Людмила Ансельм - Короткие пьесы
SARA: OK… because of Skip…
DADDY (motioning to the newspaper): Isn’t “Skip” captain of the Freshman football team. Right? What’s up?
SARA: He’s eating lunch at Brittany’s table… Not mine anymore. Then in study after lunch he comes up to me… He says I used to be his best friend… but now….
DADDY: What else does he say?
SARA: Daddy, I don’t want to upset you.
DADDY: I’m already big time upset! We don’t have your Mom to help us anymore. Let’s try to work this out together..…
SARA: Promise not to get mad and fly off the handle?
DADDY: I promise! What else is he saying to you?
SARA: Since the Prom, we’ve been spending a lot time together… walking, kissing…
DADDY: Kissing?
SARA: Ali and Ryan are kissing each other… and more…
(Pause)
Well…..Skip has become more stubborn… about us.…
DADDY: Stubborn, about more than kissing?
SARA: I’ve put him off. He called me all kinds of names… anyhow… Ashley told me that she saw him with Kirsten over at Middle school.
DADDY; Maybe you should try talking with him?
SARA (nostalgically): I did! I reminded him about when we were in preschool. We were the “odd pair”… We hid upstairs and read books together… In 5th grade he gave me a ring made of knotted rope… Last year we climbed to the top of Blue Hill and picked blue berries… We could see for miles…we said one day we would fly in one of those airplanes flying so close to us. We would fly to London…to Paris. Maybe even Hawaii…
(Pause)
Then I managed to ask him how Kirsten was better than me…
He said she on a scale of one to ten I was a ten, but she’s like 1000…She’s exciting… spicy,…less stiff…
DADDY: Bastard!
SARA: That’s when I went to bed all day… I felt so heavy. My head hurt. Now you see, I’m better…
DADDY: Why are you better?
SARA: I have Skip again! Now can I go?
DADDY: Skip! Give me your backpack! (they fight over it. Daddy wins. He searches and finds the pills). These don’t look like the pills Doctor Knowles prescribed!
SARA: Give ‘em back!
DADDY: What are these pills?… One a day!… Are these birth control pills?
(SARA is silent).
DADDY: Skip wants sex!… with you!!! You’re only fourteen years old!!! Only 9th grade…
SARA: I’m fifteen..
DADDY(fit of temper) No! No! This is the limit! Neither of you are prepared.
SARA (fit of temper) Daddy! I’m not ignorant! There’s reality TV, internet, Facebook, Twitter…
DADDY(shouting): Sara! You could get pregnant! Or get a disease that would affect you for the rest of your life.
SARA: The world is different from when you were in high school…
(Sara uses her cell and finds a picture of her friends having sex. Holding the phone in his face she shouts)
See! Half my friends are having sex!
DADDY: Oh God! I’m not prepared for this. Why did you decided to have sex?… Why?
SARA: I agreed, when… when he said he wanted to marry me…
DADDY (shouting): He lies! He only wants sex!!
SARA: I can’t go on without Skip. It’s like… how… how you miss… Mama.
DADDY: If you get pregnant? Then what? How do you think you’ll remember to take a pill every day? You can’t remember to take off your shoes when you come into the house!
(Pause)
You have no idea how confused your life will be if you start having sex… Boys want sex every minute… He will never marry you…
SARA (starts to go again): I have to go.
DADDY (grabs Sara’s wrist, and raises his other hand): Don’t go!
SARA (raises her hands): Let me go!
DADDY: I’m your Father!
SARA: If you hit me, I’ll call the police…
DADDY: I’ll call the police too!! I know… I’ll drive over to Skip’s parents! You don’t care enough about your future!
SARA: Just because you’re my “Father” doesn’t make you God! It’s my life!
(Pause)
DADDY(softer, serious): I love you… I want to be with you as long as I can..…
(He sits resigned)
Sit down. I have to tell you something right now! Sit.
SARA (sits): You are just going to twist things!
DADDY: I’ve told you that your mother and I met each other at Northeastern. I was 19, she was 19 too.
SARA: I know… I’ve heard many times.
DADDY(deep breath)… She got pregnant! We had no skills, no job, no money and we we were both in debt. We couldn’t possibly have a child… there was just one thing to do… Abortion.
We got married in our senior year. We got jobs. Saved money…
After the abortion your mom couldn’t get pregnant. You are adopted!
SARA: Wh…WHAT?
DADDY: Your mother and I adopted you when you were six months old!
SARA (aghast): You’re not my real father!…You’ve lied to me!
DADDY: It was not a lie…
SARA (taking and looking at her mothers picture): Mom was not my real mother? Why didn’t she say…sooner?
DADDY: Ever since we adopted you, your Mother and I have been thinking about how to tell you. All the time… I felt guilty; I said that about your looks. You are very pretty, like she was…
(Pause)
I still remember carrying you home that first day. You were so precious to us. So small… You started to cry. I held you close to me and you stopped crying, and you smiled at me.
SARA (shakily): You didn’t you tell me sooner?
DADDY: I tried a couple of times. I’m sorry… Now I feel better that you know at last…
SARA: Where‘s my mother?
DADDY: I don’t know where she is now…
SARA: Who is she?
DADDY: She was only 15 like you… She came from out of town to study here. She lived with her Aunt and Uncle. She alone decided to give you up…
SARA: Her parents?
DADDY: They know nothing about you… She never told them. They lived in another state…
SARA: I want to meet my mother… who is she?… Are we alike? She must be something like me. I will never know unless I meet her… (Pause) Who is my father?
