It's Lemonade Time

When life serves you lemons you make lemonade, right?

How many times have you heard that, perhaps said it?

Fact is this saying makes a lot of sense. But . . when it is you that is served the lemons . . well then lemonade is a little harder to swallow.
When hard times and health situations overwhelm us.

(Writer): This script is personal in my ongoing  battle with Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy (HOCUM), also known as Sudden Death Syndrome

Cast: 1 (monolog)

Bible Reference: Matthew 25:41

Set: standard

Sound: wireless mics if available

Song: none

Lighting: standard

SFX: none

Props: large dictionary

Costumes: standard

Special Instructions: none

Time: 10

Sample of script:

actor comes on stage

It's Lemonade Time!

When life serves you a lemon, you make lemonade.

Yup, I've heard it said a thousand times!  Said it more than once myself.  Makes a lotta sense.  Sure does!

When life serves you a lemon, you make lemonade.

Really great saying!  Chock full of wisdom too!  When unfortunate things happen to "them" I can’t figure out why "they" can't see the wisdom, deal with the unfortunate circumstance, and move on with "their" lives.

When life serves you a lemon, you make lemonade, right?

Never did think of what it might be like if "I" were the "they" and the unfortunate things happened to "me".

Why would I think of that possibility, it's, . . . it's, . . . . simply not a possibility!  Unfortunate things happen to the "them’s” of this world, never to the "me's”.  And, anyway, I just choose not to think about such things.  Depressing, that's what!

Depressing thoughts.  Don’t need those kinda thoughts.

When life serves you a lemon, you make lemonade.

Oh, don't get me wrong, it's not as if I'm saying that my good fortune came as result of my goodness, or worthiness, or good deeds.  I know full well the source of my supply.  God truly has been good in my life! And, I mean, well, He always wil1 be, I mean, why wouldn’t He always be?

But when life serves you a lemon, you make lemonade.

What's this?  My old weak spells back again?  My thorn in the flesh?  Over the past 30 years or so my only real medical problem has been occasional weak spells.  But just a bit of an irritant really.  No real problem. Likely just a sinus condition.

What's that you say?  These chronic problems getting more frequent?  No, not really, I mean, every 5, 6 years I seem to have a problem, but just a day or two and it's gone again.  No problem!  Don't worry about it.

How long've I had the weak spells this last time?  Oh just a month or two.  Back when my youngest got married.  You remember Doc, I came in, you gave me a referral for heart checkup. Specialist found an irregular heartbeat, kept me in the hospital overnight, by morning it had gone away completely.

What's that Doc?  You say it wasn't just a month or two ago?  Let's see, our kids have been married for, hey, it's been almost eleven months.  Eleven months of these weak spells?  Can't be!  I mean, it can't!  Man!  Doesn't seem possible!

And the pain.  Worse part about it, it just never stops.  I mean, if only it stopped at night, that's the worst time.  I can’t remember when I have fallen asleep before 4 am.  Or when I've slept for more than 10, 15 minutes at a stretch.  By then the pain gets so bad, just have to wake up.  And though I try not to move a muscle, you've gotta move, you simply gotta change position.

And during the day, at the office.  It's sometimes hard to keep my mind sharp, focused. And I am having incidents when I, I dunno, I seem to lose my breath . . Have to lean up against the wall until the feeling goes away.

But it goes away in a real short time, maybe a second or two and it’s like nothing happened.  Likely just something I ate, . . . likely.

But seems to maybe be happening a little more frequently maybe.

Over the years I can't remember when I've ever worked less than a 10 hour day, not unusual at all to have a 12 hour day, . .  even longer at budget time.  But I've put in a lot of 8 hour days lately. Some 6 hour days. Some days I can't take it after 4 hours.

Look, it’s just ... Oh, well, what's the use!

And the sound of a thousand crickets buzzing in my ears! . . . 24/7!

My doc sent me for testing for something called tinnitus.  . . Constant ringing in the ears. It’s caused by hearing loss. . . . But my hearing is fine.

Or maybe caused by taking too many aspirin. . . . But my stomach can’t handle aspirin so I haven’t taken aspirin in years.

Doc says . .  “Perhaps you are going to have to learn to live with this for the rest of your life.”

If only they could find some pain killer, some medicine that would deaden the pain, one that my system wouldn't react against. I don't expect them to eliminate the pain, that's not realistic. But, if only they could make the pain just a little more manageable.

But, we've tried it all, there's nothing we haven't tried. No, don't look at me that way, Doc. You've tried your best.

Quick, make a joke about it! "What do you expect with a body that's 103 years old.

When life serves you a lemon, you make lemonade.

And now, in the middle of the night, I get "that'' thought, that impossible, unacceptable thought. What if ... what if, just if, ... what if, the pain, the weak spells, what if they don’t go away this time. I mean, impossible though it seems, what if it actually didn't go away?

When life serves you a lemon, you make lemonade, right?

It's been over three months now since I've been off work. A constant round of doctors, therapists, we've tried it all. And the pain, the weak spells? I don't want to admit it, but it's actually worse now than when I left work.

Doctor tells me the tests they did indicate a problem with my heart.

I do not have a heart problem thank you!

Heart problems are for sick people. I am not sick!

They say it is something called hypertrophic something something.

picks up dictionary, leafs through, reads

Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy.

Long name, that hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy . . . But I really don’t want to know how to pronounce it.

Abbreviated it is HOCUM.

Also called Sudden Death Syndrome.

Want to see how the story unfolds? DramaShare members get this complete script— and access to our entire library—free! Not a member? You can still grab this individual script and bring it to life.