Ulysses, Home  a chamber opera in five scenes

Libretto by Neena Beber

 

1.

 

WIFE

He's coming home.

He's coming home, he's coming home, he's coming home.

I'm on the phone, I'm posting pix, my status update says the words I say all day inside my head and to anyone who will listen:

He's coming home!

 

SOLDIER

Penelope, Penelope

I’m on my way

I'm going home, they never say quite when.

There's paperwork, efficiency, bureaucracy, they're done with me.

 

WIFE

When I saw him in his dress whites with those medals on his chest,

I knew I'd be a soldier's wife.

 

SOLDIER

I needed a job. Gotta make some change to change my life.  Did my training and first tour of duty.  "I'll be back, I promise," I said.   And she said,

 

WIFE

"Don't come back if you're dead."

 

SOLDIER

Penelope, Penelope.  The war has made a man of me.  Now will you , will you,--

 

WIFE

(I would have married him anyway.)

 

SOLDIER

Could you might you possibly consider--

 

WIFE

Just say it!

 

SOLDIER

--Marry me!  I mean, that's a question: Will you?

 

WIFE

And I said: "You got me."  Like a child's game, when you go bang bang or you shoot an arrow....

 

SOLDIER

We married right before another tour, right before the next we must have conceived,

WIFE

I didn't sit and spin the spinning wheel while suitors came and went.  I made a life, I went to school, I went to work and I gave birth.  My soldier he would come and go, if there was any spinning it was the way he'd weave into our lives and out again, a shadow weaving through…

 

SOLDIER

I missed birthdays, funerals, weddings and reunions.

 

WIFE

Each time he'd return we'd stand with signs and open arms…

 

Our boy asks "Wars, don’t they ever end?"  "Doesn't seem like it anymore," I say.  He wants to know what you are doing.  Sometimes I make up adventures and sometimes I'm too tired but he'll put on that camouflage cap you left behind and sneak up behind me and when I turn around he points a stick in his hand: "Bang, bang, you're dead!"  And I always die just the way he wants me to, clutching my heart and falling to the ground with a gasp, "Ah, you got me!"

 

SOLDIER

Penelope, Penelope

Your name is like a song to me.

 

 

 

 

2.

WIFE

Here you are.

 

SOLDIER

Here I am.

 

WIFE

Home for good.

 

SOLDIER

I hope you'll still feel that way tomorrow.

 

WIFE

What do you mean?

 

SOLDIER

That you'll still think having me back is for good… Just trying to lighten the mood…Our son's a little man.

 

WIFE

He is.  Why do your hands shake?

 

SOLDIER

Too much caffeine -- drank a lotta soda and coffee on the way.

 

WIFE

You look the same.

SOLDIER

I crossed the ocean so easily but there's another war going on inside of me. Demons and monsters and the churning, whirling, crashing sea. Why do I feel like I'm wearing a disguise, dressed as the man I was?  Underneath I'm a beggar in rags, tattered and unrecognizable.

 

WIFE

You look the same.  You look just the same.

 

SOLDIER

You look better.

(They embrace.)

 

WIFE

Too much worry and hurry so we could get to this ... the journey, was it hard?

 

SOLDIER

There was nothing to it.  We sailed over clouds--

 

WIFE

I love flying in an airplane, looking out the window, seeing clouds.  Just beneath, like they could catch us.

 

SOLDIER

I like that better than looking down and seeing how far we could fall.

 

WIFE

I hope it slows down now.

 

SOLDIER

What?

 

WIFE

Time, we need time.  The years passed too quickly, my hair went gray--

 

SOLDIER

You look good to me.  You look good.

 

WIFE

Home now.

 

SOLDIER

Home.

 

WIFE

Safe now.

 

SOLDIER

Safe.

 

 

3.

WIFE

Hours pass, days, weeks then months, after the signs come down, after the parades...

 

SOLDIER

There weren't any parades.

 

WIFE

What do you call that thing at church, with all the confetti that made you feel like you were drowning?

 

SOLDIER

Guess I blocked that out.

 

WIFE

After the months pass, and the drinking buddies are all gone back to work, he says he needs a job, he says he's too young to sit here doing nothing.

 

SOLDIER

What's my resume?

 

WIFE

Soldier.  That's pretty great.

 

SOLDIER

I need something more.  Like, a skill.

 

WIFE

Here, let's list them.

 

SOLDIER

Trained to kill, how does that sound?

 

WIFE

Ha, okay, how about - takes orders well (except from his wife).

 

SOLDIER

What do you mean, I do whatever you say.

 

WIFE

Efficient and detached.

 

SOLDIER

Pretty good at putting aside feelings that can cloud

my ability to get the job done.

 

WIFE

I can work with that.

Good moral code--when he isn't about to explode.

 

SOLDIER

I sound like a lot of fun.

 

WIFE

Well you have to admit you do seem on edge.

Where is the man I married? I know I'm not the same, no one is frozen in time, but I don't remember this feeling of dancing over land mines hoping not to step in the wrong place.

