Alysse Aallyn

Category: #Nightmare

  • Cold Huntsman – a short story by Alysse Aallyn

    Amy liked Aunt Petra from the moment she first met her, because Aunt Petra was the only

    grown-up who understood about the ghost room.

    It was Amy who carried Aunt Petra’s suitcase up the stairs and showed her into the Blue

    Room, because Amy’s mother was busy with lunch.

    “I wonder why they didn’t put me in the ghost room,” said the guest, not even looking around her cheery boudoir before flinging herself on the bed and wrapping herself like a caterpillar in her paisley

    pashmina.

    Amy’s heart beat faster. “How did you know?” she gasped. Aunt Petra hadn’t even toured the house. The door to the ghost room was always closed and as directed, Amy had tried to scuttle past without

    glancing in its direction.

    “It felt cold, for one thing,” said Aunt Petra. “Several degrees colder than the rest of the

    house. Brrr.“ She shivered. “I’m still cold.”

    “Mom says it’s the furthest from the furnace,” Amy told her, “But when we put in an electric

    heater it kept shorting out.”

    Aunt Petra laughed. “Never heard yet of a ghost who mastered electricity, but I’m prepared to

    believe it’s possible.”

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    That’s when Amy decided she liked Aunt Petra so much. She offered, since her aunt didn’t appear to be moving “Would you like me to unpack for

    you?”

    “That would be wonderful,” said her aunt, so Amy opened the suitcase. Clothes and books and cartons of cigarettes and pill bottles were just thrown in haphazardly, but Amy took things out carefully one by one, folded them the way her mother had taught her. She

    gave each category of item its own drawer in the highboy.

    “I see you have a scientific mind like your father,” Aunt Petra commented. “Would you please hand over those cigarettes?” As soon as she had them in

    hand she lit one and puffed on it fiercely.

    “I’m going to be an artist,” objected Amy, although she wasn’t supposed to correct or even “talk back” to adults, which meant never pointing out they were obviously wrong. Then, “Mother says those things

    will kill you.”

    “Everything kills you,” sighed her aunt. “Everything, everything. You’ve got to take your pick.” She coughed heavily. “Allow me to serve as a bad

    example.”
    swinging her feet, and reverted to the subject she really

    Amy sat on the slipper chair, wanted to discuss. “There’s the smell,” she offered.

    Aunt Petra looked at her floral cigarette in surprise so Amy elaborated, “In the ghost room. We washed it down in disinfectant and Mother had the rat man in but there was no getting rid of it. It comes

    and goes.”

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    ”Very interesting,” said Petra in her drawling voice. “This will allow us to identify the ghostly

    presence. What exactly does it smell like?”
    Amy considered. A question she

    had never been asked before. “Dirty feet.”

    “Ah,” said Petra. “I recognize that one. It’s the stench of neglect. Neglect and consequent

    regret. Truthfully, do you go in there often?”

    And although Amy had been forbidden to enter the room if she was going to insist on talking about the ghost, she liked Aunt Petra so much she

    answered honestly. “Yes.”
    “So have you seen this ghost?”

    Amy nodded gravely. “And you, Aunt Petra? Have you ever seen a ghost?”

    “No,” said Aunt Petra, “I never have and I never will. Some people are gifted one way and some another.” She stubbed out her cigarette in the water glass Amy’s mother had thoughtfully provided for quite another purpose. Amy was too surprised by the revelation that you could believe in ghosts without ever seeing one to notice. Aunt Petra was certainly a strange species of grownup. So Amy asked, “But why would you want to

    believe in ghosts? I mean if you didn’t have to?”

    “When you get older you’ll find it very nice to believe that life doesn’t come to a full stop just because we’re no longer physically around,” her aunt responded. “Anyone over thirty is already a big fan of

    84 – Awake Till the End – Stories by Alysse Aallyn

    second chances.” She smoked. ‘And third and fourth. Infinite chances are very attractive.”

    “Well Mother doesn’t believe in ghosts. She took me to the doctor.” Amy hated the fat doctor whose fingers smelled of penicillin. He was only good for shots. And sure enough, he gave her a vitamin shot. Vitamin B12 to cure her of ghosts. Amy had been afraid it would work, but of course it didn’t. Thinking about it, she ran her finger thoughtfully around the rim of

    the empty suitcase.

    “Know what’s especially amazing about it all?” asked Petra. “Your mother was half your age

    when she saw her first ghost.”

    me!”

    Amy squealed incredulously. “Tell

    “Well, our high school was right next to the kindergarten and so I always walked your mother home after class. And one day my appendix burst right in the middle of gym – I was rushed to the hospital but in the excitement everyone forgot about your mother completely. She waited until it was dark and then she tried walking home alone. She said this dog – she described him perfectly with his long droopy ears and the spot to the right of his nose – was following her. And he had such a friendly face he gave her courage. She knew he wouldn’t allow anything bad to happen to her. Then when

    she got home he disappeared.”
    Amy jumped up and down in her

    excitement. “And the dog was a ghost?”

