- for a whole year!
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.
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To start at the beginning - Feb. 13, - click here.
For a list of the blurbs from each day, click here
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Monologue
Mania Day #294 by Janet S. Tiger Surprise (revised) Dec. 3, 2014 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
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Yesterday's monologue, but improved. Did I improve it? Please let me know
Surprise
A monologue by Janet S.
Tiger © all rights reserved
tigerteam1@gmail.com
(A woman enters, she has a card with a bow on it. She smiles.)
There you are! I know you're
the birthday boy, but I want to have you to myself for just a few moments, to
indulge an old lady who is about to give you a very nice birthday
present, one with a special surprise.....
(She reacts as if someone is reaching for the card, and pulls it back quickly)
Not so fast, my young man! I
am pulling rank, and insisting that you listen to the story attached to this
gift.
Of course, you may have heard it
before from me...or your father, but after all, I am your only surviving
grandparent, so I think that allows me a little extra in the 'boring stories
you have to listen to' department.
(Listens, laughs)
Thank you! I'm glad you like my stories.....Because you are
such a lovely young man - and a very convincing liar! - I will try to make this short.
Back in the days when I was your
age, I loved to play baseball, just like I hear you do. And in my time,
there were baseball cards, just like now, only then, we would play the matching
game - and flip cards against each other, in order to win cards from other
children.
(She stands and pretends to hold a card next to her hip - she releases it and
'watches' it fall)
Actually, it was to win cards from boys, because only boys - and your grandmother -
collected these cards.
And the boys never thought I was
any good at flipping the cards.
(She keeps 'flipping the cards')
In my prime, I practiced for hours
until I could flip 100 cards in a row - all face up or face down. When I
met some boys with cards, I pretended I wasn't very good, and let them win the
first few times. Then I would cry, and get angry, and challenge them to
100 cards - and they would jump at the chance to defeat me. You could see the look on their faces and I could almost hear their thoughts - (imitates) Wow! I'm gonna win 100 cards from this stupid girl! This is my lucky day!
I told them the only condition was
that, as a girl, I go first. No problem. They never objected.
Not once. Why first? I studied it and I realized, it was always harder to match than to set the bar. And I would then flip 100 all the same - it was impressive.....and very effective.
(She illustrates the flipping)
They would watch, sure I was about
to lose, and how much would I cry then?
For the first ten, there was no
reaction, but by the time I reached twenty all in the same direction, their faces
had started to change. By thirty, they were transfixed, by fifty their
mouths hung open like dogs, and as I approached the last ten, their heads were
shaking, stunned.
Sometimes the other fellow would
make a feeble attempt to get some in a row, but as soon as one card differed,
it was the end, I won!.....and he would just hand over the cards to me. One hundred
cards. A veritable windfall!
But the best part was, after being
defeated, the boys would bring friends to go up against me, and they would
inform their friends of my strategy, but....and here's where I learned a great
deal about men......even though they knew, they didn't care, they still would
take the bait, like a fish offered a tasty worm. And they, too, would
lose.
After years of practice- and a reputation that had spread throughout the entire city, I had amassed an enormous collection - thousands of cards, dozens of the rookie
Mickey Mantle, many Willie Mays, all assortment of the other fellows, Sandy
Koufax, Yoggi Berra, Harmon Killebrew.....
The boxes filled an entire
bookshelf in my room.....
(She holds her arms wide, she is looking at the cards again)
.........which made it very difficult when we had to move, and
could only take along one box of goodies. I will never forget leaving our home, the one where I was born, with all the items we could not carry stacked in front for neighbors to pick through before the Goodwill came to pick up the remains.
(She waves and wipes her eyes)
I cried twice - first, the day
we had to leave behind boxes and boxes of my youth, the second time, years
later, when I found out what all those cards were worth! One rookie Mickey Mantle was worth $50,000! And I had had them in a rubber band I had so many! The third year was only worth $8,000, but I had left behind a whole stack of them! Who would know they would be worth so much? (Sighs very heavily) Who would ever know what the future holds?
Now, if you are not asleep, you might
be wondering why I told you this story. .......I have a
secret.....I no longer remember. (Thinks) Wait a minute, I
remember! I'm telling you because..... you never know......I had cards worth
hundreds of thousands of dollars.....in the future. They were left behind
........to become a part of my past. And a wonderful story to tell my grandson.
And now, you are beginning your
journey through life, and ....just as your youth will be different from mine
and you will probably never flip cards, there is something that is
similar. You never know what will be worth something in the
future......or who will be worth something to you.
So enjoy the minutes of this
birthday, and this small present.
(She now hands over the card.)
I'm glad you think that cat is
funny, I do, too! And you are more than welcome for the folding money –
please do not save it! Use it for
something you truly want!
(Listens)
The key? That is a key is the
key to life……or more specifically….to a special box that you will inherit when
I die......all you have to do is remember where the key is.....because I'm
hoping to last for a quite a few more years.......
What's in the box? Ah, but
that is the whole point of this story, and this gift! It's a surprise!
What is in the
box?.........Is the box filled with the few valuable baseball cards I
saved? Or does it just have some silly letter that will make no sense for
years? Like life, you don't know, and you won't know....and the
circumstances are completely out of your control! That is the life
present I am giving you today....because you have no idea what is coming,
ever!....So, you must flip the cards to win! More
important…practice flipping the cards
to win! I may not have kept those cards,
but I learned how to work hard to get them….and that was the value that lasted me so well!
Happy Birthday, my dear boy! And very many more!
(She reaches out her hand, turns to leave, stops, looks back)
And don't forget, no matter what they tell you....eat as much cake as you want!
(She exits. Not the end of this story)
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Janet S. Tiger 858-736-6315
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8
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