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Okay here's a play I wrote for a class, I had to have certin things in it and I rushed the end, but I wanted to know if you guys thought it was worth my editing...




Dreams

--Dr. L.A. Carter- (Carter) A tall balding man in his forties, wearing glasses, black pants and shoes, blue socks and a white polo.--
--Stephanie Elizabeth McRoy- (Steph) A girl of sixteen, brown hair in twin braids, blue/gray eyes wearing jeans with pink flip flops, and a pink tee shirt. Lots jewelry, and a purse which she clutches the whole time and is constantly fidgeting with--
* = A Steph line

(Dr. Carter sits behind a large oak desk bent over a stack of papers. Stephanie knocks on the door lightly. Dr. Carter looks up)
Carter: Come in! (Steph enters and Dr. Carter smiles and stands picking up notebook and heading for a large wing backed chair) Stephanie McRoy… how are you today?
*Steph: Hey Doctor Carter, I’m ok… been feeling a little down. (Holds up her hands in protest and Carter moves to speak) I’ve been taking my pills, don’t worry.
Carter: I do worry Stephanie… I know how you forget to take them sometimes. (Steph shrugs and they are silent for a moment) So… why did you want to stop by? Your mother wasn’t sure.
*Steph: Oh, yeah. I had a dream again and you said if I started to dream again to tell you.
Carter: (Tensely) Oh? Yes. Yes I did. You had a dream? The first one since the nightmares stopped? Was this dream good or bad?
*Steph: I don’t really know… I never thought my dreams before were bad until you told me they were, I had always had them and thought they were…. Natural? But this dream? It was… different… Not so much like the others, you know?
Carter: Will you tell me about it? (Steph is silent and looks about, ignoring him) Not ready yet? (Steph nods) Okay then. We’ll just talk for a while… what do you want to talk about?
*Steph: Your shoes, they’re dirty, were you walking through dirt?
Carter: Yes… are we going to talk about my shoes?
*Steph: Do you want to talk about something different?
Carter: Not necessarily…
*Steph: Good! I don’t like to wear shoes since I got out of the hospital, but mom makes me so I wear sandals. I have lots of sandals. Red ones. Blue ones. Beige ones. You know? I don’t much like the beige ones. They’re so… plain. Like the yellow walls at the hospital, I didn’t like the hospital, so maybe that’s how come I don’t like the beige ones? I don’t know. Are you writing this down? I don’t like it when you do that! You can’t look at me when I talk to you and you’re writing. No one ever looks at me when I’m talking. That’s why I talk to you. You look at me when I talk to you and you aren’t writing. I like to talk to you. You look at me, sometimes.
Carter: I’m sorry, I-
*Steph: DON’T SAY YOU’RE SORRY! Everyone always apologizes
Carter: For what?
*Steph: Oh, I don’t know! Like… like they ask me why I was in the hospital, what happened, what I was sick with… Is that what we call it? “Sick”? Sick is when you have a temperature, I didn’t feel sick. But they ask and I tell them and they say they’re sorry! Isn’t that silly? Like it was their fault I was sick! Which is ridiculous, because it wasn’t, at least… I don’t think it was…. Was it?
Carter: No…
*Steph: See? I didn’t think so but it’s better to ask because a lot of times people think I’m stupid, so I ask… you know? So I don’t sound stupid.
Carter: I don’t think you’re stupid.
*Steph: I do… sometimes, like when I’m walking and people whisper, I feel stupid because I don’t know the secret. Everyone always keeps secrets.
Carter: I don’t, we don’t, we promised not to keep secrets from each other.
*Steph: Yeah but even you keep secrets…
Carter: I do not.
*Steph: Yes you do. What you write, your “notes”, those are secret.
Carter: No they aren’t, you know what they say, they say exactly what you’ve told me.
*Steph: Then how come when ever I ask to read them your face gets all tight.
Carter: It does not…
*Steph: May I read them? (Carter’s face gets tight, Steph giggles) See?
Carter: Oops… I guess it does. (Glances at watch) About your dream...
*Steph: No. Not yet. I don’t want to talk about it yet. I don’t like dreams.
Carter: I know, but it may be important…
*Steph: Are my dreams… why I… (stops and bites her lips)
