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Borderline: Wake up callmature

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Scene 1: Mid-morning. Jonas is in bed, naked under sheets. He wakes hungover and alone. Darla, his wife of five years, is sitting expressionless on a couch in the adjacent room. There is a closed door separating the two. She rises, and enters the bedroom. 
 

Darla: What are you still doing here? 

Jonas: What? 

Darla: You heard me. 

Jonas: What are you talking about? 

Darla: I smelled you when you came home last night. You smelled like soap. 

Jonas: Like soap? 

Darla: Yes. You took a shower last night, before you came home. 

Jonas: What are you talking about? 

Darla: Get your %^&*. I never want to see you again. (exits bedroom, slamming the door behind her) 

(Jonas rises from bed, dresses haphazardly, follows Darla into the living room where she is seated on the couch, staring blankly) 

Jonas: You can’t !#@&ing do this again. You can’t up and accuse me of cheating at the slightest irregularity. 

Darla: Whatever, I don’t want to fight with you. Just get your &^&# and leave.

Jonas: Wait, hold on -- you’re saying I showered before I came home last night? 

Darla: Yes. I smelled you. I smelled you head to toe. There’s no way you were walking around the city all day, drinking, smoking, eating and sweating and you come home smelling like Irish Spring, Jonas. You took a shower. 

Jonas: I did not ^*##ing shower! You can’t do this, not again. It’s just like the time with the phone book and the time I helped that girl with her luggage at the airport--

Darla (overlapping): Just go! I know what you did! Go! 

(Darla gets up to try and get away from Jonas who is now on both knees inches from her face. He rises with her, grabs her arm and forcibly replants her onto the sofa)

Darla: Oww **%$&@@^&&^i

Jonas: You’re delusional! I did not ^*$!ing shower! You can’t just up and accuse me of cheating any time you ^##%ing feel like it! This is insane. Five years of marriage and I’ve never been unfaithful to you, and this is what I get? @&^$ing repeatedly! 

Darla (very deadpan): Get your !^#$ and go. 

(long pause while they stare at one another) 

(Jonas rises, grabs his shoes which are next to the front door, and exits, not bothering to put them on) 

(Darla, now alone on the sofa, sits expressionless for a moment, then breaks down into tears. After a while she composes herself, reapplying a blank expression, then reaches between the cushions of the sofa, retrieving a bottle she upends into her mouth. She lights a cigarette.) 

(A spotlight fixes on Darla and the rest of the room goes dark. She looks up into the light addressing it.) 

Darla: Did he? 

(long pause) 

(The doorbell rings and normal lighting resumes. Darla answers the door, clearly not in a hurry, expecting it to be Jonas. Enter Liliana, Jonas‘s mother.) 

Liliana: Hi Dear, I have those borderline personality disorder pamphlets you wanted for your friend… Honeypie, what’s the matter? Are you okay? What’s wrong? 

Darla: I was just watching a movie… Glory. (laughing softly) I cry every time. 

Liliana: Honey, your eyes are swollen. What happened? Is Jonas home? (looks around for Jonas) You two have a fight? 

(pause) 

Liliana: Oh Honey you’ve been drinking. Put that away. Come sit down. (leads Darla by the hand back to the couch) That is not the way to deal with your problems. Come on. Let’s do Sea of Tranquility together. Now is the perfect time.  

(they sit) 

Liliana: Okay now close your eyes, and I want you to relax your muscles starting with your toes, up into your calves and thighs, your butt, up your back, your arms, and all the way up your shoulders and neck. Knots are untying, and all you’re attention is on your breathing.  

(Darla sits all the while, pinching her inner forearms with her fingernails, drawing blood.) 

Liliana: You’re imagining all that is ailing you being mashed into a little ball, a tight, compact little ball, and that ball leaving your body, either through your chest, or through the top of your head, and then it begins to hover, and now it’s leaving -- up through the roof, over the buildings downtown, past the mountains, and into the sea, where it disappears, and when it disappears you’re going to open your eyes. 

(Liliana opens her eyes) 

Liliana: Now how do you feel? My goodness! How did that happen? 

Darla: I cut myself earlier on a broken dish-- 

Liliana (overlapping): Darla I want you to repeat after me. How ever you’re feeling I want you to say these words, “This is coming from me, and I can control it.” 

(pause) 

Darla: This is coming from me, and I can control it.

The End
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