[Intro][A single tremolo guitar chord sways against slow 6/8 drums. A phone vibrates once; Anna's voice comes from the dark side of the stage.]

[Female Vocal: Anna][Spoken Word, over phone]
Mum's funeral was last week.
You sent white flowers.
They misspelled her name.

[Verse 1][Duet: Father and Anna]
[Male Vocal: Father]
My phone lit her name as we crossed an open field.
Her voice broke through static; the weak signal held.
I answered too quickly; her first words came slow.
Then wheels filled the silence where answers should go.
[Female Vocal: Anna]
"You missed the last winter. You missed the last week.
You sent something white when she asked for your face."
[Male Vocal: Father]
I stared at the blue cap, unable to speak;
Every excuse lost its shape without trace.

[Chorus][Female Vocal: Anna]
Don't arrive too late with a speech in your coat.
Don't hand me apologies written and saved.
Don't arrive too late and call distance your fate;
You chose every winter. You measured the wait.
The train may run south, but the years won't reverse.
Don't stand at my door and ask me to hurt first.

[Verse 2][Duet: Father and Anna]
[Male Vocal: Father]
"Anna, I know what my leaving has done."
[Female Vocal: Anna]
"Knowing comes easy when choices are gone."
[Male Vocal: Father]
"I'm not on this train to demand you forgive."
[Female Vocal: Anna]
"Then tell me why now. Tell me how you have lived."
[Male Vocal: Father]
A tunnel took daylight and broke up the line.
Her voice thinned to metal, then dropped into air.
When the screen found a signal, one message was waiting:
[Female Vocal: Anna]
"I may meet the train. I may not be there."

[Instrumental Break][Tremolo guitar and low piano repeat separate halves of the whistle motif without resolving. The audience is silent.]

[Verse 3][Male Vocal: Father]
Mara sat opposite, awake from the call.
She poured me some water and said nothing at all.
She did not say, "Everything will be all right."
I opened unsent letters under the reading light.
Each tidy with reasons, each dated and signed,
Each blaming the distance in careful old lines.
I tore through the pages till phrases lay scattered;
The blind tapped the glass. None of those reasons mattered.

[Bridge][Male Vocal: Father]
Station lamps showed through a gap in the blind.
I pushed the torn pages deep into my case.
Morning drew close, one red light at a time;
I could step onto it and make no new claim.

[Break][Male Vocal: Father, almost spoken]
No defence.
No demand.
Just the cap in my hand.

[Final Chorus][Duet: Anna and Father][Female Lead: Anna; Father on Low Wordless Harmony]
Don't arrive too late with a speech in your coat.
Don't hand me apologies written and saved.
Don't arrive too late and call distance your fate;
You chose every winter. You measured the wait.
The train may run south, but the years won't reverse.
Don't stand at my door and ask me to hurt first.

[Answer Coda][Male Vocal: Father]
I carry no speech; I won't ask you to pretend.
Every letter stayed folded. I sent none of them.
Your mother is buried. I missed the goodbye.
I'll stand at your door. You can leave me outside.

[Outro][The final chord remains unresolved. Father and Anna stand in separate pools of light.]

[Female Vocal: Anna]
I may meet the train.

[Male Vocal: Father]
I will step down alone.

[Female Vocal: Anna]
No promises.

[Male Vocal: Father]
None.