Reflections In The Water
Cast List:
Aristia, a woman sitting at a desk
Basil, her superior
At Rise:
It is the middle of Spring on a cool April morning Aristia is doing paperwork. Basil enters the room abruptly, walks to Aristia’s desk drops a thick stack of papers on the table with a thump, and turns to walk back out of the room
Aristia: Her work? Again?
Basil: Your work now
Aristia: What is she busy doing today? Buying shoes?
Basil: There were discrepancies in the reports I'm gonna need revisions
Aristia: Or maybe she’s busy treating herself to something else. I’m sure she’s tired from all the hard work I’m doing for her.
(Pause)
Aristia: Is it true? Did you- Did you propose to her?
(Basil pauses stride)
Aristia: What happened to all those rules you used to tell me about?
Basil: Those reports are important
Aristia: Do you remember when we went to Paris to close that deal?
Basil: They’re budget reports for the quarter
Aristia: Do you remember how we celebrated that night?
Basil: If the problem isn’t fixed it could set operations back a couple of days
Aristia: How much we drank?
Basil: I’ll need them on my desk by the end of the day
Aristia: How we walked through those cobblestone streets and talked about the times we used to sneak off together at banquets and parties we were forced to go to as kids?
Basil: If operations get set back it’ll start a chain reaction
Aristia: How we could see the Eiffel Tower from the bridge we were crossing? (pause) Do you remember how we stopped to admire the view?
Basil: The shipments would be put out late
Aristia: The way the reflection of the Eiffel Tower danced in the water?
Basil: I remember the reflections in the water. Your reflection. The way the ripples warped you.
Aristia: Do you remember the way you looked at me?
(Pause. Basil remains silent)
Aristia: Do you remember kissing me on that bridge Basil?
(Pause. Basil remains silent)
Aristia: Do you remember everything that happened after?
(Basil turns)
Basil: Of course, I remember! I remember everything but this isn’t the time or the place Aristia.
Aristia: I know this isn’t the time or place! Can’t mix business with pleasure, right? Apparently, we’re both breaking rules.
Basil: On my desk. End of the day.
Aristia: Why can’t she do it?! She’s done nothing since she’s arrived.
Basil: Because I'm asking you to do it.
Aristia: She should be able to.
Basil: I’m your superior Aristia. Don’t forget that.
Aristia: You’re her superior too and you gave her a job to do
Basil: Worry less about what she’s doing and more about what you should be doing.
Aristia: I’m doing everything.
(Aristia rises from her seat abruptly)
Aristia: She gets all the credit. What do I get out of all of this?
Basil: Credit? Your complaining about credit?
Aristia: That position was meant for me
Basil: I’ve been compared to you since I was a child.
Aristia: What?
Basil: Nothing I ever did could compare to the feats of Aristia. The genius. The one everyone fawned over.
Aristia: We were kids! We were friends.
Basil: You thought we were friends!
Aristia: Is that why you did it?
(Pause)
Aristia: Is that why you gave her everything?
Basil: Your whining about what you think your owed but what about me?
Aristia: Is that why you’re marrying her?
Basil: What about my credit?
(Pause)
Aristia: I sacrificed everything for this.
Basil: For what? Me? Or this job?
Aristia: It’s not fair.
Basil: You’re a fraud
Aristia: It’s not fucking fair
(Aristia picks up some of the papers and flings them at Basil in frustration)
Basil: What exactly do you think is owed to you? Me? Is it even me that you want? Aren’t you just chasing the power?
(Pause. Aristia remains silent)
Basil: Either way I don’t care. Your entitled and you seem to think that position is owed to you but it’s not yours. I’m not yours. Nothing here belongs to you Aristia. You get what I give you, and this (motions around the room) is all you have.
(Basil turns to walk toward the door, his hand touches the knob)
Aristia: I thought someday, somehow, you’d be able to feel for me what I feel for you. What you know I feel. (pause) It’s not about the job Basil. It was never about the job. I would have dropped all of it for you in a heartbeat. I would have given all of it up for you. For us. You never gave me the chance
Basil: I never asked you to do that.
Aristia: You didn’t have to. What happened? What happened to us?
(Pause)
Aristia: She made me brew her tea yesterday. Me. Brewing tea. (Aristia laughs) She talked so dreamily about the way you got down on your knee and asked for her hand in marriage. About how you put the ring that I picked out on her finger.
(Pause)
Aristia: We were happy.
Basil: You were happy.
Aristia: What does that mean?
Basil: It was never something that was meant to last.
Aristia: I don’t understand.
(Basil turns)
Basil: You were never gonna be someone I built a life with.
Aristia: We grew up together
Basil: It was a moment of weakness. Y-you don’t fit the mold.
Aristia: The mold?
Basil: You aren’t the kind of woman I’m supposed to be with.
(Pause. Aristia remains silent)
Basil: You’re everything I’m not supposed to have and that’s why I wanted you.
(Pause. Aristia remains silent)
Basil: Being with you. Falling for you, knowing that it wasn’t gonna last. It was never fun. It was (pause) bittersweet.
Aristia: Why would you ever let me think I had a chance?
Basil: I never meant for that to happen
Aristia: But it did happen Basil.
Basil: I’m sorry
Aristia: What am I supposed to do with that?
(Pause)
Aristia: Do you even love her?
(Pause. Basil remains silent)
Aristia: Does she fit the mold?
(Pause. Basil remains silent)
Aristia: Is she the kind of woman you’re supposed to be with?
Basil: On my desk. End of the day
(Basil exits)
(Tears begin to roll down her cheeks as she stares at the closed door for a moment. She walks around the desk and slowly picks up the papers on the floor. She organizes them and walks back around the desk and sits down in her seat. Her tears silently fall and the only sounds you hear are her pen writing on the paper. Lights fade to black)
The End
