June 2020

VOL XXVIII, Issue 6, Number 326

Editor: Klaus J. Gerken

European Editor: Mois Benarroch

Contributing Editor: Jack R. Wesdorp

Previous Associate Editors: Igal Koshevoy; Evan Light; Pedro Sena; Oswald Le Winter; Heather Ferguson; Patrick White

ISSN 1480-6401

The Manifold

A Play in Three Acts

by

Res Publica Humana

Disclaimer

Caveant!

This play, The Manifold, is a work of fiction. It is a fantasy and a fable. The set is imaginary. The characters are avatars. They are astral beings, spiritual entities, ghosts. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Most of these characters are composites drawn from the corpus literati. Don’t take it personally. Our intent is to paint with all-inclusive brush strokes. Everyone matters. So do animals. So do the phantasms of our imagination. Cheers. ☺

. . .

Any notifications and house rules should be given in the lobby before the audience enters the theater hall. While the audience is being seated, play “Basilica” by Barry Truax from the Song of Songs CD.

It might be well to have the demon leave the premises right after the final curtain. He should not! take any curtain calls.

All stage directions are from audience point of view.

[Stage directions are in brackets.]

(character motivations are in parentheses)

The run time of this play is fluid. It can be extended or not by adjusting the manifold’s number of clientele who pass through. Additional parts can be written ad lib by this author or others. And various situations out in the world at large can be inserted to reflect the current public interest.

Set

The manifold is a waystation, terminus, platform, springboard, healing place of self-knowledge, baggage dump, court of self-judgement – all these words describe its function. We like to think of it as the precinct of truth, where conscience rules, and trust is an absolute.

The set is on two levels: the floor and the platform.

The platform consists of a crescent-shaped walkway that runs the width of the stage, from wing to wing. It rises 6 ft from the floor. There are hidden steps behind the leg curtains to afford access from the wings to the platform.

A back wall, likewise crescent-shaped, runs the entire length of the platform. In this wall are four oval doors/ports, about 5 ft by 3 ft each. Above each door hangs a modernistic globular electric light fixture. The wall is painted non-reflective flat black. Behind the doors hangs a scrim, also flat black, with partitions between the doors so that back lighting from one doesn`t bleed into its neighbors. The back of the platform has hidden steps running its entire length so that the actors can duck through the doors and then walk down into the depth backstage.

At center stage, set up directly against the center of the platform, is an arch about 8 ft high by 10 ft wide. The top of the arch extends above the platform by 2 ft. There is a trap door hidden in the floor of the platform at the center back. On either side of the arch are recurvent steps from the leading edge of the platform down to the arch foundation. The arch molding is simulated cherrywood; likewise, so are the platform balustrade, the 4 door frames, and the step rails. The effect is of a shrine integrated with a concourse. The steps are rounded off and flare out. Underneath the steps is storage for discarded baggage.

Inside the arch niche are, from left to right, a lectern with a fat book, an oval mirror slightly larger than the platform doors, and a red porphyry baptismal font with a small fountain. The central mirror, which is 6 ft high, is gimmicked. At first it is a conventional reflective mirror, then it can be transparent or a projection screen, and last it will be a portal into someplace else. The frame for the portal is also simulated cherrywood. Every frame, balustrade and rail can light up. For more information on the book, mirror and fountain, see appendices 1, 2, and 3.

Each character entrance and exit is accompanied by a suitable sound byte and appropriate color. In qaballistic terms, the manifold is on the path that connects Malkuth and Yesod; its numbers are 10 and 20. To sum up, there are 9 ways on and off stage, 5 obvious, and 4 hidden.

Time

There is no time in this place.

General comments on the main characters

OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2: Neanderthals. Indeterminate age, 50ish, heavyset, hairy.

OBVERSE 1 initially wears a breechclout and a silver button on a chain around his neck. Over the course of the play, he will try on multiple hats, none of which suit him. He`s the human egregore, sometimes a ferryman, teacher, storyteller, cartographer. We prefer conductor to stationmaster. Conductors are ambiguous, channeling traverses or acting as the conduit for energies physical, mental and spiritual. He`s an empath, very good at drawing forth the essential qualities of his clientele. He knows how his questions will be received, tailors them to his clients` needs. He`s the embodiment of trust. Only such can mediate the traumas of death and birth. He`s scrupulous, friendly, and eminently worthy of the job. We could call him our collective conscience.

OBVERSE 2 is the mirror reflection of OBVERSE 1. Both reflection and the original constantly compare notes and debrief after a transit. We are proud of his humanity. Wish there were more like him. Nope, you don`t have to pay him; your passage is his reward.

VIVA: A well-rounded brown-skinned girl in a red spandex leotard that fits her tight from the neck to wrists and ankles. She wears a gold circlet round her brow and a gold deosil spiral gourget, bare feet, no further adornment is necessary; her stature speaks for itself. Whereas OBVERSE gains in presence with each traverse, becoming less stooped, VIVA stands regal. They will look each other straight in the eye, on equal footing.

Whereas OBVERSE is anchored to his station, VIVA extends herself to all of existence. She is everywhere all the time. OBVERSE mediates, but VIVA is absolute. She is Binah, das ewige weibliche, eternally feminine, the mother principle of Genesis without which we cannot be. Thus she speaks in measured cadence, completely altruistic, an authoritative cornucopian, graceful, perfectly poised. Her iconography is vast: Dragon, ballerina, universal ouroborous, mother of god, world without end, green fuse, Sheala, Shakti, there is some of her in all of us. We revere her; we know no other. As soon as stars begin to shine she is there. Wherever she is, that is home. Be fortunate with her. Reflection is a mirror construct but she is the mirror. Light in extension, peace on earth!

The characters in transit

All the people who cross the stage are passengers on an ephemeral train that explodes out of nowhere and seems to disappear into nothing. They`re in transit, making a traverse across a divide that runs on automatic. And yet they have a choice of destination, anywhere in time, into other faces and situations. This is as it should be; life is interesting; paradise is boring. We are a curious lot, marvelous, unique.

Yet they have and hold this in common: dissatisfaction. Evidently incarnation is not enough. We strive for the numinous reintegration with the source of spirit, the relaxation of our boundaries. Circumscription is a moment within eternity. There are no straight lines on the set. Only the book of names is linear. Opportunity persists. Potential is infinite. OBVERSE is a 14; VIVA is a 21; the play is a 7. We who stand outside, we look on.

ACT I

[House lights down, sound of heavy door shutting in a cavernous place, sounds of stone blocks being shifted, dragged around, cue fountain, grunts of exertion.]

[Curtain up on a darkened stage, only the fountain is lit from within.]

[Sounds of chisel and hammer chipping away at stone, ramp up stage lights, mostly straw.]

[Stone block pushed forward under left stair treads, OBVERSE 1 sticks his head out, crawls forth, slides block back into place, stamps around, obviously cold, we can infer that he’s just left a warmer place.]

[He examines the fountain with wonder, dips his hand in it, tastes it. He then crosses past the mirror. This establishes that it’s really a time-reflective mirror. He examines his reflection, OBVERSE 2. OBVERSE 1 finds a tunic draped over the book, fingers it, understands it as clothing, unconsciously fingers the button on the chain round his neck, obviously a well- practised affectation. What follows is accompanied by delighted ooh’s and ah’s, some of it from a sprinkling in the audience.]

[OBVERSE 1 dons the tunic, leaves it unbuttoned, again crosses to the fountain, dips a hand, tastes, turns once more, starts to button the tunic, realizes that he’s had the missing button, turns, faces front, shows off his understanding of fasteners in pantomime, regards himself in the mirror, casts a cursory glance at the book.]

[Cue 4 pinspots to light the doors.]

[OBVERSE 1 apparently becomes aware of the audience. Henceforth he will interact with it, minimally, mostly in pantomime.]

[He turns to face stage right, demonstrates his expertise with the tunic. As he buttons up, the mirror frame lights go on, and then, individually, the four lights above the doors, and then the door frames. He sees that and walks to the mirror, gesticulates, lays his hand on the surface, is satisfied that it’s really only a reflection, crosses to the fountain, dips and washes his eyes, with both hands.]

[At the moment he moves in front of the mirror, the mirror reflective surface slides away and the frame now holds its permanent transparent plate of glass. This will allow OBVERSE 2, OBVERSE 1’s twin, increasing autonomy. OBVERSE 1 gets an inkling that maybe he’s making changes to the set, stands back, traces the outline of a port in the air with his hand, gets no result, returns to the mirror nonplussed. As he steps in front of it, his twin appears behind the glass, they play mirror image postures.]

[OBVERSE 1 perambulates the platform, looks into various ports but does not enter, returns to the floor, center stage and shrugs, fingers the last button and finally has that ahah! moment. He removes the last button from its chain and snaps it into place. Now we’re onto something. Henceforth he is OBVERSE 1 and his mirror image is OBVERSE 2.]

OBVERSE 1

(maunders tunelessly) Ah hoam ha wanderly weird.

[He returns again to the mirror, it’s his only option, OBVERSE 2 mimics his motions, near perfect and gradually takes more latitude.]

OBVERSE 2

Yo. Hey. Over here.

[They touch fingers on the glass.]

OBVERSE 1

Uh huh. So … who are we?

OBVERSE 2

Wipe your forehead. You’ll see better.

[OBVERSE 1 dips his hand and washes his brow, rather perfunctory, but it’s enough.]

OBVERSE 1

Um. We are us?

OBVERSE 2

Close enough. Sufficient unto our purpose.

OBVERSE 1

Which is …?

OBVERSE 2

(offhand) Oh, great doings, godspeed, mysterious ways …

OBVERSE 1

(snappish) Don’t jerk me around. We don’t like it.

OBVERSE 2

(inveigles) [He produces a flashlight.] Come closer, tiny dancer.

OBVERSE 1

Do I like me?

[OBVERSE 2 shines the light in OBVERSE 1’s eyes.]

OBVERSE 1 Oh…

OBVERSE 2

(satisfied) See?

OBVERSE 1

Yes. Actually I do. Where are we?

OBVERSE 2

Call it a waystation.

OBVERSE 1

What are we? Tunnel rats?

OBVERSE 2

Nah. More like guide dogs.

OBVERSE 1

Say who?

OBVERSE 2

To lead blind people.

OBVERSE 1

(matter-of-factly) We’re people.

OBVERSE 2

Pretty strange, huh?

OBVERSE 1 I don’t get it.

OBVERSE 2

Okay. More like monkeys.

OBVERSE 1

How do you know this stuff?

OBVERSE 2

We’re a little farther along out on a limb. Nice tree. Useful.

OBVERSE 1

(snorts) Handmaiden of the Lord.

OBVERSE 2 (encouragingly) Warmer …

OBVERSE 1 Demonic entities.

OBVERSE 2 Hardly that.

OBVERSE 1

Angelic.

OBVERSE 2

Not even.

OBVERSE 1

[He shakes his head.] It’s fuzzy. Spritz me again with the light.

[OBVERSE 2 makes with the flashlight.]

OBVERSE 1

Better … [He thinks it over.] Ahah! Book. Letters. Numbers. Who are we again?

OBVERSE 2

Stationmaster. Amanuensis. Guidance counsellor. They’re in dire need. We deliver.

OBVERSE 1 Who they?

OBVERSE 2

[He points.] Book. OBVERSE 1

[He examines the book.] Yes. Goodie bookie.

(rather self-satisfied) Lists. I have lists.

OBVERSE 2

Are we autistic?

OBVERSE 1

No more than me.

OBVERSE 2

Perhaps a bit on the far side?

OBVERSE 1

Hey, these are all dead people.

OBVERSE 2

Clientele.

OBVERSE 1

And we’re supposed to grab ’em by the wrist and tell them where to go?

OBVERSE 2

Well, they do have a choice. Gently.

OBVERSE 1

Post-traumatic whatsis?

OBVERSE 2

Yes. Again. Gently. These are our brothers and sisters. They depend on you for the truth of it.

OBVERSE 1

Am I allowed to cherrypick?

OBVERSE 2

You we have that option.

[OBVERSE 1 walks to the front.]

OBVERSE 1

[to audience] Any suggestions?

ANONYMOUS

London. Highrise. Spectacular catch.

OBVERSE 1

Oh yeah. That’d be something. Let’s do them.

[to OBVERSE 2] May I?

OBVERSE 2

First time? Sure. Call ’em.

OBVERSE 1

Protocol?

OBVERSE 2 Hoo, big word. We do.

OBVERSE 1 Tell.

OBVERSE 2

Sure.

[He pantomines putting on a hat, waxes professorial.]

[to OBVERSE 1] Everything in the universe moves. Everything resonates with a signature frequency. You’re particularly good at reading this because you can tune in. Accommodate to the clientele. Resonance creates trust. That’s what they need in their moment of doubt. You don’t take any payment. Hence, trust is well served. That’s why you got this job. Spirit steps into manifestation mediated by mind. Thought carries the day. You’ve got it. But you knew all this already.

OBVERSE 1

[He nods.] I did. We do. So… how do I turn it on?

OBVERSE 2

Easy. We’re on the annunciation circuit. You wear it well.

[OBVERSE 1 fingers the buttons on his tunic.]

OBVERSE 1

This one?

OBVERSE 2

Ring them bells.

[From stage left floor, flaming red and orange lights, distant sirens, a woman enters with her hands over her eyes, followed by a man pushing a baby carriage. He hangs back to observe while OBVERSE 1 meets the woman, takes her by the shoulder, leads her to center stage, bows

slightly, then speaks gently, entirely different from the terse congruent exchanges that he’s had with OBVERSE 2. OBVERSE 2 has left the port. Slide the mirror back into place.]

OBVERSE 1

Can you hear me, my sister? I mean you no harm.

WOMAN

(grunt of assent) I’m … not in a bed. Where am I?

OBVERSE 1

Call it a bus station. One way in, many ways out.

WOMAN And … who are you?

OBVERSE 1

I’m many in one. Attendant, stationmaster, signpost, whatever you now need, that’s me.

WOMAN

[She thinks it over.] How did I get … here … It is a place?

OBVERSE 1

Very real! Necessary. You died.

WOMAN

(resigns to her fate) So. It did happen. I had hoped …

OBVERSE 1

This is where we sort it out. Who and what you were, who’s the real inner you, your wishes and dreams, this is where you drop your baggage.

[At the word “drop,” she shudders, almost falls forward, he steadies her with both hands, eye to eye, she still covers her face.]

WOMAN

(wails) What’s to become of me?

OBVERSE 1

First, let it all out. It’s only you and me here and I ain’t talking. Tell me what you remember. You cannot lie. We don’t do that here.

WOMAN

(tentatively) Everybody lies. I’ve been lied to so many times.

OBVERSE 1

(insistent) Not here. In extremis only the truth suffices. I am oath-bound to speak the truth. Capital Tee. (peremptory) Zo moet het zein. So mote it be. Let this be so. Capice?

WOMAN

How very strange. I smell jonquils where there was a smoking friscassee.

OBVERSE 1

(encouragingly) That’s it. Continue. Look yourself in the eye. Confess what you must.

WOMAN

Bless me father for I have sinned.

OBVERSE 1

We don’t need any of that. Talk like you’re talking to yourself.

WOMAN

(weeps) When … it became obvious … that we were about to die ... I got mad … insane … I did something … I took … I cradled … my most precious … my reason for … for being alive … I renounced my motherhood … I … thought that they’ve not listened to our complaints, our warnings … that … the tower … was a firetrap … a disaster waiting to happen. We knew. I … thought … that they’d hide the evidence, that they’d hide the corpses, that … it would happen again and again … And so I thought … I was up against it … we could could die together or separately. I thought, a few more seconds of life for my child, I thought, this is what I must do. Slow suffocation or sudden death. I thought they’d not be able to ignore a baby splattered on the sidewalk, thought blood of my blood, bone of my bone, I thought … window .. I see … gravity … I held her so long, so long my hands … unclenched, my arms fell back … empty. Oh god, oh god, I murdered my baby. For that I am.

OBVERSE 1

(compassionate) Be that as it may. That is yet to be seen. I tell you this, verily I tell you, it is not so. Your child is alive and well. I’ll prove it to you. You will not doubt the evidence. Come.

[They cross to the fountain.]

OBVERSE 1

Here. Dip your hands. Here wash your eyes. Here be alleviant. Be of good will, be at peace.

[After the ablutions, they step sideways, the book directly at his left, she examines her face in the mirror, runs her hands around its lineaments, her hair, cheekbones, and nose, then nods to OBVERSE 1.]

OBVERSE 1

Whatcha thinking?

WOMAN

Agreed. That’s me.

OBVERSE 1

And where are you taking the new you?

WOMAN

Definitely not back there. No more apartments, no towers, no cities. No…

OBVERSE 1

Let’s do it by the process of elimination. Most who pass through here don’t know what they want. Eventually it swims into focus. You already know what you don’t want.

WOMAN

(pensive) Something faraway and wide open. Where I can be at home and feel secure.

OBVERSE 1 So … visually?

WOMAN

Something that requires brains. No one appreciated me for that.

OBVERSE 1

Not a caravanserai?

WOMAN

I used to dream about gypsying around the world. The romantic view. It’s a tough life, relegated to the shadows, dump picking. Not that.

OBVERSE 1

Mental wandering?

WOMAN

Journalism? Dangerous writing? Introverted fantasy. Not that. I’m more outgoing.

OBVERSE 1

Something hands-on? Physical, in real time, with like-minded compadres?

WOMAN

(brightens) With new stuff. Boredom was a problem.

OBVERSE 1

Cutting-edge. We’re circling closer, warmer.

WOMAN

Yes. Something awesome and satisfying. Vast.

OBVERSE 1

I got it. Telescope.

WOMAN

Astronomy.

OBVERSE 1

Better yet. Astrophysics. You’ll still have to write it up.

WOMAN

(laughs) Up is good. Up, up and away. I like it.

OBVERSE 1

But will you love it?

WOMAN

That remains to be seen. We are curious. I believe.

OBVERSE 1

Then let it be so. Here. Look at this.

[He leafs through the book, points at one section, then another.]

So? Like that one?

WOMAN

Yes. That feels right. I’m on with it.

[He makes a checkmark motion on the page, riffles the book and lets it fall open at random.]

OBVERSE 1

Done.

[He touches his forefinger to her lips.]

Come. I’ll show you how to get there and then I’ll prove that your child lives. Be good of heart.

[They ascend the stairs stage right, he takes her by the elbow.]

(deferentially) Allow me.

[OBVERSE 1 stations her at door #3 facing the audience.]

OBVERSE 1

Now. Here you are between water [aquamarine light within door #2] and earth [amber door #4] and far removed from fire [red/orange at door #1]. Be of comfort and observe. When you’re convinced that you’ve seen the truth, turn, turn and turn again. Pass through and fly

unencumbered. It’s a long way down but a short way home. You’ll know where, all creatures know this. Be well.

[He returns to the floor center stage, beckons to the man with the baby carriage, who’s been standing as if transfixed.]

OBVERSE 1

Sir. Tell us what you saw and what you did.

[OBVERSE 1 bows to the child hidden in the carriage.] Hi there, my dear.

MAN

When I got there the building was engulfed in flames. Several people dropped their children from the height but I was too far away. Then I saw this one. Hands held her. About a hundred feet up. I never doubted that I could, that I would, catch her. I didn’t even think about it. I saw myself doing it so I was sure. I ran forward, didn’t care what danger or consequence, arrived at the precise spot at the same moment that she fell into my arms. I don’t know how. But now I believe in miracles.

OBVERSE 1

Just so, that’s why you are here to observe what’s essentially a private moment reserved to individuals in extremis. Souls guard their inner space. But I’ve made allowances. For you, for the child, and for her mother. Continue. What’s the status of the proceedings?

MAN

Well, I’m waiting for the forensics. Who is she, is there any family willing to take her in, able to do her justice. I’ve already entered my plea with the authorities. I’m just laying low, away from the cameras and hoopla. Sir, I’ll gladly take her as my own. Anything she needs. Please.

OBVERSE 1

[He nods.] Noted in the annals of karmic inclusion. Be patient. All comes to pass. You will remember this as a dream. Someday tell it to your daughter. When she asks, be ready, you’ll only get one chance at it, make it a good one.

[OBVERSE 1 motions the carriage forward.]

OBVERSE 1

Bye sweetie.

[He leads the man off to stage right. As they cross over, slide the mirror away, OBVERSE 1 turns to WOMAN, blows her a kiss, she impetuously runs back down, gives him a serious hug, then ascends deliberately, exits through door #3, straw-colored lights, OBVERSE 1 returns to the book, makes a notation, turns to the mirror and engages with OBVERSE 2 from the lectern.]

OBVERSE 1

Hey, I just got a huggie from a very nice young lady.

OBVERSE 2

Hah! They feel good, don’t they.

OBVERSE 1

Something to look for. So. How’d it go?

[They fall into their personal staccato repartee.]

OBVERSE 2

You did well. The minor fib? Allowable.

OBVERSE 1

What do you make of her covering her face?

OBVERSE 2

Fear.

OBVERSE 1

Of being burned alive.

OBVERSE 2

A revenant. Inquisition.

OBVERSE 1

Burn a witch, get her house.

OBVERSE 2

Fear of being discovered.

OBVERSE 1

Guilty of premeditated murder.

OBVERSE 2

Definitely fear and guilt. Sisters in the darkness.

OBVERSE 1

Grief.

OBVERSE 2

Loss. Instinctive motherhood.

OBVERSE 1

Two hands?

OBVERSE 2

Clairvoyance in the face of extreme unction. The celluloid unreels.

OBVERSE 1

And her disposition?

OBVERSE 2

She’ll spend time at the telescope.

OBVERSE 1

But?

OBVERSE 2

She’ll find the signatures of life. Everywhere.

OBVERSE 1

So, not visual.

OBVERSE 2

No. Interferometry.

OBVERSE 1

And?

OBVERSE 2

Published in leading journals.

OBVERSE 1

Acknowledgement.

OBVERSE 2

Jury of her peers.

OBVERSE 1

Another mark on the wall.

[He makes a check in the book, closes it, turns to the audience.]

Therefore, who’s next?

ANONYMOUS MAN My mother. Let’s debug her.

[OBVERSE 1 holds his palm above his eyes as a visor, scans the audience.]

OBVERSE 1

Got an axe to grind, have you? All right, we can do that. Let’s take a look at the formidable motherensis.

[As OBVERSE 1 crosses over to the book, OBVERSE 2 leaves, slide the mirror back into place.]

[OBVERSE 1 consults the book in several places. Fade up children’s playground noises from offstage, stage left. OBVERSE 1 nods several times, grunts, seems satisfied with what he’s gleaned from the book, steps back, faces stage left, touches buttons on his tunic, beckons.]

[Cut off children’s noises, lilac flash from offstage, stage left, the portal between the two left leg curtains goes dark, MOTHER enters wearing a long granny nightie, clutches a pillow before her as a shield, jaw set, eyes pinched, tight-lipped, a truculent air about her. She’s pushing a bow wave of anger.]

OBVERSE 1

Welcome. This way.

[MOTHER shrinks back, suspicious.]

MOTHER

(irritated) And what do you want?

(she moves from surly to dismissive)

OBVERSE 1

To help you with your transit.

MOTHER Don’t need any help from the likes of you.

OBVERSE 1

Most do. The station is at your service. We show …

MOTHER

[She interrupts him.] Where’s your pants?

OBVERSE 1

(taken aback) Are they necessary?

[They talk at cross-purposes.]

MOTHER For what?

OBVERSE 1

To fulfil my office.

MOTHER

Officers. Where’s your cap? And shoes. Officers wear proper uniforms. What are you? Some imposter? Or pervert?

OBVERSE 1

Why are you so angry?

MOTHER

None of your business.

[He considers carefully, then shrugs, it seems like a lost cause.]

OBVERSE 1

So be it. Have it your own way. If you’ve got any questions, I’m right over here.

[He sits on the steps stage right. She brushes him off with a disdainful backhand.]

MOTHER Weirdo.

[She’s drawn to the mirror, examines her face, sets the pillow on the stage left steps, attempts to mold her face into compliance, dips a hand in the fountain, returns to the mirror. Her reflection is airbrushed out and no eyes, nose or mouth.]

MOTHER

(shocked) What trickery is this? Where am I? How did I get here?

OBVERSE 1

You died. You refused food and drink. You’re a suicide.

MOTHER

Why should I believe you?

OBVERSE 1

It’s my job to help you come to terms with yourself.

MOTHER

(haughty) Ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with me.

OBVERSE 1

No physical pain. Right?

(she nods, dumbstruck) OBVERSE 1

But there’s a lot of mental pain in you. I can feel it.

MOTHER

Don’t you dare mess with my mind. I’m me!

OBVERSE 1

As you say.

(slightly nettled) What happens here is not about me. It’s all about you. Who and what do you want to be?

MOTHER

You men are all the same. Know-it-all pulpit pounders.

OBVERSE 1

I ask you again. Why are you so angry?

[She just stares at him.]

OBVERSE 1

Take another look at yourself. MOTHER

(near hysterical) Stay out of my head!

OBVERSE 1

Agreed and I don’t meddle. Nor do I judge. All I do is offer advice. But you don’t take advice. Isn’t that so? Why is that?

MOTHER

(spits it out) Men!

OBVERSE 1

Look again. The decision you make here is yours to make. I offer truth in evidence. Choose your path.

MOTHER No.

OBVERSE 1

(kindly) Who do you admire?

MOTHER

(shrugs) Mothers.

OBVERSE 1

Kids?

MOTHER

No more kids. Ingrats.

OBVERSE 1

How about life in a convent, with your sisters?

MOTHER

Don’t tell me what to do.

OBVERSE 1

(soothingly) Just a suggestion. You could rise to the top. Be admired …

MOTHER

Maybe.

OBVERSE 1

Give the orders …

MOTHER

Perhaps.

OBVERSE 1

You were beautiful once.

MOTHER

Didn’t get me nothing.

OBVERSE 1

Beauty is its own reward. Sometimes a curse. Eventually self-realization.

MOTHER

(discouraged) How will I know the real me?

OBVERSE 1

Oh, that’s easy. Just consult the book of thoughts. Yours. Others’. Your congruencies. Here, allow me.

[He twirls a button, points at the book. It riffles its pages, lays open. She reads.]

MOTHER

… Manipulative … me?

OBVERSE 1

Your son’s words.

[More page riffles.]

MOTHER

Easily led … me?

OBVERSE 1

Your husband’s words.

MOTHER

Intolerant … isolationist … phobic .. enough! Let me out.

OBVERSE 1

(laconic) Third door.

[She leaves by the door he points at, church bell, yellow light.]

MOTHER

Ha!

[She slams the door.]

[OBVERSE 1 picks up the discarded pillow, sets it on the stairs, the first of many such items, sits on the steps stage right. Slide mirror aside. OBVERSE 2 reappears behind the glass.]

OBVERSE 1

Phew. What a prickly porcupine.

OBVERSE 2

(snorts) Stegasaurus.

OBVERSE 1 That one’s going to cause a lot of trouble.

OBVERSE 2

Sophie Kosovo, known as Sister MARY MALETESTA. At a convent residential school for Indigenous girls. Somewhere in Qwa-bek.

OBVERSE 1

The girls will call her Mother Misery behind her back.

[They contemplate the pillow. OBVERSE 1 steps forward, pokes at it.]

OBVERSE 1

Heavy baggage for such feathery fluff.

OBVERSE 2

She’ll rule the roost, get the attention she deserves, and require several lifetimes to get over it. There’s justice. And she’ll do the bidding of faceless men who require conformity. It’s like the apostolic succession of submission too. They did it to me, so it’s meet that I do it to them. A kind of twisted logic there. Bad self-image.

OBVERSE 1

(snorts) Pass it on.

[He closes the book.]

OBVERSE 2

I like your use of the page sprite to lay it open at the proof.

OBVERSE 1 Didn’t do any good.

OBVERSE 2

Advice rarely works.

OBVERSE 1

(quotes) Still a man hears what he wants to hear.

OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2

And disregards the rest.

OBVERSE 2

It seems to have something to do with self-preservation.

OBVERSE 1

So, like, hard-wired into the mammalian brain?

OBVERSE 2

Could be. Autonomy. Some such.

OBVERSE 1

… Perhaps we should …

OBVERSE 2

Good idea. Let’s have one of own in and get some perspective. Call him. Her.

[OBVERSE 1 twirls a button, the fountain sparkles, sound of a major door opening on the PA.]

[A huge subliminal wind blows through the place.]

[The WARDER enters from stage left onto the platform, framed by rainbow colors in descending portamento from blue to red. His skin is devata light blue, his hair substantial grey curls, wears a dark blue unadorned robe, grey woolen socks, carries a simple wooden begging bowl in his right hand. He surveys the scene, nods, descends to the book, passes his left hand over it, grunts with obvious satisfaction, points to the fountain with his free hand, raises the hand fingers encourant the fountain, ramps up a notch, OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2 watch deferential but not obsequious.]

WARDER

(gently) At ease, men, stand down, let’s share a word. Ask questions. Get answers.

[OBVERSE 1 sits on the stage right steps. OBVERSE 2 remains in the mirror, the WARDER sits on the left steps, regards the pillow.]

WARDER

[to OBVERSE 1] So what think you?

OBVERSE 2

(loud whisper) Epiphany.

WARDER

(he nods) Just so. In the least of things. Observe.

[He fingers the pillow.] Feathers, apparently fluff of no importance. But it’s not so. Feathers are really good at recording dreams. Especially the emotional content. If you love a feather it will gladly tell you everything it knows. Stuff is like that.

OBVERSE 1

(doubtfully) One feather?

WARDER

Truth resides in the least of things. In here, [he points at the pillow] what one knows they all know.

OBVERSE 2

A school of fish, a flock of birds, trees in the forest.

WARDER

So. The leadership is always in flux, all partake.

OBVERSE 2

Crowds?

WARDER

Crowds can be manipulated. Despots know this. Dictators pander to the flash point. Beware emotionally charged crowds.

OBVERSE 1

How do we access this?

WARDER

The laying on of hands, encircling the edifice, by the smell of pheromones, by the intuition you are privy to.

[OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2 think it over.]

WARDER

Here, smell this pillow.

[He hands it to OBVERSE 1, who does so, hands it back.]

WARDER

Not anything that you didn’t know before. Not so?

OBVERSE 1

You’re prompting me with negatives.

WARDER

(smiles) It rubs off. There’s much anger stored in these feathers. First from the birds that supplied them, then from the head that they cradled. A bit of admixture from your hands; easy to filter that out. And much yet in places where they congregate.

OBVERSE 2

Ah. The egregore. E pluribus unum. Feather, bird, soul.

WARDER

The iconography is precise. You’ve gleaned much from the other side of this portal.

[WARDER points at the mirror.] A useful device. The traverse teaches, knowledge accrues. Wisdom is attained. We are well pleased.

OBVERSE 1

I did know about the anger. That anger begets anger. Did I do wrong to pass her on?

WARDER

You did right. Life allows choice. In life change is a constant. We grow. Everyone has that right. You too. According to your conscience within the confines of your vows.

OBVERSE 1

I was told not to judge. It irked me that I did, and yet the choice prevailed.

WARDER

That’s why you’re at this job. We trust you to make the right decisions. Continue to do so.

OBVERSE 2

Every time we do that, it sucks something out of us. What’s that?

WARDER

Virtue. When the Christ was touched by the woman, he perceived that some virtue had left him.

OBVERSE 2

Fortunately he had a lot of it to spread around.

OBVERSE 1

And he could recharge his batteries, so to speak. How’s that work?

WARDER

He understood infinity. He knew frailty. He had no expectations. And he left only one footprint. His job.

OBVERSE 2

Right time, right place.

OBVERSE 1

Immense reverberations.

WARDER

I ask you what becomes of the woman whose head lay here?

OBVERSE 2

A tangled knot that festers, is contagious, eventually dissipates.

WARDER

(nods decisively) Gets lost in the well. Here’s how we do it.

[WARDER sets the begging bowl on the pillow.]

WARDER

Be enshrined.

[He stands, takes a large gold coin from his pocket, hands it to OBVERSE 1 and then takes two smaller silver coins from his other pocket and also hands them over.]

Sir. Here, in the old manner. The big one’s mine, that’s pro forma. And these two are for the two who have just touched you. We include everyone.

OBVERSE 2

Let the ferryman take note. Let the connection between past and future be real, let harmony prevail.

WARDER

Uh huh. That last bit is yours. Good luck with that. We’ll be listening.

[WARDER touches OBVERSE 1 on the forehead.]

WARDER

Keep your eye slightly above the horizon. Get where you’re going. Pass it on.

[WARDER bows, pats OBVERSE 1 on the shoulder, straightens OBVERSE 1’s invisible halo, then leaves by the platform exit stage right.]

[WARDER is framed by an ascending chromatic portamento from red to blue, a massive door slams shut.]

OBVERSE 1

Geez. I think we just passed the audition.

OBVERSE 2

Right. We can stand a little taller now. Back to the grind. To the res publica.

[OBVERSE 1 drops the coins into the bowl, turns to the audience.]

OBVERSE 1

Hey out there, what’s next?

2 ANONYMOUS VOICES

Our brothers. What happened to them?

OBVERSE 1

You need some closure.

ANONYMOUS VOICE

Please.

OBVERSE 1

Many do. Let’s see about them.

[OBVERSE 1 crosses to the book, consults several passages.]

OBVERSE 1

[to OBVERSE 2] These men are regulars.

OBVERSE 2

Thought so.

OBVERSE 1

Probably don’t need us.

[He crosses before the mirror, OBVERSE 2 disappears, slide the reflective surface back into place. OBVERSE 1 pulls a piano stool from under the stage right stairs, fades into the background. Beckons to the stage left entrance.]

[Bright strobe flash, loud explosion, puff of dry ice fog along the floor, all from offstage far left.]

[Enter two soldiers in desert camouflage, boots, helmets, no insignia. SOLDIER 1 upstage, SOLIDIER 2 downstage. SOLDIER 1 limps, his left boot in shreds, his left arm over his comrade’s shoulders for support. SOLDIER 2 wears a bloodstained gauze bandage over his eyes. SOLDIER 2 leads while SOLDIER 1 offers directions. Both speak with Syriac accents.]

[They veer towards the platform.]

SOLIDER 1

A little more to the left.

[They change direction at the stairs.]

SOLDIER 1

Hey. [His head comes up.] There’s something happening.

[He stands erect.] I don’t hurt anymore.

[SOLDIER 2 cants his head up, gazes vacantly to the right.]

SOLDIER 2 Can you hear me?

SOLDIER 1

[He pats SOLDIER 2 on the arm.] Yes. Yessss … stay here, don’t move.

[SOLDIER 1 sits on the lowest step, removes his tattered boot and sock, examines his left foot with awe.]

SOLDIER 1

My foot … it’s in one piece, I can see it … no pain.

[SOLDIER 1 removes the other boot and sock, compares his feet. SOLDIER 2 follows the sound of his motions.]

SOLDIER 1

It’s very strange. Maybe you too. Let me help you.

[SOLDIER 1 takes SOLDIER 2’s helmet off, unwraps the bandage, SOLDIER 2 moves both hands before his face.]

SOLDIER 2

I see it. Get the rest of it away from me.

SOLDIER 1

Calm. Control. Sit here.

[He leads his friend to sit next to the pillow. Removes his boots and socks. SOLDIER 2 sighs with relief.]

SOLDIER 2

[He motions for SOLDIER 1 to lower his hand.]

The real you.

[He takes the helmet off SOLDIER 1.]

I hardly recognize you.

SOLDIER 2

[Kicks debris under the stairs.]

I don’t think we need any of these any more.

[They sit side by side.]

SOLDIER 2

Am I dreaming?

SOLDIER 1

Could be we’re in the same dream.

SOLDIER 2

Concussion … I think.

[They survey the scene.]

SOLDIER 1

I remember the blast. No one could live through … oh.

SOLDIER 2

The … life after death nuts were right?

[Both cradle their heads in disbelief.]

SOLDIER 1

It’s not a hospital.

SOLDIER 2

Not a cemetery.

SOLDIER 1

Not home.

SOLDIER 1 and SOLDIER 2

Dead? Really dead?

SOLDIER 1

(grinning) Not so bad, this dead thing.

SOLDIER 2

Where’s the 37 naked virgins?

SOLDIER 1

Dream on.

(laughter) [He looks pensive.] Thirty and seven. Doesn’t seem like enough for what we just did.

SOLDIER 2

(giggles) Thirty-seven, bang! Then there’s 36, bang! Pretty soon no more virgins.

SOLDIER 1

Doesn’t bode well for eternity.

SOLDIER 2

Do you think they lied to us?

SOLDIER 1

(sardonic) Nah. Trust us. Go there. Drop dead. Nah.

(more hilarity)

SOLDIER 2

My eyes are flying upside down.

SOLDIER 1

Too many bangs.

[The fountain flares a bit, SOLDIER 1 takes the bowl, drops the coins on the pillow, fills the bowl with water, brings it to his friend. SOLDIER 2 sips, then anoints his eyes.]

SOLDIER 2

Whoa! Reality swims into focus. Try some of this.

[They pass the bowl back and forth, SOLDIER 1 sits back down, sets the bowl back on the pillow covering the coins.]

SOLDIER 2

Are we real?

SOLDIER 1

Define “real.”

SOLDIER 2

“Real” is what you think is real. Where is real?

[They peruse the audience.]

SOLDIER 2

It’s out there somewhere. Hey, now I’m flying right side up.

SOLDIER 1

It’s worth doing again?

SOLDIER 2

Well, did you learn anything?

SOLDIER 1

I’m definitely not marching any more. No more yessir, right away sir. Hierarchy be damned.

SOLDIER 2

Did you like anything about this last time around?

SOLDIER 1

The feeling of solidarity. Standing shoulder to shoulder with the regiment.

SOLDIER 2

Me too. There’s immense strength in group workings.

[They stand facing the audience.]

SOLDIER 2

Hah. Direction becomes apparent. So.

[to SOLIDER 1] You know what you don’t want. What do you want?

SOLDIER 1

(sniggers) I just want to direct.

SOLDIER 2

Not incompatible with group workings.

SOLDIER 1

Military?

SOLDIER 2

No so keen on that. But convince me.

