The Asthma Attack (WIP)

We arrive on this scene to find it in disarray. There seems to be an interesting battle taking place and the whole of the battlefield is a set of heaving lungs. The lungs seem to be in some kind of stand off with the immune system, all weapons aimed and primed for the battle.

Left Lung: Sir, I ask you to kindly holster your weapons. We are of one body, YOUR body. We are a part of this system and it is quite silly of you to be attacking us in this manner.

A Bronchial Tube: *he is clearly contracted and struggling to maintain airflow* I think I may explode, sir. I can't take much more. Where is our back up?

Immune System Sargent 1: I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid you don't have the proper clearance to be a part of this system. I'm going to have to ask you to cease and desist all operation immediately or we will have to resume our attacks.

Right Lung: *into a tiny radio* Where the fuck is our back-up?! We can't take much more and they aren't backing down! Requesting immediate back-up!

There is a loud whistling and wheezing that can be heard throughout the set of lungs, a warning siren trying to contact their back-up.

Immune System Sargent 2: Fuck this, its a trap! FIRE!

The Immune System begins an all out assault upon the lungs and bronchial tubes, which have full constricted, restricting air flow. The wheezing gets louder with every attempted intake of oxygen.

Right Lung: We are running low on O2, Commander. Where is our back-up?!

Voice Over: We're deploying as fast as possible, hold your positions!

Left Lung: Things are starting to look a little hazy, Sir. I'm beginning to feel a little blue-ish.

Voice Over: Maintain your positions! We are all apart of this same body, we can't let them destroy it!

Another Bronchial Tube: Intake valves completely blocked. O2... cannot... be... taken. *He quickly passes out*

Immune System Sargent 1: Keep firing men! Destroy the interlopers!

Immune System Sargent 2: For the love of Body, where the hell is all this haze coming from?

Left Lung: That's because we can't get to our reserves of O2, you idiots! Without it everything looks hazy. You have to hold your fire so we can reopen the conduits!

Immune System Sargent 2: NEVER! ITS A TRAP!

Right Lung: YOU WATCH TOO MUCH FUCKING STAR WARS! For the love of Body, hold your fucking fire!

Just as everything seems lost, the area above the lungs and immune system fills with a soft mist. Steroidal Paratroopers drop in and begin spraying the area. The Immune System retreats and the Bronchial tubes are revived.

Immune System Sargent 2: *clearly high* Why were we fighting again? Everything is too pretty to fight.

Immune System Sargent 1: *quickly losing to the effects of the steroids* I know right? Everything is so... red. Such a pretty red. I wanted to be red once.

Immune System Sargent 2: Dude, those lungs look like water balloons. Did you notice?

Immune System Sargent 1: I think you are drunk, Sargent. They most definitely look like heaving red petals, barely hanging on to the flower stems.

Right Lung: Man, that stuff works fast.

A Steroidal Paratrooper: That's what you wanted right? Fast back-up?

Left Lung: Not complaining. Just in awe of how fast your fast is.

A Steroidal Paratrooper: That should keep them occupied for a while. *the Paratroopers retreat further up leaving the lungs and bronchial tubes to assess and reverse any damage*

Right Lung: Its too bad that this peace can't last.

Left Lung: There is no way to convince them that we are part of them is there?

Right Lung: Unfortunately, no. This immune system is too damaged to realize the truth. We just have to continue maintaining our ground.

Left Lung: In a never-ending civil war. Sounds almost poetic, don't you think?

The Depths of Eternity: Part I

   Star Crossed time, breathing down my neck, unto
the depths of eternity.
   Sweet influences of time, straining, rushing, reaching for
something unknown. Unless it be known to any on Earth.
   Sorrow cuts like a knife. Pain bursts apart an already
torn heart. Souls lose their ways.
   Adrift in a sea of depression, the whirlwind of despair. I
quiver with sorrow and shake with fear.
   All time is lost, all battles cease, yet, the war keeps
raging in my head.

