THE LIVING ONES

A play by Madeleine Adriance

Inspired by the prophetic works of William Blake, as described in

Vala, or the Four Zoas: A Dream of Nine Nights

To contact the author:

madriance9430@gmail.com
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CHARACTERS


ALBION female, 17, analytical, perfectionist, rigid. Debater.

SOLEA female, 18, imaginative, daydreamer, grounded. Poet.

LEVI male, 18, emotional, awkward, anxious. Musician.

THEO male, 17, instinctive, prefers silence, loves nature. Scientist.

TIME

Summer

PLACE

A city outside of a large forest, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest

NOTES

This play will never be performed with an entirely white cast.

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Madeleine Adriance
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“Four Mighty Ones are in every Man: a Perfect Unity

Cannot Exist.”
–William Blake

“Pain is the way of life.”
– Gloria Anzaldúa

The Living Ones

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ACT ONE

The forest. SOLEA stands among the trees, clutching a piece of paper, eyes
squeezed shut. Sounds of life: birdsong, bubbling water, a gentle breeze. She
listens and clutches the paper tighter, as if conducting the sound through her
body. Then she opens her eyes.

SOLEA
What’s a seed but a love letter to the future?

The forest listens.

SOLEA
And what’s prophecy but a seed you water and return to until it sprouts into existence?

SOLEA holds out her paper and looks at it.

SOLEA
That’s good, that’s…

She sits and writes. Then she thinks out loud.

SOLEA
But how do you write a love letter? That’s what I don’t know. That’s what I need to know: How do
you write so that it seems like you’re with that person, when really you feel they couldn’t be further
away? How do you speak into a future that doesn’t exist? How do you reach someone you can’t see?

ALBION comes into view. She is not in the forest; SOLEA can’t see her.
ALBION looks at the sky.

SOLEA
These are my questions. I’ll write them down so you… so you can see me better. “You.” “Me.” Here in
your endless music, those two words feel inseparable.

Ooh, yes! I’m on a roll today…

SOLEA writes quickly to capture her thoughts. THEO wanders into the
forest. He moves with ease, familiar with the terrain.

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SOLEA
There’s someone you should know about, if you want to know about me. How can I describe her to
you? How do I speak your language?

THEO kneels and inspects the soil. He listens to it with every cell in his body.

SOLEA
You know animals. Let’s see, which one would she be…

Oh! She’s… a wolf. You know those, right? You know how hot their blood runs, how thick their fur is
– how when they choose you, you’re theirs. Almost before I knew anything about her, she’d made me
her own.

No, that’s not what I mean.

SOLEA tries to write but can’t. ALBION reacts to an alert on her phone.

SOLEA
I don’t want to send you an unfinished message. But sometimes, words won’t obey me. In poetry class
they say that means to keep trying, to let it all out, but sometimes I want to let silence have its way with
me. Sometimes I just want to hide.

LEVI arrives in the forest along with a sudden gust of wind. He looks for
someone.

SOLEA
The other day I heard the true definition of prophecy:
The word of God.

LEVI
Theo?

SOLEA
I always thought prophecy had something to do with the future.

LEVI
Are you there?

SOLEA
And sight. Aren’t all the prophets blind?

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Unsuccessful, LEVI sits. He moves carefully, betraying his unfamiliarity with

the place. SOLEA rereads what she wrote on the paper.

SOLEA
Good enough for now.

She starts to fold it up. Then, she hesitates. LEVI starts collecting wood.

SOLEA
There’s one more thing I need to ask you.

LEVI starts to carefully build a fire.

SOLEA
Just to hear your perspective. I believe that to make it out of this alive, the human race will need to
listen to different gods.

How do we go on?

ALBION sinks to her knees, staring at her phone.

THEO finishes collecting data.
LEVI pulls out a lighter.
SOLEA folds up the piece of paper.

SOLEA
Here goes.

SOLEA plants the seed in the ground.

Reality ripples and shifts, like a pond does when you drop into it a smooth
stone. A low rumbling sound begins. When SOLEA looks up, she sees
ALBION. LEVI puts the flame to his pyramid of wood.

SOLEA
Is that your answer?

The flame catches. LEVI tends it carefully, keeping it small.

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SOLEA
She can’t be my answer. I’ve thought this through. Or do you mean…

ALBION and SOLEA meet eyes. Suddenly, an enormous gust of wind. The
fire dances away from LEVI. He tries to contain it.

SOLEA
Give me the words to tell her that I’m leaving. That’s what I want from you.

The wind picks up. The fire grows.

LEVI
No, no, no…

THEO senses the fire.

SOLEA
That, and your vision of the future. That’s not too much to ask. Is it?

SOLEA notices the fire. THEO runs. The wind grows stronger and stronger.
LEVI runs about, desperately trying to stop the flame from spreading.

SOLEA
(quiet)
Is this your answer?

ALBION leaves. The wind grows louder, and louder, gets deafening, until –

Suddenly, silence. LEVI goes still.

SOLEA
When I read that our species has a decade to turn around the fate of the planet, it takes me hours to be
able to write again. And when words don’t come to me easy, I wish nothing existed. Silence: the easy
path. The only one.

The sound of crackling flame. LEVI’s resolve drains: Oh well. The wind carries
him out of the forest. The low rumbling gets louder, overpowering the sound
of flame. All of a sudden:

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SOLEA freezes, strangled by the violent onslaught of an unseen force. She

speaks with a voice not her own.

SOLEA
(breathless)
I am almost Extinct and soon shall be a Shadow in Oblivion
Unless some way can be found that I may look upon thee and survive.

Hide me in a Shadowy semblance, that I may yet live!

I have looked into the secret soul of she I loved
And found only Darkness.

So sang the Aged Mother, the Earthworm, of Albion.

Of her fall into the Generation of Decay and Death
And her Resurrection to Unity.

And release.

We return to the reality SOLEA occupied before she planted her seed. SOLEA
breathes hard. Slowly, her body forgets the onslaught.

SOLEA
I still don’t know what to say to her.

The sound of flame. Noticing it, SOLEA starts to leave without thinking.
Then she steps on her seed and stops. She looks down and sees it. She sits with
the impossibility for a moment. Then she speaks to the forest.

SOLEA
You’ll see me again.

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NIGHT THE FIRST

Later. LEVI’s house.

LEVI fiddles around on his guitar while THEO listens in bliss.

LEVI
(sung)
Oooo…

THEO watches him. LEVI continues to fiddle.

THEO
So this is my gift?

LEVI
Shhh!

LEVI closes his eyes tight as if listening for something.

THEO
Apologies, Orpheus.

LEVI
You’re going to scare off my Muse.

THEO
If this is what she’s producing, maybe that’s for the best…

LEVI opens his eyes and looks at THEO.

THEO
Go on.

LEVI starts playing again.

LEVI
(sung)
You’re just too good to be true…
Can’t take my eyes off of you…
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THEO
Original!

LEVI
Literally shut the fuck up.

THEO laughs.

LEVI
(sung)
But if you feel like I feel
Please let me know that it’s real.

LEVI waits for THEO to do something. THEO realizes what it is.

THEO
Levi, you –

LEVI
(sung)
Please let me know that it’s real…

THEO just looks at him for a second, overcome. Then he kisses LEVI.
LEVI starts dancing around.

LEVI
(sung)
I love you baby, and if it’s quite alright…

They laugh. Then LEVI sets his guitar down and strikes a pose. Beat.

THEO
You good?

LEVI
What am I?

THEO
Huh?

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LEVI adjusts his pose.

THEO
Uh…

LEVI
So unimaginative!

LEVI shifts again.

THEO
Sorry, kid.

LEVI
It’s tree pose.

Beat.

THEO
And…?

LEVI
Forests!

THEO just looks at him. LEVI gets out of the pose.

LEVI
I know that place is your home and that you can’t go there right now. So, let’s pretend it’s right here.
Pretend I’m the forest you love.

Beat.

THEO
Don’t have to.

LEVI
What do you mean?

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THEO
What I said.

LEVI
Explain?

THEO
You know I hate doing that.

LEVI
Try.

Beat.

THEO
It’s all the same, Levi. You, the forest. I don’t have to pretend.

LEVI looks at him. Then he takes his hand. They sit together. THEO starts
massaging LEVI’s hand.

LEVI
That feels amazing.

THEO
You’re tense.

LEVI
You know me!

Beat.

THEO
So when are you going to actually write me something?

LEVI
I’m failing English.

THEO
So?

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LEVI’s touched.

THEO
It doesn’t have to have words. I thought you were more of an instrumentalist anyway.

LEVI
Yeah but then where’s the meaning.

THEO
Words are overrated.

LEVI
I’ll keep that in mind.

THEO
Didn’t you used to write songs? Didn’t you have, like, a SoundCloud?

LEVI
Oh God my SoundCloud –

THEO
Those were good!

LEVI
Yeah well Solea did the words.

THEO
Oh, you two…?

LEVI
That was our thing. Writing songs, all that.

THEO
Right.
Well anyway. Just playing Frankie Vallie is not a gift.

LEVI
That’s why it wasn’t. For your birthday, I’ll write you a song.

They sit in comfortable silence for a moment.

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LEVI
Which reminds me – you’re almost a legal adult! What’s on the mind?

THEO
Means it’s been about a year since we met.

LEVI
Only a year?

THEO
I know.

LEVI
Damn.

THEO
Can’t believe it all started with us being lab partners.

LEVI
One year ago, I made you do all the work on a group project, and that was a big turn on apparently.

They laugh.

LEVI
What was your first impression of me?

THEO
Ooh, good question.

LEVI
You were so quiet, that’s what I remember. I’d never seen someone listening so closely in science class.

THEO
And I remember you couldn’t sit still.

LEVI
Yeah, I was dealing with a lot back then.

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THEO
Right, the whole thing with –

LEVI
Yeah.
But you made it all click into place.

THEO starts massaging his other hand.

LEVI
So. Once you’re legal. What’s in store?

THEO
More hiking.

LEVI
Always more hiking with you.

THEO
That probably won’t be this year though. Maybe the one after.

LEVI
Why?

THEO
Same reason we can’t go outside.

LEVI
You think it’ll be a whole year before…?

THEO
Old forest, dry summer.

LEVI
Right.

Beat.

THEO
They still haven’t found him.

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LEVI
Who?

THEO
The kid who started it.

Beat.

THEO
I don’t think they will.

LEVI
Why?

Beat.

THEO
I think anyone who does that fades into the flame they created. Don’t see how anyone could survive
carrying all that stolen beauty.

Beat.

LEVI
Theo?

THEO
Yeah?

A long silence. We almost think LEVI’s decided not to speak, when:

LEVI
Where were you that night? When it started.

THEO
Huh?

LEVI
The fire. That night. You weren’t picking up your phone. Is everything…

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THEO switches hands again. Beat.

LEVI
Is it dad stuff again? I hope you know you can tell me anything –

THEO
Can I spend the night?

Beat.

LEVI
Theo, so forward! Where are your manners?

But THEO’s not joking anymore. LEVI sobers up.

LEVI
Of course.

THEO keeps massaging LEVI’s hands. LEVI lets him for a bit, then kisses
both of THEO’s hands and lets them go.

LEVI
Thank you.

LEVI lays his head in THEO’s lap. THEO plays with his hair.

LEVI
I wish I was a tree.

THEO
Oh?

LEVI
Yeah, you’re getting to me.

THEO
Tell me more.

LEVI
Roots in the earth. No worries, no cares.

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THEO
Besides getting burned alive.

LEVI
A big tree then, right by a river.

THEO
Lonely.

LEVI
Maybe.

Beat.

LEVI
They don’t have to worry about words. I wish I didn’t have language either. I wish there was nothing
to say.

THEO
No, you don’t.

LEVI looks up at him.

THEO
You wish you didn’t have to say it.

LEVI curls into THEO, trying to slow his breathing. THEO looks out and
holds LEVI close.

LEVI
It’s all burning up, Theo.
Everything that’s green, or beautiful, or loved. Soon it’ll all be ash.

The wind blows, scattering them to the air.

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ALBION’s house.

ALBION sits, crouched over her phone, distressed. SOLEA comes in and
stands in the doorway. She watches ALBION for a bit.

