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GREAT WHITE

a play by

Deborah Yarchun

Deborah.Yarchun@gmail.com
 1

“This new fad thing that’s going through

America and around the world. It’s called
global warming.”

–Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX)

“When your fears surrender to your strengths,

You will begin to experience
That all existence
Is a teeming sea of infinite life.”

– Hafiz
 2

GREAT WHITE

TIME: November 2013, between coastal floods

PLACE: Southern Florida / Miami
(Not the neon-lit Miami you may know from movies. An isolated patch of beach at night on the
“Jacks,” named for a formation placed deep in the waters in the 1960s to prevent erosion).

A red flag in the sand marks “the Jacks.”

CHARACTERS

Brooke, 14. Female. Gifted, mildly obsessive.

Ivy, 16. Female. Brooke’s sister. Bipolar. At times, dangerous. A force.

Gail, 38. Female. Brooke and Ivy’s mother. Somewhere stuck on the edge of confronting reality
and being in denial.

Luis, 15. Male. A kind of strange, but brilliant boy.

 3

NOTES:

This play lives in the understated tension between the characters. Although it may seem at times
that nothing significant is happening, there should be a danger lurking beneath every surface.
Always be conscious of the undercurrent of each scene. The drama often lies in what has been
said but ignored, or what a character has omitted (particularly in the scenes between Brooke and
Gail).

(%) right before a line signals a half truth. Usually the character is covering something in these
moments.

***right before a line signals a moment where a character is about to leap into a personal
unknown/action that in their world/understanding of the universe is forbidden. These are not
always logical barriers. These are the characters’ personal boundaries.

… centered on the page notates a pause.

// signals the starting point of overlapping text.

Words in [square brackets] are omitted but may be read at the discretion of the actor and/or
director.

Between each scene, we hear the crash of waves. Sometimes this should be soothing. Other times
it should be reminiscent of horror film soundtracks.

The ocean ideally should be positioned at the edge of the stage or playing space. When a
character steps into the ocean, they should stand in the audience. Swimming deeper into the
ocean in this play would be signified by characters stepping further into the audience.

The play is set on a beach. In the scenes that take place at Gail, Ivy, and Brooke’s home, sand
bleeds into the kitchen-space. Their home should feel muted and a tinge otherworldly, as if it
exists beneath the sea.

The book Brooke refers to on page 77 would have summarized or quoted Roland Barthes’ essay
“Listening,” which describes hearing as a physiological phenomenon and listening as a
psychological act.

The final line at the end of scene one, dependent on the production’s design could be played as a
recording instead of a projection.
 4

NOTES TO THE ACTORS

If older actors play Brooke and Ivy and Luis, don’t play them as kids. Play them genuine. Also,
there are few throwaway moments.

For the actress playing Ivy:

Ivy is not demonic or evil. She’s struggling with a severe mental illness and most likely an
adverse reaction to a psychotropic medication.

Note:
Zoloft, while helpful for many people, is also connected to more than 1,000 suicides and
hundreds of episodes of mania and aggression, including “Batman” shooter James Holmes, who
killed twelve people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

Play Ivy generously. Play her need. She needs to be with her sister. She needs to control
something in her world, and this crosses an unhealthy boundary. She doesn’t always function
logically, but her actions, although bizarre, aren’t if you break them down illogical. She has
moments of clarity and moments where she is lost in a mental sea. The latter is when she is the
most dangerous. When a part of her takes over where nothing is holy and death isn’t permanent.
In her everyday waking life, she might be jealous of Brooke, but she would never in a million
years hurt her.

She may say dumb things sometimes, but she’s not dumb. She’s doing it for attention.

For the actress playing Brooke:

Do not play her as a victim. Do not play her angry. Focus on her drive to help her sister and her
mother. Focus on her sense of wonder. Of all the characters in the play, she crosses the most
personal boundaries. Honor these moments. Her attraction to Luis has more to do with her need
for another human being than a desire to see him eaten by a shark. She’s attracted by their
mutual interest and the fact he is pushing himself to his limit. She’s sharp for a fourteen-year old,
but also still a child. The actual idea of Luis meeting the shark fits more in her world of make-
believe.

For the actress playing Gail:

While the small surface things may appear to be the biggest concerns for Gail—this is more a
matter of these things being easier for her to focus on than the larger problems that she has no
idea how to solve. She is not self-absorbed, so much as a woman unequipped to provide support
for her troubled daughters. While she carries herself with confidence, there’s something shaky
beneath the surface. There’s a fragility to her, as if the truth could break her. And few people
want to be responsible for that, particularly Brooke. She’s used to being fed an unhealthy dose of
white lies. She may be aware of this, but habits, particularly those that make you feel safe—die
hard.
 5

1
(Brooke)

The sound of the ocean. The sound of Brooke

breathing.
Lights up.
Brooke, 14, hovers over a digital voice recorder.
Her arm is bleeding.
She records the ocean waves. She records her voice.

BROOKE
This is my voice.
This is my voice.
(She speaks almost as if reassuring herself. She tries different levels and pitches.)
This is my voice.
This is my…
(PING.PING. PING. A sonar pinging sound comes from a smartphone next to her. Beat
up. Busted glass. She glances towards it.)
Mom, if you ever listen to this—
In case I don’t… make it…
There’s not much wisdom left to leave you.
And all of it. Most of it. I found on the internet. From lists.
And all of it—most of it—is the same.
Miss Rickter, my English teacher, said you should always credit your sources.
www.startofhappiness.com
www.zenhabits.com
www.lifehack.com
www.liveboldandbloom.com
(PING. PING. PING. She looks at the phone, realizes.)
But there’s no time left for that.
Mom, in sixty seconds I’m going to take my shoes off. I’m going to take off my clothes.
I’m going to step into a wetsuit.
And I’m going to step into the ocean.
It’s not personal, Mom.
Don’t think it’s personal.
It’s what I have to do.
(PING... PING... PING.)
Hear that?
(She holds the phone to the digital voice recorder:
PING. PING. PING.)
That sound’s from an app called Ocearch.
It tracks sharks.
Not all the sharks in the ocean. Just the five that got caught.
It’s shark season.

PING. PING. PING.

 6

BROOKE (cont.)
That’s Mary Lee. She’s a great white shark.
She’s about three miles away now.
Hear her, Mom?
(PING. PING. PING. She speaks with the pings.)
Ping. Ping. Ping.
In a few moments…I’m going to swim to the Jacks.
(She steps towards the ocean. She stops.)
The Jacks. The Jacks. They’re my favorite part of Miami, Mom.
Did you know that?
They’re like hundreds of giant toy jacks. Beneath the ocean.
Like the ones you bought Ivy and me when we were kids.
They keep the sand close to the beach.
I learned that.
www.scubamiami.com
Isn’t it funny we have to keep the sand at the beach?
Like it keeps wanting to wander away from us.
I like to think the ocean has a memory. That she’s listening and carrying the past. Because
sometimes, Mom, my mind works like that. That’s the way my mind works. Like there’s this
ocean in my head of every previous moment, lapping and lapping against the shore. I can feel
each wave of memory, like the whole world and everybody I know is swimming in me.
Sometimes pieces erode and get carried to different places. But they never go away.
The jacks are ugly in a beautiful kind of way.
(PING. PING. PING.)
Mary Lee’s two miles away now.
Here’s a list, Mom. This one’s not from the internet.
Five things that are ugly in a beautiful way:
Ivy.
The fourteen years I’ve been on this planet.
The fact my arm is bleeding.
The fact my arm can bleed.
That the mysterious sound deep below the ocean known as “the bloop”—was apparently just an
ice-quake. Ice earthquakes. That there’s a thing on this earth called an ice earthquake.
I guess that was six.
Okay, Mom.
(PING. PING. PING.)
That’s Mary Lee. She’s been waiting.
Mom, I’m sorry for everything.
No. I’m not sorry for anything.
No, I’m…
DELETE.

DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER

Are you sure you want to delete?

…
 7

BROOKE
Delete.
(She records again.)
Mom, I’m—
I’m…
I’m…
I’m sorry for stealing your iPhone.

She steps towards the ocean. The sound of a wave sped up,
unearthly loud. CRASH.

Brooke takes a deep breath with the wave.

The world cuts to silence.

PROJECTION: 3 Days Before

 8

WAVE 1

2
(Brooke and Ivy)

“The Jacks”

Brooke and her sister Ivy, 16, balance on

surfboards.

Brooke wears a bathing suit. Ivy wears puffy rave

parachute pants, long sleeves, a troll doll necklace,
and other purposeful 90s throwbacks.

A caboodle (a 90s makeup organizer) covered in

stickers sits next to Ivy’s surfboard. A book sits
next to Brooke’s.

IVY
Like this?

BROOKE
(Demonstrating.)
This. And then you—Balance.
Where’d you get these boards?

IVY
Magic. Don’t worry about it.
Wave! What do we do?

Brooke thinks for a moment.

BROOKE
Crouch!

They crouch.

IVY
And?

BROOKE
Baa//lance.

IVY
lance.
 9

Brooke notices Ivy staring at her, a fixed, almost

predator-like gaze. They continue balancing.

BROOKE
Also, you look that way. Forward.
(Ivy continues staring.)
Forward.

IVY
Alright. Awesome. Okay. What’s next?

BROOKE
You wear a swimsuit. Not pants.

IVY
They’re parachute pants.

BROOKE
Are we sky diving?

IVY
They’re for a rave.
I don’t like step one. Pick a different step one.

BROOKE
Okay. Step one. The surfboards go in the water, not the sand.

IVY
You first.

Brooke takes a step towards the water. She stops.

They stare out into the water.

BROOKE
Maybe they’re not really surfing waves.
Maybe they’re more like stay-out-of the-water waves. Also, it’s getting dark.

Ivy, testing Brooke, steps towards the water.

BROOKE
(Stopping her.)
Also, there are black tip sharks! It’s like their feeding hour.

IVY
Go ahead.
 10

Brooke mock impersonates a younger version of

herself.

BROOKE
No. You go.

A tense moment. Beat.

Ivy playfully shoves Brooke.

IVY
No. You go.

BROOKE
No. You.

Ivy suddenly shoves Brooke a little too hard

towards the ocean.

IVY
YOU.

Brooke takes a step closer.

Ivy, for a moment let’s her. A dare.

BROOKE
I hear black tips don’t always attack. And bull sharks feed closer to six.

Brooke takes a step closer, testing Ivy.

IVY
(Ala the Jaws theme song.)
Duh-duh. Duh-duh. Duh-duh. Duh-duh.
How do you know that?

BROOKE
I’m going to be a marine biologist.

IVY
Thought you were going to be an astrologist.

BROOKE
NASA shut down and sharks are more interesting.

