What Comes Next (a play in one act)

CAST -

Lizzy Fletcher - 22 - An angel, guiding her friend through purgatory. She’s slightly more responsible, put together, and focused, but still a college student who is growing.

Thea Waters - 21 - A soul trapped in a loop, repeating her last lucid memory before the accident that took her life. Sporadic, risky, and frightened of what she cannot control.

SCENE - a couch in a college apartment. The room is sparse, with an end table at one side of the couch and a floor lamp at the other, a low coffee table in front. There is a slightly odd amount of envelopes scattered everywhere. Sure the room is small, but it’s homey, and these two friends are comfortable, so what else really matters? There is clearly an unspoken seating arrangement, as when THEA enters from stage right with two mail items and promptly tosses them into the piles, they comfortably sit at the end of the couch with the side table next to it. 

THEA - Hey, Lizzy, I’m back.

LIZZY - Hey, what up?

THEA - Not much, almost got crushed by a semi while I was doin’ 90 in a 65 on my way back from class. Brought the mail in. (sits)

LIZZY - Jesus Christ! 90?! You gotta stop speeding on that bike. 

THEA - I’m a whore for the thrill, what can I say?

LIZZY - What would your parents think? I’m never letting my kids get a bike, knowing you. At least get a car if you’re gonna be a road racer, it's safer.

THEA - I am… I'm looking…

LIZZY - Oh yeah, at what?

THEA - A two toned maroon and silver 99’ Suburban, if you must know.

LIZZY - Okay, Jesus.

( a quiet moment passes, THEA grabs a drink and the two settle in, watching the tv, flipping through a magazine, typing on a computer, etc.)

LIZZY - Did Dr. Holster ever grade that paper?

THEA - (Watching the T.V., not listening) Hmm?

LIZZY - The paper, the one- (THEA cuts her off before she can finish, in that half listening, didn’t-answer-fast-enough way)

THEA - Oh, no.

LIZZY - Don’t know why I’m shocked.

THEA - Literally. 

LIZZY - Remember how last year, he waited until-

THEA - Until like an hour before-

LIZZY - before the final and-

THEA - And you couldn’t check your grade because the-

LIZZY - Because nothing was updated!

(pause)

THEA - So you went in blind.

LIZZY - I had it.

THEA - You did, I don’t see you back in that class again.

LIZZY - It would have been the final straw.

THEA - (pause, attention back on T.V.) Yep.

(a moment passes)

LIZZY - I’m starving.

THEA - Um, (turns to stage left) I think that bag of chips Auggie left is still in the pantry.

LIZZY - What are they?

THEA - What?

LIZZY - Yeah, what are they? 

THEA - Hell if I know, I just saw the edge behind a box. The blue-

LIZZY - Oh, ew.

THEA - (getting up) Ew? You don’t even know what kind they are. (exits stage left)

LIZZY - If they’re what I think they are, it's an ew.

THEA - (reentering, holding Cool Ranch Doritos)

THEA - No way you said “ew” to cool ranch.

LIZZY - You’d say yes?

THEA - Yes I’d say yes! Damn, you think you know a guy.

LIZZY - You think? Since when have you ever liked that?

THEA - Maybe I always have.

LIZZY - Sure. (THEA’s phone buzzes, LIZZY grabs it) “LeChare’s, black top, less-than-sign-three”. 

THEA - Give me that! (lunges) I’m serious, dude, please!

LIZZY - Are you leaving me to go to a bar? 

THEA - No! (Pause, nabs the phone) Okay! Yes! But it’s not today.

LIZZY - I’m in shock. What black top?

THEA - I don’t have to tell you anything.

LIZZY - Are you meeting someone there? (THEA pauses a moment too long) I knew it!

THEA - Stop!

LIZZY - Is THEA Waters finally getting some action? Glorious day, praise the lo-

THEA - Don’t say it like that, you make me seem desperate.

LIZZY - The heavens have opened! Listen! Listen! (LIZZY grabs THEA’s shoulder) Do you hear the seven trumpets?

THEA - (rubs eyes) I feel like I’m losing my mind.

