Lost Lake (9 page)
Authors: David Auburn
HOGAN
:
You want to hear something funny?
VERONICA
:
God, yes.
HOGAN
:
I wasn't totally asleep when you drove up. I was kind of dozing. Kind of half asleep, I guess. That's why I was so confused to see you, I thought I might be dreaming. You know what I was thinking about?
VERONICA
:
No.
HOGAN
:
I was thinking about going down to the city sometime.
VERONICA
:
Yeah?
HOGAN
:
Yeah, I had this kind of fantasy, I guess you'd call it.
(
She looks at him
.)
It doesn't involve you, don't worry.
VERONICA
:
I'm not. That's not what I thought.
HOGAN
:
My daughter's at school there now, right? I was thinking about this the other day. What's to stop me getting in the truck and driving down?
     I don't have her contact information but she's in one of the dorms someplace. How many dorms could there be? She's on a soccer scholarship. It shouldn't be that hard to find the playing fields. Anyway, I could track her down and take her to lunch.
     (
Smiles
.) I've got the cash.
     We could go someplace really upmarket. White tablecloth kind of thing. Actually, she's eighteen, she probably wouldn't want that. What do eighteen-year-olds like? I'd hate for it just to be pizza. Whatever, that doesn't matter. I picture just surprising her on the street outside her dorm as she's coming in from practice. Like she turns a corner and I'm standing there and she stops and I just say, Can I buy you lunch?
     And maybe it would be a little awkward at first. I mean, of course it would be. Maybe she'd want to bring along a friend.
     That would be fine, if it would make her more comfortable. A couple friends. The more the merrier, long as I'm buying.
     You could even come. With your kids. I mean, we'd have to coordinate a little bit, I'm not sure how that fits in with the rest of it, the spontaneous part, but we could get a big round table someplace like a Chinese restaurant, with the dishes in the middle and one of those spinning disks, what are they called?
VERONICA
:
Lazy Susan.
HOGAN
:
Right. You can just turn it and everybody can help themselves to whatever they want.
VERONICA
:
That sounds good.
(
Beat
.)
HOGAN
:
I'm not going over thereâ
VERONICA
:
Just eat. We don't have to decide that right now.
HOGAN
:
Will you let me finish?
     I'm not going over there with anybody thinking it wasn't an accident.
VERONICA
:
So it was an accident. We all have accidents.
(
Beat
.)
Okay. I'll tell you something funny too.
HOGAN
:
What?
VERONICA
:
My last night here? Back in August? I was packing up the kids' stuff, folding their clothes â¦
HOGAN
:
Yeah?
VERONICA
:
We had an okay couple days, you know, toward the end, and I was sitting there alone and it was nice and quiet for once, those damn crickets and frogs had shut up â¦
HOGAN
:
They do that when it's going to rain.
VERONICA
:
Really?
HOGAN
:
Yep.
VERONICA
:
How do they know?
HOGAN
:
I don't know. Air pressure maybe?
VERONICA
:
Huh.
     Anyway. You know what I remember thinking? Even after everything that happened that week?
     That I wish I could just stay here. In this shitty little cabin.
(
Beat. She laughs. He laughs too.
)
HOGAN
:
Well, we can't.
VERONICA
:
No.
Curtain
.
Â
David Auburn
was born in Chicago and grew up in Ohio and Arkansas. He lives in New York City with his wife and two daughters. You can sign up for email updates
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CONTENTS
Â
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2015 by David Auburn
All rights reserved
First edition, 2015
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Auburn, David, 1969â
    Lost lake: a play / David Auburn. â First edition.
        pages ;   cm
    ISBN 978-0-86547-836-7 (softcover) â ISBN 978-0-374-71414-7 (ebook)
    1.  FriendshipâDrama.  2.  Man-woman relationshipsâDrama.  I.  Title.
Â
PS3551.U28 L67 2015
812'.54âdc23
2015003936
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CAUTION
: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that all material in this book, being fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America and all countries covered by the International Copyright Union (including the Dominion of Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth) and of all countries covered by the Pan-American Copyright Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention, and of all countries with which the United States has reciprocal copyright relations, is subject to a royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such as information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved. The stock and amateur performance rights in the English language throughout the United States, its territories and possessions and Canada are controlled exclusively by Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 440 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016. No professional or nonprofessional performances of the play (excluding first-class professional performance) may be given without obtaining in advance the written permission of Dramatists Play Service, Inc., and paying the requisite fee. Inquiries concerning all other rights should be addressed to Jonathan Mills, Paradigm, 360 Park Avenue South, 16th Floor, New York, New York 10010.