    “It was my dog Peanut who died long before your mother was even born. We had no pictures of him and we never talked about him, so how

    85 – Awake Till the End – Stories by Alysse Aallyn

    could she have known? I wished I could have been the one to see him but I was grateful to him for walking her home. I liked thinking he was there.”

    “You should tell her she saw a ghost,” insisted Amy. “She doesn’t even know!”

    “Oh, you know your mother,” said Petra comfortably. “She wouldn’t believe either of us. We should give thanks instead for her practical head. Look at this beautiful room. And I know in advance that dinner

    will be delicious and healthy.”
    Amy cared not a fig for house-

    keeping. “I wish our ghost was a dog.”
    “Tell me all about him.” Aunt Petra

    fixed her niece with a bright, beady stare.

    “He’s an old man in a rocking chair. The rocking chair’s a ghost, too. He sits with a finger in the Bible, looking out the window at the frozen pond. He

    never ever looks at me. Not once.”

    “Maybe you’re a ghost to him,” said Petra. “What’s he look like?”

    “He has white hair brushed straight up. And overalls. And boots with big looping laces that touch the floor. And his face is all wrinkly. His earlobes

    dangle almost to his shoulders.”

    “I can just see him,” said Petra. “Doesn’t he ever read the Bible? Just looks at the pond? I

    wonder if I know what he’s thinking.”

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    “I don’t see how you could.” Did ghosts have thoughts? Amy was astonished.

    “He’s probably thinking he’s useless and his life is over. Wanting to jump right into that pond

    but afraid of what will happen.”

    “He must have jumped if he’s a “Maybe he regrets it.”
    “He ought to go to heaven with the

    ghost,” said Amy.
    rest of the spirits and stop bothering us,” said Amy

    heatedly.
    the doorway. “Let Aunt Petra rest before dinner. She’s had

    a long trip.”
    said Amy, and Aunt Petra backed her up.

    “Maybe we should tell him that.” “Amy!” Amy’s mother appeared in

    “I wasn’t bothering her, honest,”

    “We were having a wonderful talk.”

    Downstairs her mother gave Amy a hug. “I know Petra wishes she had a little girl like you.”

    “Well, why doesn’t she get one?”

    Amy’s mother tapped a wooden spoon uncomfortably against her left cheek. “You know

    mothers need a daddy to make a baby.”

    “Well, why doesn’t she get one of those?” It was terrible the way grownups acted powerless

    all the time when they had all the power in the world.

    87 – Awake Till the End – Stories by Alysse Aallyn

    “Because she looks like hell warmed over,” said Amy’s father, sitting at the kitchen table with

    his newspaper.
    “Marriage isn’t just about looks!”

    “Bob!” barked Amy’s mother. “She acts snarky and superior too,”

    said Amy’s dad. “Nobody likes that.”

    “But you want me to be superior,” argued Amy. “You put me in the advanced class and made

    me skip second grade.”
    “Just know you are superior without

    acting that way,” said her father, confusingly.

    Amy didn’t believe him for a minute. Aunt Petra was so easy to talk to she could probably explain to Amy the most puzzling problem of all: the difference between insides and outsides. How come people looked one way and felt another? In the following days she hung around her aunt, who never chased Amy away or acted bored by her company. She was the first to

    tell Amy that her name meant “Loved.”

    “The one who is loved. Could there be a better name? That says it all. My name means

    “stone”.”
    change it,” said Amy. Aunt Petra was the one always

    “If you don’t like it you should saying life was all about choice.

    “Some things you’re stuck with,” said Petra. “Some things you can fix. It takes a lot of living

    to tell the difference.”

    88 – Awake Till the End – Stories by Alysse Aallyn

    Of course she wanted Amy to take her to the ghost room. Aunt Petra told her sister that the light was just right for watercolors and so Amy’s mother allowed a special dispensation. At the doorway Aunt Petra halted, spread her arms and chanted,“Cold Huntsman,

    depart, take your knife from out my heart.”

    Cold Huntsman?”

    Amy was impressed. “Who’s the

    “The Cold Huntsman is Death,” said Petra. “It was just something we used to say when we were children, going anywhere scary. It’s a big help when passing graveyards by the light of the moon. It must have worked because I’m still here. Let me know when the

    ghost comes back.”

    Amy considered it a lot more exciting to be a child in the olden days, walking by yourself to school and strolling past graveyards by the light of the moon. No one she knew was allowed to get away with anything like that now. Parents seemed to

    assume everything was fatal

    Gratefully she offered, “Would you like me to paint a picture of you?”

    “I would love that.”
    “It will be a picture of your insides,”

    said Amy, “because I can’t do people’s outsides yet.”

    “Better and better,” said Petra. “It’s just my insides that I care about. How can one girl get so

    lucky?”

    Aunt Petra was the perfect model, because all she wanted was to lie there. So Amy drew her with a face like the sun. Then one day the ghost came back.

    89 – Awake Till the End – Stories by Alysse Aallyn

    “He’s there,” she told Aunt Petra through chattering teeth. It was colder than it had ever been, and she felt a deep sense of horror, like she had

    somehow made things worse.

