Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Day 80

Day 80 will be the entirity of the one act play that I have worked out right now. It still kinda sucks, but my professor dug the work I put into it and that meant a lot.

Parts Missing

Luca

Flo

Stanley

Stanley: Don’t sit there

Luca: Where?

Stanley: Where you’re hovering, don’t sit down there.

Luca: I was getting up.

Stanley: What?

Luca: I was getting up, not sitting down.

Flo: What time is it?

Stanley: Look at the clocktower (He gestures)

Luca: Its six thirty

Stanley: Don’t sit there.

Luca: I was just getting up.

Flo: Is it really so late?

Stanley: Look at the clocktower, tell me.

Flo: It says five thirty

Stanley: Then that’s the time.

Luca: I think its off.

Stanley: Its not off it’s a clocktower, it’s the biggest. Its bigger than your watch.

Flo: I guess I can still wait then.

Stanley: You want a drink?

Luca: Don’t give her anything strong

Stanley: (to Luca) Do you want something to drink?

Luca: I don’t, but she might. Just don’t give her anything strong.

Flo: Tea, I think, maybe with some honey, lemon, something.

Stanley: You should sit down.

Luca: Don’t put anything strong in her tea.

Flo: Thanks.

Stanley: Let her sit down, come over by the bar.

Luca: Can I get a water?

Stanley: You weren’t thirsty.

Luca: I am now, can I get some water, or gin, if you have it, gin with a lot of ice.

Flo: Not too much. We have to leave soon.

Luca: We have an hour.

Flo: Its less than that now. We have forty minutes.

Luca: I’ll be fine, it will still take them a while to check you in. Last time took twenty minutes. You remember last time?

Stanley: We don’t have gin.

Luca: Brandy? Do you have Brandy?

Flo: You don’t have to drink.

Luca: Or maybe just a tea.

Stanley: We have Brandy.

Flo: You don’t have to.

Luca: I’ll have some of that then. A lot of ice.

(Pause)

Flo: What time is it?

Luca: Not time yet, look at the clocktower.

Flo: I don’t think its right.

Stanley: I’ll put a clock in soon.

Flo: When?

Stanley: The next time you come in, one will be hanging.

Luca: We have time.

(Beat)

Stanley: I don’t see you two come in much anymore.

Luca: Its because you don’t have any gin.

Stanley: That so?

Luca: You don’t have any.

Stanley: We have Brandy.

Luca: I know

Flo: We’ve been busy.

Stanley: She doesn’t drink anymore?

Luca: She doesn’t.

Flo: We’ve been too busy to come in.

Luca: Her father lost the business.

Stanley: That so?

Luca: You haven’t seen him?

Flo: He hasn’t been out much, mother won’t let him.

Luca: She’s been stuck watching him. We never go out.

Stanley: I see.

Flo: I don’t mind it.

(Beat)

Stanley: Another?

Luca: I think that’s enough.

Flo: I haven’t finished.

Luca: I think its time to go.

Flo: We have time.

Stanley: We still have Brandy.

Luca: It would be better if you had gin.

Flo: You don’t have to drink.

Luca: Then we have to go.

Stanley: I could stay open, later, when you are done.

Flo: That would be nice.

Luca: We wouldn’t have time.

Stanley: It wouldn’t be trouble. It doesn’t get busy much.

(Beat)

Luca: You want to?

Flo: If it isn’t trouble.

Stanley: It wouldn’t. It doesn’t get busy much.

Luca: We’ll see. If we have time.

Flo: Do we have to leave now?

Luca: I believe so.

(Flo gets up and goes to Luca, he pushes away his glass to Stanley)

Stanley: We’ll be open.

(Luca and Flo leave Stanley cleans Luca’s glass, then goes to the table and gets the cup Flo had left cleans it. Pause. Stanley checks the clocktower through the window.)

Stanley: Six.

Scene two

(Stanley by himself in the café, the shades are still open. There are a few customers far away from the counter. He bends low on the counter to look at the clocktower. He can’t make out the numbers and rounds the counter and closes the shades.)

