Lights up on a couple on a porch.
Dolores: Don’t start. Please just don’t do this right now-
Bill: Two weeks ago you said you wanted space and I gave you your precious god damn space. I didn’t call, I didn’t text, I didn’t even go to the diner in the morning because I knew you’d be working- and you don’t want to do this right now?
Dolores: Bill, please-
Bill: No! No, god damn it, no Dora….I want to know if it’s true.
Dolores: It’s?
Bill: Dora.
Dolores: It was just dinner….
Bill: So, it wasn’t you spending the night at his place last night?
Dolores: How-
Bill: He lives in the same building as Jerry- you didn’t think my cousin wouldn’t find it odd that the woman I want to marry is parked outside of Taylor Matthew’s apartment on a Thursday night?
Dolores: Marr--when did it become Jerry’s business where I park my car? I had an engine problem-
Bill: And instead of calling me, the only mechanic in this two by four town, you parked it at the butcher’s place?
Dolores: Bill, you need to leave. I am not doing this.
Bill: Baby…just tell me if it’s true…
Dolores: Don’t. Don’t call me that…
Bill: Baby, look at me…look at me, baby, come on…
Dolores: Leave. Just go….
Bill: It’s driving me crazy, Baby…just tell me if it’s true.
Dolores: I…god, I just…Bill…
Bill: Yea, baby…it's okay...I’m right here.
Dolores: I just don’t know what I’m doing anymore. This whole life just doesn’t make sense to me, working at a diner, suffocating in my own skin and barely able to close my eyes without thinking this isn’t right-
Bill: Just tell me, baby. Not knowing is killing me.
Dolores: Not knowing?
Bill: …Yea, just tell me if it’s true. I just need to know if you and Taylor-
Dolores: You just need to know if we’re what?
Bill: God, baby, you know…
Dolores: You’re serious... You’re fucking serious.
Bill: Dora-
Dolores: You don’t miss me…you don’t love me, you just want to know if someone else wants me- is that it?
Bill: Dora, baby, of course I miss you-
Dolores: Because of Taylor. Because you can’t bear Taylor playing with your toys even if you don’t even want them anymore! God, I am so incredibly stupid! I thought-ha- I thought you wanted me….
Dolores is unable to prevent herself from breaking down into hysterical laughter as Bill watches unsettled.
Bill: Dolores, you’re acting odd.
Dolores: Oh, yea, well can’t have me having any sort of emotional catharsis, can we?
Bill: Emotional-God’s eyes, woman, you have to throw those big fucking words around, don’t you?
Dolores: I’m not talking down to you, Bill! I’m just talking! I’m sorry you don’t know what catharsis means or how to get figure out what a twenty percent tip is- but I’m just talking, I’m not trying to offend you, I’m just trying to explain what I’m going through-
Bill: I’m not leaving this porch until you tell me what I want to know.
A silence falls as the two refuse to budge. Finally.
Dolores: I didn’t want to hurt you.
Nothing.
Dolores: I just wanted to see if there was anything else…
Bill: You couldn’t be satisfied with me? You couldn’t let me love you?
Dolores: You didn’t love me, Bill.
Bill: Baby-
Dolores: I am not your baby anymore! Stop calling me baby! Baby, get me a soda. Baby, you look a mess. You should get a better job, Baby. Hey, baby, how about you cook tonight? Baby, baby, baby! I am so tired of being your baby!
Dolores: There’s a whole lot more to a relationship other than being someone’s baby. And no, I don’t love Taylor and I miss you sometimes so bad it feels like I’m about to be swallowed by it-
Bill: Dora-
Dolores: But I don’t want to be yours or anyone else’s baby. Now or ever again. Not when it means you can run me ragged with endearments and empty promises and never mean the words.
Bill: But he-
Dolores: He calls me Dolores. He calls me when he is thinking of me and he calls me Dolores when he wants me to smile at him and he calls me Dolores when he’s mad at me- but he doesn’t call me baby and he doesn’t own me. No one owns me, Bill. I’m done with that. I’m not a baby.
Silence.
Bill: It’s him or me.
Dolores: Bill, I-
Bill: Him or me. Just tell me and I’ll go.
Dolores gives Bill one last look, shakes her head and enters into her home. Bill goes to follow her but the lock clicks into place, leaving him alone on the porch.
Bill: You can’t ignore me baby! You can’t just walk away like that and leave me just standing here like a-
Dolores throws the door open and throws a fishing pole into Bill’s chest.
Dolores: I choose to be alone. Now get the hell of my front porch before I get the BB gun out.
Bill: I’m not coming back.
Dolores: Good. Because I wouldn’t want to hurt you anymore.
Silence. Bill decides to try one last time.
Bill: Baby…
The door slams. It does not open again, no matter Bill’s plaintive “babies…” or his curses. He finally walks off the porch and exits and the lights lower. Dolores shadow curled up in the fetal position falling across the stage before straightening and striding off stage.
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