Before us, they remain

CHRISTINA ( smiling ) Father, I've done it so well many a time before. Falling. I once thought that if I learned to recognise the signs, I would find a way to stand tall. And finally I see them―miles away Father, I see them before they even reveal themselves―you would think it's gotten better now, yes, you would think so. What does it really do for me, nothing? No... It does a great deal. I anticipate, then faster, faster than before, I precipitate!

FATHER Precisely, Christina. ( bends over her ) It is just so. ( Takes off his coat and puts it on her shoulders ). Heading nowhere fast and knowing so, trying hard, so hard to be more, more than they expected, even more than you anticipated...

CHRISTINA No, Father. You don't seem to understand. Once, dreams were sketched from brewed exotic flower petals. Now running water cleansed the lie and quenched our thirst.

FATHER Exactly, Christina. ( bends over to protect her from the rain ) That's it. You once believed in potions, elegant elaborate designs that could transform your fate.

CHRISTINA What is it Father, what do I still fail to see? I have abandoned hope, it is repugnant. I have forsaken beauty, it is obscene. I have changed my name, my language, my country, my address, my hair, my face, my philosophy, my men, my story.

FATHER You still hang on to friends, Christina, to family, to me, to love.

CHRISTINA But Love's not Time's fool, you said that Father.

FATHER Not me, Christina, it wasn't me.

CHRISTINA You said it was all about the journey.

Before us, they remain

FATHER I don't know where you're going.

CHRISTINA I was coming to you.

FATHER I was coming to you.

CHRISTINA Did you wait?

FATHER I did, before you came. Now it's too late.

CHRISTINA I am still waiting.

FATHER Oh, Christina! But you should wait for no one.

CHRISTINA I remember, and I wait, and I pray that we remain.

FATHER You are wrong. I never gave you anything, least of all myself. I belong to another life, to another past. Its name was joy, its way was happiness. You wait in vain.

CHRISTINA No, Father. If you forget and I resent, then both of us will surely bend, and twist and turn and cry and crawl, and walk straight into own pathetic thrall.

CHORUS Is the scene set, dear friends? What do you see? Is kindness an invention ? Are we but suffering alone, measured by pain? Or is the promise not so impossible to keep?