Charles Seitz: Casual Acquaintance

CASUAL ACQUAINTANCE

A Drama

Act 1
Scene 1

The Cast in Order of Appearance or Reference

Chandra Daughter of Charles

Edith Chandra's Aunt

Charles Father

Gary Chandra's friend

Mark Chandra's boyfriend

Marcia Gary's Mother

Teenage Protesters

Chandra on telephone in Living Room: I tell you, Edith, there were ten thousand people there. Non violence is the only way to go if you want your protest to be successful. Let me read something to you:

In the words of Martin Luther King, "I am convinced that the method of non-violent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and human dignity. Therefore, I have advised all along that we follow a path of non-violence because if we ever succumb to the temptation of using violence in our struggle unborn generations will be the recipients of the long and desolate night of bitterness."

Martin Luther King's views of non-violence as a positive expression of soul force was a revolutionary initiative as he moved to confronting the status quo while refusing to accept lawful injustice. He said that if one passively cooperated with an evil and unjust system such cooperation would make the oppressed as evil as the oppressor.

(Pause) Yes, I am quite certain of what I am doing. To continue quoting Martin Luther King:

"I do not want to give the impression that non-violence will work miracles overnight. Men are not easily moved. The non-violent approach does not immediately change the hearts of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them a new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had.

(Pause) I am telling you this because I look up to you. You have taken my mother's place. You are my mentor.

To continue: Martin Luther King had difficulty convincing his followers to commit to the course of non-violence. He replied:

"Those who use the sword must accept that it will be used against the things they most cherish".

Well, I never said that I would be violent. I do not condone it. Anybody who would resort to violence is not fit to be a member of our protest group. Oh, here comes my dad. Goodbye.

Chandra: I have posted on the net for those interested in protesting with me at the World Environmental and Trade Conference. I will e-mail Gary back that I am having a meeting at my house Thursday and ask him to please come.

Chandra on cell phone to Mark: Yes, it's me. Are you ready for Thursday? It is very important that we are non-violent and side with the peaceful contingent. Only a few of the underground Fascist need be present. If they start breaking up private property and bring the riot police out it will ruin everything and spoil our chance to get the message across. They painted the anarchist symbol on an Alfa Romero automobile, broke windows and set cars on fire, but what about that peaceful demonstrator at the Genoa G-8 Conference who was shot in the head twice by the Carabinen and then run over by their truck. We don't want anything like that! So, everything is all set. See you on Thursday. Bye.

Charles: How is Edith" She may be your mentor in what you're doing, but .......

Chandra: You're right! She'll never take the place of my mother. She was an angel.

Charles: It is nice that you feel that way about your mother. Maybe Aunt Edith can take her place, in part. Your mother was a "Saint Theresa" when it came to taking the burdens of the world as her own. My goodness, that woman was a virtual Amy McPherson the way she pitched into world problems. But leave the world to its own devices, I always say. What good does it do to get involved with what's not your business?

Chandra: It is your business! If it weren't for the efforts of a few dedicated concerned citizens nothing would get done. Look at Julia Ward Howe, Lucretia Mott and Harriet Beecher Stowe, three women who single-handedly practically started the Civil War and ended slavery. One person can do a lot to change the world.

Charles: I hate to break down your wagon but slavery was all but over and done with by the start of the Civil War. It was history The war itself was really fought over imposed tariff and not the ravings of three squeamish dried up old maids. The Civil War had nothing to do with slavery and the moral issue of slavery that reached a religious crescendo with the song, "John Brown's Body" and "The Truth Keeps Marching On" practically precipitated the war making it inevitable. This has a remarkable resemblance to what you're doing.

Chandra: Dad! Don't you believe in a higher calling. There is something sacred about protecting the public trust. I want to say that I did something about the ills of our society when I hear about them.

Charles: But make sure you get your facts straight. All is not what it seems to be There is a lot of smoke and mirrors out there that make it tough for a naive little girl like you not to be taken in. It's a jungle out there. Don' forget that we live in an ivory tower where the air is rarefied. You have absolutely no idea of the reality on the street. You have been taken in and overwhelmed with zealous idealism. You've been brainwashed -- hoodwinked.

Charles: I don't know how your mother got you on to these things. She was always a nut about helping other people. God! She never helped me. I think she put her nose into more places than Pinochio.

Chandra: Do you know they are tearing down the rainforests in Brazil and the Philippines to make grazing land that only lasts two years and then lays fallow. It is the trees in the rainforests that replenish the oxygen in the air you breath. When the rainforests are gone you will be standing on the corner gasping for breath.

Charles: Your arguments take my breath away. When the time comes I'll use a chemical generator. In the meantime why bother your pretty little head about it. Do you know who really runs this country? The military industrial complex. They are thinking up more ways to kill people than your little R. J. Reynolds and Pbilip Morris is what with smart bombs and anthrax. Their latest trick in Afghanistan is to drop boxes of food on old land mines. It blows them sky high and their latest trick is to label protest demonstrations like yours as acts of terrorism.

Chandra: Well it does something for me to go out and protest the tobacco companies. I feel good afterward with myself. I like myself and I am proud of what I am doing.

Charles: Sounds like you get an orgasm from it. Are you sure this is not sexual? You should be ashamed of yourself. If it is so good for you, why don't you smoke a cigarette afterward. I always do after I've had sex.

Chandra: Stop, Dad. You're making light of a very serious subject. There are people out there being poisoned by MTBE and TCE added to gasoline and leaking into the ground and contaminating well water. Corporations are enslaving young children to make the products you use. Pesticides and growth hormones are in our food not to mention antibiotics. Are we going to just stand around and do nothing?

Charles: Yes! A great big Yes! I want you to be just a normal little girl like everybody else. You have your whole life before you. Being a marine biologist is not normal preparation for marriage. There are other things to know about married life than the macro molecular structure of thrombosis For starters: Love and trust.

Charles: I thought I was maudlin - just trying to play it straight - telling it like it is.

Chandra: Dad, look at me. I am a human being. I am civilized. Look at me. See this body" It has nerve endings and I have feelings. I'm not just a bump on a log. I care. Isn't that what it's all about -- survival -- not just for the individual, but for humanity.

Charles: Quite a spiel or should I say speech. Now get down off your soap box and get back to reality. Your biological clock is ticking and every minute counts. First you have to dump all of these preconceived ideas your mother drummed into you and join the human race. "Earth to Chandra -- Come in".

