More business for Creative Writing class. This is pretty much based on the play I started writing in the summer. Updated Oct 1.
Andre, an old friend, visits Jim, a married Australian office worker. They stay up late over imported beer and Andre subtly criticizes the safety of Jim’s lifestyle choices. Andre then invites him to go on a trip with him but Jim declines.
The next day Jim’s work day goes smoothly; at dinner, he tells his wife about Andre’s planned trek to Indonesia in search of a rare flower that is commonly believed to be extinct. She is intrigued, but happy to hear he isn’t going.
A week later, Jim has been doing some research into the flower Andre was after. He gets the news that Andre was picked up as a hostage by insurgents and is now believed dead. His wife is away on business and Jim spends some of the evening imagining what might have happened to Andre. Jim has a troubled sleep, feeling somehow responsible for his friend’s death. At 4 AM he packs his bags and heads out, leaving his wife a brief note.
After a confused blur of rapid fire snatches of travel events, Jim is in the jungles of Indonesia trying to describe Andre to a man who barely speaks English. He is introduced Abalya, who is an expert on local flora and leads him to where the Pocci flower is believed to be growing. After several days Abalya gives up, saying it is too dangerous for him to remain. Jim refuses to give up, despite the man’s warnings.
He ends up a bit of a mess: starving and poisoned by something he shouldn’t have eaten. He hears gunshots and crawls toward them. Andre appears and drags him to shelter. Andre reveals that he is involved with the rebel uprising. They wax philosophical about life and the choices that we make and are made for us by society; Jim says he hasn’t made very many choices in his life. As Andre begins another metaphysical rant, Jim stops paying attention and the sound of Andre’s words fades. Then Jim steps out of his own body and walks out through the audience as the houselights come on and the doors come open.