SCENE 1
The main room of a dilapidated lakeside cabin.
VERONICA, a black woman in her thirties wearing a winter coat, looking around. HOGAN, a disheveled white man in his fifties, with her.
HOGAN: So what do you think?
VERONICA: It looks all right.
(Beat.)
HOGAN: I know it’s cold now. July–August you won’t have to worry about that.
VERONICA: Of course.
HOGAN: Though the last couple weeks of August nights can get cool again, you might want to bring some extra blankets for the kids.
VERONICA: Uh-huh.
(Beat.)
HOGAN: How many kids?
VERONICA: Two. Maybe three—the older one, my girl, wants to bring a friend. I haven’t decided about that. It may just be her and her brother.
HOGAN: They identical?
VERONICA: What? No.
HOGAN: They are twins, you said.
VERONICA: No. They’re two years apart. Boy and girl.
HOGAN: I don’t know why I thought they were twins.
VERONICA: No. They’re just … regular.
(Beat.)
HOGAN: There’s only one bed in the second room.
VERONICA: That’s all right. They can double up.
HOGAN: It’s pretty small. I might have a trundle I can get for you.
VERONICA: Oh no, that’s fine. One of them can sleep with me if we have to.
HOGAN: Your husband won’t mind?
VERONICA: It’s just me.
HOGAN: Oh. Sorry.
VERONICA: No. But maybe an extra bed would be—
HOGAN: No problem. I can call my brother, see if I can borrow his trundle. But if the third kid comes—
VERONICA: I think I’m gonna have to tell my little girl that isn’t happening.
HOGAN: No, it’ll still work. You put one in the single, one on the trundle, and one on the couch in a sleeping bag or whatever. You’d have to bring up some extra linens is all.
VERONICA: We’ll figure that out.
HOGAN: She wants to bring a friend, let her. They’ll have a ball.
VERONICA: We’ll see.
(Beat.)
HOGAN: Pretty gorgeous out there, huh? Even this time of year.
VERONICA: Yes, it is.
HOGAN: The dock will be fixed by June. It’s almost done now. We finally got around to it.
VERONICA: The dock?
HOGAN: Yeah.
VERONICA: Is there some kind of boat?
HOGAN: Swimming dock.
VERONICA: Oh. Yes.
HOGAN: See out there?
VERONICA: Yes. It’s pretty far out.
HOGAN: Nah. It’s an easy swim. There’s usually a diving board. That’ll get put back on. I’m gonna paint the deck a nice fire-engine red after I get the fifteen years of Canada goose shit scrubbed off. You’ll see the geese, they shit on everything.
VERONICA: You’re doing the work?
HOGAN: I was the low bid.
VERONICA: I see.
HOGAN: Homeowners’ association’s been putting it off for years. Last summer a woman put her foot through a rotten plank. Had to go to the emergency room to get the splinters out. Finally I said, Look, give me fifteen hundred bucks, I’ll have it ready by Memorial Day. I’m going to put in a second diving platform higher up. It’s gonna be great. I made some sketches. It’ll just be stationary but you’ll still have the springboard on the opposite side. You’ll never get your kids off it.
VERONICA: They don’t really swim.
HOGAN: Why not?
VERONICA: City kids.
HOGAN: That’s not good. They need to learn.
VERONICA: That’s one of the reasons we wanted to be up here.
HOGAN: It’s a life skill. You should get them lessons at the Y or someplace now. That way when they get up here they’re ready.
VERONICA: I don’t know if we have time for that.
HOGAN: It’s only March. You got four months.
VERONICA: Well, we’ll see.
HOGAN: Don’t let them go to the dock unless you’re sure they can manage it.
VERONICA: Of course not.
HOGAN: Now, there is a canoe I’ll get out for you, which will require some bailing but it’s more or less seaworthy, and I think two life jackets. But I believe only one paddle. I’ll check the garage. If I can’t find another one I’ll ask my brother. But you’d still need a third life jacket if your little girl brings her friend. Or if you need it. Do you swim?
VERONICA: Yes.
HOGAN: Because some … city people don’t.
VERONICA: I do.
HOGAN: Okay then. Any other questions?
VERONICA: No. I think …
(Beat. She looks around. Swallows her doubts.)
All right. Let’s do it.
HOGAN: Great. You’re really gonna enjoy it here.
VERONICA: I hope so.
HOGAN: You will.
VERONICA: So how should we—how do you like to do this?
HOGAN: Well, we talked about the total in the e-mail, that still works for you?
VERONICA: Yes.
HOGAN: So now I guess maybe just a deposit. To hold the rental.
VERONICA: All right.
HOGAN: What if we say half now and then half when you get here. And add maybe five hundred on to the front end as a damage deposit, that I’ll refund at the end if everything’s shipshape.
VERONICA: So you’re saying half the total rental plus five hundred now?
HOGAN: Yes. And you’ll get the five hundred back at the end of the summer.
VERONICA: Unless there’s damage.
HOGAN: There won’t be. I’ll put away anything fragile. There’s nothing much you can hurt around here anyway even with kids.
VERONICA: So maybe we don’t need to do the damage deposit? I’m just—
HOGAN: It’s pretty standard.
VERONICA: I’m just wondering if maybe—half plus the five hundred now seems like a lot.
HOGAN: Uh-huh.
VERONICA: I mean I could do half and half, but then maybe I’d ask you to waive the damage deposit, given that everything around here already looks pretty … broken in.
HOGAN: I just thought if something got damaged, I don’t even know what—
VERONICA: Uh-huh.
