Chapter Five: Some Brilliant Wrap Up
BRIAN
I am twenty-six years old. I am Artistic Director of a theatre company in Chicago. I have very little income and live well above my means. I am in a coffee shop writing under deadline for our summer project. A first draft of my piece is due at three pm. It is two fifteen. My mother calls.
(His phone rings. My Mother enters.)
BRIAN
I ask her how she is.
MY MOTHER
Oh good. Just sitting upstairs on the deck reading the newspaper I’ve been trying to finish the Christmas wreaths for Brianna and Bridget all morning and my hands were tired and I decided I needed a break I’m going to have those wreaths done by the end of week fingers crossed and then after that I can finally start clearing out some of that crap that’s piled up in the storage room I know I’ve said it before and I probably won’t get it all done this time but this is really the summer I’m going finally clear out the house Amy Hirstein is pregnant again by the way Tom just left for Spain for work so I’m going to have to work out myself this week which I don’t really like but I’ve got to get my legs working out for the bike race this summer and work my heart in to a little better shape so I’ve been doing a lot of squats and leg press at the gym and I’m alternating running and walking trying to get really good cardio in which is what all the preparation guides say you’re supposed to do.
BRIAN
My mother is very active.
MY MOTHER
Just trying to stay active. How are you?
BRIAN
She asks what I’m working on. I describe the project. She asks what stories I’m going to use. I tell her.
MY MOTHER
That sounds really interesting. When you talk about Joey Schwartfeger, are you going to say that you were in the Hirsteins front yard?
BRIAN
Yeah.
MY MOTHER
Because that would be really funny if she saw the show, then. And she might – remember when she saw the brochure for your season, she said that was the one she was interested in the most.
BRIAN
She’s a character in it, actually. She has one line. And so does John. And so do you.
MY MOTHER
Oh. Hah. Oh my. Well, what is the five year old you going to look like?
BRIAN
I don’t know, that’ll probably be up to the director.
MY MOTHER
Because when you were just describing it, and I’m not saying this is how it should be at all, but when you were talking I kind of pictured that it would just be you up there talking and then maybe when you flashed back to the five year old you, you’d just do some simple costume change like put on a sideways ball cap or something to show that you had just gotten younger. I’m not saying you should do it that way, but that’s what I pictured when you were talking about it.
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