Authors: Robert Chafe
* * *
Back in the present, LISE stands back on, looking at the family photo. A long pause on this.
The house is silent.
THERESA enters quietly, sees her.
Theresa:
Mom?
LISE turns to her, startled, gives her a smile, walks away from the picture.
It’s late.
Lise:
I know.
What are you doing up?
Theresa:
Couldn’t sleep. Headache. Rain, maybe.
Lise:
Hmmm.
Theresa:
Where’s Daddy?
Lise:
Working. He’s at work.
How’s your brother?
THERESA thinks, shrugs.
Theresa:
Jerome is snoring.
Lise:
I was talking about Leo.
Theresa:
I know.
Silence.
I was gonna do some reading.
Lise:
For a little while, okay? You should get some sleep when you can.
Silence.
You all seem younger to me, you know.
I know you’re growing up. Young men and women. But there’s no magic switch to make it so for me. In my heart and head.
All these secrets you have now. That’s a very adult thing.
Beat.
Theresa:
I’m going to get a drink of water. You want some?
Lise:
No. Thank you.
THERESA goes to exit and stops.
Theresa:
He swore yesterday. Leo.
Lise:
What?
Theresa:
He said the F-word, when he was angry at me.
Lise:
Why was he angry at you?
Theresa:
I don’t know.
Lise:
No?
Beat.
Theresa:
Because of my hair.
He didn’t like the picture. I don’t think so.
Silence.
Lise:
Thank you for telling me.
Theresa:
He’ll be mad at me if he knows I did.
Lise:
Thank you for telling me, Theresa.
THERESA exits.
LISE looks back to the photo. Silence.
She turns back to the room.
Leo?
Silence.
Leo, are you here, can you hear me?
Long silence.
Is your life so terrible?
Silence. LISE looks mournfully at the ceiling, makes a decision.
Leo. You should know.
Chorus (Connie):
In a quiet house without the creak or crack to guide her, and no fortune told to mark her success, Lise walked room to room, talking to her son. Telling him a story she now knew she should have told him before.
Lise:
Her name was Connie.
Chorus (Connie):
The tale and its truth spun like a fortune in reverse, repeated and more detailed with each room she walked. Every room in the house. Every room but one.
LISE enters her bedroom and begins to undress. Eventually stands in her bra and underwear.
WINSTON, as chorus, slowly enters, unseen by LISE, and illuminates a dark place. There, we see LEO hiding, eyes glued to his mother.
In the soft light, he comes close to LEO and speaks gently and slowly.
Chorus (Winston):
From where he sat hiding in her closet, Leo watched his mother. He could see the constellation of beauty marks across her shoulders. The faint line of her ribs when she breathed.
Chorus (Leo):
Wanted to turn away, shut his eyes, shout something.
LEO keeps staring.
LISE unhooks her bra, lets it fall to the floor. LEO still watches.
Silence as LISE brushes her hair.
Chorus (Winston):
Leo couldn’t recall ever having seen his mother like this. But he had a vague memory of her nursing him. The smell of her skin, her face leaning above him.
Chorus (Leo):
Her voice saying his name.
LISE begins to softly hum the song she had sung earlier in the laundry room. A pause as LEO listens and watches her.
Chorus (Winston):
He didn’t understand why there was no visible sign to mark him as hers.
Chorus (Leo):
Why he alone had been passed over.
Chorus (Winston):
He thought of the warmth of her milk in his mouth. And then he felt it. A surge of loneliness, a great surge that emptied him like an overturned bottle.
LEO dashes from his hiding place, moving with a purpose past his mother towards the door.
LISE, shocked and startled by him, covers herself.
Lise:
Leo!
She struggles with her clothing as he runs out.
Leo! Wait, wait.
Chorus (Winston):
He knew he should have waited until she was asleep, but—
Chorus (Connie):
Something moving his arms and legs now.
Chorus (Winston):
Something not connected to rational thought.
In the living room now, LEO grabs his mother’s porcelain bowl. LISE still struggling to dress stumbles out of her room.
Lise:
Leo, please, honey.
Chorus (Winston):
Sorrow.
Chorus (Leonard):
Desperation.
Chorus (Winston):
Anger.
He reaches up and takes down the family picture.
Chorus (Connie):
Fury.
Lise:
Come back, Leo.
Chorus (Winston):
A long time in the making.
