Waterfall Vici

This actually a short play, rather than a short story. But since there's no "plays" section I might as well post it here. This is a play I'm working on called Waterfall Vici. It was inspiring, amongst other things, Kerli's music. I've been unsure of the message I want it to convey but I've decided that I want it to inspire people to take a break from there daily lives and pay respects for mother earth once in a while. Please let me know what you think and what I can do to improve it.

Waterfall Vici
By: Eddie Chase
Setting: Middle of the woods.
Characters:
Alfred-A man of about 40 who gets lost in the woods.
Waterfall- A waterfall.
Susan-Alfred's Daughter.
(Bare stage for a small platform for Alfred to stand on. At the begining of the play, waterfall appears as a black shadow on a scrim lit blue. Alfred kicks around, frustrated and paniced.)
Alfred: Hello? HELLO! Can anyone hear me! God they tell you to stay in one place when you get lost, why didn't I listen. I should have stayed where I found the smoking firepit... HELLO!
Waterfall: Veni Vidi Vici
Alfred: Hello? Who said that?
Waterfall: I did!
Alfred: Is that your name? Venividi.... Whatever?
Waterfall: No it's Latin. Veni Vidi Vici. It means "I came, I saw, I conquered."
Alfred: Ooookaaay..?? Why can't I see you?
Waterfall: You're standing in me!
(Alfred jumps back nearly falling of the platform.)
Alfred: Standing in you?
Waterfall: Yeah, could you not splash so much. Your disturbing my flow!
Alfred: Disturbing... Your flow?
Waterfall: Yeah how'd you like it if I kicked you around?
(Alfred looks down at his feet.)
Alfred: I'm talking to water! Good God I must be dehydrated (leans over to take a sip) No, no, no wait, what if it keeps talking to me in my stomach?
Waterfall: Not the water you idiot, the whole thing! The steep rocky cliffs that end suddenly as one floats down river just to plunge to your meaty soaken death. The trees and sun casting a muted green upon it all. I'm the waterfall. And I promise that was not meant to rhyme.
Alfred: So why am I talking to a waterfall? I'm insane aren't I?
Waterfall: You're not crazy at all... I'm actually talking. Maybe I'm the crazy one for talking to you. It's just... there's something special about you.
Alfred: Special?
Waterfall: Well yeah. Not just any human can hear a waterfall talk.
Alfred: You mean there are more talking waterfalls? Oh God, if I ever get out of these woods I have to make sure my wife puts me in an insane asylum.
Waterfall: Not just certain waterfalls can talk. It's every waterfall.
Alfred: What?
Waterfall: I said all waterfalls can talk.
Alfred: I've never heard a waterfall talk before. Usually it's just the roar of the water plummeting from a cliff. Speaking of which why isn't there any roar from your water? You're tall enough...
Waterfall: Yeah, see we really don't like you. That's why whenever we know a human is in earshot we rumble and roar. But with you for some reason...
Alfred: Right... So why do you dislike us so much? What did we ever do to you?
Waterfall: What did you ever...?! Veni Vidi Vici!
Alfred: There you go again with that veni vidi crap.
Waterfall: It's not crap. It's the answer to your question. Veni Vidi Vici. I came, I saw, I conquered. It seems to be ingrained into your DNA. To you humans, nature is just something you can own. You see a waterfall, you see something truly beautiful in nature, you claim the land, you buy and sell it off of each other, and as the years pass, which, mind you, may be lifetimes for you but it's nothing for us waterfalls, as the years pass, that beautiful thing begins to lose its beauty. It becomes polluted and contemptable. Before you know it you've got children splashing around in your pool, and quite stupidly jumping off of you, putting their own life at risk. They take pictures, so that they can have your beauty all to themselves. Veni vidi vici. It's all you humans can think about.
Alfred: So what? You're blaming me for what my entire species does? I'm sorry you're fed up with us, really, but I'm really not the guy to talk about this.
Waterfall: No, probably not.
(Scrim rises to reveal Waterfall. She has the appearance of a beautiful young girl in blue. The way she moves is almost fairy-like. Alfred begins speaking to her instead of out to the audience. Besides this, however, he does not appear to notice the transition.)
Waterfall: But you heard me, didn't you? There has to be something different about you. I mean why am I even talking to you?
Alfred: Because you wanted to complain?
Waterfall: No it wasn't that. I mean I complain about it all the time but not to a human's face... Not like you... Why AM I talking to you?
