THE WAITING ROOM
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~
Cast
HELEN GAFFEN, a pregnant woman in her twenties who has just gone into labor
LYNETTE GAFFEN, her mother
BRUCE GAFFEN, her father
MARGARET GAFFEN, her teenaged sister
DAVE HOLLAND, her best friend
BEVERLY MAYHERN, her grandmother
DR. TEAL, her obstetrician
~~~
SETTING: A hospital waiting room is set up in the middle of the stage. On SL is a medical exam room, on SR is a hospital bedroom. Each section is lit individually, so indicate which is “real” in any given scene.
(A young man in his twenties, DAVE, sits alone in the waiting room, somewhere between anxious and bored. He keeps looking off to the side, as if hoping someone will come out to him.
(Suddenly the whole Gaffen family, father BRUCE, mother LYNETTE, and teenaged daughter MARGARET, comes in, talking frantically over one another. DAVE springs to his feet.)
DAVE: What’s happening?
LYNETTE: The head’s too big.
BRUCE: There’s a lot of blood.
MARGARET: They threw us out.
LYNETTE: They’re taking her into surgery!
DAVE: Oh, God.
(Behind the row of waiting room chairs, doctors and nurses wheel their heavily pregnant eldest daughter HELEN on a gurney across the stage. The family’s voices all mix together so that they cannot be understood, then taper off when the crowd with the gurney gets offstage.)
LYNETTE: They’re giving her an emergency C-section.
DAVE: Is she going to be all right?
MARGARET: They have no idea.
BRUCE: The doctors are going to take care of her. This hospital’s done pretty good by us in the past.
DAVE: Yeah? That’s… that’s good. That’s something.
BRUCE: We’ve got a lot of history here. We’ve made a few visits for just one family.
LYNETTE: It’s a good hospital. This is where Grandma finally got her right diagnosis.
MARGARET: For all the good that did her.
LYNETTE: She had lymphoma, Maggie, there wasn’t much anyone could have done.
BRUCE: But this isn’t like that. This is something they can handle.
DAVE: So… what now?
LYNETTE: I guess there’s nothing to do but wait.
MARGARET: Great.
(They all settle uncomfortably into the waiting room. Bruce picks up a newspaper while LYNETTE and DAVE sit moodily. MARGARET starts playing with her cell phone. She holds it to her ear, then looks at in frustration.)
MARGARET: No cell service at all.
(She gets up and starts walking away.)
LYNETTE: Where are you going?
MARGARET: Trying to find signal.
LYNETTE: Did you have that with you in the delivery room?
BRUCE: You’re not supposed to have cell phones in the hospital rooms, Maggie.
MARGARET: I didn’t use it.
LYNETTE: You shouldn’t use it now.
MARGARET: There’s nothing else to do out here!
BRUCE: You should really be thinking of your sister right now, hon.
MARGARET: (Grumbled, under breath) How’s that any different than usual?
(Flashback to the past. Lights up on the exam room. MARGARET goes and sits on the counter in there. She puts a cast around her wrist. Lights down on the waiting room. Enter HELEN.)
HELEN: Aw, geez, Margaret, look at you.
MARGARET: Yeah, yeah, I know.
HELEN: What happened?
MARGARET: We cut through the construction site on Bacon Street. We were climbing over the earthmover and when I tried to get off I fell. Sandra called an ambulance and they took me here.
HELEN: Oh, my God, don’t you know how dangerous it is in there?
MARGARET: It’s like twenty minutes faster!
HELEN: Maggie, a girl got killed messing around in there last month! There’s heavy machinery and blasting caps and God knows what else. You could have broken your neck or blown yourself up!
MARGARET: Blow myself up, are you kidding?
HELEN: Did the ambulance call the cops on you? You know you were trespassing.
MARGARET: Yeah, but—
HELEN: Jesus, Margaret!
MARGARET: Nobody’s pressing charges! They let me off with a warning not to do it again.
HELEN: You could have gotten into so much trouble. There’s a reason Mom and Dad forbade you from going through there. They’re going to be so disappointed.
MARGARET: You can’t tell them!
HELEN: They’re going to see you’ve got your arm in a cast! You’re just lucky they aren’t going to see it on you in jail.
