(A car at night, driving suburban streets. A man and a woman are inside. The radio is playing "Rocket Man." The man is singing along. Badly.)
Woman: That's not right.
Man: What?
Woman: Those words. Those lyrics.
Man: What?
Woman: "Rocket man, burnin' up the trees on every lawn."
Man: No?
Woman: No. It's "burning up the fuse up here alone."
Man: Oh.
(Silence. The radio plays. The man is no longer singing.)
Man: What fuse?
Woman: On the rocket. The fuse on the rocket.
Man: Rockets don't have fuses.
Woman: Yes they do.
Man: Firecrackers have fuses. Dynamite has fuses. Not rockets.
Woman: Some rockets have fuses.
Man: Nope. In road runner cartoons maybe. If you're Wile E. Coyote maybe. But not real rockets.
Woman: It's not a real rocket. It's a rocket in a song.
Man (after a pause): In the song, though, it's a real rocket.
Woman (annoyed; she thought the discussion was over): What?
Man: In cartoons the rocket is a cartoon rocket. That's the reality. A cartoon reality. So it's a cartoon rocket. But the song takes place in real life. Real people. So it needs to be a real rocket. And real rockets....
Woman: ...don't have fuses. I get it.
Man: Granted, it's in the future, but the reality....
Woman: I get it.
(Silence.)
Woman: So you're sticking with "burnin up the trees on every lawn."
Man: Yes. Yes I am.
(Silence.)
Woman: You're so literal.
Man: I thought you liked that about me.
Woman: I used to like that about you.
(The car stops. The Man turns off the engine. The radio stops playing.)
Man: We're home.
Woman (turning to look at him): I'm leaving you.
Man: In the car? You're leaving me in the car?
(The woman turns away, gets out. The car door slams shut, with some finality.)
12 comments:
So that's what Elton's saying.
I like the last several lines.
peppy ,just goes to show you how diffrent men and women are,
CC, you have such a marvelous spareness with your words. Like a rocket there's nothing extraneous, no fiddly bits to fall off or look funny and out of place, nothing to slip on or get underfoot. Just what needs to be there.
I can't WAIT to get you on the show and pick your brain apart. *lol*
I always thought the words were:
Rocket man/burna lana fusa heaven on! At least that's what I sing.
Well, it makes more sense than the tree-lawn thing.
(This was a hilarious little dialogue).
LOL! Oh that killed me.
Not literally.
I liked it. Witty and to the point. I think I have this LP somewhere…
But in relation to your reply to my comment, you’re right. I’m going to help them out no matter what happens, and just because things got a little too crazy for them to hold on to doesn’t mean that they aren’t the best poker playing, music listening, party crashing, drinking buddies a guy can have.
Great dialogue! Sounds like something that would happen at my house...er...car....
And thanks for the rocket diagram...you mean to tell me astronauts sit in a canister of Kerosene? Seriously? How the heck did we ever get to the moon?
I mean, sit ON a canister of kerosene. "In" one would prolly drown....
"The only place you're going Alice, is TO THE MOON!"
(Jackie Gleason in case you never watched it or are too young to have ever heard of it!!!)
Obviously the man didn't know that WOMEN have very short fuses. That's how man got to the moon.
Thanks, E. I rarely give a sh*t what Elton's singing, but the word of the day was rocket, so watcha gonna do? Take the road your mind leads you down....
Thnaks for stopping by becca. Your photo thingie sure is blinky!
Irr, it's not without a lot of effort. My initial impulse is to stuff in as many adjectives and adverbs and sidetriod as I can. Stuff em all in like clowns in a car.... The prospect of a full hour on your show still scares me.
Nance, that tree-lawn thing makes no sense whatsoever, I admit. But, as he says so eloquently in Yellow Brick Road, "Back to the hound brick out in th woods, back to the honey-back trowel." I thin that says it all.
Jo, glad to hear you're still alive.
Vic, that is good to hear. Friends sometimes need you most when they aren't being very good friends.
Mna, i didn't notice the erosine til you pointed it out. It does seem a little low tech for a rocket to the moon. Did they use sparklers too? And sidewalk snakes (remember those?)?
Pow...zoom, MoI. Yes I remember. Hamana-hamana-hamana!
Oort guy, I liked the first part of the post but hope the end is fictional. Do you know that I used to imagine I was married to Elton? I think I was about 16 and didn't have a clue what gay meant. Glad I figured out those lyrics, though, kinda. Let's talk about the book of lose shoes the next time we're driving, okay?
Your partner in crime.
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