IVY
You’re not as smart as you think you are, y’know?
 11

BROOKE
Who said I was smart?

IVY
You don’t really have a focus on anything.

BROOKE
I focus on everything.

IVY
Duh-duh-duh. Duh-Duh. Duh.

BROOKE
Ivy, why are we here?

IVY
(%) The flood waters died down.
So, it’s okay now—it’s okay to surf.

BROOKE
Ivy.

IVY
(Spacing out.)
Duh-Duh. Duh-Duh.

BROOKE
Ivy.

IVY
Duh-Duh. Duh-Duh.

BROOKE
Ivy, are you okay?

IVY
Yeah.
What makes you think I’m not?

BROOKE
(%) You’re spending time with me.

IVY
So?
 12

BROOKE
So, every morning this school year, you’ve been like, “Don’t talk to me. You’re not my sister.”

Brooke fiddles with her digital voice recorder. She

hits play.

DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER (Ivy’s voice.)

Don’t talk to me. You’re not my sister. You’re not my sister.

BROOKE
Also, since when do we surf?

IVY
We surfed when we were kids.

BROOKE
I have a mind like a—digital voice recorder.

IVY
We bodysurfed. You were my board. I was your board. One of us always moved before the other
drowned. What’s next?

Brooke lies on her board.

BROOKE
We… paddle out.

IVY
Paddle out.

BROOKE
Paddle out. Like…

Brooke demonstrates.

IVY
Okay. I’m paddling out.

BROOKE
We’re paddling out.

IVY
Woo. Paddling out. Paddling out.
Race you.

They race.
 13

BROOKE
I’m beating you.

IVY
No, you’re not.

BROOKE
Yes, I am.

IVY
How are you beating me?

BROOKE
I’m cupping my hands. See? Cup your hands. You’ll go faster.

They do.

IVY
Hey. Wave!
(They react to the wave.)
Dammit. We lost it.

BROOKE
Don’t curse.

IVY
Fuck you. Don’t tell me what to do.
There’s another one. What do we do?

BROOKE
We determine which direction we’re going to ride.

IVY
How do you know?

BROOKE
It says,
“You intuitively understand and predict wave behavior.”

IVY
Deep.

BROOKE
We… catch white water. We stand. And then we—
(Brooke assumes an almost dance-like pose. She notices Ivy staring at her.)
Forward.
 14

BROOKE (cont.)
And then we—
(Making it up:)
Crest.

IVY
Crest?

BROOKE
Crest.

IVY
What like fucking toothpaste?

BROOKE
We crest.

Ivy grabs the instruction book.

IVY
Bullshit.

BROOKE
Bull shark.

IVY
You’re making this shit up.
You made me lose the wave.
Keep paddling.
(They paddle.)
Hey, what do people in your class say about me?

BROOKE
They don’t.

IVY
I’ll tell you what everybody’s been saying about you.

BROOKE
Nobody says anything about me.

IVY
I’ll tell you what they—

BROOKE
NOBODY says anything about me.
 15

Brooke stops paddling.

IVY
Are you okay?

BROOKE
Yea.

They keep paddling.

IVY
Are you sure you’re okay?

BROOKE
Yea.
Except…Except…I’ve been having this nightmare.
There’s this—
At night. Nothing.

IVY
Keep paddling.

BROOKE
There’s this… person, or thing, this—I don’t know what—on the other side of my door.

IVY
Fuck.

BROOKE
I know.

Beat.

IVY
Me too.

BROOKE
Really?

IVY
Keep paddling.
SHARK.
(Brooke sits up, startled.)
False alarm. Keep paddling.
 16

BROOKE
Except I don’t think it was a nightmare.
There was this person at my—I thought I heard. Somebody. Something by my door.

IVY
Maybe it was a cat.

BROOKE
We don’t have a cat.

IVY
Maybe something or someone found its way into our home.
Keep paddling.

BROOKE
We’re out pretty far.
(Beat.)
You’ve been dreaming the same thing?

IVY
Yea.

They keep paddling.

BROOKE
Weird.

IVY
Yea. Wave!

They react.

BROOKE
You’ve been dreaming the exact same thing?

IVY
Except it’s different.
Sometimes I feel there’s this thing coming at me. From every angle. It nears me in my sleep.
Sometimes I dream I’m at a door. And I want to pass through it. Sometimes I wake up and I’m at
a doorframe. And I’m getting closer as this thing’s getting closer.
And I can see you.

Brooke takes a moment.

BROOKE
Ivy, were you at my door last night?
 17

IVY
You should keep paddling.

Brooke stops. Unnerved, she takes out her digital

voice recorder. She records the sound of the ocean.

IVY
What are you—[doing]?

BROOKE
I’m recording the sound of the waves. I’m making a zen tape. For Mom.
Do you think that fish can scream?

IVY
I would scream. If I was a fish.

BROOKE
I’m doing this project for school. For biology. I’ve been recording animal distress calls. Off the
internet.
Did you know if you play horror film soundtracks for animals it freaks them?
Horror filmmakers use discordant sounds. To create tension. And it mimics calls made by
animals when they’re scared. If you play them for animals, it scares them.
Animals get scared when other animals are scared.

IVY
You want to scare animals?

BROOKE
No. It’s for a project. Listen.
(She hits play.)
That’s a rabbit in distress.
That’s a porcupine in distress.

IVY
Freaky.

BROOKE
I’m creating a collage of distress calls for my biology project.
I’ve been hearing distress calls everywhere.
Like most people are deaf to them, but I maybe have super hearing.

IVY
Fish don’t scream.

BROOKE
Maybe you just don’t hear them.
 18

IVY
Lie in the water.

BROOKE
I’m going to be a marine biologist.

IVY
Lie in the water.

BROOKE
We know more about space than the ocean.

IVY
Let’s bodysurf. Like we used to.

Beat. Brooke takes a moment.

She steps into the water. She lies on her stomach,
daring Ivy. Ivy steps onto Brooke’s back. Brooke
takes a deep breath right as Ivy shoves Brooke’s
head under the water with her foot.

The sound of the world distorted, as the sound of

water rushes over us.

IVY
Sometimes I’m really unhappy and want to kill myself. Sometimes I think about killing you.
I love you.

Ivy steps off of Brooke’s back.

Brooke sits up. She takes a deep breath.

BROOKE
What did you say?

IVY
I said everything they say about you at school.
There’s a rave later tonight. Want to go?

BROOKE
I can’t.

IVY
You sure?

BROOKE
I have homework.
 19

IVY
There’s one tomorrow night too. It’s Miami. There’s always a rave.

BROOKE
I can’t. I’m failing Spanish.

IVY
You’re not failing Spanish.

BROOKE
I’m B failing. Doesn’t matter how much I study.
Lately I haven’t been able to focus—my mind won’t… translate.
What time’s the rave?

IVY
Ten.

BROOKE
That’s in a half-hour.

IVY
Yea. I know. I’m leaving from here.

BROOKE
What about me?

IVY
Take the bus.
Unless you want to go. Want to go? You might like it. Spirituality and general awesomeness is
like the raving ethos.

BROOKE
I can’t dance.

IVY
There’s no syllabus to the dance. You take inspiration from the mood.

BROOKE
Is it crowded?

IVY
Pretty packed.

BROOKE
The bus doesn’t leave until eleven.
 20

IVY
Yea. That sucks.

A moment as the isolation sinks in. Beat.

BROOKE
I’m waiting for somebody here anyway.

IVY
Who?

BROOKE
A boy.

IVY
Uh-huh. You talked to a boy?

BROOKE
No. There’s a boy tracking a great white shark.

IVY
You don’t talk to boys. You’re going to actually talk to him?

BROOKE
Maybe.

IVY
You don’t talk to people.

BROOKE
He wrote on the Ocearch comments online that he swims out to the Jacks at night.
His name is ScubaLuis. He’s tracking a great white shark.
He’s going to swim out and meet it in the ocean.

IVY
That’s crazy.
(Beat.)
I left a pregnancy test for mom on the counter. It’s negative.
Also, a bag of pencil shavings that look like weed.

BROOKE
What if she finds it?

IVY
That’s the point.
Five bucks says she doesn’t notice.
 21

Ivy starts to exit.

BROOKE
Ivy, whose boards are these?

IVY
Don’t worry about it.

BROOKE
You’re just going to leave them?

IVY
The boards will take care of themselves. They’re magic.

BROOKE
Ivy, if you were in the middle of the ocean. If you got washed out to sea. Even if there were five
sharks surrounding you, I’d jump into the water. I’d swim out and save you.
I’d climb into shark infested waters for you.

Ivy stares at Brooke. She exits with her caboodle.

Brooke sits on the board. She records the waves.

She glances around. She waits.
Each second that passes is like a moment
stepping closer to the waves.
Brooke loses her nerve. She leaves.

Blackout.
 22

WAVE 1

3
(Brooke and Gail)

HOME. A kitchen/living room space.

Gail sits hovered over papers, absorbed.
She’s dressed nice, freshly back from a date.

Ivy’s pregnancy test sits obtrusively on a counter or

in a clear open space next to a bag of pencil
shavings.

Gail moves away from her work. She writes onto

slips of paper. She places them into a jar.

GAIL
Thoughts that I have failed at it all and it was inevitable.
Thoughts that the now is forever.
Bad impressions I’ve made.
ObamaCare failing.
Varicose veins.
Lack of spark?
Thoughts of deep deep loneliness.
The tiny atrocities I have committed.
Thoughts that I am not taking enough vitamins.
Thoughts that I’m taking too many vitamins.
The spring tide.

Brooke enters, quietly. She sees the pregnancy test

and beelines to it. She stops. She leaves it.

A long spat of silence as she watches Gail.

BROOKE
What’s that?

GAIL
Guess.
(Gail writes on another piece of paper.)
Sven, two weeks ago.
Charles.

She drops them in the jar.

 23

BROOKE
(Trying to make a joke.)
You’re collecting the souls of men?
It’s a jar of regrets?

GAIL
It’s a jar of things I need to get out of my head. If you give a thought airtime in your mind, you
empower it. I’m trapping them. Like insects. So they don’t crawl around in my brain.
What do you notice about it?

BROOKE
It’s dark.

GAIL
It’s opaque. This is going to be my magic jar. There’s a lot one can do with a jar.
(Brooke nears the pregnancy test again.)
For instance…
(Gail writes.)
Lunch the other week with Dan.
Steve.

BROOKE
Your date didn’t go well tonight?

GAIL
It went swimmingly.

BROOKE
Didn’t I tell // you—?

GAIL
I know. “The social consequence of taking too much time ordering far outweighs the cost of
picking something you don’t like.”
I had the same thing I had the last three dates at Fish Fish. The Conch Chowder. The
Deconstructed Grilled Caesar Salad. We got past Fish Fish.
We ended up at the grocery store.

