26 July 2015

PROMPT:  Your instruction for the day is to get lost.  Get Lost. Lose yourself.  Can you do it?  Go.

Katie Pearl, writer/director/performer

Connie, 59, stands in front of Herbert, 60, who sits in an easy chair with head in his hands.
CONNIE
Dickhead!
Herbert sinks deeper into the chair.
CONNIE
What the hell were you thinking!?
HERBERT
I... I don’t know.
Connie shakes her head and sinks to the arm of the chair.
CONNIE
You’ve done some dumb shit, Herbert, but this...!
HERBERT
I know... I know.
CONNIE
We don’t have that kind of money!
HERBERT
I know.
CONNIE
She owes us from the last time she was arrested!
HERBERT
I know.
CONNIE
She owes us fifteen hundred dollars!
HERBERT
(weakly)
She was never going to pay that back.
CONNIE
I know!
HERBERT
I... I couldn’t let her sit in jail.
CONNIE
Why not!?
HERBERT
She’s my daughter.
Silence.
CONNIE
Daughter is a two way street, Herbert.
HERBERT
I know.
CONNIE
You can say all you want that Anna is our daughter, but she has to want to be our daughter as much as we want her to be our daughter.
HERBERT
I know.
CONNIE
Has she done anything... anything since she left to stay in relationship with us?
HERBERT
No.
CONNIE
We hadn’t heard from her until she was locked up and in trouble.
HERBERT
I know.
CONNIE
And needing money!
HERBERT
I know.
Silence.
CONNIE
We talked about this.
HERBERT
I know, Connie.
CONNIE
We talked about this.
HERBERT
I know.
Silence.
HERBERT
She called again.
CONNIE
She did?  When?
HERBERT
Day before yesterday.  She sounded pitiful.
CONNIE
I’m sure she did!
HERBERT
I didn’t know what to do.
CONNIE
So you took five thousand dollars out of our retirement and paid her bail.
Herbert nods.
Silence.
CONNIE
They still have piece of your soul, don’t they?
HERBERT
(nodding)
Yea.
CONNIE
Mine too.
Silence.
CONNIE
Maybe, she’ll pay us back this time.
HERBERT
No.
End of play.