Monologue Mania Day # 388 by Janet S. Tiger The Bean Cutter's Story (part three) March 7, 2015

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free monologue a day- for a whole year-and still going!
                                                                    first year -  Feb. 13, 2014 - Feb. 13, 2015
I've continued with a monologue a day until the spirit moves me to stop, so if you have any ideas for a monologue you want me to write, please let me know at tigerteam1@gmail.com
If you just started this blog and want to read the earlier monologues-
     To start at the beginning - Feb. 13, - click here.
     For a list of the blurbs from each day, click here  There are now over 388!
 
Help  a playwright and get  more great  award-winning monologues - MonologueZone.com
 If you'd like to write your own monologues, I happen to have a book for that -
            How to Write a Monologue in 10 Easy Lessons (Well, maybe not so easy)
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site.  Wishing you much success!
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Monologue Mania Day # 388 by Janet S. Tiger  The Bean Cutter's Story (part three) March 7, 2015
                                

                                                  The Bean Cutter's Story (part3)
                                                           by Janet S. Tiger   

                                                (c) 2015     all rights reserved

                                                      tigerteam1@gmail.com

         (Last part of this story.  Started Day # 386, includes Day # 387, he takes a drink, waves at crowd)

Good story is like good meal.  Smells good from start, lots different flavors, pretty waitress to smile at, many courses, wine and time to enjoy, not in rush.

So my father give  Ban Zheng a job in the kitchen, and her daughter Wu was the new sweeper.  It turn out that the mother was amazing cook.  Because they had been poor for so many years, since even before father die, she could turn any food into tasty dish.  The bean tips, all black, she add soy and a little spice , taste like like fancy food.

My father was impressed, and it was not easy to impress him.  She become head cook right away, restaurant do very well.  She add amazing beggars chicken, cooked in mud and leaves, it taste better than duck sometimes.  Cheaper, too, but can charge the same because it taste so good.  Father very happy......father love her, marry her, she become my mother number two.  She is  good mother, since cannot remember real mother, she become mother  number one.

          (He takes out a handkerchief, wipes eyes)

So now I have sister, not as good as brother, but better than nothing.  Wu very nice to everyone, everyone like her.  War comes, hard to find food, Wu and I take truck and even though government want all food for war, Wu have many friends everywhere who love her, sell her food.

Mother take all food, no matter how old, or dried out.....make it taste good, like magician with food.

War years very hard.  And we can see time coming after war will be even harder.  Wu not skinny anymore, she pretty girl, and I start to look at her.....not like sister.  I see she feel the same way and I ask her to marry me.  She say no, I say why not, we not really brother, sister.  She say she want to go to America, have restaurant there.  Wu nice, but sometimes very bossy, will not change mind.  So if I want to go to America, she marry me.  So..... love make me come to America.

And after we come, we try to get mother, father to come.  Not easy, people who own restaurants now enemy of Mao Tse Dung personally.

So we wait, we work hard, open first restaurant.  Then we need much money to get parents out of China.  What to do?  Decision is horrible.  If we close restaurant, parents maybe come, maybe not, even  if they cannot come, we have to start over.  But if we keep restaurant, maybe parents never come....(hard to say)....maybe die.  Another decision, but not hard to make......

No choice really, we sell restaurant.

Man come to buy, he look at me, say, was your father Chen T'eh, with the famous restaurant that served the delicious  Beggar Chicken?  I say, 'yes' and say, I remember your father, you look like him.  I used to eat there every time I come to your city!  Delicious!  I say, my mother make that, and my wife know how, would you like to eat some now?  And he very excited, Wu make him beggar chicken and he very, very happy.  Say first time in America he eat good food.  'Why sell restaurant?'  he ask. 

I tell him what is happening to father, he look at me and say.....not buy restaurant.

          (Remembers, wipes forehead)

Not good, not good at all.  He only person really interested.  Wu is about to cry, so am I, but I ask, why?  He say, he is going to loan me money - to help father.  I can pay it back by helping him..... open second restaurant.  We be partners.  Now I cry.  Wu cry, man cry.  I ask why he do this.  Say he had father tell him.....there are two kinds of men......

          (Takes deep breath, gets a hold of himself)

And so, we become partners, and friends, and I find out he part of Chinese Society that help people when they come to America.  And I join.  Take risk to come here, take risk to open restaurant.  But all for good.  Always good.  Same good.  And so I am....same happy.  So, what is dessert?

