Characters
SAM: A Very intellectual young man around 17-18 years of age. Very caring yet shy boy always looking out for Friends.
GINA: A young girl around 17-18 years of age. She comes from a rough family background, always needing to find a want from surrounding people.
DOCTOR: A women in her mid- 50’s. Been in her profession for over 20 years, a calm and collective individual.
MOTHER: in her mid-30’s. A hard working individual, a single parent.
COUNSELOR: A woman in her late 60’s. a common school counselor.
The Stage will open with GINA sitting at the foot of her bed Off Center L, she’s holding an item invisible to the audience. There are empty pill bottles on a small nightstand, SAM will enter from SR into the lighted scene a soft lullaby is playing.
GINA: (in a complete sob) I’m sorry…I’m sorry...I’m sorry…I’m so sorry!
GINA opens up her hands at this point revealing the item to be a gun.
SAM: Wait.
SAM reaches out to touch her but can’t bring himself to do it. GINA looks up as if she can see SAM standing there; she looks to the gun and slowly begins to bring it up to her head the soft lullaby fades out. As this happens SAM slowly walks out of lighted scene, lights cut to blackout and gun shot can be heard. The scene opens with SAM sitting on a chair DSL across is a desk where Doctor is sitting with a pad and pen writing down her thoughts.
SAM: I had a dream.
DOCTOR: The nightmare?
SAM: Yeah, the nightmare.
DOCTOR: Well, I’m hoping today I’ll be able to help you.
SAM:There’s no helping me…
DOCTOR: Let me try. So, tell me what lead up to this moment?…you being here talking to me.
SAM: (beat) I don’t understand why I couldn’t tell her! Every time I’m around her I just freeze up. (GINA enters he turns and faces her) What’s wrong now?
GINA: I don’t know…it just feels like… like no one loves me.
SAM: (To DOCTOR) You see this window of opportunity, a way of finally letting her known how I feel about her; and do you know what I do? Absolutely nothing! (To GINA) What do you mean?
GINA: My mother found out about me trying to get pregnant. Now she’s upset and won’t talk to me.
SAM: (To DOCTOR)You see, because of her feeling this way she felt that if she got pregnant, her boyfriend, which by the way is the biggest dick I know when it comes to treatment toward his girlfriends, she feels he will stay with her. A baby’s need for its mother just gives her the feel of being wanted. (To GINA) Well, are you?
GINA: What?
SAM: Pregnant?
GINA: I think so…
SAM: (To DOCTOR) Well that wasn’t the end of it. You see, when her boyfriend found out that she was expecting, the a*****e just up and left. This didn’t help out the situation. I found her a few times drunk out of her mind and, on occasions, strung out. This led to a quick and easy addiction from the escape of reality that was crashing down all around her. (SAM takes out his cell phone) Hello?
GINA: Sam, I need your help…please!
SAM: Sure. What’s wrong?
GINA: I just need you to come and get me…now!
SAM: Where are you?
GINA: The Barn.
SAM: Just stay to yourself and wait for me. I’m on my way. (To DOCTOR)I found her sitting in the back corner of the room vomiting. It wasn’t a pretty sight but I still found myself wanting her even in her lowest point, or what I thought was her lowest point. I wanted to keep her safe from all the harm the world was causing her. I wanted to give her all the love she felt was absent in her life.
GINA: Hey Sam!
SAM: How are you feeling?
GINA: A little better. (Pause) Hey…thanks!
SAM: For what?
GINA: Being there for me.
SAM: I’ll always be there for you whenever you need me. (To DOCTOR)Another opportunity to express my love for her wasted and again, I am struck with absence of words. It wasn’t long after I heard the news of her loosing the baby, that I found myself rushing to her side to comfort her. To my surprise, I found her cutting away at herself… like some kind of butcher in the slaughterhouse. What I saw next was the warning I should never have ignored; a cry I allowed to be a breath to the wind. I rushed to her, pulled the piece of glass out of her hands and dressed the wounds. (To GINA) What are you doing?
GINA: (crying) My mother won’t talk to me and I need her. I need her so badly. Bryan left me and now my baby is gone! There’s nothing here for me. I don’t know what else to do.
SAM: (Grabs her in an embrace of love and protection) No, I…
GINA: (Cuts him off) I don’t know what else to do. Please keep this a secret I don’t want my mother to know.
SAM: Ok.
GINA: No. You need to promise me!
SAM: (Beat) I promise.
DOCTOR: So this is the first time you knew about her hurting herself?
SAM: Yes.
DOCTOR: Why did you not report this to anyone?
SAM: I was afraid. I couldn’t break the promise
DOCTOR: Why not?
SAM: Well, her mother was entertaining the idea of sending her back to her father. He’s the biggest, sorry son-of-a-b***h I have ever met as far as a father goes…I didn’t want to lose her. If I broke the promise I felt she wouldn’t talk to me ever again.
