A Room Full of Nothing 2019

Phyllis Ivy Meehan is an aspiring fine artist, and Barry Duncan Coe is an actor in a local community theater, sharing a small house in an Austin suburb. On the day a scathing review lands as the production closes, their routine world Tilts: an offhand remark at the wrap party about manifesting and the law of attraction plants a seed of curiosity about what happens when desire meets reality. That curiosity deepens when Phyllis attends a gallery opening, where a daft art fan challenges her work and makes her question the path she has chosen, even as her boss once praised it. The moment foreshadows a larger reckoning with purpose, art, and the price of perfection.

That night, Barry confesses a longing for a simple vacation, and a bottle of whiskey becomes the catalyst for a reckless experiment in wishful thinking. They jokingly “manifest” a world in which everyone else disappears, leaving just the two of them alone. The next morning they discover an unsettling silence: the newspaper is not delivered, streets are empty, and doors that were once open now seem closed to everyone else. They realize their lighthearted fantasy may have come true in an unforeseen, impossible way, and they step into a city that feels empty and uncanny as they set out to test the limits of their new reality.

What follows is a slow unspooling of freedom and fear. A previously hidden stream behind their house reveals a grotto and a secluded swimming hole, and the couple cycles between relief and unease as they wrestle with the meaning of their sudden autonomy. Phyllis dives into her art with renewed vigor, while Barry grows restless and increasingly preoccupied with whether human contact—real or imagined—still matters. A power outage plunges the house into heat and stillness, pushing them toward a more adventurous, then more perilous, trek into the woods behind their home.

In the forest, their questions about life, art, and companionship intensify. Barry’s optimism winds down, and Phyllis remains content with their self-contained existence, but the harsh environment tests both of them. They become lost, sleeping beneath a cliff as the world around them seems to dissolve and reconfigure. When they finally press on, they stumble into a desert landscape that feels alien and uninhabited, a stark stage for their shifting perceptions and fragile sanity. They play at make-believe, imagining a vacation they thought they had earned, while the wind and sun press in with relentless clarity.

A brutal truth emerges under the desert sky: Phyllis’s power has shaped their fate. Barry’s last hope is to return to the life they left behind, but he confronts Phyllis with the chilling realization that she was the architect of their isolation. She denies selfish motives, but the accusation hangs heavy as he flees, pursued by a confounding mixture of awe and horror. He tumbles down a hill, striking his head on a piece of driftwood, and life leaves him behind. In the silence that follows, Phyllis’s conscience dissolves into darkness, and she is left to endure a solitary existence that mirrors the loneliness she once willed upon the world.

The final image lingers on a woman who has seen the world she sought vanish into absence. Her artistic ambition collapses into a personal ruin, and the narrative closes with Phyllis facing the consequences of a choice that allowed her to rewrite not only her fate but the fate of everyone around her. The story’s quiet, unnerving arc invites reflection on how desire, creativity, and control intersect—and on the cost of wishing away the lives of others to secure one’s own sense of happiness.