The Ring
(Monologue for my new film)
SCENE 1: Theme and sailing ship
SCENE 2: The Beach
I came to this place every year
Bearing the same pathetic offering
A cheesy plastic ring we won that year we sailed around the cape
The vast sea was always filled with the echoes of my wife’s passing
Since her death, the tides of my life were out of touch with the day to day world in which I lived.
Here alone, I felt remotely connected
As if my wife’s spirit danced on the tip of each incoming wave
Here along I could still recall a time when we still felt hope.
SCENE 3: Whale wall
She always loved the sea
Poking her nose into its amazing scents
Searching out its rippled surface for the dolphins she craved.
SCENE 4: The Boat
Perhaps I even sensed doom that day we boarded the boat for our three hour tour.
SCENE 5
The huge landscape made everything seem small and insignificant.
All of us struggling against impossible odds to survive.
SCENE 6: Passage 1
Even as she sat at my side she was full of secret cancer
I was too happy to notice
SCENE 7
I thought she was happy, too.
Yet she took in the sights as if she expected never to see them again.
We both felt the magic
In and around us.
SCENE 8: The dolphins
When the dolphins arrived
The waves came alive with their dance
They seem to welcome us – particularly her – into their delightful society
SCENE 9: The ring
I took our winning the ring as a good omen
SCENE 10: The clouds
Though I did sense dark clouds rolling over our lives as if over the moon or sun.
SCENE 11:
The seat seemed cold and angry
But I could not say why
SCENE 12: The ruins
I wish I had recognized the other signs, such as the sunken ship
And the church for perished sailors
SCENE 13:
When she found the dying butterfly on the sand
Something seemed to die inside her as well.
SCENE 14: The fading
I believe now I caught then
The scene of a ghostly presence
Spirits waiting in the waves to carry her away.
SCENE 15: SUNRISE #1
Now, I return here each year to seek out her spirit at sunrise
Looking for signs of dolphins
I know keep her company
I hope this year they will accept my offering
So that I might join her finally
Dancing on the waves
SCENE #16:
Theme and fade