Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Monologue Mania Day # 1544 Palimpsest by Janet S. Tiger (c) May 9, 2018

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free* monologue a day- -and still going!
Today is Day # 1544!  To look at the other 1543 titles - click here
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Monologue Mania Day # 1544  Palimpsest  by Janet S. Tiger (c) May 9, 2018                                      
 For other monologues from Caregivers Anonymous, please see Days # 268, 270, 271, 273, 284, 285, 286, 314, 317, 380, 412, 444, 454, 455, 456, 473, 474, 475, 476, 483, 484, 513, 514, 566, 569, 666, 692, 702


                                    Palimpsest

                                    (for Caregivers Anonymous)
               ©Janet S. Tiger
          all rights reserved 2015
                                tigerteam1@gmail.com

           (The well-dressed woman comes up to the wheelchair and does not sit in it.  Instead, she touches the wheels and then spins it around)

I look at this chair and I think of something so strange, I am almost embarrassed to mention it.  I don't know if any of you remember that in my days before caregiving, I was a researcher, at the natural history museum, and I was in charge of all new acquisitions.  (sighs)  I enjoyed that......(Remembering)  Sometimes we got in what is known as a....always loved this word!....a palimpsest.

Now that's just a fancy word for a piece of parchment where the writing has been scraped away so something new can be written on it.  I actually was fascinated by these...palimpsests......because they were mysteries.  What was beneath?  Could it still be seen?  By the new scientific methods, a lot can be revealed.....my favorites were the brass pages.....scraped clean....so that they could be re-engraved...

         (She runs her hand over the wheelchair)

Sometimes I wonder about what is being left behind by my husband and me on our walks....now with him in his wheelchair.....the Huntington's is advanced now, Brian can't speak anymore, but he likes walks.  And each one leaves scratches on the wheels.  The wheels, the rubber, the spokes.....dust hits and makes its mark....we roll over a stone and it bounces up and dings the metal......

And I wonder if this wheelchair could be scraped down, and if, once scraped down, someone, in a thousand years, could determine that I walked with him in it......and where we went.

Even though I had to retire.- because I was so interested, I've kept studying, and I found that the lovely word palimpsest had other definitions.......

         (She takes out a paper and reads from it)

'In planetary astronomy, ancient craters on icy moons whose relief has mostly disappeared, leaving behind only a trace of a rim....are also known as....my favorite word!  .....palimpsests!.....or ghost craters.....'

(Sad)  Well, my relief has mostly disappeared, leaving behind only a trace......a.ghost crater.....Brian is a ghost of what he was.....and I......crate him around.......

         (The others laugh and applaud as she sits.  End of scene)


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first posted  Day # 666 Palimpsest  Dec. 9, 2015


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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 

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Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315                CaregiversAnon.org
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983

Playwright-in-Residence

Swedenborg Hall 2006-8

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