Nicola: Our fortune.

Rowena: Our fame.

Nicola: Our fun.

Rowena: Our fantasy.

Nicola & Rowena: Our freedom. (Pause)

Rowena: I’m going to miss you so much.

Nicola: Me too.

Rowena: I’ll never forget the times we spent together.

Nicola: Never.

Rowena: Remember when we became friends?

Nicola: we were five! That was such a long time ago!

Rowena: But it seems like yesterday.

Nicola: No it does not.

Rowena: I know. It just sounds nice when you say it.

Nicola: Remember the nativity play in the third grade.

Rowena: I was the Guardian Angel and you were Mary.

Nicola: And all the scenery fell down on us.

Rowena: Yes Nicola: Yes.

Rowena: Remember the Pizza Grove?

Nicola: And Dean? You had a crush on him.

Rowena: No I did not. You did.

Nicola: We both liked him.

Rowena: Loved him.

Nicola: Adored him.

Rowena: He was a hunk!

Nicola: You, re telling me!

Rowena: He was our first love.

Nicola: Pity we never spoke to him

Rowena: we too scared. (They laugh)

Nicola: I really will miss you.

Rowena: Me too. (Pause) I hope you’ll make it to Broadway really do.

Nicola: Thanks, I hope I get there too:

Rowena: Oh you will. Before you know it you’ll be the prima donna in the best musical ever.

Nicola: And you’ll find true love.

Rowena: I told you, I’m not getting married.

Nicola: You’ll find It anyway.

Rowena: I love you Nicola I love you too. (They hug.) Look at us, we’re behaving like ninnies. Of course, we’ll meet in the future. You know what they say, it’s a small world.

Rowena: Do they?

Nicola: It is a small world. After all, it’s just one planet.

Rowena: Just seven continents.

Nicola: Just thousands of countries.

Rowena: Just millions of towns.

Nicola: Just billions of …

Rowena: I’ll come and see your every play.

Nicola: And I’ll come to your wedding.

Rowena: I told you I’m not getting married.

Nicola: I’ll come anyway

Rowena: What will I do without you?

Nicola: As much as I’ll do without you. Nothing.

Rowena: Nothing. (Pause) Let’s go out and celebrate.

Rowena: Freedom. Let’s go swimming.

Nicola: Swimming? Today?

Rowena: Of course.

Nicola: Now?

Rowena. Yes.

Nicola: Swimming. In June?

Rowena: July.

Nicola: June, the 29th.

Rowena: Come on. It will be fun.

Nicola: I have not gone swimming for ages.

Rowena: Neither have I.

Nicola: I doubt I remember how to.

Rowena: It does not matter. Neither do I.

Nicola: Would not it be dangerous?

Rowena: Of course not. All we have to do is the paddle.

Nicola: I don’t know.

Rowena: Please.

Nicola: I do not even have a bathing suit.

Rowena: We’ll buy one when we get there.

Nicola: Oh, and it’s miles away, we’ll never get there.

Rowena: Three hours by train, we’ll be there

Nicola: Exactly. It gets dark by eight. What’s the use?

Rowena: You talk as if you don’t want to go.

Nicola: I don’t.

Rowena: Oh, come on, have some fun. We’re eighteen after all.

Nicola: Seventeen.

Rowena: What doesn’t matter! Are you coming?

Nicola: I don’t know Rowena: Hurry up! It’s now or never.

Nicola: How about tomorrow?

Rowena: Now or never.

Nicola: But …

Rowena: Please!

Nicola: I don’t…

Rowena: (Practically begging) Please!

Nicola: Oh well …

Rowena: Yes?

Nicola: What the hell!

Rowena: Great!

(She pulls her out. Lights fade slowly)

Scene 2

(Lights. Same scene. Enter Gentleman with newspaper. He sits on the bench and looks at the front page. He gets a shock as he reads the headline)

Gentleman: Girls drowned. Good Lord how dreadful! (He continues reading) Two seventeen-year-old girls. who had just left school- Rowena Beckett and Nicola Harriot were found at two o’clock this morning by the police on the beach. The police had been phoned the previous night by the girls’ worried parents who said that the daughters had not returned home after their final ‘A’ Level examination, which was held at the old school Gilbert College Dear God, how terrible!

Oh, poor things and so young too! How tragic!