MARION
Edwin! What are you doing down here? Didn’t Clayton tell you the Prime Minister is here?
ED
I’m just looking at the gun.
MARION
Still? Well, I’m sure Mr. Manley will want his wife to see it as well. Come up here so I don’t have to introduce you in absentia again.
ED
Clayton thinks it’s from a pirate ship.
MARION
And even Clayton has washed his filthy hands off and said hello to the Prime Minister of the nation allowing us to use their ports.
LINK
Marion didn’t need much excuse for a party.
MARION
I’m glad you mentioned it. I think you owe me a party.
LINK
I don’t think I’d ever be social if it wasn’t for my wife dragging me out of the workshop, or dragging the social to my workshop.
MARION
We’ll have a going away party, before we leave for France. We need to say goodbye to our friends.
ED
We’ll only be gone three months.
MARION
Three months is a long time, Ed.
ED
You barely see them in three months as it is.
MARION
And I’d like to spend a little time with them before I don’t see them for another three. You always extend these things. Every project needs extra time. I think it’s very nice you ship me to shop in paradise villages around the world at your whim, but I’d like a chance to check in with the other people in my life.
ED
How many people are you planning to invite?
MARION
Oh, I don’t know... Shirley, Regina, Anabel... No more than twenty or so.
ED
Twenty?
MARION
Plus their husbands, or their boyfriends.
ED
We’re not having 50 people traipsing around here like they own the place, breaking delicate equipment and kicking the dog!
MARION
You can lock your office. Nobody will see your junk, the dog will be happy to watch it.
ED
I haven’t had a chance to fix the siding. The place is falling apart.
MARION
We can never have anyone over, because you’ve got some project strewn across the house.
ED
Why do you want to have them over anyways?
MARION
I like having people over. It would be nice to have someone around to talk to while you work on projects.
ED
I like my projects!
MARION
At least clean up your messes!
ED
I like my messes!
MARION
Why not clean up your life?
ED
I like my life!
LINK
I yelled, and I punched the piano. I knew she was right, but I couldn’t bring up. I’d been tinkering all week with the automatic motor of my old C. Sharpe. I still couldn’t get it to move. When I slammed my fist down on top, it lurched to life as clear and crisp as the day it came out of the factory. Nobody made them like a Link. I looked at Marion, and I knew I’d lost. She believed in signs.“You're right,” I said.
ED
We should have a party soon.
MAN-IN-SEA
Cast of Characters:
LINK
An inventor. Also, Ed’s father.
ED
As Link remembers himself.
MARION
Ed’s wife.
CLAY
Ed and Marion’s second son.
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