Resonance of Silence

Act 2, Scene 2

SETTING:

The cabin living room. Very late at night. The only light comes from the moon through the window.

(ELARA is sitting upright in a chair, wide awake, staring into the darkness. BEN enters quietly from his bedroom area, restless.)

BEN

Can't sleep?

ELARA

(Voice tight)

It’s too quiet. My ears are playing tricks on me.

BEN

I know. It’s like the silence is pushing back at you.

(He sits in the opposite chair. A long silence.)

BEN

I keep thinking about the sound of the ocean. Just constant, predictable white noise. I miss it.

ELARA

You’re used to running from silence, Ben.

BEN

( bristling slightly)

I’m used to living my life, Elara. You’re used to organizing yours into neat little boxes that filter out anything messy.

ELARA

(Sharp intake of breath)

This isn’t about my work.

BEN

Isn’t it? You filter out the noise you don’t like—the noise of my life, the noise of Dad’s illness, the noise of anything emotional. You just focus on the clean audio feed.

ELARA

(Standing up, moving into the dim moonlight)

That’s a cheap shot. I was there, Ben. I was present. You sent money and texts from Machu Picchu.

BEN

I told you I was in a dead zone! Why can’t you just believe me for once?

BEN

(Standing up now, his voice rising, contained only by the thick walls)

And you escape by drowning yourself in work and judgment! You think I wanted to be gone? I called you the second I had service. The second. And you bit my head off and hung up.

ELARA

(Her voice is shaking now, the pain raw)

Because I was watching him die, Ben! I was holding his hand, and he kept asking for you, and I had nothing to tell him except you were chasing a story on the other side of the world! I was alone!

BEN

(Quietly, but intensely)

You chose to be alone. You pushed me away because it was easier than admitting you needed me.

ELARA

That’s not true!

BEN

Isn't it? Everything has to be your way, Elara. Your sound levels, your schedule, your narrative of what happened. I’m just noise you need to tune out.

(Elara stares at him, hurt and fury warring on her face. She opens her mouth, but no sound comes out. She is choked by emotion.)

(Ben looks away, breathing hard, immediately regretting his words but unwilling to back down.)

(The silence rushes back into the space, the heaviest it has been all weekend. It feels hostile now.)

ELARA

(A quiet whisper)

Get out. Go to your room.

(Ben hesitates, looking at her one last time, a wall between them.)

(He turns and exits without another word. The silence remains with Elara, alone in the moonlight.)

(FADE TO BLACK.)

ELARA

Because you’re a professional escape artist! You escaped Mom’s funeral by going on a "writing retreat" to Bali. You escaped Thanksgiving because you had an "urgent deadline" in Tokyo. You escape every time things get real.

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