    Petra sat right up and threw off her pashmina. “I’m going to tell him he can go,” she said.

    “Leave us.”

    Amy waited in Petra’s room in an agony of excitement. When Aunt Petra finally returned her face was gray with exhaustion. She threw herself on the

    bed.

    “He’s gone,” she said.

    “Did you see him?”

    “I didn’t need to see him, I could feel him. I went and stood in his place right by the window.

    Where he must have been sitting.”
    “You must have made him so

    angry,” whispered Amy. “Was he the Cold Huntsman?”

    “No. The Cold Huntsman had come and gone. I told him what he chose was the right thing and everyone else forgave him so we wanted him to forgive

    himself.”

    “And then?”
    “And then he went away. I think for

    good. I hope so. We’ll see.”

    “Let’s tell Mom!”

    Amy jumped wildly up and down.

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    But Petra made herself very small, under her shawl on the big bed. “When you grow up you will learn there are some things you can never tell

    anybody.”

    After Aunt Petra left the ghost didn’t come back. The room warmed up and the stink went away. Amy’s mom wouldn’t let Amy move her bed in there, but she was allowed to put her art table in the ghost’s place, under the window. Petra was right; the ghost had sat in the very best light. Amy was working there one day when she had the funniest feeling. She turned around and there was

    Aunt Petra, lying under a shawl on the bed, eyes closed. Amy burst through the kitchen door

    wailing. “Aunt Petra’s dead!”

    Her mother’s face was stained with tears. “I should have told you,” she sobbed, “but I didn’t

    know the best way. How on earth did you guess?”

    But although Amy was a long way from grown up she had finally learned that there are some

    things you can never tell anybody.

  • Rough Sleep – a play by Alysse Aallyn

    CHASE

    Here’s more fodder for my theory that reality is totally submerged – it’s never what you think you see.

    JAZZ

    Sounds deep.

    (CHASE plays with his phone, paws through lists, makes a choice, phone to ear)

    CHASE

    Uh oh.

    JAZZ

    What gives?

    CHASE

    Howk’s work phone at the Health Center is disconnected.

    (Paws through more lists, tries another number)

    And her voicemail is full. I’m listening to it now.

    JAZZ

    You’re listening to her voicemail?

    CHASE

    Default pincode. Most employees never change it. Sounds like she didn’t show up Friday and they can’t get hold of her. 

    JAZZ

    That’s not good. Any calls from Corso?

    CHASE

    Not one. And that’s not good either. Let’s try something else.

    (Fingers phone)

    She lives at Punch Drunk Apartments.  Punch Brook’s it’s name but Punch Drunk’s more appropriate to the lowly adjuncts.

    JAZZ

    Poor Howk.

    CHASE

    Not answer there either.

    (Stands up)

    It’s a five minute walk.

    (They walk to the edge of the stage.  BEX darts out, snaps a picture of them)

    JAZZ

    Kiss me, quick.

    (Throws herself into CHASE’s arms for a long smooch. BEX exits.)

     SCENE VI – HOWK’s APARTMENT

    CHASE

    How’d you do that?

    JAZZ

    Giving Bex material for his revenge porn site.

    CHASE

    Not what I mean. How’d we get here so fast?

    JAZZ

    You said it was a short walk.

    CHASE

    Not that short. You kissed me.

    JAZZ

    You liked it.

    CHASE

    You triggered a flashback.  Maybe we’re dreaming. Maybe we’ve fallen into some weird wormhole vortex thing.

    JAZZ

    Ugh.  Just one more crime scene. What happened here?

    (She pushes a door, it falls down)

    Is this even true?

    CHASE

    Maybe it’s meta-truth. Super-truth.

    (Furniture thrown around, plants and upholstery dismembered)

    Somebody had fun.

    JAZZ

    Why’s the multiverse such a nasty place? And what’s all this pink stuff?

    CHASE

    Looks like insulation.  Somebody searching for something.

    JAZZ

    Well, they must have found it.  The bedroom’s untouched. 

    CHASE

    I don’t believe it. There’s no body?

    JAZZ

    I didn’t see one.

    CHASE

    Did you look under the bed?

    JAZZ

    You look under the bed! I’m opening this closet!

                      (Disgusting corpse falls out, suspended mid-air)

    Aaargh!

    CHASE

    That’s Howk all right. She looks – drowned. And her skin’s all eaten off with some kind of acid.

    JAZZ

    I’m getting out of here. Everywhere we go is death. 

    CHASE

    Smells like Corso. That’s Corso’s M.O. Find out what’s alive and kill it. He stinks of sulfur. My guess is he was searching for whatever she held over him. Better get the drop on him before he comes after us.

    JAZZ

    Maybe that sex tape?

    CHASE

    But that’s over at his place. 

    JAZZ

    Maybe we’re going backwards and forwards in time. A U-turn in the multiverse.

    CHASE

    Maybe he killed Howk and hid her body. Remember Zane’s dream?

    JAZZ

    The abandoned warehouse? The toxic condemned site?