SOLEA
Hey.

ALBION sees her.

ALBION
Oh my god, don’t just stand there with the door open.

SOLEA comes in. ALBION stands and shuts the door.

ALBION
What is it, 500 out there, not good to bring that in. I put wet towels on all the windowsills. That’s
what they said to…

ALBION gets lost in her phone again. SOLEA sits.

ALBION
3,000 acres! And you know that beautiful trail we hiked last year, Amethyst Creek? The one with that
huge cedar grove, the old trees?

SOLEA
Oh yeah, we –

ALBION
Burnt to a crisp.

SOLEA
Damn.

ALBION
We are fucked. As a species. I mean, this is it. Capital I “It.” If you needed a textbook example of the
consequences of a neoliberal approach to forest management, here it is.

SOLEA
Uh huh.

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ALBION
I mean when’s the last time you saw the fucking sun, like it’s red and do you know how many people
have died in this? 30-plus and counting and that’s not even counting all the people who’ve lost their
homes or who didn’t have homes to begin with who are out in air quality that literally breaks the
hazard scale like what the fuck kind of world are we in to let that –

SOLEA
You good?

ALBION looks at SOLEA for the first time.

ALBION
I mean other than the apocalypse…

SOLEA
I can come back later.

ALBION
(suddenly desperate)
No.

Beat.

ALBION
No yeah, it’s better to think what we can do. About the world ending. I’ve done some stuff with
Sunrise, I started that back in spring when I was researching forest management for class, but
ultimately they still have this focus on the individual which is so limited when what we really need are
broad policy changes, and it’s like what do I as a teenage girl do about that, especially considering my
positionality in relation to the issues like it’s not my family the climate crisis is killing and we need to
amplify the voices of those for whom the climate crisis is not this abstract thing in the future but rather
direct, lived experience, you know?

SOLEA
Mmhmm.

ALBION
Can’t believe just a week ago was that first day of wind. I was sitting outside with my dad and we’d
heard the high wind alerts and then just seeing the smoke intrude –ominous. I mean the sky was clear
and then those streaks of dark smoke, I mean that was beautiful, that’s poem-writing weather, almost, I

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bet you had a lot to write about that – are you listening?

SOLEA looks at ALBION. Beat.

SOLEA
Nothing to add. You got it.

ALBION
But did you? Write about the fire?

SOLEA
Yeah.

ALBION
Cool.

Beat. ALBION lets out a shaky breath.

ALBION
Not being able to go outside is killing me Solea like I’m actually going insane like I have all this excess
energy and you know how much I need to run just to stay sane like that’s why I do cross country and
obviously practice is canceled now but I can’t even go on a run by myself so thanks for coming over.

Beat.

SOLEA
No prob.

ALBION suddenly throws herself into SOLEA’s arms.

SOLEA
Alb?

ALBION just holds her.

SOLEA
Are you okay?

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ALBION
Sorry. I’m sorry for being like this, I just. You know I really don’t have that many friends, especially
now and you know I have Theo but I trust you most and I know that’s hard on you but –

SOLEA
What happened?

ALBION opens her phone and hands it to SOLEA. SOLEA reads.

ALBION
It was only over DM, but I think they’ve told other people or maybe posted privately…

SOLEA
What did you post?

ALBION
Helping queer people is what I want to do with my life, it’s what I’m doing with my life –

SOLEA
What did you say? To prompt this.

ALBION
I posted an article.

SOLEA
Do you know this person?

ALBION
We’re friends. Like we don’t hang out but we’ve talked and done projects together since middle
school. I like her.

SOLEA
What did you say in the comments?

ALBION
Nothing.

SOLEA
Yeah right.

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ALBION
What?

SOLEA gives ALBION her phone back.

ALBION
What do you mean?

SOLEA
Nothing.

ALBION
God, just – “you don’t deserve to call yourself part of the queer community.” Okay. Like, sorry for
founding our GSA. Sorry for outing myself to the whole school, and to social media, and to my dad,
who is not the best about these things, so that other people would have someone to look up to. Sorry
for –

SOLEA
So you said all that to her.

ALBION
Does it matter?

SOLEA
If you don’t want to get hate on Facebook…

ALBION
Either way I don’t deserve this. You don’t get to invalidate someone’s identity because you disagree
with them.

Beat.

ALBION
Spit it out.

SOLEA
What?

ALBION
You’re not telling me something.

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SOLEA
No, I –

ALBION
What is it?

SOLEA
Just wondering what you said.

ALBION
You won’t take my word for it?

Beat.

ALBION
Fine. I’ll show you.

ALBION pulls out her phone again. She sees today’s date.

ALBION
Wait.

She looks at SOLEA.

ALBION
Today’s the 26th.

Beat.

SOLEA
No.

ALBION
How did we forget?

Long silence. Then, a release. They hug, laugh.

ALBION
It’s the fire, I’ll blame the fire.

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SOLEA
Or you’re just a bad girlfriend.

ALBION
You forgot too!

SOLEA
Albion. One year!

ALBION
Time flies.

SOLEA
One year ago, our first date. Damn.

ALBION
Where you learned I was not playing games.

SOLEA
Can you believe I’d only dated men before you?

ALBION
Gross.

SOLEA
God I know.
Albion, we need to do something special. Or something, I don’t know.

ALBION
No, yeah.

SOLEA
Highlights?

ALBION
Let me think…

SOLEA
How about all those debate tournaments.

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ALBION
Those were interesting for you?

SOLEA
Fun to see you in your element.

ALBION
Same here. Seeing you write, that’s gotta be a high point.

SOLEA
Really?

ALBION
The look on your face when you get in that zone, when the world is something so interesting and
beautiful that you just have to write it down – need more of that in my life.

SOLEA’s touched.

ALBION
It’s funny – you’d think with my first relationship, I’d be all, “ahh, what am I doing.”

SOLEA
Ha.

ALBION
But no. I knew from day one.

SOLEA embraces ALBION.

ALBION
One thing I could’ve done without, though –

SOLEA
What.

ALBION
All the times you told me to get off the Internet and “live in the moment.”

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SOLEA
Am I wrong though?

ALBION
No, which is why I hate it.

They laugh.

SOLEA
Yeah, normally I’d say “take a break! Get outside!” Which… yeah. But there’s always a way to get out of
your own head.

They hold each other for a while.

ALBION
Oh, hey. So I don’t forget. What did you want to talk about?

SOLEA
Huh?

ALBION
You said you had something to tell me.

SOLEA
Oh.

Silence.

Uh, nothing.

ALBION
You sure?

SOLEA
Yeah, I don’t remember.

ALBION
If you do…

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SOLEA nods but doesn’t meet ALBION’s eyes. ALBION holds her tighter
and looks out.

ALBION
You’ve gotta write something about this sky.

SOLEA
I will.

ALBION
Blood red sun.

SOLEA
Happy anniversary.

Beat.

ALBION
I’m never gonna get that friend back.

SOLEA
Maybe you don’t need her as much as you think you do.

Beat.

ALBION
Before the world ends. Anything you wanna do?

SOLEA pulls ALBION closer. Holds her tight.

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NIGHT THE SECOND

The edge of the forest. Smoke is thick. LEVI stands at the threshold, waiting,
crawling with anxiety. He checks his phone. Looks around. Checks again.
Then he looks at the trees.

LEVI
It’s funny, when I was younger, hiking was always this thing my family did and I never wanted to go. It
was boring.

Beat.

LEVI
Uh… no offense.

He checks his phone again.

LEVI
What was so fun about walking through trees, which all looked the same to me, and getting my legs
muddy? Thought it must be a grownup thing.

He turns to the forest.

LEVI
Again, nothing personal.

He checks his phone. Then he gives up, puts it away.

LEVI
Now I get it, though. It’s about being somewhere else. The goal is not to have a grand old time in this
new place, it’s to get away from other people.

Though I do remember this one time. When I was a little kid, we hiked to this big tree, a sequoia I
think. It was huge, I think it was a thousand years old or something. And I was so small, and it was so
tall – I probably could’ve fit my arms around it ten times over. And I was standing there, and
suddenly…

It felt like it had its eyes on me.

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In a sudden rush of adrenaline, LEVI touches the earth where SOLEA’s seed
still lies.

Reality shifts. A small piece of paper flutters down from above. LEVI stares at
it. He reaches out and takes it.

In response, a dim echo of a melody played on the guitar. LEVI drops the
paper.

LEVI
Are you watching me?

Nothing. LEVI picks up the paper again and looks it over.

LEVI
There’s nothing on here. Is that…

The music swells abruptly to a deafening pitch. An unseen force draws LEVI
up like SOLEA before.

LEVI
In times of Everlasting,
When I called forth the Earthworm from the cold and dark obscure,
I nurtured her. I fed her with my rains and dews;
Day after day she fed upon the mountains in my sight.
I brought her through the Desert, a dry and thirsty land,
And I commanded springs to rise for her.
For her I brought forth a Wilderness.

Then it releases him. He falls to his knees, spent.

SOLEA arrives, wearing an N95.

LEVI
(small)
I’m so sorry.

The forest retreats completely. LEVI breathes hard in its wake.

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SOLEA
Levi?

Beat.

SOLEA
You okay?

LEVI suddenly notices her.

LEVI
Oh hey.

He jumps to his feet.

SOLEA
How’s it going?

LEVI
I’m good, I’m…

He goes distant.

SOLEA
You still wanna talk?

LEVI
Yes – thanks so much for coming all the way out here, I know…

SOLEA
I can’t stay that long, so.

Beat.

SOLEA
It’s no offense to you, I just have work soon.

Beat.

And this seems important, so –

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LEVI
Yes sorry. Um. Yeah, so…

Beat.

SOLEA
Do you want a mask?

LEVI
Uh, I’m okay. You know they said the winds are changing?

SOLEA
Oh really?

LEVI
Yeah, the smoke’s gonna get way better over the next few days.

SOLEA
Awesome.

Beat.

LEVI
You know what actually I’m really sorry I shouldn’t have sent that voicemail it’s not actually that
important and I know right now everything’s like –

SOLEA
Levi. Breathe.

She takes his hands.

LEVI
Thank you. Sorry. Thank you.

SOLEA
You’re okay.

Beat.

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SOLEA
I can’t remember the last time you were this… uh…

LEVI
Stressed yeah ha.

Beat.

LEVI
Probably when I broke up with you?

SOLEA
Yeah.

LEVI
Sorry about all that by the way, I know I didn’t handle that very well –

SOLEA
All good.

Beat.

So…

LEVI
These trees are nice.

SOLEA
Do you want to do process of elimination or something? Like I say something and you say if that’s the
thing you wanted to tell me?

LEVI
Yeah sure that sounds like it could be helpful.

SOLEA
Great. So…

Beat.

You just murdered someone.

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LEVI
Noooo!

SOLEA
Oh thank God. I was starting to think maybe –

LEVI
Yeah no all good there.

SOLEA
Awesome. No murder.

Beat.

SOLEA
Wait, I know: you’re pregnant.

LEVI laughs, a little jagged.

SOLEA
It’s obvious. I mean, you’re glowing.

LEVI
Oh really?

SOLEA
For sure. And you’re starting to show!

LEVI
Ouch.

SOLEA
In a good way. Like you’re supposed to.

LEVI
Thanks.

Beat. SOLEA grows serious again.

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SOLEA
You’re in a mental health crisis?

LEVI
No. I mean… no.

SOLEA
Okay…

Beat.

SOLEA
If you ever need someone to talk to, you know I’m –

LEVI
I’m fine. Like the usual issues are still there obviously but nothing new. Thanks though.

Beat.

SOLEA
Why did you want to come here? Instead of your house. Or a phone call. No judgement, just seems
like it would’ve been easier to –

LEVI
Thank you for always supporting me. You’re a good friend.

Beat.

SOLEA
You don’t have to tell me now if you want. It seems like it might be good to wait.

Beat.

SOLEA
And I hate to push you but I do need to get going soon.

Beat.

SOLEA
Levi?

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LEVI
Solea it’s terrible it’s so awful it’s the worst thing ever and I haven’t told anyone else about it and
maybe I never should –

SOLEA
So are you gonna tell me or are you gonna keep talking around the whole –

LEVI
I’m gay.

