The Writer’s Ghost

CHARACTERS:

MINA: Author, around her mid-twenties, dressed in a white dress with short sleeves, white flats.

JACK: An older man, early thirty, dressed in leather pants with a loose filthy gray shirt that reveals his chest and a pair of leather boots.

DOCTOR: An older man, dressed in a nicer suit with a large lab coat.

SETTING:

A white room decorated with only a lowly spring bed, a wide window and a writing desk with a chair at the desk. 1920’s.

(Light lifts up on the room as MINA is sitting by her desk, tapping her pen against the desk while JACK lays on top of the spring bed tossing a ball up into the air.)

MINA: I give up! This piece is impossible.

JACK: Oh, don’t be so dramatic.

MINA: I’m serious, Jack! This story isn’t going to get finished even if I have all the clues to write this. It’s hopeless.  

JACK: You said the same thing about the last piece (pauses) and the piece before that and so many other pieces you’ve worked on and guess what? You got through it and you will again.

MINA: Sheer dumb luck that’s all. Nothing more, nothing less. (sighs) I am never getting this stupid piece done even if my life depended on it.

JACK: (stands up from the bed) Come on, sweetie. Read off what you have so far.

MINA: You want me to read off this sorry excuse of a story to you? It’s not good. If I was a reader, I wouldn’t even gaze at this.

JACK: Try me, Mina.

MINA: (sighs again) It was a bright winter day, a brutally cold winter day (background changes from a window to a winter sky with a silver moon). A young woman sat on a cold metal bench, gazing up towards the cold moon with the dazzling stars. She was feeling a sense of emptiness… loneliness… not a single word could express the pain she felt. (Screen changes back to window and wall).

JACK: Why did you stop?

MINA: That’s it.

JACK: That’s it? What do you mean by ‘that’s it’.

MINA: Exactly what it means, Jack. Finished. That’s all folks. Show’s over. The end.

JACK: That’s not even close to a story.

MINA: I told you it was horrible.

JACK: (walks over to MINA) Why is the woman sad?

MINA: Excuse me?

JACK: Why is the woman sad?

MINA: She lost something (pauses). She lost someone important.

JACK: Okay, so she lost something or someone. She’s sitting on this bench in the cold of winter, being overcome by her grief of this loss like someone I know is overcome with writer’s block.

MINA: Oh, shut up, Jack! (Tosses a ball of paper at him; JACK dodges.)

JACK: Good thing you didn’t go into sports.

MINA: You’re terrible.

JACK: I know. Alright, back to the story. (Background fades from the window and turns back to winter night with a full moon, snow falling down) She is sitting on the bench. Something’s got to get her to lift her head or catch her attention. What is it?

MINA: I don’t know what could turn her head. She is extremely hurt about the loss.

JACK: So, something or someone special has to come and get her out of her troubles. What about a loved one? Someone else who she cares for comes in?

MINA: Maybe.

JACK: Come on, baby. Think for me. I know you got some juice in that brain of yours.

MINA: (giggles) Someone she admires could walk in front of her. Someone she really loves.

JACK: Now we’re cooking! What would this someone do to pull the woman out of her sorrow?

MINA: Um… sit down and hold her, try to comfort her in her time of sorrow.

JACK: Really?

MINA: What? That comforts me sometimes! A simple comfort can go a long way for someone.  

JACK: This is a story, let your creative side flow. Sit down and hold her? Get down on her level? The point of it is to make her feel better.

MINA: Fine! What do you want to have happen?

JACK: The woman is down, right? She needs to be cheered up.

MINA: (shakes head) How about the person lifts the woman from the bench and holds her tightly into their arms.

JACK: (Takes hold of Mina, pulls her up from her chair and holds her tightly) Like this?

MINA: Well yes, I suppose. I would say just like this.

JACK: What does she feel now? Still Sad? What’s going through her mind?

MINA: She feels a light warmth inside herself… a tiny bit of happiness. (Background starts to turn a bright color; the moon is lowering.) Not too much of it, I’m afraid she is still trapped in her lonely state of mind.

JACK: Now what else does that someone do to help? They can’t hold each other like this forever.

MINA: Um… the person could start to sway her a little bit. You know, lightly dance in a circle.

JACK: (Starts to sway her side to side, as a quiet, bitter-sweet medley starts to play) Like this?

MINA: (Pauses) Yes.

JACK: Now how does she feel?

MINA: (Voice a bit broken, almost teary-eyed) A little better. (Background starts to turn from a winter night to a winter day) But she is still lost and empty.

JACK: Then what’s the person’s next move to make her happy?

MINA: He could start to dance with her.

JACK: Like this?

(Starts to waltz with her, as the bitter-sweet medley becomes louder. The room starts to tear apart as the bed and desk are removed, replaced with a big old oak tree with some bushes around. The background changed to a spring morning with no snow. JACK and MINA are laughing like children.)

JACK: How does the woman feel now?

MINA: (Gripping tightly to Jack’s shirt) Scared.

JACK: What do you mean?

MINA: Just scared.

JACK: Of what?

MINA: Of letting go.

JACK: Who said anything about letting go. They will always be with each other. Just as he promised her.  

(Abruptly, three loud knocks billow through. The music starts to fade as the tree and bushes are turned back to the bed and desk, which now has a suitcase on it. The background slowly goes back to the window of the room. MINA and JACK stand holding tightly together until another three loud knocks echo through. JACK gazes down at MINA.)

JACK: Time for you to go home, sweetie.

MINA: Please… I haven’t even finished the story yet.

JACK: But you have, Mina. This is the end of the story.

MINA: Then I don’t want it.

JACK: Darling, just because the story has ended, doesn’t mean the characters leave you. They never will leave you. I will never leave you.

(Another round of knocking.)

DOCTOR: Mina is everything alright? It’s time for you to leave.

(JACK lightly releases MINA.)

JACK: Are you ready to go?

MINA: (Pauses) I think so.

JACK: Then… you better get back home, baby.

(JACK kisses MINA on her forehead, releases and moves back over and lays on top of the bed, leaving MINA in the middle. MINA wipes her tears before grabbing her suitcase. Door swung open as DOCTOR walks in.)

DOCTOR: Hello Mina, are we ready to go home?

(MINA glances over to JACK before looking up at DOCTOR.)

MINA: Yes. It’s time for me to go home. (walks over to him and out the room with her head down, but stops at the door to take in one last glance at JACK before walking out.)

 (DOCTOR walks behind MINA, leaving JACK on the bed. Lights dim and curtain lowers.)

The End