Butterfly Crossing

A One Act Play

SCENE ONE.

While the curtain is still closed and the house lights are up, MARYANNE, 60’s, walks across the stage in a bathrobe, slippers, with a towel around her head. She is dripping wet.

In her hands, a metal spoon and bowl, which she clanks together as she calls for the cat.

MARYANNE

Birdie! Come here, Birdie! Come Birdie, Birdie, come!

She makes her way across the stage and exits.

Lights go down.

A single light shines stage left on a DOCTOR sitting at a desk:

THE DOCTOR

In the case of most illnesses, a doctor can, more or less, offer a list of symptoms, their causes and their cures. Based on our experience and that of others, we are able to make certain simple predictions -- if there is concrete data. However, our brains do not work uniformly and it’s impossible to determine how a specific brain will react after sustaining an injury of this nature. How does a traumatic brain injury occur? TBIs happen as a result of an external impact on the brain: a car accident, a fall, an explosion, a bullet. This differs from internal trauma, such as a tumor or a blood clot. If you’ve heard of traumatic brain injury, made famous by IED damage sustained by soldiers in combat, chances are, you believe it’s limited to football players and the military. You would be wrong. We are all susceptible. Here’s how it works:

(pulls a model of a brain out from behind his desk.)

Our brains are extremely delicate. So much so that those three or four pounds of tissue need to float around in our heads surrounded, cushioned, if you will, by fluid. Think of it like floating in a pool.

(floats the brain around)

Now you wouldn’t think it would be easy to injure yourself while floating. Except that the same walls that keep the water in the pool, can cause unspeakable damage if you crash into them. That is what can happen in the case of a Traumatic Brain Injury: when there is a sudden stop or a hit, and the brain, which is easily compressed or stretched, collides with the skull. Or, in the case of a bullet, the protective barriers of the brain are unable to stop it from being penetrated.

(aggressively crashes the brain into his desk, as one might stomp out a cigarette. He makes an explosion sound, like a little boy playing with toy soldiers.)

You can imagine the damage this can cause to tissue, blood vessels, isolated parts of the brain or the brain as a whole -- with size, speed and trajectory constituting the main determinant of the extent of the trauma. In truth, a physician can do very little once the damage has been done. Our job becomes the prevention of further injury due to lack of oxygen to the brain or increased cranial pressure as a result of swelling from the primary injury. In any case, when the patient gets wind of what is going on, they will likely expend all manner of energy to try to convince the world around them that they are “fine.” They might become agitated or defensive when you question them. Your caring may be deemed controlling or, conversely, your questions might offer relief.

(he gets suddenly frustrated)

They are Fine. We are all Fine. Fine. In my opinion, Fine is a worse affliction than cancer. We are NOT fine. None of us is fine. Fine is the reason young people deem mediocrity acceptable.

(silly, cartoon-like voice)

How are you? Oh, I’m fine.

(angry)

No, you are not. You are overstressed, overstimulated, overburdened. We are terribly, desperately isolated, lonely, depressed -- Fine will be the end of humanity as we know it.

(he catches himself. Clears his throat.)

Excuse me.

The stage goes dark.