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BEE

By Stephen Bittrich

 

5701 W Slaughter Lane
Suite A130-204
Austin, TX 78749
Tel: (646) 245-4507
E-mail:
SBittrich@aol.com

 

Copyright © 2005,
by Stephen Bittrich
(Draft: June, 2006)

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                                                   "BEE"

                                             BY STEPHEN BITTRICH

            SETTING:

                                   A room cloaked in shadow.

            AT RISE:

                                   LEE72 sits on a metal chair center
                                   stage in a razor sharp circular pool of
                                   light.  He wears a nondescript blue
                                   jump suit.

                                   After a moment, a bee starts BUZZING
                                   around his head.  He tries to ignore
                                   the bee at first, then swats at it, and
                                   finally the bee stings him on the neck.
                                   LEE72


            Ow!  Oh my God!

                          (LEE72 swats at the bee, but
                           misses it, and the bee
                           continues flying.  LEE72 tries
                           to follow the bee in his seat,
                           following it's path, perhaps
                           to kill it.  He soon becomes
                           aware of himself, stops and
                           looks around, as if having
                           been caught touching himself
                           by a parent.  He gets up and
                           walks around the penumbra,
                           peering into the dark beyond. 
                           Is there a figure sitting in
                           the dark, just barely beyond
                           his view?)

                                   LEE72
            Hello?  Is someone in the corner there?  Hello?

                          (Suddenly...the SOUND of a
                           massive steel door opening. 
                           Sounds from a large crowded
                           area outside can be heard. 
                           The massive steal door SLAMS
                           shut.  MING02 enters the pool
                           of light.  She wears a sleek,
                           cruel blue uniform.)

                                   MING02
            Good Day.

                                   LEE72
            Good Day.

                                   MING02
            I'm called Ming-Oh-Two.

                                   LEE72
            Yes, I was told.

                                   MING02
            Good.  And you remembered it.

                                   LEE72
            Of course...it's very memorable.

                                   MING02
            Really?  Why's that?

                                   LEE72
            Eh...such a low number, I suppose....

                                   MING02
            Mm-hm.

                                   LEE72
            Oh!  There's a bee...

                                   MING02
            What's that?

                                   LEE72
            A caution.  A bee stung me on the neck and is still buzzing
            around the room.

                                   MING02
            Really?

                                   LEE72
            I haven't seen one since I was a child, yet a bee is a
            prisoner in this room.  It's really quite remarkable.

                                   MING02
            Yes.

                          (MING02 circles uncomfortably
                           around LEE72 looking at his
                           neck, noting where the bee
                           took it's Parthian shot.)

                                   LEE72
            Yes.  And it's very aggressive.  You should be careful.

                                   MING02
            And why should I be careful?

                                   LEE72
            That it might sting--

                           (MING02 yanks the stinger out
                           of LEE72's neck.)

                                   LEE72
            Ow!  What are you--?

                                   MING02
            Nothing to fear.  Here.  Here's the bee's little stinger. 
            See?  What's the fuss?  All his/her power right here in my
            finger tips.  Now the bee is of no more consequence than a
            fly.

                          (Someone sitting in the other
                           part of the room shifts
                           audibly in his/her seat.)

                                   LEE72
            Who's there?
                          (pause)
            I think....  There's someone lurking in the corner of this
            room.

                                   MING02
            This room is oval.  It has no corners.

                                   LEE72
            Very well.  Oval.  So you say, but nevertheless, someone is
            spying on us.

                                   MING02
            And if there were someone, would that be of concern, Lee
            Seven-Two?

                                   LEE72
            I just think they ought, the person ought, to come out and
            make himself known, that's all.

                                   MING02
            Interesting.

                                   LEE72
            Hm?

                                   MING02
            You've picked a gender.

                                   LEE72
            What?

                                   MING02
            How did you manage that?

                                   LEE72
            How did I--?  I haven't picked a gender, I just....
                          (thinking better of it)
            Yes, you're right.  I should have said, "The person ought to
            have come out and made him/herself known.

                                   MING02
                          (addressing the dark)
            Observer...what is your name?

                          (The observer answers in a
                           distinctly asexual,
                           emotionless voice....)

                                   SHI57
            I am now called She-Fifty-Seven.

                                   LEE72
            There is someone in the corner!

