"Continuity and Equilibrium"

**"Continuity and Equilibrium"** is the third tale in the twentieth episode of the seventh season of the Nolseep Podcast. In it, a woman seeks retribution for her sister's murder. Written by Henry Galley, it has a runtime of 30:15 and was performed by Nikolle Doolin, Henry Galley, and David Cummings. It is the 869th tale overall on the podcast.

## Summary

Nash's sister is brutally strangled to death by her boyfriend, Harold Kaufman. The evidence is damning against him. However, Harold's family knows the judge and is able to spin the story successfully enough to get him only a year in jail, claiming that he has too bright a future and acted in the heat of the moment. Nash's family is destroyed by the verdict. Her mother never fully recovers and her father commits suicide a few months later.

Nash spends her time getting drunk in bars and bemoaning the unfairness of it all, predicting she will drink herself to death in a few years. One afternoon, she is approached by a man, Mr. Burgess, who says he believes the trial was mishandled. Though she initially brushes him off, he reveals to her that there is no such thing as God or the Devil, but rather a series of people who make sure everything in reality is balanced, and that he is an agent of this force. Introducing the idea of "continuity and equilibrium", he offers retribution for her sister's murder in exchange for life being balanced again. She eagerly accepts. Before departing, he warns her that something will have to happen to make everything even again.

The next morning, Nash gets news that Harold has hung himself in his prison cell, much to the shocked horror and depression of his parents. She celebrates for the next few weeks, but begins to feel sick. After a trip to the doctor, she discovers she is miraculously pregnant. Nine months later, she gives birth to a little boy whom she names Steven, after her father.

The next fifteen years pass in bliss. Steven is the perfect son, a kind, helpful student who makes friends easily. Nash thinks of Mr. Burgess as a saint, an angel that provided her with a redemption for her rapidly failing life at the time. However, as Steven ages through his teenage years, she realizes with horror that he looks and sounds exactly like Harold. Though his life and virtues only get better and she doesn't want to believe it, she secretly is scared and can barely look at him.

A few days after he turns twenty-one, Nash gets a call from a police officer, who tells her that Steven has confessed to a murder. She realizes she is now in the Kaufmans' shoes, the parent of a murderer who can't believe their son would do such a thing, and that Steven is really just Harold's life recycled to bring things back to equilibrium.

Nash now recognizes Mr. Burgess as evil, a patron saint of the forces that keep things in line without any real regard for their effects on humanity. Her and her son are victims of the endless loops of balance and imbalance. She warns this cycle never has an end, and that eventually everyone will be pulled into it at some point.

## Cast

Nikolle Doolin as Nash

David Ault as Mr. Burgess

David Cummings as the police officer