Beat.

SOLEA
You’re dating Theo –

LEVI
Yeah well I could be bi or pan or something it doesn’t mean I’m gay gay just like generally queer.

Beat.

SOLEA
Okay.

Beat.

I mean, that’s great. Me too.

LEVI
So I was never, like, attracted to you.

Beat.

SOLEA
Thanks?

LEVI
Oh no that came out wrong, listen that just means that I never wanted to like, fuck you but obviously
I still loved – love – you as a friend and you’re a really cool person and so generous –

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SOLEA
Awesome.

Beat.

So you haven’t told anyone else about this.

LEVI
No.

SOLEA
Not even Theo?

Beat.

SOLEA
Levi, what’s going on?

LEVI
I told you.

SOLEA
This is a new level of batshit.

LEVI
Well thanks for the support.

SOLEA
We broke up because we both realized we were gay, and why would you need to meet here to tell me
that?

Beat.

SOLEA
Wait. Does it have something to do with…

LEVI turns away to face toward the trees.

SOLEA
Levi?

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LEVI
Sorry I’ve kept you so long already, I know you’re busy.

SOLEA
Levi, did you –

LEVI
See ya later.

SOLEA looks at him.

SOLEA
If you ever decide…

LEVI won’t look at her.

SOLEA
You know where to find me.

Silence.

The forest looks on.

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ALBION’s house.

Her phone rings. She is asleep. THEO comes into view; he’s calling her. She
picks up.

THEO
I’m here.

ALBION
Oh, shit.

THEO
Good to see you too.

ALBION
Door’s unlocked.

THEO comes in.

THEO
Did I wake you up?

ALBION
I need my beauty sleep.

THEO
It’s 1pm.

ALBION
Yeah, good morning.

THEO comes over and takes her hands.

THEO
Rise and shine.

ALBION
Don’t you dare.

He starts to pull.

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ALBION
I’m gonna kill you.

He pulls her off the bed.

ALBION
Sleep with one eye open!

THEO
Oh no, I’m scared.

They laugh. ALBION sits up and yawns.

ALBION
Thanks for coming. I’d be in bed till 3 if not for you.

THEO
Anything for you.

ALBION
Not like anyone else is coming to visit, though. Did you see what happened on Facebook?

THEO
I don’t have Facebook.

ALBION
Well good because now I’m the Resident Homophobe there.

THEO sits.

ALBION
People don’t know what actual homophobia is anymore. Have we forgotten that some people will tell
a teenager who’s just shared the most vulnerable part of themselves to go live on the street? And I
know that narrative is overdone and grossly simplified, assumes that what we define as the normative
sense of “home” is always the best environment for queer people which it’s not because newsflash we
have agency, but damn opening up a conversation online is not in the same league! Not even the same
universe! And you know what? I do get to say that. I actually had to go through coming out to a
conservative parent. Which I know you’ve had to deal with too! I swear people who are so privileged
just love to go on and on and on what’s right and what’s wrong and who’s in and who’s out, blissfully

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unaware that they’re literally walking all over people who actually need help but who aren’t as loud
precisely because they are actually living the issues that everyone else sees as, like, a theoretical
discussion rather than a –

THEO
(snapping)
Got it.

Silence.

THEO
Do you want me to braid your hair?

Beat.

ALBION
Sure.

He starts combing through her hair.

ALBION
Sorry Theo, I didn’t know you were –

THEO
How many do you want?

Beat.

ALBION
Let’s go with three?

THEO starts braiding.

Silence .

ALBION
Isn’t it wild how my hair and your hands have been friends longer than we have?

Beat.

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ALBION
You braided my hair for the first time in kindergarten, but I wouldn’t say we were friends until 1st
grade.

THEO keeps braiding.

ALBION
I wonder if I’d met Solea back then, if everything…

THEO
Hmm?

ALBION
If everything would’ve happened differently.

THEO stops braiding.

ALBION
No keep going, it’s not, like...

THEO just listens, giving ALBION permission.

ALBION
I don’t know. We don’t talk that much anymore. She seems distant, like she’s found what she needed
me for somewhere else. Maybe it’s just me, maybe it’s that the world is ending and everything feels like
it’s all going to blow away with the smoke. But that’s how it’s always been. Every friend I’ve had
besides you has left. I blame Dad, he never taught me how to keep people around.

Beat.

ALBION
What’s your perspective, science man?

THEO leans forward and hugs her from behind. ALBION leans on him.

THEO
Nothing’s lost forever.

SOLEA arrives with a pencil and several sheets paper. She reads out loud,
emphasizing the meter.

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SOLEA
(reading)
“How am I to trust the stars
When they are made of fire?
When fast they carve on earth the scars
Of greed and sparks and… wire?”

SOLEA makes a mark. Then she shifts to another page.

SOLEA
“The prophets say the world will burn
And dry out with the wind.”

LEVI arrives with his guitar and the paper he got from the forest.

THEO starts braiding ALBION’s hair again.

SOLEA
“But I know that I plan to learn
How to become the…”

LEVI takes out the paper and starts to pick out the tune the forest gave him.

SOLEA
“How to become the winged…” no.

SOLEA writes.

SOLEA
“Forest, will you write my name
In roots and dirt and stars?”

SOLEA makes a mark. LEVI starts to hum along.

SOLEA
“Or will you feed me to your flame
And weave me through with scars?”

LEVI starts to sing along to the words as SOLEA says them.

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LEVI, SOLEA
(sung, spoken)
“The forest will unfurl my heart
When I tell it my name.
But the only way to learn its art
Is to fan out the flame.”

LEVI and SOLEA both take their eyes off their papers and speak out.

LEVI, SOLEA
(sung, spoken)
“With my new eyes one thing I’ve seen:
This earth may choose to rend you
But with new ears, I hear the green:
‘This strife may also mend you.’”

SOLEA makes her final mark, then leaves. LEVI continues to play the forest’s
tune on the guitar.

THEO finishes braiding.

ALBION
Done?

THEO
The trident is completed.

ALBION
You’re the best.

She hugs him. They hold each other for a while. Then THEO pulls apart.

THEO
Can I spend the night?

Beat.

ALBION
Is everything okay?

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THEO
Just tonight.

Beat.

ALBION
You don’t need to ask.

LEVI
(sung)
“This strife may also mend you…”

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NIGHT THE THIRD

Night falls. ALBION tosses in bed, stares at the ceiling. THEO is asleep on the
floor next to her.

The wind blows; distant, like the roar of the ocean. Something like peace.

Then the sound starts to move closer. And closer. ALBION sits up. Suddenly
the sound of wind through leaves is just outside her door. She gets up. The
wind gets louder. Now it’s like the forest is in her house.

Suddenly, a piece of paper flutters down from above. ALBION looks at it for a
moment. Then she picks it up and unfolds it.

ALBION
It’s blank.

The wind blows.

ALBION
Did you have something to say?

She looks at it more closely. Holds it out in front of her.

ALBION
No, there’s something here...

As she looks at the paper, she suddenly sees SOLEA’s seed, which was before
invisible. She kneels and touches it. A jolt. ALBION is possessed by an unseen
force.

ALBION
I can no longer hide the dismal vision of mine Eyes.
Prophetic dreads urge me to speak. Futurity is before me like a dark lamp –

ALBION yanks her hand away as if burned. The wind still blows. She looks
back at the seed and the blank piece of paper, totally transfixed. She reaches
out and again touches the seed. Another jolt.

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ALBION
If thou withhold thine hand, I perish like a fallen leaf –

She yanks her hand back again.

ALBION
(breathless)
It’s a mirror!

The wind blows. She looks at the blank paper.

ALBION
That’s what this paper is.

She looks into it.

ALBION
A mirror. Where I look for other people and only see myself. The only person who’s ever stayed. The
first time I saw her it was through a mirror. We were in the bathroom at school and she passed behind
me. Just a flash of her eyes, then she was gone.

Then she was gone.

ALBION touches the seed again. Like she knows who planted it. Again, an
unseen force overtakes her.

ALBION
O I am nothing, and to nothing must return again.
If thou withdraw thy breath, behold, I am oblivion –

She drags herself away. On the momentum:

ALBION
Cut her loose. Let me fly. Let me kill something.

The wind starts to roar.

ALBION
Let it all overtake me. Let me be empty and so become whole.

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The earth shakes. Papers start raining from above. As they fall on her, an
unseen force clutches ALBION.

ALBION
O I am nothing –
Futurity is before me –
If thou withdraw thy breath –

Suddenly, silence. The papers stop falling.

The crackling of flame. The world goes hot.

ALBION
No…

ALBION looks at the world around her.

ALBION
Not like this!

The flame grows louder, and louder, until –

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ALBION wakes up. Silence.

ALBION
Theo?

He’s still sleeping. ALBION sits down by him. She takes in the silence for a
moment, breathes.

ALBION
Theo?

She prods him gently.

ALBION
Theo.

He wakes up.

ALBION
Theo?

THEO
Yeah?

Beat.

THEO
What’s up?

Beat. He sits up.

THEO
You okay?

ALBION
I’m going insane.

Beat. THEO puts a hand on ALBION’s shoulder, but she turns away. THEO
lies back down. He checks the time.

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THEO
I should go.

ALBION
You could ask me.

Beat.

ALBION
You could ask me what’s wrong.

Beat. THEO starts packing up.

ALBION
You can stay here if –

THEO
No, I should get home.

He finishes getting his stuff and starts to go.

ALBION
I’m sorry.

THEO
Get some rest.

He comes over and kisses her on the forehead.

THEO
And you’re not insane, the world is.

He starts to go, but ALBION reaches out and hugs him. He indulges her for a
moment.

ALBION
Seriously though. If you ever need somewhere…

THEO
Take your braids out now. Your hair will look nice.

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He leaves just a moment too soon. ALBION sits against her bed, watching him
go.

THEO takes out his phone and calls LEVI.

LEVI
Hey.

THEO
Do you want to go for a hike?

LEVI
In the forest?

Beat.

THEO
Do you want to meet in Elm Park?

LEVI
Sure.

Beat.

Why?

THEO
Need to see trees.

LEVI
Okay, nerd.

Beat.

LEVI
Everything okay?

THEO
Can I spend the night?

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Beat.

LEVI
(suspicious, conflicted)
Yeah.

THEO
Okay. See you in 15.

LEVI
Theo –

THEO hangs up and leaves. After a moment, LEVI does too.

ALBION, still in her room, pulls out her phone and calls SOLEA. SOLEA
comes into view. She is again at the threshold of the forest, and carries a piece
of paper and a pencil. She stares at her phone for a while before answering.

ALBION
Do you know of any good therapists?

Beat.

Oh right you don’t go to therapy I forgot.

SOLEA
Yeah, I don’t –

ALBION
I think I should probably, I mean I know things are bad right now in general but this level of uh stress
is probably not normal? I don’t know if you have a different perspective on that and I know many
factors contribute to overall mental health including physical health which is kind of going by the
wayside right now given no exercise and also the smoke which still –

SOLEA
I’m doing okay, thanks for asking.

Beat.

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SOLEA
Sorry.

ALBION
No, it’s –

SOLEA
I’m a little stressed too.

ALBION
Ha yeah, stressful times indeed am I right?

Beat.

ALBION SOLEA
So what’s going on with you? We need to talk about something.

SOLEA
Sorry, you first.

ALBION
No, I was just wondering how you’re doing.

SOLEA
Oh, I’m okay.

ALBION
Doing some writing?

SOLEA
You know me.

ALBION
How’s it going?

SOLEA
Working on my voice. It’s cool actually how many techniques there are to do that. Our teacher just
gave us an assignment where we record ourselves talking about something and then we’re going to do
an exercise where we analyze the patterns and try to revise a poem to our own syntax rather than what’s
grammatically correct.

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Beat.

SOLEA
But yeah other than that…

ALBION
Sorry. That sounds awesome.

SOLEA
Yeah. It is.

Beat.

SOLEA
So if you’re going to –

ALBION
Thank you for always being there for me.

Beat.