HOGAN: It’d be easier if it’s already dealt with, so to speak, rather than negotiate it later—
VERONICA: No, I understand, but maybe then a better way to do the rent would be a third now, a third I can send you let’s say in June, and then a third when we come up.
HOGAN: And we’d still do the damage deposit.
VERONICA: Yes. But maybe spread out over the first two payments.
HOGAN: Two fifty, two fifty.
VERONICA: Yes.
HOGAN: Third payment when you get here.
VERONICA: Yes.
(Beat.)
HOGAN: Deal!
VERONICA: Okay. Thank you.
HOGAN: Thank you. You’re a real wily negotiator, huh?
VERONICA: I don’t know about that.
HOGAN: No, I like it! So all right. Any other questions?
VERONICA: Do you have Internet?
HOGAN: No. That would require a dish and it’s just not worth it to me. If I need to check my e-mail I drive into town to the library. Cell phone service is spotty. If you stand by the window and kind of elevate yourself a little bit and hold your phone out at about a forty-five-degree angle sometimes a signal can be had—I don’t even bother usually, I use the landline for calls at the house and the library for Internet, like I said.
VERONICA: I will need to get online a few times for work. How far is the library?
HOGAN: Ten minutes. It’s only open three days a week but you don’t even have to go in. When it’s closed you can park outside with your laptop. People do it all the time. Oh—you’ll need a car. I mean once you get up here. But you saw that.
VERONICA: I’ll rent a car for the week.
HOGAN: You got that budgeted in.
VERONICA: Yes.
HOGAN: Well, great, so everything is settled. What sort of work do you do, you don’t mind my asking?
VERONICA: I’m a nurse practitioner.
HOGAN: A nurse, huh?
VERONICA: Practitioner, yes.
HOGAN: Which means what?
VERONICA: I can prescribe certain medications, perform certain procedures.
HOGAN: Turn your head and cough, that sort of thing?
VERONICA: I’m sorry?
HOGAN: Sort of halfway to a doctor in other words.
VERONICA: Sort of.
HOGAN: Well, that sounds good.
(Beat.)
So, right—if you need to stay in touch with your office or hospital or whatever—
VERONICA: Hospital.
HOGAN: —just give them this number the week you’re here. We did say a week, didn’t we?
VERONICA: The third week in August.
HOGAN: The last week’s available too. Stay till Labor Day.
VERONICA: I have to work.
HOGAN: You only get one week of vacation?
VERONICA: That’s all I’ve been able to arrange.
HOGAN: Then you really should get those kids swimming before they get up here.
VERONICA: Maybe. We’ll see.
HOGAN: They’ll spend the whole week watching other kids dive off the dock.
VERONICA: We’ll manage.
HOGAN: Well, if you change your mind the rest of August is available.
VERONICA: Thank you, but I don’t think we’ll be able to do that.
(Beat. She looks at an old hockey stick propped against the wall.)
HOGAN: I’ll get all that stuff out of here before you come, naturally, pack up my clothes and so forth, the drawers will be free. When are you heading back to the city?
VERONICA: (Takes out a bus schedule.) I think I can make the three-thirty bus.
HOGAN: Today.
VERONICA: Yes. If you could drop me back in front of the movie theater.
HOGAN: Didn’t you just come up this morning?
VERONICA: I wanted to make sure I saw the place before—
HOGAN: No, that’s wise. Picking something off the Internet, who the hell knows what you’re going to get? If the pictures they put up are even real. Or the descriptions. The way people exaggerate, you do have to watch out.
VERONICA: Well, you certainly didn’t exaggerate.
HOGAN: I said “rustic.” That’s what you’re looking for, isn’t it?
VERONICA: Yes.
HOGAN: I’ll fix that shutter before you come up. And the dock will be done like I said. And I don’t know if you looked in the shower but I’ll get that section of ceiling patched and the wall repainted, I’ve been meaning to borrow some paint from my brother—he has a beautiful robin’s-egg blue from when he did his bathrooms. I just need a free weekend.
VERONICA: I definitely would appreciate any …
HOGAN: Little improvements—
VERONICA: Yes—you plan to do. The kitchen seems fine.
HOGAN: Don’t use the two front burners on the stove, they only work on high and then they smoke. Those I doubt I’ll be able to get to—
VERONICA: Did you say you’ll be moving your clothes out of here?
HOGAN: Oh, sure. I’ll get all the drawers clear for you.
VERONICA: You live here now.
HOGAN: Yes. But I’ll get everything cleared out. What?
VERONICA: Nothing. Sorry. I suppose I thought this was just a summer place.
HOGAN: It is but lately I’ve been a full-timer. A couple space heaters and you can get through a winter if it stays mild like it has this year. It’s not so bad. The lake used to freeze over sometimes, believe it or not. We played hockey out there when we were kids. That doesn’t happen hardly ever anymore, the winters are so mild now. That’s a collector’s item. Big hockey fan. You?
VERONICA: Where will you go when we’re renting?
HOGAN: My brother’s. He’s only about forty-five minutes away. So I can be here quickly if anything comes up.
VERONICA: I hate to kick you out of your own house.
HOGAN: Are you kidding? You’re doing me a favor. I wish you’d do me a bigger favor and rent all summer.
VERONICA: Your brother’d take you for the whole summer?
HOGAN: That’s a good point.
(Beat.)
VERONICA: Well, Mr.… Hogan?
HOGAN: Yes. Terry.
VERONICA: Let me get you that deposit.
(She writes a check. She gives it to him.)
HOGAN: Thank you. (Looks at it.) Veronica.
VERONICA: Okay.
(They shake hands. Beat.)
I’d better get to that bus stop.
Fade.
Copyright © 2015 by David Auburn