Charles: Isn't that Mark too old for you and I don't think he's interested in you alone. I hear he plays around. He may be in politics but he is like a rock star; You know -- a stud for a pack of giggling teenybopper fans who like to "partee-e-e". He certainly isn't marriage material. O.K. So, have your fling and get it out of your system. That way you can settle down without regrets.

Chandra: You're making fun of my Mark. I like him and he seems to be fond of me. We're going on the protest Thursday together.

Charles: Are you sure your interest in the great cause isn't just an exaggeration of your interest in just one man?

Chandra: I can't be bothered with anyone less than one who has leadership qualities. I like to hitch my wagon to a star. Mark is going to lead the protest and he gives me all the confidence in the world that everything will go all right. He's a winner.

Charles: Well, lots of luck, honeybun. You deserve the best. How's your web page coming along?

Charles: Gary's a good kid. I think you should spend more time with him. He seems solid to me.

Chandra: Listen, I'm not ready to settle down right now. I have a mission in life. Excelsior! And, as the postal service says, "nor snow or sleet will stay me from my rounds".

Charles: You're a nut, but my little nut, my cute little nut. I just hope you don't get hurt. Keep your chin up, kid!

Chandra: In the early railroad history of the U. S. West, the Union Pacific won a court case that granted citizenship to corporations and ever since state charters have lost control of corporate growth. Now we have mega global quasi states taking over world trade to exploit the poor, endangering the environment and starting wars all for their own greed.

#3 Youth: I thought world trade was supposed to help third world countries economically?

Chandra: It is supposed to but the low wages exploit the poor with intolerable working conditions and single crops push out their self supporting acreage so that the large corporations are taking over ownership of their lands.

#2 Youth: I heard third world industry can operate without the restraints and regulations of U. S. firms and that will add to the world pollution.

Gary: I brought my mother. You met me on line and invited me to your protest meeting.

Chandra: Now that we're all here I would like to introduce Gary and his mother, Marcia.

(Overhead spotlight shifts to alcove, private conversation between Charles and Marcia. It may be loud enough for group to hear it but they ignore it. It's normal conversation, not private whispers.)

Charles: Yes, her mother died a few years ago and we live here together, just father and daughter.

Charles: I try to be a good father to her since her mother passed away. Its not always easy. She was very close to her mother and misses her very much. Her Aunt Edith is trying to take her mother's place, but I don't think it is the same.

Charles: It was her mother's passionate interest and she came by it naturally.

Chandra: Are you two finished? You are distracting my meeting. I hope you two hit it off together and found something in common to talk about. Now, back to the meeting.

Chandra: I put out an APB on the internet and Gary was the only one who answered so I invited him to the meeting. So, Gary, are you interested in world peace, small country self-determination and amnesty?

Chandra: To continue: As the greedy people of the world who are rich and powerful take over the earth for their own profit and despoil and exploit the poor, we cannot let them do this without protesting.

Chandra: Why can't we have a world where everybody's perfect. What's wrong with that? I can trace all the ills of our evil world to individuals being selfish and just looking out for their own lust. We need to admonish ourselves. Charity begins at home.

# 3 Youth: You mean incest begins at home. Ha, ha, ha. Or, I gave at the office.

Chandra: If we make our hearts pure we can dispel all the evil in the world just by thinking good thoughts.

Marcia: Well, my dear, so Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm in her gingham dress and swing under blue skies and white clouds among the marigold garden with the little goldfish pond puts on rose colored glasses and fights all the evil and greed in the world and feed the hungry poor and starving children of Sudan by thinking pure thoughts. L. O. L.

#2 Youth: That's just mind over matter. Sometimes I wonder. It may just be the placebo effect.

Chandra: I am not living in a dream world. I am very much in the fray of things and at this very moment we are about to go out there together and confront the evil monster.

Chandra: Gary, are you coming with us? We are going to demonstrate down at 5th and Main.

Chandra: Don't get any ideas. You're just a casual acquaintance. I have a numero uno named Mark. He's a hunk and a leader of the non-violent protesters.

(Exit all but Marcia and Charles. Charles grabs Marcia and holds her in a tight squeeze as he plants a deep kiss on her.)

(Room is dimly lit. In kitchenette alcove off living room is Marcia in pajama tops.

Charles: I don't know what's keeping that girl. Their demonstration was over hours ago.

You are one terrific babe! Do you know how to make love, and how. You know you make my life complete. My life has been empty since...... Here I am with a teenage daughter to raise. I think we spawned a Joan of Arc.

Marcia: It was fortuitous, our meeting like this, for which I am glad. Funny how things happen. It was your daughter's crazy carryings on that brought us together.

Charles: And all you're doing is berating her carryings on. You have become a thorn in her side, but she's tough. She can take it. She doesn't seem to be dissuaded though. She has the gut power of her mother. I just hope it doesn't become her nemesis and do her in.

(Marcia and Charles are standing in the kitchenette alone in the shadows and Chandra does not notice them)

(Late evening after protesting, the troupe comes bringing Chinese take-out, putting it on the coffee table and gathering around it, sitting on the sofa and chairs)

My mother was a saint. All that volunteering work she did at the shelter. My father is so loyal. I know he honors her memory.

#5 Youth: Did you see that man attack my sign? He wanted to rip it right out of my hands.

#3 Youth: You shouldn't wave it under his nose when it says, "CIGARETTES ARE LIKE MEN. THEY ARE BAD FOR YOU".

#1 Youth: Did you hear what that woman said to me who got off the bus? She asked me if I would mind if she smoked.

#1 Youth: Yeah, I yelled right back to her that I didn't mind if she burned.

#2 Youth: He had a nerve. He knew we were on a mission and are serious about the tobacco issue without it being trivialized.

Chandra: That's all right. I just told him I had the time but not the inclination.

#1 Youth: Funnie. But do you think we accomplished anything? Was all our effort worthwhile or effective?

Chandra: No effort is wasted, even if it has no immediate effect on the opponent or change the hearts of the oppressor as Martin Luther King said:

Let me read to you what he says: "It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them a new self-respect. It calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had. Finally, it reaches the opponent and so stirs his conscience that reconciliation becomes a reality".

There, that is what he said, so take heed. Don't worry about immediate effects. We are having an impact but the results won't be realized for a long time down the road. But right now you are standing on the dawn of history and making a change. You are making a change, but you just can't see it right now.

Charles: Chandra, Marcia and I have something to tell you. We have found each other. We will be flying down to Acapulco next week for a get-away.

(Chandra, with much aplomb, continues addressing the group and trying to pretend nothing happened)

Chandra: I feel sorry for the starving little children in Kenya. I am doing my part. I sent money to Sally Struthers.

