Come On, Death, Let's Hug! E-Book

kenechukwu obi

• Herausgeber: KenWrites
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Life suddenly turns sour for Gary, a British man, on losing his job, his marriage to Dolly, not having the best of times too. Gary opts to leave London for a trip to Kenya in Africa, to relax and stay away from all pressures at home. But it is in Kenya that he meets an African teenage girl whose grim circumstance paves the way for him to plunge into an act he never before taught he could perform, an act that sinks him deep in fame and fortune, and in misery as well..... And does Gary have the guts to take his own life?

Leseprobe

COME ON, DEATH, LET’S HUG!

A Play

BY

KENECHUKWU OBI

CAST

GARY

DOLLY

NALIAKA

WANGARI

WANGARI’S MOTHER

MOI

ERENG

MIMANO

SIMON

All is quiet, the audience seated, attentive, and focused on the dark stage, which soon gets lit. SCENE ONE. All that is revealed is a room, spacious, contains a bed with two pillows, beside which are a table and a chair. On the table is a Lap-Top computer, a pen, and a notebook. And the floor is littered with paper, all torn and squeezed into ball-shapes. The room has an atmosphere of frustration hanging over it. Then a dancing Gary enters, dancing and singing on top of his voice, the Michael Jackson ‘moon walk’ style.

GARY

[Intensifies his dancing and singing, looking all vivacious] Yeah….. I feel…..so good…… One! Two! Three! Four! Five! One time! I feel…. so good….good… yeah…. One time! One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Yeah……… Come on! Come on! Come on! One time! One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Yeah…… Yeah……. Yeah……. [Gary soon stops, looks around and laughs] My name is Gary, which I can’t deny of course, but add Speed to that, and then I will be forced to acknowledge that first of all, I’ve never been a footballer, let alone play for New Castle United and Bolton Wanderers here in England. I’m not a Welsh man either, neither am I about to manage the Welsh national football team and take my life. Not yet. What’s my problem? First of all, I like to think of myself as a writer now…. And secondly, I have sunk deep into a world in which I deceive myself, after deceiving everybody.

[Gently goes to the chair, sits down, picks up the pen on the table, opens the notebook, gets composed and begins to scribble on the notebook. Frustrated, he soon stops, and moved by anger, he rips off papers from the notebook, screws them up and forcefully throws them on the floor]

[Now furious, springs up, shakes his head in a violent manner and screams] Can someone give me one good reason why I should not take my life now….?

[Dolly, Gary’s wife enters with a saucer on top of which is a cup]

DOLLY

Honestly, Gary, I think our whole neighborhood will be a much better place if you can learn to keep your voice down. It’s just 7AM. I don’t think you realize that. [Now throwing glances around]

GARY

And who cares even one bit?

DOLLY

[Keeps saucer and cup on top of the table] That’s naughty. Here’s your coffee, Gary. I’m off to work. [Turns to leave] What a mess you’ve turned your room into.

GARY

It’s nobody’s business but mine. [Dolly walks away without uttering any further word]

GARY

[Moved by anger again, he runs after Dolly with malicious intent, but suddenly stops, begins to saunter, still furious] I felt like hitting her head on a wall. [Suddenly holds his heads. Screams] No….. Agents of murder! I disobey….. My wife’s blood will not be on my hands…..

[Gary hurries to the chair, sits down quickly, picks up the pen and attempts to write. Not making any headway again, anger suddenly drives him to toss his pen away. Then he does the same to the notebook.]

[Screams] I cannot create a single scene! Let alone believable characters! And the day to deliver a screenplay to my agent is fast approaching! Oh…..who can tell me why I shouldn’t end this miserable thing called my life right now….?

[Gary gets up and begins to walk away as a narrative voice comes alive]

NARRATIVE VOICE

Dolly was a woman whose utterances helped land Gary into big trouble.

If there was anything Gary would forget in his life, it would never be the day he met Dolly at the Soho theatre, in London. He believed he inherited his love for the theatre from his parents who were both stage actors; though his Dad later veered to the big screen, where he made two award winning appearances. Gary’s parents, who were British, used to take him to work, and that was how he came to develop an interest in seeing stage productions. Fate ensured that Dolly and Gary sat beside each other on that day. And with the hilarious comedy on, they laughed and talked together, which continued as they walked out of the theatre, into and along Dean Street. Dolly had made Gary’s day and Gary did not need to meet her a second time to be convinced that he was interested in her. Gary was twenty-four then, and Dolly, thirty-one. He fell in love with Dolly. His job as a supermarket salesperson that paid ten pence an hour did not bother Dolly who was the second daughter of the Mayor of London, and a bank Executive. Gary and Dolly got married as soon as the next spring came. [Voice fades]

LIGHTS FADE

SCENE TWO

The stage gets illuminated, and it is now a pub, and newly wedded Gary and Dolly are seated and carousing, empty beer cans and cigarette stubs, elephant testimonies to that.

GARY

Dad and Mum had their doubts I must confess.

DOLLY

[Yawns] Oh...Gary, what are you talking about….?

GARY

[Runs his right fingers through his hair. Belches] You mean you don’t know?

DOLLY

Come on, Gary…. Do I look like an African deity to you? In case you don’t know, they are capable of knowing what is in a man’s mind before he speaks.

GARY

Okay! See what I mean. My Mum and Dad wondered if I had taken the right decision by getting married to you.

DOLLY

By asking you if you were sure of what you walked into? If you exchanged ‘I do’, with the right female specie?

GARY

Exactly! [Surprised] How did you know? Or should I relax and take it that you’re just an African deity? [Dolly explodes in laughter. Gary joins her]

DOLLY

I just guessed. Believe it or not, there are only few people in this whole wide world who can make ten guesses and be up to 80% correct.

GARY

And my lovely, charming, and scintillating wife is among them?

DOLLY

Be confident to bet your life on that, anytime, Gary…. [Smiles] So what did you tell your parents to dispel their concerns? You didn’t keep quiet, did you?

GARY

What else would you expect? We are soul mates. I made sure they understood that.

DOLLY

And what else? That you felt like a man who won a million Pound lottery on having me fall in love with you?

GARY

[Excited] You are correct once again, my African deity.

DOLLY

I’m none of that.

GARY

You are! Can’t you see it? You know all the words that will come out of my mouth in ten years’ time. Come on, my African deity….

DOLLY

Gary, you’re drunk…..

GARY

[Laughs] I? Drunk? Your Gary drunk…..? [Laughs]

DOLLY

You told me a lot about what your Mum and Dad thought about our marriage the night of our wedding.

GARY

I actually did?

DOLLY

See….? You don’t remember a thing because you’re drunk.

GARY

[Gently] Oh…I’m so sorry…. [Gently gets up, leans forward and plants a kiss on Dolly’s lips] I love you, Dolly…. [Sits down again]

DOLLY

[Grins] When you kiss me like that…..

GARY

[Gently gets up, leans forward again and plants another kiss on Dolly’s lips] Like I just did…? [Sits down again]

DOLLY

Exactly….. It gives me the feeling that this is my best honeymoon so… far….

GARY

[Freezes] What? [Now tensed] What the world lacks are truthful women!

DOLLY

Relax, Gary…..

GARY

[Already peeved] You lied to me!

DOLLY

I don’t lie… Gary….. You are free to confirm from my mother…..

GARY

You were once married! How many times more? Ten or twenty?

DOLLY

Relax, Gary… Fury is not good for a man’s honeymoon….

GARY