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Remember

CHARACTERS:  SISTER, BROTHER, GIRL

(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.

(Lights flash back up on BROTHER.)

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?

(Lights flash back up on GIRL in a field.)

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?

(Lights flash back up on BROTHER.)

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

(Lights flash back up on GIRL in a field.

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.

(Lights flash back up on SISTER.)

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.

BROTHER
We can’t 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.)  

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   Contributor’s notes

   Introduction
   Remember

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