literature

Silence in the White Noise

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Literature Text

(A couch is centered in the room, a table with neat clutter such as books, notepads, etc is in front of the couch. There is a desk on the left side with a computer, beside that desk are multiple milk crates filled with radios. Everything in the room is of neutral tones besides a bright red radio on a lone side table. ENTERS RADIO, he wears bright colours that do not match and clearly clash with each other. Patterns are acceptable replacements. RADIO turns on the radio to a low, static filled tune that fades out and becomes a background noise. RADIO begins dancing.)

RADIO:     (dances to static tune)

ELIZA:      (ENTERS) Can you turn that down a little Radio? I’m trying to write an essay.

RADIO:     Oh, okay.

(ELIZA EXITS. RADIO goes to the milk crates and begins to pull out more radios. He turns each one on, volume a little louder for each radio. He dances again.)

ELIZA:      (ENTERS) Can you please turn those down?

RADIO:     Oh, okay.

(ELIZA EXITS. The volume of the radios decreases to the same levels. RADIO turns on the computer and starts blaring music from the computer with the rest of the playing radios. He EXITS and returns with more music playing devices. These are set up and also turned on. RADIO begins dancing again.)  

ELIZA:      Radio, for the last time can you turn those things down?

RADIO:     Third time. (dancing)

ELIZA:      What? (she begins turning off radios)

RADIO:     It’s the third time you’ve asked, not the last time.

ELIZA:      The point of the matter is, I’ve asked you to turn these down and you haven’t.

RADIO:     I turned down the ones ya asked me ta turn down though.

ELIZA:       …You only had one and now you have hundreds.

RADIO:     Actually, I have twenty-six radios, the computer, and three iPods.

ELIZA:      Where did you even…you know what, I don’t care. Just please, keep one of them on and have that one at a reasonable volume. Okay? (adjusts the volume of the last playing radio). Sound fair?

RADIO:     Got it.

(As ELIZA EXITS, RADIO turns the volume of the last radio up again.)

ELIZA:      Radio! (ENTERS) I just asked you to keep it a little quieter and you just – Radio.

RADIO:     (continues dancing)

ELIZA:      Radio. (pauses) Radio…Jerimiah, are you listening to me?

RADIO:     (stops dancing) Imma busy.

ELIZA:      Well, I’m pretty busy myself. So turn down the stupid radio.

RADIO:    Dance with me Lizzy!

ELIZA:       What? No, I’ve got to –

RADIO:     (pulls ELIZA into a dance) It’s like back in high school! At the dances, with the music and the radio and the noise! Can’t ya feel it? It’s back again, get it? The music takes us back. This song played, third song after the second glass of punch we had, after the first hour of prom. Remember? Remember Lizzy? It was good, it was great! One, two, three. We danced, danced and laughed, and drank punch. But this song, this song was my favourite because it was the third song after the second glass, after the first hour.

ELIZA:      Radio, what on earth are you doing?! I’ve got work to do. My essay is due in three days for Christ’s sake! Is that…Is that part of the coffee machine?

RADIO:     Yes. Did ya know that the wiring for coffee machines work for radios Lizzy? (spins her)

ELIZA:       I told you last week to stop taking things apart Radio!

RADIO:      Lizzy, it’s the same song, the same one at prom.

ELIZA:      Are you even listening to me right now? (she tries to pull away from RADIO but his grip is too strong and he spins her again)

RADIO:      Ya came with me ta prom, remember?

ELIZA:       Yeah…I remember.

RADIO:      This is the song though, the one we danced. It’s the third song –

ELIZA:        You already said that Radio, I know which song it is. (pulls away) We need to talk.

RADIO:      (stops dancing) Oh...? Can it wait? Cause it’s the third song after the second glass of punch after the first hour.

ELIZA:        No, actually. It can’t wait.

RADIO:      Are ya still mad?

ELIZA:       What?

RADIO:    Last week, with the treadmill and then the new radio parts and then the new radio and then the (imitates ELIZA) “Radio, you’re being annoying” and “Radio, stop playing with that go wash your hands” and other angry Lizzy things.

ELIZA:       My name is Eliza, Radio.

RADIO:     See? Ya are still mad. I knew it! Ya had ta have been mad because you’ve stopped being super nice Lizzy. Why are ya mad though? Because I’ve been keeping everything clean and I stopped taking apart your treadmill and putting it in your room or the living room and I made sure I left room in the basement for your treadmill so no one would see your fat ass run in the living room and –

ELIZA:       Excuse me? My fat ass?

RADIO:     Well…that’s what ya said when I moved the treadmill from the basement ta your room ta the living room.

ELIZA:      We need to talk. I…(long pause, sighs)…I –

RADIO:    That’s the second time you’ve said we need to talk. 

ELIZA:     Radio, will you let me finish? I’m done with this, okay? You and me. I can’t take all of this anymore.

RADIO:   Whaddya mean?

ELIZA:    You and me, living in the same space and being together all the time. I can’t handle it anymore. It was fine in high school, I could handle it then. At the end of the day I could go home and take a break from you and all of your…your everything.

RADIO:  But…I’m still me. My everything hasn’t changed. I’ve got my radios, and you, and I fix ‘em and make ‘em play music. My everything is the same.

ELIZA:   That’s exactly what I mean Radio. You’re a completely stagnate person. It’s like…You’re suffocating everything around you, every time I’m with you I end up losing my breath. You suck all the air out of the room. It’s like you’re taking away everything a person needs to live. And you’re always there, right there. You never change. And I’m here, going to university and trying to change and you’re holding me back. You’re keeping me in one place in your airless, stagnate river.