You have misplaced sentiments, kid. Starving children in Kenya are not your responsibility. I am sure it is the responsibility of the respective governments, not yours to worry about poor orphans in another country halfway around the world. Worry about yourself and your mixed-up priorities.

#3 Youth: Let's get back to the business at hand. I read that the World Health Organization report exonerated second hand smoke as a health risk, and the media did not report it.

Chandra: But a spokesman of the American Cancer Society reports that second hand smoke kills 53,000 Americans per year.

#3 Youth: It's obvious that he is lying since to date absolutely no evidence exists on the planet that second hand smoke has killed even one individual.

Chandra: Nevertheless, 5 million people per year, using round numbers, die from respiratory illness and lung cancer. The multi-billion dollar settlement hasn't phased the tobacco companies at all. They just raised the prices and go on merrily as before.

#4 Youth: I just read a study from the Netherlands that smokers are no more likely to miss work because of respiratory problems than are non-smokers.

#4 Youth: And you won't. The anti-tobacco interests only want you to hear what's in their favor. They are so absurd that they, using anti-tobacco techniques, want doctors to tell their patients that owning guns is detrimental to their health and owning guns is not allowed for health insurance coverage, let alone smoking.

#2 Youth: How do you know lung cancer is from smoking? The air is full of toxic material.

Chandra: Nevertheless the evidence is overwhelming. We are going ahead with our demonstration. I want the protest to be a success.

Marcia: I heard what you all have been saying and the back talk you have been getting.

#1 Youth: I thought this was a forum. We've just been asking informative questions.

Marcia: From the sound of your recalcitrant troupe of devotees you should run your meeting as a sales meeting pep rally. What you need is music. Do you have a piano? Make it like the format of a political fund-raiser with red, white and blue streamers, straw hats, armbands and a lot of flag waving, all to the beat of a camptown revival meeting with a lot of Bible thumping. Zealous religious fervor wins every time.

Gary: All I can say is, watch out for those guys who'll open their office windows and throw cigarette packs at you.

Chandra: I can dodge their missiles as well as I take your jibes and jeers. If you want to taunt me, that's all right.

Marcia to Chandra: Wise up, kid. Stop trying to save the world. You're not Joan of Arc, nor Clara Barton, nor Florence Nightingale, nor a wannabe Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Chandra: At least I am a human being. I have the milk of human kindness. I have a conscience. I care.

Chandra: No, we `re not an item. I've got a steady in Mark. You are just a casual acquaintance.

One last parting shot. If you go out on a date with Mark, wear a chastity belt. You know what date rape is, don't you?

What do you mean you're coming over? Mark's coming here. I'm all alone. Daddy's down in Acapulco with that dame. O.K. if you want to meet Mark that's fine but you'll have to leave right after that. But come quickly.

Chandra: Are you coming over? You're late. You'll be here shortly? You're on your way? You're not on your cell phone riding your motorcycle? I know being a Congressman you're very busy. Better late than never. Well, my Aunt Edith wants to meet you, but she won't stay long. She runs a little French Boutique down on the avenue. O.K. See you then. I love you, too. (Hangs up).

Chandra: You made good time What are you doing with the American flags in your hand?

Chandra: Sometimes I think that all this flag waving and prayer vigils seem to indicate what Europeans say about us, that Americans are really insecure about their patriotism.

Chandra: You know the American public is easily manipulated. Look at commercal advertising. We are talked into buying things that are not good for us, cigarettes for instance.

Edith: That's the American Dream. We are a materialistic society based on Commercialism.

Chandra: Well, with all this flagwaving and American patriotic spirit hoopla, I think the Pied Piper of Hamlin has us marching to his tune. Where he is leading us I don't know, and I don't like it.

Edith: Put them in your front lawn. That will show that you support the American United Front.

Chandra: If this means I support the tobacco companies and all the corporations that are polluting the environment I don't know if I want to be part of that!

Edith: But we are fighting a war against the terrorists who want to destroy America.

Chandra: The corporations are doing a good job of that already. I don't see anybody of political importance fighting them.

Chandra: Can I get you anything -- a soda? You know I love you and trust you. You have taken the place of my mother who was an angel.

Edith: I just got back from Paris for the Fall fashions. Oh, those Frenchmen. Ooh La La. I went over on the QE II and came home on the Concorde;

What a ride. Going over the captain came to my cabin and later there was this distinguished gentleman. I went to his cabin. He likes to stand at the railing and watch the moon over the ocean. How romantic!

Chandra: I met him at a political rally for the rainforests. All the women were ga-ga over him, but I won out. He's mine now. He's tall and handsome and has a wonderful way about him.

Chandra: I would like you to meet Edith, my aunt, who has taken the place of my mother in my heart.

Edith: (To Mark) Do you worry about the hole in the ozone layer? What's a little extra ultra violet light?

Listen, this pretty little face of yours could be burnt to a crisp, and it's all from CO2 being emitted from coal burning power plants

Edith: Well, do you know we breathe out more CO2 considering that there are six billion of us in the world than all the power plants combined. Should we exterminate the human race?

Chandra: WWI was started with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in an open car in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, and all the countries lined up according to their mutual protection pacts just as they are doing now. The buzz word bandied about is WAR. There is no enemy -- just terrorists.

Edith: Anthrax in a light bulb on a subway track could wipe out half of Manhattan. In the Middle Ages the Bubonic plague wiped out more than half the population of Europe, not to mention Yellow Fever and the Black plague.

Mark (to Edith): Well, those cigarettes you're smoking is putting a lot of toxic poisons in your system.

Edith: If you do not smoke to prevent toxic chemicals from getting into your system, then I wouldn't breathe if I were you. The air is loaded with toxic chemicals, exhaust fumes and Strontium 90. And don't drink any water. It has arsenic and PBC in it. And wait -- vegetables have pesticides on them and meat antibiotics and growth hormones and steroids. And while you're not breathing, drinking and eating, don't walk down the street, you'll be run over by a car. Maybe the driver's on a cell phone or DUI. You better smoke to be safe.

Mark: I don't speak French. Caesar was Italian and when he went to Gaul it was ruled by the Franks who were German, so French to me is an Italian trying to speak German.

Edith: Ha, ha! You are riding a Harley Hog in a suit. I own a French Courtier so let me design a proper outfit for you. Lots of black leather. Let me give you my card.

(She bends over away from him to root in her pocketbook for a business card. He grabs her ass and pinches it)

(She immediately turns around and confronts him nose to nose with a look of consternation).

