Setting: A bourgeois living room. There is a sofa and two chairs.
At Rise: CYNTHIA, a pretty woman in her mid-fifties, reclines on the sofa, reading a book. Seated in one of the chairs is HENRY, also in his mid-fifties, a brawny, stiff man wearing glasses. He is tapping his fingers on the arm rest nervously.
HENRY
I can’t believe he’s not up yet. He’s been sleeping for almost twenty hours.
CYNTHIA
Give him time. He’s had a long couple of days.
(Pause. Henry continues to tap the chair. He looks at his watch.)
HENRY
(Suddenly): I’m going up there. (He begins to rise.)
CYNTHIA
Honey, please…
(Enter JEFFERY, 22, a good looking young man with wild curly hair, dressed nicely.)
CYNTHIA
You’re up.
JEFFERY
Yes, I am up. But I did not sleep.
HENRY
What do you mean you didn’t sleep? What have you been doing all this time?
JEFFERY
I have been…(He smiles wryly) awakening.
(Henry and Cynthia look at each other, baffled.)
CYNTHIA
Awakening? Honey, are you OK?
JEFFERY
I have surpassed description. I am silence, and yet I am noise.
HENRY
What are you talking about? Are you on drugs?
JEFFERY
My only drug is silence.
(Henry peers into Jeffery’s eyes, as if inspecting him. He turns to Cynthia.)
CYNTHIA
Jeffery, what is this about?
JEFFERY
It is about the noise, and the silence. The rain and the trees, the mellifluous flow of the breeze. The ancient tides as they swing on their pendulum of moonshine. Give me death. Yes, give me death. Or better yet, give me eternity.
HENRY
(Turns to Cynthia.) Cynthia, call an ambulance.
(Jeffery begins to laugh hysterically.)
CYNTHIA
Yes, I think I will.
JEFFERY
(Suddenly) Demons! I’ll see you in Hell!
Jeffery bolts for the door and runs out before Henry can catch him. Cynthia dials the phone.
CYNTHIA
Yes, police? We’re having a problem.
Setting:The woods. It is the middle of spring, late dusk.
At Rise:The woods are shadowy and the ground is covered in brush and dead leaves. There is a large ROCK in center of stage, and a group of DAFFODILS are growing.
(Enter Jeffery from stage right. He is running, breathing heavily, and barely able to keep himself up. He trips over ROCK in middle of stage, falls flat on his face, comes up covered in leaves. He is out of breath as he wipes the leaves from his shirt and pants.)
JEFFERY
A good seven miles. I’ve given myself room to rest.
(He sits down.)
JEFFERY
It will be dark soon. No water, no food. Ah, but there’s the sun.
(He looks at the sun, which is a spotlight above the audience, and smiles.)
JEFFERY
No one steals the soul of the sun. It’s too great to steal. Like my soul.
(Pause)
JEFFERY
(Bitterly): Let them try. They’ll turn to dust. (Ponderously): Ah, yes. Dust. We all turn to dust eventually. For getting too close to the sun. But the soul…The soul is everlasting. Soon the sun will set, and my soul will merge with shadow. What parting words have you for me, oh sun? Run. Yes, run. But for now, we rest.
(He notices a DAFFODIL growing beside him, picks it.)
JEFFERY
Daffodil. Otherwise known as narcissus. Amaryllidaceae. From the Greek meaning “to sparkle.”And oh, how you sparkle! To think, little one, thou wert once a man who gazed upon his own reflection and fell in love. Now you have no eyes to see with, yet you project both the love of the gazer, and the reflection, combined. How glorious thou art, little demigod! How glorious!
(He becomes emotional)
JEFFERY
(Addressing daffodil): I have taken thy life for a whim! My love for you has destroyed you! Yet, your ephemeral company shall be a blessing. What’s that you say? To die in my hand is worth a thousand springs? I will keep you, then, till you shrivel and die. I’ll keep you here (he puts daffodil in shirt pocket), close to my heart.
(He pats the flower in his pocket, then suddenly looks up)
JEFFERY
The sunset, is it death on the horizon? The sun is slow to set on a day, on a life. The soul of death awakens in the night. But who’s to say if I shall live to see the light? Death’s blade is sharp but day’s rays are bright. There will be death before my mind’s set right. But my soul will never be vanquished. (He takes out the daffodil and begins twirling it in his fingers.)
JEFFERY
(In sudden irritation): What need have they of my soul? My gifts are mine to give to those whom I would choose, let it be man or beast or sun or moon. Or myself. Yes, myself. But what is the self? A self is a notion, and nothing more.
(A voice is heard, soft, like a gentle breeze, stirring through the forest.)
VOICE
You are not yourself.
JEFFERY
(Responding immediately and wrathfully): I AM myself! What do you know? I will always be myself! What else could I be? I’ve tried to be a rock, but rocks don’t weep. I’ve tried to be a tree, to stretch myself in a hundred directions toward the sky, to litter the earth with my seeds, but a tree cannot know it will never reach the sky. I’ve tried to be many things and failed. My body is my body. My soul is my soul. And my soul wants out. Yes, it wants to be free.
