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One-Act Plays

Janet Burroway is the author of eight novels, including the Pulitzer Prize nominee The Buzzards; Raw Silk, a National Book Award runner-up; and Bridge of Sand. Her work includes a volume of poetry, numerous plays, an essay collection, and two children’s books. In addition, she coauthored Writing Fiction, the most widely used creative writing text in America. Her story “Blackout” won Third Place in Narrative’s Love Story Contest, and her story “White Space” won First Place in the Winter 2009 Contest. She is the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor Emerita at Florida State University.

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Long Time No See

A One-Act Play

by Janet Burroway

Starbucks. Loveseat, chair, coffee table. Wendell, thirty years old, in sweats, shabby running shoes, and a three-day beard, sits hunched over a cappuccino and the classifieds. He reads intently, circles an item or two, is discouraged, then persists.

She enters, burdened with coffee, pastry bag, handbag, portfolio, and jacket but managing. At twenty-eight, she is ravishing: slender, smart suit, high heels, lots of hair, dangling earrings—a knockout.


SHE

Is this free? D’you mind if I . . . ?


WENDELL

(Grudging.) Help yourself. (Sees her.) Please.
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