gathering boxes
by Catherine Mew
AT RISE: WELL-KEPT GABLED CARPORT WITH CLIMBING JASMINE OR ROSES ACROSS ITS FRONT TRELIS. THE SPACE IS LINED WITH LONG FOLDING TABLES AND BINS WITH SIGNS ON THEM. IN BETWEEN THE BINS SIT MASON JARS WITH PICKED FLOWERS.
ELA, 16, with her hair pulled back is sorting and folding bandanas.
KITTY, mid-forties, in long, ruffled dish gloves and a maxi dress, is washing down boxes of groceries with reusable towels and a bin of sudsy water
ELA
Mom!!!
KITTY
What?
ELA
(holds up bandana with a rip)
This one?
KITTY
How many do we have?
ELA
45 so far today.
KITTY
Ummm. It's only noon. That's a lot.
ELA
Guess people care A LOT about the migrant workers out in the fields harvesting our food.
KITTY
They care that they won't get sick. See, not everyone is anti-immigrant.
ELA
Migrant, mom. And they care that they keep working. They may hate washing every single berry they buy, but they sure as hell don't want to stop being able to purchase them.
KITTY
Well. I'm sure it's more than that.
ELA
Really. We definitely have more bandanas than donated old laptops...or groceries.
KITTY
Those are bigger asks.
ELA
Yep. Old Bandanas are cheaper.
ELA crosses to a bin with homemade thank you cards for medical personnel. She raises them up and lets them fall back down like confetti.
ELA (CONT'D) / KITTY
...and all these homemade cards. / ...Those are beautiful thank you notes...so many by sweet school children...for medical personnel.
ELA (CONT'D)
How ya doing with masks and latex gloves for them, then, huh?
KITTY
People don't usually have a lot of that kind of stuff lying around. It's a harder --
ELA. / KITTY (CONT'D)
Ask. / Ask.
ELA (CONT'D)
Right. Or maybe they want them for themselves. Like toilet paper. ALL the toilet paper.
KITTY
That's unfair.
ELA
Is it? Look in the paper products box. Do you have 45 donations? Even 5? People are scared now mom, not generous. The apocalypse makes people hoard, not give.
KITTY
Darling, I know teens need to be critical and push away everything to feel like they are better or gaining independence, but there really is no need to become cynical. Especially now, while the world is in crisis.
ELA
Ha! Sure. It's me. Me? It's my thought patterns, and not the evidence.
KITTY
It's small thought choices, lovey, and those are never small. Daily choices are what define us, repeated they become habits and patterns, and those are hard to break.
ELA
Like chronic optimism?
KITTY
Someone needs to remain hopeful so together we --
ELA / KITTY (CONT'D)
Stomp out covid. / Stomp out covid.
KITTY (CONT'D)
I'm glad, even as a cynical teen, you still believe.
ELA
Or I memorized the slogan, mom. You had 25 signs made for the yard.
KITTY
We own a lot of street front.
ELA
This, too, shall pass.
KITTY
No, it won't. We finally paid off the mortgage two years ago.
ELA
Mother.
KITTY
Oh you mean the pandemic. Yes it will.
ELA
I meant your other yard signs and the eternal sunshine.
KITTY
You know during World War II --
ELA
Rosie the Riveter. Got it.
KITTY
And Anne Frank --
ELA
Not comparable. It's a false equivalency.
KITTY
Are you --
ELA
Sure? Yes.
KITTY
But you never let me finish.
ELA
Because I didn't have to.
KITTY
You're being insufferable. So much negativity.
ELA
Positivity is a privilege of the leisure class.
KITTY
So was the invention of teenagers. You could be working in a factory still since you hit age eleven.
ELA
Why do capitalists always try to throw all of us back into child labor and inhumane factories whenever they feel cornered?
KITTY
Because we enjoy peace.
ELA
Fine yes or no. This bandana. It has a rip.
