Roommates manufacture memories, hoping to experience them when they die.
CHARACTERS
Brad, Clark, and Twila: They are college aged roommates.
(The stage is bare, empty. Twila stands in a corner with a bucket on her head. Brad is spinning incessantly around and around.)
TWILA
Once, in Paraguay, I was offered the eyes and testicles of a freshly slaughtered goat.
(Brad stops spinning.)
It was a sign of honor and respect—I had to eat them.
BRAD
Bucket!
CLARK [off]
What?
BRAD
BUCKET!
(Clark enters with a bucket.)
TWILA
The eyes burst in my mouth like ripe grapes, while the testicles were salty, pungent, with a tart hint of… pubic hair.
(Brad vomits into the bucket. Brad returns to spinning. Clark begins to exit, hesitates, stops, watches.)
In Singapore, a restaurant serves something called Onga bu Urra, pickled pig fetus...
(Brad stops spinning.)
…in a greasy broth of curried yak blood.
(Brad vomits into the bucket. Brad begins spinning again.)
TWILA
In the Szechuan province of China there is a local delicacy of duck tongue….
(Brad stops spinning.)
…boiled in urine from a pregnant cat.
(Brad vomits into the bucket. Brad begins spinning again.)
CLARK
What… what are you two doing?
TWILA
We’re creating “death memories.”
CLARK
Of course you are. I suppose that also explains why, Twila, you have a bucket on your head?
TWILA
It does—yes.
CLARK
How much have you had to drink?
BRAD
Nothing.
TWILA
Stone, cold sober.
CLARK
Other… more curious substances? Coke-crack-pot-acid-shrooms-Xanax-Ecstasy–heroin-Ritalin?
TWILA
Nothing.
BRAD
Stone, cold sober.
CLARK
Okay, now I’m really concerned. What the hell is gong on?
BRAD
Like Twila said, “we’re creating death memories.”
CLARK
I may ask for a breath test or a blood sample, unless… UNLESS you start making sense. What the hell is a “death memory”?
TWILA
You’ve heard about the theory of your life flashing before your eyes when you die?
CLARK
Well, yes, actually, I have.
BRAD
So, we were thinking… maybe you can make your death last as long as your life.
Copyright 2010 M Thomas Cooper. All rights reserved.