Act I:
REBIRTH
Scene I:
Airport
Setting:
Pam sitting by the airport waiting area, ready to board her flight. She is reading the paper to pass time, when she piques the curiosity of a young boy who stands by her feet.
Pam: Slowly lowering her paper to see her admirer.
The Boy: Hi there!
Pam: Hi!
The Boy: Smiles.
Pam: Smiles back. Can I help you?
The Boy: They sent me.
Pam: Hmm… I pictured you much older. With a dark cloak, horses and maybe one of those weapons you see with the blade up top. A scythe. She chuckles.
The Boy: Oh, he has retired. He scared too many people. This is supposed to be an experience of pure exhilaration! Do you have your things?
Pam: I packed light. Unlike the Egyptians, I assume I don’t take anything with me when I go?
The Boy: Eh, up to you.
Pam: I guess it makes sense that you would be young and timeless. I knew you were coming. It is precisely the day and time I intended it to be before I got here. My flight departs in 15 minutes. Can I ask you a question?
The Boy: Yes, please do!
Pam: Will this process be painful?
The Boy: Not at all. Not at all. May I ask you a question?
Pam: Ask away! I still have 15 minutes, try and keep it short.
The Boy: I like you, you’re funny. Many others are grumpy, but you, they said that about you, they love your sense of humour and playfulness. That is why I specifically asked to be assigned to you. We met before… You knew me really well. But I won’t get into that just yet…. Here’s my question: Did you have fun?
Pam: Smiles. Oh most certainly! Perhaps, even more than one can imagine.
The Boy: How was Earth to you?
Pam: Kind. She was kind to me. Like a gentle, loving mother. She gave and gave. And when the exchange was imbalanced, she balanced herself. Nature always balances itself. Her fruits, her tastes, her smells, her sights, why every moment was breathtaking. She took my breath away, as she also created a platform for me to play in it.
The Boy: That sounds amazing! Yes she certainly has her ways. What was it about this experience you remember most?
Pam: Love. I remember love. I remember acts of kindness. I remember the way that I laughed really hard when I was having a really deep yet light conversation with an old friend and mentor. I remember my lovers and my friends. I remember the shape and taste of love’s lips. I remember the intimate moments that you are too young to hear. (Pam smiles.) I remember the taste of sweet bananas, my favourite fruit! The way a ladybug feels as it crawls on my hand. Playing cops and robbers with my friends as a child. I remember falling off a rail at the playground and having the wind knocked out of me and having people surround me and ask if I was okay. I didn’t hear them at first nor could I breathe but I came back. I remember the tartness of a strawberry. I remember the scent of freshly baked cupcakes that my mum made when we came home after school, and I would sit with my sister watching and laughing at cartoons. I remember standing in grand ballrooms in France, looking at timeless paintings. Looking at sculptures. I remember a cupid sculpture – standing and looking at him for what seemed like hours and hours and pondering love and romance, and not knowing the taste of love yet but peering into the hidden secrets of love and lovers. I remember feeling excited! I remember standing in front of a painting and brushing my hands over its ridges of oil laid upon oil in clumps, and like a child, touching it to really feel its essence. As if the painting was breathing and I held my hand over its heart and chest. In and out, in and out, I felt it breathe; perhaps the feeling the painter felt when he or she created that masterpiece. I remember my Dad, I actually feel him, so he is not really a memory but multiple occurrences. I remember how much he told me he loved me as a little girl and would give me kisses where the bristles of his unshaven face would brush against my cheek as he would do that on purpose because he knew how much it bugged me. I remember my mom taking me to plays and sitting at Queen Elizabeth Theatre watching a turtle say, “A-zaaaaayyy,” every time its master woke him up when it fell asleep. I remember coming home from the play, which was broadcasted on TV and hearing my dad say when we got home, “Did you hear that little girl throw a tantrum and shout, “MAAA, I’m HUNGRY!” And mum saying, “that was your youngest daughter.” I remember him laughing playfully and feeling proud. I remember playing with my nephews and nieces, like really playing like a child and not a grown up. I have so many experiences to share with you, it is as if I am experiencing all moments at once…
The Boy: Yes, I understand. I hear this quite often. This is all fascinating to me still because everyone I ask never, never, never ever says they remember the bills or stress or arguments. Funny that?
Pam: Smiles. Funny indeed!
The Boy: Can I ask you another question?
Pam: Looks at her watch. Well, we have 5 minutes left. Whaddya got?
The Boy: How old are you?
Pam: Says with confidence, I have been 33 for 333 years!
The Boy: How brilliant are you! Good on you for defying the collective consciousness’ creation of time and age.
Pam: Speaking of, where is he? Old Father Time?
The Boy: Laughs out really loud. Really? I thought you would know by now?
Pam: Know what?
The Boy: That it was all an illusion! There was never really any Father Time. There is no here or there. No past, no present. There is only now.
Pam: Looks at watch. Forgive me as I am a bit nervous… but we are approaching near. We have 1 disillusioned minute left.
The Boy: Oh right, yes, okay. Do you have your ticket?
Pam: Yes I do!
The Boy: How exciting! And a bit of nerves I guess for you. You have done this before many times. In fact, the birth experience is more painful than the death experience. Hence, why you come into this world crying. But you adjust.
Where are you departing to next?
Pam: Well I have heard many say on Earth that I’m going home. I now know, that there really was no ‘there’ for home, it was always here. That it was never really external to begin with, as I carry home with me everywhere I go. I felt home in every experience I described earlier about what I remember the most and more. I felt home in a strawberry, in a cupcake, in my laughter, on my lover’s lips, and all the other moments that captured and demanded the pure essence of me.
I think what I will do next is tend to some appointments I have made earlier; I guess some mingling time with friends and family from this dimension and beyond. And then we shall see, perhaps some other galaxy. I assume a part of me is already doing this as we speak?
The Boy: Smiles. Need I say more?
Pam: No… (takes a deep breath) Well, shall we?
The Boy: We shall. Places his hand on her arm.
Pam: Wakes up gasping for air, as she wakes up from her dream state and refocuses her consciousness. As she slowly catches the fullness of her breath from all areas of the cosmos, she feels a sense of pure ecstasy as she remembers her dream and the magnificent co-creators she has had the honour of creating with! She is overcome by love. Pure, utter, ecstatic, euphoric, electric, love. The same Love she felt on Earth.
Pam: I remembered this time, I remembered this time that there were no boundaries from the physical and non-physical. I remembered to live in joy. I am born again. Now what!!!!!??!!!
The End Beginning.
