Excerpts from an overactive imagination.
SCENE: Street corner. There is a block party going on; LORRAINE and ETTA are behind a booth. The sun is setting and other booths are closing.
LORRAINE: Who will be the last Julius Street Genius?
ETTA: Come and test your knowledge of these facts!
LORRAINE: Step right up and prove that you know best!
HAROLD: Laughing Alright, alright, I’ll do it, sheesh.
CHERYL: Whoo! Go Dad!
LORRAINE: Hello, sir, are you ready to put yourself to the test?
HAROLD: My daughter seems to think I am.
LORRAINE: You are our lucky, final contestant! Follow me to meet your competition.
LORRAINE leads HAROLD to a bright, freshly painted building behind the booth. It is well lit inside and ten other adults are sitting in foldout chairs facing a giant clock. MATT is at a podium in front of the group.
LORRAINE: Alright, Harold, Matt will take the lead now. Good luck!
She winks and leaves. HAROLD sits.
MATT: Okay everyone, this survey has seven high level questions with six answers to choose from, including a fill-in-your-own option. You will have seven minutes to complete it. The winner will receive a $100 gift card of their choosing—that is, the last of the five we have. Harold, you can find supplies underneath your chair—yep, you got it.
He presses a button and the giant clock starts ticking down.
MATT: Smiling Begin.
The time passes and a buzzer goes off.
MATT: Drop those pens! Please stand by as I collect your papers.
MATT collects the papers and takes a seat behind the podium. After a few moments he gets up.
MATT: And the winner is… Jean! Come on up here and grab your $100 Target gift card.
A woman gets up excitedly and grabs the card from MATT. LORRAINE enters.
LORRAINE: Thank you everyone for playing, I hope you had as much fun as we did. The block party is ending soon, but there’s plenty of food trucks still out. Enjoy the rest of your evening.
The other adults filter out, but HAROLD lags behind, walking to LORRAINE.
HAROLD: Those were some interesting questions on that quiz.
LORRAINE: Smiling Well, we tried to be unique.
HAROLD: Well, I sure was bamboozled! You kids have a good night.
LORRAINE: Thank you, Harold. Goodbye.
The block party dies out, and eventually only ETTA, MATT, AND LORRAINE are still in the area. They are inside of the warehouse.
ETTA: Oh my, God! I can’t believe this worked!
LORRAINE: Squeals I knew it would.
MATT: Shaking his head in disbelief All 50 of them! They just filled the questions in, with no thought.
LORRAINE: It was the time crunch, makes you forget to think. Speaking of…
MATT: Yeah, I’m working it.
He pulls a laptop from under the podium.
MATT: I was working during intermissions. Less than 10 minutes until completion.
ETTA: This is surreal. Financial stability. For a little while, anyway.
MATT: For quite a while, you two picked good. Even after we pay those who helped us, we’ll be pretty set.
LORRAINE: Smiles We did it guys, we really did it. Robbed a bank without stepping a foot into it.
THE END
