"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is Lisa Chapman coming to you live from the dinner table. Today I am sitting here with three other lovely people whom I have never met before, to share this meal with. This is an experiment for the National Committee of Peoples' Studies" Lisa uses her television voice as she speaks.
"What is she doing?" John asks, eyeing her suspiciously.
"I have no idea..." Lucy whispers, leaning closer to John and away from Lisa.
"To my left I have Julian, a psychiatrist in what appears to be his late thirties." Lisa continues.
"I'm 26..." Julian says quietly.
"To my right is John, a recovering alcoholic who looks to be eyeing up the wine that we're about to be served by our lovely waitress right here." Lisa gestures to the waitress as if she's supposed to wave to a camera. The waitress looks slightly scared and continues to pour the wine. John refuses to take any, shaking his head stiffly. He leans toward Lucy.
"How does she know that?" he asks quietly, his face becoming more and more red. Lucy shrugs and looks slightly nervous, knowing it is her turn to be introduced next.
"And finally, across from me is the lovely Lucy, who is a vegetarian, which might be unfortunate for her tonight." Lucy furrows her eyebrows in confusion. "Now tell me Lucy, what inspired you to make such a brave switch to being vegetarian?" Lisa puppeteers the room as if she's on a News set, directing the waiters and waitresses where to stand and how to walk with proper posture. Most employees in the room look fed up with her attitude and ignore her remarks.
"Well... I... uh.... my mom was vegetarian so I just decided to follow her when I was younger." she stuttered, shaking slightly.
"Wow... so inspiring." Lisa says, choked with emotion. She continues to speak as if she's reading from a cue card behind a camera. She holds intense eye contact with a single spot on the wall as if it's a camera pointed directly at her.
"Now, without further ado, what's on the menu tonight." She waves her arms around enthusiastically and the rest of the people at the table adjust to get ready to order. Lucy turns to the waitress that has walked up beside her.
"Do you have any vegetarian options?" she asks, hesitant because of Lisa's previous remark on her "unfortunate" circumstance.
"Unfortunately no, we don't, sorry." The waitress responds sympathetically. "But I can get you some more wine if you'd like."
"Yes, please. I have a feeling I'm going to need it tonight." Lucy gives Lisa a look. The waitress writes on her notepad and moves on to Julian.
"Lucy gives a hilarious sarcastic comment after she realizes that there is nothing here on the menu for her." Lisa reports, earning herself glares from all around the room. The waitress pauses and sighs, then looks at Julian expectantly.
"I'll have the stuffed peppers please and thank you." he says simply, like he's thought out all his possible options thoroughly and has decided that yes, this is the best choice. The waitress nods, writes it down on her notepad, and moves on to John.
"I'll have the steak and chicken." John says gruffly. "I just want my food and then I'm getting out of here."
"John is starting to get impatient for an unknown reason and seems to be compensating for the wine he cannot have by ordering the most expensive meal on the menu." Lisa reports, louder than she had before. John is fuming, and he stands up, slamming his fists on the table.
"I've had it with you Lisa! There's no camera in the wall, no cue cards to read off of and no audience to report to! Every rude remark and passive aggressive comment you've made about us we can hear! We can hear you loud and clear, Lisa! I'm done!" John stomps out of the room. Lucy and Julian stand awkwardly and follow after him, leaving Lisa alone at the table. She continues to stare at the wall.
"Well folks, our study has shown that recovering addicts are more irritable." she mumbles.
YOU ARE READING
A Bunch of Random Scenes I Wrote for My Book(s)
FantasyI'm constantly writing. But most of the time I'm not writing all the scenes in my book in the order they'll be put in in the final copy. These are just all those scenes that I've written so far, completely out of order.