ALBION
Other than Theo, you’re the only one who is. I’ve spent so long trying to get it, trying to understand
why everyone’s my friendly acquaintance but nothing more. Now I’m done. I need to stop
romanticizing this idea of friendship as this network or group thing just because that’s what it looks
like for other people. I need to lean into what I do have and make it count. So I just wanted to say –

SOLEA
You don’t have friends because you cut people off.

Beat.

Like you did that girl on Facebook.

ALBION
That wasn’t –

SOLEA
If you want friends, you might want to try some new tactics.

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ALBION
No but that’s what I’m saying, I’m done chasing after friendship. I’m not trying anymore.

SOLEA
Maybe you should.

Beat.

ALBION
(small)
What do you –

SOLEA
It’s good to be connected to multiple people. So you don’t have to rely so much on only one.

ALBION
What are you saying?

SOLEA pulls out a piece of paper and takes a deep breath.

ALBION
Solea?

SOLEA
(reading)
“Albion, this past year has been the fullest of my life.”

ALBION
What?

SOLEA
“When I met you, everything clicked into place. All of the currents I was sailing through suddenly
made sense, could be charted and understood. You gave me a map to myself.”

ALBION
Okay –

SOLEA
“Here are the things I love about you. Here are the things I’ll remember.”

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ALBION
Are you reading something?

SOLEA
“The way your brows draw together when you’re arguing with me. Your horrible posture when you
work and your insistence that hunching that way helps you think. The bridge of your nose.”

ALBION
(desperate)
What are you doing?

SOLEA
“The sound of your fast fingers over a keyboard. Your shoulder touching mine when you show me
what you’re working on. Your arms around me, taming my stormy insides and saying, ‘here there are
no questions.’ Golden fields of endless answers.”

ALBION is finally speechless. Adrenaline fuels SOLEA now.

SOLEA
“All that I love and more. I hope these words can protect you from the thought that there wasn’t love
here. I leave now in search of new questions. The future is already reaching toward me. Now I step
into it and it hurts to think you won’t be at my side, but –”

Faint, distorted guitar music. The song LEVI heard. SOLEA stops. Lowers her
phone. Listens carefully. Nothing.

An idea. SOLEA sets the paper she’s reading from on the ground. Long
silence.

ALBION
(small)
Solea?

A larger piece of paper flutters down from the sky. SOLEA watches it fall.

ALBION
Are we done?

SOLEA lowers her phone slowly, in awe at the sight.

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ALBION
Solea.

SOLEA can’t hear her. She picks up the piece of paper.

ALBION drops her phone and collapses onto her bed.

SOLEA
(reading)
“Zoas.”

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The park.

THEO and LEVI sit on a bench, looking out.

LEVI
You’re the first person I met who actually likes hiking.

Everyone says they like nature, and maybe that’s true to an extent, but you actually thrive in it. I read
somewhere that being in nature can reset your brain. I get it. Humans are loud and the earth is quiet.
Beauty you can lose yourself in, that’s hard to pass up.

Do you remember Angel Falls? We went the week before the fire started.

THEO nods.

LEVI
Remember how we were walking and we stopped and all of a sudden it was completely silent? That’s
the only time in my life I’ve heard real quiet. And everything I thought I was, all the words in my head
and the music I’d come to know as me – it all slipped out, into the dirt. For a second I thought I was
going to die. No joke. But then I looked over at you and your whole body was tuned to it. And that
kind of listening is not something you turn on and off, it’s your default. I’ve never met anyone like
you.

I’ll never understand how this world that’s so alien to me is so familiar to you, so comforting, like a
worn glove, that you can slip into it like a second skin –

THEO
Shhh.

They listen to the world. Wind in the trees. Birds chirping. Insects humming.

LEVI
That was the last time I remember feeling human.

THEO looks at him.

LEVI crumbles under his gaze. Then he looks out at the trees.

LEVI
This place is so beautiful.

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THEO takes his hand.

LEVI crumbles further, burying his face in THEO’s shoulder.

THEO
Levi?

LEVI holds onto him tight. Then he pulls away.

LEVI
Let’s go. It’s too smoky.

THEO
But I wanted to –

LEVI
You can stay. We can meet back at my place.

He gets up to leave. THEO pulls him back and wraps him in a tight embrace.

THEO
Listen. Do you hear that?

LEVI
Hear what?

THEO
The birds.

LEVI
Yeah.

THEO
No. What they’re singing.

Beat.

THEO
It’s your song.

LEVI falls apart.

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THEO
Look at me.

LEVI won’t.
THEO takes his face in his hands.

THEO
Whatever’s hurting you. Know you’re not alone.
This world will always have a song for you.

LEVI hugs THEO for a long time.

Then he pulls away.

LEVI
That night. When I couldn’t reach you.

THEO looks away.

LEVI
Were you in the forest?

THEO takes LEVI’s hand and looks out.

LEVI
You can tell me anything.

Beat.

LEVI
I promise I won’t put it all into your song.

They laugh, soft.

LEVI
I’m serious.

THEO looks back at LEVI.

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THEO
I know.

Sudden realization.

LEVI
Wait. You live in Northeast, right?

Beat.

Theo, are you in the evacuation zone?

THEO
It’s getting smoky. Let’s go.

THEO gets up and starts to go.

LEVI grows suddenly distressed.

LEVI
Theo.

THEO stops.

LEVI
I did something bad.

THEO
I know.

LEVI
Really bad.

THEO
I know.

Beat.

LEVI
You don’t wanna know what it is?

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THEO
Doesn’t matter what I want.

LEVI
Yes it does.

THEO
What matters is what and when you want – to tell me.

Beat.

LEVI
What if I never told you? Would that be okay?

THEO turns back.

THEO
No.

He takes LEVI’s hand.

LEVI interlaces their fingers, hesitant, full of dread.

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NIGHT THE FOURTH

Night.

At the edge of the forest, THEO prays.

THEO
Give us the strength of stones to hold fast against this storm.
Bless us with hearth and home. Grant every bird a nest to alight on.
Give us sight, that we may better know your will.
Bless me with speech, that I may find my way to you.

A gust of wind. ALBION comes into view, far off. She lies in bed and pores
over the papers she received from the forest.

THEO
May the river wash away our sorrow and bathe it with light.

THEO touches the earth where SOLEA’s seed still rests.

Reality shifts. Distant, the sound of rushing water.

THEO takes his hand away and looks up; he sees ALBION.

THEO
Albion?

No answer. She is in her own world. He looks back at the trees.

THEO
And to the boy made of flame, give peace. Show him the way to his core, that blue heat that can never
be broken.

No response from the forest. He looks again at ALBION, who is still poring
over her sheets of paper, and then at the trees.

THEO
Amen.

THEO touches the seed again.

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Like ALBION before, he is suddenly shot through with a strong current,

possessed.

THEO
My desperate purpose hear and give me death, for death to me is better far than life –

THEO yanks his hand away.

THEO
No!

He stares at the ground.

THEO
No, that’s not what I asked you for. I don’t want to die.

Now, the sound of water yields to the sound of flame. ALBION perks up,
hearing it too.

THEO
What?

The sound continues. THEO listens.

ALBION strains to listen too, staring at her papers.

THEO
What are you saying?

The sound distorts. THEO latches on, suddenly closer to understanding.

THEO
Oh.

ALBION leans in too.

THEO
I hear you. I’m hearing you…

ALBION looks at the blank papers, comparing between the sight and the
sound.

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THEO
Re…

The sound of flame gets louder. ALBION jolts up suddenly.

THEO
“Return.”

ALBION
Escape.

The sound cuts out.

THEO
Return? Is that it?

It comes back in, quietly.

THEO
Return.

ALBION speaks as if reciting an incantation to herself.

ALBION
Escape.

THEO
Return?

ALBION
Escape.

THEO
Return where?

The sound grows louder.

THEO
Oh –

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Then everything cuts out.

THEO, ALBION
(breathless)
To you.

They both stand suspended for a moment.

Then ALBION rips up the papers.

THEO
Return to you.

She scatters the pieces to the wind.

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Morning arrives.

SOLEA comes into view and calls ALBION. ALBION looks at her phone but
doesn’t pick up. She sits at the edge of her bed, staring ahead, hollow.
Voicemail tone.

SOLEA
Hi.

Beat.

SOLEA
Remember I said we were working on voice in class, part of that is also specificity about subject, like
who you’re writing to, because that makes things more active. So I have some more things to read to
you. If you don’t want to listen, that’s okay. Just figure I would practice on you until I knew either
way. Um.

SOLEA reads from a piece of paper.

SOLEA
“Albion, you are a breeze in summer. I know you’re there when the sun blazes, when I feel your soft
fingers over my skin.”

This one’s not my favorite, it’s kind of derivative, I have other better ones, but.

Call me when you get this.

LEVI arrives with his guitar. He sings the song we heard before.

LEVI
(sung)
“Forest, will you write my name
In roots and dirt and stars?
Or will you feed me to your flame
And weave me through with scars?”

THEO comes into view and calls ALBION. Several rings.

Then a voicemail tone.

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THEO
Hey. Where are you?

Sorry about last time. I’m staying with Levi right now, have been for a few days. But I don’t want to…

Call back if you get this.

He hangs up.

LEVI
(sung)
“The forest will unfurl my heart
When I tell it my name.
But the only way to learn its art
Is to fan out the flame…”

SOLEA calls ALBION. Voicemail tone.

SOLEA
Albion, you are… a good friend who doesn’t ignore my texts for a week.

Beat.

SOLEA
That’s my best one. In fact, my poetry teacher said I’ve reached a level of, uh, verisimilitude that even
Shakespeare didn’t attain…

She laughs a little at herself. Then she sobers up.

SOLEA
Sorry to call again. I just want to talk. Or know if you’re okay. I don’t want to just hear myself though,
so if you want to pick up... A week’s a long silence for you.

If you don’t want to talk to me just tell me and I’ll stop.

Call soon, okay?

She hangs up. LEVI sings, increasingly agitated.

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LEVI
(sung)
“And I’m no prophet but I know your face
I know your home, I know a grooved and wild place…”

THEO calls. Voicemail tone.

THEO
Albion, pick up. Are you home? I’m headed there now just in case. If you’re there you’ll see me. If
you’re not you’ll see me when you come home. I hate to do this. I’m sorry.

Call when you get this.

Please.

SOLEA calls. Voicemail tone.

SOLEA
Albion, you are a missing sun. A spinning star winked out. I’m seeing the light you gave off years ago,
but it doesn’t warm me anymore. It’s no longer a sign of summer. And I don’t want to stare at a sky
that doesn’t see me back.

Beat.

SOLEA
This needs to stop. Now.

LEVI’s music reaches a crescendo.

LEVI
“I’d cut every tree to set myself free
I’d burn down the world to believe
And I don’t want this life
And I don’t want this life
Not this –”

LEVI doubles over his guitar.

ALBION stands, seeing something before her.

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After a moment, LEVI pulls out his phone and calls SOLEA. SOLEA picks
up. THEO sees and hears the conversation.

LEVI
I’m the kid.

SOLEA
Levi? What’s wrong?

LEVI
The kid who…

Beat.

SOLEA
What are you saying?

Beat.

LEVI
I started the fire.

It starts to rain.

The wind rushes in and carries ALBION and SOLEA away.

THEO stares at LEVI.

LEVI looks back, hollow, for a long time, as the rain continues.

LEVI
Theo –

THEO storms off.

LEVI
Theo!

After a moment, LEVI follows.

Darkness and rain.

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The edge of the forest.

SOLEA sits on the ground with her eyes closed and her fingertips in the dirt.
The piece of paper she last received sits on her lap. She is at ease, serene.

The rain continues. Time passes.

Then THEO enters. He sits down near her, silently, and looks at the trees.
Double take: he looks back at her.

THEO
Solea?

SOLEA doesn’t open her eyes.

THEO looks out at the trees.
The rain falls.

SOLEA
This is good. This rain won’t last long, but it’s a sign. There’s more to come.

Beat.

SOLEA
So you’re a forest dweller too.

THEO
Yeah.

SOLEA
Albion told me about you.

Beat.

SOLEA
I’m going to find her.

THEO
Where will you look?

SOLEA opens her eyes and takes out the paper.

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SOLEA
“Zoas.” Do you know what that means?

THEO
Don’t think so.

