coda from three houses by dave malloy

BECKETT
last night

SADIE
last night

SUSAN
last night

BECKETT
i had this dream

SADIE
i had this dream

SUSAN
i had this dream

BECKETT
that the three of us were at a café

SADIE
that the three of us were at a café

SUSAN
that the three of us were at a café

ALL
three strangers
at one table

~

BECKETT
one reading a book

SADIE
one on their laptop

SUSAN
one just staring at their coffee

~

SADIE
it was late afternoon

ALL
the sun coming hot through the windows

it was banal
and thriving
and perfect

~

BECKETT
my left hand was resting on the table

SADIE
right next to my right hand

BECKETT
when i became lost in a thought

SUSAN
when i became lost in a thought

SADIE
when i became lost in a thought

ALL
staring off into space

and as we daydreamed
our pinkies
brushed one another

~

BECKETT
we were startled

SADIE
startled by the touch

SUSAN
but we didn’t retreat

SADIE
we let them linger

SUSAN & BECKETT
let them move closer

ALL
slowly lightly playfully
let them entwine

~

SUSAN
then the third of us reached out their hands

BECKETT & SADIE
and the other two reached out their other hands

ALL
until we all joined
interlocking our pinkies
together

~

SUSAN
it felt so good to feel

BECKETT
the small rounded warmth of the fingertip

SADIE
of a stranger

ALL
though in that moment
you didn’t feel like a stranger

SADIE
you felt like family

BECKETT
and i heard the echoes
of all of our mothers
all of our fathers
grandmothers grandfathers
all of our lines stretching back and back and back

SADIE
and i heard the echoes
of all of our mothers
all of our fathers
grandmothers grandfathers
all of our lines stretching back and back

SUSAN
and i heard the echoes
of all of our mothers
all of our fathers
grandmothers grandfathers
all of our lines stretching back

ALL
until converging
in a lazy triangle
amidst the perfunctory din of a sunlit café

the three of us smiled as one

~

as we looked back at the houses we had come from
and we looked back at the people we had been
and then we looked forward
toward whoever we were each
about to become

• Experimental
• theatre
• New York