Adie was here - Teodora Ion-Rotatu

[A damp beach bar called La Pirati – At the Pirates. Mid July, 2 o’clock in the morning, rainy, chilly weather. People dress accordingly. They sit at improvised wooden tables in a shabby barrack. Cardboard decorations on the walls, many of them engraved with heavy metal lyrics or messages for the bar. An old computer keyboard hangs from a hook; the keys that are left are the letters that form the name of the bar and SLEEP.]

Characters:

a BARTENDER, doing random shit

ADIE, a really tall and skinny skinhead in his 30s, covered in faded tattoos, wares a fluffy mustache.

a GUY, long haired, gulping bear, mid 20s

his GIRL, mid 20s

an apologetic looking COUPLE, mid 30s, plain people, don’t look like they belong

[The GUY and the GIRL sit together at one table, ADIE and the COUPLE at another table. There are other seven or eight free tables.]

GUY (saddling a bench, facing the GIRL, and gulping beer): I do not know why I am so sad. Maybe it’s just because you worry too much. And we don’t even need to decide right now, we have an entire year to figure it out.

GIRL (also saddling the bench, facing the GUY, looks upset and unconvinced): Maybe you’re sad because you’re clueless.

[The GUY looks like he’s about to have an angry retort, then his face starts darkening. ADIE sits down next to the GIRL, she’s with her back at him, can’t see who it is, scoots towards her boyfriend to make him some room. ADIE comes closer and closer, she keeps scooting as much as she can, lost in thought and not necessarily interested in who was behind her.]

ADIE (drunken, anesthetized voice): Soooooooooooooooooooo…. (GIRL jumps) What are you lovebirds arguing about?

[In the meantime the apologetic looking COUPLE sits across from ADIE, the GUY and the GIRL. They remain silent.]

GIRL (slightly aggressive): What the fuck do you care anyway? What, your own little private conversation got boring? You and your buddies here suddenly got tired of discussing the weather? You think it’s cool to literally butt in?

ADIE (calm, confident, calculated, explains almost in a parental voice): The truth is I don’t really give a crap what you’re talking about. I just wish you fucking did it at some other table. (GUY and girl display a slightly outraged confusion.) I have this habit, you know. (Pauses, takes out a knife, plays with it.) If I like a bar, I carve my name on almost every table. I just write “ADIE was here.” See my mark? (Points at the table.) I do it so I can always find somewhere to sit if the bar is packed, you know.

GUY (obviously pissed): Really? Then I’m sure you’ll find some other table with your name on it. This shithole is empty anyway.

ADIE (calm, still playing with the knife): No, I won’t. I’m okay here. But you’d better go, you know.

GUY (almost furious): No shit. So if I etch my name on this table, it’s gonna be mine, right?

ADIE (calm): Sure. Do you have a knife?

GUY (pissed): No. Can I have yours?

ADIE (cracking up, ironic): No. Sorry.

[The GUY takes a big gulp of beer. ADIE seems to be deep in thought. The others look less than comfortable. No one talks, no one moves.]

ADIE (now all of a sudden pissed): So you think you’re a wiseguy?

GUY (his turn to crack up and be ironic): Obviously. I started all this shit, right?

ADIE (pissed): You did. You sat at my table. You asked for my knife. But you don’t have a knife, you know?

GUY: Aha….

ADIE (furious now). But I do!

GUY: Indeed…

ADIE (grabs the GIRL next to him by the shoulders and plays with his knife on her cleavage, without actually scratching her): So if I scratch my name on her chest, she’s mine as well. Like the table, you know.

[The GIRL is holding her breath, the COUPLE looks terrified]

GUY (peaceful, as if he reached some sort of resolution, finishes his beer): You can have her.

[Everyone looks puzzled; the GUY just leaves the bar and starts walking in the rain.]

Or

GUY (peaceful, as if he reached some sort of resolution, finishes his beer): I don’t think she will. (Smashes the empty beer bottle on ADIE’s head.)

[ADIE is unconscious, his bleeding head right next to his mark. The GUY grabs ADIE’s knife, takes out the SLEEP key from the old keyboard, and embeds it in ADIE’s mark, that know says ADIE SLEEP HERE. GUY and GIRL leave together, and disappear in the rain. The COUPLE looks flabbergasted.]