Just One Rose
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James Neufeld
Published by Cyberpress
This play portrays one family's loss of life in the wake of the World Trade Center disaster
Clifford Samualson meets Dawn at the subway of the World Trade Center
She is lacking change for the subway fare - a couple days in a row!
He obliges her the extra change for the fare each time - the last time teasing her that now she would "owe" a date!
Clifford takes a chance that same night and buys "just one rose", placing it into a vase to keep it fresh until the morning, hoping he'll meet her the following day at the subway
But in the morning, fate would bring her to reject his rose - but accept the change he offered her instead
He repeatedly buys her "just one rose" - three times the night before work - until she finally accepts
They elope after one month, settle down and have two kids - Todd and Tonya
Dawn takes a job at the World Trade Center as a stock market analyst
Cliff works as a mechanic
When the World Trade Center falls, he drives towards the building in search of Dawn, only to be denied access to the area by the police officer Ernie
Ernie returns later that day to inform Clifford that they have identified the remains of his wife through fingerprint analysis
Ernie reveals he has also lost his partner in the disaster and returns Dawn's purse containing a message that she wrote in her final hours
Clifford is left feeling the burden of blame from both his children as well as his mother- in-law, Grandma Marie herself!
Marie unknowingly blames Cliff for not making an effort to find her daughter
She also holds resentment towards him, in that he didn't treat her right- in giving her daughter "just one rose", telling him that "I bet you wish that you could give her a dozen roses now, son! And yet now it was just a little to late! Do you still think that it is the thought that counts, son?"
The play, "Just One Rose," takes one family's raw emotions of helplessness and despair and turns it into a statement of hope for Clifford's family, when his children return from the corner store carrying with them"just the one rose" ... for their fallen mother
Then the thought counted, because Marie realizes that the rose was all that her Grandkids could give at the time
Yet her son-in-law gave her his heart all the same ... and that was all he could give as well
He bought her "just one rose", just before the fall and his love left him
One-act
TO READ THE OPENING SCENES, click here