This is one of a series of interrelated one-act plays written by Stephen Bonsall ’16 for his Creative Writing Workshop spring project. The plays include overlapping characters depicted at different moments in their lives.
GAPS AND GASHES
CHARACTERS
DAISY, girlfriend of Jimmy, sad, excited, agitated
JIMMY, boyfriend of Daisy, frustrated and tired after a long day’ work
TIME
Late Tuesday night
PLACE
Shoulder of a dark, secondary road
(JIMMY pulls up behind his own pickup truck, borrowed by DAISY, parked on the shoulder. DAISY is standing with a shovel she found in the back of the pickup).
JIMMY
(worried)
Daisy! What’s wrong?
DAISY
(startled, teary)
I… I… don’t know.
JIMMY
You don’t know? Did someone hurt you? What the hell are you doing with a shovel?
(short pause)
Answer me, dammit!
DAISY
(taken aback)
A deer jumped out in front of me. I tried to stop but he was too close. Oh Jimmy I feel terrible.
JIMMY
What are you doing out this late anyway?
DAISY
I needed to go to town.
JIMMY
Oh Jesus, look at my car. Dammit, Daisy. I told you not to drive my pickup! Did you really think you were ready to drive a manual?
DAISY
I’ve driven it before.
JIMMY
You take it without asking and you hit a fricking deer? How can you defend this?
DAISY
It jumped out! I was driving with my high beams on, foot on clutch, it wasn’t my—
JIMMY
It doesn’t matter. I’ll buff the dent. Here, help me move the deer off the road.
DAISY
But—
JIMMY
Oh… damn… it’s not dead. I thought you were going to bury it.
DAISY
Well maybe, after. But I don’t want it to suffer like this. Look at the poor thing!
JIMMY
(patronizing)
So what the hell are you doing with the shovel?
DAISY
(upset)
It wasn’t dead! I’m sorry Jim! I didn’t know what to do!
JIMMY
Don’t tell me you’re stupid enough to try to kill a deer with a shovel? Jesus!
DAISY
That’s why I called you. I couldn’t do it. I hit it for twenty minutes and it wouldn’t stop crying.
JIMMY
Christ Daisy, can’t you do anything without my help? No, of course you can’t. You call me at my shitty job in the middle of the night, on my birthday no less, and drag me out here to deal with this mess you created.
DAISY
(defensive)
Fine, next time I’ll—
JIMMY
I mean, God, how much more are you going to screw up? You forget my birthday, you take my pickup and you torture a deer. Look, the poor thing’s dead now.
DAISY
I didn’t forget.
JIMMY
‘I didn’t forget. I can drive a manual.’ How much bullshit do you plan on handing me tonight? Give me the goddamn shovel.
(JIMMY snatches shovel from DAISY’s grip and throws open the back cover of the pickup truck to find a cage holding a small puppy who quietly stares back at him).
DAISY
I didn’t forget.