(Sally awakens. She is lying on a blanket spread on a sandy beach
beside the ocean. Her Frankensteinian-Californian rock musician husband is
building sand castles on the edge of the surf. He sees her and comes over to her)
Sally, rubbing her eyes:
"I've been sleeping. I've been dreaming.
I thought I'd never rest again but how long have I been sleeping?
So many things inside my dreams
I could be going crazy but somehow I believe them all.
Somehow I do believe them all."
Sally's Husband:
"I was right here all the time, watching you sleep,
But I didn't know what you dreamed.
I never can go inside your mind.
Sometimes I almost fear what I might find...
At very least I wouldn't understand."
Sally:
"No, it doesn't matter.
Nothing matters when I've dreamed.
You kept me safe, guarded my dreaming
Someday you may understand.
You can cry tears from your eyes.
Do you even realise
How it is when you can't even let your tears out?"
Show me the castle you've been building in the sand.
Tell me again where we go from here.
Run in the sea with me
Keep hold of my hand
Be near. Always be near."
(She grabs his hand and they get up and run in the waves
together, splashing and shouting-fades into Sally standing in
front of the hospital where Nora lies sleeping. Sally's husband is
standing just beside her).
Sally:
"I have to go in there. I'm not ready.
She won't hear me anyway,
no matter what I say.
All this way, led by only dreaming,
Why did you let me come here
To this place where I don't know what's going to happen?"
Sally's Husband:
"All this way I've traveled with you
on the strength of your deep dreams,
And you know now what you came here to do.
If you go back home tomorrow
Without even really trying
Even you won't be able to live with you.
Just do what you set out to do."
(He gives her a push)
"I'll be waiting right here if you need me.
Just like always, waiting here for you."
(Unsteadily Sally walks through the revolving door of the hospital.
Still arrested by indecision she goes around and around a few times,
looking at him, then finally she disappears into the hospital. He watches
til she's out of sight in its depths, then sits down on a bench to wait)
(Nora's room is quiet and still. Sally looks at the newspapers folded
on the bed; they tell the story of the uprising against Tommy and his
family, and how Frank is dead. Nora's hand rests on a picture of Tommy,
a smeary newsprinted picture, showing his staring face and wide open
eyes. Sally takes the picture from her hand)
Sally, holding the picture:
"You!
I haven't seen you in a long time
Not since I closed my eyes last night
Not since I slept with your blessing in a dream beyond waking
All of this for you!
You'd think now I have hindsight,
To see all I had was blindsight,
But I know I had to be what I would be.
Have I been that now? Can I be free?
Tommy, I love you. Do you love me?
Do you....love...me?"
(She looks at the sleeping Nora and takes her white, cold hand)
"I thought you were the cause of all this trouble.
But here you lie, as lost as he once was.
Has he even been to see you?
What a devoted son!
Will he be able to wake you?
Your beloved only son!"
(she pauses, then kneels beside the bed and begins to tell Nora
just as if she could hear)
"After all we've been through together,
I call Tommy my friend,
But it's been years since I heard him sing
And I wonder when it will end
All that I want now is to know that he'll be all right,
and then to sleep, without any dreams, for just one lovely night.
Dreams have made me weep and laugh,
And dreams have made me feel
They've made me cross the Universe,
but now I have to know if dreams are real."
(Sally covers Nora's ears with her hand, she touches Nora's
lips and eyes, and then in resignation folds her hands over
Nora's own still ones)
"You are proof enough of that to me.
I wouldn't be here now
If I wasn't supposed to be what I would be.
I may never see Tommy in the undreaming light of day,
but I'll tell you my prayer for him anyway...
That the amazing journey which isn't over yet
will carry him all ways he needs to go
and the message he possess
will reach the farthest places
Where a world still waits for answers,
waits and burns and needs to know
He's had time enough to learn
And time enough to grow And so have you.
Perhaps time to let go...
No matter how hard
sometimes you must let go."
(Sally's eyes fill with tears and she touches Nora's hair gently)
"If you can tell him when you see him let him know...
I love him but it's time for me to go..."
(Switch to Sally's Husband sitting on the bench. Tommy, looking
oddly not at all out of place on the steps of the hospital, wearing
bellbottoms that somehow don't have all that hubris in them now,
is standing near him, looking at the revolving door. Sally's Husband
stares, remembering the face from the mirror, the man with
Sally in the other world. Almost as if unaware of what he's doing,
he stands up and walks over to him, stopping a few steps away)
"Excuse me...could I speak to you a minute?
I don't mean to bother you,
but maybe you could tell me something I must know..."
(Tommy doesn't answer him but does look him in the eyes,
steadily, and not without recognition of the face in the pool from Sally's dream)
Sally's Husband takes another step:
"I know your face, but Sally knows it better.
So now you're real.
The reason for her dreams,
For her scarred face.
All that is in the past
Are you the future?
What will you do when Sally sees your face?
What will you do to Sally now, at last?"
Tommy looks toward the hospital. Sally is coming through
the revolving door. She starts down the steps, then stops as
she looks up and sees Tommy. Her hand flies up to cover the scar on her face.
Tommy takes a step toward her, then another, and then he is
beside her and he pulls her hand from the scar, putting it against
his own face. Sally is staring at the ground, but his other hand tilts
her head back so she can see the tears forming in his eyes. Sally
watches in wonder. All the times in the dreams, Tommy never
cried, not once. She feels his tears on her hand, and they are true tears.
Tommy sings softly, like a prayer...
"See her.
Feel her.
Touch her....
Heal her."
He holds her close and sings it again.
"See her.
Feel her.
Touch her.........
Heal her...."
Sally closes her eyes. Tommy steps back and puts his cheek
against her cheek. His tears run down her cheek and Sally feels
a burning sensation in her cheek, like the scar felt before it healedover.
His hand reaches up to touch her face and then he kisses her cheek,
gently, kisses away the burning tears. When he moves away from
her he looks at her questioningly, touching her cheek again. Sally
feels for the scar, but it is gone. There seems to be a play of light
and shadow on her cheek, like the marks of tears...her tears and
Tommy's, mingled. But the scar is gone. Sally understands. It
wasn't Tommy that healed her, but love working through him. She
hugs him one last time, and runs down the steps to her husband
who is waiting. At the top of the steps Tommy reaches into
his pocket and produces the shining silver cross, which he holds
up for Sally to see. It gleams in the sun. Tommy turns and goes
through the revolving door, to wait in Nora's room. Sally and
her husband stand watching as the scene fades into a
view of rain falling on a peaceful sea.
return to Nora's Home