Carter: Take your time, words are important, be sure you have the ones you want before you talk.
*Steph: Yeah… (thinks) How did you say… I never really understood it, you said “Emotionally un-stable so separates herself from…” OH I don’t remember!
Carter: Where did you hear that?
*Steph: It was in the letter to my mom… it was just sitting on the table…
Carter: Stephanie you are sixteen, you know better then to read your mothers mail…
*Steph: Are you mad?
Carter: not ma-
*Steph: Don’t be mad!
Carter: I’m not mad, just disappointed.
*Steph: You can’t be mad! You and mom are my only friends! And mom only some of the time!
Carter: What are you talking about? Your mother loves you!
*Steph: Yeah, I know, but at night I hear her crying, because I’m a bad daughter. I know she wishes that Julie had lived instead of me.
Carter: Cut it out! She does not think that. Your mother gets over whelmed by you sometimes, even a little frustrated, that’s why she cries, because she wants the best for you and doesn’t quite know how to do it.
*Steph: Maybe…maybe.
Carter: Are you going to tell me yet?
*Steph: No, but I remember a dream from before.
Carter: oh? Care to share it with me?
*Steph: Sure… (shrugs) Okay: The sky is dark and lights flicker around me. I look around and there are a lot of people. I climb up wooden stairs and the wind blows my hair in my face. I’m at the top, standing and looking out at the people, I feel something around my neck, I feel it itch. I take a step and I fall, stopping suddenly. I feel pain then nothing. Then I’m like…. Like two people at once. One being hung and watching it happen. I stand there watching my own body swing back and forth…
Carter: That’s awful!
*Steph: Is it?
Carter: Stephanie was your dream worse?
*Steph: I don’t know…
Carter: I need you to tell me Steph.
*Steph: I don’t know!
Carter: I need to know, I need you to tell me… please?
*Steph: No! I don’t want to! Just stop asking! If you ask again I won’t tell you at all, I’ll leave. (warns)
Carter: No! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. You can tell me later, okay?
*Steph: yeah…
Carter: So what now?
*Steph: I don’t know… I got an e-mail from my dad.
Carter: Oh?
*Steph: Yeah, he’s coming to town.
Carter: When?
*Steph: Today, he’s going to pick me up from here and we’re going to go to lunch. Probably to “Big Boy”… I hope not. I hate “Big Boy”. But we always go there, so it won’t surprise me when we do. I didn’t want to go to lunch today, but he’s only going to be in town today and he and mom set it up so I have to. I wanted to watch the “As Told by Ginger” marathon but I guess my dad is more important. (sigh)
Carter: Yeah your dad is pretty important, but if you don’t want to go, I’m sure he’d understand.
*Steph: No. He wouldn’t. He’d get mad, and yell. I don’t like it when he yells.
Carter: No I imagine you don’t. No one likes to be yelled at, I know I never liked it and my son sure doesn’t.
*Steph: David?
Carter: Yeah. (nods)
*Steph: Can I meet him?
Carter: Maybe… someday… depends.
*Steph: He’s my age right? (Dr. Carter nods) Oh. Where dopes he go to school?
Carter: Same school you used to go to. Groveton. He and my daughter Mandy, she’s four, they don’t have school today either.
*Steph: I had school I just didn’t go…. (Silent for a while then Steph suddenly ask) Can I borrow a quarter?
Carter: What? Why?
*Steph: Well technically I only need twenty cents, so may I borrow that?
Carter: Why do you need twenty cents?
*Steph: Because I have eighty cents and sodas are a dollar.
Carter: (nods understanding, still looking slightly puzzled) Are you thirsty?
*Steph: Not really… I just want one.
Carter: oh.
*Steph: So may I have twenty cents?
Cater: No.
*Steph: Why?
Carter: Because I don’t have any change.
*Steph: How about a dollar?
Carter: (Takes out wallet and looks) I only have a twenty (Puts it away) sorry.
*Steph: It’s ok. How much time do we have left?
Carter: About half an hour… (Check watch) Forty-Five minutes
*Steph: Oh… I’m bored, will you tell me a story? About anything really, doesn’t matter what.
Carter: Stephanie? A story… no t-… how… how about we just talk?
*Steph: I saw “Shrek 2”, Pinocchio wore a thong.
Carter: (chuckles) Really?