DADDY: I don’t know. His name is not on your birth certificate…
SARA: What’s my name?
DADDY: Your mother gave you her last name… O’Brian… But we gave you ours… Thompson…
SARA (musingly): O’Brian!… Sara… I’m Sara O’Brian…
DADDY(kindly): No!… You are still Sara Thompson!
(Daddy hugs Sara)
THE END
BUSINESS TRIP TO PARIS
OLGA: 65. Michael’s daughter.
MICHAEL: 85 Olga’s blind father.
A hospital room. MICHAEL lies on a bed with an intravenous tree drip and oxygen tubes in his nose. He is barefoot.
OLGA walks in. She hugs and kisses MICHAEL, as best she can around his tubes.
OLGA. Papa! Oh, papa! I’m so relieved to see you!
MICHAEL (speaking carefully and slowly). Where am I?
OLGA. Memorial hospital…
MICHAEL. Why?
OLGA. You passed out. You fell, hit your head hard… We called the ambulance…How do you feel now, PAPA?
MICHAEL. You’ll not to believe me… I can see! I can see again!
OLGA. What do you see?
MICHAEL. Colors!
OLGA. Papa, you are in shock…
MICHAEL. I can see perfectly! No more white stick!
OLGA. The doctor told me that you have some problems with your mind and your heart
MICHAEL. Now I will be able to walk faster. I am normal! (pause) You don’t believe me?
OLGA. Papa, what you can see?
MICHAEL. I can read the Leningrad sign. It’s on the station platform. The trains are waiting… On the wall is the portrait of Brezhnev. My colleagues from the institute are all over there… They’re here to see me off… I’m going to Paris…
OLGA. To Paris?
MICHAEL. I’m presenting my paper on drawbridge construction…
OLGA. Papa, you’re, hallucinating!
MICHAEL. No! I am not… It’s real The French invited me to talk. I’ve told you how famous our bridges are… What is strange is that the Party Committee let me go… But I have to have a “Chaperone”… Dima… He is a Party Member
OLGA. Do you see me Papa?
MICHAEL. Well, how can I see you if you are standing in back me? (Suddenly,he raises up and extends his right hand) Hello… hello! Vasiley Ivanovich, I’m so pleased… Have you seen Dmitry my fellow traveler?
OLGA. Papa, the nurse told me, you shouldn’t sit up, even if you felt like it.. Just try to snooze a little…
MICHAEL (excitedly). I can’t sleep… I’m preparing for a business trip… (He rocks back to sit up. He looks around the room) Why isn’t she here? She said she’d come to say goodbye… We agreed…
OLGA. Who?
MICHAEL. Galya…
OLGA. Galya, who?
MICHAEL. Galya…You talked with her for a long time at our laboratory reception last spring…
OLGA. Oh, I remember her… She was so enthusiastic her work… Papa, the doctor said you haven’t slept since you arrived here… You must lay back and sleep…
MICHAEL. I’ll rest when I find Galya… It’s really important, I have to talk. With her…
OLGA. And then you will rest?
MICHAEL. When she comes I’ll rest… This is my final dissuasion…
OLGA. Do you promise me to rest then?
MICHAEL. Yes, I do…
OLGA. OK…
(Long Pause. OLGA starts gently talking as if she were Galya. She change her voice deeper and sexier)
Michail Mironovich! Hello, hello!It’s me… Galya. At last I found you! They changed your train track at the last minute. How are you?
MICHAEL (Jumps to sitting and shakes Olga’s hand). Gallochka! Finally! (Pause) I have something very important to say to you. Listen carefully…
OLGA. (Galya’s voice). Mikhail Mironovich I understand, but first you must lie back.
MIKHAEL. (Mikhael lies back down) Galochka! Finally! (Pause) Listen carefully… All right but listen, 1 am going to Paris… But… 1 have to tell you…
OLGA (Galya’s voice). Michael Mironovich, I understand, but first you must lie back…
MICHAEL (lies back down). I’m going to Paris… But I have to tell you, I’ll be back…
OLGA. I know, you will be back…
MICHAEL. But I have to tell you I won’t be coming back to you…
OLGA (in her own voice shocked). Papa! What are you saying?
MICHAEL. Olga! When did you come back? I was talking to Galya… Galochka! Galochka! Where are you? (jumping up) Where are my shoes? I have to find her… Please give me my shoes, (The oxygen tubes fall from Michael’s nose. Olga tries to hold Michael on the bed)
OLGA. Papa, please, lie back… you don’t need shoes you’re in the hospital… Your oxygen has fallen out…
MICHAEL (resisting). I won’t lie down until I explain more to Galochka! Get out of my way! Call her back! I have more to explain… Where is she?
OLGA (switching to Galya’s voice with an edge). Michael Mironovich…
MICHAEL. Galochka, why are you so formal? You call me Misha…
OLGA. Here are many strangers, your fellow workers…
MICHAEL. You’re right… No one need know… Let me have your hand…
(Olga extends her hand)
Your hands are always so warm so soft. I love to hold them and kiss them…
(He tries to kiss Olga’s hand)
OLGA. Misha, not now… not the right place…
MICHAEL. Galochka, try to understand… This paper is the biggest chance in my life… I have to grovel before… The Party Committee didn’t want to give me permission to go to Paris. For a little professional recognition… I had to be stubborn humiliated and have Dima follow me all the time… But… They added a special condition about you and me… I can’t come to you after Paris (Pause) Please, forgive me… Galochka.. I hope you will understand… I don’t want to give up this chance… Do you understand? (Pause) Galochka! What do you say? Why are you silent? Say something… Galochka! Where are you?
