If Only We Had Noticed

Act One, Scene Fourteen

SETTING: In the living room of the Anderson residence.

AT RISE: SILAS ANDERSON is sitting on the couch, staring down at a photograph with his head bowed. In front of him is a coffee table, with a vase in the center. In the vase, there is a willow branch.

(JUNIPER ANDERSON walks into the room.)

MRS. ANDERSON: Silas?

MR. ANDERSON: (shaking head) Juniper, it just hit me. Our Willow is gone...

MRS. ANDERSON: Silas, are you okay?

MR. ANDERSON: Hazel was right. I am a horrible father. I can't... (dropping  to his knees) Juniper, can you forgive me? For what I did to this family?

MRS. ANDERSON: I...

MR. ANDERSON: No, not even I can forgive myself.

MRS. ANDERSON: (quietly) We're both broken, Silas.

MR. ANDERSON: I think, I can be whole with you, though.

(MR. ANDERSON grasps her hand, staring at the pair of rings adorning their intertwined fingers.)

MR. ANDERSON: The day I met you I knew you'd complete me.

MRS. ANDERSON: But Willow... I can't move on from her memory.

MR. ANDERSON: Juniper, you must think I'm a beast... hurting Willow like that, and causing her to--

(MRS. ANDERSON drops to her knees, like her husband, and wraps him in a tight embrace.)

MRS. ANDERSON: Silas, inside I see you are hurt, just like Willow. And really, we're all hurting, but that's the last thing Willow would want.

(MRS. ANDERSON breaks away.)

MRS. ANDERSON: To see the pain she had reflected on all her loved ones...

MR. ANDERSON: She would want us to... together, move on. I can only hope she's happier now, and all her suffering has ended.

MRS. ANDERSON: (smiling) There's the man I fell in love with, so many years ago.

(MRS. ANDERSON grabs the willow branch from the vase on the table beside them.)

MRS. ANDERSON: We love you, Willow. We always have.

MR. ANDERSON: I hope you can forgive us for taking so long to say those words.

(END SCENE)