(A gift shop.)


CLARK
So you’ll take the camera? Great! Great, then I’ll just…I’ll just wrap it up. Or, I mean, you probably don’t want it wrapped, I just—

GRACE
No, it’s not a gift.

CLARK
’Course not. Course this disposable camera isn’t a gift. It’s probably for a, for a baby shower or a bachelorette party, right?

GRACE
Something like that.

CLARK
Really? I was close? I mean, it’s not your baby shower, is it? Or wedding? You’re not getting married, are you?

GRACE
I think you’re asking a few personal questions now. Do you think that’s right for you to be doing that to your customer?

CLARK
Oh, well, I guess—I’m sorry—I guess, I sorta see you now as more than a customer. You seem more like…someone else.

GRACE
Well, maybe I’d…be…more like someone else if I didn’t have to buy anything. If I really weren’t your customer.

(pause)

CLARK
Oh…well…okay, then.
(pause)
Don’t be my customer anymore. Be more than that. I’ll just—I’ll just give you the camera.

GRACE
You would do that? Act so generously once more?

CLARK
I would. If that would make it okay for me to talk to you more. To ask you about things, personal things.

GRACE
It would certainly make me feel more comfortable.

CLARK
Okay. Then here. I’ll give you the camera, and now you’re, you’re just a beautiful woman who walked in here and who I decided to give a camera to. You’re not a customer. Just a woman. Just a young woman in this store.

GRACE
The store that you own.

CLARK
That I own.

(pause)

GRACE
I’m going to a carnival.

CLARK
A carnival? Where?

GRACE
Far away from here. Outside of this island. This wasteland.

CLARK
I didn’t know there was a carnival going on.

GRACE
There’s always a carnival going on. You just have to find it.

CLARK
And you like to take pictures of it? Of the animals?

GRACE
I don’t think there will be animals at this carnival.

CLARK
Aren’t animals always part of a carnival?

GRACE
No.

(pause)

CLARK
I rode a ride with my sister once, when we were kids, this ride in a giant strawberry or apple or some kind of fruit, and when you sat on the inside, there was a steering wheel—green, like it was a leaf—and it would make the fruit spin around.

GRACE
I know that ride.

CLARK
And my sister kept turning the wheel.

GRACE
That’s very common.

CLARK
And she turned it so many times, and I kept telling her to stop and slow down, but she just kept screaming and laughing and telling me to quit being a baby. So when I got off the ride—

GRACE
You threw up?

CLARK
Yeah. How’d you—

GRACE
It just sounded like that’s where the story was going.

CLARK
Guess it’s not very original.

GRACE
Not really.

CLARK
Oh.

GRACE
Not when it comes to carnivals, it’s not. When it comes to gift shops, it would be. It’s all context. If you threw up here, in the gift shop, because you spun a camera around in circles or something…that would be unique.

CLARK
Yeah, I haven’t done that.

GRACE
Well, you have plenty of time to make original memories.

CLARK
I guess.

GRACE
Would you mind gift wrapping the camera?

CLARK
I thought you didn’t—

GRACE
I didn’t. When I was a customer. But now that I’m just a…beautiful woman—that’s what you called me, right? Then maybe I do want the camera gift wrapped. Maybe it would make me feel special.

CLARK
Oh, well. Yeah, see, we actually don’t gift wrap. I don’t even have any paper or tape.

GRACE
Then you really shouldn’t have offered.

CLARK
I know. I just got, I don’t know, I was a little flustered, I guess.

GRACE
Well, if you offer something like that, it can really disappoint a girl when you don’t follow through.

CLARK
I’m sorry. You’re right. You’re so right, and I shouldn’t have said it…

GRACE
You shouldn’t have…
(pause)
But you do sell wrapping paper. I see it over there. This is a gift shop after all.

CLARK
Oh, yeah, we sell it.

(pause)

GRACE
I like the purple wrapping paper. Right there. The one with the colorful butterflies on it. See how the butterflies are colorful?

CLARK
Blue and pink and orange.

GRACE
Red and green too.

CLARK
I guess I could…I mean, if I open the wrapping paper, I can’t sell it then.

GRACE
No, you can’t.

CLARK
And I’d have to open some tape too. I have the scissors though. They’re in that drawer over there.

GRACE
That’s good.

(pause)

CLARK
But I don’t know if I should open it up. That’s quite a few things that I won’t be able to get the payment for.

GRACE
Well, I’d hate to see our relationship change back to being a customer and shop owner. I’d hate to see that because I was going to tell you a few other personal things. Personal things I would never say if I were just a customer.

CLARK
Really?

GRACE
Yes.

(pause)

CLARK
Things about yourself?

GRACE
Yes, I’d like to share some things about myself with you.

CLARK
Things that you like, maybe?

GRACE
Maybe.

CLARK
Things that you like to do? With other people? Like me?

GRACE
I don’t know. I had so many things I was going to tell you, but now I’m just not so sure.

(pause)

CLARK
Well, I can wrap the camera. That’s not a problem. I’d like to wrap it. I’d like to wrap for you.

GRACE
With the butterfly wrapping paper.

CLARK
Yes.
(pause)
Okay! Okay, so I’ll wrap it.
(opens wrapping paper and tape)
What were you going to tell me?

GRACE
What would you like to know?

CLARK
Do you…do you sleep in a nightgown?

GRACE
Now, I don’t know your name yet—

CLARK
It’s—

GRACE
I don’t know your name, but if I did, I would use your name right now and say to you, “Name, that’s not a very appropriate question to ask someone you just met.”

