All Back Full by Robert Lopez

Author:Robert Lopez
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: All Back Full
ISBN: 9780982797556
Publisher: Dzanc Books
Published: 2017-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

ACT III

The setting remains the same, an ordinary kitchen with a table and chairs.

It is the same Sunday, now evening.

The man is setting the table, which has been cleared of the beer and whiskey bottles, for supper.

The woman is also setting the table.

They are walking back and forth between the cupboards and table, each time retrieving something new, dinner plates, salad plates, water glasses, forks, knives, spoons, napkins.

They are using cloth napkins today, as it is Sunday.

The man says, How was the thing earlier?

The woman says, The shower, it was fine.

The man says, Did you enjoy yourself?

The woman says, It was a shower. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy myself.

The man says, I understand.

The woman says, There were women in suits. There was food. There were gifts. I found myself stealing away to the upstairs bathroom at one point, but, otherwise, it was fine.

The man says, What was the matter?

The woman says, I couldn’t take it anymore.

The man says, What couldn’t you take?

The woman says, I don’t like watching someone I don’t know opening gifts.

The man says, I thought you knew her. I thought she was a colleague.

The woman says, She was, years ago.

The man says, Why were you invited?

The woman says, I don’t know.

The man says, Why did you go?

The woman says, To be polite.

The man says, What did you give her?

The woman says, A toaster.

The man says, Is that a good gift?

The woman says, What do I care?

The man says, Well, then.

The woman says, Do you remember Georgia, the dog?

The man says, The crazy one?

The woman says, This was the woman who took her off our hands.

The man says, Is that right?

The woman says, It is.

The man says, How is Georgia?

The woman says, She got sick and had to be put down last year.

The man says, That’s terrible.

The woman says, Cancer.

The woman didn’t give the bride-to-be a toaster, but rather a gift certificate to a local spa that has an excellent reputation for using all-natural products.

The spa’s owner is a young woman from California. She has visited the woman for acupuncture several times to treat her carpal-tunnel syndrome, which has been debilitating.

She says, Women were laughing, sipping tea, eating gourmet cookies, and there was the bride-to-be, showcasing the ring for the throng. I couldn’t take it.

He says, I wouldn’t take it either.

She says, So there I was upstairs in the bathroom, smoking cigarettes. I was blowing smoke out of the window and flicking ash into the toilet. The sound it makes is a hissing, when it hits the water. You’ve got to try it sometime.

He says, A hissing?

She says, Go try it. It’s a great sound.

The woman has tried to quit smoking many times. She has chewed the gum, worn the patch.

The man doesn’t smoke.

Still, he fishes a cigarette out of the pack left on the kitchen counter and disappears upstairs.

The woman continues setting the table. She also stirs the pot.

The man has made a kind of chicken stew.

He prepared most of it while the woman was at the shower and before his friend came over.

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