SOLDIER 1

Something different. Satisfying. Loud.

SOLDIER 2

[He winces, holds his hands over his ears.] No sudden surprises.

SOLDIER 1

Agreed. Carefully dynamic. Silence can be heard.

[SOLDIER 2 covers his mouth.]

SOLDIER 2

From a script or a score?

SOLDIER 1

I see where this is going.

[SOLDIER 2 covers his eyes.]

SOLDIER 2

The vision returns.

SOLDIER 1

The moment of clarity is at hand. Where is it?

SOLDIER 2

(chuckles) We could go over to the enemy.

SOLDIER 1

Oh ho! Russians or Americans?

[SOLDIER 1 retrieves a coin from under the bowl.]

Heads it’s north, tails it’s west. North is up, west is where the sun goes down. Not so sure about that last one.

SOLIDER 1 and SOLDIER 2 Decide!

[SOLDIER 1 flips the coin back onto the pillow.]

SOLDIER 2

Tails it is. How do we get there?

[OBVERSE 1 rises from his seat, approaches them, stands, bows with palms in prayer.]

SOLDIER 1

Oh, hello there. Do you work here?

OBVERSE 1

Yes, I do. I’ve been listening. It’s my job.

SOLDIER 1

Well and good. Would you show us how to get back to the world?

OBVERSE 1

[He nods.] Allow me to advise you.

SOLDIER 1

Please.

OBVERSE 1

[to SOLDIER 2] Note that the east coast of America faces the sun. New beginnings start there. And there’s an enclave there that’s congenial to such as yourselves. It’s out there as you need it.

[SOLDIER 1 and SOLDIER 2 high-five.]

SOLDIER 1

[to OBVERSE 1] And the protocol?

OBVERSE 1

Since you’ve decided, it remains only to choose a face. Normally that’s personal and private. Not so for you. We allow this so that you may recognize each other.

SOLDIER 2 … And? …

OBVERSE 1

Step before the mirror of your kind.

[SOLDIER 1 and SOLDIER 2 stand before the mirror.]

OBVERSE 1

(deliberately) All right. Now. And then. I’ll quote from the catechism.

Let each take a face, may you run long, with equal chance each centered in space.

[SOLDIER 1 and SOLDIER 2 mold their features, laugh in surprise and recognition.]

SOLDIER 1 and SOLDIER 2

That one! OBVERSE 1

Now for the admonition. For just an eyeblink, you will be separate. I swear you’ll be reunited. It’s a function of soul to be autonomous.

[OBVERSE 1 attempts to separate them but they balk.]

OBVERSE 1

Look. It has to be so. In this place there is no time. Time is both elastic and compressed. Eternity and zero are equal. All that really counts here is potential.

[They are not convinced.]

OBVERSE 1

Look again. Time is relative from your point of view. It’s the nature of spirit to be unique. Each can and will impinge on the other.

[SOLDIER 2 at least seems to get it.]

SOLDIER 2

You’re talking about love.

OBVERSE 1

And gravity. How stuff – and you are stuff – attracts other stuff. It’s one in many, and many in one. If you could view us here and now from out there [he points to the audience], so from, in the hourglass, you would see a flash, a spark, a moment of creation. My brothers, I swear to you that the separation is instantaneous. Said someone – in the twinkling of an eye.

SOLDIER 1

What happens if we don’t believe you and refuse?

OBVERSE 1

You do indeed have that choice. Life is about choice. The consequence of refusal is dissolution. And that’s a waste of potential. Your call.

[They release, he points them to their individual exits. They ascend the stairs, pause at their respective doors, balk again, then meet on the platform, look down at OBVERSE 1.]

SOLDIER 2

Why can’t we go through the same door together?

OBVERSE 1

[to SOLDIER 1] Your major aspect is elemental fire and yours [points at SOLDIER 2] is earth. It’s true that you can change your persuasion but, as in any artform, and life is an art, you have to put in the time. It takes a lifetime to change.

[They get it.]

While here the transition is incremental but imperceptible, you might view it in retrospect after the passage, but most don’t remember. That’s up to you. Again, I swear on my oath of office that you will find each other. Be at peace with it. I wish you well.

[They proceed to their own doors, tarry there one last brief moment.]

SOLDIER 1

[to SOLDIER 2] I’ll look for you!

SOLDIER 2

I’ll find you!

OBVERSE 1

(slightly miffed) You will decide, you’re deciding right now, you have decided.

[He waves them off.] Shoo! I’ve got other clientele waiting in the wings. Get on with it.

[They lunge through the doors, lit by identical straw floods, SOLDIER 1 is attended by a choir running through its warm-up exercises, SOLDIER 2 is greeted by a barking dog.]

[OBVERSE 1 approaches the mirror. Move mirror surface aside. OBVERSE 2 takes his place.]

OBVERSE 1

Well, that was … interesting … to say the least. Think I did it right?

OBVERSE 2

It’s a tough call.

OBVERSE 1

Did I overshoot the target?

OBVERSE 2

Next time – there will be many – use simple words.

OBVERSE 1

Noted. Maybe I should rehearse it.

OBVERSE 2

Nope. Wing it. You’re good.

OBVERSE 1

Did they get it?

OBVERSE 2

Enough to make the transit. That’s what counts.

OBVERSE 1 I’m guilty of partial truth.

OBVERSE 2

How so?

OBVERSE 1

They could have become familial brothers, or twins.

OBVERSE 2

They didn’t ask.

OBVERSE 1

So I’m allowed circumspection?

OBVERSE 2

That’s your job. It takes quick reflexes. You’ve got that.

OBVERSE 1

I could have explained their options more fully.

OBVERSE 2

Hey, they flipped a coin. Red Army Chorus or the Outer Reach Choir. Both fit their criteria. Shoulder to shoulder, many voices in one coherent performance.

OBVERSE 1

One to lead; a choral music major. Two fine baritones. With the added filip that the other can manage a hair-raising falsetto.

[OBVERSE 1 does some minor housekeeping, straightens the pillow, drops the coins back into the bowl.]

OBVERSE 1 And the doggie?

OBVERSE 2

That’s a heart-warmer.

[OBVERSE 1 consults the book.]

OBVERSE 1

Oh. Yes. They’ll adopt a three-legged dog. Their surrogate child on a pillow. Love is indeed marvelous.

OBVERSE 2

Uh huh. You need some sympathy and appreciation?

OBVERSE 1

True. The job’s already wearing me down. Each passenger takes a little piece of me.

OBVERSE 2

Altruism. It’s a hard road. You seem to be developing a stoop to your shoulders. One way along the concourse isn’t what we want. I’ll put in a req for a chair; no more turnstile stool for you.

OBVERSE 1

Merci.

OBVERSE 2

More than that. A nice tiltback office chair is only a token window dressing.

OBVERSE 1

And?

OBVERSE 2

The next recalcitrant bastard that crosses the ballpark, I’ll field him. I can smell him coming. Pushing a bow wave of snot. You hang back. I’ll deal with him.

OBVERSE 1

(gently) I’m just barely past probation.

[Enter from stage left platform level a MESSENGER in spiffy sky-blue uniform. She descends the stairs, drops 2 coins in the bowl, nods to OBVERSE 2 in the mirror.]

OBVERSE 2

[to MESSENGER] Every transit gets a token, even after the fact.

MESSENGER

Yessir. Take care. The next one’s a nasty piece of work.

[OBVERSE 2 nods. She leaves via the platform stage right.]

[OBVERSE 1 consults the book, slams it shut, retires to his stool, takes a carefree merry-go- round.]

[OBVERSE 2 slides sideways, replacing the mirror as he goes.]

[Dim stage lights.]

[Lower fountain, scrim down, house lights up, reset stage.]

[Play Jonathan Elias’ Prayer Cycle during intermission.]

[Set additions: Canes, crutches, suitcases, valises, dreamcatchers, candle stubs, flowers, pillows, clocks, car steering wheels, hats, shoes, boots, hospital gowns, many copper coins.]

ACT II

[Dim house lights, fade Jonathan Elias’ Prayer Cycle.]

[Scrim up.]

[OBVERSE 1 is rearranging the furniture. If there were kitchen cabinet doors on the set, he’d be slamming the doors. He’s obviously really pissed off. It becomes apparent that his anger is directed at the audience.]

[He rolls the piano stool to the left staircase, pulls a footlocker from underneath, sets them so that he can sit on the second step facing the audience with the stool directly in front of him and the trunk as a convenient table to his right. He slides the pillow and bowl onto the trunk, dumps the coins onto the pillow, sets the bowl on the stool, sorts the larger coins into the bowl, leaving a pile of pennies on the pillow. They’re lit by an overhead UV pinspot treated so they’ll scintillate.]

[OBVERSE 2, from behind the mirror, watches attentively, offers commentary. OBVERSE 1 responds only with grunts, grimaces, and abrupt body language. While they’re facing the same way, they are completely on the same page.]

[OBVERSE 1 sits on the second step, winnows through the coins, lets them filter through his fingers. Behold the child.]

OBVERSE 2

[He points at OBVERSE 1.] He’s not kindly disposed with you audience lot.

[He points at the audience.]

[OBVERSE 1 grunts assent, glowers at the audience.]

OBVERSE 2

Because your conscience is toast.

(OBVERSE 1 sneers)

OBVERSE 2

And your soul has been bought.

[OBVERSE 1 jaw agape straightens in horror.]

OBVERSE 2

The sooth claws at your face.

[OBVERSE 1 snarls, claw motion with his left hand, grabs a handful of pennies in his right fist.]

OBVERSE 2

Invites you to the dance.

[OBVERSE 1 bares his teeth, leers.]

OBVERSE 2

It rips at your complacency.

[OBVERSE 1 nods, satisfied.]

OBVERSE 2

Stabs at your ignorance.

[OBVERSE 1 points here and there with dagger fingers.]

OBVERSE 2

Still not convinced? Tear away the veil. I’ll connect the dots.

[OBVERSE 1 hunches forward, cradles the coins.]

OBVERSE 2

The lineage of coins is baked with royal muck.

[OBVERSE 1 grunts assent, nods, clutches pennies closer to his heart.]

OBVERSE 2

Initially a ploy for kings to make a buck.

[OBVERSE 1 grimaces, raises left hand as if to ward off evil.]

OBVERSE 2

From there, symbolic wealth, how everybody thrives.

[OBVERSE 1 nods.]

OBVERSE 2

And then by means of stealth to own their very lives.

[OBVERSE 1 clamps down on his jaw, stamps foot.]

OBVERSE 2

So, what’s your wallet worth?

[OBVERSE 1 raises eyebrows.]

OBVERSE 2

Let’s peer into your thoughts.

[OBVERSE 1 focuses through his left hand as through a monocle.]

OBVERSE 2

On the walled streets of earth, children? Damn near nothing.

[Both look dour, stare the audience down, let the tension build. OBVERSE 1 sets the coins back on the pillow, with reverence, gently, broods over them, covers them with his hands, a smile creeps onto his face, both nod as one, then they release the spell with a long sigh.]

[OBVERSE 1 sits fully erect, slowly, hands on his knees, comes to a decision. He covers his ears, stares straight at the audience.]

OBVERSE 2

Try to ignore their shrieks.

[OBVERSE 1 slumps a bit. He covers his eyes.]

OBVERSE 2

Scorn the evil done by monstrous men.

[OBVERSE 1 grunts assent, nods. Then covers his mouth with both hands.]

OBVERSE 2

Invent lies, spurn them with invisible eyes.

[OBVERSE 1 gags.]

OBVERSE 2

Unspeak their weasel words. Bring forth the misericord.

[OBVERSE 1 looks grim, gags again, haggard at the prospect. He removes the bowl from the stool, spits into it, sets it aside on the steps. Raises his arm, clenches his fist, slams it knuckle down on the stool in refusal. He then twirls the stool round and round and round.]

OBVERSE 2

Scorn and spurn, torn and turn, begone and away, again.

[OBVERSE 1 shoves the stool to center stage, stands, emulates it in whirling dervish fashion, arms extended. Then wanders aimlessly, fingering the debris scattered about. In his perambulations he caresses a white cane. ]

OBVERSE 2

Dusty hoarded baggage, sometimes just a token.

[OBVERSE 1 coils a broken kite string.]

OBVERSE 2

And last moment fragments when the cord is broken.

[OBVERSE 1 inverts an hourglass, sets it on the steps stage right.]

OBVERSE 2

What our friends weave unwinds, while they’re in the hourglass.

[OBVERSE 1 fingers the perimeter of a large black hula hoop.]

OBVERSE 2

What children leave behind – potential that is vast.

[OBVERSE 1 steps through the hoop, hangs it back on the balustrade, returns to his seat by the pillow stage left.]

[OBVERSE 1 comforts the coins. His hands hover over them in benediction as he divines their lineage.]

OBVERSE 2

[to audience] We’ve shown you the parameters of life. A white cane; and yet it sees. A broken kite string; and still the soul endures. The hourglass that affords opportunity. A hoop of infinite circumference. Among the ancients it was meet to supply a coin to pay the ferryman. Nowadays we mark a child’s transit with a copper coin. Look on. Maintain the eye. Listen close. Exercise your ear.

[OBVERSE 1 takes a single penny, holds it between thumb and forefinger, looks through it as a lens. Tosses it back on the pile. Scowls in pain.]

OBVERSE 2

Each copper is a kid, and there’s no stopping it, so long as there are scum who manufacture guns and better bigger bombs to murder kids and moms.

[OBVERSE 1 silently mouths the next six lines in unison.]

OBVERSE 2

The ocean! fills with tears, that’s what we see from here.

[Heavy metal sonic boom on the PA.]

[Through pinched eyes, jaw set, OBVERSE 1 continues to sit stone-faced.]

OBVERSE 2

So. All you silent eyes out there, who’s to come through here next?

[He points to OBVERSE 1.]

He means to cut you out of the loop. He won’t ask for your opinion nor entertain your suggestions.

ANONYMOUS

(sounds annoyed) Okay, so you pick one.

[OBVERSE 1 sits up, slitted eyes, tight little smile.]

OBVERSE 1

Just. As. You. Wish.

[Blue-green light from stage left entrance, sound of boat propellers receding.]

[Cue fountain, slide mirror back into place.]

[Enter TALIA from stage left, a young Sudanese woman and her two sons. She’s about 28, they’re 10 and 8. She wears a fine djellaba embroidered in orange, gold, and red over light grey. It’s seen serious wear, now ragged at the hem. A traditional red scarf covers her head. The kids wear western jeans much tattered at the knees and non-descript T-shirts. All three are barefoot and sopping wet.]

[TALIA clutches a large life preserver before her. The kids are tied to it with short lengths of clothes line around their waists.]

[OBVERSE 1 immediately unties them and shows them how the piano stool rolls and rotates. They take to it with abandon as kids will while the adults palaver.]

[TALIA stands frozen but evidently knows where she is, subtle head motions tell us so. OBVERSE 1 gently relieves her of the ring, sets it upright against the steps stage left, about where he first entered. It looks like a burrow entrance. Then he returns the hourglass back to its platform niche. Then he prepares a place of pillows for her on the stage right steps. The fountain occludes her line of vision to the mirror. OBVERSE 1 bows slightly, cants his head in admiration, lays a hand on her shoulder, which she suffers with some trepidation. OBVERSE 1 backs off, extends his hand, she takes it, and he gets her situated. He returns to his seat across the way, then they stare each other down. ]

[The book falls open, OBVERSE 1 consults it in several places, the kids watch this with interest, then resume their merry-go-round and take turns swimming about the stage.]

OBVERSE 1

You are Talia?

[slight nod of assent]

Of the Dinka?

[Another nod]

What is the meaning of your name? Be at ease. You’re safe here. We’ll work it out, Talia. Translate this for me.

TALIA

Dew that falls from heaven.

OBVERSE 1

You’re well named. It’s a prophetic name.

[She maintains her silence, but visibly thaws a little, relaxes her posture. The kids are surely aware of this, slow their effervescent behavior. ]

OBVERSE 1

(gently) Heavenly Dew, unburden yourself. Tell me how it is that you’ve come to this passage. I will listen and ask questions. It’s how we deal with mortal trauma.

TALIA

(tightlipped) Men.

(snorts) They pushed me into the water.

[OBVERSE 1 hunches forward, briefly places his left hand over his eyes, then nods.]

OBVERSE 1

Murder.

[He consults the book.] Premeditated.

TALIA

I thought so. I knew before it happened. But I couldn’t avoid it.

OBVERSE 1

No place to go. Back up a bit. Back to your home.

TALIA

It isn’t there anymore.

OBVERSE 1

No matter. Tell me what it was like. Slowly. In detail.

TALIA

[Hand over both eyes, wistful.] Home. It’s many places. More than I can count.

[Removes hand.] The last one is, should, could be a tropical paradise.

[Sad smile.]

OBVERSE 1

Describe your village, your neighborhood?

TALIA

It’s a village. One road. A food store, a clothing and fabric store, we have a school, my kids learn to read, a garage where Stafa works, he’s good with machinery, a church, and a gunshop. Every town in the Sudd has one. And a lake, we are fortunate with fish, our kids swim like with fins. A good place. Then…

[The two boys stop playing carousel.]

OBVERSE 1

Yes… then?

TALIA

We hear there is war to the north. We hear rumors of religious infighting. Sometimes people come walking, long way walking. We help as we can. We listen.

OBVERSE 1

You continue to wear northern garb?

TALIA

I do fine embroidery. It’s good advertising to wear your wares. They tolerate Stafa because he can keep the town truck running.

[Silence.]

OBVERSE 1

And then?

[The older boy goes to sit with his mother, the younger examines the fountain.]

TALIA

(wide-eyed) Stafa gets real quiet. He draws away. Won’t meet my eyes. Then, one day, it seems very long ago, one day we hear that a village is looted. Burned. The Dinka scatter. We are, we are easy, easy to how you say, vilify?

OBVERSE 1

Yes, it’s always so. Pick an easy target. We call it a scapegoat.

YOUNGER BOY

Goat.

OBVERSE 1

Yes, you’re right. Scapegoat.

TALIA

[Points at HAKIM.] Hakim listens, we have high hopes for him.]

[HAKIM examines the mirror, traces his reflection with a forefinger.]

[OBVERSE 1 unobtrusively closes the book, resumes his place.]

[Her son lays his arm around her shoulder.]

TALIA

I miss my period. Once. Twice. I think maybe it’s stress. Some men came through in a truck with a scallop shell painted on the side. They need an oil change. Stafa obliges, they pay him in American dollars. They set up some sort of tripod thing and drill a hole. We hear an explosion and the ground shakes. Then they leave. Stafa tells me that they’re prospecting. He doesn’t say for what.

HAKIM

Oil. Our father tells Hamza that …

HAMZA

That he must leave. That he must leave. That I’m to carry the day, look after our mother.

OBVERSE 1

You grow up quickly, all too soon.

[to TALIA] And then it comes time?

TALIA

(nods, grim) He takes all the money and buys a gun.

HAMZA

I would have gone with him.

TALIA

I could hear them argue.

HAMZA

He pushed me against the wall. Hit me only once. Ever.

TALIA

I run outside. Tell him I’m with child, his child. I play the guilt card. But it does no good. His eyes are empty. He turns away. That night he and several others take the tan truck and load it with canned food. They raid the store. Then they drive off. We see two red tail lights. A good mechanic. Everything works.

[OBVERSE 1 consults the book while HAKIM stands beside him and looks on.]

OBVERSE 1

Here.

[Points at a page. HAKIM nods that he understands. OBVERSE 1 closes the book again. Lays his hand on it.]

OBVERSE 1

[to HAKIM] The information in here is personal and private. Every dream and whisper is recorded. We keep such confidential.

(gently) And there’s some transactions better left unknown.

[to TALIA] Would you like to be reunited with your husband?

[She considers, remains silent, just a brief shake of her head says no.]

OBVERSE 1

Did you love him?

(again, with downcast eyes) Then how is it that you have two fine sons? And an unborn daughter?

TALIA

My father owed him money. That’s how it’s done among us.

OBVERSE 1

Some traditions are evil. Call it a dowry, bride price, or outright slavery, to sell a life is wrong. Love cannot be sold. Loyalty can, but it does not work.

TALIA

I am haunted by those red lights receding, smaller, then they are one, then they are gone.

[to HAMZA] Why do men fight?

HAMZA

Mother, they fight to the death for greed and power. Somewhere far away a man wears a crown. He bids his men to find wealth, so he can pay them. These men come, make deals with the men in Khartoum, money changes hands, they come here to prospect, they call it, drill holes and make the ground shake. When they find what they want, they set us to fight among ourselves, supply guns, hope we kill each other off. We’re called collateral damage. That’s a fancy word for “in the way.” Then they booger the earth. I’ve seen photos of the Congo basin far to the south. The rivers stink, the fish go belly up, we die. No one cares except life herself. So it is. Always has been. Will be again. Right. Now.

OBVERSE 1

Your son is well-spoken. He knows. It is so.

TALIA

(proudly) My kids understand what’s true. And they can smell falsehood. They know more than I do. The school has taught them well. I am heartened.

OBVERSE 1

The golden haze glows bright and robust about them. They are the future tense of the world.

[HAKIM examines his reflection in the mirror.]

HAKIM

[He turns to TALIA.] Man, we’re not all odious rat crap?

OBVERSE 1

How soon they grow up.

[TALIA smiles, agrees. OBVERSE 1 presses his advantage.]

OBVERSE 1

And if I may say so, you are an admirable dancer yourself.

[TALIA thaws completely, leans forward towards OBVERSE 1. Aha!]

[HAKIM crosses to the pile of coins. Slide mirror aside, leave its depth unlit, OBVERSE 2 will hover barely in and out of sight while HAKIM becomes gradually aware of him.]

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] Please. Continue with the telling of your travail.

TALIA

(decisively) Right. We talk it over that night. Pack bags, make bedrolls, steal a plastic sheet from the store.

HAMZA

We are pretty good thieves.

[HAKIM plays with the coins, occasionally looks at the mirror.]

TALIA

Parched corn, dried beans, one bowl and an empty milk jug.

HAMZA

Knives. Magnifier for starting fires.

TALIA

We’re ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Life continues unabated.

HAKIM

[to OBVERSE 1] What’s with these coppers?

OBVERSE 1

Each is a token. Of a transit through here. Each is a kid just like you.

HAKIM And?

OBVERSE 1

[He nods.] They all talk if you let them.

HAKIM How?

OBVERSE 1

Easy. Love them. All things will gladly tell you their history. Both past and future. Be of their kind. All eyes see as one. This is called psychometry.

[HAKIM experiments, caresses, holds individual coins to his forehead.]

TALIA

One morning, just before dawn, the forest goes silent. I know what this means. I have come from the forest, my children are of the forest. It is our home. We slip away. Head south. Keep to the high ground.

HAMZA

From a hilltop we saw a fire back there. Gun shots. Marauders at their debauch.

TALIA

There’s no point in backtracking. There’s no justice in it. We move on. Travel by starlight. Sleep under the tarp by day. In hollows and crannies. We are woodflits. One among many.

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA and HAMZA] Continue …

TALIA

We meander.

HAMZA

There’s places in the mountains where a compass is unreliable. Mineral deposits.

TALIA

The wood is good for us. The animal is how you say …

HAMZA

… Circumspect.

OBVERSE 1

How long did you wander?

TALIA

A moon. The sun sets …

HAMZA

In different directions.

HAKIM

Not good.

TALIA

We decide on east. North is dangerous. Slave markets.

HAMZA

West is where the Americans live. Warmongers.

HAKIM

South is a predatory jungle.

HAMZA

River valley bestunk with oil.

TALIA

We manage east. We follow the bird song. They know.

HAMZA

Finally we crossed a road.

HAKIM

Good thing too, almost out of beans. I don’t like corn anymore.

TALIA

Hamza finds a squash vine in full fruit.

HAKIM

A garden escapee, no doubt.

HAMZA

Just like us. Opportunists.

[They giggle.]

TALIA and HAMZA

No doubt.

TALIA So we camp by the road, observe.

HAMZA

No military trucks.

HAKIM No personnel carriers apparently, either.

TALIA

Then.

HAMZA

It.

HAKIM

Changes.

TALIA

I hike up my djellaba. Showing a lot of leg always works. And we’re almost on our last legs.

OBVERSE 1

I don’t think so. The road always goes somewhere.

HAKIM

East. We’re still looking to go east.

HAMZA

Surely it will go better there.

(HAKIM snorts in derision)

HAMZA

Then we hear it coming. What’s called a rattletrap truck, no license plate, busted headlights, maybe this will be our saving grace. He drives past, then pulls over. We two climb into the back to ride in the box where he can’t see us.

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] (slightly jealous, she knows) Him, what kind of man is was he?

TALIA

I think Italian. Don’t quite get his accent.

HAKIM

We learned later that he got letters from Tropea, Calabria, so that’s probably home. Sent letters to Palermo. So, Sicilian connections.

[HAKIM and HAMZA exchange significant looks, TALIA misses that.]

TALIA

I climb up into the cab. He seems nice enough. Curly black hair well rounded.

[HAMZA moves slightly away from his mother, a bit of subtle body language.]

OBVERSE 1

Does he proposition you?

TALIA

Oh, almost right off. How could I say no. We need him. There are circumstances.

[OBVERSE 1 raises his eyebrows to HAMZA.]

HAMZA

Our mother likes sex. We’re the proof of that.

[OBVERSE 1 likewise to HAKIM.]

HAKIM Mom likes to fuck.

TALIA

(unabashed) He actually asks ME, I am offered a choice. The truck bounces along and I cosy up to him and it’s decided.

[OBVERSE 2 passes past the mirror, briefly, nods vigorously.]

TALIA

I liked the truck, watch how he drives, what his feet do when he pulls the handle and gear shift and clutch. In retrospect, it’s the happiest time of my life. We’re going east, home of the sun. We talk a lot. More than I ever had with Moustafa. Better.

[HAMZA wants to distance himself from his mom, gets up, moves past the mirror, not seeing OBVERSE 2, HAKIM jumps on this, beckons to HAMZA.]

HAKIM

Hamza! Come check this out. [He points out the pennies.] We can learn something here.

[HAMZA crosses over, sits crosslegged on the floor with his brother. HAKIM can see the mirror, HAMZA cannot.]

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] Better. Are you attracted to him?

TALIA

(completely ingenuous) Some. Is that what it is with me? Not like I am to you.

[OBVERSE 2 makes a pass, hand cupped to his ear.]

HAKIM

[to HAMZA] It is always interesting watching Mom work a man.

[They nod agreement, continue fooling with the pennies.]

HAKIM

[to HAMZA] Gently. Try it like this.

[He holds one to his eye.]

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] Better. Choice. Me?

[He counts on his fingers.] Extenuating circumstances. We do what we have to as the need arises.

[OBVERSE 1 unconsciously fondles his own crotch. OBVERSE 2 makes another pass, nods vigorously.]

[HAKIM nods in agreement with OBVERSE 2, explores the coins and makes them into stacks.]

HAKIM

[to HAMZA] Try the other eye … Just like your head. Each of these stacks is a series of lifetimes.

[They make little piles of pennies on the floor, hold individuals to the light.]

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] So!

TALIA

That night in the cab I … accommodate him. That’s the word. I do not choose him. I allow him.

HAKIM

They rocked the truck springs.

HAMZA

Meanwhile we’re in the back looking over the cargo. That’s what he calls himself. Cargo. Sometimes Bumper. Which now seems like a prophetic name.

[TALIA also misses this clue. They let it pass. But OBVERSE 1 notices. He retrieves a box of I-Ching yarrow wands from behind the book, hands it down to them to HAKIM.]

OBVERSE 1

Here. See what you can make of this.

TALIA

(still in accommodation mode) He’s willing to share his food. Bovril, corned beef. Canned milk. Palm wine.

HAMZA

Meanwhile we’re in the back, examining the real Mr. Cargo. Boxes stacked in wooden cases, brass plate bolted to the lid, pays cash. We unpacked those boxes very carefully. We found bags of sugar, but a layer of bags underneath were full of cocaine, they were all cocaine. “Bangledesh.” They misspelled it.

HAKIM

So now we know something about him.

HAMZA

That night, while they sleep in the cab, we riffle through the contents in his bag, it’s different, some sort of bitter dope.

HAKIM

So now we know that. Mom, we didn’t want to tell you.

HAMZA

Better to wait till journey’s end. We repack real careful. The sugar is very good.

[TALIA finally hears the truth.]

TALIA

What? What won’t you tell me?

HAKIM

Mom, the truth is obvious, he’s a gun runner and dope smuggler. We’re his camouflage. No one questions a family in an old truck, wheezing along.

OBVERSE 1

[To HAKIM] There’s more?

[OBVERSE 2 again leans forward out of the darkness, nods yes, withdraws.]

TALIA

[to HAMZA and HAKIM] How do you know that he’s a pusher?

HAMZA

Not exactly that. More like an intermediary in the supply chain between field and addict.

[Each time HAMZA talks to his mother, he swivels around and stops playing with the coins. HAKIM has no problem multi-tasking among the coins, his mom, his brother, the mirror and OBVERSE 1. He’s the fluid one. HAMZA is the solid one.]

HAKIM

[to TALIA] We kept it quiet and faded into the background. When we got to his place in the city, his house is a fortress, card keys, drives a Hum-Vee. Not the simple trucker you’re cosy with. Mom, we knew right away. It’s our fault that we didn’t tell you.

HAMZA

[to TALIA] He’s real careful about it, his mail, how we’re supposed to get it as soon as it’s delivered.

HAKIM

While he’s gone, several letters arrive with all different names on them. We thought it’s probably a code. How he made his connections.

HAMZA

Again, we’re house sitters. Well paid. Bribed with sugar right at the beginning. That’s what galls me most: how easy we were. And he refused to let us help him unload the truck. We were completely befuddled. Mother, I’m really, really sorry. We missed it. And the clues lay all about.

HAKIM

We tried listening by the doors, there were telephone calls at night. Telephone calls behind closed doors. Security camera doors. We had trouble getting by them.

HAMZA

But mostly it was the easy life. Food. Hot water. Real soap. Soft beds.

TALIA

[She nods, finally convinced, sighs.] Account at the corner grocery.

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] Did you tell him you’re pregnant at that point?

TALIA

He doesn’t ask! I don’t tell him.

[HAMZA and HAKIM go back to the pennies. They lay out a line compartment crosshatch, with stacks of pennies. ]

[OBVERSE 2 crosses behind the mirror with his hands over his eyes.]

HAKIM

[He mimics OBVERSE 2.] See no evil.

[to HAMZA] Try this one.

[HAKIM hands him a coin, they inspect it.]

HAMZA

Again, we could have been friends with him.

HAKIM

Easily. In the center of your forehead.

TALIA

[to OBVERSE 1] I mollycoddled him along for another three months.

HAMZA

[to OBVERSE 1] He made six trips, each time the same way. We think a fifty-pound bag of dope is worth a big pile of loot.

HAKIM

[to OBVERSE 1] But we hit it off with him pretty good. We did sneak out a few times, but Dishu is a dangerous place for strangers.

OBVERSE 1

[to HAKIM] So you stayed inside, effectively prisoners.

HAKIM

Except for trips to the store to help carry stuff.

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] Then it fell apart?

[HAMZA and HAKIM continue dealing into the squares.]

HAKIM

[to HAMZA] Here’s one that documents a bunch of horrible events.

[OBVERSE 2 crosses with his hands over his ears.]

HAMZA

It echoes in a deep place.

HAKIM

Hear no evil.

TALIA

[to OBVERSE 1] I don’t even hear the voice of my own conscience. I hear what I want to hear. I will cook. I will fuck with him at his pleasure. It was way different than it was with Moustafa. Eventually, we repent our mistakes.

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] (sympathetically) I don’t think you had much choice after leaving home.

TALIA

(sadly) No. You’re right about that. It was thrust upon us.

[HAKIM takes a quick look at the I-Ching instruction booklet.]

TALIA

The consequence is inevitable.

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] So?

TALIA

My belly grows taut. [They nod.]

I hope he will accept the child. But no. He loses interest.

HAKIM

[excitedly to HAMZA] Hey! This one would have been our sister. Place the token in the center.

TALIA

(sadly) Thera. I have the name ready. She would have been, she would have been, she would have been. Feral. Capable. Intuitive.

OBVERSE 1

A wide-eyed wonder.

[HAKIM places Thera’s token on top in the center. Almost reverently.]

TALIA

At that moment, all pretense stops. I can’t hide it. He knows that I know we’re done. I believe he’s laying plans. I am silent. I was such a fool.

[OBVERSE 2 crosses with hands over his mouth.]

HAKIM

Speak no evil.

HAMZA

(snorts, derisive) Ignore evil. Sidestep evil.

HAKIM

No! Confront evil right away. Or it will come back bigger and badder.

HAMZA

So it did. My crucial mistake. I saw it but I didn’t warn you. We could have escaped at that moment.

TALIA

The light in his eyes goes dark.

[HAMZA and HAKIM continue to stack pennies during the next sequence in a state of dream, of phantasm.]

[OBVERSE 1 rises to the stature of his office. TALIA sits bolt upright. HAMZA slouches somewhat despondent. HAKIM lays his hand on his brother in encouragement.]

OBVERSE 1

We’ve come to the moment of infinite transgression where fatal flaws are examined. Crucial mistakes expiated. That which we say and do here and now does matter. Our species does not thrive in isolation. We shall be gregarious. Agreed?

[OBVERSE 1 assumes a professorial attitude, places his fingertips together.]

OBVERSE 1

Any policeman will tell you that eye witness accounts are notoriously unreliable. So let us lengthen our perspective.

[He twirls a button on his tunic. A young man in a neatly pressed skyblue uniform enters from stage left platform level, offers a silver coin palm up to OBVERSE 1, who looks at it, nods, waves it off to HAKIM. The messenger hands it over to HAKIM with deference. HAKIM divines it as usual. The messenger watches with great interest, nods his satisfaction, bows to OBVERSE 1 and TALIA, then leaves by the stairs to stage right.]

HAKIM

Look, Mom, they have Bumper. His name is Angelo Traficante.

OBVERSE 1

True, we have him in another waystation. Seems he went down in some gang-related turf war.

HAKIM

Well. That figures. Kinda like instant karma?

OBVERSE 1

You could call it that. Don’t read too much into coincidence. They’re rare.

HAKIM

His coin is interesting. How come it’s silver and bigger?

OBVERSE 1

Silver is a slightly better conductor than copper. Size betokens the ability to effect change in the hourglass. What else can you winnow from him?

HAKIM

A murderer several times. No honor among thieves. No conscience applied to the consumption of his wares. An opportunist on the road. Did that several times, Mom take note.

TALIA

What will become of him?

[OBVERSE 2 shakes his head vigorously.]

HAKIM

[to OBVERSE 1] Not for us to say?

[Both OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2 nod. HAKIM is aware that OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2 are two aspects of the same personality. He compares them several times moving his head from one to the other. He’s about to ask about it, but OBVERSE 1 shushes him with the wave of a hand.]

[HAKIM goes back to stacking pennies, tosses the silver coin into the bowl dismissively.]

OBVERSE 1

A man like that is well-practised in his act. He wouldn’t, I say NOT, leave loose ends like you lying around.

[to audience] (completely steely-eyed) It’s multiple premeditated murder. It happens every day. You cannot say that you did not know. Ignore it at your peril. Beware.

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] Heavenly Dew, unburden yourself completely, let it go.

[HAKIM starts fingering the yarrow wands.]

HAKIM

Yeah, Mom, let it hang out.

[She considers, takes her time. It’s the turning point between lives.]

TALIA

Time waxes elastic. Is compressed to a moment. An eye blink. I dance on the fulcrum where motion ceases. All is revealed. I stand naked with myself. One eye. Only me for a second. Then the mother in me ascends, takes hold, dreams real, feeling returns, song bursts forth. It is done.

OBVERSE 1

Do you wish to continue your story?

TALIA

Yes. I must. Life is to be.

OBVERSE 1

Then do so.

TALIA

It’s amazing how quickly it happens. One morning he packs us into his armored car, drives to the dock, escorts us on board. Says only, I can hear this very clearly, he says “You’re going to a better place.” Then he turns and walks away, doesn’t look back. That’s it. We’re committed.

[OBVERSE 1 points at TALIA, inviting her to continue.]

TALIA

[She gathers her thoughts.] The boat. Yes. The boat is a freighter, not large, with a long hatch in front and a house on the back. It’s carrying goats, live goats.

HAKIM

Goat boat.

HAMZA

The stink is horrendous.

TALIA

Overwhelming.

HAKIM

Goat crap, trapped, pissing in fear. It’s contagious.

TALIA

[She agrees.] Three men run the boat. We leave right away, away, no chance for any to get away, away.

HAMZA

We probably should have jumped.

HAKIM

We should have jumped.

TALIA

Ten feet down to the water. It seems an impossible height.

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] (prompting) And you thought?

TALIA

I think it’s a better place I’m going to, I hide from my thoughts.

HAMZA

The men go inside. I tried to follow but we’re locked out.

HAKIM

Hamza tries the doors, we knock, we call, we listen.

HAKIM

They seem determined to ignore us.

HAMZA

It’s like we’re in a silent movie.

HAKIM

With the view slightly out of focus.

HAMZA

Vaseline slow, sometimes stop motion.

HAKIM

The reel spins but the scene is frozen.

TALIA

We move as in a disconnected dream. To the front huddle by the rail, the air is cleaner there. We wait.

HAKIM

Mom started to pray out loud.

[HAKIM throws down the yarrow wands.]

HAMZA

We reminisced a little.

HAKIM

Good times, bad times.

TALIA

I pray to the mother goddess.

HAMZA

She prayed for clemency. Not for herself. For us.

HAKIM

She prayed for mercy, not for herself. And not for the future. For now.

[to OBVERSE 1] We’re in the Now, isn’t it so?

OBVERSE 1

Yes. All of time is Now. You entered at the leading edge.

TALIA

At the rail. We wait for our time to be accomplished. I believe at that moment, that moment, that the truth of it shall be revealed. Time is elastic in a dream. So is it.

[HAMZA picks up the narrative.]

