Time:  The present.

 

Setting:  A kitchen looking out on a backyard.

Characters

Helen – late 30’s

Charlotte – a bit younger and a good deal taller

Scene 1

(HELEN looking out window to backyard.  CHARLOTTE sitting at the kitchen table.)

 

CHARLOTTE

They okay out there?

 

HELEN

Still okay.  (Beat)  Oooh!

 

(CHARLOTTE stands quickly.) 

 

CHARLOTTE

What?!

 

HELEN

It’s okay.  It’s nothing.

 

CHARLOTTE

You sure?

 

HELEN

It’s just that your son’s stick went flying.

 

CHARLOTTE

Damn it!

 

(CHARLOTTE rushes to window.)

 

CHARLOTTE (cont’d)

I told him absolutely no weapons.

 

(CHARLOTTE at window with HELEN, both looking out.)

 

HELEN

No.  No.  It’s fine.  See? 

 

CHARLOTTE

Yeah?

 

HELEN

They’re looking for a new stick together.

 

CHARLOTTE

I better go talk to him .  Sticks are not a good situation…I mean playing with sticks is not a good situation for him.

 

HELEN

They each had a stick they were beating the weeds with and then your son’s went flying over the back fence.

 

CHARLOTTE

He could get carried away.  I’ll just go…

 

HELEN

Please sit down and let them be for five minutes.

 

(CHARLOTTE sits again.) 

 

CHARLOTTE

At least he’s not hopping the fence to get it.  I told him, remember?, to absolutely stay put in the yard and he is.

 

HELEN

There are plenty of other sticks to find back there.

 

CHARLOTTE

Right.

 

HELEN

I didn’t mean it that way.  It’s good he’s not hopping the fence Charlotte, really.

 

CHARLOTTE

Yeah.  Sorry.  Okay.  I’m a little defensive.  The last kid Larry had a play date with, his mother asked me if he ever tortured small animals.

 

HELEN

That’s awful.

 

CHARLOTTE

Larry loves animals.  If he ever hurt an animal it would be from loving it too hard.  I know he doesn’t observe the regular physical boundaries sometimes but he’s a sweet kid.  Larry would be totally miserable if he ever hurt an animal.

 

HELEN

Do you have any pets?

 

CHARLOTTE

We never have much luck with pets in that apartment.  The goldfish, the painted turtle, the two hamsters, all died.

 

HELEN

Ah ha.

 

(They laugh a little.)

 

HELEN (cont’d)

Sorry.  That was bad.

 

CHARLOTTE

No Helen, it’s fine.  (Beat)  He’s had a rough time because of the way he is, because of things he can’t help.  So I really appreciate this after the last time.  I’m so worn out.  You can’t believe how hard it is.

 

HELEN

Ricky my oldest had ADD, ADHD, whatever they’re calling it now, the alphabet soup.  We had quite a time with him so I know how rough it can be, especially alone.

 

CHARLOTTE

I’m just so tired.  My face doesn’t usually look like this.

 

HELEN

You’re a beautiful woman.

 

CHARLOTTE

Yeah right.  Thanks. 

 

HELEN

Well you are.

 

(Beat.  Beat.)

 

HELEN (cont’d)

God, our back yard’s a mess.  It’s like the wilderness area of this neighborhood.

 

CHARLOTTE

What are they doing?

 

HELEN

Still okay.  (Beat)  You wouldn’t believe the dirty looks we’ve gotten from the bourgeois lawn police, even had our lawn reported to the city once by some anonymous citizen.

 

CHARLOTTE

That sucks.

 

HELEN

When we first moved in here it was like we were immigrants who had to be indoctrinated into the lawn cult of the neighborhood.  Every once in a while our next door neighbor Ken, this really sweet widower, would patiently explain to my husband about weed killers and power mowers as if English was David’s second language.

 

CHARLOTTE

Your husband’s a teacher you said?

 

HELEN

High school History.  Still David mowed the weeds with our hand mower when they grew too high but then Ken got really sick and David would mow his lawn for him with his power mower and then Ken gave it to us before he died and that’s how we got it. 

 

CHARLOTTE

Oh.

 

HELEN

Noisy thing.

 

(Beat.  Beat.)

 

CHARLOTTE

That was really nice what your husband did.

 

HELEN

Oh David’s a sweetheart.  Someone’s in trouble he’s there for them.

 

CHARLOTTE

He sounds really nice.

 

HELEN

Uh huh.  Ken was happy doing yard work in his overalls and hat and gloves with all his tools.  I had this thought once that he started doing yard work to get away from his wife but that,  after she died, he did it to feel close to her again.  Like she was still in the house to escape from and come home to.  Like the house wasn’t empty.  To forget and to remember.  It was sad.

 

CHARLOTTE

Really sad.

 

HELEN

We never knew her.  Or him for all that long.  Maybe he died of sadness.

 

(Pause.)

 

CHARLOTTE

Our apartment building doesn’t have much of a yard.

 

HELEN

What’s wrong with a little wildness?  Weeds and vines and briars and snakes.

 

(Pause.)

 

CHARLOTTE

Anything going on?

 

HELEN

I’m on it here.   Just relax.

 

CHARLOTTE

Relax?  What’s that?

 

HELEN

Hey would you like to take a nice bubble bath upstairs?

