On The Ponies

(Lights rise up slowly to elderly woman in wheelchair.  Her head is down, obviously sleeping)

ELDERLY WOMAN: (head rises slowly) What? (long pause, she is coming out of her sleep slowly)  Who are you? (pause, she is trying to understand.) My daughter? Are you really? (She slowly looks to the side)  I had a baby once.  Do I still have a baby? Does she need me or can I still sleep a bit? (pause) Good.  I have trouble getting around, it's just too hard to take care of babies nowadays.  (her eyes are unfocused, and slowly close again for just a moment, then languidly open) I want my breakfast.  Where is my breakfast?  (pause) I did?  What the hell did I have? (pause) Did I like it?  Sometimes breakfast is pretty dull. (pause) Oh good, I liked it.  (her eyes close again, she takes a long breath. Then snappily she opens eyes, as if she is completely cognizant, looks front, voice changes to childish) Uh, you...you!  I want to go to the mooshic park.  Will you take me to the mooshic park?  (pause)  Oh you mean the music park? (pause) OH! The AMUSEMENT park....yes, that's what I used to call it, the mooshic park, because it sounded like my parents were saying music...hehehheh.
(she is becoming more physically articulate, more excited)  Excuse me? You've heard this before?  Tough crap. You get to hear it again.  (she takes a deep breath, eyes opening wider) We are going to the mooshic park.  I am so excited.  There was music, you know.  They played music on the...the...oh what the hell do you call it...(quick pause) oh yes, yes the carousel.  I was scared the first time my parents put me on it.  Yeah, very scared.  But I learned to love it.  It was the first thing we did when we went there.  Did I tell you there was an oil well on the street beside the mooshic park?  (pause) It WAS on Fairfax, not La Cienega. I KNOW that. (short breath)  Oh yeah, I remember when my parents sent me in the spook house alone, too. I was brave but I came out of that place in tears.  All that stuff was probably really fake looking but to a little kid, well, you know, because I did the same thing to my daughter, hehheheh. Yeah at the fair...heheheh.  I think it ruined Halloween for her forever. (pause)  They had other rides at the mooshic park too, I think a roller coaster.  But it was only there for awhile, probably wasn't safe.  (pause, she now speaks a bit pissily) Yes I KNOW I told you, humor me, I'm an old fart, damnit! (long pause, she is getting tired,) sigh  (eyes start to close, but open wide again) You wanna know what the best thing was for me, though?  Ay, yes you know, of course.  You know everything. It was the pony ride. (she sighs, but is excited) Yeah those poor little ponies, but I LOVED them.  It was a track, you know.  It wasn't like those lame pony rides now where they just go around in a circle.  How boring!  No, it was a real track, with a little house in the middle where they took care of the ponies. They put me on the pony and gave it a little whip and we trotted down the first part of the track, the pony would go slow.  By the way, can I have breakfast? (pause, she sighs) Sssss.  So the pony trotted slowly down the first part of the track, bumpitty bump bump.  It was really nice, I remember flags, too. Lots of colors. And I smelled cotton candy and horseshit.  And hay.  It was rare to smell horseshit and hay in Los Angeles...yeah, horseshit! Heheheheh.  ( pause) So then we'd be going along the track and sometimes it seemed forever, other times way too short...let's see, the track.  Yeah. The final stretch...the ponies were trained to go fast towards the end. Oh it was so awesome, feeling the wind in my hair, just racing on this pony, so cool, I always laughed...heheh.  I felt I was sooo free, it was so effortless...ahh...(Her eyes gently close as she says the last sentence)  I was so free.....(she lowers her head as if to return to sleep, sighs, coughs, then slowly opens her eyes again, raises her head) Who are you? (pause) Can I have breakfast?  (lights out)