CLARK
I know. I’m sorry. I’m Clark, and I’m sorry. You’re just so…I’m sorry I asked that. I meant to ask something else. Something like what your favorite ride is at the carnival, but it just, it just slipped out and I’m sorry.

GRACE
That’s okay, Clark. I’m not mad at you—because you’ve treated me so well so far.

CLARK
Thank you.

GRACE
It’s just hard when a girl like me is trying to talk with a guy like you and he brings up the issue of sleeping…in a bed…in a nightie…or whatever it is that I happen to sleep in, that you don’t know yet, but can’t help wanting to know.

CLARK
Yeah…

(pause)

GRACE
You haven’t started wrapping yet, Clark.

CLARK
I—oh, right. I, I need to cut the paper.

(pause)

GRACE
My favorite ride…Well, I like the ferris wheel.

CLARK
Me too!

GRACE
But the ferris wheel is rather typical.

CLARK
Oh.

GRACE
It’s common, Clark. It really is. But not without reason. It’s high, and it’s fast—sometimes anyway. And you can see the whole world from the top of the ferris wheel.

CLARK
Really?

GRACE
Yes, Clark. Have you ever seen that?

CLARK
No. The ferris wheels I’ve gone on are small, I guess. I can only see the field.

GRACE
Well, the world looks quite different from the top of the ferris wheel. Everything looks very small and insignificant, and the grass looks like it was just colored on with a forest green crayon. And the water looks like a tiny blue ink spill on a piece of construction paper. And you can’t tell what is one country or state. It’s all together. And if you stare at it, when the ferris wheel is going fast enough, you can see everything—the greens and the blues, and even some whites—all combine together, and they show you the emotions of the world.

CLARK
The emotions?

GRACE
And you know the emotions that are the biggest?

CLARK
No.

GRACE
Lust and greed.

CLARK
Huh.

GRACE
Yup.

CLARK
What do they look like?

GRACE
Faces. Faces of lust, faces of greed.

CLARK
How do you know what those faces look like? I mean, on the earth.

GRACE
I just know. We all know what those faces look like because they’re the faces that are the most common on the earth. We have them here right now.
(pause)
They’re always here.
(pause)
You haven’t gotten very far wrapping that, have you?

CLARK
I guess I’m not so good at wrapping.

GRACE
Here.
(walks close to him)
I’m good at wrapping.
(she leans close to him and shows him)
You have to fold in the edges…like this.

CLARK
Oh.

(She backs up. He keeps staring at her)

GRACE
So I like the ferris wheel. But my favorite ride, by far, is the dunking booth.

CLARK
That’s not really a ride, is it?

GRACE
Clark—

CLARK
I like it when you say my name.

GRACE
Then I’ll be careful not to overuse it.
(pause)
You hurt my feeling when you questioned me about the dunking booth.

CLARK
I did? I’m sorry. I had no idea it would hurt you…I was just talking, making conversation. You know—trying to be a part of what you were saying.
(CLARK drops the gift wrapping and moves to her)

GRACE
And now, you’re getting awfully close to me.

(CLARK backs up)

CLARK
Please don’t think anything wrong of me. I would never hurt you. I have only very very good intentions for you. For us. That’s why I’m giving you the camera. And gift wrapping it. I want to give it to you. I like you.
(pause)
Will you tell me your name?

(pause)

GRACE
It’s Grace.

CLARK
Grace…Grace! That’s perfect! That’s a perfectly beautiful fitting name for you, Grace! You are so graceful! So graceful!

GRACE
Clark! You’re getting too close again.

CLARK
Oh. Right. Yes, Grace. I’ll back up. I’ll finish wrapping my gift for you. You’ll stay, won’t you? You’ll stay until I’m done, and still tell me more wonderful personal things about yourself? Won’t you, Grace?

GRACE
Well, since you do try very hard...
(pause)
I like the dunking booth ride best of all.

CLARK
Yes, that’s wonderful, Grace. A wonderful ride. Tell me about that. Please.

GRACE
You’ll have to go back to your wrapping.

CLARK
Okay. But…can’t you come closer to me? Can’t you stay near me while I wrap? I think it would make things easier for me. Make me able to wrap things more quickly.

GRACE
I think it would make you wrap things more slowly.

CLARK
No, no. It wouldn’t. And…and so what if it did? Would that be so bad? To stay here just a little bit longer.

GRACE
Clark, I don’t know you, and I feel you’re gaining an attachment to me that might be, well, a bit more than I actually warrant.

CLARK
No. No, the attachment is right. It’s exactly what it should be. For me to you. Please. Just move a little bit closer. Please.

GRACE
Well, alright.

CLARK
Thank you. Thank you, Grace! You’re so lovely. So beautiful and warm. So sweet to me.

(pause)

GRACE
I like the dunking booth ride because there is no greater thrill than throwing something so hard that it makes another human being fall. Into ice cold water. That is a ride.

CLARK
Huh. I never looked at it that way before.

GRACE
I had to be in a dunking booth once. I was in one and got dunked 17 times in one hour.

CLARK
Did you like it?

GRACE
I hated it. When it was over, I tracked down as many of those people I could find, the ones that dunked me, and I made them apologize to me.

CLARK
Really? Did they do it?

GRACE
Some of them did. The ones that didn’t, the ones that were too good to apologize, or who wouldn’t take me seriously, I made sure they were sorry another way.