    CHASE

    Perfect place to stash a corpse.  People are afraid to enter. Very Corso.  

    JAZZ

    OK you solved this one. God, you’re competitive. 

    CHASE

    History is moving us forward. It has to.

    JAZZ

    This just isn’t what the Tibetan monks promised me. The moment we considered love, death was everywhere.

    CHASE

    I prefer Dante. Dante’s my guide.  He says you go through hell to get to heaven.  

    JAZZ

    Dante! Weird subject for psych majors!

    CHASE

    There’s a lot about me you don’t know. You need a firm grip on purgatory to understand law.

    JAZZ

    I think I’m coming down with something.

    CHASE

    You’re coming down with me. Kiss me.

    JAZZ

    (Fending him off)

    What if I’m infectious?

    CHASE

    If you’re my soulmate I’m hoping you’re infectious. Maybe I could get back my soul.

                               JAZZ

    Where’d it go?

                               CHASE

    Taken hostage.

                               JAZZ

    By –

    (Their kiss triggers police car lights & sirens)

    You’re right, I feel better.

    CHASE

    Sirens when we kiss – that’s a first for me.

    (They kiss more)

    JAZZ

    Are they after us or our crime scene?

    CHASE

    We’re after them. Look where we are.

    JAZZ

    This is my dorm! Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

    CHASE

    Let’s kiss forever.

    SCENE VII – Outside Hadleigh, FRESHMAN DORM

     (Enter SOLIZ, dressed like a security guard, stringing crime scene tape)

    SOLIZ

    Hey!  Watch your step!  Respect my perimeter! O, hi guys.

    (They can’t step away – tape impedes)

    JAZZ

    What the hell happened here?

    SOLIZ

    Nobody knows. Keep moving.

    JAZZ

    But this is my dorm! I live here!

    SOLIZ

    They’re not letting anyone in. Do you know who lives in Room 824?

    JAZZ

    Actually, I live there.

    SOLIZ

    Oh, you do, do you? Well, some guy fell out your window.

    JAZZ

    Just like your dream!

    SOLIZ

    (threateningly)

    I don’t know what you’re talking about.

  • Rough Sleep – a play by Alysse Aallyn

    (CORSO doesn’t like CHASE and JAZZ’s new alliance. They walk toward steps while lights go down on DREAM LAB. CORSO exits huffily)

    Scene V – Cafe

    JAZZ

    You owe me a sandwich for backing up your lie, you lying liar.

    CHASE

    Liar? I was just being a gentleman. Don’t kiss and tell.

    JAZZ

    Somehow I doubt your motives.

    CHASE

    Never give monsters bones to make their soup.  

    (He shepherds JAZZ up the steps to SCENE V –  CAFÉ set: table and chairs are set up beneath Tiffany lamp upstage another table with two hunched unidentifiable figures in close conversation at distant table)

    Any truth you give Corso, he’ll use it against you.

    (Calls offstage)

    Two specials!  Meat on the side! And plenty of Joe.

    JAZZ

    What’s the special?

    CHASE

    Whatever it is, it’s the only thing they didn’t make yesterday. That’s why we call it “Chem Lab”. I take it you’ve never been here before? Vegan?  Gluten-intolerant? I’ll eat anything you don’t.

    JAZZ

    I’m on meal plan. I’m currently omnivorous but I aspire to someday be selective. How about your aspirations?

    CHASE

    Aspirations are good.  I’m pro-aspiration. At the moment, I aspire to anonymity.

    JAZZ

     You failed anonymity in dream lab. 

    CHASE

    I had a job to do. I did it.

    JAZZ

    Getting yourself kicked out?

    CHASE

    That was inevitable. I made it through one round, and I found out what kinds of dreams everybody’s having. Now we put it together, like a psychotic jigsaw puzzle.

    JAZZ

    Are you ever going to tell me why are you so pissed at Corso?

    CHASE

     Because he took something from me and he won’t give it back.

    JAZZ

    Maybe. What’d he take?

    CHASE

    My future. 

    JAZZ

    Can he prevent you from graduating?

    CHASE

    If he makes me a killer. Corso needs to be put down like a rabid dog. It’s a dirty job but someone’s got to do it.

    JAZZ

    Please don’t even joke like that. Nobody can take away your future without your cooperation. Go be a lawyer. You’d make such a great lawyer. You argue with everybody.

    CHASE

    So help me get evidence against him and I’ll let the cops take him off my hands.

    JAZZ

    You’re obsessed.

    CHASE

    I call it goal-oriented. Russian-Irish is a volatile mixture.

    JAZZ

    It’s tunnel vision. There we were, standing right at the edge of the soulmate multiverse and where do you want to go? Corso’s apartment! What is it with men and threesomes?

    CHASE

    You went to a morgue. So what do you know about the multiverse?

    JAZZ

    You should have done the reading! Retrocausation. Many Worlds theory.  If the universe is infinite then every possible outcome must happen somewhere.

    CHASE

    So I kill Corso in some other world?

