Scene 6
(A day later. Coffin laid out in the Evergreen library, mourners filing past. MABEL, dressed in black, peeking in the window, dodging out of sight when she thinks she might be seen. Cries bitterly. EMILY rears up out of the audience)
EMILY
The things that never can come back are these
(Counts them out on fingers)
Hope, childhood,
(Gasps)
And the dead…
I heard a fly buzz when I died
The stillness in the room
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.
With blue uncertain, stumbling buzz
Between the light and me
And then the windows failed and then
I could not see to see!
(Mimes blindness, falling backward)
MABEL
O! To touch again the dear body which I know and love so utterly! Austin I pray you are out once more in the sweet, summer sunshine, light-hearted and blithe as a boy! The whole town weeps for you! Yet I am the only mourner.
EMILY
It’s a solemn thing within the soul to feel itself get ripe.
(To the audience)
I can wade grief
Whole pools of it
I’m used to that
Power is only pain.
Futile the winds to a heart in port
Done with the compass
Done with the chart
Rowing in Eden
Ah, the Sea!
Might I moor tonight in thee!
(Lights out)
Alysse Aallyn 