“When one burns one’s bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.”

~ Dylan Thomas

Char­ac­ters

Claire, 30’s

Anne, 30’s

Gillian, 20’s

Setting:  A Living Room, Sunset

(A living room just as the sun is setting. CLAIRE is stand­ing while holding a drink and looking out the living room window. ANNE is seated on the sofa. GILLIAN is stand­ing behind the sofa.)

GILLIAN

I think we still have a few minutes.

ANNE

I can smell the smoke. It’s musty. Is forest fire smoke dif­fer­ent from—

GILLIAN

No, that must be–It must be a sensory, uh–Maybe you think you’re smelling smoke, but you’re not. I promise, you’re not.

ANNE

What are you saying? That I’m not—

GILLIAN
Because it’s not, yeah, it’s not close enough yet, Anne.

CLAIRE
You just said we have a few minutes, Gillian.

GILLIAN
Mhmm. Yes. Mhmm.

CLAIRE
So that means it’s close, right?

GILLIAN
No. No, it means, well, a few minutes until we need to act.

CLAIRE
How many times have you done this?

GILLIAN
Oh, well–We–We evac­u­ate a few times a month now.

ANNE

A month? That’s—

GILLIAN

It’s–It’s the new reality, yeah. Yeah.

CLAIRE
Is that why the house hasn’t sold?

GILLIAN
Uh. No. Well. It might be–It might be part of it, but—

CLAIRE
It’s been almost a year.

GILLIAN

Well, I–I don’t know what to tell you, Claire.

ANNE
Should we just con­sid­er it a loss at this—

CLAIRE
We’re not taking a loss. It’s a house.

ANNE
A house that’s right in the middle of—

GILLIAN

Well, it’s, yeah, it’s still a very nice house.

ANNE
Yes, and one day it’ll be a pile of ash that we—

GILLIAN / CLAIRE
Anne, that’s–stop. Come on. / Glad this is funny to you, Anne.

ANNE
It’s not funny to—

CLAIRE
I know you’re not worried, because Steve can prob­a­bly write this whole thing off as a tax write-off.

ANNE
What are you—

CLAIRE
I don’t have that. I don’t have a Steve. I need this house to sell.

GILLIAN
Claire, now, okay, I said I could loan you money.

CLAIRE
No.

GILLIAN
I have money.

CLAIRE
Anne has more.

ANNE
So you want me to loan you money? That’s—

CLAIRE
Nooooo. Then you’d hold it over me for the rest of my life.

ANNE
Then what do you want, Claire? You’re a writer. Use your—

CLAIRE

Gillian, you don’t actu­al­ly think we’re going to be able to sell this house, right?

GILLIAN
I–I think we can sell it. I do. Yes. I do.

ANNE
Then why haven’t we yet? Clearly—

CLAIRE
That’s what I’m asking.

GILLIAN
Uh. The offers so far have been, um, low. They’ve—

CLAIRE / ANNE
Wait. Offers? What offers? / There have been offers? Since when have—

GILLIAN
We had one–Well, two offers, but they were low.

CLAIRE / ANNE
Is there a reason we’re just finding out about this now? / You didn’t tell us—

GILLIAN
Well, listen, they were low. They were extreme­ly, uh, low.

ANNE
You still have to tell us, Gillian. You can’t—

CLAIRE

I want to talk about the split.

ANNE / GILLIAN
What? / The what?

            (CLAIRE moves away from the window.)

CLAIRE
The three way split. Of the pro­ceeds. Once we sell.

ANNE
What about the—

CLAIRE
I don’t think it should be three ways.

GILLIAN
Uh. But, as you can see, there are three of us.

CLAIRE
But not all of us need to be included.

ANNE / GILLIAN
Oh. Oh, wow. That’s—/ Claire, um, Mom was very clear.

CLAIRE
Yes, and Mom was always my biggest fan.

ANNE / GILLIAN

Do not even start with that, that’s— / Mom didn’t–She didn’t have favorites.

CLAIRE
But I’m still enti­tled to some­thing. I’m still her daughter.

ANNE
No one’s saying you’re not, Claire, when did—

CLAIRE
And you got plenty from her, Anne.

            (A beat.)

ANNE
What does that mean?