LIZZY - Who is it? 

THEA - Like I’d tell you.

LIZZY - You have to tell me!  Please?

THEA - No.

LIZZY - Please? 

THEA - No! Come on man, it's just drinks with a friend.

LIZZY - Just a friend? 

THEA - Just a friend. (another pause) Okay maybe slightly more than a friend.

LIZZY - (Making over exaggerated fist pumps off to the side, before turning around smoothly.) Wonderful. So, who?

THEA - I’m not doing this. (rises, returns the chips to the kitchen, stage left)

LIZZY - You’re no fun. (pause) What, uh, time tomorrow?

THEA - (offstage) Not answering!

LIZZY - Worth a shot.

(Silence, after a moment, THEA reenters, looking ever so slightly concerned)

THEA - Lizzy?

LIZZY - Yes?

THEA - When was the last time you cleaned out the pantry?

(quiet)

LIZZY - Um…

THEA - Your hesitation worries me.

LIZZY - I don’t really remember, never?

THEA - There’s like, a jar of what I think is…old ass grandma candies. Like lemon lollipops.

LIZZY  - Oh, yeah, that’s from work.

THEA - (beat) How long have they been in there?

LIZZY - (beat) It’s hard to say. 

(they look offstage, in the direction of the horrid sweets)

THEA - That’s a later me problem.

(Silence)

(THEA’s phone buzzes again, she looks at it, sighs, type something briefly, and put it back down)

LIZZY - (Teasing) Was that-

THEA - My father.

LIZZY - Oh…

THEA - Apparently I have to start thinking about investments.

LIZZY - Why? What do you currently have that you could invest?

THEA - My point exactly. (sighs) He’s trying to look after me.

LIZZY - True. It’s weird seeing your kids grow up. My parents do the same.

THEA - (Beat) I get scared if I think about it for too long.

LIZZY - What do you mean?

THEA - I don’t know. There’s a part of me that wants to be more excited with the idea of…after. Like this.

LIZZY - Like, when you graduate? 

THEA - Yeah, past that though. Life is supposed to start after your diploma’s on the wall.

LIZZY - And we’ve only got a little while until that happens. 

THEA - Are you… excited? Or sorry, like, ready. 

LIZZY - I think so? Why?

THEA - You know like when you’re little, each new birthday feels like you’ve aged so significantly? Saying things at the ripe age of eight like “Yup, back when I was seven…”. (The two laugh) Maybe it’s just the novelty of it, the same way Christmas or Halloween aren’t as anticipated once you’re... older. You’ve done it only five times, then eight, then eleven, then nineteen, then thirty eight. The feeling is still there, but it’s duller. That’s what getting older is. Feeling old emotional weights, but through a veil, or listening through a closed door.

LIZZY - Mhmm, yeah I get that.

THEA - So when I get messages from my dad and it’s all “How's the internship?” or “Looking for your own place yet?”, the littler me inside is dancing because “I’m an adult now”, but the adult me just wants time to… to stop?

LIZZY - Stop? Like, cut off?

THEA - No, no, just…pause. Linger. 

(Beat, LIZZY starts humming Linger by The Cranberries, THEA glares at LIZZY, who laughs) 

LIZZY - Linger, English major bullshit. No one just says “linger”. (THEA rolls her eyes) Anyway. No, yeah, I understand.

THEA - I just, it's like I’ve, used up that anticipation. (laughs, somewhat bitterly) I guess if those big birthdays make you feel older, then the actual significant ones lose their…

LIZZY - Significance?

THEA - Sure. It sounds dumb when I say it out loud. 

LIZZY - I don’t think it’s dumb at all. 

THEA - Do you, like, know what I mean?

LIZZY - I absolutely do. I remember learning what “god complex” meant in 8th grade, and my teacher said that it’s seen in teens a lot. Like, thinking they’ll live forever.

THEA - Or have time to fix whatever they mess up now, later.

LIZZY - Yep. I don’t think that it’s just in teens though, or like, young adults and all that. Little kids absolutely have it too.

