The Writer's Voice
The World's Favourite Literary Website
5150
by
Elizabeth Maua Taylor
A Dramatic Monologue
LIGHTS ON
SCENE: A room in the psych unit.
KIMBERLY is an attractive young woman who is being involuntarily admitted.
KIMBERLY:
Hi, doctor. How are you? I'm Kimberly. Glad
to meet you. I'm fine, thanks. Are you going to send me home? When can I go
home?
(pause) What do you mean I have to stay? On what grounds? (pause) WHAT?? I'm not
psychotic! I mean, that's what those stupid cops said! Sheesh! What a thing to
say to people! What kind of a doctor are you, anyway?! Psychotics are incoherent
nuts who think they can jump off bridges and fly! Come on! I'm as lucid as you!
Look. I don't deserve to be here and you know it! I'm fine. You've got to let me go. I have to go home. I have a four-year-old daughter who needs me. She has no one else to care for her. Just me. Yes, they took blood, but you won't find anything. Not a thing. I'm clean, so you have nothing to keep me here. Nothing!
Listen to me. Please. Listen. I know that I messed up in the past. Yes, I used to do drugs, but that was ages ago. It was stupid. But I don't do that anymore and you can't keep me here. Look. It was Tylenol. That's all. I took too much Tylenol. I swear. My headache was killing me. But it was an accident. Come on. I'm fine now. Look. I'm as calm as can be. See? No shakes. No sweats. Come on, huh, let me go. Please?
You have no right! And I'm going to get fired if you keep me here! I can't be absent anymore, you know. My supervisor is a bitch and she's been on my case for too many absences. Sheesh! It was hard enough getting this job, now you're going to make it hard for me to keep! Please! You're ruining my life by doing this!
Do you want to get sued? Is that what you want? Because you're keeping me prisoner here, you know. And I know my rights! You can't keep me here! I'm going to sue! You just watch me. I'm going to sue!
What. Is this how you get off? Watching people beg? Is that how you guys get your kicks? Don't you have real psychos to deal with? You guys are pathetic! How low can the medical profession get! Sheesh! When are you going to get a real job? I bet a real day's work will kill you!
(crying) Please! I have to go home to my daughter. Please! She's only four! She gets scared at night and I'm the only one who can comfort her. Please! She means the whole world to me and I need her. And she needs me. You can't do this to her. You can't! It's heartless! It's not fair keeping me here!
My boyfriend? And what about him?! Ha! If anything, it was he who should have been hauled away! It was he who was the nutcase! He used to be so nice, but he'd gotten paranoid, always asking me where I've been and what I've been doing. Watching my every move. His eyes, always questioning me with his eyes. Suspicious jerk! He should have been the one locked up!
Yeah, our relationship sucked. It used to be so great. And my daughter took to him right away. I was so happy. We were even thinking of getting married. But he changed! He started prying into everything I did. He questioned where the money went. He would ask me about the people I hung out with, wanting to know where I've been. Sheesh! Once in a while I like being alone, you know. Once in a while I like to just go nowhere in particular, you know, just be by myself. Why couldn't he have accepted that?
So I was a little late getting home today. Why did it have to be a big deal? He was at it again, asking me where I went, accusing me of being high on something. I had a headache and took too much Tylenol. Why couldn't he have just believed me? He should have just left me alone!
But even in his silence, even then, I could hear him accusing me. And I saw it in his eyes, his unbelieving, accusing eyes. Why couldn't he have trusted me? Why did he have to push it? Can anyone blame me for what happened?
Why couldn't he just shut the hell up?
So I killed the son-of-a-bitch.
LIGHTS OUT
Critique this work
Click on the book to leave a comment about this work
