Don't Let Them See the True You

This task was to write a scene which ends halfway through the story at a moment of time described by a picture.
​
ACT 1
 
Scene 1
 
SETTING:
The stage is set with two scraggly trees on either side. There is a small mound of dirt and grass with some toys littered around in the center of downstage. The backdrop has a full scale child’s drawing of a house made on thin paper.
 

AT RISE:
A young girl, MARCIE, sits on stage cross legged with a red shirt on. She’s proudly playing with some sand toys. She thinks that since she is going to school now, she knows everything. MARCIE is not nasty, just precocious.

 
 
MARCIE
My mommy says I shouldn’t put my fingers in my mouth when I’m playing in the garden. She says a lot of things. I just tell her I really like the way the worms feel on my gums.
(MARCIE grins a big grin and it is obvious she has recently lost some teeth)
 
MARCIE (CONT’D)
She didn’t like that very much, I had to sit there for a whole hour while she went on and on about how she thought it was just dirt that I was eating and how she doesn’t understand why I don’t go and play with other kids instead of the creepy crawlies that live around the garden. What she doesn’t understand is that they aren’t all crawlies. Worms are the coolest; they slither and dig and can escape almost anywhere. Except my mouth.
 
Slaters are my second favourite. I recently learnt that word… slaters. They’re little bugs that are made up of a ton of little grey sections. When I come near them, they roll up into a little ball so they can’t be hurt.
 
(MARCIE gets up and walks towards the audience. She sticks her hands in her pockets and then gestures grandly to the world.)

---

​
MARCIE (CONT’D)
I can’t wait to be as tall as my mommy. She can reach all the really cool bugs. Like the ones that can go all the way up to the tippy top of the trees.
 
(She pauses abruptly)
 
You know, you can probably reach those bugs too.
 
(She turns around, out from behind one of the trees comes a tall thin man dressed in grimy, black clothes.
 
Grant smirks and looks disinterested. Suddenly a tired, middle aged woman in relatively cheap work clothes steps onto the other side of the stage.)
 
LOUISE
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE. I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO NEVER FUCKING COME BACK TO THIS GODDAMN HOUSE.
 
(MARCIE looks nonplussed, maybe slightly annoyed that she can’t get the bugs anymore. She sits back down in her starting position. The only difference between the start and now, is that the two adults are flanking her in the background. MARCIE starts humming a little tune. LOUISE is gesticulating aggressively at GRANT who motions back with obvious attitude. Eventually he leaves which prompts LOUISE to leave.  He comes back onstage and is greeted by LOUISE who is dressed in a different outfit. She gesticulates and then he leaves. This cycle happens twice more. Each time LOUISE looks a little bit more dishevelled and GRANT slumps a little less. MARCIE sits center stage, unbothered)
 
MARCIE
I think it all went wrong when my mommy started calling me ladybird. She said it was because I loved being around flowers, but it was only later that I found out ladybirds eat up to 5,000 bugs in their lifetimes. She also told me that it is really important to try to work harder than your competitors, so I’m going to try to beat them. Ladybugs are kind of boring though. I think they get way too much credit from everyone else. They’re not that pretty and mom said that the whores at her office only got their jobs because they’re pretty but not because they work hard, which I think is absolutely true about ladybugs too. The orange ones are alright. A little bit different, but pretty much the same as the red ones. In spring we used to have tulips that bloomed in the garden which the orange ones looked really pretty on. I like colour a lot. In spring we have the white and the pink and the yellow and the red. I used to try to draw them, but they’re all dead now. Can you get me some more flowers?
 
(MARCIE looks over at the tree and GRANT steps out from behind it.)
 
GRANT
Eh. Who’s going to take care of them? You’re not old enough to do much of anything yet and heaven knows your mother doesn’t give a shit.
 
MARCIE
Nono I’m all big and strong now! I have my own watering can and everything.
 
(MARCIE holds up a watering can. It is faded and the handle is broken. It’s obviously old.)
 
MARCIE (CONT’D)
Can you show me how to fill it with water?
 
GRANT
Heh. Yeah. If you want.
 
(Extended pause)
 
GRANT (CONT’D)
So. What’ve you been up to you. Do you have a boyfriend yet?
 
MARCIE
EW. Dad I am wayyy too young to have a boyfriend. All the boys are icky and pick their noses.
 
GRANT
Well shit. I don’t know. What do you like?
 
MARCIE
I really like bugs.
 
GRANT
Huh. Yeah I guess I should have known that. Ladybugs you said? No. You don’t like ladybugs. It’s caterpillars or something squirmy.
 
MARCIE
WORMS!
 
(They walk towards the pile of toys, which GRANT starts picking up and fiddling with. He picks up a magnifying glass.)
 
MARCIE (CONT’D)
Worms are so cool. You know, they get paralysed in the sunlight. They go out onto the pavement and become all stunned. Then, after the rain has dried up, they become crispy. Kinda like bacon.
 
(GRANT actually looks mildly interested for the first time)
 
GRANT
I never thought I would say this, but your mom is right. Don’t eat the worms. Ya know. This kid I knew when I was little was dared to eat a slug. He ate it, but after a few days his body started to shut down and became paralysed. He died later that year.
 
(pause, chuckle)
 
I’m starting to sound like you now with all this bug shit.
 
MARCIE
Well everyone knows that slugs have bacteria so that was really dumb of the boy. Slugs have bacteria, toilets have bacteria and food that has been sitting out and gone all green and fuzzy has bacteria.
(said manner of factly and naively as if nothing else in the world has bacteria.)
 
GRANT
You know what I really loved as a kid. I loved going over jumps. That little car you have. Let’s see what we can do.
 
(GRANT pulls over a plank of wood and sets it up on the mound of dirt in the middle of the stage. He picks up MARCIE and swings her into the car. He runs around the stage pushing her while she giggles and waves her arms.
 
GRANT
Try standing up!
 
MARCIE
This is so fun! Mommy never plays with me like this.
 
(She tries standing up and messing around.)
 
GRANT
Okay! Now for the big one. Hold on tight.
(GRANT runs towards the jump. When he gets to mid-air the car starts to tip and MARCIE starts to roll out the side. As it starts to get precarious LOUISE steps out on stage and her face is transformed into shock, fear and horror.)