View of Urban Blight in Wilkes-Barre PA
Setting: Café DeMure, Wilkes-Barre PA. People dressed in
turtlenecks, tweed sport coats, all in merriment and
closing their literary event. Smokey air mixed with channel
No.5.—Yells and comradery—crowd breaking up.
(Crowd disbursing happy, one performer on stage, Dr. Brown,
some characters remain seated in the ether of the audience)
Scene One:
(Yell From the murmuring Audience)
Otho: Yea!
Dr. Brown: “And seas were swallowed by seas in the back
seat of a chevy Nomad”
(Yell from audience)
Otho: Double Yea!
Anita: enough with Modernism, try to dig the silence, dig
the vacuum
M.: It’s enough to hear, but I need to see and the world is
raising an infinity out there and with that I’m on my way.
(M. Shakes hands and makes nods to his fellow literary
devotees as he exits the cafe)
Scene Two:
(Outside the café walking towards University Towers)
(M. walks through a cloud of cigar smoke steps in a puddle
of a spilled martini looks ahead unconcerned and travels
onward)
(Walking continues with some noise in the distance
intensity of noise increases as walking progresses)
(A seething barking black pit bull terrier and a sad woman
attempting to hold the animal from attacking something)
(M. Sees a domestic dispute between an African American
Couple and their friends surrounding a vehicle, a hot red
90’s ford mustang)
(At a local bar on the same side of the street as the
argument is a blinking red neon sign that reads BAR. An
entrenching brawl is ensuing. Two people related in some
way are standing to the side of the car)
(M. Keeps walking unhindered by either fear or the frenetic
actions that begin to surround him.)
Man on Coke: Motha fucka! I told you git tha fuck out my
car!
Woman: I will. I just want to get MY things out of the car.
Man on Coke: You hear what I said. Fuckin junky that’s all
you are a fuckin JUNKY!
That’s all you want with my car. Git the fuck out
my car!
(Man on Coke begins grabbing the woman and beating her on
the street. Stops. Woman gets up, stumbles and goes back
for the car.)
Woman: I’m not a Junky. Every weekend you do this. It’s the
same every time.
(crying and sobbing with her friends in shock to the side.)
(Man on Coke jumps into Mustang, starts it, and a loud or
broken muffler is heard. Man on Coke rolls down the window)
Man on Coke: You want my car. Here’s what you want.
(Man on Coke dumps a large purse full of objects onto the
wet street. Handheld mirror breaks. Lipstick, nail polish,
and heroin bags roll under the car. A Cell phone cracks and
breaks in the fall.)
(M. continues to walk silently and passes the sordid
incident)
(M. walks past and on to University towers)
M.: So much for seeing a world raising an infinity. If
that’s infinity, it became very fragmented quite Rapidly