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