Superhero Play: Act I, Scene 2
Act II, Scene 2
At the dance.
You should come: everyone will be there.
Charles: Waters! Look’in good!
John: Chuck! Nice suit!
Beatrice: Susy, I love your hair!
Susan: Thanks, Bea. That dress is to die for!
Beatrice: My mother made it! Can you believe it!?
Susan: She’s such a seamstress!
Charles: And she makes a mean meatloaf!
John: Life’s good. The whole thing’s a lucky break out here on the edges, in the heartland, overlooked and safe.
Charles: True that!
Beatrice: Are you coming to the after party?
Susan: Which one?
Beatrice: I don’t know–just let us know which one you’re at!
Susan: OK, we’ll see you wherever that is.
The two couples dance away from each other.
John: You dance divinely.
Susan: You too.
John: I love your hips, and to rest my hands upon them is a privilege, a luxury, a blessing.
Susan: I love your shoulders, and to rest my forearms upon them is a break, a safe-haven, a home.
John: Do you ever think
Susan: What?
John: Do you ever think we’re too young, so this can’t last?
Susan: Sure, but then I think
John: What?
Susan: Then I think who knows, life’s short, at least we have today, we’ll see, don’t go yet
John: What if people lived longer–I mean two hundred years, three hundred years, would they ever stay together that long?
Susan: What do you mean? No two people really belong together? They just die before they find out?
John: No. I mean maybe we die for a reason, to help us from acting out of weakness. Maybe we get old and less attractive for the same reason. Maybe the temptations are wrong and the gradual shared collapse keeps us from betraying one another.
Susan: You sound serious. Are you serious about me, John Waters?
John: I like what Joes’s doing with the band tonight.
Susan: Yes, the funk is just right. He’s an interesting musical thinker.
John: He cheated off of me in the calculus test.
Susan: You shouldn’t have let him.
John: Aren’t you going to call me out? I’m being evasive.
Susan: John, John, John. I know you love me and I love you and we’re about to go to college at the better of the two main state schools and we’ll get there and not know what hit us or who we are or what we should undertake or whether or not we can continue or not
John: So it doesn’t matter that I’m being evasive?
Susan: No.
John: Fuck.
Susan: Either way.
John: Of course.
Susan: You’ve been a good friend.
John: Don’t start that now!
Susan: No, I won’t–only as a joke.
John: