Time: Today
Place: The attic of a childhood home.
Abigail – a younger sister.
Malorie – an older sister.
The Mundane and Muchness
Lights up on the interior of an attic. The attic is spacious but barren, cold but welcoming – it should hint at a life packed up in boxes, a life the audience was 20 years too late to see. ABIGAIL enters from a doorway (presumably a second room within the attic) and looks around her home. She takes in what is “out of place”. She moves to table, grabs her egg timer, sets it, and quickly begins running around, trying to finish specific chores before the timer rings. When the timer rings, Abigail drops whatever she is doing, resets the egg timer, and starts in on a new task. One of these chores should be changing into her costume for her and her sister’s themed dinner. After she accessorizes with articles from a costume trunk, she pulls the trunk offstage through the exit. After two examples of these chores, she grabs MALORIE’s tape recorder and a tape off a shelf, sets them up at the table, and plays the tape. While the audience hears what is on the tape, ABIGAIL continues to run around completing mindless tasks. At the beginning of the recording, we hear an egg timer being wound, then ticking. It is clear that MALORIE also uses an egg timer for her own tasks.
MALORIE (voiceover).
March 31st, 2008
My sister Abigail is what most people call a “shut in”. She doesn’t leave this attic. She won’t. She…can’t. She’s also what people call, “crazy” or, perhaps if we had money, “eccentric”. But we don’t have money. People say…people say many things. Talk talk talk. If you asked me, if you wanted my professional opinion? She’s suffering from agoraphobia triggered by a traumatic life event. What was the life event?
My mother dropped dead a few years ago, right here in this kitchen. One moment she was making chocolate chip pancakes and the next she was horizontal on the floor, cold as the day is long. Heart attack. I wasn’t there for it, but Abigail was. Abigail had always been a little on the…quirky side. She had shared that with my late mother. But I suppose that seeing our mother collapse dead in front of her must’ve triggered her, accessed something inside her that just…snapped.
From that moment on, Abigail vowed…well, she vowed many things. But among them, she vowed to never make chocolate chip pancakes again, never to wear two socks at the same time, and never to abandon her childhood home, the place our mother died. I have no idea where the one-sock thing came from, and she never explains it. She couldn’t leave and she couldn’t work. So, I uh, arranged for the bottom two floors to be rented out, and moved Abigail up to the attic. She’s been up there ever since.
I think she's worried that if she leaves now, she'll come back and I’ll have rented out the attic, too. She keeps getting pushed up stairs. She'd probably move to the roof.
The egg timer on the recording alarms, and ABIGAIL once again drops whatever chore she is doing. She goes over to the tape recorder, stops it, rewinds it a little, re-plays it.
MALORIE (voiceover).
I think she's worried that if she leaves now, she'll come back and I’ll have rented out the attic, too—
ABIGAIL stops the recording abruptly, then records herself over this part of the tape.
ABIGAIL.
I know you won’t rent out the attic. That’s not why I won’t leave. I’ve told you. If I don’t stay here and do Mom’s chores she won’t go to heaven—
Noise from outside the attic – it is clear someone is approaching. ABIGAIL listens for a moment, then quickly replaces the tape and tape recorder back onto the shelf, exactly as it was before. She neurotically straightens out the remaining objects/set pieces onstage, and readies herself for MALORIE. MALORIE enters the attic, plastic bag in hand.
MALORIE.
Hey.
ABIGAIL.
Hi!
Pause. No one moves.
ABIGAIL.
Can you guess what this week’s dinner theme is?
MALORIE looks around. It is obvious that the theme is make-shift Alice in Wonderland. ABIGAIL is dressed as the Mad Hatter. There is a tea set on the table.
MALORIE.
Uhhh, I don’t know. What?
ABIGAIL.
Guess!
MALORIE.
Abigail…you got me. What is it?
ABIGAIL.
You didn’t even try.
MALORIE.
Its been a long day, Abigail.
MALORIE moves around ABIGAIL in the doorway and puts her plastic bag on the table. She digs through her purse until she finds a new cassette tape. She holds it up.
Do you want to catalogue this?
ABIGAIL snatches the new cassette from her sister’s hand and runs back to where the rest of the tapes are kept. She dates it and puts it away.
You swear…?
ABIGAIL.
“not to listen to your recordings in any way shape or form.” Yes.