DOCTOR: You felt that YOU could keep her here and help her through this?
SAM: I felt that my love could pierce the thick dark cloud that had consumed her. That is if I could ever let her know how I truly felt for her.
Stage goes to Blackout the scene will take place on SL between SAM and GINA at the docks
GINA: I don’t know what to do.
SAM: Forget about them and let it go. Accept what you have right in front of you.
GINA: That’s the thing…there’s nothing left in front of me!
SAM: Yes Gina, there is.
GINA: No, I’ve lost everything. I just want to lay down and just…go!
SAM: I won’t let you! (Grabs GINA and pulls her closer to him) Look at me. I know you lost your boyfriend and the baby, but Bryan wasn’t a big loss and as for the baby… she’s in a better place than this shithole we’re living in. And your mother, well… she will come around. She will. I want you to look at me. Look into my eyes. Do you see it?
GINA: See what?
SAM: All the love you ever wanted. A guy who is willing to give you all that he is. Someone who sees it as his purpose in life, to love you. Gina…I love you!
They embrace in a passionate kiss and at the end will look to each other with a smile, Blackout. Scene opens back up in the DOCTORS office.
SAM: But that’s not what actually happened. It was only a hope, a wish… a what if!
DOCTOR: What did happen?
SAM: Well, I got a phone call from her telling me she was going to …you know.( DOCTOR nods) So I asked her where she was and she wouldn’t tell me. I came close to calling her mother but I didn’t. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know.
DOCTOR: What happened next?
SAM: Well, the next day I got a call from her. You don’t know how relieved I was to hear her voice. She told me she couldn’t do it. She felt she was worthless to the point even death did not want her. Throughout the week I got many more phone calls like that, all ending with here unable to. I took her out one night to the docks to just talk. She was missing her boyfriend, her baby and most of all…her mother. She wanted for things to be all better. I told her that life is not perfect and things happen. I told her she didn’t have to go through it alone because I was there. (To GINA) It’s alright to feel lost.
GINA: I feel that I have lost who I am.
SAM: Life is a journey we all take and all get lost on.
GINA: I’m afraid I’ve been lost to long. I’ve lost all emotion, I’m…empty.
SAM: Empty?
GINA: No one truly loves me. If they had, I would still have Bryan and the baby…and my mother would be talking to me.
SAM: I’m here.
GINA: And I’m glad. You’re a really good friend, Sam.
SAM: (To DOCTOR) Did you hear that? A good friend. I didn’t want to be a good friend, I wanted to be more. At that moment I had all that was within me collected in my mind to finally tell her that there was someone who loved her with every part of his being.
DOCTOR: Did you tell her?
SAM: I was about to explode when her cell rang. It was her mother.
GINA: (on her cell) I’m out with a friend…We’re just hanging out…We’re at the docks…I’m not doing anything wrong…What?...I’m just hanging out…But I…Ok, OK!
SAM: Who was that?
GINA: My mother. She wants me home right away.
SAM: Is everything alright?
GINA: She’s upset. She doesn’t trust me. I have to go I’m sorry.
SAM: No don’t be sorry. (To DOCTOR) As she walked away I whispered into the wind, hoping it would carry to her ears…I love you! I went home that night so depressed.
DOCTOR: Was this the first time you felt depressed in this situation?
SAM: Truly depressed. All I remember is that I couldn’t sleep that night and the times I did manage to doze off I would think only of us together. The next morning I remember walking through the hallways hearing people talk about Gina, and when I came around they would stop their conversation and disperse from my approach. She was absent from the classes we had together, I assumed her mother had grounded her and kept her at home; her weird way of punishment. I remember the counselor coming down to get me out of class.
COUNSELOR: How are you today?
SAM: A common question to ask anyone. (To COUNSELOR) I’m fine.
COUNSELOR: I don’t know how to ask this…
SAM: Ask what?
COUNSELOR: We know that you and Gina were good friends. Was there anything Gina told you that you might want to let me, or anyone for that matter, know?
SAM: Were?
COUNSELOR: Anything at all?
SAM: No. Why? (To DOCTOR)You know the promise I had made to her. I couldn’t tell them in fear of them founding out where she was hiding. She would know I had told. (To COUNSELOR) Did she run away?
COUNSELOR: Sam, she didn’t run away…
SAM: Did her mother hurt her?
COUNSELOR: Why would you say that? Did she tell you her mother ever hurt her?
SAM: No, I just know her mother. She just seems the type to do something.
COUNSELOR: Sam, Gina was found last night…dead in her room.
SAM: (To DOCTOR) I didn’t grasp the word that proceeded out of her mouth right away. I think I scared the counselor, because I was lost in my own thoughts for about a good two minutes. (Falls back into conversation with COUNSELOR)
COUNSELOR: Sam, are you alright? Sam, can you hear me…are you alright?
SAM: Dead?
COUNSELOR: Yes.
