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[0:01] Brad Forenza: Welcome back to Around the Sun, an episodic audio drama created by me, Brad Forenza.

[0:10] Brad Forenza: This year, we have a holiday mini-series for you where each episode builds upon the last.

[0:16] Brad Forenza: So, let's zoom back in on planet Earth. Let's settle ourselves in a snowy mountain region, perhaps, where a freshly fallen snow surrounds a modest family home, and transition is in the air.

[0:31] Brad Forenza: Have you found us yet? Inside the house, Bebe, the family matriarch, drifts in and out of consciousness.

[0:42] Brad Forenza: Once you've painted this picture with your mind's eye, you've arrived in the imaginative world of Around the Sun.

[0:52] Brad Forenza: This is our Season 3 Prologue, starring Estelle Parsons as Bebe, with the vocal stylings of François Clemmons.

[1:05] Brad Forenza: Life moves very slowly up here on our mountain. It always has, even now, amidst all the development.

[1:16] Brad Forenza: Every day is a slower drip than the last. Just ask the pine trees.

[1:24] Brad Forenza: They're the only living things that have been up here longer than our family.

[1:30] Brad Forenza: Don't get me wrong, though. Progress is natural. And I miss looking down at all the activity.

[1:40] Brad Forenza: Especially in winter, when the tourists come to make memories with their children.

[1:47] Brad Forenza: Even my children and their children still come back to the mountain on occasion.

[1:53] Brad Forenza: And at the back end, that's what's important, right? Family. Legacy. Laughter and love.

[2:05] Brad Forenza: We built our lives on this mountain, my husband and I. Of course, that was many years ago, before they built the resort.

[2:16] Brad Forenza: We couldn't afford to move up here today. But our roots on this mountain run as deep as the pines.

[2:24] Brad Forenza: He's been gone a long time now. But lately, he's been coming back to me.

[2:35] Brad Forenza: But only in my dreams. Dreams from which I'd rather not wait, because when I dream, I am free.

[2:50] Brad Forenza: Please take me with you, I ask, when I sense he's starting to pull away.

[2:56] Brad Forenza: But he kisses me softly and says, it's not my time.

[3:03] Brad Forenza: It's getting close. I can feel it. I'm ready. I just hope they're ready, too.

[3:11] Brad Forenza: I worry about them, you know. Are they safe? Are they happy? Did I love them too much or not enough?

[3:19] Brad Forenza: And when I finally fade out, will they know I tried my best?

[3:25] Brad Forenza: I don't want them to hurt. And I don't want to go on hurting.

[3:33] Brad Forenza: Wait a minute.

[3:39] Brad Forenza: Here he comes again.

[3:45] Brad Forenza: He always did love holidays on the mountain.

[3:51] Brad Forenza: Maybe this is it.

[3:57] Brad Forenza: Maybe this is it.

[4:03] Brad Forenza: Maybe I'll wake up with him again on the other side of the mountain somewhere.

[4:12] Brad Forenza: Maybe this dream will be infinitely deeper and purer and richer and freer.

[4:26] Brad Forenza: He reaches for me and pulls my soul to the fringes of the physical world.

[4:36] Brad Forenza: I'm looking down at it all now, as if I was one of the pines.

[4:48] Brad Forenza: I see myself from the stratosphere, a raw vessel in a wood-framed house on a mountain cloaked with freshly fallen snow.

[5:03] Brad Forenza: But it's quickly losing focus.

[5:11] Brad Forenza: That was life in my mountain nest.

[5:20] Brad Forenza: A grain of sand on a grain of sand on a grain of sand hurling through the cosmos.

[5:29] Brad Forenza: Yeah.

[5:35] Brad Forenza: Life moved very slowly back there on the mountain, and still.

[5:42] Brad Forenza: It's all over too fast.

[5:50] Brad Forenza: And the snow.

[5:57] Brad Forenza: It looked particularly soft amidst the pinecones this year.

[6:27] Brad Forenza: It's tradition.

[6:32] Brad Forenza: We're set in tundra this year.

[6:37] Brad Forenza: I said I was sorry.

[6:42] Brad Forenza: Consider it a metaphor.

[6:47] Brad Forenza: But will the absence of a matriarch unite or divide?

[6:52] Terry Hu: I'm Terry Hoon.

[6:53] Katie McLean: I'm Katie McLean.

[6:54] Estelle Parsons: I'm Estelle Parsons.

[6:55] Jay Rodriguez: I'm Jay Rodriguez.

[6:56] Brad Forenza: I'm still Brad Forenza.

[6:58] Brad Forenza: Join us for Season 3 of Around the Sun.