MALORIE.
Ok.
From the take out bag, MALORIE removes some food and a napkin. She probes the bag. Meanwhile, ABIGAIL has brought her own dinner over to the table, a tray of marshmallows held together by toothpicks, resembling people and creatures.
ABIGAIL
You brought your own dinner.
MALORIE.
Yes.
ABIGAIL.
But I told you I’d cook this week. Again.
MALORIE.
Yes, I know, but what you’re doing isn’t cooking.
Pause.
I’m sorry. I just, I can’t eat that for a meal.
Pause.
Do you want some of my pad thai?
ABIGAIL.
No.
MALORIE.
Ok.
Pause. MALORIE looks for a fork in her take out bag, but cannot find one. She gets up and crosses to where the silverware is kept. After a moment:
Did you move the forks again? I can never find anything in this place.
ABIGAIL gets up and goes to another area in the attic, retrieving the forks. MALORIE joins her.
ABIGAIL.
Now there’s the salad forks and the entre forks and the dessert forks are here and the miscellaneous—
MALORIE gets impatient and grabs for a fork.
MALORIE.
I don’t care which one. It doesn’t matter.
Pause.
I liked it more when the forks were over there.
Both sisters return to the table and begin eating in silence. Before ABIGAIL begins to eat, she sets her egg timer. MALORIE takes out her planner and looks over it.
ABIGAIL.
I stopped feeding Atticus Finch.
MALORIE.
What?
ABIGAIL.
Your plant. I stopped feeding it for you.
Pause.
Remember? The 2 plants I asked you to bring me? One for me, one for you. Well, I stopped feeding your’s.
Pause. ABIGAIL gets up and brings a tray back over to the table. The tray has two plants on it: one that is lush and alive, the other withered and dead. She drops the tray loudly on the table.
It’s dead. You let it die.
MALORIE, insincerely.
Sorry.
ABIGAIL is frustrated by MALORIE’s insincerity, we see childish anger bubbling. She takes a few more bites of her marshmallow dinner before her egg timer goes off. She immediately throws down her food and looks at it, disappointed.
Great. Now I can’t eat! You wasted my eating-time!
ABIGAIL gets up from the table, upset. She resets her egg timer and goes about completing another menial chore. MALORIE watches, used to this routine. She continues eating. The timer goes off.
MALORIE.
Reset it and come finish your dinner.
ABIGAIL.
I can’t.
MALORIE, gently.
Yes, you can. Just reset it. I’m telling you that you can do this and its alright.
ABIGAIL considers the offer, slowly moves back toward the table. She resets the egg timer. She begins to eat again. MALORIE watches ABIGAIL until she begins eating, then allows herself to eat again as well. After a few moments, MALORIE rubs her temple again, goes back into her purse and pulls out a bottle of aspirin. She begins to try to open it, but has trouble with the child-proof cap. ABIGAIL stops eating and notices.
ABIGAIL.
You don’t need those—
MALORIE.
Abigail, its ok. I just have a headache—
ABIGAIL.
You always have a headache! You don’t need them!
MALORIE.
They aren’t harmful. I promise you. Look, can you please open this? I can’t get it—
ABIGAIL crosses to her sister, grabs the pills out of her hands. Her egg timer goes off again. She pulls off the cap and dumps the pills all over the floor. She then begins to smash them with her foot, as if they were ants.
Abigail!
ABIGAIL resets the egg timer as she continues stomping around the room.
ABIGAIL.
You don’t need them. You don’t need them! You don’t need them, you don’t need them!
MALORIE, interrupting ABIGAIL’s previous line.
Abigail! Stop! Please! Abigail!
ABIGAIL.
You don’t need them!
ABIGAIL grabs MALORIE’s planner off the table. MALORIE immediately runs for it.
And, you don’t need this! I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!
ABIGAIL throws the planner out the window. MALORIE grabs ABIGAIL by the shoulders, hard. ABIGAIL quiets down for a moment. Looks at her sister, becomes sad.
ABIGAIL, heart-broken,
You’ve lost it.
MALORIE.
What?
ABIGAIL.
Your muchness. Its gone.
MALORIE.
My what?
ABIGAIL.
