SKYEYES
Page 33
“I don’t mind,” Marcy replies, turning to Cathy. “Do you?”
“Of course not.”
Captain Wright lays one hand on each’s shoulder. After Sonya’s dance, we’ll just cut to the feed from the capsule. Remember…” He makes the shhh sign and they do the same. Marcy opens the door to find little fans crowded in front of it.
Dad, a Latin American, sits in his chair peacefully watching the closing credits of the playoff game on a faded but functional TV. His surroundings are poor but he leads a happy family. The peace is shattered by a herd of kids, some his, some not, some Latin American, some not, all huffing from playing outside. Dad watches as they take over the room, his daughter jumping onto his lap. She squeals, “It’s starting! It’s going to start right now!”
Mom walks in with bowls of popcorn on a tray and he looks at her for help, but she just smiles. On the TV, the concert opens with a replay of the chopper arriving, background music an instrumental of Marcy’s January, February, March. Colorful credits appear: “’Cruisin’ For Kids’ Benefit Concert for Children’s Charities.” The shot cuts to Marcy and Cathy stepping from the chopper, signing autographs as they make their way into the ship, then leaving the dressing room.
The stage is set with a twelve piece band. Colored spots sweep across, balloons spread everywhere, and a full array of broadcast cameras and personnel await. Hanging TV monitors and a big screen projection behind the stage show the opening sequences on the air. Captain Wright stands stage-right talking to the floor director who backs away, counting down. A prompter signals the packed audience, mostly children, who thunder applause, whistling and screaming.
Over the PA comes, “Boys and Girls, Ladies and Gentlemen, all around the world, live from the S.S. Noah 5 in the waters off the Hawaiian islands, HTV is proud to present the ‘Cruisin’ for Kids’ Children’s Charities Concert, starring Marcy Marxer and Cathy Fink…” Big cheer. “Isabel Flores…” Another big cheer. “Our own star studded children’s talent show…” Biggest cheer. “And all kinds of other cool stuff including a magic show. But right now, I’d like to introduce the host of our show, let’s give a huge Cruisin’ welcome for Captain Michael Wright, Commander of the Noah 5!” A boisterous ovation greets Captain Wright as he runs onto the stage and, after a few exaggerated bows, brings the ovation to a close.
“We here on the Noah 5 have had an unbelievable week, as all of you are certainly aware. Although this concert was arranged many months ago by Mr. Holmes, none of us could have imagined the events that have occurred, not just here, but all over the world. I guess what I’m trying to say is that even though this started as a fundraising event for worldwide children’s charities, it’s now also a celebration, a celebration for many things. I urge everyone watching to call the toll free numbers that will appear on the screen and help children everywhere, and at the same time say thanks for all the wonderful things that have happened. Let’s all make a real difference to the precious children of this planet who need our help, to be fed, and to be cared for. I think more than ever we understand now that we owe them everything we have.” This inspires a round of applause.
“Also, we have a very special surprise at the end of the show, so stay with us. On that note, it’s time to get started. Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen everywhere, it’s my great pleasure to introduce the stars of our show, Marcy Marxer and Cathy Fink!”
The kids jump to their feet as the band opens an extended intro to Ride ’Em High. Marcy and Cathy run on stage, waving and blowing kisses, and motion for the group of contest winners to take their place on the side of the stage to participate in the play-along song. At the opposite corner of the stage, a teenage girl signs the words of the concert. Marcy sings,
Ride ‘em high, ride ‘em low!
Holler “Yippie-ti-i-o!”
Spur ‘em, fan ‘em, let ‘em know,
You’re the champ of the rodeo!
I’m all dressed up and rarin’ to go,
Rarin’ to go to the rodeo.
You’ll be there, you buckaroo,
Oh my gosh, how I love you!
Ride ‘em high, ride ‘em low!
Holler “Yippie-ti-i-o!”
Spur ‘em, fan ‘em, let ‘em know,
You’re the champ of the rodeo!
In the ghetto living room, the kids are jumping up and down as Dad finally lets go of a smile. They all holler, “Yippie-ti-i-o!”
Well, cowpokes come and cowpokes go,
It’s one dern thing I very well know,
To you, cowpoke, I’ll e’er be true,
Gosh, oh gosh, how I love you.
Ride ‘em high, ride ‘em low!
Holler “Yippie-ti-i-o!”
Spur ‘em, fan ‘em, let ‘em know,
You’re the champ of the rodeo!
The children of a Moscow tenement gather around an antique black and white TV. They also holler, “Yippie-ti-i-o,” colored with a Russian accent.
Clap three times!
Tap three times!
Snap three times!
Reach right over and touch your toes!
Everybody listening here,
Put your elbows in the air.
Put your hands up over your head.
Shake your hands then shake your head.
Shake ‘em high! Shake ‘em low!
Shake ‘em to the rodeo!
Put your fingers on your knees
And smile so I can see your teeth!
President Stamp watches in the Oval Office with his five and three-year-old girls, trying to keep up as they raise elbows, shake hands, and shake heads. He’s finally able to put his fingers on his knees and show his teeth, as they do back.
