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A HIGH LIFE.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
The Quiet of Our Memories
BACKGROUND - Elan knows Camarie loves Kyros and decides it would be necessary to save Kyros’ life by dying himself. While fighting one of his innumerable battles against darkness and evil, Kyros gets into a battle with something he cannot defeat—his own fear of death, which he sees in the human face of the monster they confront. In a moment of cowardice lets Elan fight the monster and so the scene begins.
BRACELET – Camarie gave to Kyros, who threw it in her face at their last meeting. Camarie gave to Elan, who at his death returns it to Kyros, who then gives it back to Camarie. It’s a merry circle of hot potato.
Camarie – mid to late twenties. Began story with freshness and enthusiasm for life. Her joy fades as the story continues. Was desperately infatuated with Kyros, but didn’t realize she needed Elan.
Kyros – late twenties to early thirties. great man, no time to be a good one. Always fighting for the underdog. Once Camarie’s lover, but left her once he discovered how selfish and clingy she was.
Elan – quite, quite dead. Late teens to early twenties. During his life he was called God of Death because of the phenomenal destruction he caused. He’s always joking around to hide himself. Loved Camarie.
Directions – The actors will be standing some distance from each other. The actor who is not currently in the scene will step back into darkness or freeze, while the others stand in the light. Places continue to shift to different locations as the light changes position and color. Enough pause between each transition to give actors enough time.
* words from a Celtic dirge
Darkness.
ELAN: Do not stand at my grave and weep … I am not there … I do not sleep. *
Green light on Elan and Camarie Elan and Camarie approach a door, but Elan waits for Camarie to open it. Camarie stares at him in puzzlement, and Elan’s only reaction is to smile with a comic expression.
They walk a few steps. Camarie fades (steps back) into the darkness.
Red light. Kyros appears (steps forward). Kyros paces. Elan sits in an indolent pose, staring off into the distance.
KYROS: Would you die here and have Camarie search for your body in this place, beneath these stones? Do you believe the depths will surrender their dead? Pause. Aside. Elan seems to wake. He smiles a strange smile, a gentle forfeit of dreams. Pause. To Elan. No? Then flee! Kyros seizes Elan’s wrist and then pauses and holds it up, seeing the bracelet. Where did you get this?
Elan: Meets his gaze evenly. Assume what you will.
Kyros: Laughs bitterly. So Camarie has placed her affections elsewhere. Hardly surprising, I suppose, considering her necessitous nature.
Kyros and Elan stare at each other, and then they run, Elan in front, Kyros glancing back. They cross the stage, backstage, and end up center stage.
Orange light. Camarie steps forward.
KYROS: Camarie. We must speak. Aside. Elan, why must you haunt me and yet deny your true presence? You were not the only person I wronged! Of all the guilt I have felt, all the suffering I have undergone, I would not say you took precedence as the fount!
ELAN: To Kyros, who does not hear. Because you took the one I loved beyond honor and so destroyed me. Because only at the event of my death did you realize you had lost more than a challenge. Because you have the life I should have had and live in my stead.
Light cast shadows behind Kyros and Camarie. Kyros and Camarie stare at each other for a long moment. Elan steps back.
ELAN: Speaks from the darkness while Kyros and Camarie stare at each other. I am not the man you seek. Essay an interview with Kyros of Aureole. I have heard that he has advertised in the Eastern market for a position as Savior.
Kyros and Camarie move into their conversation. Elan steps forward
CAMARIE: Turns her face away rebelliously. I have nothing to say to you. Elan watches them with a fond but strange smile.
ELAN: Melts into the darkness and speaks. Where is the God to whom I may cry and he answer, 'Give unto me thy best, and I shall give thee better'?
KYROS: I have much to say to you. Brings his clasped hands to his mouth in an oddly childish, confused gesture, clearly searching for words. Camarie, you must stop this grotesque pretense. Elan is dead. He is gone, and will never return. And as much as we may wish it, we cannot stay time and remain in the shadow he has left. Steps back into darkness.
Blue light.
ELAN: I only give back what you offered me, freely—a life. Aside. God of Death, am I? I only wonder that I endured so long. Camarie, you have pulled me from darkness, and that I will never forget. Steps back into the darkness.
Yellow light.
CAMARIE: Bursts out laughing wildly. Why, he stands there! Whirls around, but Elan is gone. Instinctively touches the bracelet.
ELAN: Aside. A child's face lit crimson and still by the glow of the moon. To the heavens. For how long? When will I cease to reflect the glories of others and stand forth from the shadows? Pause. Until those I echo fall silent.
KYROS: Follows the movement. Camarie, that may have been a comfort, but what you do is far beyond that now. Once it belonged to Elan, but no longer. It does not bear his heart, or his soul. Those do not belong in this world.
ELAN: ‘Who am I? Who am I?’ I repeated, again and again. Then I arched my back, fingers twisting in my hair, and cried out as though in agony. The scream was that of a wild creature gone mad in its strangling bonds.
CAMARIE: You lie. You lie because of your wretched jealousy.
Kyros steps back. Blue light.
ELAN: I am lost no longer, nor tormented, for I know my path, and what I must do to end it.
Orange light.
