Grassy Summer Day

Written by
Joseph Frost
written for the 2014 31 Plays in 31 Days Project
Play 26
Draft
8/29/14
Attic Scripts 2014
Joseph Frost
4550 Normandy Dr
Jackson, MS 39206
atticsripts@gmail.com
A man stands on a rough hewn wooden stage.
He takes off his shoes.
He takes off his socks.
He walks around the edge of the stage, deliberately.
He returns to his shoes.
A woman enters the stage.
She wears a sundress, and is already barefoot.
WOMAN
So?
MAN
You were right.
WOMAN
Its a grassy summer day. Full of flowers and sunbeams.
MAN
Hot. Sticky. Uncomfortable.
WOMAN
Let it warm you.
MAN
Im warm.
Man sits down.
WOMAN
Its been a long winter.
MAN
The warmth had to come. Sooner or later.
Woman starts to walk around the edge of the stage,
deliberately.
WOMAN
The birds of the morning, the crickets of sundown.
MAN
Sundown. The only relief.
WOMAN
Chasing fireflies in the almost darkness.
MAN
The almost darkness.
WOMAN
Until the almost become the all the way.
MAN
But he heat finds its way through the dark.
WOMAN
Evenings spent on the porch. Iced tea. The creaky porch swing.
MAN
The porch boards slowly curling up, swollen with moisture, bending out of level.
She stops.
WOMAN
Is there nothing you can enjoy?
MAN
Enjoy?
WOMAN
Yes.
MAN
You.
(beat)
You were right.
WOMAN
She would swing with me, and let me put my head on her lap.
MAN
Shed bring out the whole pitcher, so we could refill our iced tea.
2.
WOMAN
And we could never drink so much that it would be gone.
MAN
Never.
WOMAN
And the stories.
MAN
Oh, the stories.
WOMAN
One for each firefly out over the field.
MAN
Twinkling back and forth from story to tale. To all out lie.
A moment.
WOMAN
I dont ever feel shes gone. Not from this place.
MAN
Shes right here. Swelling each board. A reminder that this place, that she, that they are
both well, and alive.
WOMAN
I was right.
MAN
Yes, you were.
She reaches out her hand.
WOMAN
Come with me.
MAN
My shoes.
WOMAN
Come with me.
MAN
I should put them--
3.
WOMAN
Come on.
He takes her hand.
They run off stage.
The shoes remain.
Lights down.
End
4.