29 Aug 2015

PROMPT:  Ask a partner or a friend to hide special pennies throughout your life, in the fridge, the pockets of your clothes, your car.  Mark them all with an X with a sharpie.  When you find one, write whatever you are thinking for five minutes.

Kirk Lynn, playwright/educator

Karen, 50, sits on the sofa.  Her husband, Harold, 51, sits next to her.
KAREN
I know we’ve talked about it, but...
HAROLD
You complain about being bored...
KAREN
This will certainly relieve the boredom.
HAROLD
And then some.
Silence.
KAREN
What... what age...?
HAROLD
I don’t know, Karen.  Grade school?
KAREN
There’s training, right?
HAROLD
A lot of training.  We don’t have to make a final decision right now.  We’ve got months of training before we they’ll lets us take anybody.
Silence.
KAREN
I don’t know.  It’s a big change.
HAROLD
Yup.
Silence.
KAREN
Harold, why do you want to do this?
HAROLD
After Andrew died...
KAREN
That was more than twenty-five years ago.
HAROLD
After Andrew died, I felt that somehow, God didn’t trust me with... children.
KAREN
That’s ridiculous!
HAROLD
I know, but we’re not talking about what I was thinking.  We’re talking about what I was feeling.
Karen slides over to Harold and hugs him.
KAREN
I’m so sorry you felt that way.
Silence.
HAROLD
When I was in college, I took a semester off and helped my mother at a Headstart program.  While I was doing that I realized where I thought the center of the universe was. Children are the center of the universe.
KAREN
That was part of the reason I married you.
HAROLD
After Andrew died, I felt lost.  You helped.  You got me started teaching pre-school.  Then I started working with teenagers for the city.  I loved those kids.  If working for the city hadn’t been such a pain in the ass, I’d probably still be doing that.
KAREN
I know.
HAROLD
And I wanted to write, but I need more and you say your bored...
KAREN
But foster parenting?  That sounds really hard.
HAROLD
Probably will be.  Taking kids at any age who’s parents don’t want them...
Silence.
KAREN
I’m willing to start the training.  I don’t know whether this is something I can do, but I’m willing to... try.
Silence.
HAROLD
Sweet dreams and flying machines...
End of play.