Post Diluvium

8

Alfred stands at the podium, turning around with a smile watching Bruce walk on stage. Alfred looks like a proud parent watching Bruce taking up the Wayne mantle. 

Bruce awkwardly waves at the crowd, walking over to the podium. Alfred whispers something into his ear, squeezing Bruce's shoulders. Bruce nods as Alfred pats him on the back walking off the stage, watching from the audience. 

Bruce keeps his head down, straightening out his papers. He looks up, scanning the audience. Some of his hair had fallen out of place. He pushes it back with his hand. 

He begins his speech, reading from his script, talking softly, away from the mic, "Every Saturday, the Gotham Gazette includes a small life-styles piece called 'Gotham is.'" 

An audio person runs on stage to move his mic towards him. Bruce clears his throat, looking down at Alfred for reassurance. You can tell he does not want to be up there right now.

I look around and everyone seems entranced by him, even Harvey. I can't tell if it's because they're excited to see a Wayne or if they're excited to see a trainwreck.

He speaks a bit louder, "In the column, Gothamites are asked to complete the sentence "Gotham is..." using 3 words or less. I remember reading it as a young boy."

Bruce looks around the room, gauging the audience, "Here are some recent descriptions: Damned. Cursed. Murderous. Hopeless."

He's becoming more confident, "Lately I've been asking myself the "Gotham is" question a lot. What is Gotham city to me? Bruce Wayne, in a single word? Home? Family? Purpose? But the truth, the real truth, is...I don't have an answer."

He grabs the mic, leaving his script behind, walking to the other side of the stage, "Something my father, Thomas Wayne, used to tell me before bed when I had a bad day. He'd say "Bruce, tomorrow is one dream away". That was his phrase. Cheesy. Yeah. But as a kid. It meant something."

He has the audience captivated, "Now, as most of you know, my father died along with my mother. Gunned down in crime alley, right across town. And as you can imagine, the days following their deaths were the worst of my life. Days of anger, fear, sadness. Still the phrase, my father's phrase...Tomorrow is just a dream away. It kept coming back to me. And deep down, I knew, as much as it hurt at the time, things would get better."

He pauses, looking at the audience again, "Why am I telling you this? My point is when circumstances are challenging, asking ourselves what our city 'is'...is pointless."

He walks over to the middle of the stage, "Because all we will see when we look around the city, will be our fears. Our demons. But if we stop looking at the present and the past, and instead look to the future. If we ask ourselves what can be...what will be...tomorrow. Then we're asking the right question. Because to hope, to dream, to predict is to shape the city yourself, rather than to be shaped by it."

The audience gives him a huge round of applause. He lets out a deep breath. You can see him relax.

He waits for the crowd to quiet, "So, putting money where my mouth is...Next month, Wayne Enterprises will begin investing, aggressively and immediately, in Gotham's future. Working with various domestic design firms, we've already set in motion an initiative to rebuild some of Gotham's most neglected neighborhoods affected by the floods. From there we plan on moving boldly to expand and modernize Gotham's public transit system."

Another round of applause

He again waits for the crowd to quiet down, "I cannot tell you how excited and hopeful I am about these plans. Much more will be revealed in the coming days, but for now, I ask you to do this...Look past what Gotham was, what Gotham is...and imagine, just for a moment...what Gotham can be."