BEATRIZ:     (signs)   [Fantastic, Ken. Your father and I learned ASL together. He helped me with my thesis on the history of sign language at Yale University.]

General Harada signs; Beatriz interprets it vocally.

GENERAL HARADA:     [If we hadn't a voice or a tongue, and wanted to express things to one another, wouldn't we try to make signs by moving our hands, head and the rest of our body just as dumb people do at present?]

BEATRIZ:     Socrates. From Plato's Cratylus, fifth century BC. Excellent, Mitsuo. You remember.

GENERAL HARADA:     How can I forget? Sign language became our secret bond of friendship.(impish)   We even used it to secretly compare notes during exams.

BEATRIZ:     And we got caught. Mitsuo feigned epilepsy attack. What a bad actor, too!

They explode into rambunctious laughter. Good times.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. COCONUT FARM - NIGHT

A flashlight SWEEPS across a cluster of moon-bleached coconut trees silhouetted against the deep cloudless deep velvety sky freckled with stars.

Victoria, holding the flashlight, navigates the narrow shadowy path that bends around a cluster of dead coconut trees, followed by Ken and Wallstreet.

KEN:     Victoria, have you ever seen a tikbalang?