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(continued)
URSA
Such as?
ANGEL
Well, for starters, why do you think that the Sea of Lights will return?
An elderly bear straightens up in his chair.
THEODORE
If I may say-- It has returned and returned again. It is cyclical.
(overlapping)
MELA
Petals follow thaw
LEUCA
Thaw follows crust
MELA
Crust follows—
ANGEL
(interrupting)
It has come once and returned a second time. That's all. But you all seem to be forgetting that in between the two times we've witnessed it, we saw more people than just the ones that made up the Sea of Lights.
THEODORE
You mean Little Granny's tea guests?
ANGEL
Well, yes, but aside from those. There were other people…. people who didn't go into the tea house. They brought petals out of season.
DUMBO
I do remember that.
(He points to the empty chair with his trunk.)
They laid them on Daisy's chair, and all around us. I will never forget it.
SPEEDY
And… I remember them searching. For Daisy. After the tall man took her away.
URSA
We'll have to take your word on that, Silas Cotton. You were the only one who could have seen any of it from your vantage point.
SPEEDY
But they did search. I know you heard them calling her name.
URSA shudders. This is true.
ANGEL
Someone must have taken Daisy. If not, she would have come back to us. She would have held us again.
SPEEDY
But the only person who ever held us again was Little Granny.
DUMBO
She came to see us so often.
ANGEL
But she stopped coming so often.
SPEEDY
And then she just stopped coming.
URSA
Then we will just have to wait until such a time as she returns and brings us inside.
SPEEDY
Don't you see? She's leaving us here. I can't even see her come and go anymore.
BILL
Why are we supposed to believe you, rabbit? You're a corporate shill.
SPEEDY
It's not like I asked them to sew this drum to my paws.
ANGEL
Stop convoluting the matter at hand! Think of this logically. Even the people who used to come to Little Granny's for afternoon tea. They're not coming here anymore.
DUMBO
It's like every day is Monday.
ANGEL
It all adds up. The tea guests aren't coming to Little Granny's. And Little Granny isn't coming to us. The Sea of Lights won't be coming, either. Because no one thinks about Daisy anymore. No one thinks about us.
URSA
(sternly.)
Angel, that's not true.
(sofly)
I think about Daisy.
THEODORE
I do, too, Ursa. I do, too. Perhaps… perhaps, if we wish to remember Daisy, we will have to do it ourselves.
ANGEL
Yes, Theodore, I think you're right. I'd like to put a motion on the table: The petals have passed, and the crisp is upon us. It is time for us to take the Sea of Lights into our own hands.
The animals retrieve and pass out candles and matches from inside the bucket next to Ursa's chair.
SPEEDY
(to audience)
A motion was made and seconded. We utilized the supplies left behind after the last time the people came.
ALFRED
(lights his candle)
I'm a lion of few words, but Daisy… I always liked being your lion of few words.
DUMBO
(lights his candle)
Sometimes I was resentful that you never asked my real name. My real name is Clyde. Clyde Smith. But then, I didn't know your last name, either. I guess we didn't know that about each other. I guess we'll never know.
MUTTHEW
(lights his candle)
It's like I'm still in shock. Like I just can't take it all in. Two years, and I still feel wide-eyed. I… I don't know what else to say.
THEODORE
It's OK, Mutthew.
(lights his candle)
Daisy, I was there from the beginning. I was bigger than you back then. You were soft, and pink, and I could have held you in my paws. How you grew. How you might have grown. I miss you.
ASTRO
(lights his candle)
You built me a fort once, with a sheet over a couple of chairs. I felt… special. I hope you knew you were special to me.
BILL
(lights his candle)
I never admitted it, but I loved your tea parties. The tea kept me warm. Your arms kept me warm.
ANGEL
(lights her candle)
It is… so HARD. So hard to carry on without you. So hard to be brave. So hard to tell the truth. You always told us the truth, though. And I know if you were still around, you'd still be telling us how ragged we looked and how much you loved us. Well. Ditto, babe.
MELA
(Lights her candle)
May the songs you sang to us play on.
LEUCA
(lights her candle)
May the dances you danced with us live on in our hearts.
URSA
(lights her candle)
You were a graceful child. Our graceful child. I still believe you're out there. Please come back to us.
Night has fallen, and the stage is barely lit, aside from the characters' candlelight. SPEEDY still holds his drum, and looks wistfully at the others' candles.
SPEEDY
God damn you, Daisy. I can't even hold a candle. You put me in this tree, and I have spent the last two years looking. Looking at your face, burned into the fuzz where my brain should be, the face you made when the tall man squeezed your hand and pulled you away. And I have tried—I have tried to replace that vision with the memories of you laughing with us. The smile on your face when you'd played a trick on one of us. And I've tried to replace the guilt in my heart—the guilt that I could see everything that happened, and I couldn't stop it—with… anything. Anything else. But all I have left…
ANGEL
All you have left is us. We have each other.
SPEEDY
I'm not sure that's enough.
Quiet music fades up as the last of the lights fade out. And then the candles fade out, too.
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