    JAZZ

    Haven’t you heard that if you look too long at a monster you become the monster?

    CHASE

    Too late. 

    JAZZ

    Are you telling me that my soulmate is a monster?

    CHASE

    I’m starting to see why we belong together. You should segue out of pre-fashion into pre-law.

    JAZZ

    I’m allergic to violence. Violence is flirtation with losing control. It gives you nowhere to go. 

    CHASE

    You referring to that big bruiser who’s stalking you?

    JAZZ

    Maybe.  He represents my official knowledge of crazy. But now it’s over and I don’t have to talk about it.

    CHASE

    “Those who make a peaceful revolution impossible make violence inevitable.” 

    JAZZ

    Oh, please. Your evidence hunt makes sense at least. Let’s do that instead. You get to find out about Corso and I get to find out about you. Where would you go first?

    CHASE

    Well, I want to go to his office but I’m afraid he’s in there. That nympho-slut Nurse Howk is probably his weak link.

    JAZZ

    Don’t slut-shame. She’s probably one of his victims.

    CHASE

    Naah. She’s a fully consenting sub-monster. Didn’t she try to ooze all over you?

    JAZZ

    She’s just living up to the archetype. It’s one of the signs of a victim.

    CHASE

    Meaning what?

    JAZZ

    Don’t you know what an archetype is?

    CHASE

    I’m a psychology major, I hope I know what an archetype is. I’m asking if you know what it is, and since I’m not getting any answers, I’m going to go see what’s keeping our food.

    (Stands up, exits.  Big, ugly, longhaired BEX looms up from darkness and pounds his hands on JAZZ’s table)

    BEX

    Is that the guy? That’s the weasel you’re dumping me for?

    JAZZ

    Bex! I told you to get gone.

    BEX

    I’m just trying to talk to you since you won’t talk to me.

    JAZZ

    (Tries to stand up but he’s pushing the table into her)

    Bex it’s over!  How many ways can I say it? Don’t you have a job to get back to?

    BEX

    And that player doesn’t?  So now I’m not good enough for you?  Is that it?

    JAZZ

     I don’t get what you’re making a big deal about – you’re the one that said we’d never be exclusive! Go find someone else to torture!

    BEX

    (Leaning in threateningly)

    You’re not the boss of me. 

    (CHASE returns with tray) 

    CHASE

    This dude harassing you?

    JAZZ

    Just go, Bex. Go home.

    BEX

    Who’s gonna make me?

    (Two figures stand up at the distant table and advance – it’s ZANE and KOO)

    ZANE

    Having trouble here?

    (BEX knows when he’s outnumbered and retreats)

    BEX

    (Shouting over his shoulder)

    Better get ready! This means war!

    (ZANE and CHASE high-five, ZANE returns to his table – KOO puts a hand on JAZZ’s shoulder)

    KOO

    We’ve all been there.

    (Exit KOO and ZANE)

    CHASE 

    (Comforting JAZZ whose head is in her hands)

    Nice guy.  I think I understand what you saw in him.

    JAZZ

    (Writhing with mortification, sits down, head on table)

    I’m so sorry. What can I say? He’s a jerk, but pickings were slim. 

    CHASE

    (Serving sandwiches and coffee)

    Hey, everyone’s entitled to at least one monster. The good news is, today’s special is meatloaf.

    (JAZZ inspects inside her sandwich)

    JAZZ

    I think I lost my appetite.

    CHASE

    More for me.

    JAZZ

    The coffee’s good. Say, Zane and Koo! Huh?

    CHASE 

    I know, right? Think something’s – going on there? Traumatic bonding?

    JAZZ

    They didn’t say anything.

    CHASE 

    We didn’t say anything.

    JAZZ

    It’s hard to say anything when you don’t know what’s going on,

    CHASE

    More fodder for my theory that reality is totally submerged – it’s never what you think you see.

  • Rough Sleep – a play by Alysse Aallyn

    In the Dream Lab

    CHASE

    I flew! I did!

    (Waving his whole arm like a five year old)

    Me, me, me!

    CORSO

    (Repressively)

    I think Mr. Pettigrew is trying to speak.

    ZANE 

    (Acts out his dream)

     I was walking down a concrete tunnel with metal ribs. It seemed to be shifting like it was alive. It was hard to keep my feet. I felt like maybe it was on a giant truck where they shift the room around to make you fall – like at Great Adventure. There was water on the floor that looked diseased so I tried to keep out of it but it kept splashing on me.  I know I’m going to get sick just like my dad warned me. When I got to the end of the tunnel I was in an abandoned dump at the end of the world – signs everywhere saying things like, TOXIC WASTE and EXTREMELY HAZAROUS. The filled with gushing water and I couldn’t get back.

    RAD

    Abandon hope those who enter here.

