Come Back: A One-Act Play

COME BACK

[Lights up on a bedroom. It looks messy but somehow like it hasn't been touched in a while. A woman lays in bed, the covers tucked up to her chin, her back to the audience. This is MAUREEN. A few seconds later, a young girl walks in, carrying a glass of orange juice. She looks about 16-17, sweet and tentative. This is PIPER.]

PIPER: (nervously) Momma? [No answer.] Mommy? [No answer from MAUREEN.] MOM!

MAUREEN: Mm.

PIPER: I brought you some orange juice. I made it fresh.

MAUREEN: Mm-hm.

PIPER: I'm gonna set it on your nightstand, ok?

MAUREEN: Mm-hm.

[A moment of silence. PIPER looks around the room, as if searching for a topic of conversation.]

PIPER: The weather's nice today.

MAUREEN: Mm-hm.

PIPER: Snow's finally melting.

MAUREEN: Mm.

PIPER: Katie's having a party on Saturday. Can I go? [a beat of silence] Mom?

MAUREEN: Mm-hm.

PIPER (exasperated): Mom, are you ever going to say anything besides "Mm-hm"?

MAUREEN: Leave me alone, Piper. I need to be alone.

PIPER: (sweetly) Can I just stay and sit with you awhile? We can watch some TV. We haven't watched anything together in a really long time.

MAUREEN: No, Piper.

PIPER: Please, Mom? I promise I'd be all nice and quiet.

MAUREEN: No. I just need to be alone.

PIPER (suddenly bursting into): No, Mom, you DON'T need to be alone! All you've done for the past year is say that you need to be alone. Dad died a year ago, Mom. It's been a year! A year of you, laying in bed, shutting yourself off from the world. Well, it's time to wake up. It's time to come back to reality!

MAUREEN (tiredly): No, Piper. You don't understand.

PIPER: You always say that. "You don't understand, Piper. Leave me alone, Piper." I'm 17, Mom. I'm old enough to know that Dad died. The gun from his police uniform went off unexpectedly, and it killed him. I know that. I understand perfectly.

MAUREEN: Piper I - go away, please.

PIPER: You know it really has been a year? A year exactly today. That's when I got that phone call from you saying he was dead. And then you just came home, and laid down in bed. Just like now. A year later.

MAUREEN: Maybe that should tell you something, then. Maybe I want to stay here.

PIPER: Nobody wants to live shut up forever. It's not natural.

MAUREEN: Death changes a person.

PIPER: It hasn't changed me! I'm still living. You can't keep living like this! You had friends. They miss you. [beat] I miss you, Mom.

MAUREEN: I miss your father.

PIPER [crosses the stage to sit on the edge of the bed]: You think I don't? I loved Dad. I still love Dad. But he was a police officer, he dealt with people dying all the time. I know he wouldn't have wanted us to give up on life just because it happened to him.

MAUREEN: You don't know half of what you think you do, Piper.

PIPER: Mom, I - never mind. Whatever you say. [beat] You do realize this is the longest conversation we've had in just about a year?