“Midnight in the Bronx” by Joshua Browning

This is a monologue to be played by one woman, age 25 or so. The setting is simple.



So the other day, we're on the way home from the theatre. It's around midnight... and I'm sure right now you're thinking -- hold on here Georgie. You mean to tell me that it's midnight in the bronx and your walking home with your dyke girlfriend, and you didn't expect to get mugged. Well no, and thanks for your compassion. So anyway, we're a few blocks from our apartment and these five guys, they start following us. And Jody thinks it would be funny as hell to yell out -- You know, sometimes I wonder why I'm a lesbo, but then I look at guys like that, and it all comes back to me. -- Not real smart.

You know, after you spend enough time in the hospital, you really get desperate for entertainment. I haven't even been in to see Jody... I beg the doctors, but since I'm not "family," at least immediate, I have to wait. So... over the span of the last four days, I have read every back issue of Reader's Digest -- twice. Memorized both the English and Spanish versions of the health poster on the wall -- Your prostate and you. Eres prostate y tu. -- And I've composed an entire Italian opera. Well, at least I've been productive, huh?

I also spend my time, going over what happened in that ally that night. "Breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe." I remember screaming at Jody, as she lay there. Bruised, beaten, bleeding. "In and out. In and out. Come on Jody, don't stop fighting on me now."

Now, I hear the sirens like I'm right there with her on the street. Only they are coming from her room, not the ally. But to me it makes no difference. I am still back there in that ally. Frozen. "You mother fucking dykes. You mother fucking bitches. You better run you mother fuckers."

Five minutes later the doctors exit the room... false alarm. Thank God.

Yeah, I'm a dyke. And you want to know how it feels? Well, let me put it this way... There's a lot of hate out there. So much that sometimes, it closes in on you. And you feel like you're choking. And you're struggling for air. And you just can't get a breath.