It’s the final countdown!
Challenge: Magical Realism
“When you wish upon a star…”
FIONA is early 30s.
FIONA
We never trust kids to tell the truth. They believe in too many things for their outlandish tales to be taken seriously. It doesn’t help that all the magic we experienced when we were young we explain away to ourselves when we stop believing in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. We tell ourselves it’s a trick of light. We let people tell us that we must have imagined it and we forget what is really possible and what we are capable of if we remember.
(FIONA glows with the power of this knowledge.)
We tell children fairy tales up until we don’t want them to believe, in fairy godmothers and evil witches. We want them to believe good triumphs over evil. We want them to believe that anything in possible if you work hard enough and if something isn’t possible it’s their fault. But it’s not. Not really. Sometimes you can try and try and it isn’t enough. But it’s not your fault. And it’s not mine.
But this isn’t about that. This isn’t about all the things I couldn’t fix and all the ways I fell short. What this is about is what I can give.
(MARCIA lies in a bed. FIONA takes a glowing ball.)
One good memory. You’ve lost so much and there’s nothing I can do to change that. But this memory - this simple reminder of a feeling - of love, of being loved. And I promise, even when you don’t remember it, I will take care of you.
(FIONA places the glowing ball in MARCIA’S hands. She begins to glow with FIONA. She smiles, she sits up. FIONA sits next to her and the warmth almost makes all the darkness of the world go away.)