Everyone happy at sweet dessert, everyone happy long story finish! 

         (He lifts award, waves it)

I thank everyone for nice award.

           (He starts to walks off, stops, looks back)

But my reward is the same happy......

         (He smiles, exits. Not the end of happy!)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315

www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com

Member Dramatists Guild since 1983

Playwright-in-Residence

Swedenborg Hall 2006-8

Monologue Mania Day # 387 by Janet S. Tiger The Bean Cutter's Story (part two) March 6, 2015

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free monologue a day
                                                                        - for a whole year!   Feb. 13, 2014 - Feb. 13, 2015
I've continued with a monologue a day until the spirit moves me to stop, so if you have any ideas for a monologue you want me to write, please let me know at tigerteam1@gmail.com

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
 If you'd like to write your own monologues, I happen to have a book for that -
            How to Write a Monologue in 10 Easy Lessons (Well, maybe not so easy)
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site.  Wishing you much success!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monologue Mania Day # 387 by Janet S. Tiger  The Bean Cutter's Story (part two) March 6, 2015
                                

                                                  The Bean Cutter's Story (part 2)
                                                           by Janet S. Tiger   

                                                (c) 2015     all rights reserved

                                                      tigerteam1@gmail.com

          (Continued from Day # 386.  The same man is finishing his story, he takes a drink of wine.)

Now when you are thinking, how can this man be happy when his father hits him.  I was not happy about that.  I hated my father.  But I knew I could not do anything to anger him again....for awhile.  He was very strict after that, every day he come, check the beans.  So I am careful, cut beans so there is no green.  I am sad to see  lady and her daughter take away only the black tips.  But I wait, I learn patience from this.  Very good gift to learn.

And I watch, and see there are other places where the food drops, the rice falls, and when I sweep, I put rice in a pile and save it for them, along with scraps from the floor, and sometimes off  cutting table.  And I wait, because when there is holiday, like New Year, very busy, father cannot pay attention to every bean that I cut, and I start to cut more green for my friends.  I do not talk to them.  They are beggars, and it is not good to talk.  But we communicate with our eyes, and my cut beans.

The New Year has special meaning for Chinese people.  Just before New Year,  nice pictures of Kitchen God and wife are given farewell dinner.   Sweet rice, cake, candied fruit.  His lips sealed with honey, molasses, or sugar candy, in  hope that he will say only sweet things when he visit  "Jade Emperor"  to tell if family was good in year past.  Then the Kitchen God and wife  pictures removed and burned, along with spirit-money and other things to use on  journey.

I make decision.  I figure out how to get food that is burned......before it is burned.   I find substitute, because I know my friends need food more than Kitchen God and wife pictures.  Paper does not eat, already very thin.

When I cut beans, I give them sweets, wish them sweet new year.  I think my father busy, but .....he is there, and he is angry!  He comes out with a piece of wood.....shouting at me!

           (He waves the stick, yelling)

Stupid boy!  You make bad luck for family!  And what is this......

           (He picks up and inspects something closely)

Did you cut these beans?

I was so afraid I just nod head.

          (He nods, shaking in his shoes)

My father lift stick to hit me.....

          (He raises his hand to strike)

And then.......

          (He stops, looks)

Lady come and stand in front of me.  Father cannot hit her, no matter how mad.  (Imitates woman)  Do not hit him, he only a boy!  You are a bully!  Stop!

          (He puts his hands down)

My father look at her like now he want to kill her, but she is not scared of him.  She yell right back....You have good son, help us with food when we are starving!  I will not let you hurt him.

         (He takes the stick )

She take stick and.....        

          (He breaks it over his knee)

She do this......

My father is stunned.  He stand there with mouth open, then he get madder, turns to me..

You are stealing from me and disrespecting the gods!

 And you lady......

           (He turns)

You are stealing from me!

(As woman)  I am not stealing, your son gives us food.  We may be....beggars, but we are not thieves.  And your son make good luck for you with kitchen god, it is blessing to help poor!

And then my father say, if you not thief, you work for food, like everyone else.  Come inside, lots to do.....have to clean for New Year!

