31:Tb4f,FRIEND
...rot melt drip moulder - FORAGER
We’re such a slip small part but it rings around rolls around the resonance of this place I feel like I’m in a bell - FRIEND
A blown bell in this mouthful? FORAGER
I heard once of a musical instrument that could only be carved from the wood of a tree from whose branches a bell was hung. The bell’s resonance permeated the wood - FRIEND
And then they cut the tree down? FORAGER
To make the instrument. FRIEND
What - are you saying - are we the bell? FORAGER
I think - I might be the tree. Just me. Yes. Let go of my heavy hand. FRIEND
But - I - I can’t. FORAGER
You can. FRIEND
Why would you be the tree? You haven’t done anything wrong! You tried - you - you went out walking on your feet and you refused the food systems and the oil and the gas and you told me - you told me that was right! It felt right! So what? Now you just die? Just - falling apart into this - darkness - it’s cruel cold and writhing wet and and - this is a tomb. I thought you loved life - FORAGER
I do love life! I’m glad to be alive! What is calling out is aliveness! An active seeing stillness in motion. FRIEND
Fight it! We have to - we have to get out of here - FORAGER
I think - if we could - I don’t know if we can - but if we could - the mountain… would not come back with us. FRIEND
The mountain? FORAGER
Don’t you feel it? The weight of the mountain? It’s like I’m holding it up over the edge of a cliff. It’s heavy but it’s - it’s growing into me. And if I just keep holding on it’ll grow up through me and up into safety and they won’t… die. FRIEND
What - what will - happen? FORAGER
I’ll become - part of it. An instrument. I know this mountain. They know me. We can - we can do this. Together. FRIEND
And me? FORAGER
Perhaps you’ll - leave. FRIEND
Leave how? Leave you? FORAGER
Yes. Yes! Perhaps - you can leave. FRIEND
I - I won’t leave - you here - with her voice! And the - the - it’ll eat you! FORAGER
It’s not eating me: I’m becoming a part of them. This is music! This is energy! This is bulbs, this is maggots, this is softening. This is the water seeping up into the roots. This is like early morning in mid middle mildew midsummer - what, what, what!? why can’t you understand this - FRIEND
Again. FORAGER
Do you want to leave? FRIEND
I want sunlight and air and food and wholeness! FORAGER
And the mountain does too. The mountain is total. You think this body belongs to me? I have eaten from the land my whole life. The difference is false - we are already one. FRIEND
I don’t think there’s any escape. If the mountain is dead, or dying, and we’re its path back. FORAGER
The mountain’s wildness eclipses us. I am not my center. 32:[] 2f:{"title":"Scene 11","cells":[{"id":0,"value":"# Scene 11","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md"},{"id":55,"value":"$31","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md"},{"id":21,"value":"[NEXT SCENE](https://observablehq.com/@florencewallis/ei12)","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md"}],"files":"$W32","stdlib":"1","titling":"auto"}