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Act 1
At Rise: There is just the starkness
of two cots next to one another in the
dark with two figures underneath the
blankets. A small table with a lamp
sits between them.
PAULETTE
(Pause) You asleep?
TONYA
(Pause) Nah.
PAULETTE
(turns on the light)
How come you got your head under the covers?
TONYA
I've been sleeping with my head under the covers since I can
remember. . . maybe before.
PAULETTE
Even when it's hot?
TONYA
Uh-huh.
PAULETTE
I hate sheets. I take the top one and roll it to the end of
the bed so nobody sees 'cause I know we're suppose to keep
the bed altogether like we're given it. Then every morning
when I get up, I roll it back on the bed again. But I hate
sheets on top of me. I just like the blanket. Close to my
skin, 'specially when it's real soft and has a satin ribbon
on the edge like this one. But I hate scratchy blankets. Like
those dark army things people are always giving away. You can
see why they give them away because they don't feel good next
to your skin. You asleep?
TONYA
No! (turns the light out)
PAULETTE
Well how can you breathe with your head under there?
TONYA
I leave a little air hole like they do on a submarine.
PAULETTE
On a submarine? You ever been on a submarine?
TONYA
When my mother's sister died and we had to take the Greyhound
all the way back to Philadelphia, one of my cousins - Julius -
he took me down to see this submarine. I never met any boy
like Julius. He talked quiet, knew all about the
constellations in the sky and said he was gone to college
some day.
PAULETTE
I wouldn't want to be locked up in a box under the water. No,
I don't even like putting my head under the water to wash the
soap out and I never did learn to swim. You ever seen the
ocean?
TONYA
Uh-huh.
PAULETTE
I saw a river, a lake and a pond, but not the ocean.
TONYA
Ocean's salty like pumpkin seeds. And it gets all bubbling
when it comes in like the soap you put in to the water when
you're the first one to take a bath.
PAULETTE
Like pumpkin seeds?
TONYA
I just love the ocean.
PAULETTE
I couldn't use bubble bath since I was the last one in the
water and it wasn't very nice. But sometimes, when I said I
was too sick to go to school, I stayed home all alone put
some pink dish soap in the tub and sat all day.
TONYA
I took some bubbles in once but it made me and my other
sister, Clarese, itch down in our privates so hard my Mama
said we couldn't use it ever again.
PAULETTE
(turns the light off and goes to bed)
You sleep with your head under the covers when you're with a
boy?
(TONYA jumps up and turns on the light)
TONYA
I've never been with a boy all night long!
PAULETTE
Sorry.
(TONYA goes back to her bed)
Where did you do it?
TONYA
Sometimes standing in a closet.
PAULETTE
Well that doesn't sound so good.
TONYA
Well where did you!
PAULETTE
Sometimes in a bed, but real fast before anybody came home.
And I always used the top sheet then.
TONYA
Once on top of a washing machine .
PAULETTE
Was it running?
TONYA
No, stupid. It was a laundromat and it was supposed to be
closed, but it was the most private place in my whole life.
(TONYA turns off the light and PAULETTE turns it
back on)
PAULETTE
What kind of games did you play when you were little?
TONYA
Don't you ever sleep?
PAULETTE
You play house?
TONYA
No.
PAULETTE
Dolls?
TONYA
No.
PAULETTE
Baseball?
TONYA
I was real good at double-dutch.
PAULETTE
Me, too! (Pause) Were you ever hungry?
TONYA
Uh-huh.
PAULETTE
'Til your stomach wouldn't stop .
TONYA
Uh-huh. Did you have a doctor that knew your name?
PAULETTE
No. Did you have a Daddy?
TONYA
For a while. You?
PAULETTE
For a while. My Mama yelled a lot right after he left. Then
she got so quiet she hardly moved. White blue sick is what
the neighbors called it, and she never said my Daddy's name
out loud again.
TONYA
I was the Mama in our family since I was twelve, but I didn't
like it so much.
PAULETTE
I hated the hard parts like cleaning and washing and cooking,
but I liked the woman part.
TONYA
Yeah, like when everyone thinks you're all grown up.
PAULETTE
I'd take her clothes and pink lipstick with the rosy blush
and I'd go out to the convenience to get the dinner.
TONYA
(overlap) And the lunch.
TOGETHER
(Laughing together) But no breakfast!!!
TONYA
'Except donuts. But my Mama said donuts ain't never
breakfast, no matter how good they taste.(Pause) How old they
say you looked?
PAULETTE
'Twenty-two on my next birthday.
TONYA
Said I looked close to twenty when I could still double
dutch.
PAULETTE
After a while, I forgot how to jump rope.
TONYA
(pause) How old were you when you did it for sure?
PAULETTE
Fifteen. Well almost.
TONYA
How almost?
PAULETTE
Fourteen. But I'd been a real woman for almost a year. You?
TONYA
Fifteen years and one day. Was it nice for you?
PAULETTE
He was real nice after. Bought me a whole big bottle of
perfume.
TONYA
Was he your boyfriend?
PAULETTE
He was before.
