Stella: Hi, mom.
Eve: Hi, baby.
Eve: So... where did we stop last time, little star?
Stella: I think right when Cinderella arrives at the dance!
Eve: Oh, right, okay...
So...
"The King himself, old as he was,
could not help watching her, and telling the Queen softly
that it was a long time since he had seen so
beautiful and lovely--"
Stella: Mom...
Stella: Have you ever been to a dance before?
Eve: Oh, yes, I have! Many times!
Stella: And... was Miss Aella there, too?
Eve: Uh, yeah... She-she was, actually.
Yeah... We've been to many dances together.
She was my best friend
Stella: I can’t wait to meet her tomorrow!
Eve: Me too, little star, me too…
It’s been ages since I last saw her…
Eve: Anyway. Goodnight, sweetie.
Stella: Goodnight mom.
Eve: It's a school night tomorrow.
Eve: Darling, hi.
Aella: Hey!
Eve: How are you?
Aella: It's been so long!
Eve: I know-
Aella: Hey
Eve: Um... This is my husband, Steve.
Steve: Hello.
Aella: Nice to meet you!
Steve: Pleasure to meet you, too.
Aella: Aella
Steve: Abigail, eat your food…
Aella: Uh... I thought that her name was Stella
Does she have two names?
Steve: Yeah, well, I wanted her to have my mother’s name –Abigail
Eve: And I wanted her to be my little star, so I named her Stella
Stella: And so now I have two names!
Steve: So, Aella, what are you doing for a living right now?
Aella: Um, I work at a theatre company
Right now we’re on tour.
So I just travel from city to city and act-
Eve: Aella has always been like the wind.
Aella: A rolling stone gathers no moss.
Stella: Um, well, actually I play at the theatre, too, Miss Aella!
Steve: Their school is staging Romeo and Juliet this year.
Steve: Actually Shakespeare is one of my favorite playwrights.
Aella: I prefer his sister actually.
Steve: I didn’t know he had a famous sister.
Aella: The great Anonymous!
Eve: Um... so. Stella has actually been learning the piano recently.
Aella: Oh, my!
Aella: Eve? Do you remember that we had our own band?
Eve: (chuckles) Yeah...
Aella: (sigh) We played really nice music.
And our name was very sophisticated:
"The Children of the Earth"
Steve: Was it some kind of ecological reference?
Aella: Ah, no! Basically, it's a reference from Aristophanes' myth in the Sympo-
Eve: Aella! Why don't we go inside to get the dessert?
Eve: What are you doing?
Are you trying to ruin me?
Aella: Eve -
Eve: I haven't told Steve about us!
Aella: Gee, relax, I was just talking about our band-
Eve: -and what, you were gonna tell him that the 'Children of the Earth' was Plato’s reference to lesbians?
I invited you to my house for the sake of our old friendship but-
Aella: Was it just *friendship*?
Eve: - but I don't intend to have my marriage ruined!
Be careful, or leave!
Aella: So that’s how you throw away all that we had?
All the moments,
the sunsets that we watched together,
all the mornings I woke you up whispering Sapho’s verses in your ear
“I beg you,
do not crush my spirit with anguish,
but come to me now”
Eve: “The moon has set,
Midnight
The hour has gone by
I sleep alone.”
Stella: Mom?
Stella: Why did Miss Aella leave so quickly?
Eve: She wasn’t feeling very well, little star, so she couldn't stay..
“…the two sisters were at the ball,
and so was Cinderella,
but dressed more magnificently than before…
Cinderella did not look for the Prince… but for a princess.
And she found her.
And they kept dancing and dancing,
lost in a music only they could hear…
And then, it was midnight, and she had to leave…
So she returned to her kitchen,
Washing the dishes...
Left with hazy memories of the dance.
And her princess never
came to find her and reality kicked in…
and her roots were so deep in the earth, that even the strongest wind could not lift her anymore.