BROOKE
How did you end up at the grocery store?

GAIL
I needed groceries. He wanted to keep “hanging out.”

BROOKE
Was it the meat section?
 24

GAIL
The juice.
Apple juice vs orange. Concentrate vs 100%. Vitamin enriched. Non-Vitamin enriched. There
were too many choices.

BROOKE
What’d you end up with?

GAIL
He left first.
I’m telling you, Brooke. There’s battles out there. Battles we’re not supposed to talk about.
Shouldn’t talk about.
I’m not talking about Pakistan or Syria. I’m talking about battles over which broccoli. Which
whole grain. Battles with ourselves over the trivial shit.
But we’re not supposed to talk about them. You know why? Because nobody cares. And you
shouldn’t care. Even though for some reason, they’re still battles.
(Brooke moves towards the pregnancy test. Gail, stopping her:)
Work’s been stressful. Because of the flood.
EPA says we’re not protecting against “climate change” risks.
The Sewage and Water Department’s having me put out a report that it’s just the spring tide.

BROOKE
It’s fall.

GAIL
It’s an astronomical event with an unfortunate name. It just means the moon’s close to the earth.

BROOKE
Do you believe them?

GAIL
I don’t know.
They put us on gridlock until we issue a new plan. They sent me home with an extra phone.
That’s how nuts it’s getting. Just in case the old one dies.
I think my OCD’s been flaring.
(Beat.)
It’s okay. I’m happy.
I’m happy. I’m happy.
Are you happy?

BROOKE
(Lying.)
Yeah.

GAIL
Good. We’re okay. I’m glad everybody’s okay. We’re okay, right?
 25

BROOKE
(%)Yeah.

GAIL
Where’s Ivy?

BROOKE
Still out.
(Beginning to tell her—)
***Mom, earlier I was with Ivy at the beach...

GAIL
Should you be down there? Isn’t there still run off?

BROOKE
Most of it’s gone.
(Beat.)
***I was with Ivy…
(Stopping herself:)
You should come with us sometime. We’re learning to surf.
Men sometimes hang out there. You don’t have to meet them online.

GAIL
I have varicose veins.

BROOKE
Me too. Want to see?

GAIL
Probably got them from me.

BROOKE
Mom, I’m fourteen. I’m kidding.

GAIL
I know.

BROOKE
***Mom, I think Ivy was in my room last night.

GAIL
Oh, good. That means last night she came home.

Brooke moves closer to the pregnancy test and

plastic baggie.
 26

BROOKE
***Mom, Ivy—

Gail writes on a slip of paper.

GAIL
Fear of messing it up this week with Rick.
(She writes something else. She places it in the jar.)
There. Out of my head. Not ever thinking about it again.
Sometimes it’s a real clutter, y’know. With everything.

BROOKE
I know.
(Beat. She takes a deep breath. She tries again.)
***Ivy…

GAIL
Probiotics. Probiotics too. I’ve been trying probiotics. They’re supposed to help—like the good
bacteria sends positive messages to your brain or something like that.
Lactobaccilius and I are like this.
(She crosses her fingers.)
We’re tight.

BROOKE
Mom—

GAIL
Yes, Brooke? Everything’s okay?

Beat.

BROOKE
At school today. Everything was great. I’m popular. They respect my silence. Nobody slams my
locker shut.
They may even nominate Ivy for class president.

Gail looks at Brooke, perplexed. Brooke waits for

her mom to say something. Gail doesn’t.

BROOKE
I’ve got to go somewhere…
I made you another MP3.

Brooke exits and returns with headphones. She

hands them to her mom.
 27

BROOKE
Ready? Close your eyes.

Gail sits. She listens to the MP3.

NOTE: The following is Brooke’s recorded voice.

DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER:

Reassuring message number one. You’re okay.
Reassuring message number two. You’re still okay.
When it comes to the trivial things—This is how you make a decision.
Step one: make a choice.
Step two: stick to it like a mofo.

Gail quizzically mouths the word “mofo” to

Brooke. Brooke shrugs.

DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER

The only wrong decision is indecision.

GAIL
That’s nice, honey. Did you come up with that?

Brooke nods. She smiles.

DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER

“In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how
gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.”
—Buddha

BROOKE
I put that one on there because it felt true.

DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER

Your younger daughter prefers Fluffernutter on her sandwiches over Nutella. I know it’s weird.

BROOKE
That’s also true.

The sound of the ocean—loud, pumped up.

BROOKE
Mom, I’m going back out. There’s a boy—he’s tracking a great white shark.

GAIL
What?
 28

BROOKE
I said I’m going to meet a shark.

GAIL
(Not properly hearing.)
Just make sure he’s not a smoker.

Gail notices Brooke heading towards the door.

Gail looks at her watch.

GAIL
You can’t go out now. It’s too late.

Brooke stops.

BROOKE
Ivy’s out.
Trust me, Mom. I’m okay.

A moment. Brooke wins.

Gail sits back down. She puts the headphones on.

DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER

"Only you have the ability to create the best version of yourself."

Recording: the sound of waves.

BROOKE
I’m taking your other phone, okay?

GAIL
What?

BROOKE
Thanks!

DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER

“Only you can prevent forest fires.”
—Smokey the Bear

Brooke takes the iPhone. She exits. The MP3

continues. As soon as Brooke leaves, Gail removes
the headphones. She picks up the jar. She places it
over the pregnancy test and the bag of pencil
shavings. She sits. She returns to her work.
Blackout.
 29

WAVE 1

4
(Brooke and Luis)

“The Jacks”

The surfboards are gone. Brooke searches for them.

In the distance, Luis, 15, appears in silhouette. He

stares out into the ocean. A wetsuit sits in front of
him. Brooke watches him. She steps towards him.
She steps back.

He sees her. She freezes.

Brooke doesn’t know what to say. She plays the

recording of the rabbit in distress.
She plays the porcupine.

LUIS
What-the fuck?

Brooke quickly plays it again cutting him off.

BROOKE
That’s a rabbit in duress.

LUIS
That some kind of threat?

Nervously, she plays another sound.

BROOKE
That’s a porcupine.

LUIS
Because if it is—tell those assholes I have ways of protecting myself!

BROOKE
It’s not a threat.

LUIS
Oh. Okay.
Stand over there. This is normal people land. That’s weirdo land.
 30

Brooke moves to weirdo land.

BROOKE
I found them online. I didn’t actually—

LUIS
Good.

Luis begins to change into his wetsuit.

He looks at her, appraising her. Beat.

LUIS
What else you got?

Brooke plays another sound.

BROOKE
That’s a fawn. It sounds like a baby crying.

She plays another.

BROOKE
That’s a wild turkey. It sounds like sonar radar. It sounds like...

Brooke takes out the iPhone. She opens the

OCEARCH app. Ping. Ping. Ping.

BROOKE
Mary Lee getting closer.

LUIS
Oh, shit. You have the Ocearch app?

BROOKE
You’re ScubaLuis. You’re the guy tracking the shark!

LUIS
Okay. Stalker land’s that way.

Brooke moves to stalker land.

BROOKE
***I follow you on the boards. I’m your only follower.

Luis continues changing into his wetsuit.

 31

BROOKE
You posted that you’re planning to meet a shark in the ocean. That’s a cry for help, right?
Because if you need help, I can try! I’m going to be altruistic! Also, a marine biologist or a
therapist!

LUIS
It’s not a cry for help.

BROOKE
Oh.
You don’t have the Ocearch app?

LUIS
I don’t have a phone.
(%)I don’t need an app.

BROOKE
How are you going to know when she’s close?

LUIS
From the computer at the library. I’m going to time it.

BROOKE
That’s not going to work. She’s coming in three days. How do you know she’s going to be close
enough to shore?

LUIS
Because I just know.

Brooke looks at the smartphone.

BROOKE
Hope nobody’s in the water at the Biscayne Bay. That bull shark’s real close.

LUIS
Let me see.
(Brooke lets him.)
Cool.

Brooke looks at him closer as he looks at the app. In

the light, she can finally see him.

BROOKE
Hey. You were in my Spanish I class!

He stops. He looks at her.

 32

LUIS
Oh, shit. You’re that girl.

BROOKE
You haven’t been in class in five weeks.

LUIS
You tracking me?

Brooke, intimidated, begins to edge away.

LUIS
Eres linda, pero muy rara.

BROOKE
What’s that mean?

LUIS
It means I already know the language.

BROOKE
Is that why you dropped?

LUIS
Yeah. That’s why I dropped. Out of school.

BROOKE
You dropped out of school?

LUIS
I already know everything there’s to know. So...

BROOKE
You don’t know everything.

LUIS
I know Mary Lee’s going to swim right there.

BROOKE
How?

LUIS
The Jacks.

BROOKE
The Jacks?
 33

LUIS
The Jacks. The aerojacks. They’re right out there. Below the water. Fifty years ago, they tossed
hundreds of giant jacks in the water. They trap the sand. It created a reef.
Sharks love reefs like… stoners love reef-er.

He notices her digital voice recorder is on.

LUIS
You recording me?

BROOKE
No.

She turns it off.

LUIS
Want to see the Jacks? We can swim out now. I’ll show you.
How strong are your arms? You have to be strong to swim out to the Jacks.

***She shows him her arms.

LUIS
Those are puny. But they’ll do.

Luis steps into the water. Brooke stays on land. She

stares into the ocean.

LUIS
What? You afraid of the water?

BROOKE
No.
(She rolls up her pant leg. She steps closer to the water. She stops.)
It’s dark. The sharks come out after dark.

LUIS
You know when they also come out? During the day.

He steps deeper into the water.

Brooke stays on shore. He waits.

LUIS
I mean it’s cool to stand in the ocean alone. I bet it’s even better with company.
Sharks won’t hurt you. People think they’re killing machines. They’re not. They just get
confused. Make mistakes. That’s why I swim with a light at night. See.
 34

He shows her.

BROOKE
A surfer got attacked last week.

LUIS
Non-fatal. Mistaken identity bite. Surfers silhouetted in wetsuits look like seals.
It’s a testament to sharks’ intelligence there aren’t more attacks.
Sharks are ancient. They’re like super evolved. Also, they’re awesome parents.

BROOKE
Sharks don’t feel compassion.

LUIS
That’s why they’re awesome. They don’t think about it. They care for their babies by instinct.
We’re like the only species capable of so utterly fucking up our young.
Besides, I’m not going to get attacked. I’m all muscle and bone? See.
(Luis shows her his arms.)
Not a smidgen of fat on me. Nothing like a seal.
(He looks her up and down.)
Neither are you.