Secrets

   The moon shows
your shallow graves,
but no one wants to
see.
   The stars cry on
your body's last home,
but no one wants to
see.
   The wind blows the grass
over your cold bodies,
but no one wants to
see.

The Doll: Act One: Scene One

Scene I

     Light up on a young woman dressed in black. Flowing black skirt, black blouse, black heels. She wears them awkwardly, as if she is playing dress up in an older sibling's clothes. Tucked under one arm she has a doll, also dressed in black, and a small bunch of white violets in her other hand. She is standing next to a bench, looking around nervously and seeming somewhat lost.

Male Voice Offstage: Sara? Sara! Sara, this is no time for games, we have to go. Sara?

(Enter a young man, also dressed in black. Black vest over a black shirt, sleeves rolled up to mid-forearm. Black slacks, black tie, black shoes. He immediately crosses over to the young woman, takes her arm and turns her so that she is facing him.)

Sara: (looking pleadingly at the young man) Jack, please, do we have to go? Isabel (indicating the doll) and I don't want to go, please don't make us go.

Jack: Yes, we have to go. Sara, its your grandmother's funeral! You have to go. (Somewhat harshly) Besides, Isabel can't talk, so she can't complain about not wanting to go. (Still holding Sara's arm, he tries to drag her off stage, but she resists.)

Sara: (Breaking his hold on her arm) No. I won't go. I don't want to go. I'm tired of funerals. I'm tired of everyone saying Memere (pronounced like Mem-may) went to be with Momma in heaven. (She walks a little way from him, her back facing him) I want to go home, I want my Memere. I want her to make some hot cocoa and hold me. (Sits down on the bench, defeated.) I don't want to go (last is said lamely)

Jack: (Letting his impatience turn into temper) Too bad, you have to go. (He goes over to Sara, grabs her arm and yanks her up from the bench) You ARE going, if I have to drag you there I will!

Sara: (whimpers) But Isabel says...

Jack: (cutting her off) Isabel says nothing! Isabel is a damn doll, Sara! She can't say anything! (He yanks the doll out of Sara's arms and throws her to the ground so that the doll's face breaks off)

Sara: (kneels down beside the broken doll) Memere gave her to me. (She picks up the faceless doll and cradles it) She said if I took care of her I would never be alone. But she is dead now, I am all alone. (Whispers) Alone.

Jack: (kneels down beside Sara) Sara, I'm sorry... I didn't mean... Its just that... I'm really sorry, Sara. We can fix her ... (trails off)

Sara: (Looks at Jack) You didn't have to kill her, Jack. Just because she didn't want to go ... (pause) You didn't have to kill her. (She stands up, still cradling the "dead" doll, and walks offstage leaving Jack with the doll's shattered face.)

Jack: (Rises quickly, angry again and shouting) I didn't kill her, she's just a doll! You're 21 now, its time to stop playing with dolls and playing dress up! (Walks after her, stops just before he exits, still shouting) Its time to grow up, Sara!

                                            Black Out

The Doll

Scene III

Lights up on Sara and David sitting outside on a bench. Sara has a doll tucked under her arm and is sitting close to David, but isn’t leaning against him. Sara is staring upward, and David is leaning forward, looking at his hands.


Sara: (looking upward) Does Winter exist in Heaven?

David: (Looks over at Sara) Do you want it to?

Sara: I don’t know. (Looks down at David) Do you think that my wishing for it would make it come true?

David: (Sits up straighter) I don’t know if wishing makes anything true. But maybe sometimes truth makes us wish. What kind of winter do you think Heaven would have?

Sara: (Looks upward again) I would hope it would have a soft winter, a gentle death for all things that must die. Though, suppose there is no winter in Heaven, because there is no death. (Looks down at her doll) But how sad to never see spring again.

David: Why would you never see spring again?

