ScriptWorks 30/60/90 - 14 August 2013

Prompt:
A former pain whose teeth have been pulled.
-Megan Monaghan Rivas, director/dramaturg/educator

Response:

BRENDA, 48, once pretty, but now aging, dressed in jeans, an old tee-shirt, and worn work gloves, walks slowly, even gingerly on stage from the left.
Brenda looks back off stage from where she came.  She waves someone to come forward.

BRENDA
Come on.
TILLIE, 43, still pretty, but aging also, dressed in creased jeans and a nice shirt tip-toes on.

TILLIE
(almost whispering)
Aren’t you... scared?

BRENDA
Yea, but I’m not sure why.

TILLIE
You know why.

BRENDA
We were little girls back then.

Tillie looks around.

TILLIE
I still feel like a little girl.

BRENDA
(slowly)
Yea.

Brenda crosses to the far right side of the stage and looks off.

BRENDA
Nothing’s changed.

Tillie wants to go forward and look, but can’t move.

TILLIE
Is the...?

BRENDA
The punishment chair?  It’s still there.

TILLIE
I wonder why she kept it.

BRENDA
A memory of the good times?

TILLIE
That’s not funny.

BRENDA
I know it’s not funny.  It was my naked butt hangin’ outta that chair getting whoopped more than yours!

Silence.

TILLIE
I know.

BRENDA
You were always the good girl.

Brenda goes back toward Tillie.

TILLIE
I saw you gettin’ beat.

BRENDA
I’m not blamin’ ya.  I was a little hellion.  Maybe I needed a couple of whoopin’s.

Tillie goes to Brenda and puts and arm around her waist.

TILLIE
It was a lot more than a couple and nobody deserves that.

Brenda starts to cry.

BRENDA
I’m glad she’s dead.

Tillie hugs Brenda.

TILLIE
Me, too.

The women hug and cry for a moment.

TILLIE
We don’t have to do this.  We can let mom hire somebody to clear out the house.

Silence.

BRENDA
Why do think mom didn’t want to help go through grandma’s stuff?

TILLIE
Probably had her butt hangin’ outta that chair.

BRENDA
We were only here summers.

TILLIE
She was raised by the woman.

Silence.

TILLIE
Why do you think she sent us here every summer?

BRENDA
What choice did she have?  Dad was locked up.  His family wouldn’t have anything to do with mom.  She had to work.

Silence.

TILLIE
Maybe she hoped grandma had changed.

Silence.

BRENDA
She knew better than that.

TILLIE
Yea.

Silence.

BRENDA
I’m glad she asked us to do this.  Maybe as we dig through grandma’s life we can find some answers.

Silence.  Tillie looks down.

TILLIE
Probably not...

Silence.  Tillie looks at her sister and smiles.

TILLIE
I got dibs on smashin’ the chair.

BRENDA
No way.

Laughing, the girls start tugging and wrestling and heading off stage right.
Curtain.