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Book of Teas is a full-length play - other monologues are Days # 15, 51, 52, 53)
Apr. 22, 2014 Day #69 Monologue Mania
- for a whole year!
If you just started this blog and want to read the earlier monologues, please
scroll down for the previous days or go to http://www.monologuestore.com/ -click on the Monologue Mania button please scroll down.
To start at the beginning - Feb. 13, - click here.
For a list of the blurbs from each day, click here
Help a playwright and get more great award-winning monologues - MonologueZone.com
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site!
------------------------------
Book of Teas is a full-length play - other monologues are Days # 15, 51, 52, 53)
Apr. 22, 2014 Day #69 Monologue Mania
Slow Train Coming (from Book of Teas)
by Janet S. Tiger
© 2014 all rights reserved
by Janet S. Tiger
© 2014 all rights reserved
tigerteam1@gmail.com
(T comes onstage. She is holding a mop. Southern accent, just like in the other scenes in this play)
What
does this mop have to do with a slow train coming? Well, I'll tell
you, honey, you just set a spell, have some tea, and I'll inform you
directly.....
(T mops slowly, very deliberately)
If you have ever been in the South, although I suppose the trains run all over, you will certainly remember having seen a slow train. It is going slowly because the fuel to make it go fast is expensive, and so, because what it is carryin' does not have to be anywhere very fast, the train takes its time, kind of like a cat, who has just eaten and is waitin to find a good place to sleep.
These
trains are no less giant, or powerful. They are just as big as other
trains, sometimes longer, 50 cars, 100 cars. But they are slow, and
deliberate, kind of like how I'm wipin this floor.
(She illustrates, almost like slow brush strokes)
And
so, when you hear one comin, far off, with its whistle and the ground
startin to shake, you think there is a lot of time to get off the
tracks. Now an express, those babies are goin like the wind. You hear
one, you know it's time to move. But the slow ones lull you into
thinkin you have time.
But
they are comin at you, slowly, but surely. Just like this mop, wipin
slow but sure. And no matter how long you think you have, it is never
enough time.
I
always came to the kitchen when I had a decision that I was puttin
off. You see, the wipin is quiet, peaceful, kind of like that slow
train noise. It doesn't rush you, but, one minute, you start, and
there's the whole floor ahead, and the train is far away. Then suddenly
you notice, the floor is half done, and that train, chuggin away, is
closer, you can hear it round the bend.
People
have troubles for two reasons - one, they don't do somethin they should
have, like you remember Mr. Tarman, he didn't want to work his fields,
like he should have. He wanted to read, and sleep, and chew tobacco.
So they lost their farm, because he didn't do what he should have.
Now,
others, they do things they shouldn't a been doin - like widow
Stubinhall, she shouldn't a been bringin cakes and food to that married
man over in the next county when his wife was away, leastwise, not
without one of her children to accompany her. But she did, and the
results were on the front page, remember? When the wife came back and
found them, together, it turns out the wife had been a champion skeet
shooter in her youth, and she had not forgotten those skills as an
angry, cheated on spouse.
So, some people do not do what they should, others do what they shouldn't. Bad results, both ways.
(She pauses to look at the floor)
Now look a that.....I've only got a few spots left.
(She puts a hand to her ear.)
Is that the train? Is it almost here?
(Leans on the mop)
When
you are on the tracks with a person - it doesn't matter whether they
did the wrong thing or just didn't do the right thing, if you stay with
them on the tracks, you will be squashed, too.
(She takes a final swipe)
Unless, of course,.......
(She pushes the mop as if it were a person)
...... you push the person out of the way, just in time, because they will not get off the tracks!....and you...
(She stands there, arms out, as if a train were about to hit, her mouth open, she screams)
You get runned over, because you want to be some type of hero!
(She leans the mop against the wall)
What is my advice? Go home, my dear daughter, and get yourself a mop and pretend there is a train comin. Because there is a train comin......
(She turns to leave, looks back. )
And when you are
done with the moppin, you will find there is an answer, because, if
there isn't, at least you will know it's time to jump off the tracks.
(She exits. End of scene)
Janet S. Tiger 858-274-9678
www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8
www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8
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