Thursday, February 11, 2016

Monologue Mania Day # 729 Penultimate by Janet S. Tiger Feb. 11, 2016


Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free* monologue a day- for a whole year-and still going!
                                                                    first year -  Feb. 13, 2014 - Feb. 12, 2015
                                                                                           second year -  Feb. 13, 2015 - almost there!
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Monologue Mania Day # 729 by Janet S. Tiger Feb. 11, 2016

            (For other monologues from Osculation, please see Days #  308, 395, 396, 470 and 490)

                                  Penultimate
                                  (for Osculation - About Love and Math in the Time of  Chemistry)
                                       ©Janet S. Tiger all rights reserved 2016
                                              tigerteam1@gmail.com        
  

          (Isaac has listened to Ariana and now he shakes his head sadly)

Well, I may not agree with everything you say,  but....I do like that word.  (Rolls it around in his brain)  Second-to-last......penultimate......Not the day before the contest, but two days.  something of a...buffer.....before you get to be really nervous......the day before ....that's when you're nervous.......I think that ...no matter what you say....you're a little nervous!  And there's a good reason to be nervous....we are in the finals, and.....it's going to be on TV, so that;s a little scary......but to quit just because you hate math......I dunno.......

Is that really what you think?  I mean, you claim to be some big thinker, that all those big long books you read teach you all about life....right?  Be honest.....I mean, you like to think you're honest, but....to be honest....you're wrong.

I think - that just like most people...... you hate math because...... you don't understand it.  You think it's hard, but that's wrong.  Math is the easy thing........Math is something, I dunno, like a language that I understood right away.  I was five and my mother was teaching me how to add, because I had figured out a little bit about addition on my own.  And then she started showing me subtraction....and she said that seven minus five was two....so I asked her what about five minus seven?  And she said you couldn't do that.  But why not?  It didn't seem logical!

And she smiled and said, well, you can, but I don't think you'd understand it.....show me!  I asked her....and so she did.....and I got it right away!  It wasn't hard at all!

That's when she got me a tutor, Mr. Greenwood.  I loved him because he loved math.  By the time I was in third grade, I was doing calculus.  It was so easy!

But the thing is, math always has a solution.  That's why it's easy.  Even when things don't make sense, like if you have the square root of negative one.......remember that one?

        (He writes it on the blackboard)

There is no such thing, because a negative times a negative is a positive.

Ha!  There is such a thing!   It's an ...imaginary number!  What a solution!  You can make up the answers, as long as they fit into the rest, you're ok!  The square root of negative one times itself  equals.....negative one!  So even though it's imaginary....it's real!

        (He walks out and looks into the audience)

But people - now that's hard!  There is no logic to people.

My mother would tell me everything was ok, but her voice didn't sound ok, and at night, I could hear her crying.   And my Dad told me he'd always be there for me.....but....after the divorce, he moved to another state, married another woman, had two other kids.....and now.....I see him....zero times a year.
There was no logic......numbers have logic.....they never change.  One is one....one plus one is two.....two plus one is three......but with a family, when it breaks apart.....three minus one doesn't equal two.....it feels like....zero.......

         (He turns to leave, stops, looks back)

But.....(very hard for him).....sometimes, when I'm with you, one plus one seems different, you know?  It's like more than two......it's like....somehow.......a million......maybe in people math, one plus one equals....a duo.....maybe it equals......us.........

        (He erases the board and exits, holding out his hand, which she takes as lights dim.  Blackout.)
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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.

Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315
JanetSTigerMonologueMania.blogspot.com
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8

1 comment:

Jennifer Silva Redmond said...

I love the way you use words--and how you create worlds.