Mark: You could get lost for days in a woman's pocketbook. Now, take me. You want something, a credit card, a handkerchief, a penknife or money, I can whip it right out.

Edith: Which reminds me. I've got to whip right out of here. I have a fitting at four. Nice meeting you. Good bye.

Chandra to Mark: I am so glad you and Edith hit it off. She's nice, isn't she?

Mark: I didn't win the election on the Green ticket but I still want to work for the cause. I care about the environment.

Chandra: I am looking forward to your joining our demonstration. Your presence will add to our prestige. We are protesting in front of the Tobacco Company headquarters Building tomorrow and we are very peaceful. If that violent element comes in and disrupts things and destroys property, our whole message will be lost

(Mark picks her up with her legs and feet flailing as he carries her through the door to the bedroom upstairs)

(Curtain - End of Act 1)

INTERMISSION

Act 11
Scene 1

(Charles and Marcia in alcove. Crew gathered around coffee table sitting on sofa and easy chairs. Chandra addressing them.)

Chandra: I have just read to you what I read to Edith on the phone. I don't know what she's doing. She's my new mentor, my aunt who took my angel mother's place Mark is going to come here later. Mahatma Ghandi said, "You must be the change you want to see in the world".

Chandra: Smoking is bad for you. We need to have the public aware. We are going to protest the tobacco industry. We are going to protest in front of their main office building the bad effects of smoking on people's health and that it is the major cause of cancer.

Chandra: They put 27 toxic chemicals in cigarettes that get into the blood stream through the lungs and cause cellular changes in overall cytology in various organs that can lead to cancer. I have here a Government report that the effect in California to reduce smoking has reduced cancer in that state by 14%. We are all going out to the main offices of the tobacco company on Main Street to protest. We hope our demonstration attracts the press. We demand that all states adopt the same policy.

Charles (to Marcia in alcove): I think the meeting is going very well, don't you?

Marcia (to Charles in the alcove): What is the matter with your daughter? My son just proposed marriage to her.

Charles: Chandra is obsessed with her mission. She feels it is so important that she can't be bothered with personal foibles.

Marcia: It's probably due to the way you brought her up. Has she always been insolent to you?

Chandra: We are going to walk up Main Street past the post office and assemble in the school yard. They have passed a local ordinance against groups assembling to protest and the police are on their side, the tobacco companies' side.

Marcia: It's beginning to sound serious. Maybe you should call this thing off. It is no longer an innocent, peaceful demonstration by your local Sunday School Class.

Marcia: You're right about that. If I were your parent you wouldn't be doing things like this (glaring at Charles).

Chandra: (To meeting) The Constitution is the highest law in the land and the first amendment states that Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Marcia: Chandra, if you think the Constitution will protect you, you are in for a hugh shock. Since the creation of FEMA by Executive order by four presidents as a secret government to take over in times of trouble, beyond the reach of Congress and statute law and the judiciary and is practically in effect now, the Constitution doesn't mean anything. Your peaceful protest will be considered an act of terrorism and treated as treason against the government. Even whistle blowers face arrest. I am worried about you.

Gary: (To Chandra) I would go easy on expressing idealistic aphorisms. It sounds trite.

Marcia: He had it backwards. Those with might consider themselves right. That's how history is written.

Charles: So what are you going to do now that you are assembled in the school yard? What are you going to do when the riot police come?

Chandra: So long as we are peaceful and no disturbing element disrupts our demonstration, I see no trouble. The police can't stop us. They are supposed by all rights to protect us.

Chandra: Meeting come to order! I don't want any of you to do anything that will invite intervention by the police. Keep your noses clean!

Gary: I sent an e-mail to a friend and said I hope our protest doesn't "bomb".

Charles: Well, now you are on the government's list of terrorists. All e-mail, phone calls and postal letters are monitored.

Marcia: All I have to say is, if carnivor and eschlon are that sensitive, how did the world trade terrorists get through? It makes one wonder.

Charles: About Santa Claus. Remember he's making a list and checking it twice. Have you been a good boy? Do you want your stocking filled with coal?

Chandra: Let's get back to basics. We have a job to do and I want it right. Youth #1, do you have your part down pat, or do you need to be briefed?

#1 Youth: I have my part down pat. I have it memorized. I go up to the front of the main office building with my mega horn and ask them to stick their heads out the window.

#2 Youth: Then I hold up my sign which says: "Tobacco should be an illegal drug".

#3 Youth: Then I inhale a hugh imitation cigarette. We have a smoke generator with a hose to the fake cigarette. Then I keel over and play dead.

Marcia: Chandra, why don't you go out for the Peace Corps and put yourself to better use. This farce won't get you an Oscar. (laughing). But it might make open mike at Bonker Comedy Club.

Chandra: As I was saying, smoking is bad for you. The public needs to be aware of this and we are after good news coverage but we must be peaceful. How would you feel if you realized smoking was a great threat to the nation's health and did nothing about it. Small beginnings can have a tremendous effect Marcia, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to try to stop yourself?

Charles: Chandra, you have gone too far We have been over this before. You can blame Pocahonas. She introduced it to Captain John Smith and she was only twelve years old. It is a great crop and has become a great industry. It has brought enjoyment to a lot of people. Even George Washington made his money from tobacco, actually from his wife, Martha. Are you going to say the Father of this country was a drug lord?

Marcia: Even if it is, why do you make it your business? You are just a nosy do-gooder; not a shining crusader on a white horse.

Chandra: Stop it, Marcia. We are going on with our plans. Nothing can stop us.

(At this point Marcia marches over and sits among them and proceeds to light up a cigarette and blow smoke rings)

Marcia: I am going to let up and light up with a Lucky. Ahh! The peace that passes all understanding.

Marcia: Everyone produces 300 cancer cells a day and they are eaten up by the immune system. Only those with emotional problems that suppress the immune system get cancer. They have what is called a cancer prone personality profile which is a hard perfectionist driven type of person like those who take up causes.

You need to relax more. Maybe you should smoke. I just hope you don't get cancer from not smoking.

Marcia: Too bad your mother isn't here to protect you. I heard she ran a tight ship.

(In walks Edith and Mark together in matching black leather French style motorcycle outfits. Chandra is devastated -- furious)

Chandra: Well I hope you don't join the violent trouble-makers . I want this demonstration to be effective and violence will destroy everything.

Charles: I could go for a cup of coffee and a cigarette. I've been through a lot.

Marcia: I want to tell you something, Charles. That girl has me wondering. Is she for real?