RADIO:   That doesn’t make no sense. I don’t get it Lizzy. I’m not a river, I’m a person. That doesn’t make no sense at all. And you’re doing real real good in your classes and stuff so I don’t get why –

ELIZA:     That’s exactly what I mean. Nothing makes sense to you. You just sit there and flounder about being the exact thing you’ve always fucking been and…Radio, it’s just not working anymore. We could be friends in high school, but it’s been a year and I still can’t figure out a way to handle you every day of my life.

RADIO:     But I thought –

ELIZA:     It’s not about what you thought! It’s about how I’m feeling right now and have been feeling for a long time. And, Radio, the point of the matter is that I can’t fucking breathe when you’re around. Your entire presence is restricting and there’s nothing I can do about it because talking to you doesn’t solve one god damn thing. If anything, it makes everything worse because you just get hurt and act like some wounded puppy dog.

RADIO:    But –

ELIZA:     Let me get this off my chest Jeramiah. Please. (takes a breath) I…I know that you’ve got some issues, okay? I get that and I can accept that that is who you will always be as a person. But at this point in my life, I can’t deal with it. I can’t handle living with you and seeing you every day of my life. I love you, you’re like my little brother, and I don’t regret being friends with you in high school and taking you to prom instead of my boyfriend. You and me, we just don’t work anymore. I can’t deal with you and all…all of this! (gestures around the room)

RADIO:   You’ve said you and me don’t work three times Lizzy. And this is just your living room, so I don’t get why ya can’t deal with your living room because it’s your living room and you can change your living room.

ELIZA:      Living with you, Jeramiah, that’s what I mean, not my living room. I can’t deal with it anymore. I thought I could, but I can’t. Okay? I just can’t. Every time I fucking look at you now I just feel so pissed off. All of your little quirks that I thought were cute and unique in high school, they’re not. Not when I’m stuck here in the same house with you and your quirks all the time. I can’t even see a way to fix this. It’s just built up and I can’t take it. I just…We’ve been here, in this place, for far too fucking long. And I can’t take one more second of being stuck in this place with you.

RADIO:     I want ta fix this. Tell me how ta fix it.

ELIZA:      You can’t, okay? It’s too late for fixing things. We just…we just need to let each other go and move on. I need to get away from you and you need to get away from me and that’s just how it is.

RADIO:     But…Lizzy, I can fix this. Tell me how ta fix it, we’re friends right? You said I was like your brother so ya can’t…I can fix it. It isn’t harder than my radios, right? It’ll be easy, real real easy, and I’ll fix this and then we’ll be okay again and –

ELIZA:       I am not one of your goddamn radios! You can’t just decide to fix something and have it work, that’s not how life works Jeramiah! We’ve been living together for a year, if it was going to get better it would have gotten better by now. You can’t fix this. I can’t fix this. We need to go our separate ways and that’s final.

RADIO:     Let me try. I can, I promise if I try real real hard I can fix this. You’re my friend Lizzy, I don’t wanna lose a friend. Ya said, ya said I was a brother. Ya don’t just throw things away with a brother, right? Let me fix this. Let me try ta. I can do it, it’s easier than radios, right?

ELIZA:      I’m not a radio, and you aren’t either. We’re human beings! People don’t work like machines. We feel things and we work in different ways, okay? I just...Here. (picks up the radio, pops the back open) See? This isn’t what a person is made of. You can’t think of people like wires and tubes. People don’t work like that. You can’t just wish a person better and have all their problems disappear. That isn’t how it works. (replaces back and radio to table)

RADIO:     Ya said that I can’t fix it four times Lizzy, but people can be fixed…they don’t have ta be broken forever.

ELIZA:      Sometimes people stay broken, Radio.

RADIO:     That isn’t true!

ELIZA:      Just…You can’t fix us, we’re too broken. Do you remember that rusted hull you found out in the junkyard the other day, the one you threw out?

RADIO:     Yeah. It had rust on the bottom left-hand corner, mice had eaten the wiring and there were termites in the wood. There was water damage on the wood and –

ELIZA:       Exactly. Our friendship is like that radio hull. You can’t fix it.

RADIO:     But ya just said people weren’t radios.

ELIZA:      I’m trying to help you understand. Listen, I’m sorry, but you need to move out. I need get out of this stalemate you’ve put me in.

RADIO:     Lizzy –  ELIZA:      I’ve called the group home, and they’re willing to take you in and help you out. RADIO:     Lizzy –

ELIZA:      I want you out by the end of the week. We both need the space away from each other.

(As ELIZA EXITS she turns off the radio. There is a loud click of the knob.)

RADIO:     (he walks over to the radio, places his hand on the knob) One...Two…Three.

 (LIGHTS FADE, RADIO remains standing in the living room)

Hello! 
So, this is the final piece to my little play series and experiment. Though I can say that I love writing character monologues, I can't say I enjoy writing script very much. I like my short story fluff thank you very much. Despite my dislike of script, I love how this came out. There's been some editing with it from the piece I had before hand, but it was mostly additions. 
I present you with my short, one act, ten-ish minutes play. Ta-da! 

For those of you curious, here's a few more snipets that came from this course:

Radio's character monologue: fav.me/d9vqwnf

The Treadmill incident dialogue sequence: fav.me/d9wd70o
© 2016 - 2024 Skull-Killer
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CrimsonSunset218's avatar
Oh my god!!!  I want to see this on stage!!!  Except ... I don't know anything about theater and I don't know how to arrange something like that.  *sobs*

You seem to understand Autism quite well.  Have you been studying it?  Do you have someone you know who has Autism?  Or are you just that good? 

Thank you for writing this!  It's really interesting.  Especially because I only get little snippets of their life.  I wonder if I would find it less interesting if I had the whole story.  Hmm....  That's an interesting thought.  I need to remember that.