Promise

C. Scott Ananian

May 5, 1997
Revised: January 22, 1998

[A bleak expanse. Caked salt. N and B sit on a rise, looking out. N is old. B is young.]

N:

Do you see the green?

B:

No.

[A pause.]

N:

Over there. At the horizon.

B:

No.

N:

I see it.

[Pause.]

B:

Are you hungry?

N:

I might be.

B:

I brought food.

N:

From where?

B:

Where I came from. There.

N:

What is it?

B:

Dried meat.

N:

No. None of that.

B:

You must eat something.

N:

My stomach isn't well.

B:

I've got... an apple?

N:

Ah. Yes.

B:

Why not the other?

N:

Six hundred years of habit.

B:

There wasn't?

N:

No. Only vegetables.

B:

Oh.

[A pause.]

B:

How long...

N:

Until it rains.

B:

But why?

N:

I've told you. Be patient.

[A pause.]

B:

I think I see the green.

N:

Where?

B:

Over there.

[N peers hard into the distance.]

N:

No. Not there.

B:

Are you sure?

N:

Your eyes are playing tricks.

B:

But...

N:

No, not yet.

B:

What do you think will happen?

N:

Assurance.

B:

No, I mean how?

N:

That's not for me to decide.

[A pause.]

B:

Have people changed?

N:

Some.

B:

I mean, are we better than we were before?

N:

Not so much.

B:

Then why did it happen?

N:

I'm not the one to ask.

B:

You've got ideas, though. Don't you?

N:

There are fewer of us.

B:

What does that mean?

N:

The darkness is more... spread out.

B:

Tell me how it was.

N:

No.

B:

Why not?

N:

My father died drowning.

B:

But we're just repeating, aren't we? It's not improving.

N:

It will.

B:

How can you say that? Look around you! There's nothing. Death.

N:

I see green.

B:

Even so! What are you waiting for?

N:

Hope.

B:

What kind of hope? Another promise that we won't perish? The reassurance that we'll be able to destroy and kill on a salt-parched desert for the rest of our days?

N:

An answer.

B:

To what?

N:

It's true. People haven't changed. Their groupings? They've changed. The black clusters are no longer so dark. They've been [A faint grin.] watered down.

B:

But what does that fix? We're going in circles, waiting for another destruction to cleanse.

N:

The circle's been broken.

B:

No it hasn't. The promise is only that it will be different next time.

N:

The circle was broken. There's another answer.

B:

What?

N:

Sit. Wait.

B:

Every year we do this. Over and over. Sitting until we can't.

N:

Waiting for renewal. One day, the answer.

B:

You seem so certain.

N:

Is that why you return?

B:

Yes. I can't help it.

N:

You believe it.

B:

Yes. Why? How can you be so certain things will change?

N:

I've been there. I watched the waters come. I watched man, boy, woman, child, try to save themselves. I floated above them.

B:

I've heard the story before.

N:

You can't save yourself. Not then, not now. The answer will come.

B:

Another rescue.

N:

Another vessel.

[Pause. B scans the horizon.]

B:

Is that the green you saw?

N:

There?

B:

Yes.

N:

Yes.

[Pause.]

B:

It gets bigger every year. The first day's not yet over.

N:

Your eyes are getting brighter.

B:

Yours seem to grow dim. How much longer?

N:

Whatever's given me. My grandfather lived to hear the promise.

B:

And you wish the same.

N:

Yes.

B:

Yes.

[A pause.]

B:

Do you see the clouds?

N:

It will rain.

B:

Yes. It will.