Marcia: You know, Charles. I liked it all right. It was very romantic, but next time let's go to St. Martin Club Orient or Boco Negril. They have free beaches -- you know, top free and bottom free.

Marcia: It's not voyeurism nor exhibitionism. It is not a matter of seeing and being seen. It is not like going to church on Sunday.

Marcia: It's between you and nature. It is the freedom. It is a matter of being free to enjoy nature and the air and the sun -- the ambiance -- the milieu. Just between you and nature -- just you, which you share with other people

Charles: I'm not sharing anything with other people. I don't feel right about it.

Marcia: It's healthy both in mind and body. Naturists are the nicest people.

Marcia: Well, we have a workshop for them to attend called "Body Appreciation", so they don't feel so ashamed and feel good about their bodies.

Marcia: You'd love the nude disco dancing to live music by a local band to 1:00 o'clock in the morning. The talent show -- oh, they're funny and the fashion show. What ingenuity. They're stunning displays.

Charles: Also, I'm not too keen on seeing women naked in public. Community standards are against it.

Charles: The whole Bible and particularly the evangelical elements of religion that you would call the Radical Religious Right equate women with evil and everything they stand for and that includes nudiy as well as sex. Some countries make women cover up from head to toe. Religion is against nudity. Heavens, the missionaries made naked primitive tribes wear clothing.

Marcia: Well, the Naturist Movement goes hand in hand with the Women's Movement. In New York we won the right for women to be top free, and notice I didn't say topless.

Charles: I don't know about equal rights for women. Men and women are not equal. They are different! When they vote they vote with their hormones and elect candidates who look like Adonis -- matinee idols. I don't think they should have been given the vote. This country was built on risk and now everything is safely, and the suburbs are just one big day care center ruled over by the soccer moms in an SUV. The suburbs have no center and there is no place for men. I believe that if women had the vote Abraham Lincoln would not have been elected president and the south would have won the Civil War.

Marcia: You're just a male chauvinist! Maybe you would be interested in our workshop on men and women. It is called, "Men Are from Mars and Women Are From Venus". They divide up into two groups, men in one and women in the other the first half hour, and in the second half hour they all get together and share experiences.

Marcia: In one gathering a woman was saying how she had found her husband crying and how proud she was that he was able to do that. Then one of the guys said that she should dump him and find a real man. Then 40 women jumped on him. Actually he didn't say that. The men around him put their hands over his mouth.

Marcia: There are religious people out there who want to shut us down when they are protected by the Constitution from having the government shut them down. They don't have to pay taxes but we pay ours. The clause that says, "The government should make no provisions" does no mean churches should not be taxed. It means taxed unfairly. In fact it means they should not be tax free. The Constitution allows them to practice their religion and prevents them from being shut down provided they do it privately behind shut doors but they parade their religion in public. Imagine their reaction were we to parade in public nude!

Marcia: Isn't Naturism as much a belief as religion" Shouldn't we also be protected by the Constitution? Besides, the Constitution is supposed to protect minority interest against the public will or majority rule.

Marcia: Do you know that the Radical Religious Right has introduced legislation to shut us down in 49 state legislatures?

Marcia: Oh, Charles, you don't know where it will lead. Things that you value might be taken from you when you least expect it. If they go too far, we are fighting it. We have our own Political Action Committee. We have been quite effective in some places.

Marcia: There seems to be a coalition between the radical left and the radical right to fight a war against pleasure that has come out of the war against drugs. They have gotten together with the environmentalists not only to protect the rainforest and endangered species but to fight big tobacco along with protesting corporation exploitation of third world countries. Those opposed to this are called contrarines rather than liberals or conservatives.

Marcia: Maybe you don't care. But I think it has taken on a religious fervor that bodes ill of we who want to protect our freedom, and you are very blas� about your daughter.

Charles: Yes, she does seem to have a religious zeal about her. I'll have to have a talk with her. Yes, she is ardent. She is ardent about everything. I dont think women should get involved in public issues. That is a man's world. I wish Chandra would settle down like a normal woman and raise a family like all women should. Women don't belong in public life. They're making a mess of it. I'll have to have a talk with that girl.

Marcia: Charles! You are nothing but an old geezer and a curmudgeon! Hand me that Roget's Thesaurus over there and I will tell you what you are.

Surly
Dismal
Contankerous
A troublemaker
Strife torn
Quarrelsome
Perverse
Bad termpered
Sullenly rude
Hostile
Uncivil
Gloomy and threatening
Haughty
Arrogant
Ill mannered
Solitary
Resentful
Ill humored
Morose
Unsociable
Withdrawn
Sulky
Glum
Sad
Depressing
Somber
Dull
Sluggish
Slow moving
Baleful
Threatening
Angry
Bitter
Cynical
Sour
Irascible
Brusque
Gruff
Petulant
Discontented
Churlish
Discourteous

Genial
Friendly
Pleasant
Good natured
Urbane
Affable
Courteous
Jovial
Cheerful
Cordial

Charles: Well, let's look at the bright side. I may be perverse but I am masterful, sirly, imperious, resouceful and wise. Yes, I am full of wisdom!

Charles: What you have just said describes what a true American should be. America was founded on independent thought and action which is not very popular with conformists. If more people were geezers and curmudgeons this country wouldn't be in the sorry mess it is in today. The trouble with women today and especially because of the Women's Movement, the value of men with real masculinity, to women in particular and the country as a whole, is not appreciated.

Hell, most women don't even know what a real man is! Yes, because women got the vote in 1920 through universal suffrage, America has lost its manhood. A real man could straighten out this country. Those protesters just make more trouble.

Macia: Cool it, Charles. The veins on your forehead are standing out and beads of persperation are forming on your brow. You are out of character. I almost don't know you. You are no longer a cool dude, who is blase about his daughter and her shenanigan.

Charles: Well, one thing! I cannot be manipulated, not like most people in this country. They are a bunch of sheep.

Marcia: Do you know what you are talking about? Most people are pretty much their own thing and know what they are doing.

Charles: Well, take this anti-tobacco sentiment position everyone has been brainwashed to take. I, for one, am not being stampeded into thinking tobacco is bad for you. I remember when Rockefeller Center Music Hall had ashtrays on the back of every seat and the blue haze intercepted the projection so that you could watch the movie without looking at the screen and nobody got cancer. I have been smoking since I was seven. I refuse to be manipulated.

Marcia: Your daughter won't be so happy with what you are saying. I can image what she would say: "Stop smoking or you will die. I will feel sorry for you and I will miss you, but it will be your own fault".

