Scene 4
SETTING: The stage is split between
DR. SILVA’S office and LUCKY’S
apartment.
AT RISE: LUCKY sits with DR. SILVA
in the office while GUTTERPUNK
JOSH, GAZ, TERRY, SCOUT and WAKELY
are gathered in LUCKY’S living
room. Both sides of the stage are
lit, with focus on LUCKY’S
apartment.
TERRY
Alright, I call this meeting to order. Since this is our
first meeting of the St. Augustine IWW, I’d say it’s best to
keep it informal and just figure out what we need to be
chartered as a branch. First order of business, do we have
any questions, comments, concerns?
GAZ
Well, I’m not sure. I don’t have a job, so I don’t know
what good a union would do me.
TERRY
Plenty! I heard you got turned down over some
bullshit. Anyway, a friend of mine is petitioning the City
Commission to add ’sexual orientation’ to the protections
against housing discrimination. I think if we’re to be a
public union, we should jump on that and extend it to the
workplace.
SCOUT
We should also extend those protections to ’gender identity’
GAZ
I’ll second that.
TERRY
Alright! See, you’re already thinkin’ like a union
member! Any opposed to workplace and housing protections
for ’sexual orientation’ and ’gender identity’?
GUTTERPUNK JOSH
Hell no!
TERRY
Good, motion passes. Does someone want to draft a
resolution to bring before the Commission?
SCOUT
I can do that.
They continue discussion while
lights come up on DR. SILVA’S
office.
LUCKY
I’m missing a meeting for this.
DR. SILVA
An important one?
LUCKY
I wouldn’t be upset if it weren’t important
DR. SILVA
Well, this is important as well, don’t you think?
LUCKY
Clearly my priorities are lost on you.
DR. SILVA
(sarcastically)
Tell me how you really feel.
LUCKY
I mean, seriously, you are like the most unprofessional
shrink.
DR. SILVA
Hmm. Well how are things with Scout?
LUCKY
Never been better.
DR. SILVA
Have you spoken to Terry lately?
LUCKY
All the time
DR. SILVA puts down her pen and
pad, looking straight at LUCKY
DR. SILVA
I thought we were doing alright. What’s the issue now?
LUCKY
Same as it always was. I don’t want to be here.
DR. SILVA
Nobody’s making you.
LUCKY
You know damn well that’s not true.
Lights shift back to LUCKY’S
apartment where everybody is in
animated conversation
TERRY
Alright, alright, here’s the thing: we need a solid
membership base which is damn near impossible in this
fuckin’ town, approval from HQ and State recognition as a
union which means we need active campaigns or else we’re
just a damn social club with no direction.
WAKELY
Well, my job sucks and I wanna make it better. I bet I
could get some of the other people who work there on board.
TERRY
Well hell, that’s all we need’s a union bar! Why didn’t you
speak up before?
SCOUT
Yeah, what’s it like at the Salted Snail anyway man? I
don’t think I’ve ever seen it busy in there.
WAKELY
Depends on the season. Fucked up thing is, I’m basically a
volunteer. We only work for tips and Bossman John steals
shifts to pay the fuckin’ bills.
TERRY
Sounds like a solid campaign to me.
Lights back on DR. SILVA’S office
where LUCKY is now pacing.
LUCKY
...and it’s fucked up they think I’m a fucking "danger to
myself and others" after all this time when the only thing I
fucking wanted was to be accepted or recognized or whichever
comes first. Scout has it easier because it’s ok for
assigned females to be masculine, but I ought to be ashamed
of myself because I’m not a fucking man? Don’t get me
wrong, ’ey gets all kinds of flack, ’ey gets read as a
"woman" a lot and people treat ’em like a fucking piece of
meat. I relate to ’em the way I do because I’m just as
fucking terrified of "men" as ’ey is. People like me, when
we get attacked or sexually abused or raped, it’s pretty
rare that we make it out alive. I’ll be lucky not to end up
in a shallow grave someday out in po’dunk nowhere because my
very existence is a fucking challenge to some dickhead’s
masculinity.
DR. SILVA
I think you might be overreacting a little.
LUCKY
Fuck overreacting! Do you want to know why I did it? I
lost my goddamn mind one day over something, I don’t
remember what, maybe it’s something my mom or dad said,
maybe I was just under too much pressure to be something I’m
not, but I fucking lost it. Before I knew what I was doing,
my arm was stuck through the glass door of my mother’s china
cabinet, the other one cocked back for another blow nothing
but blood and shattering glass and my parents screaming. It
was all the rage I’d built up and built up and finally it
just spilled all out. It was everything I had been
repressing, my sexuality, my gender identity, my
insecurities, my fear of being ’abnormal’ whatever the fuck
that means...
DR. SILVA
Maybe you should sit down ---
LUCKY
I just exploded. And they didn’t like the reality of it, of
who I was and who I am. Do you think I didn’t try to
apologize for the cabinet? The hospital bills? They
wouldn’t take me back if you paid them, not if I’m wearing
skirts and bras and taking hormones.
DR. SILVA
You’re taking hormones?
LUCKY
What?
DR. SILVA
You just said you’re taking hormones.
LUCKY stops pacing, sits down, head
in hands. Lights up on the
apartment.
SCOUT
Okay, so I’m drafting a resolution to take to City
Commission, Wake is joining up and starting a bar campaign,
GAZ
I’ll speak at the City Commission meeting if that’s an
option.
TERRY
That is always an option
SCOUT
Sweet. And ---
GUTTERPUNK JOSH
Josh will make the event for our next meeting, rep the union
around town and scout out a more suitable place to meet.
TERRY
Sounds good! Move to adjourn?
SCOUT
Second. After meeting smoke, anyone?
TERRY
I got cigarettes. Anything outside’a that I don’t need no
more of, the 60’s did me in with all that shit.
Everybody gets up, talks a
bit. TERRY exits as SCOUT reveals
a bong from underneath the couch,
packs it and passes it
around. Lights on DR. SILVA’S
office.
DR. SILVA
When were you planning to tell me you were self-medicating?
LUCKY
That was never really a plan, to be honest.
DR. SILVA
You know that this is incredibly dangerous, right? You
should really have some tests run before you do that. What
dosage are you taking?
LUCKY
The minimum.
DR. SILVA
Well, that’s good. Still incredibly unsafe though. Your
physician will need to be informed of this, you know.
LUCKY
You can’t ---
DR. SILVA
I have a legal obligation ---
LUCKY
to keep these talks private!
DR. SILVA
Listen...I won’t tell, but you have to. It’s for your own
safety. If you inform him you’re self-medicating, he will
have to give you the testing you need and prescribe you the
correct dosage. He could lose his medical license for
refusing you help.
LUCKY
Isn’t that blackmail?
DR. SILVA
Technically yes. But you don’t appear to have many other
options.
LUCKY
(smirking)
Seriously though, most unprofessional shrink I’ve ever met.
END SCENE
Fenced Out 