BROOKE
How do you know that’s going to stop a shark?

LUIS
I know.
(Luis moves deeper into the ocean.)
This is how you confront a shark.
(Luis does a gesture of confronting a shark. It is fierce, defensive and loving.)
Mary Lee’s going to be like “Hola, Luis.”

BROOKE
Mary Lee speaks Spanish?

LUIS
Of course she does. She’s my shark.
I’m going to be all “Hola, coma estas, Mary Lee.” You know what she’s going to say back?

BROOKE
Got pepper?

LUIS
She’s going to say “Luis, mi amigo. Vamos a tomar un baño.”
So, you wouldn’t understand.
 35

BROOKE
How do you know she’s not going to hurt you?

LUIS
Because I am invincible. Because nothing can hurt me.
I’m fearless. Sharks are like dogs, they only bite when you’re afraid.
Besides, they don’t eat humans. They usually just seize and release them.

He suddenly drops into the water. Brooke

jumps. He resurfaces.

BROOKE
Funny.

LUIS
Also…
(Luis pulls out a pocketknife.)
I have this.
I wouldn’t really use it. Just psyche her out. It’s mostly to protect against other things.
(Luis puts the knife away. He gestures for Brooke to join him in the water. She
doesn’t.)
There’s a lot of reasons to fear the ocean. But other than rough waves—no good reasons to really
fear it.

BROOKE
My mom used to tell us our dad was eaten by a shark.
I think he left because he couldn’t handle us.
My sister’s always been afraid of the ocean.
***I’ve always been afraid of the things my sister’s afraid of.

LUIS
I hated bananas when I was five because my brother hated bananas.

BROOKE
Do you still hate bananas?

LUIS
Nah, at a certain point—you have to split!

Luis dives back into the water. Brooke watches him,

mesmerized.

BROOKE
(Calling out.)
YOU’RE REALLY NOT AFRAID OF ANYTHING?
 36

LUIS
I’m not afraid of debt, assholes in Ferraris, and sharks.

BROOKE
NOTHING?

LUIS
Clownfish freak me out a little!

BROOKE
REALLY?

LUIS
If I have to watch Nemo with my cousin one more time, I might flip it.
I’m kidding.
See. I’m just another thing swimming in the ocean. I’m not afraid of anything.

BROOKE
NOTHING?

He swims back. Brooke is floored.

LUIS
I used to be afraid of things.

BROOKE
What changed?

LUIS
Too many things to fear. Figured I was done being scared. There’s bigger fish to fry.
You should come in.

Brooke rolls up her jeans again. She stops.

BROOKE
Mary Lee’s coming sooner than you think.

LUIS
How can you tell?

BROOKE
I can feel her coming. I feel things. Sometimes I feel everything at once.
Lately my heart’s been beating more. And my pulse’s been beating more.
Lately everything’s making me jumpy.
Like I’m permanently stuck on fear.
 37

LUIS
(In the water, offering his hand.)
Let me see.

Brooke takes a deep breath.

***She steps into the water.
They stand in the ocean together. At first Brooke is
filled with terror. Then gradually, as she feels the
waves on her legs, a sense of wonder.

He takes her wrists.

***She lets him.
He feels her pulse.

LUIS
Wow.

BROOKE
(Awkwardly.)
See?

He feels her heartbeat.

***She lets him.

LUIS
Wow. Holy shit.

BROOKE
I’ve been—I’ve been tracking my biorhythms.
No matter how much I feel afraid—it never feels familiar.
(She records herself.)
The feeling of fear never feels familiar.
(Enamored by the phrase:)
The feeling of fear never feels familiar.

LUIS
Yea. You can’t get used to fear. It’s like designed that way.
(Beat.)
You’re not bad looking.

BROOKE
***Thanks?
(Brooke pulls out of the water. She returns to land.)
I’ll let you hold onto the phone. If you let me watch you swim out when Mary Lee gets here.
 38

LUIS
Deal.

BROOKE
Why’d you really drop out of school?

LUIS
Because there’s not much time left. (%)Because the ocean’s coming.

BROOKE
How do you know?

LUIS
See those buildings, shining in the moonlight. Built like they were meant for kings. They won’t
keep the flooding out. See this?
(He rolls up his wetsuit leg. He shows her a mark on his leg.)
Looks like a bull’s-eye. It’s a mark of knowing. I’m a prophet.

BROOKE
It looks like a burn mark.

LUIS
It’s not. It just appeared on my skin. See. I’m a prophet. Or maybe I’ve been reading the tide
reports. Or maybe the water knocked at my family’s front door. Said “Hola, Luis’ family.”
Decided to come right in.

BROOKE
You’re in the flood zone?

LUIS
I’m a prophet. I’ve stood in the water. I’ve stood in the ocean on land. Water in places there
shouldn’t be water. Like my living room. You know what a city official said when they asked
him about the flooding? He said, “Everything’s okay.” He said to read the bible. “God won’t do
it again.” But I’m a prophet, okay. And I know—that water’s coming. These coastal floods. You
should record them. Record their freaky silence. Their lull as they near houses. Get the city
officials doing nothing, claiming it’s nothing, claiming “everything’s okay” to listen to that.
THAT’S a fucking distress call.

BROOKE
Are you really going to meet Mary Lee?

LUIS
I have to now. You’re gonna watch, right?

Luis picks up the phone.

Blackout. The sound of the ocean.
 39

WAVE 2

5
(Brooke-Ivy, then Brooke-Luis)

The next evening. Brooke and Ivy stand on

surfboards on the sand. Perhaps they’ve switched
sides. Ivy once more has her caboodle. Brooke has
the book. This time a boom box sits next to Ivy.

IVY
Your right foot goes in front of your left foot. Okay?
You balance.

BROOKE
Right.

IVY
Wave!

BROOKE
What do we do?

IVY
Crouch.

Brooke and Ivy crouch.

BROOKE
And?

IVY
Balance. We balance.

Brooke notices Ivy staring at her.

BROOKE
What direction do we look?
What direction do we look?

IVY
Wave!

BROOKE
I went into the water last night.
 40

IVY
How far?

BROOKE
To my knees.

IVY
Why?

BROOKE
The voices in my head said to.

IVY
You’re hearing voices?

BROOKE
They’re more like feelings.

IVY
That’s called instincts.
Your instincts are fucked.

BROOKE
I met the guy who’s going to meet the shark.

IVY
What’d he say?

BROOKE
He said he’d introduce me.

Ivy grabs Brooke.

IVY
Don’t you fucking do that, okay?

Brooke pulls back.

BROOKE
Okay. It’s Luis’ shark anyway. Probably speaks Spanish.
If my instincts are (effed)—What are yours like?

IVY
They’re like having a party.
 41

BROOKE
A party.

IVY
Yeah. An awesome party with black lights. Lots of loud music. You should join.
Wave!

They hang ten.

BROOKE
Huh. Really? Because right now—mine are telling me…
Mine are telling me I should be worried. Like if I want to live past fourteen, I should maybe be
running away from home.
But then they say, if you run away from home, you also might not live past fourteen.
And that would suck, because I hear fifteen is supposed to suck but also be better than fourteen.
I hear most things are better than fourteen.

IVY
Why would you run away from home?

BROOKE
Because of my dream last night.

IVY
You too?

BROOKE
My dream that wasn’t a dream.

Ivy wipes out.

IVY
Wiiipe out.
Hey. Look. This… is a boom box.

BROOKE
I know what a boom box is.

Ivy turns on the boom box. Ivy plays Buddy Holly’s

“Rave On.” She plays it loud. She speaks over the
music.

IVY
I found this in the attic with mom’s caboodle. Mom must have saved it from the 90s. Mom was
like our age in the 90s. Isn’t that weird? I think that’s weird.
 42

Ivy pulls out a glow stick from her caboodle. She

snaps it.

IVY
Hold this.

BROOKE
Okay.

IVY
Now close your eyes. Brooke, I want you to experience a rave.

Brooke closes her eyes.

BROOKE
This is what a rave is like?

IVY
This is what a rave from the 90s was like.

Ivy pulls out bubbles. She blows them.

BROOKE
Really?

IVY
Yeah.

As Brooke’s eyes are closed, Ivy pulls out several

baggies filled with pills. She lines them up on the
board. After an awkwardly long passage of time,
Brooke finally opens her eyes.

IVY
This is ecstasy. It’s still hot, but it was way hotter in the 90s.
Everything was hotter in the 90s.
(She looks at the bottle closely.)
Actually, this might be from the 90s.

BROOKE
You found those in mom’s caboodle?

IVY
Nah. All I found in her caboodle was a petrified candy necklace.

Ivy shows Brooke a candy necklace on her wrist.

 43

BROOKE
Ew.

IVY
Which is totally not proof mom wasn’t a raver.
I added the pills with our baby pictures.
(She opens the caboodle, revealing it’s lined with images of Brooke and Ivy as girls. A
few of the images feature their mother.)
See. There’s mom making sandcastles with us at the beach. Our tiny ankles in ballet class. Look!
You in the tattle tale duck tutu with all those feathers. You were so cute. What happened?

Brooke sticks her tongue out.

IVY
I’m kidding. You’re still cute.

Ivy returns to the pills. Brooke pulls out the digital

voice recorder. She records her sister.

IVY
Percoset. Xanax.
Can you say Xanax?
Xa-an-ax.
Xanax is like the world’s greatest palindrome.
Xa-an-ax. No devil lived on Xanax. Xanax no devil lived on.

BROOKE
Maybe you shouldn’t mix those things with Zoloft.

IVY
Maybe you shouldn’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
This one’s a downer. It calms you. You take it after a rave.
Like especially if somebody touched you inappropriately.
Which never happened in the 90s.
But you have to be careful with Xanax and Percocet. I call them sleeping beauty drugs. Some
drugs you can take and never wake up.
I think sleeping beauty OD’d actually. I think like sleeping beauty is a metaphor. And instead of
the pinprick, the evil stepmother or whatever just wasn’t looking.
(Ivy notices Brooke recording her.)
What are you doing?

BROOKE
Recording animal distress calls.

