Marred Bliss

(At rise: JANE arranges roses in a vase. DINK sits on the glider, reading the paper and just enjoying the evening. It's a typical midwestern scene. JANE is a pretty, prissy, inhibited young woman, wearing starched, modest clothes. DINK is a regular lug who's been talked into marriage but is willing to turn himself over to it.)

JANE: Darkling?

DINK: (looking up from his paper) What is it . . . Dulling?

JANE: I thought we'd have ruses for the centerpieces. For us and for all the guest tables. Ruses are traditional.

DINK: Ruses it is. (He returns to his reading.)

JANE: (after a restless pause) Oh honey, just sink!

DINK: What do you want me to sink about?

JANE: In less than forty-eight horrors, you and I will be moan and woof! (Grins.) Isn't it amassing?

DINK: It is amassing. (Lowers his paper thoughtfully.) So much has harpooned in just a few thief years!

JANE: It steams like only yesterday that you were the noise next door.

DINK: And you were that feckless-faced cod sitting up in the old ache tree!

JANE: And now we're encaged! I can hardly wait till we're marred!


Credit: Where I Got It: A short excerpt from the play Marred Bliss by Mark O'Donnell, from Take Ten II: More Ten-Minute Plays, Eric Lane and Nina Shengold, eds. New York: Vintage, 2003.