In the Second Place

From the Play

Play Excerpt:

ACTORS WHO APPEAR ON STAGE:
DARRY BARKER, a boy of 25
MASON, an older man, the janitor of the building

VOICES THAT ARE HEARD OFF STAGE: (microphones may be necessary)
An OLD MAN (May double as Mason)
MRS. JESSIE SIMPSON, an older woman
SALLY MELFORD, a young girl.

SCENE:
An empty room in a small apartment building

TIME:
The present

FROM THE PLAY

(As the lights come down on the audience, in the darkness there is noise, the sound of someone pounding on walls, of door, and the boy says, “Oh, damn” or etc. Lights come up on Darold Barker, or, if there is one, he may be standing on the window casement, banging on the sides of the windows, trying to loosen them, trying to lift the window. At first he doesn’t hear the voice of an old man outside the door of the room:)

MAN: Hey! Hey there! You there, Cut that out. You in there, cut out the noise in there. . . Cut that out, that banging. What’d you wan’t do? Hey! You there. . . (Lost in separate concern they may ad lib noises until finally in a pause between pounds, the boy hears the old man’s voice and goes over to the door.)

DARRY: Yes! Yes! Help! I’m here!

MAN: Hey you, making all that noise in there. . .

DARRY: (Loud. Desperate.) Yes. Help! Listen. . . Is someone out there? Help, please!

MAN: You sure making a pile of noise in there, so you are.

DARRY: (Shouting at the crack in the door.) I’m locked in! I’ve gotten myself locked in. . .

MAN: Something wrong in there?

DARRY: Would you open the door for me. Come on now. (Pause.) Did you hear me? I’m locked in, I said.

MAN: (Little pause again.) So you’re locked in, so you are. Well, sir, I won’t bother you son.

DARRY: No, no! Wait!

MAN: Crazy as a loon. But you can’t go on making all that noise, no you can’t

DARRY: No, no. Wait. I want to come out. Get that? I want to come out, but the door locked shut, got locked when I shut it, or at least, is locked now. (Loud.) By mistake. Locked by mistake.

MAN: By mistake, is it?

DARRY: Yes. I didn’t lock it myself, you see.

MAN: I see.

DARRY: Now, I want you to open it.
MAN: Oh. Well, I don’t think I can open it, not by any authority that’s mine. No I don’t think I can do that. (Mumbling.) I don’t know. . .

DARRY: (Pause.) I see. (Somewhat coldly.) Could you please put me in touch with the landlord or whoever is in charge of the building?

MAN: (Pause.) Where’re your parents?

DARRY: My what?

MAN: Your parents. Where’re they? (The boy gives a hopeless, “oh no,” and gesture, upset, in the pause.) They know you’re in there.?

DARRY: I don’t have parents. I mean my parents don’t live here, near here. They don’t live with me. I mean I don’t live here or none of us lives here, I don’t. . . we. . . (In a mess.) Oh God.