KITTY
Is it clean?
ELA
Yes?
KITTY
Can it still cover a nose and mouth and tie securely?
ELA
I think so.
KITTY
Why don't you try it out to make sure?
ELA
Mom.
KITTY
If it will keep you quiet, then that would be a positive outcome for the rest of my afternoon.
ELA
Fine. Muzzle the opposition. Fascist.
KITTY
You all are very quick with that word.
ELA
It's just I think you are setting yourself up for massive disappointment.
KITTY
I don't know, I'm not disappointed, look at this donation center.
ELA
Carport, mom, it's our carport.
KITTY
Carport Center then. It's very grassroots and a success.
ELA
Really? Exhibit A: the paper products box.
KITTY
Exhibit B: the bandanas. 45 just today, before noon.
ELA
Only because you won't let it go on Facebook. You are scaring people who figure they might one day, post-quarantine, have to see you again at school "bashes," into searching their kids' discarded toy boxes for crap bandanas. These are guilt cloths.
KITTY
I don't think that's quite --
ELA
From people who are frightened about what you will force them to do at the next zoom PTA meeting if they don't drop off something.
KITTY
I'm hardly keeping track.
ELA
Sure, that totally tracks with your narcissist martyr thing.
KITTY
Excuse me? I don't think it's appropriate --
ELA
Gatekeeper.
KITTY
What?
ELA
It's ageist. Using "appropriate" to stop short the other side.
KITTY
Only if they are older.
ELA
Nope. You can be prejudiced against younger people opining, too.
KITTY
Not as a protected class.
ELA
Children under 18 are a protected class. We are the most precious, vulnerable part of our society, right? That's why you all keep getting to regulate us with all these age-specific laws.
KITTY
Clearly we need to pass more on talking.
ELA
Ancient. Pre-historic, really.
KITTY
And against self and other oriented diagnosis.
ELA
That's because you refuse to see you need to do the most to
feel the best, so --
KITTY
That is so very rude. Rude. Rude. Rude, rude. Rude.
ELA
But mom--
KITTY
Rude.
ELA
You know --
KITTY
Rude.
ELA / KITTY (CONT'D)
Listen, I -- / (singing) Rude. Rude. Rude. Rude. Rude.
ELA (CONT'D)
So mature, mom.
Kitty, still singing "Rude," looks through the used iPad and laptop box.
ELA (CONT'D)
Oh, that one is from Aunt Janine.
KITTY
No. It is not. Your Aunt Janine could NEVER be bothered to --
ELA
Ha!
KITTY
Fine. Okay. Fine. I know.
ELA
Thank you. And you're bothered.
KITTY
No.
ELA
Because it makes you happy to be able to think that --
KITTY
Absolutely not. Ok, I'm bothered. I just thought everyone would want to do their part. I spent all my childhood reading books about everyday people being heroic in times like these unprecedented moments of universal threat.
ELA
And those people, they were your idols.
KITTY
Yes. Shouldn't they be?
ELA
Sure. But they aren't everybody's.
KITTY
Why not?
ELA
Because some folks, like Aunt Janine, they really liked Sweet Valley High better, and choose your own adventure. And they choose their own adventure and needs maybe, and not the collective good. And that's okay.
KITTY
Is it?
ELA
Yes. You can decide to allow it to be. For you. Small choices.
KITTY
Huh. You know, you make me sound like a communist.
ELA
There's nothing wrong with that.
KITTY
Communism failed.
ELA
No. Just authoritarianism masquerading as something else.
KITTY
Where did you learn that?
ELA
TikTok. It's very educational.
KITTY
Isn't that owned by the Chinese?
ELA
So? Mom, it wasn't the labs.
KITTY
I know. I know. So you think I'm the only one? Interested in the common good?
ELA
Well...these are unprecedented times.
KITTY
Ella, people are not all bad. They are mostly good. They care.
ELA
Let's see if you still think that if this lasts through the summer.
