Until You Sit Here

                                                            Until You Sit Here
                                                            By Jacob Juntunen

Characters:
LOGAN: Any body.
PAT: Any body.

Set:
Two chairs on one side of the stage; one chair a short distance away.

(LOGAN sits on a chair, an empty chair nearby. PAT sits alone on a chair a short distance away, staring, as if at a screen.)

(Silence.)

                                                            LOGAN
Soup’s getting cold.

                                                            PAT
If we had a laptop, I could bring it to the table and sit with you.

(Silence.)

                                                            LOGAN
I don’t want to eat alone again.

                                                            PAT
I’m right here.

                                                            LOGAN
So sit at the table with me.

                                                            PAT
Until I see if I get the job, I’m not going to be able to relax.

                                                            LOGAN
There’s nothing we can do about it now. Just come sit with me.

                                                            PAT
She said she’d e-mail me tonight. It’s 8pm. I should have heard by five, don’t you think? I mean, it’s an office job.

                                                            LOGAN
Maybe she forgot.

                                                            PAT
That can’t mean anything good for my prospects, can it? How am I going to keep getting my meds if I don’t get that benefits package?

                                                            LOGAN
You can stay on my insurance if I don’t graduate.

                                                            PAT
But your dissertation’s done.

                                                            LOGAN
If I don’t file it, I could keep paying tuition, keep our insurance—

                                                            PAT
It would probably be cheaper to just buy the drugs—

                                                            LOGAN
Come sit with me. Have some soup. Split pea is the worst when it gets cold.

                                                            PAT
Let me sit with my phone on the table, that way I can see if an e-mail comes in—

                                                            LOGAN
No phones at the table, that’s our rule—

                                                            PAT
Just this once—

                                                            LOGAN
We couldn’t even get through a meal without you staring at that phone, I just want you to sit with me—

                                                            PAT
But this is an exception—

                                                            LOGAN
Just sit here, have some soup. There’s extra ham in it. Like the first time I cooked it for you. When we first got married you weren’t distracted by some stupid screen—

                                                            PAT
I’m worried I can’t get my meds without that benefits package.

                                                            LOGAN
So how come you didn’t sit with me last night? Or the night before? We got rid of the phones at the table, and you just sit in front of the computer—

                                                            PAT
She said she’d e-mail tonight.

                                                            LOGAN
Sitting there isn’t going to make the e-mail come. I’m not going to eat anything until you sit here. Both bowls will just harden up, get that skin on top, get chalky. I’m not eating until you’re with me. Really with me. Sitting here, talking to me, listening to me.

(Silence.)

                                                            LOGAN (cont)
Are you listening to me?

                                                            PAT
I don’t understand how she says she’ll e-mail tonight, from a business, and I don’t have it by five.

(Silence.)

                                                            LOGAN
I’m not eating until you sit here.

(PAT doesn’t move.)

(Silence.)

(Blackout.)

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