Alfred: You don't even know? You know you're really confusing me. Listen this has been nice, you know, bonding, and all that, but I've got to go find my family, and while I'm at it, get a psych evaluation. They're probably worried sick about me.
(He goes to step off the platform but Waterfall stops him.)
Waterfall: Whoa there. You're not going anywhere. There's something different about you. I want to know what it is.
Alfred: Listen lady, if Waterfalls even have genders, I need to get to my family. I've been away from them long enough. They need me.
Waterfall: They need you? Looks more like like you need them. You're the one who got himself lost.
Alfred: I'm sorry, I'm not that experienced with camping, all right?!
Waterfall: So then what are you doing out here?
Alfred: I'm out here because I promised my daughter I'd take her camping before she goes off to school next year.
Waterfall: (studies Alfred, apparently ignoring his story) So what is it about you? What makes you so special that you'd hear me speaking? What is it about you that stopped me from roaring like usual and decided to speak?
Alfred: I don't know. I really don't have the answers to your questions. Now would you let me go. I need to find my family. (He goes to step off again.)
Waterfall: (Again stopping him) You don't need to go anywhere.
Alfred: Have you EVEN been listening to me?
Waterfall: Yes! You need to go find your family! You and every other shmuck who gets themselves lost in the woods. Well guess what? Much as I'd like you to be, You are not just any other shmuck. There's something about you that makes you hear me, that makes me want to talk to you. Now I'd love to just let you go. Really I would. You're not exactly the greatest of conversationalists, but then I'll spend the rest of eternity wondering what was so special about you, and I don't want to that. Eternity is a long time you know. I don't want to have spend it thinking about an idiotic human. Now would you just stay still and let me think.
Alfred: Watefalls aren't supposed to think.
Waterfall: And human's aren't supposed to talk to waterfalls but you're doing it.
Alfred: The reason is obvious. I'm crazy. You're not real. Just a figment of my imagination.
Waterfall: Really? Could a figment of your imagination do this? (She pushes the platform forward, causing him to fall over. She then grabs his arms stopping him from getting up)
Alfred: (Coughing and sputtering from the water that is supposedly flowing around him) Alright... I get... I... I get it. You're real. Now would you let me get up. Before I drown?
Waterfall: (Letting him go.) Fine... So there nothing seems to be physically special about you. You're just an average joe. Not particularly handsome, not particularly in shape, you slouch terribly. (During this, she can be poking and prodding him, stretching his face out on "handsome," poking him in the stomach on "shape," etc.)
Alfred: I get it. I'm not the best looking guy out there.
Waterfall: Maybe you're family has something to do with it. You said you're daughter was going to school, right?
Alfred: Yes.
Waterfall: To study what?
Alfred: Enviornmental Science.
Waterfall: Huh. This is a new development. So you promised you're daughter to take her camping and she's going to school to study nature... essentially. I take it she like nature.
Alfred: Yeah... See not all human's want to destroy the enviornment or sell it off. My daughter wants to be a forest ranger. She want's to protect nature.
Waterfall: Yeah, but that's not important.
Alfred: What?
Waterfall: That whole thing about your daughter might explain why I'm talking to a human if it were HER standing in me, but it's not. It's you...
Alfred: So, my daughter has nothing to do with this.
Waterfall: Well it is her fault you were in the woods to get lost in the first place, but when it comes to you hearing me, no nothing.
Alfred: Hey, it's not her fault I'm lost, I got myself lost.
Waterfall: And if she hadn't asked you to go on this trip with her, when you clearly don't have any experience in the woods, than you wouldn't have gone and gotten yourself lost now would you have.
Alfred: Hey I'm not completely without experience in the woods, I just haven't been camping since I was a kid.
Waterfall: Oh?
Alfred: Yeah. My dad used to take me all the time. And then I left home and started working and then I was so busy all the time... But then my daughter was born and he then he'd take her all the time.
Waterfall: So you're father also had an interest in the enviornment?
Alfred: Yeah... Do you think that might explain anything?
Waterfall: Maybe...
Alfred: Really?
Waterfall: Probably not.
Alfred: God dammit.
Waterfall: Well maybe it's something that happened to you in the woods. Did eat any mushrooms?
Alfred: No.
Waterfall: Fall through any rabbit holes?
Alfred: No. My name's not Alice, and as you can tell I'm not a cute young blonde girl.
Waterfall: I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. Speaking of your name, what was it again?
Alfred: I never told you my name, but it's Alfred. Call me Al...