The thing that made you special, the thing that—
ABIGAIL’s egg timer goes off again. ABIGAIL abandons her post with MALORIE. She goes back to the table, resets her egg timer quietly, and begins to eat. It is clear she is still holding on to her hurt, despite the fact that the timer went off, prompting her to do something different.
MALORIE.
What did I lose? Abigail?
ABIGAIL.
It’s over.
MALORIE.
Abigail, what are you talking about?
ABIGAIL.
The timer went off. The fight’s over.
MALORIE, torn and frustrated.
That’s…that’s not how it works, Abigail.
Pause.
That’s not how it works! This isn’t over! Abigail! That’s not how real life works!
Pause. The egg timer goes off.
Reset it. I’m not finished with this yet. Reset it!
ABIGAIL.
NO!
Pause.
MALORIE, defeated, overwhelmed.
Fine. I…I need to…lay down for a while. Enjoy your dinner.
MALORIE disappears into the second room of the attic. It is quiet onstage. ABIGAIL is frozen in her seat for a few moments. Then, she gets up, moves to the tapes and tape recorder, and brings them back to the table. She pulls out the newest tape that MALORIE had just dropped off and puts it in the recorder, and presses play.
MALORIE (voice over).
December 6th, 2010. Fill in content here.
ABIGAIL fast-forwards a little on the tape. Then plays it again.
More content here.
Again, ABIGAIL fast-forwards, plays. This time though, we don’t hear MALORIE’s journal entry, but just her weeping. ABIGAIL is frozen by her sister’s cries on the recording. She listens for a moment longer, then abruptly silences is. She may hold her face in her hands. Then, an idea melts over her. She brings the tape recorder closer to her, set the egg timer, and begins to record.
ABIGAIL.
Dear Malorie, I’ve never heard you cry before. Not even when Mom died. You were so strong, too strong. When I was younger I was never afraid of the unknown. Do you remember when I’d beg you and Mom to come play outside with me? I was always the first one to race down the dark sewer line without even wanting a light at the end of the tunnel. And then during the winter, we’d create our own adventures within the house. I remember the first day it snowed. It was much too cold to go outside, so mom made the theme Peter Pan. She drew a secret treasure map that led to all her old jewelry boxes and our dusty Halloween costumes in the attic. I jumped into a rabbit suit and become a lost boy. I was a first-rate explorer, out to discover all the possible and impossible unknowns.
MALORIE has appeared in the doorway behind ABIGAIL, listening to her sister’s confession. Perhaps she may look mad at first, mad that her sister is recording over her tape, but her mood changes.
But then, I lost what I did know. I lost my mom. But I lost more than just my mom, I lost you. And it’s been more than I can bear.
Malorie, my toes are cold. When mom left her toes were warm in two socks, but that’s why the heart attack got her, isn’t it? That’s why I can’t wear two socks, and no socks might be just as bad. Despite being cold, one sock is neutral. What’s worse, cold toes or a heart attack?
I’ve never told you this before. You already think I’m crazy, and maybe I am, but if you are sane, then I’m glad I’m crazy. I’m glad that I can still have fun; I’m glad I can dress up and smile and laugh. You used to be so much fun... You were right behind me during all of our adventures. You had a smile that could cure cancer. Oh, and you were such a beautiful ballerina, and now you don’t even remember. Now, you are a ballerina with her heart broken. You only care about the things that can be known now.
MALORIE fades back into the second room, leaving the doorway.
I’ve tried to tell you that those things can be lost, but you’ve already lost your curiosity for the unknown. I don’t know what to do anymore. Love, Abigail.
ABIGAIL takes a deep breath and looks at the egg timer, which hasn’t alarmed. She sits in silence for a moment. She gets up and looks around the attic. Another idea falls over ABIGAIL. She goes over to the silverware drawer and pulls it out. She begins to bring it back over to where they had been before they were moved, where MALORIE liked them better. As she turns, MALORIE reenters in a tattered ballerina costume, looking very self-conscious. Pause. Then.
MALORIE, kindly, as if to a child.
Are you…are you moving the forks again?
ABIGAIL.
Back to where you liked them.
MALORIE.
Oh.
Neither sister moves, but they both find ways of smiling.
Thank you.
ABIGAIL.
Yes.
Pause, no one moves. Then, MALORIE removes one sock and throws it into the space in between her and her sibling. Both sisters stand looking at one another in their costumes and single socks. The egg timer alarms. Lights out.
