Possessors

SCIENCE FICTION BLAST-OFF THEATER

"The Possessors"

by Richard Nathan

Before the lights come up, a voice announces the title of the story:

VOICE
"The Possessors"

Two women, PAULA and SANDY are talking to each other in the living room of Paula's home. Paula is distraught.

PAULA
He's not my husband!

SANDY
Who's not?

PAULA
Him!!!!

SANDY
Charlie?

PAULA
He's not Charlie!

SANDY
Who's not Charlie?

PAULA
That man who's not my husband.

                                                            SANDY
                                    Well, that describes a very large number of people, -
                                    everyone who isn't your husband Charlie isn't
                                    Charlie. But what specific man who isn't Charlie
                                    are we talking about?

                                                            PAULA
                                    Charlie! Or that the thing that's pretending to be
                                    Charlie. He looks like Charlie, his voice is like
                                    Charlie's, and he somehow has Charlie's memories,
                                    but he's not Charlie. He's something possessing
                                    Charlie's body.

SANDY
Do you know what you sound like?

                                                            PAULA
                                    Like a cliché from a bad science fiction
                                    movie. But it's true!

SANDY
You're having a bad day.

                                                            PAULA
                                    Of course I'm having a bad day! My husband's
                                    body has been possessed by a being from the
                                    fourth dimension!

SANDY
Why the fourth dimension?

                                                            PAULA
                                    Oh, sometimes when I'm not looking straight at
                                    him, just seeing him in my peripheral vision, he
                                    sort of fades in and out, as though he's still
                                    learning how to stabilize in only three dimensions.

                                                            SANDY
                                    Paula, you can't see anything clearly if it's just in
                                    your peripheral vision.

PAULA
I can!

SANDY
That's no reason to think he's not Charlie.

                                                            PAULA
                                    It's not just that! He smells differently from
                                    Charlie!

SANDY
How?

PAULA
I don't know. Sort of fourth dimensionally.

SANDY
You're joking, right?

There's the SOUND OF A DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING from off-stage.

PAULA
Shhh! He's coming! Don't let him know I know!

Enter CHARLIE, Paula's husband.

                                                            CHARLIE
                                    Sandy! I'm glad you're here. I have something
                                    important to tell you.

SANDY
Yes?

                                                            CHARLIE
                                    This is not my wife. I don't know who she is,
                                    but I know she's not Paula!

                                                            SANDY
                                    Who do you think she is, a being from the
                                    fourth dimension?

CHARLIE
No. I think she's from the future.

SANDY
The future?

                                                            PAULA
                                    Why? Because I'm too brilliant to be from
                                    the Twentieth Century?

                                                            CHARLIE
                                    It's the Twenty-First Century now! If you
                                    were Paula, you'd know that!!!

                                                            PAULA
                                    Sandy, you've got to let me move in with
                                    you and Jack till I can find my own place.
                                    I can't stay here with a madman from the
                                    fourth dimension!

                                                            CHARLIE
                                    Fine! Go! You think I want to live with a
                                    maniac from the future?

                                                            SANDY
                                    Stop it! Both of you! Listen, do you know
                                    why this idea about alien being possessing our
                                    loved ones has become such a cliché?

PAULA
Because it's true?

                                                            SANDY
                                    No, it's because it seems true! Everyone feels
                                    that way sometime or another. It's because no
                                    matter how long with live with someone, no matter
                                    how much we think we know him or her, one day
                                    we discover we don't know that person as well as
                                    we thought we did. Some days times our most intimate
                                    partner seems like a stranger. But that happens to
                                    everyone! It's no reason to give up on your
                                    relationship. You think you'll find a better, deeper
                                    relationship with someone else? You won't! No
                                    matter who you end up with, at some point he or
                                    she is going to seems like a being from another time,
                                    or another dimension, or another planet. So take
                                    my advice and stick together. I know you two.
                                    You're a good fit! As good as you're going to
                                    find.

Paula and Charlie look at each other warily. Sandy looks at her watch.

                                                            SANDY
                                    I've got to go meet Jack. Think about what
                                    I said. And maybe try to be more open with
                                    each other.

Sandy exits. After a beat, Paula and Charlie talk.

PAULA
You think she's right?

CHARLIE
I know that if anyone knows us, she does.

PAULA
That's what I remember too.

CHARLIE
And what she said about being more open?

PAULA
The future sucks.

CHARLIE
So does the fourth dimension.

                                                            PAULA
                                    So, let's give this twentieth century life a
                                    try.

CHARLIE
Twenty-first century.

PAULA
Sorry. I'll get that down.

Blackout.

THE END

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The author grants all internet uses to print these scripts for their own, personal, non-commercial use. No other use may be made without the author's permission. Without limiting the foregoing, the plays may not be staged without the author's express permission.

Send e-mail to the author at Richard-Nathan@att.net.