The Visit

 Characters

      The YOUNG GIRL

      The OLD WOMAN

The noise of a public park. The OLD WOMAN is seated on a park bench statue still. SHE has dozed off. As it's cool and SHE’s old, SHE wears an overcoat, a scarf and overshoes.

A pink ball bounces onto the stage, bounces off the OLD WOMAN’s bench and offstage. The OLD WOMAN opens her eyes, checks that SHE has her handbag and shuts her eyes.  Then we hear the YOUNG GIRL, giggling as SHE approaches. Enter the YOUNG GIRL running. SHE looks around her for the ball, approaches the bench, looks all around. Finally SHE approaches the OLD WOMAN.

YOUNG GIRL  Mmm... Excuse me, Ma'am. You didn't see a ball come by, did you? (THE OLD WOMAN doesn't budge. The YOUNG GIRL insists.) You didn't see a ball come by? Ma'am?

OLD WOMAN  A ball?

YOUNG GIRL  Pink? A round ball? (The OLD WOMAN says nothing.)  It could have been bouncing.

OLD WOMAN  Mm... (SHE coughs and then wipes her mouth with a hanky.)

YOUNG GIRL  I was playing ball with it. With my friends.

OLD WOMAN  Oh.

YOUNG GIRL  No?

OLD WOMAN  No.

YOUNG GIRL  Oh.

      (The OLD WOMAN says nothing but the YOUNG GIRL will not avert her gaze.)

OLD WOMAN  I'm sorry, Miss.

YOUNG GIRL  Well, that's O.K. I was sort of tired of playing ball anyway. (Noticing that her shoe is untied, SHE puts her foot on the end of the bench and ties her laces.)  Do you know any stories?

OLD WOMAN  Excuse me?

YOUNG GIRL  Stories. Do you know any stories?

OLD WOMAN  Stories?

YOUNG GIRL  Stories that people tell kids like me. 

      (THE OLD WOMAN coughs and then wipes her mouth with her hanky.)

OLD WOMAN No, I don't know any stories.

YOUNG GIRL  I love to be told stories.

OLD WOMAN  Mm.

YOUNG GIRL  True ones especially.  

OLD WOMAN  Excuse me?

YOUNG GIRL  True stories. They're my special favorites.

OLD WOMAN  Oh? True stories are your favorites?

YOUNG GIRL  My dad has told me lots of 'em. You know the story of the princess who danced with a serpent?

OLD WOMAN  No I don't.

YOUNG GIRL  It's a true one. If you ever come to our house, I'm sure my dad would tell you it if you want.

OLD WOMAN  Oh really?

YOUNG GIRL  Do you know any stories? Since you're old, I think you do. Cause my dad says old people know lots of good stories cause since they've lived long lifes full of stories that are true too, you know? So...(SHE sits down right up against the OLD WOMAN) Are you SURE  you don’t know any stories?

      (It appears that the OLD WOMAN may not reply.)

OLD WOMAN  Well, yes, I know one.

YOUNG GIRL  Really? (SHE gazes into the OLD WOMAN's face.) Well?

OLD WOMAN  Well what?

YOUNG GIRL  (sweet but direct) Well do you know the story or don't you?

OLD WOMAN  Well, yes, uh…

YOUNG GIRL  So tell me it! What good does it do to know a story if you don't tell anybody it, huh?

      (The OLD WOMAN coughs, uses the hanky.)

YOUNG GIRL  Right?

OLD WOMAN  Alright.

YOUNG GIRL (nestling herself against the OLD WOMAN’s arm)  I'm ready.

OLD WOMAN  You're ready. That's fine. O.K. Well...

YOUNG GIRL  The title!!

OLD WOMAN  The title?

YOUNG GIRL  Don't forget the title please!! My dad says that stories must have titles. Does your story have a title?

OLD WOMAN  A title... uh... Alright... yes.

YOUNG GIRL  If you want, I can help.

OLD WOMAN  Help?

YOUNG GIRL  With the title.

OLD WOMAN  Oh. No, thank you.

YOUNG GIRL  Fine. What's the title then?

      (Pause)

OLD WOMAN  My story is called "The Visit."

YOUNG GIRL  Mmm! "The Visit." Sounds super good! (SHE nestles again.) I'm ready.

      (Pause.)

OLD WOMAN  O.K. Once upon a time there was—

YOUNG GIRL  (straightening up) Hey! Wait just a second, Missy!

OLD WOMAN (startled)  What? What is it?