Sara: (Looks at David, Earnestly) Because spring isn’t truly if there has been no winter. There can be no rebirth if there is no death first. If there is no death, no winter, there can be no rebirth, no spring.

David: There could still be spring. Except it wouldn’t be rebirth, it would be birth alone.

Sara: Then it would be spring alone, all the time.

David: I suppose so. Would you mind if it was spring always and never any other season?

Sara: (Pauses a moment) I don’t know. I would miss summer and fall.

David: Would you miss winter?

Sara: (Wistful) Yes. I would miss winter too. (Turns to David) What do you think Heaven is like?

David: (Breaks off looking at Sara and stares out toward an unseen horizon) Empty, endless blue sky. Fluid like water tripping over smooth stones. Trees that are the color of Autumn always. Oceans of color and emotions and light stretching away forever and ever. Perfect in its imperfections and Imperfect in its perfection. Poetically un-poetic and Un-poetically poetic.

Sara: Like a dream one never fully wakes from?

David: Yes, a dream that you can never fully walk away from.

Sara: Why do you think that?

David: (shrugs) I don’t know.

Sara: I hope it is the way you say. (Lays head on David’s shoulder)

David: (Looks at Sara, then lays head on her head) Suppose we go back inside? It is almost time for dinner.

Sara: (Sighs) Even Heaven must end.

David: (Tips Sara’s face up to look at him) Why do you say that?

Sara: Because sometimes wishing creates truth and truth gives life to wishing. (Stares at David a moment, Kisses David’s cheek, then stands and then exits the stage)

The Silly Argument

Character 1 (C1) [Female]
Character 2 (C2) [Male]

                          Setting: Park. Early September. Late Afternoon

     Characters 1 and 2 enter from the left. They look mad at each other. Character 1 has her arms crossed over her chest. Character 2 is looking away from Character 1. There is a bench, but neither one sits down, instead they stand, facing each other, yet not looking at each other.

C1: I can't believe you told my mother she was fat!

C2: Well, she is. And I didn't tell her she was fat, I said that a whale was having an easier time getting into that dress than she was.

C1: And that's not calling her fat? And she isn't fat! (Looks very irritated.)

C2: Fine, she's not fat. (Looks very aggravated.)

C1: You are so rude! I don't understand why I even started going out with you! (Says the last part softly, but just loud enough for C2 to hear.)

C2: (Voice Rising) Well, I can't believe I'm going out with you!

C1: (Voice also Rising) You used to be so nice! What happened to you!?

C2: Nothing happened to me! You just became a Nag!

C1: [Gasp] You impertinent, (searches for the words.) mean person!

C2: I can't stand you! (Starts pacing back and forth in front of the bench)

C1: Well, I can't stand you either. (C2 stops pacing and looks at C1)

C2: Well, what are you going to do about it?

C1: Here, (pulls at a ring on her finger) you can take this back! (Throws ring at C2)

C2: (Looks a little hurt. He leans down and picks up the ring.) But I gave this to you on our first anniversary.

C1: So? We're breaking up right? Why do I need it?

C2: (Puts the ring in his pocket.) Well, whatever you want. (Sees a pretty girl walking by. Starts following her.)

C1: (Grabs C2's arm.) I can't believe you're already following another woman!

C2: I thought we broke UP!

C1: We never actually said it was over!

C2: You threw your ring at me!

C1: That doesn't mean it's over!

C2: Well is it over!?

C1: (Calms down some, lowers voice.) No, well, I don't want it to be over.

C2: (Calms down as well.) Well, I don't want it to be over either.

C1: Why were we arguing?

C2: (Says like a sigh) About your mother.

C1: Oh (pause). Well, she really is fat.

C2: (Laughs) You're right.

C1: Don't ever tell her I said that.

C2: Don't worry, your dirty little secret is safe with me.

C1: Let's never argue again, okay?

C2: Okay. (Hugs C1)

     Character 1 and Character 2 exit stage Right.