B-Sides: Track FourA Stage Play by Kevin Scene Four of Eleven. "A twenty-seven year old despondent writer and a sixteen year old musician form a profound attachment to each other through their love of David Bowie."
TRACK
FOUR [Josh is sitting at the
table. He has three beers in front of him. Two are empty and he’s working on
the third. Clive storms in.] CLIVE What the f**k, dude? JOSH Clive, it was an accident. CLIVE Sarah’s gonna dump my a*s on the street now. JOSH Just tell her that you met this girl and you
were hanging out with her. You’re allowed to have female friends, aren’t you? CLIVE Yeah, but not girls that I hang out with
after blowing off a date she had surprised me with and lying to her face;
telling her I was hanging out with you. JOSH Maybe you should stop using me as an excuse
to not hang out with your girlfriend then. CLIVE Or maybe you should f*****g think for once. JOSH Chill out. CLIVE I am so fucked. JOSH Go home. Talk to Sarah. Explain what’s up. CLIVE I did. She’s not home; she’s probably at one
of her friends house. JOSH Oh well. CLIVE “Oh well.” That’s all you have to say is, “oh
well?” JOSH Hey, I’m not here to solve your problems man.
That’s your job. CLIVE You got me into this. JOSH No, you got you into this. What did you think
would happen? That Sarah will just be okay with you spending all your time with
some underage girl? CLIVE She should trust- JOSH No, she shouldn’t trust you. I don’t trust
you. You don’t even really trust yourself, I mean, look at you. You’ve been
more excited and upbeat this past week than you’ve been since…what happened.
When was the last time you hung out with James? CLIVE How do you…? JOSH I know. CLIVE Like, two weeks. JOSH That’s good. You seem better. And it’s not
like Sarah and I don’t notice that. This girl makes you happy, and it makes me
happy to see that you’re happy. It really does. But I think that you’ll lose
more than you’ll gain by hanging out with this girl. Sarah loves you. She’s the
best thing about you and she’s always been on your side. She stayed with you
after dropping out of college, and after your mother died, after what happened
six months ago, after you quitting your job, during your disgusting beard phase.
CLIVE It wasn’t that bad. JOSH She’s been with you through all of this and
now both of you are thinking that you’re going to cheat on her. CLIVE I would never… JOSH You wouldn’t, but…my little brother goes to
Mayya’s high school. He knows about her. People at that school all know about
her. CLIVE Why? JOSH She…do you want me to buy you a beer or
something. [Lights up on the upstage
bench. Mayya sits by herself texting on her phone.] CLIVE What did she do? JOSH She slept with one of her teachers. CLIVE Mayya wouldn’t do that. JOSH She did. It’s not speculation, its fact. CLIVE Why are you telling me this? JOSH Because she’s clearly into older people.
People that seem more knowledgeable and experienced. You’re eleven years older
than her. You’re almost otherworldly, and you say that there are no romantic
feelings on your end, and whether or not that’s true, you can’t say the same on
hers. [Mayya puts her phone down.
Seconds later Clive reaches into his pocket and checks his.] CLIVE I have to go. [Clive begins to walk away.] JOSH You’re seeing her tonight, again, aren’t you?
