16  LUNA FOURTAPS

(Dark folk swing building into triumphant rock. Female lead. Navigator appears only to point at the seam.)

(Intro - BARD)

The moon misplaced a measure.
The stars forgot the rhyme.
The road swapped all the signposts
and blamed it all
on time.

(BARD, laughing)

Fine.

(Verse 1 - BARD)

Once I knew a hundred songs,
knew where every heartbeat belonged,
knew the turn before the fall,
knew which silence held it all.
Then morning came with crooked hands,
moved the rivers, changed the plans,
left my verses dressed in snow
and asked me
where the music goes.
So I chased it through the timber,
through the chapel, through the rain,
found the universe behind me
moving all
the stones again.

(NAVIGATOR)

Luna.

(BARD)

I know.

(NAVIGATOR)

No.
Look here.
This moved.

(Silence.)

(BARD)

There you are.

(Pre-Chorus - BARD)

Ha.
Very funny.
Hide the road.
Steal the key.
You forgot one little problem:
the song
remembers me.

(Chorus - BARD)

So I'll keep the music in my feet,
in the spaces where the words still meet,
in the breath before the chorus lands,
in the drumbeat sleeping in my hands.
Let the heavens shuffle every card.
I will learn the rhythm twice as hard.
If the universe keeps stealing tunes from me,
I'll teach the stars
to sing them back.

(Verse 2 - BARD)

I found tempo in a tavern chair,
meter tangled through the air,
cadence hiding in a closing door,
harmony beneath a creaking floor.
Found a chorus in a blacksmith's swing,
found a bridge in how the church bells ring,
found a rest inside a held goodbye,
found the downbeat
when the ravens fly.
Every time the cosmos grinned
and pulled another little thread,
I stopped asking where it went.
I listened
somewhere else instead.

(Pre-Chorus - BARD)

Ha.
Very clever.
Break the page.
Blur the ink.
You can take away the lantern.
You cannot take
the way I think.

(Chorus - BARD)

So I'll keep the music in my feet,
in the spaces where the words still meet,
in the breath before the chorus lands,
in the drumbeat sleeping in my hands.
Let the heavens shuffle every card.
I will learn the rhythm twice as hard.
If the universe keeps stealing tunes from me,
I'll teach the stars
to sing them back.

(Bridge - BARD)

A bard does not keep music
by locking every song away.
A bard keeps music
by learning where it lives.
Not in parchment.
Not in memory alone.
Not in one perfect melody
that never changes shape.
Music lives in pattern.
Return.
Tension.
Release.
A foot finding the floor.
A voice finding the next breath.
A hand striking wood
and knowing
when not
to strike again.

(NAVIGATOR)

So if the song disappears?

(BARD)

I make another.

(NAVIGATOR)

From what?

(BARD)

From what made the first.

(Breakdown - BARD)

STEAL THE VERSE.
I'LL KEEP THE BEAT.
BREAK THE RHYME.
I'LL FIND THE FEET.
TAKE THE MAP.
I'LL READ THE SKY.
LOSE THE SONG.
I'LL ASK IT WHY.
Move the mountain.
Drain the sea.
Change the language under me.
I have learned the oldest trick:
if rhythm leaves,
make rhythm.

(Final Chorus - BARD)

I'll keep the music in my feet,
in the places broken patterns meet,
in the breath before the chorus lands,
in the pulse still waiting in my hands.
Let the heavens shuffle every card.
I will learn the rhythm twice as hard.
And if the universe keeps stealing tunes from me,
I'll teach the stars
to sing them back.
If the universe keeps laughing quietly,
I'll laugh in key
and answer back.

(Outro - BARD)

One.
Two.
Three.
Four.

(four taps)

One.
Two.
Three.
Four.

(NAVIGATOR)

Luna?

(BARD, smiling)

Fourtaps.

(soft laugh)

There you are.