Excerpt from "Pick a Little"

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(CHILD enters with bandages over part of her head and her shoulder. FAT WALKER really struggles to walk up the hill with a limp. CHILD sits in the dead painted part of the tree and pulls a tiger ornament from it’s branches. Her voice is mic’d like the talk show until, slowly, it’s not anymore)

 

CHILD

It’s like you’re walking on a sidewalk. And on one side of the sidewalk, there are picket fence houses with couples watering their lawns, and dancing children, and they’re smiling at each other, while they barbecue, and kiss, and hold hands. But on the other side of the sidewalk… There is a jungle. Thick. With creepy animal sounds coming from it. And so you’re walking on this sidewalk towards Love. 

 

AMANDA:

That's the goal, Love. 

 

CHILD

And then this tiger, three times your size and gorgeous, comes out of the jungle and is standing in front of you. And you can see, it has this big gaping wound on its belly. 

 

AMANDA:

You stick your hand in your pockets and you just happen to have a surgical needle and thread. Like you are just the right person for this moment.

 

CHILD

And the tiger lies down on the sidewalk in front of you and moans so-

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AMANDA:

 -desperately and shows you -only you- his intestines dangling out in the open- 

 

CHILD:

and so you put them back. And you’re sowing him back together again.

 

AMANDA:

 And you’re making progress. You’re almost done, 

 

CHILD:

-when suddenly, the tiger yells in pain and smacks you across the face with his paw. 

 

AMANDA:

(starting to get up) And there’s so much adrenaline, because you’re sewing up a fucking tiger, that you don’t know if you’re hurt. You’re just focused on his wound and how he’s ripped open his stitches and how you have to keep on sewing- 

 

CHILD:

-because you don’t feel hurt, -

 

AMANDA:

-you feel like you’re sewing up a fucking tiger. And you're almost there.

 

CHILD:

And he’ll be all better. But then, 

 

AMANDA:

-he swats at you again and it hits you across the chest. Except this time-

 

CHILD:

-he jumps up. He looks at you in… in... 

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AMANDA:

-indifferently. He goes back into the forest, and jumps vertically, straight up, into a tree like it’s no big deal… Like… 

 

CHILD:

The tiger is fine. 

 

AMANDA:

But you? (going to CHILD) You go to the hospital and then you realize just how much damage you were taking on. 

 

CHILD:

How badly you’ve hurt yourself. 

 

AMANDA:

That there is going to be permanent damage and… 

 

CHILD:

The tiger’s gonna be fine. 

 

AMANDA:

And it’s like you want to call animal control or something, because you don’t want the tiger to do it to somebody else. 

 

CHILD:

But animal control looks at you and they’re like “tigers gonna be tigers…” And now- 

(CHILD unravels the bandages to reveal recently sewn up wounds, AMANDA helps, and touches the wounds) 

 

AMANDA:

-there’s this stiffness in your shoulder and your smile will never be the same again. 

(They cry together)

 

AMANDA:

And it’s going to make it harder for you to find love the next time 

 

CHILD:

and not only that but you have to walk down 

 

CHILD and AMANDA:

that same stupid fucking sidewalk, 

 

CHILD:

past your own blood stains, 

 

AMANDA:

to get to Love again. 

 

CHILD:

And all the while the jungle is calling 

 

AMANDA:

and so are the watered lawns and the smell of barbecue.