"HABITAT"

                  by Charles Deemer

 

 

 

 

 

                         Place

                     An apartment

 

                          Set

             A table and chair. A hat rack.

 

                          Time

                    The 22nd century

 

                       Characters

                    Tommy, about 10

                    Ann, his mother

                  Granddad, her father


 

 

 

                         (AT RISE: a boy, TOMMY, about 10,

                         is doing homework at a table. His

                         mother, ANN, enters.)

 

                         ANN

Granddad isn't back?

 

                         TOMMY

Not yet.

 

                         ANN

I hope he's all right.

 

                         TOMMY

Is he late?

 

                         ANN

He's old and forgetful.

 

                         (She starts away.)

 

                         TOMMY

Mom? Did the sky used to be blue?

 

                         (Ann stops and turns.)

 

                         TOMMY

That's what Jeffrey said at school. It didn't used to be

gray all the time. It used to be blue in the daytime and

black in the nighttime.

 

                         ANN

Yes, but that was a long time ago.

 

                         (She exits. A beat, as Tommy goes

                         back to work. Then a voice off-

                         stage:)

 

                         GRANDDAD (OS)

Unseal the hatches! I've returned in one piece!

 

                         (Tommy looks up expectantly,

                         waiting ... and GRANDDAD enters.)

 

                         (GRANDDAD wears protective clothing

                         from head to foot. His face is

                         covered by a mask -- a gas mask or

                         perhaps a hospital mask and

                         goggles -- and he wears a protective

                         layer of over-clothing or perhaps a

                         large poncho. This protective

                         clothing should surprise, even

                         shock, the audience but the actors

                         take it in stride because this is


                                                            2.

 

 

                         everyday apparel in the 22nd

                         century. Granddad also carries a

                         large plastic bag.)

 

                         (As Tommy talks, Granddad sets down

                         the plastic bag and takes off the

                         mask and poncho, which he'll hang

                         on a hat rack.)

 

                         TOMMY

Mom was worried about you. She said you were old and

forgetful. I knew you'd be back.

 

                         GRANDDAD

Oh, you did, huh?

 

                         TOMMY

Jeffrey at school said the sky used to be blue in the

daytime and black in the nighttime.

 

                         GRANDDAD

That it did.

 

                         TOMMY

Really? I can't imagine it.

 

                         GRANDDAD

I'll tell you something else you can't imagine.

 

                         (Ann enters.)

 

                         ANN

Where have you been? I've been worried sick about you.

 

                         (Out of the plastic bag, Granddad

                         takes a second, smaller plastic bag.

                         And out of this, a third, smaller

                         plastic bag. And out of this, a

                         paper bag of groceries, which he

                         hands to Ann.)

 

                         GRANDDAD

The day you stop worrying about something is the day I call

the doctor.

 

                         ANN

You know we're overdo for an alert. What if it started while

you were gone?

 

                         GRANDDAD

It's this afternoon, as a matter of fact. That's what the

grocery clerk told me.


                                                            3.

 

 

                         ANN

How does he know?

 

                         GRANDDAD

His mother works for Atmospheric Security.

 

                         ANN

Well, thank God you're back then.

 

                         (She leaves with the sack of

                         groceries.)

 

                         TOMMY

What else I can't imagine?

 

                         GRANDDAD

What?

 

                         TOMMY

You said you'd tell me something else I can't imagine.

 

                         GRANDDAD

What were we talking about?

 

                         TOMMY

How the sky used to be blue and black.

 

                         GRANDDAD

Ah, yes. The sky. Sunrise! Sunset! You can't imagine how

beautiful it was. First, the slightest hint of silver light

at the horizon, then--

 

                         TOMMY

What's the horizon?

 

                         GRANDDAD

Where the sky meets the land. There was a difference then,

you could see it. Then, as the sun climbed to the horizon,

the sky would become red and orange, it was spectacular!

Poets wrote poems about it.

 

                         TOMMY

Do you know one?

 

                         GRANDDAD

Not by heart. But I'll find one. The rosy-fingered dawn.

That's how an old Greek named Homer described it. Once,

before your mother was born, I was camping out in the

desert--

 

                         TOMMY

What's camping?


                                                            4.

 

 

                         GRANDDAD

We used to sleep outside in a sleeping bag.

 

                         TOMMY

You'd be dead the next morning.

 

                         GRANDDAD

It was safe then. I was always up at the crack of dawn

camping, brewing coffee on the camp stove, the eastern sky

as orange as fire. I remember one time, silhouetted against

the flaming sky, came a black-V moving along the horizon, a

flight of geese going somewhere, off to find food maybe.

What a sight it was!

 

                         TOMMY

What are geese?

 

                         GRANDDAD

You know about birds?

 

                         TOMMY

We don't study extinct species until next year. Jeffrey said

they could fly.

 

                         GRANDDAD

Birds were something else. They came in all shapes and sizes.

 

                         TOMMY

What about geese?

 

                         GRANDDAD

It's a kind of bird. They all hop around on two feet and

have wings and fly. In the morning, even right in town, if

you had a tree outside your bedroom window, the morning

would be blessed with birdsong. Birds loved to hang out in

the trees.

 

                         TOMMY

They could sing?

 

                         GRANDDAD

They chirped, which was called singing. Hundreds of them,

all chirping up a storm. What music they made!

 

                         (Ann enters.)

 

                         ANN

I just saw an announcement on the Vid. The alert will be

starting any time now. We might as well get ready so we

don't have to rush around.

 

                         (Very casually, all are going to

                         put on ponchos and masks, which

                         hang from the hat rack. This is


                                                            5.

 

 

                         something they do often and

                         therefore habitually. No panic

                         here, just efficiency.)

 

                         TOMMY

Granddad was telling me about the blue sky and sunrise and

birds.

 

                         ANN

You're just trying to get out of doing your homework.

 

                         TOMMY

I wish I could've been there to see all that.

 

                         GRANDDAD

The sky used to be a sight to behold.

 

                         TOMMY

Maybe they'll come back. The birds, I mean. Do you think so,

Granddad?

 

                         ANN

I want you in your protective suit this minute, young man!

 

                         GRANDDAD

I don't know if they will or not, Tommy. I have an idea but

I've been wrong before.

 

                         TOMMY

What's your idea?

 

                         ANN

           (interrupting)

Oh, Dad, I forgot to tell you. The Andersons have been

approved for the Moon Colony. They're so thrilled.

 

                         TOMMY

I'm moving to Mars when I grow up!

 

                         ANN

You're not moving anywhere unless you do well in school.

They'll assign you to Maintenance Control right here on Earth.

 

                         TOMMY

Granddad, what's your idea about the birds?

 

                         GRANDDAD

Oh, I'm just an old man. It doesn't matter what I think.

 

                         (Everyone is now in masks and

                         ponchos. Ann takes Tommy's hand.)

 

                         ANN

Down to the shelter, young man. Now! Come on, Dad.


                                                            6.

 

 

                         GRANDDAD

I'm coming.

 

                         (Ann and Tommy exit. Just before

                         exiting, Granddad stops and turns

                         to the audience. He lifts up his

                         mask and looks out at the audience.)

 

                         GRANDDAD

Will the birds be back? I don't think so. I think we missed

our shot at saving them a long time ago, while they were

still here. I think sometimes there are no second chances in

this universe. Sometimes it's now or never. But what do I

know? I'm just an old man who misses the sky ... and the

birds ... and ... well, it doesn't matter ...

 

                         (He exits, putting on his mask. The

                         play is over.)