Sunflower Child – The Ross School, 8C (2010)

James Bianco and Maisie Puris in Cosma Siekierska's play "Sunflower Child." Photo by Darren Johnson.

“Sunflower Child”

by Cosma Siekierska

The Ross School, 8C, East Hampton, NY.

Walking on a dirt road in the dusk, boy falls into a hole. He finds himself in a sunflower
field at dawn. He soon finds a girl.

Adrian – Hello?

Lucille – Yes?

Adrian – (unable to speak/puzzeled)

Lucille – Yes?

Adrian – (observes her) Are you working here?

Lucille – You could say that.

Adrian – I must have… gone the wrong way… maybe its the…. allergy medication…

Lucille – Are you allergic to sunflowers?

Adrian – (Inhales.) Doesn’t seem like it, maybe the medication is doing it’s job.

Adrian – (Pauses) Uhhh… Do you live around here?

Lucille – Yes.

Adrian – I dont live that far… but I haven’t been down here.

Lucille – (comes to a closer flower next to boy)

Adrian – What is it that your doing?

Lucille – Cleanup.

Adrian – Cleanup? What sort of cleanup?

Lucille – The usual.

Adrian – (Comes closer to look at what see is doing.) What? (speechless) What the hell
is this stuff?

Lucille – It is dust, (pause) the usual.

Adrian – (makes a face as if the girl is crazy) Someone pays you to do this? (alarmed)

Lucille –(giggles) No, I do it because I want it to look like it is suppose to. Beautiful.

Adrian – (looks closer) This is stupid, you’re dusting sunflowers!

Lucille – You could help me?

Adrian – (Laughs) I really dont see any point of this.

Lucille – Stops dusting and looks him in the eye. The dust will keep coming and
eventually crush the sunflowers.

Adrian – Why would that be so terrible?

Lucille – (Nodes her head)

Adrian – I mean wouldn’t it be great to not have to work from dusk to dawn, just dusting
sunflowers?

Lucille – It is all I have ever done.

Adrian – If you would stop you could do other things, like sail a boat, grow a garden,
become a doctor?

Lucille – Why would I do things people only fantasize.

Adrian – Fantasize? We live on earth and have the chance and willpower to do anything.

Lucille – Well, maybe where you are but here there is not much to do other then dusting
sunflowers. In fact it seems like the only thing we have.

Adrian – What do you mean HERE? All over the world people have many things to do!

Lucille – Here it is different, and sunflowers are the usual .

Adrian – No! Your crazy, SUNFLOWERS are the least important and we have one world
so you can become a doctor or ANYTHING!

Lucille – No, We see your world, we dream your world, we want your world. But we are
different and live different lives. We will never reach your world.

Adrian – What do you mean?

Lucille – Well in the petals of the sunflowers we see views of people on earth… We
watch them and we try to help them…

Adrian – Well I really don’t think that dusting sunflowers will help.

Lucille – Each sunflower has a soul. When a soul is blocked it cannot process.

Adrian – Are you taking drugs? Cause you know…

Lucille – (interrupts) Just stop! This is why people dont come here you cannot
believe the reality but you dream all the time.

Adrian – Dont go all ponies and rainbows on me. How do I get out of here?

Lucille – You don’t.

Adrian – What?

Lucille – You cant leave, don’t you think I would be gone by now?

Adrian – I don’t care about you, I just wanna leave!

Lucille – You CANT leave!

Adrian – Great, I am stuck in a field with a psycho girl who dusts sunflowers.

Lucille – Gee, Thanks.

Adrian – Why am I here? What did I do to deserve to be here?

Lucille – It was not you.

Adrian – What, was it the god of sunflowers?

Lucille – Haha. NOT FUNNY.

Lucille – Just because this is new for you, doesn’t mean you have to bash what I do.

Adrian – Well, sorry I’m not completely insane!

Lucille – Are you sure?

Adrian – Just tell me how I got here and how I can leave!

Lucille – You know how I said each sunflower petal has a view of someone’s world, well
you have a petal but it had built up some dust so you left your land and came here.

Adrian – SO IT WAS YOUR FAULT! ( starts to approach girl angrily)

Lucille – No, we dust the sunflowers but the dust builds up on its own. When feeling,
emotions, and conflicts build up.

Adrian – So your saying it was my fault that I am in sunflower land?

Lucille – well yes, I guess you live is cluttered.

Adrian – What? Well if my life was “cluttered.” How did you get here?

Lucille – I really would like to know myself.

Adrian – So you just dust sunflowers under command and dont even wonder how the
hell you got here?

