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Ryan Seacrest
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Glass
Woohoo.
Copper
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Narrator
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Copper
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Amber
Purchase necessary, void or prohibited by law. See terms and conditions 18.
Anna McGuire
Hymns for the road is a fiction podcast that often takes place inside a moving vehicle. Listener discretion is advised while driving. General content warnings are listed in the show notes.
Copper
Should I wake Glass up?
Silver
No, let them sleep. They drove a long time last year.
Amber
Move, Copper. I have to stretch my legs or I'll die going.
Copper
Why do you sit in the middle anyway?
Amber
I don't know. Too much stuff on the other side. Oh, it feels so good to be out of that car.
Silver
It absolutely does.
Copper
It's kind of nice here.
Amber
Sure is. Hilly and grassy.
Silver
Lot of trash, though.
Copper
You're ignoring the hilly and grassy, though. Look on the bright side, M. Let's walk around.
Amber
I want to see what's on the other side of that hill.
Silver
Probably not a good idea to go all the way over, Amber.
Amber
Fine, then we'll go around it.
Copper
We won't even be out of sight from the car. Silver, It'll be okay.
Silver
Oh, I'm going to. I need a walk just as bad as you do.
Amber
Now.
Copper
When Israel was in Egypt land Let.
Silver
My people go.
Copper
Oppressed so hard they could not stand Let my people go. So the Lord said, go down, go down, Moses. Way down to Egypt land Tell old.
Amber
Pharaoh to let my people.
Copper
The colors were turning that day. All different colors. Reds, oranges, violets. Bright vivid blues. Everything turned rainbow in the fall. Not the same rainbow as in the spring. Certainly not like the colors in the summer. What little of them I can remember. The wind smelled of cobwebs and rust. It's starting to get cold out.
Silver
Course it is. It's getting right up on Halloween.
Amber
Yes, please. Halloween.
Copper
Halloween. No.
Silver
Oh, hush. Last one wasn't so bad. We found it real quick.
Copper
They almost saw Glass.
Silver
I think they learned their lesson not to talk too much.
Amber
I wouldn't count on it.
Silver
It'll be all right, Copper. We get better at it every year.
Amber
Maybe this year they'll give us candy with people inside.
Silver
Stop, Amber. You need to be more careful with what you say you know, they could be listening.
Amber
What did you just step on?
Silver
I don't know.
Copper
Under Silver's foot was a small pile of smooth round stones. A few of them still stacked on top of each other. A few of them scattered into the drying blue and violet grass. Silver, I think you kicked over a cairn.
Silver
What in the sam hell's a cairn?
Copper
A bunch of rocks piled on top of each other.
Amber
Kicking over a pile of rocks isn't a big deal.
Copper
It's a pile of rocks that somebody made.
Amber
Look around, there's tons of them.
Silver
Uh oh.
Copper
A sick feeling bubbled into my stomach. A ripple of vertigo through my body, as for a moment, I couldn't place where or how I was. I smelled something pungent and vaguely sweet. Like the scent of the car's heating turning on at the end of summer. Guys? Guys?
Silver
Copper?
Amber
Silver?
Copper
The first thing to do was always to check if there was anything wrong with any of us physically. A cursory glance didn't find anything. Except for the blood drained look on Silver's face, I had become familiar with.
Silver
There you are.
Copper
Where are we? What happened? Amber and Silver looked around at the strange plants that now surrounded us. Black dirt, coarse under our feet. Flat leaved plant shoots jutting out of the ground and nearly reaching our waists. A nearby tree hunched above us. More branches and wide round leaves than I had ever seen. The rest of the world was hidden by the slopes of our little valley. I couldn't see over the mountains, where indeed.
Amber
Hell, I finally got one.
Copper
God. One of what?
Amber
You know, sometimes people get zapped into weird little other worlds the folk make.
Copper
Yes, it's terrible.
Amber
I've never been to one. They always forget me. I'll take everything as Giant World, though.
Silver
I wouldn't be so excited if I was you, Copper.
Amber
Check it out. I got a giant flower.
Copper
Very nice big flower.
Amber
Stop. Get your own. Fight me, sword. Fight me.
Copper
All the other ones don't have petals, y'all.
Silver
I think we should be taking this more serious.
Amber
Don't worry, I found you a hat.
Copper
Ew. What is that?
Amber
Part of a bug, I think.
Silver
If there are bugs that big here, maybe we should start thinking about finding a way out.
Amber
Yeah, you do that.
Silver
You do that.
Amber
You got us into this, didn't you?
