Play # 12

SHOE ROOM

__________________________

By Joseph Frost

Originally written for the 2020 "31 Plays in 31 Days" challenge

Contact:
Joseph Frost
710 Newland St
Jackson MS 39211
FrostJosephD@gmail.com
Member, Dramatist's Guild
 Three at a table.

LILA is early 20s, plain.

ELINOR is early 20s, bold.

KATIA is early 20s, straight-laced.

They are in three different conversations, kind

of all at once.

LILA
I miss how it used to be.

ELINOR
You don’t have to tell me about that. I wasn’t the one who changed it.

LILA
But you were. You don’t see that?

ELINOR
I don’t know what you’re talking about.

LILA
You quit the coffee shop and took the job at the office.

ELINOR
Which I hated.

LILA
It was your choice.

ELINOR
Not really.

LILA
Well, anyway. That’s when it changed.

Elinor turns to Katia.

ELINOR
That wasn’t my fault.
 2.

KATIA
I don’t blame you.

ELINOR
I shouldn’t be expected to stay there with a manager who talks to me that way.

KATIA
You want to report him?

ELINOR
Report him to who?

KATIA
He has a boss.

ELINOR
Some other dude. What’s the point?

KATIA
The point is not letting someone talk to you like that and let him stay and you have to
start over somewhere else.
(beat)
You should have been made manager.

ELINOR
Well, that’s another story.

Lila touches Katia’s arm to get her attention.

LILA
She made out with him.

KATIA
Who?

LILA
Elinor did.

KATIA
Who did she make out with?

LILA
The owner.

KATIA
When was this?
 3.

LILA
She told me last night, but it was last week sometime, I think. After she closed. So,
Wednesday or Thursday.

KATIA
And? She’s allowed to make out with whoever she wants.

LILA
Not her boss.

KATIA
Yeah, even her boss.

LILA
Her boss who’s making the decision on who the new manager is gonna be after Alex goes
back to Kentucky.

KATIA
Kentucky?

LILA
School.

KATIA
Ah. Right.
(beat)
Well that’s a terrible idea.

LILA
Right?

Elinor gets Lila’s attention.

ELINOR
So... it’s not cool that you’ve been telling people.

LILA
Telling people what.

ELINOR
About what happened. Last week.

LILA
Elinor...
 4.

ELINOR
He found out.

LILA
Found out what.

ELINOR
That other people know.

LILA
So?

ELINOR
He wasn’t happy.

LILA
What difference does that make?

ELINOR
He’s not making me manager.

LILA
Elinor.

ELINOR
He says if people know, they’ll think we’re sleeping together and that’s why I got the job.

LILA
But you’re the best person for the job. Everyone knows that. Alex even says it, all the
time.

ELINOR
Yeah well. That would be why it’s not cool that you’ve been telling people.

LILA
So this is gonna be my fault?

ELINOR
Lila...

LILA
You know you shouldn’t have made out with him.

ELINOR
You didn’t have to say anything.
 5.

LILA
So now what?

ELINOR
I’m going to talk to him tonight. Maybe I can convince him--

LILA
You’re not going on a date with him.
(beat)
You aren’t.

Elinor turns to Katia.

KATIA
That’s why you didn’t talk to her for a week.

ELINOR
And she didn’t go on the trip.

KATIA
She said she had to work.

ELINOR
She picked up my shifts after I quit.
(beat)
I quit before I got the new job.

KATIA
El.

ELINOR
It worked out.

KATIA
It’s not my business.

ELINOR
That’s exactly right. I appreciate you saying that.

KATIA
Your bad decisions are your own issue. I just wish you’d make them so they didn’t affect
me and Lila so much.

ELINOR
Excuse me?
 6.

KATIA
She cares about you so much, it, like, physically hurts her to see you do this to yourself.

ELINOR
But she doesn’t get to tell me--

KATIA
And if you quit your job and can’t pay rent, then that affects me. It’s my name on the
lease.

ELINOR
Thanks for letting me know. I wasn’t sure. You never mention it, and it never comes up
in conversation.

