_{Destinations.
A one act, play for two actors.}

_{The set: a junction on a pathway in a rural setting, with a suggestion of an urban area close by. There is a park bench left of centre stage. There is a path along the front of the stage. The pathway divides to the right of the park bench where it forks again and disappears in two directions.
It is about mid-day; it is a warm day, and the sun is shining.}

_{I leave any movement on stage to the discretion of the director, or actors. Should there be a need for some changes in the dialogue to make it more colloquial I also leave those decisions to the director, or actors. I want the dialogue to sound natural, but my computer also wants me to write in good English, and different people might have different suggestions.}

_{Characters:
Joe - a man in his thirties.
Jack - a man also in his thirties.
Both men are casually dressed. Jack is a little more conservatively dressed, with more expensive taste than Joe.}

_{As the curtain rises Joe is sat on a seat. Jack enters stage right, along the footpath at the front of the stage, or through the audience to the stage. Jack looks around him, not quite sure which way to go.}

_{JOE: Where are you going?
JACK: Who me?
JOE: Yes, You, where are you going?
JACK: Somewhere, anywhere.
JOE: You looked as though you were seeking a path.
JACK: I was trying to decide.
Jack turns around a number of times.
JOE: You don't look as though you are going anywhere.
JACK: Isn't everyone going somewhere?
JOE: No, I don't think so; most people stay where they are. They might think they are going somewhere, but by the end of the day they are back at home. Look, look, if you are going to the same place day after day are you going somewhere?
JACK: Somewhere, of course you are going somewhere.
JOE: Anywhere? I mean, If someone was to list all the places he had visited in his life down on a piece of paper, and he listed the same two places over and over again, and if at the end of his life god, or someone takes a look at his list, god or whoever, would cross out all the duplications until all that was left were two place names.
JACK: I suppose so.
JOE: You suppose so - there is no doubt about it; whoever it was, would never have been anywhere other than the two places on the list - the very small list. Where had he been all his life?
JACK: What about the in-between places?
JOE: They don't count.
JACK: I think they do, I mean he's been there, hasn't he?
JOE: He's been there, to those places, but he hasn't thought of being there.
JACK: He might have.
JOE: Well, he didn't.
JACK: How do you know he didn't?
JOE: Because he didn't put them on his list.
JACK: His list!
JOE: Yes, the list he prepared to present to his god, or whoever.
JACK: That was an imaginary list. It was an imagined person.
JOE: Yes, I know; I conjured the list up: I conjured the guy up; I didn't imagine him going to more than two places.
JACK: But, I imagined him too.
JOE: You did, but I imagined him first. You only imagined him because I did, and I told you about him and his list.
JACK: That's unreal.
JOE: You don't say you have been somewhere if you don't consider that you have.
JACK: Isn't every step you take a step in a different place?
JOE: It's a different spot, but more often than not, in the same place; some places are quite extensive. In-between places don't count.
JACK: Didn't he ever take a different route?
JOE: Why?
JACK: Why!
JOE: Why, why should he?
JACK: Because he was bored with taking the same route every day.
JOE: If he was bored he wouldn't have gone to the same place day after day, would he?
JACK: You have decided that.
JOE: It stands to reason.
JACK: Reason! He's not going there for a reason, he's going there because he has to, because you say he has to.
JOE: That's a reason. That's the reason he is going there, wherever he's going.
JACK: Where are you going?
JOE: Nowhere.
JACK: You can't be going, nowhere.
JOE: Why not?
JACK: Because you wouldn't know if you had got there, or not got there.
JOE: I might just stop, and turn back.
JACK: Then, when you have reached the place you set off from you haven't been anywhere at all.
JOE: I would have.
JACK: Not in a meaningful way, you wouldn't.
JOE: I would if I thought I had. I could imagine I had.
JACK: If you only imagine it - it wouldn't be real, like the man you imagined with those tiresome habits - going to the same place over and over again.
JOE: They weren't tiresome to him.
JACK: What was his name?
JOE: His name!
JACK: Yes.
JOE: Brian, yes his name is Brian, I know a Brian.
