"Bored" Games

Saturday evening. Spotlight opens on a small wooden kitchen table with a scrabble board set up for two players. Spotlight widens slowly to include two kitchen chairs occupied by an older woman, Sandy, and her daughter, Sarah. They sit quietly studying the game board and the tiles in front of them from opposite sides of the table.

After a few minutes of silence, Sarah begins to drum her fingers impatiently, as her mother touches one tile, then another. At last, Sandy carefully chooses a tile and begins to place it on the board. She hesitates, then slowly withdraws the tile, placing it carefully back on her rack. Sarah sighs loudly and pushes away from the table, scraping her chair noisily against the tile floor. Her mother looks up, distracted momentarily, then returns to the game.

Sarah walks over to a small kitchen cart. Spotlight widens to follow her movements. She removes a bottle of wine from an ice bucket placed on top of the cart, and begins to open the bottle with a clumsy cork screw. The cork squeaks as it loosens and pops from the bottle. Again her mother is distracted, but simply smiles, shakes her head, and returns to the game. Sarah pours a small amount of the golden liquid into a wine glass, looks over at her mother, rolls her eyes dramatically, and fills the glass to the brim. She returns to the table, sipping noisily, and slumps into the chair across from her mother.

Sandy touches another tile and Sarah leans forward in anticipation, but again her mother withdraws her hand and places it under her chin, looking up and smiling across the table innocently. Sarah looks pointedly at her watch. Her mother simply shrugs. A full minute of silence passes between them. Again Sarah pushes back her chair and begins to wander about the immediate stage as if appreciating the kitchen decor. She ambles slowly over to the area directly behind her mother. Sandy bends protectively over her tile rack shielding the letters from her daughters view.

Insulted by the implication that she had been trying to cheat, Sarah stomps back to her side of the table, grabs the bag of unused tiles and shakes them vigorously in front of her mothers face. Startled, her mother jumps up overturning the table and spilling the game board and the tiles onto the floor.

The two women stand face to face glaring at each other until both suddenly break into uncontrollable laughter. Sandy goes to the kitchen cart, removes the wine bottle from the ice bucket, clinks it against her daughters half empty glass, and begins to drink straight from the bottle. With a wicked gleam in her eye she raises the bottle in a mocking salute and states triumphantly. "I win."

My appologies to Jeff for breaking the no dialog rule.