Afterimage

Afterimage by Robert Chafe Read Free Book Online

Book: Afterimage by Robert Chafe Read Free Book Online
Authors: Robert Chafe
For a little while, okay? You should get some sleep when you can.
    Silence.
    You all seem younger to me, you know.
    I know you’re growing up. Young men and women. But there’s no magic switch to make it so for me. In my heart and head.
    All these secrets you have now. That’s a very adult thing.
    Beat.
    Theresa: I’m going to get a drink of water. You want some?
    Lise: No. Thank you.
    THERESA goes to exit and stops.
    Theresa: He swore yesterday. Leo.
    Lise: What?
    Theresa: He said the F-word, when he was angry at me.
    Lise: Why was he angry at you?
    Theresa: I don’t know.
    Lise: No?
    Beat.
    Theresa: Because of my hair.
    He didn’t like the picture. I don’t think so.
    Silence.
    Lise: Thank you for telling me.
    Theresa: He’ll be mad at me if he knows I did.
    Lise: Thank you for telling me, Theresa.
    THERESA exits.
    LISE looks back to the photo. Silence.
    She turns back to the room.
    Leo?
    Silence.
    Leo, are you here, can you hear me?
    Long silence.
    Is your life so terrible?
    Silence. LISE looks mournfully at the ceiling, makes a decision.
    Leo. You should know.
    Chorus (Connie): In a quiet house without the creak or crack to guide her, and no fortune told to mark her success, Lise walked room to room, talking to her son. Telling him a story she now knew she should have told him before.
    Lise: Her name was Connie.
    Chorus (Connie): The tale and its truth spun like a fortune in reverse, repeated and more detailed with each room she walked. Every room in the house. Every room but one.
    LISE enters her bedroom and begins to undress. Eventually stands in her bra and underwear.
    WINSTON, as chorus, slowly enters, unseen by LISE, and illuminates a dark place. There, we see LEO hiding, eyes glued to his mother.
    In the soft light, he comes close to LEO and speaks gently and slowly.
    Chorus (Winston): From where he sat hiding in her closet, Leo watched his mother. He could see the constellation of beauty marks across her shoulders. The faint line of her ribs when she breathed.
    Chorus (Leo): Wanted to turn away, shut his eyes, shout something.
    LEO keeps staring.
    LISE unhooks her bra, lets it fall to the floor. LEO still watches.
    Silence as LISE brushes her hair.
    Chorus (Winston): Leo couldn’t recall ever having seen his mother like this. But he had a vague memory of her nursing him. The smell of her skin, her face leaning above him.
    Chorus (Leo): Her voice saying his name.
    LISE begins to softly hum the song she had sung earlier in the laundry room. A pause as LEO listens and watches her.
    Chorus (Winston): He didn’t understand why there was no visible sign to mark him as hers.
    Chorus (Leo): Why he alone had been passed over.
    Chorus (Winston): He thought of the warmth of her milk in his mouth. And then he felt it. A surge of loneliness, a great surge that emptied him like an overturned bottle.
    LEO dashes from his hiding place, moving with a purpose past his mother towards the door. LISE, shocked and startled by him, covers herself.
    Lise: Leo!
    She struggles with her clothing as he runs out.
    Leo! Wait, wait.
    Chorus (Winston): He knew he should have waited until she was asleep, but—
    Chorus (Connie): Something moving his arms and legs now.
    Chorus (Winston): Something not connected to rational thought.
    In the living room now, LEO grabs his mother’s porcelain bowl. LISE still struggling to dress stumbles out of her room.
    Lise: Leo, please, honey.
    Chorus (Winston): Sorrow.
    Chorus (Leonard): Desperation.
    Chorus (Winston): Anger.
    He reaches up and takes down the family picture.
    Chorus (Connie): Fury.
    Lise: Come back, Leo.
    Chorus (Winston): A long time in the making.
    Chorus (Connie): A dark flower coming to bloom.
    LEO sets the bowl and picture on the table. LISE begins making her way down the stairs, still putting on her shirt.
    Lise: Come back up here, come on now.
    Chorus (Jerome): Theresa and Jerome.
    Chorus (Theresa): They had been marked by their mother.
    Chorus (Winston): Left-handed.
    Chorus

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