         (He turns to watch his father exit)

Father give them both jobs, (laughs)  first job sweeping.   That night, I say to father that I do not understand.  Please explain.  He say to me, there are two kinds of men......many kinds of two kinds of men.  One kind, one man has chance to be success, it takes work and risk and he does the work, takes the risk and is success.  Other man does not work or risk, is not success, complains for the rest of his life.  Which man do you want to be?

I said success.  He said good.

Two kinds of men.  One man is good, helps other people.  Other man turns back, never helps.  Which man do you want to be?

The man who helps.  But father, why do you turn back?  He was surprised.  I not turn back!  I help people all the time!  Look at Lee, who give Lee job?  Everyone else laugh at him.  Do I need to have him work here, pay him?  No, could get other man, stronger, smarter.  But I see that this man is hurt, need help, so I help.  This woman, with her child, she need help, I give her job, too.  And daughter.  What can they do?  They are so skinny.  But maybe, they have talent at something.  Who knows.?  It will look good when Kitchen God talks with Jade Emperor.

Now I am very confused, what is the right way?  Is my father telling me good advice?

Then he, to help others, first you have to help yourself.  No money for you, no money to help poor.   Simple.  Same as with food. Always good.  Always same.   Not hard.             

         (He lifts his drink)

Now time for drink two, then finish story.......


            (To be continued)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315

www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com

Member Dramatists Guild since 1983

Playwright-in-Residence

Swedenborg Hall 2006-8

Monologue Mania Day # 386 by Janet S. Tiger The Bean Cutter's Story March 5, 2015

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free monologue a day
                                                                        - for a whole year!   Feb. 13, 2014 - Feb. 13, 2015
I've continued with a monologue a day until the spirit moves me to stop, so if you have any ideas for a monologue you want me to write, please let me know at tigerteam1@gmail.com

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
 If you'd like to write your own monologues, I happen to have a book for that -
            How to Write a Monologue in 10 Easy Lessons (Well, maybe not so easy)
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site.  Wishing you much success!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monologue Mania Day # 386 by Janet S. Tiger The Bean Cutter's Story March 5, 2015

                                                 The Bean Cutter's Story (part 1)

                                                           by Janet S. Tiger   

                                                (c) 2015     all rights reserved

                                                      tigerteam1@gmail.com

            (An older Chinese man enters.  He is smiling, nodding to the crowd)

Oh, thank you, thank you, this is so nice!  Like to see all my friends so happy.  When they tell me I am getting this award, they say I need to make speech.  I don't know about making speeches, even after so many years in this country, my English is still like suit jacket that does not fit right.

So they tell me I can tell story why I am so happy all the time.  That would be nice, I like to tell that story.  It is the story of my happy.

Good time to take drink of wine, so if story is too long, nobody will mind.....

This is story about me when I was a boy.

My father had restaurants in China before the war.  He loved the business very much.  He always say to me, restaurant business is hard, need to have

总是好的

Zǒng shì hǎo de

I think it translates  to....always good.  Food must be always good.  Same.  Not better one day, good the next.  Always good.  So when people come, they can depend on the food.

Kung pao always same hot, crunchy noodle same crunch in mouth.

One time different, people not come back.  I have many restaurants here in this country.  Same thing.

People love to eat out, he would say, but they do not want different, they want same.

So from when I was little, I work in restaurant.  Sweeping first job.  I hate sweeping, dust get in face.  Father tell me that we need to be clean, people do not want bugs in food.  See one bug, same as a million.  So I sweep.

No child labor law.  Too young for school.  I was four, maybe five, and I got a promotion.....to be assistant to bean cutter, Lee, nickname Zhuang, because he have big bump on head.  Zhuang mean bump, so people laugh at him.  Family left him after he fell from tree, never right.  My father hired him to do things at the restaurant, never let me laugh at him.

The first job in a restaurant which is not sweeping or cleaning, the first food job with a knife.....that is the bean cutter.  My father tell me that every single piece of food is important in every restaurant.  And the bean is most.  Why the bean?  I ask.

He say, beans are very cheap, but good beans add bulk to food, good flavor, take spices well.  More beans, less meat needed. More money in pocket.

Money very important to my father.

He take me out back to the alley where Zhuang was cutting, tell me to watch Lee cut the bean tips off.  No one likes the tip, especially if it is black.  And my father always bought the beans with the black tips, cheaper.  But still taste good without the tip.  But you have to take off the tip.  Some people break off tip.  Not my father.  Too much waste.