SOLEA
I don’t know if it’s a real word, or if it’s just letters.

THEO
You going to find out?

Beat.

THEO
Wait. “Zoa” is the Greek word for life.

SOLEA
How do you know that?

THEO
Science class. It’s the root of the word “zoo.”

SOLEA
So “Zoas” would be…

THEO
“Living ones?”

Beat.

THEO
Did you get that from here? The paper.

SOLEA
Yeah. Why?

Beat.

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SOLEA
I sent a message first. I was hoping for a response. But I don’t think this is it. I think this place has more
to say.

THEO
I haven’t seen you here before.

SOLEA
These days I can’t keep myself away.

THEO
“Return.”

SOLEA
Hmm?

THEO
This place sent you “Zoas,” I got “return.”

SOLEA
Oh.

THEO
What does that mean?

Beat.

SOLEA
Maybe if we listen, we’ll hear a little more.

They listen. SOLEA closes her eyes again.

Then she sees something before her and gasps.

THEO
What is it?

Suddenly, the rain stops.

SOLEA
Just as I predicted.

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THEO
Predicted?

SOLEA
I saw that before it happened.

THEO
What’s that like?

SOLEA
Good question.

She thinks.

SOLEA
It’s darkness. The absence of color. First, it’s formless. Then grows into a shape, and that shape tells me
of the future. I think. It’s only happened a couple times.

THEO
Maybe that’s where she is. That darkness.

SOLEA looks at him. Something crystallizes.

SOLEA
Something you should know.

THEO
What?

SOLEA
The other day, Levi brought me here.

Beat.

THEO
“Return.”

They look out into the trees.

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Then, at the same time, they both stand. In sync without meaning to be. They
look at each other.

THEO
What do you see about me?

SOLEA
You need to get some rest.

THEO
I mean the other type of seeing.

SOLEA closes her eyes and studies him closer.

She sees something. Suddenly, she can’t hold back a beaming smile.

THEO
What?

SOLEA
You look like the ocean.

THEO smiles too, her warmth infectious.

THEO
Tell me more?

SOLEA studies him.

SOLEA
I see you beating against stones. Watering the forest with your mists. Coming back and back again.
Always facing what you need to face, hurting where you need to hurt.

She sees something else. She opens her eyes.

SOLEA
And thanks for the rain.

THEO understands.

They look up at the sky, together.

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Then something deep within THEO shifts, taking him away from the forest,
back to LEVI.

SOLEA faces the sounds of the forest: birdsong, leaves rustling.

Then she steps onto her seed and closes her eyes.
The sounds swell, enveloping her.

Reality sheds its outer shell as something grows into SOLEA from below.

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NIGHT THE FIFTH

Night.

ALBION arrives with the wind at her back. She lets it consume her. It is now
the only sound.

SOLEA opens her eyes and sees ALBION. SOLEA is altered, no longer herself.
The forest speaks through her.

SOLEA
Why wilt thou look upon futurity, darkening present joy?

ALBION sees her and looks away.

SOLEA
Sometimes I think thou art a flower expanding.

SOLEA reaches out her hand. ALBION, aching, can no longer resist. She
touches SOLEA’s hand and experiences a sudden jolt.

ALBION
How dark I feel my world within –

She yanks her hand away.

ALBION
Stop! You always do this. You write all these words and you make me someone I’m not. I don’t want
that anymore. I don’t want to be what you’re making me into.

SOLEA
Am I not God?

ALBION
No. You’re my favorite person. And you left me.

SOLEA
Our beauty is covered over with ashes.

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ALBION
Solea, I want to leave. “Escape:” that’s what I heard. That’s what the world told me, loud and clear. Let
me join this nothingness. Let me be hollow.

SOLEA
O, thou poor ruined world.

SOLEA raises her arm.

ALBION
What are you doing?

The wind starts to die down.

ALBION
(alarmed)
Solea?

Reality starts to reemerge.

ALBION
No, not yet.

SOLEA starts to become herself again.

ALBION
No, no, no…

SOLEA
Albion?

SOLEA steps off the seed toward ALBION.

ALBION breathes in deep. The wind roars back in.

SOLEA
Albion!

The wind carries SOLEA away. It is back now in full force.

ALBION stands against it.

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ALBION
I’m ready.

The wind grows hotter and drier against her face.

Her eyes water.

ALBION
I’m ready!

Then, flame.

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LEVI sits with his guitar. He fiddles anxiously with it as he waits.

Then THEO comes in. LEVI stands and begins to strum.

THEO
Not now.

LEVI
(sung)
“I’m no prophet but I know your face,
I know your home –”

THEO takes his guitar and sets it down.

LEVI
I know it’s not your birthday yet but I’ve been making progress, and am on a roll kind of, so if you
could –

THEO
I don’t ask you for much.

Beat.

THEO
Everything I love in this world comes down to three things: you, Albion, and this forest. I didn’t think
it was possible for one of those to hurt the other. But I should know by now this world doesn’t answer
to my sense of what’s possible. You want to know where I was that night? Where you were.

LEVI
Your house is in the evacuation zone. I looked it up. Why aren’t you with your dad?

THEO
Because I’d rather be with you.
Because that was the night he made it clear I couldn’t have you both. And I chose you.

Beat.

LEVI
(quiet)
Theo, I’m so –

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THEO
Don’t bother. I know you’re sorry. I know you’ve been eating yourself alive over this. And I know I
could stand here and dig your wounds deeper.

LEVI
Then do. I deserve it.

THEO
But I won’t. Because I know what you need to do to make this right.

Beat.

You’re going to put out the fire. And then you’re going to turn yourself in.

Beat.

LEVI
I can’t do that.

THEO
You have to.

LEVI
No, I can’t –

THEO
You don’t get a choice.

LEVI
I don’t know if I’m old enough to become a firefighter, or even a volunteer, or how long that’s going
to take, if I can even do it in time –

THEO
It doesn’t matter how long it takes or how hard it is. You have to go into that forest and touch the trees
you burned and heal what you have hurt.

LEVI
I can’t.

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LEVI starts to break down.

THEO
Levi –

LEVI
I know you don’t care but I didn’t mean to. I was looking for you and it was getting late and I was cold
and I had my lighter and it just. Got away from me. I can’t go back, I might destroy it all again. And if I
can’t get the right equipment to protect from the fire I’ll die, and if it’s illegal I’ll have to go jail for two
crimes instead of one –

THEO pulls LEVI to him.

LEVI holds him tight.

LEVI
(soft)
I can’t do this alone.

THEO
I can’t protect you.

LEVI
But you can guide me. Help me.

THEO
This isn’t my burden.

LEVI
I know.

THEO
I can’t promise you anything.

THEO starts to untangle himself from their embrace.

LEVI
Stay?

THEO looks at LEVI.

Then he pulls him close without looking at him. Holds him tight.

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SOLEA calls ALBION. Voicemail tone.

SOLEA
I’m at your house, Albion. This ends now.

ALBION enters, in her own world, and starts packing up her things.

SOLEA
Don’t ask me why I’m still doing this. I think some part of me still needs to say goodbye to you. Still
needs you to know that distance is what I wanted, not this.

I’m going in now. I’ll see you soon, or maybe time will unravel and I’ve seen you already. These days
I’m seeing everything – my sight is breaking open. I can’t tell the difference anymore between words
and images and feelings. It’s all stitched together. Everything I thought existed is gone and everything I
didn’t see before is so close I can touch it, in vibrant color.

So I’ll see you even if I don’t. At least I have that to hold onto.

She hangs up.

Then she approaches ALBION’s room and to her surprise, walks right in.

SOLEA
Albion?

ALBION keeps packing. Beat.

SOLEA
Albion?

Beat.

SOLEA
Your door was unlocked, I walked right in…

ALBION doesn’t look at her.

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SOLEA
It’s me, Solea.

ALBION stops for a moment.

SOLEA
What are you doing?

Then ALBION keeps packing.

SOLEA
You’re packing. Where are you going?

No response.

SOLEA
Where have you been?

ALBION finishes packing and does one last look around her room. Then she
starts to leave. SOLEA stops her.

SOLEA
Why haven’t you been answering our calls?

ALBION tries to get past her, but SOLEA blocks her way.

SOLEA
Answer me.

ALBION tries again.

SOLEA
Answer me!

ALBION stops, closes her eyes, and breathes a deep breath. The wind rushes in
suddenly. SOLEA struggles against it. It fills ALBION with energy, invigorates
her. She now radiates mythic power and speaks to the world in a voice not her
own.

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ALBION
Thou horrible ruin, once thou wast a glorious heaven,
Where joy sang in the trees, and pleasure sported on the rivers,
And laughter sat beneath the Oak.

ALBION turns to SOLEA and fixes her with a fiery stare.

ALBION
Now the gardens of wisdom are become a field of graves.

SOLEA goes still. ALBION approaches suddenly and takes SOLEA’s hand.
SOLEA melts into her touch, comes closer. ALBION speaks in a quiet, low,
voice.

ALBION
Futurity is before me like a dark lamp.

ALBION takes her hand away.

ALBION
I can no longer hide the dismal vision of mine Eyes.

The wind swells, carrying ALBION away into the darkness. SOLEA looks at
her hand. In it rests a lighter.
She collapses, looking in the direction ALBION disappeared.
Then, a piece of paper flutters down from above. SOLEA picks it up and
reads.

SOLEA
“Vala.”

She looks at the lighter in her hand.

She lights it.

END OF ACT ONE

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ACT TWO

The forest.

Sounds of life – bird calls, wind through the trees – surround and envelop us.
Papers scatter the earth; SOLEA’s seed is now covered with others.

SOLEA arrives with several sheets of paper in hand. She reads them. Seeing is
painful; she scratches at her eyes. She lowers them and looks in front of her.
She speaks to the forest and recounts what she sees.

SOLEA
I’m on the shore of a river and flame is coming toward me. It reaches out with greedy fingers and tries
to take me; I dance away on sand-covered feet but it comes after me and pins me down. It burns me, I
take in too much smoke, I start to evaporate into the air – and then it’s gone. It moves on. It’s done
with me.

I don’t know if that’s a vision of the future. I don’t know if my dreams are more like trees or more like
wind – something sturdy, or an interruption of the air. Prophecy, or… I don’t know. Sometimes I
don’t know when I’m dreaming. Sometimes I’m walking through the trees, looking for something
without a name, and suddenly everything unravels, and my heart pulses beneath my feet.

I’m coming apart.

No response.

SOLEA looks back at the pages.

SOLEA
Give me more time. I need time to understand the story you’re telling me. There’s power in your
words. When I drag them through my throat, something changes. I’m not sure what – if it’s the world
that changes, the future itself, or only me. So give me time to sort through it all. Trust me.

No response.

SOLEA
If you’re listening… tell me where she is. You’ve told me about her in these pages. “Albion the Eternal.”
But I don’t want to see her through paper only.

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I don’t know if she’ll recognize me when I find her. I don’t know what I’m made of anymore. My
insides are spilling out and I couldn’t tell you the definition of the word “me.” If that’s how I end, so
be it. But let me see her first.

The sounds of the forest.

SOLEA
I can’t believe you’re growing back. The fire should be killing you. But you’re expanding. You’re
growing as you talk to me. All your words are branches poking under my skin. It hurts, but I think it
needs to.

Beat.

SOLEA
I still don’t know your answer to my question. Is this it?

She takes out one of the pages.

SOLEA
“Vala.”

Suddenly, a deep rumbling. SOLEA recognizes the sound.

SOLEA
No. I’m not ready –

The sound grabs her and brings her to her knees. She shudders against the
force. More papers fall from above.

SOLEA
Don’t change me yet.

LEVI and THEO enter, carrying hiking equipment. She sees them, but they
do not see her. SOLEA tries to speak to them but can’t. Her voice is gone.
She kneels with one of the papers and writes.

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NIGHT THE SIXTH

LEVI
Do you want to take a break now? We’ve been going for a while.

THEO
Sure.

They sit. THEO drinks from a water bottle as LEVI stares into the trees.

LEVI
Smoke’s not too bad yet.

THEO
Big forest.

THEO offers the water bottle to LEVI, who takes it. Beat.

LEVI
Executive director of Friends of the Woods said not to go into the forest. Too dangerous.

