The Scarf Story
There is a placed called Orphanage of the Sisters of Perpetual Light. One night, magic seems to seep from the front
door, a knock is heard. Sister Marie
goes to investigate, upon unlocking he door she sees an elephant. This elephants asks for Charmion by
name, Sister Marie can not understand
the elephant. He asks again, but is
kindly asked to leave. Charmion is
stirred from her sleep by the magic flowing through the orphanage at this late
hour and sees the elephants outside the door.
Slowly the elephants begins to walk away, she hears her name called out
on the wind. As she looks to see where
it is coming from, a red scarf blows through the wind. The elephant is no longer there. Did he walk out of sight, or has he embodied
the scarf? The now curious Charmion goes
to retrieve the scarf and decides she must return it to the elephant. She must join the Circus.
Charmion dreams of elephants. She dreams of flying through the air. She dreams of grace. A trapeze swinging, a scarf falling. And Elephant who wishes to fly. Charmion also wishes to fly and she makes
wings for both of them. They soar, but
the wings do not catch hold. The
elephant crashes through the roof.
Falling, but with grace. A scarf.
Charmion meets William, a gentle man who lives for
compassion. But it is the elephants that
receive his love. William tells of how
he came to find the elephants. His
running away from home, joining the circus.
But he is troubled because an elephant he loved, Mary, was put on trial
and killed while he was away. He left
the circus to begin his own one. He
wanted to give Mary peace in death.
Charmion notices a scarf worn around his neck, strikingly familiar. Charmion thinks of the scarf she found from
that magic elephant that called for her so many years ago. She knows where she keeps this scarf, always
within the pocket of her coat.
Moved by William’s story and compassion for the elephant,
she auditions for the Circus with her disrobing act. Filmed by Thomas Edison, nonetheless. She is hired.
William and Charmion form a bond of friendship, a friendship that feels
as though it is already known.
Charmion realizes that the time of the Circus is coming
to an end. She plans to leave Vaudeville
and work with a new circus in Florida.
In fondness of her friendship with William, and perhaps to right the
wrong of the elephants who crashed through the roof in her dreams, and the
elephant Mary who crashed into the ground after her trial, Charmion finds a
baby elephant to give to William. She
wants this baby Elephant to remind William of everything beautiful, of magic,
of unknown friendships. Charmion names
this elephant Nancy and plans to give it to William.
Charmion searches for an adornment for Nancy, something
that will enhance her beauty and be a part of Charmion. Nancy and Charmion’s memory for William. While Charmion is searching, William enters
and removes the scarf he is always wearing and ties a bow with it upon Nancy’s
neck. Meanwhile Charmion decides that in
order to preserve her memories of the elephant who called her to this circus so
many years ago, she would tie her scarf upon Nancy’s neck. But there is something that wasn’t there
before. The same scarf. William is in the shadows and whispers “If
you haven’t already noticed, things are often not that they seem”.
A bright light, Charmion shields her eyes, William floats
away to the light. Charmion is
bewildered, William flew away into the air with grace. Could he fly?
Charmion wished to fly, to soar through the air. As elephants can float through the air and
become nothingness, magic is real.
Charmion decides to give Nancy her own matching scarf. The same one from the magic elephant years
ago.
Charmion finds William, and notices that his scarf is
indeed missing. Before showing William
his gift, she inquires as to where his scarf has gone. William is confused, he has never had such a
scarf. Charmion gives William
Nancy. Charmion could almost feel the
tears of joy come to William’s face as he sees the pure beauty in Nancy. Charmion says farewell and leaves to Florida.
The trip is long and on the first night she tells her
companions an elephant story. She seems
lost in the story, distant and longing.
The next morning she is gone. But
in the evening she returned with another Elephant story. She is missing the next morning, but the
routine continues, her companions grow comfortable with this occurrence. One evening, she does not come back. Charmion, while searching for the elephant
that called upon her in the Orphanage of
Perpetual Light, heard of the illness and eventual death of William. She left without a word to find Nancy.
Charmion returns to find Nancy dying of a broken
heart. As a final gesture, she returns
the scarf from around her neck to Charmion.
This was the second time an elephant as left without a word, but only
this scarf. She sets out to build a
monument for both William and Nancy. She
commissions a statue of Nancy to mark William’s grave. After the finishing touches she ties the red
scarf, once again, upon Nancy’s neck.
Ceremonies finished, she departs to tell another elephant story to a new
audience.
William climbs from his grave. He is confused as to what as happened, and
upon seeing the statue of Nancy, he begins to cry. He takes the Scarf from the monument and is
at a loss of what to do now. Shouldn’t
he be in heaven? Did Nancy, his beloved
die? William returns to the circus, as a
ghost, hopping to find answers. But no
one can see him, he gets no response. A
fortune teller calls him to her tent, surprised, he enters. Upon entering the tent, William experiences a
sense of dejavu, this was the same fortune teller he met when he first came to
the circus. The one who told him to
follow the elephant. She gives him the
same information, “She lives.” Confused, William asks “But how will I find
her?” “The elephant will lead you to her.” “But there is not a single elephant
in sight!” “If you haven’t already
noticed, things are not often what they seem.”
William exits the tent and finds Charmion waiting in line
to see an elephant, she has a now hiring poster in hand. This seems too familiar to William. But William is dead, and is now forced to
relive his life to find “her” to follow the elephants once again.
Charmion’s daughter is still with the companions that
Charmion left so abruptly. She was given
Charmion’s coat to cherish the memory of her mother with, and the memory of the
circus they all left. She looks into the
pocket and a scarf flies out, watching the scarf, it lands on a “Now hiring”
poster. Charmion’s daughter hears the
story of the elephant Nancy and decides to travel back to where she grew up
with her mother and pay respects to William and Nancy’s grave.
William enters the room as Charmion is deciding how to
present this baby elephant to her dear friend.
William doesn’t remember this, he wasn’t there. But he knows this baby elephant, his dear
Nancy, and recognizes that she is missing the scarf she always wore. He returns the scarf to his beloved Nancy,
and upon doing so he is lifted up into heaven.
Charmion is standing at the door of The Orphanage of the Sisters of Perpetual Light and sees large
shadows crossing the door. She turns to
see an elephant walking past. Charmion
calls out and the elephant drops a red scarf.
Charmion’s Daughter stands in front of the Statue of
Nancy. Not knowing what to do, but
knowing that something significant has to be shown, for all of the memories of
magic, of the circus, she takes the red scarf out of her mother’s coat and ties
it upon the statue. She takes out the
“Now Hiring” poster from her pocket and tears it up. The air fills with little torn up bits of
paper that become snow. We are inside
the snow globe of the fortune teller.
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