18 Aug 2015

PROMPT:  Draw a map of a place you go to every day. Then choose one section and make a close up map of that section.  Then choose one section of the close up and draw a close up map of that section. Repeat. What landscape is revealed in this final close up? What lives or hides there? What happens there?

Katie Pearl, writer/director/performer

Tippy looks in her microscope and frowns.  Cyril enters.
CYRIL
Why the sour puss, Tippy?
TIPPY
Dinoflagellates.
CYRIL
So teeny, tiny critters.
TIPPY
Algae.
CYRIL
Plants?
TIPPY
Algae is a plant.
CYRIL
But flagelattes?  Doesn’t that mean they have little tails to make ‘em move?
TIPPY
Perfect.
CYRIL
Plants that move?
TIPPY
Lots of plants move.
CYRIL
I’ve never seen an oak pull up its roots and wander down the road.
TIPPY
Only the tiniest of plants can move, smarty-pants.
CYRIL
Good to know.  Still doesn’t explain the sour look on you face.
TIPPY
These particular dinoflagellates are red algae.
CYRIL
Where’d you get red algae?
TIPPY
Toilet bowl.
CYRIL
That’s disgusting.
TIPPY
I didn’t eat out of it, I just scrapped a little gunk off the porcelain.
CYRIL
Gunk, that’s a technical term.
TIPPY
(rolling her eyes but otherwise ignoring Cyril’s remark)
I was curious.
CYRIL
About the gunk growing in the toilet bowl?
TIPPY
Yup.
Silence.
CYRIL
I don’t appreciate this kind of harassment.  If you want me to clean the toilet, just say so.
TIPPY
That’s not what this is about.
CYRIL
I know I’m not the best house keeper.
TIPPY
You’re fine house keeper.
CYRIL
There’s dirty laundry piled in the bedroom and the floors haven’t been swept in a couple of weeks.  I saw a dead roach in the corner of the dining room this morning.  I should have picked it up.
TIPPY
Cyril...
CYRIL
And now, there’s gunk in my toilet that my wife is examining under a microscope.  Did you scrape the bathtub, too.
TIPPY
There was this beautiful colony near the drain...
CYRIL
You scraped the bathtub?!
TIPPY
I wasn’t trying to criticize your housekeeping!  Really, I wasn’t.
CYRIL
You just thought you’d examine all the gross things growing in our home!  Just for fun!
TIPPY
Yea.
CYRIL
I’ve got some old cheese in the refrigerator, and I think there’s some chicken from dinner three nights ago.  I’m sure we can get some disgusting stuff off of those!
Tippy steps over to Cyril and puts her arms around him.  He stand stiffly.
TIPPY
I love you, Cyril.
CYRIL
(angry)
I love you, too.
TIPPY
I was just... I don’t know.
CYRIL
Yea, curious.  I got it.
TIPPY
I wasn’t trying to say anything about your housekeeping.
CYRIL
Sure.  Red algae grows in everybody’s toilet.
TIPPY
It does.
Cyril glares at Tippy.
End of play.