Afterimage by Robert Chafe Read Free Book Online Page B

(Theresa): Three weeks at his bedside. Leo never spoke.
    MAGGIE enters.
    Maggie: Good day, Winston. Lise.
    Lise & Winston: Good day.
    Lise: Maggie.
    Maggie: Good day, Leo.
    MAGGIE lights a candle.
    Chorus (Connie): Her hands had tended to father, mother, and now tended to son.
    Maggie: Today is the big day, treasure.
    We’re going to remove these nasty old bandages for good. Sound all right?
    Now I want you to remain really still, okay?
    Lise: Will it hurt?
    Winston: No.
    Maggie: Burns this deep, most nerve endings at the surface are destroyed. He won’t feel a thing.
    Hear that, Leo? Won’t hurt a bit. But I do need you to remain still and patient. Winston, could you turn off the lights please?
    MAGGIE lights a candle and begins to remove the bandages.
    Chorus (Connie): Lise and Winston watched the process like the defusing of a bomb. Each step delicate and tedious. And one step closer to a frightening unknown.
    She finishes. All look at the boy’s face.
    And when they saw their son again, neither could speak for the sight of it. Winston consumed with an eerie recollection. Lise studying the scars as though they were a map of his future.
    Maggie: Don’t open your eyes right away now, treasure. Take your time.
    Chorus (Connie): The sadness and shock of it, and the boy’s eyes were the only ones wet.
    A pause and then LEO’s eyes slowly flutter open.
    Silence.
    He stares blankly, seeing nothing.
    LISE suddenly takes the candle from WINSTON, brings it in front of LEO. He winces and shuts his eyes tight.
    Winston: Leo?
    Leo?
    LEO eventually smiles.
    What is it?
    Leo: I can see it.
    Chorus (Connie): His eyes shut tight.
    Leo: I can see it.
    * * *
    Chorus (Leonard): He still hadn’t said anything substantial by the time they brought him home.
    Chorus (Connie): Taking his old quiet time, in brand-new places.
    LEO stands facing out, looking at something. LEONARD and CONNIE there with him. LISE looks for him around the house.
    Lise: Leo?
    Chorus (Leonard): The house itself still a state.
    Chorus (Connie): Burned and transformed.
    Lise: (to THERESA) Have you seen you’re brother?
    THERESA shakes her head.
    Chorus (Connie): Ceiling full of smoke.
    Lise: Leo?
    Chorus (Leonard): Broken bowl full of ashes.
    Chorus (Connie): Reminders, all.
    She looks at LEONARD and they share a stare.
    Chorus (Leonard): Mistakes made.
    LEONARD takes CONNIE’s photo. She smiles and walks away from him.
    Lise: Leo, honey, time for supper.
    Chorus (Theresa): Leo abandoned his old habit of hiding in the house.
    Chorus (Jerome): In favour of something else.
    Lise: (to WINSTON) Have you seen Leo?
    Winston: Not since this morning. Leo?
    Chorus (Theresa): Looking in the mirror, studying the scars on his face.
    Chorus (Jerome): Fluff of hair growing back in.
    Chorus (Theresa): His lashless lids.
    Lise: Leo?
    Leo: I’m here.
    LISE and WINSTON enter and stand behind him.
    Winston: Leo?
    Chorus (Theresa): Everyone had been afraid for him.
    Winston: Did you hear us calling?
    Chorus (Jerome): Thought it be better for him not to regain sight at all.
    Winston: Leo?
    Chorus (Theresa): That he would never adjust to the change in himself.
    Chorus (Jerome): But that wasn’t what they saw in Leo now.
    LISE walks to LEO.
    Lise: Hello, beautiful.
    THERESA and JEROME enter the room as well, approach the mirror.
    Chorus (Theresa): There was a look of wonder in his eyes.
    Chorus (Jerome): And something more than that.
    LISE touches LEO’s face, and for the first time it sparks with the Evans touch. LISE suddenly sees something, good and hopeful, so clearly it shocks her. She looks to WINSTON and smiles.
    Chorus (Theresa): Something.
    The family all crowd around the mirror, seeing what LEO sees. Finally, the complete family tableau.
    Leo: Confirmation.
    A flash of photography and lights out.
    The full family glowing in the blue-green afterimage, and then darkness.
    The end.

photo by W. Evan Butler
    Robert Chafe was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where he currently