Excerpt from The Whippoorwill by Micah Hales

Stage Setting
A queen-sized bed with a headboard on stage left. A small, round table with two chairs on stage right. A typewriter and a large stack of paper sit on the table.

Characters
WILL: Twenty-five, jeans and flannel shirt, sandals, casual manner, slight NY accent.
LIZ: Twenty-five, cut-off jean shorts, baby tee, hair pulled back, barefoot.

LIZ: Whatever...(back on track) I used to have these fantastic dreams about us and I never, ever, ever remembered that you had died. We would go on these crazy adventures, and have the time of our lives. Some of the dreams didn’t even make sense, and others were kind of dumb, but in the morning, when I woke up, I felt so happy, like we had really hung out again.

WILL: (Trying to understand.) So, you think I’m dumb.

LIZ: No.

WILL: You think our friendship is dumb.

LIZ: No. I’m saying that the dreams were pointless... but happy.

WILL: I’m pretty sure you said they were dumb.

LIZ: No. Dr. Park says that they...(She stops short.)

WILL: (WILL’s eyes enlarge.) Dr. Park?

LIZ: Ummm...

WILL: Dr. Park? (Beat.) Are you seeing a shrink? (Beat. WILL stands up and backs away from table.) Lizzy! Oh, Lizzy, no! No, no, no! You are a good, strong, smart, happy, joyful, bubbly girl. What do you need a head-shrinker for?

LIZ: (Shrugs.) It helps.

WILL: Helps?!

LIZ: Yeah.

WILL: Helps what?

LIZ: Helps me get out of bed in the morning.

WILL: (Gestures to the bed where LIZ is sleeping.) Yeah! Fine job that’s doing.

LIZ: Hey!

WILL: Pop-quiz, Liz-a-roo! What time is it?

LIZ: How should I know?

WILL: Well, let me give you a hint...it’s two-fifteen in the afternoon. (Silence. LIZ looks over at the bed, amazed. WILL realizes he went too far.)

WILL: So...ummm...What do you do with this...Dr. Park?

LIZ: We talk.

WILL: (Disbelief.) Talk?! Talk to me! I’m right here!

LIZ: I mean, it’s really nice to see you, and all...it’s just...you’re dead.

WILL: You are not convincing me one iota of your bullcrap right now.

LIZ: But...

WILL: Never have, never will.

LIZ: It’s just...

WILL: Alright. Here we go. (With fake British accent.) So, young Elizabeth! Tell me again about these grand, old dreams of yours!

LIZ: Piss off.

WILL: (Still in British accent.) No arguing with the head-shrinker, deary. Out with it, now! The ones that were just so wonderfully thrilling!

LIZ: (Starts slow. Gains momentum.) Well...there was this one dream where we went fishing at Indian Lake, in the red canoe like always... but this time the lake turned into an ocean and this giant school of bluefin tuna came along. We were hauling them in like gangbusters, huge silver suckers, bigger than the canoe. We tied them to the end of the boat with long ropes, head-to-tail, head-to-tail for miles. Or in this other dream we went hiking on all the old trails again, but they led to new parts of the Hudson we had never seen before, and we found this old dilapidated, brick warehouse covered with vines, and there was this trap door that led to a secret passageway that went under the river out to an island. And on the island the roots of the trees twisted out of the ground and showed us the way to another trap door that led to another passageway under the river to another island. (WILL is listening.)

LIZ: (Cont...) Or this other time we were in New York City at night jumping from building to building, running really, really fast across the rooftops and then leaping high into the air. And each time we were out over the open air, everything would slow and we could look down at all the teeny, tiny twinkling lights of the cars below and people would watch us from their windows as they brushed their teeth. Like this.

(Pretends to hold a toothbrush in her mouth, with mouth gaping open. WILL sits back down at the table.)

LIZ: (Cont...) In my favorite dream, we got lost at this insane carnival at the top of the world in the middle of a huge, snowy mountain range that just went on forever and ever...but it was springtime at the carnival and there were all these huge shimmering tents with long colorful streamers flowing in the wind, and we kept ducking in and out of these different tents and there was tingly music coming from everywhere and wild dancing.

WILL: (Beat.) Damn. That does sound like fun.

LIZ: Yeah.

WILL: (Sad. Longing.) That’s more fun than we ever had in real life.

LIZ: Maybe.

WILL: (Beat.) Hell, I would stay in bed all day for that, too.

LIZ: But that’s the problem. Now my dreams are like this. (She waves an arm in the air and WILL looks around.) And I always remember that you’ve died. And when I wake up, I don’t feel happy. I feel like absolute crap. (Beat.) Which is fine...it’s just another adjustment to make. (LIZ looks away.)

WILL: (Back to casual.) Well...that’s cool. I’ll just hang out here and wait for you to get (makes quotations with fingers) adjusted. Just waiting. You know, lucky for you...I’ve got aaaaaall the time in the world... to just hang out. And wait.