SAM: How?
COUNSELOR: We believe it was suicide.
SAM: Suicide… (To DOCTOR) Her and her mother had a fight that night ending with her mother saying, “I don’t what to see you right now. I’m disappointed and embarrassed of you. Your grounded. Go to you room!” No one will ever know what she was thinking in those last seconds. She was found by her younger sister. I knew all along because she had told me, but I did nothing because it became so routine. You know the phone calls about doing it. I knew all along and I did nothing because of a stupid promise I had made, a promise I should have broken because of my love for her. Looking back I still can not see why I did not speak up.
DOCTOR: So what happened next?
SAM: I got up and walked right out the door.
DOCTOR: Where did you go?
SAM: I went to the lake where we had talked a few nights before. I looked into the sky hoping I would wake up and realized it had all be a bad dream. You know, the tradition we all fall to when something tragic happens to us. When I realized that this was reality, I decided that it was my time to go. I did not deserve to live.
DOCTOR: Did you feel it was your fault she was dead?
SAM: Yes, why else? I think it was mostly because I wanted to be with her wherever she was.
DOCTOR: Is that when you jumped into the water?
SAM: Yes, and if it hadn’t been for that f*****g fisherman I wouldn’t be here talking to you.
DOCTOR: So what happened after that?
SAM: I finally convinced them that it was an accident that I wasn’t trying to kill myself. There were a few more attempts but like Gina, I found that it didn’t come so easily.
DOCTOR: So after the last attempt your mother found you.
SAM: Yes, they suggested that I talk to a psychiatrist. I refused because I didn’t want to go through the bullshit, “So how did that make you feel?”
DOCTOR: I assure you if you are willing I can help.
SAM: The only thing that does justice to my misdeeds is paying the same price I allowed Gina to pay. (DOCTOR calls for the security guard)
DOCTOR: We’re done. (To SAM) I want you to know that I will be doing my best to help you understand that suicide is not the answer; you don’t have to walk down this road. (She nods for the GUARD to take him back to his room. GUARD and SAM exit. MOTHER enters SR, she takes her seat.)
MOTHER: How’s my son?
DOCTOR: What I do know is he is a danger to himself and to be frankly honest with you, I suggest that you admit him into a psychiatric hospital. From what I can gather in the few meetings that we have had, he feels responsible for Gina’s death. Dr. Bigham is the best in this field of study. If anyone can help your son it would be him.
MOTHER: You’re asking me to put my son away?
DOCTOR: This is the only way to assure his survival.
MOTHER: My son…my only son…is, crazy!
DOCTOR: He’s not crazy, just lost and unsure. We can get him in a much better state of mind if you will allow us to work with him. What do you say?
MOTHER: (crying) Just make my son better, alright?
DOCTOR: That’s what we will work on.
Light fades out. All that can be heard is SAM speaking out from the darkness. The sound of a Thunderstorm can be heard.
SAM: Have you looked into the night sky blanketed by clouds and lightning with thunder rolling in? It tells the story of life. The sky is lit by lighting giving sight to the sound of thunder; showing power to be seen as a comfort to many or as Gina and I see it… as destructive and chaotic; as much as we try to shield ourselves with the clouds, it still remains; piercing our lives. She chose to silence it. I choose to allow it to remain, as a reminder to me of my loss. I loved once and loved not at all…you came as a cloak and dagger, scarring my heart, leaving me empty as you were in your last days. I have walked the same road as you once did. I too feel I have no one to love me. I too feel I have nothing to live for. For it would be better for me to live on and suffer the sin in my life then to kill myself and allow the pain that has a right to be here go to nothing.(The thunder fades out and the soft lullaby can be heard playing.)I am bound to this night. My tears shine, illuminating my early mourn to this shadow sight. Upon these stars I wish tonight for my old found love from the morning to this night. I hope and wish that I could see that face once more to give me ease, but the end now comes I have lost that Friend. Damn the world…Damn me instead.
Light comes up on SAM sitting on the floor in a straitjacket with his head down. As the DOCTOR, GINA and MOTHER step into the lighted area surrounding SAM. The flow of the dialog coming up should end and start back to back from character to character.
MOTHER: Why did you not report this to anyone?
DOCTOR: Why did you feel you couldn’t say anything?
GINA: I feel that I’ve lost myself.
MOTHER: My son is away on vacation.
DOCTOR: She is gone and you have to let her go.
GINA: You’re a really good friend, Sam.
MOTHER: (as the following dialog is spoken she will fad out and exit) My son is crazy…
DOCTOR: (as the following dialog is spoken she will fad out and exit) You have to come to terms with the reality around you.
GINA: Thanks.
She moves over to SAM and sits beside him just staring, SAM will look up revealing his transformation in his face of pain and suffering, rocking back and forth; the soft lullaby fades out.
BLACKOUT
Share This
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Read Request
My Library
Subscribe
Flag Writing