Drama scene from the 1 act eplay, ‘Gone Too Soon’ wherein a father touches on how he misses his wife and copes with his loneliness.

BENNY: …I miss your damn mother. She left me too soon. Kept my promise, she didn’t keep hers. Told her I’d stick around, as long as she stuck around and now look. I can die today and it wouldn’t bother me none. I’m angry, stuck here, I can’t move, confused…thought I’d kill myself by now.

(BENNY shows daughter photograph.)

Here…look at this…that’s your mother and me at the beach. This was the day I knew I loved her for sure, ain’t ever felt different since.

TARVA: …Oh, I know Daddy…Mom was so pretty. I could never look like that.

BENNY: You’re probably right!

(THEY both laugh)

BENNY (cont’d): She was a real stunner. Could charm her way out of anything. Never saw what she seen in me. I was the lucky one alright.

(TARVA hands her father the photo back)

TARVA: Nice, Daddy…it’s nice to have such memories. Wish me and Sam had that.

BENNY: That’s cause you married an idiot. And all too young, too, too young.

TARVA: Dad, don’t!

BENNY: I won’t.

TARVA: But you’re right…I should have grown up first. Before all this…

BENNY: When you gonna bring my grandchildren around?

TARVA: When I’m done making your place smell decent, but you’re no help, just look at this place! What a dump! Is it so hard for you to keep things organized?

BENNY: It is organized, organized chaos!

TARVA: That’s why the kids don’t visit. No room for them.

BENNY: Oh stop, they got a whole field to run around in out there. AH, they don’t know how good they got it, instead they want their face in them devices…

TARVA: Little Danny don’t like the smell.

BENNY: Don’t like the smell…of what?

TARVA: Here! This place.

BENNY: I can’t open up the windows cause they’re all jammed. Cheap!

TARVA: Why’d you wanna go through all this trouble? You know, there’s that place mere miles from where –

BENNY: No! Don’t even mention it! That’s, that’s a terrible idea and you already know I can’t afford it.

TARVA: Yeah.

BENNY: Bring the kids over next time. It’s been long enough.

TARVA: If you keep this stink bomb clean, I’ll answer your wish.

BENNY: Alright…women.

TARVA: What about women?

BENNY: Nothing.

TARVA: You said it, now what did you mean?

BENNY: Women are designed to make men insane.

TARVA: Oh really?

BENNY: Can’t be more true. Take your mother for instance, love of my life and now she’s gone and I’m supposed to keep my sanity…I don’t think so!

TARVA: You sound and look sane to me.

BENNY: That’s cause I’m putting on an act. The moment you leave, after I watch you drive away, I turn and look at this depressing hunk of metal and this feelin’ comes over me, crawls over my skin, makes the hairs on my neck stand up…the heaviness creeps its way in…I feel it, soreness all in my chest, down to my knees and I can barely hang on…taking the first step is one of the most challenging things a man can do after being all alone, so I, I get too anxious to sit ’cause if I sit I think I’ll fade away. So I make my way to the fridge, grab myself a beer and I take in that first drink, which reminds me I ain’t dead yet. Eventually things get calm, eerily quiet…I’ll go outside and sit on the steps, I’ll try to think of her again and I’d think of her face and cry, because, a part of me would wish I could have died with her. Then, I’d think of you and hold on for another night so I can see you again…and there it is Tarva, the cycle plays over.

TARVA: I can’t stay here forever, Dad.

BENNY: Neither can I.

(TARVA and BENNY exchange looks.)

• To read the full one-act ePlay, find purchase link below:

In this one-act ePlay, Tarva visits her father’s trailer home in order to help take care of him.  It’s been many months since her mother died and her father copes with his pain by drinking and living carelessly.  1 woman, 1 man.  Drama.

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