HAMZA

About an hour out, we’re in open water. Two men come out with a pole and a rope. They noose one of the goats, drag it behind the house. I sneak a peak round the corner. They’re butchering it, bloody entrails in buckets. The rest of the herd knows. I don’t tell but we all know. The men fly their true colors. After a while we smell roast goat. We squat where they can see us. They don’t invite us. Nothing there. We wait.

TALIA

[She resumes the telling of it.] I sing, I chant the ancient litany. My voice rises to heaven whence I have settled. Dew evaporates. Mist returns to her home. I believe that I have been heard. I pass this comfort to my sons. They stare rapt into the unknown. It’s not as hard as it seems.

[OBVERSE 2 chops at his own neck, indicating terminus. Slide mirror back into place. HAMZA crosses to stand with his mother. She rises straight-backed, wide-eyed. HAKIM continues to count pennies.]

TALIA

[to OBVERSE 1] Grant me this. I would invoke time into this here and now.

OBVERSE 1

[He considers, nods decisive.] We allow that, only if you ask, then we dispense.

TALIA

I have done so. Do so.

[OBVERSE 1 leads her by the elbow to center stage, facing the audience.]

OBVERSE 1

Let the witnesses attend you!

[He retrieves the hoop from the banister, runs it through the fountain, grabs the hourglass, sets it before TALIA at her feet, then lowers the hoop over her head down to her feet, including the hourglass.]

[to HAKIM] A soul partitions herself at the incarnation. Such moments are unique and precise.

[OBVERSE 1 stands by the book, all eyes are on TALIA. She arches her back, raises her arms in supplication.]

TALIA

I am the tidal pool from which life emerges. I am the first chalice, my cup is always full. I embrace every stream, all rivers flow to me, quicksilver graces me, each facet is known to me. When you gaze in my glass I know you by your eyes, gall’s call won’t be disguised, all water comes to pass. Let my will take the tide, let our bodies be wet, let my children delight, caught up safe in my net.

OBVERSE 1 and HAMZA and HAKIM

Hear. Hear.

TALIA

Aduk! Hear me. I am Talia of the Dinka. Enter me now. As it is promised, taught to me by my mother, and her mother before us. Hear me, Aduk of ocean and lake, hear me, indwell me, arise in me, stand in me, let us be at once.

[Cue pinspot down her glistening gown. The hourglass lights up. All four doors open lit from the inside: red/orange, aqua/marine, gold/yellow, forest green. Cue a single bell stroke on PA.]

OBVERSE 1

It is done.

[to HAKIM] Doors are our eyes onto potential.

[TALIA steps back two paces, from outside the hoop she motions to a laser projector image of herself, which remains in the hoop. She bids the image to turn once and again to face each other.]

TALIA

[Turns to OBVERSE 1 and HAMZA] Don’t touch me.

[They henceforth treat her with all due respect and deference. TALIA walks back to just to the right of the fountain, dips her hand in it, anoints her crotch and brow.]

[OBVERSE 1 removes the hoop by sliding it across the floor, and then reaches around the projection for the hourglass, returns them to the platform. TALIA faces HAKIM. OBVERSE 1 skirts her gingerly, resumes his seat on the left steps.]

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] Now. In clinical description.

TALIA

[to OBVERSE 1] I can see myself from outside myself.

OBVERSE 1

[to audience] Divinity lives in all places at once and is its own witness.

HAMZA

[to OBVERSE 1] Two men come out of the house, go behind it, and bring the buckets to the rail about halfway towards us. I will point at these men.

HAKIM

The third one comes out with a club. I remember him.

TALIA

The two at the rail look at my sons with sexual interest. I meet them halfway. I know I won’t be able to seduce them.

HAMZA

Our mother rises to meet them.

TALIA

There is no conscience that lives in their eyes.

HAKIM

Mom points at them. One turns to vomit over the rail.

HAMZA

The other clutches at his belly.

TALIA

Mothers do food.

HAMZA

For just a moment they fear her. Make warding signs.

HAKIM

Whisper “strega”. Witch. Sorceress. Superstitious fools.

HAMZA

Mother swarms at them. They shriek. The third one yells a command.

TALIA

They grab me and push me over the rail. I dive and strike the water hands first. I remember salt.

HAMZA

The man with the club walks to us. I say, “This is it.”

HAKIM

“This is it.” I don’t remember that.

HAMZA

I grab Keemie’s hand. The man hits him on the head. The hand of my brother goes rigid, then limp.

HAKIM

It is an empty thought. What I do remember is waking here with you.

HAMZA

I dodge by the club, run to the house, grab the life preserver, toss it over the side, jump in after it. Our mother is gone. They toss Keemie over the rail. He floats face down in the water. Then they dump the buckets on us.

HAKIM

To attract sharks.

HAMZA

The boat churns by. We float in blood and guts.

TALIA

I twist and roll and turn. Swim through incremental glass.

OBVERSE 1

[to audience] In profundo veritatem. In the feels lieth truth.

TALIA

I am my reflection. Immense depth hovers about me. I am water in flux. Air in amazement.

[TALIA pauses before the mirror, does a ballerina’s pirouette, moves fluid, languid, completely ensorcelled. Her laser projection mimics her motion. They swim in unison, take turns about each other. Slide backlit projection screen into place. Cue shadow shapes across the deep. Slide mirror aside. Fade up low-light aquamarine behind glass.]

TALIA

I rise again. Penetrate the sheen that permeates our amniotic fluid. I break the umbilicus. I am water aflame, maternal air, salt of earth. I float to the surface. I may breathe again.

HAMZA

Time behaves in extended flashes. It’s broken into dots of light and long dashes of darkness. I can act only in the light. I grab at Hakim, drag him across the life preserver, tie him to it. Then our mother rises. There! I’ve never been so completely alone. From the top of a wave all there is is water. The boat moves off. There’s no hope there. I black out. When the light returns our mother is there. She leads. I follow.

TALIA

We push the ring some way to the side. I tie Hamza to it. Then I speak for the dead. Repeat after me.

[TALIA and HAMZA face each other, place each other’s hands on each other’s shoulders.]

TALIA

Mother of all.

HAMZA

Mother of all.

TALIA

Receive your child.

HAMZA

Receive your child.

TALIA

Don’t let him wake up.

HAMZA

Don’t let him wake up.

TALIA

Take him now.

HAMZA

Take him now.

TALIA

[to OBVERSE 1] I push on Hakim’s back. Air bubbles from his lungs. The ring settles. I have described birth. Momentous. Miraculous. Mysterious. So is the dying likewise.

HAMZA

I piss and black out again. When I come to, Mother hands me two tight little rolls torn from the hem of her gown.

TALIA

[to HAMZA] Stuff these up your nose. Hold to me tight. I’ll breath into your mouth, and you into mine. It won’t take long. I swear to you it won’t hurt.

OBVERSE 1

[to AUDIENCE] Carbon dioxide narcosis. It’s painless.

TALIA

We climb up onto the ring. It sinks beneath our weight.

HAMZA

[to HAKIM] We did not cast you loose. Whatever it is we’ll do it together. Wherever we go, we go as one. However, we will meet with it. Make it our own.

TALIA

We sink. We hang suspended, weightless. Then the mother of all gathers us in. So is it. So was. And then we are here.

HAMZA

We eluded the shadows. Light was all around. It was good.

[Fade shadow forms behind glass, fade aquamarine light. Fade up same light at stage left entrance, cue one brief receding motor. Raise projection screen. TALIA and HAMZA release. OBVERSE 2 appears behind the glass. TALIA’s laser image sees him, he blows a kiss at her, she waves back. The image then turns to the audience, TALIA comes up behind it, walks forward into it, and reintegrates herself. ]

HAKIM

[He finds his own token, chortles.] Hamza, Hamza! I’ve found myself. Here. Look at this.

[HAMZA joins his brother on the floor, inspects the coin. TALIA and OBVERSE 1 sit facing each other. OBVERSE 2 remains, TALIA is now aware of him.]

[HAMZA looks at HAKIM’s copper token critically.]

HAMZA

[to HAKIM] So many names and dates. You’ve got a long ways to go.

[He hands it back to HAKIM, who places it carefully on the pillow next to the pile. They continue to search, obviously, for HAMZA’s coin but will not find it.]

[TALIA gazes at OBVERSE 1 defiantly.]

TALIA

[to OBVERSE 1] (somewhat irritated) So?

OBVERSE 1

No need to be offended.

[TALIA shrugs.]

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] Nor embarrassed.

(kindly) You’re not divulging anything that we didn’t already know.

[HAKIM leans forward, looks around OBVERSE 1 at OBVERSE 2 for confirmation. OBVERSE 2 nods. HAKIM continues the search. TALIA notices the exchange, leans out to peek past the fountain, sees OBVERSE 2, compares him with OBVERSE 1 several times, realizes there is more going on than she knew, settles back to stare at OBVERSE 1.]

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] Ours is not to judge. That’s done elsewhere. Here we’re interested in what you make of yourself, how it’s been, where you’re at now, and whither you venture from here. I recommend that you forego the present tense and start speaking in time. Address the future. Take stock. You’re over the hump. From here it gets easier.

TALIA

(tersely) So. What?

OBVERSE 1

Some formalities. Unavoidable.

[A very nice young lady in a nifty skyblue outfit enters from stage left, platform level, descends the stairs, hands OBVERSE 1 a black looseleaf binder with a red tassel from a diplomatic pouch.]

OBVERSE 1

[Observes it briefly.] Received. Noted. Tell them we’re on it.

[The messenger nods understood, nods to OBVERSE 2 behind the mirror, hands a large gold coin to TALIA with all due deference and leaves via the right-hand stairs stage right.]

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] We hold you in very high regard.

[TALIA gazes at her token coin, slips it into her pocket.]

TALIA

[to OBVERSE 1] (evenly) Why?

OBVERSE 1

Consider. Loyalty to your husband for a dozen years.

TALIA

I stayed.

OBVERSE 1

Your kids trust you implicitly.

HAKIM and HAMZA

Agreed. [They nod vigorously.]

OBVERSE 1

You knew when to run.

TALIA

I knew he wasn’t coming back.

OBVERSE 1

Resourceful in the woods.

TALIA

That is where I come from.

OBVERSE 1

Opportune on the road.

TALIA

In the clinch.

OBVERSE 1

In life, that’s a serious tactic.

We know by our words,

Sometimes we speak in tongues

With calliope chords

Or oglalla songs.

At Babel language freaked,

Whose utter can you trust?

The enemy is Greek,

It certainly ain’t us.

Byzantium declares

Obstreperous Chinese

Ideogrammaire fares

Across pacific seas.

Various alphabets

To spell out abstractions

Like moonscapes and sunsets,

Numerical fractions,

Mystical notation,

Zodiacal symbols,

Occult information,

Maniacal mumble

By some high-mitred head,

Short blithering blather,

For those easily led,

Words do really matter

When expertly wielded,

Since you lie with words,

Marshal men on the field,

And accumulate hoards.

Said the groom to his bride

Until death do us part

And there’s nowhere to hide

When you’re sharing your heart.

Only truth will suffice

At the endpoint of things,

Such unction is priceless

Where uncertainty wings.

TALIA

It’s true, I know when to hold on.

OBVERSE 1

It’s a professional act by any standard, cheerful, even loquacious in the truck.

TALIA

Punctillious, hey, big word, with Bumper. Kept his house neat. See? Past tense.

OBVERSE 1

Hope springs eternal.

HAKIM

We blew it there.

OBVERSE 1

So you did. Everyone, and I mean everyone, makes mistakes.

HAMZA

Getting on board was a major, geez, malfunction.

OBVERSE 1

True. Look at these photos.

[He passes the dossier around.]

HAMZA

Yes, sir, that’s the boat. These two pushed our mother over the rail. That’s the man with the club who brained Keemie.

HAKIM

Yep. That’s him. That’s them. That’s it.

OBVERSE 1

[Hands folder to TALIA.] And you?

TALIA

[She looks hard.] (tight-lipped) Yes, that’s them.

[OBVERSE 1 places the binder behind the book. Then he and TALIA stare each other down.]

HAKIM

[to OBVERSE 1] What will become of them?

OBVERSE 1

Not for us to say. All we do here is identify and move on. They’ve decided their own fate. By their acts shall ye judge them.

[to TALIA] And. And. And. At the very end you showed remarkable intuitive ability. Invocation of the goddess.

TALIA

I laid my hand on my child.

OBVERSE 1

No other option. It was decided when you stepped on board. Had you not, Cargo would have killed you out of hand. Instead you chose to do it your way. We consider that admirable.

TALIA

So now what?

OBVERSE 1

(unperturbed) Your call. You were and are your own best witness. Divinity encompasses all points of view. So, indeed, now what, after all that, quo vadis.

[Long silence, single bell tone on PA.]

TALIA

Where to? Who’s next? I, I don’t know. Why must I decide?

HAKIM

If we don’t decide, what happens then?

[HAKIM has already divined the I-Ching augury.]

OBVERSE 1

[to HAKIM] That is the question. There are several options.

[OBVERSE 1 assumes his professorial tone again, divides his attention among TALIA, HAMZA and HAKIM at his feet, and the audience.]

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] You can choose to roam the universe as a thought form. It’s truly rewarding, much may be gleaned from nothing. But you won’t be able to communicate very well with those who remain incarnate. Not without a huge expenditure of your personal energy. Loneliness is a great deterrent. Your life is among the living. You are the mother principle which nurtures continuity in all its complexity. I recommend that you return to the body incarnate. Decide who and what

you want to be. Who is it in you that derives satisfaction? How do you measure success? When were you happy?

[to HAKIM] You, you can choose to mediate. To guide. We stationmasters are always looking for suitable candidates to fulfil our office. The downside is that it’s a burnout. Maintaining that professional distance is really difficult. I personally am having trouble with that right now. That’s why we debrief [points at OBVERSE 2] after every traverse. We triage, we collate, we cull – that’s the reality of the job.

[to HAMZA] Most who do return follow, few lead. You’ve already observed that you follow. This is honorable. You are the salt which supports a vast superstructure. Without you, none of them [points to AUDIENCE], none of them can be.

[to AUDIENCE] Embrace him.

[He points to HAMZA.]

[to AUDIENCE] He is of your bone and blood. He is your willing hand. He speaks with your voice. He stands with you. Your mothers and daughters depend on him. Without him, you cannot be. He and his sisters are the vast majority. Their numbers are myriad. They indwell the true tower. Gaze upon yourselves and don’t look away.

[OBVERSE 2 scans the audience through binocular eyes.]

TALIA

[to OBVERSE 1] Why can’t I just stay here with you?

OBVERSE 1

I’d really like that.

HAKIM

Mom, this place is like a hospital emergency ward. We heal. We don’t nurture.

[OBVERSE 2 holds his hands behind his ears.]

OBVERSE 1

He’s right. No trees, no birds, no butterflies. Flutterbyes. Periods of hurry up and wait.

HAKIM

The same set, stage, different faces and plot lines.

HAMZA

[to TALIA] It wouldn’t be home.

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] You’d be able to speak to them [points to AUDIENCE] but they won’t hear you. Except for rare individuals. You’d be cut off.

[OBVERSE 2 holds his hands to his mouth as a megaphone.]

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] I ask you again, when were you happiest this last time around?

TALIA

In the truck. The past was buried, the future decided, the moment was without care. I liked it in the truck. Life on the road.

OBVERSE 1

You felt young and vibrant. Even with a man who used you. Men don’t have a very good track record with you.

TALIA

I’ve borne two sons.

OBVERSE 1

There would be no more if you stayed here. Life requires time. There is none here.

[OBVERSE 2 raises up his palms in resignation, shrugs.]

TALIA

I know what I don’t want. I don’t know what I do want.

OBVERSE 1

That’s a common fault around here. Who can you trust?

HAKIM

[to OBVERSE 1] What happens if we stay here long, longer, really long?

OBVERSE 1

Thought forms dissipate. The universe thinks itself into existence. Thought is infinite. Eventually a thought dilutes, little fragments slough off. Infinity accepts everything. To stay here forever is to disappear. That’s the nature of numbers. They become dark with their own substance. Really large numbers mean nothing. And nothing is pointless.

[TALIA comes to a decision.]

TALIA

[to OBVERSE 1] I trust you. You decide. Life leads but also follows itself. I will accept your vision.

[Big smile from OBVERSE 2.]

OBVERSE 1

I am conflicted. The traffic should decide its own course at the crossroads.

[Frown from OBVERSE 2.]

HAMZA

[Still sifting coins.] Where’s mine?

[OBVERSE 1 picks one from the pile, hands it to him, HAMZA holds it, nods. In silent agreement, he hands it back. OBVERSE 1 opens the book, makes notations.]

OBVERSE 1

[to TALIA] So be it. I’ve interpolated you. The very best I could. Come.

[He leads TALIA to the fountain. She dips her hand in and drinks, HAMZA does the same. TALIA then retrieves the gold coin from her pocket, hands it to OBVERSE 1, who slips it into his tunic.]

TALIA

Keep this for me?

[OBVERSE 1 bows slightly, to HAMZA also.]

OBVERSE 1

[to HAKIM] Tarry here a while. I’d have a word with you.

[OBVERSE 1 bows to TALIA and HAMZA.]

[to HAMZA] Hamza, escort your mother. Attend unto her. Last door on the right. Yours is #3. Be well.

OBVERSE 1

[He is suddenly completely distraught, fingers the coin in his pocket.]

Talia! Some other place. Some other time. Please!

TALIA

Yes. I’ll send you some trees. I’ll find a way.

OBVERSE 1

[to HAMZA] Perseverance. Perdurabo.

[TALIA leaves via door #4, cue sunlight, birdsong, motor startup. HAMZA leaves via door #3, exactly the same audio and visual.]

[OBVERSE 1 gazes after TALIA’s departure slack-jawed, stands as if to follow her, OBVERSE 2 immediately takes him to task. HAKIM witnesses their altercation]

OBVERSE 2

(exasperated) You idiot! There’s a really nice one and you let her get away. She actually likes you.

OBVERSE 1

[He mumbles incoherently.]

OBVERSE 2

You spent more time on her than anyone else, draw her out, lead on, then blow her off. What is the matter with you? Jerk.

OBVERSE 1

(simply) She said yes.

OBVERSE 2

A promise extracted in extremis.

OBVERSE 1

(stubborn) Another place; not here. Another time; could be any-when. She said yes; bring me some trees; that’s a long-term arrangement.

[OBVERSE 1 draws the gold coin from his pocket, shows it to OBVERSE 2, they examine it with care.]

OBVERSE 2

Yes. Sure. That really does mean something.

OBVERSE 1

Told me to keep it for her.

OBVERSE 2

And you’ll listen to that? Easily led.

OBVERSE 1

Willingly led. Look at how it shines.

OBVERSE 2

Fools are easily led. Willing. Horse blinders.

OBVERSE 1

Fools love.

OBVERSE 2

(sardonic) Oh, right, explain love.

OBVERSE 1

There’s no question about it. Love just is. We recognize it when it happens. My heart beat faster.

[They examine the coin some more.]

OBVERSE 2

Hers beat faster. Even while she’s off to another lifetime and lovely. So. You’ll wait?

OBVERSE 1

[He plays the devil’s advocate.] To wait for another is a poor tactic in life.

OBVERSE 2

Best then that you listen to your own heartbeat. For what it’s worth, her eyes were true. But I can’t tell where or when.

HAKIM

Why not?

OBVERSE 2

The further away in time and space, the more nebulous it gets. Gravity – how stuff loves other stuff – decreases exponentially. There are limits within infinity.

HAKIM

[to OBVERSE 1] What will you do with Mom’s token coin?

OBVERSE 1

Keep it safe. Caress it. Trust it.

HAKIM

You won’t keep it with the others?

OBVERSE 1

(defiantly) I won’t.

OBVERSE 2

(soothingly) Obie, I’ve said it before, you’re emotionally entangled with the clientele. You know very well where that’s at.

OBVERSE 1

It gives lesser shrift to all the others. I know that. Equal chance. Remind me again.

[They recite the oath of office, OBVERSE 2 first, OBVERSE 1 repeats after each line, HAKIM mouths along silently.]

[Herewith, the Oath of Office]

To light the way where they do search

Without regard to race or church,

To give advice the best I can,

To avatar as everyman,

To stand with you, to chanticlare

Your hands and eyes. I do so swear.

OBVERSE 2

Well said. That’s clear, concise, and non-compromising. Have you adhered to your vow?

OBVERSE 1

[He thinks it over.] Mostly. Initially. But I’ve become more reluctant to hazard advice unasked for. People don’t take advice very well, no matter how altruistic.

OBVERSE 2

And as for non-judgmental?

OBVERSE 1

As the pile grew, I blamed them.

[He points to AUDIENCE.] It’s true I brooded on it.

[to AUDIENCE] How can you let this happen?

[He points to pile.] Through inaction. And don’t tell me you didn’t know. It was the mommies who elected a man named Adolph to the Reichs Chancellery. And he turned out to be a monster. There have been many more or less of such stripe. Because you chose not to see, or hear, or speak. Fear breeds contempt.

[to HAKIM] But I hope I’m over that little speed bump in the highway to, yeah, wherever.

HAKIM

And now, you’re willing to make changes in somebody’s life.

OBVERSE 1

True. Only if specifically asked. Your mom’s tone of voice made it an imperative. I could do no less.

HAKIM

Chanticlare?

OBVERSE 1

To expand. To explain. Without bias. The ancient rite of passage through the unknown. In such manner as to be understood with some religious cant. Pretty serious stuff. Most who come through here are severely traumatized in mind and body. I explain where they are, what’s the options, how to get where they want to go. Lately I’ve been urging them to make their own decisions.

[to HAKIM] (keenly) How about you? What’s your deal?

HAKIM

[He fingers the yarrow wands with his right hand, obviously, but palms his coin surreptiously with his left.]

(carefully) Two oh oh seven.

OBVERSE 1

(perplexed) Is that a date?

HAKIM

(enigmatic) No.

OBVERSE 1

Would you care to …

HAKIM

No.

OBVERSE 2

You’re testing us. To see how much we know about you.

HAKIM

Yes.

OBVERSE 2

Enough to allow us to discharge our obligation to the manifold. So to let you make informed decisions about your imminent traverse. In a word, a lot, but not as much as you know about yourself while you’re holding that token.

HAKIM

What will happen to my mom?

OBVERSE 1

You’re dodging the question. For her it will be a small town, house, family, and she’ll be happy driving a school bus.

HAKIM

And Hamza? How fares he?

OBVERSE 1

He does well. They find each other. He’ll be a swimming instructor at the municipal pool. I thought that would befit a man who dove fearless into the depth to rescue your mother.

HAKIM

Agreed. I believe you’re still grooming me for a stationmaster’s calling.

OBVERSE 1

We are. We note that you’ve already started referring to yourself as “we” along with us.

HAKIM

That was unconscious. But you’re right, the kinship is there.

OBVERSE 1

So?

[HAKIM holds his token coin, palm up, extended.]

HAKIM

So many names and dates yet to be. Beyond that you cannot see. A very loooong time spent among the hierarchy. What I need now is your blessing, a secretu name by which you’ll know me. And the liberty to move among them [he points to the AUDIENCE] and among yourselves. I’ll need both.

OBVERSE 2

We can do that. You are Travertine, the river stone, bastion amid flux, water aflame. Whereas most who pass by forget, you will remember.

OBVERSE 1

Does this meet with your approval?

HAKIM

Yes, it does, sir.

OBVERSE 1

Then let it be so. Come.

[HAKIM collects the yarrow wands, puts them in the box, and puts the box in his back pocket. HAKIM stands at the fountain, OBVERSE 1 dips three fingers, anoints his brow.]

OBVERSE 1

See clear. Go far. Be well.

OBVERSE 2

And send us word. A postcard will do. We’d like to know.

[Grins all round.]

OBVERSE 1

Hakim, my son, one last word of caution. Don’t let on that you know the curriculum. Monkeys are a jealous, xenophobic lot. They’ll toss crap at you. Where are you off to?

HAKIM

Some mean street, clawing my way up, get a scholarship, write some books, get published, I’ll manage.

OBVERSE 1

[Hugs.] First door on the left. You’re gonna play with fire.

[HAKIM bows briefly to audience, mounts stage left stairs, turns at the door, exchanges a snappy military salute with OBVERSE 1, leaves attended by orange light and carillon bells.]

[While OBVERSE 1 does some tidying up, and closes all the doors, he natters with OBVERSE 2 about this and that.]

OBVERSE 2

Nice kid. Quick on the inference.

OBVERSE 1

Connects the dots.

OBVERSE 2

He’ll go the distance.

OBVERSE 1

We sure could use the help.

[Another messenger crosses the floor from left to right, hands OBVERSE 1 a large wooden bowl and leaves.]

OBVERSE 2

I just put you in for some help.

OBVERSE 1

I see that. Mercy.

[OBVERSE 1 dumps the rest of the coins still on the pillow into the bowl.]

OBVERSE 2

He took his token with him. Did you catch that little kid?

OBVERSE 1

(chagrined) No. Sleight of hand. Palmed it in plain sight. I missed that one. Bodes well.

OBVERSE 2

Nice talking with one who knows what he wants.

OBVERSE 1

Good connectivity.

[OBVERSE 1 sets the bowl next to the smaller one, both on the stage left steps.]

OBVERSE 2

Intuitive.

OBVERSE 1

Brother of the doors?

[OBVERSE 1 takes the pillow, slides the foot locker back under the stairs, lays the pillow stage right.]

[Cue car headlights piercing past the stage left leg curtain, tire screech, massive metallic crash, broken glass.]

[A tall, blond, 50ish man strides in from stage left. He wears a beige button-down shirt, creased trousers, color-coordinated boots. Snap-on epaulettes at the shoulders; a gold braided cord of office under his right arm. A Dutch tricolor patch on his right shoulder. A scallop shell patch on his right vest pocket. He wears the heraldic device of his calling: twin gushing oil derricks in black flank a silver shield emblazoned with a similar scallop shell in gold, surmounted with a royal gold crown. All as an appliqué sewn to the back of his shirt. No ball. No scepter. Big ego. Autocratic attitude. He stomps on the kids’ stacked token coins, thereby defiling them, on his way to center stage.]

[OBVERSE 1 attempts to ward him off to no avail, takes in the itinerary, recognizes his adversary, sets his jaw, backs away and dwindles into inconsequence. Mr. SHELLEY ignores OBVERSE 1 at first, sniffs at the fountain, can’t open the book, stands peremptory.]

MR. SHELLEY

Hey, you? Which way is out?

[OBVERSE 1 feigns indifference, stoops, pretends he’s hard of hearing, cups hand to ear.]

MR. SHELLEY

Doddering old fool, (louder) how do I leave?

[OBVERSE 1, jaw agape, nods at the doors.]

MR. SHELLEY

[Following his gaze.] Aha! [He bounds up the stairs.]

[OBVERSE 2 mimics horns at his forehead, projects double cornu horns with both hands. OBVERSE 2 mimics silence, hand over mouth, OBVERSE 1 nods that he understands, grabs the cane from the banister and resumes his act.]

[As MR. SHELLEY tries each door, OBVERSE 1 makes a locking motion with his right hand. Each door resists exit. MR. SHELLEY kicks at the doors in vain. They make cavernous echoes.]

MR. SHELLEY

[from platform to OBVERSE 1] Where’s the keys? I’m leaving. Hey! Open up, slobbering dunce.

[OBVERSE 1 once again acts the dimwit, coughs wetly, picks his nose.]

MR. SHELLEY

Don’t make me come down there.

[No response, so he descends, confronts OBVERSE 1, makes as if to strike him.]

OBVERSE 1

(cowering) Sir! Take care. If you touch me you’ll catch a disease. Your arm will go numb and wither.

[OBVERSE 1 coughs spit at MR. SHELLEY, who backs away in obvious distaste, OBVERSE 1 leans heavily on the cane, scrapes a figurative line on the floor between them.]

MR. SHELLEY

What’s this? Explain yourself.

OBVERSE 1

Unclean, unclean.

[OBVERSE 2 behind the glass makes backstabbing motions.]

OBVERSE 1

[He nods knowingly.]

All these, sir, and more. Spotted pox. Hoof in mouth. Scrofula. Impotence.

[This last bit of invective strikes close to home. MR. SHELLEY makes an involuntary grab at his crotch.]

OBVERSE 1

So. I have your attention.

[OBVERSE 1 circles to the left, back to audience, scribes several more lines, boxing MR. SHELLEY in towards the mirror glass. ]

OBVERSE 1

Gonorrhea. Syphilis. Maledictus de profundis.

[MR. SHELLEY’s back is to the mirror glass. OBVERSE 1 raises the cane horizontally, lowers a curtain of transparent shimmering veil, a laser projection.]

OBVERSE 2

[from behind MR. SHELLEY] Don’t try the veil paroketh. It will burn you.

OBVERSE 1

Nor turn to face the voice of truth. It will obviate you.

[MR. SHELLEY stiffens in compliance. OBVERSE 1 rises to his fully erect stature and MR. SHELLEY realizes that he’s been had. Freezes immobile, mute with anger.]

OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2

Good. Now. You. Will. Listen.

OBVERSE 1

When I have spoken, I will release you. You may then choose your way. I will grant you leave. Agreed?

MR. SHELLEY

[He nods, bares his teeth.]

OBVERSE 1

No matter. We understand words spat in silence. Sometimes words matter. Oh silver tongue. Hear me now. And. Maybe. Learn.

[OBVERSE 1 faces the audience, uses the cane as a pointer.]

OBVERSE 1

[to MR. SHELLEY] The world watches as you deport yourself. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

[MR. SHELLEY nods, grudgingly.]

OBVERSE 1

Louder, sir, you may speak as you will. Do you swear?

[MR. SHELLEY nods again.]

OBVERSE 1

Sir, we’re not here to judge. To leave here by any door you choose, you must first decide who and what you are and who and what you wish to be. We expect the truth as you see it. Without such there is no furtherance.

[MR. SHELLEY considers, comes to a logical conclusion.]

MR. SHELLEY

Yes, you’ll have it.

OBVERSE 1

Good. Let’s continue. Do you like music?

MR. SHELLEY

I suppose so.

OBVERSE 1

What kind of music do you like?

MR. SHELLEY

(puzzled) Why?

OBVERSE 1

Music defines humanity. It precedes language. Words beget music. Sing something.

MR. SHELLEY

[balks] No. I don’t. Can’t.

OBVERSE 1

So you can speak but not sing? No melodies running around in there? No favorite instruments? Nothing? Utter silence?

[MR. SHELLEY is obviously uncomfortable.]

MR. SHELLEY

[Shrugs.] No. Not silence.

OBVERSE 1

Then what do you hear when you listen to the world?

MR. SHELLEY

I hear … many voices. Crowds.

OBVERSE 1

Do they sing?

MR. SHELLEY

No.

OBVERSE 1

Then what?

[MR. SHELLEY looks down. Feels trapped. Waxes defensive.]

MR. SHELLEY

Babble rabble squabble.

OBVERSE 1

Are you projecting; is it yourself that you’re hearing? We wonder.

[Audience members hoot, applaud, mumble without rancor. Sheep bleet on the PA.]

Do you prefer trumpets or woodwinds? Perhaps pan pipes? Organ pipes? Bagpipes?

MR. SHELLEY

Stop asking me these stupid questions.

OBVERSE 1

No opinion? How will you know yourself?

MR. SHELLEY

(defiantly) I know who I am.

OBVERSE 1

Then speak. We wonder.

MR. SHELLEY

I. I’m a, ah, an executive.

OBVERSE 1

You make deals, do you?

MR. SHELLEY

Of course.

OBVERSE 1

Business deals?

MR. SHELLEY

(on more certain ground) Certainly. Very good at it.

OBVERSE 1

Describe some of your deals.

[MR. SHELLEY gets that hunted look, glances sideways.]

MR. SHELLEY

We … speculate. Prospect. Mine for stuff.

OBVERSE 1

Who is “we,” and what kind of stuff?

MR. SHELLEY

(airily) Oh, valuable stuff.

OBVERSE 1

Oil? Gold? Fissionables?

[MR. SHELLEY remains silent. To answer is to open the books.]

OBVERSE 1

And who would “we” be? Be specific. Name some names.

MR. SHELLEY

That’s privileged contractual information.

OBVERSE 1

Cook the books, did you?

[MR. SHELLEY remains mute.]

OBVERSE 1

Tax evasion. Bribery. Scam artist. Does that sound familiar?

[MR. SHELLEY shakes his head, sets his jaw.]

Not what you want to hear, eh? Then what do you want to hear? What would be music to your ears? How do you want to see yourself?

We could supply a mirror …

[MR. SHELLEY shudders.]

OBVERSE 1

(quickly) Okay. No mirror. I don’t think introspection is your strong suit. So let me tell you a story. Like this.

Once upon a time there was a village where people spoke the most musical language on earth. The land was fertile. Birds sang in collective choruses. The trees were verdant and happy. A village of prosperous farmers, satisfied citizens. A place with the welcome mat out all the time. Then, one day, in a palace far away, a captain of industry perused a map of the land where the village partook. He saw potential and possibility, he saw market fluctuations, he saw supply and demand, and he knew he could satisfy such needs as the world beheld. So he struck a deal, bought a piece of paper, a licence to explore, an expensive writ from some nameless, faceless official in the capital city of that land.

[MR. SHELLEY’s face lights up.]

OBVERSE 1

He guaranteed a cut of the proceeds, of the net, not the gross, after expenses, which would be exorbitant. He would furnish the expertise and the protection. There’s always trouble from some residents at the local level.

[MR. SHELLEY nods knowingly.]

He would drill and dig and bulldoze a road. He would foment a war and sell the various factions all sorts of armaments and ordnance. No trouble, sir, just the cost of doing business. No problem, just leave it to us. Oh, no, not me, not you, someone else. By your leave.

[MR. SHELLEY is openly laughing.]

And so it came to pass that the village sent her young men off to the front. They didn’t come back. The young women no longer sang with their lyrical lilt. The birds fell silent. The trees despaired. The very air stank and shuddered. Miserere agonistes.

[MR. SHELLEY has a well self-satisfied crinkle to his eyes, his posture bespeaks time well spent. He has discharged his office. His embassy is proud. Hail to the prince.]

OBVERSE 1

And now, sir, we come to the crux of the matter. We no longer wonder, your facial expression has revealed your true calling. There are many akin such as you. And it’s by your own hand that it’s given. So I ask you one last time. State, for the record, who and what you will be.

[to audience] You, out there, behold your reflection. Sir?

MR. SHELLEY

(decisively) I will rule my people. I’ll tell ’em what to do and they’ll obey me and do it.

OBVERSE 1

So be it. You’ll lead; they’ll follow.

[Claps hands.] Done!

[OBVERSE 1 parts the curtain with his cane, points it at MR. SHELLEY as a gesture of self-protection, becomes a by-my-leave.]

Would you care for a libation?

[Points at the fountain.] A stirrup cup? One for the road?

MR. SHELLEY

(icily) I don’t need any extra information.

OBVERSE 1

As you say. Second door. Just as you will; as we’ve agreed. Nux vomica!

[MR. SHELLEY scurries up the stairs stage left, opens door #2 with his left hand. Cue hubbub chirrup crowd noise in a cavernous space. MR. SHELLEY is unwilling to blink away from facing his enemy; OBVERSE 1 is likewise glued to the face-off. OBVERSE 1 holds his cane in a defensive military posture. MR. SHELLEY spits a parting poisonous curse at OBVERSE 1, “Imprecati veneviche!”, points a clawed hand at OBVERSE 1, then hops through the door, slams it shut behind him. OBVERSE 1 drops the cane, it clatters to the ground, useless, grabs at his throat, seems to strangle for a moment, then recovers speechless.]

[OBVERSE 2 speaks for both of them, OBVERSE 1 can only croak and mumble throughout the debriefing.]

OBVERSE 2

Yep, you floored him at first with the frail old guy act. Stole that from Musashi, did you?

[OBVERSE 1 grunts assent, picks up the cane, strokes it in spiral fashion, returns it to hang on the banister.]

OBVERSE 2

A tough nut to crack, that one. I thought the music question caught him off guard. Way to go (OBVERSE 1 nods, smiles) … the line worked. Very well. But he evaded. Dissembled. Lied. A thoroughly despicable opinionated person, sees the world in black and white. No sense of humor. Has all the answers. He’s right; you’re wrong. And stupid to boot. And, it’s always someone else’s fault. He sows division, foments discord, provides the weapons, and makes money off everyone’s anger. But you led him on, promised release, and delivered at your peril. Hoy.

[OBVERSE 1 strokes his larynx.]

OBVERSE 2

Much destructive enmity. Then, he flew his true colors. Facial expression, and that icy Nazi tone of voice, no extra information, and then the snake-eyed repercussive pattern, set up visually and

vocally. I don’t see how you could have avoided it. Alas, you gave him what he wanted to hear. Maledictae, in spades. The last exchange cost you. He hoped to prevent you from fulfilling your further office. He failed there. Guides can guide by example. Pantomime works.

[OBVERSE 1 nods that he understands.]

OBVERSE 2

Black magick repercussion does dissipate. Eventually. It gets lost within the eternal Now. Zero equals infinity. We’ll help it diminish.

[OBVERSE 2 grins, salutes OBVERSE 1, thumbs up.]

OBVERSE 2

He’ll lead his people. He didn’t specify who that might be. Hah! All hail Diminuendo, Lord of the Lemmings. That’ll keep him busy for a while. He agreed that he’ll thirst. So be it. A minor reprieve for humanity. Obie, I’ve requisitioned some help for you. They’re on the way. Be well.

[OBVERSE 1 regards the copper coins on the floor, grimaces with anger.]

OBVERSE 2

He was vain about his boots.

[OBVERSE 1 nods, sighs, kneels on the floor to pick the coins up.]

[Two young ladies in sky-blue body stockings descend from stage left to help him. They bring a large glass bowl, a towel, and a glass pitcher of lustral water. In addition, each carries a rolled-up diaphanous surplice to be worn during the dance sequence. Each wears a silver lyre emblem as a tiara, viz.: Erato, Urania, and Terpsichore. They kneel beside OBVERSE 1 to gather the coins into the glass bowl.]

OBVERSE 2

He had no problem stomping on kids. No conscience there. Did you notice that he ignored the portal? Didn’t look through the door either. Too intent on the slings and arrows.

