by Wendy Beach
before. They can’t follow us out of their area.
AMINA: And us? Is that why we’re still here? This “time loop.”
KHALIL: … It’s just misery, after misery.
AMINA: That’s it! I want to go. I want to leave here now!
ABU WALID: Shh Shh!
A large mortar lands nearby creating an enormous booming sound, KHALIL vanishes and AMINA races over to ABU WALID’s side.
ABU WALID: The candle!
AMINA quickly jumps up, glances around and then blows it out.
Lights Out.
[The sound of gunfire and mortars intensifies in the darkness. Boom. The light comes on. AMINA is sitting alone on the chair in the basement. Her father's deceased body is covered with a sheet. Puppet-like or dancing Egyptian cats might encircle her (up to the director). She stands up and attempts to scrape the walls to tunnel to freedom]
AMINA: Someone. Anyone. Help me! Help me!
END
A little note about this play: The situations of the baby left behind and the people trapped in the basement, were situations that my first husband, Fouad, described to me, which he experienced during the Lebanese Civil War. They were a small part of the things he witnessed that haunted him for years to come. Some may call that survivor guilt. He was helped into Australia by a Christian charity group. The characters are entirely fictional.
And, if you haven't quite figured it out: Amina is the only one who is not a ghost during the play. We are in her mind all along, as she struggles with being the last person dying in a basement. The mummified cats represent those who died before her, who have been wrapped in their shrouds.
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In Dedication to:
FOUAD ALI FARAJ
(1956-2001)
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Wendy Beach lives in Perth, Western Australia. She studied writing at Edith Cowan University. Several of her short stories are published in the Green Egg and the Dark Eclipse Magazine. Her influences include Stephen King and Robert A. Heinlein. She lives in an old house on a large tree-filled block near the Swan River. She shares her home with two children, her cats and a blue tongue lizard. In her spare time she tends her organic vegetable patch and assorted fruit trees. She also enjoys painting impressionist landscapes.
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Connect with Me:
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WendyBeachAu
Subscribe to my blog: https://thereyoullbe.wordpress.com/
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