more prophetic than any of us can imagine 　

Michael: You there?

Gracie: Yep.

Michael: So how are you?

Gracie: Uhmm… I don’t know.

Michael: What’s going on?

Gracie: Can you hold on a minute?

Michael: Yeah.

(Pause. Gracie gets back on the phone)

Gracie: kay I’m back.

Michael: So whucha thinking?

Gracie: I’m thinking I don’t like this merlot.

Michael: Ohh.

Gracie: I like that cheap merlot. The 5 dollars and forty-nine cents bottle. You know the one I’m talking about?

Michael: I think so.

Gracie: (sigh) Oh well… (sound of her taking a sip) I have a lot of anxiety going on in my life at the moment. I’m just trying to remain calm.

Michael: I know anxiety.

Gracie: I’m reading this book that says all of us have a champion that lives deep down inside of us. Do you believe that?

Michael: I guess… somewhat.

Gracie: I don’t know what they mean by it but it sounds like a good thing to put in a book.

Michael: Uh heh.

(pause)

Gracie: Somebody told me the other day that I'm complex.

Michael: Really?

Gracie: That I have just sublayers and sublayers to my personality. I don’t even know what anybody means anymore…like the other day a friend of mine says, "I’m the kind of person that needs someone I can always beat up on…" I was like, whaa?… I’ve known this person for like twelve years… I never would’ve thought…they would’ve come out with something like that… this person’s very quiet, soft-spoken, polite…totally not the bullying type… I was like, whoa, wait a minute, I really don’t know this person at all…I think inevitably you want to create the strongest possible alliance humanly possible… (reconsiders) Or not.

Michael: Yeah.

(pause)

Gracie: Am I wasting your time?

Michael: No ma’am.

Gracie: Do you think I’m afraid to fully confront the adult world, that I’m narcissistic and self-absorbed and standoffish and shut off emotionally, and that I spend too much time alone?

Michael: Wow, those are some questions.

(slight pause)

Gracie: Would you like to take a stab at answering any of them?

Michael: Yeah I think you’re all of those things.

Gracie: Me too. Listen to this. (reading from a notebook) "This morning I woke up with a profound sense of excitement and fear…excitement because I’m near you… fear because I lose my balance and have trouble expressing my feelings…"

Michael: (slight pause) Hmmm…

Gracie: "Everything about my life is about getting out there and giving back…it’s easy to get lost in what I’m doing… my first instinct is always good…"

Michael: What are you reading from?

Gracie: My sister’s diary. When she was 14.

Michael: Why do you have it?

Gracie: Finders keepers.

Michael: Don’t you think you should give it back to her?

Gracie: Actually, I don’t. She’s taken more than her share from me over the years.

Michael: What has she taken from you?

Gracie: Let’s see… She took my mood ring, my clodhoppers, my Sloppy Joe, my culottes, my micro miniskirt, my pea coat, my legwarmers, my leotards, my hemp bracelet, my best of The Brady Bunch and Partridge Family albums, my copy of "Franny and Zooey". Watch… hold on.

Michael: Wha?

Gracie: I’m gonna do a three way.

Michael: A what?

Gracie: Shhh… (puts Michael on hold. Pause. she gets back on. sound of a number ringing) You there?

Michael: Who are you calling?

Gracie: Shh. Don’t say anything.

Michael: Hunh?

Gracie: Shhhh!

Voice: (female) Hello?

Gracie: Hi, Patty, it’s Gracie.

Patty: (somewhat indifferent) Grace, I’m on another call, I can’t talk right now.

Gracie: Remember all that stuff you took from me?

Patty: (slight pause) What stuff?

Gracie: My mood ring, my clodhoppers, my best of the Brady Bunch and Partridge Family albums, my copy of "Franny and Zooey?" That stuff.

Patty: (pause; edgy) Okaay?

Gracie: I just want you to know that I haven’t forgotten about it.

Patty: (pause) So what’s your point? You took reams of my poetry, my extremely personal poetry, made mimeograph copies of it and then proceeded to distribute them on Christmas Eve, to all the parishioners at the conclusion of midnight mass. I don’t call you up every time I’m drunk and depressed to remind you of that.

Gracie: I’m not drunk or depressed. I just want you to know I haven’t forgotten about it.

Patty: Grace, make an appointment with a really good therapist and relieve yourself of all this childhood guilt and angst you seem so sure exists. You’re a big girl, it’s time to take control.

Gracie: (whatever) Okay.

Patty: G’bye.

Gracie: Uh heh. (click) Tol’ja.

Michael: Wow…

Gracie: Charming, isn’t she…? (reading) "…People just don’t notice me the way I notice them… I’m growing up in the blink of an eye… there has to come the moment where you look at yourself and look at everybody else in your life and think, ‘Whether or not you’re going to stay with me after what I’m about to say, is up to you, but I need to put myself first now… not ignoring you… but it’s me first… and whether or not you approve of my decisions, I can’t let that concern me anymore…’" (pause) That’s another one of her poems.

Michael: Interesting.

Gracie: Very interesting.

(blackout)