Beat.

LEVI
Remember when I tried to find a firefighting job? The qualifications were a strenuous physical exam,
and the posting said to expect 18-24 hour shifts –

THEO
Yet here we are.

Beat.

LEVI
I don’t want to put you in danger.

THEO
Or yourself, of course. Or the forest.

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LEVI
There are people who are trained to do this. We aren’t.

THEO
Then go back. Donate. That’s what that article said to do, right? Stay away. Stay at home, hide from
what you did.

LEVI
I’m not running from this.

Beat.

LEVI
But there’s owning up to what I did, Theo, and then there’s suicide. I’m going to turn myself in, I’ve
already decided to do that. But this isn’t atonement, this is –

THEO
Right. You’re only doing this for me.

LEVI
I didn’t say that.

THEO
I’m not the one who decided you needed to come here.

Beat.

LEVI
What?

THEO
“Return.” That’s what this place told me.

LEVI
This place?

Realization.

LEVI
Oh.

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THEO
What?

LEVI
This place told me something too.

THEO
What did it say?

LEVI
No words. Just music. It made me say something, I think, but I don’t remember what…

Beat.

THEO
What did it say as you burned it?

LEVI
What?

THEO
What sounds did it make?

LEVI
I don’t know. I wasn’t there to hear.

Beat. THEO gets up.

THEO
Let’s get going.

LEVI
Theo, you don’t have to –

THEO
You asked me to come.

LEVI
I don’t want you to get hurt.

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THEO
You’re not going to do this on your own –

LEVI
Yes I will, you don’t have to –

THEO
– And I need to be here too.

Beat.

LEVI
Your house got evacuated for a deadly forest fire. I’m sure your dad would take you back now –

THEO
I’m not going back there.

SOLEA stands. LEVI feels a palpable, painful tug.

LEVI
Oh.

He and SOLEA meet eyes. A message passes between them.

THEO
Levi?

LEVI
OH GOD, THEO –

LEVI grabs onto THEO. SOLEA looks away, terrified at her power of sight.
The pain subsides.

THEO
Levi, what’s wrong?

LEVI looks back at SOLEA. They see each other again.

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LEVI
I don’t have much time left, do I?

SOLEA gives LEVI a long, deep look. Then she shakes her head, slow.
LEVI is speechless, shocked.

THEO
Much time left?

LEVI buries his face into THEO’s shoulder. THEO, unable to see SOLEA,
holds onto LEVI and tries to guide him away.

THEO
You’re okay, baby, you’re okay…

LEVI allows himself to be led away, back into the trees. SOLEA watches them
go. Then she is alone.

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A low wind begins…

It grows…

And then the sound of fire crackling, of falling branches. In comes ALBION,
glassy-eyed and foggy. She holds an axe.

SOLEA
Albion?

ALBION does not see SOLEA. She stands in the flame, soaking it in as if she’s
been emptied of everything else. SOLEA tries to move closer but cannot leave
where she is.

SOLEA
Can you hear me?

ALBION raises the axe.

SOLEA
Where did you get that?

ALBION brings down the axe on a tree. A loud crack. ALBION cries out,
experiencing sudden visceral pain. SOLEA speaks to her with urgency.

SOLEA
Albion, listen to me. Do you hear that?

It’s unclear whether ALBION can hear her.

SOLEA
There’s music in the world still. There are plants who hum for you. Every being in this forest is singing
your story. The world loves you, even when you’re lost.

SOLEA holds up the papers.

SOLEA
Your name is written all over this place. Look:

SOLEA flips through the papers and finds one.

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SOLEA
“Albion walked on the steps of fire, and Vala walked with her in dreams of soft deluding slumber.”

SOLEA pauses. She hasn’t read this part before.

ALBION raises the axe.

SOLEA
“And Vala walked with her in dreams of soft deluding slumber…”

ALBION brings the axe down again. She screams.

SOLEA pores over the page.

SOLEA
“Albion walked on the steps of fire.”

Then something gets cut away. ALBION relaxes.

SOLEA
“And Vala walked with her.”

ALBION
Escape.

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NIGHT THE SEVENTH

The wind carries ALBION and SOLEA away.

LEVI and THEO enter. THEO is coughing.

LEVI
Let’s sit down. We’ve been going for a while.

THEO shakes his head.

Here, let me get you a mask.

THEO
No.

LEVI
We should’ve been wearing them to begin with. Why didn’t I…

LEVI looks through his pack. THEO’s coughing fit peters out, slowly. LEVI
finds a mask and hands it to THEO. He doesn’t take it.

LEVI
The air quality was already hazardous and now we’re getting into active smoke which oh my god is –

THEO
You don’t need one.

Beat.

LEVI
Let’s get you some water at least.

He takes out their water bottle and hands it to THEO. THEO drinks for a
long time. He hands it to LEVI; LEVI takes a sip and puts it away, then sits.

LEVI
Join me.

THEO sits too. They look out.

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LEVI
Sorry about earlier.

Beat.

I saw Solea.

THEO
She’s here?

LEVI
Yeah.

THEO
She told you something.

Beat. LEVI looks at THEO.

LEVI
Theo, you’re sweating.

THEO
It’s hot.

LEVI
You think we’re that close already?

THEO
I don’t know.

Beat.

If I can’t keep going, I won’t.

Beat.

LEVI
I can taste the smoke. I feel it on my skin. But it’s outside me, somehow. Like I’m floating along with
it. Like I’m smoke too.

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THEO
Lucky for you.

They laugh briefly. The laughter sends THEO into another coughing fit.
LEVI puts a hand on THEO’s back.

LEVI
Let me get you a mask.

LEVI hands him the mask again. THEO shakes his head.

Please put it on.

THEO
(raw)
You don’t have much time left. I don’t want anything between us.

Beat.

LEVI
Theo…

THEO
Not much time left until what? Did she say?

SOLEA arrives. He sees her. Another message is transmitted.

LEVI
(to SOLEA)
Until the roots pull me down into the earth. Until they grow into me. Until I’m one of them forever,
growing downward.

THEO pulls LEVI into a sudden, tight, and long embrace. SOLEA watches
them hold each other. As they break away and leave, holding hands, the wind
brings back in the fire.

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ALBION arrives, in her own world, now carrying a plow-like instrument. She
plows the earth methodically as the flame roars around her. SOLEA reads to
her.

SOLEA
“Thence we know that Humanity subsists by Siblinghood & Universal Love.
We fall on one another’s necks, more closely we embrace.
We live not for ourselves but for the Eternal family;
We live not by Self alone.”

ALBION does not react. She continues plowing. SOLEA sets the paper down.

SOLEA
Is this the last I’ll see of you? Will this be what I think of when I remember you? Albion, my love,
hollowed out by flame. There used to be a different light in your eyes.

She turns to the forest.

SOLEA
Give me sight that bends backward. You’ve shown her to me; thank you. But I want to see our
beginning. I want to see her in sunlight, on the day we met. I know what you’re capable of. You’ve
already spoken to me the truth. I know you can show me this.

Again, the sound of deep, low rumbling.

SOLEA hesitates.

SOLEA
Am I ready?

SOLEA looks at the world and recounts what she sees.

SOLEA
Ash. Darkness. Smoke. Under it all, the remains of the last forest. The one that fed this one. And
further down, stone. Metal. The fire at the center of everything.

Can this be the last thing I see?

A paper falls down from above. SOLEA picks it up and reads.

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SOLEA
“It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted,
to speak the laws of prudence to the houseless wanderer.
It is an easy thing to hear sounds of love in the thunderstorm that destroys our enemy’s house,
to rejoice in the blight that covers his field and the sickness that kills his children.
Then all pain is quite forgotten, along with the slave grinding at the mill
And the captive in chains, and the poor in the prison.”

ALBION stops plowing.

SOLEA
“It is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity.”

ALBION stares at the plow.

SOLEA
“Thus could I sing, and thus rejoice, but it is not so with me.”

ALBION collapses.
SOLEA turns the paper over and starts writing on it. Then she stares straight at
ALBION as she writes.

SOLEA
Albion.

Her writing draws ALBION’s gaze to her. ALBION sees SOLEA. She freezes.

SOLEA
Albion!

ALBION runs. SOLEA collapses, crestfallen.

Then she sees the paper.

SOLEA
“It is not so with me.”

SOLEA turns to the forest.

SOLEA
Thank you.

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 100

LEVI and THEO hike through the forest.

LEVI
We’ve got to be close now.

THEO
But the smoke is better.

They look around as they continue to walk.

THEO
Look at this burn.

LEVI and THEO take in the ruined world.

LEVI
So the fire was just here?

THEO
Looks like it.

LEVI
But we still feel far away. Even you’re doing okay.

THEO
Let me look.

THEO kneels and touches the ash. LEVI looks out.

THEO
No, that can’t…

LEVI comes over.

LEVI
What is it?

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THEO looks closer. Then he looks at LEVI.

THEO
They’re still alive.

LEVI
Still alive?

THEO
The ferns here. They’re growing back.

LEVI
How?

THEO
I don’t know.

LEVI
You’re the scientist.

THEO
This is beyond…

SOLEA starts writing.

LEVI
Ow.

THEO
What is it?

LEVI
Nothing, just…

THEO stares at the ground. SOLEA stands and looks at LEVI while she
writes.

LEVI
OW!

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THEO
What’s wrong?

LEVI
Someone’s scratching on the inside of my skin.

THEO
Solea?

LEVI
I don’t know – ow –

SOLEA looks at them as she keeps writing.

SOLEA
Theo. Levi.

THEO and LEVI react viscerally, in different ways.

LEVI
Did you feel that?

SOLEA now takes the paper she’s been writing on and sets it on the ground.

THEO and LEVI see the paper.

Then they see her.

LEVI
Solea.

They rush to each other and embrace. THEO hangs back.

LEVI
Oh my god I missed you –

SOLEA
Yeah yeah I know.

LEVI
Where have you been?

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SOLEA
Here. Why didn’t you come sooner?

They break apart.

SOLEA
Good to see you again, Theo. Glad you made it okay.

LEVI
You two…?

SOLEA
We’ve met.

LEVI
Right, I introduced you –

SOLEA
More recently.

LEVI
When?

SOLEA
After…

Beat.

THEO
Good to see you too.

LEVI
So what’s going on? Also, girl, you look tired.

SOLEA
It’s a long story.

LEVI
We have time.

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SOLEA
What do you know about the forest?

LEVI looks to THEO, then back to SOLEA.

LEVI
It’s been trying to talk to us.

SOLEA
What has it sent you?

LEVI
Some papers… a little music too. Also, I have a dim memory of saying some weird words, but I don’t –

SOLEA
Sounds about right. First things first, you all need to read up on these.

She shows them the papers.

LEVI
What do they say?

SOLEA
A lot. I’m still working on figuring out my first two messages. The one I got right before coming here
was just one word: “Vala.” Any ideas?

Nothing.

SOLEA
The word shows up a lot in here. I think it’s a she, so maybe a person? But I don’t know where to start
with most of this. There’s a lot, and also the words on the pages are jumping out at me and I can see
everything.

LEVI
What?

SOLEA
Seriously everything, down to the microbes in the dirt. It’s too much to keep track of and mainly it
hurts.

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LEVI
Why is that…?

SOLEA
The forest is using me for something. I think it wants me to read this, but it also doesn’t know how to
deal with me – hence the painful sight. Or maybe it also wants something else that requires some kind
of transformation. But when I’m slipping away from myself I can’t read, so I don’t know why it thinks
that’s a good idea... I’m trying to keep myself in one piece but I don’t know how much longer I can.

THEO
What about Albion?

Beat.

Is she here?

SOLEA
I think so.

THEO
You’ve seen her?

SOLEA
Yes.

THEO
How is she?

Beat.

THEO
Is she alive?

SOLEA
I’ve only seen her from far off, through smoke. I’ve been trying to reach her but I don’t think she can
hear me.

THEO
Through smoke?

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LEVI
Yeah, what’s up with the fire?

SOLEA
No matter how hard I look, I can only see her in flame. I asked to see her and the forest let me. I don’t
know why.

THEO leaves.

SOLEA
Did I…?

LEVI
No, he’ll be back. He knows this place like the back of his hand.

