Continued from Hello, Friendship
Beloved, Friendship and Scales finally break out of their group hug.
They look at each other.
They smile —
the same smile —
back at each other.
The smile
takes on
a life of its own.
Tick,
the puppy of modernity,
barks.
Once.
Twice.
Thrice.
And a cat begins to form
around the smile.
Eternity.
Scales hisses.
Friendship frowns.
Beloved smiles.
I. The Arrival
Beloved: (smiling) Hello, Cheshire. Have you come from eternity to steal my tongue again?
The cat grimaces, appearing very solid and catlike.
Cheshire: (grumpily) No. I haven’t come for you at all. (turns to Scales) I came for you.
Scales: (shocked) Me? Why me?
Cheshire: (sighing) Because once you started seeking friendship, you implicitly started time traveling: breaking the bonds of evolution to pull back the innovations of your future selves.
Friendship: Huh?
Cheshire: (turning to her) I am eternity. All times are the same to me. So whenever anyone messes with the timeline, they accidentally summon me.
Scales: (interrupting) But I didn’t… oh!
II. The Mapping
Cheshire: (nodding) Yes. Friendship is reserved for warm-blooded creatures that can co-regulate, identifying another self. Until then, you were pure…
Beloved: (snapping fingers) Eros, right? Not merely the sexual sense. The hunger for self-extension, through both consumption and reproduction.
Friendship: Just like you, Beloved, are agape — other-centeredness.
Cheshire: And you, Friendship, are phileo — another self.
Beloved: (slowly) Love of self, love of other, love of another self.
Friendship: So, what — does Scales become a warm-blooded dinosaur?
Cheshire shakes his head.
Cheshire: Not quite. (points to Scales) You become storge.
Friendship: (whistling) Familial affection. The genetic extension of eros.
Cheshire: (turning to Beloved) And you become hesed. Not just contractual charity — sacrificial loving kindness.
Friendship: (nodding) The emotional affect of agape.
III. The Question
Eternity turns to look at her with what might be sadness.
Friendship: (taken aback) What… why are you looking at me like that? (swallowing) What… (whispering) what do I become?
Eternity: (gently) ”Tithemei” — the friendship of John 15:13…
Beloved: (stunned) That… that “lays down its life” for its friends? But I thought that was me — agape?
Eternity shakes his head slowly.
Eternity: No. Her sacrifice is an act of agape, but it is born of — and borne by — friendship. The most particular of loves. Not genetic like hesed and storge, nor generic like eros and agape.
Scales: The one that makes room for the other while preserving the self…
Beloved: (sharp intake of breath) …until it doesn’t.
Friendship: (stuttering) Wh… what sacrifice?
IV. The Weight of Being
Eternity stares at her with more compassion than sadness.
Eternity: For eons, every animal has lived with the tension between heart and head…
Beloved: …Heaven and earth…
Scales: …Ruler and ruled!
Friendship: (barely audible) And the only way to reconcile them…
Eternity: (reverently) Is with a friendship… that lays down its life.
Beloved: (breathless) Tithemei. (looks at Scales)
Scales: (looking at Beloved) Who by their sacrificial friendship, unite two who have nothing else in common.
Friendship: (firmly) Except the one who sacrificed themselves for them.
Eternity bows his head in silence.
V. The Duty
Friendship: (in a small voice) How… when… will the deed be done?
There is a pregnant silence.
Then — in a surprisingly deep voice:
Tick: (clearing his throat) I believe… that duty falls to me.
To be concluded
Radically Happy 
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