You think only about driving.
MILLICENT'S VOICE: Look at the night table for a note from Adele.
MALE VOICE: Adele died of lung cancer last night. You may stay on if you like.
MILLICENT'S VOICE: Stare out the window. Remember the time she got you to pose for one of her paintings. How she told you how beautiful you were. How she made you feel pretty again for a little while. Think how you'll miss her.
Stand up.
Now it is waiting, and nobody cares. And when your wait is over, this room will still exist. It will continue to hold shoes and dresses and boxes, and maybe someday another waiting person. And maybe not. The room doesn't care either.
Walk.
ADELE'S NEIGHBOR: There's no one running the elevator anymore.
MILLICENT'S VOICE: What was once before you, an exciting, mysterious future, is now behind you. lived, understood, disappointing. You realize you are not special. You have struggled into existence, and are now slipping silently out of it. This is everyone's experience, every single one. The specifics hardly matter. Everyone is everyone. So you are Adele, Hazel, Claire, Olive-- you are Ellen. All her meager sadnesses are yours, all her loneliness. The grey straw-like hair, her red raw hands. It's yours. It is time for you to understand this.
Walk.
As the people who adore you stop adoring you, as they die, as they move on, as you shed them, as you shed your beauty, your youth, as the world forgets you, as you recognize your transience, as you begin to lose your characteristics, one by one, as you learn there is no one watching you, and there never was, you think only about driving. not coming from any place, not arriving any place, just driving, counting off time. Now you are here, it's 7:43. now you are here, it's 7:44. now you are--
Stop.
CADEN: Where is everybody?
WOMAN: Mostly dead. Some have left.
CADEN: Would you sit with me for a moment? I'm very tired, and lonely...I feel like I know you.
WOMAN: Well, I was the, um, mother, in Ellen's dream.
CADEN: Yes. You just seem a bit older than I remember.
WOMAN: That dream was quite a while ago.
MILLICENT'S VOICE: Apologize.
CADEN: I didn't mean to say you looked old. It's--everyone's dreams in all those apartments, all those thoughts we'll never know. That's the truth of it. I wanted to do that picnic with my daughter. I feel like I've disappointed you terribly.
WOMAN: Oh, no! I am so proud of you.
MILLICENT'S VOICE: Ask her if you can put your head on her shoulder.
CADEN: Can I lay my head on your shoulder?
WOMAN: Yes.
CADEN: I love you.
WOMAN: I love you, too.
CADEN: I know how to do this play now. I have an idea. I think if every--
MILLICENT'S VOICE: Die.
MALE VOICE: Adele died of lung cancer last night. You may stay on if you like.
MILLICENT'S VOICE: Stare out the window. Remember the time she got you to pose for one of her paintings. How she told you how beautiful you were. How she made you feel pretty again for a little while. Think how you'll miss her.
Stand up.
Now it is waiting, and nobody cares. And when your wait is over, this room will still exist. It will continue to hold shoes and dresses and boxes, and maybe someday another waiting person. And maybe not. The room doesn't care either.
Walk.
ADELE'S NEIGHBOR: There's no one running the elevator anymore.
MILLICENT'S VOICE: What was once before you, an exciting, mysterious future, is now behind you. lived, understood, disappointing. You realize you are not special. You have struggled into existence, and are now slipping silently out of it. This is everyone's experience, every single one. The specifics hardly matter. Everyone is everyone. So you are Adele, Hazel, Claire, Olive-- you are Ellen. All her meager sadnesses are yours, all her loneliness. The grey straw-like hair, her red raw hands. It's yours. It is time for you to understand this.
Walk.
As the people who adore you stop adoring you, as they die, as they move on, as you shed them, as you shed your beauty, your youth, as the world forgets you, as you recognize your transience, as you begin to lose your characteristics, one by one, as you learn there is no one watching you, and there never was, you think only about driving. not coming from any place, not arriving any place, just driving, counting off time. Now you are here, it's 7:43. now you are here, it's 7:44. now you are--
Stop.
CADEN: Where is everybody?
WOMAN: Mostly dead. Some have left.
CADEN: Would you sit with me for a moment? I'm very tired, and lonely...I feel like I know you.
WOMAN: Well, I was the, um, mother, in Ellen's dream.
CADEN: Yes. You just seem a bit older than I remember.
WOMAN: That dream was quite a while ago.
MILLICENT'S VOICE: Apologize.
CADEN: I didn't mean to say you looked old. It's--everyone's dreams in all those apartments, all those thoughts we'll never know. That's the truth of it. I wanted to do that picnic with my daughter. I feel like I've disappointed you terribly.
WOMAN: Oh, no! I am so proud of you.
MILLICENT'S VOICE: Ask her if you can put your head on her shoulder.
CADEN: Can I lay my head on your shoulder?
WOMAN: Yes.
CADEN: I love you.
WOMAN: I love you, too.
CADEN: I know how to do this play now. I have an idea. I think if every--
MILLICENT'S VOICE: Die.