Imaginary Friends Read Free Page A

TREE RAG
I WANNA DO THE FIG TREE RAG WITH YOU
WITH YOU
    WE’RE CRANKIN’ LIKE A HURDY GURDY
    LILLIAN :
    FLAPPIN’ LIKE A PERDY BIRDY
    ENSEMBLE :
    DOIN’ THE FIG TREE RAG
    LILLIAN : From the tree I could also watch the people who lived in the boardinghouse—Mrs. Stillman, who was crazy, and Carrie, the cook, who plucked chickens in the yard, and Sarah and Fizzy, two dizzy sisters who were always picking on me and giggling over nothing. “She’s so wiiiiild and willful,” they’d say, and just stand there together and giggle.
    FIZZY
comes out of the boardinghouse and sits down on the porch
.
    That’s Fizzy. Giggle for everyone, Fizzy.
    FIZZY
giggles
. FIZZY
takes out a fan and fans herself in a kind of exaggerated southern way
. MAX HELLMAN ,
Lillian’s father, comes from around the back of the house and looks at FIZZY as she sits there
.
    And that’s my father.
    LILLIAN
hides behind some leaves, and we don’t see her in the tree
. FIZZY
turns and sees
MAX HELLMAN .
    FIZZY : Max! What a surprise. When did you get back?
    MAX HELLMAN : Train just got in. Beautiful morning, isn’t it? Even prettier now that I see you.
    FIZZY :
[Giggles again.]
Oh, Max!
    The leaves in the tree rustle wildly, but
FIZZY
and
MAX HELLMAN
don’t seem to notice
.
    MAX HELLMAN : What were you thinking about?
    FIZZY : Just now? Summertime, and my mama’s hummingbird garden. Sarah and I used to sit still as statues on the stone bench and see if we could get the birds to buzz around our heads. Once I put a piece of honeysuckle in my mouth—
    MAX HELLMAN
suddenly kisses
FIZZY ,
a long, passionate kiss
. LILLIAN
spreads the branches of the tree just a little and peeks out wide-eyed at what’s happening. Then she closes them over herself again
.
    MAX HELLMAN : I missed you so much.
[Beat.]
Can I see you this afternoon?
    FIZZY : Two o’clock.
    MAX HELLMAN : Corner of Jackson Street.
    FIZZY
rushes into the house and closes the door
. MAX HELLMAN
walks off. A long beat
. LILLIAN
falls from the fig tree. Splat. A horrible noise. She lies face down on the ground. And now we see the real
LILLIAN
walk onstage and pick up the
LILLIAN
that fell from the tree—which turns out to be a large stuffed doll of
LILLIAN .
She carries it to the front porch, where she sits. She puts her hand melodramatically over her nose
.
    LILLIAN : I broke my nose. So I went running off to find my old nurse, Sophronia. I told her I’d seen Fizzy and my father kissing each other, and I decided to kill myself. Sophronia bandaged me up and told me that I must never ever tell anyone about Fizzy. I promised her I never would. A few minutes later, as she walked me home, she said, “Don’t gothrough life making trouble for people.” I said, “If I tell you I won’t tell anyone about Fizzy, I won’t.”
[
LILLIAN
stands up, carrying the doll. Then she walks into the house and closes the door.]
    The words “New Orleans” vanish from the scrim and are replaced with “Seattle,” and some sort of music begins. The baby picture of
LILLIAN
changes to one of
MARY MCCARTHY. MARY
comes onstage carrying a large doll of herself dressed like the little girl in the picture. She walks over to the musicians and looks at them
.
    MARY :
[To the musicians.]
Please don’t.
[They stop playing.]
My father was a lawyer, although he never really practiced law. He was sick and home most of the time, and he read me stories in the daytime, and once, when we were together, we heard a nightingale sing, I remember that. My mother was beautiful, and she had three more children, my brothers, and one day when I was six years old, we all got on the train to go to Minneapolis to visit my father’s parents, who were rich. It was during the influenza pandemic, and we all caught it on the train, and my parents died.
    The word on the scrim changes to “Minneapolis.”
    No one told us they’d died. We got off the train in Minneapolis, and there were nurses and ambulances waiting, and I