Lead Focused / Drama
Last Bell
Diane has been principal for eighteen years. Tonight the school closes for good. Before she can hand over the keys, three staff members each walk in wanting something she is not sure she can give.
The principal's office. Boxes half packed. A cardboard box marked DISTRICT sits on the desk. Through the window, the buses pull away for the last time.
DIANE stands at the window. She does not turn when the door opens.
DIANE
If that's the district, tell them the keys go in the lockbox at six and not one minute before.
WALT
It's me.
DIANE
Walt. Sit. Don't sit. Nobody has time to sit, apparently. There's a man with a clipboard coming.
WALT
I want the bell.
DIANE
The bell.
WALT
The brass one. In the case by the front doors. It was in the old building before this one. It's been rung on the first day of school every year since 1954. I want to take it home.
DIANE
It's district property. It's on the inventory. It goes in the truck with the rest.
WALT
It'll go in a warehouse in a box with a number on it, and nobody will ever ring it again.
DIANE
I know that.
WALT
Then give me the bell, Diane.
PRIYA enters, carrying a folder.
PRIYA
I have the letter.
DIANE
Priya, I'm in the middle of...
PRIYA
Forty-one signatures. Every teacher, the nurse, both lunch ladies. It asks the board to delay the closure one year, and it needs your name at the top. Without the principal it's a petition. With the principal it's a story.
DIANE
The vote was in March.
PRIYA
Votes get revisited.
DIANE
Not this one. I sat in that room. I talked for eleven minutes. They had the numbers on a screen before I sat down.
PRIYA
So you're done.
DIANE
I'm putting eighteen years into cardboard boxes, Priya. I am not done. I am finished. Those are different words.
MARLENE appears in the doorway.
MARLENE
The staff's going to the diner at five. Everyone. I told them you'd be there.
DIANE
Marlene.
MARLENE
And I told them you'd say something. Two minutes. You can do two minutes.
DIANE
I have to be here for the lockbox.
MARLENE
The lockbox is a metal box. It doesn't need you to hold its hand.
DIANE
(sharp)
Can everyone please stop asking me for things for five minutes?
Silence. Nobody leaves.
DIANE
I'm sorry.
WALT
No, you're not. Go on.
DIANE
I've spent this whole year being calm. In the gym, in the hallway, in front of parents who were crying in the parking lot. I told the fourth graders that a building is just a building. I said it so many times I think I hear it in my sleep. And I don't believe it. I never believed it.
PRIYA
Then sign the letter.
DIANE
The letter won't work.
PRIYA
I know that. I'm not stupid. I want it on the record that we didn't go quietly. That's all a letter is. It's a record.
DIANE looks at the folder. Looks at Walt. Looks at Marlene.
DIANE
Walt, the bell is on the inventory as one item, brass, decorative. Nobody in that warehouse knows what it looks like.
WALT
I'll bring a box.
DIANE
Bring a box.
She takes the pen from Priya. Signs.
DIANE
Put my name on top. Big. If it's going to be a story, it should have a headline.
MARLENE
And the diner?
DIANE
I'll be there at five. I'll say two minutes. I may cry. If I cry, nobody's allowed to comfort me, or I won't stop.
MARLENE
Deal.
The three of them go. DIANE stands alone. She picks up the PA microphone from the desk. Clicks it on. The hum fills the empty building.
DIANE
Good afternoon. This is Principal Holloway. This is the final announcement.
(a breath)
To anyone still in the building. Thank you. Go home. Be loud. Be kind. Come back and visit, even if it's only a parking lot.
(quieter)
That's all. That's really all.
She clicks off. She turns out the lights. She does not leave yet.
End of script
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