Post Mortem

Location: a dinner. Fluently pretentious in it's ambitions. Worn down. Looks to have been remedied with less than conventional means.

(Enters Luke. 25 year old male whom doesn't have a sense of style. A philistine with ambitions to impress a woman with conventional tastes and an artistic platitude)

Luke: uh, hi. My name is Luke. I have a...

Waitress: oh yes! Your friend is waiting for you at table 13.

Luke: really? Oh. You see I was hoping to have gotten here earlier than her and well to create the impression that I was prepared for our. Uuhh Encounter I guess.

Waitress: mmm oh yes, so you want me to rewind time.

Luke: uh

Waitress: I'm joking Hun. Take that seat over there and i'll tell her that there was a little misunderstanding.

Luke: thanks I, I'm glad you understand. I just didn't want to seem like this..

Waitress: hun shush. Just remember I make my living off of tips ok.

Luke: sure. You got it

Waitress begins to walk away

Luke: thank you!

Waitress: excuse me, Mam'

Laura: yes?

Waitress: it appears well that I made a mistake about whether a certain gentleman had been waiting for you or not and may have confused a few names and the like.

Laura: is that right? Look I've known Luke for a long time. Perhaps longer than I would have liked to have known some one like him and I'm fairly certain he has not been in this fine establishment for longer than say 15 minutes compared to my 30. But all that aside I'm willing to bet that he's orchestrated this "misunderstanding" so as to appear a changed man.

Waitress: no I can assure you he's been here for a good 35 minutes..

Laura: Fine whatever, where is he?

Waitress: table 1. It's on the other side of the diner.

Laura looks at waitress

Laura: ok I know you had a story all set. How'd you fudge up this reservation?

Waitress: well when you came in and asked for a Luke I thought you had said duke and because my writing is all screwy I had mistakenly written duke and had not noticed Luke was at table one.

Laura: not bad. Then I suppose the reserved table was a lie.

Waitress: I have a gift for improvisation.

Laura: I can tell.

Luke: oh hello Laura! Where have you been? It's been almost

Laura: cut the crap DUKE. I know you just got here.

Luke: that's a absurd Laura. It was all just a misunderstanding like the waitress told you.
Lets just put that behind us and get this "post-mordum" going.

Waitress: so would y'all like anything to drink?

Luke: yes I'll have

Laura: nothing. He's probably had more than his fill of coffee. For one day having been here for almost a whole hour!

Luke: (at waitress) an hour?

Waitress: well actually mam I said 30

Laura: forget it I'll have a coffee. Black. Like my luck.

Luke: two creams three sugars.

Waitress: okie dokie I'll be back with your coffee in a few

Laura: you haven't changed a bit Luke.

Luke: well my taste in coffee hasn't but I can assure you my entire way of life has certainly been altered. I'm not this neurotic attention whore that you knew many years ago. That's actually why I wanted to get together again. I know there isn't any trace of what you would call a spark anymore but I wanted to know what exactly killed what we did have.

Laura: what we had was a mistake. And you can't destroy that which is meaningless.

Luke: now wait, I don't think that's a fair interpretation of what we had. Just put all your bitterness away and think about our relationship in an unbiased manner.

Laura: I'm not bitter. I'm NOT bitter. I think you romanticized our relationship to a level that just wasn't realistic. You are seeing what we had through rose colored lenses. When in fact every aspect of our relationship was a lie.

Luke: so I'm a lier? You're telling me that I didn't really feel how I'm telling you I felt? That's absurd. If you look at our first date. No, The first time we met you have to admit there was a spark.

Laura: I'm leaving

Luke: oh no don't do that.. Look
(luke pulls out an envelope from his jacket pocket) It's from when you worked at the art gallery. You wrote me a poem. Remember?

(Laura looks at the postcard from the art gallery it has a picture of Van Gough's "A Starry Night" on it's back)

{The Note reads}
Above me the abyss
The City's ironic glare.
A work of art.
Her rendition of van Gough
Without the subtle strokes.

(Laura begins to word it out)
Below.
Globes, radiant globes.
Worshipped by monoliths.
Stoned architects of the wild.
The rhythm of the night...
It banishes cowardly spirits.
Holstered arias. Bested by beasts.
The sky erupts.
The silence now triumphant.
The pin drop is heard.
A weapon of mass destruction.
(Laura returns the Postcard)
Laura: You believe the world is ending.

Luke: I don't know what to believe. I , yes, I suppose I do. I'm actually.. If I knew for certain. I wouldn't be here.

