# Think what ever you want (Придумай сама)

Людмила Николаевна Ансельм

Drunken husbands returning late at night home. His wife waits for him all night and demand an explanations. Asleep he says, think what ever you want...

THINK WHAT EVER YOU WANT


Ludmila Anselm

Translated by Jim Clinton


10 Kenmore St. #206

Boston, MA 02215

Tel: (617) 859-0829

luanselm@yahoo.com


02/16/07


Cast:

Anna - wife. Middle aged Woman, brunet.

Michael - husband. Middle aged man.

Ellen - mistress. Young woman 20-30 year old petit, blonde (or black hair ref. pg4).


Time current. 4AM...

A simple doorframe and threshold stands between a garage door and a room with a couch.


Scene


Enter drunk Michael from the door to garage, shoes in hand he is trying to sneak into the house silently, but his way is suddenly barred by Anna who, with legs apart, and each arm outstretched straight right and left from her sides forming a cross in front of the door frame.


Anna (shouts): Stop right there! (Quieter) Where you have been? Its four o"clock.


Michael (slurred, dully): Something sin-gu-lar-ly unusual happened.


Anna: What unusual story now?


Michael: Let me in.


Anna: I repeat... what"s so unusual; I haven"t slept at all.


Michael (with growing enthusiasm): Anna, you know...there was a tornado!


Anna (admitting Michael): A tornado...here?


(Michael takes off his jacket, walks into the room and sits on the couch His jacket falls on the floor)


Michael: A tornado can be a very small, whirlwind. (Waxing eloquent). It sucks you up, and up and it carries you to heaven knows where. It just lifts you, and doesn"t let you go...


Anna: Ok, Ok... Michael, and where were you so blissfully carried?


(Pause)


Michael (eagerly): I was lucky. I was in the car; the storm went right across in front of me... A tree fell across the road. I turned around and started to come home another way... But, I kept getting lost.


Anna (mockingly): And how much time did you spend lost?


Michael: A couple of hour"s maybe.


Anna: Suppose then that you left work at eight, drove a half-hour, got in the storm, and were lost two hours. You would have been home long ago...


Michael: But the tornado made a flood... (muddling his words). I was afraid. The car died... Finally the water went down and the car started.


Michael falls asleep


Anna: What road? The only road that goes near a lake that I know of is in the Littleton area.


Michael (sleepily): There ...I...was ... once in Littleton...


Anna: (shaking Michael by the shoulders) What did you do there? How come you were in Littleton?


Michael: Let me sleep... in three hours I have to be at work...(snores).


Anna: Why were you in Littleton? I won"t let you sleep! Why were you there?


Michael (eyes closed): Ah you... know? It"s the same... just... Oh, think what ever you want...

(Michael falls asleep. Anna covers Michael with a blanket, and picks up his jacket from the floor. A cell phone falls from the jacket pocket. Anna picks up the cell phone. She neatly lays the jacket on the sofa beside Michael. She then falls asleep, beside Michael with the phone in her hand... Pause, lights change... the phone rings. Anna awakens opens the phone and listens. Ellen"s voice is heard on the cell speakerphone.)


Ellen: Michael, Michael, hello.


Anna (into the phone): Hello...


Ellen (non-paused): Who? Who is this?

(Pause)


Anna (not very confidently): Police...The Police...


Ellen (shocked): Who?


Anna: Police! We have just come to an accident... This phone was lying on the ground.


Ellen: Accident? (Crest fallen) What happened?


Anna: Toyota...red...hit a tree.


Ellen (worried): Driver... The driver? How"s the driver?


Anna: A man... slumped... window"s open...We"ll soon find out.


Ellen (crying): He left me an hour ago. He promised to call when he got home. He had a couple of beers.


Anna (gloating): He can"t call. He is motionless...


Ellen: I"m really sort of to blame. He didn"t want to come. I really...


Anna (very interested): Where didn"t he want to go?


Ellen: To Littleton. Where is the accident?


Anna: Half way between Acton and Littleton.


Ellen (muttering to herself): Why did I make him come? I wanted a decision! (Suddenly stops crying). I"m getting in my car. I"ll be there in a minute.


Anna (insistently): What decision?


Ellen (suspects she is talking to Michael"s wife. She suspiciously and slowly says): Divorce.


Anna (changed tone of voice): What divorce?


Ellen: I"ve been driving. I"m between Acton and Littleton. So far there is no accident.


Anna: I ask you, what divorce?


Ellen (she wants to keep Anna talking. Now a much more confidant tone): Listen! He has thought about a divorce for a long time. He hasn"t been able to decide, and then this evening he said, "Many can"t divorce their grandmothers, but I"ll try to night". What do you say about that?


Anna: What grandmother?


Ellen: That"s what he calls... y... his wife...grandmother...


Anna: Why?


Ellen: She is older than him...


Anna: You think so?


Ellen: I know. He told me. She has terrible medical problems. She hurts and complains all the time. He is so funny when he mimics her, "Here I hurt... there I hurt." She doesn"t have one organ that"s not in pain. She is so pathetic...


Anna: OK! Why"s he talking to you about a divorce?


Ellen (confidently trying to keep the conversation going): And not just this... There is no car accident on the whole road, none!


Anna: What more did he tell you?