Stanley: Last call

Scene Three

(Luca sits in the café, where Flo had sat before, far from the counter. He is alone)

(Pause)

Luca: It’s too damn hot.

(Stanley emerges from a backroom, notices Luca, stands behind the counter.)

Luca: Where have you been? Outside?

Stanley: It’s been busy here.

Luca: It doesn’t look like it.

(Beat)

It’s hot. I walked over here in the heat.

Stanley: That so?

Luca: I couldn’t stay in the waiting room. There’s no cool air, they don’t open any windows.

Stanley: Are you alone?

Luca: She had to go in early. I couldn’t stay, it was too hot.

Stanley: You left her alone.

Luca: There were plenty of people waiting with her. She will have company.

(Beat)

Luca: I want something to drink.

Stanley: That so?

Luca: It is. Do you have gin?

Stanley: Gin makes you sweat.

Luca: I don’t mind sweating if I’m not hot.

Stanley: We don’t have gin.

Luca:(mocking) that so?

Stanley: We still have brandy.

Luca: I didn’t ask for that. Just give me something cold.

(Stanley pours water into a glass, crushes a lime wedge and throws the lime rind in. He sets it on the counter, not going to Luca)

Stanley: She goes in earlier now?

Luca: They have to do more things now. I don’t interfere.

Stanley: You leave her alone.

Luca: It isn’t bad, she’s a big girl.

Stanley: That so?

(Beat. Luca stands and goes to the counter. He picks up the glass and finishes it quickly.)

Luca: Something stronger, please.

Stanley: It will make you sweat.

Luca: I don’t care. Brandy, to here. As much as you can fill it with.

(Stanley makes the drink.)

Stanley: When does she get out?

Luca: Later, (He leans to look at the clocktower) a few drinks more.

Stanley: How’s her father?

Luca: Hmm?

Stanley: How is her father doing?

Luca: He walks around their house, doesn’t sit still…talks on the phone a lot, about her, to the doctors. He worries even more than she does. I don’t know. I don’t interfere.

Stanley: That so?

(Luca eyes him, then down at his drink. He takes a long drink.)

Luca: Don’t you have a family?

Stanley: I do.

Luca: Don’t you have a father?

Stanley: I don’t.

(beat)

Stanley: I have brothers, and two sisters. I’m not the oldest. I bought this place myself. I sleep right up there.

Luca: Do you see them often?

Stanley: You can never see family enough. That’s the problem.

Luca: I think I’ve seen them all enough. I think I’ve her father enough. I think we could be all alone. I could help her enough.

Stanley: That so?

(Luca eyes him again, then finishes his drink, taking a mouthful of ice and crushing it in his teeth. He bends down to look at the clocktower, then points to the drink)

Luca: Another, more this time. You can fit more ice in there.

Stanley: The ice will hurt your stomach.

Luca: I’m beginning to think you don’t like me.

Stanley: I hate to see a man in pain.

Luca: Is that it? Really?

Stanley: I’m running out of ice.

Luca: You have enough for another?

Stanley: Yes

Luca: And enough Brandy?

Stanley: More than enough.

Luca: Than I want you to make me one.

(Stanley makes the drink, beat, Luca takes a large drink.)

Stanley: You didn’t pay yesterday.

Luca: hmm?

Stanley: You walked out on the bill.

Luca: Oh.

Stanley: I was going to buy a clock to put up, for her. But I didn’t have enough. Didn’t have enough for the Gin either.

Luca: I see.

Stanley: I’d like to put the clock in, so people don’t have to bend down to look at the clocktower.

(beat, Luca finishes the drink, fishes the lime rind out of the drink and chews on it. He fishes in his pockets and pulls out some bills, lays them on the counter.)

Stanley: That’s enough for today and yesterday.

Luca: Enough for the Gin?

Stanley: Not enough for the clock.

Luca: I don’t mind bending down.

(Luca spits the lime rind into a napkin and takes a mouthful of ice to replace it. He moves away from the counter.)

Stanley: Is she ready to leave already?