[The three finish gathering, one young lady holds the bowl while the other pours water. OBVERSE 1 inserts his hands and washes the coins, cascading them through his fingers.]

OBVERSE 2

Defiled them. Washing is a virtue that is not well understood. Pontius Pilate washed his hands in public, thinking he’d absolved himself from blame, even though he gave the order. Ritual ablution seems to be a group work.

[One young lady lays the towel on the steps next to the wooden bowl. OBVERSE 1 fishes the coins out and lays them on the towel. They take turns patting them dry.]

OBVERSE 2

Now for the bag. A feminine deportment. Cavern, cauldron, bowl, womb, all mother beneficent.

[OBVERSE 1 folds the coins into a towel pouch, streams them back into the large wooden bowl, grunts satisfaction.]

OBVERSE 2

It is done. We’ve reversed his callous boot. He is of no further concern to us here. When next he appears, it will be through a different waystation. And they'll be ready for him.

[One of the two sisters sets the pitcher on the towel inside the bowl, brings it back to the steps stage right next to the fountain, slides it out of the way, then questions OBVERSE 2 with raised eyebrows. OBVERSE 2 sends her forth, palms up, arms out, she rejoins OBVERSE 1 and her sister.]

OBVERSE 2

Obie, now we’ll fix your voice. We have the dispensation. You’re about to get a traverse of the first order. A little one, fully alive. Hold her close and love her now.

[Naming divinities is a dubious anthropomorphic affectation. For the sake of stage directions, we must do so. See Appendix 4 for clarification.]

[What follows is a ceremonial healing. Each motion and gesture is germane. The musical accompaniment is highly suggestive. It need not be the same every time to allow the dancers room for interpretation. See Appendix 5 for some possibilities.]

[KYTH and SHEEL don their surplices, exit stage left briefly, cue music, and return with THARP, who is the prima danseuse. THARP brings a babe in arms, a doll capable of minimal arm movement. THARP wears a white body stocking with a blue surplice. She’s gagged with a white gauze bandage that trails down her back. She hands the babe off to OBVERSE 1, who cradles it with delight. THARP positions herself directly before him, her back to the audience. OBVERSE 1’s completely enraptured. The KYTHRA flank him facing the audience, hands to his shoulders, then they stroke his ears. Let the rite begin.]

[SHEEL and KYTH dance in mirror image, SHEEL at stage left, KYTH at stage right. They turn from OBVERSE 1, face downstage, clasp their inside hands in a high five, with their fingers splayed as antennae. They sashay towards OBVERSE 2, outer arms curved to embrace him, he responds in kind. At the glass, they lower the antennae, palms against the glass, OBVERSE 2 likewise in intimate communication across the veil. Their outer arms in spiral motion,

withershins. The KYTHRA then rotate their outer arms, SHEEL withershins and KYTH deosil. This completes the connection between the middle pillar and the furtherance of its conduit.

OBVERSE 2 stands back but remains in sight; he folds his arms as to cradle the child. Thus we can confer solidarity among OBVERSE 2 and SHEEL and KYTH]. They’re on the same page, treading Occam’s razor across the divide. Furthermore, they tap into the Kundalini of OBVERSE 1 and the vitality of the child. Innocence parallels worldly wise.

THARP dances the lemniscate directly in front of OBVERSE 1, first deosil, pausing at the crux, lifts OBVERSE 1’s sexual chakra, then completes the figure withershins, returns to the crux. THARP will repeat this pattern for so long as SHEEL and KYTH dance the macrospiral.

Now we tap into galaxies, nautiloids and our own DNA. They will enlarge their courses as the stairs allow. The dance is limited by the duration of the musical accompaniment.

The KYTHRA then spiral outward, to home in on OBVERSE 1. All three converge back on him, encircle him, hands clasped, several turns one way and then the other ad lib. When they stop, THARP will be directly in front facing OBVERSE 1. Now we establish the connection between THARP and OBVERSE 1. SHEEL and KYTH rotate the gauze bandage that’s muting THARP’s mouth, tie the ends so that it fits across OBVERSE 1’s mouth. So now there’s a double channel between them.

[During the ensuing silence, OBVERSE 2 reads the ceremonial liturgy.]

OBVERSE 2

Infinity is feminine.

While dancing the lemniscate

we demonstrate divinity

in expansive pantocrata.

[Language is a two-way street. Otherwise, there’s no point to it. Language is power when it is shared. Language conveys knowledge and knowledge furthers. Voice is the tool of choice for such a shared endeavor. There are others; consult Regardie for the Ibis-headed double channel wand of the adeptus major. Note the similarity to the mouth-to-mouth gauze strip bandage; that it heals the voice. Note its similarity to a telephone wire and a radar installation. Note the intent.]

[The charge is accumulated, the path is prepared. THARP backs away to stretch the channel taut. She and OBVERSE 1 are face to face, eye to eye, about two feet apart. Our purpose is what we see, hands facilitate purpose.]

[THARP runs her fingers along the gauze, coming and going. SHEEL and KYTH lock arms behind OBVERSE 1’s shoulders to encourage and imprison him. Their free hands cover his crotch. Since he can’t, dare not, drop the child, he is beholden to their will. A participant both willing and coerced. First they teach him the vowels, then the consonant gottal stops and sibilants, clicks, whistles, vibrato, and other lalia ad lib. He copies them, at first haltingly, then fluently. THARP pulls him forth with sensual erotic allure. Raises him up with palms outstretched, fingers splayed. He cannot look away.]

[The first vowel ia eee! Delivered by the three women in unison, sudden, stentorian, shades of Macbeth. The second sound is ahhh!, languid, satisfied, the cup quaffed in one swallow. The third is ohhh!, a revelation marvelous, an epiphany. For the IAO catechism, viz Crawley. Also the ancient calling forth of the vestals. A sorcerous incantation in any language. The liturgy continues.]

OBVERSE 2

Primordial spiral hypnotic

three faces of Eve devata

sorcelous fire erotic

interwoven intricate.

[After the basic echo lalia, they move to antiphonal response. SHEEL and KYTH whisper in his ears.]

SHEEL and KYTH

Pax vobiscum.

[OBVERSE 1 visibly relaxes. They use their free hands to enforce the cradling of the child, THARP bows, hands together in the beautitude. Then in a cylindrical encapsulation of the path to direct their commune. He’s a quick study; that’s why he holds the job.]

OBVERSE 1

P. Pah. Pak. S. Pax. Pax voh. Pax voh. B. Bis. Bisk. Biscum. Pax vobiscum. Peace be with you.

SHEEL and KYTH

And with your progeny.

[His eyes widen. They have his complete attention. Now they teach him to sing. He’s never done that before. Thus the evolution of their sister Polyhymnia.]

SHEEL and KYTH

We call forth choral descant,

Before primordial bubble

We were present at the font

Pontifex admirable

We were there when first we sang

Massed as one by firelight

Chanted, with the pipes of Pan

At Parnasses on the height.

We circle among the birch,

We are the choir stalwart

In the workings of the church,

Ours is the first and last art.

We’re emergent out of nothing

Celebrant the virgin birth,

We wear the cord and the cloth,

And we will, Lord, dirge the earth.

[First they hum a melody, then they croon a lullabye, then they’ll chant from the missal, perhaps the doxology, and much later he’ll serenade.

OBVERSE 2

[The benediction]

Call forth Kundalini rising,

Expand his lungs, loosen his tongue,

Salt of the earth, lust with his eyes,

Sisters! – stand with him. Thus it’s done.

[THARP severs the umbilicus with scissors that have been hidden in her costume, then removes the knotted parts.]

[The child reaches up and pulls OBVERSE 1’s gag away. THARP blows in OBVERSE 1’s mouth, SHEEL and KYTH into his ears. They relieve him of the child and dance off stage right, cue suitable music for the exit, cut music, in the sudden silence, much laughter and child giggles offstage right.]

[OBVERSE 1 does several turns, palpates his larynx, lets out a series of do re mi’s, confers with OBVERSE 2.]

OBVERSE 2

[He points at the fallen bandages.] You gonna keep that as a momento?

OBVERSE 1

[Picks them up, gazes at the wad.] Such wonder in the least of things.

OBVERSE 2

Massive energy dispensed to get a living child’s body through here. Apparently you’re worth it.

OBVERSE 1

(humbled) Such vitality shall not be short-shrifted. I’ll continue at it. More to come. I can taste it.

OBVERSE 2

Synesthesia?

OBVERSE 1

More like a bow wave of remorse, anger, something very strange is about to happen. Any inklings?

OBVERSE 2

The three dancers marshal way more clout than any common demon. You’ve got them in you. Their breath is on you. The life force is channeled through you.

(deprecatingly) I believe you’ll manage.

[OBVERSE 1 drapes the gauze over a banister, consults the book.]

[Sudden gunshot from stage left, orange/red flare from offstage left, a 40ish man stumbles through the curtains, pistol in hand, sprawls on the floor, drops the gun, OBVERSE 1 kicks it under the stairs, regards the man steadily, sits on the steps stage right to see what happens.]

[OBVERSE 2 backs away, slide mirror into place. VINNIE gets up, dusts himself off. He’s covered in what seems to be chalk or flour. He takes off his sunglasses, wipes them on his shirt, puts them on, thinks better of it, and sticks them in his vest pocket. Then he notices OBVERSE 1.]

OBVERSE 1

(affably) Nice of you to drop in.

[VINNIE goes to the mirror, examines himself, tries to brush off the white stuff, takes the gauze from the banister, dips it in the fountain and washes his face.]

[OBVERSE 1 gets the towel from the bowl on the stairs, hands it over.]

OBVERSE 1

(helpfully) Here. Try this.

[VINNIE washes his face, drops the towel and the gauze in a wad on the floor. Notices the book; it slams shut.]

OBVERSE 1

You’re white as a ghost. How’d you get here?

VINNIE

(at a loss) I … I fell. Into nothing. Out of nowhere. A strange place. Queer time. And you?

OBVERSE 1

Oh, I crawled out of a hole.

[Strings him along.] Seems we’re in the same boat.

VINNIE

Um, what kind of boat?

OBVERSE 1

Maybe a lifeboat. Do you remember anything?

VINNIE

No. It’s a blank. But something must have happened.

OBVERSE 1

Maybe you washed it away. The fountain does that. Did you swallow any?

VINNIE

(dubiously) A little. Sort of.

OBVERSE 1

Then it may come back. Memory is a slippery little devil.

VINNIE

So we’re stuck here?

OBVERSE 1

Apparently.

[VINNIE looks around, sees the four doors.]

VINNIE

[He points.] But there’s ways out?

OBVERSE 1

Not yet.

VINNIE

The hell you say.

[He ascends the stairs, tries each door, finds them barred. OBVERSE 1 makes locking motions with his hand. Defeated, returning, VINNIE sits opposite OBVERSE 1, gazes intently.]

So what?

OBVERSE 1

(non-committally) Usually people figure out who they are and where they’ve been before they decide where to go next. You’ve got a problem.

VINNIE

I’ve got nothing. Other people been through here?

OBVERSE 1

(cheerfully) Yep. Lots.

VINNIE

So I can leave?

OBVERSE 1

Yep.

VINNIE

Man.

[He thinks it over, shrugs.]

Nothing. Now what? You seem to be the expert.

OBVERSE 1

Hardly that. Just another inmate.

[The two men stare at each other for some time, daring the other to blink first.]

OBVERSE 1

(triumphant) Ha! You blinked.

VINNIE

(sourly) Agreed.

OBVERSE 1

(solicitous) Would you like some help?

VINNIE

Might as well. Or nothing happens.

OBVERSE 1

That’s right.

[Right on cue a blue-clad messenger strides onstage from the platform stage left, hands a black loose-leaf binder with a red tassel to OBVERSE 1, drops a silver coin in the bowl, then leaves via the stairs out stage right.]

[VINNIE, noting those potential portals, follows the messenger. He checks out stage right, immediately backtracks to stage left, similarly returns to his seat, defeated.]

OBVERSE 1

(sympathetically) What’s it like out there?

VINNIE

Nothing. There’s nothing there at all. I’m stymied. Came in here from nowhere, can’t leave into empty space, apparently got amnesia in my head.

OBVERSE 1

Memory loss is usually the result of some trauma. Something inflicted on you by someone else or, more usually, onto your own self. Ready?

VINNIE

Is it going to be bad?

OBVERSE 1

Probably. Usually is when they bring these folders. Black and red. Not a good omen. Ready?

VINNIE

(dodges) Who’s the blue uniform?

OBVERSE 1

Messenger. From Management. Let’s have it out. Third and last chance. Ready?

[VINNIE stares somberly, nods.]

OBVERSE 1

You have to ask for it out loud. It’s like making a wish.

VINNIE

Okay. Agreed. Help me out of here. Tell me who and what I am.

OBVERSE 1

So be it. Attend. This won’t hurt a bit.

[OBVERSE 1 peruses the binder, looks up.] Gaetano Di Vincenzo, Vinnie the Gat.

VINNIE

[He nods.] Do you work here?

OBVERSE 1

I do. Says here you’re a suicide. Gun shot by your own hand.

[VINNIE nods, stares at OBVERSE 1.]

OBVERSE 1

You’re from the Portuguese, a truly insular clan that owns its women and doesn’t tolerate exogamy. No marriages outside the extended family.

[VINNIE claps his right hand over his mouth, slumps a bit.]

OBVERSE 1

Your brother’s daughter was censured for that. Then expelled and marked for elimination. You were the mechanic contracted to kill her.

[OBVERSE 1 reads some more, without looking up.]

OBVERSE 1

I lost my voice. Just recently got it back. I know something about it. Did you admire her?

[VINNIE moves the palm of his right hand to cover his right eye, so he can see through the splayed fingers with his left eye.]

OBVERSE 1

(gently) Vinnie, you’re far beyond the arm of the police. This is not a collar. Nor do we judge. My job is to help you get where you’re going. You decide where. And you decide if what you did was worthy or not.

VINNIE

Or not. And who is Management?

OBVERSE 1

A higher authority. Much higher. I don’t know whereall. Sometimes they send documentation like this.

[He taps on the binder.] Photographs. Your niece was very nice. Did your wife know? Let it out.

[VINNIE covers his right ear.]

VINNIE

She knew. Everyone did. There were … jealousies. I took, I demanded the contract as my right. No one else should do that. I wouldn’t hear of it. Everyone knew. You can’t hide something like that.

OBVERSE 1

So what happened?

VINNIE

Was she …?

OBVERSE 1

Oh, she’s fine. Alive and kicking. Lucky with her young man. They’re doing what they should be doing. … So what happened?

[VINNIE removes his hand from his ear, hunkers down, elbows on his knees.]

VINNIE

It was in a weird place. Sort of like this one. Other worldly. I don’t understand it. Not how we got in there, nor how I left. Very strange. A dream. Maybe.

OBVERSE 1

Hah! Good. Hold onto that thought. While you’re here, thinking is real. And dream is the better part of reality. Wrap your head around that.

VINNIE

(dubious) What happens if I just keep on thinking nothing?

OBVERSE 1

Self-image erodes. Thought dissipates. Realization no longer holds. You eventually disappear.

VINNIE

Into … what?

OBVERSE 1

Back into the mindfulness of god. Divinity. Whatever you call it now. You won’t recognize it because you can’t see yourself. That’s why we supply a mirror. Right over there.

VINNIE

So. How’s that work?

OBVERSE 1

It’s really very simple. You look at yourself. You know it’s you; your reflection waves as you do. Logic dictates that it’s you. And if you like what you see, that’s well and good. If you don’t, you have the opportunity to change into what will become you. It’s your choice. You can’t leave until you know who you are and where you are going.

VINNIE

(vacillates) And … but.

OBVERSE 1

Those doors are on self-imposed locks. Now it’s true that I keep the keys, but there’s no point in sending you off into nothing. That’d be a waste of the spirit. The source of everything doesn’t like to be wasted. Bottom line says that nothing gets you nothing. Why bother. You ready to get on board with the program?

VINNIE

(capitulates) Okay. I give up. I do remember. Everything. No holds barred?

OBVERSE 1

Agreed. All is fair in self-improvement. No offence taken. Let it out. Drop some baggage.

VINNIE

There seems to be a lot of it laying about.

[VINNIE returns to the mirror, traces his aura with his hands. During the following discourse on baggage, VINNIE mistakenly believes that OBVERSE 1 intends to do it for him, and thus responds with body language. OBVERSE 1 actually faces the audience and addresses it.]

OBVERSE 1

There’s many forms of baggage, most of it psychological or outright psychiatric. But we have to show you something, hence the suitcases, canes, pillows, lost artifacts tendered by the transient passengers. Some leave shoes, boots, eyeglasses, hats, stuff like that defines them. Vinnie, you brought a gun, in effect your prosthetic left hand.

[VINNIE holds up his hand and examines it. ]

OBVERSE 1

Baggage can be uniquely personal. Mostly it’s how you view yourself. Clothing, hairstyle, skin color, memories of how other people treated you and how you responded. Some are deep-seated grudges, phobias, complete fantasies. People live according to their phantoms. It’s amazing that anything gets done. We see what we want to see.

[VINNIE makes binoculars with his hands, examines his reflection, reaches forward and touches his reflected eyes with his fingers, realizes that he’s on to something unusual.]

[Drop projection screen. Slide mirror aside, fade in VINNIE’s primary aura as a back-lit projection onto the scrim screen behind the glass.]

[VINNIE sways from side to side as if trying to look around and behind his own reflection.]

OBVERSE 1

[to audience] Much personal baggage is familial, how your siblings and parents treat you.

[to VINNIE] That’s how you develop self-image. How you relate to intimates, to friends, how you associate with casual acquaintances, how you fit in with your core tribal group, and farther afield.

[VINNIE runs both hands all over his reflection, fingers splayed out.]

OBVERSE 1

[to audience] There’s heavy psychological baggage instilled into us at the ethnic level. Language barriers evolve; nationalities are defined.

[VINNIE gives it up, returns to the left steps, sits facing OBVERSE 1.]

OBVERSE 1

[to audience] In the here and now, we can take some respite, and examine what’s real. Sometimes we even get to change course, change our core personalities. That’s rare. I’ve only seen it a few times.

VINNIE

What am I seeing? There, in the mirror? Help me out here.

[Slowly fade out aura projection.]

OBVERSE 1

Ha! Second request and so noted. (grins) Just ask and it shall be given.

VINNIE

(similar grin) Oh, I’m not that religious.

(reconsiders) Uh, really?

OBVERSE 1

Well, within reason. It has to apply to you.

[VINNIE nods that he understands, then looks back at his slowly fading deportment in the mirror.]

OBVERSE 1

Sure. What you’re looking at is your aura. Every self-cognizant entity uses it for recognition.

VINNIE

A little bit more. In simple terms.

OBVERSE 1

Okay. Back up for a moment. Thought, thinking, rules the universe. Since thought is an abstraction, there’s really nothing to show. And yet thought mediates between spirit and physical form. So we can’t ignore it. We construct mental images of ourselves. That’s good enough for ourselves, but not good enough for others to see us. Likewise between them and us. So the aura is a template. A dark black shining ribbon that follows the perimeter. Just outside our mental body. This is really useful because it allow us the option of change. Change is what life is about. The aura is there when spirit indwells the infant, prevails throughout life, and flees its form just before death. The aura is also how the physical body heals itself. It’s the means to immortality. Capiche?

VINNIE

And spirit is forever?

OBVERSE 1

That’s right.

VINNIE

How’s that work?

OBVERSE 1

The universe thinks itself into existence. Some say she sings herself into the light. Physicists say it explodes out of nothing, out of infinite potential. The qabalists say out of the limitless negative light. I personally believe that all these can be true at the same time. Science and religion meet in the arc of art.

VINNIE

You know a lot about it, huh?

OBVERSE 1

When I crawled out of my hole, I knew very little. One of the perks of my job is that I get to pick the minds of everyone who passes through here. There’s been a lot of that. And so I’ve learned a

lot of big words, obscure concepts, general weirdness. One thing’s for sure, the more I learn, the less I know about everything. Infinite is hard to grasp.

(nods knowingly)

[While VINNIE digests that, OBVERSE 1 sorts through the binder on his lap, raises an eyebrow at one of the photographs.]

VINNIE

(attentively) So?

OBVERSE 1

Well … you’re … interesting.

VINNIE

How so?

OBVERSE 1

You’ve already said that you remember the passage. Tell me about that.

VINNIE

Sure. I took the contract on Ambie because it absolutely had to be done right.

OBVERSE 1

Ambie is your niece?

VINNIE

My older brother’s only daughter. We grew up together in the same house.

OBVERSE 1

And why was that contract issued?

VINNIE

Because she’d taken up with some Cossack from the Caucasus. My family doesn’t allow that. Only the Portuguese gentry will do.

OBVERSE 1

[He shows the photo.] Is this her?

VINNIE

That’s right. Ambergris di Vincenzo. I never did get her guy’s name.

OBVERSE 1

Samovar. Of an ancient lineage.

VINNIE

(thaws somewhat) Ah, Ambie and Sammie. Seems fitting.

OBVERSE 1

They’re doing fine. Continue. How did you find her?

VINNIE

(ingenuous) Oh, I just followed her. I always know where my mark is.

OBVERSE 1

(pensive) That might have something to do with your preoccupation with your aura. That’s how we position ourselves in space. Might also apply to communal consciousness. After all, we are a gregarious species.

VINNIE

(attentive) But. And so?

OBVERSE 1

There’s something I don’t understand about how you got here.

[OBVERSE 1 leafs through the binder.]

Here, look at this. Is this the place?

VINNIE

Yeah. I remember that. Two big round windows, kinda like eyes, and a revolving millstone in the center. Huge thing. Dunno what it’s for.

(keenly) Watcha thinking?

OBVERSE 1

Vinnie, how many people do you see in this photo?

VINNIE

Three. Ambie, her guy, and me. So?

OBVERSE 1

Look again. Right here.

[He points.] Who’s that?

VINNIE

You’re pointing at nothing. Is this some kinda trick question?

OBVERSE 1

(very seriously) Definitely not a trick. I am confused.

VINNIE

About what?

OBVERSE 1

It’s said that photographs don’t lie. We’re looking at the same photo but we’re seeing something else. I distinctly see four people. You three as you’ve said, and one other. A black woman with rainbow ribbons in her hair. Something’s up. Furthermore, I have this sneaking suspicion that the place in this photo you’re shown in doesn’t really exist in solid space like this one that we’re in right now.

[OBVERSE 1 taps the photo and gestures to their surroundings.]

OBVERSE 1

Cut from the same cloth. A mental construct. Obviously something really necessary.

VINNIE

Who’s the woman?

OBVERSE 1

I hesitate to say. How can we behold the face of darkness?

VINNIE

(nonplussed) What’s it about?

OBVERSE 1

More like what are you about to consider. You’ve decided to make a major change in your existence. You’ve been going about it methodically. Twice to the mirror.

[Fade in secondary aura back-lit projection, an ovoid that takes up the entire screen. A shadow of the first projection is centered within, and there’s a spiral and two rings swimming about the human form. Also other symbols and icons ad lib.]

[OBVERSE 1 turns a block of pages in the binder, is confronted with a whole new set of photographic images.]

OBVERSE 1

I think maybe I get it. You’re some sort of incunabula.

VINNIE

What’s that?

OBVERSE 1

A fancy word for the first time of anything. How stuff crosses the abyss. A major change affecting a lot of people beyond yourself. I think, I think you had help before you even knew it. You didn’t arrive here suddenly, you took several mental steps to make it this far. I must say, you’re unusual, you’re an enigma, welcome. I hope to watch you get where you’re going.

[VINNIE approaches the mirror a third and last time. Runs his fingers through the various icons and spirals, molds them into compliance with his aura.]

[Cue mirror backlit video with sync audio track.]

[VINNIE addresses his aura. Each station is accompanied by specific postures and gestures. See Appendix 6. When each station morphs into his liking, it’s punctuated by a tone from the celeste on the PA. Ascending from low C to middle C.]

[OBVERSE 1 observes attentively, binder open on his lap. He’s not sure what’s going on until the first celeste tone. Then he comes to a conclusion.]

OBVERSE 1

(to audience) I believe we’re witness to The Presence capital P. What we’re seeing is none less than a transcendent manipulation. This is rare. Most who pass through here change their face, name, and place. But keep their core personality. But Vinnie is working something that I don’t quite understand. Observe.

[VINNIE changes the hands’ icon. After the third bell, OBVERSE 1 lectures the audience]

OBVERSE 1

Hands are how we apprehend our ambition, grab hold of it. Hands are how we complete our purpose. Hands are how we realize truth. Conform to divine will. I am astounded. Vinnie is way more than he first appears. This is magnificent.

[OBVERSE 1 watches somewhat slack-jawed as VINNIE continues his self ministrations. OBVERSE 1 occasionally flips back and forth in the binder on his knees, comparing before and after images. When VINNIE is satisfied, and as the last winged orb arpeggios fade away, he steps back and resumes his seat. His demeanor has changed considerably. From hesitant help me out here to confident I know where I’m going. From this point until he leaves the stage, he leads the conversation.]

[Fade video sequence from bottom to top. Slide projection screen aside. Slide mirror back into place.]

[Henceforth VINNIE divides his attention between the AUDIENCE and OBVERSE 1. His voice is pitched slighter lower and he looks them directly in the eye. He uses the royal “we” and personal “I” interchangeably so we get the impression that they are one and the same. Likewise he moves from past to present to future tenses seamlessly so they become one faultless now.]

VINNIE

[to OBVERSE 1] To answer your unspoken question.

[to AUDIENCE] When we essay to walk the earth, we prefer to do so anonymously. I am incognito before you. We encounter you as would a thief in the night. All the better that I may interact with all of you.

[to OBVERSE 1] We maintain my camouflage as long as possible. But eventually I must transit from one life to the next and that absolutely requires that we negotiate one of these waystations like any incarnate being.

[He indicates the 4 doors with a sweep of his left hand.]

In this we are identical. What I personally do is draw forth the essential stationmasters, satisfy them as to who and what we are, and then perform the obligatto of transformation that you have just seen. Go ahead, satisfy your curiosity.

[VINNIE indicates the big book. The book riffles all its pages. OBVERSE 1 sets the binder beside him, consults the book, closes it, returns to his place.]

OBVERSE 1

(hands on knees, unctuous) Sir?

VINNIE

[to AUDIENCE] In astrological terms, as Gaetano Di Vincenzo, I was Mars and Mercury in Scorpio. As Fonso Wieck I am Jupiter in Cancer. At some future time as yet to be determined, I will be Uranus and Neptune conjoined in Pisces. My house contains many mansions. Every domicile is our house. All may partake of and live therein. Be welcome. (smiles) Take off your shoes and sample the pomegranate wine.

[to OBVERSE 1] And?

OBVERSE 1

But?

VINNIE

[He holds his right hand up, forefinger circled to thumb, palm forward, fingers splayed as does the Christ of the Apocalypse.]

[to AUDIENCE] How can I justify acting as a mercenary, seemingly callous killer?

[Slide mirror away. OBVERSE 2 appears behind the glass.]

VINNIE

Humans are the only species capable of killing for pleasure. I personally consider this anathema. It has been our purpose to intercede. Alas, we can only do this one on one. We cannot as one entity change the egregore of the world in a single working. So I triage. I mitigate. We do so with compassion. Inflict as little pain and exact as little tribulation as possible. Did I not do so, one of you would have. And you are cruel and self-serving. I despise this. We have and will continue to wear this away from your communal psyche. It is long in coming and continues indefinitely. You are formidable homonyms. Our work is worth the effort, it’s all a one-pointed effort. This justifies my personal ambition. We complete ourselves in your act. The stage stretches forth into infinity. You too may partake of transcendent formation. The choice is yours. As you’ve seen me do, so may you. Let your days be fulfilled with your desire.

[to OBVERSE 1] Your third question?

OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2

Was there?

VINNIE

Ah! Fair enough. Yes, there was. I regret one of my mercenary jobs.

[2 boys in Cambodian garb enter from stage left and observe from the wings. They clasp hands.]

We were contacted by an ambassador from the palace in Cambodia. The king’s sister wanted her child to be king rather than his twin sons. She justified this by a specious argument that two should not rule. I took that contract and injected curare via a blowgun dart into each child.

[The boys feel the back of their heads.]

They died painlessly. The only alternative would have been a machete and unmarked shallow grave in the jungle. As it was, the official news reported that they died of avian flu. No autopsy, much public grief, the palace intrigue continues. Assassinations are common in that part of the world. I, we, truly regret our accomplice act in this heinous practice. Law seems to be more of a convenience than a rigor. That one work, more than any of the several dozen others that we’ve been party to, decided me to quit the business.

[to OBVERSE 1] And?

OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2

Sir. What would you now?

VINNIE

[He stares fixedly.]

To atone for the capital crimes I’ve committed.

[VINNIE make a tent with his fingertips and stares through the aperture.]

OBVERSE 1

I take it that you’ll do this personally?

[The boys move a little forward to listen carefully.]

VINNIE

I must. My conscience dictates it.

[VINNIE turns to the audience.]

Sometimes the parties to a transgression will exchange roles to learn what the other experienced. They thus hope to balance out, to expiate, to forgive. Usually if the crime is really serious, their back-and-forth intervention reverberates across multiple lifetimes. They fall into feud and vendetta. Sometimes their fight flares into full-blown conflagration. That’s how wars start. There’s always some despot waiting to exploit bad blood. Resonant frequencies spike, there’s a sudden flash point. Everyone loses. This is what we fear most. Humans are a vengeful lot. They take pleasure in exacting an eye for an eye. It’s our, my job to stop this when and as we can. But we are few; you are many. We intercede; we interpolate. We throw our weight against the wheel, but the wheel is ponderous. Inertia counts. So is it.

[to OBVERSE 1] We do work concurrently. Much can be done for all at once. But incarnate we have our limits. Ultimately it comes down to one on one as the best method of effecting change. So that’s what I will do.

OBVERSE 1

I think I see a solution.

VINNIE

Yes you do. You’re very good with kids. Viva takes notice. She admires you. Never doubt it. You, too, will enter the hourglass and leave your mark.

OBVERSE 1

[to OBVERSE 2] Certainly. We’re on with that. We’re one.

OBVERSE 2

Obviously.

OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2

[to VINNIE] And you? Sir.

VINNIE

[He takes a deep breath.] I will become, I am, now for a lifetime, an itinerant musician. I forsake the sea and sail the earth, from fairground to meadow to mountain passage, I enter the

hourglass in a simpler time, before the billowing chimneys and chattering presses. I play for birds and trees.

OBVERSE 1

(musing) … Hmmm …Musician … How will you do that?

VINNIE

First, by my grandfather’s veena, a fine instrument with an ebony fingerboard. Then a cithern from a luthier in Bucharest. Then the psaltery that Andrea brings with her, a family heirloom, with bronze wound strings. I supply the silver fingerpicks. And lastly, a theorbo from a shop in Marseilles. We will see it made. All harps of a different stripe.

I am a family man. Andrea wanted that but couldn’t because of my line of work. Now she can. We spend much time together. I extirpate our separations. She bears children. She names them Vadoma and Donka. We teach them the love of the land, how to live well, beholden to none but ourselves. No intrigues, no royal machinations, no machiavellian plots. We teach self-reliance. We show by example. We welcome you as our own. Please.

[OBVERSE 1 beckons to the boys, they join hands with VINNIE.]

VINNIE

I swear this before the witnesses. I devote my lifetime to you both. You will see what few children see. We take you to the point of your conception. A magickal place in the Camargue on the south coast of France. While your mom and I are stalking young horses for our wagons, you watch. A man comes whom you need not fear nor be reticent with and observe while he sketches our wagons in his book. Know that he will paint from that book when he gets back to his studio. It will be August in 1888. Remember him. He will tell you his name: Vincent.

[to OBVERSE 1] Show them.

[OBVERSE 1 hands over the binder, open to the paintings. Shows it to them and then to the AUDIENCE.]

OBVERSE 2

Vincent was unique. Not a great technician but driven by his art, working in his element. He left the world richer by far. Remember him.

[OBVERSE 1 takes the binder and places it in the niche under the big book. Stands next to the mirror.]

VINNIE

[to the boys] You’ll take me as I am?

[They agree enthusiastically.]

VINNIE

Then so mote it be.

[VINNIE leads the boys to the fountain.]

[He dips both hands, anoints their brows.]

Clarity. Clarity.

[He dips again and touches their ears.]

Comprehension. Comprehension.

[He dips once more and inscribes their palms.]

Continuity. Continuity.

[VINNIE and the boys ascend the stairs stage right, he shepherds them before him, on the landing they turn to face OBVERSE 1.]

VINNIE

[to OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2] Your last question and desire?

OBVERSE 1

Sir, how may we emulate what you do?

OBVERSE 2

Something practical.

VINNIE

I will send you an instrument. Do you wish this, sir?

OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2

(fervently) Oh yes, please, and again. We’ll play to while away our tenure here and now.

VINNIE

(decisively) Done! We will see to it.

[to the boys] Come. Into the great wide open.

[He waves to the fourth door] Open!

[The lantern flares, they leave, the light through the door flashes rainbow in quick succession, red through to indigo, a horse whinnies, girlish laughter.]

[During the debrief, OBVERSE 1 busies himself with some simple housekeeping, picks up the wad of gauze, picks up the towel, wipes down the fountain pedestal, straightens the kite, retrieves the gun and tucks it in his pocket.]

OBVERSE 1

Well. That’s a surprise.

OBVERSE 2

It’s like watching a clown peel off layers of greasepaint.

OBVERSE 1

I had no idea that something was up till he started pushing the colors around.

OBVERSE 2

A self-succession. Usually, in the circus lineages, an elder will confer the face onto his protégé. So a true apostolic succession, almost religious, certainly old and in the way.

OBVERSE 1

It was the rainbow wings that did it for me. Then I knew.

OBVERSE 2

What does that say?

OBVERSE 1

(pensive) Rainbows are how nature displays herself. How the numinous and awesome counsel gets passed along. You?

OBVERSE 2

From here rainbows look like a messenger service. How wishes are posited, how wishes are granted. How the spirit negotiates the deep.

OBVERSE 1

The Presence stepping off a cliff in full control.

[The book riffles open, OBVERSE 1 consults it. ]

OBVERSE 1

Hah! Here it is. Fonso and Andrea Wieck, Crakow natives, two daughters, extensive travels, much knowledge held forth, close to the land, excellent with horses, oral tradition, isolationist tendencies to be carried back and forward from his previous life, nor particularly hidebound, willing to let his women lead, a world-class musician, do you think?

OBVERSE 2

He promised. Count on it.

OBVERSE 1

[He flexes his fingers.] Well-regarded by his fellows, always welcome at every venue, there’s a whole page of attendant reviews and praise. Hum, the two daughters go down to the Spanish flu epidemic of 1913 together. Last entry is that he freed his horses. Good people.

OBVERSE 2

Agreed.

OBVERSE 1

Any way that I could get to play with him? Sitting next to an expert is priceless.

OBVERSE 2

I’ll look into it. Maybe some sort of dispensation. Pull some strings.

[OBVERSE 2 glances to stage left.]

OBVERSE 2

Look lively. Incoming. You’ve a visitor.

[HAKIM enters from stage left platform level. He’s all decked out in a sky-blue uniform, creased trousers, blue suede shoes. He carries a diplomatic pouch on a shoulder strap. It bears the silver- winged escutcheon of the messenger service and he wears a similar emblem in miniature on his collar. They greet each other warmly. He drops two pennies in the bowl and then shows a gold coin for them to admire. He places it reverently in the bowl.]

HAKIM

[to OBVERSE 1 with a nod to OBVERSE 2] I’ve brought you a gift from mom.

OBVERSE 1

Talia. How’s she doing?

HAKIM

Driving a school bus. Last time around while we fled east, those times in the truck were good times. Lol.

OBVERSE 2

Driving, with kids. Perfect.

OBVERSE 1

We keep the good times. I wish her well.

HAKIM

I’ll tell her in a dream. Here, I brought you this.

[He removes TALIA’s headscarf from the pouch. It’s folded as a wrapper for … something.]

OBVERSE 1

I know what that is. Remarkable that you could bring it.

HAKIM

I think they’re grooming me for management. So I get preferentials across the divide.

[OBVERSE 1 smells the package, gets the piano stool and reverently sets the pack on it.]

HAKIM

I think you’re up for a promotion.

OBVERSE 1

How so? And how does that work?

HAKIM

It’s not official yet. But probably they’ll give you more latitude.

[OBVERSE 1 rotates the stool.]

OBVERSE 2

Like making decisions about who comes through here?

HAKIM

Probably not that. More like in how the place feels, what it looks like, where stuff enters and leaves. You could lose the tunic and wear what you like. You could change the décor. Tweak the furniture, move the couch, install a desk. Nah. I’m just being facetious. I don’t know what they have in mind. Try something, see if it sticks. I’m pretty sure you can have it your way.

OBVERSE 2

Food deliveries?

HAKIM

Why not? We’re allowed to taste the universe. In fact, encouraged.

OBVERSE 1

I feel like I’m getting closer to earth.

HAKIM

Hold that thought. Earth needs you.

[OBVERSE 1 gives the stool another turn.]

OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2

We’re willing. Say when.

HAKIM

I’ll pass that along. Don’t hold your breath. The wheels are ponderous but they grind exceedingly fine. You are grist for the mill. All comes to pass in its own good time.

[HAKIM clasps OBVERSE 1 by the hand.]

HAKIM

I wish I could stay longer to chitchat. Gotta make my rounds and tend to business. Be well!

[He offers a two-finger salute to OBVERSE 2.]

HAKIM

One last bit, remember this.

[He points to the bottom button on OBVERSE 1’s tunic.]

Don’t, I repeat, don’t lose this one. Wear it on a chain. Many depend on its function. See you again and keep it up.

[HAKIM leaves via the stage right stairs, into a limbo where only the winged few dare to leap.]

[OBVERSE 1 moves the stool to front and center stage, turns it a few times till it’s positioned to his liking.]

OBVERSE 2

(portentous) Someday looking back on this moment, it will be a turning point. So.