 

SOLDIER

Just have to fight my way back to you when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, can't you see what I'm up against?  The monsters know my name and they like to play games with me.

Where are you going?

 

WIFE

Need to get out. Need to breathe the air.

 

SOLDIER

It's dark out.

 

WIFE

You've got the curtains shut. Let the light in.

 

SOLDIER

That’s like a dagger in my eye.

 

WIFE

It’s called sunshine.

 

SOLDIER

It's blinding me.

Quick, hit the ground; hit the ground.

 

WIFE

What are you doing?

 

SOLDIER

I have to protect you.

 

WIFE

Everything's fine.

 

SOLDIER

You never know what's coming at you.

Where’s our boy?

 

WIFE

He's playing, he's fine.

 

SOLDIER

The noises scare me. It's like an air raid; where's that coming from?

 

WIFE

You mean the wind in the trees out back?  There's a breeze coming off the ocean.

 

SOLDIER

That's not it.

 

WIFE

There's the distant roar of cars on the highway heading home.

 

SOLDIER

That's not it.

 

WIFE

Is it the low hum, I hear it now, the nonstop hum of the TV next door?

 

SOLDIER

That's not it. It's more like a bullet ricocheting, more like a bomb.

 

WIFE

There's your son playing out back with a ball.

 

SOLDIER

That's not it.

 

WIFE

Playing with a ball, playing alone, just him and the wall.

 

SOLDIER

Maybe it is that, maybe it could be.  Too loud, please, too loud!

 

WIFE

Go and play with him then.

 

SOLDIER

Not with this headache.  STOP, SON! STOP!

 

WIFE

He's stopped.  All noises accounted for.

There's nothing left but air.

 

SOLDIER

Must be the air then.

 

WIFE

I didn't know air made a sound.

 

SOLDIER

Then you haven't been where I’ve been.

 

 

4.

SOLDIER

Are you going out again?

 

WIFE

It's not unusual to leave the house.  Work, groceries, a child to take to school, pickup, [soccer]--are you coming today?

 

SOLDIER

Are you sure there isn't someone else?

 

WIFE

What does that mean?

 

SOLDIER

Another man?

 

WIFE

You've got to be kidding, I can barely handle you.

 

SOLDIER

You're a desirable woman.  You learned to get by without me.  I couldn't blame you.

 

WIFE

I gotta say, when I knew you were coming, this isn't quite the reunion I had in mind.

 

SOLDIER

All right start again. I come and sweep you off your feet.

Better now?

 

WIFE

Better [now].  Flashback to a happier time: the two of us in a garden, in the sunshine, the third point in our triangle already on his way.  You liked growing things, maybe you should have been a gardener.

 

SOLDIER

I was a good soldier.  Don't take that from me.  I followed orders well, wanted to keep our men safe. We weren't savages.  We weren't savages.

 

WIFE

I never said--

 

SOLDIER

Flashback to a desert, a village, a mountain, a cave, patrolling for danger.  Sometimes to save each other it was necessary to take aim and shoot to the other side not knowing exactly who was there.  "I think we shot a baby."  I remember the look in his eye when he said it.  "I think we just shot a baby."

 

WIFE

You had to do things....

 

SOLDIER

…Things on a reel that never runs out.

 

WIFE

Here.  I'm here. Flashback to a happier time, pictures of how it used to be, I carry them with me, come on take a look...

 

SOLDIER

Is there someone else?

 

WIFE

This is crazy, you know.

 

SOLDIER

Why do I sense him, the enemy coming at me, why is he still here?  I'm trained to hear and see like Superman.  Why didn't Superman lose his mind with that super-sensitivity I'd like to know? Or maybe he did, what normal guy wears a cape and tights, maybe he felt like he was going mad in the end ...

 

WIFE

Where are you going?

 

SOLDIER

You're right, I've got to get out more.  Gotta go to the shooting range, I think that could help me, shoot at paper targets, paper outlines, cardboard men.

(Sound of a gun blast.)

 

 

 

5.

WIFE

What have you done?

 

SOLDIER

What have I done?

 

WIFE

You've killed a man.

 

SOLDIER

More than one...  of course I have... they told us to.

 

WIFE

But you're home now.

 

SOLDIER

You never knew who might be the enemy and you've got to just shoot, shoot, shoot when you see them coming at you---

What have I done?  Please tell my son this wasn't me...

 

WIFE

You've killed a man.

 

SOLDIER

More than one.

It's all in my head they say.

Well where else would they be,

All my dead.

(He turns the gun on himself.)

 

WIFE

You've killed a man.

He was whole and good.

You've killed a man.

(she takes him in her arms)

 

SOLDIER

Don't weep.

Penelope,

the gods will always favor me

I'll plant myself upon the shore, send roots down deep.

I won't let go, won't let go again. The wind can blow, the storm can rage, I will bend just enough not to break.  Branches grow, the promise of leaves. I'm strong again.

 

WIFE

I give you back to mythology

I toss you back to the wine-dark sea

Where you are always on your way to me.

 

SOLDIER

Penelope, Penelope.

 

WIFE

…on you way home