(Luca turns with his mouth full of ice and points to the clocktower as he heads for the door.)

Stanley: If she feels up to it, she can come over here. Its cool at night, not hot, like in the waiting room.

Luca lingers at the door for a moment, then shakes his head, still chewing ice and leaves. Stanley watches him go and then bends low to look up at the clock face. )

Stanley: four-fifteen. It is earlier.

(Stanley cleans the glass, and collects the bills into a neat pile and slips them into his pockets.)

Scene Four.

(It’s earlier in the day then any of the other scenes. Stanley walks in through the front, taking off a jacket and hat and lays them on the counter. He sets down an ornate wooden clock on the counter and looks at it for a moment. He walks through the side door and can be heard climbing stairs. A beat and he comes back down with a hammer and a single nail in his teeth. He walks to the table Flo had sat in days before and stands on a chair. He drives the nail into the wall and goes back to the clock. He picks it up from the counter then goes back to the table and sets it on the driven nail. It will not stay straight. After a moments attempt to fix it he lets it be off, then stands back and goes to the counter and sets all of his belongings behind it.)

Scene Five.

(Stanley and Flo

Stanley: You thirsty?

Flo: Not today. I don’t know when we have to leave. He has it all, it’s a new place, a new doctor. He knows everything.

Stanley: Were the old doctors not working?

Flo: My father said, “They were acclimatizing you,” meaning they wanted to keep me there. He said that they were getting me used to coming each week, so that he would keep paying. He said these new people would be better.

Stanley: Is the place far from here?

Flo: I don’t know, he has the appointment written down. I wanted to go somewhere before we had to leave, to go out for a bit.

Stanley: Its nice you chose here.

Flo: I like it here. It’s cool in the shade of the clocktower.

(Beat)

Stanley: Do you feel better?

Flo: I’m not sure. I feel less tired, but I think that might be because of the dust in the house. Its very clean here.

Stanley: I try to keep it up…

Did you want to see a new doctor?

Flo: I think that my father wants me to. And I think every doctor is just about the same, check your heart, take your breath. Blood. All that.

Stanley: My father was a doctor. Did you know that?

Flo: I thought you got this place from him.

Stanley: No, I bought it with the money he left me. He died when I was twenty, and he did well so he gave us all a bit of money.

Flo: Didn’t you want to be a doctor?

Stanley: Why would I?

Flo: Because of your father.

Stanley: I was never good with people, touching them, telling them bad things. Decided to serve drinks instead.

Flo: What about your brothers and sisters?

Stanley: Doctors, all of them.

(Luca enters, he stands at the door.)

Flo: Time already?

Luca: We have to go all the way across town. I bought a cab, it’s waiting.

Stanley: (To Luca) No drink today?

Luca: Do you have gin?

Stanley: No, I bought the clock instead.

(He looks to the clock)

Luca: Then we have to go.

Stanley: Maybe later then? I’ll keep it open.

Luca: I’m not sure, we might not have time.

Stanley: I’ll have gin.

(Beat)

Luca: We’ll see how she’s feeling.

Scene Six

(Lights are off. There is a candle burning low by Stanley’s head as he lays, head on the bar, staring out towards the windows. There is a bottle of gin on the opposite side of the candle. Pause. Stanley stands up, looks out the window, tries to read the clock tower, then goes back to the counter and opens the bottle of gin. He pours himself a glass and drinks it. Beat. He pours himself another.)

Scene Seven.

(Stanley is asleep with the empty bottle of gin in his hand. Luca goes through the open door, walks over to Stanley’s body.)

Luca: Wake up.

(Luca tries to rouse him)

Luca: Wake up.

(Luca takes the bottle from him, then puts it back, seeing as it’s empty. He leans over the counter and searches for a glass and puts it on the counter. He puts in a couple handfuls of ice. He lifts bottles, checking labels, but deciding on nothing. He stands playing with the glass and then takes in a mouthful of ice, slamming the glass back down.)

Luca: Wake up…

(Stanley rouses)

Stanley: What?

(Beat)

Luca: Do you have any gin?

