Poems And Other Works

Monologue--Rose Thorns

Rated 13+

(Lights up on two rooms set on the stage with a wall dividing them both. The only thing similar is a phone hanging on the wall on either side. One room is a living quarter for an army camp. Opposite of the wall with the phone is a cot. On the back wall there is a desk with a chair. The other room is the back of a restaurant. The walls are tiled and boxes marked with different labels all dealing with food. In one corner there is a mop. The living quarters is dark. )

(Opal enters through a door into the restaurant's storage room. Her eyes are red from lots of crying. Her clothes are the uniform of a waitress. She shuts the door behind her. The wipes her eyes with a tissue. She walks to the phone on the wall. She dials a number and the phone rings.)

Opal: Pick up, pick up, pick up!!

(The phone ringing stops and Opal begins crying.)

Opal: No, no! Jacob! Oh I miss you so much. I still can't believe a world can crash apart in one week. One day you're gone. The next you're gone for good.

(Lights in other building show Jacob standing by the phone holding it to listen.)

Opal: One day you're the happiest person in the world. The bad news didn't make me depressed, just lonely. So what? You have gone to war. You'll come back... I remember you telling me, "If we want something in the world, we have to work for it." So I thought this was the world telling you, "Help your country before you help yourself." Until your parents showed up at my mother's door holding the letter. The letter. One which changes a life, a love, and the world. But not for the better. Why would you do that? Why? Why did you go get yourself killed? You have never done anything to anyone. It is not fair to you, how the world took your life. I'm not angry, but you were my life. I can hear you telling me, "Opal you can't always lean on someone else." I've never leaned on you. I loved you. More than the sun that rises every day. More than an endless sea. More than the grass and trees growing. You ARE my life. But I have to go. Back to the reality in which you're gone. Back to the pain that is worse than any physical pain that war can give. Back where everyone thinks you're in the ground. Goodbye...

(Opal has stopped crying by now. She looks toward the door and hangs up the phone. She exits to go back to work. Jacob hangs up the phone. Jacob leaves. Lights fade out.)