Scene 1

ANGELIQUE and POUBELLE walk on stage and sit down in two chairs set side by side. The chairs represent the car at times throughout the scene. We hear MAMAN and PAPA's voices throughout.

POUBELLE

The rhyming couplets,

ANGELIQUE

Our lovely set of twins,

BOTH

God knows where one ends and the other begins.

ANGELIQUE

A double of everything sweet to pleasure the eye,

BOTH

Of breath,

They inhale together.

ANGELIQUE

Of breath and of softness of thigh.

The girls are in the back seat of the family station wagon.

POUBELLE

Maman, Angelique is pulling my hair!

ANGELIQUE

Non, Maman, Poubelle a commencé.

POUBELLE

Non! Papa, est-ce que vous pouvez dire à Angelique d'arrêter!

PAPA

Arrêtez, les filles! Why don't you look outside your windows? Garde le beautiful, big sky. Garde ça instead of ripping each other apart back there.

POUBELLE

Papa, where are we? It's so terribly flat.

PAPA

The prairies, ma chère.

POUBELLE

Flat like a pancake. Pancake land.

ANGELIQUE

Flapjack land!

POUBELLE

You're a flapjack.

ANGELIQUE

You're going to marry a flapjack!

POUBELLE

Well, at least I'm getting married. Who'd want you?

PAPA

Ça suffit, les filles!

Lights change.

BOTH

Two little girls, one brunette and one blond,

ANGELIQUE

Capillaries, cartilage, strengthening bond.

POUBELLE

With eyes set in hazel

ANGELIQUE

And eyes bathed in blue,

POUBELLE

Begging the question, one soul or two?

ANGELIQUE

To find the answer we'll use science to gage

POUBELLE

What keeps two together in this day and age.

ANGELIQUE

No questions for heaven and the powers above,

POUBELLE

We'll distill this bond, this liquor called love.

In the car.

Maman, ARE WE THERE YET?

MAMAN

Why don't you open up your colouring?

PAPA

But les filles, do I want to see wax on the upholstery?

BOTH

Non, Papa.

Lights change.

ANGELIQUE

Cut it up, dissect it, drained and wrung dry.

POUBELLE

In the name of science, we must always ask, "why?"

ANGELIQUE

Slaughter it, butchered like the finest-cut meat.

POUBELLE

Love's but a word, we need proof how hearts beat.

In the car.

POUBELLE is drawing.

ANGELIQUE

Can I see your colouring book?

POUBELLE shows her.

You're going outside of the lines, you know.

POUBELLE

Je sais. I'm making it better. I'm making it into our house in Montreal. C'est le tree in the front yard. Tu vois?

ANGELIQUE

Ah, oui. Can I try one?

POUBELLE rips out a piece of paper and gives it to her sister.

This is going to be the car because it feels like we live in here. We've been driving forever! Papa, when are we going to be there?

PAPA

At least another twelve hours, ma bleue.

POUBELLE

You make one of the car and then we can park it on mine of the house.

ANGELIQUE

Okay.

Lights change.

POUBELLE

What's between those twins is where we'll start.

To find it! Love! We must pull them apart.

ANGELIQUE

And the parts joining them one were made two.

POUBELLE

Science unkindly undid all of God's glue.

In the car.

ANGELIQUE

Fini!

POUBELLE

Let's see. Pretty good. Like my house?

ANGELIQUE

Don't forget to put Puss Puss in.

POUBELLE

Ah, oui! (draws in the cat) Finis!

ANGELIQUE

Maman, 'garde ça! Regarde qu'est-ce qu'on a fait!

POUBELLE

Papa, look at Ange and me's drawing.

MAMAN

Ange and I, Poubelle—and don't bother your papa when he is trying to drive.

POUBELLE

But I just want to show him my drawing.

She waves it in her father's face.

ANGELIQUE

Me too!

ANGELIQUE waves her picture in her father's face. They are both waving them so it's impossible for him to see the road.

PAPA

Arrêtez, les filles! I can't see the road!

MAMAN

POUBELLE! ANGELIQUE!

Lights flash and we hear the sounds of a car crash. The girls fly out of the car in slow motion. The scene is one of horror and confusion. The girls end up lying on the ground, separated. Their parents are gone.

POUBELLE

Bruises blushed purple, yellow, and blue.

ANGELIQUE

Blood pooling where severed in two.

The girls are dazed and on their backs. They cannot move. POUBELLE is awake but her sister seems nearly unconscious.

POUBELLE

Wiggle your toes and blink your right eye.

ANGELIQUE

Gain strength, relearn to walk, please try.

POUBELLE

Don't leave me in this world separate and alone.

ANGELIQUE

Blood is thicker than water and stronger than bone.

POUBELLE

Don't you dare die on me and leave us apart.

BOTH

You are my sister.

POUBELLE

I've loved you from the start.