SOLEA
I hope he didn’t go looking for her.

LEVI
Why?

SOLEA
You know how the forest’s using me? I think the fire’s using her.

LEVI
For what?

SOLEA
To destroy this place. The first time I saw her, she was cutting down trees.

LEVI
Using her… that sounds right.

SOLEA
What do you mean?

LEVI
That’s how it felt for me too. Like something took me over. Just this tidal wave of…

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SOLEA
What?

LEVI
“Fuck it.”

SOLEA
Huh?

LEVI
That feeling. Like, “well, the damage’s been done.”

SOLEA
Oh.

LEVI
Solea, I don’t want it to use me again.

SOLEA
No, it’s done with you.

LEVI
What do you mean?

SOLEA
This place needs you for something else now.

Beat.

LEVI
What do I look like to you?

SOLEA
Flame.

Beat.

LEVI
Well… do I look good?
Am I… hot?

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SOLEA
Oh my god.

They laugh.

LEVI
That was pretty good.

SOLEA
Get out.

LEVI
I know you missed this.

Suddenly, the deep rumbling of the forest. SOLEA collapses. LEVI rushes to
her. SOLEA holds him tight, steeling herself against the onslaught. Then it
subsides.

SOLEA
One thing I don’t get.

LEVI
What?

SOLEA
Last time I saw her, she was plowing.

LEVI
Like, farming?

SOLEA
Yeah. Why would the fire want that?

Beat.

LEVI
Let’s get reading.

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April 2021
 109

Elsewhere in the forest, THEO walks alone. He takes out his phone and makes
a call. At first, nothing. Then a phone starts to ring. ALBION comes in, alone.
She’s small, the most herself we’ve seen, but still a shadow. She looks at her
phone. The phone continues to ring. THEO stares at it, starts to give up. Then
ALBION picks up.

THEO
(dumbfounded)
Albion?

Beat.

THEO
Are you there?

Beat.

THEO
Where have you been?

Beat.

THEO
That’s okay. You don’t have to say anything.
Are you still there? Are you listening?

ALBION stares at her phone. THEO’s voice breaks.

THEO
I missed you so much.

Suddenly, wind starts to howl through the trees. ALBION panics. She starts to
breathe fast.

THEO
Hey. What’s going on?

ALBION starts to pace. The wind grows.

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THEO
Albion, you’re okay.

ALBION tries to speak but can’t.

THEO
Just stay with me. Stay on the line, okay?

And the fire arrives. It roars, crackles. It draws ALBION up and speaks
through her.

ALBION
I have blotted out from life the dove and nightingale,
And I have caused the Earthworm to beg from door to door.

The fire grows. THEO shouts over its din.

THEO
I still know you, Albion!

ALBION
Now my sun is a pestilence burning at noon, my moon a vapour of death in the night.

ALBION drops her phone. The fire roars. THEO runs.

THEO
I’ll see you again!

Then the fire releases ALBION.

She is different. Calm, strong. A new light behind her eyes.

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April 2021
 111

NIGHT THE EIGHTH

LEVI and SOLEA in the forest. They pore over the pages.
THEO arrives, harrowed. LEVI sees him.

LEVI
Oh hey, while you were gone the forest sent another page! We think it’s about Vala, but –

THEO collapses.

What’s wrong?

THEO
Albion picked up my call.

SOLEA
What did she tell you?

THEO
Nothing. When she spoke it wasn’t with her voice.

SOLEA
What did she say?

THEO
Something like what’s growing here. I don’t know.

SOLEA
You’re covered in smoke.

THEO
The fire got close.

SOLEA
What happened after she spoke?

THEO
I don’t know. All I could hear is fire.

Beat.
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LEVI
Why don’t you look for her, Solea?

SOLEA
Yeah, good idea…

SOLEA stands and looks around.

She looks harder.

LEVI
Anything?

SOLEA
I can’t see her anymore.
Just the fire.

Beat.

LEVI
Maybe all this is a way to get her back. Maybe figuring out this message will bring her here.

SOLEA
Perfect. Then everything will burn.

LEVI
If not bring her here, help her somehow.

Beat. LEVI takes one of the papers and reads.

LEVI
“Arise and drink your bliss, for every thing that lives is holy.
For I, the Earthworm,
renew the moisture of the burnt plain.
Now, my left hand I stretch to earth beneath
And strike the terrible string.
I plant a smile in forests of affliction
and wake the bubbling springs of life.”

Beat.

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LEVI
We think that’s about Vala.

SOLEA
Or it’s not.

SOLEA stands.

SOLEA
Or none of this means anything. Or I’m bursting at the seams for no good reason, because the world
chose me for something I’m not ready for. Making one person take on the entire future – great plan.

The deep rumbling.

SOLEA
Go ahead, show me something else. I can take it all –

SOLEA is cut short by something growing into her from below, from the
pages she’s standing on.

SOLEA
And cannot those who once loved ever forget their Love?

Beat.

LEVI
Solea?

He touches her shoulder. He too transforms.

LEVI
I loved her, I gave her all my soul; I hid her in soft gardens & in secret bowers of Summer –

THEO touches LEVI.

THEO
Death my desire that I in vain in various paths have sought, but still I live.

They start to wrench downward. Their eyes are squeezed shut.

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THEO
So shall we cease to be and all our sorrow End –

LEVI
I love for I am love, but hatred awakens in me –

SOLEA
And Albion turned her Eyes inward to Self, losing the Divine Vision –

SOLEA wrenches open her eyes. She rips herself away from THEO and LEVI
with a gasp, LEVI and THEO fall too.
They sit for a moment, breathing.

LEVI
Does that happen a lot?

SOLEA
You need to go.

Beat.

SOLEA
It’s too dangerous with me. The fire got Albion. It’s only a matter of time before this place gets me.

LEVI
No.

SOLEA
If you stay here you’ll end up like me and I think you’re meant for something else. I think you’re
meant to live.

LEVI
But earlier you said that I don’t have much time –

SOLEA
I don’t know, Levi. That’s what I saw then. It’s not what I see now.

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THEO
So we have a chance?

SOLEA
If you leave now.

THEO
Leave?

SOLEA
Get out of here. Away from the fire.

LEVI
But what about the forest’s message? It wanted me here.

SOLEA
Maybe it’s changed its mind. Maybe it needs you alive.

LEVI
But what about you?

SOLEA
I’ve changed. I’m not made for that world anymore.

LEVI
Does that mean…

SOLEA takes LEVI by the shoulders and looks at him hard. Beat.

SOLEA
I’m never going to see you again.

LEVI embraces her. They hold each other.

Then she turns to THEO and looks at him.

SOLEA
Your home is neither place nor person. And remember: the ocean is strong, but it also moves. It also
changes.

Beat. THEO understands.

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Then she turns back to LEVI.

SOLEA
You were a prophet long before I was. Your songs are prophecies. Listen to what they’re telling you.

LEVI
I will.

Beat.

SOLEA
One more thing I see:
This dying earth will give you gold, if you know where to look.

The trees thrum.

LEVI and THEO continue on.

SOLEA takes her papers and leaves.

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April 2021
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ALBION brings in the fire.

The air is hot and dry and stifling. In the thick smoke, the world seems to
shrink. As the flame reaches a crescendo, ALBION stops.

She takes a deep, satisfied breath, as if the air is clean and healthy to her. She is
completely in tune with the inferno.

Then, she takes out a small packet. Opens it carefully.

While the fire blazes, she scatters seeds.

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April 2021
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THEO and LEVI enter. Though the fire has faded, smoke still chokes the air.
THEO is holding back coughs, his eyes watering; LEVI walks ahead,
completely unaffected.

LEVI
I think we’re almost there. It’s weird, I thought it would be harder to leave this place…

He looks back and sees THEO.

Oh no.

THEO erupts into coughs.

LEVI rips open his backpack and helps THEO put on a mask. Then he guides
them both to sitting and holds THEO tight from behind, resting his head on
THEO’s shoulder.

We’re almost out. We’ll be safe soon.

They breathe together as THEO’s coughing fit slowly fades. Beat.

After you found out what I’d done, I couldn’t sleep. All night I’d lie there thinking, why didn’t you
ask me for help? What did I do to lose your trust?

THEO tries to answer and starts coughing again. LEVI holds him tighter.

I never gave it thought before, why you don’t talk much. Why would I care? When I can’t hear myself
over my own thoughts, your silence is a lifeline. I figured you didn’t need language, that you knew
how to say what mattered without words.

THEO tries to say something again.

But you weren’t silent. I never gave you the chance to speak. And here I am now, doing the same thing.

THEO shakes his head. They sit in silence for a moment, leaning against each
other.

Are you ready to go? Don’t talk.

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THEO nods. LEVI helps him up to standing and takes his hand. They start to
leave. Then LEVI turns around.

LEVI
Solea said that when she looked at me, all she saw was flame.

Beat.

I know we’re going home, but it feels like we’re leaving it. It feels like I forgot something.

THEO looks at him. LEVI lingers another moment. Then, they go.
Suddenly, music. LEVI looks back. It stops.

Did you hear that?

THEO nods. The music plays again, louder. LEVI gasps.

Theo, it’s your song.

THEO looks at him. Then he pulls LEVI closer. LEVI listens to the music.

Listen to that instrumentation! And there’s the bridge. How did it…

He remembers.

The forest gave me this song.

Beat. A realization starts to sink in. THEO pulls LEVI away and starts to leave.
LEVI resists.

You brought me here to do something.

THEO pulls harder. LEVI pulls away.

Theo –

Then THEO crushes LEVI to him. They rock back and forth together for a
long time. LEVI puts THEO’s hand to his own heart.

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LEVI
Hear that?

Beat.

My heart is reaching toward that fire. Every cell in my body wants me there.

THEO starts coughing again. LEVI pulls him closer.

Don’t die for me. Not here. Die when you’re old, when your body relaxes into the dirt, held by the
roots. I’ll see you then.

THEO’s coughing fit fades. LEVI untangles himself and looks him in the eyes.

There’s more than one way to live in this world. I learned that from you.

Beat.
THEO lifts his mask and kisses LEVI. Soft, slow – the last one.
Then THEO lets him go.
LEVI takes off his backpack and hands it to THEO.
One last look.

Then LEVI draws himself up. Stands tall.

He heads toward the fire and doesn’t look back.

THEO watches him go.

Then, he runs.

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SOLEA faces the forest.

SOLEA
Vala: your word for life. And “zoa” what we need to become: living. I understand your message now.

SOLEA takes out a piece of paper.

This is for my future self. If you read it too, that’s okay. I don’t know if I believe in futures anymore. I
think if there is one, it’s yours only.

She puts the paper on the ground. Beat.

Too bad your message dies with me.

SOLEA takes out the lighter ALBION gave her.

I used to love words. Now they’re not mine. I live translated into you.

She picks up the forest’s papers one by one.

Death is not what I asked you for, but I’m not scared.

She holds the pages in a stack.

Before I was born, I knew only darkness.

She lights the lighter and holds it to the pages.

Suddenly, deep rumbling.

I’m ready for yours.

The rumbling grows.

SOLEA surrenders.

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April 2021
 122

NIGHT THE NINTH

The fire arrives. ALBION is completely transformed, radiant. She and the
flame are now one. The rumbling of the forest continues. SOLEA is also
transformed. She still carries the lighter. They circle each other, locked in an
elemental battle.

SOLEA
Arise, O fiery form of death.

SOLEA lunges toward ALBION. They grapple. ALBION gets the upper hand
first, sending SOLEA sprawling. Then SOLEA comes back in full force. She
knocks ALBION to the ground and pins her there.

SOLEA
O Dragon of the Deeps, lie down before my feet!
How couldst thou deform these beautiful proportions of life and person?

Beat. ALBION sees the lighter in SOLEA’s hand.

SOLEA
War is energy enslaved, and thy religion is
The first author of this war: the distracting of honest minds
Into confused perturbation and strife. Your pride
Is a deceit so detestable that I will cast thee out
If thou repentest not, and leave thee as a rotten branch to be burned!

Beat. ALBION speaks as if conceding a loss.