YOUNG GIRL  You told me it was a TRUE story that you’re telling!

OLD WOMAN  A true story. Yes. And so?

YOUNG GIRL  Well, my dad says MADE UP stories start with "Once upon a time there was," but TRUE stories start with "Once upon a time there really actually was."

OLD WOMAN  Oh, is that so?

YOUNG GIRL  Isn't it?

OLD WOMAN  Uh... yes. That's right, I suppose. I apologize.

YOUNG GIRL  Maybe you forgot you were telling a true story, right?

OLD WOMAN  That's it. I forgot. I apologize.

YOUNG GIRL  It's not serious. It happens sometimes.

OLD WOMAN  It does, yes.

YOUNG GIRL  Even I forget sometimes. (SHE nestles.) O.K. I'm ready.

OLD WOMAN  You’re ready. Good. (Pause) Once upon a time there really…

YOUNG GIRL …actually…

OLD WOMAN  …actually was...

YOUNG GIRL  Uh-huh.

OLD WOMAN  ... a woman.

YOUNG GIRL  Oh.

OLD WOMAN  Her name was Marguerite.

YOUNG GIRL  Marguerite... That's a pretty name.

OLD WOMAN  Isn't it.

YOUNG GIRL  Yeah.

OLD WOMAN  I’ve always liked it.

YOUNG GIRL  Marguerite...

OLD WOMAN  Yes.

      (Pause. THEY both seem to be happily day-dreaming.)

YOUNG GIRL  Did she have a mom?

OLD WOMAN  Well, her mom had died.

YOUNG GIRL  (identifying) Yeah.

OLD WOMAN   Marguerite had been married for many years.     

YOUNG GIRL  Who was she married to?

OLD WOMAN  Orson. Her husband's name was Orson.

YOUNG GIRL  Oh. Orson... Did Marguerite and Orson have any children?

OLD WOMAN  Yes. A son. Roger.

YOUNG GIRL  How old was Roger? About my age?

OLD WOMAN  He was nineteen at the time.

YOUNG GIRL  Oh. Nineteen... (Pause. SHE is thinking.) Keep going.

OLD WOMAN  Yes. Well, one day a visitor rang.

YOUNG GIRL  What’s rang? Broke in?

OLD WOMAN  Rang? No, called. Came to the door.

YOUNG GIRL  Oh. A guest?

OLD WOMAN  No, they didn't know the visitor.

YOUNG GIRL  Oh. A stranger... Who was it?

OLD WOMAN  The visitor's name was Mr… Laguerre.

YOUNG GIRL  Oh. Mr. Laguerre...

OLD WOMAN  Yes. He wanted to talk to Roger.

YOUNG GIRL  The son who was nineteen?

OLD WOMAN  Yes. And so there was a brief encounter with Roger, and—

YOUNG GIRL  Wait a second!

OLD WOMAN  What is it?

YOUNG GIRL  What's a brief encounter? Making a baby?

OLD WOMAN  An encounter? No, no, no. A short interview, a conversation.

YOUNG GIRL  Oh. OK, I got it.

OLD WOMAN  Yes. (SHE suddenly has a coughing fit. It eventually quiets itself.)

YOUNG GIRL  God bless you.

OLD WOMAN  Thank you, dear. (SHE is wiping her mouth.) Yes. And so after their encounter, Roger decided to go off with…

YOUNG GIRL   Mr. Labear.

OLD WOMAN  That’s right.

YOUNG GIRL  Well sure! Who wouldn't! 'Cause you can choose if you want to live with your parents or not when you're nineteen, isn't that right?

OLD WOMAN  Yes indeed.

YOUNG GIRL  Yes indeed. (Pause. THEY are thinking.) What a lucky duck! Keep going.

OLD WOMAN  Yes. So Roger departed his parents home with this visitor...

YOUNG GIRL  (raising her head slightly) The End?

OLD WOMAN  The end? No. Not yet.

YOUNG GIRL  Good. I’m glad. (Head nestled back.) Keep going.

OLD WOMAN  Alright. After several years, Orson and Marguerite—

YOUNG GIRL  Roger's parents.

OLD WOMAN  Roger's parents, yes... 

      (Pause.)

YOUNG GIRL  Keep going.

OLD WOMAN  Orson and Marguerite, they received another visit.

YOUNG GIRL  Mr. Labear’s back!!

OLD WOMAN  No. This time it was a lady.

YOUNG GIRL  A lady... Mm! I know! She was Roger's new wife! In the between time they got married. And she's going to have a bouncy baby girl!