VOICE
But where will you go?
JEFFERY
Where will I go? (Sudden realization)I will go to the sea! Yes, and I will bathe myself in the river, and swim down with the current to the sea, to my destiny. Look! The sun is going down. The last teardrop before death.
(A helicopter is heard overhead. Jeffery looks.)
JEFFERY
Demon of the sky! They are searching for me! I must be on my way!
(Jeffery runs off stage left.)
END SCENE.
SCENE 2
SETTING:The same living room.
AT RISE:On the couch, on her hands and knees, her head resting against the arm-rest, weeping uncontrollably, is Cynthia. Standing near her is Henry. His hand is resting on Cynthia’s back..
HENRY
Cynthia, please. Try and be calm.
CYNTHIA
He’s our son, Henry! Our son! How could we…Where is he going? Where will he go?
(Cynthia sobs uncontrollably)
HENRY
I don’t know. I don’t know.
CYNTHIA
This whole thing was a mistake. We should have helped him ourselves. We should have…We ought to have…
HENRY
There was nothing else that we could have done. It was beyond our capacity.
CYNTHIA
And what does that say? What does that say about us as parents?
(Henry is silent. He looks down, pained.)
CYNTHIA
(Sobbing): Our son! Our poor lovely boy! Where are you going?
HENRY
(His head shaking as he fights back emotion): It’s my fault.
CYNTHIA
(Looking up and halting her crying): What? What do you mean?
HENRY
I was too hard on him. I wanted him to be strong, and…principled. But… (he fights back his emotion). I never understood him. I never could embrace him. I tried to suppress that…anger in him, but gave him no outlet for it. He was always such a free-spirited boy. Such a sensitive, sweet boy. But I tried to mold him into something he could never be. (He is holding back tears.)
(Cynthia gets up, puts her arm around Henry.)
CYNTHIA
It’s both of our fault, then. Equally.
HENRY
But then was this the only way? (He pauses, thinks.) The boy is just so stubborn! Nothing he was saying made any sense! You agree with me, don’t you?
CYNTHIA
I do.
HENRY
I only hope that he hasn’t…
CYNTHIA
What?
(Henry begins to speak and the phone rings. Cynthia rushes to pick it up.)
CYNTHIA
Hello?
END SCENE.
SCENE 3
SETTING:The woods. It is now night.
AT RISE: Stage is black, except for a spotlight shining on Jeffery. He is walking slowly, sauntering among the trees. He is singing.
JEFFERY
Lo and behold, the truth unfolds. Darkly we go into the night. Darkly we go, as smoke and ash. Darkly we come, out of the past.
(Jeffery stops suddenly, looks up at the trees. He speaks.)
JEFFERY
Stillness. Strange stillness. Everything has fled, into the shadows. I too flee, as it seems. But why? What for? What is this stillness trying to say?
VOICE
Go home, Jeffery. Go home to your mother.
JEFFERY
(Chuckling) Right. Face the music, so to speak. Live a long life, find meaning in human connection. Spend my days pursuing a goal. A “good” goal, as they might say. But what is it for? It’s for death. It’s all for His reaping. Let me merge with death at full speed, is what I say. I want to embrace death with a ready soul. My soul is ready now. Why waste my days toiling for nothing, tiring my soul, wasting my soul, so that it is no longer ready to meet death? No. I am ready now! If they must weep for me, so be it. They too will soon face death.
(A stiff wind blows)
JEFFERY (Cont’d)
I will go to the place where the wind goes. The perfect stillness. No more shadows…(Pause. Jeffery looks up ponderously) Behold! The stars. Steady in their course, immovable, unflinching. Great gaseous masses whose only instinct is to implode and explode. Their light travels this universe eternally; stretching in their desire only to shine, only to merge with the infinite. And they shall! Oh, how they shall! Lights whose only source is mass itself. And what is time? A trillion years is an instant with the right set of eyes. Yes, see how they shine!
(Three or four flashlights are seen upstage. A voice is heard.)
OFFICER
I see him!
OFFICER 2
Where?
OFFICER
Over there! To your right.
(Jeffery hides behind a tree.)
JEFFERY
(To self): Moon-goddess, make my feet swift. Lead me to the river.
(He runs. One of the officers catches him and tackles him to the ground. He struggles.)
OFFICER
Be still!
(The Officer puts handcuffs on Jeffery.)
JEFFERY
The trees! The trees are my witness! Moon, be my witness! Stars, be my witness! My soul is held captive! I am a slave!
(The Officer lifts Jeffery up and begins leading him away.)
JEFFERY
I will have my freedom! Justice exists! (He turns on the officers) Blue-clad demons! You scorn me! You mock me! You want to know my secret so you can use it against me! But I won’t give you the secret, no matter what torment you inflict on me! The soul will not be bound! Mother! Mother! Mother! Where are you? Why hast thou forsaken me?
VOICE
You are not yourself.
JEFFERY
(Looking around): But I am. I am! (He breaks down) I will always be myself! I am myself! Why are you trying to change me?
END OF PLAY.