JACK: Is it that Brian?
JOE: No, I said he was an imaginary figure.
JACK: I knew two Brians.
JOE: Where they like one another?
JACK: No, they were quite different.
JOE: I didn't expect them to be the same. How different?
JACK: One was big.
JOE: Tall?
JACK: No; chubby.
JOE: And the other one?
JACK: Slim and small.
JOE: Did they know one another?
JACK: Yes, why shouldn't they have known one another?
JOE: No reason. What did they talk about?
JACK: I don't know.
JOE: Weren't you interested?
JACK: Not particularly.
JOE: I'm interested in who my Brian speaks to.
JACK: That's because you make it up.
JOE: So, we have four Brians.
JACK: No.
JOE: I thought you said that you knew two Brians.
JACK: I did.
JOE: So we have four Brians.
JACK: No, one of them is dead.
JOE: Dead!
JACK: Yes, Dead, he was killed in a car accident in Belgium.
JOE: In Belgium, where in Belgium?
JACK: I don't know, somewhere in Belgium.
JOE: he went somewhere...
JACK: He didn't come back.
JOE: No, but he went somewhere.
JACK: How can you say he went somewhere if he didn't come back - he was only half way there; he hadn't reached his destination.
JOE: Is he still there?
JACK: No, but he doesn't know he's back.
JOE: And the other Brian, do you still know him?
JACK: No, he left to go to Australia.
JOE: Australia, that's a far off place.
JACK: He works there now.
JOE: What kind of work?
JACK: I don't know.
JOE: You don't hear from him?
JACK: No, I don't even know if he arrived there, I just presume that he did, but I can't be certain.
JOE: And, you can't imagine him being there in Australia.
JACK: I can imagine him, but I can't imagine what he could be doing there; he didn't do very much when I knew him here.
JOE: How do you know?
JACK: He was very quiet.
JOE: Perhaps he thought you weren't interested in the things he was interested in.
JACK: Perhaps.
JOE: So we only have three Brians.
JACK: One of them doesn't exist.
JOE: My Brian?
JACK: Your Brian.
JOE: He exists more than your two Brians.
JACK: I told you, one is dead; one is still alive - in Australia.
JOE: Australia is a big place.
JACK: You can get lost in a big place.
JOE: There are more places to go.
JACK: There are more places to pass through.
JOE: Places where you don't put your foot on the ground; places where you can't say 'you've been.
JACK: The Sahara is a big place. The wind blows sand around in the desert.
JOE: Yes, I know; what has that got to do with anything?
JACK: Sand, one minute it's here one minute it's somewhere else; well, it might not be very much in a minute, but in six minutes, six hours, six days, six weeks, six months, six years...
JOE: Yes. Yes. Yes. I get the picture; everybody knows that sand blows around in the desert.
JACK: Do Eskimos know?
JOE: Eskimos! Eskimos have television. I've seen them on television watching television.
JACK: Snow blows around in the wind.
JOE: Yes, sand and snow blow around in the wind.
JACK: The landscape changes, bit by bit the place has moved - you can be somewhere else by not moving around.
JOE: Oh, I see. How far will you go to win an argument?
JACK: An argument!
JOE: To win a point.
JACK: Wherever, how far do you have to go?
JOE: I don't have to go very far; I don't have to go down-under, to the desert or to the North Pole, or to the South Pole - to the ends of the earth.
JACK: Only because Brian is in your head.
JOE: I'm creative; I can create a being independent of existence.
JACK: In your head.
JOE: Where else are our representations?
JACK: You try to run circles around reality.
JOE: Circles, have you seen these circles? Why not squares?
JACK: It's a figure of speech; you know what I mean.
JOE: You know what I mean when I start talking about Brian. Your two Brians have less presence than my imaginary Brian. Neither of them is alive in your imagination.
JACK: They are no longer a part of my life.
JOE: They are a part of your past.
JACK: Your Brian doesn't imagine anything.
JOE: I do all his imagining for him.
JACK: What colour hair has he got?
JOE: What colour do you think?
JACK: Mm. (Jack thinks before he speaks.) Fair, he has fair hair.
JOE: Wrong again, it's dark brown, very dark brown.
JACK: What do you mean, wrong again? You just make things up as you go along. I don't consider that our argument, as you call it, has come to a conclusion.
JOE: Hasn't it?
JACK: No.
JOE: Then it will.
JACK: It might not.
JOE: It has to.
JACK: We might disagree. We might come to opposite conclusions.
JOE: We can't do that - if we are being logical.
