Swimming Friend, Reincarnated

Setting:

Art class. Behind Nomad Art Gallery juts a glass-enclosed room with a corrugated aluminum roof and a brick floor littered with pencil shavings and charcoal crumbles. Outside, surrounding the gallery, trees thick with rubbery leaves and over-long, groping branches block the heat and brightness of high noon; the studio feels dim and cool. Inside, eight young women sit in a crescent, each perched on a bench with a drawing board propped up on her lap. At the center: a large terra cotta pot on a stool. The women focus intently on their subject as they sketch its likeness. All the women except one, an American, are Pakistani. Occasionally the room erupts in Urdu conversation, but for the most part the only noise is the whir of the fan.

Characters:

Sameena, a Pakistani, is a recent graduate of Rawalpindi Model College for Girls. She wears a long black robe, a tight black headscarf, orange high heels, and glasses with thick, almost-hip, black frames.
Emily, an American, wears jeans and a long, embroidered shirt.

Scene One

Emily is drawing a lopsided, asymmetrical rendering of the pot. Her top teeth gnash into her bottom lip and her eyes narrow in deep concentration. Sameena leaves her bench and installs herself directly behind Emily, who remains in an almost hypnotic trance as she erases and then draws and then erases and then draws the the lip of the pot. Suddenly, Sameena reaches down and grabs Emily's drawing board.

Sameena: I just need to borrow this.
Emily: Ummm--

Sameena carries the board over to her bench and then compares the two amateurish sketches. She makes several adjustments to her own drawing, surveys the results, and then returns the board to Emily.

Emily: Um, right. Thank you.

Emily raises her eyebrows and fishes her iPod from her bag and plugs the white headphones into her ears. She begins to draw again, slowly reentering her trance. Meanwhile, Sameena, fishes a ruler from her pink schoolgirl's pencil holder, gets up from her bench and returns to her station directly behind Emily. For a long time, Sameena just watches Emily, who acts oblivious, though her upper lip trembles in irritation.

Emily: (turning off her iPod) Did you need something?
Sameena: I'm watching you.
Emily: I see that.
Sameena: Keep drawing. I need to watch.

Emily continues to shade her pot, which looks more like an amoebic parasite than a piece of earthenware. Suddenly, Sameena reaches down to Emily's drawing and, with her ruler, measures the spacing and angles of various lines.

Emily: Um--
Sameena: I copy your drawing.
Emily: Well, I--
Sameena: I will draw just like you.

Soon, art class ends, and Emily begins to pack up her supplies. Sameena, glancing at Emily's progress, hurriedly crams all her pencils and papers into her bag and rushes to the door, where she stations herself. When Emily approaches the door, Sameena positions herself to block Emily's exit.

Sameena: What are your studies?
Emily: Well, I'm going to be teaching American literature at Quaid-i-Azam University in the fall. In the U.S., I --
Sameena: You like British literature I love British literature who is your favorite poet mine is Yeats what is your favorite novelist mine is Emily Bronte.
Emily: OK. Yeats was actually--
Sameena: I read literature all the time I love literature do you also.
Emily: That's wonderful that you like to--
Sameena: Contact information?
Emily: Excuse me?
Sameena: Contact information give me.
Emily: Um, sure.

Emily scribbles her phone number on a piece of paper, and then leaves the art studio by walking around Sameena and then sliding into the sliver of space between Sameena and the door.

Scene Two

A series of text images come in succession on a large screen:

1
Thursday, July 12

2
Text message, 9 pm:
Hi Emily, im Sameena of galery do u remembr .wat r u doing lady ? Wel i'm reading an interesting novl by Hardy. Hav u taken diner or not yet? Rply

3
Text message, 9:45 pm:
Dear Sameena, Thank you for your message. I already have dinner plans. I hope you have a good weekend.

4
Text message, 9:48 pm:
Oh no thnkx betwen frends, isn't it.? Wel im reding "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" have you read? I hop we both 'literature lovers' wil have good time rigt.

5
Text message, 10:30 pm:
Have a nice night of reading.

6
Emily's call log:
Unanswered calls from Sameena
9:15 pm
9:29 pm
10 pm
10:15 pm

Outgoing calls to Sameena
nil

7
Friday, July 13

8
Test message, 11 am:
Hi Emily ! Did u cal me on this no? infact this is my Dad's cel no, my cel no is 03009821653. OK hav a good lunch bye Sameena

9
Emily's call log:
Unanswered calls from Sameena
10:58 am
11:02 am
11:15 am
2:30 pm

Outgoing calls to Sameena
nil

Scene 3

Friday, July 13, 3:30 pm

Emily stands on her treadmill, which is in her dining room. She wears huge white shalwar kamiz pants and a green T-shirt that says MASON in yellow across the chest (see "On being a frog.") She pulls her hair into a ponytail and slides a Battlestar Galactica DVD into her computer, which sits at eye level in front of her treadmill. She starts to run, and soon she has found a rhythm. On her computer screen, Number Six, whose spine glows red during sex, tells Dr. Baltar that she's not a human, but instead a Cyclon. And then Emily's phone rings. She intends to silence it, but the phone slips in her sweaty hands and she realizes she has accidentally answered it. She rolls her eyes, stops the treadmill, and pauses Battlestar Galactica.

Emily: (breathless) Hello?
Sameena: Hello Emily I am Sameena do you remember who I am?
Emily: Yes, from art class.
Sameena: No I am your new friend who loves literature and we met together drawing in the gallery.
Emily: Right. Art class.
Sameena: Did you call me this morning on my my father's cell phone?
Emily: Um, no. I didn't call you or your father this morning.
Sameena: You called me on my father's cell phone and I am calling you back to make sure you are OK.
Emily: Thank you for your concern.
Sameena: Are you OK I was worried that you called my father's cell phone.
Emily: I'm doing just fine.
Sameena: What are you doing right now?
Emily: (quickly) Thank you very much for calling, Sameena. I really appreciate your concern, but I am running out the door right now on a very important errand, and I regret to tell you that I have to go. Right now. But please have a great afternoon.

Emily hangs up and restarts the treadmill and the DVD player. On the screen, the first Cyclon attack destroys the pristine serenity of the lake and forest behind Dr. Baltar's home.