MIKe – husband. Middle aged man.
ELLEN— mistress. Young woman 20–30 year old petit, blonde (or black hair ref. pg).
Time current. 4 AM…
A simple doorframe and threshold stands between a garage door and a room with a couch.
Scene.Enter drunk Mike from the door to garage, shoes in hand he is trying to sneak into the house silently, but his way is suddenly barred by Anna who, with legs apart, and each arm outstretched straight right and left from her sides forming a cross in front of the door frame.
ANNA (shouts): Stop right there! (Quieter) Where you have been? Its four o’clock.
MIKE (slurred, dully): Something sin-gu-lar-ly unusual happened.
ANNA: What unusual story now?
MIKE: Let me in.
ANNA: I repeat… what’s so unusual; I haven’t slept at all.
MIKE (with growing enthusiasm): Anna, you know…there was a tornado!
ANNA (admitting Mike): A tornado…here?
(Mike takes off his jacket, walks into the room and sits on the couch His jacket falls on the floor)
MIKE: A tornado can be a very small, whirlwind. (Waxing eloquent). It sucks you up, and up and it carries you to heaven knows where. It just lifts you, and doesn’t let you go…
ANNA: Ok, Ok… Mike, and where were you so blissfully carried?
(Pause)
MIKE (eagerly): I was lucky. I was in the car; the storm went right across in front of me… A tree fell across the road. I turned around and started to come home another way… But, I kept getting lost.
ANNA (mockingly): And how much time did you spend lost?
MIKE: A couple of hour’s maybe.
ANNA: Suppose then that you left work at eight, drove a half-hour, got in the storm, and were lost two hours. You would have been home long ago…
MIKE: But the tornado made a flood… (muddling his words). I was afraid. The car died… Finally the water went down and the car started.
Mike falls asleep
ANNA: What road? The only road that goes near a lake that I know of is in the Littleton area.
MIKE (sleepily): There…I…was… once in Littleton…
ANNA: (shaking Mike by the shoulders) What did you do there? How come you were in Littleton?
MIKE: Let me sleep… in three hours I have to be at work…(snores).
ANNA: Why were you in Littleton? I won’t let you sleep! Why were you there?
MIKE (eyes closed): Ah you… know? It’s the same… just… Oh, think what ever you want…
(Mike falls asleep. Anna covers Mike with a blanket, and picks up his jacket from the floor. A cell phone falls from the jacket pocket. Anna picks up the cell phone. She neatly lays the jacket on the sofa beside Mike. She then falls asleep, beside Mike with the phone in her hand… Pause, lights change… the phone rings. Anna awakens opens the phone and listens. Ellen’s voice is heard on the cell speakerphone.)
ELLEN: Mike, Mike, hello.
ANNA (into the phone): Hello…
ELLEN (non-paused): Who? Who is this?
(Pause)
ANNA(not very confidently): Police…The Police…
ELLEN (shocked): Who?
ANNA: Police! We have just come to an accident… This phone was lying on the ground.
ELLEN: Accident? (Crest fallen) What happened?
ANNA: Toyota…red…hit a tree.
ELLEN (worried): Driver… The driver? How’s the driver?
ANNA: A man… slumped… window’s open…We’ll soon find out.
ELLEN (crying): He left me an hour ago. He promised to call when he got home. He had a couple of beers.
ANNA (gloating): He can’t call. He is motionless…
ELLEN: I’m really sort of to blame. He didn’t want to come. I really…
ANNA (very interested): Where didn’t he want to go?
ELLEN: To Littleton. Where is the accident?
ANNA: Half way between Acton and Littleton.
ELLEN (muttering to herself): Why did I make him come? I wanted a decision! (Suddenly stops crying). I’m getting in my car. I’ll be there in a minute.
ANNA (insistently): What decision?
ELLEN (suspects she is talking to MIKE ‘s wife. She suspiciously and slowly says): Divorce.
ANNA (changed tone of voice): What divorce?
ELLEN: I’ve been driving. I’m between Acton and Littleton. So far there is no accident.
