While We Wait 2
A play about books and breaking points
This short play is part of the NOISE/QUIET cycle. If you’re just joining, I recommend starting at the beginning with Overture: Sound Collage Collapse.
To read the first part of this three-part drama, click here for While We Wait 1.
If you want to revisit the previous play in the cycle, you can read Transference here.
While We Wait is the heart and spine of the NOISE/QUIET cycle. After the absurdism of End of the Hunt, the satire of Lizard People, and the psychological horror of Transference, the cycle returns to May and June in the medical center waiting room.
In the previous installment, I introduced two characters the audience could root for—following Kurt Vonnegut’s Rule #2 for writers. In this second part, I turned to his Rule #3:
Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
Obviously, May and June want their husbands to recover from whatever it is they are being treated for—I decided not to elaborate on the specifics. But I thought I’d take Mr. Vonnegut’s advice and push it further by compounding their wants: both women are also desperate for connection, and like any good dramatist would do, I put a knotty obstacle between them.
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While We Wait 2
May and June in the same waiting room as before. The same clock still hangs on the wall behind them. Weeks later they have formed a friendship. As the lights come up they are laughing hysterically, mid-conversation.
MAY: Duke woke up that morning with dizzy spells. I told him it was best if he stayed home while I ran to the grocery store, but he was pig headed and wouldn’t stay put.
JUNE: Sounds familiar.
MAY: We got to the store and he seemed fine walking up and down the aisles. So, I decided to turn a quick grocery run into a “supplies-for-the-week” run, that way I wouldn’t have to leave him alone again. I had a full cart of groceries, and we were walking toward the register, when Duke had another spell and fell right into a giant pyramid of graham cracker boxes!
May and June laugh.
JUNE: Was he alright?
MAY: Luckily yes. I told him if he wanted graham crackers that badly he could have stayed home and eaten the ones in the pantry.
JUNE: We took the kids to the beach to get out of the house. We all got milkshakes at a snack shack. This lovely older lady walked up, and was talking to the kids. She was so excited! Sam and Beth loved her. Then she asked if we wanted her to take our picture, before I could answer Travis said yes and gave her his phone. I thought she would be confused by it, but she knew exactly how it worked!
MAY: We grannies know a thing or two about taking pictures of kids with newfangled phones!
JUNE: After she took the picture, she handed it back to Travis and, out of nowhere, Travis threw up his milkshake…
MAY: No!
JUNE: All over her.
They howl with laughter.
JUNE: I felt so sorry for her. And I shouldn’t laugh…
MAY: But it is really funny.
JUNE: If I didn’t laugh…
MAY: I know. Tough times.
JUNE: Duke’s doing alright?
MAY: He’s eighty-one. We knew this was a long-shot, but it would buy us some time.
Pause. We hear the clock tick.
MAY: Travis is responding well?
JUNE: We think so. No hair loss, no weight loss. Good color.
MAY: He’s young. Vital. That’s good.
Pause. The clock ticks.
JUNE: Before I forget, let me give this back to you. (Takes a book out of her bag.)
MAY: (Thrilled) You finished the Wharton novel?
JUNE: I did! And to tell you the truth, I liked this one better than The Age of Innocence.
MAY: Undine Spragg is one of my favorite literary women.
JUNE: She was so rotten, but I loved her. I couldn’t put it down.
MAY: (Looking at the book with admiration) People hated The Custom of the Country when it came out. Wharton made Americans look at themselves through Undine—and they didn’t like what they saw. (Slight smile) But that was the point.
JUNE: She didn’t care what people thought?
MAY: Not one bit. That’s why she was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize.
JUNE: Thank you for the recommendation. I really enjoyed it.
MAY: I had hoped you were finished because I brought you another one. (Takes out another book.)
JUNE: (Laughs) This is becoming the “Waiting Room Book Club”!
MAY: This author is not as well-known as Wharton, but this is one of my most cherished under-appreciated novellas. (MAY hands JUNE the book.)
JUNE: (Reading the cover) Desperate Characters.
MAY: What Paula Fox does in such a short book is extraordinary. It’s about a woman who gets bitten by a stray cat and becomes terrified she has rabies. The whole novel is her waiting to find out if she’s been infected. That’s why she’s desperate—in fact all the characters in the book are waiting for something they can’t control.
JUNE: You know so many books I’ve never even heard of.
MAY: Before I retired I was English department chair at the university.
JUNE: Really? Little did I know I was in the company of a scholar.
MAY: And proud to say the first female department chair.
JUNE: That must have been something.
MAY: Oh it was. The faculty was shocked when I was appointed. And they did everything they could to undermine me. I’d come home and complain to Duke night after night and he kept saying, “Give ‘em hell May!” Which I did.
JUNE: Who’s the lady that doesn’t care what people think now?
MAY: But one day, they really got under my skin. They kept me in a meeting trying to fight me about a change I wanted to make to the curriculum. I was right—they knew it—but they pulled every trick in the book to get my goat. And I said to myself, “May, whatever you do, do not cry in front of these guys. If you cry, they win.” The meeting went on and on and on. I nearly gave in I was so furious. But I held my ground, and I fought back the tears, and just before midnight—they folded! I got every book I wanted added to the curriculum. As soon as those guys walked out of the room, I burst out crying.
They laugh together in recognition.
JUNE: I would too.
MAY: I sobbed the entire car ride home. I was still crying when I walked in the front door, and there was Duke, sitting at the dining room table behind a half-eaten birthday cake. I was so ashamed. Duke held me in his arms as I cried and cried. He said, “You had something more important to do May, you gave ‘em hell.”
JUNE: Good for you.
MAY: I missed a lot of baseball games and school plays, but the kids knew their mom was doing something special.
The clock ticks.
MAY: What about your career?
JUNE: I don’t work.
MAY: Did you take time off to take care of Travis?
JUNE: Sorry, that’s not what I meant. I do work, but at home.
MAY: Is it one of those remote jobs?
JUNE: (Laughs) No, it’s one of those full-time mother jobs.
MAY: Really?
JUNE: I was a freelance photographer before Travis and I met. When we got married, we decided he’d work and I’d stay home with the kids.
MAY: Well… you can always go back to photography when they’re older.
JUNE: (Pause) I can.
The clock ticks.
MAY: I know I missed out… but I thought, “This is important. If I do this, I am paving the way…”
JUNE: May…
MAY: Duke and I made sacrifices so that our daughters would see—
JUNE: I heard you.
The clock ticks.
MAY: What does your daughter think when she sees you at home?
JUNE: She thinks her mother is there when she gets off the school bus.
The clock ticks.
MAY: I just think—
JUNE: I know what you think—I’ve heard this all before.
MAY: June, I’m not judging—
JUNE: Yes, you are. And you know what? I was lucky. Lucky to be in the position to make the choice I made with my husband because Travis has a good job…
Beat. The clock ticks. JUNE’s face changes.
JUNE: (Quieter) Had. Has. (She starts to cry.)
MAY: (Realizing) Oh, June— I didn’t mean—
JUNE: (She recovers. Handing back the book.) You should take this. With everything going on, I don’t have time to read.
MAY: Please don’t—
JUNE: (Looking at the title) I don’t need a book to teach me about desperate characters.
JUNE’s phone pings. She reads the message.
JUNE: Travis is out. I have to go.
JUNE exits. MAY stands alone, holding the book. The clock ticks louder.
BLACKOUT
The sound of the clock tick transforms into the quiet clicking of typing texts or social media posts.
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Continue the Cycle
Next: Everybody Wants to Change the World—A play with five words.
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