TIME AND PLACE
1991. A patch of beach in Southern California toward sunset. EILEE, barefoot, in a two-piece bathing suit. Sand. Water. A surfboard. Sounds of waves rolling in. In the discretion of the Director the ocean may be positioned at the back, side, or front of the stage. If at the front of the stage, EILEE steps into the ocean by stepping toward the audience.
CHARACTERS
EILEE, age 36. Married. Mother of two. In a state of serious, postpartum depression.
RACE, died at age 30 in 1984. In Eilee’s imagination, Race is age 27. (Essentially a ghost figure in the play).
NOTES
Eilee [rhymes with Kylie and Riley] has come back to the place where she and Race shared a profound, wet, and carefree 4-year beach love affair in their early 20s. Race is present, but essentially in Eilee’s mind only; and throughout the play she never looks directly at him nor speaks directly to him. Balancing on her surfboard in the sand she balances between returning home to her family, or paddling the board out into the ocean, forever.
EILEE enters with a surfboard, which she initially holds to her like a woman might her lover, while she stands in the sand looking out into her thoughts.
RACE is sitting in the sand, maybe ten feet, or so, away from her.
EILEE and RACE never make eye contact, nor in any obvious manner ever speak directly to one another.
EILEE
I found it, Race.
And you’re still here, thank God.
It’s been so long, I didn’t know.
That has to mean something, doesn’t it?
To the stars?
To my questions?
Returning here, to this patch of sand we claimed as our own.
Alone in it again. The quiet, and the ocean.
Where we made love. Do you remember? and silently never stopped loving it.
And you, going out there, forever searching for your perfect wave.
Who’s going to remember it, if we don’t?
Picks up a handful of sand, smells it, and drops it back down, slowly, over her legs and feet.
I can smell us here. Feel us here.
Can you hear me, Race? Can you?
Call me, if you can. Do something. Something. Talk to me.
RACE
I’m here.
EILEE
You ran like the wind over me, wet and naked.
And how I loved it! Day and night!
Up the soles of my feet, through my legs, into my heart, forever.
EILEE digs her bare feet into the sand.
EILEE
You’re part of my soul, Race.
That’s where you’re safe. Inside me.
Your body gleaming brown and gold,
cresting the waves you loved so much.
Always so brown and beautiful in my thoughts.
EILEE lays the board down in the sand and restlessly lies on it.
EILEE
God! How I still long for you against me.
I’m another man’s wife now.
But my heart aches for you. For the sight of you.
For your eyes. Your voice. Your scent.
That’s how I feel. That way. Faithful and unfaithful in the same instant.