Youth
July 8th, 2020
Starring: Rex (male, mid 50’s), Luke (male, mid 20’s)
A lazer tag place. A few seats in the lobby area are occupied by parents, all sitting on their phones. There’s a front desk near the door, with a sign that reads “LazerZone.” Rex enters from the door, damp from the rain outside. He dries his glasses, then walks up to Luke, who stands behind the desk.
REX
Excuse me.
I’m here to pick up my son? He’s with the birthday party?
LUKE
I just let the whole group inside for the last game. They’ll be done in...seventeen minutes or so.
REX
Seventeen minutes…
LUKE
Feel free to take a seat. We got complimentary energy drinks and fruit roll-ups over there.
REX
No I’m alright, thank you.
…
LUKE
You get caught in the rain?
REX
I did. I didn’t know I was on carpool and...yeah.
Just one of those days.
LUKE
I feel ya man, I feel ya.
REX
Are the kids having fun?
LUKE
Oh, for sure. Never met a boy who didn’t like shooting another boy with a lazer gun.
You ever played?
REX
I haven’t.
LUKE
Oh well you should man. You’d love it. Really gets the adrenaline flowing.
REX
I don’t think it’s really my thing.
LUKE
Ahh I get it dude. I see you as one of those classic kind of dads. Board games and puzzles and playing catch in the backyard?
REX
You got me.
LUKE
Totally respect that. It’s an age thing. My generation and down, we grew up with this stuff. You didn’t.
REX
Right.
LUKE
“Simpler times,” yeah?
REX
I think it was less the times and more my view of it.
LUKE
Yeah, dude. Youth. Game changer, man. I know I’m a kid too but like...I’m not eight, you know? I’m not even that close to eighteen anymore.
REX
Just wait until 56…
LUKE
No, man, for sure. But I still feel it.
You ever miss that? Youth? The bliss?
REX
Sometimes…yes, I really do.
LUKE
Well...
What if I told you you could feel it again right now?
…
Look, you didn’t hear it from me, but we’re more than just lazer tag.
We’ve got tech here. High tech. Higher than lazer guns. I’ve got what you need to take you back.
REX
Back...like, in life?
LUKE
Any age before eighteen, man. But nothing memorable. It has to be any old usual day. You pick the day, we’ll get you there. For realsies. You interested?
Free trial, on the house.
REX
I…
LUKE
Your kid’s got fourteen minutes left in there.
He’s having the time of his life. You deserve that too.
…
REX
...alright. Screw it, why not?
LUKE
There we go, man! Cool, follow me.
Rex follows Luke into a small door connected to the lobby. It’s a room with dark carpet on the floors and walls. In the center, a barber’s chair with a seatbelt attached. Luke gestures for Rex to sit, straps him in, then opens a locked cabinet. He pulls out a strange gadget, which looks like a pager connected to a scalp-massager.
LUKE
You have a day in mind?
Remember, just any old day.
REX
...
November 10th, 1974. I’m nine.
Luke presses a few buttons on the pager, which beeps once. He places the gadget onto Rex’s head.
Okey dokey.
Enjoy the youth, my man. It’s a rush.
...
3
2
Luke vanishes, and the light goes off. Rex is engulfed in darkness.