 

CHARLOTTE

That’s weird.  That’s nice.  Offering me a bubble bath.

 

HELEN

Old Japanese custom.  Why the heck not?

 

CHARLOTTE

It’s sweet.  I mean it.  I must be making quite an impression. 

 

HELEN

Don’t worry about it.  How about some chamomile tea?

 

CHARLOTTE

Calming right?   Just kidding.  Sure.  Thanks.  (Beat)  Larry and Nicholas do get along great. They’re starting to be good friends in class and... (Beat)   They’re good?

 

HELEN

Maybe you’re worn out from guarding your young so hard.

 

CHARLOTTE

I’m not guarding mine. I’m protecting yours.

 

HELEN

Leave that to me okay?  How about a glass of wine?

 

CHARLOTTE

Wine?  Now?

 

(HELEN fetches two bottles.)

 

HELEN

Red or red?

 

(End of scene.)

Scene 2

(Some wine later.)

 

CHARLOTTE

Now here’s something weird, really weird I did the other day.  Did you ever try to get yourself stuck in traffic?

 

HELEN

What do you mean? 

 

CHARLOTTE

I mean: Did you ever like try to get yourself stuck in traffic?  Last Monday I was going to pick Larry up from the sitter’s and I heard about this bad tie-up on the radio and I drove right into it on purpose so I’d have a legitimate excuse for a few more minutes alone.  It’s just been terrible lately.  Really bad.  I’m so worn out dealing with his teacher and the principal.  Everybody trying to get rid of me.

 

HELEN

One more pain-in-the-neck parent blaming the school for her kid’s disruptive behavior. 

 

CHARLOTTE

Won’t sit still, fidgets, fidgets...

 

HELEN

Fidgets...

 

CHARLOTTE

Leaves his desk, touches other kids, fidgets, fidgets...

 

HELEN

Fidgets.

 

CHARLOTTE

God, I know he fidgets.  You’re the experts:  Tell me something I don’t know.

 

HELEN

The alphabet soup.

 

CHARLOTTE

Right.  And all these developmental things he’s got.  This whole mess of developmental things they say, the authorities who are supposed to know about this stuff but don’t know crap and are just hanging on a few years more so they can get their full retirement packages. 

 

HELEN

He’ll settle in eventually like Ricky when he’s ready.

 

CHARLOTTE

If he’s not totally screwed up before that thinking he’s a bad person.  Whenever he gets in trouble, and it’s a lot, he says “I’m so stupid, I’m so stupid.  What’s wrong with me?”  I know he brings these things on himself.  I mean he did bite Nicholas but he didn’t break the skin and they were wrestling which is not a good situation for Larry because he can’t control his impulses…if he’s fighting…so we just have to make sure…

 

HELEN

Charlotte…

 

CHARLOTTE

I’m just hoping to get him through the next few years until he can catch up with everyone else.

 

HELEN

Listen Charlotte, I have to say this: I know how rough it is.  I know all the doors that get slammed in your face.  And I’m willing to see how things go but I’m not going to let it go too far for the sake of trying to do the right thing.

 

CHARLOTTE

Trying to do the right thing?  What right thing?

 

HELEN

Let me just finish okay?  So we know where we are here. 

 

CHARLOTTE

I don’t want anyone’s pity.  What right thing do you mean? 

 

HELEN

I mean that I’m willing to hold the door open to see if something good can happen between our kids but I’m not going to sacrifice Nicholas for...

 

CHARLOTTE

Sacrifice, Nicholas?

 

HELEN

Don’t take the word wrong okay?  Let’s just see how it goes.  Fair enough?

 

CHARLOTTE

Fair enough.  (Beat)  Larry’s not an easy kid to like I know that but he’s my kid and he can’t take any more losses...

 

(CHARLOTTE almost breaks down.)

 

HELEN

Listen Sweetie…

 

CHARLOTTE

Sorry.  That was inappropriate.   A person’s nice to us and I just want to collapse.   That’s all I want really.  To collapse.  To completely collapse.  But I won’t.  Don’t worry about it. 

 

HELEN

I said what I had to say and it doesn’t need to be said again.

 

CHARLOTTE

I’m just so exhausted from the effort to get other people to see what a wonderful, loving person he can be because I’m the only one who sees it. 

 

HELEN

I can tell he’s very intelligent.  And verbal.  Some of the sentences that come out of him really turn my head around.

 

CHARLOTTE

And that makes it worse.   The way he can argue.  Mrs. Delaney has been trying to get him out of the class but I’ve been fighting it and fighting it and that’s why he has that young aide with him half the day.  Last week, he convinced the aide that he’d learn to spell better if he read his spelling words out to her and she wrote them down instead of the other way around. 

 

HELEN

Really? 

 

CHARLOTTE

Larry hates to write.

 

HELEN

A con artist eh?

 

CHARLOTTE

You know it.  He’s turning the aide into his personal slave. (Beat) Your other son how long did it take for him to settle in?

 

HELEN

Ricky was around twelve.

 

CHARLOTTE

Twelve?  I won’t make it. 

 

HELEN

Sure you will, Hon.  One day at a time. 

 

CHARLOTTE

One new drug at a time.

 

HELEN

One meltdown at a time.

 

CHARLOTTE

One behavior report at a time.

 

HELEN

One weird play date at a time.  You want more wine?