IVY
Turn that thing off.
 44

IVY (cont.)
The 90s. Oh, my God. The 90s were SO MUCH BETTER.
People either wore clothes. Or they didn’t. There was no halfway.
Everybody’s just half naked now. People shouldn’t be half naked. They should either be all
naked or no naked. We shouldn’t go halfway with anything.
I’m like obsessed with pictures of raves from the 90s. They were just cooler. The men were more
like hippies, I think. Now raves are just like electronic music parties. And like all the girls wear
emu leggings. Which look really weird. And the events are all official. Which sucks.
(Ivy takes Brooke’s digital voice recorder.)
Dear Mom, people are better naked and things are always better when they’re unofficial.
(Ivy drops Brooke’s digital voice recorder in the sand. As she dances:)
No. We don’t need the music. The ocean beats the electronic punk junk.
(Ivy listens to the ocean.)
The beat’s overwhelming.
(Ivy dances on the board as Brooke watches her.)
We’re at a rave. We’re at a rave.
So, like get this Brooke—every once in a while at a rave—the glimmer and sparkle fade, okay?
Everything that once felt epic feels like a bad mini-series. Like walking in the halls at high
school. I don’t want that. Okay? You shouldn’t want that either.
Nobody should want that.

BROOKE
What are you talking about?

IVY
I’m talking about—all the music shatters you. I’m talking about—you are wild.
I am wild. You and I are wild. There is light bursting from our fingertips and glow sticks—we
are so retro and 90s. We are so rocking the 90s.

BROOKE
Ivy, why are the 90s better?

IVY
Because everything was better before we were born, okay?

Ivy grabs the digital voice recorder.

She screams into it. It is piercing and weird. It
progresses at first from a manic joyous scream to
just a scream, to a high-pitched repeated horror-
film-shower-scene-from-Psycho scream.

BROOKE
What are you doing?

IVY
Brooke. Brooke. This is very important Brooke.
 45

She screams into the digital voice recorder.

IVY
Hear it. It’s exactly like a horror movie scream. Like people pay for this scream.

Ivy screams into the voice recorder again.

Brooke looks around.

IVY
Chill out. Nobody’s listening.
You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to—I’m going to upload this online. So people don’t
have to pay for the copyrighted version. I’m going to donate my scream online.
The whole world is going to know my scream.

Ivy dances in her own space as Brooke stares into

the ocean. Brooke feels her own pulse.

IVY
What are you doing?

BROOKE
Tracking my biorhythms.

Ivy tosses Brooke a baggie.

IVY
Try this. This will make your pulse race.

BROOKE
How much?

IVY
What?

BROOKE
I’ll buy them from you. I’ll buy all of them from you.

IVY
Fuck no.

BROOKE
How much did you pay for them?

IVY
What would you do with them?
 46

BROOKE
Throw them in the ocean.

IVY
Award winning environmentalist, right here.

BROOKE
I wouldn’t really throw them in the ocean.

Ivy puts her hands on her face like gills.

IVY
I’m a fish on ex.

BROOKE
I have twenty dollars at home.

IVY
Try $200.

BROOKE
Where’d you get $200?

IVY
Don’t worry about it.
Wave! Balance.
(Brooke half-heartedly surfs.)
Don’t worry about me. Everything’s okay. Ever notice there’s something off about you?
Ever wonder why the teachers sometimes give you different assignments?

BROOKE
It’s because I’m smart.

IVY
It’s because they think you’re retarded.

BROOKE
I don’t think that’s true.

IVY
It’s because they think you’re on the spectrum.

BROOKE
No. I just like information.
Ivy—last night in my dream—
 47

IVY
Paddle.

BROOKE
Last night in my dream…
There was a—demon over me.

IVY
Paddle.

BROOKE
***Ivy. Ivy, look.

Brooke removes her sweater revealing a human bite

mark on her arm.

IVY
We’re not in your bedroom. We’re at a rave.

BROOKE
Ivy.

IVY
I have 700 tendrils. Feel them?
Earlier tonight. I had static on my hand—and for a moment an unlit bulb lit. That’s amazing isn’t
it?
Sometimes you don’t feel reality. Y’know. Ever felt that? Sometimes. Just the edges.
I had a nightmare too.

BROOKE
What was your nightmare?

IVY
You know why a rave’s called a rave?
Buddy Holly. 1958. He sang that song. About the frenzy. Frenzy. Frenzy. The desire for it to
never end. Because you never want it to end, Brooke. You never want it to end.
(Singing.)
Well, rave on it's a crazy feeling
And I know it's got me reeling
I'm so glad that you're revealing your love for me
Rave on, rave on and tell me, tell me, not to be lonely
Tell me, you love me only rave on to me
Sing it with me.
Rave on. Rave on and tell me. Tell me. Not to be lonely.
Tell me, you love me, only rave on to me.
 48

BROOKE
Ivy, what was your nightmare?

Ivy removes her sweater. Her arm is covered in

teeth marks.

IVY
That there’s a girl trying to kill you.
She killed me first.
Then she killed you.

IVY
I’m watching out for you okay.
Okay, Brooke?
(Ivy stares at Brooke. The sound of the ocean.)
Brooke, can I bite you?
One bite.

Brooke stares at Ivy. A weird moment.

IVY
I’ll tell you where I got the boards—if you let me bite you.

Brooke takes a deep breath. She closes her eyes.

She offers her arm. Ivy bites her arm.

IVY
Tray.

BROOKE
Tray lent you his boards?

IVY
Yea. Tray lets me bite him. That’s how I get the boards.

BROOKE
You’re sixteen. Tray’s twenty-two.

IVY
You should see his arms.

BROOKE
How come you’re not surfing with him?
 49

IVY
He’s… out.
Want to see what it’s like?

BROOKE
Not really.

Ivy pulls Brooke onto the sand. She pushes her

down.

IVY
Lie still.

BROOKE
Ivy, stop.

Ivy forcefully bites Brooke’s arm. She bites

Brooke’s other arm. Brooke struggles.

BROOKE
Stop!

Ivy’s attack is increasingly vicious.

BROOKE
STOP.

Brooke pulls away. A moment.

She feels her pulse.
She pulls out her digital voice recorder.

BROOKE
This is an orca whale.
(She plays an orca whale in distress.)
That’s an ostrich.

She plays an ostrich in distress combined with the

orca whale. Beat.

IVY
There’s a rave tonight. Want to come?
(Brooke doesn’t answer.)
Brooke?

Brooke doesn’t answer.

 50

Something has irreparably shifted. Brooke knows.

Ivy maybe senses it. Ivy packs up her caboodle.
She prepares to exit.

BROOKE
I would climb into shark infested waters for you.

Ivy exits.
Brooke takes out the digital voice recorder.

BROOKE
DAMMIT. FUCK. SHIT. FUCKING SHIT. GODDAMNIT. FUCK. FFUUUUUUCK.
FUUUCK.

She screams into it.

She screams.
She screams.
Brooke takes a moment. She regains her
composure. She takes a few deep breaths.
She puts the digital voice recorder aside

She notices Luis watching her.

She quickly pulls her sweater back on.

LUIS
You alright?

BROOKE
Lie in the water.

Luis stares at her.

BROOKE
(Ala Ivy.)
Lie in the water.
Luis starts to.

LUIS
O…kay.

BROOKE
On your stomach.

Luis does. Brooke steps towards him. She lifts her

foot. She stops. She sits back down. Awkward
beat.
 51

BROOKE
That’s a serious moon.

Luis doesn’t question the moment. He lets it pass.

LUIS
Nah, that moon has a sense of humor.

Beat. Luis steps into the water, ankle deep.

He takes several deep breaths while watching the
waves lap against his legs. Brooke stands by the
shore. She is still clearly frazzled.

LUIS
(In an effort to calm her.)
Hey. Why does the earth orbit the moon?

BROOKE
Gravity?

LUIS
To get to the other side.
How do you know the moon is going broke?

BROOKE
I don’t know.

LUIS
When it’s down to its last quarter.
What do you call a clock on the moon?

BROOKE
A lunartick.

Brooke pauses, serious again.

LUIS
Did you hear about the bones they found on the moon?
It seems like the cow did not make it.

Brooke laughs. He gestures for her to step closer.

LUIS
Try this.

He demonstrates, breathing with the waves.

 52

Brooke does.

LUIS
It helps to take your shoes off.

Brooke does. She steps into the ocean.

LUIS
See. That’s nice.

BROOKE
You like stepping into the ocean.

LUIS
Who doesn’t? Beats stepping into the flood.

BROOKE
You stepped in it?

LUIS
Oh, yeah. Jeremiah got loose—Jeremiah’s my dog. I went after him.

BROOKE
What was it like?

LUIS
You didn’t see it?

BROOKE
Not up close.

LUIS
It’s freaky. It’s not like the type of flood that comes with rain, the water just sort of creeps up on
you. Water gushes over your legs, but it’s not like standing in the ocean. The ocean’s like—
(He gestures the gentle motion of the waves.)
Swoosh. Swoosh.
But flood water has bits that grab at you. Not living things like jellyfish. Dead things. Or things
that were never alive. And it’s not pretty. Raw sewage floats by.
And you don’t know what’s under the water.

BROOKE
We don’t know what’s under this water.

They stand in the ocean together.

 53

LUIS
Hey. Close your eyes.
(She does.)
You’re ankle deep in water at your door step.
Stop light’s reflected in the water.
You can trip in up to six inches of water.
People drive through flooded streets and into a lake and die.
This old man slipped into a canal and drowned.

BROOKE
You saw that?

LUIS
I read about that. I saw other things. Mostly shit though.
Our dog, he got salmonella.
(He pulls up his pant leg.)
I got a bull’s-eye.

BROOKE
That’s ringworm isn’t it? I looked it up.

LUIS
Probably.
Earlier—why were you screaming?

BROOKE
Nothing. It’s for a project.

LUIS
Alright.

BROOKE
I’m going to record my voice. I’m going to put it online. I’m going to sell it to horror films.
The whole world’s going to know my scream.
(Re: the bull’s-eye on his leg.)
Does it hurt?

LUIS
It doesn’t feel like anything.
Itches a little.

BROOKE
Let me see.

She looks at it closely.

 54

LUIS
Want to touch it?

Brooke moves her hand close to his leg. She stops.

BROOKE
No.

LUIS
Smart. It’s probably contagious.
Hey. Want to know what I predict for Mary Lee in twenty years?
Hold on. You’re Florida.

BROOKE
You predict I’m Florida?

LUIS
No. Pretend for a moment you’re Florida.

BROOKE
Okay.
(She tries.)
Florida’s a state. How do I pretend I’m—

LUIS
Get into a state of Florida.

BROOKE
What?

Brooke attempts to get into a state of Florida.

LUIS
Um, lie down.

BROOKE
And?

LUIS
Just kind of lie there.

Brooke lies on the surfboard. Luis moves his hand

on the edges of her body, not quite touching her. It’s
more sensual than sexual. This is not a consciously
purposeful seduction, it’s a demonstration. They
barely touch.
 55

LUIS
You’re Florida a hundred years from now. Maybe twenty. Maybe five.
See Mary Lee. She’s floating downtown. Past the abandoned hotels and empty rooms.
They never filled them. They just kept building them.

BROOKE
We should break in.