OLD WOMAN  No. Roger hadn't gotten married. And she wasn't his wife.

YOUNG GIRL  Oh. Well of course if he wasn't married, it wasn't his wife!!!! (SHE laughs, delighted at her joke.)

OLD WOMAN  No.

      (The OLD WOMAN coughs. Finally, the one is done laughing, the other coughing.)

YOUNG GIRL  Who the heck was the lady at the door then?

OLD WOMAN  It was Mrs... Drawning.

YOUNG GIRL  Oh. Mrs. Drawning... And what did SHE want?

OLD WOMAN  What did she want? She wanted to invite Orson to go yachting.

YOUNG GIRL  Cool! Wait a second. What's yachting? Making a baby?

OLD WOMAN  Yachting, no, no. It's sailing, boating.

YOUNG GIRL  Roger's daddy to go sailing?

OLD WOMAN  Yes. Mrs. Drawning had chosen Orson.

YOUNG GIRL  What a lucky duck! What a lucky duck that Orson was, huh?

OLD WOMAN  He couldn't say no.

YOUNG GIRL  Of course!

OLD WOMAN  So Mrs. Drawning took Orson yachting.

      (Pause)

YOUNG GIRL  (raising her head slightly) The End?

OLD WOMAN  The end? No. Not quite.

YOUNG GIRL  Good. (SHE wraps herself around the OLD WOMAN's arm unconsciously registering the fear of what might come next.) Keep going.

OLD WOMAN  Well, Marguerite is now living all alone in her apartment.

YOUNG GIRL  For how much times?

OLD WOMAN  For twenty years.

YOUNG GIRL  Oh boy!! She must be really old!!

OLD WOMAN  She is getting on in years, yes.

YOUNG GIRL  And so?

OLD WOMAN  And so—

YOUNG GIRL  (straightening up) Wait a second!

OLD WOMAN  What is it?

YOUNG GIRL  I know!

OLD WOMAN  What do you know?

YOUNG GIRL  What's going to happen! It's another visit!

OLD WOMAN  How did you know?

YOUNG GIRL  Maybe you never noticed this, but there's a lot of three-things in stories.  So when I listen to a story with two-things, I usually say inside me "Oh, I bet there's a third one coming right up pretty soon." And it works every time except one time ‘cause dad fell asleep."

OLD WOMAN  And you're right.

YOUNG GIRL  I knew it! There was another visit?

OLD WOMAN  Another visit, yes.

YOUNG GIRL  Who was it? (SHE hides her eyes against the OLD WOMAN’s shoulder.)

      (Pause.)

OLD WOMAN  It was a lover.

YOUNG GIRL  A lover? (SHE uncovers her eyes.) What's a lover? Making a baby?

OLD WOMAN  Well, no. It's someone you share your days and your nights with.

YOUNG GIRL (touched)  Oh...

YOUNG GIRL  And her lover wanted to  stay at her house and sleep with her and eat with her, to go everywhere with her... to live in her lungs and her heart and her brain.

YOUNG GIRL  And Marguerite said yes, right? She needed some company! She

must’ve said “Come on in, Al!”

OLD WOMAN  What else could she do.

YOUNG GIRL  The End. (SHE stands.)  That's a good story! (SHE hugs the OLD WOMAN.) Especially the ending! I'm going to tell my friends it. Is it O.K.  if I tell my friends it?

      (The OLD WOMAN coughs.)

YOUNG GIRL  Or do you want me to keep it just for us two and nobody else, like with my dad?

OLD WOMAN  Yes, I would prefer that you didn’t broadcast it on Channel 4!

YOUNG GIRL  No problem!  O.K. Bye. (SHE begins to leave.)

(The OLD WOMAN watches her go, closes her eyes, and tries to doze off. After some time, we hear the YOUNG GIRL running. Finally, she reemerges and runs right up to the OLD WOMAN out of breath.)

YOUNG GIRL  Excuse me.

OLD WOMAN (opening her eyes) Yes?

YOUNG GIRL  I usually play here in the afternoon around three thirty when it's nice. Do you?

OLD WOMAN  Do I...?

YOUNG GIRL  Come here. Around three thirty usually?

OLD WOMAN  Come here... Well, that depends.

YOUNG GIRL  On what?

OLD WOMAN  On what... well, on the weather mostly and my energy.

YOUNG GIRL  So when it's nice and your energy is working OK, you could maybe tell me more stories?

