Jessica CooperstockJennifer BarclayPlaywriting I10/13/15

Exercise 12: Imitation (in a word)CHARACTERS:MIKEWYNNETHE MANTHERAPISTEUGENIA

Kitchen. WYNNE is sitting at the kitchen table playing with a small cell phone. MIKE enters.MIKE

Hey, are you ready? We need to leave now or we’re going to be late—He sees what she is doing.Mom, put that away, would you? We need to leave. We’re gonna be late—

WYNNESomeone called.

MIKEWhat? No, that’s not…He takes the phone.Zero missed calls.

WYNNEI could have sworn…I…

MIKEYou probably just heard someone else’s phone going off nearby. Or something. Can we leave now?

WYNNEIt’s just, I don’t know, I keep thinking someone will call about her. That he will call about her. He had her phone at some point—

MIKEYes. We know he did. But—WYNNE takes the phone back. It rings. Flashback to earlier that day: WYNNE is standing at a bus stop; THE MAN is standing a little off on stage right with his own phone. MIKE remains where he is and watches.

WYNNEHello?

THE MANOh, you picked up this time.

WYNNEI’m sorry?

THE MANIt’s just that I’ve called you a couple of times now. You thought I was a reporter/telemarketer. Hung up.

WYNNEWell, you weren’t using caller ID…a blank caller ID is a little suspicious, you know?

THE MANI understand. And I hope you understand that I have your daughter. If you’d stayed on the line, maybe we could have gotten to that.

MIKEHe really said all that?

WYNNEWell. Not in so many words. I talked about it with my therapist.

MIKEYou hate your therapist. You think she’s an idiot.

WYNNEAn idiot therapist is better than no therapist.WYNNE and the THERAPIST. WYNNE is lying on the THERAPIST’S couch, still clutching the cell phone.

WYNNEI keep thinking I’ve seen Eu downtown.

THERAPIST(Re: you) Me?

WYNNENo, Eu. Eugenia. My daughter.

THERAPISTInteresting name. Isn’t your other child named Mike?

WYNNEIt’s a family name.

THERAPIST(Re: Mike) Really?

WYNNEEugenia.

THERAPISTAh.

WYNNEHe called me.

THERAPISTAgain?

WYNNEHe said he would have told me where she is by now if I’d just stayed on the line.

THERAPISTSometimes you shouldn’t stay on the line. Sometimes you need to just let everything fall. Like trees do.

WYNNEWhat do trees have to do with my daughter?

THERAPISTThe leaves. The trees let the leaves fall.

WYNNESo my daughter is a tree.

THERAPISTNo, she’s a leaf. Look, Wynne, you have learn to accept that sometimes, daughters aren’t daughters. They’re leaves. It happens that way sometimes.

EUGENIA That’s right, Mom.

MIKEAre you sure an idiot therapist is better than no therapist?

WYNNEAt least she was trying. And maybe she was right. Maybe Eugenia is a leaf. She always held herself apart from it all. My poor baby. My sweet girl. My love.

MIKE“Aloof.”

WYNNEWhat?

MIKENever mind.WYNNE goes back to playing with the phone.It’s funny, the things you say now. I don’t remember you ever saying them when she was here.

WYNNEWhat, about leaves?

MIKE“My poor baby. My sweet girl. My love.”

WYNNEWell, she was my sweet girl!

MIKEShe was difficult. With both of us.

WYNNEShe was a teenager. Teenagers are like that. You were like that.

MIKEShe was more difficult than that and you know it. Remember why she went running out of the house like that anyway?

WYNNEI don’t want to talk about it.

MIKEBut you should. You should talk about it.

WYNNEShe was always my problem child.

EUGENIADamn straight I was. Flashback. WYNNE and EUGENIA, in the kitchen.

WYNNE…irresponsible—

EUGENIAWhy are you always like this? You’re just so—so—

WYNNESome days I just want to take a yardstick and beat you with it!EUGENIA runs out the door. Slam.

MIKEAnd she never came back.

WYNNEAnd she never came back.

MIKENo word, no sign—except her car, ten miles away with the phone in the front seat.

WYNNEYes.

MIKEAre you ready to leave now?

WYNNEDon’t talk about leaves. Let’s just go.

FADE TO BLACK