I learn to use knife.  And the tips go into a bowl that was my mother's before she die.  Now it is chipped, but my father is very superstitious.  He save everything from my mother, who died when I was a little boy.

So I sit with Lee, and he cuts off the tips so no more rotten end, just green.  He cuts so the tips fall into my mother's bowl.  It is puzzling to me.  Why not let the tips fall and have the dogs eat them?

Lee laughs and says, 'wait, you see'

And so I watch, and after he finish almost all the beans I see, over on the other side of the alley, a woman and her daughter.  They are both very skinny, watching Lee cut the beans.  When he finishes they run over and take the tips and put them in a basket which is old.  But they are happy to get our throwaway beans.

I watch.  The girl is not much older than me, but she is little.  They look sad.  The next day, I get to cut some beans.  I make a decision.  I cut the tips, but leave some green .  Lee does not seem to notice.  So I cut some more, with more green. 

Now it is a game.  I cut the bean, and leave more green.

The beans are finished, and the mother and daughter come and take the tips from the bowl.  Suddenly, they grab the last of the bean remnants and race off.

I feel a darkness behind me, and my father is yelling, ' what are you doing, stupid boy! you are throwing away my money!'  And my father picks up one of the leftover bean tips, inspects the length of the green ....and he hits me.  Hard.  Very hard.

But I do not care.  I am happy, because I have helped someone.  And I know what I am going to do with my life.

I can see that moment as if it was yesterday, and I am still happy.....

(to be continued)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315

www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com

Member Dramatists Guild since 1983

Playwright-in-Residence

Swedenborg Hall 2006-8

Monologue Mania Day # 385 by Janet S. Tiger Esther and the Pimple March 4, 2015

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free monologue a day
                                                                        - for a whole year!   Feb. 13, 2014 - Feb. 13, 2015
I've continued with a monologue a day until the spirit moves me to stop, so if you have any ideas for a monologue you want me to write, please let me know at tigerteam1@gmail.com

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
 If you'd like to write your own monologues, I happen to have a book for that -
            How to Write a Monologue in 10 Easy Lessons (Well, maybe not so easy)
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site.  Wishing you much success!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monologue Mania Day # 385 by Janet S. Tiger  Esther and the Pimple March 4, 2015
      Because this is the second year, I'm doing a re-run from last year below-  with a few changes.  The original is on - Day # 27
                                        Esther and the Pimple - a Purim Spiel

                                                           by Janet S. Tiger   

                                                (c) 2015     all rights reserved

                                                      tigerteam1@gmail.com

(A woman comes onstage, she is in her 30s, maybe early 40s, looks good for her age.  She is smiling, holding a scroll, which she opens as if to read.)

This is a megillah, the story of Purim in the Bible.

        (She closes the scroll, puts it down on a chair or table.)

When I was a little girl, I used to hate the story of Purim.  Well, I didn't hate the whole story, the whole story was wonderful, how a mean man, Haman, tried to kill all the Jews, but Mordecai and his cousin Esther save their people, and Esther was very brave and stood up before the king and could have died, but she did it anyway.

So why did I hate it?

Because my name is Esther.

And, in the story, Esther has no pimples, she was beautiful, she was perfect.  So our names were all we had in common!  Her silky skin was milky and satiny and creamy and all the adjectives from all the commercials for all the creams that have been used by women for all time.

But me, I was far from perfect.   I had allergies, so I always had rashes and pimples and things on my skin.  Now, at age eight, when you have pimples, it is far from pleasant, but at age thirteen when you have pimples, things do not improve, and whatever self-esteem you cobbled for yourself is now completely overwhelmed by the combination of rash and the delightful onset of hormonally induced acne. And we will not mention the other hormonally affected teenagers reactions to my pimples - not enough time!

So, at age 19, when you have even more pimples - it is not good - especially when  you have now had many years of hearing the story of Esther - beautiful, perfect Esther, whose name is the only thing you have in common.  For you see, the Esther of the story is checked out for pimples by the King's special pimple spotters - I can only imagine what the job description for that looked like!  So if a girl had any problems with her skin - which meant eruptions and blemishes and.....you guessed it, pimples! - she could not be the queen.  She couldn't even compete with the other 400 winners in the King Ahasuerus Beauty Contest - she was sent home!

