Montecore and Roy
By Steve Martin
 

"Why'd you do it, sweetie? After all these years? I'm the one who played with you, took care of you, snuggled and fed you. And yes, I suppose, clothed you. But our natures were there on stage hanging out, my soft neck and your sharp teeth. Remember sweetie, the night I introduced you? It was your first time on stage, I said. The audience shivered with apprehension. The next night I introduced you with the same line and the audience shivered again, so we kept it in. Just between you me and Siegfried. We're magicians: we fool the audience for their own pleasure."

"I knew somehow it was coming; it wasn't to be bred out of you. You told me so in the Secret Garden. But I wanted to believe that I had reached you. And I loved you so much it was convenient to think that you wouldn't turn."

"I would like to vanish you one more time, wave my hand with illusory power, us working together, boy and beast. Seconds later to reappear on the other side of the stage, you in the box with the light and the smoke, you far on the other side of the stage, though not near Siegfried, near me. Don't take him, Montecore, take me, because I'm the one who played with you, took care of you, snuggled and fed you."


 * From Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Short Imagined Monologues, Oct. 17, 2003. Online. Available at: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues. 

The disclaimer from the site: "We are pleased to introduce a new recurring feature, Short Imagined Monologues, with a contribution from a special, first-time contributor. Lest it not be obvious: this piece does not intend to make light of recent events. It and future installments will be fictional forays into the consciousness of well-known personalities."
 
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