Monologues
JOHN - from Some Days The Rains Came

     The inscriptions on those stones were so faint, I couldn’t tell what they were. I knelt in front of the first stone and pulled up the weeds around it. As I pulled them, one by one, petunias grew up in their places. I then scraped at the face of the stone but, no matter how much I tried, I could not make out what the carvings on it might be. I just could not make sense of it. A sudden raspy chatter drew my attention to a large bird perched atop the first stone marker. The bird stood, with her black and white and cobalt blue feathers in stark contrast under the bright moonlight. She chattered again and then opened her mouth as if to speak but no sound came out. She seemed to be watching me intently, and I couldn’t help but feel that she was trying to tell me something. She flew off and I followed, and when she came to rest, I found myself again facing the same giant stone, but it had a large heart etched on it this time. Four more birds joined her so there were five of the black, white, and blue birds perched atop the giant stone, just standing, looking at me. I traced the lines of the heart with my finger. At that point, three of the birds flew away, squawking. I was intrigued by the odd birds, so I followed the remaining two as they flew off. They led me to a tranquil garden that was covered with multicolored flowers. There were tulips, hyacinths, primroses, daffodils, pansies, and every other colorful flower you could imagine, but everywhere I looked the biggest flowers were the delicate Blue Lotus. As I entered the garden, a sense of calm washed over me. It was perfect tranquility. The remaining two birds stood perched on a stone bench in a summerhouse. I approached the bench and sat beside the birds. I felt at home, though I’d never been there. I closed my eyes, and I could smell the fragrant blossoms. When I opened my eyes, I was standing before the first of the four stones again. The two birds landed on the stone in front of me. In the moonlight, the stone’s inscription began to reveal itself and the birds watched while a Blue Lotus flower materialized on the face of the stone. As I reached out to touch it, the birds flew away. That was it. 

     The next night, I had another dream. Everything was like before, there were the usual cemetery flowers and the giant blank stone. I walked through the rows of headstones and stopped in front of the second of the four graves. It was surrounded by white lilies. Like the night before, I couldn’t read the inscription but there was an image carved on there as well. Initially, I couldn’t see anything on it. I scrubbed and scratched at it until I could barely make out that there was an image there… more flowers. There were several kinds, but there were more lilies than anything else. White lilies and yellow lilies. That made more sense to me than the first stone had, I mean it’s a cemetery so seeing flowers, especially lilies, is no surprise. As soon as I realized the etchings were flowers, the stone was surrounded by a carpet of pink bellflowers. Then I noticed a beautiful young woman standing behind the stone. She was soaking wet from head to toe and crying. She held the scales of justice in one hand and a gavel in the other. There were daffodils lying on one side of the scales and a maple leaf on the other. Although she said nothing, she seemed somehow desperate.