CLAIRE
It means her atten­tion. It means her energy. It means—

GILLIAN
This might be a dis­cus­sion we should have in the car.

CLAIRE
I’d like to take care of this before we leave.

ANNE
Where are we even going to—

GILLIAN
Um, there’s a com­mu­ni­ty center down the road where every­body goes when—

CLAIRE
I’m not talking about this in a com­mu­ni­ty center.

ANNE
What is it you’re saying exactly? What—

CLAIRE
I want you to give up your share.

            (A beat. ANNE laughs. She stands up.)

ANNE
You’re not serious?

GILLIAN
Claire, um, if you want more money, then I can, uh, I can help.

ANNE
Are you serious? She’s—

GILLIAN
If you, you know, need it.

CLAIRE
I’m not taking any­thing from you, Gillian.

ANNE
Why not? She has more than me. She—

CLAIRE
And she needs it.

ANNE
And I don’t?

GILLIAN
Okay, um, now I think I smell smoke.

            (An orange light begins to appear on the out­skirts of the stage.)

CLAIRE
You just want this con­ver­sa­tion to end.

GILLIAN
That’s not, uh, true, Claire. I’m happy to have the con­ver­sa­tion. I’m happy to, you know, to com­mu­ni­cate.

ANNE
You’re happy to mediate and never take a side. That’s—

GILLIAN

What?

ANNE

That’s what you do, Gillian. You enable her. You always—

CLAIRE / GILLIAN
Excuse me? Enable me? / No, no, no. I don’t do that, Anne.

ANNE
You decided to be a writer, and I decided to actu­al­ly go out and get a job, and so you should get what­ev­er money we can get from selling the house, which, clearly, won’t be much, but what­ev­er it is, you should get it. You and Gillian. And I should get nothing. Forget about my kids and what they need and their college funds—

CLAIRE
You don’t have kids.

ANNE
Steve and I are trying. We’re—

CLAIRE
Well, I really wouldn’t worry about college since we’ll be giving your kids a planet that’s on fire.

ANNE
Don’t be so dra­mat­ic. You’re always—

GILLIAN
Um, okay. So. I think we need to evacuate.

ANNE
You evac­u­ate all the time accord­ing to you and the house is still here.

GILLIAN
It’s not just the fire, Anne. It’s also the smoke.

ANNE
I thought there was no smoke? A second ago there was no—

GILLIAN
I’m going to start the car.

ANNE
Don’t move.

GILLIAN
What?

ANNE
We’re set­tling this now. Claire, you’re not getting my share. I’m making—

GILLIAN
Anne.

ANNE
You’re not getting Gillian’s share either. If any­thing, we should cut you out of the arrange­ment. We should—

CLAIRE
Based on what?

ANNE
Based on your ten­den­cy to blow through any money you’re given. You—

CLAIRE
When was I ever given—

(CLAIRE looks at GILLIAN. GILLIAN looks down.)

                        CLAIRE (CONT’D)

Oh. I see.

ANNE
Should she sub­tract what you owe her out of your share? Was that the plan? Is that why you needed to edge me out? You thought you were—

CLAIRE
I’m leaving.

            (CLAIRE goes to the door.)

GILLIAN
Great idea. Great, that’s–Yes. Let’s all leave.

ANNE
I’ll leave when I’m ready. I’m not—

GILLIAN
Anne, there’s, come on, there’s a fire.

ANNE
There’s always a fire, Gillian. And the firemen show up, and they put the fire out, and then every­thing is fine. Every­thing is—

CLAIRE
Oh, just leave her, Gillian!

(She opens the door, is hit with a blast of heat, and imme­di­ate­ly closes it. ALL look at each other. A beat.)

ANNE

What?

CLAIRE
I don’t, um—

GILLIAN

Well. Okay. Now we’re staying.

ANNE
But you said we had to leave.

GILLIAN

I think it’s, um, too late for that.

ANNE
What does that mean?

GILLIAN

We can, uh, we can go down into the cellar.

ANNE
Like with a tornado, or—

GILLIAN

Yes. Although, um, I don’t know if that helps in this—

CLAIRE
Are we going to die? Gillian, are we—

GILLIAN

I don’t, um–I don’t know.