LUIS
You’re Florida. You can’t break in—you just kind of lie there.
See. Right here on your belly—
(He circles his hand over her stomach.)
Is 1/3 of the area that surrounds Miami.
It’s less than five feet above sea level.
See 1/3 of south Florida vanishes. And all the adults, they’re just wondering—wondering what
happens if we take one step closer, right?
My dad’s like that.

BROOKE
Like— “What the hell happens if we just take one more step closer to global destruction?”

LUIS
No. More like—what happens if I ignore this one important thing?

BROOKE
What’s Mary Lee doing?

LUIS
Peeking into skyscrapers.

He starts to roll up her sleeve.

BROOKE
Don’t.

Luis stops.

LUIS
What’s wrong?

BROOKE
Nothing.
Keep going.

LUIS
Okay.
 56

Luis moves to her shoulders instead.

BROOKE
I—I—

LUIS
How’s that feel?

BROOKE
I think I’m experiencing an upsurge of dopamine at the moment.

LUIS
Hey. Try this.

He lies on the sand next to her. He writhes.

BROOKE
What are you—?

LUIS
That’s how sharks communicate.

BROOKE
They do not.

LUIS
No, really. I looked it up.

On the ground, they twist their bodies. They near

one another. It’s also more sensual than sexual.

BROOKE
Are we—what are we—?

LUIS
We’re playing sharks.

BROOKE
This is moving fast.

LUIS
Sharks move fast. They have to keep moving, or they die.
Hey—what’s that song? From that old movie?
(He does the Jaws song.)
Duh-duh. Duh-Duh Duh-Duh
 57

Brooke takes a moment as she decides.

She looks at him closely.
As they twist closer to each other—

BROOKE
Duh-duh. Duh-duh. // Duh- duh. Duh-Duh.

LUIS
Duh-duh. Duh-duh.

He suddenly, playfully bites her.

She pulls away. She stares, horrified.

LUIS
What?

BROOKE
Why did you—?

LUIS
It’s how sharks show affection. It's how sharks kiss.

BROOKE
Do it again.

She lets him bite her. She sits with it.

BROOKE
Again.

He does. She pulls away.

LUIS
You okay?

BROOKE
Will you do something for me?

She puts her hand out. He holds her hand.

They stare at the moon.

LUIS
You know what holds the moon up?
Moonbeams.
 58

Ping. Ping. Ping. They glance towards the phone.

BROOKE
Show me how you confront a shark again.

Luis does the gesture of confronting a shark.

It is fierce, defensive and loving.
Brooke tries it. Beat.

BROOKE
Are you really going to meet Mary Lee in the ocean?

LUIS
If she comes fast enough.

BROOKE
What’s that mean?

LUIS
It means—there are worse things than sharks.

BROOKE
Like what?

LUIS
Loan sharks.

BROOKE
Keep holding my hand.
(She holds his hand. She slowly lifts her sleeve.)
I’m not—fearless. A lot of things freak me out. Talking to people other than my family, spiders,
monkeys, spider monkeys, Ivy, my sister staring at me from my doorway last night. Just staring.
Ha. Standing there, creeping closer, and closer—
(She pulls up her sleeve, revealing the bite marks.)
***This.

LUIS
Holy God. I didn’t bite you that hard.

BROOKE
***I think my sister’s going to kill me.

LUIS
Gross. Have you told your parents?
 59

BROOKE
I think if I was any more direct about it, it’d wreck my mom.

LUIS
Maybe some people need to be wrecked.

BROOKE
She probably wouldn’t believe me.

LUIS
What if you showed her that?

BROOKE
I don’t think she’d look.

LUIS
She will too. She cares, right?

BROOKE
That’s why she wouldn’t look.

LUIS
You should do something.

BROOKE
I think I can get her back. My sister. She wasn’t always like this. Just the past year.
We used to swim at the pool together. We’d wake up in the middle of the night at the same time,
walk to the middle of the hall, say hi, smile and go back to sleep— or go to my room, play board
games and tell stories until 1 am. A year ago, she started acting…off. I told her she couldn’t
come to my room anymore. Now she watches me in my sleep. I can feel her eyes.
The other day, she had this moment of…lucidity.
I think I can pull her back.

LUIS
Not if she’s going all Freddie Krueger on you.

BROOKE
I can’t really tell how serious this is.
I googled the other day, “my sister is trying to kill me.”

LUIS
Anything come up?

BROOKE
A lot.
There was a post that said “My sister is trying to terminate me. What do I do?”
 60

LUIS
What did the internet say?

BROOKE
“Terminate her back.”

Beat. Luis hands her his knife.

LUIS
Here. Just in case.

Brooke laughs.

BROOKE
Funny.

LUIS
I’m serious. Just in case.

BROOKE
I’m not going to—

LUIS
I’d never use it on Mary Lee. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t bring it.

She slides it back.

BROOKE
Don’t you need it?

LUIS
Are you kidding? Have you seen these fists?
I can get another. Just hold onto it.

BROOKE
I’m not going to use it.

LUIS
Just hold onto it. You got it? Hold onto it.

BROOKE
You ever been to Mosquito Lagoon in the summer?
During the hottest days Mosquito Lagoon comes alive.

LUIS
With mosquitos?
 61

BROOKE
No. With glowing lights. Same with the Indian River, I hear.
If you touch the waters, they glow. Anything touches them, makes contact—it lights up.
You ever seen that?
(He shakes his head.)
We went once. My mom took me and Ivy.
I thought it was magic. But it turned out to just be algae. Bioluminescence.

LUIS
So?

BROOKE
I don’t know.

Ping. Ping. Ping. They glance at the phone.

LUIS
Whoa. How’d she—?

BROOKE
That’s like—

LUIS
One day away?

BROOKE
Tomorrow maybe. Wait. No. Hold on—

LUIS
She stopped?

They stare at it intensely.

Ping. Ping. Ping.

BROOKE
No. There she goes.

LUIS
She just moved two times the distance than she has the past two nights.

LUIS
(Nervously.)
Duh-Duh.

BROOKE
Duh-Duh.
 62

LUIS
She’s swimming like she’s coming for something. It looks like—

BROOKE
Tomorrow night.
See you tomorrow night?

Luis stands.

LUIS
Tomorrow night.

Luis starts to leave. He stops.

He kisses her on the cheek.
Brooke sits for a moment, dazed.
She looks at the knife.
She moves towards the ocean with it. She starts to
toss it in the ocean. She stops. She pockets it.

Blackout.
 63

WAVE 2

6
(Brooke-Gail)

HOME.
Late night/early morning.
Gail is baking. Between mixing ingredients, she
stops and writes on slips of paper and drops them
into the jar. The jar is nearly full. It’s almost a
dance. A dance of baking and writing. She has a
recipe book open.

Brooke enters. She watches this.

GAIL
Damn. Lemon extract. Not lemons. It calls for a teaspoon of lemon extract.

Gail looks through a cabinet.

BROOKE
What are you baking?

GAIL
Lemon cookies. You think I can substitute fresh-squeezed lemon juice?

BROOKE
I don’t know.

Gail starts to put the baking supplies away.

GAIL
Never mind.
(Testing Brooke.)
You’re not going to suggest anything?

Brooke silently watches her mom.

GAIL
Brooke.

Gail writes something she places it in the jar.

BROOKE
What did you write?
 64

GAIL
I wrote lemon cookies.
You know what? Lemons are fine. I bet lemons are just fine.

Brooke suddenly jumps out at Gail.

BROOKE
Boo!

GAIL
Jesus, God! You scared me.

Gail resumes baking. Brooke jumps out again.

BROOKE
BOO.

Gail jumps again.

They both laugh at the absurdity that Gail jumped
twice. A moment.

BROOKE
She used to jump out at me. Ivy. Surprise me. She’d hide behind things. Behind doorframes.
Behind the sculpture Love and Anguish on Miami beach.
(Brooke jumps out at Gail startling her again. Pieces of paper fly out of the jar.)
It’s raining regrets.
(Brooke picks the pieces up.)
Sven.
Steven.
Artie. Dad?

GAIL
A different Artie.

BROOKE
The fact it’s 2 a.m.
(Reading slips of paper.)
Ivy.
Ivy.
Ivy.
Ivy.

She notices Gail, distressed. Brooke gently places

the slips of paper back into the jar.
 65

BROOKE
Mom.

GAIL
You know what I read? The French call OCD, “folie de doubt.” They call it the doubting disease.
That’s what they say obsessions are—a doubt caught in a loop.
I’m working on it, Brooke.

BROOKE
I know.

GAIL
What you kids need is love. Okay?
Love and strength and—it’s 2 a.m. for God’s-sake-go-to-sleep.

BROOKE
Mom…
(Beat.)
We need—

GAIL
What?

BROOKE
[You].
Lemon cookies. Lemon is fine.
We need lemon cookies.

GAIL
And me to stop doubting every tiny detail.

Gail continues to bake. Beat.

BROOKE
Mom, I need to add something to the jar.

Brooke writes on a slip of paper. She is about to

read it. She drops it in the jar instead. She writes on
another slip of paper.

BROOKE
(Reading.)
“I regret to inform you that your daughter is crazy.”
 66

GAIL
Which one?

BROOKE
Both.

GAIL
You’re not that crazy, Hon. You’re just in high school.
What did you write on the other piece of paper?

BROOKE
Don’t worry about it.
Ivy’s not home. It’s 2 a.m.

GAIL
She comes back usually around 3.

BROOKE
How come she gets to come back around 3?

GAIL
Because she needs to. Right now. It’s what she thinks she needs to do. She’s sixteen. She needs
to act out.

BROOKE
Maybe she’s doing it because she needs you to say something.

GAIL
No.

BROOKE
Are you sure?

GAIL
If she was, she’d say something.
Look, Brooke. If I tell her to come home before 3, she might not come home at all. You know
how I know that? Because I did that.

BROOKE
You did that?

GAIL
Oh, yea. My parents laid down the law and I went out partying. Didn’t come home for four days
straight. At least Ivy comes home. Ivy will do what she wants to do. If I take her car—her
boyfriend will pick her up. He’ll probably drive drunk. Ivy’s smarter than that.
 67

BROOKE
***Mom, I think Ivy needs professional help.

GAIL
She’s getting professional help.

BROOKE
I think she needs more professional help.

GAIL
She’s just PMsing.
You should go to bed.

BROOKE
There’s a great white shark coming. Right down the coast. She’s in Daytona Beach right now.

GAIL
That’s nice.

BROOKE
Her name is Mary Lee.
(Beat.)
Mom, I regret that… you’re unhappy.

Brooke turns to leave. She stops.

BROOKE
Mom, I’m scared for her.

GAIL
You’re scared for a shark?

