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Someone is digging into a metal bowl of ice cubes in the freezer.
A pitcher of lemonade with ice cubes is stirred vigorously.
Ice cubes jingle gently as a full glass of lemonade is carried across the lodge.
The phone rings.
The jingling trajectory shifts.
The phone rings.
NINA: Yello.
Mini beat.
Adrian.
Really?
Mini beat.
How did you know I was here?
Nina has appeared onstage, a cordless phone in one hand, the glass of lemonade in the other.
Don who?
No.
Oh. Yes. Don. Don. Right. How did Don ā¦ find out?
No not Suzie. Definitely not. (A sudden thought) Don isnāt coming is he?
Uh-huh. Yeah thatās probably better. (Irrelevantly) How is Don?
She hears herself, makes a face.
Oh, thatās great.
Beat.
Of course. No of course. Youāre welcome to. Of course. Do you remember the way?
When do you uh
Okay, great. Yes. (Again: not relevant) We can feed you; weāre making a lot of food.
Hears herself, makes face.
All right, (Waves) bye.
She stands there for a moment. Utterly blank.
Then turns. Looks offstage. Gears herself up to say something:
As she walks offstage
Near panic:
Liz!
Sound of a plunge
Sound of someone surfacing, gasping
LIZ: Cold! Cold cold cold! Good! Cold!
Sound of splashing.
Nina speaks alone to the audience:
NINA: I was standing in my cabin and the Sphinx ā¦ thing, was at the back door.
The curtain was blowing in front of it, I couldnāt see it clearly but there was and I donāt know where the light was coming from, but
mane, flank, but then a moment of profile, not maw but sharp: nose, lips, jawāa woman.
And I turned and I was surprised to find that the front door, the door to the meadow with the quote unquote pecan orchard was wide open and the light was just breaking
And I thought it was the wind had blown it open because in the dream there was this incredible wind the night before.
I stepped forward to close the front door, or to walk through it, and I woke up and it was the middle of the night it had cooled off. I pulled the blanket up from the foot of the bed and went back to sleep.
A bird cheep, very loud, like a small cheep heard right up close, like a little bird leaning into your ear and letting loose.
Another cheep.
A saucy trill.
Lights change.
The island is spread with cookbooks, notes, a few bowls and ingredients already in play.
Ula and Liz are looking out through the window toward the river, talking about a mostly red bird and what it is.
ULA: Sometimes birds like that are loud.
LIZ: I think birds which have just the tiniest piece of red on them are the loudest Iāve noticed that. Theyāre louder than all-red birds.
ULA: I guess they have something to prove.
Sees Nina, waves list.
Really? Weāre really making all this food?
NINA: Itās a funeral Ula. Funeral spells food.
ULA: Yeah but who is this for? Just the eight of us.
LIZ: Nine.
ULA: I love to eat, donāt get me wrong.
NINA: I thought you liked cooking.
ULA: I do. I do. Iām thrilled.
NINA: Weāre going to make a feast.
ULA: We are indeed.
NINA: But get a swim in first. Liz jumped off the edge of the Blue Hole.
ULA: Finally.
LIZ (Doesnāt love this): Itās very high up, and itās very frightening. And, it is not a natural thing to do, to jump into water which you cannot see the bottom of.
NINA: So Major. Your whole life.
LIZ: You were not an early adopter of the Blue Hole leap either, might I add.
NINA: Our whole childhood was our mom telling us absolutely not to jump into the Blue Hole from the edgeā
LIZ: Which she always did
NINA: Which she always did! And she spent all the years after that telling us to for godās sake jump, just jump, what were we so chicken about.
ULA: It is sort of exciting.
NINA: You had the benefit of first coming to it as an adult-sized person, and on mushrooms.
LIZ: Oh god oh god oh god donāt tell me, I donāt want to think, you jumped into the Blue Hole tripping and was it even daytime?
ULA: There wasnāt even a moon.
NINA: We had flashlights.
ULA: Yeah but they werenāt trained at the water at the time; I sort of guessed.
NINA: Oh did you do that?
LIZ: Okay thereās a rocky ledgy thing ā¦
NINA: Yeah Iām glad I didnāt know that at the time.
LIZ: And then, but okay but thatās fine, thatās fine it already happened. Donāt tell me anymore. Youāre alive, thatās what counts. Youāre alive. Iām alive.
NINA (Going off): No one has ever drowned at the Blue Hole.
LIZ: It probably hasnāt been given a real chance.
Refrigerator door opening.
NINA (From off): Where did all the eggs go??
LIZ: You made that big scramble this morning.
NINA: I didnāt use all of the eggs. There was that big pink carton.
ULA: Oh those eggs were very ancient. I tossed them.
NINA: Oh really...
