Prompt:
Go to www.yahoo.com and look at today's "trending now" topics. Incorporate as many as you can into your writing for the day.-Greg Romero, playwright/theatre artist
(See if you can guess what the "trending now" topics were.)
Response:
The lights on stage are dim.
A dumpster sits in the middle of the stage. Garbage all over the stage. KIKI, 24, a pretty young girl with long dreads, is inside the dumpster unseen, but thunking around. TODD, a greasy, slick young operator, stands outside, his skateboard propped up against the side of the dumpster. Todd goes through a plastic garbage bag.
Todd pulls a magazine out of the bag.
TODD
All this one’s got are fan magazines. Pictures of Jennifer Aniston’s pregnant belly, and his new royal highness wrapped in a blanket with some birds.
KIKI
(hidden in the dumpster)
Why do people give a shit about that crap?
TODD
The medium is the message.
Kiki pops her head up over the edge of the dumpster.
KIKI
(irritated)
Not more of your Marshall McLuhan bullshit. What does that mean anyway?
Kiki disappears again.
TODD
That it’s not what’s in the magazine, it’s the magazine itself.
KIKI
(snide)
If it’s not what’s in the magazine, but the magazine itself, why do you keep telling me about articles about the amazing weight loss powers of green coffee and ads for Toyota Camry hybrids?
TODD
I got to do something to distract myself from the hunger pangs in my belly.
KIKI
Oh, God! Here he goes again. You could of eaten this morning!
TODD
Those waffles were covered with syrup made from high fructose corn syrup.
KIKI
There were peaches and strawberries.
Kiki drops another plastic garbage bag to Todd.
TODD
You know I’m allergic to strawberries!
KIKI
Jesus, Todd, you are such a little baby. Maybe you should have gone with your brother to Lollapalooza in Chicago! He would have been happy to pay your way.
TODD
You know I hate my brother. He works for that blood sucker, John W. Henry.
KIKI
I thought he was a scout for the Red Sox.
TODD
And the Sox are owned by John Henry.
KIKI
You looked in that bag yet?
TODD
Sorry.
Todd digs into the new bag.
KIKI
Your mind is like a sink hole in a Kansas corn field.
Kiki sticks her head out of the dumpster.
KIKI
How come I always have to get into the dumpster?
TODD
Because I can lift you in, but you can’t lift me in.
KIKI
(ducking back into the dumpster)
How did I get hooked up with such a wimp?
TODD
You know you love me.
Todd, bent over the new trash bag, doesn’t see Kiki peak over the edge of the dumpster and empty a plastic trash bag filled with pre-bagged lettuce on top of him.
TODD
Hey, Kiki! Don’t pour garbage on me!
KIKI
(smiling)
That ain’t garbage, Todd. That’s dinner!
Todd picks up a bag of lettuce and looks it over.
TODD
(reading)
Taylor Farms, Mexico.
Kiki starts to climb out of the dumpster.
KIKI
With that bottle of dressing I found earlier.
TODD
I read something about Taylor Farms.
Kiki starts looking through the garbage on stage. Todd goes back to the first bag and digs through the magazines and newspapers.
KIKI
The dressing was wrapped in that newspaper article about that woman who was kidnapped and held as a sex slave for nine years.
TODD
Gina DeJesus.
KIKI
Whoever.
TODD
Can’t you show a little compassion?
Silence.
KIKI
Nobody showed me compassion when my father raped me twice a week for four years. Nobody even believed me. That’s why I ran away. That’s how I got here.
Kiki throws an empty bottle she’s just picked up down on the stage and it shatters. Todd stops. He looks at Kiki. He goes to her and tries to hug her, but she violently pushes him off.
KIKI
Don’t touch me!
TODD
I didn’t know.
KIKI
I shouldn’t a’ told you now!
Todd again tries to hug her, but she backs away hostilily.
KIKI
Leave me the fuck alone!
Todd backs off. He looks at Kiki, who standing prepared to defend herself, shaking. Todd goes back to the bag of magazines he was looking in. He digs for a moment then pulls out a piece of newspaper.
TODD
(quietly)
Here it is.
KIKI
(angry)
Here what is?
TODD
The article about Taylor Farms.
(he reads)
Says that their lettuce is infected with a parasite, cyclospora.
KIKI
Dammit! God Dammit!
Kiki starts to cry. Todd goes toward her, but Kiki sees him and backs off. Todd stops.
KIKI
(quietly, weeping)
I was thinkin’ we could spread out the blanket in the park, look up at the stars, and have a little salad picnic.
TODD
We could watch the Perseid Meteor Shower.
Kiki laughs through the tears.
KIKI
You really are an idiot, you know that?
TODD
(slightly offended)
Why am I an idiot?
KIKI
(smiling and wiping away the tears)
Well, first of all, we’re in the middle of Boston. Even on a clear night, you can’t hardly see a star because of the all the city light. And secondly, the Perseid Meteor Shower is barely underway. Even if we could see it, there’s hardly anything to see until next week.
Todd looks hurt. Kiki goes to him and gives him a little hug which he timidly returns reassured when she doesn’t pull away.
Kiki goes to the dumpster.
KIKI
Gimme a boost.
Todd smiles and goes to her.
Curtain.
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