Charles: And what about the Conservationists? They want to preserve open space in the suburbs to block the builders by putting farm land into non-development public trusts to save open space. Have you ever seen the suburbs? It is a paradise, a virtual Eden. It is open space, and if you don't believe me I'll take you to the inner city and show you the ghetto. A federal judge ruled that agriculture is development. On one hand they are against the rain forests in Brazil being turned into farms and, on the other hand, they want to preserve farm land in Pennsylvania. Those who move out of the city don't realize that they bring the city with them. To not want anybody else to move out with them is known as the drawbridge syndrome. In physics it is called Werner Heisenberg's Principle of Indetermancy. A scientist can't study pristine nature in the raw because by the time he does he is already there and it is no longer pristine. Nobody is going to manipulate my mind. Those who are manipulated seem to be in the majority and they seem to have a religious zeal about it, which is true of Chandra. I'll have to have a talk with her.

Charles: It is late and we haven't heard a word. I wonder how things are going?

The demonstration in front of the tobacco company offices went peacefully. Oops, the latest report just came in. A hoard of motorcycles came in to join the protesters and started breaking up property and smashing windows. The peaceful demonstrators were defused and the riot police came in to restore order and an Ethel and Mark dressed in black leather jackets on motorcycles were arrested for joining the gang of disrupters.

Marcia: They said they'd be peaceful and not join the dissidents who were violent!

Charles: I don't know. This will upset Chandra and spoil the whole effectiveness of her protest.

Mark: We thought it would be fun to join a group of motorcyclists who came by, but we didn't know they were the agitators. Then they turned violent and the riot police came.

Edith: That means he thought you were French. I guess it was the costume I made for you.

Mark: Why do people always call you after what you eat. I don't eat frog legs and I am not French.

Marcia: I'll make you something to eat. I have leftover roast beef I can heat for you.

Edith: No, we stopped at the Dirty Dutchman Roadhouse. The gangs' hogs were outside so we knew they were inside. They all made a fuss over our French outfits and made Mark ride the mechanical horse. After he almost got thrown off they cheered him and bought us a round of drinks. The ride here was woozy.

Mark: I still haven't gotten over it, especially after the debacle at the protest.

Edith: We have to go home. It's late and we're tired and want to get to bed.

(Marcia comes down first to make the coffee and putters around the kitchen alcove)

Charles: (Sitting at the table and reading the paper and sipping his coffee)

Here's an article: "One third less teenagers are starting to smoke cigarettes". Well, that's a start. They are making inroads. Maybe it's a good thing.

Charles: In the police report they arrested man who had been drinking. He left a bar and was walking unsteadily and had made some unsavory remarks to passer-bys. You know alcohol and tobacco are both legal. Next they will be arresting people for lighting up on the street and calling it disturbing the peace, or unruly behavior.

Marcia: Where I used to work they had a sign on the fire escape that said, "No Smoking" but we smoked anyhow. It didn't say, "positively"!

Charles: You should see the headlines. The whole country has gone berserk. Since September 11th they're hysterical. A grocery truck dropped a bag of flour on the highway and they thought some terrorists were spreading anthrax. The antibiological warfare unit along with the bomb squad showed up in full riot gear.

Marcia: This one is called " A Clean Mind". They all have themes now. I like that.

Charles: They are going to lower the interest rate again. What does that do?

When Alan Greenspan lowers the interest rate it doesn't help the economy a bit; it just makes the rich bond holders richer.

Marcia: What does a woman do sitting down man do standing up and a dog do on three legs?

Marcia: What sticks so far out of a man's pajamas that you could hang a hat on it?

Marcia: You know, Charles, you have a clean mind. I sometimes wonder about my son. He's a good boy but he spends all his time on the computer. I often wonder what he is doing.

Charles: Here's an article: he economy seems to be sluggish. Umm, my NASDAQ stock has gone down two points.

Marcia: I said Gary is a good boy and very intelligent but he keeps to himself. I worry about him He is not aggressive at all.

Marcia: I have always tried to be a good mother to Gary. When he was a baby we tried attachment parenting. Our son slept with us. I breast fed and we were attentive to his needs. I feel he has a healthy image of himself and has formed a trusting bond. He is a loving boy who shares his happiness with those around him. It is derived from ancient Asian parenting practices which have been around much longer than westernized separate bedrooms and modern formula feeding.

Marcia: Well, such children are less anxious and sleep better and are less detached. This helps them to gain confidence and have intuition. It helps the child feel right.

Marcia: A harmonious relationship with the baby comes from a lot of touching and hands on contact. It respects the individual temperament of the child.

Then good things happen such as self-esteem and prevents the development of shallow interpersonal relationships and becoming increasingly unfulfilled by a materialistic world, and they learn to care for others.

Marcia: They become more sensitive to what's right and wrong which makes punishment less necessary. There is more trust which is the basis of authority.

Charles: So what's with all this concern. Children should be seen and not heard. The more they are left alone the better they are. That is, less interference from parents.

Marcia: Well, what are your prejudices -- I mean principles? How did you raise your daughter?

Charles: Call it tough love, if you will, but I treated our daughter firmly but fairly. When they get turned out into the world, giving them everything they ask for will not better prepare them but significantly harm them. Parents who "shield" their children from reality are extremely misguided. I believe in spanking when necessary. Never hurt anyone. It is the right thing to do. I am the parent. She will do as she is told. My household is not a democracy. I am the supreme commander. My job is to prepare her, not shield her from the ugly world. She is the nicest, most well adjusted kid that I know. She was good in school, participated in sports and is responsible and accountable, and it all started with her sleeping in her own bed.

Marcia: And what about her angel mother? She seemed to have the greatest influence on her.

Marcia: Well, Chandra thought a lot of her, enough to emulate her missionary zeal.

Charles: By the way, where is she? Should have been down hours ago for breakfast. I'll run up to her room and see if she is still in bed.

Charles: Those who went on the demonstration with us --yes. But, otherwise, no. We could look around. Maybe she left her address book in her room. Call your son at home and find out what he knows.

Marcia: He says she left the group and that he lost track of her. He doesn't know where she is. He thought she came home.

Charles: Same story. Nobody knows where she is. They all last saw her with the group about 11:30 after the police broke it up.

He says the same thing. He went home after he left here. He said that he and Edith would be right over.

Marcia: You know Chandra is a very high strung young lady. She is liable to do anything.

