1 June 2015

PROMPT: Use a smell from your childhood, a scene or place from your current neighborhood, an influential person, & a specific sound to create a scene that includes dialogue with another character of your choosing.

Kristen Gandrow, writer/dramaturg/arts administrator/teacher

A man, Jamie, 60, stands with a woman, Kay-Kay, 57, at the edge of the stage looking out over the audience.
Thunder.
JAMIE
(affectionate)
I’m glad you came.
KAY-KAY
I’m glad I came as well... I just wish I could leave.
JAMIE
Even if you could get to the airport, all the flights have been canceled.
Silence.
KAY-KAY
Look at that creek.  Jamie, I thought you were having a drought.
JAMIE
I believe the drought has ended.
Silence.
KAY-KAY
(a big sniff of the air)
Reminds me of northern Wisconsin.  Wet. Green.  Can’t you just smell the fungus growing!?
Jamie takes a hanky out of his back pocket and blows his nose loudly.
JAMIE
My nose works almost as well as Moms.  Even when it’s not stopped up, I can’t smell a thing.
KAY-KAY
I remember the smell of wild blackberries in our bucket as we tromped through the woods.
JAMIE
I remember mom identifying every mushroom we saw.
KAY-KAY
(affectionately)
You’re so much like her.
JAMIE
Oh god.
KAY-KAY
You are!
JAMIE
(not angry, just resigned)
Fuck you.
KAY-KAY
You even look like her.
JAMIE
I know!
KAY-KAY
(pinching Jamie’s cheek teasingly)
So cute!
JAMIE
Don’t call me that!
KAY-KAY
But you are...
JAMIE
I’ve always hated that.  I’m sixty years old.  I should not be... cute.
KAY-KAY
You’ve always been cute.
JAMIE
And I’ve always hated it.  And I’ll bet you mom hated it.
KAY-KAY
The girls liked it.  You’re girlfriends were always the prettiest girls around.  And you married a knock out.
JAMIE
It wasn’t because I was cute.  It was because I was willing to act stupid... make people laugh.
(making a point)
And that I didn’t get from mom!
KAY-KAY
No, you got that from mom’s father.
Thunder.
KAY-KAY
Oh good.  More rain.
Silence.  Thunder.
KAY-KAY
Dinner was good.  I haven’t had that in years.
JAMIE
Grandma’s Best-Ever Casserole.  I haven’t made it in years.
KAY-KAY
I loved it.  You’re a really good cook.  Better than mom.
JAMIE
Thanks.  I can get ingredients mom never dreamed of.
Silence.  Thunder.
KAY-KAY
Good thing I don’t eat like that everyday.
JAMIE
I’m sure it was cooking like that, that killed them both.
KAY-KAY
Now you’re joking.  Cooking like that did not cause mom’s emphysema or dad’s cirrhosis.
Silence.  Thunder.
JAMIE
I know.
KAY-KAY
(looking up at the sky)
It’s starting to rain again.
JAMIE
(looking up)
Yup.
Jamie and Kay-Kay turn and leave the stage.