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Girls and Boys, When They Sit in Trees and Share Their Toys

THE GIRL and THE BOY are in a kitchen, or in a car. They are very young. They might be crying, but probably not.

THE GIRL

HE MET AT THE HOMECOMING

DANCE WHO TOLD HIM

THEY WOULD NEVER MARRY

The books are the only things left.

THE BOY

WHO LIKED TO DRIVE FAST

CARS WHO WISHED HER BOOBS

WERE BIGGER

And you expect me to just hand them over?

THE GIRL

WHO LIKED TO READ BOOKS

   Did you read the books?

THE BOY

WHO HATED SUMMER

                   Only the one book.

THE GIRL

WHOSE PARENTS LET HIM

SLEEP IN HER BED

   Which one?

THE BOY

WHO LOVED HER OR SO HE

THOUGHT

   The one with your notes in it.

THE GIRL

WHO BOUGHT HIM AN

AIRPLANE LEGO SET FOR

HIS 19th BIRTHDAY TO WHICH

HE SAID I ONLY LIKE THE

STAR WARS LEGOS

   I didn’t write any notes.

THE BOY

   WHO BOUGHT HER DIAMONDS FOR

   HER BIRTHDAY AND RECEIVED

   ONLY A POLITE SMILE

   IN RESPONSE

   What were the notes then?

THE GIRL

   WHO THREW UP HER DINNER

   WHEN HE TOLD HER SHE WAS FAT

   They were already in the book when I bought it.

   My flight is at 12:45 tomorrow.

THE BOY

WHO HOARDED FOOD WHEN SHE

TOLD HIM HE WAS TOO SKINNY

   And?

THE GIRL

WHO HAD SWORN THAT SHE

WOULD NEVER LET A MAN’S

OPINION DICTATE HER CHOICES

   I thought you might want to know.

THE BOY

WHO EXPECTED SEX SIMPLY

BECAUSE SHE WAS HIS GIRLFRIEND

AND THAT IS WHAT GIRLFRIENDS

ARE SUPPOSED TO DO

   I didn’t.

THE GIRL

WHO WOULDN’T WEAR THONGS

EVEN WHEN HE ASKED NICELY

   Are you going to give me back my books?

THE BOY

WHO WAS JEALOUS OF OTHER BOYS

   I will if you kiss me.

THE GIRL

WHO WAS JEALOUS OF OTHER GIRLS

   Your kisses hurt.

THE BOY

WHO PAID $75 TO BUY HER THE

CUSTOM CORSAGE SHE DEMANDED

FOR PROM EVEN THOUGH HIS FRIENDS

ONLY PAID $40 FOR THEIR DATES

   Not even to say goodbye?

THE GIRL

   WHO WAS ALLERGIC TO GRASS

   I said goodbye a long time ago. You just weren’t

   listening.

THE BOY

   SHE LOVED OR SO HE THOUGHT

   And that’s why you won’t touch me?

THE GIRL

   WHO WEPT THE FIRST TIME AND

   THE SECOND TIME AND THE THIRD

   TIME AND THE FOURTH TIME

   Give me my books.

THE BOY

SHE CALLED EVERY NIGHT

If I threw these books at your eyes, one after the

other, your eyes would turn black. They would grow two

sizes, they would explode. You’d have to grope around

with your hands in the dark, because you’d have no eyes,

because I would have your eyes forever.

THE GIRL

   WHO SWORE TO BE FREE

   I need them back so I can rip them apart. So I can burn

   them.

THE BOY

   WHO LIKED HER PUDDING AND PIE,

   WHO KISSED

   Like I ripped you apart?

THE GIRL

AND MADE HER CRY

Are you going to give me my books?

 

 

END OF PLAY

 


Anna Miles has been creating feminist theatrical spaces and experiences as an actor, director and playwright professionally since 2013. She holds a BA in Theater and Creative Writing from Northwestern University, where her play It Was the Nightingale: Persephone’s Play was workshopped under the mentorship of Lookingglass Theater’s founding member David Catlin. She went on to earn her master’s from Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company MFA Programs in Acting and Directing, where she continued her playwriting studies under Trinity Rep’s resident playwright, Deborah Salem Smith, and where her play Alice’s Sordid Adventures Into What Was Once a Wonderland was selected for a staged reading. Anna’s work has most recently been produced at the Chance Theater in Anaheim, CA: her short plays Thinking of Monkeys and The Highest Shelf debuted as part of the company’s annual Chance-A-Thon festivals in 2017 and 2018, and her play Think of Me, Fred Weasley performed at both the Chance Theater and the Little Victory Theater in Burbank in Summer of 2018. Her non-fiction and fiction writing has been published in Prompt Magazine, the Ms. Millennial Blog, and Z Publishing’s “California’s Emerging Writers” series.

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