                                   MING02
            As I told you before, this room has no corners--

                                   LEE72
            Oval, oval.  Against the wall, whatever, there is someone
            against the border of this--

                                   MING02
            Yes.  Yes, there is.  You are correct.  It's clear then.
                          (to the business at hand...)
            Now....
                          (suddenly changing the subject)
            By the way, it is my understanding that you invoked a deity
            earlier.

                                   LEE72
            What?

                                   MING02
            Don't you recall?

                                   LEE72
            I, eh...no, no....

                                   MING02
                          (louder, to the room)
            Play it back, please...

                           (There is the scratchy/
                           screechy sound of something
                           being played backwards,
                           then....)

                                   LEE72 (V.O.)
            "Ow!  Oh my God!"

                                   MING02
            Play again, please.  Volume decibel nine.

                                   LEE72 (V.O.)
                          (louder this time)
            "Ow!  Oh my God!"

                                   MING02
            There.  Am I clear now?

                                   LEE72
            You recorded me?

                                   MING02
            We record this room.  This is a public room.

                                   LEE72
            I was stung by a bee--

                                   MING02
            And so...you invoked a deity?

                                   LEE72
            No.

                                   MING02
            No?  I can play it again--

                                   LEE72
            I know what I said.  I wasn't invoking a deity, per se.  I
            was surprised--shocked--by the bee.  The word simply slipped
            out--

                                   MING02
            As an expression of shock or surprise...

                                   LEE72
            Yes.  Not as if I expected All Mighty God--

                           (MING02 looks sharply at
                           LEE72: "careful now.")

                                   LEE72
            --a deity, to suddenly intervene on my behalf.

                                   MING02
            No.  No, I suppose not.  Well.  It's not a serious breech, is
            it?

                                   LEE72
            Look, if I may, I'd like to know why I've been called here
            today.

                                   MING02
            Have you got somewhere to go?

                                   LEE72
            No.

                                   MING02
            At this point, you aren't under any obligation to stay here. 
            If you'd like, you may go.

                                   LEE72
            I may?

                                   MING02
            Of course.  Would you like to go?

                                   LEE72
            No.  I'm glad to stay and find out why you've asked for me.

                                   MING02
            Good.

                           (MING02 is in no hurry to
                           satisfy LEE72.)

                                   LEE72
            So then...

                                   MING02
            Yes?

                                   LEE72
            Why...have you called me?

                                   MING02
            It's concerning some wording we've been made aware of...a
            notable arrangement of words...on your personal station.

                                   LEE72
            My personal station?

                                   MING02
            Yes.

                                   LEE72
            You have access to my personal station?

                                   MING02
            Of course.  This is thoroughly disclosed.  Certainly you
            carefully discerned all the documentation when you accepted
            your personal station?

                                   LEE72
            I looked over it.

                                   MING02
            Ah.  It is a common theme.  "I looked over it." And yet when
            these situations arise, one wishes one had done more than to
            "look over" the documentation.

                                   LEE72
            Well, I needed a personal station.  One needs a personal
            station to shop, to communicate, for entertainment.

                                   MING02
            You're very lucky, then, to be afforded one for free!

                                   LEE72
            Yes.  Not like I have a choice.  One needs a personal
            station, and there's only one place to acquire one, only one
            place that makes one.  Here.

                                   MING02
            One is hardly without choice.  There are those who "work" for
            their food.  You are not prohibited from working. 
            Communication and entertainment are luxuries.  Humans don't
            require them.  Housing is provided by the company, for all
            people, regardless of their position in the Class Lottery,
            whether they choose to have a personal station or not.

                                   LEE72
            Yes.
                          (pause)
            I still don't understand why I'm here today.

                                   MING02
                          (louder)
            Play back the curious wording, please, October Fifteen, Two
            Oh-Four-Five...

                          (An asexual computer voice
                           reads the following speech)

                                   COMPUTER  (V.O.)
            October Fifteen.  Two-Oh-Four-Five.  Dear Lan33, I saw you
            through a window tonight. 
            I was on my way from Meditation, and I happened by a window
            of a restaurant where you were dining...with another.  With
            another.  Lan33, your recent good fortune in the Class
            Lottery does not preclude you from seeing me, from being with
            me, and yet most hurtfully, most hurtfully, you've chosen
            someone else.  Only two weeks ago we were physically
            conjoined, Lan33, and I am at a loss as to how you can
            manipulate your feelings so easily...

                                   MING02
            This is something that you wrote?
                           (No answer.)