Silver
Well, yeah, but.
Amber
Oh, Copper, if we find any food here, we're gonna be rich.
Copper
What, like a giant strawberry or something?
Amber
Yeah, we'll be eating like kings for days.
Copper
Do you think they have vending machines in this one?
Amber
How would we even use a Vending machine.
Copper
It could be our mission. We could spend a week planning it.
Amber
We could fit inside. Maybe.
Silver
Don't give them ideas, please.
Amber
Come on, Silver. Do you have to ruin this right now?
Silver
I'm thinking about our survival, Amber.
Amber
We can worry about surviving in a second, all right?
Copper
Hey, it's okay. We're gonna find a way out. We just need to figure out who we offended.
Amber
Who's Silver offended.
Copper
Who'S Silver offended, and trade something to get put back in our normal sized world, right?
Amber
Don't look at me. I'm not pulling the weight on this one.
Silver
Why is that?
Amber
Because you're always yelling at me not to get us into trouble. And this time it was you. That's why.
Silver
Von. I'm going over this hill. Follow me or keep goofing off. I'm going to try and fix this.
Amber
Good, because you're the one who messed it up in the first place.
Copper
You didn't have to be so mean, you know.
Amber
I'm not being mean. They're just taking it too seriously.
Copper
You sound like Glass.
Amber
Glass has a point sometimes. Besides, you guys always come out of these things. Okay? Anyways, we have to work really hard.
Copper
Boo.
Amber
Who must be so hard to be the useful members of the group?
Copper
Amber turned away from me and pulled a leaf off of the squat, bristling tree and began tearing it apart bit by bit. It smelled sharp and green. When they tore into the inside, the casual mask on their face didn't do an adequate job of disguising the tension in their hands as they ripped at the leaf's edges. I don't know how to respond to that.
Amber
Then don't.
Copper
We shouldn't be letting Silver go off by themselves.
Amber
Yeah, you're right. Let's go. Kind of makes you feel like you're in Tom and Jerry, huh?
Copper
What?
Amber
Everything's so big. I feel like a cartoon mouse.
Copper
Oh, I guess I don't have much of a frame of reference for that.
Amber
Why is that one of the things I remember from before? Seems like a waste of memory space, to be honest.
Copper
Maybe you sold all the other ones.
Amber
Maybe I did sell all the other ones. Oh, well, they must not have been all that great then.
Copper
Silver.
Silver
We got a problem, y'all.
Copper
Well, yeah.
Amber
Look.
Copper
As we crested the hill, the rest of the landscape came into view. A large pile of round, smooth stones. And far beyond it, blotting out the sun like the impossibly large structures we passed in the remains of the cities, was our car. Pieces of trash dotted the landscape between us, and it plastic and aluminum ruins in the grass.
Silver
Damn it, Amber.
Amber
I really thought this was an other world.
Silver
Well, it ain't. And if you're done cursing and trying to get every folk in a hundred miles on us, we should start walking.
Amber
Lead the way, O Cairn kicker.
Silver
Knock it off.
Amber
You know, of all the things that could have happened, this is probably not the worst. At least rations will last longer.
Silver
Don't give them any ideas, Anna.
Amber
Not giving them ideas.
Copper
I'm just saying it's gonna take us a while to get all the way over there.
Amber
I mean, aside from how we're not going to be able to get back into the car anymore. And it's going to be a lot harder for me to work on the engine. Or easier.
Silver
Maybe we'll fix this. Glass will help us set the Karen back up. And we'll be all right.
Amber
If they don't step on us first.
Silver
I said knock it off.
Amber
I can't believe it was. Out of all of us, who's the one who gets us in trouble? Who's the one who knocks over?
Silver
That's enough.
Amber
Just saying. Maybe you should stop acting like it's all of us who are going to mess things up. Careful or not, they can take advantage of you just as easy.
Silver
It was an accident. They'll understand that. An honest mistake.
Amber
Break the rules. Break the rules. Intentions don't seem to matter here, do they?
Silver
I'm doing my best.
Copper
Stop. Fighting isn't gonna get us anywhere.
Amber
Can't you just let me enjoy this, Copper?
Copper
Enjoy what? Being shrunken?
Amber
Silver? Being wrong for once.
Silver
I'm not wrong. It was an accident.
Amber
Still shrunk, though. No way. Is that what I think it is?
Copper
What?
Amber
Where it is.
Silver
What? Amber.
Amber
It's a giant animal turd.
Silver
No.
Amber
It's magnificent.