Stanley: We have rum.

Luca: I would like gin.

Stanley: We don’t have that. We are all out.

Luca: None left?

Stanley: I’ve drank it all.

(Beat)

Luca: I’ll have rum. No ice.

(He dumps the rest of ice out of his glass. Stanley makes the drink.)

Luca: More than that, to there.

Stanley: Its too early to drink this much.

Luca: I don’t care.

Stanley: You’ll get sick later.

Luca: I don’t take advice from drunk men.

(Beat)

Luca: She had an operation.

Stanley: That so?

Luca: Last night. Doctor said they had to do it, it was later than they like to do it. Said it was real bad, the worse they’d ever seen in a woman.

Stanley: Last night?

Luca: She asked them what would happen if they didn’t operate. They told her it would get in her blood if they didn’t move ahead.

Stanley: Is she all right?

Luca: It isn’t in her blood.

(Beat, Luca finishes the glass)

Luca: Another.

(Beat.)

Luca: I told her to do it.

Stanley:…That so?

Luca: She wasn’t sure and I told her. Her father said that he still had the money for it, but it would be hard, and she was scared about everything, money, her father. And I told her to do it. That we had to keep moving forward. She was scared. But I said if she did it, I would help her. She agreed. But she’s very frail, she’s a very frail girl. I’m not sure…what to do.

(Beat)

Stanley: Another?

Luca: I think so.

Stanley: You have time?

Luca: I think so.

(pause, finishes the third drink)

Luca: I should go. She’s probably awake.

Stanley: Where is she?

Luca: Hospital, town over.

Stanley: That so?

Luca: I should go.

Stanley: I’ll stay open. Come by later.

(beat)

Luca: All right.

Scene Eight.

(Stanley has another bottle of gin. Its night and there is a candle again. He doesn’t drink it, but sits behind the counter, slowly spinning the bottle in his hands. )

Stanley: 12:15

(There is a crash and one of the windows is broken by an empty bottle that shatters on the floor. Stanley stares for a moment, then gets a broom and begins to sweep up.)

Scene Nine

(Stanley, day, looking up at the clocktower through his good window, the other boarded up. He goes from the window to the clock hanging and dials the time correctly. Then goes back to the window to check the clocktower again. He goes to the bottle of gin sitting on the counter and picks it up, holds it for a moment, then sets it down and goes to the window one more time to check the clocktower.)

(Luca enters and sits in the light of the window. He doesn’t look at Stanley. Stanley is still intent on looking at the clocktower.)

Luca: I’m sorry

(beat, Stanley, turns and notices him.)

Luca: About last night. I got too drunk after I heard about her.

(beat)

Luca: They had to operate again, and she’s quite upset at me.

(beat)

Stanley: That so?

(beat)

Luca: I feel responsible. You think I should feel responsible?

(beat)

Luca: Yeah, I think I am.

(beat, Luca gets up)

Luca: No drink today, I just popped in, just a quick stop. I have to keep looking for her. You see she snuck out of the hospital ward last night. Nobody can find her, and I’m responsible.

(Luca leaves, Stanley watches him go.)

Scene Ten

(Night, Stanley looks intently out the windows, switching between the two that are still intact. After a moment he stops and holds still, staring at something, then quickly jumps back as another bottle comes through the window he was just staring through. The bottle doesn’t break and lands into the middle of the stage. Stanley is in shock for a few moments then begins to pace back and forth, switching glances back and forth from the bottle to the broken window. Flo descends from the stairwell next to the counter, her eyes are covered in thick white bandages. He picks up the bottle and stands as if he would throw it through the last remaining window, then notices Flo as she walks slowly towards him, taking slow steps. Stanley sets the bottle down and takes her hand and walks her back towards the counter, laying her hands on it. He walks around the counter and fetches a glass and fills it with ice.)

Stanley: Can I get you a drink?

Flo: Nothing strong.

(Stanley makes her a drink and one for himself. He guides her hands to glass and they each take a drink.)

Flo: Its so cold.

Stanley: Its night.


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