(waitress returns with two coffees)
Waitress: Here you go two creams three sugars and black, like your luck.

Luke: thank you so much.
(Luke takes a sip of coffee)

Laura: why did you save it? How is this important to why I'm here?

Luke: I have yo be honest. When you first wrote it. After reading it.. It went way over my head.

Laura: that's part of the reason we didn't work out. You're too dense to understand the intricacies of poetry.

Luke: Agreed, I'll give you that. I didn't get it. I spent hours trying to extrapolate meaning from art. From Poetry. I tried, YOU know this. Remember the museums? The countless galleries? Can we agree that I tried to understand?

Laura: You tried, But failed.

Luke: Why are you throwing it in my face? The sincerity was there. I genuinely wanted it to work out.
But that's not the point. Look,
I finally understand it. The picture.
It's about the end of the world.
It's about what going to happen.

Laura: No it's not.

Luke: Just look at it. The sky's erupting, the city is hopeless. We're hopeless. Just like the man screaming in the streets keeps saying. It's no longer just a crude drawing of the sky to me. It has an attached meaning..

Laura: I suppose that's as closer than you've ever gotten before. Can I go now?

Luke: Doesn't that prove anything to you? I get art now!

Laura: You hear the world is ending and you start seeing signs of it in postcards and bus signals and lunatics in the streets. That doesn't prove to me that you have any imagination. In fact it proves just the opposite.

Luke: what about what you wrote? It's definitely about the end of days..
Skies erupting, Weapons of mass destruction.. You cant tell me you didn't intend to imply it!

Laura: I didn't.

Luke: not even subconsciously? You must have had a premonition like that girl on tv.

Laura: I should know shouldn't I? Look Luke, I can't bear to sit here any longer you're making a fool of yourself in some brazen attempt to kiss and make up. You call me here under the guise of a post mortem. When It's blatantly obvious you're trying quite pathetically to resurrect the dead.

Luke: Laura please listen to me. I

Laura: no, do you want to know what killed what we had? And It's not your daft understanding of meaning. It's your inability to be sincere. That time you wasted at museums when you really didn't give a damn. At first I thought it was sweet. I thought it was just you being supportive. Being open to my world. But I'm not stupid, Luke.
You're here for the same reason you were there that night long ago. You don't want to die alone.

Luke: you're important to me.

Laura: Check please.

Luke: Please don't leave.. Don't leave me here. Please. The worlds ending.
And all I want is to sit here with you.
Is that to much to ask?

Laura: yes. Good bye.

Luke: WAIT! At least tell me! What Does it mean? Your poem.

Laura: after my gallery, The dance we shared on the rooftop. The sky was beautiful. The stars were perfect like the painting. But the skyscrapers and the city lights overpowered the natural light. I had only known you for a moment and I was anxious, vulnerable, nervous, the moment was so fragile. If the music had stopped. The night would have ended.. I didn't want it to. It hurts me that you never understood.

Luke: How could I? How could you expect me to? I knew you were scared, you were nervous. You didn't need to disguise it in words. I felt it.
I remembered it. Do you think I never cared about you?

Laura: I never understood why. You don't GET me. We don't share a single interest! Why am I so god damn important to you?

Luke: I can't explain it. Is that hard to believe? I love you! Why do words, or images or anything have to account for how I feel? Can't it just be the simple truth? Can't you just accept my love without feeling used!

Laura: I'm sorry Luke.
I'm sorry I cant love you anymore..
We are just not meant to be..
(Laura tears up and stands from the table)

Luke: Laura, I..
(Attempts to approach and consul her )

Laura: Don't.. You.. Just stop.
I want truth.. and the truth is lost in the shadows of our past. We only have forward to look.. and however far that is. Be it a day, two hours. its far enough from you as I would like to get.. Can you let me walk toward the darkness please?

(Skies blacken and the lights in the diner go black)

Luke: am I far enough now? What is truth in the abyss, Laura? How does it differ from my love?

Post war fantasy.

The diamond in the rough.
Bleaker tides have crashed on the turbulent shore.

High tides at midnight.

Weaker wills bode well in the Indian summer. Like the drifting wind; destined to change. Eager to move in an instant.
Freedom from choice.
Anarchy in the somber afternoon.
Fate anchors the mover.
Time has shaken the earth.

There will be wounds in the future.
Scars: even slightly more distant.
Our mortality fixed.

watch where you stand.