Here is the script. Sorry about the formatting:
At RISE:
ACE sits in a chair facing stage right. An empty seat is in front of him and also
behind him. A COP walks in with MAN IN
BLACK LEOTARDS and sits him facing away from ACE.
COP
Sit here and
wait until you are called.
The MAN IN BLACK LEOTARDS does a “tip of
the hat and a bow” to the COP. The COP shakes his head and walks off.
DR. DUNN walks in wearing a suit jacket.
DR.
DUNN
Hello Mr.
Clover. I'm Paul Dunn. I work for the county as a… helper.
ACE
You mean
psychologist?
DR.
DUNN
That sounds so
formal, Mr. Clover. If you want
formality, you can call me Dr. Dunn.
ACE
Hello Dr.
Dunn. Please, call me Ace.
DR.
DUNN
You know, Ace,
it usually it takes about six hours to get a doctor over here to the station.
But I had one client get sick and another escape so my entire morning was open.
ACE
Yes. Lucky me.
DR.
DUNN
It gave me
time to take a nice relaxing walk in the park all alone to gather my thoughts.
ACE
It’s good to
be alone sometimes…
DR.
DUNN
So, I'm here
because you have refused to get a lawyer, you won’t answer any questions and
yet you aren’t requesting to leave. They think you are traumatized. They want
to know if you are capable of even answering questions.
ACE
So basically
they want to know if I’m crazy.
DR.
DUNN
Well, to be
honest, yes.
ACE
Do I get to
look at the ink splotches? I love those tests.
DR.
DUNN
No. We are
just going to talk. I'll write down some notes. Then I'll talk to the judge and
see if we can't.. oh crap...my favorite pen is broken... AND LEAKING! All over
my papers!
(Dr.
Dunn stands up and wipes ink from his hands and reveals an ink splotch on the
paper.)
ACE
I see a knife
stuck in someone’s back.
DR.
DUNN
What?
ACE
The ink blot test...
on your paper.. a knife. In someone’s back.
DR.
DUNN
Oh, I see it
now.
ACE
Here, you can
borrow my pen.
DR.
DUNN
Thanks. Wow,
that’s a weird looking pen. So, why won't you get a lawyer?
ACE
I don't need
one.
DR.
DUNN
You could be
in some very big trouble here. You were
found standing over that bleeding woman. She's in a coma and it’s not looking
good.
ACE
I called 911. That’s
more than just standing over her.
DR.
DUNN
There were no
other witnesses. You seem guilty because you won’t talk.
ACE
In the end,
they’ll find me innocent. They want me here for questions and I don’t need to
answer them just yet. I’ll talk soon enough. I’m sure things will turn in my
favor. They always do. I’m very lucky.
DR.
DUNN
Being lucky
means capitalizing on random opportunities. Nothing more.
ACE
Not for me.
DR.
DUNN
What do you
mean?
ACE
I’m
lucky. Good things happen to me.
DR.
DUNN
You’re not
lucky right now.
ACE
My luck will
turn.
DR.
DUNN
Some people
are good observers. Lucky people find a $20 bill on the ground because they
notice it when so-called unlucky person doesn’t.
ACE
No. It’s more
than that. I’ve been lucky my whole life… but the people around me… they’ve
been unlucky. It’s as if my luck is only based on the misfortune of others.
DR. DUNN
(writing and speaking to himself)
Over-inflated
sense of ego…
ACE
It’s not that.
It’s… it’s luck! The worst kind of lucky.
DR.
DUNN
It’s
coincidence.
(When
ACE speaks about the individual scenarios, the MAN
IN BLACK LEOTARDS
acts
them out.)
ACE
I used to
think that. When I was 8, I wanted the neighbor’s bike. He had an accident when
the brakes failed and was paralyzed. His parents gave me the bike.
(MAN
IN BLACK LEOTARDS Hit by car pantomime.)
DR.
DUNN
That’s more
unfortunate for him than it was lucky for you.
ACE
At 12, I was
the worst kid on the baseball team. We made it to the playoffs and both teams’
Gatorade made everyone but me sick. The coach had no choice but to put me in.
The pitcher couldn’t throw strikes. I got hit by a pitch and the puking runner
on third threw up all the way home for the winning run.
(MAN
IN BLACK LEOTARDS Sick, baseball, puking pantomime.)
DR.
DUNN
That’s just
gross.
ACE
At 16 I wanted
a car. I found $5000 in the street. No one claimed the money, but later we found
out it was dropped when a man was shoved into traffic while leaving the bank.
