Wings of the Heart

[ Felicia, at the lip of the stage with Lia. Cast in the aisles holding candles. Acoustic ballad, 3/4 lullaby waltz. ] Felicia There are wings inside the chest of every quiet thing. There is a sky we never noticed folded in our breathing. Love does not require a reason. Love does not need a name. Love is what is already here before the asking came. [ Chorus — guitar opens, cello enters. ] Open the doors of the heart — even the ones rusted shut. Love is the air you've been breathing while you forgot what it was. Open the doors of the heart — let everything in to be loved. Wings of the heart, wings of the heart — we have always been enough. 74 Luis Miguel Gallardo • • • [ Verse 3 — naming the unloved. Felicia speaks/sings to specific kinds of people in the audience. Each line is an open door. ] To the one who lost a child — I love you. To the one who left someone behind — I love you. To the one whose mother did not know how — I love you. To the one whose father could not say it — I love you. To the one who hurt someone they loved — I love you. To the one who has not forgiven themselves — I love you. To the part of you you've called too much — I love you. To the part of you you've called too little — I love you. To the one whose body works in its own time — I love you. To the one whose mind hears more than the room — I love you. To the one who has loved who they were told they shouldn't — I love you. To the one who was never the gender they were given — I love you. To the one who has been told their shape is wrong — I love you. Your shape is exactly the shape that gets to come home. To the very young, still figuring out the words — I love you. To the very old, who outlived the people they were waiting for — I love you. To everyone the world has ever called "too" — too much, too little, too loud, too soft, too late, too early, too di"erent, too tender, too strange — I love you. You are exactly the door. To the child still standing at the door, waiting — I love you. I am here. I came back. [ EIGHT-BAR A CAPPELLA MOMENT. All instruments stop. Felicia, alone, single voice, total silence around her. Lia is leaning against her now. The audience is barely breathing. ] Felicia, A Cappella We were never broken. We were just unheld. And love does not arrive. Love was already here when we forgot what it was. [ THE GRIEF OF LOST YEARS — a single ensemble member steps forward and speaks (di"erent cast member, di"erent number, each performance): ] Ensemble Member (Spoken) "I lost twenty years to fear." "I will not lose another." [ Beat. The ensemble member steps back. The full instruments return softly. Final chorus. ] Felicia, With Full Ensemble Entering Quietly Open the doors of the heart — even the ones rusted shut. Love is the air you've been breathing while you forgot what it was. [ Outro — wordless humming, ensemble, breath. The cast members in the aisles hum the leitmotif (A → F♯ → D), softly, while audience members sit with what has just happened. ] T he orchestra holds. The humming continues for ten more seconds. Then it fades. Felicia and Lia remain at the lip of the stage. LIA. I think a lot of people in here just opened a door. FELICIA. Yes. So did you. LIA. I didn't know I had that one. FELICIA. We never know. That's the secret. She rises. She lifts Lia. They turn upstage. A new presence has been waiting — LIGHT OF EDEN, dressed in white, her arms outstretched. She has been watching. FELICIA. Lia. There is one more thing you have to "nd. It is the hardest. And it is the most yours. ···