Stephen Metcalfe

9-11-2026
From my stage play, THE TRAGIC AGE, written in 2014. As is so often the case, I don’t think I realized the magnitude of what I was writing about. Regardless, the image of the falling man has stayed with me for twenty-five years.

Night. The distant sound of thunder. Lightning flickers in the room. Dakin stands stage center, lost in thought. The sudden sound of a woman crying out-

MACY (off) — Dakin – !! Dakin – !?

Dakin – Macy!?

MACY — Dakin…!

Macy enters. She is in night clothes. She is wild eyed, half screaming, half sobbing; unable to wake from her nightmare.

MACY — Dakin!! Where are you – Dakin – !

He moves to her, takes her in his arms – she struggles for a moment, then begins to quiet as he comforts her. He leads her to the couch.

Dakin — Sshhh, I’m here, it’s all right. Everything’s all right. I’m here.

MACY — I couldn’t wake up. I wanted to but I couldn’t wake up.

She begins to softly weep again.

Dakin — Shhh, it was a bad dream. Just a dream.

She speaks now, as if numb. As if the only way she can talk about it to keep detached from it.

MACY — It was about Spencer.

Dakin — Oh, Macy.

MACY — I know.

Dakin — Do you want to talk about it? (She shakes her head) It makes you feel better when you do.

Images on the stage scrim as:

MACY — I’m with him and he’s a little boy. We’re somewhere in a park and I’m pushing him on a swing. Back and forth, out and back. And I want to hold him, Dakin, I want to hold him still.

Dakin — Of course you do.

MACY — But I can’t. I push him and I catch him, push and catch. And then I hear the sound.

(It’s very faint. The sound of a jet plane.)

MACY — I realize the plane is coming.

Dakin — Macy –

MACY — I’m trying to tell myself it’s just a dream, something I saw and heard on television but I can’t help it… I look up. And it’s overhead… and I turn with it and I watch it go in. It’s as if the tower swallows it.

(Sound gone as it crashes into the South tower of the World Trade Center.)

MACY — I look back to the swing for Spencer… and he’s gone. And I know it’s a dream, Dakin, but Spencer is gone….

Dakin — You should stop now.

MACY — Let me finish! (a moment) I’m in the tower now, above the crash floor… where Spencer’s office was… I’m looking for him, Dakin. I’m calling for him. But I can’t find him. I can’t find Spencer, Dakin, I can’t find him. And then… I have to choose. All of us do. Will we burn… or will we jump. (Then, softly:) I jump.

On the stage scrim, the falling man, hurtling towards the ground, head first.

Dakin — Macy, we don’t know if he jumped or fell or went down with the whole goddamn thing.

MACY — And that’s what’s so hard.

Dakin — Come, let me take you back to bed. I’ll stay with you.

He lifts her in his arms.

MACY — You’ll hurt your back.

Dakin — No, I’m very strong.

MACY — When will I accept it, Dakin?

Dakin — I think – never.

The lights dim as they exit.