*Steph: Yeah, it was pink… thongs don’t seem like they’d be very comfortable to me, but then I’ve never worn one. Maybe having a permanent wedgie is comfortable to some people…
Carter: (Laughs) Maybe, but I’ve never worn one either.
*Steph: I’m glad if you had said you had experience with thongs I’d probably have nightmares again.
Carter: (Laughs harder) Don’t worry, you won’t ever hear me tell you something like that!
*Steph: Good, it’d be weird if my shrink had a weirdly perverse love life, like that…
Carter: How do we get onto topics like this?
*Steph: I don’t know… it’s a gift of sorts. (laughs)
Carter: Yes, of sorts is right…
*Steph: Teachers don’t like my thinking like I do, my humor, they think I’m trying to be disrespectful, and really I’m not. I don’t mean to hurt anyone with my words, but I guess I do.
Carter: Who do you hurt with your words?
*Steph: Everyone… people don’t really want you to be honest when they ask your opinion. They want you to tell them it’s wonderful, and point out all the good things and not help them fix it. They want you to lie to them so they’ll feel better, and I don’t lie, because I wouldn’t want someone to lie to me. It says somewhere, in the bible I think, it says, “Do onto others as you would have them do unto you” and I believe that.
Carter: Yes it does… (Nods)
*Steph: Do you go to church?
Carter: Sometimes, do you?
*Steph: About the same, we go if we have time, which means if mom isn’t working, because she doesn’t trust me to really go anywhere where I could be alone.
Carter: Why?
*Steph: I don’t know, probably because when I used to cut myself. I’d cut myself when I was alone because it was exhilarating, because I didn’t like to be alone, but how do you tell someone that? I don’t want to be alone because I’m afraid of myself? You just don’t see? So to keep my mind off me and all the things that could happen I would occupy myself it was a game like every cut represented a fear I had over come just by being there. My mom didn’t understand when I tried to explain it to her, and you don’t either, I can tell by the look on your face, you don’t understand, and not many adults do, but I’ve meet other people, like teens, my age folks, who’ve understood, not necessarily my reason but that it felt good to do it. At the hospital other people understood, but I suppose that’s silly because no one really understood they just pretended to too make me feel good, didn’t they? Yes, I suppose that has to be it because who understands the babbling of an idiot? Not that I’m an idiot, because I don’t think I am, I’m good at math, I really like it because the numbers, they are so… firm, you cant change them, they either are or aren’t, there is no in-between, people cant fake the numbers. I used to do really good in math and it made me feel so proud I was good at something but I don’t do very well anymore, because… I don’t know why. I just don’t understand anymore. It doesn’t make sense! Not that much does now days but that is the worst of all. All these things people make up to test you, when them themselves don’t even know the answers they use a stupid book, I mean I tree someone cut down and wrote on, to cheat off of! I hate her! Miss. Gilbert? She ignores me in class. We have a seating chart and I sit in the corner, and I can raise my hand for ages and she never call on me, when she does call on me, my question is no longer relevant and she gets mad at me for not asking sooner, and I still don’t understand!
Carter: Why do you think she does that?
*Steph: I know why, my mom explained it, she does it because she’s afraid of me, even threatened by me! Isn’t that silly? But I suppose a lot of stuff doesn’t really make sense and no one says anything about it. I draw attention to stuff, mistakes, because when I do understand I want people to know I do, know that I’m not an idiot all of the time, Miss. Gilbert gets mad when someone corrects her in front of the class. I’m failing Math right now, at conferences Miss. Gilbert told my mom that she wanted me to be held back because she didn’t think I was grasping the concepts. So she asked me if I was understanding in class and I told her yes and she asked me why I was doing so poorly, and, you know I like to be honest, I told her because I hated her, her face turned all red and my mom screeched, but I told the truth.
