The Black Orb

SCENE 8

INTERIOR : PAUL’s apartment.  The television is on, showing only static, the sound off. ROLAND enters carrying a large sack of oranges and his case.  PAUL is right behind him, giggling, arms loaded with fruit.  ROLAND loses control of the bag, and the oranges go rolling across the floor.

PAUL

Get ‘em, get ‘em, get ‘em!

ROLAND

We’ve got to save them, they can’t be infected by dirt.

PAUL

Jesus, Christ, Mary, Joseph, Jehosophat.

ROLAND

Don’t drop the -

PAUL drops the bananas.

PAUL

No, no no no-

ROLAND

Get them off the floor!

PAUL

I’ll drop the oranges and the apples!  We need them!

ROLAND

You traitor, you bloody traitor, you’re trying to force the issue.

PAUL

I’m on your side!

The fruit gets deposited on various pieces of furniture.

ROLAND

You smuggled a piece of beef jerky in here, I bet, you stole it when I was stealing the oranges.  And now you-

PAUL

Hey, I agreed- -

ROLAND

You pretended.

PAUL

I don’t want to be eaten.

ROLAND

From the inside out.

PAUL

(in pain) Ohhhh…

ROLAND

A mole, digesting your intestines, your liver…

PAUL

(Still in pain) Gahhh…

ROLAND

… your stomach, your lungs, your heart.

PAUL

(still in pain) St-stop.

ROLAND

And then you’ll be dead, trapped forever in its belly, and it’ll live in your desiccated corpse.

That’s what meat does.

PAUL

Oh, jesus.

PAUL removes his suit jacket.

ROLAND holds up an orange.

ROLAND

Hungry?

PAUL

Give me that.

ROLAND hands PAUL the orange.  PAUL stares at it.  He turns it over in his hands.  Then again.  Then again.

PAUL

How the -

PAUL stares intently at the orange.

PAUL

It’s got no -

 

PAUL rolls the orange between his two hands, still staring at it.  He holds it above his head, still staring.  He sniffs it.  He puts a bit of it in his mouth, then takes it out.  He stares at it again.  He whimpers.

PAUL

This isn’t fair, what am I supposed to do.

PAUL stares at the orange, slowing getting angry.  He plays with it, now more violently.  He stops, holds it in front of his face, and then voraciously bites through the rind.

ROLAND has been watching all this with a curious detachment.

PAUL

Oh, my god, this is fucking delicious.

PAUL takes another bite, rind and all.

ROLAND

(Yawns)  I think something is wrong with me.

PAUL

Tell me about it, I don’t feel right at all, this shit is insane.

PAUL continues to eat the orange until it is all gone.

ROLAND

Yes, it is.

Do you have anything to read here?

PAUL

There’s a bunch of Reader’s Digests around.

ROLAND

Oh, that is perfect, absolutely perfect.

PAUL

What?

ROLAND

I feel banal.

PAUL

What?

ROLAND

Banal.  Normal, ordinary.  If only your T.V. worked.

PAUL

Don’t say stuff like that, I’m too twisted.  The cable guy, you need all day for the cable guy.

ROLAND

I’ve never felt this way before.

PAUL

I’ve never felt-JESUS, did you see that?

ROLAND

No!  No I didn’t!

PAUL

Oh, fuck, oh, shit, there’s-

ROLAND

Oh, glorious, oh, amazing, it’s so boring!

PAUL

God, this whole place is moving, there’s something in the walls!

ROLAND

That’s what the moon looks like when it’s not talking to you!

PAUL

The moon is talking?  The moon doesn’t talk!

ROLAND

That’s what I’ve always heard.

PAUL

Oh, god, oh, god, the moon talks, the floor talks, stop moving, Roland, please, you’ll piss it off.

ROLAND

Give me those magazines!  I need to read, now, before I forget.

PAUL

No, nooooooo, nononono…

ROLAND

Get up, don’t be a baby, you wanted this, you’re getting what you want, now I’m getting what I want.  Where’s the remote?  I want to watch CLASSIC SHOWS.

PAUL

Jesus, Roland, just hold my hand, please, I’m going to fall off the earth, and then I’ll be eaten and have to live in it…

ROLAND

I’m not holding your hand.  I’m eating baloney.  Peanut Butter and Jelly.  Wonderbread.  Track lighting.  Chrome refrigerators.  ELANTRAS.  COROLLAS.

PAUL

If there was any justice in the world!  ANY!  I’d be crushed under a boot heel!

ROLAND

Not now!  Not now.  You’re out there now, be quiet.  I’ve heard enough of that, enough to last a lifetime.  Give me your phone!  I want to make a phone call!

PAUL

Here, have it, just stop yelling, it’s cutting red into me.

ROLAND

I won’t yell.  I’m checking movie times.

ROLAND makes a phone call, but listens to PAUL with half an ear.

PAUL

We can’t go see a movie!  They MOVE.

ROLAND

I don’t want to see a movie, I want to call the number and listen.

Then I’ll call my mom.

PAUL

What about Stella?  She’s got a face and it slides nicely, I watched it, don’t be mad.

ROLAND

I’m not calling Stella.  I never call her.  (He puts down the phone)  I never have to apologize to her.  My mom, though, what did I do, what did she do, have sex with the devil?  I’m her son, but how? (He picks up PAUL’s suit jacket and puts it on)

God, that was easy.

PAUL

You got my coat.

ROLAND

Now give me your job.  I can do it.

PAUL

There’s a burning in my fingertips.

ROLAND

I’ll sell ad space, I’ll sell web space!  I’ll sell SPACE to people who want it!

PAUL

I’m a manager now, and it hurts a little over here.

ROLAND

Are you getting sleepy?  I’m getting sleepy.

PAUL

I can’t stop moving!  Why are the walls doing that!  They hate me!

ROLAND

This stuff works.

PAUL

Too much!  My fucking brain melts over and over, you keep standing up!

ROLAND

I don’t want to stand anymore. (beat as he realizes) Holy shit, you own a bed, a real bed.

PAUL

Yessssss.

ROLAND

I’m sleeping in it, five minutes from now.  I’ll have forgotten the whole thing, the phone call, the oranges, the ACURAS, the Lucille Ball, and you, screeching stupid, you, spitting in my face, you, trying to get back inside me.  I can forget.  For a while.

This is nice.

I’ll destroy it later.

ROLAND exits.  PAUL is left alone on the floor, twisting.

PAUL

I’ll be in later, later, to make sure IT doesn’t get you.

He rolls on the floor, never still, never unmoving.

GO TO SCENE 9