AWAY UP NORTH
By Zac Thompson
CHARACTERS:
LINDSEY would-be writer; gone off up North; late twenties
BETH Lindsey’s sister-in-law; remedial ed. teacher; visiting from out of town; mid thirties
SCENE: the tiny bedroom of Lindsey’s tiny apartment on the north side of Chicago
SYNOPSIS: Lindsey, who has left her small town to pursue her dream of being a writer in the big city, hosts her sister-in-law, Beth, who’s in town for work. After a night out, each woman discovers the other carries her own private burden of disappointment.
* * *
A bedroom. BETH is performing her nightly pre-sleep ritual, but this isn’t her room. As she applies moisturizer, makes adjustments to the bed, and such, she casually, almost absentmindedly, snoops around.
A knock at the door gives her a guilty little start.
BETH
Oh! Come on in!
The door opens and LINDSEY appears.
LINDSEY
Hi, sorry. I just wanted to make sure you’re all set in here. And I need to grab a pillow.
BETH
Oh, of course! Take whatever you need.
LINDSEY takes a pillow.
BETH, cont.
I feel so bad about kicking you out of your bed like this!
LINDSEY
It’s no trouble at all.
BETH
I could have stayed at the hotel where they’re having the conference. That’s where all the other teachers are staying. A hotel full of remedial ed. teachers –- can you imagine?
LINDSEY
No, I don’t think I can. But I’m glad you’re here.
BETH
You’re sweet, but nobody wants to shack up with their ol’ sister-in-law. And I just hate kicking you out of your bed like this!
LINDSEY
It’s totally fine —- really.
BETH
I don’t know why I assumed there’d be another bedroom. I always forget how itty bitty these city apartments are.
LINDSEY
Yeah, sorry about that . . .
BETH
I’m sure you city gals get used to it.
This is embarrassing, so an awkward pause descends.
LINDSEY
Right. . . .
BETH
I had so much fun tonight. Your friends are great!
LINDSEY
Those were just some people from work . . .
BETH
Well, they were great. And so sweet to take a little country mouse like me out on the town! What was the name of that area where we went?
LINDSEY
Lakeview?
BETH
See, I was going to guess Wrigleyville. The Cubs stadium was right there.
LINDSEY
Well, Wrigleyville is part of Lakeview. It’s like a subsection?
BETH
Oh goodness. I don’t know how you all keep these things straight. I’d be calling Lakeview Wrigleyville and Wrigleyville I don’t know what.
LINDSEY
Yeah, it can be confusing I guess . . .
BETH
I do like how much character the neighborhoods have up here, though. It’s just so nice to see some diversity for a change.
LINDSEY
In Lakeview?
BETH
It’s a far cry from home, I can tell you that. You should hear some of the things people say –- even some of the other teachers at school! I’m like, “We’re supposed to be educators!” What kind of kids are we going to be raising if we’re still talking like it’s before the Civil War, you know?
LINDSEY
Yeah, I mean, you’re right.
BETH
That’s why it’s so refreshing to see such diversity, such a blending of, of . . .
LINDSEY
There’s a little of that, but it’s still a very segregated city.
BETH
Oh, I don’t think so. I think it’s just right. Especially compared to home. You want to talk about segregated cities, we can talk about segregated cities. And just years of entrenched, just deep-seated –- You should hear some of the things my own father says when he gets all riled up on Fox News.
LINDSEY
Does Mr. Miller watch Fox News?
BETH
Are you kidding? They all do! Every one of them. You turn 50 back home, and it’s like you sign a contract to spend six hours a day sitting in front of Fox News and railing about immigrants. I mean it –- the very same day you turn 50. It’s like getting your AARP card.
LINDSEY
My parents don’t watch it, do they?
BETH
Tom and Linda? Oh goodness no. Your mother says cable news is racket and you know your mother: She can’t stand racket. Even if the racket is coming from her own grandchildren. Poor Collins and Halsey have to sit there on her couch like they’re in Sunday School, terrified of making a peep.