Clap three times!
Tap three times!
Snap three times!
Reach right over and touch your toes!
Put your left foot in the air,
And wave to your right foot a-way down there.
Left foot forward, left foot back,
Tap your left toe, clickety-clack!
Hop on your right foot! Hop, hop, hop!
Hop and hop and hop and stop.
Move your feet from side to side,
Now you’re doin’ the pony ride.
In the Townhall, Sue holds Kiki in her arms while Anthony insists she follow with him. She teeters with her left foot in the air, trying to wave at her right foot. Anthony helps by waving at it for her. Sue refuses to hop, however.
Clap three times!
Tap three times!
Snap three times!
Reach right over and touch your toes!
After the group yodel is over and the song ends, applause and cheering erupt, as much for the audience’s participation as for Marcy, who applauds back. From this she goes right into Rock-a-Bye Boogie and the applause turns to clapping as children in the audience stand and dance to it in the charming free-form natural to little ones.
Tom watches on his monitor as events take place during the concert:
Walter is in the usual magician’s box with swords being plunged into him, some by his friends who squeamishly push them through and scream as he pretends to be impaled.
Captain Wright is put into a curtained glass closet and made to disappear, reappearing from backstage to the pretended surprise of most.
Isabel sits at the piano playing a children’s medley with a child sitting on each side of her on the bench, staring up at her.
A clown administers balloon hats of every variety, the most ridiculous, some bloated pink farm animal, placed on the head of Nonna.
A ventriloquist has a dummy on one leg and Angela in a red tutu on the other. He tries to make her act like a dummy, unsuccessfully since she, and everyone else, can’t stop laughing. The real dummy, of course, takes full advantage.
The children’s talent show features: two Elvis imitations; a gut bucket duet; a six-year-old Britne
y Spears; a poetry reading by Maria, something having to do with a hamster that saved the world; an exchange between lovers from Act Two, Scene Two, of Romeo and Juliet, wherein Juliet is a clam and Romeo a lobster, reading catatonically from cue cards while wielding foot-long pinchers, “It is my soul that calls my name!” (this the idea of the children’s cruise director, inflicted on two eight-year-olds who got the most detentions); a karate demonstration to the accompaniment of MC Hammer; and a very respectable accordion recital presented by the boy who left his wheelchair on deck.
Marcy stands at center stage with the curtains closed behind her. Three microphones hang from above, just over her head, spread five feet apart and aligned with the front edge of the elevated stage. Twenty-four children from the audience rise and walk toward the stage down the auditorium aisles. As she speaks, half of them sit on the edge of the stage and the rest stand behind them.
“Even though grown-ups in the world have differences and problems, there’s one thing that’s really obvious, and it’s something everyone needs to think more about. We are all one people, and children all over the world are the same beautiful people, no matter where they are. During the last week, here on the ship, these twenty-four wonderful kids have been rehearsing in secret for a very special gift to all of us. There’s nothing sweeter in this world than the voice of a child, and when children sing, even the songbirds stop to listen. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls everywhere, we present the Cruisin’ for Kids Choir.”
Marcy walks down the steps to the floor and kneels in front, facing them as the choir director does the same. The projection screen lowers, and as the children sing All Around the World, an a capella round, portraits of children from countries around the world appear behind them.
All around the world there are children like me
Across the continents, across the sea.
When I wake up they say goodnight to the Sun
And when I sleep their day’s begun.
Good night, Bonne nuit
Buenas noches, Laila tov
Guten nacht, Spokonia nochee,
O yasu mina sai.
All around the world there are children like me
Across the continents, across the sea.
All around the world there are children like me
When I wake up they say good night to the Sun
Across the continents, across the sea.
And when I sleep their day’s begun.
When I wake up they say good night to the Sun
Good night, Bonne nuit,
And when I sleep their day’s begun.
Buenas noches, Laila tov
Good night, Bonne nuit,
Guten nacht, Spokonia nochee
Buenas noches, Laila tov,
O yasu mina sai.
Guten nacht, Spokonia nochee,
[BOTH:] O yasu mina sai.
All around the world there are children like me
Across the continents, across the sea.
All around the world there are children like me
When I wake up they say good night to the Sun
Across the continents, across the sea.
All around the world there are children like me
And when I sleep their day’s begun.
When I wake up they say good night to the Sun
Across the continents, across the sea.
Good night, Bonne nuit,
And when I sleep their day’s begun.
When I wake up they say good night to the Sun
Buenas noches, Laila tov,
Good night, Bonne nuit,
And when I sleep their day’s begun.
Guten nacht, Spokonia nochee,
Buenas noches, Laila tov,
Good night, Bonne nuit,
O yasu mina sai.
Guten nacht, Spokonia nochee,
Buenas noches, Laila tov,
O yasu mina sai.
Guten nacht, Spokonia nochee
(ALL) O yasu mina sai.