ANNE
We should have left earlier. I smelled the must. I felt it in my nose, in my—

CLAIRE
Now, I smell it. It’s not musty. It smells fresh. To me anyway.

GILLIAN

You shouldn’t be trying to breathe it in. You don’t need to take too much of it into your, um, into your lungs for it to do damage.

ANNE / CLAIRE
Gillian, I didn’t— / How do I stop myself from smelling it?

GILLIAN

You want to know the truth? Since we might, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Let’s do–Let’s do that. Let’s do the truth, okay? I haven’t sold the house, because the offers were bad. That’s true. The offers were bad. But–But on top of that, this is my home. This is where I grew up. This is where Dad died. This is where Mom died. This is where I took care of them. Who’s going to take care of me?

CLAIRE
Gillian, you’re twenty-seven years old.

GILLIAN
And? And? One day I won’t be, right? One day I’m going to need someone to take care of me, and then what? Or am I not sup­posed to worry about that, because none of us will be here anyway? Is that it, Claire?

CLAIRE
No, I—

GILLIAN

Once a year, you two swoop in here for a holiday or a funeral and you com­plain and fight and, yes, I mediate, I referee, and then you’re gone again other than emails asking me why the house hasn’t sold so you can get some money. Some money, some money. I have to hear it, it’s–All the while you never notice the bags that sit by the door all the time packed with any­thing I’ll need in case my life ever gets burned to the ground.

ANNE
You’d be getting some—

GILLIAN
I don’t want the money. I don’t care about it. If it would help you two out, great, but I just want to–I just want to know what I’m sup­posed to do.

CLAIRE
What do you mean?

GILLIAN
I grew up. I watched my parents die. I live in this house. The house isn’t safe. I have to sell it. If I figure out how to sell it, then what? Then what do I do?

ANNE
Live your life, Gillian. You’re—

GILLIAN
You say that like it’s easy, Anne. I am–I am nervous all the time. Anxious all the time. I wake up in the middle of the night and I smell that must. I smell that fresh dirt. Even when there isn’t a fire, there is. You can’t drive down a road with vol­ca­noes all around you, and–and–and–stop seeing it when you’re safe again. Not when they tell you it’s coming back. Not when you can’t sleep with your windows open at night. Not when I think, I shouldn’t get a dog, because that’s one more living thing to evac­u­ate. Don’t you see the soot in the cup­boards? How did you miss all of that?

            (She sits.)

GILLIAN (CONT’D)

I’m sorry. I just–I need a second, and then we can go downstairs.

(CLAIRE comes to sit. ANNE sits down. They’re on each side of GILLIAN. She’s not crying, but she’s trying to catch her breath.)

CLAIRE

Gillian, why don’t you come stay with me for a few weeks?

ANNE
Or you can stay with me. If you—

CLAIRE
I’m okay.

ANNE
Or you can stay with Claire, and then with me. You do all that soft­ware support from your laptop anyway. It’s not like you need to be—

CLAIRE
I can take over all the house-selling stuff.

ANNE
Steve knows an agent. Maybe I can—

CLAIRE
And we’ll split the money three ways. Like we were going to originally.

ANNE
I don’t even care. Cut me out. It’s fine. I’m not—

CLAIRE
No, I was being unreasonable.

ANNE
Gillian, I know you said you don’t care about the money, but, if you want more, you can have more out of—

CLAIRE
Or mine. What­ev­er you want, okay?

(GILLIAN mumbles something.)

CLAIRE / ANNE
What ? / What did you say?

(She lifts her head up.)

GILLIAN
I’m warm.

(A beat.)

ANNE
Are we too late?

(GILLIAN clears her throat.)

GILLIAN
Um. Well.

(She takes a deep breath and stands. She goes to the door. GILLIAN places her hand on it. She can feel how warm it is, but she pulls her hands back care­ful­ly so as not to startle the other two. With her face away from them, she forces a smile, and then turns around.)

            GILLIAN (CONT’D)

No, I think we’re okay.

(ANNE looks at CLAIRE. She reaches her hand towards her, but CLAIRE instinc­tive­ly pulls back. GILLIAN has already turned to look back out the door into the forest.)

End of Play