BROOKE
Ivy. I’m scared of Ivy.

GAIL
Are you scared for her or of her?

BROOKE
Both.
 68

Gail moves her arms around Brooke’s shoulder.

GAIL
She’s fine, Brooke. Ivy is fine. She’s seeing a therapist. She’s on medication. She’s not locking
herself in her room. She doesn’t have new cuts on her legs. I checked. She has a social life.
She’s just acting out right now. If she’s acting out against you, it’s because she’s jealous of you
being so smart. But she wouldn’t hurt you. Repeat after me:
Everything’s okay.

BROOKE
Everything’s okay.

GAIL
Everything’s okay.

BROOKE
Everything’s okay.

GAIL
I know things seem—[rough right now]. But if we give into her perception she’s ill, she’ll
internalize it. Understand?
(Brooke nods.)
I know Ivy’s acting strange. But people are strange, Brooke. Some people, most people never
stop being strange. They get older. They get more responsibilities and maybe some perspective.
You know what the marker of a successful human being is?
Surviving high school with your sanity.

BROOKE
Does that mean there’s a lot of successful people out there?

GAIL
Not necessarily. The world is filled with the mad ones, Brooke.

BROOKE
Did you survive?

GAIL
Who knows? I don’t think anybody knows. I think we think we know.
But you will. I know you will.

BROOKE
How do you know?

GAIL
Because you listen.
 69

BROOKE
Everything’s okay?

GAIL
Everything’s okay.

BROOKE & GAIL

Everything’s okay.

They breathe together.

Brooke starts to exit.

GAIL
I have a date tomorrow.
(She hurries out and reenters.)
Red top or blue top?

BROOKE
Red. Definitely red.
Mom, one more thing.

Brooke removes the second slip of paper she wrote.

She does the gesture of confronting a shark.
She rolls up her sleeve, revealing her arm.
She reads the other slip of paper she wrote.

BROOKE
***I’m afraid Ivy’s going to kill me.

GAIL
She’s not going to kill you.
Feel better now?

Brooke forces a smile.

BROOKE
Yeah. I feel great.
(Brooke notices Gail staring at the shirts.)
Still definitely red.
(Beat.)
I made you another MP3.

Brooke places the headphones over Gail’s ears.

 70

DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER (Brooke’s voice)

“This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
Welcome and entertain them all.
Even if they’re a sound of sorrow.”
—Rumi

“Worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its joy.”

“No great thing is created suddenly and that includes the greatness of our lives.”

Gail listens. Brooke looks at her own hand. She

realizes she’s holding Luis’ knife.

The sound of the ocean from the MP3 blends into

the actual the sound of the ocean.
Brooke looks towards the ocean.
Ivy stands in the waves, ghostlike, wild-looking.
She wears a white dress.

IVY
(To Brooke.)
Tomorrow night, we’re going to step into the ocean.

From the MP3, the song “Rave On” by Buddy

Holly startles Gail as it overtakes the sound of the
waves.

Blackout.
 71

WAVE 3

7
(Brooke-Luis)

Luis watches the waves. He holds the smartphone.

It pings. Brooke watches him from a distance.

BROOKE
Two-hundred miles.

Luis glances at the phone.

LUIS
How’d you know?

BROOKE
Gut feeling.

LUIS
I wasn’t sure you’d be here.

BROOKE
ScubaLuis sent me a message.
Nobody’s ever private messaged me on Ocearch before.

LUIS
Yea. Better watch out for that ScubaLuis. I hear he moves fast.

BROOKE
Luis, what’s going on?

Luis steps out of his fins. He hands them to Brooke.

LUIS
Try these on.

BROOKE
Why?

LUIS
Just try them.

She does.
 72

LUIS
They fit?

They do.

BROOKE
You have small feet.

LUIS
Maybe you have big feet.

He hands her his goggles.

LUIS
Try these.

She starts to try them on. She stops.

BROOKE
What’s going on, Luis?

LUIS
I may need you to watch my gear.

BROOKE
When?

LUIS
Soon.

BROOKE
She’s coming tonight.

LUIS
Here. I sanitized my snorkel.
(He hands her the snorkel.)
My dad says we have to leave.

BROOKE
When?

LUIS
Later tonight.

She steps out of his flippers.

 73

BROOKE
No.

LUIS
I’m sorry.

BROOKE
No. You can’t.

LUIS
He says, “We have to beat town before they beat us down.”
My dad thinks he’s a hip-hop artist.
Which is embarrassing.

Brooke pulls out her digital voice recorder. She

plays it.

BROOKE
This is an owl.
(She plays another.)
This is a bear.

Ping. Ping. Ping. They look at the phone.

BROOKE
One-hundred and ninety-five miles.

LUIS
Want to hear a funny joke?

BROOKE
Does it involve the moon?

LUIS
No. Well, tides, I guess. Ready?
Our house went underwater. Then it really went underwater.

BROOKE
That’s not really funny.

LUIS
I know.

BROOKE
(Purposefully rhyming.)
You should run away. You should stay.
 74

LUIS
(Singing back.)
My dad owes people money. He can’t pay.
He says it has to be tonight. Somebody threatened to hurt him. Our things are already in his
truck.

BROOKE
What if you hid?

LUIS
Then he’d stay.

Ping. Ping. Ping.

BROOKE
One-hundred and ninety-three. Luis, she’s so close.

LUIS
(A rare moment of lucidity.)
Maybe it’s for the better.
Nah, I really wanted to meet that shark.
Tell you what.

Luis throws down a flipper. He digs a hole.

LUIS
I’ll bury it in the sand. Right here by the flag. I’ll leave all of it, okay. And if we haven’t left yet,
and she’s close—I’ll run over. And I’ll make the swim. Alright?

BROOKE
Promise.
(Luis lies in the sand. He moves his body.)
What are you— [doing]?

LUIS
This is how sharks swear.

BROOKE
They do not.

LUIS
Swear. I read it online.
(He sits up.)
You’re fourteen. I’m fifteen. We’ll find others.

He kisses her.
 75

LUIS
I buried my equipment in the sand. That way if I don’t come back...

BROOKE
Come back.

LUIS
I’ll try, okay. I’ll try.

BROOKE
Come back.

LUIS
Look. That’s my lucky snorkel. Think I’d just leave my snorkel?
But if I do—it’s yours, okay?

BROOKE
One-hundred and ninety-one miles.

LUIS
Hay cosas que quedan mas alla de mi control.
(He waits for her to get it. She doesn’t.)
Really? That bad?
(Translating.)
There are things beyond my control, okay?

BROOKE
One-hundred and ninety miles.
(Beat.)
She’s coming tonight.
My sister. She’s coming here. I thought maybe if you were here...

Luis has finished burying his equipment.

LUIS
Hey. Listen, if your sister gets freaky—you put these on.
(He points to where the gear is buried.)
And you swim into the ocean. You don’t even have to wear those things—you just swim. Okay?

BROOKE
What if Mary Lee—[arrives]?

LUIS
You know how many people were killed by sharks last year? Like five. In the entire world.
You know how many people were killed by people? Like a lot more.
 76

He lies in the sand. He wiggles his body.

She hesitates. She joins him in the sand.
They wiggle their bodies.
He stops. She continues. He watches her.

LUIS
What was that?

BROOKE
SOS.

Luis looks at her. He looks away from the ocean

and Brooke. For a moment he turns inwards.
Brooke watches. Luis does the gesture of
confronting the shark towards the parking lot and
the larger world. Right before he exits, he turns
back to Brooke.

LUIS
Remember, Brooke. Sharks can’t breathe unless they keep moving forward.

He exits.
Brooke takes several deep breaths.
She exits.
 77

WAVE 3

8
(Brooke-Gail)

THE HOUSE.

Gail wears the red shirt. She prepares for her date.

BROOKE
Mom...

GAIL
Hold on, Brooke.

As Brooke speaks, Gail exits and reenters; she tries

on different purses. She puts on makeup, etc.

BROOKE
Mom, did you know sharks can hear underwater? They have no external ears, but they can hear.
They have ears on the inside called “endolymphatic pores.” They hear low frequencies. They
hear vibrations. They can hear your fear from a half-mile away.
Fear travels faster underwater.
(She listens to the PING. PING. PING of the phone.)
They’re pretty attuned to the flapping sound of dying fish.
I didn’t go to school today. I went to the library. I just read in the library all day.
About sharks.
I called it my last day on earth.
Sometimes you have to celebrate days like that— “your last day on earth.”
Because you never know when something’s going to go wrong.
I read in this book—I read that there’s a difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is
“physiological,” listening is “psychological.” Hearing occurs all the time, while listening only
happens when we’re really lucky.
Listening requires a listener to make meaning out of sound waves.

GAIL
That’s… nice, honey.

BROOKE
I also learned the word myopia. It sounds so personal. My-opia. It means you can’t see things
from a distance, only super up close. So, you only see the details.
Sharks are not myopic.
Also, contrary to belief, they’re not blind. They only close their eyes when they’re out of the
water. But underwater. They can see things fifty feet away. They have eyes on each side of their
head. Like this.
(She demonstrates.)
 78

BROOKE (cont.)
So, they have nearly three-hundred and sixty degrees of vision.
Mom, sometimes I have this nightmare:
Florida’s flooding. Everything’s underwater. Our house fills with water. I’m in my bed. There’s
a great white shark just outside my bedroom door. And it can see us. It can see all of us.

GAIL
That sounds scary.

BROOKE
It is.

Gail shows Brooke two purse options.

GAIL
Black purse or brown?

BROOKE
Brown.
(Ping. Ping. Ping.)
Sixty-five miles.

Gail exits for a moment. Brooke speaks to her as

she’s offstage.

BROOKE
Mom, in about an hour I’m going to take my shoes off. I’m going to take off my clothes.
I’m going to step into a wetsuit. And I’m going to step into the ocean.
It’s not personal, Mom. It’s what I have to do.
(PING... PING... PING.)
Hear that?
(PING. PING. PING.)
That sound’s from an app called Ocearch. It tracks sharks.
Not all the sharks in the ocean. Just the five that got caught.
It’s shark season.
(PING. PING. PING.)
She’s about an hour away now.
(PING. PING. PING. She speaks with the pings.)
PING. PING. PING.
In about an hour—I’m going to swim to the Jacks.
The Jacks. The Jacks. They’re my favorite part of Miami, Mom. Did you know that?
They’re like hundreds of giant toy jacks. Beneath the ocean. Like the ones you bought Ivy and
me when we were kids.
The jacks keep the sand close to the beach. I learned that.
www.scubamiami.com
Isn’t it funny we have to keep the sand at the beach?
 79

BROOKE (cont.)
Like it keeps wanting to wander away from us.
I like to think the ocean has a memory.
Because sometimes, Mom, my mind works like that. That’s the way my mind works. Like
there’s this ocean in my head of every previous moment. I can feel each wave like the whole
world and everybody I know is swimming in me. Sometimes pieces erode and get carried to
different places. But they never go away.
The jacks are ugly in a beautiful kind of way.
Here’s a list, Mom. Five things that are ugly in a beautiful way:
Ivy.
The fourteen years I’ve been on this planet.
That the mysterious sound deep below the ocean freaking scientist out known as “the bloop” was
apparently just an ice-quake. Ice earthquakes. That there’s a thing on this earth called an ice
earthquake.
Guess that’s just four.
Okay, Mom.
(PING. PING. PING.)
She’s waiting.

