Room 812

Room 812
By Conrad Panganiban

Characters
Dorothy - 23 year old female
Jasper - 32 year old male
Femi - 27 year old female

Time
Present

Setting
Smoking area just outside of Natividad Medical Center. Salinas, CA.

Lights fade up revealing a bench and a ashtray/garbage can beside the it. Sitting on the bench is Dorothy. She's wearing a black t-shirt with a rock band on it. On her right wrist is a couple of plastic bracelets and on her left is a long pink wristband (or 2 wristbands on top of each other). She's also wearing black cargo pants with safety pins down the right side. Beside her foot is a green canvas bag with a bunch of buttons on it. Stares straight ahead.

A secluded area behind a hospital - the only place where smoking is allowed. Dorothy is there smoking a cigarette. Jasper approaches talking on his cell. He's wearing scrubs.

Jasper
Yes Mom. I know... I told you that I'm busy this weekend... this weekend. no... not next weekend! This weekend. I can't come home... work. Trabajo ko... yes ma. Okay. Bye. I love you too. Ok.... Okay. Yes ma. Okay. I have to go now. I'm with a patient now. Patient! Bye. (he looks at Dorothy who just smiles back at him.) I told myself I was gonna quit. (Takes out a pack and pulls out a cigarette and a lighter. Flames up and takes a drag.) My mom. I love her, but sometimes... hence the marlboro light.

Dorothy
I'm not gonna judge. (holds up her cigarette)

Jasper
Thanks. I'm just not in one of those moods to deal with some health nut junkie who claims that I'm messing up their biosphere with this piece of heaven between these two fingers. In this solitude of ash, smoke, and nicotine lies the calmness that millions of people like you and I only know about.

Dorothy
And that's why you work here. (motions to the Hospital)

Jasper
See, the way I look at it is that's it's a balancing act - I help take care of the health of a couple of lives...

Dorothy
While you ingest the tobacco of lung cancer goodness.

Jasper
A balancing act. Hi, my name is Jasper. (extends his hand)

Dorothy
Sorry. I don't shake hands. Germs kill.

Jasper
And the cyanide wafting in the air into your lungs won't?

Dorothy
Touché, Mr. Jasper.

Jasper
And by what name can I address you with, Miss...

Dorothy
Dorothy

Jasper
Miss Dorothy

Dorothy
And no, I don't have a dog named after the group that sang "Africa" nor a shortened moniker of Dot.

Jasper
Don't worry, I don't see any yellow bricks around here either. Well, except for the northeast corner of the hospital where some homeless guy uses the bathroom at. So, who are you visiting at this fine medical establishment?

Dorothy
My dad.

Jasper
What's his name? Maybe he's on my floor.

Dorothy
He's in ICU.

Jasper
Artemio Cabandig

Dorothy
Nice to know that he's so popular. Did he sing "Memories" on a Minus-One at your nursing station's Christmas Party?

Jasper
He's one of my patients. I'm sorry.

Dorothy
No worries. We all have to go sometime. And his time just happens to be coming soon. He'd always sing that song at all the family parties we'd go to. Sometimes, he'd ask me to sing that song with him. After we'd sing, he'd have me go around the room asking for quarters as a tip or something. I'd split the pot with him, which he'd use to play with during the all night card playing sessions of Paris Paris. When he'd win, he'd call me his lucky charm. (smiles at the memory.)

Jasper
I saw your family up there and in the waiting room. Your sister brought in some lumpia for our staff yesterday.

Dorothy
She got that from my mom. Always feeling the need to feed everyone.

Jasper
I thought that I've already met everyone in your family... except you. Sometimes, when your sister would leave the room at night, he'd tell me about his other daughter... the singer. But when I asked your sister about you, she would say that your dad made you up and just blamed it on his old age.

Dorothy
It doesn't surprise me she'd say that. I just drove in from Seattle.

Jasper
Then, why would your sister say that about you? I'm sure your dad will be really happy to see you.

(Dorothy remains silent staring off into space.)

Dorothy
I haven't seen him, nor anyone in my family in 5 years. I was born a mistake. I'm so much younger than my sister that when she graduated from college and got married, I was left to be the caretaker of both my parents. All this responsibility at 16. I loved my parents, but instead of going out on dates, or going to the beach to chill out, or even watching the newest summer blockbuster with friends, I spent those unbearable warm nights trying not to burn the lumpia while washing up after both of them went to the bathroom. It wasn't fair. So after I graduated from High School, I just left.

Jasper
How could you? Excuse my bluntness, but that was a pretty ungrateful self-centered bitchy thing to do.

Dorothy
Well, what about you and your mom?

Jasper
What about her?

Dorothy
Why don't you want to see her?

Jasper
She's not the one who's dying.

Dorothy
If you're going to read me the riot act, then you better check yourself too. Any one of could die at any minute. When was the last time you saw her?

Jasper
Hey! Don't turn the guilt you have against me. I'm just trying to help.

Dorothy
Well, I'm here aren't I?

Jasper
No, you should be in there. Not out here.

Dorothy
I know. It's just I...

Jasper
(Mockingly) It's just I... It's just I... How long have you been out here?

