Man-In-Sea

Scene 5

ED

You need to hear my side of the story!

LINK

You're grounded!

ED

I’m not a kid, you can’t ground me!

LINK

I'll not see my son palling around with that drunken lot of airborne gypsies calling themselves national heroes!

ED

You don’t get it, Dad!  It’s the transportation of the future. One hundred years from now, everyone will have an airplane of their own!

LINK

That’s an exciting thought to see them drop from the sky left and right. Broken wings and smashed bodies across the country side. I’m glad I won’t live to see it.

ED

I know how to make it safer!

LINK

By locking  up everyone of those barnstormers like lunatics. Ground every flight, starting with yours!

ED

Dad! Just listen!

LINK

No, you listen. Is this why you were late to school? How will you help your brother run this factory after I’m gone?

ED

I have an idea.

LINK

Does it have anything to do with the piano orders in your workshop? Have you even touched them?

ED

I haven’t had the time.

LINK

No time? What exactly am I paying you to do?

ED

They'll get finished, don't worry.

LINK

I’m not worried at all. I’ve already found a man to replace you. I'm letting you go.

ED

You can't fire your son!

LINK

You can’t work because you’re in school, but you can’t be bothered to go to school. Every man in this factory earns his paycheck. You will be no different.

ED

Dad, just trust me, My idea is a good one.

LINK

I’ve heard all I’m going to hear.

ED

Think of the lives that will be saved.

LINK

I’m not having my factory turned into a college for madmen. I hear there was another crash in Chenango Bridge a few days ago. Why are you so eager to be a dead man?

ED

That guy was a friend of mine. Will you come to the basement and look at the model?

LINK

Look at it? I should disassemble it myself.

ED

Give me until tomorrow, and I’ll have all my orders finished.

LINK

The idea for the trainer came when I visited Wright Field in Ohio. A guy named Ocker gave me a demonstration in night flying. I think he was a Major. He sat me in a desk chair, blindfolded me and gave me a couple spins. I couldn’t identify up from down, let alone left from right. I fell right out of the chair! I practically had the Blue Box drawn in my head by the time we got home. Back then, pilots flew by watching features on the ground. When the lights went out, we were blind. When I learned to fly, the only teaching method was to go up in the sky and not crash. Only the best pilots made it to a second flight.

ED

And I’ve been making money letting kids ride it for a penny!

Man-In-Sea

Cast of Characters:

LINK
An inventor. Also, Ed’s father.

ED
As Link remembers himself himself.

MARION
Ed’s wife.

CLAY
Ed and Marion’s second son.

Scene 6