Erosion: Life on Life's Terms
By Nick LinnehanErosion is a two-act play about addiction and loss. The main character, Mike, first encounters the Psychic character after taking an overdose in an attempt to reach his dead brother-in-law. Later, after coming to terms with an addiction to crack, he encounters her at a 12-Step Recovery meeting. The Psychic eventually becomes Mike's sponsor, and we learn that her name is Misha.
PSYCHIC
My active addiction brought me to my knees. I remember lying, stealing, and doing anything to get my next fix. If you're like me you know that one is too many and a thousand is never enough. I isolated everyone just to get high. I knew I was killing myself and finally someone told me about this program. He told me I was gambling with my life and at first I rationalized and justified, but then I realized he was right and that's when I surrendered to this program and learned how to live one day at a time.
You see, I always loved board games and my favorite was Monopoly. Well, one night I was playing right as I started getting clean. I realized getting high was a lot like Monopoly. The dice were my life. At first, each roll was fun, everything on the board was open, I had money for the bank. There was no problem... As I kept rolling and getting high, there was less money and people started building houses. Now with each roll, each hit was a struggle, but still manageable. I was getting by, getting good rolls, skirting around Boardwalk and Park Place. But slowly, each roll got harder, more expensive and more dangerous. There ceased to be safe places to land and motels were going up everywhere. But I kept rolling - even though the fun was gone, and I was mortgaging more and more property. I sold my TV, VCR, DVD player, anything to get me high. I wanted to declare bankruptcy and stop using, but I couldn't stop rolling the dice. As I played, I suffered more and more. You know it's bad when you can't afford to even pay to land on the cheap properties anymore. Finally, on my last roll, I landed on chance. And you guessed it... I got the "Go to jail, go directly to jail. Don't pass go and don't collect 200 dollars." At first I was pissed, but that was what probably saved my life as it was the only safe place to be. I did my time, and while I was in there, I learned about this fellowship. When I got out I made a meeting after a friend who I mentioned earlier helped me see that I was gambling withy my life. Today, I don't roll the dice. I couldn't beat the game out there and I never win when I play the board game either. I respect the dice, my life today and with the help of this program and all of you. Thanks for letting me share.
This monologue is from Erosion: Life on Life's Terms by Nick Linnehan. If you would like to read the entire play, you can purchase an electronic (PDF) copy of the script for $5 through PayPal. After your order has been received, the play will be sent to you as an attachment. Hard copies are not currently available.
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