kaylee?

A CHANNEL CHANGE.

ATABEY
Kaylee Hellinger. She runs the Hellinger Foundation with her sister, Laura. They own the building next to Josie’s store in San Juan.

HORACIO
Ah, Josie’s neighbor.

ALEXA
She wore heels to hike in the rainforest.

BENI
That matched her designer umbrella.

ATABEY
You have retrieved the artifact.

ALEXA
Two artifacts. The arrowhead and—

BENI PULLS OUT THE ARROWHEAD AND THE CONTAINER FROM HIS POCKET.

BENI
The container from the Mount Britton Tower.

HORACIO
The one my father hid.

BENI
Here you go.

BENI HANDS HORACIO THE CONTAINER.

BENI
Look at what’s inside.

HORACIO OPENS THE CONTAINER.

HORACIO
A patch from when he worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps.

ATABEY
Artifact cloud: emerge.

ARTIFACT CLOUD EMERGES.

HORACIO
Artifact cloud: retreat.

ARTIFACT CLOUD RETREATS.

HORACIO
Atabey. Let me keep this container. It was meant for me.

ATABEY
Artifact cloud: emerge.

ARTIFACT CLOUD EMERGES.

ATABEY
Artifacts: attained.

THE ARROWHEAD GOES INTO THE CLOUD.

BENI
There goes the arrowhead.

THE ARTIFACT CLOUD TRIES TO ATTAIN THE CONTAINER, BUT HORACIO DOESN’T LET GO, CAUSING IT TO WOBBLE.

HORACIO
Wait! The container—uh!

ALEXA
Do you feel that tug?

THE ARTIFACT CLOUD PULLS IN THE TWINS AND HORACIO.

ALEXA
It’s…so...cloudy.

BENI
Where…are…we?

HORACIO
Inside…the…artifact cloud.

ALEXA
How’s that…even possible?

BENI
Whoa. That artifact...nearly…hit me.

HORACIO
I…see them! They…float by…and then…disappear. Changing shape…and size.

THE MASS SWIRLS MORE INTENSELY.

ALEXA | BENI
Horacio— | Whoa—

THERE IS A STRANGE WHOOSH.

HORACIO
Beni? Alexa?

THE ARTIFACT CLOUD CONTINUES FOR SEVERAL SECONDS.

MUSIC: THEME SONG "IN THE TIMESTORM" (INSTRUMENTAL)

NARRATION
This episode of Timestorm was written and directed by me, Dania Ramos. Sound design and original music by Michael Aquino.

The role of Alexa Ventura was played by Leilany Figueroa. Beni Ventura was played by Claudio Venancio. Josie was played by Angelica Ubiera. Lalo was played by Kelmi Bermúdez. Laura was played by DeAnna Ramos. Sonia was played by Jessica Bracken. Datu was played by Joel Arandia. Janelly was played by Frances Ramos. Kaylee was played by Kate Hernandez. Horacio Méndez was played by Orlando Segarra. Atabey was played by Alicia Rivas.

Timestorm is produced by Cocotazo Media and is a proud member of TRAX from PRX. Support for TRAX comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Learn more about TRAX at t-r-a-x-dot fm.

All episodes of Timestorm are available at TimestormSeries dot com and on all podcast apps. If you enjoy the show, please share it with two friends.

Timestorm is produced in Essex County, New Jersey, which is situated on the traditional territory of the Leni Lenape people.

As always, thanks for listening.

ATABEY
Witness. Find. Remember.