LINDSEY
Well, she says she has sensitive ears . . .
BETH
It’s like I tell your brother, who never could stand up to her as you know -- like I tell Nathan, it would just be nice if --
She stops herself.
BETH, cont.
But anyway. I actually don’t hear much political talk of any sort from Tom and Linda, now that I think of it. So maybe they’re the exceptions and they don’t watch Fox News. But I don’t know what they talk about with their friends at church or wherever because everybody else that age watches it just nonstop. And even a lot of the people our age feel the same Fox-Newsy way, even if they don’t watch Fox News. They’re just Fox News watchers-in-waiting. Lord, the uniformity of it!
LINDSEY
That used to drive me crazy, too. The way everybody seemed to be in complete agreement about everything. Everybody but me, I mean.
BETH
Tell me about it! That’s what I mean by how refreshing it is to see such diverse . . . you know, groups — What was the name of that guy we were hanging out with tonight? Roberto? He’s so funny!
LINDSEY
You mean Robert? I think some of his friends call him Roberto sometimes as a joke, but I’m pretty sure it’s just Robert.
BETH
Well but yeah, but he’s Latino, right?
LINDSEY
Right . . .
BETH
You see, that’s what I mean! So refreshing! To see a group of friends with such diversity --
LINDSEY
Okay, but as I said, he’s not like a close friend or anything. Just somebody I know from work. All those people were just people I know from work. They were going out tonight anyway and since I knew you’d be in town -- To tell you the truth, it hasn’t been the easiest thing to break into like a preexisting group of friends here. I never know where you’re supposed to meet new people.
BETH
I just think it must be so cool, living on your own in the big city, doing your writing thing and, I don’t know, going to bars and brunches and all. You’re still doing your writing thing, aren’t you?
LINDSEY
Here and there. When I have time . . .
BETH
See? That’s what I mean! What’s the name of that newspaper where you work?
LINDSEY
I don’t –- I’m temping at the law firm. With the people you met tonight?
BETH
Oh I know, but don’t you also –-
LINDSEY
Sometimes –- In the past, I’ve written some stuff for the alt-weekly –- just a couple quick Q&As and a profile of this outsider artist –- but that was all freelance.
BETH
See, I don’t even know what half of those words mean! That is so neat.
LINDSEY
It’s really no big deal. Actually, my writing, it –- Well, that’s another area where I’m not really making as much progress as I would have liked.
BETH
Oh, you’re too modest. You’ve always been too modest. You never could take a compliment.
LINDSEY
I just didn’t want you to get an inaccurate picture –-
BETH
I don’t have an inaccurate picture –-
LINDSEY
-- and then go back home and –-
BETH
I wouldn’t! I’m just saying it’s cool is all. To have a thing you want to pursue and then to come up here and pursue it. I think it’s admirable. I really do.
LINDSEY
You talk like I’m curing cancer or –- It was a 500-word profile of that outsider artist. And it had been edited beyond recognition by the time it finally came out. And you’re a special ed. teacher, Beth! What’s more admirable than that?
BETH
Remedial ed. And big whoop. I help some confused kids stumble their way through school for a while so they can MAYBE graduate and get jobs at Walmart. Or get addicted to opioids. Or both. Did I tell you they took away Lexi Davis’s twins?
LINDSEY
No! Are you serious?
BETH
She OD’d right there at one of their gymnastics meets. Family services had no choice.
LINDSEY
Lexi was in Nathan’s year. She was always so pretty.
BETH
You wouldn’t think that now. She weighs about 11 pounds and there’s just nothing behind the eyes. I’m telling you, Linds: The options are very limited back home nowadays. That’s why you’re lucky.
LINDSEY
I know. I am. It’s just . . .
BETH
Just what?
LINDSEY
I don’t know. Lately I’ve been thinking . . . They have these accelerated nursing programs where if you go full time, you can finish in a year.
BETH
Full time? But what about your job?
LINDSEY
Well, that’s the thing: I’d probably have to move back home for a while –-
BETH
What?!