                                   MING02
            Did you write these words, Lee72?  If you deny that you wrote
            them, you should be made aware that sharing your passcode is
            a serious infraction of the Consumer's Code, Four-Four-Seven
            B, and you could face a sentence of no more than two years,
            yet no less than--

                                   LEE72
            I wrote it.  Yes...I wrote it.

                           (The bee can be heard BUZZING. 
                           LEE72 swats at it,
                           haphazardly.)

                                   MING02
            Don't be afraid.  He/she's lost all power, this one.

                                   LEE72
            The bee is a female, Ming-Oh-Two.  Most likely a soldier bee
            or a worker bee, not an emasculated drone.

                                   MING02
            Good then.  She.  She.  Dead already, she is.  I wonder if
            she knows it.

                                   LEE72
            Dead?

                                   MING02
            Yes....bzzzzzz-zzzzzz.
                          (pause)
            Can she be aware, with her tiny little consciousness, that
            she's sealed her own fate?  Does she have the instinct to
            know what she's done?  One has to wonder.  When she took her
            revenge on you, she caused her own end.  When a bee stings,
            it leaves too much of itself, too much of its own abdomen
            behind to survive.  It dies.  And so, this tiny bee, by
            giving in to her nature, to her need for revenge, she's
            caused her own demise.

                                   LEE72
            Revenge?

                                   MING02
            Yes.

                                   LEE72
            It wasn't revenge.

                                   MING02
            No?

                                   LEE72
            She can't reason like that.  It was instinct.  She was
            protecting herself.

                                   MING02
            Was she?  How could she be protecting herself?  She's ended
            her own life.  If it's instinct, then her instinct has
            betrayed her.

                                   LEE72
            Well, it's her job.  Usually, a bee, a soldier bee or a guard
            bee, is protecting the hive.  It's her job to sting when
            necessary.

                                   MING02
            In the primitive animal world, they have need of soldiers, we
            can agree on this, and if this is the bee's calling, her
            purpose, it is a justifiable sacrifice...but this bee was
            alone.  She had no higher calling, other than to...
            sting...you.  Perhaps she should just have flown away...and
            lived.
                          (louder)
            Continue to letter December Twenty, Two-Oh-Four-Five...

                           (Computer voice reads:)

                                   COMPUTER  (V.O.)
            ...Dear Lan33, I don't understand...I don't understand a
            promise broken.  A promise of love is a contract, not to be
            lightly tread upon, and yet you flaunt your new companion
            willfully in my face.  Let me ask you...have you physically
            conjoined yet?  Why do you always appear up where I am?  With
            him?  With him.  Everywhere you go, you torture me.  Lan33,
            are you following me?  Are you following me?  Am I
            following...am I following...am I following...you.
                           (Silence.  The bee BUZZES.)

                                   LEE72
            Die!  Why won't you die, and be done with it?
                           (SHI57, wearing a lose white
                           uniform/gown has made his/her
                           way to the edge of light. 
                           Just part of his/her lower
                           body can be distinguished.)

                                   MING02
            In good time, she'll follow her course.  Ignore her.
                          (louder)
            Continue to letter January--

                                   LEE72
            No more letters!  I know what I wrote.  You know what I
            wrote.

                                   MING02
            Yes.

                                   LEE72
            I never sent them.  I never sent them!  How can I be held
            responsible for thoughts?  For feelings?  How can you
            monitor...how can you monitor...my dreams?

                                   MING02
            Lee-Seven-Two.  Where is Lan-Thirty-Three?

                                   LEE72
            How should--how should I know?

                                   MING02
            Where is Lan-Thirty-Three?

                                   LEE72
            I'm not responsible!  I didn't do anything!

                           (SHI57 comes into the light. 
                           SHI57 is a woman, albeit an
                           androgynous one.)

                                   SHI57
            Lee...

                                   LEE72
            What?

                                   SHI57
            Lee...
                           (LEE72 turns, for the first
                           time to see...)

                                   LEE72
            Oh my God...

                                   SHI57
            Lee...Lee...

                                   LEE72
            How can you be?  How can you be?  How can you...?

                          (HE falls to the ground in a
                           pile and begins to weep, to
                           wale.  Ever so slowly, moving
                           jerkily like a movie in
                           reverse, SHI57 retreats to the
                           shadows, until she is gone. 
                           LEE72 continues to cry softly
                           as the lights slowly fade to
                           black.)

                           (END OF PLAY)

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