by Elmira Z

Created on: July 03, 2007

Deirdre December 2006

STAGE DIRECTION
On Center Stage there is a hospital bed, with heart monitors, oxygen tanks, fluid bags hanging off of metal bars, and lots of monitors hooked up to different wires. A fluorescent light above the bed is lighting the room, along with a miniature Christmas tree in the corner on Stage Left, furthest to the audience. There are cards and packages beneath the tree. Beside the bed is a nightstand-on-wheels, with a Styrofoam cup and a few packages on top of it. To Stage Right there is a diagonal wall, with a large window on it, showing a view of a small city, darkness, and whirling snow. The floors are a dull laminate, and the walls are painted a traditional cream. In the hospital bed lies a little girl of about eleven, who has long dark brown hair and big eyes one brown, one blue. Her skin is pale, and she hardly smiles. IVs are hooked into her arms, and wires are planted on her chest and forearms. The light blue hospital blanket is pulled to her upper stomach, exposing her white hospital gown. Her hair is in a tangled mess, and her eyes are shut.

A nurse comes in, pushes a few buttons on a monitor screen, takes Deirdre's pulse, and leaves the room.
A voice, a strong, powerful feminine voice comes from nowhere within Deirdre's hospital room.

VOICE
How do you feel, Deirdre?

DEIRDRE
*Sarcastically* Fantastic.

VOICE
How do you feel, Deirdre?

DEIRDRE
I told you.

VOICE
How do you feel, Deirdre?

DEIRDRE
*Exasperatedly* every night

VOICE
How do you feel, Deirdre?

DEIRDRE
Horrible!
VOICE
That's better.

DEIRDRE
No, no it's not. It's Christmas time, everyone's at home with their family, happily unwrapping presents and eating good food that doesn't look like plastic and taste like what it ishospital foodand hugging their mommies and daddies while I'm here in this bed drinking a flat smoothie, and the only carols I hear are those of my machines and IVs bubbling.

VOICE
Battle it, Deirdre. Battle it.

DEIRDRE
Battle it? How? Pretend there's giant nutcrackers and chop their nuts off with a wooden sword? Like play land? I can't.

VOICE
Why can't you?

DEIRDRE
Because I don't have any weapons, let alone a sword. I just have a hopeless illness, and I'll never overcome it.

VOICE
Battle the illness, Deirdre! Battle it!

DEIRDRE
I am battling it, you stupidvoice! I'm battling it with medicine, IVs, heart tests, CAT scans, EEGs, EKGs, MRIsthe whole nine yards! I have a psychologist, a psychiatrist, and a pediatrician! And none of them seem to be helping

STAGE DIRECTION
Deirdre breaks down and

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