[OBVERSE 1 stoops to one knee, takes the parcel, smells it, then carefully lays it almost open. He stands, takes it by one corner and sweeps it up and across the stage in a single decisive arc, scattering thousands of seeds, all kinds, winged maple, hollyhock crescents, geraniums, grapevine, flowers, cornucopia, across the platform, stairs and landing. Then he lets fly with a shrieking ululation, hand cupped off and onto his mouth.]

[Scrim down.]

[Go to black]

[Fade up the Prayer Cycle.]

ACT III

Scene 1

[Fade Prayer Cycle.]

[Dim house lights, cue audio track to coincide with live Celtic harp solo played by OBVERSE 1.]

[Scrim up.]

[Same basic set but much overgrown. Flowering vines along the banisters, a potted clivia in full bloom by the fountain, potted geraniums spaced about, calendula, salvia. Massive tree boles front and flank the stage. Each second-level door is crowned with holly, cranberry, bittersweet. The lamps above the doors are now antique brass with stained glass panes: red, blue, yellow, orange. Various potted bushes set at the perimeter.]

[The place has been much cleaned up. Most of the pillows and valises etc. are gone. The token bowl is now a substantial brass banded coffer on a dolly, a large bowl sits on top with the silver tokens. The big book pedestal holds a complete set of tasselled binders. The hanging cane is a caduceus. The hourglass is still there. The kite has become a large green luna moth capable of minimal wing motion. The hoop is set before the stairs stage right to mirror the life preserver at stage left. The hoop is now a backlit projection screen for various symbols, e.g.: Saturn, stars, moon. The circular frame is a snake with red glowing eyes, capable of minimal head motion and tongue flicker. Center stage on a verdant forest floor is a circular firepit with a real cedarwood fire. ]

[Brief interval to allow the music to coalesce.]

[Lights up, it’s night, moonlight filters down through the canopy.]

[OBVERSE 1 enters from the platform stage left, with his harp, sits at the fire on a pillow facing stage left. He plays in Celtic mode in synch with the audio track.]

[Two fauns, FAUNUS and FAUNA, enter from stage left where they linger while OBVERSE 1 sings the “Song of the Nightwatch.” After which FAUNUS accompanies OBVERSE 1 for a duet, syrinx and harp.]

[The whole time that the fauns are onstage, we become aware how lively the woodland is at night. Various holographic creatures cross the stage. A wolf wanders in, passes FAUNUS and FAUNA, sits by OBVERSE 1 while he plays, then circles the fire and leaves by stage right. A great horned owl crosses from stage right to stage left. A stag barely pokes its head through the

brush among the tree boles. Smaller birds flit from branch to branch. Curious glittering eyes scan the scene from arboreal perches. A rabbit appears briefly from behind the coffer at stage left.]

[FAUNUS and FAUNA wear boots that simulate hooves. They’re of equal stature, about 5 ft, hirsute, and both wear jackets. Both shirts are embroidered with flowers. He carries the syrinx on a lanyard and sports a bota wineskin on a sling. She carries a pouch on a pole. He wields a staff with a carved finial. Both fauns wear short hollow horns at the brow, which contain wireless mics to enhance their voices with subtle FX, more bass and flange.]

[Their voices are routed to several speakers set under the stairs so the FX can follow them around.]

OBVERSE 1

[He sings in synch with the audio track.]

[Song of the Nightwatch]

That my children may safely sleep

That no mother may ever weep

For her daughter or for her son

That no cruelty or wrath be done

That no evil can befall them

Grace, clemency for all of them.

[The accompaniment ends, fade the track, after which OBVERSE 1 and FAUNUS continue to play ad lib. FAUNUS and FAUNA enter, pause at the coffer, FAUNA draws two large gold tokens from her pouch, hands one to FAUNUS, they both toss theirs into the bowl which is perched on a heap of pennies in the coffer.]

[OBVERSE 1 pulls two more pillow bolsters from under the stairs, stage right, and places them in invitation around the fire. Then he meets FAUNUS halfway, stage left, before the coffer, hands outstretched in greeting. FAUNUS takes him by the hands and speaks the formal welcome.]

FAUNUS

Welcome to the forest. You’ve become one of us, worthy of mutual trust. Behold the angelus that marks our communion.

[Nightingale on PA.]

[They sit, FAUNA facing the audience across the fire, FAUNUS and OBVERSE 1 facing each other.]

[Slide mirror away, OBVERSE 2 observes the entire scene from behind the glass. He’s backlit by a very dim, barely perceptible lilac haze.]

[Show cornucopia on hoop screen, cue forest murmurs from Siegfried to underscore ensuing dialog, interject occasional bird calls.]

[OBVERSE 1 looks at his palms, flexes his fingers, rubs his hands tentatively, makes grasping motions, curls his fingers, then laces them with a puzzled expression, gazes at FAUNUS, something has just happened that he does not understand. OBVERSE 1 maintains his silence, waits it out.]

[FAUNA removes a wooden bowl from her pouch, sets it beside the fire.]

[When FAUNUS and FAUNA converse with each other, they use a densely packed patois.]

FAUNUS

[to FAUNA, anticipation] Honeycake?

FAUNA

(self-satisfied) Freshly baked.

FAUNUS

(appreciative) Flaky crust.

FAUNA

[nods to OBVERSE 1] Feed his lust.

FANUS

(cognizant) Proteinase?

FAUNA

[She agrees.] Amylase.

FAUNUS

[He understands, connects dots.] Steroid fix?

FAUNA

(slight leer) Sexual tricks.

FAUNUS

(ahah!) DNA?

FAUNA

[She makes spiral hand motion.] As you say.

FAUNUS

[He nods to OBVERSE 1.] He’s agreed.

FAUNA

[to FAUNUS] You may lead.

[It should be obvious by now that FAUNUS and FAUNA are decisively integrated.]

FAUNUS

[He points to 4 doors with his staff.] Come forth you avatars! Display your elements, be written in the stars, booke glory to our friends, to the best of our boon.

[The doors fly open, 4 creatures appear under the arches: Firebird, Hydra, Ibis and Lion. All are backlit: red, blue, yellow and amber. Many more holographic animals cross the stage.]

[Mythical beasts are projected on the ourobouros screen: Pegasus, centaur, Medusa, unicorn, minotaur, basilisk, ent, sphinx, griffin, dragon, ganesha.]

[Black cat lopes across front, turtle takes its time, monkey skitter, bird calls, splashing sounds, elephant bellow, tiger growl, dog bark, snake hiss, horse whinny, buffalo hooves, pig grunts, owlish hoot, loon laughter, leaf rustle, hedgerow bristle, whale song, indeterminate snorts, wails, moans, etc. – all spaced through the continuing dialogue.]

[FAUNUS speaks the spell of the cup.]

FAUNUS

Fortune flows from a cup. What parents really want is success for their kids. May you kneel at the font, and be you blessed with it.

[FAUNA takes 4 nesting cups and a knife from her pouch.]

FAUNA

[to FAUNUS] Hydration?

FAUNUS

(with fervour) Libation!

FAUNA

[points to his bota] Aquavit?

FAUNUS

[He holds up two fingers to indicate both food and drink, with gusto.] Ambrosia.

[She sets the cups on the fire circle before him, he fills them while she cuts 4 wedges of honeycake.]

[For the transfer of this honeycake benediction to OBVERSE 2 through the mirror, see Appendix 2 regarding the mirror.]

[While they offer several toasts, OBVERSE 1 remains strangely reticent, moving from puzzlement to quizzical to outright apprehensive.]

FAUNUS

[He raises his portion of the cake, laudatory.] Hosanna!

FAUNA

[She raises hers, observant.] Holy Pan.

[All eat.]

FAUNUS

[He raises his cup, anticipation.] Muscato.

OBVERSE 2

[He jumps in, dreamily.] Rubato

FAUNA

[She stares into her cup.] Lascivious. Erato.

FAUNUS

[He refills his cup.] Prospero.

[to OBVERSE 1] Fare thee well.

[OBVERSE 1 nods but does not speak nor drink. FAUNUS refills FAUNA’s cup, she swirls it around but does not drink.]

FAUNA

[to OBVERSE 1] On the height.

FAUNUS

[in quick succession] In the light.

OBVERSE 2

[to OBVERSE 1] Come what might.

FAUNA

(sultry) Every night.

FAUNUS

(agreement) Only right.

FAUNA

(derisive) Love is the law.

OBVERSE 2

[to FAUNUS and FAUNA] Nostrovnia.

FAUNUS

[to OBVERSE 1] (encouraging) Notre santé.

FAUNA

[to OBVERSE 1] Port salut!

[She stares at him.] Troost and Proost.

(inquiring) L’chaim.

(pity) She will come.

[FAUNA then chants the spell of abundance.]

FAUNA

Succor dwells in a bowl,

Life bestows her bounty.

Let your hunger be met,

That your body be sound

And your wonder be fed.

[All meditate on this and then a parliament of owls drifts down and convenes on the center banister to witness the miracle of breath. The animal noises fade on the PA and the forest murmurs track morphs to a flat line klaxon. OBVERSE 1 starts to moan then increases to a siren wail. In the distance, stage left, we hear an ambulance siren, strobe bar flashes past the stage left leg curtain. FAUNUS takes OBVERSE 1 by the shoulder and leads him to stage right to watch. FAUNA leads. OBVERSE 2 stands slack-jawed. Our hair stands up. A mother in green hospital garb enters from stage left carrying a dead baby. She remains mute throughout, only communicating via nods and body language.]

[What next follows in very close order:

Fade lilac haze behind 4 doors.

All 4 creatures back away into the darkness, the doors remain open.

Gunshots and cannon roar offstage at stage left. ]

[OBVERSE 1 runs past the woman. She shrinks back in terror, thinking he’s about to attack her, he stands at stage left facing left and wards off the war machine, forearms crossed right over left, palms up, and cut noise, then he turns to guard the entrance. ]

[The same noises compel the identical act from FAUNUS at stage right. Flicker flashes in the dark, through the 4 doors but no attendant noises.]

[OBVERSE 2 steps away from the mirror briefly, the flashes stop, he returns, leans forward with palms pressed against the glass to prove that it’s there. He’ll witness from this vantage.]

[Show large crescent moon occluded by a cloud on the hoop screen. As the cloud moves across the moon, dim stage moonlight that filters down through the forest canopy. Leave just one spot on FAUNA, from left to right, while she performs the breath of life.]

[The only lights on stage at this point are the 4 stained glass lamps over the doors, the pinspot on FAUNA, and the fire light.]

[The only other sources of light are the waning moon on the screen and the reflections from the owl eyes. OBVERSE 1 and FAUNUS move sporadically and minimally, they remain on guard.]

[So here it is, the miracle of spirit stepping into an infant’s body. It only happens once. Keep your eye on this.]

[FAUNA stands, turns for a brief glance to OBVERSE 2. He nods as if to say go ahead, I’ve got your back. Then he stands foursquare erect with his fists beside his forehead, knuckles to the front, in the ancient posture of intense meditation, the projection of willpower. She looks to FAUNUS and OBVERSE 1, they copy OBVERSE 2, then she turns the work at hand.]

[The baby’s mother is completely traumatized by war, depersonalized, so terrorized that she’s deaf and mute. She clasps her left hand over her mouth, cradles her child in her right arm. She knows not where she is, how she’s come here, and who these strangers are. Her name is AGONY.]

[FAUNA approaches gently, meets her in the shadows, bows slightly in recognition, places her hands on the woman’s shoulders, she in turn takes her hand from her mouth and tentatively reaches for contact. FAUNA anoints her eyes, apparently now she can see because her movements become more certain. FAUNA draws her towards the light, touches the child, motions to the cushion. The desire of all mothers is fulfilled when FAUNA takes the child and lays it on the pillow, head to stage right, feet to its mother, who kneels beside the fire so we can see the horror in her face relax into relief and then into awe. As are we also. FAUNA kneels behind the pillow, facing the audience across the fire, we can see it all in stark relief. Now you will believe.]

[FAUNA performs the resuscitation, pinches the child’s nose, breaths in mouth to mouth. Fade flatline klaxon. Once, twice, the luna moth flaps its wings deliberately, the owls crane their necks, the cloud passes before the crescent moon and then fades from view. Thrice and it is done. The child lives, we can hear its thin wail, see it breathe on its own. ]

FAUNA

Kyrie, Kyrie, Ave, Ave.

[FAUNA lifts the child, raises it to full display, then hands it back to the mother of mercy. The contact is unmistakable, the warmth is immediate, the sight is of clarity.]

[Cue large whisper fan to blow across the scene so the audience gets the cedar smoke.]

[OBVERSE 1 and FAUNUS return to center stage, where they regroup for a while. OBVERSE 2 relaxes his stance. OBVERSE 1 consults the book to no avail, NOTA BENE does not work, he shrugs, joins the others.]

[Fade up full moonlight.]

[Cue Respighi’s Pines of the Janiculum with the nightingale, add other dawn birds while the stage lighting moves from night to day.]

[FAUNUS leads the debrief and explains the whyfore and howso of what has just happened.]

[FAUNA tugs at the woman’s sleeve, telling her with body motions to follow up the stage left stairs, in and out of each door to show some possible choices. As they negotiate each door, there’s accompanying lights and sounds for each traverse, viz.: #1 = red, industrial; #2 = blue, nautical; #3 = yellow, librarium, and #4 = daylight, farm sounds.]

[FAUNUS and OBVERSE 1 resume their seats.]

[FAUNA and AGONY are at the first door, show lit candle flame on hoop screen.]

FAUNUS

[He grins to OBVERSE 1.] So. Did you snoop?

OBVERSE 1

[He nods vigorously.]

FAUNUS

And?

OBVERSE 1

[Hesitantly he shakes his head, no.]

OBVERSE 2

[to OBVERSE 1] (frowns) Obie, cat’s got your tongue?

OBVERSE 1

(opens up) Not that again. I just don’t know how to act in the presence of these two … I don’t know what they are. And I’ve never yet seen a real live dead person come through here.

(grimaces) That didn’t come out right. I’m completely dumbfounded I think is the word.

[FAUNA and AGONY are at door #2, show goblet in hoop screen, flutter owl wings, flick snake tongue.]

OBVERSE 1

[to FAUNUS] Your … mate … has done something, an act, a breath of exultation, words fail me, that I can only attribute to divinity. God does that.

FAUNUS

(didactic) Multiple witnesses are notoriously unreliable. It could be that what you saw is not what I saw, and yet still partake of the truth. So. Tell me what you saw.

[FAUNA and AGONY are at door #3, show a book on the hoop screen, riffle its pages.]

[OBVERSE 1 thinks it over, whistles out with pursed lips, then takes a deep breath and lets fly.]

OBVERSE 1

(carefully, measured) I can see it right now.

[He gazes up.] When I run past them, mother and child are one. The babe is enveloped by its mother. They are one and the same in the same light … When I turn, the child is separate, mother shines, the child does not. The baby is one and the same with the cushion. Neither shine. … When [he nods to FAUNA] your mate performs the resuscitation, the light travels from her into the child. The mother does not partake; she witnesses as do I. … When the baby returns to its mother, they both shine, but different. They are congruent, not identical. … I don’t know how it works, I still don’t. Kyrie!

[FAUNA and AGONY are at the door #4, show crossed shovel and digging fork on hoop screen, ruffle owl feathers, move snake head, flicker tongue.]

FAUNUS

[to OBVERSE 2] You have the advantage. What did you see?

OBVERSE 2

[to FAUNUS] Your mate is remarkable.

FAUNUS

Yes, she is.

OBVERSE 2

(very matter-of-fact) Sir. The baby was inert. An object in stasis. Its mother held a thing, not a person. When she handed it off, a part of her went with it. Invisible but palpable. A direct connection. When your mate breathed into it, the object lives. It glows just like its mother, as akin us all. It’s the breath itself that shines, a wonderful mix that is nothing less than the divine essence of life. I’m sure of this. How your mate grasps this and moves it through herself into another is a mystery to me. My hair stands up in the witness of truth. I expect I’ll not see it again.

[FAUNA and AGONY pause at the rail, caress the owls, which then fly up to various boughs in the forest canopy. We’ll hear occasional hoots until dawn light suffuses the stage.]

FAUNUS

[He leads the witness.] And you had no trouble seeing?

OBVERSE 2

No sir. From here I can see right through you. Night vision is not a problem. People are transparent. Everything live or inanimate has depth. I saw it all. FAUNA’s breath started in her head, not from outside, drew down throughout her body, legs, feet, arms, hands, she owned her breath. Then she pulled it back into her lungs. At that point it became silvery, many, many points, individual and then amorphous. Then she blew it out. It left every part of her. All in one go. She did that three times. With each breath the child grew in stature is the only way I can describe it. Not larger, but fuller, upon entering the child, the breath lost its silver color, and by the third … uh … influx, the bright black surround was established. All life has this negative light around its perimeter. When the baby was back in its mother’s arms, they were separate and discrete. [He cocks his head.] And you sir?

[FAUNA and AGONY linger to hear FAUNUS’s description before descending via the stage right stairs.]

FAUNUS

[He performs the following incantation.]

We pour silver fire from an olympic urn, open the alembic to free the bird that burns, we tie string to a kite [flap wings] that it may spell the wind, we plant bulbs of rainbow glorious hyacinth, we coil hawsers on ships to anchor in the deep, we wake the Kraken’s breath, we watch, we never sleep while animus slumbers, we guard the mansion gate. Evil flees from our see, nor do we tolerate any coercive bond. Spirit ventures onto noman’s eye to wander at pleasure, to be self-sufficient beyond any measure. Ours is the creative word. It is good, great and vast.

[FAUNUS has established that he speaks with the voice of eternity, from the omniscient point of view. OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2 exhale “ahmen.” FAUNA nods knowingly. AGONY has just an inkling, strokes her child.]

[Cue meadow lark on PA and further dawn birds in sequence. Fade Respighi.]

[FAUNA and AGONY descend via stairs stage right, OBVERSE 1 rises, stands before the book. FAUNUS meets FAUNA and AGONY before the fountain. ]

FAUNA

My faun, you are too kind, battlecraft was not mine.

I grabbed at womanhood as any mother would.

In this we are the same [she nods to AGONY], parallel female flames, my hunter’s troth clutched her, the moment I touched her,

I did nothing arcane, no hidden silver skein.

Any doe could have done.

Would we trow all as one.

FAUNUS

[to FAUNA and audience] Only humans wage war.

FAUNA

[to OBVERSE 1 and audience] Like they worship carnage.

FAUNUS

It mauls her ears and eyes.

[Nods to AGONY, who shows that she can’t hear but understands.]

FAUNA

War dehumanizes.

FAUNUS

She’s deaf and cannot speak.

[AGONY nods, shows she does understand.]

FAUNA

The prognosis looks bleak. (sad smile)

FAUNUS

But! We propound a plan.

FAUNA

Count it off her hand.

[FAUNUS fingers AGONY’s left hand.]

[Show rotating hand thrust from a cloud on the hoop screen. The hand comes to rest in a cupped position.]

[FAUNUS traces the lines on AGONY’s hand in the ancient chieromancy, AGONY relaxes visibly, her child moves just enough so we know its attendancy. All will be well. OBVERSE 1 consults the book, which riffles open to show both mother and child. OBVERSE 2 nods vigorously. FAUNUS takes the child and lays it on the bolster.]

FAUNA

[She nods to AGONY.] Just a partial erasure.

[Cue fountain swell.]

[FAUNA faces AGONY, raises her hands, palms forward, fingers splayed, AGONY does likewise, pressing both her hands against FAUNA’s. Thus the connection is made, and a lifetime of expertise unreels.]

FAUNA

Cast aside your baggage, set your eye to remembrance, to dance again, amid silence and yet be fulfilled with sound. Thus the prophecy is spoken.

[FAUNA is divinity incarnate, she is the truth, willing her supplicant’s future to be revealed unto herself. This is what soul does when it steps into the body.]

[OBVERSE 1, OBVERSE 2 and FAUNUS know this and nod encouragement. FAUNUS points at the 4 doors, in turn holding up 1, 2, 3 and 4 fingers. FAUNA signs walking motions. AGONY gets it and signs back with three fingers. FAUNA removes a cup, another nesting one from the pouch, and dips it in the fountain. FAUNUS squeezes some of the liquor from his bota into the cup and offers it to AGONY. FAUNUS taps his own forehead and then AGONY’s. FAUNA makes binocular gestures before her own eyes and then touches AGONY’s. FAUNUS and FAUNA both bow slightly to AGONY. OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2 nod agreement. AGONY accepts their offer and quaffs the draught in one gulp. So far, so good. OBVERSE 1 picks up the child and hands it back to AGONY. AGONY cradles her baby and FAUNA escorts AGONY up the steps stage right. AGONY then leaves through door #3. All doors remain open.]

[On the hoop screen, show an open book. A service bell rings.]

[Over the course of the next few minutes, FAUNA slowly, almost painfully, eventually she will make her way back to the fire.]

[Cue skittering noise on PA.]

[FAUNUS takes note and sniffs the air, then perambulates the stage, conversing with a raccoon at stage right, a squirrel in a tree, strokes the hoop snake’s head, passes before the fountain, inverts the hourglass that sits between the spiles of the banister.]

[Show Saturn on hoop screen.]

[He passes by the book, takes a quick peek inside the front and back covers, passes to the life preserver, sniffs at the opening, recoils violently, pokes through the hole with his staff. More chittering noises on the PA. FAUNUS withdraws in disgust, rolls the coffer in front of the hole, continues his peregrination, strokes a rabbit that lurks behind the coffer, blows a brief answer to a lark on his syrinx, returns to his seat facing OBVERSE 1 across the fire. OBVERSE 1 returns to his seat, FAUNA has descended from the platform and joins them on her hassock.]

[While FAUNUS is doing his walkabout, OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2 discuss the merits of communal clairvoyance.]

OBVERSE 1

[to OBVERSE 2] Check this out.

[He demonstrates a lens between his thumbs and forefingers.]

[They regard the surroundings through their respective virtual lenses.]

OBVERSE 2

I can see right through that owl. Even the trees shine.

OBVERSE 1

[He gawks at FAUNUS.] The faun seems larger than life.

OBVERSE 2

Is that an artifact or just your interpretation?

OBVERSE 1

Dunno. He has depth, that one.

[OBVERSE 2 makes a lorgnette, first with his right hand, then with his left.]

OBVERSE 2

Oh, this is different. Left is incoming, right is outgoing.

[OBVERSE 1 copies OBVERSE 2, views the audience, turns to FAUNA, then follows AGONY through door #3 with his new-found eye.]

OBVERSE 1

Look! I can see into her future.

OBVERSE 2

Let’s compare that with the book.

OBVERSE 1

Definitely time-conscious. Past and future are there. This is marvelous. I can vary the focus just by constricting my hand as an iris.

OBVERSE 2

[He also looks far and away.] She’s chosen the librarium. She’s looking to recall something that she almost remembers. The cup works.

OBVERSE 1

Direction seems to be elastic. I think it’s a function of the viewer’s will. An instantaneous reflex. Maybe something instinctive.

FAUNUS

(en passant, almost off-hand) Intuition works twice, both coming and going. Such vision is priceless, it’s the sum of knowing far greater than the sum of its parts. The synergy of thought is creative in the arts, that which god has wrought. We share this without stint. You moot not even ask. Sooth fares forth on the wind, truth does not! wear a mask.

[OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2 nod absently, continue following AGONY.]

OBVERSE 1

It’s a university library. Note the many couches, card catalogues, and culs de sac. Hah! She has a customer. Professorial type. He’s searching for the Yeats holdings. Yes. Yeats and Pound at Coleman’s Hatch. There.

OBVERSE 2

Oh. Well. I think they’ve just hit it off. There’s a lewd little moment. Do you think they know that they’re being watched?

OBVERSE 2

Probably not. God’s quarantine system and all that. People need their mental privacy.

OBVERSE 1

I suppose so. If everyone knew what everyone else was thinking, there would be rampant killing.

OBVERSE 2

Chimpanzees on a jet plane.

OBVERSE 1

So she retains her child.

OBVERSE 2

And works through her fear of falling. Hey! I know now, I know who she is. Agony was your first client ever. Well, not exactly.

OBVERSE 1

(pensive) Refresh my memory. It seems very long ago.

[OBVERSE 1 contemplates the coffer, runs his fingers through the coins.]

[FAUNUS is at stage left, FAUNA lingers next to the hoop screen.]

OBVERSE 2

You’d just assumed to the tunic. You were still testing the buttons. A woman came through thinking that she’d thrown her daughter from the balcony of a burning apartment block. Ten stories up. But you …

OBVERSE 1

Had the presence of mind to summon proof that her child lives. I remember. We called the man who caught the child. He crossed the floor with her in a carriage and now lives with her. The best proof …

OBVERSE 2

… We could offer. It worked.

OBVERSE 1

And yet there were consequences. Bad dreams imprinted into a child. Fear of falling. The act repeats itself.

[OBVERSE 1 looks one last time through door #3.] They will find their way.

[He waves.] Bon voyage.

[FAUNUS returns to FAUNA’s side, she takes two coins from her pouch, they deposit them gently in the coffer in payment for the woman and child. All three return to their seats. FAUNUS offers FAUNA a drink, which she gratefully accepts.]

FAUNA

That drains me sure enough.

FAUNUS

The old refrain is love.

[FAUNA gives her debrief while the others listen, their ear close to the ground.]

FAUNA

[to FAUNUS] I escorted them to the crossing at Mem. I thought mother letters would bond them together. They will name her Marion, maiden librarian, of the Ionic Scroll. I was quick with her soul. (a bit defensive here)

[Riffle the book, OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2 gaze in its direction, then nod agreement.]

FAUNUS

(emphatically) My dear, do what you can. We hear the pipes of Pan.

[FAUNUS fingers the syrinx, delights in his mate. All are in agreement.]

[FAUNA turns for a quick look at the hourglass. Fade moonlight, slowly bring up dawn light, cue rustle in the canopy.]

FAUNUS

A rich fantasy life.

Mistress but not his wife?

FAUNA

What hunger track to brook

Than among stacks of books.

FAUNUS and FAUNA

[They chant the following.]

Return to the wild, build her child will be learned.

[FAUNA collects the cups and bowl into the pouch, lays it and her staff beside OBVERSE 1’s hassock. He realizes that their remaining time together is foreshortened, so he asks ...]

OBVERSE 1

[He taps his forehead, to FAUNUS, significant look at the audience.] Sir, is it contagious?

OBVERSE 2

It’s really disconcerting to look at yourself from so many points of view. Is the mind of one capable of this, or is it strictly personal?

[FAUNUS turns to the AUDIENCE, looks them square in the eye.]

FAUNUS

Choirs of glittering eyes aspire

To our prize for personal reasons

All the worse, for treason,

For crimes against their kind.

(grim and square-jawed)

We prefer that they stay blind, it’s safer for us, why splatter vitriol.

[He turns to OBVERSE 1.]

But you, sir,

[He turns to OBVERSE 2.] you we trust. You dispense true justice.

You have a need to know and we will have it so.

Your job requires it, and we admire it.

Let the faculty flow,

As above, so below.

Pass it on as benefits from us fauns, by our wits.

OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2

Agreed!

[FAUNA sits straight up, takes a deep breath, places her hands beside her mouth as a megaphone, and declaims the prophecy in stentorian tones directly at the audience.]

FAUNA

(in your face)

I’ll tell you some secrets about Obverse the man!

Life listens when he speaks, life takes him by the hand,

She desires his touch, she will welcome him in,

They share fire and watch where life begins.

His animus lingers in the human gene pool,

His artisan fingers invent machines and tools,

He is bent to the wheel,

Damascus steel is his foundations,

Keeps and keels,

Steeples are his business.

Olympus receives him, mete among the muses,

His women owe to him life herself.

Chooses him, his lady in the bed that they’ve made.

Let his songs be understood, long live Obverse the Good!

OBVERSE 1

(somewhat nonplussed) My blushes.

OBVERSE 2

How’d you know that bit about the muses?

FAUNUS

(cheerio) We visit Parnasses, get the juicy gossip, sometimes we wear glasses

[touches his forehead] that cross over the deep.

[OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2 nod that they’ve accepted this. A bell rings by the hourglass.]

[FAUNUS takes up his staff, stands next to FAUNA, his hand on her shoulder.]

FAUNUS

[to OBVERSE 1]

Time for us to be gone,

We fauns lust for the dawn,

Prefer to lie concealed,

We return to the field.

FAUNA

[She stands.] Sir.

[to OBVERSE 1]

The bowl you shall not want,

Your cup is always filled,

Your soul sups at the font,

Your furrow is well tilled.

[FAUNUS shakes hands with OBVERSE 1, salutes OBVERSE 2. FAUNA hugs OBVERSE 1, then gropes him intimately and expertly, we catch our collective breath while FAUNUS watches with affectionate indulgence. ]

[FAUNUS and FAUNA leave by the stairs into the unknown beyond. We hear an aeolian syrinx way off in the distance.]

[FAUNA blows a kiss to OBVERSE 1 as FAUNUS pulls her out.]

OBVERSE 1

[to OBVERSE 2] Are they real?

OBVERSE 2

The dream is a thought form expressed from the mind of god. Everything is real. The vision remains. Obie, you’re gonna get lucky.

[OBVERSE 1 sets the hassocks in a semi-circle facing the fire from stage right.]

[OBVERSE 2 closes the doors from the inside of the back of the set. The fire dims, fades out. It is the morning of a new day.]

ACT III

Scene 2

[OBVERSE 1 leaves the stage briefly, stage right, comes back with four more bolsters, stacks them ready for use next to the hoop screen.]

OBVERSE 2

[He reappears in the mirror.] Expecting company?

OBVERSE 1

(grins) This clearsight whatchamacallit is really useful.

[OBVERSE 1 leaves again, returns pushing the piano stool with his tunic folded on it. He removes VINNIE’s pistol from a pocket, inspects it, nods, lays it on the stool, then covers it with the tunic. The stool is at stage right, behind the arc of bolsters.]

OBVERSE 1

Locked and loaded, ready for use.

OBVERSE 2

Trouble?

OBVERSE 1

You never know. I can only look in so many places at once.

OBVERSE 2

The more you know, the more you become aware that there’s actually very little that you know. Asking the right questions, that’s the trick.

[OBVERSE 1 leans FAUNA’s staff and pouch against the rail next to the fountain. He sets his harp on the lowest step stage right, ready to hand.]

[Cue syrinx far, far away, offstage right. Show rotating Christian cross on hoop screen. It stops inverted.]

OBVERSE 1

[He plucks some strings to echo his friends, a short meditation, then he turns to the AUDIENCE, from center stage, before the fire.]

[to audience] All right, you all out there, watcha into? Who’s next?

SEVERAL ANONYMOUS VOICES FROM AUDIENCE

Oy me sainted mother.

My sister.

My daughter.

[Riffle book.]

[OBVERSE 1 consults it, nods, dips his hand, sprinkles water to stage left in anticipation of the next traverse.]

[OBVERSE 2 steps back into the shadows. Slide mirror back into place.]

[Cue church bell off stage left. Cue women’s choir off stage left, a requiem mass.]

[Enter from stage left, an Ursuline nun, about 40, dressed in the black-on-white habit of her order. No shoes. She wears a very fine wool stola embroidered with dyed porcupine quills. Her left hand is swaddled in a foul-looking bandage. She lingers by the coffer and drops in a penny, then cascades a handful in meditation. She turns to OBVERSE 1.]

MARIAH

Is this the right protocol?

OBVERSE 1

(deferential) Yes, ma’am. You’ve been here before.

MARIAH

(puzzled) I don’t remember that. Do you work here? And what kind of work?

Do you do? Here …

OBVERSE 1

Call me the stationmaster. It’s my job to help you negotiate the transit between lives. Who and what you were, come to terms with that, and decide who you want to be.

MARIAH

(non-committal) And, where is here?

OBVERSE 1

The manifold [points at the 4 doors] affords you choice. It exists as a function of mind. Since thought exists everywhere, this waystation occupies all of now. The time stream can be entered at whatever point you choose. I’m here to advise you. If you need such.

MARIAH

Tell me about myself.

[OBVERSE 1 gets a faraway look, then rattles off her CV as from the big book. ]

OBVERSE 1

Born Maria Maldonado, 1620, in Palermo, Sicily, of scholarly parents, well educated, speaks Italian, Spanish, French, English, and Dutch. Entered the novitiate at age 20, travelled to Madrid to consult the codices of Bernardino de Sahagun, whom you admired, decided on ethnography, majored in philosophy at the Sorbonne, took ship to what was then called New Spain, sojourned at Tlatelolco, broke your vows of celibacy with a Jesuit while en route north to Kwa-Beck, settled into the Ursuline convent school there, worked up a trilingual dictionary, Algonquian, French and English, taught needlecraft, reading and writing to Indigenous girls, made it to mother superior, died of septicemia, complicated by tetanus.

MARIAH

(a bit flummoxed, but quick on the uptake) What’s tentanus?

OBVERSE 1

A bacterial disease. [He points at her bandaged hand.]

MARIAH

Bac – terial?

OBVERSE 1

A very small beastie so small that you can’t see it. It lives in the dirt. One is no problem, but wounds allow it to thrive inside you, in your blood. Lots of ’em and you get very sick. Your hand got swollen, yellow, puffy, oozing. That spread. And now you’re here. Go ahead. Ask. I answer truthfully. You make the decisions. It’s your life.

MARIAH

[She considers, raises her left hand.] This first. Help me get past this terrible affliction.

[OBVERSE 1 strokes the caduceus. By the fire he unwraps her hand, drops the bandage into the flames, where it sputters briefly and then dies away. OBVERSE 1 leads her to the fountain, thrusts her hand into it. The yellowish ichor washes away but does not discolor the water, see Appendix 3 for the chemical reaction that makes this effect possible. They inspect the hand critically.]

OBVERSE 1

(professionally) At the end, did it hurt?

MARIAH

The worst I ever ... (shudders) … I couldn’t swallow. My jaw locked up. My body went into rictus of spasms. High fever. They gave me poppyhead wine as an enema. But for that I’d be crazy right now.

[OBVERSE 1 lays his arm around her shoulder, she does not draw away.]

OBVERSE 1

[He understands the implication.] Then the first step has been taken. The proof is self-evident.

MARIAH

What now?

OBVERSE 1

You remake yourself. Examine what you did and what that was worth. Come and sit. Let it slip away.

[They sit facing the audience, OBVERSE 1 slides his hassock next to hers. She slips off the stola and lays it between them, folded, with the embroidery up.]

OBVERSE 1

[He fingers the quills.] This is really expertly done. Appliqué?

MARIAH

The girls gave it to me. A going-away present, I think. The last several days are a bit hazy. I don’t remember owning it or wearing it around the convent.

OBVERSE 1

I figure they gave you their most precious possession. I bet everyone had a hand in it.

MARIAH

Could be. We taught this sort of craft, but really they already know how to do it. All we did was supply better tools. Steel needles. [She flinches.] Oh!

OBVERSE 1

Was that how it happened?

MARIAH

[She nods.] I reached into a wad of fabric. The needle lay concealed therein.

[OBVERSE 1 suddenly looks grim.]

OBVERSE 1

Think back. Did you have any competitors within the hierarchy?

MARIAH

(defensive) We’re oath-bound to poverty. Selfless. To aid those less fortunate. To heal and teach and …

OBVERSE 1

[He presses her.] Did you? Who was next in line for the office?

MARIAH

(grimaces) It’s … possible. I can think of several jealousies. Words of innuendo. No. Mere gossip …

OBVERSE 1

Shall I call a witness? We can do that here. We do the truth.

[She nods, this cannot be.]

[On the hoop screen, show an equal-armed red cross, on a white field, surrounded by a circular gold band.]

[Cue the confessional dialog between a feminine voice and a male voice on the PA.]

[Sound of a booth door closing, she settles in.]

MARY MALEDICTA (convent name)

(very distraught) Forgive me father, for I have sinned.

MALE SUPERIOR

My sister, tell me what it is that you have done.

[He speaks with a slight Italian accent. She sounds vaguely French.]

MARY MALEDICTA

I have committed … murder.

MALE SUPERIOR

(sharp intake of breath) Are you sure? Sometimes it’s not what you think. Tell it all, slowly, carefully. Make no mistakes and omit nothing.

[MARIAH sits straight up at this point because she recognizes the female voice. She’s not quite sure about him.]

MARY MALEDICTA

I did it with my gom jabbar. I broke the needle from the thimble. Then I dipped the point in aconite.

MALE SUPERIOR

What’s that?

MARY MALEDICTA

Wolf’s bane.

MALE SUPERIOR

Monkshood?

MARY MALEDICTA

Yes. In an ointment of wolf’s bane. Then I stuck the broken needle into a gift. A wad of new fabric. Knowing … knowing … that … she … would open it and … maybe … maybe prick herself in the finger. I did not mean …

MALE SUPERIOR

(sternly) Who?

MARY MALEDICTA

(unwilling to divulge this) No.

MALE SUPERIOR

I demand an answer. Who? Who was your intended victim?

MARY MALEDICTA

(completely flustered) I did not mean for it to happen as it did.

MALE SUPERIOR

(presses her vehemently) It. What it?

MARY MALEDICTA

How she died. It, I mean, I did not mean for it to be … so … desperately painful. I administered a narcosis. I did not mean for it to be lockjaw. I’ve been told that aconite is painless. It turned out very badly. It was a cruel death.

[At this point MARIAH starts to shudder, tears glisten in her eyes.]

[The priest is now aware of who it is that they’re talking about. He also knows who’s on the other side of the screen. His voice becomes less peremptory, more emollient.]

[Two teenaged Indian girls in traditional buckskins and full wampum and feather regalia enter on silent moccasins from stage left. They skirt behind the fire, come up behind OBVERSE 1 and MARIAH, lay their hands lightly on her shoulders.]

[Neither OBVERSE 1 nor MARIAH acknowledge their presence during the rest of the dialog.]

MARIAH

This is terrible. Why did you do this?

[MARIAH is now visibly crying. OBVERSE 1 sits rigid with a very faraway look straight into the audience.]

MARY MALEDICTA

We taught the girls sewing. How to sew woolen clothing. To … to integrate them into our society. For, for, for their own, for the good of us all. I thought, I thought that Christian motifs

would be suitable … for needlepoint and embroidery. I thought that’s what we’re about … in the church I mean.