So pimples were prohibited - and so was anyone who had them, and since that was me, I was doomed - never to get to be one of the finalists, one of the chosen people who was never to be one of the chosen, never to save my people.....it meant, simply, that pimply was .....not so good.

What was to become of me?  What was my fate?  To be cast into the scrap heap of Jewish history, somewhere behind Lot's salty wife and Leah, whose biggest faults were being born first and having a lazy eye?

I decided, after having to wear pounds of make-up just to get a first date, and that with a cousin, to my senior prom, and that he only took me because my father gave him $20......I decided I would focus my attention on marrying a nice blind Jewish young man - which of course was not the easiest thing to find.

So I accepted my fate - to be alone, unloved and unable to save my people.

  Well, since this was my fate, I put my full  focus on learning, as I wasn't going to do much else with my life.  In those days, the saying went - those who can, do, those who can't....stay in school until they're 35.

So I took classes in everything.  Didn't help much, but it kept me busy.  At some point, I actually found myself enjoying the search for learning.  This was rarely in class, but when I could read about something I liked, that was...different.

And I started thinking.  You know, when you have a chance to think about things, sometimes a thought occurs.

Maybe it was because I read more about the Holocaust - and how in the camps, sometimes the guards used pimples as an excuse to pick people for the selections.  So one pimple could be the difference between survival and a trip to the showers.  That was truly scary.  Would I have been picked to die right away?  Life and death pimples.  I had more than one nightmare after that.

One night, I was reading about famous women for a class in female heroism.  I had taken the class because I figured it was an easy A.  Then, for some reason, I thought of Esther, and I started researching her.

Yes, it was because of a pimple - secretly, I was hoping to find someplace that showed that sometime, somewhere, Esther, too, had one pimple.  It was just logic - how could any one person go through life with no pimples!  Oh, finding out she had even one pimple....it would have meant so much to me!

         (She now picks up the scroll again, opens and looks through.)

But reading the megillah, reading about her - maybe it was the class, I don't know - I realized that Esther didn't have such an easy time of it.

She was an orphan - both parents dead in the Diaspora, which, at that time, was like the Holocaust is today.  And she had been raised by her cousin, Mordecai, and then, when she was just getting old enough to think about boys, along come the king's people, looking for beautiful, pimple-free girls.  And she is hauled off, to be further beautified for a year, no less! - in order to be given to have sex with the king!  No experience, no Dr. Ruth or Internet! -  just right into the king's arms - a man with the ability to kill her at one command! 

And she has to entice and allure him and hopefully become his wife, out of 400 other pimple-free girls!  Because, if she fails, she becomes a part of the king's 'widows' - a woman he slept with that no one else will marry!

On top of it, she can't tell anyone she's Jewish, because Haman - one of the King's top advisers - is a big-time anti-Semite.  So she has to live a lie....also not so simple.

I finally figured out - maybe Esther did not have such an easy life, after all.  Maybe, once you start looking no one has an easy life......it was a life-changing moment.  Maybe having no pimples had its own problems.....

And then, after she does win the big prize - he marries her, just like in the romance novels, and she is ...ta, dah!  The Queen!  then she finds out that Haman is going to kill her people.  And not just ten or a hundred - but everyone!

What can she do?  How can she save herself- and them?

In a twisting, turning, nerve-wracking plot, Esther risks her life - and succeeds at saving her people.

So maybe it was a good thing she had no pimples - maybe I wouldn't have been sitting there, reading books in a fancy library, if Esther had a pimple.  I finally forgave Esther - and started to live my own life.

It didn't happen overnight, but things started to change.  Then, one evening in the library, I became friends with another student who was also studying.  She was a bio student, and after we talked a few times, she said to me - I used to have break-outs like you do, then I stopped eating dairy.  Have you tried that yet?  Three little words -  'No more dairy.' 

I stopped drinking milk and eating cheese, and all my pimples disappeared in what was it, two days?

Two days.  Well, that's not completely accurate - it was more like - 24 hours!

I stopped eating dairy - how simple could that have been for someone, anyone to have figured that out!  I could have saved an entire lifetime of pain, and horror, and sorrow - and lots of money on make-up.