THEA - Oh yeah.

LIZZY - Maybe on a smaller scale, but yeah. Why else do they run at the pool, or bike into walls, or jump off swings? It’s to… to see! To taste that edge without having to take a real bite.

THEA - I wish I could go back to that. 

LIZZY - Maybe we can schedule it in. Feeling invincible. (THEA is silent, then laughs softly) What?

THEA - I thought you were going to say infinite. 

LIZZY - Like in Perks of Being a Wallflower.

THEA - What?

LIZZY - Is that not what you meant?

THEA - Oh, yeah. Infinite. Bowie in the underpass.

(LIZZY reacts slightly to “underpass”, but says nothing)

(silence, a little less comfortable than before)

LIZZY - Hey

THEA - Hmm?

LIZZY - Why?

THEA - Why what?

LIZZY - That was new, I don’t think we’ve ever talked about it. Before. About the future. Do you think about that a lot?

THEA - No, like I said, it scares me.

LIZZY - Hmm. (pause) It happens at some point. 

THEA - Yeah, but when are we in the future? Won’t it be the now when it happens? When do we know?

LIZZY - That’s the beauty of it, that’s why you’re not supposed to know. 

(pause)

THEA - What?

LIZZY - Nothing. 

(silence, THEA is thinking)

LIZZY - God, not to stress you out or anything.

THEA - I’m not. I’m fine. (pause) I’m alright.

LIZZY - I mean, it’s not like I think about it a lot, but I guess I’d say I’m excited. 

THEA - What, have names for your kids already?

LIZZY - Funny you’d ask, I was actually thinking-

THEA - Are you serious?! I was joking!

LIZZY - No, I’m serious. I always liked Lucas, or Isaiah for a boy. Billie is a pretty name in my opinion too, so maybe that for a girl. 

THEA - Those- Those are actually really sweet

LIZZY - Thank you.

THEA - Townhouse? Cabin?

LIZZY - A little place, close to school, and work obviously. 

THEA - Obviously.

LIZZY - A cabin would be nice, maybe later, once I’m retired. 

THEA - Old fart on her front porch.

LIZZY - I’ll be too old to care about my image anymore, watching sunsets with my husband.

THEA - That’s living.

(silence)

LIZZY - That probably didn’t help.

THEA - What didn’t?

LIZZY - I make it sound like everything’s written out and I have my checklist.

THEA - I mean, yeah. A little bit. I have no clue what I’m doing.

LIZZY - It’s not like you’ll wake up tomorrow, be forty with a Roth IRA and early onset arthritis. You live day by day. 

THEA - But my future will come and I’ll figure it out, like you? (Pause, THEA looks directly at LIZZY, head on, for the first time in the play) I’ll find my person, buy a house, have a stable little desk job, maybe kids, probably cats, grow old and live in a seaside house. Die quietly and happy. (pause) Right?

(LIZZY breaks eye contact and looks down and away)

THEA - Lizzy?

LIZZY - Thea.

(The room is electric, each person is waiting for the other to break the silence.)

THEA - That’s…not happening, is it?

LIZZY - I think you already know. 

(it feels like the air has been sucked out of the room. THEA sits up, never taking her eyes off of LIZZY)

LIZZY - You’re going to get up from this couch, walk out that door, get on that bike and drive on I-99 to the underpass.

THEA - The underpass.

LIZZY - And, um, and then I’ll get a knock at the door.

(THEA starts to panic, just a little)

LIZZY - From the police, asking if I know Thea Waters. She's been in an accident, and um, didn’t make it.

THEA - Oh my god.

(silence, save for THEA coming to terms with this)

LIZZY - I’m sorry

THEA - I feel fucking crazy, like everything is just in my head and I don't know what's real anymore.

(pause)

LIZZY - In the kindest terms, maybe you feel like that, um, because it's your reality.

THEA - My-

LIZZY - It's your reality, this is your eternal life. Eternal’s not the term I mean, foreseeable is better. You can make what you want of it, reflection or penance, sunshine or thunder storms.