    (CORSO gives him a squelching look)

    ZANE

    Something horrible was stalking the dump.  Every now and then it darted past.  I think I saw fur? I’m scared of fur. It was BIG. I could hear breathing. Maybe a bear – but when it stepped near the light I saw it had scales that glittered. It was coming right after me, kind of loping, with its back legs higher than its front.  In that second I realized I had created it – like it was the most terrible thing I could think of come to life.  I just took off running.  I knew I couldn’t outrun it – it had too many legs. I saw a chain-link fence, but I couldn’t get over that, so I went inside this shack to hide and maybe make a barricade. Most of all I was scared of anybody seeing what a coward I was – just another big talker who’s unable to cope. It was dark in there – and the floor was all torn up – I wanted to go back but – the thing was forcing me inside. It was peering in the windows so I ducked down, I stepped on a rotten board and pitched into the water. Toxic, disgusting water – smelled like sulfur – I could feel it poisoning me, rotting me, boiling me from the inside out. My skin was falling right off my bones.  Then somebody said, “Wake up” and I woke up.

    (CORSO looks bored and politely incredulous)

    CORSO

    Charming.  Our research project becomes a video game.

    ZANE

    (Rubbing the inside of his leg)

    I was never so glad to wake up. Man, I was really running. It felt like running in flip-flops.  My adductors are killing me and my paraformus feels like a rubber band.

    CORSO

    (Dismissive)

    Anything to be learned from this puerile meandering?  Could it be that the concept of “flight” itself creates a concept of falling and the context of humiliation and pursuit? I certainly wish you were all more imaginative. I see I need YEARS of work with you children to exorcise these primitive fears. Nobody has time for that. Oh, well.  Too late now. It is only in the course of the research that we discover how it should have been conducted.

    CHASE

    Flight creates pursuit?  That’s a good one!

    ZANE

    But I had the strangest feeling like…like I was watching myself. Like I was both inside and outside me. Like maybe I was the animal too.

    SOLIZ

    And I was the crowd. I felt that too.

    KOO

    Me, too.  I definitely did.

    CORSO

    (Silky-voiced)

    Ah, lucid dreaming. At long last, something informative. Do share.

    CHASE

    You said I could go next.

    CORSO

    Research makes no promises, Mr. Quinn.  Miss Loflin?

    KOO

    It was…so terrible.  I need to get rid of it so I can forget.    

    `        I was working in some kind of, mortuary.  These body bags were coming at me down a conveyor belt and I had to unzip them and take out the body pieces.  I was unzipping, unbuttoning, zipping and unzipping, but the bodies were so smashed I couldn’t even look at them. So disgusting — you couldn’t tell they ever had been people.  I thought there was people and garbage and animal parts all smashed together to trick me.  To make fun of me.  Someone was laughing at my expense. And some of those bags contained the remains of multiple people – a mess nobody could reassemble – a mass of legs and arms and guts. I thought this was a horrible job and I remember thinking, “Nothing is worth this. I should leave college plead bankruptcy and go work at my dad’s dealership.” I wanted to throw up the whole time.

    (Gagging)

     But I also felt guilty for not helping them. The heads were alive and they looked at me so pleadingly. Then in one bag I found my boyfriend Bo. He was looked accusing – I couldn’t convince him he was DEAD and I was helpless. and I just KNEW he was going to tell everyone I was responsible. Just it was all my fault! I just zipped him back up. Zipped him right back up. 

    (Gulping water, half crying)

    Then the next one was ME. I unzipped myself. I looking at my own body. I was dead and I was mangled, and I just hadn’t realized it.

    (KOO’s gasping and sobbing) 

    I just – lost it. Take me – take me –

    TAKE ME OUT OF HERE.

    (SOLIZ tries to comfort sobbing KOO.)

    SOLIZ

    So maybe Bo IS your soulmate and in your next dream you take him out of the bag –

    KOO

    I’m not going back there!  No, no, no, no, no!

    CORSO

    Please, Miss D’Accosta, no sophomoric interpretations. Good guinea pigs stay out of each other’s heads.

    JAZZ

    Wouldn’t soulmates be in each other’s heads?

    CHASE

    Me, me, me! Is it my turn now?

    CORSO

    By all means, Mr. Quinn, since you’re so eager to share.

    CHASE

    (Very smug and bad-ass)

    I flew all right. Right through the air. No pursuit, no humiliation, no falling – don’t I get an A?  It was like being in a wind tunnel. I went to your apartment; Doc. Didn’t bother with the locks – sailed right in through the front door.

    CORSO

    If this was a true out-of-body or remote viewing experience you’ll have to tell us something you could only have seen today, something that wasn’t there when you helped me move in.

    CHASE

    (Making a show of deep thought)

    Well, there were a lot of papers about a bankruptcy filing and restraining orders.  Is that the sort of thing you mean? Shouldn’t we run right over and look? Oh, and there was a sex tape featuring you and Nurse Howk on your bed.  Your bed had black sheets. She’s one smoky tomato, that girl. She has a piercing on her hoo-ha.  Shouldn’t we call her in and investigate?

    CORSO

    Mr. Quinn, you are fired again!  I knew you were a mistake! Off to the locker rooms with you. This minute. And don’t come back!

    CHASE

    (rises slowly, protesting) 

    Awwww... And I thought we were gonna be like so free.

