Event Horizon

Scene I
The theater is black. Light falls on center stage where I stand. I am bathed in white light.

_______I: Women like me are black holes.

I lift my dress to reveal an abyss into which the audience begins falling.

_______I: Holes at the center.

Scene II
I kneel at center stage. My belly is filled with the audience. They push against the skin and the placenta. They choke against the umbilical cord.

_______I: I am black at the center.

Scene III
I sit in a hospital room. The nurse keeps me company while I wait. She stares at me, blue.

_______I: You have beautiful eyes.

The nurse digs out her eyes and offers them to me. Enter Doctor.

_______Doctor: Let’s see what we have here.

Doctor buries his head beneath my hospital gown. When he resurfaces, he has no face. His eyes, nose, and mouth are gone. They leave behind a smooth terrain of perfect skin. The nurse’s blue eyes blink.

Scene IV
There is no light. A baby cries offstage.

Scene V
A dining table sits at center stage, one chair at each end. I sit at one end of the table. He sits at the other. An empty baby carrier rests between us.

_______He: You are the hole at my center.

I look at him with blue eyes. He exits.