Setting: Smithson Valley High School stage, afternoon, early spring during a thunderstorm. Everyone is there. It's just before a rehearsal and most everyone is milling around on the stage. The rest are in the pit.
Colby: (puts arm around
Sarah's waist) What's wrong with you?
(pokes her in the stomach
and she jumps and smiles fleetingly.)
Sarah: Nothing. (She
lays her head on his shoulder and sighs.)
Colby: Liar. (pokes
her again) Tell me.
Sarah: Don't poke me.
Colby: Tell me.
Sarah: (grins slyly)
What'll
you give me?
Colby: I'll poke
you again if you don't. Tell me.
Sarah: (looks at him
for a moment, then away) Nothing.
Colby: (looks at her
intensely) Tell me.
Sarah: Nothing! (shrugs
his arm off)
Colby: Fine.
Sarah: (walks away a
few steps and turns back) What do you see when you look at me?
Colby: (looks her up
and down with a leer)
Sarah: (smiles) Cut
it out, Colby, you're dating someone. (now serious)
Honestly,
what do you see when you look at me?
Colby: (serious too)
I
see a beautiful young woman. Very beautiful.
Sarah: Then if I'm so
beautiful, why am I alone?
Colby: (steps to her
and hugs her then holds her at arms length) I don't know. I guess
no one is intelligent enough to realize how wonderful you are.
Sarah: How long have
we known each other?
Colby: (runs a hand through
his messy hair) Since kindergarten.
Sarah: (smiles ironically)
Then
how come you haven't realized how wonderful I am?
Colby: (all seriousness
gone) I have, baybah! (melodramatic)
Let's run away
together! I love you, baby!
Sarah: Shut up.
(she sniffs, wraps her arms around her shoulders and begins to cry very
quietly) Damn.
Colby: I'm sorry. You
know I love ya. (gives her a quick squeeze and dashes off to the
pit and is intercepted by his girlfriend, Mandy.)
Sarah: (watches them
embracing for a moment and then turns toward the audience.) (whispers)
Yeah.
(sniffs
again and wipes her eyes, stands up straight and turns around to face the
group, smiles sassily and yells) Which one of you would date me?
(no
one looks her way) Hello!? I said, which one of you would date me?
(still
no one looks, she's desperate for a response of any kind)
Who wants
to fuck me?! (incredibly enough, no one responds. In fact, the people
closest to her have become statues, frozen exactly in the middle of what
they were doing. As she watches open-mouthed, the freezing spreads like
spilled water, catching people and turning them into statues. No one notices.
There are a large number of couples present, caught in poses of closeness
and intimacy. Everyone else is arranged in groups, caught in poses of excited
conversation.) (screams)
What's wrong with you people?! (She
looks into Chad's face. He is sitting on the stage nearby holding Jessica
on his lap and frozen laughing.)
Chad?
(She stands up straight
and begins babbling) This is it. I've gone crazy. I always knew
it would come.
(sobbing) I'm so lonely, and I know that sounds
stupid, but it is the worst pain there is.
(She is talking to the
audience, sometimes imploringly, sometimes furiously) I'm a nice
person. Truly. And all these people are good friends but I'm so damn lonely.
I'm good enough for a drunken screw and some confessions, but not for love.
How long has it been since someone held me? I'm not talking about a companionable
hug; I'm talking about caring and tenderness and love. Not lust either.
I'll tell you when. Not since David. (The lights darken on the statues
behind her, and a tall young man with dark hair walks to her from off stage.)
David: I missed you so
much. (gives her a hug) I'm on leave for a week, and I thought
I'd drop by. (melodramatically nonchalant)
Sarah: (cold) You
lied to me.
David: (hurt) I'm
so sorry. I thought you forgave me. I never meant to hurt you. I love you.
Sarah: (furious)
You
LIED to me, you bastard! I trusted every word you said. I BELIEVED in you!
And you Lied to me! You got down on one knee and asked my to marry you,
and all the time you were lying to me! Every word was a damn lie!
David: (kisses her passionately)
Forgive
me. I grew up trying to survive, you know what my parents did to me. I
learned to lie to get attention. And when you said you would marry me,
I tried to stop, but I just couldn't. Please, Sarah, please forgive me.
Don't leave me. It would kill me. I love you. (whispers)
I
love you.
Sarah: (in extreme pain)
I
love you, but I don't know you. You are my husband, but I don't know you.
I married someone who doesn't exist. Good bye, David honey.
David: But ma cherie,
I love you!
Sarah: (furious)
Just leave.
David: (freezes in a
pose of sheer anguish and shame, head hanging, shoulders slumped. The lights
come back up.)
Sarah: (to the audience)
I
don't think he loved me. Oh, I'm sure he thought he loved me, but... And
we never did married, not legally. We had a pagan ceremony in Montgomery,
Alabama. It was beautiful. But it was on an Air Force base, and I don't
think my Goddess appreciated that.
(She sits on a table, moving
a person out of her way who walks on his own as long as she touches him.
She is now unconcerned about this. She sighs and noticed Eric staring at
her. She gets up and walks perpendicular to him and he tracks her movements
with his head and eyes. She walks to him.) Y'know, I really like
you. You're tall and good natured and good looking. We share a similar
loneliness, and I seem to catch you staring at me often. I don't know what
it is about you, but I have this frequent dream we're married. I'm fairly
certain you like me. All I want is a bit of tenderness. We don't have to
love each other, just be close and caring. It would be so simple, so nice.
Why did you never talk to me? (screams) Why?! Am I unapproachable?
Am I a brick wall? Do we speak different languages? Why?! (she falls
against him, weeping, and he slowly moves his arms. He holds her and she
stops crying.)
Eric: I was afraid.
Curtain closes.
© Copyright 1999 by Sarah Gaunt