Silver
Yo.
Copper
What was that?
Silver
Hide in the trash.
Copper
Silver.
Silver
I'm okay. It can't get me in here.
Copper
What do I do? What do I do? It's gonna grab me. I pressed my back against the grimy end of the tin can I was hiding in as the enormous cat batted one giant paw toward me until it pulled back with a sudden shriek.
Amber
Copper. Over here while it's distracted.
Silver
What happened? Why'd it leave?
Amber
It cut itself on that can. Aww.
Copper
Not aw.
Amber
It's trying to eat us.
Silver
We're getting closer to the car. Blast might see us if we run.
Copper
I could see them in the window.
Amber
Can they see us?
Copper
They look like they're still asleep.
Silver
Copper, do you think you could run for it?
Copper
I think so.
Silver
Throw a rock at the Window.
Copper
These are just pebbles. They'll never hear it.
Silver
We have to try something.
Copper
I don't want to leave you here.
Amber
We're open to suggestions, bud.
Copper
Fine. I'll do it.
Silver
On my mark, Copper.
Copper
Ready?
Silver
Three, two, one. Go. Go.
Amber
Hurry. We'll distract it.
Copper
Here, kitty. Glass. Hey. Come on. Come on. Don't hurt it.
Silver
Amber, get in the bottle.
Amber
I'm working on it.
Copper
I got you.
Silver
You're all right. I got you.
Copper
I look back toward Amber and Silver behind me, both of them square, squatting inside of the glass bottle as the cat potted them. It would get bored of them soon, once it figured out it couldn't get them out. Glass. Here. Help.
Glass
What? Guys. Whoa. Hey. Scram. Shoo. Shoo. What's going on down here? What happened? Why are you guys so small?
Copper
Pick me up.
Glass
This is so weird.
Copper
Silver knocked over a cairn, and I think we made somebody mad.
Glass
It's really hard to understand what you're saying right now.
Copper
Up the rocks.
Glass
What rocks? Oh. Is that Amber and Silver in that bottle?
Copper
Wait. Put me down. Glass lowered me to the ground, and I felt my heart lurch into my throat as they sent me onto the dirt. The distance felt immense. But even after the cat had run off into the bushes, Silver and Amber didn't climb out of the bottle. I watched them sit behind the dark green glass. Even through the warped, dusty surface, I could see the tension between them, like a physical object, like heat waves rising off of pavement.
Silver
Sorry, y'all.
Amber
We had a talk.
Copper
Was it a good talk?
Amber
Yeah, it was all right.
Silver
It was all right. So, can I put these rocks back?
Copper
Yeah. What if it doesn't work?
Amber
It'll work.
Copper
How do you know?
Amber
Silver has a good feeling about it.
Silver
There. All done.
Amber
Well, we're not going to be able to ride in the car anymore, so if it's all the same to you guys, I'm going to go build a house inside a hollow mushroom or something.
Copper
Do you think if we're going to unshrink, we should be standing farther apart?
Silver
See?
Copper
I told you.
Amber
You told me half a second before we unshrank. What's your head made out of?
Narrator
Bricks.
Silver
Everybody move away from the cairns.
Glass
Huh? All swelled and end swelling.
Amber
There's the cat.
Copper
Aw, she's cute.
Amber
She is cute. I can't believe we were afraid of her.
Copper
She looks skinny. We should keep her.
Silver
We can't keep her. Copper.
Glass
Wait. Silver. Are you holding a grudge against the cat?
Silver
No. Just don't like cats all that much.
Amber
You're out of your mind. Cats are great.
Silver
I'm just a dog person, that's all.
Copper
She loves me.
Silver
You gotta leave her here, y'all.
Copper
I know. Silver. Can I just pet her for a second?
Silver
Fine. You do that. I'll get something ready. An apology.
Amber
I'll go warm up the car. It's not to lure the cat in.
Glass
I'm going with COVID to pet the cat.
Amber
All done petting the cat.
Copper
She ran away, but she was very nice.
Silver
All done. We should be all set.
Amber
You're all good?
Silver
Always.
Amber
I'm feeling all right for being attacked by a magic cat a few minutes ago.
Silver
I think they're the only animal that didn't get affected by the change.
Amber
How do you know that?
Silver
I don't know. I think someone told me.
Copper
I'm glad you're okay.
Amber
Are you?
Copper
Yeah. I pet a cat. I feel very good.
Silver
I'm ready to get out of here.
Glass
Shall we?
Amber
Turning over.
Glass
So Moses went to Egypt land Let.
