Scene Detail
"I lost over five years of my life waiting for something that I hoped would never happen. And when it did, nobody expected anything about me to change."
| From: The Surface of the World |
| Gender |
Age |
Character Name |
| Female |
30's |
EMMA DRAPER |
Setup:
Emma is speaking to James, a guy working an AIDS Hotline. She is discussing the time when her mother died, and the circumstances under which she left home.
(The people she refers to - Nicholas is her younger brother. Seth is Nicholas' high school sweetheart and still current lover.)
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Monologuecopyright 1999 by Matthew A. Everett
EMMA
All those women in black, circling like buzzards, clutching their casseroles, clucking about what a comfort it would be to Dad to have both his children close by.
I mean, I just took that stupid waitressing job when Mom got sick.
I'd barely escaped high school, had no idea about college, and nothing really seemed as important as being here for Mom.
But then she got better and worse and better and worse and it was years and I was still in the same nowhere job, waiting for I don't know what. It wasn't college. And whatever it was, it wasn't here in Terre Haute.
For Nicholas, that never seemed to be a problem, enrolling in Indiana State University, staying here.
We both still lived at home, no dorms, no apartments, all of us waiting. And then when she actually died -- I still wasn't ready. I still didn't know. I mean, we'd almost gotten used to it, hadn't we? Mom being sick and all of us staying in one place -- like it would go on indefinitely. And the women in black all thought that was just wonderful. I had to leave the post-burial chit chat and walk up and down the river til after dark just to keep breathing. Mom dies and my world implodes. I lost over five years of my life waiting for something that I hoped would never happen. And when it did, nobody expected anything about me to change.
Now suddenly all my choices were expected to be confined, indefinitely, to a town full of railroad crossings and creosote and old prostitutes and frat boys. I felt like my lungs had been crushed.
At least Nicholas had Seth to escape to. I had nobody. Until Brad.
Brad.
Lopes into town with a faded T-shirt sticking to him in the August heat, one of those anatomy T-shirts, showing musculature, what he'd look like if the skin of his torso were peeled away. Long dark hair. The sense and smell of other places all over him. Of course it didn't make sense, I didn't want it to. No roots. No plans. And he wants me to come with him. What would you do? Anywhere but here.
copyright 1999 by Matthew A. Everett
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