Charles: I know that. Her mother brought her up with the highest of ideals. I remember once when back in high school she wanted to join a sorority, but to join they wanted her to smoke a cigarette and she wouldn't do it and refused to join. One day the boys were smoking in the school yard and she tried to break it up. Got into a terrible fight with them . She was pretty good at slugging it out with them.

Charles: I was just telling Marcia how Chandra got in trouble with the principal at school. After getting in a fight with some boys who were smoking in the school yard. She was hauled before the principal. She was outraged that she was humiliated before the whole school and blamed, and nothing was said to the boys. A miscarriage of justice. She was irate.

Charles: She ran away from school. We found her a few days later holed up in the Shrine of the Bleeding Heart. She clung to the faith of her idealism.

By the way, she is missing. She didn't come home last night. Her bed has not been slept in. I called everyone and no one has seen her or knows where she is.

Marcia: Gary says she left the protest early and hasn't been seen nor heard of since.

Mark: I hope she's not upset with me for not supporting her. Actually I was trying to help but it went awry.

Edith: She probably thinks we were part of the riot that really ruined her peaceful protest. She must be upset.

Mark: Worse than that. She could be devastated -- thrown into a life crisis.

Charles: We don't know where she is. Do you have any idea where she could be?

Mark: Come on, Edith. Rev up the engine. I think I know where to find her. She has taken me there many times.

(End of Act 11 - 10 minute recess)

Act 111
Scene 1

(All is quiet. Charles and Marcia are home alone. Mark and Edith have been gone sometime with no word)

Charles: I wonder what she will be like when she gets back with Mark. I guess she will be a wreck.

Charles: You don't know what a stressful Hell she's been through will do to you.

Marcia: Maybe she is in a stupor and wandering around in a daze without knowing where she is, like Lady MacBeth.

Marcia: Maybe she has amnesia and doesn't know anything or remember who she is.

Marcia: Sometimes exposure to extreme trauma and successive failures causes the dissocian of mental processes.

Marcia: She could become paranoid or schophenkic and go into depression -- you know, become manic depressive. That is, become psychotic.

Charles: Her mind is as sound as the dollar. I remember when we had a terrible time in our church. The minister was accused of having his wife killed by a hit man and paying 30 thousand dollars to do it Her body was found in an abandoned flat with blood stains all over her.

Marcia: Why are you telling me this? I remember the case. It was in the newspapers.

Charles: A sound mind means that a persons reason rules over the emotions, right! Well, when the case came to trial, witnesses testified to the effect that he had her killed and he was convicted. He lost his church and he lost his friends and everybody was against him. But not Chandra. She stood by him. She had worked closely with him and took him to be a man of integrity and she had the greatest admiration for him. She reasoned that he could not have done it. She kept a cool head.

Marcia: Are you sure she was not taken in by him. You know, a school girl crush. Maybe he snowed her as did everyone else. That's why everyone turned against him, because they thought he had deceived them.

Charles: Being unswayed by the wave of insanity that wanted a scapegoat, she kept a cool head and depended on her reason. She stood by her conviction and believed in him to the end. She has rational fortitude.

She was cheating on her husband with another man. This no-good man had a violent temper and when she told him that she had a change of heart and wanted to return to her husband.

Charles: He got in trouble with the law with another woman and confessed. Chandra was vindicated and proved cool heads prevail in the heat of emotional jumping to conclusions. Q.E.D. She has a sound mind and will not buckle under a little upset.

Marcia: The conventional wisdom is that she is already a mental case: a clinically certified paranoid, compulsive obsessive radical religious extremist!

Charles: She just has strong convictions. She is just a normal person and there is nothing wrong with her. She is all right. She is my pride and joy.

Charles: Not Chandra. I have complete faith in her. She'll come out of this all right.

Charles: You look particularly attractive today. Come here. I want to hold you and maybe kiss you.

Marcia: Not now. Stop that. Your daughter is missing. How can you think of playing around at a time like this? Not now.

Gary: I really like Chandra. Such pretty hair and her eyes sparkle. She's the kind of girl I want to marry.

Gary: Do I love her! As Elizabeth Barret Browning said in Sonnet From The Portuguese:

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach., when feeling out of sight. For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's most quiet need by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use in my old griefs and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose with my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death".

Charles: You touched my heart.. Now let's get back to the business at hand. The radio said it was pretty bad out there. How was it?

Gary: It was awful. This motorcycle gang of terrorists came up and smashed property and broke windows but all the police did was to arrest Edith and Mark and let them go, but the news reported that the police arrested the gang but it didn't arrest them. The news didn't report this. Then the riot police broke into the house where the protester's lawyers had their quarters and the police beat them up and smashed their computers and confiscated them. There was blood all over the rooms, on the stairs, on the walls and carpets, and the wounded were carried out on stretchers. They even shot a protester in the head and killed him. This was not reported in the news. You won't see it on CNN.

Gary: She had blood all over her and her dress was torn. She was frantic. I don't know what happened to her. They ran away. I thought she came here.

Edith: Mark dropped me off at my place and went looking for her. I know he'll find her. We think he's at her mother's crypt. I couldn't stand being alone so I came back.

Marcia: Dinner is ready. Edith, will you set the table -- six places, and how about lighting the candles?

Marcia: That "poor" girl doesn't want you. She said so herself. She has a higher calling than to be saddled with someone like you with limited vision. She wants to hitch her wagon to a star. Four letter men get the girls, not computer nerds, even if they are sometimes millionaires.

Gary: I'm not a millionaire. I just have my little job, although I do have some ideas for making it on the Internet.

Marcia: It's getting late and they haven't shown up yet. I don't think they'd like eating a cold dinner, so I'll keep it warm for them.

Mark: Home at last. I found your girl in her mother' crypt, all bent over and crying. She was in a daze and mumbling something about being betrayed by everyone except her Aunt Edith.

Marcia: Want something to eat" You must be famished. I kept your dinner warm for you.

Mark: No, we ate on the way home. We stopped for dinner at a diner. I think Chandra needs some consoling.

First the town won't give me a permit to demonstrate and everybody is against my protesting. Then my father meets up with Gary's mother and defiles the memory of my mother by having sex in mother's bed.

... and then she ridicules everything I stand for by smoking and making fun of me.

... and then my boyfriend, Mark, leaves me for my aunt who I look up to as another mother and took to be a replacement for my angel mother.

... and, against my wishes, Mark and she joined the violent disruption and helped defeat my peaceful protest.

... and then the police break up the whole operation and possibly the movement. To make matters worse, I had nowhere to turn but my mother's memory. And I went to her crypt in solace and nearly froze to death in that dark, dank and dirty place, trying to reach her through prayer. That is how Mark found me.

