SUMMER BREAK
A PLAY
Walt John Pearce
CHARACTERS: George and Leo and Sergei and Vera and Maria.
ACT I
Scene I
Enter George and Leo and Sergei and Vera and Maria into a motel room with two twin beds.
(George)
I am bored and I am tired of Spring Break feeling like this. I am bored and I am tired and we have been in this motel room all day and half of the night.
(Vera)
Not every Winter Break is about experiencing new things, George. Some are more about being in the moment.
(George)
Last Summer Break we went on a boat. Now we are just in this motel room.
(Leo)
There were a lot of people on that boat.
(Vera)
That’s because it was a ship.
(George)
Don’t say that about the boat.
(Vera)
I think there is some sort of misunderstanding.
(Leo)
You always disagree with George.
(Vera)
You always agree with George.
(Leo)
That’s because I always agree.
(Vera)
I think there is some sort of misunderstanding.
(George)
You only agree when there is a misunderstanding.
Scene II
Enter George and Leo and Sergei and Vera and Maria into a convenience store. They are walking down the aisles and they are browsing.
(Leo)
There’s a lot of stuff in this store but not that much that I want to buy.
(Vera)
It is not about what you buy.
(George)
I experience new things every day.
(Vera)
Look at these candles. One is called Christmas Cheer and one is called Fresh Cut Grass. We can light both at the same time just to see what will happen.
(Leo)
Nothing will happen, Vera.
(Vera)
You need to try just to see what will happen.
(Leo)
I am having trouble realizing what the point of Fall Break is if the place that we go on vacation is exactly the same as the place we left. Outside looks exactly the same as home and inside here looks the same as anywhere else.
(Vera)
You need to get a grip.
(Sergei)
I used to think that all places were the same. In West Texas I would leave the desert and enter another desert and there was no difference between the desert from the desert before. Then I traveled around the world, to all different sorts of deserts, and they were all as same as the last. Then I met a girl in one of the deserts, and all of a sudden that desert was unlike anywhere I had ever been. The girl had one crooked tooth that was real on the bottom and two fake teeth on the top that were straight. She didn’t smoke cigarettes but her hair was still always a mess. We would hang out in the desert and look at the stars and smoke cigarettes until the sun was about to come up and then we would run inside to hide from the sun and we would make love until it was almost night time again. We said let’s do this forever and we said okay but then one day she was gone. After that last time I saw her was when I really started to see her everywhere. I saw her on the back of motorbikes and I smelled her straightened cigarette hair and I saw her hoodies and I heard her laugh in different deserts all over the world. And all of a sudden the thing that made that one desert different made all of the places I went be the same desert that she was in and that we were in together.
(Vera)
The self checkout machine is broken but there are only a few people in front of us in line.
ACT II
Enter George and Leo and Sergei and Vera and Maria into their motel room with two twin beds. George and Vera are asleep in one of the twin beds and Leo and Maria are asleep in the other twin bed and Sergei is awake and is sitting on the floor by Maria. Sergei lights the Christmas Cheer candle and the Fresh Cut Grass candle at the same time just to see what will happen and Sergei watches Maria sleep as her crooked real tooth pokes out from under her bottom lip and the flames from both seasons dance a small ballet on her face.
THE END
Walt John Pearce lives in the mountains and his novel HARMONY is forthcoming.