      (Pause.)

OLD WOMAN  Could be. Yes, I think I remember one other.

YOUNG GIRL  O.K. See you.

OLD WOMAN  All right. See you.

      (The YOUNG GIRL runs off. After a moment, she returns.)

YOUNG GIRL  I found my ball. It was in the bushes. My name is Sophie. What's yours?

OLD WOMAN  Me?... My name is ... Mrs. Greene.

 (The YOUNG GIRL hesitates for a second then runs off. The OLD WOMAN watches HER go, then closes her eyes.)

Fade to black.

The Effective Teacher

Rules

A. Students do a good deal of homework for Ms. Martin's  class, about 45 minutes of homework four times a week on average. She expects her students to complete and submit the homework on time. That's a rule in her class.                                                                                                                  

How should Ms. Martin treat assignments turned in after their due date? Should she:

     1. Accept only on-time submissions and give an “F” or a zero to any assignment that isn’t on time?

     2. Subtract 20% (or more?) from the score on each late homework?

     3. Accept late homework without penalty?
                                                                                                                                                                                         
B. Too often, rigid rules are established for the purpose of simplifying the life of the teacher. Many teachers will tell you that their rigid rules exist for the students’ own good, but the one-size-fits-all aspect signals otherwise.

                                                                                                                                                                 

It’s true that everyone must sooner or later come to terms with life’s rigid rules. (Pay your taxes by a certain date. Drive on the right. Thou shalt not kill.) But the primary responsibility of the instructor of Chemistry, Spanish or Psychology is to ensure that students learn those disciplines and their associated skills (writing, calculation, critical thinking, etc.), a challenge that requires agility, flexibility, sensitivity, consistency and improvisation if one is to serve a variety of student learning styles and backgrounds.

                                                                                                                                                                 

There is a surfeit of authority figures in any student’s life constantly attempting to ensure that he/she doesn’t underestimate the need to behave obediently. The student is reminded many times a day that deadlines must be met, responsibilities not neglected, standards of conduct followed and authorities deferred to. Each of these adults acts as if he thinks the others were shirking their responsibility to do their share in the creation of a population of responsible pupils. If adults devoted even half as much energy and ingenuity to the promotion of creativity and thoughtfulness as they to do the promotion of obedience, the result would be more academically prepared students capable of original ideas.

                                                                                                                                                                 

C. Let’s imagine two students in Mrs. Martin's class: We’ll call them X and Y so that their gender is not an issue in our analysis.

                                                                                                                                                                 Student X’s typical week includes:

accompanying a sibling to school on the city bus,

picking sibling up after school via city bus,

staying home when sybling is sick,

babysitting each day after school,

cooking dinner for syblings,

twelve hours of paid work on the weekends,

three other classes besides Ms. Fair’s

and homework.
In addition, Student X lives in a single-parent household. The parent is rarely

home during daylight hours and usually comes home from work at around 10 pm after Student X has finished homework.

                                                                                                                                                                Student Y’s typical week includes

driving to school

three other classes

and homework.

In addition, Student Y lives in a two-parent household. One of the parents is usually available to help with homework.  

                                                                                                                                                                 

D. Is it appropriate for Ms. Martin to take into consideration the difference between the two students’ home lives? 

                                                                                                                                                                 

Let’s first respond to the question in the negative: The difference is not to be considered. 

                                                                                                                                                                 

If we are not to consider socio-economic circumstances, then the corollary question must be asked: To which of these two students is Ms. Martin to address her instruction? In other words, is the instructor to choose a given socio-economic set point and target instruction to those whose life correlates thereto? Obviously, this is problematic. How is one to choose? If those with the less support at home are the chosen ones, then the others are penalized. If the less supported are chosen, others are not sufficiently challenged. If a middle ground is chosen, then neither extreme is well served. 

                                                                                                                                                                 

E. Now let’s respond to question in D above in the affirmative: 

                                                                                                                                                                 

The difference between the home life of the students will be taken into consideration. (Or, to formulate the idea more generally, the existence of a range of student circumstances in any given class is hereby acknowledged.)

                                                                                                                                                                 

The best teachers wish to create the most favorable conditions for learning.

                                                                                                                                                                 

Ms. Martin should not abandon her rule, but she should abandon its rigidity. She can do this in the following way. In acknowledgement that some students’ lives get in the way of their efforts more than one would wish, she will establish a maximum number of times when a student may hand in homework late without penalty. Perhaps that number is 3. Or 5. “We all have days when things happen beyond our control.” she will tell her class on the first day of the semester, “It happens to you and it happens to me too!” Beyond that number of tardy assignments, Ms. Martin’s penalty can be justifiably harsh. Short of that number, Ms. Martin wants to do what she can to support her students’ efforts.


