Cast
Cara: a young married woman.

Scene
I told you, I fell over, and I won’t be pressing charges because no one’s done anything wrong. My husband is the last person in the world who would ever raise a hand to me.

Dale is my knight in shining armour. He rescued me a few years ago. Rode his white stallion right up to the castle where I was held prisoner and saved me.

See, my Daddy was a drunk. The kind who comes home late and screams at his wife because she didn’t have a hot meal ready for him, but how could Mama know he’d be hungry at two AM? Sometimes there’d be bangs and slaps to go with the screams and I would lie there with my pillow over my head and sing lullabies and nursery rhymes to drown it out.

Mama would make me breakfast the mornings after and be extra nice to me. “Cara baby,” she’d say. “I’m so proud of my little girl. I’m going to make a beautiful cheese and mushroom pizza tonight, okay sweetie?”

My favourite! “Thank you Mama!” (pause) “But… Mama, why are you wearing those glasses? It’s not very sunny in the kitchen.”

“It’s just a migraine, baby. Daddy had a long day at work and we had a good long talk when he got home and I didn’t get enough sleep. It’s nothing to worry about.”

Mama started having more and more migraines and one night when daddy was screaming I went downstairs to talk to him. I wanted to tell him Mama only had migraines after he screamed at her and he should stop doing it.

“What the hell are you doing down here, Cara? Get the hell back to your bedroom. Now!”

“Daddy, please stop screaming at Mama. She only has migraines…”

“NOW!”

He came at me and I backed away as quick as I could, but I tripped over something and fell back against the bookcase and cracked a rib. Oof! It was the most painful thing ever! Daddy was real nice to us for a month after but it was worse than ever when he started again.

Dale came to our school when I was seventeen. He was a year older than the rest of the class and all the girls fancied him. So did Mark Wilson – he really fancied him – but Dale only had eyes for me. We would sit together at lunch and I’d tell him all about my dreams to see the world and experience everything I could. “Don’t you just love Paris, in France? It’s so romantic. I just love the language. Did you know I’ve never seen a baguette in real life? I think it tastes like any other bread but I’d love to have a baguette fight.”

I’d hit him with my imaginary baguette and he’d tickle me until I almost peed my pants.

After a few weeks I was telling him about my dream holiday to Fiji and New Zealand and how I wanted to stop at Egypt on the way there and Finland on the way back, and he took my hand. I felt this electric surge through my whole body. Then I leaned over and kissed him and he kissed me back and I fell head over heels in love right then and there, yessir.

We were inseparable after that and held hands in the two classes we had together. Mark Wilson was super pissed and never spoke to me again. I was in Heaven for two months, until one night when I get a knock on my window in the middle of the night.

“Cara! Cara!”

(groggily) It’s Dale. He’s climbed the trellis. (waking) No! He can’t be here!

“Dale, you can’t be here. Go away.”

“I love you, Cara. I had to see you.”

“You have to go, Dale. Now!”

But it’s too late. He hears the screaming and asks me what’s going on, and he’s halfway downstairs before I finish saying “Daddy.”

I run after Dale and try to stop him but he moves like lightning. Mama is sitting at the table, crying, head in her hands. Daddy is pointing and shouting and stamping his feet. Dale grabs him and throws him up against the wall and Mama almost has a heart attack.

Dale starts screaming now. “You wife-beating piece of shit! You want a fight? Let’s see how you hold up against someone your own size.”

He hits my Daddy right in the face. One, two, three. Daddy drops to the ground and Dale kicks him: one, two, three. He turns to me and says, “Get your things..."

END OF EXCERPT