MARGARET: Christ, calm down! Nothing’s going to happen now! Mom and Dad don’t have to know how it happened. We can just say that I tripped down some stairs or something!
HELEN: I’m not lying to them, Margaret.
MARGARET: So you’re going to rat me out?
HELEN: Not if you tell them yourself.
MARGARET: Nothing all that bad happened! I’m okay mostly! I won’t do it again!
HELEN: They made that rule for a reason.
MARGARET: Who made you my parole officer? Can’t you just help me out here, just this once?
HELEN: Grow up, Margaret.
MARGARET: Yeah, of course not. ‘Cause you never screwed up once in your life. You’re so damn perfect all the time!
HELEN: I thought you were smarter than this, but I guess you’re not.
MARGARET: No shit, you’re the only smart person in the world, Helen. Thanks so much for this, sis. You’re going to run everything. They’re never going to trust me again!
HELEN: You should have thought of that before your betrayed their trust. Come on. Let me get you home already.
(Lights down on the exam room. Return to the present. HELEN exits while MARGARET removes her cast. Lights up on the waiting room. MARGARET sits down sullenly back in one of the chairs.)
BRUCE: I was thinking… should we call him?
LYNETTE: Call who?
BRUCE: You know. The boy. The baby’s father.
LYNETTE: Oh, God.
BRUCE: What was his name again?
DAVE: (Flatly) It was Ben.
BRUCE: That’s right. In all the confusion we didn’t even think of it.
LYNETTE: (Coldly) I did.
MARGARET: Why would we want to call him?
BRUCE: He might want to know what’s happening.
LYNETTE: Oh, I think he made it very clear that he didn’t want to have anything to do with this.
DAVE: Good riddance, I say. He doesn’t deserve to know what’s going on.
BRUCE: So you knew him?
DAVE: Yeah.
BRUCE: And you didn’t like him either.
DAVE: That’s putting it mildly.
BRUCE: I see. I mean, we didn’t get the best impression of him either, but we didn’t really know him…
DAVE: Take it from me, knowing him makes it worse.
BRUCE: So he’s just disappeared, then?
DAVE: Yep. Run off like a rat and can’t be contacted for anything.
BRUCE: It’s good of you be here, Dave.
DAVE: It’s nothing. I wanted to be.
BRUCE: You’ve been such a good friend to Helen through this. She needs good friends right now.
LYNETTE: Yes, thank you, Dave.
(She squeezes his hand.)
LYNETTE: I still can’t believe it. I thought she was smarter than this.
MARGARET: Yeah, she sure seemed to think she was.
DAVE: Hey, come on.
MARGARET: No, seriously! She always acts like she’s got it all figured out, but she’s stupid sometimes just like the rest of us.
BRUCE: Don’t talk about your sister that way.
MARGARET: I’m sick of it!
BRUCE: She is laid out on an operating table right now.
MARGARET: I know, I know. But when? When do we get to talk about how Helen’s not as perfect as she thinks she is?
DAVE: Everybody makes mistakes. Ben was… just a mistake.
LYNETTE: I wish I understood why, though. What in the world did she see in him?
DAVE: God, I don’t know. (To himself) Been asking myself that for a long time.
(Jump back to the past. Lights down on the waiting room as DAVE goes to the exam room. HELEN sits on the counter in a gown with a small but visible pregnancy bump. DR. TEAL enters with a chart.)
DR. TEAL: Helen Gaffen?
HELEN: Yes.
DR. TEAL: Hello, I’m Dr. Teal. I’ll be doing your exam today. How do you do?
(He shakes HELEN’s hand, then turns to DAVE.)
DR. TEAL: And who might you be?
DAVE: Me? I’m Dave Holland.
DR. TEAL: Pleased to meet you. What brings you in with Helen?
(DR. TEAL begins HELEN’s exam.)
DAVE: Well, she didn’t want to come in alone. Somebody should be along. You know, for moral support.
(HELEN looks at DAVE awkwardly. Suddenly he understands.)
DAVE: Oh, it’s not mine.
DR. TEAL: All right.
DAVE: I’m just her friend.