Just break it off. If there’s really nothing there then it won’t be hard. [Clive leaves] [Lights fade out on Josh as
Clive walks over and sits next to Mayya.] CLIVE I got your text. MAYYA Clearly, since you’re here and everything. CLIVE Just making conversation. MAYYA We didn’t get a chance to talk after the
show. CLIVE I got a phone call. I had to go. MAYYA Did you like it? CLIVE Mayya, you were wonderful. You really were. MAYYA Thank you. CLIVE Were…uh…any of your friends at the show? I
didn’t see anyone there that looked your age. MAYYA The kids from my school don’t usually go to
my shows. CLIVE You were awesome, people should have seen
you. MAYYA I’m actually not the most popular girl at
school. CLIVE You don’t have a boyfriend or a best friend
or anyone to come see you? MAYYA What was your phone call about? CLIVE It was my friend Josh. He was having some
trouble with something. He needed to see me. MAYYA Can I meet him? CLIVE Josh? MAYYA Yeah. CLIVE Why would you want to meet him? MAYYA Because I do. I want to meet your friends. I
want to see the people you hang out with. CLIVE I don’t think that’s a good idea. MAYYA Because I’m young? Dude, it’s cool. I mostly
only ever hang out with people older than me. It’s not a big deal, I could even
meet your girlfriend. CLIVE Mayya… [Long pause] When you become a big and famous rock star
you should write a song about me. MAYYA What would it be called? CLIVE I don’t know, you’re the song writer. Just
make it upbeat MAYYA What would it be about? CLIVE A poet who never became famous and just
disappeared into history. MAYYA That’s sad. CLIVE But it isn’t. Because even though he never
got the fame and praise that he had always wanted, he had written this one
poem. This one beautiful piece of art, and he was able to live the rest of his
life satisfied, knowing that he was responsible for this great work, and
although maybe no one will ever read it, or know that he had written it, he
knew. That’s all that mattered. That made his life worth it. [Pause] MAYYA I’ll write it, as long as you write a play
about me. CLIVE That’s never going to happen. MAYYA Why not? CLIVE Because…I’m not really a writer. I just like
to say I am but I’ve never actually written anything. I like the idea of it. I
just want to travel the world and see places. Live in cabins and drink scotch
till I pass out then wake up and go walking through the woods. Be a part of the
world without having to actually be a part of it. Have a dog, and smoke pipes,
and wear tweed, and grow a beard- MAYYA You’d look terrible with a beard. CLIVE I wouldn’t…and I’d just want to escape
everything. MAYYA What do you need to escape? CLIVE People, I guess. I feel like I’m always
putting up this false front around the people I know. MAYYA You don’t have to put up a false front with
me. CLIVE You’re sweet. MAYYA Would you take me with you? When you run
away? CLIVE It would defeat the purpose of wanting to
escape people, but since you asked, I’ll think about it. MAYYA I could chop wood, or cook, or hunt wild
animals in the woods. CLIVE Do you even know how to do any of those
things? MAYYA No, but I could learn. We should totally run
away together. CLIVE Yeah? Where would we go? MAYYA Russia. CLIVE Oh god no. There’s nothing there but snow and
vodka. I’ve seen plenty of pictures and it looks like a desolate wasteland full of- MAYYA I was born there. CLIVE Of wonderful people. Obviously. MAYYA You’ve never been. You don’t know. CLIVE Well…clearly. MAYYA I love Moscow. I was only there until I was
five, but all of it, it’s like…when you wake up and you can only remember the
bits and pieces of the dream that you had that night. It’s all so distant but
so very beautiful. CLIVE Did you live there with your parents? MAYYA Yeah, till my mother went crazy and ran away,
taking me with her. [Pause] CLIVE What was your father like? MAYYA He was big. CLIVE Most people are big when you’re only five
years old. MAYYA But he was gigantic. I remember when he’d
pick me up; I felt like I had scaled a mountain. I’ve seen pictures. A picture.
That was in my mother’s nightstand that I found in Jr. High one night after she
had passed out on the couch. It was of him, holding me in his arms, wearing
nothing but a tank top and shorts standing knee deep in snow. CLIVE Very Russian. MAYYA And I kept the photo with me at all times.
Until my mother found it and got so angry she took a pair of pliers to my
guitar and cut all the strings. CLIVE Do you know why your mother feels that way
about him? MAYYA No, she never talks about him…ever. I
sometimes think, you know, “What if he was a bad person? What if that’s why she
ran away from him and moved to America? To protect me.” CLIVE Ask her. MAYYA Please. CLIVE There’s no way you’ll ever know unless you
ask her. MAYYA That will never happen. CLIVE Has he ever tried to get a hold of you? MAYYA I’ve gotten letters from him before. I know I
have, I’ve seen how my mother reacts when she sees the mail. It’s been a while
though, at least since we’ve moved to San Francisco. CLIVE Try to find him online. MAYYA I’ve tried. I try all the time. I haven’t
found anything yet, I don’t even know where to begin. I’m just a kid, you know,
I don’t… CLIVE I’m sorry. MAYYA And I’m just-I find myself in my room
sometimes, by myself, playing guitar and dreaming that he’ll just walk through my
door, and I’ll see him standing there, and he’ll take me away from all of this.
From my mother. From school. And I’ll be happy. CLIVE Maybe it’ll happen one day. MAYYA Happy endings don’t really happen like that
in real life. CLIVE They can. MAYYA You don’t believe that. CLIVE No…I don’t. [The lights fade on both of them.] © 2013 Kevin
Author's Note
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Added on April 19, 2013 Last Updated on April 19, 2013 Tags: Play, Theatre, Drama, David Bowie, Music Author
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