Puzzle Pieces

I wrote this about a year and a half ago as a short piece for Experimental Theater. It was actually too long to use for anything, but I still like it... I might just cut it down to the monologue at the end... well, enjoy it for now in its raw form! :P

(Morning) (Jack and Elise sitting on floor close together, working on a puzzle)

Jack: Elise, have you seen any edge pieces with blue sky on them?

Elise: (Absently) No, I’ve been looking for the darker blue, water pieces… Want some help?

Jack: No, that’s okay, I got it…

Elise: Jack… did you ever call your mom about –

Jack: No. I didn’t call her yet. …I’ll do it today, okay?

Elise: Okay, just asking…

Jack: I know… Hey, what do you say we give up on this puzzle for today and spend the rest of the day on the beach? Vacation’s for relaxing, after all… and this puzzle is just stressing me out.

Elise: (Smiling and walking over to Jack, holding out her hands) Sure… I bet we can find a way to have some fun…

Jack: Oh I’m sure we can! (Jack and Elise both step away from the puzzle; Jack picks her up playfully and runs out of the room with her giggling and half-struggling to get out of his arms.)


(Evening) (both sitting by the puzzle again, this time further apart, intent on their own sections)

Elise: Jack…

Jack: (looks up, expectantly) Mmmm?

Elise: Um, were you still looking for some sky pieces?

Jack: Yeah, I’m almost done. I just need one more sky piece that connects this section to the water. (Points out a spot on the puzzle). You find something?

Elise: I think so… Well, it doesn’t fit anywhere on this side anyway… (passes piece across)

Jack: (taking piece) Alright, I’ll try it… (attempts to fit the piece; with a little finagling it works)

Elise: You sure that’s where it goes?

Jack: Well, where else would it go?

Elise: I don’t know… We couldn’t find the box, remember? ...I guess it has to work…

Jack: That’s where it belongs, I’m sure. The manufacturer must’ve cut it a little funny.

Elise: I don’t think – I mean, yeah, it looks like it works to me.

Jack: (smiles) Thanks for the help.

Elise: (Smiling apprehensively) Yeah, sure.

(they sit and work on their respective sections some more; Elise looks up pensively)

Elise: Jack?

Jack: (sitting back, looking up to her) Elise?

Elise: (reassured by his meeting her gaze, smiles) …I love you, Jack.

Jack: (leans forward) I love you, too, Elise. (kisses her)

Elise: (after a pause, Jack is still closed enjoying the moment) Jack, did you tell your mom –

Jack: (warning, trying to hold on to the contentment from the previous moment) Elise…

Elise: Sorry… (tired) Let’s go to bed, okay? I’m tired.

Jack: Really? I was so close to finishing (looks to puzzle, then to Elise)… Okay, if that’s what you want…


(Next morning) (Elise is sitting by puzzle; Jack is sitting at a table, looking through papers)

Jack: I can’t believe this!

Elise: Jack…

Jack: No, I told you she would react this way!

Elise: Jack, she’s your mother; of course –

Jack: Well I don’t care if she is, she can go to hell!

Elise: Jack, we knew this would be hard... You’re the only child. Didn’t you think she might be upset that you’ll be moving across the country… with me?

Jack: Well yeah, but I thought she’d get over it quickly. I thought it’d be one of those 24-hour fits that come with a vengeance and then burn out. I never thought she’d go to this extreme…

Elise: Is there anything I can do?

Jack: Elise… I don’t think there is anything we can do… (looks down, avoids her gaze; she is now completely absorbed in him, no longer looking at the nearly completed puzzle)

Elise: What are you saying? She’s your mother you can’t just ignore –

Jack: That’s not what I’m saying, Elise… (looks up at her again; she looks at him for second and understanding dawns on her face)

Elise: (gets up unsteadily) Jack… Jack, you can’t mean… We just… You mean you’re just giving up, just like that? (looks away angrily, turns and stares at puzzle again)

Jack: Elise, she’s my mother…. (goes to her, tries to take shoulder, she shrugs off his hand and sits down by the puzzle again) You said yourself –

Elise: (turning to face him) You know that’s not what I meant! I didn’t mean give up, I never meant that! We were in this together! We knew it would be hard but neither of us questioned going through with it. …I thought we were in this together. We were going to make it work.

Jack: Elise… Sometimes you can’t make it work. It doesn’t matter how much you want it to, sometimes it just doesn’t fit…

(Elise collapses and sobs, Jack backs away, looking at Elise and briefly at the puzzle before walking away)


(A few days later) (Elise is sitting at the table with a pen poised over a piece of stationary)
(Elise is speaking aloud as she writes)

Elise: Dear Jack,
I just wanted to let you know that I found the box for that puzzle we were working on. You know, the one with the sky and the ocean that we never finished? Well, after you left I worked on it like my life depended on it – it was like I was trying to prove something.
Well, I got to the point where there was only one piece left… and I realized that all the pieces we had used to connect the sky to the water were in the wrong spot. They didn’t fit right. I tried to rearrange them but no matter what I did there wasn’t a place for them to connect to the water. That’s when I looked under the bed. I found the box – two boxes actually. I think someone hid them on purpose. In the boxes was a whole other set of pieces, all jumbled together. And you know what, neither of the boxes showed the water-and-sky picture we were working on. One was of a blue sky with clouds and a bit of sun in the corner; the other was an ocean, deep blue with some greens and never-ending waves. We were working on two different puzzles the whole time, Jack. We never should have tried to fit the waves with the blue sky, but you forced it to fit and I let you. In fact, I committed to your mistake against my better judgment, and tried to prove to myself that it would work. Jack, we’re pieces from different puzzles. The whole time, we had this beautiful picture in mind and one day you decided to give up, you couldn’t see how to finish it. But I refused… and now I see that we weren’t meant to fit. Forcing my dark waves with your sunny skies was like mixing the pieces from two different boxes, pressing them together until we convinced ourselves we were in the right place. I know our picture would’ve been beautiful if it had worked… It was so hard to pull the pieces apart once I saw that they didn’t fit – you forced them together so convincingly… I finished my puzzle today. I found the top edges of my rolling blue waves, then unpieced it all and put the pieces back in the right box for the next guest. I left your puzzle unfinished on the floor. I wanted to let you know so maybe you can come back and see for yourself; you could finish what you started. I don’t blame you anymore – it was both of us. I just wish we had found the boxes before we started piecing together the wrong picture.