Barbara Bennion

Something On the Sidewalk

(groaning) Ach! Oh! Yes…yes it hurts. It may be broken. Here. Right here. Not my back, my hip. Don’t touch me! Please. Don’t. Ach!

My name? Phyllis Penmore. No….not Fenimore, Penmore. Eighty nine. That’s right, eighty nine. ……Two seventeen, nineteen twenty-eight…… I..I..live at thirty two Elm Street.

It’s Wednesday 2024. No, I didn’t faint. I tripped. What? I dunno…a crack.,,.a rock…..an ant. Where am I? Here! Where else would I be? I’m sitting on the sidewalk right in front of you.

No I can’t let you unbutton me. It’s cold. Icy cold! Don’t tear my blouse! My heart? It’s fine, I swear it’s as good as your heart. Yes. I took a…a… Levo…Lovo….lovostatin, levothyroxin, baby aspirin, vitamin B-12 Vitamin D, multivitamin…this is ridiculous.

Ouch..ouch…ouch! I said don’t touch.! Who….who are those people staring at me? On cement! In my bra! In January! ……You are doing your job, but tell them to put those cameras away I look awful.

What? Phyllis. My name is Phyllis. P h y l l I s P e n m o r e. ….The President? Biden of course. ….God damn it, what is this, I’m in Tarrytown. Born in two seventeen twenty eight, I said two seventeen twenty eight. It’s Wednesday in January and I’m freezing. What’s taking them so long? Yes, cover me up BUT DON’T TOUCH MY HIP!

O.K but I’m an athlete and you can’t lift me that way!. Put your arm here. I don’t care if you’re an EMT, that’s not going to work. Let me do it. Yes I can! Ach! Don’t don’t don’t….woooooo….

(Breathing heavily) Thank God, we’re in. Turn on the heat. Wrap me up. Strap me up? Where do you think I’d go? No, I don’t need oxygen. One finger. I see one finger. I am breathing. My name again? Are you demented?

What’s your name? Hello Dennis. Dennis Flanihan? (speaking fast and running the sentences together) I knew a man by that name back in “45” he was a mortician…you don’t look like him he was pale and skinny and had a twitch and he was so broke he had to borrow my father’s Ford to drive the corpse to the mortuary and it was against the law. He sat the corpse in the front seat and when he passed a cop he smiled and tipped his hat and……..what kind of hat are you wearing? I am calm. Is that the driver? Looks seventeen. His name is Grover? Hello Grover. Hope you know how to drive. What’s that a siren? The police? Tell Grover to slow down.

Young man I appreciate your effort, it’s just that I’m not used to being in this position. You’re welcome but don’t thank me, I didn’t do anything.

Noww where are we? You can’t leave me here, we’re just getting to know each other. Don’t…don’t drop me…… Your card?. Sure I’ll remember you. Everyone should have an EMT handy, and a safe driver too. Goodbye Dennis, goodbye Grover, thanks for not having a crash. Yes, I’ll write a letter of recommendation but give me a Kleenex something’s dripping over my eye. Blood! I’m bleeding! How did blood get from my hip to my eye? Give me a dozen Tylenol.

I’m Phyllis. Phyllis Penmore. P h y l l i s P e n m o r e . Two seventeen twenty eight. I live at thirty- two Elm Street.

Ach! Just remembered. THE MEATLOAF’S IN THE OVEN! Call the police, call the fire department. The key’s under the frog. Tell them tell them they can eat the meatloaf.

Barbara Bennion is a former dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company and has served on the dance faculty at The University of Colorado and Marymount College.  She began writing plays in her sixties, and is particularly interested in the relationship between rhythm and words. She is a member of the Westchester Collaborative Theatre and The Dramatists Guild. Now in her nineties, she is still writing and dancing.