HELEN: The father and I are out of contact. He’s… not going to be involved.
DR. TEAL: I understand. Well, Helen, everything looks fine so far, but we’ll draw some blood for testing, and get you an ultrasound. I’ll just go and get the machine ready. I’ll be right back.
(Exit DR. TEAL. As soon as he’s gone, HELEN collapses a little and covers her face with her hands.)
HELEN: God, what he must be thinking.
DAVE: I’m sorry, I should have kept my mouth shut.
HELEN: No, it’s not you, it’s me.
DAVE: What do you mean?
HELEN: Everyone’s judging me all the time now.
DAVE: Oh, he’s a doctor, I’m sure he doesn’t do that.
HELEN: Well, that makes one of them. I know what everyone else is thinking when they look at me— unwed mother, abandoned by the father, threw away her whole life.
DAVE: I’m so sorry, Helen. I hope that’s not true.
HELEN: Thank you. And thank you for coming down here with me.
DAVE: Glad to do it.
HELEN: If you hadn’t, I don’t know who would have. I couldn’t have asked anyone in my family. They’re so disgusted with me. After getting with Ben, even after everybody told me not to… they all just think I’m a fool.
DAVE: I don’t think that.
HELEN: Really? I know you certainly didn’t approve of him.
DAVE: Well, no, but that never changed what I think of you.
HELEN: That really means a lot. It’s changed what I think of me.
DAVE: Oh, Helen.
HELEN: It has. I can’t believe how stupid I was. Thinking I was special because he was a jerk to everyone but me… of course sooner or later he’d be a jerk to me too. And now I’m abandoned with a baby. Guess I got what was coming to me.
DAVE: You don’t really think that, do you?
HELEN: Think what?
DAVE: That you’re… being punished with this?
HELEN: I don’t even know, Dave.
DAVE: God, no. Helen, you just made a mistake. You didn’t do anything wrong.
HELEN: I’ve still got to pay for it. I mean— I know I shouldn’t say that. A baby’s not a punishment. It’s just… now I have to take care of one all by myself.
DAVE: No, I get it. I mean, now you're stuck with Ben's—
HELEN: Dave, don't talk like that! It's still my baby!
DAVE: I'm sorry. It's just... I know it's yours, but I... it's weird that it's Ben's too.
HELEN: Well, it's weirder for me! But that can't matter anymore. I'm going to be somebody's mother, Dave. Somebody's going to cry when they're hungry, or scared, or hurt, and they're going to be crying for me. I don’t know if I’m up that.
DAVE: You won’t be alone. The people who love you will help.
HELEN: Maybe. But it’s my responsibility. Nobody’s but mine. If I screw this up… my baby suffers for it.
DAVE: You won’t screw it up. You’re good at everything, Helen. I’ve never seen you screw up.
HELEN: Except with this. And my mom thinks I’ve screwed up my whole life. Can’t finish school right now… and I’m probably going to have to get used to being alone. Who’s going to want a screw-up with a kid?
DAVE: Please, Helen, stop. This might have thrown off your plans for the moment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get back on track later. Things could still work out. Someone as smart and determined as you will find the way.
(HELEN shrugs, unconvinced.)
DAVE: And someone like that will never end up alone. The right person won’t care about any of this.
HELEN: I hope so. It ran Ben off pretty quick.
DAVE: That wasn’t your fault! He’s an asshole. You deserve way better than that. You deserve… somebody better.
(Pause.)
DAVE: Helen… I want you to know I’ll always be here for you. For anything you might need.
(Reenter DR. TEAL. DAVE takes a step back in embarrassment.)
DR. TEAL: All right, Helen, we’ll take you into ultrasound now.
(HELEN slides down off the counter. DAVE starts to follow her out, but DR. TEAL stops him.)
DR. TEAL: Sorry, sir, it’s family only back there.
DAVE: Oh. Of course. I guess I’ll wait for you in here.
HELEN: Thanks, Dave.
(She briefly hugs him.)
HELEN: I really don’t know what I’d do without you.
(HELEN walks out after Dr. TEAL. DAVE stands alone a moment, looking sadly after her.)
DAVE: Yeah.
