Setting: A doctor’s office in a mental
hospital.
Characters: Doctor-6’4, 220lbs, Brown
hair, brown eyes. Handsome. Male
Patient-5’5, 130lbs, Red hair,
hazel eyes. Attractive, freckles and all.
Female
{Doctor sitting behind a desk genuinely concerned}
{Patient enters and sits on the other side of desk}
DOCTOR: “You were admitted yesterday, correct?”
PATIENT: “Yes”
{Patient notices a picture of a boy fishing on doctor’s desk.}
DOCTOR: “Lets talk about what happened yesterday.”
{Patient looks longingly out of her doctor’s barred window}
PATIENT: “That’s a nice picture on your desk.”
DOCTOR: “Oh yes, I was fishing with my mother.”
PATIENT: “Not your father?”
{Doctor looks at picture and starts to fiddle with pen}
DOCTOR: “No my father would never take me fishing.”
PATIENT: “Why, what happened?”
{Doctor looks longingly out of his barred window}
DOCTOR: “Well it’s complicated, he was abusive”
{Doctor continues to fiddle with pen}
PATIENT: “How was he abusive?”
DOCTOR: “Well he would say mean things as well as physically hurt
me.”
PATIENT: “Did he abuse your mother as well?”
DOCTOR: “Yes, she eventually left though.”
PATIENT: “She left you behind?”
DOCTOR: “Well yes.”
{Patient notices Doctors fiddling of Pen}
PATIENT: “Your hands are callused.”
DOCTOR: “Yes, woodworking is a hobby of mine, I help out with
habitat for humanity.”
{Patient notices assorted Disney stuffed animals on shelf}
PATIENT: “Do you counsel children as well?”
{Doctor follows gaze of Patient}
DOCTOR: “No, just a Disney fan, a quirk of mine.”
PATIENT: “I thought you might counsel to children because of the
stuffed animals and jar of m&m’s on your desk”
DOCTOR: “No, the m&m’s are an indulgence of mine”
{Patient notices singles ads scattered on desk}
PATIENT: “You want a family some day don’t you?
DOCTOR: “Yes.”
PATIENT: “Your afraid you’ll never get a family aren’t you?”
DOCTOR: “Yes I am.”
{Doctor fiddles with pen and furrows brows as he looks at patient}
DOCTOR: “Why don’t we talk about you now?"
PATIENT: “There’s nothing to tell, I had an emotion, and am now being
punished.”
{Patient starts to pick her lip}
DOCTOR: “Lets talk about what happened at the museum?”
PATIENT: “I got fired from my job as a tour guide because I had a
human emotion”
DOCTOR: “What made you angry?”
PATIENT: “An arrogant, controlling jerk.”
DOCTOR: “Isn’t that the reason you and your family parted ways?”
PATIENT: “Yes.”
{Patient tastes blood from her lip}
DOCTOR: “Your lip is bleeding.”
PATIENT: “I’m aware.”
DOCTOR: “When you were admitted you were wearing a Christmas
wreath pin.”
{Patient averts eyes to the window}
PATIENT: “I watch Christmas movies all year round, it’s something
that helps me deal with things.”
DOCTOR: “What’s your favorite Christmas movie?”
PATIENT: “Holiday Inn.”
DOCTOR: “Have you ever seen the sequel, White Christmas?
PATIENT: “No, Fred Astaire isn’t in it, they changed the cast.”
DOCTOR: “You don’t like it when things change?”
PATIENT: “No I don’t.”
{Patient begins to pick her lip again, her fingers already bloody}
DOCTOR: “Let’s go back to the museum, did you like working there?”
PATIENT: “Yes, I love art, I hope to be a painter someday”
{Patient digs deeper into her lip}
DOCTOR: “We have an art class here, you know.”
PATIENT: “Yes I know, therapeutic art, maybe someday I’ll see the
ashtray with my name on it in the museum where I used to work.”
PATIENT: “When do you think I can get out of here?”
DOCTOR: “I don’t know that depends on you.”
PATIENT: “Do you know what it’s like to be confined doctor, to be
prevented from getting what you want?”
{Doctor looks at picture on desk as well as singles ads scattered all
over}
DOCTOR: “Yes, I do.”
