THE PORTRAIT OF THE VIRGIN MARY FEEDING THE DINOSAURS BY JEFF GOODE IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, AND MAY NOT BE PERFORMED, DOWNLOADED, OR RE-TRANSMITTED WITHOUT THE AUTHOR'S CONSENT.
(flash and sound of a single gunshot)
Suicide Note
(lights up on Leveaux at a desk, wearing a white turtleneck. He holds a smoking gun, which he calmly places on the desk in front of him.)

LEVEAUX
There are certain things that cannot be undone.
Like a bullet fired from a gun.
They mark the turning points in our lives.
You can never go back.
And when you go forward, it stays with you.
Like a scar.
If you can go forward.
But you can't pretend it didn't happen.

I have tried to go on like nothing happened.

(He seems to be a bit flustered. He rises to his feet. A patch of blood can be seen spreading across the front of his shirt.)

We study art. History. Literature.

(gestures broadly, indicating his world.)
Surround ourselves with culture, ideas. Enlighten ourselves. Gain a better understanding of our world. So that we don't make that kind of mistake.
(starting to ramble:) Think and talk and talk and think
And if you're lucky: sure, fine, great.
But if you screw up: ...What was it all for??
(he is weak from loss of blood.)
(trying to regain his composure, intensely:)
When the dinosaurs
look back on their history...
How do you think they feel?
When a dinosaur
walks into a museum
and sees his or her own skeleton hanging there...
How do you think they feel?
(at a loss:)
I don't think I can explain it to you.
I wish there was an artifact or a book or a painting or something that I could show you and you would understand.
But I don't have anything.

I don't have anything that will...

(His shirt is drenched with blood.)
(he looks around searchingly, a little dizzy.)
...maybe in my pocket.
(He takes a few pieces of paper out of his pocket. He considers one of them.)
I don't know, maybe.
(But then he starts to collapse. Blood everywhere. He sits at his desk and loses consciousness.)

(Lights and music fade as if it were the end of the play.)

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