Flumes Vol. 3: Issue 1 Summer 2018 | Page 53

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HARRIET:

If only it were that simple.

[A momentary silence as Harry and Harriet contemplate. Harriet nudges Harry’s tambourine with her foot]

Give us a tune then.

HARRY:

I’d rather not.

HARRIET:

Oh, go on. Maybe a little music will help get us in the mood again. Do you know ‘Jump’ by Van Halen?

HARRY:

I don’t take requests.

HARRIET:

You can’t play that thing, can you? You’re embarrassed.

HARRY:

No, no! That’s not it. I just don’t like playing. My mother, when she wasn’t being a palmist, was a drummer. She bullied me into playing percussion. I had it ‘drummed’ into me while I was very young, you might say.

HARRIET:

Very droll. Or should I say, very...drum roll?

[Harry glares at Harriet]

HARRY:

You’re not from around here, are you? You have an accent.