My Mother

Situation: Fifteen year old Liz is up early in the morning thinking about the meeting with her mother later that day. She is nervous because this is actually the first time she will see her mother because she abandoned Liz when she was a new born. Liz lived in an orphanage until she was five and then she was adopted by Jane and Scott McLean.

(Lights go up. Liz is standing, remembering her past and thinking about her future. She is looking at a stuffed animal that she has had since she was a baby)

(Nervous tone) It's now or never. I'd always dreamed of this day in the orphanage - the day I would finally meet my birth Mother. I never thought that I would be this scared. (Picks up stuffed animal off the stool) Where did the time go? (Looks at stuffed toy, flicks its ear) It seems like only yesterday when I was playing imaginary games with you in the orphanage. (Looks around room) I still remember the first night I spent in this room. I was hoping that maybe I would belong to someone who wanted me and who loved me. I would finally belong to a family.

Listen to me, I'm still talking to you as if you were a real person. I guess old habits die hard. (Puts stuffy down on stool and walks away from it)

I am part of a family, a real loving family. That will never change…I hope?

This is so unfair. Who does this woman think she is? She had me when she was eighteen. When she finds out that she is pregnant, she moves away from home and then when I come along she just leaves me on a neighbor's doorstep. It's not as if she was just running out to the store to get milk and some diapers. She left town and no one has seen her since.

Now a good sixteen years later she wants me back, to bond with me. Well I have four words for her. TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE! What does she think? When I see her I'll just run into her arms, forgive her for abandoning me? Does she think that we'll just have this instant connection or something? Maybe she expects me to come and live with her. Well I'm happy here and I 'm not moving. Maybe I 'll. refuse to see her. That will teach her to just leave me on some doorstep and then come back sixteen years latter expecting a reunion. (Picks up stuffed animal) Maybe she didn't have a choice. Maybe her life was going no where back then and she wanted me to have the best life I could. It's not as if I had the worst life. Jane and Scott are great parents; they let me do all sorts of stuff. They always loved me as if I was their own. Jane did say that she had been looking for me for two years.

Listen, do you want to know a secret? Well, sometimes I still think about what she looks like and what I might have inherited from her. Maybe she loves to travel as I do and read about a time long ago. I wonder if she's married and has more kids. There are so many questions; maybe this is a good way to get the answers. So maybe I should go, just to get those answers.

(Looks at watch) It's nine already; I better go and get ready. In a way, I can't wait to meet my…. my Mother.

Curtain

Copyright © 1998 Lesley Clarke
All Rights Reserved

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