THEA - This (gesturing to the room and everything in it manically) doesn't exactly feel like eternal sunshine.

LIZZY - I know. 

THEA - I-

LIZZY - I'm sorry.

THEA - No, I…I think I knew. 

LIZZY - I know you did.  

(Long pause)

THEA - So, this is it. (slightly panicked) None of this is real.

LIZZY - Well, no. Yes, nothing here. Again, call it what you want; purgatory, limbo, the in-between. It’s a waiting room, it’s a vast expanse of white, or black, or however you see what isn’t heaven, but isn’t hell.

(a pause)

THEA - Are you… real?

LIZZY - As real as any of this.

THEA - Well, um, not like that. Like…me?

LIZZY - Are you asking if I’m…dead?

THEA - (overlapping, almost uncomfortable)  Dead.

LIZZY - Yes.

THEA - I’m… so sorry.

LIZZY - Nothing to apologize for! I lived a really, really nice life. Well, you know, looking back on it now, I did. I married Garrett, he was wonderful. Married a few years after graduation actually, and we had a daughter. (pause) And no, I never let her buy a motorcycle, not that she’d ask.

THEA - A daughter. Did-

LIZZY -  Billie. Billie Thea Palmer.

(THEA covers their mouth)

(silence)

THEA - Thank you-

LIZZY - Of course.

THEA - For telling me, for…for being here? Are you, like, allowed to?

LIZZY - Be here? Yeah, I think so.

(silence)

LIZZY - I missed you. Of course I did. I mean, I’ve missed you since you walked out that door, sixty years ago. But when, um (voice breaks ever so slightly), Garrett squeezed my hand and (clears throat) I found myself there, I wanted nothing more than to see you again. I would have done anything then to see you, even once, for a moment, a single time more. And suddenly, we were, well, we had to be on the same…plane of…plane of existence. And I prayed, so hard, all those years ago for it to be a dream or fake or a joke, you always messed with me, why not this time too? I did it again, prayed. Simple, “One more time, let her be okay.” And suddenly you were walking through the door, throwing the mail down like you always did and saying how you’d almost fucking died because of that stupid, stupid motorcycle. And I was never more happy to see you. That was the first, I cried and you, fizzled out, before walking back in, and it happened again. I could tell you how many times I’ve sat here and had our last conversation. Again and again and again and again and again!

(with each “again”, we see LIZZY’s desperation, she stops to breathe, re-entering her previous sincerity. Mid-way through this, a cue for a low, shaking frequency plays, building as the scene goes on)

LIZZY - And I’d do it until this space was contorted and bent into degrees unknowable. Until time fell apart at the seams. Until this room was so full of envelopes, you couldn’t walk out.

(A heavy silence, after a long, long moment, THEA hugs LIZZY. After a moment, they separate)

THEA - That…is some English major bullshit. (LIZZY laughs bitterly)

LIZZY - It really is. I learned from the best. (pause) I will say, the future conversation was a nice addition, you haven’t ever brought that up before.

(Silence, the frequency continues to build, as does the tension.)

THEA - So, what comes next?

LIZZY- (hesitation, a searching look, before LIZZY begins mouthing THEAs future, indistinguishable to THEA and the audience because of the sound. Now joining the low frequency, a higher frequency joins, piercing ears. THEA hears it, while LIZZY seemingly does not. THEA hates the sound. She grabs her ears, staggering, but straining still to hear LIZZY. Something passes between them, a moment of understanding. LIZZY knows THEA wants out. THEA knows the cycle will begin again once she leaves. There is a silent goodbye in the chaos. Then THEA grabs her motorcycle helmet and runs out the front door. A moment passes before THEA opens the door. In that time, LIZZY sits back down on the couch, pulling her computer back onto his lap, or his magazine, or begins watching TV again, just like at the start. As THEA opens the door to go in, lights flip to top of show, frequency cuts off sharply.)

THEA - Hey, Lizzy, I’m back.

LIZZY - Hey, what up?

THEA - Not much, almost got crushed by a semi while I was doin’ 90 in a 65 on my way back from class. Brought the mail in.

(Blackout)