Monday, February 15, 2010

A Marriage Proposal In Three Short Acts

Act I

Setting: the inside of a children's ski school room. Many small jackets are hanging on hooks. Boots and bags and hats and mittens are shoved in small cubbies against one wall. There are colors all around, but most predominantly is the color blue- various shades of blue. The walls are blue, trim is blue, floor is blue, chairs are blue.

Scene: kids are playing, drawing, crying for their mothers and fathers who have abandoned them to go skiing by themselves. Instructors are mulling about helping kids. In walks a delivery man with a vase of roses. It is Valentine's Day. Spotlight on a young woman kneeling in the back of the room helping a young girl pull up her pants after she has peed. The young woman notices the delivery person and starts to walk towards him. She is noticeably embarrassed, knowing the flowers are for her, from her boyfriend. She stops to see the delivery man talk to her supervisor. The supervisor scans the room and sets her eyes on another young woman in the opposite corner of the room and yells out her name. Spotlight again on the first young woman, who is noticeably dejected as she hangs her head.

ACT II

Setting: A Chinese Restaurant replete with all the generic Chinese art.

Scene: It is later that day. A young couple sits alone in the restaurant, despite it being Valentine's Day. It is the same young woman from ACT I and she has a gift wrapped in pink tissue paper next to her on the table. The young man and young woman have idle chit chat while they eat their dinner. The young woman gives the young man his Valentine's gift. He opens it. It is a massage book and massage oil. He is visibly excited at the prospect of an all-body massage later that night. The young woman receives nothing in exchange. She is visibly annoyed. The young couple pay their bill and get up to leave.

ACT III

Setting: A small apartment, not too unlike a hotel room with a kitchenette- a cheap hotel room with a kitchenette. The room is dark with only a light on in the kitchen over the stove. The back bedroom is dark. There is a small television on. A cheap Walmart television. The 1998 Winter Olympics is being broadcast from Nagano, Japan. You can only hear the voice of Matt Lauer. But you know it's the Olympics.

Scene: It is later that night. The same couple have pulled out their cheap futon to make it into a semi-comfortable bed. It is a fairly new futon. The young man polyurethaned it himself. The futon cover, in a navy blue, is already pilled. There are only a few pillows. The young couple is lying side by side watching the Winter Olympics. The lights of the t.v. are flickering on the wall behind them. Nothing is being said between the two of them. As the night progresses the young woman starts to get visibly angry that the young man has not given her anything for Valentine's Day. She takes a few deep sighs and turns away from his body.

Young Woman (says disappointed): I'm going to bed.

Young Man (says desperately): No wait, I have something for you.

She turns to him and he hands her a ring.

Young Man (earnestly): Will you marry me?


The room goes dark.

1 comment:

  1. nice closing line.

    here is another example of 'how not to ask your girlfriend to marry you' (from my man crush's last NHL game write-up):

    "Marriage proposals have become commonplace on stadium video boards. A hopeful groom received a rude shock during the second period on Valentine's Day when the prospective bride put a hand over her face and shook her head no, declining the offer before bolting from her seat."

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