Maria/Lily - B Flashcards
(Scene 4)
INTERVIEWER 1: You know, I feel like I’ve been talking this entire time. You’ve been very quiet.
(MARIA moves forward as if to speak…and vomits on Interviewer 1’s desk.)
MARIA: I don’t think I feel so good.
(Scene 6 begins)
INTERVIEWER 1: Thanks again for coming in on such short notice.
LILY: Please, it was no trouble at all.
INTERVIEWER 1: So tell me about yourself? What subjects do you like in school, do you have any hobbies? You know stuff like that.
LILY: Hobbies? I have a few, I suppose. I used to be really into swimming but…I haven’t…not since. that day.
INTERVIEWER 1: Are you okay? We don’t have to…
LILY: No, it’s okay…I want to, I…I need to talk about it. It was a blistering summer day, Bill Blakemore, Poughkeepsie’s local weatherman, said it was one of the hottest days in recorded history and advised us to stay in at all costs. But I ignored his warnings. Swimming was my life and life…doesn’t stop, not even for a handsome weatherman with salt and pepper hair. I went to the pool early, got on my swimming suit, and began my morning stretches. It was during my warm-ups that I saw him…a little boy, fiery red hair, freckles sprinkled across his pale white skin, teetering on the edge of the pool. Before I could even think to warn him, he tumbled into the watery abyss. His body thrashed about violently, his eyes closed shut from the sting of chlorine, his voice silenced from all the water he was swallowing. I jumped into the water and swam over as quickly as I could but…I was too late.. he was…
(LILY is overcome with emotion.)
LILY: That was eight years ago and…I’ve never set foot in a pool since.
INTERVIEWER 1: Lily, that was very brave of you to share this with me. Witnessing a death like that…especially that of such a young child-
LILY: No, he didn’t die.
INTERVIEWER 1: He didn’t?
LILY: No, the lifeguard pulled him out of the water.
INTERVIEWER 1: Oh, well even seeing a near death experience-
LILY: He was only in the water a few seconds when the lifeguard pulled him out.
INTERVIEWER 1: He was?
LILY: Yes.
INTERVIEWER 1: I thought you said “it was too late”?
LILY: IT WAS TOO LATE FOR ME! I couldn’t save him because…I was TOO…late…
INTERVIEWER 1: So…you saw a child fall into the pool, and then a lifeguard pulled him out…and that..?
(LILY is too distraught to answer.)
INTERVIEWER 1: You know what, let’s just…move on.
(LILY nods her head.)
INTERVIEWER 1: What is it about this school that interests you?
Why do you want to come here?
LILY: There are many reasons I supposed but…only one that ever really mattered. It was a crisp day in March, much like today. Amanda Barker, my best friend since the third grade, and I were leaving Mrs.Fleener’s excessively boring Geometry class. Amanda asked me if I had thought about applying to college. I told her, “a little.” Then she told me about this university, how her sister was going here, and that I should “check it out.” I said, “maybe…yeah.” I was flippant, disregarding my best friend’s advice with two little inarticulate words.. and those words..were the last I ever said to Amanda.
INTERVIEWER 1: I am… so sorry. Losing a best friend like that… I can’t imagine how awful that must have been for you.
LILY: It was, it really was.
INTERVIEWER 1: How old was Amanda when she passed?
LILY: Passed?
INTERVIEWER 1: Died
LILY: She didn’t die.
INTERVIEWER 1: What?
LILY: No. She’s going to Yale in the fall. She’s very smart.
INTERVIEWER 1: I thought you said that was the last time you ever spoke to her.
LILY: It was. We had a falling out after that.