(The lights go back up on the waiting room and down on the exam room. Return to the present. DAVE returns to the chairs.)
BRUCE: Sure taking a long time in there.
MARGARET: Yeah.
BRUCE: I wonder if there’s a vending machine or something around here.
LYNETTE: I can’t believe you can eat right now.
BRUCE: Well, there’s not much else I can do. Except say my prayers. Been doing that for a while now.
(BRUCE gets up to go searching, but DR. TEAL enters and stops him.)
DR. TEAL: Mr. Gaffen? Mrs. Gaffen?
BRUCE: Yes?
LYNETTE: (Standing) Is she all right?
DR. TEAL: Turns out the situation is a little more serious than it first appeared. There’s a lot of tearing from the baby coming backwards down the birth canal, so we’ve got a lot of bleeding to deal with. It’s touch-and-go for now, but we’re doing everything we can.
DAVE: Oh, God.
DR. TEAL: Don’t give up. We haven’t lost either of them yet.
(DR. TEAL exits.)
LYNETTE: I can’t believe this is happening.
BRUCE: Chin up, love.
LYNETTE: She has such a bright future ahead of her. Or at least, she used to.
DAVE: She still does.
LYNETTE: She’s already had to leave school. Have there ever been any pregnant girls in any of your classes?
DAVE: Uh, not that I noticed. Could have been, though.
MARGARET: Oh, come on. Of course not. How many unwed mothers don’t manage to screw up their lives?
DAVE: This is Ben’s fault, not hers.
BRUCE: Come on, Margaret, don’t talk that way.
DAVE: She wants to get things back in order.
LYNETTE: Yes, but will she be able to? God, this going to ruin everything.
BRUCE: Oh, don’t say that.
LYNETTE: Think of how hard things are going to be, Bruce! What about college?
MARGARET: Will she be able to go back to school with a baby?
LYNETTE: I don’t know how. She’s already a semester behind. It’s not like things will be easier when the baby’s born.
MARGARET: I wonder how Little Miss Perfect will handle that.
BRUCE: Margaret, I’m serious. Cut it out.
LYNETTE: I’m still worried about what’s going to come of this. I don’t know if she’ll ever be able to have the life she wants.
BRUCE: Lynette, how are you so sure?
LYNETTE: Because I’ve seen it.
BRUCE: You don’t know that’s what’s going to happen in this case.
LYNETTE: But what kind of mother will it make her? And what will it be like for the child that has to grow up in that kind of environment?
DAVE: She’s going to do the best she can, I know it.
LYNETTE: That’s what we all do. But sometimes that’s not enough. It was hard on your grandmother. She was about Helen’s age when she had me.
MARGARET: But Grandma was married and everything.
LYNETTE: Even so. She made that very clear.
(Lights down on the waiting room. Jump back to the past. LYNETTE goes to the SR hospital bed. BEVERLY sits up in it, hooked up to machines. LYNETTE faces away from her and picks up the receiver on the wall phone.)
BEVERLY: I can’t believe they’re not letting me go home. I want to talk to the doctor again. Lynette? Lynette, are you listening?
LYNETTE: One minute, Mom, I’m on the phone with Scott.
BEVERLY: What?
LYNETTE: Here. Scott wants to talk.
BEVERLY: Oh, tell him I’m not here.
LYNETTE: Mom, he knows you’re here, you’re in the hospital.
BEVERLY: Tell him I can’t talk!
LYNETTE: Mom, come on.
BEVERLY: Tell him I’m taking a nap now, I’ll call him back.
LYNETTE: Oh, fine. Scott, she’s being difficult right now, she won’t talk. Sorry. I don’t know why! I can’t fight about it, I’ll make sure she calls you back. Bye for now.
(LYNETTE hangs up the phone.)
LYNETTE: I don’t know why you’re being like this.
BEVERLY: I told you before, I don’t want to take calls right now. I’m tired of everyone nosing into my health.
LYNETTE: Scott is your son and he’s concerned about you!
BEVERLY: Oh, if all of you were concerned you’d listen to what I say.
LYNETTE: Please don’t be like this when they get here.
BEVERLY: What do you mean, get here?