KITTY
If WE last through the summer.
ELA
What? Mom? Come on. What?
KITTY
Els, they are bringing in refrigeration trucks in New York City, every borough now, and yesterday they started tenting downtown parking decks, to get ready, here.
ELA
You're worried?
KITTY
No, darling. I'm petrified.
ELA
Mom.
KITTY
But what good does that do?
ELA
Well, maybe it--
KITTY
Ela, what if something happens to your father? To one of you? What if there aren't enough hospital beds left when we are the ones who need one for your sister or your brother?
ELA
I don't think we are going to --
KITTY
I wake up in a cold sweat every night now.
ELA
Couldn't that just be menopause?
KITTY
I sleep less. I eat more. I can't even read at all. Nothing longer than an Atlantic article anyway. My job is to protect you, to keep you safe and teach you the right way to be. How can I do that when I don't even know what will happen tomorrow?
ELA
Does anyone ever really?
KITTY
I'm terrified.
ELA
It's ok, Mommy. I love you.
KITTY
Don't tell your sister. She's too young to worry about all of this, she's so tender...so are you...it's just all --
ELA
You know it's okay to be human, right? Even around your kids. This is scary. You being scared lets us have room to be scared, too.
KITTY
I don't want that for you.
ELA
But that you don't get to control. The apocalypse was always coming. Look at what we are intentionally not doing for the environment. Besides now we have lots of bandanas, in case we ever need to rob a bank to survive.
KITTY
Those are not for us, silly girl.
ELA comes behind KITTY and ties one around her face.
ELA
Okay. But you look good in one. Fierce. Maybe it's time for your own metamorphosis?
KITTY
Into a criminal?
ELA
Into my first and always super hero.
ELA hugs KITTY.
KITTY
I'm not that already?
ELA
Of course you are. But maybe if you put your gloves back on, and a paper towel cape, you might look more like one. Captain Covid.
KITTY
Now that is blasphemy in times like these.
ELA
Touche.
KITTY
And besides, no one has donated any paper towels yet.
ELA
Well, at least we have the guilt cloth.
KITTY
Indeed. Now let's go wash some berries. Every single one.
ELA, 16, with her hair pulled back is sorting and folding bandanas.
KITTY, mid-forties, in long, ruffled dish gloves and a maxi dress, is washing down boxes of groceries with reusable towels and a bin of sudsy water
ELA
Mom!!!
KITTY
What?
ELA
(holds up bandana with a rip)
This one?
KITTY
How many do we have?
ELA
45 so far today.
KITTY
Ummm. It's only noon. That's a lot.
ELA
Guess people care A LOT about the migrant workers out in the fields harvesting our food.
KITTY
They care that they won't get sick. See, not everyone is anti-immigrant.
ELA
Migrant, mom. And they care that they keep working. They may hate washing every single berry they buy, but they sure as hell don't want to stop being able to purchase them.
KITTY
Well. I'm sure it's more than that.
ELA
Really. We definitely have more bandanas than donated old laptops...or groceries.
KITTY
Those are bigger asks.
ELA
Yep. Old Bandanas are cheaper.
ELA crosses to a bin with homemade thank you cards for medical personnel. She raises them up and lets them fall back down like confetti.
ELA (CONT'D) / KITTY
...and all these homemade cards. / ...Those are beautiful thank you notes...so many by sweet school children...for medical personnel.
ELA (CONT'D)
How ya doing with masks and latex gloves for them, then, huh?
KITTY
People don't usually have a lot of that kind of stuff lying around. It's a harder --
ELA. / KITTY (CONT'D)
Ask. / Ask.
ELA (CONT'D)
Right. Or maybe they want them for themselves. Like toilet paper. ALL the toilet paper.
KITTY
That's unfair.
ELA
Is it? Look in the paper products box. Do you have 45 donations? Even 5? People are scared now mom, not generous. The apocalypse makes people hoard, not give.
