Короткие пьесы - [52]
MICHAEL (smiling): Just kidding!… (Looking at his watch) I have to go!
JULIA: So I have to decide what I want!
MICHAEL: What do you mean?
JULIA: To stick with you…or to find another…
MICHAEL (now angry): You blow this all up! I’m a bad lover and bad potential father just because I want a “quickie” now and then?
Julia quickly lies stiffly down on the sofa shoes and all.
JULIA: You still want me to undress?
MICHAEL: You could at least take your high heels off before you lie on the sofa!
JULIA: (artificial surprisingly) Do you really want me to take off my shoes?
MICHAEL: You’re toying with me!
JULIA: So you toyed with me! You still want me to undress?
MICHAEL: You’ve ruined any desire now.
JULIA: And….. I have no desire for you…I’ll go…
MICHAEL (shouting): Get out! Go! Find another!
JULIA (calm down): I’ll go. Even if you call me like last time, I’ll never come back!
MICHAEL: I don’t want to see you again! Go to the zoo and adopt a baby monkey!
Julia throws the sofa pillows on the floor. She kicks over the chair with Michaels clothes on it.
JULIA: So now you clean up for the last time after me!
MICHAEL (shouting): Go!… Go…get out! Bitch!
She takes off her shoes and throws her shoes at Michael who deftly ducks them.
JULIA: These are from all women! You son of a bitch! Impotent!
Julia runs out the door crying. Michael picks up a vase to throw, but then he sees the ship’s bell. He yanks the bell off the wall and throws it on the floor. He kicks it thru his thin slippers. It makes several loud clangs. He hurts his toe. He sits on the sofa in pain holding his toe. Bare foot Julia enters the apartment again
JULIA (surveying all): Michael, I heard you rang the bell! Did you call me?
Pause
Are you crying?
MICHAEL: You hurt me… Just sit down…
JULIA: Michael, I’m so sorry. I hate to fight…I feel so badly… It’s as if we descended into Hell…
MICHAEL: Me too…
JULIA: Michael, now I hope you understand me better…
MICHAEL: Yes… I understand you…
(Pause)
But Julia… please; tell me, where your hot spots are…
JULIA (cold): I don’t know…
MICHAEL: Julia, please…
JULIA: My ears…
THE END
MOTHER’S DAY
PETER: 8 or 9 years old, he has a band aid on his forehead.
MICHAEL: 25–30 years old. He has a beard about five days old.
Family room in upscale home. PETER, sobbing, sits at a table drawing. MICHAEL enters, briskly.
MICHAEL: Peter, have you seen my electric razor?
PETER: No…
MICHAEL: Why are you crying?
PETER (angrily): I already told you! Zack pushed me down the stairs at school!
MICHAEL: Right. We started to talk about it in the car, and then we ran into that gridlock at 5 corners. Do you know why Zack pushed you?
PETER: Mr. Allen said to draw a picture of our mothers for Mother’s Day. Zack said I didn’t have a mother. So I pushed him.
MICHAEL: Your mama…
PETER: Papa said he’d talk to me about my mama sometime soon. I don’t know who my Mama was…
MICHAEL: Why she “was”? She’s alive…
PETER (surprised): You have seen my Mama?
(MICHAEL pulls up a chair and sits confidentially near Peter)
MICHAEL: Your Dad told me about her…
PETER: What did he tell you?
MICHAEL Well… She goes to collage. She lives in a big city far away. Your Dad is paying for her college.
PETER: Why?
MICHAEL: Because she’s your Mama.
PETER (shaken, holding back tears) Is he paying money for me?
MICHAEL: Well, sort of…
PETER: How come Mama doesn’t come see me?
MICHAEL: They agreed that you would not see or meet each other.
PETER: He paid money so that she will never see me?
MICHAEL: He loves you very much… He loves you so much he wants to have you all to himself.
PETER: If Papa loves me, why he isn’t home more?
MICHAEL: He’s an engineer. He has to travel around to different cities. He visits many different businesses that need his knowledge. Some times he gets to ride in a helicopter. When you are older he’ll probably take you with him.
PETER (Stars crying): I want him home. Not just you…
MICHAEL: Peter, you know… You know. I had never seen my real parents…
PETER (stops crying): Why?
MICHAEL: Tom’s mother and father took care of me like a son. It’s called “adoption.”
PETER: Who’s Tom?
MICHAEL: Tom, you know him, we go to Mac Donald’s every Wednesday with him. Tom is just like a brother to me. (Pause) Tom’s parents both worked very hard. My adoptive father usually came home late after I had gone to bed.…
PETER: You had a brother, but I’m all alone…
MICHAEL: Tom was mean to me for a long time. He used to hide my sneakers. He snuck bites from my desert. (Pause) Adoption made me different. It was a dirty word back then. Tom told all the kids on the block and at school. They tackled me hardest when we played pick up football. I had to be tough. (Pause) Peter, you see your father more often than I saw my adoptive father… Soon your Dad will come home, have dinner with you, read to you and tuck you in. (Pause) Now tell me where you have hidden my electric razor.
PETER (sulking): Didn’t hide it.
MICHAEL: It’s always on the shelf in the bathroom, and now it isn’t there. I guess, you want to play “hide and seek”…
PETER (still sulking): I don’t want to play any games with you. I want my Papa. (