Long Weekend 2021

Bart is down on his luck and trudges through a lowest point in his life, taking a job that feels more like a squeeze than a lift: writing product descriptions for a medical-supply company. He leaves his old life behind by moving into the garage of his best friend, Doug, and Doug’s wife, Rachel, along with their two kids, including their son Teddy. Financial strain, a failed novel, a broken engagement, and a stream of late-night phone calls from his psychiatrist all compound into a fog of loneliness and self-doubt. The weight of it all pushes Bart toward a night of recklessness, as he drinks too much, passes out in a movie theater, and wakes to an encounter that will tilt his world.

A girl named Vienna rouses him from sleep, insisting the movie is already over. What follows is an unusual spark that quickly grows into something more intimate: a first date at a bar, followed by a night together in Vienna’s motel room. The connection feels electric, but Vienna’s aura of secrecy begins to creep in. Bart learns that her mother is battling cancer, a struggle that strikes a personal chord for him, given that his own mother died from the disease years earlier. That loss had set him on a winding path toward writing and toward a mental collapse that still shadows him.

As they spend more time together, Vienna remains frustratingly evasive. She has no phone and carries large sums of cash. When Bart presses for more details about who she is, she changes the subject or offers vague, sometimes unsettling hints—she mentions working for the government, but nothing concrete. The mystery deepens, and Bart becomes torn between the growing comfort he feels with her and the nagging sense that there are questions he’s not allowed to ask.

Meanwhile, Bart’s old apartment is being sold, and the new tenants move in while he and Vienna carve out private moments there. At last, Vienna divulges a fantastical history: she is from the future, working for a secret government branch that has discovered time travel in 2052. Her mission, she claims, is to return to the past to buy stocks that will fund her mother’s cancer treatment. The revelation could be a dream or a dangerous truth, yet Bart clings to the possibility that their bond is real. He confides in Doug, who urges him to help Vienna as he once helped Bart—by offering support and perspective.

Their relationship grows into a shared plan: they open a safe deposit box together, where Vienna keeps the stocks she has accumulated. They spend more time together—sharing small adventures, late-night talks, and even a desert camping trip that cements their connection, however fragile it might be. But the dreamlike quality of Vienna’s story weighs on Bart. One morning, Vienna is found crying by the road during a desert dawn, and she explains that staying in the past too long can alter one’s brain chemistry. The realization that her time may be running out intensifies Bart’s fear for her safety.

A quiet, domestic moment—a simple pasta dinner at home—turns urgent as Vienna’s health suddenly declines. Bart rushes her to the hospital when she struggles to breathe, and he experiences his own frightening moment: a nosebleed and a collapse that lands him in a hospital bed. There, Doug sits by his side and delivers the blow that changes everything: doctors remove a brain tumor, but the doctors were unable to save Vienna as a real person. Bart’s world shatters as he learns that the love he felt was a product of his brain’s altered chemistry, a vivid illusion brought on by the tumor. He breaks down, grief and disbelief mixing in his tears, and Doug does his best to offer comfort.

In the aftermath, Bart makes a cautious life change, moving out of his old apartment and trying to rebuild. Then, a surprising twist: when he attempts to withdraw money, a large deposit lands in his account—over $89,000. He revisits the memory of the safe deposit box and opens it once more, where he discovers photos from a photobooth that he and Vienna took together. On the back of those pictures lies a message from Vienna plus a small clue about the future of his favorite sports team. The discovery is enough to lift his spirits and to remind him that, even if Vienna’s presence in his life was altered by the brain tumor, the connection he felt there did happen. He finds a smile, a spark of hope returning to his eyes, and a sense that the strange, wonderful moment of their time together was real in some meaningful way.

In the end, Bart is left with a deeper understanding of love, memory, and the way the mind protects us from pain—even when the pain has already passed. He carries the evidence of Vienna’s existence in the form of the photos and the mysterious future hint, letting them color his sense of possibility as he steps forward into a life that is at once more grounded and more open to wonder.