Jake: This is my little sister Lauren.
Lauren: (Wave)
Jake: She’s always into something.
Lauren: (Throws something on the floor)
Jake: Then I end up cleaning it up, but I love her.
Lauren: (She mimes, “I love you”)
Jake: Lauren doesn’t speak. She’s what they call a mute. (Beat) She hasn’t spoken in years. Sometimes I wonder…if she could speak now, if I could hear her, what would she say? What does she see every day in her world that I will never know about? (Beat, she looks at her and she makes a sad face.) More than anything else I would ask her why? What could have happened that would take such an energetic kid and take them into…silence.
Lauren: Hi. My name is Lauren. That’s my big brother Jake. When I was born the chord that feeds me was wrapped around my neck and it pulled…and pulled…until I…died.
Jake: She died
Lauren: (Simultaneous) two minutes
Jake: (Simultaneous) two minutes
Doctor: Mrs. Harrison I’m sorry to tell you but your baby girl had the umbilical chord wrapped around her neck when we pulled her out. With a loss of oxygen to her brain she may suffer from a number of brain generated defects: retardation, slowed growth and development, loss of vision, or she may be behind children her age in everything from her first words to her first steps.
