Open
Two friends bury a dog. A short play about grief and friendship.
Open
A Short Play for Two People
They're outside. It is about to rain.
PAUL
Do you want to say anything?
KIT
Do I have to?
PAUL
If you don't want to be a dick.
KIT
I feel weird...with it looking up at me like that.
PAUL
Him. He, not it.
KIT
I don't think your dog got a chance to understand gender.
PAUL
Doesn't matter since he's dead, right?
KIT
Fine I feel weird with him looking up at me like that.
PAUL
It's an open casket funeral, respectful.
KIT
It's not disrespectful to say it's weird.
PAUL
Yes it is.
KIT
No, because it is weird.
PAUL
Is it weird when people do it?
KIT
Yes. It's very weird.
PAUL
He should get just as much respect as anyone else.
KIT
Sure, sure. It's just...well there's not much to say, is there?
PAUL
What's that mean?
KIT
How long did you have him?
PAUL
I don't see how that matters.
KIT
Couldn't be very long, I only met him once.
PAUL
What are you trying to do?
KIT
I don't know. Put it in perspective, make it easier.
PAUL
I didn't realize there was a rulebook for grief.
KIT
Not so much "rules" as "steps."
PAUL
Not the point.
KIT
One might go far as calling them "stages."
PAUL
Shut up.
KIT
Look it was a nightmare convincing you to move the thing out of your goddamn room.
PAUL
"The thing."
KIT
His dead body. Sorry. Was trying to make it sound better for ya.
PAUL
I still don't know why he died.
KIT
Maybe if you'd taken him to the vet.
PAUL
Are you trying to make me feel bad? Look, I agreed to bury him, ok? I went all out, just for you.
KIT
I meant right when he died. Maybe they coulda told you what happened.
PAUL
Couldn't afford it even if I thought of it, I guess. He was just laying like he was sleeping. He always does that. He looks it now. Look at him.
KIT
I don't really want to.
PAUL
It would help me.
KIT
How?
PAUL
Just to know I'm not seeing things.
KIT
Nope, he's definitely in there. What is that?
PAUL
What's what?
KIT
That box, what he's lying in.
PAUL
It's a cabinet.
KIT
Did you pull it off the wall?
PAUL
I was using it like a bookshelf because the door wouldn't close. He liked to lay on top of it because it was near the heater.
KIT
Did you dig the hole big enough?
PAUL
I measured.
KIT
It's sticking out.
PAUL
I'm doing my best.
KIT
Ok.
PAUL
I don't like the way you said that.
KIT
I just said ok.
PAUL
No you said "you're not trying" but you used "ok" to say it.
KIT
You're burying your dog in a broken cabinet.
PAUL
It's sentimental.
KIT
I could have got you something better.
PAUL
It's fine the way it is.
KIT
Better get em buried before it rains.
PAUL
Someone needs to say something.
KIT
Ok. Say something.
PAUL
I don't want to.
KIT
Cool. A moment of silence, sure, but it looks like it's going to rain.
PAUL
What would you want if it was you? What would you want like your parents to say?
KIT
I don't like that question.
PAUL
You see? It's hard.
KIT
I'm scared that if I die before my parents, they wouldn't know what I would want. Or for like, what I would want it to say in the paper. Just because they don't really know me. Then I realized that it's probably more because I don't know what I would want. I have no idea how I'd want people to find out or who should be invited to mourn for me. I literally just don't know what I would want.
PAUL
Well that's not helpful.
KIT
I didn't mean it to be.
PAUL
Is this a game to you?
KIT
No, but you would have afforded yourself more good faith if you'd've done all this when he died. I feel like keeping a corpse on your bed indefinitely is worth being concerned about and I want you to know I'm serious and I'm concerned.
PAUL
I'm ok.
PAUL whistles at the dog.
KIT
What are you doing?
PAUL
I keep thinking he's just gonna get up. Look at him, he just looks like he's sleeping.
KIT
I'm not looking. Quit that you look insane.
PAUL
I learned to whistle just for him. I can just do the one, (*Whistle*), but he never really came to it anyway. Got his attention though.
PAUL whistles again.
KIT
Stop.
PAUL
Sorry.
KIT
If you're not gonna do a moment of silence can you start putting the dirt in.
PAUL
When I die I just want people to try. I don't care really what it looks like but it'll prove I was worth something to anyone who thought otherwise. Like I was worth trying for.
KIT
How would you even know?
PAUL
Doesn't matter if I did. I don't know if it's about that since I can't.
KIT
Then who's all the mourning for?
PAUL
God, it doesn't have to be for anyone. It's not like that. Who do you shit for? Who do you breathe for?
KIT
Did you fix the door?
PAUL
What?
KIT
You said it didn't close. Did you fix it? Does it close now?
PAUL
It doesn't.
KIT
Are you going to bury it open?
PAUL
Yeah, fill it with dirt. Let him decompose the natural way.
KIT
Then why use the cabinet in the first place? Just put him in the dirt.
PAUL
It's a coffin.
KIT
Yeah you don't bury coffins open.
PAUL
Stop.
KIT
You don't though.
PAUL
Let me do this my own way.
KIT
Look you don't even want to do this, and it's showing. Maybe if you just went through the motions of some kind of process you'd actually be able to move forward.
PAUL
I can't stand you when you do this. It's not helping, you telling me all this shit. It's just for you and I don't know what you want from me to make it stop. Please don't tell me what to do. Not on this kind of day.
KIT
What kind of day has it been?
PAUL
I don't really remember and it doesn't really matter. Today has felt pretty much the same, maybe a little bit more empty. I don't think I've eaten but that doesn't feel important. Today is the kind of day with an overpowering sense of impending doom, like any other.
KIT
Are you angry?
PAUL
No. I'm sad.
KIT
I don't know, I think you're angry.
PAUL
Don't try to tell me how I feel.
KIT
I don't think either of us know how you feel. I just know the only reason you're actually burying the dog is because your landlord threatened to evict you if you didn't take care of the smell.
PAUL
I would have gotten around to it.
KIT
You are now. That's progress.
PAUL
I guess.
KIT
He actually does look peaceful, now that I look at him.
PAUL
If I'm being honest I wish the door would close.
KIT
Do you want to break it?
PAUL
No.
KIT
You're looking at it like you want to break it.
PAUL
Shut up.
KIT
Do it. Just break it off.
PAUL breaks off the door. Smashes it violently. Breathing heavily...
PAUL
I need to finish burying him before it rains and the mud gets wet.
KIT
Do you want help?
PAUL
Yeah, that
would be great.
End of play