KITTY
Darling, I know teens need to be critical and push away everything to feel like they are better or gaining independence, but there really is no need to become cynical. Especially now, while the world is in crisis.
ELA
Ha! Sure. It's me. Me? It's my thought patterns, and not the evidence.
KITTY
It's small thought choices, lovey, and those are never small. Daily choices are what define us, repeated they become habits and patterns, and those are hard to break.
ELA
Like chronic optimism?
KITTY
Someone needs to remain hopeful so together we --
ELA / KITTY (CONT'D)
Stomp out covid. / Stomp out covid.
KITTY (CONT'D)
I'm glad, even as a cynical teen, you still believe.
ELA
Or I memorized the slogan, mom. You had 25 signs made for the yard.
KITTY
We own a lot of street front.
ELA
This, too, shall pass.
KITTY
No, it won't. We finally paid off the mortgage two years ago.
ELA
Mother.
KITTY
Oh you mean the pandemic. Yes it will.
ELA
I meant your other yard signs and the eternal sunshine.
KITTY
You know during World War II --
ELA
Rosie the Riveter. Got it.
KITTY
And Anne Frank --
ELA
Not comparable. It's a false equivalency.
KITTY
Are you --
ELA
Sure? Yes.
KITTY
But you never let me finish.
ELA
Because I didn't have to.
KITTY
You're being insufferable. So much negativity.
ELA
Positivity is a privilege of the leisure class.
KITTY
So was the invention of teenagers. You could be working in a factory still since you hit age eleven.
ELA
Why do capitalists always try to throw all of us back into child labor and inhumane factories whenever they feel cornered?
KITTY
Because we enjoy peace.
ELA
Fine yes or no. This bandana. It has a rip.
KITTY
Is it clean?
ELA
Yes?
KITTY
Can it still cover a nose and mouth and tie securely?
ELA
I think so.
KITTY
Why don't you try it out to make sure?
ELA
Mom.
KITTY
If it will keep you quiet, then that would be a positive outcome for the rest of my afternoon.
ELA
Fine. Muzzle the opposition. Fascist.
KITTY
You all are very quick with that word.
ELA
It's just I think you are setting yourself up for massive disappointment.
KITTY
I don't know, I'm not disappointed, look at this donation center.
ELA
Carport, mom, it's our carport.
KITTY
Carport Center then. It's very grassroots and a success.
ELA
Really? Exhibit A: the paper products box.
KITTY
Exhibit B: the bandanas. 45 just today, before noon.
ELA
Only because you won't let it go on Facebook. You are scaring people who figure they might one day, post-quarantine, have to see you again at school "bashes," into searching their kids' discarded toy boxes for crap bandanas. These are guilt cloths.
KITTY
I don't think that's quite --
ELA
From people who are frightened about what you will force them to do at the next zoom PTA meeting if they don't drop off something.
KITTY
I'm hardly keeping track.
ELA
Sure, that totally tracks with your narcissist martyr thing.
KITTY
Excuse me? I don't think it's appropriate --
ELA
Gatekeeper.
KITTY
What?
ELA
It's ageist. Using "appropriate" to stop short the other side.
KITTY
Only if they are older.
ELA
Nope. You can be prejudiced against younger people opining, too.
KITTY
Not as a protected class.
ELA
Children under 18 are a protected class. We are the most precious, vulnerable part of our society, right? That's why you all keep getting to regulate us with all these age-specific laws.
KITTY
Clearly we need to pass more on talking.
ELA
Ancient. Pre-historic, really.
KITTY
And against self and other oriented diagnosis.
ELA
That's because you refuse to see you need to do the most to
feel the best, so --
KITTY
That is so very rude. Rude. Rude. Rude, rude. Rude.
ELA
But mom--
KITTY
Rude.
ELA
You know --
KITTY
Rude.
