THE DELICATE ANTENNA

By

Javi Mulero

Javi Mulero
2449 N. Beachwood Dr.
# 13
LA, CA 90068
(323)966-9235
mujavier2000@yahoo.com

Two bedrooms. Each in different places, altogether: different cities, even different
States.

It’s 4 AM.

In one bedroom, JINNY is tossing and turning, fully awake. Wide awake, actually. She’s jittery. Can’t sleep. Sits up suddenly. She’s crying.
She grabs the phone and dials.

It rings at Emma’s. The ring sort of wakes her, but she’s groggy, tired. After two rings (or none), the machine picks up in the OTHER room.

In the Other room: where EMMA sleeps, the machine picks up- we hear JINNY’s voice coming metalically also out of the machine:

JINNY’s VOICE: “Mom, I can’t sleep. I just saw this thing last night. On TV. All these thoughts are going through my mind!... We were drinking… and… Anyway, just in case – I’m calling… I just want to make sure you’re okay.

(She hangs up. EMMA is now fully awake in the other room. EMMA then turns on the Light in her night table, as JINNY gets up and goes to the window, and opens it.
As JINNY tries to get some fresh air, EMMA stares at the picture on her night table.)

EMMA: (to picture:) Ron! – I think something happened to Jinny!

(In her room, JINNY stares around, altered.)

JINNY: Oh, what the hell. I can’t sleep anyway!

(And she does a bump of something -- coke? -- lined up on her counter or table)

(EMMA, has been dialing her phone, and the call RINGS at JINNY’s, who rushes to the phone and picks it up:)

JINNY: Hell – Hello?

EMMA: Jinny?

JINNY: Mom?

EMMA: Are you okay?

JINNY: (breaks a little) Mom! (relief!)

EMMA: What happened, dear?

JINNY: Oh, mom. I’m okay, but –

EMMA: Tell me, hon. Something’s bothering you?

JINNY: I just… Oh, God, I –

EMMA: What is it?

JINNY: I couldn’t sleep, I –

EMMA: Why not?

JINNY: All night, I couldn’t sleep.

EMMA: What’s the reason? Are you sick? In pain? Are you on some kind of deadline? Why can’t you sleep, are you okay, honey?

JINNY: I just – something came over me – all of a sudden. And I…

EMMA: …. Yes?

JINNY: I wanted to see if you were okay.

EMMA: I’m fine. How are things with your boyfriend?

JINNY: I don’t want to talk about him now.

EMMA: Oh. Okay… (then:) Jinny? What’s going on?

JINNY: Yesterday afternoon, there was this documentary. A friend had it on tape. Two hours long. All these thoughts in my mind! Mom. For the first time. I saw them. I saw them!

EMMA: Slow down. You saw what? (beat) Jinny?

JINNY: I saw them.

EMMA: You saw WHAT?

JINNY: I saw the bodies.

EMMA: What bodies??

JINNY: The bodies! Flying through the air!

EMMA: What are you talking about, sweetheart!—
JINNY: (overlapping): I never saw them before, mom! When it happened – the first time- by the time I got to the TV, they had stopped showing it!!...

EMMA: Oh God. I see.

JINNY: I can’t sleep. We were drinking. A lot. All night long I haven’t been able to get that image out of my mind! All I see is the bodies!

EMMA: (alarmed) Jinny?

JINNY: Oh, God, mom, the things they must have seen to make them jump!

EMMA: Jinny! Listen to me, sweetheart! – Forget all that.

JINNY: I can’t!

EMMA: Jinny, darling. Listen to me carefully. Are you alone now?

JINNY: Yes.

EMMA: Were you alone when you watched this program?

JINNY: No.

EMMA: Is drinking all you were doing? You and your friends (beat) Jinny, drinking puts me to sleep. Are you sure that you and your friends didn’t take anything else? (beat) Darling, please. This is one time in this Life that I need you to be totally honest with me. I won’t get mad, I promise you, sweetheart. Were you guys high?

