Male- Always Standing Never Falling

(Scene opens with Oscar. He is looking at his wedding ring. Smiling with excitement before he addresses the audience.) Wedding rings for men are not as interesting is wedding rings for women. (Smiles) You never see a man with a two-piece wedding ring with diamonds make the front story of the newspaper. But mine, was just enough for me. It was cheap and I knew it, it was silver, it was absolutely beautiful and it meant that I was loved. (Beat) Love. I think that people take love for granted. Ever really think about how sad it would be in life if you didn't have love? From anyone? Ever? (Beat) I have, for a few years in my life, I thought about it quite often. That's been my life… until now. Some of you might think that I'm being melodramatic or overreacting to my analogy of love. But it is very true. My mother: my mother was a prostitute. I don't talk about her much because the few flashes that I remember of her were what I heard from hiding on the floor of my closet. (Covers ears and goes back) When my father was beating her, the screaming and yelling then the sound of her head hitting the floor. Then her whisper “Don’t come out Oscy, don’t come out.” And that's all I knew. I guess she was protecting me by telling me not to come out of the closet but at that age it didn’t seem like protection. (Beat) When I was five my father left and never came back, “You keep hiding your ass in the closet boy you’ll never become a man.” That translated into a goodbye for him. I watched him pick up his work bag in one hand, beer in the other, cigarette hanging out of his mouth and in a puff of smoke he was gone. When I was six my mother overdosed and died. (Beat) I remember hearing that thump again like I did when her head would hit the floor…I stayed in the closet for three days until the neighbors came to check on the smell that was coming from the apartment.