"Dissolution, Part V"

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

Of course, you should have been a different mother.  That’s what all mothers say.  Would you mind moving that thing?

MRS. HO

Are you referring to my grandchild?

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

It disgusts me---

MRS. HO

His name’s Eastward.

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

Being a grandmother really does change you.

MRS. HO

I miss my son.

            END OF “DISSOLUTION, PART V.”

"Dissolution, Part IV"

            (The backroom of Panera Bread.)

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

I haven’t seen Westward since before Episode 18.

MRS. HO

He comes to your playwriting class?

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

I’m too good for that now.  But, before I quit, Westward got kicked out.  He wasn’t good enough.

MRS. HO

He doesn’t live at home.

            (MRS. HO looks at her grandchild.)

                    MRS. HO (Continued)

Sometime I wonder if I should have been a different mother.

            (She sighs.)

            END OF “DISSOLUTION, PART IV.”

"Dissolution, Part III"

            (MRS. HO and MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE are talking in the backroom of 

            Panera Bread.  As she speaks, MRS. HO moves a squeaky toy to entertain her 

            grandchild.)

MRS. HO

What brings me here?  I like to watch my investment.

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

You’re not planning to exert any control, are you?  Because I can take my writing elsewhere.  There are more platforms than Plays:  Short and Strange.

MRS. HO

Don’t threaten.  You are right that becoming a grandmother makes me care less for things of this world.

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

Why are you here?

            (MRS. HO sets the car seat firmly on an adjacent chair.)

MRS. HO

Have you seen my son?  Have you seen Westward?

            END OF “DISSOLUTION, PART III.”

"Dissolution, Part II"

            (The backroom of Panera Bread.  Writers dispute.)

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

You dare question my right to the proceeds from Butch Gardens?

            (The WOMAN IN THE SHADOWS emerges into the light.  She is in 

            her sixties.  A grandchild dangles over her arm in a car seat.)

                   MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE (Continued)

Mrs. Ho, my patron!

            (The women prostrate themselves on the crummy ground.)

MRS. HO

Get up, all of you.  I come to see how Plays:  Short and Strange is going.

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

I’m dismissing my writers.  Butch Gardens will be mine again---mine alone.

MRS. HO

Fine.  I don’t care.

            (The baby makes a noise and MRS. HO addresses its troubles.)

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

            (To the WRITERS)

Get out of here, all of you!

WRITER 1

What will become of us?

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

Sell your organs!

WRITER 3

Mrs. Ho, won’t you help?  Mocha---

            (MRS. HO looks up momentarily from her grandchild.)

MRS. HO

I don’t care.

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

You see, when a woman becomes a grandmother, she is no longer concerned with the things of this world.  Good-bye!  Go to Hell!

            (The WRITERS slink off.  WRITER 2 collects crumbs as she goes for a later 

            meal.  When they are gone, MOCHA sits down and turns her attention to her 

            patron.)

                  MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE (Continued)

What brings you here?

            END OF “DISSOLUTION, PART II.”

"Dissolution"

            (Several writers gather in the backroom of Panera Bread.  MOCHA TCHOKHA 

            ROSE rises.)

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

And that is why I want to dissolve MTR Studios and go back to writing Butch Gardens myself.

WRITER 2

Because you want money---

MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE

You’re new here and don’t know when to keep quiet.  I want to enhance the integrity of the scripts.  And I want the money---all my money---but don’t talk about it.

            (A WOMAN appears in the doorway.  Shrouded in shadow, she has something 

            slung over her arm.)

WOMAN IN THE SHADOWS

Your money, you say?

            (MOCHA TCHOKHA ROSE’s eyes vomit ire.  WRITERS 1 and 3 quake.  

            WRITER 2 tries to bite her baguette without attracting too much attention.)

            END OF “DISSOLUTION.”