Dialogue

Okay, so here's another idea for a short play. A class is given the assignment to write down conversations that they hear and bring them to class. They have to have it by a deadline, which doesn't seem too bad at first. The students depart, and begin the assignment. Jason finds a table to sit at where he thinks he will be able to hear a good amount of conversations. After sitting at the table for half an hour, the best conversation he has is:

Girl 1: Are you hungry at all?

Girl 2: Are you?

Girl 1: Yeah.

Girl 2: Okay. Would you like to go to cafeteria?

Girl 1: Okay.

Jason is a little put off that he didn't get very much in the time he was at the table, but thinks it was pretty good for a first attempt. He leaves for the day. The next day, he is at the mall. First he tries the food court, where he can hear muffled conversations. Occasionally he can pick out some of the words that people say, but not all because the sound bounces off the tiled floors causing distortion. Once, he sits in a really good spot to hear a conversation, but is sorely disappointed when he can hear every word, but can't understand the language being spoken.

Next, he tries walking around in the stores, transcribing the conversations he hears onto his spiffy phone. He tries to be discrete, but constantly seems like he is stalking the people whose conversation he is trying to write down. At one point, he is following two girls, who are looking at Halloween costumes in the Halloween store. From their conversation he gets:

Girl 1: I really want to go to a masquerade ball.

Girl 2: Let's just have our own.

Girl 1: Yeah. You took the words right out of my mouth.

Girl 2: PJ.

Girl 1: What?

Girl 2: You took the words right out of my mouth, PJ. What's that from?

Girl 1: I don't know.

Girl 2: Robin Hood!

He stops for a moment to think about the joke the girls just shared between themselves.

Jason: PJ... Prince John (chuckles) She's right.

By this time, the girls have moved on, and he gives up on following them for fear of looking like a stalker. He continues following another couple, but doesn't get very much from them, because of how quietly they talk to each other. A group of teenage boys come into the store, and he tries to write down their conversation, but it doesn't make any sense to him, and he gets jumbled while trying to transcribe it. He leaves, frustrated at how hard this seems to be.

Wanting to sit down for a bit, he sees some benches by the play area. The kids are screaming while they play, and he starts writing it down. The conversation the kids have actually seems to make some kind of sense.

Kid 1: Ah ha! Woah! Ah!

Kid 2: Ah! Kak! Ah! Kak! Oooh!

Kid 1: Pizza! Pizza! Oof!

Kid 3: Pick Abby!

Kid 4: Abby woo pick a did jump here!

Kid 2: Hah ha!

Kid 1: P!

Kid 4: We can climb up here!

Kid 2: Na na! Neh!

Kid 3: Stay away!

Kid 1: Ahhh!

Finally sick of trying to transcribe conversation, Jason leaves the mall and heads home. The next day, he is determined to find a good conversation. He tries a few fast food restaurants, and eventually ends up in the library. A couple is having a good conversation, but he can hardly hear them. He tries sitting in at the table next to them, but they are still too quiet for him. Finally, fed up with how hard people make it for others to hear their conversations, he sets his chair right in front of them and starts typing out their conversation.

THE END