ELA / KITTY (CONT'D)
Listen, I -- / (singing) Rude. Rude. Rude. Rude. Rude.
ELA (CONT'D)
So mature, mom.
Kitty, still singing "Rude," looks through the used iPad and laptop box.
ELA (CONT'D)
Oh, that one is from Aunt Janine.
KITTY
No. It is not. Your Aunt Janine could NEVER be bothered to --
ELA
Ha!
KITTY
Fine. Okay. Fine. I know.
ELA
Thank you. And you're bothered.
KITTY
No.
ELA
Because it makes you happy to be able to think that --
KITTY
Absolutely not. Ok, I'm bothered. I just thought everyone would want to do their part. I spent all my childhood reading books about everyday people being heroic in times like these unprecedented moments of universal threat.
ELA
And those people, they were your idols.
KITTY
Yes. Shouldn't they be?
ELA
Sure. But they aren't everybody's.
KITTY
Why not?
ELA
Because some folks, like Aunt Janine, they really liked Sweet Valley High better, and choose your own adventure. And they choose their own adventure and needs maybe, and not the collective good. And that's okay.
KITTY
Is it?
ELA
Yes. You can decide to allow it to be. For you. Small choices.
KITTY
Huh. You know, you make me sound like a communist.
ELA
There's nothing wrong with that.
KITTY
Communism failed.
ELA
No. Just authoritarianism masquerading as something else.
KITTY
Where did you learn that?
ELA
TikTok. It's very educational.
KITTY
Isn't that owned by the Chinese?
ELA
So? Mom, it wasn't the labs.
KITTY
I know. I know. So you think I'm the only one? Interested in the common good?
ELA
Well...these are unprecedented times.
KITTY
Ella, people are not all bad. They are mostly good. They care.
ELA
Let's see if you still think that if this lasts through the summer.
KITTY
If WE last through the summer.
ELA
What? Mom? Come on. What?
KITTY
Els, they are bringing in refrigeration trucks in New York City, every borough now, and yesterday they started tenting downtown parking decks, to get ready, here.
ELA
You're worried?
KITTY
No, darling. I'm petrified.
ELA
Mom.
KITTY
But what good does that do?
ELA
Well, maybe it--
KITTY
Ela, what if something happens to your father? To one of you? What if there aren't enough hospital beds left when we are the ones who need one for your sister or your brother?
ELA
I don't think we are going to --
KITTY
I wake up in a cold sweat every night now.
ELA
Couldn't that just be menopause?
KITTY
I sleep less. I eat more. I can't even read at all. Nothing longer than an Atlantic article anyway. My job is to protect you, to keep you safe and teach you the right way to be. How can I do that when I don't even know what will happen tomorrow?
ELA
Does anyone ever really?
KITTY
I'm terrified.
ELA
It's ok, Mommy. I love you.
KITTY
Don't tell your sister. She's too young to worry about all of this, she's so tender...so are you...it's just all --
ELA
You know it's okay to be human, right? Even around your kids. This is scary. You being scared lets us have room to be scared, too.
KITTY
I don't want that for you.
ELA
But that you don't get to control. The apocalypse was always coming. Look at what we are intentionally not doing for the environment. Besides now we have lots of bandanas, in case we ever need to rob a bank to survive.
KITTY
Those are not for us, silly girl.
ELA comes behind KITTY and ties one around her face.
ELA
Okay. But you look good in one. Fierce. Maybe it's time for your own metamorphosis?
KITTY
Into a criminal?
ELA
Into my first and always super hero.
ELA hugs KITTY.
KITTY
I'm not that already?
ELA
Of course you are. But maybe if you put your gloves back on, and a paper towel cape, you might look more like one. Captain Covid.
KITTY
Now that is blasphemy in times like these.
ELA
Touche.
KITTY
And besides, no one has donated any paper towels yet.
ELA
Well, at least we have the guilt cloth.
KITTY
Indeed. Now let's go wash some berries. Every single one.