Green Girl

He takes off his shoes. She examines his feet.

JACOB
You’re looking at the feet that lost last night’s baseball game.

SLAUGHTER
I heard.

JACOB
Couldn’t take a base to save my life.

SLAUGHTER
Cause you swing that bat like a caveman.

JACOB
Why didn’t you come?

SLAUGHTER
I came.

JACOB
I looked. I didn’t see you. I’ve been asking all summer, you keep saying you’ll –

SLAUGHTER
I came, they wouldn’t let me in.

JACOB
Aw, Slaughter.

SLAUGHTER
Ain’t my fault! I had the ticket money –

JACOB
Yeah, but you were probably. . .

SLAUGHTER
What?

JACOB
Well, you were probably dressed like. . . Like, you know, like you dress.

SLAUGHTER
Yeah, so?

JACOB
Yeah, well you look like those Columbine kids. They think you’re gonna shoot up the place. You look like a terrorist.

SLAUGHTER
What am I doing here? Giving you headaches or taking them away?

JACOB
I know you’re not a terrorist. But the way you dress, the way you talk to people like you’re talking through their bowels. (Pause.) What’s your first name, Slaughter?

SLAUGHTER
Don’t get frisky with me, I’m working.

JACOB
I don’t take my shoes off for just anybody, you know. What kind of name is Slaughter anyway?

SLAUGHTER
Mama’s name, shut up.

JACOB
No, tell me about your mother.

SLAUGHTER
Told you, she’s in the trees.

JACOB
Yeah, ghosts.

SLAUGHTER
Yeah. Yeah.

JACOB
Listen, hey, I’m only asking about your life.

SLAUGHTER
You don’t know jack about my mother, my mother -

JACOB
Hey –

SLAUGHTER
My mother was the most graceful –

JACOB
Listen, it’s like you walked into my house during my father’s funeral, and you went up to his room, and you looked into his closet, and you touched his neckties. And I’m only asking, “what was your mother like” so don’t get –

SLAUGHTER
Jeez.

JACOB
So don’t get petty.

SLAUGHTER
My mom sold Mary Kay, she made soup from the can, she had two freckles on her face, and she was forty-two when she died, so are you gonna let me check out your headache or what?