Teachers confuse rules with standards of excellence. The point of a rule is to define  minimally acceptable behavior. 'Thou shalt not kill' is a minimum requirement, not a standard that the best and the brightest aspire to. Driving on the right does not make you a good driver. It makes you a minimally acceptable one. And if you pay your taxes on time, you may still be a tax cheat; you're just cheating on time. Most people look down toward the standard established by rules, not up. Teachers often forget this and treat rules as if they defined excellent behavior. As a result, they enforce their rules rigidly and, in the process, impede and discourage the performance of those who are excelling where it counts: in learning.

Marching Against Cancer

Why march for a cure to cancer? A recent case cited in the daily papers showed that 500 dangerous man-made chemicals were present in a single fat cell of a seemingly healthy 30-year-old female living in Britain today. By comparison, a single cell of an Egyptian mummy contained none. Despite the many scientific breakthroughs over the last five decades, we have seen a steady increase in killer diseases such as cancers, heart disease and diabetes. Could this increase be related to the constant chemical cocktail that has become a routine part of modern life? The number of products used by adults and children that contain potential carcinogens and other dangerous chemicals has become alarming. No one marched for a cure to the lung cancer that tobacco causes. Instead, strict sanctions and heavy taxes were imposed on tobacco companies. Marching for a cure to cancer today makes as little sense as marching for a cure to tobacco-caused disease would have made back then. Want to march? Then march for the imposition of strict control over the chemicals that you eat, drink and breathe every minute of every day. The American Cancer Society is part of the problem as it focuses attention on curing preventable disease while creating a cancer-industrial complex whose incentives place them on the same side of the problem as the Exxons, the Monsantos and the Macdonalds' Stop the chemical industry, the pesticide industry, the preservative and processed foods industries. March for that, demand that!

Acknowledgments

For my research, I enjoyed unrestricted access to the Las Vegas Shakespeare Festival Archive and the personal papers of Oboe the Rat Poison Figliano among other architects of the new Family Friendly Strip.

I also wish to acknowledge Neva B. Lloyd for her often overlooked and inspirational work in the  field of overlooked inspiration.

Finally, a heart-felt thanks to my pain-in-the-ass editor’s husband for sharing the burden. And offering himself to me.

                                                                                          T.S.

The Fear Factor

We are fearful of the unknown; it feels dangerous. While we may be convinced that we avoid certain things because they are dangerous, the truth, more often that not, is that we think they are dangerous because we have avoided them, and thus they remain unknown and (hypothetically) dangerous. 


The un--known, that of which we are ignorant. Two consequences of our fear of the unknown are that (1) We are drawn to those whose knowledge base is limited in a similar way as our own and avoid contact with those whose knowledge base includes phenomena of which we are ignorant and, therefore, frightened and (2) We are drawn to spokesmen whose message affirms that what we do know is what's important and what we don't know is unimportant or dangerous.


When a significant portion of a population finds itself more or less sharing a given level of ignorance, the result can be the birth of speculative theories meant to explain the frightening unknown, and those theories tend, over time, to settle in as established superstition.


When a given society of the superstitious exists over generations, a spokesman emerges and then the most insecure and gullible in the group end up constituting a self-interested, reassuring organizational structure that is known as religion.


The paradox in this last, religious, iteration consists in the fact that while religion is an outgrowth of fear, this fact is concealed from view by the universal acceptance within the group of the superstitious explanation of the unknown now taken to be truth by virtue of the fact of its acceptance by prior generations.


Because of the fear-based genesis of these religions, their sense of the world as documented in foundational documents is bathed in scenes of horrifying violence. Cruelty and suffering pervade, the crowning jewel being the elevated concept of "God fearing". God epitomizes and encompasses the unknown of which the ignorant acolyte is fearful.


Now, there would be nothing wrong with these religious manifestations of our human insecurity except for the fact that there is nothing more dangerous than a powerful institution unaware of its own basis in fear. For the unconsciously fearful will sooner or later find a way to imagine strangers (i.e. those with whom they have little or no contact and who are therefore unknown and thus frightening) as the enemy whom they will perceive as to blame for their unacknowledged fear. This provides the justification for inhumane treatment of this imagined enemy.