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Good Narrative Principles

Alaska Song Camp

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at a crowded bar

EDDIE (late 30’s) gruff around the edges, slams into STACEY (50’s) just as she’s about to take a sip of a drink.

The force of the impact knocks the drink right out of her hand.

eddie

Ah Jeez. Sorry. Sorry about that. What a mess. That guy back there…

stacey

It’s all right. It’s all right. I’m fine.

eddie

I really didn’t mean to uhm…

stacey

It was a gin and tonic. Light on the tonic.

eddie

O.K. Sure. Sure. Least I could do.

(to the Bartender)

The lady will have a tonic.

stacey

(to the Bartender)

With gin.

eddie

(to the Bartender)

Give us a minute.

(to Stacey)

Come on. Take a deep breath. You don’t want to do this.

stacey

Do I know you?

eddie

Yeah, I’m a friend of Bill’s.

stacey

What the hell are you talking about?

eddie

I’m talking about taking the 13th step here.

stacey

(gesturing thumb over her shoulder)

Where you…

eddie

Yeah, I saw you leave the meeting. You looked a little…shaky.

stacey

So, you followed me here!

eddie

Well, yeah. Kinda. I know where you’re coming from.

stacey

Ah, Jesus…I’ve got a stalker.

eddie

It was just a block.

stacey

There’s no excuse for following a woman ever. Regardless of geography.

eddie

What do you say you grab a seat over there while I wrestle us two tonics from the bar? After that you’re free to do whatever the hell you want. I swear. I’ll back off.

stacey

O.K. But I’d rather do coke.

EDDIE

Coke, too?

STACEY

Coke and ice.

eddie

Good clean choice. It’ll be my pleasure.

Eddie leaves comes back a moment later with two drinks.

stacey

Thanks. I’m Stacey and you are…?

eddie

Eddie, Eddie Fabiano. Does the name ring a bell? Stacey? Cuz I could swear I’ve met you somewhere before.

stacey

Look, let me be perfectly frank with you here, Eddie. I’m on a razor’s edge. Ever have a day like that? Like God himself is squeezing the life out of you.

eddie

Oh, yeah sure. I’ve been fucked over more ways than Sunday.

stacey

Is that a real expression? What does that mean exactly?

eddie

I have no idea.

stacey

Because Sunday is usually like…

eddie

And yet, that’s how fucked over I’ve been in my life.

stacey

I see.

eddie

It’s good to talk about things. Get it off your chest.

stacey

I’m not much of a talker, Eddie. Never have been. I wish I was. But, talking just doesn’t do it for me.

eddie

You should try it. For me it all started back in high school. Like this day when I came home from school…and there…on the table… waiting for me like a death sentence —

stacey

Ah Eddie. Eddie! Eddie! If you really want to help me YOU need to dial back the black. Weather. TV. Movies…Sports? You look like a sports man.

eddie

You bet I am. Big Cardinals’ man from way back. Even if they did break my heart this year.

stacey

See? That’s a good sign. I’m from St. Louis.

eddie

Didn’t I say you look familiar? That must be it. St. Louis. What did you do there, Stacey?

stacey

Oh, I taught.

eddie

High School?

stacey

Lucky guess.

eddie

English?

stacey

That’s a real sweet way of saying that I must make you weak in the knees.

eddie

Oh shit! Fuck me. Excuse me…ahm…O.K. How about this…Out of the night that covers me…dark as the pit from pole to pole…I thank whatever Gods may be…

stacey

For my unconquerable soul. Invictus! I taught that. Made my students memorize it.

eddie

Yup. And I still remember it.

stacey

Ah-ha.

(draining her glass)

Well, thanks for the coke.

eddie

What do you say to me buying us another round? Talk about times back in ol’ St. Louey. Best place to get the blues, don’tcha think, Miss Holder?

stacey

Oh my Lord. Lordy me.

eddie

Lawrenceville High? Class of ’88?

 

stacey

Mmmm…I have no memory of you, Eddie. Don’t take it personally because I was (whistles)…three sheets to the wind, most days. But, I must have done right by you, cuz here you are. Able to recite Inviticus.

eddie

Actually…

stacey

Don’t like the sound of that.

eddie

You failed me. In my Junior year. You failed me cuz I didn’t hand in three homeworks. No letter home. No nothing. Just a fuckin’ F. For three homeworks. Three fuckin’ homeworks.

stacey

Ah-ha. Well, now that you got that off your chest…

eddie

(making a fist)

I could…I could just…

stacey

Woah…how long ago are we talkin’ about? How many years back are we going?

eddie

Yesterday. It was fuckin’ yesterday.

stacey

Very good. Poetic immediacy. Someone taught you that. Maybe it was me.

eddie

Here’s another piece of immediacy. There’s a direct link between that F and where I am now. And none of it is good.

stacey

O.K. O.K. So, you followed me here to make me aware of the fact that I ruined your life.

eddie

No! There you go again, selling me short. Everyone is always selling me short. My Dad. The Lieutenant. You.

stacey

But here, right now, in this moment we know it really comes down to me.

eddie

I thought you should know.

stacey

And you bear no responsibility?

eddie

If by no responsibility you mean was it my fault that my father went ballistic and sent me to Military Academy and from there, well…let’s just say at that point my life went into free-fall. So, no. That wasn’t my fault. Do not put the blame on me.

stacey

Clearly, I owe you an apology. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I messed up your life. I’m making amends. Eddie look at me…I’m opening my heart up to you and asking you to please accept my apology.

eddie

I don’t want some bogus Fourth Step. That summer I was signed up to go to Alaska Song Camp. It was a really big deal in my life. I mean fuckin’ huge. I was gonna stand at the edge of the world. Touch aurora borealis. Catch salmon twice as long as my arm.

stacey

Hang on. You wrote an essay about that. I remember you now. You usually sat near the back by the window. The dreamer’s corner.

Eddie

O.K. so yeah, I was a dreamer. I had big dreams. Big fuckin’ dreams that you squashed when you —

stacey

Yeah, I get it. So, you went to Military Academy and then what?

eddie

Now, you’re toying with me.

stacey

No, I’m not. Today is a horrible day. Meeting you just makes it that much richer.

eddie

Skip it. Never mind.

stacey

Talk or buy me a drink.

eddie

Don’t tempt me.

stacey

You know somebody once told me that coincidence is God’s way of hiding his hand.

eddie

Heavy.

stacey

Maybe it’s that we can handle a drink now. Both of us are feeling strong. Angry. What if we do a little experiment?

Eddie

Sure. It’s worked so well in the past. Did you know that poem Invict…uhm…

stacey

Invictus.

eddie

Right. That’s what Timothy McVeigh recited right before they threw the switch.

stacey

And therefore, what? It’s tainted? Not true? In the fell clutch of circumstance…I have not winced nor cried aloud…

eddie

(overlapping)

It all starts with that bullshit they teach you in school.

stacey

Under the bludgeonings of chance…My head is bloody, but unbowed.

eddie

(overlapping)

Dream on, sister.

stacey

Beyond this place of wrath and tears…

eddie

More romantic bullshit.

stacey

Looms but the Horror of the shade

And yet the menace of the years…Finds, and shall find, me unafraid…Come on Eddie. What comes next?

Eddie joins in despite himself.

eddie

It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll

Stacey/eddie

I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.

stacey

What do you say we go get a cup of coffee?

FADE OUT

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