Thomas J. Misuraca
Cast of Characters
Two older sisters:
SALLY
SUSAN
Scene
Anywhere that there can be two rocking chairs.
Time
Any.
Synopsis
As two elderly sisters chat, one recalls a sibling the other
never knew existed.
LIGHTS UP ON:
(Two older ladies, SALLY and SUSAN,
sitting in rocking chairs and talking.)
SALLY
I remember.
SUSAN
Remember what?
SALLY
Him.
SUSAN
Him who?
SALLY
Tommy.
SUSAN
Tom Ennis from Baker Street?
SALLY
No. Tommy… our brother.
SUSAN
We don’t have a brother.
SALLY
We did.
SUSAN
You’re losing it.
SALLY
No… he was born before you.
SUSAN
You’re trying to tell me I have an older brother.
SALLY
Yes.
SUSAN
My memory may be faulty, but it’s not so far gone as to not
remember an older brother.
SALLY
You never met him.
SUSAN
Did he leave home at two months old?
SALLY
No… he…
SUSAN
Did mom have a miscarriage?
SALLY
Not a miscarriage. He was born.
SUSAN
You’re confused.
SALLY
No. I remember going to visit him in the hospital.
SUSAN
You’re too young to remember that.
SALLY
I do. Seeing a baby smaller than I’d even seen before… lots
of tubes.
SUSAN
Are you sure this wasn’t a dream?
SALLY
No. I remember mom and dad’s excitement about me meeting my
baby brother. And how I had to pray for him to get better.
But…
SUSAN
Did he ever come home?
SALLY
No. I don’t think so. I remember going to the cemetery where
he was buried.
SUSAN
Now I know you’re delusional. If we had a brother buried
somewhere, mom would have gone to visit him all the time.
SALLY
Maybe she didn’t want us to know. I remember everybody being
sad for a long time after that.
SUSAN
And you never thought to ask what happened to this baby
brother, especially as you got older.
SALLY
I remember asking once; it made everybody uncomfortable. I
was too scared to ask again after that.
SUSAN
And you never thought to mention it to me. Ever.
SALLY
I forgot.
SUSAN
I don’t want to believe this. Because I hate to think that
our brother has a grave out there that has been unattended
for so long.
SALLY
Maybe mom attended it in secret.
SUSAN
Even if she did, it’s been decades since…
SALLY
I know.
SUSAN
The poor boy. Lost. Forgotten.
SALLY
I used to imagine what it would be like to have a little
brother.
SUSAN
I wasn’t good enough?
SALLY
You were, but a brother would have been different.
SUSAN
He’d certainly have a few different parts.
SALLY
I’d wonder what it would be like if he got married, and we
had a sister-in-law and more kids. At the end, holidays
wouldn’t have been so… empty.
SUSAN
We had fun.
SALLY
I know. But… the more the merrier.
SUSAN
Are you sure you’re not confusing your imagination with reality?
SALLY
No… I’m sure those memories sparked that fantasy. The dream
of having one more person in the family.
SUSAN
If he didn’t run off when dad lost it.
SALLY
Like I did?
SUSAN
You came back.
SALLY
Tommy would have, too.
SUSAN
You don’t know that.
SALLY
Or maybe, Tommy being there would have kept Dad sane.
SUSAN
Or they could have clashed and had violent fights.
SALLY
Maybe it was the loss of Tommy that triggered what happened
to him.
SUSAN
No. It was a chemical imbalance. That’s how those things go.
And maybe, Tommy would have inherited the same struggles.
SALLY
We didn’t.
SUSAN
We were lucky.
SALLY
You think Tommy wouldn’t have been?
SUSAN
Being that I just learned he existed five minutes ago, I
don’t know what to think.
SALLY
He would have liked you.
SUSAN
You don’t know that either.
SALLY
But just imagine how different our lives would have been if
he had lived.
SUSAN
I wouldn’t have been at all. Mom and Dad only wanted two
kids. If Tommy had lived, I’d have never been born.
SALLY
You don’t know that.
SUSAN
I do. You’d have Tommy here. And I wouldn’t even be a
forgotten memory.
SALLY
Oh.
SUSAN
(looking away, in reflection)
Not even a forgotten memory…
(Lights slowly fade as the sisters rock
in silence.)
End of Play