Don't Allow Me to Forget

Alrighty, alrighty you guys please settle down this staff meeting is commencing. Now, this week wasn’t the best now, the pipes did bust in the laundry room which uhh...that was pretty bad. What did ya say son? Because they’re wood? It took 5 years for the modern day pipes  to bust, we’ve had these wooden ones for almost 200 years. You need to knock some sense into that young head of yours this place is amazing. No I’m not some crazy old man! Are you guys crazy? You must be absolutely insane some of your parents and grandparents lived here. Mary, you were birthed about 100 feet away, right there in the lobby! Don’t tell me you’re really trying to knock this place down? (mumbles) Maybe we need a new manager, someone with some more appreciation for this place. No, you guys don’t appreciate it! You wanna knock it down make “bigger and better”. Ya know kids this is the bigger and better.


At one time when I was a young boy, I’ll never forget JFK visiting, he said this was the finest hotel, the only one he went to that had ice cream bar with his favorite, hot fudge. What! Whose JFK? The 35th President of the United States god dammit! His spoon and picture are hung up in the dining room. Are you dumb? You guys already got the ice cream bar replaced with a regular bar, ya messing up tradition. Mary I expected more from you, my only daughter. You know how much this place means to me.


Tearing it down means ripping apart my childhood. I was a homeless child, abandoned and hungry. Living on the streets looking for a place to live. I had no luck, all I had were bridges to jump off of or pills to take to end it all. Mr. Clermont  found me and saved my life. He let me stay at his hotel, this hotel. This place gave me a job, a place to sleep, a reason to live. You know that! This place means everything to me! (sniffles) Now I know all of you think I’m some goofy old man but I just tell jokes because Mr. Clermont loved them. He was my father figure on his deathbed I told him I would keep this place alive the way it is, the way it is supposed to be forever. There are so many memories, you can’t take those away from me, but they’re trying too.


(starts to calm down) The doctor, the doctor says something's wrong with my brain. And um, I can’t lose my memories, not today. Alzheimer's can’t get to me. I have this place. Don’t take my joy and happiness away from me, not when it’s all I got left. Yeah, this place is a little old but we have custom made chandeliers with real gems in them. Who's got that? We got that! We have three awards for longest upkeep of wood pipes! Who's got that? We got that! Our Yelp reviews are always, always amazing. Who's got that? We got that! Ain’t no denying, this place is special it’s everything. I just, I just want things to be how they were before all this new stuff and I keep on forgetting the old stuff, what matters. (walks over to sit in a chair and looks up) I’m an old man (tear rolls down his cheek) who can’t even remember that his only daughter's name isn’t even Mary, it’s M-m-m-m-mia? Mia. (puts head in hands and cries)


Sam Voice Of An Angel

Comments (2)

Nicholas Shaw (Student 2018)
Nicholas Shaw

I don't relate to the character at all, because my childhood hasn't been torn down yet. However, the whole monologue does stick out to me because of the relevance of the matter, because eventually pieces of my childhood will be torn down for newer and better things.