by Alissa King

Created on: August 09, 2009

"The Civil Side of a Savage Exchange"

Characters:

MEGAN: A kewpie-doll pretty 22 year old who has insinuated herself into the cracks of a 14-year marriage by having a highly physical affair with a career woman's husband.

LYDIA: An attractive, middle-aged professional whose outer aura of calm stems from a belief that everything in her life is under control. She has just learned of her husband's affair from the girl who called her office and asked to meet her on a bench in Central Park. She is shell-shocked.

..................................................

MEGAN: I loved the way he took me.

LYDIA: (Dangerously) Don't.

Megan: I did. That's why I did it.

Lydia: I don't want to hear about it. Ever! (She rises from the bench and backs away from the girl, this scene, this everything.)

MEGAN: You should hear this. It might help you. (Lydia turns away) I loved it because he was so unattached. He wasn't even there in the room with me. (Lydia is walking away, but she slows down a little bit.) Your husband was a machine with me. He took me over. He was all raw, relentless energy. I could have him again and again, and it didn't matter. His eyes never changed, they never filled with warmth... it was like he was gone whenever he took me. He wasn't even there. (Lydia has stopped walking, she is listening.) I never wanted intimacy. I wanted something that would beat down my walls until I screamed. I wanted to be swallowed up by someone who would devour me and never stop and think about it. That's what he did. He used me just like I asked him to. (Lydia flinches at this) But he didn't want me, Lydia. He wanted oblivion.

LYDIA: (Turning around) That's what he got. He got oblivion.

MEGAN: You don't have to say that. You don't have to be that way. Your husband couldn't disappear with you. It would have hurt him to do that.

LYDIA: (tonelessly) He hurt me.

MEGAN: (Her palms are turned up) Yeah. But I think he was trying to protect you.

LYDIA: (raises her voice) You don't know anything about us. You don't know my husband, or me. You don't know what he felt, or what he was thinking, or any of it. You're just a girl who tries to steal other people's love away.

MEGAN: I'm even worse than that. Because... you know what? I don't even care very much if I get what I want. But I do know he loved you. And he didn't care what happened to me. I couldn't hurt him, except through you.

LYDIA: And that's why you told me? That's why you did this?

MEGAN: (Rising) No. I just thought you needed to know.

LYDIA: Oh, I see... a good deed. (Lydia stares at her. Megan looks down. Lydia is somehow standing straighter now, like she's gathered herself in. She looks at the girl one last time.) My husband and me, we might find a way through this. But either way, you know what? I'm going to be fine. I'm going to be happy, and loved, and never think about you ever again. But you'll still be exactly what you are right this minute: Lost, cold and desperate. I hope you get exactly what you deserve.

MEGAN: You may not believe this now, but that is exactly what happened.

(Lydia gives her a long, cold look and then walks away.)

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