Plot Summary

My Love and the Sea

By Jessie Kotis, Tiffany Baker, and Robert Siskin

OPENING: THE CLIFF

A young woman, Elizabeth, stands at the edge of a cliff, her lover onboard a ship that is sailing away. He is a sailor and must go off to war, and she is very sad to see him go. He waves to her as his ship sets off, sending her his love. A heart breaks above her head.

Days and nights pass. She decides that she is going to go after him. She runs down the face of the cliff towards a small rowboat anchored on shore. Unfortunately for her, a giant, dog-like sea monster lies between her and the boat; it jumps ashore. Thinking quick, she picks up a nearby stick and throws it into the ocean, far past her boat. The dog sea monster leaps after it, allowing her to reach her boat.

She sets off to find her lover’s boat.

THE VOYAGE

Not far away from the mainland she encounters a fearsome seahorse. It swims up to the boat and begins to buck as violently as a mustang. In order to placate it, she uses an apple to persuade the seahorse to calm down. The sea horse eats the apple and then happily swims away.

As she is sailing along, a mermaid appears on a rock fanning herself. Elizabeth looks intrigued, and rushes over to the side of the boat to catch a better look at the mermaid. The mermaid swishes her tail at the boat and nearly capsizes it. The boat bobs back and the mermaid slides off the rock and under the boat. As she is swimming by Elizabeth seizes the opportunity to cut the mermaid’s hair, its pride and glory, with an oversize pair of scissors. The mermaid relents and sulks away, and the young woman continues to steer the ship.

A few more days pass.

In the distance, Elizabeth can finally see what looks like her lover’s boat. To her horror, she soon realized that the ship is badly damaged and in pieces. Before she even has time to mourn her lost lover, a gargantuan octopus arises from the ocean. As the sea parts, she can see her lover hanging on to dear life on a piece of driftwood, alive.

She fends off the octopus by throwing her boot at him, which just made the octopus madder. Fearing the end is near, she throws a tophat to the octopus, who appreciates her sweet style and adds a monocle of his own. With the octopus happy and out of the way, she rescues her lover.