TONYA
But not after?
PAULETTE
Now I don't even think about him at all. (Pause) You really
did it standing up in a closet?
TONYA
No.
PAULETTE
You really saw the ocean?
TONYA
Oh yes I did. The sun setting just like it was fried egg.
Prettiest thing I ever saw. Tried to tell my Mama, but she
was crying so hard over her sister that she didn't hear me.
Seems like every week she knew someone dying and she tell me
she had a right to cry and I thought she did too. But still,
I thought she'd stop sometime. But she didn't. Seems the only
one who ever listened to me for sure was my brother, Louis.
Louis listens to everything I say, but he doesn't speak, so I
don't really know what he hears. There's something wrong with
Louis, but nobody says nothing, and in the school they don't
say nothin' either 'cause he's so good and they don't bother
boys who are good.(Pause) You have a brother?
PAULETTE
I got two sisters. I had a brother, twin brothers, but they
died. They looked so much alike Mama had to put different
suits on them in the coffin so she could know which one was
which when she kissed them good-bye. But she only put up one
stone since she said they wouldn't mind being together and,
truthfully, she didn't even have the money for that one. She
visits those babies every Sunday and sometimes I think she
misses them more dead than me alive. At least that's what she
says when she's mad at me --which is a lot. She doesn't mean
it, though, I know she's just tired. She's just tired all the
time. (Pause) I promise I won't be tired when my baby comes
along, not for one minute. No, I'll be there for my baby.
TONYA
Yeah, I won't be tired and I'll hear every word she says.
PAULETTE
You think you're baby will sleep with its head under the
blanket?
TONYA
Maybe.
PAULETTE
You think things get passed on?
TONYA
Maybe.
PAULETTE
(Pause) You think sometime we could take our babies to see
the ocean?
TONYA
I don't know, but I think it would make a big difference.
PAULETTE
You do?
TONYA
If they could see the ocean, they'd believe there was
something else out there, something bigger and cleaner and
better than what they see, and that would make them want to
grow up to be bigger and cleaner and better than anything
they ever see in this life. Yeah. I think it would make a big
difference.
PAULETTE
(whispering) Yeah.
TONYA
Something worth believing in.
(TONYA turns the light off)
Paulette?
PAULETTE
Yeah.
TONYA
You scared?
PAULETTE
Yeah.
TONYA
Real scared?
PAULETTE
Uh-huh.
TONYA
Me, too, but I couldn't say that with the light on. (Pause)
Do you think they'll let me take my special blanket to the
hospital?
PAULETTE
I don't know. . . .
TONYA
I brought it all the way from home.
PAULETTE
Well if they don't, I promise to bring it myself.
TONYA
You would do that for me?
PAULETTE
Yes. I would.
TONYA
Paulette?
PAULETTE
Yes?
TONYA
I keep my special blanket over my head so I can breathe in
the warm air I just breathed out, which somehow makes me feel
safe, you know, like a Mama's breath when she's not crying,
and she remembers who you are, and she loves you. (Big sigh)
I never told anyone such a personal thing before.
(PAULETTE turns on the light and stands next to
TONYA's bed)
PAULETTE
I'll never tell. . .
TONYA
Swear on your baby?
PAULETTE
I swear. (Pause) You ever been to a hospital?
TONYA
One time when Louis got hit and took twenty stitches, once
when my Aunt died from the drugs, and when they put Mama in
for two weeks 'cause she couldn't stop crying.
PAULETTE
Do you think it's gonna be the same?
TONYA
No, I don't think so. I don't think so at all.
PAULETTE
(Doubles up) Oh my God!
TONYA
You gonna be sick?
PAULETTE
I don't know.
TONYA
You want to put your head under my blanket?
PAULETTE
No.
TONYA
You want me to call somebody?
PAULETTE
No, no, just don't leave me, please. . . .
TONYA
(Pause) Better. . . .? You better now?
PAULETTE
(Pause) If I die. . .
TONYA
No!
PAULETTE
Listen to me.
TONYA
I don't want to hear nothing about no dying!
PAULETTE
I gotta say it now. . . please. I got no one else in the
whole world to say it to but you and I gotta say it right now
before (Pause) If I die ---
TONYA
NO! We're gonna live, Paulette. We're gonna live and we're
gonna have two beautiful babies.
PAULETTE
Promise me you'll take my baby to see the ocean. . . .
TONYA
We're gonna love those babies, Paulette and we're gonna take
those babies to see the ocean, you hear me!
PAULETTE
Yes.
TONYA
Say you believe it!
PAULETTE
I believe it.
TONYA
Say it like you really believe it.
PAULETTE
. . . whatever happens to me. . .
TONYA
. . . I swear. . .
PAULETTE
. . . my baby will see the ocean.
TONYA
. . . . I swear. . . . .
PAULETTE
. . . my baby will see the ocean.
TONYA
. . . whatever happens. . . . .
TOGETHER
My baby will see the ocean.
BLACKOUT
END OF PLAY
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Script created with Final Draft
© 1998 Halem Studios
Last updated September 1998
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