Character Descriptions
- Father: very overprotective and dominating. He is a successful businessman that has prospered due to his hard work and dedication. He thrives in cities because he loves to be around people who are aware of and praise him for his status. Ironically, they live in a suburb right beside a forest, which is guarded by many gates. He has a very patronizing voice. He is a realist.
- Daughter: longs for things that her father will not let her have. She loves to be alone, listening and understanding the animals, even though she is the daughter of a well-known city man. She knows that there is an expectation on her to follow in her father’s footsteps but she wishes for anything but. She is an idealist.
- Voice: Inner conscience talking to her. Or is it?
Setting
They live in a rich suburb, where from the living room there is a forest, from where wolves come out every night.
Script
(Daughter is staring outside. It is night, and the wolves are about to come out of the trees as they always do. She sits on the porch, leaning towards the forest. Father comes and sees her in this position, and is disturbed by the look in her eyes.)
Father: What is it?
Daughter: I was just looking outside.
Father: Go to bed now it’s almost midnight and you have school tomorrow. (Daughter continues to look out, and Father looks around) What is wrong with you?
Daughter: When long days finally come to a close, a time to be quiet is needed.
Father: But what is needed, is not always there. Sometimes, the exact opposite is, waiting at your doorstep, ready to feast on your flesh.
Daughter: They are harmless.
Father: (realization) Why are you so obsessed with those wild, and ruthless creatures? It is sick, and it makes me sick, and I am telling you now to stop for your own good. I’ll make a taller gate in front of our house if that means that you will listen to me –
Daughter: (aside) – The wild has no rules, yet we are confined by merciless laws.
Father: Are you listening to me?
Daughter: Yes, father.
Father: A simple act of love to these creatures means that they will crack your rib cage, and each blow will crumble your bones into nothing but ash.
Both: And the path of protection is better than the roads of recklessness.
Daughter: I know.
Father: (sits beside her) Did you think about my offer.
Daughter: I did.
Father: And…
Daughter: I wanted to do something else with my life.
Father: Well, of course! There is a corporate office downtown that you can work at. The most ambitious people I know, always ready to-
Daughter: Run you over at whatever chance they get. I don’t want to work with them.
Father: The city is bustling with jobs, and all you have to do is reach out and grab one. It is not that difficult.
Daughter: Do you see how gracefully they hide behind the leaves? How, they have eyes that just make you want to smile? How their howls are like the calls of a Siren, beckoning you to join them? They look so content being alone, singing at a sky dripping over with stars that shine and shine and….
Father: How much time are you wasting with this silly practice? Every time you look into the woods, your eyes glaze over, and it scares me. It scares me to think that you want to go out there and leave me, your father, who has provided you with a house, food, water, and opportunity? How do you expect me not to care about what you do with your time?
Daughter: I am just looking at wolves.
Father: No, you are not just looking at wolves. (grumbles to self) I knew we should have bought the other house in Long Island. Then you wouldn’t have been corrupted by these absurd ideas. You want to do something with your life, eh? You think that if you run after leaves, success will come to you on a golden platter? You have to work your way up the hierarchy, build yourself a name with your blood, sweat, and tears –
Daughter: – and when you can look on top of others, then you know that you have achieved happiness, right? (sarcastic)
Father: You think that if you run off into the jungle –
Daughter: – I never said I would –
Father: – THAT YOU WILL COME OUT RICH? Maybe it could have been done once upon a time, but civilization has changed. If you want respect, you have to work with people, not –
Voice: In the bush, there is peace. (only Daughter can hear, a lone wolf comes out of the bushes, and time freezes)
Daughter: (to Wolf) I thought you wouldn’t come tonight.
Voice: Your soul, I can feel it in mine. Suffering so much, as if …. unsatisfied. Who are you trying to please, dear one?
Daughter: Anyone but me, it seems.
Voice: I smell metal., I smell, bars., I smell a desire that rattles in its cage.
Daughter: My life is with you. I know it. I saw your eyes that first day we moved in and I could not help but think that I just found what I was looking for.
Voice: Dear, you are suffocating under some weight… What is it?
Daughter: Father wants me to join the trade, but I want to run in the grass. He carved a path for me to follow, and I get stuck behind the trees.
Voice: His iron heart holds the key to your freedom,
Both: He refuses to open the lock.
Voice: I sense a longing for answers. I taste a passion for happiness. I sense that you wish to leap out of your constraints and climb the walls of others and build your own.
Daughter: Father told me to build a reputation with my blood, sweat, and tears, but he doesn’t know that
Both: His office smells like a life of compromise
Daughter to me. (Time continues, talking to Father) That every minute I spend filing reports for you, and sitting school, filling in answers, hoping that marks and reputation will make me happy…
Father: You don’t like it?
Voice: Tell him.
Daughter: I… I want to be out there, I just know it. I saw how gracefully they prance through the grass, stealthy and brave. I see how unbounded and free they are, and I began to think about how happy I would have been if I just listened to their call for once.
Voice: If you pursued what you always wanted.
Father: There is no beauty in rabid creatures who have to kill to survive. There is no point in idealizing a life that was not meant for you to have. There is no reason you should dare silence me in the name of pursuing happiness. Animals are animals and humans are humans, and there hasn’t been a time in this earth where our worlds became one. Stop hammering at the divide, when not even the strongest man can overcome it. (pause) Stop this nonsense. (Time pauses again)
Voice: Your longing is strong, but your action is weak. I sense fear.
Daughter: I am fearful, spirit. My fear of others’ opinions eats my bones away. Will he understand that I come alive at the quiet of the night, alive watching the wolves, longing to live the happy, blissful life of an animal?
Voice: (growl) A life of unhappiness awaits you, and you still refuse to listen. The chains dig into your spine, and you simply crouch down and comply.
Both: I/You shall remain unsatisfied.
Daughter: Is this my fate?
Voice: No, it is your choice. Your destiny will take you to the stars if you just begin to run for them. (Time continues)
Daughter: Father, will you let me move out of the city?
Father: There is a million-dollar market waiting for you in the city skyline, and you just want to through it away? What about your home? What about me?
Daughter: I am just one step outside of your doorstep, so close to a house, but so far from a home.
Father: You the most ungrateful… (Time pause)
Voice: The wooden beams try to take you into its embrace.
Daughter: I need to leave the city.
Voice: You have to run after what you want in order to get it. I sense realization. (Time continues)
Father: … child I have ever seen. Get inside now.
Daughter: In the forest, there is peace.
Father: GET INSIDE NOW. (starts to grab her, but time pauses)
Voice: I sense resolve.
Daughter: When long days finally come to an end, a time to be quiet is needed.
Voice: (to Father) She leaps for the stars, not city lights. (and the Wolf and girl run into the forest)
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