173 : Through 3 1/3 Hands

173/365

Through 3 1/3 Hands

Characters:
Bill
June
Luke
Janitor

Setting:
Office Building Lobby; Early Day

People pass through the scene.  Bill walks in as he unfolds his newspaper and dives into     it.  He quickly pulls out the unnecessary stuff, like the ads and classifieds (“trash”), and drops them behind him as he goes.  He also leaves other sections behind him as he looks for and finds the ‘Business’ and ‘Sports’ sections.  He drops the rest of the paper and leaves, sections folded and placed into his armpit.

June enters and sees the paper strewn all about.

June:               Jeez, look at all this trash.  Oh, the ‘Entertainment section!

June picks up the section and takes a seat on the floor to read.

Luke walks in and sees all the paper on the floor.

Luke:              Whoa.  Someone not know what a recycling bin looks like.

Luke starts picking up the ads and classifieds then sees June sitting, reading.

Luke:              Excuse me?  You really shouldn’t leave all this here on the ground.  There are places for paper goods to go.

June:               And you shouldn’t go assuming I left this all here.

Luke:              So it wasn’t you?

June:               I’m just an innocent bystander who just so happens to now be finding all about                              the summer movie lineup.

Luke:              Oh, well, I’m sorry about that.

June:               It’s alright.  You like to join me?  I saw the ‘Main Page’ somewhere over there.

Luke:              I do have places to go… but an impromptu paper-date couldn’t hurt.

June:               Unless you happen to get cut.  Then it’s no fun.

Luke:              No fun at all.  You wouldn’t know where the ‘Sports’ is?

June looks around a bit.

June:               You know… I think the shmuck who left all this took it with him.

Luke:              No fun at all.

June:               Interesting fact…(waits)

Both wait awkwardly until he acknowledges.

June: Did you know that the average newspaper crosses 3 and one-third persons                                                 hands daily.

Luke:              Whoa.  Is that like the average U.S. family has 2 and one-fourth children?

June:               Must.  And you’re number three.

Luke:              I wonder who the one-third is.

June:               Yeah, right?

Janitor enters and push-brooms all the loose paper across the stage quickly and exits.

Luke:              I guess now we know.

June:               You disgust me.

Luke:              What?

June:               My father was a custodian.

June gets up and leaves.

Luke:              Oh, come on.  It’s just a joke.

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