Characters:
Gunny = a Marine in a field hospital
Doc = an Army surgeon
Dot = Gunny's wife
TJ = Gunny's brother
Nurse
The next scene is in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital tent with a split stage showing another scene back home in a living room. There are four characters on the split set with two on stage right, Gunny and a doctor, and two on stage left, Gunny's wife and brother Theodore. The left side is dark and characters inanimate. The right is lighted.
Gunny: What's the bad news, Doc?
Doc: You've got a bullet in your brain, soldier.
Gunny: Well, how about removing it? I know you're in the Army, so let me explain that I mean for you to remove the bullet, not my brain.
Doc: That's funny, Gunny. Hey, I rhymed.
Gunny: That's impressive. I think I may need another bullet in the head.
Doc: Sorry. Now look, marine. I can't remove the bullet without killing you. I can't send you home like this, I doubt you would make it to the chopper.
Gunny: So I spend the rest of my life on this table listening to you. What about the Geneva Convention?
Doc: We'll try to remove the slug, son. We're meatball surgeons though, used to slashing and sewing people up in a hurry. It'll have to wait until midnight, when things are calm.
The lights fade and the left side of the stage brightens.
Dot: I haven't received a letter from Gunny in weeks. I hope he's safe.
TJ: It's those North Koreans who need to keep safe.
Dot: Thank you for helping to move the lilac bushes here from Granddads.
TJ: I know it's a task, but they're so beautiful and fragrant. When I'm buried I'm going to have lilacs planted over me.
Dot: I can hardly wait for our children to run and play in the spring blossoming. Gunny and I will begin a family as soon as he returns.
TJ: That's so wonderful. It chokes me up to think about it.
The lights fade and the right side of the stage brightens. Two figures walk forward from the darkness.
Doc: I wish we could have saved him. He had a lot to live for.
Nurse: The good die young, doctor.
The lights fade and the right side of the stage brightens. Dot and TJ are sitting at the table crying; a letter in her hands. From the darkness enters Gunny, dressed in his blues, moving downstage to stand behind the couple at the table. He touches both on the back of their heads. They look towards each other and slowly fold their hands together. Gunny smiles.
Gunny: Thanks for moving the lilacs, TJ. I know it was a labor of love.
Gunny slowly turns and returns to the darkness upstage. Curtain.
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