Different Path (c) a monologue by Janet S. Tiger

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Different Path 

a monologue by Janet S. Tiger September 18th 2022 copyright All Rights Reserved Tigerteam1@gmail.com 

 

(Woman comes on stage. Or best would be if the lights go up just to see her. Either way we know this is a woman who has gone through something very big. Before she starts she takes a very deep breath and exhales slowly)

 Why do things change?

 I mean you do something day after day for weeks.. a month ...years maybe ..and then all of a sudden one day you don't do it anymore -you don't walk down the street in one direction...suddenly you take a different path. 

And then the next day you go down that different path again and all of a sudden something has changed.

 Something is different. I think that's the same with... when you love someone.

 Maybe....Maybe one day you wake up and that person isn't the same person anymore. It's kind of a funny thing and you can't even put your finger on it why something has changed....why someone has changed. 

Was it the new cologne? Or the fact that's suddenly ...after all these years... he is putting on a fresh pair of underwear everyday?

All I know is that.. I knew.

 And it was different. 

And I was not sure why but I knew.

 He didn't love me anymore.

(Getting annoyed) 

 

But it wasn't his fault!..(almost hissing)-it was her fault!

 (Trying to be calmer) I don't know what she did, but it was different between me and him. 

And I knew that maybe I would never walk down that path again and.. something in me changed. Just like he was different now I was different.

Kind of like you have a candle burning not a giant candle... just a small one..... but it's been burning for a long time and it doesn't have a big flame but the flame is steady and then all of a sudden... along comes a breeze .....and you don't even know where the breeze came from and the candle flickers and you think for a minute it's going to stay on but then it is out.

 After all the years of burning even in the middle of a storm!.. with big gusts of wind it kept burning.....(intense) ..but somehow this little whisper of a wind ..and ...it's out. 

 

And you have no more matches to light it and even if you did the wick is all bent over .. finished.. any warmth from that glow is gone . ...

(She takes a deep breath)

And do I regret it?

I regret only that she's the reason I changed.

 If it was a car I could have handled it ...if it was some food he liked maybe a different kind of ice cream... or...or instead of pizza with mushrooms... he switches to anchovies (She shudders a little) ......yes I could have accepted even that.. but ...it wasn't food and it wasn't a car.... (hissing)..it was her. 

And I knew it.... (she takes a very very deep breath)... and that's why I had to kill her.....your honor.

 

(She stops, bows her head -lights out)