TE20 Migrant Mosaics

Ben Sloan

Scene I: Daughter comes home from the lake. Mother smells alcohol on her lips. Mother slaps daughter. Father comes in and reproaches mother for her actions. But the father once, or even twice if you count that one time, had also slapped the mother. Daughter remembers this years later. SceneII:Motherandfatheranddaughteratfriends’party.Someone mentions how mother used to play the piano. Daughter had no idea that mother used to play the piano. She thought her mother was a failure—a good-for-nothing old lady. Mother declines her friend’s pleas. Oh no, it’s been so long. Friends insist. Okay, one song. Mother sits at piano and begins to play a complicated blues rhythm. The whole world stops. Mother becomes hero. Crowd is impressed but drunk. Daughter hugs her mother. Father smiles. Scene III: Daughter comes home from school. Awkward silence. Mother knows what her daughter did the night before. They don’t speak to each other for two days. They think about each other for two days. Birke played all the parts. A one woman show coming to you by train! She memorized all of the lines. She played with intonation, raised hervoice inmoments thatdemanded rawemotion, allowed silence to quell her audience (her books), and even cried if she needed to! Once, she asked Erika why her parents fought so much. My mom drinks a lot. Birke did not know how to reply. Oh, I’m sorry. But the truth, a truth she would never admit to Erika, was that she was jealous of her. She didn’t care if her mother was an alcoholic. In fact, even if her mother was dead, which she was, Birke wished 204