Waterfall: Al, huh? Nothing special about that name.
Alfred: Gee, thanks...
Waterfall: Really though! There seems to be nothing interesting about you! You're just an average human. You're like an everyman.
Alfred: I'm not an everyman! So I'm not exceedingly good looking or ever did anything interesting. I have a daughter who might one day save the rain forest. She exists because of me. That has to count for something.
Waterfall: She could have just as likely been born to anyone else.
Alfred: But she wasn't!
Waterfall: Why does this even matter? The whole point is you. What is special about you.
Alfred: Why does it even matter? There's nothing special about me. Haven't we established this? I am a boring person that never did anything special with his life. And you know what? I'm happy with that answer. Because the fact that I never did anything with my life is allowing my daughter to do something with hers.
Waterfall: Come to think of it, You never did answer my question. What were you doing before this?
Alfred: And again I am ignored... By a waterfall. This is like the most normal moment of this entire conversation.
(pause)
Waterfall: Would you stop rambling, and answer the question already?
Alfred: You know what? Fine. It was about 2 in the afternoon...
Waterfall: You could tell what time it was? In the middle of the woods?
Alfred: Oh no I... (Looks at his wrist, upon which is a now broken watch.) ...had a watch... before you sucked me underwater... and BROKE it.
Waterfall: Can't you buy another one? Or is my image of human society mistaken, and theres actually a shortage of watches?
Alfred: This cost 200 dollars!
Waterfall: Again, not answering my question. So it was 2 in the afternoon?
Alfred: Yes it was 2 in the afternoon. And Susan...
Waterfall: Susan? Who's Susan?
Alfred: My daughter.
Waterfall: Oh, Okay. Keep... keep going.
Alfred: It was 2 in the afternoon. And Susan asked me to come help her gather firewood.
Waterfall: What were you doing before she came up to you?
Alfred: Sitting on a tree, reading. Is this rea...
Waterfall: Reading? Reading what?
Alfred: Walden.
Waterfall: Walden? What's that? What's it about?
Alfred: This guy who shuts himself off from society by spending two years in a cabin in the woods.
Waterfall: You're really trying to immerse yourself aren't you?
Alfred: Not really. One of my coworkers gave it to me a while ago. Never left the car. I was bored stiff and it was the only source of entertainment.
Waterfall: You're doing it again.
Alfred: Doing what?
Waterfall: Rambling! And Not answering the question.
Alfred: You asked what book I was reading!
Waterfall: So you were reading a book named Walden, around 2 in the afternoon, when your daughter, Susan, asked you to help her collect firewood.
Alfred: (irritated) Yes.
Waterfall: Okay, so continue.
Alfred: So we were walking through the woods, and... At one point, I just lost sight of her.
Waterfall: You lost sight of your daughter.
Alfred: No, the hen we brought with us.
Waterfall: You had a hen?
Alfred: No! I was being sarcastic. Yes, I lost sight of my daughter.
Waterfall: So she just dissappeared. Just like that. This supposedly nature experienced daughter of yours just dissapeared and left you alone.
Alfred: YES! ... No... I don't know... I can't remember.
Waterfall: What?
Alfred: I can't remember how I got lost. One second... I was with Susan, collecting firewood, laughing about something. And then the next thing I can remember... is just feeling very lost... and very scared. Just standing in the middle of th woods with Susan gone. All the trees looked the same, and I didn't even know which direction I had come in. I felt ashamed... Here I am, this fully grown man... Frightened like a little boy who thinks theres a monster in his closet. So, without thinking I just chose a direction and ran. I ran until I was out of breath which didn't last long. I stopped, caught my breath, and when I looked up, I saw smoke... and I thought "It's our campsite. " But it wasn't. It was just an empty campsite. The fire must have been put out 30 minutes maybe an hour before, but the logs were still smoking. And that's where I should have stayed. I just should have stayed at that empty campsite with still smoking fire pit. A place that's easy to spot. But no. Stupid idiotic everyman Alfred paniced. He didn't think to just stay in one place. So I walked. I left the campsite and kept going in the same direction I was going in and... And then I... heard... you. You did roar, at least at first. That's how I ended up finding you. I remember hearing your roar, and realizing how thirsty I was. And then I remember seeing you. Just standing there and staring at your beauty. There you were, this beautiful waterfall, this beautiful piece of nature. And I realized this is why my daughter want's to protect the enviornment. And then I remember thinking... Some one should take a picture of you... and put it on a post card. (Looks into Waterfall's eyes) Really. You are beautiful. (Pause) But I can't, for the life of me remember how I got up here...