KATIA
I’m responsible, El. I’m on the hook. You think it’s a power trip, but it’s fear. I don’t
know what you’re going to do next. I’m gonna wake up one day with a postcard from
Costa Rica, you’ve married a professional bungee jumper, and can I mail you your shoes?

ELINOR
Like I’d send a postcard.

Elinor walks past Lila.

LILA
No, I haven’t seen her.

KATIA
I joked that she’d up and disappear one day.

LILA
It wasn’t a joke.

KATIA
No, it wasn’t.

LILA
I wasn’t really that concerned until the shop owner came through yesterday asking if I
knew where she was.

KATIA
They’ve still been together.
 7.

LILA
Apparently. But she must have took off.
(beat)
I know you’re worried about the rent.

KATIA
No. She actually left her share for this month and next. I just thought she was getting
ahead.
(beat)
After that...

LILA
We could sell her shoes.

They laugh.

KATIA
I don’t want to buy the place.

LILA
Right? I’ve never seen so many shoes.

KATIA
I don’t think there’s a bed in there.

Their laughter subsides.

LILA
You wear her size?

KATIA
No. You?

LILA
No.

Elinor walks between them, brushing them.

Lila follows.

ELINOR
I can’t talk to you now.

LILA
I just wanted to say hi.
 8.

ELINOR
Hi.

LILA
I’d like to know what to do with your things.

Elinor stops.

ELINOR
I have no things.

LILA
All your crap at the apartment.

ELINOR
Don’t you dare call that shoe collection crap.

LILA
Then I’d like to know what to do with them, or come get them, or I’m taking them to
Salvation Army.

ELINOR
Like the Salvation Army knows what to do with a leopard print suede pump.

LILA
It doesn’t matter to me, Ellie.
(beat)
Are you not coming back?

ELINOR
You would ask me that.

LILA
You can’t just ghost us, Elinor. Especially if you’re gonna stay in town. This place ain’t
big enough to hide.

ELINOR
So I’m supposed to leave? This town not big enough for the two of us.

LILA
Three. Katia.
(beat)
And I guess four, your ex-boyfriend.
(beat)
He asked where you were. I didn’t have to lie when I said I had no idea.
 9.

ELINOR
I’m leaving at the end of the month.
(beat)
I’m going back home.
(beat)
My mom... is sick.

LILA
Ellie. I don’t-- I’m so sorry.

ELINOR
Yeah, well.
(beat)
I’m picking up my stuff end of next week.

LILA
Where have you been staying?

Elinor waves her off.

LILA
You wanna sit down and get some coffee or something?

ELINOR
I have to get back to the office.

LILA
You told them about all this?

ELINOR
Yeah. They’re not happy. Which is why I can’t be late getting back.
(beat)
So...

LILA
Yeah.

Elinor turns.

LILA
Will I get to see you before you go?

A silence.

ELINOR
Goodbye, Lila.
 10.

Elinor walks.

Lila is alone for a second.

Elinor arrives.

Katia comes in without her seeing.

KATIA
Lila told me.

Elinor freezes.

KATIA
I guess that was the plan, right?

ELINOR
Not everyone has a plan.

KATIA
There was this story I read one time about a guy who led a whole life just drifting from
one place to the other, and it was exciting for a while, but when the storms came, and the
disasters, and it was awful for him.

ELINOR
Katia--

KATIA
But worst of all, when he was an old man, he looked back on his life, the life he’d spent
trying so damn hard not to have a plan, and could see that there was a plan all along.
Despite his best efforts.

A silence.

ELINOR
I’m gonna leave some of these shoes here. They’re just not practical back at home.

KATIA
Anything you leave gets donated. Or put up for sale on the internet.

ELINOR
I’ll keep an eye out for them on eBay.

KATIA
I’ll waive the shipping.
 11.

Elinor walks off.

Lila walks up to Katia.

KATIA
You miss her, I know.

LILA
Sometimes.

KATIA
We could get a new roommate.

LILA
I know.

KATIA
Or we could keep the shoe room.

LILA
We could do that.
(beat)
For a while.

Lights down.

End.