ENDINGS © 1994
story from a screenplay by Dean FH Macy

"Ooooo, it's so beautiful," Leah whispered to her sister. "How can they sing like that?"

"They're not doing all the singing," said Mary. "Look over there behind the back row. Do you see our choir?"

Leah strained her eyes to see through the mists surrounding the earthly singers. Then she spotted them. It was their choir. Their choir was filling in for them. "But how could they," Leah asked. "We don't sing any of their words. We have our own."

"They learn them, silly. Really, Leah, sometimes you can be so dense. I don't think Father will ever let you go down. I mean, well, you're my best friend besides being my sister and I love you, but Leah: Most times you don't think things through. You don't carry things through either."

Leah looked hurt.

Mary put her arm around her sister's shoulders and gave her a little squeeze. "Oh, Leah. I'm sorry. But you know this yourself. You always jump into a project but you never follow it through to the end. You get so excited about new ideas but you bore so easily. Then Mother or I have to push you to finish."

"But it'll be different there," Leah insisted.

"Why?"

"Well, I'll have more choices of things to do. Won't I?"

"More than here? I doubt it. We can do anything here we want to. Do you think you can cloud paint down there? Or change fragrances in the flowers? Or be an angel soloist in our choir?"

"Noooo, I guess not," pouted Leah. "But they'll be different things, things we can't do up here."

Mary opened her mouth and just stared at Leah for a moment. "Leah, don't even think like that. Why would you want to do something forbidden?"

"I didn't say I wanted to do something Father won't let us do here. It just that. . . well won't there be different things we can do there that we can't do here. I mean like, change the color of our hair or have a doll or a pet? Can't we, Mary?"

"That's what they tell us. I don't know that for sure, but you're not going to be any different, Leah. Everything you are now goes with you. You'll have the same personality. Just because you're down there won't make you any different. You'll probably argue with your new parents just like you argue with Mother and me."

"No! That's not true!" Leah stamped her foot for emphasis.

"See? You're doing it right now. You're arguing with me."

"Not arguing! Just. . .just. . ." Leah stared at her slipper.

"Leah, you know how you're always complaining that we run your life? That we almost never let you make any more decisions? Do you know why?"

Leah kept looking at her slipper.

"Because," Mary went on, "you've shown us that you can't carry anything on to it's conclusion by yourself. You start, then you get bored and start something else. You never go back to finishing the last one."

"Like what?" Leah demanded.

"Do you remember when Father let all of you work on the creation project? You decided to make the animal of your dreams. I forgot what you called it."

"A unicorn. It was a unicorn."

"Yes, them. You said you could do it all by yourself. And Father believed you would. He knew you could, we all did, but Mother and I didn't think you'd finish the project. I agree, you kept at it for a long time. Much longer than any of your other projects, but, you didn't finish."

"Yes, I did. I made em and they made babies and the babies made babies, and they loved and ate and. . . and everything."

"But, Leah, you didn't plan for how long they would live or what to do when they ran out of food. You didn't communicate your unicorn's needs to the food creation project so they didn't know how much they should create. Finally Father had to step in and finish your project for you. You don't know how much He wanted you to finish on your own. He hated to have to step in and take them away. They'd have starved to death if He didn't do it. And you didn't care."

"I didn't know they would've starved."

"Because you didn't think your project through before you made them. If you'd taken the time to do that you'd have realized what was going to happen. But no, you got bored and started the star colors painting project. We all know how that turned out."

Leah began to cry.

Mary, who had moved away from her little sister as she spoke, moved close again and hugged Leah, petted her long hair and kissed her cheek. "Oh, Leah. I did it again. I made you cry. You know, if you weren't Fathers favorite daughter this would be so much easier. We wouldn't expect so much from you. We'd let you skip around doing this and that forever. But Father expects you to be the best you can be and you just want to play and have fun. And you can, up here. But you keep saying you want to go down and. . ."

"I do! I do!" Leah interrupted.

"And we're afraid you won't make it back. You're so spacey sometimes. Father is worried that you won't keep your mind on the important things and just repeat what you do here. Do you think you will do any better down there with the gifts Father gave you? If He lets you go down He's afraid you'll forget what you're there for, not use your gifts and never make it back home. I don't know how Mother and I could keep going if you don't come back; we love you so much."

"I'm going to talk to Father," Leah announced suddenly. "I'll make Him let me go! I'll show Him and all of you that I can be stronger than you think I am."

"No, Leah," Mary said. "You can't be stronger than you are. But if Father placed you with the right parents and provided someone down there to help you achieve your goals, someone whom you can love enough that you don't realize he's pushing you, maybe, just maybe, you'll make it."

"Who?" Leah asked.

"I don't know who. But Father will know. Let's go talk to Him together. Okay?"

"Okay," Leah said. "And Mary, I will come back. I promise you I will."

"I know you will try, honey. We all know you'll try."

~

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