But there is a positive note - after I lost  the rashes and the pimples, I decided to become a doctor - specializing in juvenile allergic response.  And I help children of all kinds now, so that they will not have to endure what I did for all those years.

So, maybe,  this Esther's pimples - MY pimples! -  were more like ...like diamonds!.(thinks for a minute, shakes head).....no, they were pimples!   

And I hope that you understand I am not advocating you accept your pimples - your flaws, whatever they are.  I'm merely saying that,  in my story, my megillah, I found that pimples..... are only a part of the whole story.  We all have our own story, our own megillah.  But, I hope,  like the original Esther - that my story- and your story, too - can change the world.

         (She rolls up the scroll and exits.  The end.)


--------------------------------------------
For more info on Purim- http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday9.htm  and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purim

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315

www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com

Member Dramatists Guild since 1983

Playwright-in-Residence

Swedenborg Hall 2006-8

Monologue Mania Day # 384 by Janet S. Tiger Charging Ahead March 3, 2015

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free monologue a day
                                                                        - for a whole year!   Feb. 13, 2014 - Feb. 13, 2015
I've continued with a monologue a day until the spirit moves me to stop, so if you have any ideas for a monologue you want me to write, please let me know at tigerteam1@gmail.com

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
 If you'd like to write your own monologues, I happen to have a book for that -
            How to Write a Monologue in 10 Easy Lessons (Well, maybe not so easy)
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site.  Wishing you much success!
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Monologue Mania Day # 384 by Janet S. Tiger   March 3, 2015
     
                                     Charging Ahead

                                                             by Janet S. Tiger   

                                                (c) 2015     all rights reserved

                                                      tigerteam1@gmail.com

             (An older man enters, he is holding up a battery, very excited)

Here!  I told you I could find one......

              (Stops, really looks at the battery, examines it)

Amazing.  But not much different from the first batteries back in the 1800s - my God, is that two centuries ago?

             (Listens, shakes head)

Honey,  that was a rhetorical question!  Of course I know it's two centuries ago.  I used to sell flashlights, remember?  I told you those stories....okay, a million times.....but you remember, the light won't work without the battery....and the battery has to be charged....

It's like me.....I've got a battery in here, inside, and it has some marking somewhere about how long it will last, and I can feel that energy is way down from what it was when I was 25, 45...hell it's down from when I was 85!  And that was only two years ago!

              (Scratches head)

So how old am I now?

               (Waves hand)

That's another rhetorical!  I know how old I am!  I was just trying to make a point, so listen for a change.

Do you remember when you were a kid.....and I showed you how, even when a battery was dead, you could bring it back to life?  How you called me Daddy Frankenbattery?

Remember.....

             (He 'shows' again)

You put the battery in very warm water for ten minutes, not longer, not boiling, just hot.....and then take it out, and presto!  That battery will have more juice for a few minutes, maybe even a few hours.  No one knows, but it's amazing how it works.

          (He puts the battery in his pocket, pats it)

Well, that's how it is with Colleen and me.....when she and I are together, it's like.....it's like... my battery is in ...warm water!  And I can keep going.....who knows how long?  Who cares!  But my light is on and I can see into the dark again, and I love it!  And if you can't understand, it's because you are too young....to understand love!

           (Listens, laughs)

Of course we're careful!  You should know your old man by now!  I always wear rubbers.....

          (Starts to exit, stops, looks back)

Everyone should wear rubbers.....when it rains!  What were you thinking about?

          (He laughs as he leaves, shining off into the future)

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Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315

www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com

Member Dramatists Guild since 1983

Playwright-in-Residence

Swedenborg Hall 2006-8

Monologue Mania Day # 383 by Janet S. Tiger Bearing Fruit March 2, 2015

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free monologue a day
                                                                        - for a whole year!   Feb. 13, 2014 - Feb. 13, 2015
I've continued with a monologue a day until the spirit moves me to stop, so if you have any ideas for a monologue you want me to write, please let me know at tigerteam1@gmail.com

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
 If you'd like to write your own monologues, I happen to have a book for that -
            How to Write a Monologue in 10 Easy Lessons (Well, maybe not so easy)
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site.  Wishing you much success!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monologue Mania Day # 383 by Janet S. Tiger  Bearing Fruit March 2, 2015
   
                                       Bearing Fruit

                                                             by Janet S. Tiger   

                                                (c) 2015     all rights reserved

                                                      tigerteam1@gmail.com

           (The woman from Day # 382 walks onstage, she is in a dark covering, her head is bowed.  She comes and kneels, then lifts her head to the sky)

I know you told me that it would hurt to have these babies, but.....I didn't believe you.  How much pain could it be?  I watched the other animals, they give birth quickly, and, ok, maybe mine took a little longer, but it wasn't so bad.  And the result!  These beautiful little beings, made in our image!  I felt just like you must have felt!

