1
The Tango Maureen
"I think I need help." Joanne thought to herself. Maureen, a half hour before, had been pacing madly across the floor of the stage. "Why does he have to try and ruin everything!" Maureen had shouted.
"Um... who?" Joanne questioned. "WHO? Benny!" Joanne stared blankly. "Oh, you don't know...I didn't tell you?" Joanne shook her head. "Oh sorry honey, see all that matters is he keeps trying to stop my protest and I don't think this day could get worse."
A fuse blew on the speakers and the lights shut off. "Or maybe it could because now the POWER DOESN'T WORK!" Maureen paced across the stage again looked at her watch and cried suddenly "Oh my god, I've got to go. You can handle this can't you?" That had been the last thing she said before she left. And once again Joanne was at the stage alone.
She was now sitting in a pile of wires trying to get everything fixed. "Let's see...maybe the blue wire goes here?" A small series of popping noises sounded and the speaker started smoking. Joanne sighed and picked up the fire extinguisher next to her and blew it on the speaker. She had expected that to happen because thats all the improvment she'd gotten out of her work. "Where is that engineer?" she mumbled angrily "I have no idea what i'm doing. I'm a lawyer..." She reluctently put down the extinguisher and tried some more wires.Then she heard footsteps. Oh thank god the engineer. "What took you so long? I've been waiting for..." She stopped, and looked at the stranger that walked in. Oh no.
'That can't be the engineer' Joanne thought to herself. A blonde guy about 20, black rimmed glasses and...what was that, a camera bag? "Hi, Maureen called and asked to see if I could help with anything." he said. Joanne stared for a second in shock then said "Oh my god. You're Mark?" He blinked when he heard his name. "Joanne?" She sighed, 'Oh well' "Yeah, I am." Mark walked up the stairs and set his bag down. "You know Maureen said she'd be here." Joanne looked glaringly at him "Yeah, I know." He looked around for a moment. "So is there anything I can do?" Joanne started to say something, stopped and smiled then said smugly "Actually I've hired an engineer. He'll be here any minute."
"Oh, great. Well nice to have met you." he said picking up his bag walking back down the stairs. 'I don't want to do this but...' "Wait." Mark turned and looked at her. Joanne sighed once again and said grudgily "He's three hours late."
"All right then." He walked back on stage and put his bag down. "I can't get anything to work and the cables..." He stopped her "It's ok, there's another way to do this. Say something in the microphone, anything." She walked slowly up to it. "Test, 1,2,3..." Mark looked at her as though she was stupid. 'The nerve.' "Just not that." Joanne wanted to get away from him and immedialty started down the stairs. She could not believe this was happening.
Joanne scoffed. "Well it's seems selfish to hold a grudge aganist Maureen and try to make her life miserable...and mine." she added. Mark shot her a defiant look. "Dork."she thought. "I'm not though." How did he...? "This is what Maureen does. If she gets in troubleshe'll blame it on whoever she's with at the time and breaks up with them." She couldn't help but roll her eyes at this. "You act like you know everything. I don't blame her for dumping..." "Has she ever pouted her lips and called you "Pookie"? Mark interjected.
"Uh...what? No! Never! What are you getting at?" she said nerously. "Well it's just how the tango goes." he replied. Joanne rolled her eyes once again. "Tango...that's all I keep hearing. I mean, for one you're wrong about Maureen." He is isn't he? "And two, you don't even know how to..." "Tango?" he finished, a challenging look on his face. Oh no. No way. He can't mean... He took off his jacket and threw it on the ground with that stupid look on his face. ""Afraid?" Joanne sighed and took off her own jacket. This guy is nuts. But I'm not going to let him show me up.
They tanoged. "Hey he's not that bad for a dork." she thought impressed. "Where'd you learn to tango?" Mark asked. "With the French Ambassador's daughter in her dorm room at Miss Porter's." she answered proudly. "And you?"
He sighed. "With Nanette Himmelfarb the Rabbi's daughter at the Scarsdale Jewish Community Center." Thet switched and she began to lead. "It's hard to do this backwards." Mark said. "Hey try it in heels." They stopped. Joanne looked at him awkwardly. "So she really did cheat on you?" "Yup." he said flatly. "And then she dumped you right?" "Right."
"Wow, maybe I should give up now." "Hey, just look on the bright side." Mark said optimistically. "I don't stand a chance do I?" she said sadly. He shook his head in reply while walking back to the stage. He presssed a button on the sound board then spoke into the microphone. "And we're patched...atched...atched...tched..." "You fixed it! Thanks." Joanne said and smiled at him for the first time. "Any time." The phone rang and she went to pick it up.
"Hello? Hey honey." It was Maureen. "Hey Pookie." "Hey guess what we got...wait a minute..." Did she just say... "Did you just call me pookie? You never call me pookie." Mark smirked at this. Well what do you mean baby? There's nothing wrong with that. Did Mark say something? "Oh...no forget it. Anyway we're patched. Love you honey." Great! Ok bye pookie! "Bye." Joanne said and hung up. She turned and looked at Mark who was still smirking. "Pookie." he said mockingly. "Shut up." she said defensively and turned away towards the rest of the equipment. This is going to be a long day.
