Bonnie's Dream

The Waitress Bonnie has a dream whilst on the operating table.

A blank, white area. Bonnie sits in half of a booth from the diner she works. A plastic man, totally white and blank as the room – sits across from her.

 

Plastic Man: Bonnie…

 

Bonnie is staring at nothing.

 

Plastic Man: Bonnie…

 

Bonnie looks at him blankly. She is tired, and has bags under her eyes. She places her hands on the table in front of her.

 

Plastic Man: Bonnie? Are you here all of the way, did they put you under all of the way? Yeah, your color is coming in quite nicely.

 

Bonnie’s eyes focus onto the plastic man.

 

Bonnie: I’m here, I’m fine.

 

Plastic Man: That is good. Can we continue our conversation?

 

Bonnie: I don’t remember. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about these kind of things outside of here.

 

Plastic Man: A lot happens in a year.

 

The Plastic Man sets his hands onto the table. From his hands grow tiny artificial hearts. He sets three of them on the table. They are visibly beating.

 

Plastic Man: Do you know what it means to be heartless?

 

Bonnie: You have no possession of a heart.

 

Plastic Man: In the literal sense, yes. That is what this means. But in the sense of the mind’s heart, it pertains to the core of emotion. The heart is the centripetal force of everything, your mind will say. It has the power to spin, to make energies go round and round, and even to toss them off balance and off the map.

 

The plastic man pushes the middle heart toward Bonnie.

 

Bonnie: I’m living on borrowed time. And this borrowed time is valuable and can vanish at any moment. It can’t be destroyed or taken by anyone, it can just cease to function. All of the material is there.

 

Bonnie pushes the heart to the far end of the table. The plastic man pushed the left heart in front of Bonnie.

 

Bonnie: Lessons are sometimes ill-learned. My mind knows my heart isn’t there, and therefore channels no feeling to that area. But because the heart isn’t there, that doesn’t mean there isn’t any feelings left inside. The locked door lies in my mind, and no one person has the key to it.

 

Plastic Man: You remember that period in your lifetime…

 

Bonnie pushes the heart next to the other. They beat in opposition to each other.

 

Plastic Man: But this one, this 20.4 months, can you tell me what you remember?

 

Bonnie is quiet. Suddenly, her color begins to fade and she wakes up in the hospital, a wet rag on her forehead. A doctor is looking over her.

 

Doctor: Every time we do this, I’m afraid you won’t wake up. Your body accepts the equipment well.

 

The doctor leans down to her level and speaks in a whisper.

 

Doctor: I know you’re in need of a heart, and I know it’s been hard. A few more years, and we’ll have one for you. Stay in the hospital for a few days. It’ll do you some good, it’ll keep the fever of people away from you. Sanctuary.          

 

Author's Note

The Waitress Bonnie has a dream whilst on the operating table.

Reviews

[ryman123]

we're all on borrowed time