"That look..."
- Colin Ward
- May 17, 2016
- 2 min read
The first showing of my play "No Smoke" was shown in July 2014, six years after my own case of a false allegation that fortunately ended with "No Further Action". Even though I didn't get convicted, or even have to go to court, it took me four years before I could distance myself enough from the issues enough in order to write something that would make sense for any audience. Below is a key quote from the play that is one from the main character. Although the play is a fictional story, and the character who speaks them is also fictional, lines below were some of the easiest to write because they came from absolute truth. Although a slightly different context here, the sentiment is exactly the same: imagine those eyes belonging to a child who have been falsely accused. Imagine YOU are the one who is looking directly into them.
"That look in a child’s eyes. The look that says ‘please’. When they can’t express what they think or how they feel, but they no longer want to hide it. And their shoulders sag under the terrifying weight of the world as they inhale their words. Quiet, uncertain, punctuated with anger, flickering with desperation. Their gaze drops down, slips to the side as if the answer is written somewhere just out of reach. Until suddenly their eyes fix on you and their soul threatens to spill down their face, slipping through their fingers as they lose grip on their thoughts. Through burning-red rage, or the stone-cold silence, you know, you feel, that gaze screaming ‘help!’ The window to the soul; the gateway to the heart. Those eyes, that look … saying ‘help me’."
From "No Smoke" by Colin Ward
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