Dorothy
Feels like a couple of days. Look, you don't understand. I go up there and all hell will break loose with my sister and no telling how my dad will react. He could have a heart attack!

Jasper
He's in the hospital! We're prepared for a heart attack. Look, Dorothy, you might not want to listen to me, but your dad might not even make it to tomorrow. If there's ever a time to make things right between you and him, it's right now.

Dorothy
I can't.

Jasper
Why?

Dorothy
Two months after I split, my mom died. I couldn't even go to her funeral. How could I? I mean... when I left, I needed to escape that feeling of being trapped, suffocated if you will. In this escape, I forever lost the only family I ever knew... and the one I can never get back.

Jasper
But you're here.

Dorothy
Trying to find what I lost.

Jasper
Which is on the 8th floor. Trust me. Working up there isn't always Disneyland. I've seen a lot of people die and I know not one of them wants to have any unfinished business left before they go. By going up there, you're going for him... and for you. If you don't go in there, you might as well stay out here forever and wonder if you'll ever have any home to go back to.

Dorothy
(Flicks her cigarette across the stage.) You're right. I have to make this right. (starts to walk back towards the hospital.)

Jasper
I'll go with you. I can break the ice with your dad... or at least hold your sister back. I can help.

Dorothy
No. I need to do this on my own. You said 8th floor.

Jasper
Room 812.

Dorothy
Thanks, Mr. Jasper.

Jasper
You're welcome, Miss Dorothy. I'll be up soon to see how things are going, okay?

(Dorothy just smiles, turns around and leaves. Jasper keeps looking at her as she exits.)

(Enter Femi)

Femi
You will not believe how crazy it's been in the E.R. We just got this stupid college kid who stapled his yoo-hoo to his thigh. Where the hell do they get these ideas? (she lights up a cigarette and smokes) You know where... fricken MTV. That stupid channel with all those stupid kids going off to spring break to "Party on, Dude! Let's go staple our yoo-hoos to our legs! Party on! Righteous!" (noticing that Jasper's not paying attention to her.) Jasper... Jasper? There's a hot naked chick behind you!

(Jasper turns around.)

Jasper
Where?

Femi
In your perverted little mind you sicko! What up with you? Didn't you hear my story about the kid's yoo-hoo stapled to his thigh?

Jasper
Yoo-hoo? Femi, what are you talking about?

Femi
Nut sack. Huevos Rancheros. Ping and Pong. The berries to your twig. Balls.

Jasper
I'm glad that the years spent at finishing school vamped up your elegant vocabulary.

Femi
He needed a shave too. Fricken jungle down there...

Jasper
I get it. I get it.

Femi
So now that I finally have your attention, why were you staring off into space? Wait, don't you tell me... it has something to do with a girl, right?

Jasper
What make you think that I'm interested in someone?

Femi
When are you not?

Jasper
Femi. Give me some credit, okay?

(Femi just looks at him)

Jasper
Her name's Dorothy. We were out here and we started talking and…. I mean started it off weird, but… it's just been a while since I had a deep conversation with someone.

Femi
Gee. Thanks.

Jasper
You know what I mean. It's just different…

Femi
No need to explain, I see how it is. So where is this Dorothy? Is she partying with some Munchins on a yellow brick road?

Jasper
Haha. She just walked into the hospital. She has to take care of some family business. Didn't you see how cute she was when she walked by you?

Femi
What are you talking about? Nobody passed me.

Jasper
Yes you did. She went through the emergency room doors.

Femi
Okay….

Jasper
No. She was right here. We had a long talk about a lot of her family, and...

Femi
I know that it's been a while since your last date and all, but you really don't have to make people up. I don't believe what the other nurses are saying about you. I just say that you're a little shy and…

Jasper
I'm not making this up. I'm surprised that you didn't notice her pink wristband, the Big Shrimp T-shirt… and her smile.

Femi
What'd you say?

Jasper
Her smile is amazing

Femi
No, before that. What was she wearing? A pink wristband…?

Jasper
Yeah. A bright pink wristband that went almost all the way up her forearm. Oh, and her pants…

Femi
Black cargos with safety pins down the right side.

Jasper
Yeah! Oh my God. You know her? What's her number? I was hoping to get it after I go up and see how she was doing with her family and...

Femi
I swear, Jasper. That's not funny! Don't joke about stuff like that. That's so not cool.

Jasper
I just wanted to know her better. Why? Does she have a boyfriend?

Femi
You're really freaking me out. Just stop it with this story.

Jasper
Why?

Femi
Jasper. Dorothy was here on Saturday.

Jasper
In this hospital? That's impossible. She said that she just drove in and she hasn't even gone in yet. I've been trying to get her to go inside this whole time, but she didn't want to leave.

Femi
Jasper… she was in the ER on Saturday. She got into a car accident… and she died. When I tried to contact her family, I found out that they were in the hospital too. It was then when I found out that she must've been coming to see her father.

(Jasper moves downstage into a spot as Femi is talking and just stares ahead at the hospital. Light's fade out on rest of stage leaving a spot on Jasper and another appearing on Dorothy.)

Dorothy
Thank you, Jasper.

Both lights fade out.

THE END