    CORSO

    Every chance you are given, you destroy. I’m sure one of the alternates will be thrilled to assume your position.

    CHASE

    (Chucks him under the chin)

    You can always find somebody to “assume the position” but you’ll never find anyone like me.

    CORSO

    (Swats his hand away)

    Let’s hope not.  Get out, now.

    CHASE

    Can’t I listen to the others? I swilled your damn koolaid.

    CORSO

    No. You are incorrigible and disruptive.  You are leaving or I call security and this class is OVER.

    CHASE

    But I want to hear the others!

    CORSO

    (Upends recliner, dumping CHASE on the floor. Speaks into his earbud)

    You should have thought of that sooner.  Security!

    CHASE

    Oh all right. Jazz, I’ll be waiting for you to tell me what I missed.

    (He exits slowly, hangs out behind the door.)

    CORSO

    I do apologize for that. That is one troubled youth. He is a thief, an impostor and a poseur. No good deed goes unpunished there, I assure you. His alternate will be more cooperative. Miss Suzino? Mr. Bliven? Chop-chop! No more stalling.

    RAD

    (Looking panicked.)  

    It’s Borden. And – I don’t remember anything.

    (CORSO inspects him closely to see if he is lying)

    CORSO

    Hmmm. Come, come, Mr. whatever.  The others have been brave. Your clothing is strangely disarranged.

    SOLIZ

    Aren’t your pants on backwards?

    RAD

    (Gulps, blushes painfully)

    I know you’ll fire me and I don’t really want to leave but I just don’t remember. It’s just a blank.

    CORSO

    Fire you for amnesia? Hardly! I am much more likely to administer truth serum or attempt a little private hypnosis. Overcoming resistance is my raison d’être.

    (Looks at his watch.)

    We just don’t have the time.  How about if I give you one more chance, next week?

    RAD

    Th – thanks.

    (Is he relieved? Traumatized?  Hard to tell. CORSO stretches out on CHASE’s abandoned futon, very relaxed, crosses his hands behind his head.)

    CORSO

    You are hardly a “still water”, Mr. Bli – er, Borden. Perhaps that is why I am more relieved than otherwise to find you run so deep. Miss Suzino?  We are waiting. 

    (JAZZ’s face show she is desperately trying to think up a story.  Coming up empty)

    JAZZ

    I was blind. At first I couldn’t see.

    CORSO

    (Sighs luxuriously)

    Oh, Miss Suzino.  Blindfold games! Who among us hasn’t played them?  You always interest me so extremely! Pay attention, Mr. Bruden!  This is how it’s done!                        

    RAD

    Borden.

    CORSO

    Simmer down, class. Let Miss Suzino speak.  Poor little Jazz.  When she enrolled in this experiment she’s all, “I can’t dream” 

    (mimics her voice unflatteringly) 

    Now it’s “I can’t see!”  Whatever next? We’ll just have to do what we can to open your eyes.

    JAZZ

    I felt people rushing past me. I stumbled down steps into a basement. It smelled like dirt and death.   Someone kicked me – I fell over a body. A dead body.

    CORSO

    More falling. This is a tragic class.

    ZANE

    Anything chasing you?

    CORSO

    Please, class, I’ll ask the questions.

    JAZZ

    There was blood.

    SOLIZ

    But the blood was yours. Sorry. Just saying. 

    CORSO

    (Slams his notebook shut – rises) 

    Checks in your mailboxes the first of the week!  See you all next Saturday! Remember – no talking about what goes on in dream lab!

    RAD

    (Glad to escape)

    What happens in dream lab stays in dream lab!

  • Rough Sleep – a play by Alysse Aallyn

    Back in DREAM LAB – CORSO calling with baton and headphones)

    CORSO

    Children! Come back! Playtime is over! Wake up, children! Don’t get lost in NeverNeverLand!

    (CORSO conducts Flight of the Valkyrie. JAZZ and CHASE are sucked apart to opposite sides of the stage.  Lowlights come up on Dream Lab. CHASE falls back on his recliner. Other students thrashing and moaning. JAZZ falls to floor, CHASE struggles to her side to help her up) 

    JAZZ

    (Retching)

    I think I saw death.

    CHASE

    And I saw the face of evil.

    CORSO

    (Appearing with a roll of paper towels and a bucket of water bottles – lights up all the way, music down)

    Rough sleep?

    CHASE

    Yeah. But was worth it.

    CORSO

    I’m talking to Miss Suzino. Gave yourself a bloody nose there, sport.

    (CORSO hands out bottles of water)

    JAZZ

     (feels her face)

    I did? Is it my blood?

    KOO

    I’m definitely going to throw up.

    CORSO

    First times are always the worst times. Care for a basin?

    KOO

    No, I want a bathroom.

    (Staggers off futon, SOLIZ reaches out to her)

    SOLIZ

    I’ll help her.

    (They lurch off behind Ladies Locker)

    CORSO

    Any more foreheads require mopping? Allow me to audition my Florence Nightingale impersonation. I’ve been universally praised for my bedside manner.

