[Ticking clock. Soft piano.] ELENA: Clock’s running. Nobody’s billing. Morning’s coming. The phones are still. For years that sound meant somebody owed me. A little green light put a price on my will. Clock’s running. No one is buying. No one is asking who I should become. No duchess. No angel. No whispering stranger. Just daylight arriving and nowhere to run. [Upright bass enters.] I spent years becoming whatever they wanted to hear. A voice in the darkness, professionally near. I learned how to sparkle when nothing felt bright. I learned how to vanish without leaving the night. But the clock kept moving while I stood in one place, selling warmth by the minute with a smile in my voice and no name on my face. [Muted trumpet.] Clock’s running. Maybe that’s mercy. Maybe a deadline can also be choice. Maybe the seconds were never the customer’s. Maybe they always belonged to the woman behind the voice. [Brenda enters, too cheerful.] BRENDA: You have thirty seconds to return to your stations! [The workers stop.] ELENA: Then you’ve got thirty seconds to learn how to answer a phone. [Ticking continues.] Thirty. I don’t owe you Jasmine. Twenty-nine. I don’t owe you Viv. Twenty-eight. I don’t owe anyone a version of me I can’t afford to live. [Other operators quietly join.] OPERATORS: Clock’s running. Morning’s coming. No one is billing. Nobody owns this minute. ELENA: I thought freedom would sound bigger. Trumpets. Thunder. Some magnificent sign. But it sounds like cheap shoes on a wet sidewalk and a frightened voice saying, “This one is mine.” [Organ enters softly.] Clock’s running. Let it. Morning’s coming. Let it. The phones can keep ringing. The numbers can fall. For once, I am not the woman answering all. [Brenda’s phone begins ringing.] BRENDA: Is no one going to get that? ELENA: Smile through your voice. [The operators laugh.] ALL: Clock’s running, but nobody’s billing. Morning’s coming, and nobody knows what happens next. ELENA: Good. [The ticking stops.] This minute is mine. [One piano note holds into “Another Minute.”]
