Family Portrait

Everyone Sees It Differently

 

(Dorian stands in front of a family portrait hanging on the wooden wall above the fire place.)

D: Everything is perfect, all the curves and edges are smooth and exact. It’s almost looks like a mirror. Our children’s children with hold this portrait and make stories about who we were and what we did.

(He smiled to himself. The pride could not be hidden from his face. The wooden door opened and a woman walked into the living room to Dorian’s side.)

Elizabeth: Dear, can you stop looking at the portrait? Your eyes are scaring the portrait’s faces.

D: But why my dear? Are you not glad with the outcome?

E: (She placed her hand on her belly and rubbed her stomach with gentle caresses) Yes I am, George is coming over for tea, can you not brag about the portrait like you do?

D: (laughs) I will try my dear, let me kiss your beautiful hand.

E: (Lets him kiss her hand) Darling, in two weeks I am due have you prepared the nursery room with all the amenities I need? The midwives say they don’t have a bed for me to lay on.

D: Let me go tell the servants now. (Dorian leaves the room.)

E: Oh this portrait (Elizabeth sits on the chair facing the portrait she notices the painting dripping its layer of paint causing the smiling facing turning to melting frowns.) Darling? Darling, come quick!

D: (Dorian storms into the room) What’s wrong my dear, you are pale what’s wrong?

E: Dorian look the painting is melting!

D: (Dorian examined the painting but sees nothing wrong just the same glistening smile with the same oil colors, smooth and joyful.) Darling, the painting is the same, are you not well? It is probably the child changing your perception.

E: Dorian, I swear the painting is melting look at the frowning faces my stomach no longer exist it is flatten by the paint.

D: I think you must sit down my dear you are not well, let me bring you some tea. (He left the room with Elizabeth on the chair, George walked into the living room noticed the portrait then noticed Elizabeth)

G: Why have you alone my darling? Why have you grown older since I last saw you? Is this child sucking the beauty out of you?

E: Stay quite with your nonsense George I am frighten with horror from that treacherous painting all it has brought me is pain and guilt look how distorted it has becomes it make me feel oozy and paranoid.

G: Maybe you wouldn’t feel that way if you kept your flesh to yourself, possibly then you wouldn’t have this cloud of guilty over your pretty head.

E: That’s ironic of you since you are the convincing sells man that made me succumb to your grace.

G: That’s funny. I was the serpent to your sin but not the motion of your jaw to bite the apple. Pay for your action and watch the painting drip in your sins.

E: I wish I never meet you, I wish you would slither away like the snake you are and never leave the hell hole you came from.

G: Frankly my dear, I don’t care for your opinion of me. What you did is on your slim shoulders. Repent my dear. (George stood in front of the painting and watched the painting carefully but it wasn’t melting but instead was distorted. Dorian’s face was a blur, the familiar lines he recognized were not Dorian but his own, and the painting wasn’t the same. The strange face stood next to Elizabeth but she looked the same with her smiling grace and plump body. Dorian walked into the room with a tray carrying the beautiful blue and white china.)

D: Why George, you are here! When did you come? I’m sorry, I wasn’t here to properly greet you, why please have a seat; let me give you come tea.

G: No Dorian, no thank you I just came to view your wife’s health and ask if you will join me in the screening of a new play. I hear the leading female singer got her role by sleeping with the director and can’t play the part. I predicted it will be most enjoyable we must go.

D: (Dorian set the tray in front of Elizabeth, poured the tea, and dropped sugar cubes before serving to her.) I would love to go but Elizabeth has been sick and I must stay caring for her, maybe another day.

G: Why she looks perfectly well to me and it’s normal for her to act strange during this time. She’s due in two weeks, is she not?

D: Why that’s true it’s normal for her to act this way, but I must be with her in case she gives birth early.

G: Well then, take care of her and when you are free from the ties of marriage and family send me a letter and we will plan the day. Goodbye Dorian, goodbye Elizabeth.

D: Goodbye George. (Elizabeth didn’t look at him) Dear, say goodbye don’t be rude

E: Goodbye (She never looked at him.)

(He exited the room and the stage curtains close. Two weeks pass by and the curtain opens with Dorian sitting on the chair with a drink in his hand, his feet on top of the ottoman, and the fireplace on, but the painting is different.)

D: That wretched woman, I should have known she was never mine, that poor b*****d will now know misery and poverty, not even George wants that w***e’s b*****d. (Dorian got up from his seat and walked up to the painting)

D: Look at this painting it still has glass on it from my cup. (He rubs his finger on the painting) I’m not even in the painting anymore, it’s just her with her melting frown and flat stomach standing alone. What a shame.

(Dorian place the cup on the table and walked out of the room, the light kept still on the painting as the room’s lights dimmed out)