NURK enters and offers her a bottle of water and opens one himself.
The store was open?
Nurk: Yeah.
Bitsy: Thanks.
Nurk: Sure.
Bitsy: I’m all dehydrated.
Nurk: It’s the sugar.
Bitsy: Sugar kills.
Nurk: Tell me about it.
Bitsy: “Bingo.”
Nurk: I know.
Bitsy: Bingo should only be when you win something, not lose.
Nurk: Bingo should only be good.
Bitsy: A good surprise of something special.
Nurk: Bingo.
Bitsy: I don’t usually drink so much anymore.
Nurk: I can’t.
Bitsy: Tell me about it.
Nurk: I know.
Bitsy: Who’d of thought we’d be drinking water from plastic bottles? I mean back, you know, thirty years ago.
Nurk: Well thirty years ago we couldn’t drink the city water here. We had to boil it or get it from the spring.
Bitsy: That’s true.
Nurk: But you can now.
Bitsy: That’s true. Because of the work people like you do.
Nurk: Where did “Bitsy” come from?
Bitsy: My little brother couldn’t say “Betsy.”
Nurk: But your name is Kathy.
Bitsy: I know. My dad wanted Betsy after his mom but my mom wanted Kathy after her cousin who died so they called me Kathy on the certificate but called me Betsy home and my little brother couldn’t say Betsy.
Nurk: Oh.
Bitsy: Family’s nuts. As usual.
Nurk: I like Bitsy.
Bitsy: Yeah. Bitsy. Bitsy’s me.
Nurk: Yeah.
Bitsy: Paul’s a nice name.
Nurk: The only place people call me Nurk is here.
Bitsy: I like Paul.
Nurk: That’s my name.
Bitsy: Sorry about your wife. That must have been hard.
Nurk: Stuff happens.
Bitsy: Heffer said she cheated.
Nurk: It ended. However it happened it was supposed to happen I guess. Things end.
Bitsy: Yeah.
Nurk: Things have to end so things can begin.
Bitsy: Yeah.
A moment.
So you knew I never graduated?
Nurk: Yeah.
Bitsy: Everybody knew?
Nurk: Yeah.
Bitsy: Wow. But in a way it’s nice that nobody ever said they knew. Kind of.
Nurk: Can I ask?…
Bitsy: What?
Nurk: I remember that you were good in school.
Bitsy: Yeah.
Nurk: So it wasn’t your marks.
Bitsy: No.
Nurk: So what was the reason?
Bitsy: Because I never wrote my final exams.
Nurk: But why?
Bitsy: I just didn’t… I wasn’t… I didn’t want to… I really liked high school you know? I had a really good time. You know how they say those are the best years of your life and all that? Well most kids don’t get that that’s true until later when they think back and remember, but it was like I knew it while it was happening. That it would never get any better. And I guess I didn’t want it to end because I was afraid it would never be that good again. And I didn’t know what I was going to do after and so I didn’t write my exams because I thought it wouldn’t end if I didn’t but… It did anyway.
Nurk: Things have to end.
Bitsy: So things can begin.
Nurk: Right.
Bitsy: Look at that moon.
Nurk: Yeah.
Bitsy: Too bad it’s not full. I guess we missed it.
Nurk: No it’s waxing.
Bitsy: Waxing?
Nurk: Waxing, waning. It’s not waning it’s waxing. It will be full.
Bitsy: It will be.
Nurk: Soon. Tomorrow maybe. Soon.
Bitsy: Soon is good.
They both look up at the moon.
We hear the opening bars of the Indigo Girls’s “Closer To Fine.”
They look at one another.
Slowly a gentle kiss.
They look at one another.
Nurk: Bingo.
Bitsy: Bingo.
They kiss again, for real. Music rises. Light fades. End.
photo by Guntar Kravis
Daniel MacIvor is one of Canada’s most accomplished playwrights and performers. Winner of the prestigious Elinore and Lou Siminovitch Prize, the GLAAD Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award and many others, Daniel’s plays have been met with acclaim throughout North America.
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