Underwater Sunset

By Mark J. Hansen

(Bridie is stuck at the top of a Ferris wheel. She is seemingly talking to someone.)

Bridie: The prettiest sunset I ever saw? Was actually once when I was drowning. See, most things look kinda scary behind all that water, people’s faces especially, but the light just kinda looks perfect. Like this was the way it was meant to be seen. I was at this funeral, I wasn’t there yet, but we were staying at a hotel and I was swimming, but the water was too deep for me, so I had to wear these itchy floatie things around my wrists. And I’d make my mom take them off me whenever I got out of the pool. And at one point when she wasn’t watching, I just jumped in. It took awhile for anybody to notice, at least I think it did. That’s another confusing thing about the water, everything moves slower. It’s like you’re swallowed up by this big mouthful of friction, and all your movements take ten minutes longer to complete themselves. So, while I waited for people to notice me, I just sat and looked up. And I couldn’t really make out much except the sun, which was just going down behind the rooftops, moving very slowly, like it was underwater. And it turned the sky this incredible pinkish color, like the color everybody says a peach is, but they always turn out to be closer to orange? And then I started noticing the water, and how it, too, was this incredible pink, but not just above me. All over me, like it was swallowing me whole. It was like I was part of it, like I was setting with the sun. And then the chlorine in the pool started to irritate my eyes and I had to blink, and that’s when I heard something plunge in directly toward me. But when I opened my eyes again, I couldn’t see anything but black and the feeling of wet fabric and this overpowering musty smell that forced my eyes shut again. And then when I opened them, I was out of the pool again. My dad was standing there, in his best suit, soaking wet. He was yelling something at my mom, and something at me, but I wasn’t paying any attention. I kept trying to clear out my eyes, so I could see the sun. But there was something wrong, and it took a long time for me to be able to see. That’s when the troubles started, and it wasn’t a year later that I went completely blind. Being blind is kind of like being underwater. You move a lot slower than usual, and sometimes you see these lighter hues, never shapes, just colors that envelop the entire body. It’s weird, cuz sometimes I still feel like I can see, just with everything but the eyes. Anyway, that’s my favorite sunset. The, uh, audience participation one. (Looks down.) Are we moving yet?

(Blackout.)

"Underwater Sunset" debuted February 15, 2002, with the following cast:

Bridie: Michele Thompson

[Back to: Library]