Carter: Maybe sometimes it’s better to lie…
*Steph: I heard somewhere, maybe it was the bible again, I don’t really know, but it was “A lie that draws a smile or the truth that brings a tear?”…
Carter: It wasn’t the bible…
*Steph: I told you I didn’t know, but I was thinking about it and it’s the exact same thing as the thing with the guy holding a gun to someone head and it says “Would you like to be the one holding the gun, or the one with the gun to your head?” and I don’t think you can answer it, not truthfully anyway.
Carter: That would be a hard choice, and hard for someone to be honest about…
*Steph: Yeah, it would. I have a question, will you not get offended?
Carter: I can’t promise that, it’s my right to get offended, but I promise not to hold a grudge.
*Steph: I guess that’ll have to be good enough… Are you happy with your life, or do you wish it had been different?
Carter: That’s a good question, but like the other ones, hard to answer. I’m happy with the life I have created for myself, but sometimes I wonder about things, like if my life had been different, where I would be right now. Over all? I am very pleased with myself, my profession, and my family, but it’s human nature to wonder how things could have been.
*Steph: yeah, I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if I hadn’t gotten sick. You know? To have friends and go on dates and stuff, but really it’s not important, and my life will be good without it, but sometimes I wonder like if I could try just once.
Carter: I imagine it must be hard for you to see all of your peers on dates and you not caring for any of that, but you know I bet a lot of young men would love to go out with you.
*Steph: No, I’m a social leper. When I was a little girl, I used to dream about going on dates and to parties with my friends, but now it seems petty and in important. I also used to have dreams about what I would do when I grew up. I always wanted to do something with lots of human interaction, I had to be around people, they were so…interesting, something to watch and study, but now I’d just as soon be by myself, something I never am. Did you always want to be a doctor?
Carter: No, I wanted… I wanted to be my dad. For the longest time I wanted to be my dad, something people say I am, but I know I’m not. I’m not as good as him, all though all my life I’ve strived to be. After I grew out of it, I wanted to be an astronaut, but obviously that never happened.
*Steph: You could be, yet…
Carter: No I couldn’t, I have no longing to be it anymore. I don’t want to do anything but what I do, because I love my job.
*Steph: That’s good, I don’t know what I’m going to go to collage to do… but it doesn’t seem important right now, it’s two years off, and that seems so far away.
Carter: The time will fly, you won’t even know what hit you.
*Steph: You sound so sure, school is so slow right now, I find it really hard to believe it will speed up that much. Maybe school was different for you then me, and maybe it’s good that it is, because if everyone felt the same way on everything, then… then we’d have a world full of doctors or lawyers, but because everyone wants to be the same thing we no longer have teachers, or fire fighters. See so it’s good that for me school is slow and for you it was fast and for David it probably is different because we have different experiences, and because of them we are moved to do different things with our lives. So… so maybe, because of my “sickness” ( I still don’t know why we call it that) maybe I’ll be able to help children who have experienced feelings like mine before to understand… but how can I help them to understand what I don’t?
Carter: Maybe you don’t understand it now, but you’ll understand later in life.
Steph: Maybe…
Carter: Steph… (sigh) Will you excuse me for a minute? (Steph nods) Thank you, I’ll be right back.

The rest I took out because I hated teh ending so right now it doesn't end.

Lovely did ya act it out??

Yeah, we had to act it out for my drama class after writing it, I had to play steph and my friend James played Carter.
it was 2 years ago, and I was so mad everyone was forgetting her, this was there wake up call.

Because those were my lines, and I just pasted my copy.

Yeah, thats all, no interesting story behind it.