#31: EMBRACING THE MILLSTONE

Written by
Joseph Frost
Draft
8/31/16
written for the 2016 31 Plays in 31 Days project

Joseph Frost, 2016

4550 Normandy Dr
Jackson, MS 39206
FrostJosephD@gmail.com
* member, Dramatists Guild of America

Three women stand in a diagonal line across the stage,

from down right to up left, facing upstage.
They wear simple white summer dresses. Their hair is up.
DONA
Ive only ever asked one thing.
MIEL
Only one thing asked.
URSA
Ask me one thing.
DONA
All the nights Ive waited up.
MIEL
All the long days in a solitary room.
URSA
All the times.
DONA
The one thing.
MIEL
That thing I asked.
URSA
Say it.
DONA
Dont go...
MIEL
Please dont go...
URSA
Dont go... without me.
The lights shift.
Ursa crosses downstage and stands on a box.

2.
Miel circles around Dona.
MIEL
Did you tell her how you felt?
DONA
Of course I did. I told her all the time. Every breath.
(beat)
She tired of me telling her.
MIEL
But did she hear you? Did she understand?
DONA
I cant believe that she did. Otherwise...
MIEL
Otherwise.
DONA
How could she have left.
MIEL
You dont know what she was going through. You really dont.
DONA
But what it meant to me.
MIEL
I know.
DONA
I was so little.
MIEL
I know.
DONA
I could possibly understand.
MIEL
But you are grown now.

3.
DONA
And now I understand?
MIEL
Now you can. If you tried. If you knew.
DONA
Id forgive her if I knew.
MIEL
Perhaps.
DONA
Perhaps.
MIEL
I dont know either. I never understood her.
(beat)
She always seemed... so hard to touch. To hold.
DONA
And that is what I wanted. More than anything else. To hold, and be held. To touch.
Arms. Face. Skin. Embrace. Muscles. And energy. To be surrounded by her arms. And to
be...
MIEL
What.
DONA
Reassured.
A shift.
Dona crosses away.
URSA
The night sky has always been a fascination. The canvas of black and dark, with the
smudges of light, scattered throughout. People emerged from caves, blinded by majesty,
and mesmerized, made patterns of the picture. Made their world comprehensible with
stories of the figures they invented in the stars. So far away, and yet ever-present. Tangible,
yet untouchable. Like the embrace of the heavens, from horizon to horizon, arms
outstretched beyond the possible world, cuddling the impossibly small child, who,
lovingly, gazes with hazy eyes, up, up to that stuff beyond its ability to focus. What could
be up there, holding me this way? What could be out there, reaching past me, around me.
What could look back at me with abilities mine can only sadly reflect? What is it?

4.
Miel goes to her.
MIEL
Come down.
URSA
But...
MIEL
Come down. Youll hurt yourself.
URSA
Oh, you have no fun.
MIEL
I have plenty of fun. You fall and hurt yourself when youre already laying on the ground.
Up there, youll split your head open.
URSA
And then my brains will fall out and well have to fill my skull with all new things. Things
Ive never seen or thought before. Songs I havent heard and faces Ive never touched. Im
all right with that. I am.
MIEL
If youre brain falls out, you wont be able to do any of those things. Youll be brainless.
And what would this town do with a brainless child?
URSA
Why, love her. Of course.
MIEL
I wish our world worked that way. I really do.
Miel starts to go. Ursa jumps down and gets in front of
her.
URSA
Please. Please say I can go to the festival.
MIEL
You ask as if it were up to me.
URSA
You can help me make it happen.

5.
MIEL
You know why youve been forbidden.
URSA
But I promise I will behave.
MIEL
With your promise and a dollar, I would have only one dollar.
URSA
You say mean things to me.
MIEL
You know that you are loved. And that is why you cannot go.
URSA
Because I am loved.
MIEL
Thats right.
URSA
What if I werent loved anymore?
Ursa pouts on the floor.
MIEL
That... can never happen.
Miel exits.
Dona goes to the box where Ursa had stood.
She turns the handle on an invisible music box dancer.
Music is heard.
DONA
I was always careful to wind her carefully. Carefully. Delicate springs inside. Too much
tension and she could break. And it was too hard to fix, too hard to replace, too hard to find
another. But I couldnt help myself. I would turn the handle and listen, mesmerized. And it
would barely finish before Id snatch her up and crank the handle again. Time after time
after time. Just to watch her dance to that tinny, plinky tune. Beautiful. Beautiful.
Dona leans back, mesmerized.

6.
She sits back to back with Ursa.
URSA
I know what you wanted from me.
DONA
I know what you couldnt get from me.
URSA
I didnt have what you wanted.
DONA
I could never be enough.
They begin to stand, together, back to back. They turn as
they rise.
URSA
I hated that I couldnt give you...
DONA
I hated myself, that I didnt have...
URSA
You deserved so much...
DONA
You deserved so much...
URSA
I just wasnt...
DONA
I could only be...
They stop.
They turn and face each other.
A moment.
URSA
You never had to be anything you werent.
DONA
You were absolutely all I ever wanted.

7.
URSA
I was afraid.
DONA
I was afraid.
They reach for each other.
They lean into one another, but do not bend their arms to
embrace.
MIEL
I was connected to two millstones, dragging the bottom of the river I was trying to cross.
Desperate to make my way. To make a way for them. A way they could hear one another.
A way they could share with each other. They were two millstones being dragged to a
destination beyond their ability to reach, and couldnt see that they were each others only
companion.
(beat)
And as the waters flowed past, and rose around us. I couldnt carry them any longer.
(beat)
But before I succumbed, I... I embraced my little millstones. I held them close. Until my
arms had no more embrace.
Miel walks directly toward them, crossing downstage.
They lean back as she walks between, walking upstage
center.
They fall back to the floor.
Lights down on the stage.
Miel stands, backlit.
Backlights down.
End.