Chorus (Connie):
A dark flower coming to bloom.
LEO sets the bowl and picture on the table. LISE begins making her way down the stairs, still putting on her shirt.
Lise:
Come back up here, come on now.
Chorus (Jerome):
Theresa and Jerome.
Chorus (Theresa):
They had been marked by their mother.
Chorus (Winston):
Left-handed.
Chorus (Theresa):
Red hair.
Chorus (Connie):
But this boy.
Retrieves a canister of lighter fluid. LISE is still making her way, her impatience growing.
Lise:
I know you can hear me.
Chorus (Connie):
This boy.
Chorus (Jerome):
Not even left-handed.
Chorus (Theresa):
Brown hair.
Chorus (Leonard):
Those eyes.
Chorus (Connie):
Handsome.
He soaks the picture in the bowl. LISE nears the living room, furious now.
Lise:
Leo, I’m talking to you! Leo!
Chorus (Winston):
The leper.
Chorus (Connie):
The middle child.
LEO suspends a lit match above the bowl for the briefest of seconds. LISE enters the living room and sees him.
Lise:
Leo!
He drops it. A massive flash and noise.
And darkness.
* * *
At the hospital, MAGGIE races to LEO’s aid, WINSTON and LISE hover in a fit of worry. MAGGIE pushes them outside.
They sit, tired, apart.
A lengthy silence.
Lise:
What time is it?
WINSTON shakes his head.
Silence.
Winston:
They’ll give him something.
For the pain.
Pause.
Watch him. In case of infection.
Beat.
Lise:
He’s gonna be okay.
He looks up at her.
Yes.
I believe that. He will.
WINSTON looks away.
Winston:
I was at work. Coming up on three in the morning. Raking through the flotation tank. My reflection down below, moving. And it was like it leapt up and washed over me. The sight of it. Oh God, passing through me, through my body just like—
Lise:
You saw.
Winston:
I could hear him, and when I closed my eyes I could still see it. I could still see the fire moving against the dark.
Beat.
That’s why I was home.
Lise:
Before the ambulance.
Beat.
He’s gonna be fine. He is.
Winston:
Yeah? You believe that?
Lise:
I know that.
Winston:
No. You don’t.
Lise:
He’s going to be fine.
Winston:
You said that about me.
Lise:
Yes and—
Winston:
And look at me!
Pause.
Will he be able to see?
Beat.
Tell me that. Will he be able to see?
The force of it threw him back against the wall. His little red hat gone, dust. Hair, gone.
Lise:
Winston—
Winston:
His forehead, cheeks. His face fucking cooked. His eyelids welded.
Lise:
Please, don’t.
Winston:
They don’t know about his eyes, they don’t know that yet.
So, will he?
Beat.
Will he be able to see?
Lise:
I don’t know.
Winston:
No you don’t.
Lise:
Please don’t be angry with me, I can’t take it.
Winston:
It’s just a phase. He’ll get over it.
Lise:
This is not my fault.
Winston:
That’s your guilt talking.
Lise:
Please don’t say this is my fault.
Winston:
Jerome’s going to stub a toe, you buy him steel-toe shoes.
Lise:
That’s not fair.
Winston:
No it’s not, but it’s true. You’ve never cared enough.
Lise:
No, no, that’s not true.
Winston:
You’ve never been able to see for him.
Lise:
I’ve only ever seen for him!
Beat.
This was all I could see.
I couldn’t see anything else about him but this.
Beat.
Ever since I met his mother. Ever since that he’s been blood and pain, I look at him and see ash and tears and I couldn’t stop it. I tried so hard, but I couldn’t stop it.
Beat.
I couldn’t stop it. So I stopped. I stopped…
Pause.
Winston:
You’re his mother.
Beat.
LISE can’t look at him.
Sometimes knowing things is scary. You’ve said that.
You say that.
Long, long pause.
He’ll be in for at least three weeks. And out of it for a couple of days. You should go home.
They stand at separate ends of the room, unable to look at each other.
LISE looks up, making a realization, a sad smile.
Lise:
Hmmm, this room. This is where I first saw him. Where I first saw you.
WINSTON smiles too, nods sadly.
LISE and WINSTON stand at LEO’s bedside.
Chorus (Theresa):
She didn’t go home. Neither did he. He was consumed with fear for his son. The memory of that first time he saw his own face. The shock beyond anything that he could be prepared for. And he was a grown man.