LINDSEY
- just until I finished the program. I wouldn’t be
able to afford it otherwise. There are pretty good nursing courses at Weston and that’s only 15 minutes from Mom and Dad’s house. And then afterwards, I could decide whether I wanted to move back here or maybe stay home or –-
BETH
Stay home? What are you saying?
LINDSEY
It’s not such a bad place to be.
BETH
Our hometown? The one with the meat processing plant that makes everything smell like slaughtered hogs?
LINDSEY
It has plenty of positive qualities, too. And anyway, it’s where I’m from. Where we’re both from.
BETH
I cannot believe what I’m hearing! What about your writing, your life here in the city, your friends and the brunches and everything? You’d be willing to give all that up for some, what, accelerated nursing program at the community college back home? That sounds like something my dumb sister would register for and then drop out of after six weeks because she has to take her boyfriend’s kid to physical therapy –- Did I tell you Rodney got in an accident on his four-wheeler?
LINDSEY
I’m not sure you’re listening to what I’m telling you, Beth.
BETH
And I’m not sure you’re listening to ME. Lindsey, you are bound for bigger things – a fuller life – than what we have back there, I promise you.
LINDSEY
I don’t think so, Beth. I mean, I guess DID think so. Once. My mom says the whole reason I went away in the first place was because I was always “acting superior.” And maybe I was. But now that I know I’m NOT superior, what am I supposed to do? Stay on here in mediocrity forever, piling up disappointment after disappointment?
BETH
Well, that does sound like something your mother would say. But do you know what I think this is? Homesickness. That’s all in the world it is. And it’s
BETH
completely natural to get homesick from time to time. I mean, I imagine that to be true. I wouldn’t really know. But I imagine it to be true.
LINDSEY
Okay, but I think it’s more than that.
BETH
But it’s not though! Because to suggest otherwise would be to suggest that our town is a place worth missing. To be honest, you should be glad you’re homesick because it means you got away. You’re not stuck at home. Better to be homesick than stuck-sick, right?
LINDSEY
Is that how you feel? Stuck-sick?
BETH
Me? Oh, of course not. I don’t have time to feel any kind of sick, what with teaching and shuttling the kids between lessons for stuff they’re never gonna need in real life –- Did I tell you Halsey made first chair in orchestra?
LINDSEY
Did she really?
BETH
Yeah, the girl she takes lessons from over at the university says she has real talent. Though it’s hard to tell how much of that is just blowing smoke. What’s she gonna say? “This child is a worthless clod and I won’t accept any more money from you no matter how much you beg”? Let’s not forget I have some experience in the blowing-smoke-at-parents department myself. Lord knows I’ve done my share of putting a positive
spin on the educational prospects of various illiterate pyromaniacs I’ve had the pleasure of teaching long division to.
LINDSEY
Well but it sounds like Halsey is getting pretty good?
BETH
She is. She’s good. I didn’t mean to make it sound like . . . It’s just that kids take so many lessons. You know? Musical instruments, gymnastics, Mandarin Chinese. It’s like they’re preparing for these full and exciting lives, when the truth is that the full and exciting parts are over for most of us before we’re old enough to vote. Maybe it’s the parents who should be taking lessons. I wouldn’t mind learning Mandarin Chinese.
LINDSEY
That’s my point. I feel like I’ve spent my whole life getting ready to be this person I’m never going to be.
BETH
No but you’re different, Linds. Compared to the rest of us? You got out. You don’t get out and then go back in. That’s just -- You can’t do that. Can you?
They think about this for a moment.
LINDSEY
Sometimes I wonder if . . . Beth, do you think anybody is happy? Like anybody at all? Like on earth?
BETH
Of course I do! Plenty of people are happy!
Beat
BETH
But do you mean like long-term happy?
LINDSEY
Yes.
BETH
Oh.
Pause
BETH, cont.
Well, in that case, no.
LINDSEY thinks about this. BETH goes back to her moisturizer.
End