Characters
Jacob/Jake: an eleven-year-old boy
Grandma: Jake’s seventy-year-old grandmother
A Nurse: the attendant at the desk
Jacob’s Mother: Grandma’s adult daughter
Voices off stage
Location
A room, a corridor and a garden in a long-term care residence
© JC Sulzenko, 2009
The scene:
A boy around eleven years old stands in the open doorway of a long-term care residence room, his back to the audience. He’s wearing a baseball cap, jeans and sneakers, and an ordinary tee shirt. To his left, there’s a railing, as one finds along a corridor in a place where people need something to hold onto because walking is difficult for them.
The door to the room is a simple frame without walls so that the audience can see the whole room, with the shape of a single bed and bedside table inside it. A large bulletin board, covered with family photos and pictures of different birds, can also be seen, as though suspended from an invisible wall. Opposite the frame of the door is the frame of a window. It gives onto a brick wall of another building, perhaps across a laneway that’s several stories below.
Inside the room, a small woman, around seventy years old and dressed in a tracksuit, waits in a wheelchair. She sits almost straight in her wheelchair.)
GRANDMA: Hello. You are? …
JACOB: I’m Jacob, Jake. You remember, grandma.
GRANDMA: Of course, I do. Of course… You are? You are…
JACOB: Your grandson, grandma. I’m your grandson. Jake. You know that, Grandma. You know.
GRANDMA: Of course, I do. Of course. Would you like a…, a…
JACOB: (He looks at the food on the side table.) A raisin? A candy? A cookie? Grandma: would you like a cookie? (He picks up the bag of cookies from the side table and pulls one out of the bag). See, this is a chocolate chip cookie, Grandma. It’s got little bits of chocolate in it. They crunch. Here, have one. (He hands it to her and munches on one himself.)
GRANDMA: Ummmm, good. (Jake nods.) I’ve never had a…, a…
JACOB: A chocolate chip cookie? Maybe you’re right, Grandma. Maybe you never had one just like this. When I came last Saturday, you tried oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They’re good, too. You liked them a lot.
GRANDMA: I did?
JACOB: Sure. You ate at least three!
GRANDMA: I did?
JACOB: Yup, you did. Would you like to go outside for a walk, Grandma?
GRANDMA: A walk? I’m in a…, in a… (She looks down at her feet.)
JACOB: In your wheelchair. I know, I know. I could push it outside. We could sit where the birdfeeder is. We could count the birds.
GRANDMA: Count the birds…, the birds…
JACOB: Yes, let’s go outside. Here’s your blue shawl, in case it’s chilly. (He picks it up off the bed and hands it to her.) That’s it. (Grandma tries to put her arms through the armholes as if it were a sweater.) No, you don’t need to put your arms through, Grandma. It’s got no sleeves. Here, let me wrap it around you. Just sit a little forward. (Jake drapes the shawl over her shoulders.) Okay. You can lean back now. Isn’t that cozy? Here we go.
(Jake pushes her out of the room, down the corridor, past the frames of open doors that hint at many rooms along the hall. As they walk down the hall, they pass a few men and women holding onto railings or pushing walkers on wheels toward the end of the corridor. Other folks sit in wheelchairs at the doors of their rooms. One man uses two canes. His progress is slow as Jake and Grandma pass by him.)
VOICES OFFSTAGE: Coughing, throat clearing
OTHER RESIDENT OFFSTAGE 1: “Alice?”
OTHER RESIDENT OFFSTAGE 2: “Henry?”
GRANDMA: Where are we… Are we…
JACOB: We’re going outside, Grandma. We’re going outside. To see the birds.
GRANDMA: The birds…, the birds…
(Jake pushes the button to open the door to an enclosed garden. Alcoves hold pots of blood-red geraniums that break up the stiff, high planks of the fence that keep the residents separated from the street and safe, inside the flowered walls. There are a few chairs and tables, perhaps an awning, and other patio furniture. Jake pulls up a chair next to Grandma’s wheelchair.)
JACOB: Here we are. Let’s sit here. That way the sun won’t be in your eyes. I’ll lock the wheels. (Jacob sits down.) And we’re not too close to the birds. We don’t want to scare them away. Are you comfy?
GRANDMA: Scare them? Comfy… Am I…
JACOB: Comfy. That’s a ‘yes,’ I guess, Grandma. Oh, look! A chickadee! (He points to the feeder.)
GRANDMA: Chickadee-dee-dee! Chickadee-dee-dee!
JACOB: Yes! That’s right. You remember those birds, Grandma! You used to take me on the trail in the winter! (Grandma nods at each sentence in his description. She becomes more attentive, involved, animated and understanding at each of his statements.) We’d bring safflower seeds. You’d put them in our hands. The chickadees swooped down, didn’t they? They whirred through the air and landed right in our hands. They weighed nothing. I remember their bright, black eyes and cold, sharp little feet, even if you don’t!
GRANDMA: (She’s smiling and nodding her head.) Chickadee-dee-dee! Chickadee-dee-dee! Look: a cardinal! (Grandma points at the bird.)
JACOB : (Jake sits up straight; stares at his grandma, his face open with surprise.)What did you say, Grandma?
GRANDMA: A cardinal! See, it’s there, in the little cedar.
JACOB: A cardinal? A cedar? (Jake stands up and bends close so that his face is level with his grandma’s.) Grandma: do you know what you just said?