Chorus (Connie):
But Leo.
Winston:
Leo.
Chorus (Connie):
So young. Already so sullen. Already so sad.
Chorus (Theresa):
Three weeks at his bedside. Leo never spoke.
MAGGIE enters.
Maggie:
Good day, Winston. Lise.
Lise & Winston:
Good day.
Lise:
Maggie.
Maggie:
Good day, Leo.
MAGGIE lights a candle.
Chorus (Connie):
Her hands had tended to father, mother, and now tended to son.
Maggie:
Today is the big day, treasure.
We’re going to remove these nasty old bandages for good. Sound all right?
Now I want you to remain really still, okay?
Lise:
Will it hurt?
Winston:
No.
Maggie:
Burns this deep, most nerve endings at the surface are destroyed. He won’t feel a thing.
Hear that, Leo? Won’t hurt a bit. But I do need you to remain still and patient. Winston, could you turn off the lights please?
MAGGIE lights a candle and begins to remove the bandages.
Chorus (Connie):
Lise and Winston watched the process like the defusing of a bomb. Each step delicate and tedious. And one step closer to a frightening unknown.
She finishes. All look at the boy’s face.
And when they saw their son again, neither could speak for the sight of it. Winston consumed with an eerie recollection. Lise studying the scars as though they were a map of his future.
Maggie:
Don’t open your eyes right away now, treasure. Take your time.
Chorus (Connie):
The sadness and shock of it, and the boy’s eyes were the only ones wet.
A pause and then LEO’s eyes slowly flutter open.
Silence.
He stares blankly, seeing nothing.
LISE suddenly takes the candle from WINSTON, brings it in front of LEO. He winces and shuts his eyes tight.
Winston:
Leo?
Leo?
LEO eventually smiles.
What is it?
Leo:
I can see it.
Chorus (Connie):
His eyes shut tight.
Leo:
I can see it.
* * *
Chorus (Leonard):
He still hadn’t said anything substantial by the time they brought him home.
Chorus (Connie):
Taking his old quiet time, in brand-new places.
LEO stands facing out, looking at something. LEONARD and CONNIE there with him. LISE looks for him around the house.
Lise:
Leo?
Chorus (Leonard):
The house itself still a state.
Chorus (Connie):
Burned and transformed.
Lise:
(to THERESA)
Have you seen you’re brother?
THERESA shakes her head.
Chorus (Connie):
Ceiling full of smoke.
Lise:
Leo?
Chorus (Leonard):
Broken bowl full of ashes.
Chorus (Connie):
Reminders, all.
She looks at LEONARD and they share a stare.
Chorus (Leonard):
Mistakes made.
LEONARD takes CONNIE’s photo. She smiles and walks away from him.
Lise:
Leo, honey, time for supper.
Chorus (Theresa):
Leo abandoned his old habit of hiding in the house.
Chorus (Jerome):
In favour of something else.
Lise:
(to WINSTON)
Have you seen Leo?
Winston:
Not since this morning. Leo?
Chorus (Theresa):
Looking in the mirror, studying the scars on his face.
Chorus (Jerome):
Fluff of hair growing back in.
Chorus (Theresa):
His lashless lids.
Lise:
Leo?
Leo:
I’m here.
LISE and WINSTON enter and stand behind him.
Winston:
Leo?
Chorus (Theresa):
Everyone had been afraid for him.
Winston:
Did you hear us calling?
Chorus (Jerome):
Thought it be better for him not to regain sight at all.
Winston:
Leo?
Chorus (Theresa):
That he would never adjust to the change in himself.
Chorus (Jerome):
But that wasn’t what they saw in Leo now.
LISE walks to LEO.
Lise:
Hello, beautiful.
THERESA and JEROME enter the room as well, approach the mirror.
Chorus (Theresa):
There was a look of wonder in his eyes.
Chorus (Jerome):
And something more than that.
LISE touches LEO’s face, and for the first time it sparks with the Evans touch. LISE suddenly sees something, good and hopeful, so clearly it shocks her. She looks to WINSTON and smiles.
Chorus (Theresa):
Something.
The family all crowd around the mirror, seeing what LEO sees. Finally, the complete family tableau.
Leo:
Confirmation.
A flash of photography and lights out.
The full family glowing in the blue-green afterimage, and then darkness.
The end.