MALE SUPERIOR

(growls) I take it that Mariah Maldonado, your sister in the convent, did not agree.

MARY MALEDICTA

No, she was more … tolerant … of Huron designs. I thought it should be overtly Christian. Oh! You know?

MALE SUPERIOR

(dryly) The bishopric keeps abreast of current flagrancies. So. Tell me, were there any other reasons for killing her? Personal reasons?

MARY MALEDICTA

I thought I’d make the better mother superior, more in line with Church doctrine. Not heathen practices. Did I do wrong?

MALE SUPERIOR

(snorts) By the power vested in me, I banish you from the order, you’re unfit to lead. Remove your habit.

MARY MALEDICTA

(wails of protest) I only did what you wanted.

MALE SUPERIOR

[He slams his door, walks around, opens her door.] Take that off. Right now.

[Sounds of struggle, then ripping fabric, it’s the cloak being torn to shreds. MARIAH fingers her own cloak. More anguish from the booth.]

MALE SUPERIOR

(grim) That too. All of it.

[More shredding of clothing.]

MALE SUPERIOR

So. You’re done with the Ursulines. Come with me. I’ve a job for you. You’ll come to live in the rectory. You’ll keep the physick garden. You’ll be our apotheker. Knowledge such as yours can be invaluable in certain situations.

[Sound of booth door slamming. Booted feet and bare feet pad away into the distance. Echoing. Fade audio track.]

[MARIAH quiets down, relaxes, stands and sloughs off her cloak. The Indian girls catch it and drape it over the banister stage left, admire the stolla, smile to the audience, and then gently slip away among the trees stage right.]

[OBVERSE 1 sets the hassocks back into a semi-circle, lays the stolla reverently on the piano stool, covering the pistol and his tunic.]

OBVERSE 1

[to MARIAH] You recognized those voices.

MARIAH

Sophie Kosovo. Somewhat of a nemesis. We disagreed about some very fundamental issues. Integration. Doctrine. Art. Life. (laughs a bit) Little things.

OBVERSE 1

And him?

MARIAH

That could only be the bishop. Marcel della Borghese. We had only one confessional. It’s his church.

OBVERSE 1

(sardonic) A charming character. We’ll be watching him with great interest. How’s about you?

MARIAH

No. (emphatically) No more church. Not ever.

OBVERSE 1

“Ever” is a long time.

MARIAH

I do feel better. Was that scene necessary?

OBVERSE 1

That was step two in your make-over. You can’t get rid of it till you know what it is. Take a look at yourself.

[He leads her by the right hand to the mirror. She strokes her left hand, smells the hand. Offers it for view.]

[Pan pipe obligatto from stage right far away.]

[Show paint palette and brushes on hoop screen.]

[Cue Wendat morning chant. Start chant with a large drum, very quietly, add two young female voices, add tribal chorus, keep all subservient to the dialog. Chant source is offstage right.]

[OBVERSE 1 moves to sit next to his harp on the first step stage right. He absently plucks a random string to punctuate his conversation with MARIAH. Eventually the harp and drumbeat synchronize. When MARIAH finally leaves the stage, cue girlish laughter offstage right.]

[MARIAH stands before the mirror, observes herself critically from side to side. She doffs her head scarf, unpins and shakes out her hair, hands the scarf to OBVERSE 1.]

[MARIAH hikes the hem of her shift up a bit, essays a tentative dance step, does a slow turn, runs her hands over her face, fluffs her hair.]

OBVERSE 1

(admiring) You look good.

MARIAH

You think so?

OBVERSE 1

Take it from me, I know good-looking when I see it.

MARIAH

The hard knot in my belly is gone.

[He moves over suggestively to make room for her. She takes the hint and sits right next to him, upstaging him. He combs out her hair with his left hand while they talk.]

MARIAH

[regards her own left hand] What do you suppose happens to Sophie?

OBVERSE 1

Fair enough. You have a right to know.

[He riffles the book, reads from it in place.]

Sophie Kosovo, born blah blah etcetera, entered the novitiate, moved to Komoran, then the institute, then the convent school, cut to the chase, ah here it is, after leaving the Ursuline order, is chief gardener at a Kwa-Bek rectory, shares, no not shares, suffers the bishop’s bed, hates men for the rest of her life, eventually breaks free after some indiscretions, she’s become aware of various machiavellian plots, fears for her life, runs to the north and west, disappears into the ground at a place that will become Winnipeg. That’s your sister. She’ll not get over it for at least two more life times. Murder exacts its own vengeance. None escape its blade.

MARIAH

It seems that baggage is shared.

OBVERSE 1

There used to be a lot of it piled around in here. I had to do some serious housecleaning. Several times. The stuff became oppressive. Cut into my ability to advise. Baggage is emotional.

MARIAH

And the bishop?

[OBVERSE 1 riffles the book, reads again.]

OBVERSE 1

Marcel of the Borghese hum ho, hah! Just the end please, there it is, what a self-serving fellow, completely amoral, has ambitions to the cardinal, doesn’t get it, end please, so dies of mushroom poisoning, says here – Amanita phalloides, the destroying angel, seems fitting, symptoms develop five days after ingestion. Died of liver failure. Painful. That’s it. One last codicil. He’s in the crypt of his church. Coffins stacked like cordwood. All but forgotten. My opinion isn’t germane.

[She moves a little closer.]

MARIAH

If I hadn’t washed my hand, what would have happened to me?

[He riffles the book.]

OBVERSE 1

Ahah! You’ve decided. But you don’t know it yet. Burning the bridge got you past that very nasty pitfall. People who pass through here, those that don’t deal with their baggage, they go into fugue. They obsess about their inability to move forward in time. They become ghosts, flickering lights, silent screaming. All sorts of habitations. Eventually they break out of it. Kyrie eleison. Each case is different and there are many manifolds. In the universe, the rule is change. Nothing is truly static. Everything moves according to the spirit of it. All are connected directly back to the source. The church is rather superfluous, the priesthood as practised today is largely a racket. You don’t need someone else to intercede for you with divinity. You, more than most, get to the essential truth of it.

MARIAH

And what is that?

OBVERSE 1

Creative art. The girls at your school love you for it. They have the frame of reference. You allowed their individuality, the expression of their own vision. There is no more precious gift than that.

MARIAH

You said I’ve decided. How did you know?

OBVERSE 1

[He points to the book.] Every transaction is witnessed before it steps down into the world of stone. First your essential self, call it soul if you will, first the spirit knows your mind, which is a part of divine will, then your mind, your personal thoughts, resonate into conformance, that’s when the letters on the page in that book precipitate into reality here and now, and only then does your persona set it into motion. That’s incarnation. We do it over and over again, thereby accruing knowledge, and eventually over the course of such essay, attain to wisdom. That’s what makes it worth the doing. So. Who and where and when do you want to be?

[She thinks it over.]

[Cue rooster crowing offstage right.]

MARIAH

I’m at a loss, how to proceed. Well, let’s do it this way. I know what I definitely don’t want. I never, never, ever want to have lockjaw again. That was the worst pain in my life.

OBVERSE 1

That one’s easy. Just move ahead about 300 years. Medicine is much improved by then. No more lockjaw, bullneck, bubonic plague, pox, the French disease. All curable. Preventable. Add another fifty years to that and you can fuck when and as often as you like without getting pregnant. I caution about moving too far forward into the future. My own foresight is not yet very well developed. It’s a new faculty for me and the far future is still a mystery. I’m working on it.

MARIAH

Then that’s what I want. Um, when I want. Sounds marvelous.

(snorts, then guffaws) Celibacy ain’t what it’s cracked up to be.

OBVERSE 1

Hah! Take note. You’re moving forward in time just by thinking about it. I hear it in your choice of words. And what would you like to be doing?

MARIAH

I rather liked helping out. With the girls I mean. Something of the mother in me, I guess. Maybe teach something. Art. Play an instrument. Paint. Help kids find themselves. Love themselves.

OBVERSE 1

That’s when and what. Who are you?

MARIAH

[She starts to hum.] Mmm. Maaa, Mmmarie …

MARIAH and OBVERSE 1

Leclerc.

OBVERSE 1

I knew it! It’s contagious. We’re walking across the same page.

[He jumps up, consults the book.]

OBVERSE 1

Right here, come look. You’re in here.

[They stand side by side, hand in hand.]

MARIAH

And those are my parents?

OBVERSE 1

Yes. Still subject to change until you walk out of here. The book is not a Calvinist predestination. You have choice. Now, also later if I may say so, if you so will it. Life affords change and choice …

MARIAH

And [she turns to him] if I choose to stay here. With you?

[OBVERSE 1 looks crestfallen, glum, they return to sit on the hassocks, side by side.]

MARIAH

No, huh?

OBVERSE 1

[He sadly, silently shakes his head no.]

MARIAH

(deep breath, sighs) Why not?

OBVERSE 1

[He explores the nape of her neck with his left hand.]

Most of the people who pass through this waystation are severely traumatized. Both physically and mentally. You were.

[He points at the overflowing coffer.]

Almost all those tokens represent children, abandoned, lost, orphaned by war, left to starve. They all need my help to point the way to comfort, to restore some measure of trust in humanity. I’m

bondaged to provide this service. I’ve been on this job continuously right from the time I crawled out of the depths. I can do no less.

[He fondles her shoulder, she leans into him.]

If you were to stay here with me, you’d find me present in body but absent in mind. That wouldn’t be right nor proper for you. Not that I don’t want to. Can’t. Don’t see any way around it.

[He runs his finger around the rim of her ear, fondles the lobe.]

Furthermore, here, in this place, time is compressed into one static now. There’d be no opportunity for you to interact with the rest of humanity. Very little chance for self-development. No chance for adventure and the choices that affords. You’d be stuck inside nowhere. Not good.

[Show broken arrow on hoop screen.]

You need to go your own way. Exactly where that leads I cannot say. Many paths diverge from the main road. That you’ll choose the less travelled is obvious, but where after that I can’t see. There’s too many of them, I can’t keep them all in mind and arrive at a coherent destination. What you do with your life is entirely up to you. [He blows in her right ear.] For what it’s worth, you turn me on. The goddess of life shines in your eyes. Mother, sister, daughter, please, some other time, some other place.

[He makes a slight bow of the head.]

MARIAH

Agreed.

[She touches him on the forehead, also bows slightly.]

OBVERSE 1

One last caveant and protocol to consider before you traverse the deep.

[They turn to face each other, knee to knee, as close as possible, flanked by the fireplace and the piano stool, she has her back to the audience and they play increasingly touchee-feelee during their final dialog.]

OBVERSE 1

[He takes a deep breath.] Murder is a crime of karmic proportion. It can and does extend across lifetimes. You have to deal with it, better sooner than later. The longer you wait, the more awkward and convoluted the resolution.

MARIAH

Understandable.

OBVERSE 1

There’s several ways to deal with it. You can sue for justice; upper management does hear every plea, adjudicates but works in mysterious ways that I don’t even pretend to understand, sometimes the verdict and sentence seem unrelated. Confusing. I personally find this unsatisfactory. Illogical. But maybe I don’t know everything.

MARIAH

(snorts derisively) You think? (laughs)

OBVERSE 1

The desire for vengeance runs strong in us. Tit for tat. A balancing out. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and all that implies. That’s how vendettas start. The blind pursuit of justice that unravels whole lineages. Revenge does work to turn the wheel but I advise against it. Your choice.

MARIAH

And?

OBVERSE 1

To forgive. That’s something you do for yourself. It unloads expectations. Sidesteps several pitfalls and confronts the problem head on. Your choice.

MARIAH

That one.

OBVERSE 1

Well and good, we’re done with the caveant. Forgive …

MARIAH

And forget.

OBVERSE 1

Just so. What exactly do you want to forget. Note that just recently it became possible to forget selectively partially. But you must be clear about it. All inclusive gets you a clean slate for the

next round. Selective needs to be precise and planned out. Take care what you wish for. Again, your choice. I await your decision.

[They hunch forward, eye to eye, hands on each other’s knees.]

OBVERSE 1

Not so much the specific acts but rather the motivation that drove you to them.

MARIAH

[She takes a deep breath.] Childhood, no, growing up, no, leaving home, maybe, entering the novitiate, damn well no way!

OBVERSE 1

I bet there’s a story there. Love affair?

MARIAH

My parents were very straight-laced.

OBVERSE 1

Understood, so, no for the novitiate, but yes for the escape.

MARIAH

Yes. Time spent in Madrid researching the codex, yes, so the initial interest in ethnography, that was crucial. Then the trip outward bound to visit the tomb of Sahagun. So the connection with those who built the edifice, yes, for that. No for the shipboard liaison with my chaperone but yes for the willingness to step outside the social norm. Yes for the venturesome impetus. A big yes for encouraging creative artistic expression.

OBVERSE 1

[He pulls the piano stool closer.] Place your right hand on the stolla.

MARIAH

[She does so.] Yes for the time spent with my charges. No for the enmity of my sisters. No for the jealousy that is the root of self-doubt. Yes for teaching self-reliance. No for integration at the cost of ethnic submergence. Definitely no for, no for the memory of the needle, the wound and the rictus of lockjaw. Yes for you.

OBVERSE 1

But no for the passage through this waystation.

MARIAH

Correct. That’s it. My life in a little cap. Is that how you do it here?

[Flip page in the book, show THALIA, tragic theater mask on the hoop screen.]

OBVERSE 1

[He nods.]

I’ll prepare the draught. Be at peace with yourself.

[OBVERSE 1 draws one of the nesting cups from the pouch. A small telephone EQ voice says from the pouch “fifth cup partial interlocution.” OBVERSE 1 fills the cup from the fountain, sits facing her as before. Then he hesitates.]

(very deliberately) Mariah. I’m going to have a very tough time of it as you are walking away. I’m not sure how I’ll handle it. So. Let’s do it this way. You drink. I assure you it will work. Set the cup on the fireplace, I’ll need it again for future clientele. When the vision of this place leaves you, leave likewise, straight ahead, up the steps, through the first door. It’s the only one that will open to you. So there can be no mistake.

[She nods, both bow their heads very courtly, with slow precision. He hands her the cup, lightly grazes her breast with his hand. Then he turns to the left and buries his face in the stolla. Then she drinks. She stands, caresses his shoulder, passes by her cloak draped over the banister, glances at it with slight curiosity, stops at door #1. Raise crescendo of the Indian chant audio track. She turns, gazes attentively at him but he doesn’t acknowledge her. She turns, silently slips through the door. A sudden spike in the audio track while she passes through. Her exit is attended by birdsong and laughter. Beyond the door is full sunlight. She closes the door very quietly. ]

[Cut audio track, go to wind rushing through the trees on PA. OBVERSE 1 remains motionless. Flip another page in the book. Slide mirror away. OBVERSE 2 steps into view. ]

OBVERSE 2

She’s gone off to her destination. There’s been some mid-course correction with her compass heading. You can look now.

[OBVERSE 1 pushes the stool away. He’s completely wrung out. His face is just like the tragic mask.]

OBVERSE 2

Aww, you’ve got it bad. You’ve been in there too long. You’re getting emotionally involved with the traffic. I think you need some R&R. Long overdue by your hangdog expression.

OBVERSE 1

Do you think I choose impossible women?

OBVERSE 2

Like out of your class?

OBVERSE 1

Unattainable.

OBVERSE 2

We don’t do caste and class. All get equal shrift. No one is turned away.

OBVERSE 1

I believe I hear my hormones calling.

OBVERSE 2

(dryly) No doubt. Maybe a good bender is also in order.

[OBVERSE 2 looks to his right, waves off OBVERSE 1.]

Hold on a sec, there’s incoming signals.

[OBVERSE 2 has an apparent conversation with someone unseen behind the scene at stage left, he nods vigorously several times, signals thank you with palms together, fingers up, turns back to OBVERSE 1.]

OBVERSE 2

Right! The word just came down from way on high. The terminus of your advocacy is close upon you. You’re about to get a citation. I’m guessing a long furlough before some whale of a reassignment if I’m any judge of the imperium. Framed scroll on the wall, gold medal, official statement, accolades, perambulation of the peers, that sort of thing.

OBVERSE 1

Party?

OBVERSE 2

You betcha.

[Change tragic mask to comedy, cue migrating geese gabble on PA. OBVERSE 1 takes a long look to stage left, washes the cup, gets two more from the pouch, sets all three by the fire circle at the back. Then he rearranges three hassocks behind the fire, facing forward, pushes the piano stool to flank the arc at stage right.]

OBVERSE 2

Do you doubt yourself?

OBVERSE 1

Let’s chalk it up to the learning curve. Don’t fear failure. Otherwise nothing would get done.

[OBVERSE 2 steps into the shadows. Slide the mirror back into place.]

[Offstage left, the creak of wagon wheels, hooves, horse whicker, it approaches and then fades away.]

[Two women pussyfoot onto the stage left. About 40, they’re dressed in voluminous colorful patchwork skirts, over maroon pants gathered at the ankles. Both wear finely embroidered shirts and are adorned with silver coin necklaces, each with a gold Maria Theresa thaler pendant. Romani women wear their wealth and these two are obviously well-to-do. They’re barefoot, one wears her hair up, the other down, no head scarves as typifies unmarried daughters of the Kalderasch.]

[One carries a champagne bottle, cradled as something precious, so she’s DONKA, treasure of the tribe.]

[The other holds up a rolled-up fabric plaque with two concentric circles stitched onto it. That’s the Patrin meaning of “we’ve gone home.” So she’s VADOMA, the one who knows.]

[They linger just inside the edge of the stage while she pins it to the leg curtain, open for all and sundry to see].

[Cue faraway peacock cry on PA from stage right.]

[They proceed to the coffer, OBVERSE 1 meets them there, accepts the bottle, inspects the label, sets the bottle by the cups, sits, probably amenable to anything. He’s quite willing to let them lead.]

[They finger through the coins, nod, remove their own burden, add theirs to the bowl on top.]

DONKA

[to VADOMA] No need for all the galbi anymore now. Maybe some other girls will take it on.

[to AUDIENCE] Feel free.

[On passing the grey cloak slung over the banister, they admire it, hold it up for size.]

VADOMA

[to DONKA] We could share it.

[A sky-blue-clad messenger enters from the platform stage left, brings another identical cloak, presents it to them, then passes a small pouch to OBVERSE 1 before leaving without comment via the platform stage right. DONKA and VADOMA drape both cloaks back over the banister, go to join OBVERSE 1, flanking him, a quick peck on the cheek, off and running. OBVERSE 2 does not appear behind the glass during the ensuing conversations.]

OBVERSE 1

Ladies, I believe we’ve met.

DONKA

And we remember you very well.

VADOMA

We thought we’d come and visit. Give you some feedback about how it went.

[OBVERSE 1 uncorks the bottle, sniffs the wine with obvious appreciation.]

OBVERSE 1

How’d you find me?

DONKA

Oh, we just followed the patrin. It seems we were anticipated.

VADOMA

A vardon happened by, we got on board, seems like they’re running a shuttle service.

DONKA

And when we reached the right crossways, we hopped off.

[At the exact moment DONKA says “right”, VADOMA chimes in with “left”. They glance at each other curiously, a bit of a raised eyebrow.]

VADOMA

Then there were signposts with our names, couldn’t be any plainer.

DONKA

Followed the path into the woods, saw the light, and here we are. This is to your liking?

[OBVERSE 1 nods vigorously, pours three libations.]

OBVERSE 1

[offers a toast] To life! [They drink.]

And how’s yours?

[All three become aware, a little belatedly, how good the champagne is.]

VADOMA

[She reads the label.] Ahh. Moet et Chandon. Worth the effort.

[Both VADOMA and DONKA smile knowingly.]

OBVERSE 1

How so?

DONKA

Liberated.

OBVERSE 1

You stole it?

VADOMA

(rather smugly) We’re expert thieves.

DONKA

Besides, they’ll never miss it. There’s thousands of bottles in their cellars.

OBVERSE 1

How’d you manage it? And wasn’t bringing it across a huge effort?

VADOMA

(matter of fact) We made several stops before coming home. Seems like the way was prepared, I’m not sure even by who and how that happened. But I knew where to go.

[She shakes her head.] Very strange.

DONKA

Vadoma knows stuff that boggles me.

VADOMA

We compare notes, dreams, scenes, sounds. Usually we agree. Then it’s real.

OBVERSE 1

As you say, definitely worth it. Do you talk to yourself?

DONKA and VADOMA

All the time.

OBVERSE 1

Me too. Gives me a frame of reference and a reality anchor.

DONKA

Us too. Alone drives you bonkers.

[They think that over. OBVERSE 1 gets the bowl from the pouch. A small sprightly voice says “foccachio” from inside the pouch. OBVERSE 1 breaks pieces of flatbread and passes it around.]

OBVERSE 1

So how’d it go?

DONKA

Mostly very well.

OBVERSE 1

Mostly.

VADOMA

Daj and dad kept us sequestered.

DONKA

(snorts) More like in permanent purdah. Divinity forbid that we associate with gadjo men. Unthinkable. But I learned to play the bouzouki. Donka became adept with the crescent harp.

[DONKA reaches behind her and tentatively plucks OBVERSE 1’s harp, does an arpeggio, takes the harp and strokes it while they talk.]

OBVERSE 1

Did you meet Vincent?

VADOMA

He came by with his sketchbook just as described. So that was not a problem. Dad knew and Daj was in town making holla. Dad was down in the meadow watering our horses.

OBVERSE 1

Did you offer him lunch?

DONKA

We did. I’d been feeding our mare on apples, trying to fatten her up, when he settled in. We watched him and then brought bread and salt and fruit.

VADOMA

He understood. A gentleman. Just before we came across, we visited in the Musée D’Orsay in Paris. There it was, our camp done in oils, with us in it. What you call a déjà vu experience. The dream stepped into stone. I think the creative artists are the most, how you say, plugged in.

OBVERSE 1

Memories?

VADOMA

Much. Dad’s vardon with the stovepipe sticking out. And the bowtop that he bought for us. A lot of time spent listening to the rain beat on that canopy. Good times. Musical times. He was a good provider and kept a substantial armorium. I wonder what will happen to it now.

OBVERSE 1

Want me to find out? Does it matter? What matters now is the future.

DONKA

(irritated) [to VADOMA] Is it that important?

VADOMA

(simply, realistic) Yes, it is that.

OBVERSE 1

(mediating) Sometimes, usually, you have to face the past to get released into the future. That’s what happens here. Come on. I’ll worm it out of you eventually.

DONKA

The longer you wait …

OBVERSE 1

… That’s right, the harder it will be. That’s been my experience. There’s a lot of tokens in that coffer to mark the passage of a mountain of baggage. Let it go.

DONKA

(encouraging) Tell!

[They stare off into the distance, somewhere over the heads of the audience. DONKA punctuates what she says with the harp.]

VADOMA

We’re heading west …

DONKA

Into the sunset. Dad liked night travelling, obscured. Less trouble.

VADOMA

He had an appointment in Cadiz. Some sort of musical reunion.

DONKA

Daj developed a sore throat. High fever.

VADOMA

Somewhere in Andalusia, west of Marseilles. Maybe she caught it in the city, in the market. If we’d only stayed in the fields.

DONKA

If we’d only …

VADOMA

If, if, if.

DONKA

We camped. A week later her fever broke and she got better.

VADOMA

But it, the Spanish flu, it took us. It took us by storm. It took no prisoners. It took about five days.

[to OBVERSE 1] I’d like to know what happened after that. Tell.

OBVERSE 1

They buried you standing. As befits lords of the earth. No markers. Two peach trees. They sold off your wagon and horses. Then they fled north. Away from the plague. Several million died that year. It was 1913. Your dad decided to try for his family in Kraków. It took them three years of careful, circumspect night passage. They did get there. Eventually, when his fingers no longer worked well enough to play, he sold off his instruments. The psaltery wound up in the collection of one Florence Farr, a well-known actress of the time. His cymbalom is in the Hofstra collection in Vienna. And he gave his theorbo away.

DONKA

And Daj?

OBVERSE 1

Your mother didn’t do well with Polish high society. She grew despondent and one day she just walked away. Boarded a train heading east and south. Wound up with her family in Kashmir. Walked the last fifty miles to her village north of Shri Nagar. The house she was born in is still there. Different people. But they took her in. Her ashes lie behind that house in the garden. She was 66.

VADOMA

And our dad?

OBVERSE 1

He’s somewhere in the woods west of Kraków. He took his veena with him. His vardon made it across the English channel to an estate north of London. An artist of some repute slept in it during the war to end all wars. End of the trail for that one.

DONKA

[to VADOMA] Does that satisfy you?

VADOMA

I just wanted to know. But, no, not really.

OBVERSE 1

Then what more do you need?

DONKA

Some sort of acknowledgement.

VADOMA

That we were there and that we mattered.

OBVERSE 1

Did you run into that alienation so prevalent among Caucasians?

DONKA

Rarely. We were discouraged from forming liaisons in the towns. It’s the Roma way. I didn’t even know that there were market squares until I’d turned eight or nine.

OBVERSE 1

You’ve a painting with you in it …

VADOMA

That’s true. We know, but nobody else knows that it’s us.

OBVERSE 1

Look, everyone passes through one of these waystations and leaves a token as witness to their existence. Everyone gets that. Equally. No exception. Is it that you want to be special?

VADOMA

[to DONKA] Dee, that’s vanity. Did you expect a framed portrait hung on some hoity wall? I’d say choose another wall.

DONKA

Maybe. (grudgingly) You’re right, I think. I’ll go live in the forest. Alone.

OBVERSE 1

Noted. Poland. May you find peace there, my sister.

[to VADOMA] And you? Where next?

VADOMA

I think … I’ll join the hexen.

OBVERSE 1

Gardnerian Wiccans. The Cornish coast.

DONKA

I’ll live off the wood. Gather nuts and berries. Sell baskets of champignons in the town.

VADOMA

I’ll make potions and poultices.

DONKA

I’ll learn to carve Pan pipes. I can hear them. Can you?

[OBVERSE 1 nods. VADOMA does not.]

[DONKA plunks out a tune in minor mode. Then answers a bird. Shifts to major.]

DONKA

And you, sir, what of you?

OBVERSE 1

True. I’m almost at the end of my tenure in the here and now. I don’t really know yet. Yet. But. There’s ways …

[VADOMA takes his hands, reads the lines in both of his palms.]

DONKA

Vadoma is very good at dukkering … listen to her. Sir.

[VADOMA feels along the tips of his fingers, takes a long look.]

VADOMA

You’re right-handed?

OBVERSE 1

How can you tell?

VADOMA

The joints of your right hand are more knobby from more heavy lifting. The bones get wider from more tendon wear. Gnarly we call it.

[VADOMA traces both hands with her index finger, rotates his hands, circles his wrists.]

VADOMA

(incredulous) This is remarkable. I’ve never seen this before.

[to DONKA] Dee, come look at this.

[DONKA sets the harp aside next to the piano stool, bends close with her sister, they ooh and ahh over the intaglio chiseled into his palms. VADOMA lectures.]

VADOMA

Chieromancy is a science, no matter what you may think of it. I’ve read several hundred hands during my practice, I learned from my mother, and she from hers. We know what it’s about. So. For right-handed people, the right hand is projective, that is what you get to work with. Any palmist who reads only one hand is an idiot. So. Look here. Both your life lines are very long. In fact impossibly long. They curl around your wrist several times in spiral fashion. See here and here.

[VADOMA traces his wrist lines, somewhat in awe of the implications, DONKA agrees.]

VADOMA

These lines are unbroken, so no major illnesses, no accidents, no outside detriments. Both lines agree. Get it?

[OBVERSE 1 nods somewhat dubiously, DONKA nods vigorously]

VADOMA

So your physical and mental health is very good. Then we look at your love lines. Again both agree, almost a mirror image, your capacity to love and be loved is almost unreal. This little one is your marriage line, unbroken, wyrdly, right up the middle, you mate successfully, repeatedly, with many consorts, and yet with only one other person. I can’t imagine how all these women can be one.

[to DONKA] You?

DONKA

It’s possible. Successive generations.

VADOMA

Incest? I don’t think so. Vitality is very good. Inbreeding? Not so, see the fate line. How it spreads out. There’s something going on here that I don’t understand. Many mates, one wife, who can this be?

DONKA

[She points.] What’s this mons veneris?

VADOMA

Yes. Note the depression and sudden upslope. Could that be divine intervention?

DONKA

Could be.

[to OBVERSE 1] You are favored. Maybe that’s why you’ve been stationmaster.

VADOMA

Or reward for a job well done.

DONKA

It works both ways. Up requires down. And look here. Wisdom. Far beyond mundane knowledge. This implies many generations of accrual. Way more than a commonly allotted life.

[to OBVERSE 1] Sir. You’ve embarked on a seminal journey. We hold you in awe, from a respectful distance. They will erect a monument to your presence and memory.

VADOMA

And yet. It’s not of this earth. Not cut in stone. Not pyramid nor obelisk. No mausoleum nor cenotaph. How this can be I cannot imagine. The reading is ended. Sir.

[Show spoked ship’s wheel on the hoop screen.]

[OBVERSE 1 pours three more libations, offers a toast.]

OBVERSE 1

To completion. Arrive where you’re going and get what you want.

[They toss that off. Then he portions out the rest of the flat bread. They nibble while they natter.]

OBVERSE 1

[to VADOMA] D’you think fate is a group work?

VADOMA

(pensive) Some couples are lucky together.

[to DONKA] We are.

DONKA

People make their own luck. Fate is what you make with what comes to hand.

VADOMA

So … lemonade from lemons?

DONKA

Of course. (slyly) Sugar helps. I’m not sure what love is. I’d like to find out.

VADOMA

Oh, whole lifetimes could be spent on that. What’s the opposite of love?

DONKA

Not hate. Apathy. The turning away. Hate is virulent. Fear. Lack of self-image.

VADOMA

Separate? [to DONKA] You could come visit …

DONKA

Probably not. Crossing water ain’t my thing.

VADOMA

I could find you. In the woods I mean …

DONKA

That’d be all right. Bring mead.

VADOMA

(smiles) Cheese. Cheddar.

DONKA

I’ll set the kettle to boil.

VADOMA

Toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble.

[Laughter all around. Turkey gobble in the woods offstage. Duck quack quite comfortable. Hen quibble.]

OBVERSE 1

And … destiny?

DONKA

That’s more like the end point of the journey. Your destination.

VADOMA

Keep your eyes slightly above the horizon.

DONKA

I’m tired of wandering around. I want the security of a stone cottage with a big woodpile. The rest I can manage.

VADOMA

Too many trees. Can’t see ’em for the forest.

DONKA

There’d be clearings. Little meadows. Waterfalls. I’d like that.

OBVERSE 1

And karma?

DONKA

Daj was big on that. It goes round and repeats. There are no new plots. Only the scenery changes. I’d rather write a new page and hold on to that.

VADOMA

For a while.

DONKA

(deprecating) Obviously. Nothing is permanent. Change is a constant.

[Riffle the book, OBVERSE 1 stands to consult it.]

OBVERSE 1

Look at that. Your course is set. Separate yet side by side. I don’t think that your kinship is done. Also [he reads] the lineage diverges, is subsumed, comes to fruition forever. There’s no end to it. The letters turn into mathematical symbols. They scatter from the page. It seems that you and I are connected somewhere very far off in the distance.

[to VADOMA] Can you see where that is?

VADOMA

(glazes over) Collateral lineages. Parallel flames. Many stones in the field. They enter the witness box. They march in phalanx. They turn a corner. They disappear into the mist. There’s no end to the legion. No bottom to the well. No shore to the ocean. Only islands. Many verdant. Salubrious.

OBVERSE 1

[to VADOMA] I could almost follow that. Like riding tandem on the same horse.

VADOMA

Nice simile. I ride a lot.

OBVERSE 1

But you lost me at the well.

VADOMA

Not because of any shortfall on your part. The bucket comes up different for everyone. We’re unique in our view of the universe. Every point of view is at the center of mind.

DONKA

The universe chants herself into existence. Every self stands at the axis of a vast rotating wheel.

OBVERSE 1

Another gypsy simile?

DONKA

We’re obsessive about horses and wheels. We think we’re divine but we don’t talk about it.

VADOMA

More blood has been splattered in the name of religion than mere greed.

OBVERSE 1

Damn.

VADOMA

Everyone eventually comes to grips with god, self and how that relates.

DONKA

We prefer that you do that on your own.

VADOMA

Most people think they get it. Lots purport to show the way. Some force compliance. Religion by the sword is … not … is wrong, is … evil. Evil is more than a construct of the church. Evil hides where you least expect it. Learn to recognize it.

OBVERSE 1

Noted.

[Cue subliminal subsonic 8 cps. Basso profondis on PA.]

[Show a stupa on the hoop screen.]

VADOMA

[to OBVERSE 1] How does existence work for you?

OBVERSE 1

I hear it first. A vast silence conspicuous in its absence. Then I see it. Dark. Black. Call it negative light. Enigma that shines from which everything depends, shifting in and out of existence. Call it god’s body. Maybe god’s mind. Only then does it take shape. Endless variations on form. Metaphors like the bottomless well and islands in an infinite ocean. I don’t think we’re all that well-equipped to grasp the enormity of it. What is it?

[Cue first subsonic thunder offstage left.]

DONKA

[She perks up her head, casts an ear to stage left.] If you get to an answer, I’d like to hear it.

VADOMA

Me too. Three.

OBVERSE 1

Agreed. Ladies. Sisterkin.

[More barely audible cannon thunder from stage left.]

DONKA

[She stands.] I move we adjourn the meeting.

VADOMA

Second the motion.

OBVERSE 1

This is it, huh?

VADOMA

You have work to do. So do we.

[All stand, join hands, circle the fire once, then stand at stage left in a triangle.]

VADOMA

We’re not good at leave-taking, usually we fold our tents and sneak away in the night. Something our dad taught us.

DONKA

Hugs. Kisses. Again, and again. We’ll be out there watching you.

[They break contact, lingering at fingertips, don their grey cloaks, then drift up separate stairs. VADOMA leaves by door #4, attended by red firelight and the sound of flutes, and DONKA by door #2, attended by shafts of sunlight and cuckcoo calls.]

[OBVERSE 1 closes the book, sets his harp back on the first step stage right.]

[Slide mirror to side, OBVERSE 2 reappears.]

[OBVERSE 1 retrieves champagne bottle, checks its contents, sets it next to the fountain. Moves the piano stool to extreme stage right, under the trees. Arranges seven hassocks in a wide arc stage right facing stage left, sets five cups from the pouch filled from the fountain, at the ready on the fire stones.]

[Cue ominous thunder from stage left.]

OBVERSE 2

They like you. I think they wanted to rumple your hair but thought better of it. If I read the body language aright, they lust for you. I believe they’re assured for sure sometime somewhere. Women like you, Obie. That ain’t bad.

OBVERSE 1

(studiously busy) Can you tell what’s coming?

OBVERSE 2

[He looks to stage left.]

Very bad. By far the worst yet. Final coup de gracie. Nasty. Last trumpet call. Ashes, all fall down. Bash, flash, gash, lighting crash, fighting, whites of their eyes, lies, unrecognizable, vice grips, rip, tear, burnt underwear, get ready, it’s coming.

OBVERSE 1

(grim) Ready. Let the festivities begin.

OBVERSE 2

Marshall the troops, call the chorus, bugle the watch, wake the forest.

OBVERSE 1

(deadpan) Ready.

[More big guns, closer, off stage left.]

OBVERSE 2

Sound assembly, rattle the drums, damn their madness, god, here it comes.

OBVERSE 1

Come forth! Come forth!

[Sounds of marching boots, bugle calls, musket fire, machine gun rattle, the cough of massive cannons, dive-bombing warplanes, tympani and bass drum roll, thunderous explosions.]

[Play the “Call to Loge” from Walküre, cut it after the anvil stroke.]

[Every blue-suited messenger that has crossed the stage enters. They come from all four doors, all exits from the stage, floor and platform levels. HAKIM leads all nine of them. They form two ranks at stage left, taller men to the back, women up front, a flinty-eyed crew, tight-lipped, unwavering stare.]

[Let HAKIM appoint the nuncio. Let the one who speaks reflect the demographic of the audience.]

NUNCIO

You out there. We’re about to show you the real thing, unvarnished, no holds barred. Don't you dare look away. Don’t. Blink !

[NUNCIO returns to line.]

HAKIM

[He speaks from the right end.] All right. Close ranks, pick your targets.

ALL MESSENGERS

[The denunciation is chanted in unison. Draw out all vowels and sibilants. Stress glottal and alveolar stops. The delivery is precise, observe punctuation pauses, focus on individual audience members. Let the messengers’ eyes wander. Make it loud and decisive.]

[Denunciation]

Evil is self-serving. Furtive with its methods. The foremost purveyors of destruction and death are business, church and state. They make war for profit, they foment fear and hate, tears for the love of it. Evil wears a black coat, wants to hog the spotlight, demands our eyes and vote, gravitates to the height where we worship power. Evil will flaunt its wealth, haunt your homes and towers, ravage your mind by stealth, strike you deaf, dumb and blind, heaven will hide its hand, hell will welcome its kind, cold will wither your hand. Beware its golden mask.

There! The curse is cast.

[At “There!” everyone points directly at the audience. ]

HAKIM

Troops defile!

[The back row of messengers steps one pace to the rear. The front row steps forward, turns to face the rear, thus forming a corridor to the entrance stage left. HAKIM plugs the end to the right, faces stage left.]

HAKIM

[to audience] Watch this, kids. Just in case you boys and girls didn’t get it, we are really ! pissed ! off ! Here’s why.

[Dive bomber on PA. Explosive whoomp offstage left. The curtains billow outward. Holographic fire and smoke belch forth, dry ice haze flows along the floor. Massed shrieks of pain and fear, mostly children and women from offstage left.]

[Seven kids stumble onto the stage, completely disoriented, some wearing burning wisps of rags, sooty faces and hands, the oldest boy about fifteen, the youngest a girl child of five. She’s naked, colored livid red.]

[Each member of the troop fields a victim, leads them to their respective hassocks. The members wipe away the smirch with towels provided by OBVERSE 1 from offstage right. They dip into the fountain to wash their charges.]

