Manatees

(The aquarium.  TEA and ALBERT observe the manatees.)

TEA:  What’s going to happen to the manatees?

ALBERT:  They’ll either be fine with the rest of us or they’ll die with the rest of us.

TEA:  We should do something.  To help them.

ALBERT:  What can we do them that we aren’t already doing for us?

TEA:  They have those underground bunkers.  Maybe they have tanks in them?

ALBERT:  I don’t think they were worrying about preserving marine life when they built those bunkers.

TEA:  Well, they should have.  They should be concerned about, you know, life—on the planet.  What’s the point of saving a bunch of rich humans but nothing else?  No plants, no animals—

ALBERT:  Maybe they do have tanks—I don’t know.  We don’t know that the oceans won’t be fine anyway.  Maybe there’ll be more ocean.  We don’t know that the planet will be unliveable for all forms of life, just…us.

TEA:  So maybe the manatees should be worrying about us.

ALBERT:  Exactly.

TEA:  Why did we think getting high and going to an aquarium was a good idea?

ALBERT:  We thought getting high was a good idea.  The aquarium visit was a by-product of that.

TEA:  And why did we get high?

ALBERT:  What else were we going to do?

TEA:  Are we in Boston or Providence?

ALBERT:  We’re not in Providence.  Providence doesn’t have an aquarium.

TEA:  Could we be in Mystic?

ALBERT:  We could be in Mystic.

TEA:  I’m usually not this confused when I’m high.

ALBERT:  Well…we did some other stuff too, remember?

TEA:  No, I don’t.  We did?  I don’t—remember.  Maybe that was the point.

ALBERT:  The manatees are making me anxious.

TEA:  I’ve never done drugs.

ALBERT:  Me either, but why not?

TEA:  Right.  Why not?  How much did we do?

ALBERT:  We did a lot—of everything.

TEA:  And now we’re at an aquarium.

ALBERT:  Yup.

TEA:  Remember when we saw that play where those two guys were just standing there and it meant something but we couldn’t figure out what it meant?

ALBERT:  Yeah.

TEA:  I feel like that.  I feel like I’m standing here and I’m looking at manatees and I’m supposed to know something but I don’t know what it is and it’s like having a word at the tip of your tongue but you can’t get to it.

ALBERT:  The word is depression.

TEA:  No.

ALBERT:  The word is mania.

TEA:  It’s not.

ALBERT:  Desperation?

TEA:  Maybe desperation.

ALBERT:  How are we going to get home?

TEA:  We’ll take a cab.

ALBERT:  Do we have money?

TEA:  We’ll owe it.

ALBERT:  You can’t owe it.  Just because the world is ending doesn’t mean the laws of economy are out the window.  You still have to pay cabdrivers.  That much hasn’t changed.

TEA:  So we’ll stay here.  We’ll sit right in front of the manatees.  It’ll be soothing.

ALBERT:  What if the tanks bust when the comet hits?  Then, we’ll drown, or the manatees will eat us.

TEA:  They wouldn’t do that.  They’re our friends.

ALBERT:  They’d have to.  How else would they survive?  It’s going to be pretty cutthroat in not a lot of time at all.

TEA:  There are still things that’ll remain true.  There are still going to have to be things you can count on.

ALBERT:  I’m not sure not getting eaten by manatees would be one of those things.

TEA:  I can’t move.  I can’t go anywhere.  I just need to sit.

(She sits.)

Whatever we did, we did too much of it.

ALBERT:  I want weird stuff to happen.  I want the manatees to talk to me.

TEA:  What do you want them to say?

ALBERT:  I want them to tell me everything’s going to be all right.

TEA:  Everything’s going to be all right.

ALBERT:  Tea, I love you, you’re my friend—but you’re not a manatee.

TEA:  So what if I’m not a manatee?

ALBERT:  I need wisdom.

TEA:  What makes you think manatees are wise?

ALBERT:  You don’t think they are?

TEA:  Of course they are, but we don’t really know that!  It’s just something we feel inside ourselves.  Besides, you have no connection with them, I do.  I can sense what they would say to you if they could speak, and they would say, ‘Everything’s going to be all right.’  And also—We’re in Boston.

ALBERT:  The manatees told you that?

TEA:  No, I just remembered us taking the bus up here.

ALBERT:  The bus!

TEA:  I think whatever I took is wearing off.

ALBERT:  Good.  Then find us another bus.

(He sits.)

TEA:  I don’t want to go home.  I like it here.  I like aquariums.  Have you ever been somewhere and thought to yourself—I should just live here?  I should just stay right where I am, where I’m happy.

ALBERT:  We can’t though.  We’re ocean specialists.

TEA:  Oceanographers, and no, we’re not.  But still—it’s a public place.

ALBERT:  It’s not a house.

TEA:  I can help with things.  Feedings and stuff.  I’ll even get in the tank and swim around with them if they want me to.

ALBERT:  Tea, I hate to tell you this, but you’re going to have to find somewhere to be happy other than in the aquarium.

TEA:  But that could take so much time.  And we really don’t have a lot of time left.  And we’re already here.  Can’t we just stay here?  You know, until we know how things are going to go down.

ALBERT:  I don’t want to die here.

TEA:  Are there better places to die?

ALBERT:  No, there is no good place to die, but you have to die like a normal human being, you can’t die with the manatees.  It’s not the way things are supposed to go.  If you want, I can try to find a way to push you into the shark tank and they can eat you, and that, at least, will sort of be honoring the food chain, but you can’t just sit here staring at sea mammals until it all ends.

TEA:  If you make me leave, I’m going to die.  I’ll have a panic attack and die.  Or seize up and fall to the ground and become totally paralyzed.  Something.  Something will happen, but I’ll be useless.  I won’t even be human anymore, I’ll just be a lump.  And you’ll have to carry me around on your back like a Sherpa all over Boston until you find a bus that can take us back home.

ALBERT:  What if we agree that you can sit here—we can sit here—for a little while, but we have to at least consider the idea of getting up and going?

(A moment.)

TEA:  I’ll consider it.

ALBERT:  Thank you.

TEA:  I make no promises.

ALBERT:  Once you’re fully—You’ll want to go.  Then we can go.

TEA:  I’m never going to want to go.  Maybe we will go eventually, but I’m never going to want to.

ALBERT:  What if the world doesn’t end?  What if this isn’t it?

TEA:  What do you—

ALBERT:  Because then we’ll have to go.  People will come here, and they’ll see us, and they’ll make us leave, because life will have to get back to normal.  Have you thought about that?

TEA:  About everything turning out all right?  No, I hadn’t thought about that.  To be honest, I hadn’t thought about that at all.

(They sit and watch the manatees.)