*Scene 5- A Saving Command*

[Spotlight fades in at center stage. HE and SHE are embracing, an intense, desperate hold. SHE is sad because they cannot be together. HE is sad as well, but HE hides it better. She steps back, pained, and looks in his eyes]

SHE (sobbing): What do you want me to do? What will it take for our lives to be perfect together?

[HE pulls her to him quickly]

HE (compassionately, with hinted remorse): This is what you will do. If you want to be free of this grief, if you want to be perfect again, you will get in your car and drive as far as you can away from here.

[SHE crumples to the ground in a sitting position, buries her face in her lap]

SHE (with sorrowful resignation): And then what do I do?

HE (still looking directly at her fallen form): When you can't drive anymore, I want you to get out, and run as fast as you can.

SHE: And then what? What do I do after I'm far away and can't run anymore?

HE: Then when you can't run anymore, I want you to walk, although you shouldn't be able to. When you come to the place where you can't drive any farther and your legs can't carry you anymore, I want you to crawl, crawl as far as you can before you have nothing left and can go no farther.

[SHE flings her head up to look at his face]

SHE (desperately): But why? What do I do once I get to the place where I can't move anymore?

[HE kneels and kisses her head softly, then reaches for her hand]

HE: This is the place farthest away from me. Once you reach this place, you will forget me and everything I meant to you. This is the only way you may still be happy. I will stay here, destroyed without you, suffering the burden which permits your freedom. I will have nothing but despair, but my love will carry you far from here, across the great distance which will give you peace. We can't be saved anymore, and this is all I have to give to you. Go, and carry me with you, until the time when I must be forgotten.

[HE exists stage right, walking briskly to avoid betraying the tears already seeping down. They will come many times after this, and he knows that he is henceforth broken, having given his strength to another in hopes that she might find rest]

[SHE continues to sob, but rises shortly amidst her apparent pain. Still crying, SHE runs to her car, squeals away, and drives far, far away. After 943 miles, the car overheats. There, somewhere in the middle of the vast, barren country, her car has died and SHE can drive no farther. SHE gets out, eyes wet with fresh remembrance of her loss, and begins running as fast as SHE can. She sprints until exhaustion, then falls forward as her legs refuse to move. SHE cries out, but lunges forward on her stomach, moving inches at a time. After twenty-eight minutes, her muscles give, and SHE lies immobile on the hard dirt beneath her. And in this moment, as blood and mucus stretch slowly out of her mouth and into the Earth, SHE forgets the one she came here for. In her final struggling breaths, crippled and dying, SHE wonders how SHE came to be here, what reduced her to such a mess. There is no explanation in her darkening mind for this situation. And as SHE slips away, her rasping growing louder and more forceful, SHE assumes that it must have been some incredible purpose which would take her so far from a familiar setting. Her breathing gradually mutes, her head drops, and SHE dies in peace, picturing the grandeuresque events which must have brought her here]

[All lights fade to black]

*End*

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