KYROS: Eyes widen and face pales. Camarie? What do you say—
CAMARIE: You once loved me, did you not? I care not if you despise me now. But you did love Elan at the end. You recognized him as more than a rival, greater than a friend. And now you would destroy our precious intimacy!
ELAN: From darkness. My life—will it suffice? Is it enough for his?
KYROS: Camarie! You do not know what you say! Lips tremble and his teeth clench. Very well. Do you wish to tread this path? I will follow you. I loved him. I loved you both. But that is all over now. I have no reason to wish for your unhappiness, Camarie. Believe this, however; Elan is dead. So are we all, and all we could attempt to forestall such tidings came to naught. Dust and ash only are gods and mortals, as debris in the capricious winds.
CAMARIE: Is that not true of each and every course?
KYROS: The chain that riveted us has slackened, for one shackle has broken. Should we not rejoice, celebrate in this novel freedom?
CAMARIE: We weep for our imprisonment, for only there did we find scant happiness, bitter delight.
Camarie steps back. Elan steps forward.
KYROS: I will not end. I will live, remembering the lights extinguished, swallowed by the flames history has breathed around me. I am no icon, no god, not even the leader others think me to be. Guiding men who trust me into a certain slaughter can avail no one, excepting the immortals, who choke with mirth at the miseries below.
ELAN: On the contrary, I think their own troubles keep them well occupied. Soon, perchance even they will die laughing at their own absurdities. Elan steps back.
Camarie’s face crumples. Kyros opens his mouth as if to utter a reassuring word; instead, he turns and walks away into the darkness.
ELAN: From the darkness. Make not mistake, Goddess. I will be free. Free of you, and of all others who would control me. I am no pawn in your games.
Green light.
ELAN: Appears beside Camarie. All is well. He means the best he can, but he knows nothing. Let us go. Smiles, then breaks into a light run to the other side of the stage, with Camarie laughing behind him.
CAMARIE: You are a self-proclaimed coward, Elan; I need not worry for you.
ELAN: Yes, and I have made nothing of my life, despite the privilege of having lived it.
Elan and Camarie sit down, Camarie curled in Elan’s lap.
ELAN: I have loved you since the dawn of time, before the concept of man was ever conceived. So said the first god.
KYROS: From the darkness. I held myself still, for within me there was a deathly terror of experiencing the true sense of loss if I made a movement. I felt a slight weight in my hand-a bracelet of gold-and perceived Elan's bare wrist, watered blood pooling in his palm.
CAMARIE: We will leave, you and I, leave to the Western shores, where the sun shines bright as it dies and falls into its grave the sea. I will forget of this land and its celebrated heir, my glorious beloved. I will never recall the man I loved, love still … I cannot lie, so I must flee.
ELAN begins to hum a lament for the dead.
CAMARIE: Shivers. Do not sing of such things. I am afraid.
Kyros: From the darkness. There was a terrible foreknowledge in his eyes, and all at once I could find no words, though I did momentarily grope for a flippant answer
ELAN: What do you fear, Camarie? Death? He cannot reach us here, not when you are with me. Death lacks finality—therefore, why do you fear it as a sword held over your head? A hollow fear …
KYROS: A mourning voice reached my ears. Camarie's keening wail drifted in the morning mist, an awful, low moaning that cried out for the dead. Stilled dazed into a stupor, I could not acknowledge her.
CAMARIE: Sighs contentedly. Do you believe Fortune has the clemency to permit us to remain as we are? Clutches at him. Please … do not go as he did, with nary a backward glance.
ELAN: I will not leave. I love you, for always.
Darkness. Elan and Camarie run back to the other side of the stage.
CAMARIE: Laughs joyously. Elan, you must be quiet! We will wake everyone.
KYROS: From the darkness. Camarie beat her head against the rocks, blood trailing down her face.
ELAN: We should go within. Come. Then we may do as we please. Again Elan waits for Camarie to open the door. Elan and Camarie fall gently to the floor, entwined together.
Darkness.
Elan stares off into the darkness, a strange and melancholy expression on his face.
CAMARIE: Stumbles on her words. Elan—
KYROS: From the darkness. Do not leave me to myself. Iron lies on my tongue and closes my lips. The heavens let fall a sweet, light aspersion. I instinctively moved to cover him, but Elan did not feel the rain.
ELAN: Turns to her, smiling. Camarie? What troubles you?
KYROS: From the darkness. I had failed, failed to seize the last gentle exhale of breath, to keep that glimpse of a spirit fleeing the mortal realm.
CAMARIE: Looks lost and bewildered. Kyros said to me today—he said that you were dead, that what I was doing was a perversion of your memory. Silence. Camarie then feels a gentle hand lifting her face to Elan’s.
Kyros speaks from the darkness as Elan and Camarie stare at one another.
KYROS: When I awoke from my mortal dreams, Elan was dead.
ELAN: Presses a kiss to Camarie’s forehead and looks at her. I am here. I am not dead to you. So long as this holds true, I will never die. Smiles.
Darkness.
ELAN: Do not stand at my grave and cry … I am not there … I did not die …*Labels: script, story, writing
-------------------LIVE HIGH!LIVE WILD!--------------- ; {9:52 AM}
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