Brooke stands, prepared. She grabs a towel.

Gail has gathered all her belongings.

BROOKE
Mom.
Will you sit here for a moment?

Gail stops. She sits.

GAIL
Alright.

Brooke sits in Gail’s lap. She puts Gail’s arms

around her. Gail holds her. Gail holds onto Brooke
tight.

BROOKE
Mom, I made you another MP3.

Brooke hands the MP3 player to Gail.

GAIL
Thanks honey.

BROOKE
Where’s your date?
 80

GAIL
Fish Fish.

Beat.

BROOKE
Will you drop me off at the beach?

GAIL
Sure.
Ready?

Brooke and Gail exit together.

Blackout.
 81

WAVE 3

9
(Brooke, then Brooke-Ivy / Gail)

“The Jacks.”

There are no surfboards.

We hear a PING. PING. PING.
We hear the waves.
Brooke stands at the shore.
She waits. And waits. And waits.

Ivy enters. Brooke at first doesn’t see her.

Ivy stares at Brooke. Her eyes seem empty. She is
no longer fully Ivy. She has transformed.

Brooke searches for Luis. She discovers Ivy.

Ivy moves closer to Brooke, slowly, weirdly, with
the speed of a slow-drifting shark.

BROOKE
Hey. You forgot the boards, Ivy. Ivy?

Ivy slowly steps closer to Brooke.

BROOKE
Oh, look. I found them.
(Imagining them.)
Here they are! Right here.

IVY
We don’t need boards. We’re going into the water.
We’re going into the water.

Brooke stands as if balancing herself. She tries to

get Ivy to play along.

BROOKE
We need to. Practice first. Ready? Balance, Ivy. We have to balance.
We have to…

Ivy steps closer.

IVY
We’re going into the water.
 82

BROOKE
We’re on our boards. We’re surfing. Right foot in front of the left foot. C’mon, Ivy.

For a moment, Ivy seems as if she’s going to break

out of her state and join Brooke.

BROOKE
Ready?

IVY
Ready.

BROOKE
Here comes a wave.

Ivy snaps back completely. She tackles Brooke.

IVY
One bite.

BROOKE
No.

IVY
It won’t hurt. Hold still.

Brooke pulls away.

BROOKE
We’re on our boards. And we’re going to balance. We’re going to float above the waves.
Hear them?

They both listen for a moment.

Brooke stands with her eyes closed. Ivy moves
behind her.
/Split scene.
A car, perhaps represented by a single chair in the sand.
Gail sits in the car. She prepares to drive away.
She stops. She begins to listen to Brooke’s MP3.
Before Ivy reaches Brooke, Brooke swivels around.
Brooke pulls the knife on Ivy.

BROOKE
Stay back.
 83

Ivy stares. She laughs. She opens her arms wide,

“do it.”

Brooke holds the knife in defense.

BROOKE
Come back.
We’re going to balance.

Ivy suddenly charges, running towards the blade.

Brooke pulls away.

Ivy tackles Brooke. The knife is still in Brooke’s

hand. They roll across the sand towards the ocean.
They land near Brooke’s towel.

Brooke holds onto Ivy. She tackles her. Hugging

her, holding her.

BROOKE
Ivy…Ivy, stay afloat. Mom’s in the car.

Ivy sinks her teeth into Brooke’s arm. Brooke lets

her for a moment in hopes she’ll stop. She doesn’t.

BROOKE
I’ll scream.

IVY
She won’t hear.

BROOKE
Ivy, stay afloat.

Ivy holds Brooke against the sand with her knees on

her chest. Brooke struggles to breathe. Brooke pulls
out the knife. She threatens Ivy with it.

IVY
Go ahead.

Beat. Ivy grabs the knife from Brooke’s hand.

While holding Brooke down, Ivy slices a cut across
her own arm. She holds the towel over Brooke’s
face to muffle Brooke’s scream as she slices across
Brooke’s arm.
 84

IVY
I had a dream that we were in the middle of the ocean. And there were no stars.
And nobody could see. Even with the lights of Miami.
It was so dark that we couldn’t tell if we were in the ocean or the sky.

BROOKE
Ivy, I can’t breathe.

IVY
In my dream, the sky was the ocean. The ocean was the sky.
And nobody ever found us again.

Brooke manages to pull her face away from the

towel. She opens her mouth to scream. Ivy violently
holds the towel over Brooke’s face, suffocating
Brooke. Brooke struggles, fighting for her life.

From the MP3 player in the car we hear various sounds of animals
in distress:
a rabbit,
a porcupine,
a bear,
an ostrich,
an orca whale.
It blends like a horror soundtrack.
It’s broken apart in waves.
It comes in waves.
Then we hear Ivy’s recorded screams.
We hear Brooke’s recorded screams.
We hear Ivy and Brooke’s recorded screams together.

Gail sits, jolted.

She stands. She exits the car. Her motions across the sand
are slow. She’s too far away.

Brooke manages to pull away from Ivy.

She gasps for air. Brooke backs towards the ocean.
Something in Ivy shifts.

IVY
Brooke.
(Brooke backs into the ocean.)
Brooke.

BROOKE
I would swim into shark infested waters for you.
 85

The cut across Brooke’s arm is brutal.

She steps further into the water.

Ivy moves towards Brooke. She reaches for her, as

Brooke steps deeper into the water.

IVY
Brooke, what are you doing? Brooke.

Ivy breaks away. She exits, running.

Brooke is left alone.

A distant Gail searches the beach, unable to locate “the

Jacks” in the dark. With the pings, perhaps we hear a
distant “Brooke,” “Ivy,”—Gail half a mile down the beach,
searching.

Brooke cannot hear her.

Brooke returns to the sand. She shakes. She has no

idea what to do.

PING. PING. PING. We hear the pinging through

the following, as Mary Lee draws closer.

Brooke looks towards the flag. She looks around

frantically for Luis. She digs up Luis’ wetsuit. She
steps into the wetsuit. It’s large, but not an
impossible fit. She pulls on the flippers. She puts on
the goggles and the snorkel. She moves towards the
water. She grabs her digital voice recorder. She
looks at it. She hits record.

She can’t find words.

BROOKE
Mom, I—
(She stops.)
Delete.

She places it back down.

PING. PING. PING.

Brooke steps fully into the water.

 86

The sound of a wave, of the world underwater

overtakes the stage.

Gail disappears.

Brooke is in the ocean. She is underwater.

We see the shadow of a shark.

The shark moves closer and closer.

The shark splits in two.

Underwater, on one side Ivy stands.

On the other side, Gail stands.

BROOKE
Mary Lee?

Gail and Ivy form the shark.

The underwater world is luminescent and colorful.
Throughout the following, it subtly and steadily
darkens.
The following is spoken with urgent reassurance.
Brooke is in the space one goes following an
unfathomable event that has shifted their life
indefinitely. Brooke feels Mary Lee’s words more
than comprehending them. The following should be
inexplicable, comforting and powerful.

GAIL
Todo está bien.

IVY
Todo está bien.

GAIL
"Al final, sólo tres cosas importan: lo mucho que amaba, ¿cómo viviste con suavidad, y la gracia
con que dejas ir las cosas no significaba para ti."
—Buda

IVY
Todo está bien.
 87

GAIL
"Sólo tú puedes prevenir los incendios forestales."
—Smokey el Oso

IVY
Todo está bien.

GAIL
Todo está bien.

IVY
"Este ser humano es una casa de huéspedes.
Cada mañana una nueva llegada.
Bienvenidos y entretener a todos.
Incluso si son un sonido de dolor ".
—Rumi

Blackout. The lights fade up to night.

Brooke stands on land staring into the ocean.
Ivy stands next to her. Something in her is altered,
but she is closer to the Ivy from the beginning of the
play.

IVY
Brooke.

Brooke pulls away. Brooke removes her flippers

and her snorkel.

BROOKE
Lie on the ground.
Lie on the ground.

Ivy lies on her stomach. Brooke stands on Ivy. She

“body surfs” on her. A moment.

BROOKE
I met the shark.

IVY
What’d he say?

BROOKE
I don’t know.
It was Luis’ shark. She spoke Spanish.
 88

IVY
That’s weird.

BROOKE
But I think I understood what she meant.

IVY
What did she say?

BROOKE
She said I’m going to be haunted for a long time.
She said I’m going to have nightmares for the next ten years.
She said if you don’t get your act together, the ocean’s going to overtake Florida.
She said if you bite me. If you ever touch me again, I will kill you.

IVY
Okay.

BROOKE
She said if you don’t remember this moment in ten years, I’ll still love you.
(Beat.)
I’m not going to kill you.
But you’re not ever going to come by my door at night ever again.
You’re not ever going to—ever again.

IVY
Are you done?

BROOKE
No. I’m surfing. She said:
Sometimes as I swim in the ocean, I imagine the future. Sometimes I look at the skies and
instead of seeing constellations, I see shipwrecks. And civilizations underwater.
And she says: sometimes I imagine the past. I imagine the world under there. Schools of fish
swimming past our house. And I imagine you, in your bedroom—scribbling late into the night.
Even though you never wrote a word really. That was me.
You write about the things. What was going through your mind.
Before the world turned underwater.
(Beat.)
She said:
It’s going to be a long time.
It’s going to be a long time.
It’s going to be a long time.
Okay. I’m done.

Brooke steps off.

Brooke and Ivy sit next to each other.
 89

Gail enters, running. She sees Brooke and Ivy

sitting next to each other.
She feels the gravity of the moment, even if she
doesn’t understand it. She sits between them.

GAIL
Are you—? I came to…
***Is everything okay?

A long beat.

BROOKE
Everything’s okay.

Brooke is not.

BROOKE
Everything’s okay.

Brooke is not.

BROOKE
Everything’s okay.

Gail notices the cuts on their arms. She looks at

Brooke and Ivy as if she’s seeing them for the first
time.

Gail puts her arms around them.

They listen to the ocean.
They listen to the ocean waves, steady, lulling and
overwhelming.

End of play.