Friday, May 17, 2013

The Fruitcake (Part One: in the Hospital)(A play to be read)

Characters and Index:

Main Characters

The Doctor: --Dr. Bash
The Nurse: --Rosario
The Roommate: --Oliver Reams
The Fianc: --Eva Fremont
The Patient/Husband: --Lee Walters

Minor Characters

*The Mother [Evas parent: --Holly
*The Father [Evas parent: --Bruce

*Elsie [Lee Walters Mother

Miscellaneous Characters

Glen and Harry [Friends of the family at the trailer park

The Gate Keeper at the Trailer Park

The bartender

The gay man at the bar

Music: Composition and Lyrics by D. L. Siluk [see annex at end of book

Music: It Was Always You With Feeling

The Dancer Brite 4

Death [departure Easy Waltz

The End of Days Talk

As Love Goes By

Chapters/or Acts:

Act I In the Hospital
Act II In the Trailer Park
Act III Back at the Hospital
Act IV At the Apartment [three poetic- musical lyrics read
Act V Before the Bar/Outside the Apartment
Act VI The Jam Bar/the Tragedy

The Annex: The Poetic-Music/Lyrics [composition in Annex

Additional Poetry: 2nd Ave

Annex:

Songs in lyrics:

Five songs of sheet music [available

Notes: Fragments of Life [About the story

A Note on the construction: The first Act was written 3/2003, the second and third Acts were written 4/2003; Act five written in 5/2003. The Play has been written in a way to be read, similar to a screen Play one might say. The first week of July, 2003, the Play was re-edited, and lightly modified, preparation for publication. Reviewed for publication on internet 2/2006.

The Fruit Cake

Act I

In the Hospital [l993

This is the hospital room of Lee Walters. The room [and, by observation the ward is big, and let me add noisy . I cant say much for the hospital apparatus. Some of the equipment looks like tubes hanging everywhere, not sure where they go and could careless. A copy of the book, Never-where, is lying on the table-desk next to his bed. Lee is waiting to go home after surviving a stroke and heart attack; he had some complications with his surgery, but all seems well now; the doctor has explained to him he actually had a second heart attack, the first being two weeks prior to his second, and he didnt know it, a minor one he assured him, compared to this most recent one, the major o ne that is, in which he got to the hospital in time.

He has been in the hospital for three weeks now, with bypass surgery, and had a stroke on the operating table, but again I emphasize, he made it through all these trials. You got it: --hes getting bored, --now, for recovery, it has its own little miracles planted throughout the week. We shall get to that in a moment. He wants the doctors to release him this morning. But just a minute, against the doctors better judgment, that is.

Now you see when the curtain goes up, Lee Walters trying to get comfortable in his bed, stumbling with the pillows behind his back and head a bit. And Miss Fremont [lets just refer to her as Eva make life easy standing in the doorway, shaking her head [thinking, what a dumb clucks, Lee is; well get to Lee also in a moment Some kind of bug in your bed, Lee? She says. He leans back hard against the back of the bed, boredom on his face, a sound coming out of his mouth, more ak in to a hiss, I dont think he appreciated the remark, but then he is getting acclimatized to them, or he should be by now. This situation doesnt seem to amuse anyone, that is, her comments, and his getting situated; he sinks back lower into his bed

No response

Eva. Lee!

Still no response

Lee, relax please, it isnt good for you to use so much effort [remarks Eva again

Yet, there still remains silence from Lee

Ok -(annoyed)its your show, I could care less [says Eva.

Lee is a thirty-five years old male. He is a Mail-Carrier that makes $35,000 dollars a year. He has no whiskers but he keeps rubbing his face as if he has a nervous impulsive reaction. He is a hyper person by nature. His mouth is open a bit, ready to say something, or cant seem to breathe properly through his nose [one or the other. In either case, it doesnt help his already annoyed state of being in the hospital for so longtwenty-one days. He has finally gotten c omfortable and lifts his head up to eye level with his fianc [a light pause, focusing his attention on her face now. She seems a bit dumbfounded now that she has his attention: --lost for words one might say.

