Another of those odd things I'll never publish elsewhere, so what the hell...




THE END OF TIME: A SHORT PLAY


Scene 1: (Idyllic setting: a family is picnicking on the grass.)

ENTER Chicken Little (running): The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

(Confusion. Alarm.)

EXEUNT ALL


Scene 2: (A publisher’s office.)

Writer: So, if I change it so that Chicken Little’s an idiot, you’ll publish it?

Publisher: Absolutely. It can’t miss. I think it’s the next big thing, exactly what readers are looking for.

Writer: OK, then, 50-50 on film and TV, 50/50 on foreign sales, but I retain the merchandising rights.

Publisher (rising from behind his desk): It’s a deal!

(They shake hands.)


Scene 3: (Idyllic setting: a family is picnicking on the grass. One child, a girl, is playing with a Chicken Little doll. The other, a boy, with a toy gun.)

ENTER Chicken Little (running): The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Mother: Oh, for goodness sake! We’ve read that story. What do you take us for, a bunch of morons?

Father: Yeah, go cluck yourself!

Boy: Bang! You’re dead.

Girl: Chicken Little, it’s you!

(Parents laugh.)

(The sky falls.)

THE END