How to Re-Charge by Pierre Diennet

SHOTZ
Fuck!
The line goes dead. DR. A
She tries to re-dail. While she is re-dailing, Dr. C enters. She stiffens. He feels it.
Doctor Amanda Is on her cell phone
DR. A Yes, hello, Lucy. Can you hear me all right? What? I’m at the site near port Au prince.
Yes. How is Wangari Maathai? Yes, tell her Happy Birthday for me. No. The clinic is fine for supplies. That’s not why I’m calling. It’s the situation here. I’m exhausted and Dr. Coomer is…No, he’s here. He got here and he’s doing his work. Yes, he saved an eye yesterday. But something’s not right. I think we need to talk about re-assignment. What? You’re breaking up. Lucy?
DR. C Excuse me. Am I disturbing you, Dr.?
DR. A Well, yes, I’m sorry, I was on the phone, kind of a private matter. Can you give me ten
minutes.
DR. C I would love to but Jean-Pierre just pulled in with another. It’s some kind of blunt trauma
to the skull and his legs are both broken. I would like to get started as soon as possible. DR. A
Head injury?
DR. C I’m afraid so. As you know my French is pretty poor but I believe he fell into some kind
of trou. a hole? Right? I’d like to get those legs off as soon as possible.
DR. A DR. C
Dr? Yes.
DR. A DR. C DR. A
Are you sure his legs are broken?
DR. C Yes. Crushed really. And infected. We must remove them before it spreads.
DR. A But you just said he had a head injury.
DR. C I said he had a head injury and his legs were broken.
DR. A I’d like to verify that before you remove anything.
Pause
DR. C Dr. Are you trying to imply something?
DR. A
No.
DR. C You are aware I’m sure that I have served in some of the toughest zones this organization
has known.
DR. A I wasn’t questioning your competence.
Eritrea. Indonesia. Iran. Yes, I am aware of your record. This is my 3rd earthquake.
DR. C DR. A DR. C
2.
DR. A No amount of experience is a substitute for a second opinion.
Pause.
DR. C I’m afraid you’ve hurt my feelings. Dr.
I wasn’t trying to.
DR. A
Dr. C takes a step towards Dr. A.
DR. C Whether you were trying to or not…
Why don’t you go cool off.
I’m sorry?
DR. A DR. C DR. A
The rest of the day. Go for a jog or something. You need to let off some steam. Dr. C takes another step towards.
DR. C
You think I amputate too much.
DR. A I think you have chosen that option when it wasn’t absolutely necessary.
DR. C You see that’s your problem Dr. A. You have a very narrow definition of necessity.
What are you doing?
Dr. C takes out a wire saw from his pocket and pulls it taut between his fists.
DR. A
3.
DR. C Perhaps it is necessary for me to have something that I take pleasure in. Something to re-
charge me in the midst of all this crisis Dr. A takes a ready stance.
Get away from me.
DR. A
Dr. C. laughs.
DR. C I mean how do you find the energy? When you get exhausted. There must be something
you do that excites you, that gets you going again. DR. A
You are a very sick man, Dr.
How did you that? I’m not sure.
Dr. C lunges at Dr. A., who quickly re-channels his forward motion into a twist and gets him turned around on his knees with the wire still in his fists but now wrapped around his kneck. She tightens it.
DR. C DR. A
Dr. A tightens the wire further. It’s choking Dr. C.
DR. C Now hold on Dr. Think about what you are doing. You can’t run this clinic by yourself.
DR. A Dr. Coomer. Ordinarily, I would say that loosing a doctor would be worse then keeping a
bad one around but in your case, I think even Haiti would be better off.
Dr. A strangles Dr. C to death. Right before his last gasp, he breaks a blood capsule around his kneck so it looks as if the wire has broken the skin and maybe he even spits blood out of his mouth. Then he dies. Dr. A releases the wire and looks at him.
4.
Then she reaches down and gets some of the blood on her fingers. She looks at it. Her cell phone rings. She answers it.
DR. A Hello, Lucy. Yes, thanks for calling back.
Dr. A tastes the blood on her finger and loves it.
DR. A Actually, you know what? It’s fine. Everything’s fine. It was just me. The pressure was
getting to me. But it’ll be alright. I think I’ve found a way to re-charge my batteries. Yes. No, I’d like to stay. Thanks. Sure, send a couple more doctors. If you can stand to loose them. OK. Talk to you soon.
Dr. A hangs up and takes out her hair tie or something to acknowledge that she’s getting relaxed and then she jumps on Dr. C and starts to eat his flesh.
End of play.
5.

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