Ellen: Lots... I don"t remember all... (Pause)... Hello, are you still there? Ah

... she doesn"t give him any slack. Every night she meets him at the door he has to report details of the whole day, where he was, what he did... he comes to me, discouraged ... and has to lie down.


Anna: What else does he say?


Ellen: Oh, I remember... (Laughs). She has one leg shorter than the other... He showed me how she walks like, a lame duck. I die laughing...


Anna (stifling tears): Why are you so...


Ellen: I"m almost to your house, "Mrs. Michael". I kept you talking so my new police GPS could show me the way.


Anna: The door is locked!


Ellen: Garage entrance...


(A young woman enters the room thru the same entrance Michael did. She stands at the doorway looking shame at Anna. Anna shocked studies the sexy young woman.)


Ellen: And... here I am! I knew it was you when you heard me say "decision". So this is how you look! Completely different! I"m Ellen.


Anna (confused): You look just as I thought...blond (or black hair), petite... Just the kind of woman he likes. I"m Anna...


(Ellen looks at the sleeping Michael).


Ellen: I see he is OK. Why did you lie to me?


Anna: I was so shocked when his phone rang. I just said the first thing I thought of.


Ellen: Accident! I was completely beside myself.


Anna: Me too. You should have heard how he lied to me when he came home. He talked about a tornado causing a flood in Littleton.


Ellen: He didn"t say anything about a divorce?


Anna: Not a word. Just tornado and flood rubbish.

(Pause}


Ellen: Funny...

(Pause)

Anna: Ellen, I"m sorry for you!


Ellen: Why?


Anna: You are so young, so naive; you don"t understand men. You should understand the man who you might to spend your life with. You are condemning yourself to a very hard life... I"d like to warn you about your fate. You are not yet married and already you are loosing sleep because of him. Now he loves you but on some new moon he will change as he became changed to me. He will talk to another of his loves about your short leg.


Ellen: No way, I don"t limp.


Anna: Neither do I! He promised to talk to me about a divorce?


Ellen: Promised...


Anna (shrugs): He said nothing...you can"t count on him.


Ellen: I will change him!


Anna: I tried, but no use. And now I see that you also can"t.


Ellen: Why are you so confident?


Anna: He didn"t keep his promises to call you, or to talk about a divorce.


Ellen: He was drunk.


Anna: Yah, he was drunk, but even so he told me a very inventive story about why he was so late... It"s easier to change yourself if you are going to live with Michael.


Ellen: Stupidity!


Anna: Stupidity! Think a minute... first you have a husband who is smart, funny, good job. You get married, and soon this same guy is off with a new mystery woman.


Ellen: Mystery woman?


Anna: It happens in a group of friends or at a party. He finds another woman, young or older, pretty or ugly it doesn"t matter! (Pause) He just needs a new mystery to court, talk up, dance, somewhere in a dark corner, to kiss. And he pays no attention to his wife...


Ellen: And his wife?


Anna: She is in a circle of friends, must smile, chat, and look like everything is normal, except for the stark white in her cheeks. When it"s time to go home, then he talks to her; he will just stay a little longer. The wife goes home. She can"t sleep. The house makes noises she has never heard before.


Ellen: And the husband?


Anna: He comes home at 4 am. Brought home by somebody else...


Ellen (shouting): Why are you telling me all this?


Anna: I"m asking you if you want to go thru everything that I go thru, with Michael?


(During conversation Anna has become more confidants but Ellen becomes more nervous).


Ellen: Of... Of course, not! But I don"t understand why you are still married to him.


Anna: Because I believe that my husband will never divorce me.


Elle: Why? Why are you so sure?


Anna: Simple! My husband has an addiction for women, and men like this are the most faithful in some ways.


Ellen: He is faithful! After all you told me about him!


Anna: Yes, this kind of man doesn"t easily leave his family... as long as they have a soft shoulder at home. It"s easier for them to leave a mistress. By the way, I"m very thankful to you...


Ellen: Why?


Anna: You gave me a good reminder of how I have to think of my relationship with Michael. I see now that I"ll never be lonely... Not like you...


Ellen: I"m not lonely... It"s you!


Anna: No, Ellen, You can"t be Michael"s wife... you won"t stand for his gallivanting.


Ellen: Why are you tormenting me?


Anna: It"s not me; it"s he who torments us.


Ellen (shouting): Enough! I"m wild. I want don"t want listen to you. I"ll kill you or him.


(Ellen goes to the couch where Michael is sleeping. The room darkening).


Anna (shouting in a dark and pushing Ellen away): No! I won"t let you strangle him!

(Ellen pushed away very quickly disappears from the stage. Michael wakes up).


Michael (sleepily): Did you shout?


Anna: She wanted to strangle you!


Michael: She? Who?


Anna: Your mistress... lover.


Michael: What mistress?


Anna: That one from Littleton.


Michael: I don"t know anyone from Littleton.


Anna: You promised her to divorce me.

(Pause).


Michael (waking up, says vehemently): I haven"t promised anybody anything of the sort...

(Pause).


Anna (Clearly relieved and pleased): You"re saying I made this all up?


Michael: Yes, in my worst dreams I couldn"t imagine... such fantasies you have. (Michael looks at his watch). God, just an hour before I have to go to work.


(Michael yawns and goes back to sleep).


Anna: Sleep, Michael, sleep I"ll never disturb you.


(Anna smugly smiling snuggles up next to Michael and falls asleep).


Curtain


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