Lee. Eva! Do you have something worthwhile to say?

No response

Eva!

Still no response

Eva!

Eva [with a tired attitude. Monkey see, monkey do, isnt that how it is in our world?

Lee [shaking his head, indignant. So you say [he sucks in a breath of air did you come here to point out my faults, or what?

Eva. You can figure that out for yourself smart guy, for yourself.

Lee. I sure can [smugly!

Eva. I was trying to find out how you were feeling and I got your old snotty remarks as usual; youre snotty, snottyshit.

Lee. Gee, I thought you were worried if I had a bug in my ass, I mean bed. Real concerned about my well-being, how about you admitting you are part of my boredom, Im so used to you r smart remarks.

Eva. For once youre half right, I forgot about the bug remark. Ok, you win, now let us beginbegin, again, you know, from scratch, ok?

Lee. Oh boy, what does that mean? what am I in store for, another round of trying to fix my pillow so I dont get annoyed with you again?

The patient in the other bed is getting an ear full

Eva [somberly. I cant help it if we annoy one another. We are so used to making fun of everythingweve forget how to be serious. But I was crying when I heard you had a stroke on the operating table, along with your heart surgery, I really was, ask your brother. You know you were out for three days; --your left side was paralyzedout [a slight pause; out like havingI dont want to talk about it. You also were having fits for twelve-hours; man o man, you are so lucky!

Lee. Yes, I know you were crying, I remember something of that. Dr. Bash, Bush or Bean Head, I dont know his name [a pause, he tries to g et his breath, ok, Dr. Bash came last night and said I was doing greatinasmuch as I came out of this alive. But he added, and I hate to repeat it, but I will, for a while there, I was a Fruit Cake, for a while meaning, a few days that is. Can you imagine someone calling you a fruit cake? after you had a stroke?

Eva [looking straight ahead, thinking. Well [pause, now that you say it, you were kind of one, I mean, you really were kind of a fruit cake [Lee looking annoyed at Eva. Cant do much about that, can we nowbut I suppose it would bother me somewhat, I think. On one hand you were a fruit cake, or out of it, you were having those fits you know, or what do you call those things, you know, makes the body jumpppall over the place, whatever they were, it wasnt good. We all thought you would not recover, they [the doctors were going to put you into a coma state because you had 12-hours of these tantrums; your brother was here, andand he had a hard time with it as d id your mother, she was here everyday, I mean everyday, I think she would have died if you would have; --Ive seen a few tears in your brothers eyes, but you fooled everyone, and recovered in three days. Everyone says youre the miracle of the ward. And so maybe you were a fruit cake, for awhile, but on the other hand, you are not anymore.

Lee [his crabbiness showing. See, you never take my side, even when Im sick. Well [pause; a moment to think, what if I get another stroke, and remain a forever, fruit cake, are you going to take care of this fruit cake, or throw it in the garbage can? maybe even leave the fruit cake dry up to nothingness!

Eva. That really hurts me that you ask such a question, or is it a statement [?

Lee. Well?

Eva. You heard me!

Lee is not certain what to say, and taking his time he lowers his eyes. He is beginning to realize he had asked the wrong question, and possibly the right one. And he figured the answered would be, Yes, Ill leave you. Both Eva and Lee are silent; she shakes her head yes. Rosario the nurse comes in. She looks around, then shuts the curtain around him, and leaves Eva by herself standing in the doorway.

Eva. Can I be of assistance, Ms Nurse? [Lee shakes his head no to indicated to the nurse he does not want her there.

Nurse Rosario. No thank you Miss Fremont, I just have to do a few things. [She is taking his pulse and listening to his heart. He eyes her shape up. She has a nice well-formed figure, and her skin looks a bright-olive, she is all of twenty-nine years old. She is about five feet two inches tall, and she speaks slow, but confident.

See Dennis' web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com


Author:: Dennis Siluk
Keywords:: Play
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