Not Even the Waiting List
A young man enters a dorm room where a young woman is staring out a window.
Steve: “Kat….”
Katherine: “Thanks for coming.”
Steve sits on the end of the room’s bed.
Katherine: “Do you really care about me?”
Steve: “What do you mean by ‘care’?”
Katherine: “Do you love me? It’s hard question, but I want to know.”
Steve: “Kat….”
Katherine: “I didn’t ask about marriage. You can love without marriage.”
Steve: “You’ve asked me before.”
Katherine: “Yes.”
Steve: “Have you heard from….”
Katherine: “Don’t change the subject.”
Steve: “Okay. Kat, I’m not sure. I don’t know. I’m mixed up. I care about you.”
Katherine: “I care about you.”
Steve: “You’re not happy.”
Katherine: “No. I want you to love me.”
Steve: “Did Cal Tech answer?”
Katherine: “Yes.”
Steve: “So, you don’t need my love. You’re leaving, anyway. Why should I pretend?”
Katherine: “Thanks…just thanks.”
Steve: “Kat….”
Katherine: “What?”
Steve: “You’re accepting their offer, aren’t you?”
Katherine: “No difference to you.”
Steve: “I care.”
Katherine: “Tell me.”
Steve: “I wish I could say I love you.”
Katherine: “I wish you could, too. Maybe we would get married.”
Steve: “No.”
Katherine: “Little @$^*! Get out of my room.”
Steve reaches to hold Katherine, but she brusquely pulls his arm off of her.
Steve: “You’ll like Cal Tech. Can we still be Facebook friends?”
Katherine: “No, of course not. How would you know if I’ll like it?”
Steve: “You always said.”
Katherine: “I always said I really wanted to stay here…with you. Doesn’t matter. Cal Tech rejected me. Just like you. GET OUT!”
Steve: “Waiting list?”
Katherine: “No.”
Steve: “I’m sorry.”
Katherine: “I’m going to call campus police if you don’t leave.”
Steve: “I’m leaving.”
Katherine: “Always an idiot.”
Steve walks out. Katherine holds onto the window frame and cries.
◊ ◊ ◊
KJ Hannah Greenberg
KJ Hannah Greenberg is the author of more than a dozen small press books. She also keeps company with a prickle of imaginary hedgehogs. The presses nibble. The prickle wounds.
A bitter piece. It is very well done; maybe the ending could be tightened.
It brought to mind Stephen Crane’s poem:
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter – bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”
AGB
Moves well, realistic dialogue and I like the ending.