memory lane-dear jovan

yesterday i came across a play that lucy and i wrote around 7th grade. all of our characters are under the age of 20, with the exception of the villian...and in 4 days, i will be 20. somehow 20 sounds so much more ominous than 19. and we apparently thought so even at age 12...

anyway, back to the play. with some of the cheesiest lines (that we thought were poetic, romantic or touching, at the time) i spent several moments reading our great work, laughing to myself. how silly and innocent we were.

for starters, the cast is as follows:
narrator
adelisa, the heroine, 17
casimir, the hero, 19
ignacio, the villain, 23
hadrien, casimir's best friend, 18
katriel, ignacio's younger sister, 13
jovan, a peasant boy, 14
namir, a good guard
henchmen

i remember the agonizing time we spent pouring over a name book, searching for the perfect names for our cast. apparently, we were completely satisfied with the results of our search.

my favorite scene is the final scene: the underground passage, scene nine. after they have made the daring escape from ignacio's castle, jovan was wounded with a flying dagger. we thought it would be more realistic if we killed off one of characters. we were near tears when we wrote this scene and thought the best lines in the whole play were found in this final scene. i remember reading jovan's last words to each other and being full of sadness for the sacrifice of this noble boy. =)

scene nine:
katriel: (crying) jovan, how badly are you hurt?
jovan: (gasping for breath) leave me. i don't want to slow you down.
casimir: no! i'll carry him.
narrator: after rejoining adelisa, they all rode back home on horses namir had provided. it was only later that they heard ignacio's henchmen had revolted and killed him. Meanwhile, jovan was taking his last breaths in adelisa's little cottage.
jovan: (gasping for air) don't be sad when i am gone. i would do it again in a second, for friends like you. (he dies)
(they stand around sadly; the ladies cry. casimir is comforting adelisa.)
narrator: soon, casimir and adelisa were married, and they lived very happily. but they never forgot jovan and the great sacrifice he made.

even as i type this, i can't help but laugh, especially when jovan dies. how melodramatic we were! =)

and perhaps, just maybe, turning 20 isn't so bad after all.