Photo from Wikimedia
AT THE RISE
Center stage: A young flower girl, wearing near-rags and an apron, selling tulips out of a brown wicker basket which she holds on her arm.
From early day to nighttime, a change in scenery upstage takes her from:
Buenos Aires to
Rio de Janeiro to
Moscow to
Saint Petersburg to
Stockholm, and finally to
Copenhagen.
Every stop along the way from Moscow to Copenhagen gets colder and terribly colder. And darker.
Bareheaded, and barefooted, she calls out in each place:
FLOWER GIRL
Tulips…. Tulips for sale.
But she gets no love.
A shooting star falls from the sky, forming a long line of fire. She remembers what her grandmother used to tell her.
FLOWER GIRL
A falling star, ‘tis falling bright,
Another soul to God tonight.