Silver
My people go oh, he made old.
Glass
Pharaoh understand that my people go Yesterday.
Copper
The Lord said Go down, Moses Way down To Egypt land hello, Pharaoh.
Amber
To let my people go.
Anna McGuire
Hymns for the Road is a podcast written and Produced by Anna McGuire, starring Maurice Thomas as Silver, Pau Pungeniebon as Glass, Grizz Siebenek as Amber, and Tabitha Bardal as Copper. Original music by Joshua David Mitchell. This episode's hymn is Go Down Moses in the style of Louis Armstrong. Sign up for our newsletter@hodgepodgeaudio.com or support our work on patreon.com findasalive thank you for listening.
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Episode 7: An Honest Mistake
Release Date: October 19, 2024
Host/Author: Hodgepodge Audio
In Episode 7, titled "An Honest Mistake," the survivors—Copper, Silver, Amber, and Glass—face unforeseen challenges during their journey through the post-apocalyptic fantasy landscape of America. This episode delves into themes of responsibility, conflict resolution, and the unpredictability of the transformed world they navigate. The narrative unfolds with heightened tensions, unexpected magical encounters, and pivotal character developments that test the group's cohesion and survival instincts.
Tensions Arise Over Movement and Rest
Discovery of the Cairn and Subsequent Conflict
Magical Transformation and Encounters
Attempts at Resolution and Reconciliation
Final Confrontation and Lessons Learned
Silver on the Cairn Incident:
"What in the sam hell's a cairn?" — Silver (04:11)
This highlights Silver's confusion and lack of knowledge about certain survival artifacts.
Amber's Frustration:
"You got us into this, didn't you?" — Amber (07:33)
Amber confronts Silver, expressing her frustration over the unintended consequences of their actions.
Copper's Optimism:
"But fighting isn't gonna get us anywhere." — Copper (11:08)
Copper emphasizes the futility of internal conflict amidst external threats.
Silver's Resignation:
"I'm doing my best." — Silver (11:06)
Silver acknowledges his efforts to rectify the situation, despite the ongoing challenges.
Amber's Reflection on Memory:
"Why is that one of the things that I remember from before?" — Amber (09:06)
Amber questions the significance of certain memories, hinting at deeper emotional layers.
Final Hymn Recitation:
"The Lord said Go down, Moses Way down To Egypt land hello, Pharaoh." — Copper (18:08)
The episode concludes with a creative rendition of "Go Down Moses," blending biblical references with the episode's events.
Amber and Silver:
Their interaction underscores underlying tensions and differing approaches to survival. Amber's impulsiveness contrasts with Silver's cautious nature, leading to conflicts that drive much of the episode's tension.
Copper:
Serves as the group's mediator, often trying to keep peace and maintain optimism, even in dire situations.
Glass:
Acts as the problem-solver, attempting to fix the magical disturbances caused by the group's actions. Glass's role becomes crucial in resolving the crisis with the magical cat.
Responsibility and Consequences:
The accidental disturbance of the cairn serves as a catalyst for exploring the impact of the group's actions on their environment and each other. It emphasizes the importance of being mindful of one's actions, especially in a fragile post-apocalyptic world.
Conflict Resolution:
The episode delves into the dynamics of group conflict and the necessity of reconciliation for survival. Amber and Silver's confrontation and eventual cooperation illustrate the challenges and importance of maintaining unity.
Adaptation to a Transformed World:
The magical elements introduced, such as the shrunken characters and the giant cat, highlight the unpredictable and ever-changing nature of the apocalypse-ravaged landscape. The group's ability to adapt is tested repeatedly.
Hope and Optimism vs. Caution:
Copper's optimistic outlook often clashes with Silver's cautionary stance, representing the broader spectrum of human responses to catastrophe.
"An Honest Mistake" underscores the delicate balance the survivors must maintain between exploration and caution. The accidental disruption of the cairn symbolizes the unintended consequences that can arise from even the smallest actions. Through heightened tensions and magical challenges, the episode reinforces the necessity of unity, responsibility, and adaptability in the face of an unpredictable world. The resolution, marked by the group's ability to restore the cairn and reconcile, offers a hopeful message about overcoming internal conflicts for the greater good.
The episode concludes with Anna McGuire's credits and the recitation of a hymn, blending the narrative's themes with a reflective musical piece. This seamless integration of story and hymn serves to underscore the episode's emotional and thematic resolutions.
For more episodes and updates, subscribe to Hodgepodge Audio's newsletter or support the podcast on Patreon.