Only.....a little more messy.

            (She gets up, goes and starts collecting something off the ground.  Rocks.  Which she holds in one hand throughout the next)

And the joy when they grow, all right, some annoyance.  They do not listen, they want to do what they want to do.......I'm sure you can understand that!

Then they pick a profession.  I wanted Cain to be a doctor, but he picked farming, ok, like his father, We couldn't complain.  I mean we did, but he pointed out that becoming a doctor was going to take centuries before there were any good schools, and the interest on the loans would just be prohibitive.  So, a farmer he is.

And Abel, with those stupid, smelly sheep.  Okay, they make nice warm clothes, but that constant 'baah, baah....... humbug!  It gets to you after awhile..........

But the surprise was......(she chokes up).......where the pain really comes from in childbirth...it ain't in the giving birth.....it's.....how much it hurts when one of them....... dies!

You let us find out for ourselves....... nice plot twist.......

           (She takes the rocks and puts them on a spot)

I tried putting dust on this grave, but it blows away.  I think I'll just leave these rocks.  They might last longer......

          (She turns to leave, stops, looks back)

Although, there is no way those rocks will last longer than my love.....

           (She exits.  The beginning of the rest of the story)

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Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315

www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com

Member Dramatists Guild since 1983

Playwright-in-Residence

Swedenborg Hall 2006-8

Monologue Mania Day # 382 by Janet S. Tiger The Day After the Tree March 1, 2015

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free monologue a day
                                                                        - for a whole year!   Feb. 13, 2014 - Feb. 13, 2015
I've continued with a monologue a day until the spirit moves me to stop, so if you have any ideas for a monologue you want me to write, please let me know at tigerteam1@gmail.com

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
 If you'd like to write your own monologues, I happen to have a book for that -
            How to Write a Monologue in 10 Easy Lessons (Well, maybe not so easy)
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site.  Wishing you much success!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monologue Mania Day # 382 by Janet S. Tiger  March 1, 2015
   
                                 The Day After the Tree

                                                             by Janet S. Tiger   

                                                (c) 2015     all rights reserved

                                                      tigerteam1@gmail.com

           (The woman from Day # 381 stumbles on stage - she is now wrapped up a bit better and carrying a big pile of stuff - and she is very annoyed)


I can't believe he did it!  He thinks he's so big and powerful, ok, I get it!  But I mean, who woulda thought?  That he'd actually follow through!  On his own children!  Who does that?  And such a stupid thing, to eat an apple and get kicked out!  I mean it wasn't like LSD or anything serious!  Boy, one tiny, little mistake....okay we disobeyed, but hey, nobody's perfect, right?

            (She looks around)

And where the hell is Adam?  How come I get to carry all this stuff?  I hope this walking behind dragging everything is not gonna be a trend, because I don't like it.....

           (She sets down the baggage and her coat falls open to show she is pregnant.  She rubs her belly)

And this is no great delight either......whatever is in there is kicking up a storm......none of this was my fault....if I'd had a good soap opera to watch or maybe some HBO, I never would been having a latte with that stupid snake.  Well, I'll know better for next time.

             (She looks around)

Well, I'd better catch up with Adam, maybe he'll know what to do about whatever's happening in here.......maybe some Pepto Bismol will help......

               (She grabs her stomach, almost falls to her knees)

Whoa, that was no kick.......that was......painful.......What a sensation!  .But it also felt like, the beginning of something ......amazing........

               (She struggles to her feet, taking a few of the items with her)

.......what should I call it this .....I cain't think of the word....CAIN, now that sounds interesting....

               (She turns to leave, stops, looks back)

......maybe I'll be able to get through this after all......Able......

                (She walks off slowly.  The beginning of it all)

            

Deja vu.......

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315

www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com

Member Dramatists Guild since 1983

Playwright-in-Residence

Swedenborg Hall 2006-8