Remember

(Lights up on a dark stage. SISTER in a pool of light.)

SISTER

Remember. rememberrememberremember If we could just find one we both agree on, one story from when we were young, wouldn’t that, just for a moment, erase the distance?

(Lights up on BROTHER in a pool of light.)

BROTHER You’re always trying such silly things.

SISTER Try with me: I remember a field.

BROTHER It won’t work.

SISTER But you see it’s getting so I can’t picture your face anymore. I see pieces of you rather than the whole. Please . Just try with me. I remember a field . Remember. rememberrememberremember

BROTHER Behind that house?

SISTER Yes!

BROTHER Where no one knew if anyone lived there?

SISTER Yes! And

BROTHER Scaredy-cat! You were always too scared to look in the windows.

SISTER But I’m looking now. lookinglookinglooking The field. What do you see? Because if we could just find one that we both agree on, then maybe we could

BROTHER There was a girl.

SISTER Yes! There was a girl

BROTHER By herself

SISTER And she

BROTHER She’s holding

SISTER She’s pulling on something and she’s wearing

BROTHER Wait, that’s not right She’s holding a

SISTER A funny jacket. You don’t remember?

BROTHER I thought she was our age. But then I saw what she was holding.

SISTER No. She wasn’t holding anything. She was flying a kite.

(Lights flash up on GIRL in a field.

She’s in a summer dress, sneakers, no socks.

And over top a military jacket that’s way too big for her, with a hole on the left side that’s rimmed with rust.

She’s got a blindfold on, crisp and white.

And she’s flying what looks to be a kite, only on second look we see it’s not a kite, but a thousand blackbirds caught in a net all beating their wings so it moves like it’s being thrown by the wind.

She talks to the birds and they caw at her.)

GIRL It does fit. Well I say it does . Are you going to come down now? Come down!

(She pulls hard on the rope, but the birds stay up and caw.)

Well I’m sorry you don’t agree, but I like the way it fits! I like it roomy!

(She pulls again, but they’re too strong. They keep cawing.)

Well there aren’t set rules about who can and who can’t and even though I might look like a little girl civilian too young to know about war, battle, genocide, it doesn’t mean I don’t get to. Just because I haven’t been to war doesn’t mean I can’t wear the clothes, doesn’t mean I don’t know what war is .

BROTHER Wait are you saying childhood is like

SISTER It can be

BROTHER This is what I mean— the melodrama !

SISTER It’s not— that’s not what I meant

BROTHER We didn’t grow up in a war zone. We just grew up.

SISTER But you didn’t.

BROTHER What?

SISTER I did. I am. But you

BROTHER I was thirty-five. That’s grown up.

SISTER That’s not even near But wait, what’s she saying?

GIRL (to the birds) But you’ve got to come down because right now I’m looking lookinglookinglooking For my other side my other half the one who came out with me Because becausebecausebecause

(Giving a pull on the rope.)

I can’t find him. I ask you where to go and you say: Go to the rocks. Not graves. He’s lying under there. Not buried.

But what do you mean ?

BROTHER No no no no She wasn’t There were no No, I remember this very clearly SISTER rememberrememberremember

BROTHER I remember thinking it’s impossible that a kid our age— what were we, ten? eleven?— would be allowed to touch let alone play with a real

GIRL, dressed the same, still blindfolded, only this time, in front of her is a table.

On it sits the parts of a gun, which she puts together as she speaks. She’s fast and efficient; she’s done this before.)

GIRL When you wash a baby, be sure not to get soap in its eyes.

(Click of metal into metal.)

Because if you do, it’ll sting.

(Click click click.)

You take its small body carefully in your hands and use a small tub, or better yet, a sink.

(Click.)

And use the gentlest soap you can find, and warm water—not hot—and then rinse.

(Click.)

You can do the hair, if the baby has hair, and even if it doesn’t, it’s a good thing to do.

(She raises the gun, pulls back the safety, and aims out at the audience.)

I know this because becausebecausebecause even though I was a baby too, I was three minutes older and so I was in charge.

SISTER No. No no no no. That never happened. How could you think that

BROTHER I’m sorry, but a bird-kite thing? You think that happened?

SISTER But I’m telling you what I saw

BROTHER I’m telling you what I saw

SISTER No, but there has to be Just one We have to agree on So we can finally Just for a moment

BROTHER I told you it wouldn’t work.

SISTER Try!

BROTHER I told you

SISTER trytrytry

BROTHER You can’t change the fact that we’re always going to be You’re going to have to accept

SISTER No. I want this so badly Please. I’m sorry I’msorryI’msorryI’msorry It's what I say whenever I visit your

GIRL Rock. Don’t say grave.

SISTER I don’t even say hello or goodbye and I don’t want to walk near where you’re

GIRL Lying. Don’t say buried.

SISTER But I miss you so much I feel like my skin can’t keep hold of me and I’m just so sorry because becausebecausebecause BROTHER Hang on, you’ve got something in your

SISTER What?

BROTHER Look at me, there’s a fly in your

SISTER It doesn’t matter! Listen to what I’m saying: These two aren’t the same and we need one that is . We were both there how can we have such different . . . ? I want to go back.

SISTER I want us to agree.

BROTHER We won’t agree.

SISTER We need to agree I want there to be I need there to be I need for our stories to match

(And all of a sudden. Time rips open. Everything pauses. Hearts stop. I mean it. They stop. Dead and alive, we’re all together now.

His stopped five years ago. Mine is still going but it’ll stop one day. But right now, for this moment we’re the same.

Just Now

And then, because it has to, time starts again. And the live hearts start beating again.

And there are so many beats it sounds like the end of the world is coming. Or just a thousand blackbirds caught in a net trying to get free.

Lights flash up on the GIRL. She takes her blindfold off. The gun and the bird-kite are both there. She takes one in one hand and one in the other. She shoots the base of the netting and the birds are freed. They turn to stones and rain down on the stage and every one makes a hole. And through these holes comes light.

And in those columns of light we seethings, maybe people, we recognize.)

SISTER Remember. rememberrememberremember

(End of play.)