(MAN
IN BLACK LEOTARDS counting money, pushed in traffic pantomime.)
DR.
DUNN
Everyone gets
lucky. Look, I found this gold coin I
found in the park this morning.
ACE
I’m different.
DR.
DUNN
Ace… do you
know about Indian rain dances?
ACE
Sure. Indians
dance and then it rains.
DR.
DUNN
Sure. But did
you know that they work 100% of the time?
ACE
Now that’s
impossible. Dancing doesn’t make it rain.
DR.
DUNN
The way a rain
dance works is that they dance until it does rain. It’s got to rain some time.
They just dance until it does. When it does, they give credit to the dancing.
ACE
What’s that
have to do with me?
DR.
DUNN
You probably
wish for 100 things a day. When something does happen for you, you forget the
99 other wishes and remember the one.
You just keep wishing for things and when something does randomly fall
in your lap, you blame luck.
ACE
I don’t sit
around wishing all day. As a matter of fact, I spend a lot of time trying not
to wish for anything so that the people around me aren’t hurt. I only wish when
I really need to use it. When I feel like my back is against a wall.
DR.
DUNN
So now you are
a superhero with superpowers?
ACE
At 23, I was
poor, out of work airplane mechanic and in love with a woman who was in love
with my best friend. I loved her with
all my heart. One day I wished we could be together. He was killed in an
industrial accident when he fell down a set of stairs, was impaled on a set of
decorative spears and then fell in a pit of acid. She collected from a huge lawsuit and I was
there to help her through her grief.
(MAN
IN BLACK LEOTARDS falls down stairs, is impaled by spears and falls in acid.
Then, man giving woman hug pantomime.)
DR.
DUNN
That’s a
complete and horrible coincidence.
ACE
If I wish for
something hard enough, I’ll get it.
DR.
DUNN
Still… it
could all be random chance. Couldn’t it?
ACE
Her parents
didn’t bless our relationship. They said they would do everything they could to
keep us apart. I wished they could see
things in a different way. As luck would have it, they died in a small plane
crash and we were able to marry.
(MAN
IN BLACK LEOTARDS Horrible plane crash pantomime.)
DR.
DUNN
You are
beginning to scare me.
ACE
And now, in a
hospital across town, she is dying. She
needs a full liver, kidney and heart transplant. We have the money to pay for it, but not the
organs.
DR. DUNN
I’m sorry to
hear that.
ACE
Worse yet, she
has a very rare blood type.
DR.
DUNN
It seems your
luck has now completely run out.
ACE
Well. You see…
this morning I made a wish.
DR.
DUNN
What are you
saying?
ACE
I wished that
my wife would get better. That she would be able to get the transplant.
DR.
DUNN
The stabbed
woman?
ACE
The woman who
was stabbed… If I’m very lucky, she’ll die and be a donor with my wife’s extremely
rare blood type.
DR.
DUNN
That’s
impossible.
ACE
It’s highly
improbable.
DR.
DUNN
You… you
murdered her!
ACE
It was some
other guy. As a matter of fact, from a distance, he looked a lot like you.
DR.
DUNN
What?
ACE
Yes. Someone
with your looks. Now as I recall, now as the trauma has dissipated, I seem to remember him stabbing her in the
neck. Maybe with a pen.
DR.
DUNN
They won’t
believe you. I have an alibi… I was…
ACE
As luck you
would have it, you were walking in the park alone this morning. With no witnesses.
Except an off duty mime that saw you from afar…
DR.
DUNN
No!
ACE
And I’m
guessing that woman was a rare coin collector and that she is missing a rare
gold coin.
DR.
DUNN
You are
insane! That’s crazy.
ACE
Is it?
The COP walks it and speaks to the MAN
IN BLACK LEOTARDS
COP
Alright, pal.
Time to look at photos and see if you can pick out the man you saw stab the
woman.
The MAN IN BLACK LEOTARDS beings
pointing to the two other men and miming a stabbing motion.
COP
That’s him?
The MAN IN BLACK LEOTARDS nods and the
COP walks over to the two.
COP
That pen! It
matches the wound on her neck!
DR.
DUNN
It’s not mine!
It’s his!
(The cop reaches in DR. DUNN’s jacket pocket.)
COP
The missing
gold coin. You’re coming with me, murderer.
(The COP drags him off. The MAN IN BLACK
LEOTARDS follows making hanging pantomimes.)
DR.
DUNN
No! It was
him. He set this all up. He did it. He’s the one! He’s….. he’s….
ACE
Very lucky.
THE
END
