Act One
As the lights begin to dim, we hear the cries of seagulls and the constant sound of a shipâs horn in a harbor. Then, in full darkness, we hear the sound of someone writing on a computer keyboard and the amplified recorded voice of a woman. The sounds become an echo.
Projected on the curtain is an image of the ocean.
BEMADETTE (Recorded voice): Ariel and Nina Strauss boarded the St. Louis ship, Saturday, May 13, 1939. They had left Hamburg with thoughts of starting a new life away from Germany and finding a new home in Havana.
(The lights reveal Bemadette.)
(Spoken voice) I wanted to be on the ship with them, but I clenched my toes inside my shoes to keep from running up the gangway, as I stood immobile on the dock, drenched in my coat with the desire to leave with Ariel, while the air around me became still.
(A phone rings. The lights reveal Saquiel, a young man dressed in a leather coat. Bemadette picks up the phone without speaking.)
SAQUIEL: Hello? Bemadette?
(No answer from Bemadette.)
Are you there?
BEMADETTE: Yes.
SAQUIEL: Itâs me. Saquiel.
BEMADETTE: No, youâre not Saquiel. Thatâs not the name I gave you. Youâre Ariel Strauss.
SAQUIEL: Iâm leavingâ
BEMADETTE: Do you have to remind me?
SAQUIEL: No. But from the beginning I told you my visit would be short.
BEMADETTE: Yes. It isnât the first time you tell me this.
SAQUIEL: But you never believed meâ
BEMADETTE: No. I thought I had dreamt it.
SAQUIEL: My visa expiredâ
BEMADETTE (Playfully): My dear young man, you could have lied to meâ
SAQUIEL: Liedâ?
BEMADETTE: Yes.
SAQUIEL: How?
BEMADETTE: By easing the moment.
SAQUIEL: Is that what you want me to do?
BEMADETTE: I thought you would know by nowâ
SAQUIEL: Know whatâ?
BEMADETTE: To lie to me.
SAQUIEL: If I knew how to lie to you I would.
BEMADETTE: It would help me forget that youâre leaving.
SAQUIEL: I think itâs too late now.
BEMADETTE: Itâs never too late. Something is always beginning.
SAQUIEL: What could begin now?
BEMADETTE: What we have to say to each other one last time.
SAQUIEL: The sound of good-bye?
BEMADETTE: Thatâs also a beginning. You mustnât forget to take a look at Central Park one last time.
SAQUIEL: With you?
BEMADETTE: No, by yourself. Iâm not leaving. I donât need to see it one last time.
SAQUIEL: I only know how to go there with you.
BEMADETTE (Her expression is childlike): In the end thereâs nothing to it. We only have to close our eyes and enter Central Park.
SAQUIEL: Were my eyes to close now, Iâd be waiting for you there.
BEMADETTE: In what part of the park?
SAQUIEL: Where I always like to sit.
BEMADETTE: By the statue of the Cuban poet, JosĂ© MartĂ.
SAQUIEL: And weâd visit the park with the specter of the poet.
BEMADETTE: The three of us like ghosts.
SAQUIEL: Yes. And heâd show us the trees he used to know in the park.
BEMADETTE: The last trees to drop their leaves in the fall.
SAQUIEL: And the ones to bloom first . . .
BEMADETTE: Of course, he wouldâve known all the trees.
SAQUIEL: And so did Walt Whitman . . .
BEMADETTE: And Edith Wharton . . .
SAQUIEL: Bemadette, I must go. I have to go.
BEMADETTE (Suddenly, desperately but quietly): Donât go yet! Donât go, Saquiel!
SAQUIEL: Do you realize that if I donât leave I might not be allowed to come back?
(She doesnât respond.)
Bemadette. Are you there? Would you read my letters when I write to you?
BEMADETTE: Iâd much rather hear your voiceâ
SAQUIEL: Thatâs not what I asked youâ
BEMADETTE: I knowâ
SAQUIEL: Good-bye thenâ
(Sound of a dial tone. Bemadette is unable to end the phone call. The lights go down on Saquiel.)
BEMADETTE: How did I spend these same hours the past years without his voice?
How did I get myself into this? How did it begin?
(Lights change. Bemadette takes us back to the initial conversation that occurred a month ago with Saquiel.
The telephone rings. The answering machine picks up the call. Lights up on Saquiel.)
SAQUIEL: Ms. Kahn . . . Ms. Kahn . . . itâs me, Saquiel, the student from Cuba. Donât hang up. It doesnât matter if you donât talk to me. You donât have to tell me a word. I want to tell you why Iâve come to see you. âMs. Kahn, are you there?
(Not a word from her.)
I couldnât keep from doing it. Are you listening to me?
(Not a word f...