GRANDMA: Yes, dear. I sure do.
JACOB: (Jake shakes his head in disbelief.)You’re right about the cardinal, Grandma. There’s its mate, too. See? (He points. Grandma nods.) And the tree. You knew it was a cedar. That’s awesome. That’s amazing, Grandma! (Jake hugs her. He’s grinning.) Wait till I tell Ma.
GRANDMA: Now, Jake, no need to make such a fuss. You know I know all about birds. Taught you how to look for them. How to listen for their songs. How to feed them. Why are you so surprised?
JACOB: Grandma, it’s just that… that… (Jake takes off his cap and twists it.)
You haven’t been talking much when I’ve been over to visit, Grandma. And sometimes, sometimes you forget things.
GRANDMA: Oh, Jake. It’ll take a long time for me to forget what I know. And a long, long time for you to know half of what’s in my brain. (Grandma chuckles and points to her own head).
JACOB: Maybe I should call Ma. She’ll be so happy to hear about the birds, about the tree.
GRANDMA: Oh no, Jake, dear. Let’s just have a nice time together. Look, a goldfinch near those lilies.
JACOB: A goldfinch! Lilies! (Jake shakes his head in amazement.)
GRANDMA: You sound like a parrot, dear. Now, it’s your turn. See that black bird with the wide tail? Can you tell me what it is?
JACOB: It’s a…It’s a…
GRANDMA: Ah ha! Give up? It’s a grackle. Time to get out that bird book I gave you. Time to refresh your memory! (Grandma points at Jake and chuckles.)
JACOB: My memory? You’re right, Grandma. You’re so right! (Jake hugs her.) Look, Grandma, stay here in the garden. Just for a couple of minutes. I’ve really got to call Ma. I’ll be right back.
GRANDMA: Sure, dear. I like it out here. Don’t rush yourself. I’m not going anywhere in this thing. (She pats the arms of her wheelchair, chuckles and waves him off.)
(Jake pushes the button and runs back into the building, to the central workstation on that floor, where a uniformed nurse works.)
JACOB: I need to use the phone quick, please. Quick!
NURSE: Is anything wrong?
JACOB: (Everything Jake says rushes out of him in a rapid stream.) No, no. It’s just so awesome! It’s my grandma: she usually forgets stuff. Forgets everything. But just now, she knew me and about the birds in the garden. She could name them! I gotta tell my Ma to come right over. I know she won’t believe me. How grandma is cured!
NURSE: Here’s the phone. (The nurse turns the phone around so Jake can use it.) But look, don’t set your hopes too high. Sometimes, people who live here remember some things for a little while and then go back to forgetting again.
JACOB: No way. No way. My grandma’s back! (Jake picks up the phone and ‘dials.’) Hello, Ma? Guess what? You ‘gotta’ come over right now. No, nothing’s wrong. But Grandma remembers stuff…
Yes! She remembers my name! And she knows the names of the cardinal and the chickadees. And the cedar tree. She even remembers the bird book she gave me for my birthday… No, I’m not kidding, Ma. It’s so awesome…
Yes. Okay. I’ll wait with her. We’re in the garden. Hurry, Ma. Hurry!
(Jake hangs up the phone and turns it back to the Nurse.) Thanks a lot!
(The nurse shakes her head as Jake turns around and runs back down the hall.)
JACOB: (Jake bursts into the garden. He’s smiling like a clown.) Grandma, ma is coming to see the birds with us. She’ll be right over.
GRANDMA: (Grandma smiles.) That’s nice…
JACOB: Look, Grandma, a…? (Jake points to a blue jay at the birdbath.) You know what ‘kinda’ bird that is, Grandma. Tell me! (His smile is triumphant.)
GRANDMA: (Grandma smiles back at him.) It’s a… It’s a…
JACOB: Grandma? (Jake loses his smile as he watches his grandmother work the edges of her shawl and furrow her brow.) Tell me what kind of bird that is. You know the names of all the birds.
GRANDMA: It’s a… It’s a…
JACOB: What kinda bird? Just say it! Grandma, say it! (Jake’s questions escalate into demands. Now he is shouting.) Grandma, tell me!
(Grandma starts to whimper. She shrinks away from him and tries to shelter under her shawl. Jake stands up slowly and walks over to her. He puts his arms around her.)
JACOB: It’s a blue jay, grandma. It’s a blue jay. See how well you taught me? I knew what bird it was. (He pats her hand.) I’m sorry I shouted, Grandma. I’m really sorry.
That’s better. You’re okay now. (Grandma nods, smiles a little again.) It’s getting late. Let’s go in. Let’s go in.
(Jake turns the wheelchair around, pushes the button and pushes Grandma in her wheelchair through the door into the building. We see his retreating back, shoulders slumped, as he pushes the wheelchair away from the garden’s light toward his mother, who is walking quickly down the corridor toward them, her face to the audience.)
JACOB’S MOTHER: Hi Jake, Hello Mother. How are …
As she sees Jake shake his head in a silent ‘no,’ she stops speaking in mid-sentence. Her smile shrinks to a tight line.
JACOB’S MOTHER: Oh my darlings. My darlings…
Still facing the audience, she leans down to caress her mother’s cheek, then comes around to stand next to Jake. She puts her arm around Jake’s shoulders. Their backs to the audience, they together push the wheelchair further into the heart of the nursing home.)