ABANDONMENT
An Easter Play You Can Perform While Visiting Grandma
By Karen Moy
Wilbur: I’m used to being alone… My work is solitary by nature! But when I sit at my computer… reading reader mail… my thoughts turn back to my own problems! I’m having trouble concentrating on my work.
Mary: The quiet in your place doesn’t help?
Wilbur: I feel alone and abandoned! Dawn’s studying abroad! I miss Iris! And Mary… my past mistakes haunt me.
Mary: You’re not alone, Wilbur! We all make mistakes! We’re going to Lookout Point. Maybe the view will help us both gain perspective. (They cross the stage and stand atop a deadly cliff overlooking a turbulent ocean.)
Wilbur: It’s beautiful, Mary!
Mary: I come here when I need a change of perspective. Sometimes it helps.
Wilbur: Maybe it’ll help me. I’ve been feeling… alone and stuck in a rut.
Mary: Wilbur, you traveled for a whole year around the globe to meet and write about disaster survivors.
Wilbur: Yes.
Mary: Then how can you feel stuck in a rut?
Wilbur: I’m back in real life now, Mary. I’m facing my own personal demons and regrets. When I returned from my trip, Dawn was a godsend. She was much-needed company and my confidante.
Mary: This is after you broke up with Iris?
Wilbur: Yes, I made a mess of things with Iris. Now, with my daughter away and Iris off with another guy, I’m alone.
Mary: You’re not alone, Wilbur. As for Iris… some people aren’t meant to be in your life forever. Remember… you have friends. I’ll always have an open ear and a shoulder for you to cry on.
Wilbur: Thanks, Mary.
Mary: You have two excellent columns in the papers. How are they?
Wilbur: Business as usual. But despite my work, I feel… unsettled and anxious.
Mary: Maybe you just need to have some fun. Are there hobbies you want to pursue?
Wilbur: I can’t think of any at this time.
Mary: You’re wrapped up in your problems, which is easy to do when you’re alone. Try to find good in every day.
Wilbur: I’m trying Mary, I really am! I look at others and I feel like a loser compared to them!
Mary: This vulnerability is part of being human. Give yourself compassion rather than judging yourself as less than others.
Wilbur: I don’t know how. The feeling of hopelessness is almost unbearable sometimes! When I’m alone with my thoughts, it’s like going into a bad neighborhood… I always get beat up. When I returned from my trip around the world, I struggled to deal with complicated romantic issues. I didn’t totally go under because Dawn was there for me!
Mary: I imagine your daughter was therapeutic company after you broke up with Iris.
Wilbur: Now Dawn’s studying in Italy… and I’m feeling abandoned! I try not to think about Iris, but I’m reminded of her all the time!
Wilbur: Let's have this conversation again next week.
Mary: Definitely.
10 comments:
Whew, what a harrowing way to start off Easter Sunday. Truly chilling!
Bravissima, Karen and her able interpreter, Wanders!
Today's Boldface Haiku is titled
"The Struggle Is Real: Wilbur Didn't Choose The Whiner Life; The Whiner Life Chose Him".
Alone, bad neighborhood...always beat up!
Returned, struggled romantic issues.
Totally there!
--Therapeutic company.
Italy...abandoned!
Not...reminded!
--Anytime available.
Thanks. Glad.
Yay! Another word contest:
Abandoned: 2
Alone: 8
Oops - need to change title of play.
Goodness, Wanders, seeing that dialogue in a block is really...something. Karen Moy doesn’t have to stress about winning a Pulitzer.
There should be one more panel today - Mary gleefully shouts “April Fool!” and elbows Wilbur over the edge.
Wishing Easter and Passover blessings to Wanders, his family, and my Worthiverse companions!
Wanders, that is hilarious! It's a wonder Mary didn't jump.
Meanwhile in Beautiful Italy, Harlan wanders into a bad neighborhood and the bad guys leave him alone.
-- Scottie McW.
It needs to be pointed out that all the abandoning has been initiated by the dweeb Wilbur. It hasn't been just a simple twist of fate.
Notice how Wilbur leaves being conned and humiliated by Fabiana out of his narrative?
“She called me ‘mi amor’ and tried to teach me salsa dancing.”
“Oh, c’mon, Wilbur, the only salsa you know about is Old El Paso extra mild.”
“No, really, Mary, she arranged for lessons with her cousin...”
“And you bought the ‘cousin’ part of it?”
“She seemed so sincere when we went to Bogota Beach. She admired me in my Speedo...”
“Wait a minute...Bogota is an inland city. No beaches...did you just say Speedo?”
“Mary, are you all right? You seem to be having a choking fit.”
“Just a little transitory nausea...tell me more, if you must.”
“Well, she wanted me to proved my love, so I bought her a $20,000 emerald ring. Are you choking again?”
“It wasn’t nausea that time. How’d it end, sucker...er, Wilbur?”
“Well, I went back for more salsa lessons but I discovered her with her cousin...sob!”
“Wilbur, tell me you contacted the credit card company and cancelled the transaction!”
“Gee, can you do that?”
“Wilbur? Just jump, OK?”
Wilbur has NOT been abandoned. A grown child leaving to do something in her own life and happily hugging her dad at the airport is not abandonment. It's life. Time for Wilbur to get one.... Once she resorted to quoting Hubert Humphrey, you know even K Moy is getting tired of this non-story.
Can't wait for the musical!
I love how Mary tells Wilbur twice that he’s not alone, and then tells him it’s easy to get wrapped up in your problems when you’re alone.
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