LYNETTE: Him and the kids are flying in on Wednesday.
BEVERLY: He’s just dropping everything in the middle of the week?
LYNETTE: He wants to be here with you.
BEVERLY: No, Lynette, not now. I hate it when they see me with my skin all pale and tubes stuck up my nose. Why can’t they wait until a time when I’m not stuck here?
LYNETTE: Mom, I don’t think you understand.
BEVERLY: What don’t I understand?
LYNETTE: You don’t seem to realize what’s happening.
BEVERLY: Oh, aren’t you so smart? Always know better than your mother!
LYNETTE: Will you just let me explain?
BEVERLY: Thank God you’re here to educate me!
LYNETTE: Mom! Please just listen to me.
BEVERLY: Fine, I’m listening.
LYNETTE: This isn’t like all the other times. The chemo isn’t working anymore. Things could get really bad. That’s why everyone’s flying in to see you.
(Pause.)
LYNETTE: Don’t you think we should be together right now?
BEVERLY: Why are you doing this?
LYNETTE: Doing what?
BEVERLY: You’re just trying to scare me!
LYNETTE: Mom, it’s the truth!
BEVERLY: And you throw it in my face so that I behave how you want me to behave! You never think about me!
LYNETTE: I’ve been here all week trying to take care of you!
BEVERLY: I took care of you your whole life, and you do this to me now? This is what I lost all the best years of my life to?
LYNETTE: How can you say that? Do you have any idea how that hurts my feelings?
BEVERLY: Your feelings? I’m the one who’s dying, and I should be worrying about you? Why don’t you go, Lynette, I said I didn’t want anyone visiting me.
(LYNETTE rushes out and returns to the waiting area. Lights down on the bedroom. Return to the present. LYNETTE sits and stares ahead, looking troubled.)
BRUCE: Lynette? Are you all right?
LYNETTE: Oh, yes. Just thinking. It’s hard for a woman with a child she didn’t mean to have. Women didn’t have as many options in those days.
BRUCE: What are you talking about, options? That’s not what your mother wanted and that’s not what Helen wants.
(Long pause.)
MARGARET: What if he dies?
LYNETTE: Who?
MARGARET: The baby. (To DAVE) It wasn’t a girl, you know.
DAVE: What?
MARGARET: The baby. When they looked at the ultrasound they told her she was having a girl. But during the delivery they discovered it’s really a boy.
DAVE: She really does want this. To have this baby. If something happens to him…
LYNETTE: She’s been on the edge of ruining everything ever since that slimy boy came into her life!
DAVE: Look, yeah, Ben was a jerk! Nobody knew that better than me. But that doesn’t change how Helen feels!
MARGARET: It could still happen! We don’t know what’s going to happen! This could be bad either way!
(They start arguing loudly at each other until BRUCE stands up and stops them.)
BRUCE: Stop it, all of you! Don’t you see? It’s not just the baby that might die, Helen might die too! That’s my little girl on that table. All our girl. And until she comes out, that’s all that matters to me. Whatever comes after that, we’ll deal with it.
(They all sit quietly for a long time, worrying and trying to draw comfort from each other. At long last, DR. TEAL enters. Everyone looks up to him expectantly.)
DR. TEAL: Everything’s going to be all right.
LYNETTE: Oh, thank God!
BRUCE: How is she?
DR. TEAL: She’s stable now. She’s still under, but she should be coming out soon.
LYNETTE: And the baby?
DR. TEAL: He’s just fine. They’re cleaning him up now.
MARGARET: Can we see him?
DR. TEAL: Of course. If you come back now, you can be there when Helen wakes up.
LYNETTE: Thank you, doctor. We will.
(The family collects themselves and exchanges embraces and supportive gestures. DR. TEAL starts to show them the way out. At first DAVE hangs back, but when he is noticed, LYNETTE and MARGARET urge him to come along with them. Exeunt and lights out.)
( Lights up on the hospital bedroom as we jump forward to the future. LYNETTE enters, carries a little boy, to the bed where HELEN lies holding a baby wrapped in a pink blanket in her arms.)
HELEN: Say hello to your new little sister, David.
LYNETTE: Helen, she’s beautiful.
THE END
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