Lucille – Yea, I guess.

Adrian – Well, thats just great! You dust sunflowers, creep on people and you don’t know
how you got here!

Lucille – I don’t creep, I help you. Without me…. you would be nothing.

Adrian – You know what?

Lucille – What?

Adrian – Your on heavy drugs and are making up your own little world.

Lucille – So if I am on drugs why are you in my made up world?

Adrian – No stop your just playing games…. MIND GAMES!

Lucille – Well it seems to be working well!

Adrian – How do I leave!!!

Lucille – I really don’t know.

Adrian – Fine just get me out of this field to your house or something.

Lucille – Ok, you sure I wont take you to a portal?

Adrian – Let’s just go.

SCENE 2.

Walks out of the field and on a brick road and takes a left into a gravel driveway. At the
end of the driveway there is a brick house covered in vines. They enter into the house
and mind themselves in a living room.

Adrian – Do you live here?

Lucille – Yep.

Adrian – Its nice.

Lucille – Would you like something to drink?

Adrian – No, Thank you. Do you live here alone.

Lucille – Yes, but I really don’t know what you want from me?

Adrian – I WANT YOU TO GET ME OUT OF HERE!

Lucille – But you’re not seeming to comprehend that I cannot get you out of here…

Adrian – Well then what am I going to do? Where am I going tot live?

Lucille – Well for now you can stay here and you will help dust the sunflowers starting
tomorrow.

Adrian – So I will just dust fucking flowers for the rest of my life and not have the chance
to be successful.

Lucille – Please calm down it is really not that bad.

Adrian – Calm down? Why would I calm down my life just basically ended.

Lucille – NO! Stop you don’t know anything about what it is like to live alone.

Adrian – Well I don’t wanna know. And I don’t want to know what its like to live with a
insane girl so just leave me alone!

Lucille – Leave you alone? You are in my house so why don’t you just leave and try to
make a life here.

Adrian – I just wanna leave!!

Lucille – You are not the only one.

Adrian – What? I thought this is what you wanted to do.

Lucille – It is the only thing I CAN do but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to leave.

Adrian – So all the time you were here you always wanted to leave?

Lucille – Well yes, but I can’t leave and trust me I would get you out of here if I could. The
truth is I hate being alone and I thought bringing someone here would make me happy.
For two years I did not dust your flower petals and today you arrived in my field. You
build up many conflicts but i just avoided them so here we are.

Adrian – Why did you pick me?

Lucille – Well you were the same age as me and I thought maybe I would have a life for
once.

Adrian – Well did you ever think of how I would react. I mean now you clearly see and I
am sorry for the mean things I said. This is fairly odd to me.

Lucille – Sorry but I thought you would be thrilled to have a place to start things over
again. But don’t worry I think there might be a way.

Adrian – A way to be happy?

Lucille – No, I way to leave.

Adrian – But I thought we could never leave.

Lucille – We can’t but you can.

Adrian – Are you sure about this?

Lucille – Yes, you deserve to life a life full of sailing the waters of the earth and maybe
even one day become a doctor.

Adrian – Thank you! But I can’t leave you here.

Lucille – I have been here as long as I know and I never thought I would leave so please
just enjoy your life the way you’re suppose to. But please try to make good decisions and
face your conflicts with a good, peaceful mind.

Adrian – Thank you that’s very kind and I hope one day you will join me and together we
can have a garden.

Lucille – Follow me.

SCENE 3.

Girl takes boy into a greenhouse room filled with plants and in the center there is a large
deep hole.

Lucille – Are you ready?

Adrian – I am more then ready but will this really work?

Lucille – (Smiles) The time I am not dusting, I began to dig a hole. And just last week I
dug far enough and I reached some type of rainbow water that glistens like the moon.

Adrian – Wow you just get stranger and stranger. But also wiser and wiser.

Lucille – (Smiles) Are you ready now?

(Both come to edge of hole and look inside.)

Adrian – Well here I go. Thank You.

Lucille – Good luck. See you in another life time.

Boy moves closer to girl and she smiles. Boy gets ready to jump but instead pushes girl
into hole. Boy looks into the hole and sees the water glisten. Then he goes out into the
sunflower field And sees there is no dust on any flower accept one. He dusts it off
slowly.

The Company of Cosma Siekierska's play "Sunflower Child." L to R – James Bianco, Cosma Siekierska (playwright), Maddy Hykes, Maisie Puris. Photo by Jessica Adamowicz.

Tags: Issue #1 - Spring/Summer 2010