One Day

   Yesterday, I could've sworn I had a life--people loved me and I would always have them.  Today, fuck it.
   I am nowhere with no one and nothing will ever happen.  I am frozen and burning.  I am tethered, yet evanescent.  I am in a place that doesn't exist.  I am.  And I am no longer.  I am dead.
   I thought this was the promised land.  I was wrong.

AAND, ACTION!

Scene opens to a couple pacing a modern living room.  The length of a white couch separates them and a mostly empty bowl of popcorn sits forgotten on a metal coffee table downstage.  An exterior door is off-center toward stage left and a staircase is on stage right.


BOYFRIEND: I can't believe you're holding this against me.
GIRLFRIEND: (interrupting and irate)You!  You can't believe it!?  What!  Did you think I'd just smile and laugh?
BOYFRIEND: You're overreacting.
GIRLFRIEND: (chilling intensity) Yes. I am.  I should stop overreacting and start behaving like a good little girl.
BOYFRIEND: (turning on the charm) Baby, you know I didn't mean that.  C'mon.
GIRLFRIEND: Then what did you mean exactly?  (backing away arms folded)
BOYFRIEND: That we should relax and talk about this. (sits down and pats the seat cushion next to him)
GIRLFRIEND: Fine. (sits abruptly) I think you should have told me months ago, when we first started dating, that you--
BOYFRIEND: Okay! Okay.  I know.  I'm sorry that I let you believe that I was--
GIRLFRIEND: The man of my dreams?  The perfect yin to my yang?
BOYFRIEND: (exasperated) Everybody pretends a little bit in the beginning of a relationship.
GIRLFRIEND: Yeah.  Funny thing about that.  Most people pretend a little bit. (spiraling tension) You became an entirely different person just to get me in the sack!

Both look away, brooding.

GIRLFRIEND: I mean, did you think I wouldn't catch on to your slip ups?  How long did you think you could keep this up?  Indefinitely?
BOYFRIEND: Look, I changed.
GIRLFRIEND: Yeah!  I got that memo.
BOYFRIEND: No. (reaches for GIRLFRIEND's hand)I mean you changed me.  I became the person I am with you.
GIRLFRIEND: So, now you truly hate guns, gambling, and cigar smoke?  'Cause you just told me that all was a lie.
BOYFRIEND: Babe, I--
GIRLFRIEND: No. (stands) You do not get to call me that. 
BOYFRIEND: I'm sorry, but--
GIRLFRIEND: No.  I have to relearn who the hell you are.  I don't know what was you and what was the you that you put inside my head.

BOYFRIEND stands and steps toward GIRLFRIEND

BOYFRIEND: So. (hopeful pause) Does that mean that you're going to give me a second chance?
GIRLFRIEND: (starts pacing, sits, stands, sits again, runs her hands through her hair) How long did you lie to me?
BOYFRIEND: (sits uneasily) Honestly, right up until we were watching this movie.  I couldn't keep doing this anymore.  I love you too much.
GIRLFRIEND: (blank stare towards imaginary TV in audience) You don't love me.
BOYFRIEND: Yes, I do!  (pleads on his knees, GIRLFRIEND refuses to look at him)
GIRLFRIEND: You lied to me for months.  Months.  (lost and hurt) You're not the person I thought you were.  The person I fell in love with.
BOYFRIEND: Please, just let me make it up to you.
GIRLFRIEND: (shoves BOYFRIEND away and stands apart) I need you to leave.
BOYFRIEND: Please don't do this!  I'm sorry!  I meant it when I said I couldn't do this any more.
GIRLFRIEND: Neither can I.


BOYFRIEND stands to face GIRLFRIEND's turned back.  Internal struggle, walks away and leaves through exterior door toward stage left.  GIRLFRIEND stands still until door closes.  Looks around her at the almost empty popcorn bowl, the door, off stage, and audience.  Rubs her arms, turns toward stage right and slowly climbs stairs off stage.

The World is what Makes Us

   Deleighla was a normal girl with an abnormal life.  When most children went to school, soccer practice, and then went home to their loving parents, Deleighla woke up in a foster home, didn't leave because she was homeschooled, and was sent to work, cleaning bedpans and toilet bowls for a psychiatric ward.
   She was quiet and obedient.
   Nobody even noticed the marks behind her knees and at her wrists. 

Artists, Fight for the Arts!

   Tell me my favorite song.
   Listen while I sing along.
   Show me that you truly care.
   About my secret love-affair--
   No, that's not right.
   That's totally the wrong light.
   I can't believe this mess I've made.
   How do I ever expect to get... paid?
   Ugh! People always demand so much.
   I just want to give them a good punch!
   So, my lines are weak and my rhymes are lame.
   I was never in this business for the fame.
   So, call me a dope.
   You can't take away my hope.
   One day you'll see,
   Just how great I can be.
   And the best part is, what you think of me doesn't really matter.
   Because I know that with passion and dedication, I can be better.

'Twas Not To Be

   There's been an accident.  The district attorney was on her way to the courthouse when an on-coming SUV ran a red light and T-boned the district attorney's car on the driver's side.  She did not survive the impact.
   
   .   .   .
   
   There's been a jail break.  One of New York's highest profile drug cartels escaped in the middle of the night.

   .   .   .

   He wanted to see his love one last time.

Sometimes...

   That afternoon, Alyssa had been anticipating her uncle's footsteps.  Lying in bed, her heart beat slower as she flung her pink, puffy cover over her head.
   Her uncle stopped just inside her bedroom door and flicked on the light.  "What are you doing in bed?" he asked.
   Alyssa groaned.  She kicked her feet, shuffling the sheets, burying herself deeper into the mattress.
   "I hate my life."

   "Sometimes... people die..."

Chores

   Spider.
   Meet Ruler.
   Swat!
   Shit!
   Swat! Swat! Swat!
   God, how I hate these--gaahh!
   Swat!
   Oh, thank Jesus it's dead.
   Egh.... Tissue!  I'll get a tissue.
   This is so gross.
   Wha--?!
   Oh, okay.  No guts on my finger.
   Still gonna bleach my hands with disinfectant though.
   Gah! So disgusting.
   "Doug!  I'm home.  Did you get the kids in bed?"
   "Yes, ma'am.  And I finished cleaning up around here too."

The True Meaning of Life

   "It's funny.... I'd thought Aunt Cheryl was religious."
   Young children ran around the lobby of the funeral home, tugging at their tight collars and pretty bows.
   Vern's neighbor asked, "What made you think that?"
   "I don't know," Vern said.  "I guess I just had it in my head that she was."
   "Well, she always made it clear to anyone listening: she wouldn't finance people who could easily condemn others."