- for a whole year!
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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
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Note: A few words about 'free' - all these monologues are protected under copyright law and are free to read, free to perform and video as long as no money is charged. Once you charge admission or a donation, or include my work in an anthology, you need to contact me for royalty info.
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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monologue Mania Day #
204 by Janet S. Tiger Almost Sept. 4, 2014
Note - This was originally started in 2012, but I think it's better now.
ALMOST
A monologue by Janet S.
Tiger © all rights reserved
tigerteam1@gmail.com
Almost. What an awful word that is. You almost made the team.
You almost got an A. You almost have enough points to go on your
vacation.
So close, but so far.
I am a nurse. I know life and death are not exact in some ways. But I can still hate that word.... almost.
So close, but so far.
I am a nurse. I know life and death are not exact in some ways. But I can still hate that word.... almost.
(Happy) Almost healed. Almost ready to
go home....(not so happy) ....almost dead.
He came in with a police escort.
Now at the emergency room where I've worked for 28 years, this is not unusual. Saturday night it's like a circus in here. Stabbings, shootings, domestic violence. And those are the easy ones.
We all get combat pay for this neighborhood - they call it something else like - bonus hours for the weekend - but everyone knows what it means.
But for the police to come with an ambulance on Tuesday morning at 10AM...with detectives, well, that's different.
This was a big case, and because I'm the charge nurse - the one in charge - I get to do the admit and assessment.
He was almost dead. We worked on him, but he had 5 bullets just in his chest - and another, in the head, self-inflicted. It was amazing he was still alive at all.
He came in with a police escort.
Now at the emergency room where I've worked for 28 years, this is not unusual. Saturday night it's like a circus in here. Stabbings, shootings, domestic violence. And those are the easy ones.
We all get combat pay for this neighborhood - they call it something else like - bonus hours for the weekend - but everyone knows what it means.
But for the police to come with an ambulance on Tuesday morning at 10AM...with detectives, well, that's different.
This was a big case, and because I'm the charge nurse - the one in charge - I get to do the admit and assessment.
He was almost dead. We worked on him, but he had 5 bullets just in his chest - and another, in the head, self-inflicted. It was amazing he was still alive at all.
Then we found what he had done. This is not always a
good idea. I don’t care what the Hippocratic oath says, it is hard to
divorce yourself from knowing that someone you are trying to save has killed 15
people……that they know of….right now…..could be more.
Of course, maybe he’s not the right guy. It’s
possible. Of course, my friend – one of the officers – told me when they
came to get him, he had confessed. He asked that as he was leaving his
family they not handcuff him until he was outside, and they agreed. As
soon as he was outside, he grabbed one of the guns from the policeman next to
him….the others shot him, and he blew (changes her mind) …almost…..
blew his own brains out.
So here he is, on about a million dollars worth of equipment
to keep him alive, and and he just might live.
I don’t go to church much, but I honestly believe God
brought this man to me at this time for a reason. As a nurse, I made a
promise to save lives, and not administer harmful drugs, but what is
harm? To keep alive a murderer who will harm others, is that right?
And if he’s a vegetable, who gets to feed and water him? You and I
– at least our tax dollars do. How much will that cost all of
us? Will an equal amount be given to the victims of this man? To
help them? The answer is ….no.
Now, there’s a lot of things a nurse can do to make your
life happy when you’re in the hospital. Plump up your pillow, help you
get to the bathroom. Maybe even save your life.
But there are other
things they can avoid doing, or do poorly that can make the difference between
getting out quickly…or not getting out.
It doesn’t take much to figure out what I did.
Almost. I almost kept that wound clean. Is it my fault if there are
some drug resistant bacteria in hospitals? And I almost administered the
right drug to kill the bacteria. I knew there would be an inquest and an
autopsy, so I just….waited. Timing is everything sometimes…..
Does that make me a killer? I’ve thought about
it. Would God have given me a chance like this because he wanted this
piece of dirt to live?
(She turns to go.)
I have more rounds, so I have to go. People need me.
(She stops for a moment, bowing her head.)
I think God did the world a favor when he brought that killer to our ER. I am sure I was right doing what I did. (Thinks
for a moment) Almost sure.
(She exits. The end.)
--------------------------------------
Janet S. Tiger
858-736-6315
Member Dramatists
Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall
2006-8
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