When the song ends, the choir bows as Marcy presents them and applauds with the crowd. The rest of the concert’s performers appear in line to bow as well, all to standing ovations. The house lights dim to near darkness, and thus the chatter of the audience. Everyone leaves the stage but Cathy.
“We’ve saved something very special for our last performance. Miss Sonya Temple is the winner of the talent show and her story is like many of the stories that happened this week. Just a few days ago, she was crippled, and now, you’ll see, she dances. That’s a miracle, of course, but not a greater miracle than the smile of any child, or as the love that children bring to this world. Sonya celebrates her life, and the lives of all children, no matter what their condition. And we, the adults of the world, must celebrate them, always, every day, every minute, in everything we do, and everything we say. They are the light of this world. They are God’s light, shining upon us all. As Gibran said, ‘They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself… For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow…’” Cathy leaves the stage.
The burgundy and black swirled curtains slowly part, revealing a dark stage. A spotlight glows upon Sonya to the left, a ballerina bent over gracefully, her right hand touching her right foot, her left arm reaching for the sky. She remains there, still. Another spot glows upon the center of the stage, illuminating one of her leg braces, standing straight up as if suspended. Placed in the top of it is a bouquet of pink roses. A third, dimmer spot comes upon Cathy and Marcy seated at the right edge of the stage, Cathy with a baritone guitar. They perform Save One Wish for You to Sonya’s dance.
If I could fly I would,
Spread my wings and soar across
The mountains and the sea.
All the birds would look at me
And I’d be flying free.
Sonya rises, both arms floating in the air, her face raised to the heavens, radiant, and she begins twirling slowly, like a gentle breeze. She wears a flowing silk dress, mother of pearl in its luminescence, with blue and green and purple brush strokes top to bottom as if a rainbow spilled upon her dance. She spins, a graceful, small eddy, and in the movement circles the brace.
If I could jump so high
As the cow I saw above the Moon,
Chasing stars and spoons,
Make the children laugh and play
And have a happy day.
Melody and Noelle run waist high in green spring grass, the Virgin flowing nearby. A bright, warm Sun shines upon them and they shine back, joy and celebration pouring from their laughter.
One wish, two, I have for you,
Wish number three is just for me.
Wish number four for my friends next door,
Wishes left over when you need some more.
Sonya kneels before the brace and bows, then rises and takes one rose from it. With that pink flowered wand, she dances free, touching every other rose with it, each in turn.
If I could paint the sky,
Hold my brushes in my hand,
Once again I’d fly,
Paint the wishes I could see
Swirling in the breeze.
Noelle takes Melody’s hand as they run, and swings her in a wide circle of freedom. Melody takes her other hand and they lean back as they circle, beaming smiles toward the hidden stars.
If I could close my eyes,
Drift into the colors
That I painted once before,
Know that wishes do come true,
And I’d save one for you.
Sonya takes her rose and throws it to the audience, and in her dance returns to the brace and takes one rose at a time, throwing each to outstretched hands.
One wish, two, I have for you,
Wish number three is just for me.
Wish number four for my friends next door,
Wishes left over when you need some more.
One wish, two, I have for you,
Wish number four for my friends next door,
Wishes left over when you need some more.
Sonya finishes by returning to where she started, her arms and face again raised high, and like a bloom closing in the night, folds down to her starting pose.
The lights go dark as the song ends, and the screen illuminates behind, displaying a view from the capsule toward Earth, now too large to be seen entirely, and bringing a sigh from the audience. The Earth dissolves to a shot, from inside the capsule, of the cover of the Book. The cover takes up the entire screen, Tom’s hand resting upon it.
On the face of the Book are simple drawings of constellations with a warrior standing amidst them, shooting an arrow upward. The colors are muted, made from berries and leaves and dirt, faded over generations.
Tom’s voice wavers through space and atmosphere. “This is the Legend of Skyeyes.”
Tom’s hand carefully turns the cover to reveal a page of weathered deerskin with faded figures: two mountains, each with a sun in different positions. Between them are people, above them the figure of a child with stars for eyes, and beside him a wolf with his mouth open, as if speaking.
“In the time of the ancestors of the Anasasi, God, who was called Tobats, was angry with his people because they did not believe he would give them what they needed as they traveled from the Land of the Setting Sun to the Land of the Rising Sun. He sent Shinob, his son, to them, and Shinob took the stars from the night, the stars that guided the ancestors in their journey, and threw them into the eyes of the Son of Tureris, who he named the Child of Skyeyes. Tureris had shot the Arrow of Fire into the Land of the Stars to lead the way, but now the old stars were hidden, and the people did not know where to go, because they did not know the new stars. So Shinob became a wolf, and he took the Child of Skyeyes to himself, and said to the people that when they found how to save the Child, they would have him, and the stars in his eyes would guide them to the Land of the Rising Sun. But he said also that only the very old or the very young could speak to him, for only they could know the truth. ‘When you are ready to speak,’ said Shinob, ‘walk toward the setting Sun, and I will set a tree afire to purify your heart.’ So it was that the Book began, and the people would look for a sign in the stars, and then talk to the Wolf in the hope of freeing the Child.”