JINNY: Yeah.

EMMA: But you saw the show, right?

JINNY: Yeah.

EMMA: Okay. Thanks for being truthful with me, sweetie. Listen…. Are you listening?

JINNY: Yes.

EMMA: Listen. Watching something like that can be pretty traumatic. I understand that.

JINNY: But those people, mom!

EMMA: Listen to me, sweet – what happened was awful. It also – and thank God and may God forgive me for saying this – it did not happen to you. It did not happen to us.

JINNY: I feel like – for the first time - finally! – ten months after it happened – terrorism affected me!

EMMA: Well, fuck it! – fuck it! Don’t let it affect you. Period. Fuck ‘em!

JINNY: The things they must have seen, mom! I could see their faces. There was this black guy – alone. I could see his face. He was falling and his body – turning around and around in the air!-- there was nothing they could do!

EMMA: There WAS something. And they DID it.

JINNY: There were two of them jumping together. As if in slow motion. A man and a woman holding hands as they were falling!

EMMA: That was a moment of Action! Of defiance. They chose their moment. And how to end it. Nobody was going to force them to endure that two thousand degree heat, Jinny!

JINNY: To choose THAT!

EMMA: But they could choose. They could choose that. At that moment they knew they had to jump. They exercised the only choice they had. Otherwise, they had NONE. It was a moment of Action! The moment! Because who can predict the future? And plus, who knows? Maybe a miracle will happen! LISTEN TO WHAT I’M SAYING, JINNY! Maybe the moment they made that decision, maybe the moment they jumped, their souls took flight!

JINNY: … took flight!...

EMMA: A moment of ultimate commitment. You understand? Because they had faith. And maybe at that moment the spirit left their bodies.

JINNY: And maybe that’s why they jumped?

EMMA: Huh? (then:) Jinny, you weren’t thinking abut – doing anything crazy, were you?

JINNY: Because they were Spirit.

EMMA: Yes… Maybe! The Spirit can take Flight. It might have left the body before they landed. Because they left their fears behind. Who knows?!? Just don’t hang on to all that. You CAN’T. Honey, is your window open?

JINNY: Yes, but …

EMMA: Look outside. Now, don’t do anything crazy! – just look out, get some fresh air, right? Can you see the sky?

JINNY: A little.

EMMA: Can you see the stars? Or is it cloudy?

JINNY: It’s cloudy. Wait. I can see one star.

EMMA: Look at it. Enjoy it. It’s brightness. Find the good in that good. Most people in America right now are sleeping. But you’re looking at a star right now!... Don’t think of that other thing.

JINNY: It looks so little.

EMMA: Keep appreciating the good. Don’t ever linger on the bad. Do NOT. Because that IS terrorism…

JINNY: Honey, it takes away your Peace. Don’t accept any other than Peace. Don’t let anyone or anything take away your Peace.

JINNY: How could they do that to us??

EMMA: “Us”… (deep breath) I don’t know why. I don’t know what they could have felt inside to make them choose – that action.

JINNY: We really had our eyes closed for so long, didn’t we?

EMMA: (beat, then:) Are yo looking at the star?

JINNY: It’s hidden now. But my heart, it’s still…

EMMA: Just breathe. Deeply. Breathe. Remember what you used to say to that teacher? When he asked you all if the questions in the test were difficult? What you said to him in front of the class? Your ninth grade teacher?

JINNY: “The Questions are easy. It’s the answers that are difficult.”

EMMA: Exactly. But… it’s easier… when we’re at Peace. (prompting her:) Silence to listen to… remember?...

JINNY: …. to listen to Direction. (beat, then: ) I miss dad.

EMMA: (beat) I miss him too.
JINNY: We gotta open our eyes. We gotta wake up.

EMMA: And we gotta have peace. So we can go back to sleep. That is, until tomorrow. God, it’s already tomorrow.

JINNY: Already.

EMMA: Was it coke?... Cocaine?

JINNY: No.

