Thursday, October 18, 2007

A Short Play About The Space in My Head Reserved for Blogging


Curtain Rises on an long neglected room. There are large items covered with dusty white sheets stage left and right that could possibly be a couch and a chair. A desk sits against a back wall with a computer and monitor long untouched and turned off. Everything is dusty. The room is dimly lit.

Enter Meesh. She is a young woman in her late 20s to mid 30s of average height and weight. Her brown hair is pulled back into a ponytail by way of a baseball cap. Her blue jeans are old and broken in and her t-shirt looks like an old favorite. It is not tucked in. She opens a door stage right and pokes her head into the room.

Meesh: Hello? Anyone in here?

She tentatively steps into the room.

Meesh: Hello? (she looks around) I remember this place! Huh. Guess it’s been longer than I thought.

She walks over to the desk and tries to turn on the computer. It won’t start up. She checks to make sure it’s plugged in and tries again. Nothing. She gives up on that for the moment and heads over to the comfy chair and removes the sheet. A flurry of dust surrounds her and she sneezes. Once the sneezing fit has passed she plops down into the chair.

Meesh: (settling in) I missed it here. I wonder if anyone’s been by…

There is a sudden sound as if something is skittering across the floor. Meesh stiffens in the chair. The sound of skittering again followed by a thump and then:

Creature: Ow. Damnit.

Meesh jumps to her feet.

Meesh: Who’s there? (silence) Hey! Who’s in here?

Creature: (popping up from behind the desk) Well, la de da. Where the hell have you been?

The Creature is no more than three feet tall, covered in fur that would be brown were it not for all the dust and seems to have a stuffed up nose. She has ears like a fox, the general facial features of a bear and a long tail the ends in a tuft of fur. She is also possessed of a small pair of wings that are inclined to flutter when agitated. These wings are larger versions of what can be found on a dragon fly and do not look at all up to the task of actually achieving flight.

Meesh takes this all in for a second.

Meesh: Excuse me?

Creature: You disappear for months on end without so much as a word, not even an update! And you expect to come barging back in like nothing’s happened. Excuse me, Meesh but as far as I’m concerned you’re the one who should be explaining. So I’ll ask again, where the hell have you been?

Meesh: I don’t think I like your tone. Besides, I’m not inclined to answer interrogative questions from small furry creatures who know my name but don’t have the common courtesy to tell me theirs. (she plops back down in her chair)

Creature: I’m your cyber muse you fool! I’m the one who helps you find all that great stuff to blog about. My Little Ponies with suggestive poses – that was me. The story idea about the birth control pills on campus getting more expensive – me. The Supreme Court passing stupid decisions down about abortion – me again! I can’t believe you don’t recognize me. We used to work together at least once a week!

Meesh: Wait a minute…you’re the little creature in my subconscious that helps me sort through the news and decide what to write about! But I never see you. You always hang out behind the scenes. I thought you didn’t like come out much.

Creature: What’s the point of hiding out? You haven’t been here in months.

Meesh: I’m sorry. Things have been…well…weird lately.

Creature: Weird? You want to know about weird? The Little Ponies you blogged about have been through here every day looking for you and now they’re starting to follow Helen Thomas around. You need to sort out your posts, my dear.

Meesh: Sorry. I will be by more often. I promise. It’s just that my life has been changing a lot and I don’t have much spare time.

Creature: You can make time. What’s been going on anyway?

Meesh: Well…I have a new job at Cal State Northridge that I really like and then I’m taking classes four nights a week. And these are upper division classes with a lot of writing requirements. And I have this amazing new person in my life and we go out every now and then. And then there’re all the doctor’s appointments and the radiation treatments. Not to mention all the home work, did I tell you about the homework and weekends at my mom’s here and there and…

Creature: Back up! What radiation treatments?

Meesh: (all innocence) Hmmm?

Creature: Why are you getting radiated?

Meesh: (sigh) Because I have a stage one cancer.

Creature: (fluttering closer) Say again?

Meesh: I got a little stage one cancer and they have to give me radiation every morning so I kind of feel like crap and mostly want to nap all the time.

Creature: (walking up to her and placing a paw on her knee) Are you going to be ok?

Meesh: Oh yeah. I’ll be fine once it’s all over. It’s just pretty sucky right now ‘cause the radiation is killing a lot of white blood cells and I get run down. My doctors are really good and they’re keeping an eye on things, though.

Creature: Oh. That’s good then. (she sits on the floor near her feet and looks up at her) So are you gonna come by here more often? Your blog misses you and someone has to keep these ponies you wrote about in line. They’re randy little things. They won’t listen to me. I’m just a muse you know.

Meesh: I’d like to stop in more often but what can I write about here anymore? I’m so busy writing for my classes I hardly have the time anymore.

Creature: You could write about your classes…or post some of the stories you’ve written for your journalism class…or tell us about what’s going on in you Women in Media classes. That way you could review your material and share cool info with the other blog people. I bet they miss you too.

Meesh: You might be right. I could easily blog about my classes like last semester. And my Women in Media class is pretty interesting. We did this whole thing on Barbie last week that was pretty cool. Did you know she was modeled after a naughty sex doll from Germany?

Creature: You don’t say?

Meesh: Yeah and then they marketed the doll to mothers as a way of teaching their daughters how to grow up and catch a husband so…hey! I see what you’re doing here.

Creature: What?

The Creature gets up and flutters over to the computer desk. With a flick of a switch she is able to fire up the computer and the screen is soon open to a blank word document. Meesh walks over to the desk in amazement and sits down in front of the computer. The Creature plops down on the floor next to her.

Creature: So…tell me about Barbie…

Fade to black out and
Curtain

6 comments:

The Lone Beader® said...

Brilliant! i have a cyber-muse, too... It keeps telling me to do beadwork, and research stories to go along with it.... So, I do. :)

Thanks for stoppin by today.

bazu said...

Meeeeesh! We've missed you!
I'm so sorry to hear about the cancer and the radiation treatments. {hug} How are you juggling that plus school plus writing plus work? You brilliant woman, you. I'm glad to hear that you are going to be ok soon. Meanwhile, I'm glad you'll be able to blog once in a while, because I love hearing and learning from what you have to say.
I know the strange ways of the blogging muse myself, so hang in there!

S said...

I've missed you. And your thoughtful and considerate prose. As for every morning. EEK! But, I know that you're the toughest chick I know so you're gonna be FINE.

Love you!

Unknown said...

what a magnificent way to let people know you have cancer!

I am sorry but you seem to be handling it quite nicely..better than most I would say.

This is such a perfect post..and so fun and interesting..

YOu have the gift dear woman..you are a writer. Bless you Meesh.

88 said...

Oh I missed you! Thankyou for the wonderful post and letting us know about the cancer. Holy crap! I believe that positive thoughts can do wonders and I'm sending you millions.
Be well and take care of yourself!!!!

Cherry Red said...

Meesh,

I haven't been by to check your blog lately and I'm catching up on old posts.

I'm so sorry to hear about your cancer and I'm glad to hear it was only stage one. (Only she says, like it's nothing.) I didn't mean it that way. I've never had cancer, but I know secondhand how hard it is going through all the treatments, etc since my best friend was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer a year and a half ago. She was cancer-free at her one year check up, BTW, after going through a lumpectomy, chemo and radiation. I don't wish that hell on anyone, and certainly not someone as nice as you.

Please let me know if there is anything you need.

Hugs,
Kim
PS. I love the script and the muse.