    JAZZ

    (Mopping herself)

    Maybe I’m the one who died.

    CORSO

    Forget the safe word?

    RAD

    There’s a safe word?  Now he tells us.

    CHASE

    How about “Stop”. Or “No”?

    CORSO

    The problem with that is behind the fear lies the wish.

    CHASE

    Behind the wish lies the demon. So there is no safe word.

    CORSO

    How about “I quit”?  Is that what you’re trying to say, Mr. Quinn?

    CHASE

    You first.

    CORSO

    (They glare at each other. Horrible retching noises from locker room)

    Now, now, now. Just when we were getting along so well.

    (ZANE has stood up and is lurching around as if sleepwalking.)

    CORSO

    Mr. Braden, assist your colleague back to his launching pad.

    (RAD stands up, goes to ZANE, wakes him, and leads him to his futon to sit.  SOLIZbrings a green-faced KOO out of the Ladies’)

    RAD

    My name is Borden.

    CORSO

    Now wasn’t that fun? Good times. Upchucking can hardly be an unusual experience for you, Miss Loflin. 

    SOLIZ

    Don’t give her so much next time. She’s little. She can’t get the same dose as everyone else.

    CORSO

    I wish the guinea pigs would stop wrestling with me for control of this experiment. I make the decisions around here. The doctor knows what he’s doing.

    SOLIZ

    Sorry.

    CORSO

    Now I posit the ultimate question.  Anybody “fly”?  Did we achieve liftoff?

    SOLIZ

    I think I fell. It seemed so real. Maybe it was only a dream.

    CORSO

    Only a tear in the fabric the universe, a burp from the hippocampus, a haiku from the collective unconscious, an oracle of future empowerment? Speak to us, Miss D’Accosta. Tell us everything.

    SOLIZ

     (Stands up to act out events she describes)

    I was in the elevator at Hadleigh – for some reason I was in a big hurry.  I remember looking at my watch but my watch had stopped.  It was an analog watch without any hands. The elevator opened on the top floor and I rushed out.  All these people were staring at me and they started to laugh. I realized I was naked. I couldn’t get back in the elevator – the doors had melted. The floors were melting and the whole building lurched to one side.  I panicked. I was thrown against people and I hate people touching me but I was helpless. No soulmates, just a gang. I’m scared of gangs. They were herding me. But there was the window so I jumped right through, thinking, maybe I can fly. I felt the glass tearing apart my body. At first I felt this great release.  A sense of excitement. Like I can do anything I want, like I got away with it. I was trying to move my arms and legs – it seemed like slo-mo – so I pumped and pumped – moving more frantically – but I knew all along it wouldn’t work. It doesn’t work with swimming. You’ve got to find the peaceful center but there was no peaceful center.  So I fell – knowing you’d be disappointed and maybe flunk me but hoping my crushed body could tell the scientists something.  That second before I hit I was – it was the most disgusting feeling – suspended, staring at the chalk outline where I my corpse would be.  I remember thinking, “I hope we get a second chance” but all I heard was laughter. Others were getting it. Others were doing it. Splat! Face-first into the pavement. I felt my face pushed into my brain, my spine crumbling – body turning inside out, I became “the visible woman” with her organs on the outside. That was right before my organs exploded like water balloons and there was nothing left.   I was completely gone and so there was nothing left to go to heaven, no welcoming light, no happy faces. Just sadness and loss; a night of blackout drinking.  That couldn’t have been an out of body experience. It was more like a nightmare. Right? 

    (SOLIZ’s face is sweaty, anxious. CORSO, hand to chin, considering)

    CORSO

    A classic shame dream. You felt humiliated by your naked body – a very nice body I might add – as if by some unwilling revelation of your essential self. A common anxiety dream, I assure you.  Hampered by cultural imperatives your attempted  “escape” was disguised as self-punishment; you  “looked down”, ergo tumbled and fell. Almost Greek in its simplicity.  I especially liked the note about the handless watch.  Very Dali-esque.

    RAD

     I’m all for naked dreams.

    JAZZ

    Our naked selves aren’t our essential selves.

    CORSO

    (Looking at her very displeased. Those guinea pigs again)

    How so, Miss Suzino?

    JAZZ

    I mean, everyone’s naked body is alike.  Choices reveal our essential selves.

    CORSO

    Spoken like a fashion major. How jejeune.

    CHASE

    I know what she means. It’s why people get tattoos.

    CORSO

    Says a tattooed denizen of the underclass.

    ZANE

    Everybody’s naked body is not alike! I wish!

    RAD

    (Trying so hard to be ZANE’s buddy)

    Right! I mean, if only!

    JAZZ

    I mean generally.

    CORSO

    We split hairs.  Nevertheless you expose the dangers of word selection, Miss D’Accosta. Forget “flying”. Who went elsewhere? Absolutely elsewhere?  Just tell me that.

    (ZANE reacts visibly.)

    CHASE

    I did!

    (Waving his whole arm like a five year old)

    Me, me, me!

    CORSO

    (Repressively)

    I think Mr. Pettigrew is trying to speak.