LOVE MUGGER <Dark back of stage> (ALEX is walking down an alleyway. A MUGGER emerges from a niche and pulls out a gun.) MUGGER: Give me your heart! ALEX: What? MUGGER: Yes! I want your heart! ALEX: I don’t understand! MUGGER: Love me! Give me all your love! Look into my eyes! ALEX: I - I MUGGER: LOOK INTO MY EYES ALEX: I’m looking! MUGGER: Tell me they’re beautiful! ALEX: They’re beautiful! MUGGER: I want to be with you forever! ALEX: Please don’t shoot me! MUGGER: I’ll never hurt you my darling! ALEX: Just - please, just MUGGER: Fly a kite with me! ALEX: But we’re not - MUGGER: Take it! (shoves a kite in ALEX’s hands) Look at it go! (kite flops to the floor) MUGGER: ISN’T THIS MAGICAL? ALEX: It's majestic. MUGGER: Ask me to marry you! ALEX: Will you marry me? MUGGER: No! ALEX: (cries) MUGGER: Ask me again! ALEX: Will you marry me? MUGGER: Yes, I will! I love you Frank! ALEX: It's Alex! MUGGER: Say it back! ALEX: I love you too! MUGGER: I wrote my own vows! I wrote yours too! Read them! ALEX: “I vow to hold you in my arms every m-m-m-m-(orning)” MUGGER: DON’T STUTTER! DON’T YOU DARE STUTTER! NOT THROUGH YOUR WEDDING! DON'T YOU RUIN OUR BIG DAY! ALEX: “-morning, and to nuzzle you into warmth in the cold of w-” MUGGER: Enough! It's now ten years later! I have polio. It’s terminal. Be asleep! Wake up! The phone is ringing. They tell you I haven’t got long. Hold back your tears! Drive to the hospital! Ask for my room number! Take the stairs! Hold my hand! Lean forwards as I whisper my final goodbyes! Call for a nurse! Cry a single tear! I SAID ONLY ONE! Cry... a single... (dies) (ALEX cries and grieves by the corpse) ALEX: I’ll always love you! <Lights down> |