EMMA: The bad one? Huh? The other one?

JINNY: Yeah. I can’t sleep. And I have an audition tomorrow.

EMMA: You are not going to an audition tomorrow.

JINNY: I’ve never missed an audition, mom.

EMMA: Tomorrow is NOT your day to go to an audition. Period. No one ever accomplished anything on crystal meth. Right? … An audition is not going to be – you will NOT let it be more important than your peace of mind.

JINNY: Right.

EMMA: You stay home and rest. And sleep it off, however long you have to.

JINNY: (beat) Who can live peacefully nowadays?

EMMA: Plenty of people do. Honey, the issue is not the issue. The issue is what you DO about the issue. THAT’s the issue! Don’t make me mad, now! (beat) Breathe. Don’t forget to breathe.

JINNY: I haven’t felt like this since he died.

(EMMA turns to look at her night table Picture—that of her husband? Ex – husband? Is he dead?)

EMMA: I know.

JINNY: Mom. When you go. That’s just gonna be too…

(Beat)

EMMA: (attempt at humor) And thank God I won’t be there!... (then:) You wanna come home, honey? For a few days? A week? Or two? For as long as you want. You can sleep in the bed with me if you want to.

JINNY: I’m just so… Sometimes things are too…

EMMA: Yes, sometimes they are, sweetie. We have to take great care… of ourselves. It’s true, sometimes we have to GO through things. We cannot…. deny our bodies anything. But, you know, when we do – energies come to us that live that way… or that lived that way… They come because of drugs or alcohol… Because that’s the LINK. The affinity. Sometimes it comes through your heart—in the guise of a false friend – or a boyfriend…

(At this point, JINNY puts the Picture of HER boyfriend facing down, away from her line of vision)

EMMA: (continues:) … or through that show you saw on TV last night. Because you were vulnerable to it. And we don’t always know how vulnerable we are to things. The Human Being… that’s a very delicate antenna.

JINNY: I wish… I wish things were different. I wish we could go back.

EMMA: But it HAPPENED. We can’t change it, but we can act from the ‘now’. That’s all we can do – now! (beat) Accept, honey. Breath and accept. And you will be happier. Even if he was so nice to have at times. Even if he was an asshole…
(beat) What are you going to do now?

JINNY: I’m gonna try to relax.

EMMA: Good. That’s a good start. (sotto voce) And breathe.

JINNY: I miss you too, mom.

EMMA: That’s a good thing. Right? Better than a kick in the ass. (beat) I miss you too, honey. (beat) Yesterday I was thinking about calling you. You beat me to it.

JINNY: Do you think that dad…? (trails off…)

EMMA: It was a moment of Action. (beat) I don’t know, sweet. But it’s – it happened.

JINNY: Happened. (beat) Those pills… they were too many, you know?

EMMA: It happened. (then, venturing:) So, your boyfriend…?

JINNY: Gone. (then:) Yeah, I know. It happened.

EMMA: I just wanted to, you know… Mother’s like to know what’s up with their kids, so we can do our job, which is to worry.

JINNY: It’s just so hard sometimes to agree with things happening.

EMMA: That I can DEFINITELY agree and sympathize with.

JINNY: Can I call you back if I need to?

(They both laugh)

EMMA: Of course, sweetie. As many times as you feel like. Are you going to your audition tomorrow?

JINNY: No. I’m resting tomorrow.

EMMA: Good.

JINNY: It’s Jinny Day tomorrow. At home.

EMMA: Good. I like that.

JINNY: Mom?

EMMA: Yeah, hon?

JINNY: Thanks.

EMMA: Well, you’re welcome!

JINNY: For holding my hand. (beat) I love you.

EMMA: I love you too.

(JINNY hangs up. Then, EMMA does too. They both sit up in their beds, lost in thought, for a few moments. JINNY is still wide awake, but less hyper. EMMA is sitting up straight. Troubled. Worried.)

EMMA: (to herself:) Breathe… just breathe!....

SLOW DARK

THE END