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One True Thing

The speaker wants to talk to the listener about their marriage and family. They discuss how relationships change over time, with concessions being made after many years together that were not expected in the beginning. The speaker feels they have not been able to share deep thoughts with the listener or their father, and wants to be able to talk before dying.

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elli skrikas
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835 views4 pages

One True Thing

The speaker wants to talk to the listener about their marriage and family. They discuss how relationships change over time, with concessions being made after many years together that were not expected in the beginning. The speaker feels they have not been able to share deep thoughts with the listener or their father, and wants to be able to talk before dying.

Uploaded by

elli skrikas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

I want... I want to talk to you. You sit there.

Now you listen to me because I'm only going to say


this once...

and I probably shouldn't say it at all.

There is nothing that you know about your father that


I don't know.

Nothing.

And understand better.

Okay?

You make concessions when you're married a long


time...

that you don't believe you'll make when you're


beginning.

When you're young, you say, "Oh, I'll never


tolerate...

this or that or the other thing.,,

But time goes by, darling.

And when you've slept together a thousand nights...

and you've smelled like spit-up from the babies when


they're sick...

and you've seen your body droop and get soft...

and some nights you just think, "Oh, God, I'm not
gonna put up with it another minute".

But you wake up in the next morning...

and the kitchen smells like coffee...


and the kids have their hair brushed all by
themselves...

and you look at your husband, and no...

he's not the person you thought he was.

But he's your life.

And the kids and the house and everything that you do
is built around him.

And that's your life. That's your history too.

And if you take him out, that's like cutting his face
out of all the pictures.

lt just makes a big hole and it ruins everything.

You can be hard, Ellen.

And you can be very judgmental.

And with those two things alone you're gonna make


such a mess out of your life...

you wouldn't believe, and I wanna be able to tell you


these things in ten years.

And when I think how most of what you learned so far


came from your dad...

- it just hurts my heart to think how little... - No.


No.

- I have gotten done. - Mom, don't, um...

- Yes, yes. - Just, let's not talk about that. Can


we...

I wanna talk. You let me talk. Now, look. Let me


talk.
You're dad won't let me talk because he says I'll
upset myself.

And you won't let me talk. "Oh, Mom, please don't


talk".

Brian's the only one that let's me talk. He's never


here.

I wanna talk before I die.

I do. I wanna be able to say the things...

- I wanna say the deep thoughts... without you


shushing me... - Okay. Okay. What?

- because what I say hurts you. - Oh, Mom.

Tired of being shushed.

What do you wanna say?

I already said everything I wanna say.

Except I'm sad.

- Why? - I'm sad that I won't be able to plan your


wedding.

So promise me that you won't have a ring bearer...

or a flower girl, because those kids always just


misbehave...

and then they distract from the bride.

And don't invite too many people.

- Well, you know, I might not even get married, so...


- Whatever.

If I knew that you would be happy, I would close my


eyes now.
I would.

It's so much easier to be happy, my love.

It's so much easier to choose to love...

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