Sequence Read Online Free Page B

GUZMAN
    So if He decides you’re worthy of having children, He will first make you walk.
    MR. ADAMSON
    Yes.
    DR. GUZMAN
    You know your God is rolling his eyes right now.
    MR. ADAMSON
    I don’t think you can help me.
    DR. GUZMAN reaches into a beaker full of coins. She produces a single coin.
    DR. GUZMAN
    Tell you what, Mr. One-in-Five-Quintillion. Call it. Heads or tails. If you get it right, you can go.
    Auditorium
    CYNTHIA
    Really?
    THEO
    Call it a hunch.
    CYNTHIA
    You have a hunch you’re going to guess wrong? Today?
    THEO
    Yes.
    CYNTHIA
    Do you think that every year?
    THEO
    First time.
    CYNTHIA
    So don’t place your bet. Just leave your money in the bank. Why risk it?
    THEO
    He who lives by the coin flip should die by the coin flip. Don’t you think?
    CYNTHIA
    No! That makes no sense. If you think you’re going to lose, quit while you’re ahead. Thank your lucky stars and ride off into the sunset. That’s the smart thing to do.
    THEO
    I never said I was the
smartest
guy alive.
    CYNTHIA
    Don’t be ridiculous. What if you lose? Have you even thought about that?
    THEO
    Every day.
    CYNTHIA
    You’d become some ordinary guy whose luck and greed eventually caught up with him. No fame. No fortune. You’d lose everything.
    THEO
    Just an ordinary guy.
    CYNTHIA
    But if you don’t place the bet, you’d walk away a winner. You’d still be the luckiest man alive.
    THEO
    Until I die.
    CYNTHIA
    Isn’t that what you want?
    THEO
    I’ll let you in on a little secret. This time tomorrow, I’ll be a billionaire. Or I’ll be broke. But either way, win or lose, it’s going to end. Today’s going to be my last bet.
    CYNTHIA
    I thought they wouldn’t let you stop.
    THEO
    If I lose, they won’t care. If I win… well, this time I won’t give them a choice.
    CYNTHIA
    Then why not stop now? Why roll the dice one last time? You could lose it all today.
    THEO
    I know.
    CYNTHIA
    Well, Mr. Super-Lucky-Man, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t think you’re going to lose today.
    CYNTHIA hands THEO his briefcase.
    I’ve figured out your secret.
    Laboratory
    MR. ADAMSON
    So tell me. What’s the catch?
    DR. GUZMAN
    The catch is, if you guess
wrong
on the coin flip, there will be a consequence.
    MR. ADAMSON
    Excuse me?
    DR. GUZMAN
    Without stakes, how can we truly evaluate the “unlucky” hypothesis?
    MR. ADAMSON
    So this is some kind of test?
    DR. GUZMAN
    An experiment, if you will. A critical assessment of your luck. Or lack thereof.
    MR. ADAMSON
    What do you mean, consequence?
    DR. GUZMAN
    I’m sure we can think of something. I know I have a bottle of H2SO4 here somewhere.
    MR. ADAMSON
    h2so4?
    DR. GUZMAN
    Sulphuric acid. So which is it? Heads or tails?
    MR. ADAMSON
    Why the egg? Why did the egg come first?
    DR. GUZMAN
    Ah. We know all new species appear via mutation. Since DNA can only be modified prenatally, the first chicken egg gave birth to the first chicken.
    MR. ADAMSON comes across a phone jack in the wall. He follows the wire.
    MR. ADAMSON
    But a chicken laid the egg in the first place.
    DR. GUZMAN
    No. A creature which was similar to a chicken, but technically not a chicken, laid that first egg. Likely the Red Junglefowl.
    DR. GUZMAN finds a stethoscope, uses it to listen to the briefcase lock.
    MR. ADAMSON
    Fine, but which came first, the Red Junglefowl or the egg?
    DR. GUZMAN
    The egg. Same logic. Wouldn’t you agree?
    MR. ADAMSON
    No. I would not. “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of Heaven.”
    DR. GUZMAN
    So your money is on the chicken.
    MR. ADAMSON
    My money is on God. It doesn’t matter whether God created the egg first or the chicken first. It’s irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if it’s Watson and Crick. Baskin and Robbins. Ernie and Bert.
    DR. GUZMAN
    Bert and Ernie. Only