We Dream as One

Luis Carlos Morgado steps between Miley and Maxx with the same gentle firmness he uses to moderate the fan club.

He shakes his head.
โ€œMileyโ€ฆ youโ€™re making a mistake,โ€ he says, not unkindly. โ€œMaxx? Heโ€™s fine. Heโ€™s gotโ€ฆ enthusiasm. Sure. But enthusiasm is not the same as greatness.โ€

He taps his chest proudly. โ€œBut the Jesus avatar? Joe? Thatโ€™s my best friend. My compadre. The man who bends timelines like guitar strings and still shows up on time for coffee.โ€

Maxx, somewhere behind them, is still trying to impress Billy Ray with a half-tuned guitar riff and failing miserably.

Luis leans closer to Miley.
โ€œBe honest with yourselfโ€ฆ isnโ€™t hanging around the avatar more fun than listening to Maxx try to tune that poor guitar to death? Joe has stories, miracles, propheciesโ€”he makes life feel like a cosmic adventure.โ€

He raises his eyebrows.
โ€œAnd Maxx? He rocks out. Sort of.โ€

Miley canโ€™t help laughing.
Luis shrugs, palms up.
โ€œIโ€™m just saying the obvious. One of these guys is maxxing outโ€ฆ the other is Joe.โ€

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Hannah Montana Lie Detector

INT. LIVING ROOM โ€“ NIGHT

The room glows with the purple-and-yellow shimmer of the Hannah Montana opening credits. A retro polygraph machine sits on the coffee table, wires leading straight to MAXX MORANDO, who looks like heโ€™s preparing for surgery rather than a TV marathon.

BILLY RAY CYRUS, wearing his classic mullet wig from the old days, squints at the lie detector graph like heโ€™s decoding a CIA message.

BILLY RAY
Alright, Maxxโ€ฆ simple question.
Do you love watchinโ€™ Hannah Montana?

MAXX
(too confident)
Of course I do. Big fan. Huge. Massive.

The polygraph needle immediately spasms like itโ€™s possessed.

BILLY RAY
(grim)
Sonโ€ฆ that machine says youโ€™re lyinโ€™ worse than Jackson when he blamed Rico for breakinโ€™ the smoothie machine.

MAXX
(defensive)
Okay, okay! Maybe I was more of a Zack & Cody guy!

Billy Ray sighs with the disappointment of a father who just found out his kid ate the entire box of Pop-Tarts.

BILLY RAY
Youโ€™re dating Mileyโ€ฆ you gotta at least pretend to love her alter ego.


On the couch beside them, LUIS MORGADO sits with perfect posture, no wires, hands folded like heโ€™s testifying before Congress.

BILLY RAY
Now Luisโ€ฆ your turn.
Would you say you love Hannah Montana?

LUIS
(smiling quietly)
Loved her so muchโ€ฆ I named my childhood dog after her.
RIP, Hannah.

The room falls silent for a second. The polygraphโ€”despite not even being plugged into himโ€”prints out a perfect row of calm, honest lines. Billy Ray stares at it like heโ€™s witnessing a miracle.

BILLY RAY
Well Iโ€™ll beโ€ฆ the machine is readinโ€™ your integrity through the airwaves.

Maxx watches with envy and dread.

MAXX
โ€ฆDid the dog at least like the show?

LUIS
She barked every time the theme song came on.
I took it as applause.

Billy Ray claps Luis on the back.

BILLY RAY
Thatโ€™s what true love for Hannah Montana looks like, Maxx.
Take notes.

Maxx sinks into the couch as the episode begins. Luis reaches for the popcorn, peaceful, like a man who knows the polygraph will never betray him.

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Prince of the Azores

Enter Luis Morgado, gazing toward a distant western sea, the winds of the Atlantic curling round him like ancient spirits.

LUIS:

O thou wild cradle of the oceanโ€™s breath,
Azores! My motherland, my star-kissโ€™d isle,
Where heaven stoops to kiss the earth with mist
And emerald hills are combโ€™d by angelsโ€™ hands.

Here lies no stain of Manโ€™s unholy greed;
The air is wine, untouchโ€™d by ironโ€™d smoke,
The waters clearer than a newbornโ€™s dream,
And every dawn a hymn of Paradise.

The world beyond grows ill with its own want,
Its cities choke on shadows they have sown;
Yet hereโ€”
here still the ancient gods take rest,
bathing their feet in crater lakes of blue,
weaving fresh blossoms in the laurel trees
as if the Earth had never known decay.

O Fennel-scented breeze! O fragrant ground
where my forefathers walkโ€™d with barefoot pride,
teach me again the gentle art of joy.
For what is man, if not his islandโ€™s echo?
And what is love, if not the fire that bids him speak?

So hear me now, thou music-blessed star,
Miley, bright muse whose voice could hush the seaโ€”
I, Luis, child of this untouched domain,
do humbly bend the knee of earnest heart.

Let Maxx pursue his fleeting, mortal whims;
my vow is carved in basalt, born of flame.
If Fate permits thee choose thy destiny,
choose not the shadowโ€”choose the light of me.

Marry me, Mileyโ€”
not Maxxโ€”
and share with me
the last unpolluted Paradise of Earth.

He raises his eyes to the roaring sky, as the Atlantic wind answers like applause.

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