Waterfall: STOP!
Alfred: What?
Waterfall: Just... stop... (She looks at him) I am so, so, sorry, I...
Alfred: Sorry? What are you sorry about? Your very confusing you know that.
Waterfall: I know why you're here. I... I remember.
Alfred: What?
Waterfall: I remember why I talked to you. I remember what makes you special.
Alfred: You do? Are you serious? You remember... Well what is it? What makes me special?
Waterfall: Think. Really, I want you to think. Remember. How did you get up here? You didn't just teleport, did you?
Alfred: What? What does that have to do with...
Waterfall: I can't tell you. I... You have to remember. You were standing there... admiring me...
Alfred: I was standing there admiring you and then... There's nothing. Next thing I know I'm standing up here.
Waterfall: No. There is something. You have to remember.
(Susan's voice resounds from off stage)
Susan: Dad! Dad!
Alfred: SUSAN! I think I hear my daughter... I think she found me. SUSAN!
Waterfall: FOCUS! I want you to remember. You need to remember.
Alfred: Didn't you hear her?
Waterfall: You have to figure this out. You have to know.
Alfred: Alright. I was watching you and... I noticed something.
Waterfall: What was it?
Alfred: There was this length of rubber house... About half way up...

Waterfall: Yes?
Alfred: And it was just this mark, this ugly mark messing up something beautiful. So I decided to climb up (He steps off the platform.) And pull it out. (He begin's to pantomime the pulling of the hose) I remember it being very stuck in there. I pulled and I pulled and then finally it gave. (He gives one last rough tug.) And it caught me of guard... and I fell. (He falls backwards, nearly hitting his head on the platform. Waterfall reaches out a hand and helps him up.)But wait, that still doesn't explain how I ended up up here. I just remember cracking my head on a rock... and slipping into the water, and then I...
Susan: (Again, a voice off stage) Dad! Dad! Dad, please wake up.
Alfred: No... (He looks at Waterfall)
Waterfall: I am so sorry...
Alfred: No. No, I, No... I'm dead? No I can't be. I can't die, I can't do that to her...
Waterfall: I'm sorry... I tried to stop you. I just... I'm sorry...
Alfred: No... I'm not gonna die. No. I can't.
(He collapses to the ground, sobbing. Susan enters and rushes to Alfred, who appears to no longer be breathing.)
Susan: DAD! Wake up. (Begins to pull him to the side.) Please Dad. Don't do this to me. Dad! Oh, god... I said I'd be right back. Why didn't you stay there? Why didn't you just stay put?
(Waterfall kneels on the other side of Alfred. Susan pulls out cell phone)
Susan: Oh god. Please work. Shit! No service... (Her attention returns to Alfred) Dad, please don't do this to me. (She begin's to do CPR)
Waterfall: I'm sorry.
Susan: I'm not gonna let you die.

Susan and Waterfall: I'm not gonna let you die!
(Waterfall touches Alfreds forehead, as Susan presses his chest one more time. Alfred gasps for breath. Waterfall vanishes)
Susan: Dad! Dad! Can your hear me?
Alfred: (Struggling to speak) Su... Susan... what happened.
Susan: I left you for a few minutes and you disappeared. And then I found you here. Dad I thought you were dead. I was so scared.
Alfred: I... I'm... not dead...
Susan: (a mix of laughing and crying) I can see that.
(Alfred attempts to get up.)
Susan: No. Wait, something might be broken. Stay Still.
Alfred: No, I'm fine... I'll be... fine.
(He gets up despite her protests. He stands for a second then nearly falls over. She catches and supports him.)
Susan: I told you, you should have stayed still. Come on we need to get you to a hospital, let's head back to camp.
(They begin to make their way offstage. Susan stops)
Alfred: What is it?
Susan: This Waterfall, it's strangely quiet.
Alfred: Huh... You're right. I wonder why.
(The begin moving again. Waterfall's laugh is heard of stage. Alfred stops)
Alfred: Did you hear that?
Susan: Hear what?
Alfred: That laugh, I heard someone laugh...
Susan: It must be because you just hit your head. Come on, we need to get you looked at.
(The finally make there way off stage. Waterfall enters, watching them as they leave. She sits on the platform and looks up pensively. The sound of a Waterfall rises as lights fade. End of scene.)