[Two women take the youngest girl to the fountain to wash her entire body. The fountain turns bloody red. Then they shepherd her to the last seat in the arc, closest to the audience, and drape her shoulders with the stolla from the piano stool, thus uncovering the tunic.]

[All stand behind their wards, facing stage left. OBVERSE 1 moves to face them all just to the right of the fireplace. OBVERSE 2 appears in the portal.]

[Continue wailing women from offstage left, gradually fade out while OBVERSE 1 speaks.]

OBVERSE 1

You’re safe. They cannot hurt you anymore. We will protect you.

[He pleads to the child with the stolla.] Don’t cry, my dear.

[Show inverted pentagram on hoop screen, black on red in a silver circle. Continue muffled sounds behind the scenes all sides. Faraway siren wail, occasional light flicker. Two women from the arc sit next to the girl, put an arm around her shoulders.]

OBVERSE 1

The horror you have witnessed should never have been. No one should endure such wanton cruelty. You are here to get over it. That’s our job. Try to trust us. We mean you well. We can erase the memory of what has happened to you. In part or all of it. You can start with a new blank slate.

[The lineup is the oldest boy, his sister, two more girls, about 13, two boys about 10, and the girl child on the end, about 5, she’s huddled into herself.]

BOY 1

Are we dead?

OBVERSE 1

Yes. You’re between lifetimes. Here there is no time, it’s all now. Here you choose who and what you’ll be. Just ask and I’ll tell you the truth.

BOY 1

[He points to the 4 doors.] Are those the way out of here?

OBVERSE 1

Yes. Elemental doors. Fire, water, air and earth. Everyone favors one of these. Only you can tell which. Lol.

GIRL 1

What happened to us? How’d we get here? There was a wedding party in a tent behind the house. Now we’re here. Why are we so … [she looks around] so abject. So so dirty.

[to BOY 1] Can you remember? What did you see?

BOY 1

I heard a loud noise.

GIRL 2 and GIRL 3

A wind blew us over.

GIRL 1

Yes. A hot wind. A red wind.

BOY 2

It came from outside.

BOY 3

The tent fell on us. I crawled out.

GIRL 3

What’d you see?

BOY 2

Nothing. I went blind. Now I can see.

[to BOY 3] Where were you?

BOY 3

By the table. Under the table.

[They look to the youngest. She remains silent, lips tightly pressed together.]

WOMAN

She’s lost her voice. But her eyes speak. They’re wide open. Sometimes you can’t understand what you’re seeing.

BOY 1

I know what I saw. I saw my brother and his bride burned alive. I saw my father fall on my mother. They were blown sideways through the tent door. Where are they? Why aren’t they here?

OBVERSE 1

They went to another waystation. There’s a lot of people. We only have room for a few passengers at a time here. Your relatives are asking the same questions that you are.

BOY 1

[to GIRL 1] What did you see?

GIRL 1

The sound of stuff breaking. I smelled scorched meat. I don’t want to see what that is. Please.

OBVERSE 1

Here and now you don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to.

BOY 1

No! I’m done with talking.

[He jumps up, swivels, increasingly distraught, brings his fist down hard on the piano stool, discovers the gun, grabs it and starts waving it around. GIRL 1 divines his meaning, grasps him by the arm.]

GIRL 1

No! Please, not that.

[He shakes her off.]

BOY 1

(increasingly hysterical) For my father and mother, for all my sisters, for my brother and his maiden wife, for our guests, for the honor of my kin, now my vengeance begins!

OBVERSE 1

The people who built the plane and bombs, they’re far away. The men who gave the orders, they’re where you won’t see them. The pilot is long gone. It won’t do you any good to pursue them.

[BOY 1 jumps up, tries to work the safety, points it at the audience, whirls about, aims for the doors.]

BOY 1

Don’t tell me what to do! Get out of my way.

[to GIRL 1] (very cold and precise) Don’t. Interfere. This is my ! only desire.

GIRL 1

Please. Not again. There’s no end to it.

[He makes a run for the stairs stage left, she follows him, door #1 flies open, lurid red light spills from the port, sudden spike of war sounds from the PA. They barrel through together, it slams shut, sudden silence. Then a single shot from behind the door. All the women present backstage shriek with agony, screams of anguish, howls of grief, lamentations which subside into a single unison note of despair.]

HAKIM

(quietly) Close ranks.

[The chorus, i.e. all the messengers, congregates behind the remaining five kids.]

GIRL 2

(sombre remonstrance) She went through the door.

CHORUS

[in unison] Impetuous youth, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, even the dead die.

OBVERSE 2

Obie, we’re gonna have to clean house. Can’t leave heavy stuff like that gun lying about.

[OBVERSE 1 rises, walks to the coffer, lifts the bowl out, sets it on the fireplace. The two girls note the jewelry and nudge each other. While he walks, OBVERSE 1 says the following.]

OBVERSE 1

Some are chained together. I don’t understand why that is or how it works. The book remains closed. So we don’t even have their names. All we can do acknowledge their presence and mark their passage.

[At the coffer he extracts two coins from the little pouch in his pocket and tosses them on the heap, then turns and walks back to sit on the fireplace stone facing the others.]

OBVERSE 1

[to the kids] Did any of you know them?

[Negative shakes of the head, one of the boys volunteers this next exchange.]

BOY 2

I think they were Mujahideen.

GIRL 2

Some of the guests.

GIRL 3

Hami’s family.

OBVERSE 1

That’s the bridal family?

BOY 3

Must be. Never saw them before.

OBVERSE 1

They suffer too. All suffer an atrocity. Strange liaisons happen. We’re still working on it.

CHORUS

Vengeance is bitter, its reasons grow old, again, but hidden till the breeze blows cold.

[On the hoop screen, spin the pentagram counterclockwise, when it comes to rest it’s a Nazi swastika en pointe.]

OBVERSE 1

[to GIRL 2 and GIRL 3] It troubles me that I can’t put names to them.

[He points at the two empty hassocks.] Names are how we recognize each other.

[During OBVERSE 1’s soliloquy, a tall man enters from stage left. He’s booted, wears a long black coat, face tinted orange, hair dyed gold. Arms akimbo, he shambles forward with fingers curled as claws.]

OBVERSE 1

Sometimes names reflect our true office in life. Names can be a clue to what a person is all about.

[Everyone facing stage left is wide-eyed, sharp intake of breath, stiffening of posture.]

OBVERSE 1

Sometimes names confer power over an object. The biblical Adam, when he named the animals passing in review …

[He becomes aware that something is happening behind him.]

… What?

[OBVERSE 1 turns, sees he’s being stalked, divines who and what the masked man is, resorts to a subterfuge. OBVERSE 1 feigns infirmity, rises slowly as would an old man, limps hunched over to meet his enemy. They collide directly in front of the coffer. OBVERSE 1 steps within the tall man’s guard, suddenly rears up, smashes his fists down on the man’s shoulders, sound of breaking bones on PA. The tall man immediately crumples to the floor with the sound of a rotten pumpkin being smashed on the PA. He falls with his face to the audience, stunned. Silent. Eerily, mute in slow motion. Henceforth he’ll not speak, but occasionally moan and roll about, gradually acquiring the snake hulk of a man. OBVERSE 1 steps back two paces. OBVERSE 2 affirms his presence with fists extended. OBVERSE 1 points with fists together, pinkies extended as a cornu. Then OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2 cast the curse, slowly with great deliberation and dignity. The “you” is with maximum loathing and the final three words are spat out.]

OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2

[together]

For our sons and for our daughters, for the children whom you slaughtered, for the women and for the men,

I won’t allow you back again.

Get thee gone and become ye naught.

Let there be nothing left. To. Rot!

[The man thing shudders at “nothing”, spasms three times at each final word.]

[OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2 relax, it is done.]

[OBVERSE 1 returns to sit facing the witnesses, resumes his conversation as if nothing of importance has happened.]

OBVERSE 1

[to GIRL 2 and GIRL 3] Fear not. He’ll never hurt anyone again. Not you, not them [points to AUDIENCE], not the world herself. Earth may turn unharmed, sheep may safely graze, no one need look again. He’s finished. Let’s continue with our deliberations. Turn your attention to yourselves. What’s to do next?

[Everyone, including the CHORUS, breathes a sigh of relief, no one looks at the carcass.]

OBVERSE 1

[to GIRL 2] And you, my dear, what’s your name and where are you going?

GIRL 2

A rich husband!

[GIRL 1 and GIRL 2 giggle, impish. GIRL 2 tugs at the woman standing behind her, whispers something, the woman nods, leaves by stage right, almost immediately returns with two folded white sweatsuits. GIRL 2 and GIRL 3 wriggle into them while tearing away any shredded and burnt clothing.]

OBVERSE 1

Is that the answer?

[Riffle the book, show two cups on the hoop screen.]

GIRL 2

That’s what we talk about around the dinner table. It’s a hot topic.

[More merriment. BOY 2 and BOY 3 listen.]

OBVERSE 1

You all know each other?

BOY 2

Grew up together. Did all the right kid stuff.

[OBVERSE 1 gazes at the book, OBVERSE 2 makes binoculars with his hands.]

GIRL 2

But all that changed …

[OBVERSE 2 holds his hands flat against his eyes.]

OBVERSE 1

Your horizon got a lot closer. I think the future contracted, got smaller. There were walls and basements.

[He prompts.] Not so?

GIRL 2

Beeb moved across town. Our parents believe, uh, believed it would be more … prudent … you know, if something happened, at least part of our family could continue. Could have. Didn’t.

GIRL 3

I don’t know what to believe. It seems we make, made a mistake somewhere. Did we screw it up? Can it be undone? Sir?

OBVERSE 1

What’s done remains done. It cannot be undone.

[Riffle the book.]

OBVERSE 1

But, your baby sister survives. Because she was in the basement bomb shelter. She inherits and carries your family name forward.

[Riffle book back to its previous position.]

OBVERSE 1

[to GIRL 2] So how about you? Who were you and who will you be? I promise you that the rest of the wedding party also confronts exactly the same questions.

(encouraging) Go ahead. Blurt it out just like you did it.

[They gaze past him at the bowl. He mistakes their intent, admonishes them.]

OBVERSE 1

Ignore him. He’s not part of anyone’s future.

GIRL 2

Hey.

[She makes necklace motions.] Try ’em.

OBVERSE 1

Oh. Pardon. I’m an idiot. Still working on that. Here. Choose. Accept. Freely given. Freely taken.

[He proffers the bowl, they delicately finger the coins, lift the signatures of wealth, lay them across each other, admire, confer in whispers. OBVERSE 1 sets the bowl aside, awaits the verdict.]

[On the hoop screen, invert one of the cups and rotate them slowly around the center of the screen so that they become interchangeable.]

[Each of the girls dons the necklace that she’s holding, then they admire each other.]

OBVERSE 1

[He attempts to stay on track.] Names.

[to GIRL 2] How may I address you?

GIRL 2

(with some pride) I’m Habeeba. It means “beloved.”

OBVERSE 1

(nonplussed) Uh huh.

[He looks back and forth.]

[Flip the book one page back and forth.]

[to GIRL 3] And what’s your name?

GIRL 3

(very matter-of-fact) I’m Aleisha. I’m exalted.

OBVERSE 1

[to GIRL 3] I thought you were Beeb.

GIRL 3

I am.

[OBVERSE 2 knocks on the mirror, rings his ear with his forefinger.]

OBVERSE 1

[He acknowledges OBVERSE 2.] How’s that?

GIRL 2

Oh, simple. We play musical name chair games.

[BOY 2 raises his arm.]

OBVERSE 1

[to BOY 2] Do tell.

BOY 2

Sir. It’s a bit complicated. They take after our mom. She was … odd … by most standards. We had one mom, but we really had two. She’s schiz. Had it down to a science. Every other day she’d flip between two … personalities.

OBVERSE 1

How could you tell?

BOY 2

One was right-handed, the other left. They used different pet names for us. And there were slight … weirdnesses in the way she spoke and walked.

OBVERSE 1

Do you think she knew?

BOY 2

Oh yes, she knew what the other part of her was thinking. We set traps for her like what happened yesterday. She always knew.

BOY 3

(snorts) Sometimes even tomorrow.

OBVERSE 1

Excuse me just a moment.

[OBVERSE 1 consults the book, flips to adjacent pages, confers with OBVERSE 2.]

[GIRL 3 regards her brothers as some lower life form. The girls pointedly slide over leaving a gap of two empty chairs.]

OBVERSE 1

[to OBVERSE 2] We should probably send word to the other platform. They’re likely scratching their heads over mom.

[OBVERSE 2 steps aside, OBVERSE 1 returns to face the kids, OBVERSE 2 returns, knocks on the glass, makes a ring with his thumb and forefinger.]

[The CHORUS chimes in, the men and women speaking alternating sentences.]

CHORUS (women)

Purple paisley shawl

CHORUS (men)

Alimony man

CHORUS (women)

Mirror in the hall

CHORUS (men)

Lonely vanity

OBVERSE 1

[to BOY 2] Thanks.

BOY 2

No problem.

OBVERSE 1

[to GIRL 2 and GIRL 3] Let me sort this out.

[The wreck on the floor manages to moan and roll about a bit so it faces the action. We can surmise that it’s looking daggers. Apparently only BOY 3 makes eye contact, perhaps because he has a better line of sight.]

CHORUS (women)

Baggage is a weight

CHORUS (men)

That drags at your eyes

CHORUS (women)

You will come to hate

CHORUS (men)

What his money buys

OBVERSE 1

[to GIRL 2 and GIRL 3] So. I can sidestep the name issue. Names are just words. I think. Maybe. So let’s say that while you’re here, you’re between names. You can be anyone you want. Your choice. If you want to be each other, that can happen. I’ve not run into that before but why not. I’ll just call you the fortunates. How’s that sound?

[They nod brightly.]

OBVERSE 1

Moving on, you said a rich husband. Why?

GIRL 2

(ingenuously) To divorce him.

OBVERSE 1

[He looks to OBVERSE 2.] Are we sure about this?

OBVERSE 2

Go with it.

OBVERSE 1

[to GIRL 2] I suppose he’s less trouble if he’s not there … uh, your parents didn’t.

GIRL 3

Nope. They stayed together.

BOY 2

[He volunteers.] Two aunts did. And Uncle Bennie was there. He’s probably picking up the pieces, seeing to the funeral rites.

BOY 3

That’s him. Capable.

[OBVERSE 1 looks to the book. It remains quiescent.]

OBVERSE 1

That seems to be as you say. He’s not listed, but your mom’s sisters are.

[to GIRL 2 and GIRL 3] Right. Divorce. Do you want a family of your own? Kids?

[GIRL 2 and GIRL 3 regard each other speculatively, then agree. GIRL 3 looks at BOY 2 and BOY 3, purses her lips, then thaws.]

GIRL 3

[She points at her brothers.] They’re all right. Like them.

[BOY 2 and BOY 3 make a slight bow.]

OBVERSE 1

Okay. Family is on. How’s about what to do in the hourglass? Work? Career? University? Travel plans? In short, life, what do you want to do with it? What is your life for?

[This is where GIRL 2 and GIRL 3 fly their true colors, confirming what the chorus has already pronounced.]

GIRL 2

[to AUDIENCE] I’ll tell you what my mother told me in private. She said, don’t tell me what to do. It’s my body. Don’t tell me what to think. They’re my thoughts. I’ll decide what I’ll wear, how I look, and who looks at me. I’ll go where and when I want. Keep your hands off my kids. …and then, she said some bad words.

OBVERSE 1

So it wasn’t all peaches and cream at the breakfast table.

GIRL 3

Mom stayed on because the alternative was worse.

OBVERSE 1

[to GIRL 2] So do you also feel as your mom laid it out?

[GIRL 2 remains silent, stares him down.]

OBVERSE 1

[to GIRL 3] And you, where from and where to?

CHORUS (women)

A world without men will be possible.

CHORUS (men)

We can’t tell you when

Nor what will be lost.

GIRL 3

[GIRL 3 looks OBVERSE 1 straight in the eye.] Men wage war. War is bad. Bad is wrong. What’s wrong with men?

OBVERSE 1

(sadly) You’re right. A lot of kids who’ve passed through here have asked me that in some way or other. It comes down to this. I don’t know. You’d think that after all this time [he points at the coffer] that I’d have the answer. But I don’t. All I can tell you is that not all men are bad. Just a few. But lots of men follow these few. I don’t know how that works. A few lead, many follow. Why is that?

[GIRL 3 hunches forward, touches OBVERSE 1 on the forehead.]

CHORUS (women)

Evolution says variety works.

CHORUS (men)

You got juicy prey and exciting perks.

GIRL 3

[to OBVERSE 1] It’s in here.

OBVERSE 1

Probably hard-wired into the brains of hunter killers. So, a tactical advantage with survival way back when we humans first started walking erect. But that’s no excuse. If you know that you’re the offspring of a predator species, then you can stop it. Just plain stop it. But we don’t. That coffer is full with the proof. Yours are about to be added to the pile. I’m truly sorry.

GIRL 3

(with a really determined air) I’d like to find out about that.

OBVERSE 1

(heartfelt) My dear, when you do, the whole world would like to know. Make sure you tell ’em.

BOY 3

Tell everybody. Not just a few.

OBVERSE 2

[to OBVERSE 1] Obie, there’s one who connects the dots with foresight and hindsight.

OBVERSE 1

[to GIRL 2 and GIRL 3] You know what you want.

[to GIRL 2] You don’t have to let on. All you need to leave here is certainty where you’re going.

[GIRL 2 and GIRL 3 both nod vigorously.]

OBVERSE 1

Then it’s a done deal. Almost. There’s only one more bit to decide. Do you want to remember what happened to you? Or do you want to forget and start over with a clean slate. Both are possible.

GIRL 2 and GIRL 3

(without hesitation) Forget!

OBVERSE 1

Then come drink of the draught that I have drawn and proceed unimpeded.

[They stand, he hands them two cups from the fireplace, GIRL 2 drinks, hands it back. GIRL 3 hugs her brothers, touches her silent sister on the head, as if in blessing, then drinks and hands it back. Both link arms, ascend to the platform, door #2 and door #3 swing open, at the last possible moment they twirl round a common axis, then rush through the doors, accompanied by a hubbub of voices from backstage, aquamarine light and yellow sunlight respectively doors #2 and #3. The doors close automatically. Done.]

OBVERSE 1

[to BOY 3] Thanks for your help. I take it you’ve been dealing with them all your life. I still don’t quite get it.

BOY 3

Um, I thought it, that is, them, that they were normal. You know, under the circumstances with the war and all.

OBVERSE 1

People find strange hidey holes when confronted with the unthinkable. You’re carrying it off well. How’s that working out for you?

BOY 3

I read a lot. Keeping my head down. I’ll miss ’em. It was always something.

OBVERSE 1

(speculatively) Wanna tell me your name? You don’t have to…

BOY 3

Can I keep the one I’ve got?

[Riffle the book, show lab glassware on the screen.]

[The wreckage on the floor makes a guttural sound, porcine, squirms around to face stage right front.]

BOY 3

He’s looking at me. I can feel it.

ANONYMOUS VOICE FROM THE AUDIENCE

Us too. Don’t like it.

[OBVERSE 1 nods, walks over to the wreckage on the floor, beckons to the two boys, they follow him and look on.]

OBVERSE 1

There’s no way that it can hurt you now. It’s heading for darkness. If you want to kick it as a send-off, you can do that now with impunity.

[They regard the situation, deliberate, then refuse the offer. They shake their heads and turn away, resume their seats.]

[OBVERSE 1 catches up a remnant of torn skirt, sets the two nesting cups on the fireplace, spreads the fabric over the derelict’s head, then drops two more coins from his pocket pouch onto the pile in the coffer, returns to face BOY 3.]

OBVERSE 1

[to the ruins on the floor] (en passant) Comfy?

[to AUDIENCE] Out of sight, out of mind.

[OBVERSE 2 claps his right palm over his forehead, then lets it fall, leaves, comes back with a wooden chair and sits to watch.]

OBVERSE 1

[to BOY 3] What kind of subjects have you been reading about?

BOY 3

I got a chemistry set for my birthday several years ago. So mad scientist stuff, pyrotechnics, flash powders, stinkers. I made one of those traveling spark arcs from some coat hangers and an old neon sign transformer. Built a radiotransmitter from a kit so we could talk across town. I thought I’d study lab tech stuff.

[Show microscope on hoop screen.]

Then I discovered tadpoles in the pond behind our house. So I started looking at anatomy books. Fascinating stuff.

OBVERSE 1

[He prompts BOY 3.] What else?

BOY 3

I learned about diseases and how to prevent them. Like this.

[He takes a glass tube fitted with a filter stone from his pocket, demonstrates.]

It filters out bacteria. So you can suck from a puddle and not get cholera, our dad bought a whole box of ’em, cheap. Should be in everyone’s kit. Here. I won’t need it now.

[BOY 2 also pulls one from his pocket, OBVERSE 1 accepts them graciously, lays them down next to the cups.]

BOY 3

Is it true that we can go back to any time, just step into it?

OBVERSE 1

That’s right. Decide who you are, what you want, where and when you’d like to do it. We’ll make it happen. Well, within reason. Not everyone can be king of the world, or kill off the competition. What kind of world do we desire most. Here’s a question. If you could have anything at all for your birthday, money no object, so no matter what it costs, what would that be?

BOY 2 and BOY 3

(without hesitation) Peace on earth!

OBVERSE 1

I thought so. Ring the bell.

[A massive church bell rings twice on the PA.]

[The youngest girl sits up, takes note of her surroundings. A thin smile creeps past her lips.]

FULL CHORUS

Healing is holy, divinity’s art, the kneeling of souls before god’s altar. They swear to uphold their calling. For all, the lame and the halt, without shame or thrall!

BOY 2

[He nods.] They left out the part about privacy, doing no harm with it, and passing it along.

OBVERSE 1

You’ve heard this before?

BOY 2

It’s a nice way of saying the Hippocratic oath. Every medical doctor swears by it.

OBVERSE 1

You too, huh?

BOY 2

I thought I’d become a pathologist. My uncle gave me a microscope when he heard I was interested in that. One of those old brass ones, along with a whole box of stuff, slides, dishes, stains, and a few atlases, books with pictures of spores and bacteria, little whizz bang creatures swimming about in ponds and puddles. I had it all set up in the basement.

OBVERSE 1

Bunker.

BOY 2

As you say. Keep your most valuable stuff underground. I spent a lot of time down there.

[Show ECG trace on hoop screen, cue heartbeat luba-dub on PA.]

OBVERSE 1

Sounds like you were well on your way. And then another … fork … in the road.

BOY 2

War. It all turned nasty. Bombs.

BOY 3

His lab became a shelter. All the equipment went into a closet. We built bunk beds in the basement.

BOY 2

Normal. That’s what we wanted. Just a normal life. We heard sirens and felt the ground shake. I painted the windows black. We kept the doors locked. Only one person out at a time to buy food. We cooked on a camp stove. Boiled pondwater. Didn’t run the generator because it’s noisy. We set a solar still on the roof and swam in the pond at night.

BOY 3

You get used to it.

BOY 2

Yeah. We did.

OBVERSE 1

[He leads the witness.] You heard stories.

BOY 3

We heard stories.

BOY 2

I dreamed about hospitals.

BOY 3

How they laid the bodies in long rows out on the grass.

BOY 2

Because there was no room in the halls or the morgue.

BOY 3

So the survivors could identify them.

[On the screen the trace goes to flatline, the heartbeat fades away.]

FULL CHORUS

Life goes on. Life is resilient. Life flourishes in the face of folly.

OBVERSE 1

Life endures. Life is what you dream about. Life is in the glint of your eye, at the tip of your fingers, behold life in the touch of the breeze that blows in from the ocean, life speaks soft in your ear, whispers along your tongue. There.

BOY 2

I did find such a place. I know who I am. I know what I want. Grant me this.

[OBVERSE 1 retrieves the caduceus from the banister.]

OBVERSE 1

I saw this. A snake crawled from the forest. Wound itself around this rod. Became one with this rod. I saw this. I believe it’s the staff of Asklepius. It rightfully belongs to you.

[He hands it to BOY 2.]

Someday, when you’re working in a clinic far from home, you’ll need to get away from the depraved degradation that surrounds you. You’ll wander the town and look into shop windows. This will be there. The owners won’t know what they have. They’ll think it’s a stage prop. But you’ll know. It’s the real thing. The succession is yours. Wield it well.

[BOY 2 immediately starts to fondle the curved snake head of his new staff. He’ll continue, rather absently, the entire length of it while he’s onstage.]

[Show clockface with 13 hours on screen. The hands rotate erratically, sometimes backward.]

[The form on the floor slithers around, manages to roll over, face up, the fabric covering falls off, it hisses with pleasure.]

OBVERSE 2

[to OBVERSE 1] I’ll keep an eye on it.

[Flip book several pages, just a quick glance from OBVERSE 1 in its direction.]

OBVERSE 1

[to BOY 3] You’re an odd one. How come your shoes don’t match?

BOY 3

I was born with a bad foot. Have to wear inserts in one shoe.

OBVERSE 1

I bet you won’t limp out of here.

BOY 3

That would be … amazing.

OBVERSE 1

I think you’re a pretty private kid, huh?

[BOY 3 nods, non-committal.]

OBVERSE 2

Saturn and Neptune in Pisces.

OBVERSE 1

All right! Understood. I won’t play 20 questions and tease it out of you.

[BOY 3 smiles, grateful. His young sister looks on with evident interest.]

OBVERSE 1

Let’s make a game of it. Word associations. I’ll toss something out and you say the first thing that comes to mind. Ready? There’s no right or wrong answers, it’s just to get you on to what you want and who you’ll be next time around.

BOY 3

(just a slight stutter) S… sure.

OBVERSE 1

What are you interested in?

BOY 3

Time

OBVERSE 1

Collection

BOY 3

Clocks

BOY 2

(helpfully) None of ’em worked.

OBVERSE 1

Did you fix any?

BOY 3

No. Uh, I built a sundial.

BOY 2

He painted marks on the attic floor and drilled a hole through the roof so the sun could shine through and mark the hours. Our dad was pissed.

BOY 3

(defensively) I stuck a cork in it when it rained.

BOY 2

Not often. But effective.

OBVERSE 1

Attic

BOY 3

Memories

OBVERSE 1

Whose?

BOY 3

Lots of other people

OBVERSE 1

Eternity

BOY 3

[BOY 3 counts on his fingers.] One, two, three, many, without end.

[The clock hands run backward.]

OBVERSE 1

(soothing, hypnotic) Infinity

BOY 3

Numbers

OBVERSE 1

Count backwards, start from 13.

[BOY 3 counts from 13 to 7, then lapses into silence. OBVERSE 1 presses a finger against his lips motioning silence.]

OBVERSE 1

Dreams

BOY 3

A field of stones. Each with a name and dates.

OBVERSE 1

Who?

BOY 3

Me

OBVERSE 1

Good. Now, fly over those ranks and files. Find the one that says 2017.

[BOY 3 leans forward and places his hands on an invisible object, murmurs, croons at it.]

BOY 3

Yes, that’s me.

OBVERSE 1

That’s who you’ve just been. It would behoove you to lay hands onto the ones on either side. Where you’ve been and where you’re going. Take your time.

[BOY 3 leans to his left and then to his right, seems surprised, and then satisfied.]

[His young sister watches very closely at this laying on of hands trick.]

BOY 3

I’m aghast and pleasured. I’m done.

OBVERSE 1

Well and good. Sit between where you’ve just been and where you’re about to go. Now [he snaps his fingers] sing yourself awake.

[BOY 3 starts to hum tunelessly, then settles into a definite melody, opens his eyes, sings with increasing emphasis.]

[The chorus hums along with him, then chants, first in a whisper, then full voice, a crescendo worthy of any chorale. Sound the angelus once.]

[On screen show a levorotatory spiral, black on silver, turn it deosil so the optical illusion makes it look like it’s getting bigger.]

CHORUS

The times are marked fleet, by the stars and moon, by your own heartbeat, by the sun at noon.

Time is sequestered in a glass of sand, time at your behest is vast in your hand.

[The two women in blue who’ve been sitting with the YOUNG GIRL rejoin the chorus.]

[YOUNG GIRL finds BOY 3’s hand, unobtrusively.]

[When the angelus bell peal dies away, OBVERSE 1 continues the word association game, seamlessly.]

OBVERSE 1

Silence

BOY 3

Deafening

OBVERSE 1

Basilica

BOY 3

Space

OBVERSE 1

Singular

BOY 3

Stars

OBVERSE 1

Seven

BOY 3

Twenty-four

OBVERSE 1

Sundial

BOY 3

Hourglass

OBVERSE 1

Sand

BOY 3

Beach

OBVERSE 1

Salt

BOY 3

Cube

OBVERSE 1

Pedestal

BOY 3

Djinni

OBVERSE 1

Sentinel

BOY 3

Gatekeeper

OBVERSE 1

Clockmaker

BOY 3

[YOUNG GIRL silently mouths the rest of the exchange.]

Measurement

OBVERSE 1

Rhythm

BOY 3

Frequency

OBVERSE 2

Polyphony

OBVERSE 1

Art

BOY 3

Cadence

OBVERSE 1

Steps.

BOY 3

One

OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2

Two

BOY 3

Three

OBVERSE 1, OBVERSE 2, BOY 3 and YOUNG GIRL

Many

CHORUS

Many

[OBVERSE 1 rises, takes the hourglass, gives it to BOY 3.]

[YOUNG GIRL releases her hand, clasps them, looks at them with wonder. Something truly profound has happened here. We can see it in her smile and stance.]

[BOY 3 cradles the hourglass as he would a child.]

OBVERSE 1

[to BOY 3] It’s rightfully yours. When you become aware of it, it will be a part of your bedroom decor. You’ll grow up with it and regard it as part of you. Eventually it will lead you to a high place where you will again find yourself. Be well with it.

[Show 3D Mobius loop on screen. Rotate it so we can see that it’s a solid 3D object.]

OBVERSE 1

[to BOY 2 and BOY 3] You two are ready to move on. I must say that it’s been really good to meet such as yourselves who know what they really want. In my experience, that’s rare.

[He bows his head to each.]

So … one last bit of protocol. How will it be?

BOY 2

A clean start.

BOY 3

A blank slate.

OBVERSE 1

[OBVERSE 1 offers two cups.] Wear the color of your choosing.

[BOY 2 and BOY 3 drink. The caduceus and the hourglass remain on their seats. They stand, move to face their sister, take her by the hands and raise her up, hugs and kisses, then they turn, ascend the stage left stairs together, on the platform they shake hands, whisper a parting farewell that we can’t hear, BOY 2 leaves by door #1, BOY 3 by door #4. Fire is the healer’s art, earth is the mason’s tool. BOY 2 jumps through headlong. BOY 3 kicks off his shoes and walks through without a limp. Behind door #1 we hear a doctor being paged in a hospital PA system. Florescent light. Behind door #4, we hear the click of an abacus. Moonlight streams down. Crickets chirp. All is well.]

[As OBVERSE 1 starts toward the coffer, the fanged fiend on the floor rolls over and humps closer. Hakim catches OBVERSE 1 by the shoulder and drags him back.]

HAKIM

[to OBVERSE 1] Careful, it’s getting ready to strike. Don’t let it spit venom on you.

[HAKIM motions to his men. One leaves by stage right and immediately comes back with a length of chain. Two drag the hissing snake thing back by the heels, chain its feet together, and then to one of the platform stanchions. The thing pitches a shrieking fit, tries desperately to get at OBVERSE 1, but to no avail.]

OBVERSE 1

Be silent. [This with a backhanded slap in its direction. The snake falls silent, supine.]

[OBVERSE 1 sets the cups down into the others, drops two more tokens into the coffer, throws the burnt skirt over the monster’s head.]

OBVERSE 1

There. Smell that.

[Then he has a brief exchange with NOTA BENE, the page sprite of the book, flips back and forth between adjacent sheets, and they arrive at a consensus. The page sprite speaks with a small celeste-embellished voice.]

NOTA BENE

Is this correct?

OBVERSE 1

Yep. Same name, same compass, but collateral lineage, overlapping dates. You got it right.

NOTA BENE

Unusual.

OBVERSE 1

These are unusual times. Thank you, dear.

NOTA BENE

Would you like to see their sister?

[Show a Greek lyre, a Celtic harp, and a concert harp in succession.]

OBVERSE 1

Three, two, yes, that one.

[Riffle the entire book.]

OBVERSE 1

(surprised) All of them? How’s that?

NOTA BENE

Everyone knows about angels. And everyone has a different image in mind about what one should look like.

OBVERSE 1

Yes, m’dear, quite right. We’ll keep the actual investment concealed. Will that avoid the … pitfalls?

[The thing rattles its chain.]

NOTA BENE

Yes. Not everything should be witnessed by profane eyes.

[OBVERSE 1 closes the book, returns to sit before the YOUNG GIRL.]

OBVERSE 1

[to YOUNG GIRL] You’re an unusual young lady. You don’t say much but I betcha you’ve been paying very close attention to what happens here.

[He prompts her.] Not so?

[YOUNG GIRL nods, waits expectantly.]

OBVERSE 1

All right. If you’ll allow me. I’ll tell you something about yourself and if I’m wrong, you jump right in and tell me so. Good?

[YOUNG GIRL nods again.]

OBVERSE 1

So. First about your older brother. He’s kept his name. Al-Ba’ith, so, a doctor of medicine as he wanted. He’ll grow up in the house across the street. The one with the blue door. Good so far?

[YOUNG GIRL nods, a thin smile.]

OBVERSE 1

As for your favorite brother, Al-Malik, he’s on to something eternal that we don’t understand, but we’re trying. He moves around. Many places, pursuing his life’s ambition. Getting onto reality, that’s what I would call it. Good with that?

[Big smile and nods from YOUNG GIRL.]

OBVERSE 1

That brings us to you. The last but certainly not the least. It seems that around here we save the best for last. So here’s what the book says about you. Ready?

[ YOUNG GIRL gives a very deep, profound nod.]

OBVERSE 1

It’s like this. Everyone knows you. Has heard of you. Makes mental pictures about you. You’ve been sculpted, painted, etched, drawn, mostly entire, once just your foot, your hands as bookends, your body set in temples and churches and wooded groves. We love you. You are very real with us. We need you, to make sense of our mortal condition, to bring us the news from on high, to utter reality to give us a frame of reference.

[OBVERSE 1 drops to his knees before her, so that his head is lower than hers.]

OBVERSE 1

Do you have any questions about this?

YOUNG GIRL

(very clear) How … can I tell … if I’m real?

OBVERSE 1

[He thinks this over a while.] Ah, I’ve got it. Close your eyes.

[She does.] Now, did you disappear?

YOUNG GIRL

No.

OBVERSE 1

So you know you’re there and you know I’m here. And that they [points to AUDIENCE], they are all there.

YOUNG GIRL

Yes.

OBVERSE 1

(reverently) Sweetie, you’re real. Count on it. We do.

YOUNG GIRL

How should I view myself?

[She keeps her eyes closed. Her hands pluck invisible strings. The harp on the stairs resonates its answer.]

OBVERSE 1

Ah. I believe you know who and what you are. There’s no hiding it. Allow us to clothe your form.

[YOUNG GIRL nods her consent.]

[OBVERSE 1 goes to stand with OBVERSE 2, before the book pedestal. One of the women leaves by stage right and comes back with a folded sky-blue tunic and an amethyst tiara. HAKIM motions for the others to push back the hassocks to make room, leaving the piano stool in front stage right.]

HAKIM

Huddle. Stand dadouchos.

[They surround the YOUNG GIRL.]

HAKIM

Ward her.

[The men turn to face the audience, thus screening what happens in the women’s circle.]

CHORUS

Turlough O’Carolan stands by the wayside, waiting for the world to offer a ride. Where are you bound for? To the next fairground, boarding wherever the merry goes round.

[The circle backs off, leaving the YOUNG GIRL seated facing stage left.]

[The men move to stage left and surround the viper on the floor.]

[The women move to stage right to watch over the YOUNG GIRL.]

[OBVERSE 2 knocks on the glass to catch OBVERSE 1’s attention.]

OBVERSE 2

Obie, we gotta do something about her feet. Maybe we can swap her brother’s shoes for a pair that fits her.

[HAKIM takes notice, sprints up the stairs stage right, picks up the shoes, leaves by the platform edge stage right, comes back with a set of silver-winged slippers, hands them to OBVERSE 1.]

[OBVERSE 1 kneels before the YOUNG GIRL and slips them onto her feet.]

[OBVERSE 2 leaves, taking the chair with him, slides the mirror back into place one last time.]

[HAKIM moves to join his men. All five keep the thing on the floor contained with palms pressed inwards.]

OBVERSE 1

[to YOUNG GIRL] Now you’re set to go so far and fast. Come take a look at yourself and tell us if you like what you see.

[He leads her to the mirror and then stands back. ]

[YOUNG GIRL primps a bit, adjusts the tiara, does a dance step to show off her new slippers.]

YOUNG GIRL

Yes, this works. I feel better.

[Show winged orb in gold on screen.]

[OBVERSE 1 flips the book to its first page.]

OBVERSE 1

You wear the blue well. Here, look at this.

[to NOTA BENE] Translate.

OBVERSE 1

[He points at several spots.] These are all you. We recognize you by the names you adopt. Polyhymnia, Chorale, Caprice, Fleetfoot, Resonant, and here, your secret name within the order – Ariel. This image, here, is you closing the jaws of a lion. See how he licks your wrist in supplication. The courage of a lion when it counts. The force of will enthroned. The sovereign high of intuitive union. The self-fulfilling prophecy – these are all you. If you want it. You need not accept this office. This is where you decide.

[Start the winged orb flying. She moves her finger, the harp answers.]

[OBVERSE 1 nods, he’s made up his mind. They turn to face the AUDIENCE. He picks up the harp and gives it to her.]

ARIEL

Me? But it’s yours.

OBVERSE 1

But you’ll accept it. You’re already playing it. And since it’s mine, it’s also mine to give. Freely extended, freely accepted. I got it for nothing and now I pass it on. You’ll play with anyone you want, and you’ll always be welcome. Take it. Do with it as you will.

[ARIEL cradles the harp in her left arm.]

