Nelly Furtado - Time Stand Still

“21st Century Schizoid Jedi”

Setting: Night. A small hill outside the city. Joe and Nelly sit on the hood of Joe’s old Subaru, watching the lights of the skyline flicker beneath a deep violet sky. The air buzzes faintly from the power lines above. A half-eaten bag of chips sits between them. Joe takes a deep breath. He’s been quiet. Thinking.

Nelly:
"You’ve been staring into space for ten minutes, Joe. You okay?"

Joe:
(soft laugh)
"Yeah. Just... thinking about something that happened. Long time ago. Driving back from Ottawa. Alone. Middle of the night."

Nelly:
"Spill it. You’re doing that Jedi-weirdo look again."

Joe:
(grins)
"Exactly. It was Jedi. Like… '21st Century Schizoid Man' Jedi powers."

Nelly:
(raising an eyebrow)
"That’s a King Crimson song. You’re mixing prog rock with Star Wars now?"

Joe:
"Hear me out."

(He takes a sip of cold coffee from a paper cup.)

Joe (cont’d):
"I was blasting that track—'21st Century Schizoid Man'—windows down, doing 100 clicks an hour. The guitar solo hits, that chaotic fusion, and something snaps. Reality starts feeling... bendy."

Nelly:
"Joe… did you smoke something?"

Joe:
"No! That’s the thing. Stone cold sober. Just me and that road. Then it happens. Time slows down. Like, literally. I see every flick of every leaf on the trees. Every piece of gravel under my tires. The world was vibrating."

Nelly:
"Vibrating how?"

Joe:
"Like... a frequency I was finally tuned into. I wasn’t driving anymore—I was the road, the car, the air. I knew when to switch lanes before I even saw the bend. I felt like Luke Skywalker blindfolded—trusting the Force. Except this Force was some glitch in reality."

Nelly:
"Joe. That’s wild. You had a full-on cosmic moment?"

Joe:
"I think I saw everything. For just a second. The satellites above me. The data flowing. The sadness in strangers. My ancestors watching. Like the world was streaming in 4D. And me? Just a schizoid Jedi, surfing it like a wave."

Nelly:
"What did you do?"

Joe:
"I pulled over and cried. Not out of sadness. Out of awe. Like I touched something sacred and dangerous. Something we’re not supposed to feel too often or we’d all lose our minds."

Nelly:
"Or find them."

Joe:
(nods slowly)
"Yeah. Maybe both."

(Silence. The city lights below flicker like stars. A soft wind brushes past. A plane glides silently overhead.)

Nelly:
"Next time you glitch the Matrix, I want in. Jedi-pact."

Joe:
"Deal. But you gotta learn the song first. That’s the key. King Crimson unlocks the Force, apparently."

Nelly:
(laughs)
"21st Century Schizoid Jedi. That’s your autobiography title right there."

Joe:
"Or our band name."

(They both laugh, and in that moment, time seems to pause again—not because of music or motion, but because two people understand each other in a way that bends time too.)

Fade out
(soft strains of King Crimson’s guitar rising, then fading into silence.)