Gary: She must have been reading Kant or Hegel, possibly Emerson, if it is spiritual.

Chandra: I saw (she faces audience with arms outstretched and eyes wide open as round saucers staring into space) an epiphany. It was my mother as an angel. There was a strange light that surrounded her. She had an auroa. I was transfixed.

My angel mother said to me, "You will be all right. Peace be with you". She is all I have to believe in, to depend on now. She is all I have. Everybody else has let me down. My own dear angel mother, her true self and belief in me, the legacy of her memory, that is all I have now.

Charles: My poor baby. You are devoted to your mother but there is something I have to tell you.

She was a prostitute and drug addict and I rescued her from rehab. Then she got religion. I guess she corrupted you with her fanaticism.

Charles: I have taken trays of food up to her door, but she doesn't eat, not even a nibble And she won't let anyone near her room. Maybe she'll become a recluse and starve herself to death.

Mark: Judas Iscariate here took the memory of her angel mother as a mentor away from her. It was the last thing she had to cling to. What a betrayal!

Charles: I was just being truthful. I wasn't selling her for 30 pieces of silver.

Gary: You should talk, Mark. Your running away with Edith must have jilted her. It was double indemnity; you were her love amorous paramour, so to speak, and Edith had taken her mother's place as a role model and confidant. She has a right to be bitter. We don't know what this will do to her -- self destruction into oblivion or catapulted into revenge and violent retribution.

Edith: I don' know what to think. I never thought that taking up with Mark was so outrageous. After all, he is closer to my age. She just had a teenage crush on him. But it is not hard for me to see why she was infatuated with him. He's such a hunk!

Edith: Well, Mark didn't really take her that seriously. He played the field. He had all the women after him. He has a retinue of "fans".

Gary: What about you, Charles. Chandra was devoted to her mother's memory and she expected you to be true. Running off with some woman and bringing her home to bed defiled the sanctity of her devotion.

Marcia: Excuse me. Isn't the marriage vow, till death do us part, and not into the beyond. Charles has a perfect right to seek the company of whoever he pleases. I think he is wonderful and I'm glad he chose me.

Edith: Maybe she will do what Greta Garbo did in "Camille". Her lover spurned her and she just wasted away on her chaise lounge with consumption. That was before they knew it was tuberculosis.

Edith: I don't know. Mostly moans and groans and complaints to her French maid.

Charles: Let's not get dramatic, I mean melodramatic. Chandra is a very sick girl and needs all our sympathy.

Gary: Yes, we should take a more professional approach. It might be wise to have a psychiatric evaluation.

Mark: I doubt she has TB, but there are some other consequences we should be concerned about.

Edith: Yes, in the movie "Mildred Pierce" Joan Crawford was jilted by her lover, and you know how idealistic children are and take everything with dire seriousness-- well, her daughter kills him, but Joan takes the rap to protect her daughter.

"Please, your Honor, I did it. Take me. I'll go to jail. Give me the death penalty".

Marcia: I hope Chandra doesn't apply that kind of thinking to her father. She would never get away with it.

Edith: What about Romeo and Juliet? After misunderstood rejection, they committed double suicide separately.

"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!"

Edith: How about "A Lost Weekend"? Jack Lemon turns to drink. But, I don't think Chandra would turn to alcohol.

Edith: Isn't there a movie about a woman rejected by her husband and loses all her self-esteem and becomes someone's mistress. Maybe not. Not a chance.

Charles: You haven't mentioned MacBeth yet. After regretting killing the King and washing blood stains off her hand that would not go out of her memory, walked the halls in a stupor repeating, "Out damn spot".

Gary: How about "With Eyes Wide Shut" where Tom Cruise comes home to momma and all is forgiven.

Mark: Better yet. What if like Stella Dallas in " Streetcar Named Desire" after being rejected, goes insane.

Charles: Not on your life! My daughter, Chandra, is a sensible woman and I am sure she will survive the stress. She is strong willed.

Gary: Even mentally healthy persons are affected by stress She is a compulsive-obsessive person, but I don't think any more than anyone with a cause.

She just has to give up her obsessions with causes and think more of herself. Isn't that what she keeps saying Mahatma Ghandi said?

Gary: I don't care what she turns out to be. I lover her and want her to be mine. I would cherish her, only if she would accept me and love me, too.

Edith: No, you can't change the world. You can't even change your husband. Mine had an exaggerated sense of his own importance. He thought he was God's gift to women. Some snippet got him and he died from overexertion.

Chandra: I want to live a normal life and want to find my own identity. I have spent too much time chasing rainbows and where has it gotten me?

Charles: I always thought you were driven by a higher calling and wondered where it would lead you and where you would end up.

(Several offer and Marcia lights her one of hers). (Chandra holds it between her thumb and forefinger like an inexperienced smoker would do and puffs on it gingerly)

Chandra: No! Jack Daniels on the rocks! I'm going all the way, like you guys.

Chandra: Yes, I m going to undertake some counseling and pull myself together.

Edith: Well, there is Rolfing, Birthing, Alexander, Riki, Reich's Organum, Gestalt, Primal Scream and, of course, Psychoanalysis.

Mark: Horrors of horrors. You don't aim to become a "clear" through Dianetic processing?

Chandra: No, it is not a life style nor a therapeutic. It's a human potential retreat for a weekend at a YWCA Camp. It's to find your inner adult. I'll be fine.

When I come back I want to find a nice man and settle down, someone who can love me and be true, and watch over me. I would surely devote my life to him

Chandra: I think I see him now. Gary, how could I have not seen that you are the one for me?

Gary: Chandra, I'll watch over you. I love you! I have all along. But you wouldn't give me a tumble. I'm glad the disaster of the protest made you see the light.

Charles: You know, kids, you don't enter into marrige lightly. A relationship is a serious undertaking and has to be worked at every day to keep it pure and sweet.

It takes a lot of work. Remember, marriage is sacrifice. It is not what can I get out of it for myself, but a constant effort working for the relationship. It's working together with teamwork. It is a partnershp, one that is based on trust and respect. Do you think you can live up to that responsibility?

Chandra: Yes, you are. I'll be with you forever. And besides (acting a little light-headed). I need a father for my baby!

The Cast in Order of Appearance or Reference
Chandra	Daughter of Charles
Edith	Chandra's Aunt
Charles	Father
Gary	Chandra's friend
Mark	Chandra's boyfriend
Marcia	Gary's Mother
Teenage Protesters