[Slide mirror away for good. ]

OBVERSE 2

What we’ll do is make it appear in a trunk in your attic. Someday you’ll go up there to rummage and you’ll find it. Then it’s yours. Again and again and again. In your dreams and in your hands. They [he points to AUDIENCE] will listen and allow you into their hearts.

[to AUDIENCE] Is this not so? Who is she?

[Three anonymous voices from the AUDIENCE respond.]

VOICE 1

[Cockney accent] Oy, she’s a blooming angel.

VOICE 2

[Italian accent] Of the cherubim.

VOICE 3

[western drawl] She’s the future.

OBVERSE 1

The congregation has spoken. Will you do it?

[ARIEL nods vigorously. They step to the fire for that final cup. One of the women takes the harp, attendant.]

[As ARIEL and OBVERSE 1 come to the libation, slide the glass partition aside, completely open. The harp bearer stands apart from her sisters. She carries the harp in her arm, faces stage left. All the men surround the viper on the floor. Maybe it listens; hearing is the last sense to leave.]

OBVERSE 1

Ariel, the last cup is yours. Fortunately, I had the foresight to prepare it before we bloodied the fountain. The water in this cup is pure. It confers, gives to you, a partial forgetting. You have the power to turn away certain events that you find troubling. Those events that you find congenial will stay with you. I recommend that you keep your liquid fingertips. They serve you well at the the performance. You may wish to remember everything that you’ve seen and heard here. You may at any time change your mind. That which you think … is real for you. Thought determines the worth of your life. Be well with it.

[ARIEL nods, drinks, takes the extended left hand of RUACH.]

ARIEL

Who are you?

RUACH

I am Ruach. The wind from nowhere that whispers in your mind. Just call my name and I will be with you.

ARIEL

Ruach. Ruach. Ruach.

OBVERSE 1

Ariel. What would you like more than anything else right now?

ARIEL

I wanna go home. Home. Home.

RUACH

[to OBVERSE 1] I’ll take her and personally see to it that she gets what she needs.

[to ARIEL] Come on, Ariel, you’re one of us. We look to you. I’ll take you home.

[ARIEL and RUACH leave by stage right.]

[OBVERSE 1 nests the cups, puts them, along with the filter stones, in the pouch hung on FAUNA’s staff set beside the fountain.]

[HAKIM leaves by stage left and returns with a length of chain that the men loop around the devil’s neck. It gives several guttural snarls, but to no avail. They’ve pinioned it. So all it can do is lie there, face up. HAKIM extends the chain out toward the AUDIENCE well past the scrim and curtain line.]

HAKIM

[to OBVERSE 1] Sir, my instructions are to have you sign off on the book. If you will.

[HAKIM hands OBVERSE 1 a sharpie.]

Inside the front cover. [OBVERSE 1 does so.]

And again inside the back cover. [OBVERSE 1 complies].

OBVERSE 1

[to HAKIM] The page sprite in this book has been really attentive and helpful. Even in difficult cases. My compliments.

[to NOTA BENE] Again, thank you, dear, you were a jump ahead of me and made the job here much easier. A good one.

[to HAKIM] Pass that one on, would you? Deserves a citation and some serious R&R at the very least. Perhaps the pick of any new assignments?

HAKIM

I’ll do that.

[to NOTA BENE] Fear not, we won’t let you languish in Archives.

[Small peal of pleasure from the book. OBVERSE 1 pats the book fondly.]

[The chorus has separated, women stage right, the men stage left, on the proscenium, in front of the curtains.]

[HAKIM steps to center stage, fixes the AUDIENCE with a take-no-prisoners gaze. He scuffles the chain with his foot, picks his targets, center, left and right. ]

HAKIM

Chains are electrical conductors. You all out there can marshal way more voltage than evil can muster. All you need is a group will, a collective. You could electrocute this demon in an instant. Make it disappear from sight. You could hang it with the chain, but that would be messy. You’d have to clean up. Or you could wrap it in the chain and drop it in the ocean. That would pollute an already overburdened sea. You could have, you should have, but you didn’t, and that’s what counts. So we’ll do it. You can watch.

[HAKIM unpins the patrin from the curtain, rolls it up and sticks it in his pocket. Then joins the rest of his men.]

[OBVERSE 1 mooches around, settles the bowl into the pile of tokens, adds ARIEL’s coin from the pouch. A big silver one. As he’s about to close the lid of the coffer, RUACH enters from stage right.]

[OBVERSE 1 and RUACH are obviously more than friends. They rush into a torrid embrace over by the piano stool, so facing the audience at stage right. When OBVERSE 1 greets her, he uses her endearment name and lingers over the words. ]

OBVERSE 1

(eager) Aeolah!

RUACH

(sultry) Obie.

[As soon as they face front, the avatar of life, VIVA herself, rises through the hidden trap door from behind the red head scarf that’s draped over the platform banister. She wears a scarlet neck- to-wrist-to-ankle leotard very well filled out. Use the same actress who played TALIA in Act II, scene 1. She watches them. They don’t see her.]

OBVERSE 1

How’s our life going?

RUACH

Torrid. Hold that thought.

OBVERSE 1

How’s it going with your ward, Ariel?

RUACH

At our last powwow, five and a half, just roaring along. Here. Working on her manual dexterity. She made this from a kit. Braided it especially for you. Some of her hair is plaited into it.

OBVERSE 1

Any trouble bringing it across?

RUACH

Special dispensation.

[OBVERSE 1 hands her the small pouch.]

OBVERSE 1

Here. Take this diplomatic pouch. Should make intersection easier.

[RUACH hands him a leather lanyard with a clippie at the end.]

OBVERSE 1

I know what this is for.

RUACH

So does Ariel. Let’s see if we agree.

[OBVERSE 1 removes the bottom button from his tunic on the piano stool, clips it to the lanyard, slips it over his head, wears it proudly.]

OBVERSE 1

This has seen it all. It’s going home with me. Let the record be complete.

[Offstage right cue an audio track of two Celtic harps doing a gigue in unison, so they sound as a very accomplished single harpist.]

[While the music goes on, HAKIM gets a phone call, holds a device to his ear, nods, walks to the book, lays his hand on it in benediction.]

[OBVERSE 1 and RUACH look on, but don’t yet see VIVA, who freezes immobile with her hands on the scarf.]

HAKIM

[to NOTA BENE] Nota! Of the family Bene, come forth! Your bondage to this book is released. You may range free as you will, investigate as you see fit, and indwell whatever object that you desire. My dear one, you’re free. Be about your business.

[NOTA BENE rises as a lilac ball of lightning with a slight comet tail to show direction. It touches, in order, the lights above doors #1 to #4, circles VIVA’s head like a halo, drops to the fountain, briefly dips into it, bounds across to the book, circles above the bowl and cover, dives into the pile of tokens, takes a look at the derelict on the floor, recoils, follows the length of chain, hops along the links, rises above the audience, swoops several times through the hall, returns to the stage, settles into the button that OBVERSE 1 wears. It sparkles with the akasha luminant. So!]

[HAKIM returns to his men, en passant motions to RUACH, taps his wrist, she nods that she understands. While all this is ongoing, OBVERSE 1 and RUACH continue their conversation about ARIEL.]

OBVERSE 1

Clever fingers.

RUACH

A smart cookie, that one.

OBVERSE 1

[He fingers his lanyard.] So she knew.

RUACH

She said she dreamed it.

OBVERSE 1

She is indeed [to AUDIENCE] the future.

[Show DNA replicating in 3D on the hoop screen. Flick of the snake tongue.]

RUACH

How far can you see?

OBVERSE 1

The further, the more unrecognizable it becomes. So many possibilities that there’s no way to keep the future coherent.

RUACH

So you can’t tell what will become of us? I thought inertia evened it out.

OBVERSE 1

Well, apparently it does. Because we can agree on the most likely scenarios. Considering how fantastic we think, it’s amazing that we arrive in the same place. Must take a hideous amount of energy.

RUACH

At Zodiac we were taught that potential equals energy times infinity.

OBVERSE 1

Thought is potential. What can be thought will eventually happen.

RUACH

I’d like to meet up with you again.

OBVERSE 1

Keep tabs on Ariel and send word. Common interests keep us connected.

RUACH

So it’s all a collective image?

OBVERSE 1

Thought forms. Projections. Shared experiences. Common denominators.

RUACH

So you’re going dirt-side?

OBVERSE 1

I think that’s the plan. Long life.

RUACH

Will they reassign me?

OBVERSE 1

Not if you’re assigned to Ariel. She’s such a crucially important avatar. They’ll want to keep you at it. The collective subconscious thrives on images just like her. Where would we be without angels? The frame of reference would be a poorer place without her. Never fear, they’ll keep you on. But …

RUACH

But?

OBVERSE 1

You can always ask for another post. Dunno how that would work out. Too many frames. It must take a really peculiar mind to compartmentalize and still grasp the big picture.

RUACH

But I don’t think I’m suitable for upper management. I’m more of a one-deal girl. Once is complicated enough.

OBVERSE 1

Me too. It’s been a good gig. I learned a lot just picking the brains of kids. They ask such philosophical questions.

RUACH

Yeah. Before they get ruined by convention. I hope you have a lot of ’em. You’re good with kids.

OBVERSE 1

How do you know that?

RUACH

Because this manifold is known as The Children’s Way. They wouldn’t have given it to you if you weren’t. Ipso facto.

OBVERSE 1

I hope you get it your way. Hakim’s getting antsy. See you.

RUACH

Duty calls. [She rejoins her sisters.]

[As RUACH turns to leave, OBVERSE 1 gently pats her on the bottom. RUACH doesn’t look back.]

[As OBVERSE 1 stares at his tunic in reverie, the scarlet maiden presents herself.]

VIVA

(with good humor) I saw that. That familiar little fondle. Comfortable.

[OBVERSE 1’s head comes up suddenly, he’s recognized that voice from somewhere deep inside of him, he turns on a dime with a dancer’s grace.]

[Establish OBVERSE 2’s holographic projection just inside the portal.]

OBVERSE 1

(with desire and heartfelt recall) Talia!

VIVA

True. I did use that name once.

[She waves to HAKIM, he waves back, but does not intrude.]

VIVA

I’ve used so many names in my times. All of them thrust upon me by you. Isis, Leta, Durga, Demeter, Gaia, individually; Mother Russia, Yetunde, Yetzirah, collectively; Nature, Life, ewige weibliche, the poets recognize me; scarlet woman, whore of Babylon, the theologians revile me. Me? I call me us. We. Ourselves. Deep inside me I think of me as the dancer in the dark. You play the tune. Call me what you will.

[OBVERSE 1 tries a few off the top of his head.]

OBVERSE 1

Friend? Consort? Geisha? Wife? Sisterkin? Betrothed? Love? Dear heart? Home? Destiny? Odalisque? Babe? Mater familiaris? Cup? I’m at a loss, draw a blank, give me a hint.

VIVA

You call the melody, I’ll dance closer.

OBVERSE 1

Ah! Melody. The secret name of God.

VIVA

So. You want to dance with me?

OBVERSE 1

Forever.

VIVA

I have it on good authority that this will be granted you and me. For a very, very long time. I’ve been watching you. I’ve seen through the eyes of every daughter, sister, matriarch who’s crossed your path.

OBVERSE 1

Why me?

VIVA

Because you’re really good with kids. They trust you. And you’re good with women. They like you. You treat each and every one as an equal. And when you’re with them, you’re completely

with them. No distractions, no hesitations, no missteps. I gotta say, you’re a pretty good catch. Dibs. We ran the request through channels, and the word came down. You’re it.

OBVERSE 1

Sensuous Melody.

VIVA

Completely shameless.

OBVERSE 1

Sibilant Melody.

VIVA

Wafting through your head when you least expect me.

OBVERSE 1

Soft-spoken Melody.

VIVA

Across the pillow that we share.

OBVERSE 1

Sumptuous Melody.

VIVA

At the agapé feast set before us.

OBVERSE 1

We shall not want.

VIVA

I expect no less. Integrate yourself. Welcome yourself. Love yourself so that you may love another.

[The portal is open. OBVERSE 1 and OBVERSE 2 pirouette, spiral towards each other, and merge. No longer two facets of the same personality, they have become one in mind and purpose.]

VIVA

I want all of you. Deal me in.

[VIVA descends by the stairs stage right, circles OBVERSE once, twice, thrice, then they embrace, hungry for each other. Ring a large church bell on the PA, beat a great drum twice, as a single heartbeat, massive exhalation from the CHORUS, directed at the AUDIENCE, aided by a blower set way back in the darkness to create palpable wind through the portal. RUACH, who has been standing on the side with her sisters, sighs “Bittersweet.”]

OBVERSE

[to VIVA] Gotta come up for air.

VIVA

Breathe deep. We’re future tense.

OBVERSE

Where are we going?

VIVA

Oh. Everywhere.

OBVERSE

Starting in. Every journey requires a first step.

VIVA

That’s what decided on you. You can see it simple and yet hold down the most abstruse conversations. Effortlessly. Intuitively. I betcha that’s bas relief chiseled into somewhere. Maybe a commemorative plaque on a wall. For all and sundry to see.

OBVERSE

Where first?

VIVA

Africa. Whence cometh the burden and the bearers.

[They stand center stage, arms over each other’s shoulders. Two members of the AUDIENCE hand up black binders to the antiphonal CHORUS.]

HAKIM

[to AUDIENCE] From your own book of the itinerary. Your history in précis. Your mystery resolved. The adytum unveiled.

[CHORUS delivered in antiphonal style, each line by an individual, ad lib.]

CHORUS

How their kindred wander

Nomadic round the earth

Gatherer and hunter

Claddach down in the dirt

How their lineage prospers

The Berberasch lay claim

To Saharan forests

And Serengeti plain

How their faces are fleet

Across the inland sea

When the glaciers retreat

And great rivers run free

In the caverns of Lascaux

Along the Puertoguese,

Knossos, and Kosovo

Behind Gilbraltar’s base

There’s traces everywhere

Their handprints on the wall

In your skin, blood and hair

We are their patrin all.

[HAKIM holds up the patrin.]

HAKIM

[to AUDIENCE] The ancient Romani wayfarers’ signpost. It means “we have gone home.”

[Show two ropes in a square knot on the hoop screen.]

VIVA

[to OBVERSE] One last turn about the old place before we head off?

[OBVERSE nods, they move slowly to the coffer. OBVERSE turns it 90 degrees so it faces them while shielding them from the serpent. It hisses, but is henceforth excluded.]

[While OBVERSE fingers through the tokens, letting them cascade down around the bowl, VIVA removes her medallion, lays it in the bowl, then the circlet from her brow, likewise. OBVERSE pulls her gold coin out of his pocket and shows it to her, and returns it to his pocket. They'll take it with them.]

OBVERSE

(meditative) So many passages. Each a book unto itself. Each worthy of the telling.

VIVA

You wanna have kids of your own?

OBVERSE

I do. With you. I close the lid on these, but I won’t on ours.

[OBVERSE slowly, carefully, closes the lid, holds his hand over it in benediction. The CHORUS gathers around, stacking their binders on the lid. OBVERSE and VIVA turn to the book.]

VIVA

[to OBVERSE] You gonna peek? Last chance!

OBVERSE

I already know …

[He’s interrupted by NOTA BENE’s celeste.] Oh, all right.

[On their way to the book, VIVA runs her fingertips over the life preserver.]

VIVA

I remember bringing this in. Not a good moment.

OBVERSE

It was all I had of you, so I kept it. It’s become part of the furniture. I think there’s something living in there. Not nice.

[At the book, OBVERSE flips over the first page. VIVA stands at his left.]

OBVERSE

(muses) Um, Fibonacci, Fafner, fauns, a little farther, mammoth, Minotaur, Muppets [to more encouraging bells], yeah, okay, right, oh. Here I am.

[He reads several pages, ponders over the implications. VIVA lays her hand on his shoulder.]

OBVERSE

Whoa! Ocarina, ogre, that’s it. This seems improbably, I say impossibly long. All that?

HAKIM

And Methuselah lived nine hundred years. It’s all in the genetics. Barring stupidity or accident, it’s eminently possible, sir. Your telomeres are in very good shape. Travel light, go far.

[In almost slow motion, the group moves to the fountain. HAKIM flips the book shut.]

OBVERSE

[He regards the blood-red water.]

It’s the water of life, not so?

[They all nod agreement.]

It’s the blood of the brotherhood.

[They again nod agreement.]

It’s the font of forgetting. Not so?

[Again, agreement.]

I won’t. I won’t forget. I can’t. I intend to remember every act that happened here.

[OBVERSE takes the staff and FAUNA’s pouch. Slinging it over his shoulder, he faces front. VIVA grabs the headscarf from the platform rail, drapes it over her own shoulders as a scapular.]

OBVERSE

[to VIVA] What’s that for?

VIVA

Baby sling.

[HAKIM pins the patrin to the pouch so that it will be the last thing the audience sees when OBVERSE and VIVA leave the stage.]

[From here on, VIVA and OBVERSE move in stop motion one step at a time. The CHORUS follows suit while it declaims the finale. VIVA links arms with RUACH.]

VIVA

[to RUACH] I won’t leave you standing bereft. Here’s how it can work. We’ll share him. You can have him in his dreams. I’ll fuck with him while we’re awake. So is it written. I wouldn’t deprive anyone of the breath of inspiration. That’s your provenance. You can go where I can’t follow. Agreed?

RUACH

(brightening considerably) Agreed!

CHORUS

Durance comes to its end.

[step]

Suns, planets, moons, mountains.

[step]

And the tenure of men.

[step]

In their appointed rounds.

[step]

Even infinity

[step]

Knows the bondage of time.

[step]

The centuries are fleet,

[step]

The second-hand unwinds.

[CHORUS congregates at center stage.]

What’s left then are records,

The archives will be kept,

We’ll sweep up the wreckage,

No one steps in darkness.

VIVA

[to OBVERSE ] Cave all right with you?

OBVERSE

Wherever you are, that’s home.

VIVA

Volcanic stack?

OBVERSE

Something with a roof.

[Cue a few welcoming arpeggios by the syrinx off stage right.]

OBVERSE

I might take up the flute.

VIVA

(coyly) I might play on yours.

OBVERSE

On with it.

VIVA

I’ll do it anyway you want.

OBVERSE

I wanna build a treehouse.

[OBVERSE and VIVA leave stage right. We can infer that they’ll step into incarnation as would divinity abroad on earth.]

[The CHORUS gazes after them, RUACH waves. Then it’s all business.]

HAKIM

Way to go. All right, troops, upper management will blow through here shortly. We’re all getting promoted. Step lively. Look competent, and move everything that’s not nailed down, off into the nexus. Ruach, stand lookout by the entrance, would you?

[They strike the set. Stack the book and folders on the coffer, roll it out through the open portal. HAKIM takes the caduceus and hourglass through the portal personally, comes back immediately Move the hassocks offstage right. Shut down the hoop screen and take it out with the life preserver, through the portal. Slide all the potted plants off to stage right. One of the men looks dubiously at the tunic on the stool.]

MAN

[to HAKIM] You want us to dryclean this?

HAKIM

Probably not. It’s the buttons that count. Each performs a vital function within the manifold. Like, spatial positioning, how we relate to each other, frame of reference, navigation in and out. Take it to Archives. They’ll want to regroove it. Let them deal with it.

[The man folds the tunic over his arm and takes it out the portal. Another shoves the stool offstage right. Collect trash. Leave only the empty book pedestal, the fountain, and the lunamoth kite. HAKIM looks about, seems satisfied. RUACH whistles.]

RUACH

Incoming!

[She joins the chorus slightly right of center.]

[The blue-faced entity from Act I, i.e., the WARDER, strides in from stage left.]

ELDER

At ease. As you were.

HAKIM

(suitably deferential) Yessir. Ready to shut down pursuant to your orders.

ELDER

Tell me about this stationmaster. Obverse of the two faces.

HAKIM

Yessir. One, twelve, nine. Saturn and Neptune in Virgo. Homo sapiens neanderthalis. Working within his expertise, social interaction, he’s of Mensa calibre. He has that intuitive ability to put trauma victims at their ease.

ELDER

Example?

HAKIM

Several clients have passaged through here with severe stuttering disabilities. With Master Obverse, they did not stutter.

ELDER

Continue.

HAKIM

He capitalizes on his own multi-personae. After each passage, he’s done a debrief, taking on several points of view to arrive at a better understanding of what’s just transpired.

ELDER

Does his internal dialogue cross the abyss?

HAKIM

Hard to tell, sir. Certainly he takes the long view, both past and future, but he’s solidly grounded in the practical here and now.

ELDER

Example?

HAKIM

He’ll tailor his approach to specific clients. He doesn’t overshoot the target. Kids get him, see him as just another kid. If I may say so, sir, that’s remarkable in one so primordial.

ELDER

Noted. Continue.

HAKIM

Kids relate to him, so in here he’s been working in his element. The women like him.

ELDER

[to the women] Is that true?

[All four nod vigorously.]

HAKIM

Perhaps the most telling is that his page sprite, Nota of the Bene, upon receiving carte blanche, elected to indwell the recorder that Master Obverse carries on his person.

ELDER

Excellent. It’s well to have a remote viewer present onsite. Your personal evaluation?

HAKIM

I have passed through here and liked him immediately. I’ve sorted through a lot of memories that he personally dealt with. There are no faults. His coffer was full. Full complement. All accounted for. Even the few variants that passed through here, he dealt with them fair, square, and one on one. Staunch. True. Honorable. I’d trust my kids with him. Sir.

ELDER

Where is he now?

HAKIM

Stepped down into the Saharan veldt, without intervening zygote excursion. As per your order one oh oh one oh. Sir.

ELDER

Long life for that one. If he makes it to the Nile Valley, erect a boathouse in his honor. Use that hard red Aswan granite. Extend him every courtesy. See to it that he gets what he needs to fulfill

his emancipation. Perhaps his progeny and people will recognize him as their patriarch familiaris.

[HAKIM makes notations into his phone.]

ELDER

And a commemorative plaque. Janus-faced, in platinum, his name, no dates, on the wall at the Archaeum.

[HAKIM makes more notations.]

HAKIM

Done.

ELDER

[to the women] Which of you is Ruach?

RUACH

[steps up] That’s me.

ELDER

[looks her over] Ah. Zodiac just got around to forwarding your transcript. Double major in conscience and erotics. Maximus laudate.

RUACH

Thank you, sir.

ELDER

[He hands her silver wings from his pocket stash.] Here. You’re on permanent assignment. Full flight for you. Keeping an eye on young, name?

RUACH

Ariel.

ELDER

Ariel, I don’t need to tell you how crucially important that is.

[He points to AUDIENCE.] Their grasp on the iconography depends from the cherubim.

RUACH

And?

ELDER

Right. You’ve got a warm spot for our master Obverse?

[She nods, quizzically.]

ELDER

Ride herd on him. Don’t let him do nothing stupid. We’re counting on him to spread it all over. I think you’ve already made arrangements?

RUACH

Yessir.

ELDER

Very good. Throw him an epiphany once in a while. And if you need to move anything heavy come see me directly. And make sure I’m paying attention. I’m juggling a lot of balls.

RUACH

Can do sir. No problem.

ELDER

Right. Those of you who don’t yet have your wings, step forward now.

[Several step up to pin on their wings.]

ELDER

One last bit, Hakim.

HAKIM

Troops. Attend. Formation. Face the source.

[All nine make a semi-circle facing stage left. The ELDER stands facing stage right to the right of the fire circle. ]

ELDER

We’ll have the oath of office out.

[All recite the oath.]

CHORUS

[in unison]

To light the way where they do search,

Without regard to race or church,

To give advice the best I can,

To avatar as everyman.

To stand with you, to chanticlare

Your hands and eyes. I do so swear.

ELDER

That’s it, simply stated, pure, plain and pope. We live by these precepts. We expect you also without reservation. Twenty-four seven full-tilt boogie. Anyone not on board with this bail out now … All right, stand down.

[They relax, take a step back.]

ELDER

[to HAKIM] Do I have any other appointments?

[HAKIM consults his phone, shows it to the ELDER.]

HAKIM

Manifold inaugural at Abulafia, commencement at Dendera Elemental, and a confab with the druids at Brodgar’s. Do you want me to attend?

ELDER

No. There’s other adjuncts to cover. I recommend that you all take some R&R. I booked The Fornicant in Bangkok. Go disport yourselves. Hedonism. Beach sand. Ultra boink. Meet back at the Headroom when you’ve had enough. You’re on my account.

ALL

Thank you, sir!

HAKIM

[He indicates the serpent.] What about that?

ELDER

Ah! Good point. It can perform one last function. Then (negligently) the clean-up crew will dispose of it. Enjoy.

[RUACH leaves by stage right.]

[The rest congregate outside the curtain at extreme right to spy on their Elder.]

ONE OF THE MEN

[nudges his fellow] Check this out. We’re about to see the true dinkum in action.

[The ELDER holds his left hand, fingers slayed, above the beast on the floor. It goes rigid, as if electrically shocked.]

ELDER

[He points with his right hand to the lamps above the four doors in succession.]

Stars! Flare and collapse!

[Each lamp flares briefly and then winks out.]

[to the lunamoth] Soul! Suffuse the universe!

[The moth flaps up into the lighting grid behind the stage valance.]

[to the fountain, right hand splayed down] Font of life! Refuse to flow.

[It shuts down.]

[The ELDER bows his head.]

[Then he releases the beast 666. He turns to the audience, seems to stare at each and every one, grim without pleasure. Then he turns to the beast.]

ELDER

You! Who was without mercy during your tenure on earth. I extend you mercy. Now.

[The thing hisses refusal. The ELDER clenches his right hand, shakes it three times, as if grasping someone’s neck. Breaking it. Sound of cracking bones on PA. The carcass goes flaccid. The ELDER administers a backhand slap with his left hand, then he leaves via the portal. ]

[Cue a flash of lilac light behind the portal arch.]

[Cue rattlesnake warning on PA.]

[Dim stage lights to dark, almost infrared, just enough so we can see what happens.]

ONE OF THE CHORUS

That’s the opportunistic use of potential. He can draw it from any source, even something like that, and channel it to any work at hand.

ANOTHER CHORUS MEMBER

Sheesh. Let’s not piss him off.

[They fade away around the edges of the curtain. A large multi-legged bug creeps from under the stairs, stage left. Chittering sounds from under the stairs. It climbs onto the carcass, stabs its stiletto proboscis into the belly and starts to feed. Drop the scrim. More excited skittering leg noises. Several more bugs advance. Go to black onstage. ]

[Curtain.]

[Cue pinspot above front to shine on the chain that’s lying on the floor. Pull the chain in.]

[Off pinspot.]

[Finis]

RPH, April 13, 2019

Appendix 1

The Book

A Webster’s hardcover unabridged dictionary will do nicely.

The lectern should have two over and under compartments to accommodate the loose leaf binders. The stand should be the same color as the fountain pedestal.

The lectern top should be tilted at 10 degrees for easy reading with ornate ionian scrolls on either side. The entire top surface must be flat black, like the alcove backdrop, to hide the plumbing which actuates the riffle. The nozzles must also be flat black to make them invisible. Most of the tubing can be hidden in the scrolls with just the nozzles pointing inward and up to catch the leading edges of the pages.

The effect is run by two high-pressure blowers set backstage to hide their noise. The blowers are remote-controlled from the sound booth out front. The cover can be opened with a spatula lever arrangement actuated by a solenoid to allow the book to fall open and slam shut. This is also controlled from the booth.

The lectern should incorporate a button transducer in the back panel to allow for Nota Bene’s voice. It would be well to dedicate a tech for just this one effect.

Install a bottom rail to prevent the book from sliding off. Likewise the nozzles should be adjustable to get the riffle just right in both directions. For this FX to be effective, it needs close coordination with the stage directions. First, and later in Act III, with Obverse 1’s body language. Sometimes it’s just a glance or the cant of his head.

Nota Bene is a holographic projection from multiple sources during its peregrinations. The projectors can be Midi-synched to the celeste sound track.

Appendix 2

The Mirror

The main portal is an ovoid, about 5.5 ft by 3 ft. It has a flat threshold that’s just wide enough to roll the coffer dolly through, and it’s just tall enough to accommodate Obverse 2 standing unstooped.

The mirror has three panes: a clear plexiglass on the outside, a mirror surface in between, and a cloth screen that can be backlit as a projection screen. All three panes/panels can slide aside behind the back wall of the arch. The plexi pane needs to be really transparent and no smudges on the mirror.

The frame lights up dark red. A laser projector is mounted in the ceiling (the platform) just inside the screen. There are two audio ports bored through the wall at upper right and left to allow Obverse 2 unmuffled conversation.

When the panes whip aside, we try to distract the audience with something moving across their field of vision. The frame is the same color as the four door frames up on the platform. Likewise the main arch frame. All those frames light up, seemingly controlled from Obverse 1’s tunic buttons. Actually, they are switched on via a remote up in the sound booth. They come on when Obverse 1 fingers the buttons at the beginning of Act I.

For the aura projections, see Charles Leadbeater’s book on the human aura. He shows a picture of various spirals, arrows, symbols etc. emanating from a human form.

Vinnie: Vinnie’s attributes are 0, 1, 5, 7, and 9. Consult Crowley’s Thoth deck for the iconography. The projection needs to be full motion video, synched to his hand motions. The whole mirror arrangement must work smoothly and silently. We want it to be as unobtrusive as possible.

Viva: The trapdoor hidden in the platform is to the side of the mirror to allow Viva to use it without being seen in the portal. She’ll need help negotiating this.

Act III, Scene 2: through the mirror trick: This is to foreshadow that it’s possible to pass through the mirror; we save the actual passage until the end of Act III when all the props leave the stage.

Fauna drops the cake intended for Obverse 2 behind the fire as she turns. Her body hides the transaction across the glass; we see her arm extend and shoulder hunch forward but we never see her hand until she turns back. It’s been empty all along. Likewise, Obverse 2 leans forward, extends his arm, but we don’t see his hand either. As Fauna turns, he grabs a wedge of honeycake pushed up to him by a stage hand; the honeycake is on a glass plate on a glass rod, so it’s nearly invisible. She hides the sleight of hand with her body as she returns to her cushion.

The same can be done with the fourth cup, which Faunus didn’t actually fill. This leaves Obverse 2 free to participate in the tastes and sharing of the sacraments.

An alternative solution, in Act III, Scene 1, passing a cup and a wedge of honeycake through the mirror is a simple sleight of hand trick. Since Fauna sits about two ft from Obverse 2, all she need do is turn and lean back with the honeycake and cup prominently displayed. Do this while Faunus passes a cup to Obverse 1 across the fire. So there’s enough motion and occlusion to distract audiences. Obverse 2 already has a wedge and a cup palmed so all he needs to do is rotate his hand to show he’s received it. And all Fauna does is palm the object and drop it on the floor behind the fireplace before showing an empty hand. Neat and deceptive. To hand the cup back, just reverse the process.

Appendix 3

The Fountain

The fountain is gimmicked. The basin is a round porphyry block, about 3 ft in diameter and a foot deep.

A water-proof 12v lamp is set into the center of the basin. The fountain orifices are set about the lamp to allow illumination of the water from below. So the fountain glows.

The pump is mounted backstage for silent operation. The water can be recirculated from a reservoir hidden in the cylindrical pedestal. A drain set into the bottom of the basin also allows the water to be changed and filtered of tinsel bits.

The pedestal meets and joins with the basin as one organic whole. The pump can run full bore or at half speed to manipulate the height of the fountain. The tinsel bits are treated to scintillate when hit with a UV pinspot from overhead.

Furthermore, the pH of the water can be adjusted with a syringe for various color effects. Use methyl red for the yellow indicator in Act III, scene 2. Use toluyene indicator (neutral red) to simulate water turning to blood, Act III, scene 4. The water should be about pH 6.0. Use sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3, for Mariah’s suppurating hand. This should wash right off without changing the pH appreciably. There should be a solenoid valve in the drain, loop-controlled from the sound booth.

Coordinate these functions with the operative gestures and initially by Obverse 1’s tunic button. As with the book, it would be well to dedicate a tech to adjust the fountain. There’s a lot of variables that need attention. The pedestal should be the same color finish as the book pedestal opposite. The font itself should be the real stone thing so the splash sounds authentic.

Don’t skimp on the function; it’s crucially important to the plot development, especially at the end. Think of it as lustral water, that washes evil away. Don’t stint with this magick.

Appendix 4

On the Naming of Divinity

As soon as we become people, we run up some sort of steeple, great faves to celebrate the gods because they populate our thoughts. Osiris is the magician fatherwist of superstition, stories told round the firelight, the old lore that astounds the night, tales of derring-do and thunder, our children wide-eyed with wonder, and it ain’t about some average, it’s waterspout saints and savage, Orion hunter lion skin has the sun set the world to spin, the shape of early maiden dawn, magna Leda raped by a swan, the fundamentals of the land, and this is how we understand what otherwise would be unthought, if this were so, we’d come to naught. Who would be worming in the mud? Far better to be warm with blood and populate the sky with things that make us great, are we not kings? Everyone wants to claim a friend who makes the rain and renders men, some propose to do this for you, even though the ghost ignores you. Listen to us, we’ve learned the name Of the burning bush and the flame, we have the infinite knowledge, went to divinity college, we know all that secret name stuff, fall on your knees, we reek of love, what the hell are you that we ain’t? We’ll even sell you for a saint.

Appendix 5

On Dance, Posture, and Gesture

In qaballistic terms, The Manifold set occupies Yesod, the astral plane, thus the province of ghosts, apparitions, and ethereal travellers.

The backstage area beyond the mirror corresponds to Tipareth, the Christ center.

The transparent glass partition is the connection path of the priestess. She acts in accordance with her own purpose, because it’s the right act to effect change. For a lot more on this, consult Robert Wang’s Qaballistic Tarot. He has a lot to say about path working the tree.

In Act II, the three dancers are congenial with the muses of Parnasses. Sheel (the sheala) embodies Erato, the muse of erotic poetry and song. Sex rules.

Kyth corresponds to Urania, muse of astrology. She is the one who unveils mysteries, who shows forth into the light. Sheel and Kyth are known as the Kythra, they who participate in bringing what’s hidden into the light of reality. They’re the ones who dance up the middle pillar, connect Obverse 1 with Obverse 2, and then spiral outward back to the start. This act follows the double- wanded Ibis head of the adepti; knowledge and action travel between one and two to complete the work. In this case to heal Obverse 1’s voice. Knowledge is transmitted via language, i.e., the larynx and vocal apparatus. Spiral gestures are open-ended and include the micro and macro cosmos. For more on the symbology of spirals, consult Cirlot.

Tharp corresponds to Terpsichore, muse of the dance. She confronts the problem. Her sisters aid and abet the process of establishing a direct, physical connection with Obverse 1. They do this via the gauze bandage, a double-wanded path, from her mouth to his. She taps into infinite potential by dancing the lemniscate, that sideways eight that symbolizes infinity; it’s a Mobius loop with a single twist that may be traced ad infinitum. She pauses at the crux to raise Obverse 1’s libido. Again, sex rules. And sex heals. Consult Sanella on Kundalini rising.

The last link is the child, full of life and vigor. Consult any book on the chakras on the energy nexi in human bodies. Note that the innocence of the child precludes evil.

Once Tharp severs the connection between her and Obverse 1, there’s no return channel. It’s then incumbent on the child’s intuitive grasp to tear away the veil. Kids get it. After that, it’s only practical to teach Obverse 1 the phonetic codes. He really had no choice about it at all. His hands were full and his imagination totally captured.

Thank you, ladies.

Appendix 6

Vinnie’s Aura Manipulations at the Mirror

1 He kneels, feet from black to green via downward strokes, 3 times

2 Still kneeling, genitals from grey to gold via upward strokes, 3 times

3 Stands, left hand from black to orange via splayed finger downward strokes, 5 times

4. Standing, right hand from red to orange via splayed finger downward strokes, 5 times

5 Standing, heart from blue to purple via rotating mirror image spirals, index fingers pointed, 5 times

6 Standing throat from forest green to emerald green via palm down choking strokes, 5 times

7 Triskelion face, standing from red / blue / black static to orange / green / yellow rotating counterclockwise via double-headed cornu

8 Winged double-horned orb, standing, from silver, grey-winged to gold rainbow-winged via flapping double-handed motions from center to tips, culminating in right hand index finger pointed at the ball, left arm up, fingers splayed as an antenna

9 Stands back 2 steps, satisfied, returns to stairs, sits facing Obverse 1, book riffles, Obverse 1 consults binder on his lap, checking from first sheaf to latter sheaf, back and forth, consults big book, returns to his seat, fade mirror, continue dialog

Vinne 1, professional hitman

15 1 13 no kids Feet/black; hands/black + red; gentials/blue; heart/lead; throat/iron; orb/silver; triskelion/static deosil 2 up/ 1 down black + blue up, red down

Vinnie 2, itinerant musician

10 7 0 two kids

Feet/green; hands orange; genitals gold; heart purple; throat copper; orb gold; tiskelion withershins rotates freely ad lib Orange green yellow

Vinnie moved from static hard case to freewheeling family man working in his element

Past: Mercury/Mars in Scorpio Present: Jupiter in Cancer Future: Uranus/Neptune in Pisces

RPH, June 24, 2020

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Crowley, Aleister (The Master Therion). The Book of Thoth. Weiser Books. 1969.

Crowley, Aleister. Magick in Theory and Practice. Hardcover. Castle. 1992.

Fonseca, Isabel. Bury Me Standing. The Gypsies and Their Journey. Random House. 1995.

Grant, Gail. Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet. Dover. 1967.

Kaplan, Stuart R. The Encyclopedia of the Tarot. (in 4 volumes) U S Games Systems. 1977.

Puxon, Grattan, and Donald Kendrick. The Destiny of Europe's Gypsies. Basic Books. 1972.

Leadbeater, Charles W. Man Visible and Invisible. 1902.

Lurker, Manfred. Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons. Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1987.

Regardie, Francis Israel. The Golden Dawn. Llewellyn Publications. 1971.

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Waite, Arthur Edward. The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. Weiser Books. 1973.

Wang, Robert. The Qaballistic Tarot: A Textbook of Mystical Philosophy. Marcus Aurelius Press, 2004. 288 pp.

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