A Short Play from Hazelhurst, Wisconsin

(A cabin in Northern Wisconsin. Red, small. A forest behind, a gravel road curving in front, leading through the rest of the woods. A CLOCK sits above a shabby garage, a TREE stands nearby.) 

TREE 

Did you catch their names? 

CLOCK 

Elsie. And Ron. They’re young and they’re
They’re
ACHOO! 

TREE 

What is it? 

CLOCK 

The second hand tickles.
They seem like the kind of people who’d keep a clock above their garage. 

TREE 

Do you like it here? 

CLOCK 

It’s better than a warehouse. 

TREE 

That’s an understatement. 

CLOCK 

It’s much better than a warehouse.
Everything grows and breathes here.
And the sunlight— 

TREE 

You should have seen it before. 

CLOCK 

I can’t even imagine. 

TREE 

There aren’t enough words.

(The seasons change and time passes. We hear the sounds of a family laughing inside.) 

CLOCK 

How do you feel about our new neighbors? 

TREE 

The trees used to speak to me. The wooden house doesn’t.

CLOCK 

Maybe it’ll be nice for more people to be here.
Ron and Elsie have twins now, they should have someone to play with. 

TREE 

Maybe they don’t need any of it. 

CLOCK 

What? 

TREE 

The toys, the cars, the garages, the houses, the neighbors, and the trash bags. 

CLOCK 

And the clocks hung outside? 

TREE 

That’s not exactly— 

CLOCK 

I don’t know how not to be in the world. 

TREE 

It was never inevitable, that’s all that I’m saying. 

(More time passes—a lot more time. The CLOCK is now broken and very dusty.) 

CLOCK 

Is that Kelly?
She’s so old now. 

TREE 

She looks nice. 

CLOCK 

Where are Ron and Elsie?
Kelly can’t sell, it’s not her house.

TREE 

You think she’s old? They’re even older. 

CLOCK 

And what did they mean “we’ll fix up this garage”? 

TREE 

Time doesn’t stop just because the clock breaks. 

(The seasons change. The clock is replaced with a shiny NEW CLOCK.) 

NEW CLOCK 

This is so beautiful.
I’ve never seen anything more beautiful. 

TREE 

You should have seen it before. 

NEW CLOCK 

What do you mean? 

TREE 

You should have seen it before. 

NEW CLOCK 

I mean, I’m used to the warehouse.

TREE 

I wish that I could speak in pictures
And smells
And memories with all of their context.
It’s so hard to remember and so easy to forget.