ALBION
O, that I had never drank the wine of dark mortality,
nor cast my view into futurity, darkening the present.
That I had never built cities, turrets, towers, and domes
Whose smoke destroyed the pleasant gardens.
Now go, O dark futurity.
I will cast thee away & turn my back upon the void
Which I have made, for futurity is in this moment.
Rage, Vala; I no longer curb thy rage.

A tense silence.
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Then ALBION dives for the lighter.

SOLEA tries to keep it away. They fight. Then ALBION wrenches it away.
She holds above their heads and lights it. At the same time, SOLEA backs
ALBION onto the paper she left before her transformation.

Reality shifts. Everything goes dark but the flame.

They see each other as themselves for a moment.

Then the wind takes them away.

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Near the center of the fire.

LEVI finds his way to the flame.
It grows louder, and louder, nearly deafening, until –
He reaches the center. The eye of the storm.
For a moment, pure silence.
Then music starts to play.
It’s his song, played by a symphony. LEVI listens, elated.
He kneels and touches the message SOLEA just left.

Reality shifts as he is given the gift of sight. He recounts what he sees.

LEVI
Humans are just as gnarled as trees. Nothing is smooth in this world unless it is dead. And everything is
music. Even the fire has its song.

He looks around as if seeing the music in the air before him.

And my future: the thing I used to call “me” now a patch of leaves strummed by the air.

Beat.

I want that future. I want to be a guitar in your symphony.

But I don’t know if I deserve that yet. I don’t know if I deserve to live.

He looks at the ground before him.

I see a path that leads to you. I’ve never seen my way forward before – all my life I’ve stumbled and
prayed for someone to catch me if I fell. But now I know, as sure as I know this is the end: you are my
home.

He sees something else.

You’ve burned before. You grew with fire! Fed by ash.

I’m part of you. This flame is rebirth; this flame is home.

THEO enters. He is at the edge of the forest.

He sees LEVI across space, through roots. LEVI doesn’t see him.
LEVI touches the earth again.

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LEVI
Leave her. Let her live to tell your story.

The deep rumbling. A response.

LEVI understands it, somehow. He is satisfied.
Now he speaks to the forest.

Help me grow you back.

The flame swells.

LEVI surrenders, and transforms.

THEO looks at the sky.

It rains.

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A dark, cold place outside of reality. The forest’s core.

ALBION arrives. She is small, hollow, neither herself nor the fire.
She looks around. Her eyes alight on SOLEA’s message.

SOLEA enters.
She sees ALBION.
A long silence.

SOLEA
Can you talk?

No response.

SOLEA
I hope I’m dead.

ALBION looks at her. SOLEA sits. After a moment, ALBION sits too.

SOLEA
Did I save you at least?

ALBION doesn’t say anything.

Another long silence.
SOLEA laughs, bitter.

SOLEA
All that for nothing. Do you even know who I am?

ALBION shakes her head.

SOLEA lies down and curls into herself.
Long silence.
Then ALBION reaches out and takes SOLEA’s message. She reads.

ALBION
“To Solea, if you make it out of this alive.”

Beat.

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ALBION
“Whether you found her or you didn’t.”

Beat.

ALBION
“If you love her still…”

ALBION looks closer at the page. She stumbles over her words.

ALBION
“Don’t love her like a ring, or your favorite book of poetry. Don’t love her like you even know her
name. Love her like pine needles, like flame. Don’t forget what you saw here – how every night you’d
search for her in the darkness and only see a mass of roots connected to every living thing. How you’d
look for her and only see life.

So why couldn’t you stop writing about her? Answer that for me, with the gift of your existence. Why
do we try to fill absence with words even when we know it’s impossible? When you find out, write
back to me.”

SOLEA sits up.

ALBION
“If you still have your sight, use it. Look at dark tree branches against a light sky and read poems,
novels. Remember the sound of language covered in dirt. Read every story written into this earth.

If you’re reading this, you made it past death. Your eyes can still read. Are you still human? Am I? For
all I’m able to see I still don’t know the way forward.

I’ll see you soon. I hope you see me.”

ALBION finishes reading.

She looks at SOLEA.
She looks back at the paper.

ALBION
“Solea.”

SOLEA nods.
A flood of memory.

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ALBION
Solea.

Beat. SOLEA comes apart.

ALBION comes forward and embraces SOLEA.

They hold each other for a long time.

SOLEA breaks away suddenly. She takes the message from Albion and takes
out a pen. She starts to write. ALBION watches. SOLEA gives ALBION the
paper again.

SOLEA
Read.

Beat.

SOLEA
Words have power here. I think I can transform you back into yourself.

ALBION looks at the paper.

SOLEA
Albion?

Then ALBION puts it down.

SOLEA
Read it!

ALBION shakes her head.

SOLEA jumps up.

SOLEA
We’re so close. We might have a shot of making it out alive, and you won’t even try? Come on! Just
read it!

ALBION
I don’t want to be what you’re making me into.

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Silence.

SOLEA
What, then?

Beat.
Something shifts.

ALBION
I want to be… a mountain.

ALBION struggles through the following, her hold on language still unsteady.

I want to be… mist rising off a waterfall.

I want to be jagged stones. The earth’s sharpness.
But I also want to be beauty.
The beauty of this broken, dying world.

ALBION speaks now with quiet force.

I don’t want to be fire again. I don’t want to be wind.

I want to be the force that glues our eyes to what terrifies us. That makes us run toward pain, and what
comes out when we dare to let ourselves break.
I want to be sturdy. I want to be tightly woven and scattered with holes. I want to grow things.

Beat.

“We live not by self alone.” You told me that in a dream. I believe it, now.

ALBION takes SOLEA’s hands.

But I think we’re done.

I think we’re done, Solea.

SOLEA has no words.

A long silence.

ALBION lets go of one of her hands and turns outward.

She takes a deep breath, and lets the world in.

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Rain falls.
The sounds of the forest. Birdsong, wind through trees.
ALBION lifts her face to the sky, drinks it all in.

Then music starts to play, faint. It grows.

It’s the sound of a guitar. It’s LEVI’s song.

SOLEA
Levi.

She listens harder.

He did it.

ALBION
Did what?

SOLEA
Found the fire.

ALBION
Put it out?

SOLEA
No. That’s the rain. That’s Theo.

ALBION
Theo!

Another flood of memory.

I need to find him!

ALBION starts to go.

SOLEA stays behind, looks out.

ALBION
What is it?

Beat.

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SOLEA
Just saying goodbye.

SOLEA stands there in the rain, rooted to the spot. Unable to tear her eyes
away from this land.

ALBION waits for her.

The sun starts to rise.

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In the forest, LEVI plays his song on the guitar.

He speaks in an unfamiliar voice.

LEVI
Rise up, O Sun, most glorious minister and light of day!
Flow on ye gentle airs and bear the voice of my rejoicing.

Wave freshly clear waters around the tender grass

And put forth thy life in fruits and flowers on thou sweet smelling ground.
Follow me and hear me sing my rapturous Song!
I will cause my voice to be heard on the clouds that glitter in the sun.

I will call. Who shall answer me? I will sing; who shall reply?

LEVI takes his guitar and holds it. The forest keeps playing his song.
He wanders through the trees, retracing steps he took long ago.

LEVI
From my pleasant hills behold the living, living springs
that run among my green meadows and delight among my trees.
I am not here alone. My stones, you are my brethren.
And you birds that sing and adorn the sky, you are my sisters.
I sing, and you reply to my Song! I rejoice, and you are glad.

LEVI reaches the threshold of the forest.

He sets the guitar down.
THEO arrives.
He almost sees LEVI, but LEVI dances away before he can, back to the forest.

THEO stares at the guitar.

He falls to his knees.

LEVI
The living voice is ever living in its utmost joy.

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SOLEA and ALBION arrive.

Time has passed; distance has come between them and the fire.

ALBION
Happy birthday, Theo!

They come up to him.

ALBION
Your first day of adulthood. How does it feel?

She sees THEO staring at the guitar. ALBION and SOLEA share a glance.

ALBION
Theo?

ALBION approaches and kneels beside him.

ALBION
(quiet)
Is that Levi’s?

THEO nods.
ALBION embraces him.
SOLEA kneels near them and takes out a piece of paper. She reads.

SOLEA
“His locks are like the forests of wild beasts.
There, the lion glares, the tiger and wolf howl,
and the eagle hides her young in cliffs and precipices.
His heart is like starry heaven expanded.
There, the spontaneous flowers drink, laugh, and sing.
The golden moth builds there a house and spreads her silken bed.
This is home, she whispers to her young. In this vast expanse, take refuge in each other.”

Beat.

SOLEA
I adapted that from the only piece the forest left me. Sorry to break out the gifts early, but…

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She folds up the paper and hands it to THEO.

SOLEA
Happy 18th.

THEO
It’s about him?

SOLEA nods. THEO takes it.

THEO
Thank you.

Beat.

ALBION
We can do gifts now! Here.

She takes out a card.

ALBION
For you.

He opens it and reads.

ALBION
Eh?

THEO
A gift card massage?

SOLEA laughs.

ALBION
Hey, adulthood is stressful! Or so I’ve heard.

SOLEA
Never change, Albion.

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THEO
This is fancy.

ALBION
Only the best for you.

THEO
Thanks, kid.

They embrace. Beat.

THEO
But I can’t take this.

ALBION
Why not?

THEO turns to SOLEA.

THEO
You told him a song played on the guitar is a prophecy.

SOLEA
Yeah.

Beat. THEO hands her the guitar.

SOLEA
Theo –

THEO
I’m no prophet.

SOLEA
Levi wanted you to have it.

THEO
I can’t take it with me.

Beat.

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ALBION
Take it with you?

Beat.

THEO
I can’t keep myself away from this place. I’ve been back here every day, since...

I can’t stop looking at what’s burnt. Wondering what I could’ve done to save it sooner. What I
could’ve done to save him.

He looks at the guitar.

THEO
But I think Levi’s telling me something.
I think I need to love the whole world like I love this forest.

Beat.

SOLEA
Where are you going?

THEO
The ocean. Someplace rivers feed into.

He gives her the guitar again. She takes it.

SOLEA
Thank you.

Beat.

ALBION
Unbelievable.

THEO
What?

ALBION

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Giving other people gifts on your birthday?

He laughs.

ALBION
Not like it’s new. Remember how last year you got me those cool shiny stones? You were like “for my
birthday I wanted to tumble some rocks, so here you go –”

THEO
Agate. And the tumbler was a gift.

ALBION
And you’re not even going to use your massage! At least let me have it.

THEO
I’ll be back.

Beat.

ALBION
So do you want it, or…

They laugh.

THEO
You know what? I do. For when I return.

ALBION
Sorry, you already gave it up.

THEO
Asshole.

She keeps it away from him, laughing, then gives it to him.

They sit and look into the trees, listening to its sounds.

ALBION
So, the year ahead. What’s in store?

Beat.

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ALBION
You first, Solea.

SOLEA
The year ahead? Hmm…

Beat.

I don’t know. Keep writing. Sometimes it feels like that’s all I know how to do. Though people seem
to like it.

ALBION
Right, your blog! I’m your most loyal follower. I repost every piece!

SOLEA
Oh, that’s not a good sign. I should stop now.

They laugh. Beat.

THEO
(to ALBION)
What about you?

ALBION
Eating dinner with my dad twice a week. Winning districts. Staying off the Internet unless I’m making
friends.

SOLEA
Of course you have it all planned out.

ALBION
Oh, no. Mostly I’m just along for the ride.

Beat.

ALBION
And what about you, Theo? What’s in store for your 19th year of life?

Beat.

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THEO
The fires are getting worse. Next year even more will burn. More places we love, gone forever. More
people, too. The world as we know it a little more gray.

I don’t want to hide from my grief. But I want to be able to look fire in the eye and say, I know you.
You’re part of me too. I want to look at ash and see the forest that is already growing from it. And
every day I want to see the world with new eyes. I want to be born anew with every sunrise.

But right now?

I want to be with you. Right now – and now, and now.

Listening.

Alive.

THEO, SOLEA, and ALBION listen to the forest. To LEVI.

LEVI listens back.

To the music of the forest: healthy, hurting, living.

END OF PLAY

The Living Ones

Madeleine Adriance
April 2021