JACK: Who is to arbitrate on the logic of the logic being used? We have no independent authority to call upon - at this moment in time.
JOE: Then we will just have to go away with contrary conclusions.
JACK: That's not very satisfactory.
JOE: Who said anything about satisfaction.
(There is a short pause.)
JACK: Who is Brian?
JOE: My Brian?
JACK: The blood, flesh and bone one.
JOE: He' s clever, very clever.
JACK: Did you like him?
JOE: No one liked him.
JACK: Why?
JOE: He was too clever by half. 'No one likes a smart arse,' that's what some one said to him.
JACK: What happened to him?
JOE: He became a teacher at a university.
JACK: A lecturer.
JOE: A professor no less; he's at the top of his profession.
JACK: Do you still see him?
JOE: No, he moved away.
JACK: Away?
JOE: Away from here.
JACK: Did he have dark brown hair?
JOE: No, fair.
JACK: So, I was right!?
JOE: No, you were thinking about the other Brian.
(A pause.)
JACK: Do you work around here?
JOE: I work on the buses.
JACK: Nice work?
JOE: Nice!
JACK: Interesting?
JOE: What do you think?
JACK: I don't know.
JOE: I don't know either.
JACK: Oh.
JOE: Being stuck in a traffic jam, going nowhere half the time.
JACK: Where do you end up?
JOE: I don't, it's a circular route.
JACK: Do you pass interesting places?
JOE: Not really, I mean, my eyes are on the road; you have to keep your eyes on the road.
JACK: Have you had an accident?
JOE: No, That would be the end of my job, if it was my fault, if it was serious. Have you got four wheels?
JACK: A car?
JOE: A car, a van anything with four wheels.
JACK: No, I can't drive.
JOE: You can't drive?
JACK: I'm too impatient.
JOE: You don't seem impatient at the moment; you're not going anywhere in a hurry, or anywhere at all, it seems to me.
JACK: My partner wants us to go to Canada.
JOE: Business partner?
JACK: No.
JOE: I see.
JACK: People see what they want to see.
JOE: Is that so?
JACK: Has Brian got a partner?
JOE: My Brian?
JACK: Your Brian:
JOE: I thought you'd start to show an interest in my Brian sooner or later. He's got a girlfriend; her name is Sandra; she is beautiful. You'd like... I like Sandra.
JACK: Have you got a partner?
JOE: I've got a wife - she has childbearing hips.
JACK: Children?
JOE: Three, and another one on the way. Have you got children?
JACK: No.
JOE: I didn't think so. Does your partner want children?
JACK: No.
JOE: How do you know?
JACK: We've talked about it.
JOE: You don't want to pass on your genes?
JACK: No desire whatsoever.
JOE: As far as you're concerned it's the end of the line for your genes, a terminus.
JACK: Except, there's no turning back.
JOE: So you want a new start in Canada?
JACK: It's an option.
JOE: I believe that Canada is a very cold place - in the winter.
JACK: Belief is truth.
JOE: Plenty of snowdrifts.
JACK: It's a big place.
JOE: Bigger than the Sahara, with lots of trees, lots of woods.
JACK: Forests.
JOE: Woods, forests, what's the difference?
JACK: It's just a matter of scale.
JOE: You can get lost in the forest - end up by being eaten by bears! Do you want to be a bear's
dinner?
JACK: you can get run over by a bus in the city.
JOE: Not my bus you can't; I keep my eyes on the road.
JACK: I wasn't thinking of your bus.
JOE: So, you're going to Canada?
JACK: I'm happy here.
JOE: I didn't ask if you were happy here.
JACK: I'd be taking a chance.
JOE: An opportunity. (A pause.) Think of the possibilities.
JACK: I have a secure job.
JOE: What kind of job.
JACK: I'm an undertaker.
JOE: Don't cling onto certainty; it's not as secure as we think.
JACK: My partner's dead keen.
JOE: Listen, I don't want to push you into making a decision to go anywhere. Stay here; we could go for the occasional walk; we could talk, have interesting discussions; we could listen to nature; you could meet my wife - she's a homely person, doesn't have much to say for herself, but she is good with the kids, and amiable; I'm sure she wouldn't mind having you come up for a meal; we don't get many visitors; do you play dominos?
(Jack shakes his head.)
You play cards then?
(Jack shakes his head.)
Monopoly?
JACK: None of those things.
JOE: None.
JACK: I have to go.
JOE: I don't even know your name.
JACK: Jack.
JOE: I'm Joe.
JACK: I have to go Joe.
JOE: Yes, of course, you have to go.
JACK: Bye, then.
JOE: Bye.
(Jack moves and walks back along the path he came on.)
JOE: I didn't even offer to shake his hand.
JACK: (Voice off stage.) Bye.
(Joe is sat on the park bench; he buries his face in his hands.)
JOE: (In a sad voice.) Sandra, why did you have to meet Brian?}

_{THE END.}

_{2001.11.
cOPYRIGHT 2001 BY tERRY mILES.}