2+1 Person Archives - Rich Helms

Synopsis: “You have cancer” is a statement no one wants to hear from a doctor. “Your treatment will take months” is even worse. When a wife receives unexpected news that her cancer treatment will require months of chemotherapy, radiation, and countless hospital visits, she and her husband search for a way to cope with the emotional weight of the journey.

This 10-minute audio drama for three actors is set entirely inside a car but is really a story about the emotional miles travelled when life suddenly changes for the worse.

The husband proposes an unusual coping strategy: they’ll imagine each hospital drive as part of a cross-Canada road trip, from Gander to Vancouver, one appointment at a time. Over the course of 71 trips to and from hospitals and along seemingly endless hospital corridors, they travel farther west, guided by a calm dashboard GPS voice they name JoAnne. They measure their progress in imaginary kilometres and with the distractions provided by audiobooks, gas stations, and places to eat.

Routine medical journeys become scenes of humour, anxiety, reflection, frustration and grace as they discover that imagination and their senses of humour can make even the hardest journeys bearable. Along the way, they confront hair loss, treatment setbacks, fatigue, unexpected laughter, roadside comforts, and the small victories that sustain them.

As treatments near completion, their imagined journey mirrors their emotional one — not just enduring illness, but discovering how imagination, companionship, and humour can transform hardship into shared adventure. Ten Thousand Kilometres is a road trip through uncertainty, resilience, and love, where the destination matters less than how you travel together.

Now includes an epilogue that reveals what comes after the journey ends.

Synopsis: Martha arrives at a scenic and well-loved lakeside cabin and discovers her boyfriend, Damian, dead. His identical twin, Janus, claims they were confronted with a break-in that turned deadly. However, something doesn’t add up to Martha. She perceives details such as a mole on the wrong side of Janus’s face, and she suspects his sketchy explanations and strange behaviour.

Tension rises, and Janus confesses to impersonating Damian in the past. He even shares the fact that he secretly dated Martha to experience what his quieter brother seemed to have to attract her. He is jealous of his brother and possessive of Martha, and the truth finally emerges: the brothers had a confrontation that ended with Janus fatally striking Damian and staging the scene as a robbery.

Realizing that her own life is in danger, while they wait for the police, Martha needs to convince Janus she will go along with his scheme. As soon as the police arrive, in a final twist, she exposes Janus, revealing both his deception and the murder. The audience is left to understand that although twins can be identical on the outside, they may be totally different emotionally and morally.