The Boy Who Would Be King
And Six More Plays
by
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After breakfast the next morning two orderlies escorted Malcolm to the office of the chief psychiatrist.
DR. SAVAGE
How do you do, Malcolm? I am Dr. Savage.
MALCOLM
How do you do, sir?
NARRATOR
Malcolm faced Dr. Savage with an enigmatic smile that betrayed neither joy nor sorrow. It was simply a mask behind which Dr. Savage hoped to peer.
DR. SAVAGE
Did you have a restful night, Malcolm?
MALCOLM
I did, sir, and thank you very much for your hospitality. And my wife thanks you, as well. She is not with us today. Though she is back in her sanctuary, I am in constant contact with her. She wishes you a good day.
DR. SAVAGE
And a good day to her, Malcolm.
NARRATOR
The doctor thought about how many times between dusk and dawn, wandering the netherworld between sleep and wakefulness, he had kept the company of his own late wife. Is there an element of insanity in all of us lodged somewhere between the wish and its fulfillment? Is this man not the lucky one that the morning light sends her not away? Somewhere in the labyrinths of his mind is stuck the switch that should turn him from his reverie back into the real world of the senses, the real world, the vale of tears. Could we, the sane, be the brunt of some bad joke played on us by an Olympian trickster? Should we not envy this smiling man who makes his own reality free of pain? [beat] Doubts that unsettled his mind forced the doctor to bring the interview to a premature close. He would continue at a later time. [beat] Dr. Savage never got a chance to continue his interview with Malcolm Roland. One week after his admission the Fire Brigade responded to a call that smoke was pouring from under the door of room twelve in Bethlehem Hospital, Malcolm’s room. Hospital staff hurriedly escorted patients from the building, pinioning them as necessary.
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About the Book
This collection of seven plays will stir your love of story and language. A feast for the ears, it represents Mr. Van Stee’s best dramatic writing over thirteen years. The plays are well-suited to cinematic and stage production as well as to dramatic reading. Book club readers will enjoy taking the various parts and discussing the plays afterwards. Readers will be rewarded by the entertaining plots and the richness of the dialogue.
Mr. Van Stee is the author of eleven previous books including fiction, drama, biography, and literary criticism. He was the director of the Beaufort Writers organization for fifteen years. Between books he is a portrait painter. He lives in Beaufort, South Carolina.
About the Author
Ethard Wendel Van Stee began studying creative writing thirty years ago. He has served on the editorial boards of several learned journals and has had many years of experience on the podium in university lecture halls. He shifted focus three decades ago from science to biographical writing and fiction. He has taught creative writing in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Beaufort, South Carolina. He was the director of the Beaufort Writers organization from 1996 to 2012.
Mr. Van Stee’s books include I Didn’t Come From Nowhere, the life of Marie Johnson, daughter of a slave; Moira’s Scythe, a family saga; The Remarkable Life of Frances Emily Steele, a novel; A Woman of No Means, the second Frances Emily novel; The Bloodstone, a novelized collection of linked murder mysteries from the casebook of Frances Emily’s granddaughter Amy Elizabeth Fletcher, and The Hangman, the second book from the casebook of Amy Elizabeth Fletcher. Most recently Madimi and The Monks of Arden, both set in late medieval England have appeared. He is also the author of Pen in Hand, A Meditation on the Art and Craft of the Short Story. All books are available from any of dozens of Internet booksellers or by order from your local bookstore. Google Ethard Van Stee for more than you ever wanted to know. He may be contacted at ethardvanstee@gmail.com. His website address is www.ethardvanstee.com.