4.23.2007: We Build Our House

The stage is filled with two things: paper and The Guy Back When.

The Guy Back When sits here a while, contemplating the mess around him. Because when I say there’s paper – there’s PAPER… everywhere.

The Guy appears.

THE GUY
What’s all this?

THE GUY BACK WHEN
I don’t know. I just showed up and it was… here.

THE GUY
All of it?

THE GUY BACK WHEN
No. At first there’s was probably just half of it. But these flurries come – like little blizzards – and more of it accumulates.

THE GUY
Weird.

A moment where they just contemplate the mess.

THE GUY BACK WHEN
There should be an Eskimo.

Then, an Eskimo appears. Full Eskimo regalia.

AN ESKIMO
Hello.

THE GUY BACK WHEN
An Eskimo!

THE GUY
That’s a little ridiculous.

THE GUY BACK WHEN
Well there’s snow. It’s like a literary tundra here. There’s got to be an Eskimo.

THE GUY
It’s clear you’re still a young writer.

AN ESKIMO
I’m homeless.

THE GUY
Where are you going with this?

THE GUY BACK WHEN
You’ll see.

AN ESKIMO
I will build myself an igloo made of snow.
This flat sheetlike snow
and I will press the pages together
and I shall build a house out of drifts and pockets…

what was once barely there
becomes a home.

THE GUY
That’s me, isn’t it?

THE GUY BACK WHEN
Well, a little.
I’m sorry I didn’t do what we wanted to do when we wanted to do it.

THE GUY
It’s okay.

THE GUY BACK WHEN
It was scary.
New York was terrifying actually.
I know you think I was a complete loser
for just staying four days,

but you have no idea what it felt like
to sit on that floor at 3 in the morning
calling Paige
crying
hardly being able to breathe
feeling like your heart was just going to explode in your chest from panic
and thinking there was no solution.

I couldn’t see the way out.
I don’t have what you have.
You’re a lot braver than me.

THE GUY
I don’t feel that much braver than you.

THE GUY BACK WHEN
But you are.

I think you did a good thing.
I watched you the last few years
and I think you really found a way to turn that all around.
With your teaching,
and all the stuff you do with those kids.

You built a home out of something that was barely there.

THE GUY
They built me.

They built a home out of something that was barely there.

THE GUY BACK WHEN
They’re not going to fail.
They’re going to go out into the world
and do marvelous things,

and eventually
you won’t need to carry me around anymore.

THE GUY
It’d be weird without you around.

THE GUY BACK WHEN
I’ve been holding you back, I think.
I think you just feel sorry for me.
It’s why you keep me around.

AN ESKIMO
May I add something?

THE GUY
Sure.

AN ESKIMO
Your snow isn’t like our snow.
But it works just the same.
And once I’ve turned it into an igloo
I forget sometimes that it was ever something else.
But the snow doesn’t mind.
It’s happy to have been useful.

The Eskimo begins to construct an igloo.

The Guy Back When leaves, maybe never to come back, but we won’t be sure of that just yet.

The Guy hangs around.

The lights go down.