Proscenium Journal - Issue Three, Fall 2015

RECEPTIONIST: What terrible things have you had to do?

(Alone with himself. . .)

CRAWLEY: I’ve just done what a cop has to do.

RECEPTIONIST: You sound confused which is what you said you were right?

CRAWLEY: Look: I killed three people. Because it was my job. Because I’m a cop.

RECEPTIONIST: That’s not the whole truth. Is it?

(His head hurts.)

CRAWLEY: I don’t understand what you’re getting at and I thought you don’t know anything.

RECEPTIONIST: I don’t know facts, but I know things. Like Cassandra knows things.

CRAWLEY: . . . Were you listening at the door?

RECEPTIONIST: A woman doesn’t have to listen at the door to know things. Like Cassandra knows things, things she keeps from you.

CRAWLEY: She doesn’t keep things from me, nor does she tell me everything.

RECEPTIONIST: They really did hit you in the head hard.

CRAWLEY: I mean: some things aren’t important to know.

RECEPTIONIST: Like what Cassandra does all day and with whom.

CRAWLEY: Yes, no, I mean she has no reason to tell me. . .

RECEPTIONIST: Don’t you want to know?

CRAWLEY: . . .I do, but I trust her.

RECEPTIONIST: You’re lying.

(Crawley moves farther away.)

CRAWLEY: Are you sure you weren’t listening at the door?

RECEPTIONIST: What do you think?

CRAWLEY: I think Cassandra loves me and I love her. And we trust each other so we don’t have to know every detail of every minute of each hour of each day of each of our lives.

RECEPTIONIST: What about not knowing things about your own life?

(This question makes his head hurt worse.)

CRAWLEY: If you mean do I not think about unpleasant things in my life, yes, when you’re a cop having to deal with the shit a cop has to deal with, it’s the only way to survive.

RECEPTIONIST: That’s not what I mean.

(His head hurts even worse.)

CRAWLEY: If you mean: Do I really love my girlfriend? Yes, she’s the reason I can find my way home each night.

RECEPTIONIST: That’s not what I mean.

(Even worse.)

CRAWLEY: If you mean: do I ever think about telling her I don’t love her anymore? Yes all the time.

RECEPTIONIST: To torture her?

CRAWLEY: To make her not care what happens to me. In case something goes wrong.

RECEPTIONIST: What could go wrong.

CRAWLEY: I could die.

RECEPTIONIST: Is that what you want?

CRAWLEY: . . . I don’t know.

Fall 2015 Proscenium 113