Sam and the Social Worker
By
Dan Joyce
©2023
Act 1Getting there
Scene 1 assessment
Social Worker: I’m here to do an assessment, Sam. You are here for suicidal ideations, correct? Why is this?
Sam: My family is forcing me into homelessness. So, I threatened suicide to get their attention.
Social Worker: Why do you feel they are trying to make you homeless?
Sam: They are punishing me for a joke I told on Youtube the last time I was homeless.
Social Worker: What was the joke?
Sam: I said if anyone can help me find a place to live, I’ll let them fuck my fat slutty sister. She is advocating my homelessness.
Social Worker: That’s funny, but inappropriate.
Sam: I like inappropriate jokes. They help me cope with my family’s threats of homelessness. But this time they are punishing me for it.
Social worker: What is the punishment?
Sam: They make me sleep on cement and eat out of garbage.
Social worker: How many times have they done this?
Sam: a lot… since my father died.
Social Worker: Was your father abusive as well?
Sam: Yes, he used to hit me and suffocate me, sometimes burn me with cigarettes.
Social Worker: Why did he do that?
Sam: To punish me for saying the wrong things. Liberal stuff. I was a rebel.
Social Worker: It’s ok, Sam. We’re going to try to get you safe. Sometimes rebels change the world.
Sam: If they live to do it.
Act 1, Scene 2 Hospital Hallway
Sam and Franchesca are both pacing the hall. She is younger and attractive.
Sam: I’m not following you. I just have a lot of energy.
Franchesca: It’s ok, I’m trying to get rid of a bunch of hallucinations. I read the bible. It speaks to me.
Sam: Yes, that is kind of the idea. I often like a passage by John the Baptist, I am a voice in the desert, make clear a path for the coming of our Lord. Sometimes it says, wilderness, but I feel like a deserted person waiting to hear from God. So, it speaks to me. The bible is a big book though. So, really it can say anything.
Franchesca: (crying) The voices are telling me my birth parents are in Hell.
Sam: Yeah, I’ve had friends who hear them. They start nice and then they get real mean. Just take the meds and try to ignore them.
Franchesca: I wonder if I got earplugs they would go away?
Sam: probably not. They are in your head. I’ve seen people blast music with earphones to drown them out. Do you have any?
Frranchesca: Yes, I’ll have to ast the nurse for them. They’re wireless.
Sam: Cool, I have some good music I found on facebook by my friends in New York.
Act 1, Scene 3 at the nurse’s station
Nurse: It’s bedtime, so start getting ready.
Sam: Can I stay in the hall? My stomach hurts from the acid coming up. They usually give me medicine for that. Did I take it already?
Nurse: We gave it to you in the morning.
Sam: But the bad stuff comes at night.
Nurse: I’ll check on that. Do you chew Nicorette gum? That causes it sometimes.
Sam: What about withdrawal?
Nurse: from cigarettes? No, how much were you smoking?
Sam: Three packs a day.
Nurse: THREE PACKS A DAY???
Sam: Yeah, just bored.
Act 1, Scene 4 physical evaluation
P.E.: How old are you?
Sam: 58
P.E. : How tall are you?
Sam: 6’2”
P.E. What is your diagnosis?
Sam: Schizoaffective Bipolar
P.E. : Is there a family history of this?
Sam: Yes, my mother is severly mentally ill.
P.E. : What does she have?
Sam: denial
P.E. : So how long has your family been trying to force you into homelessness?
Sam: After my father died. It started when a social worker had me ask to see the will due to my mother’s suspicious involvement with my lawyer and my therapist. All hell broke loose and I was completely cut off financially. Tough love, you know. Family support organizations like ToughLove, Alanon and National Alliance for Mental Illness, coach them on how to do this, how to withhold the money, file for a restraining order, etc… so as not to be legally responsible. All 8 of my surviving family members cut off all communication and blocked me, including my brother, the executor to the will.
P.E. : Did you ever see the will?
Sam : Yes, they used an old copy written long before he caught cancer. He told me and several other people that tI would be cared for, but that doesn’t count.
The money went to my mother and Sister-in-Law. At the time of my father’s death I had an art business selling my work all over Southern California. I never recovered from the financial loss. I am an artist, but they cut off all assistance for transportation, forbid me from buying a car, all I have is the bus and I can’t put the paintings in there or afford uber. I got in an accident 10 years ago and my mother said I would never drive again. I didn’t
My father owned half my business. We were in coffeeshops, street markets, galleries, colonies, museums, etc. all over! I still make art and it’s popular. I just have no way to sell it. I’ve tried the internet. Me and dad used to ship out a painting a week when ebay was big, but not it all sells on social media marketing and not very well. I make illustrated books and I want to take them to Comic-Con, but mom says no way! Sometimes I like to draw naked ladies.
P.E. : I wish there was a way to get your business back.
Sam: I often ask my mother for help and she says, what happened to your money. I just say, You stole it! It doesn’t go over well. I’ve tried to be nice, I’ve tried to be mean, I’ve begged for mercy…
End of Act 1
Act 2 The Rat’s Maze
Scene 1 – on the phone with caseworker
Sam: You told the police that I squander my money and then go to the hospital for food and shelter when I run out. That’s not true. Last year, I had three inpatient treatments with over $1000 in the bank saving for Comic-Con. Would you like to see my bank statements?
Caseworker: no, and what is your point?
Sam: You are lying on legal and psychiatric records and I don’t appreciate that.
Caseworker: Would you like for me to discharge you from the clinic?
Sam: No! I have no other resources.
Caseworker: Ok. Then in the future, watch your tone.
Act 2, Scene 2 psychologist office
Psychologist: You have to learn to take care of yourself.
Sam: I get jobs, but I lose them usually around one year when my symptoms act up. Same thing goes for places to live, half-way houses. They’re filled with drug addicts and convicts. They’re hard to live with and often bully me. I’m clean, but it reminds me of jail. I was raped in there.
Psychologist: Who put you in jail?
Sam: My mother, she starved me out of my house, so I broke into her house to threaten her, shake her up. I told them I would kill her. I wasn’t well. She had taken everything I had to live for. I even called and told her I was coming.
Psychologist: Did you try to kill her?
Sam: No! She was in church a mile away and called the police. It was like she’d been waiting for something to happen. With the poverty and lack of transportation I wasn’t getting my meds and therapy. I was charged with elder abuse, and I can’t legally inquire about the money.
When I was young I used to take a bug, remove it’s legs on by one and leave it there to die. The way my family strategically took away money and resources to survive, I feel like that bug.
Psychologist: Why do you keep turning to them?
Sam: I feel dependent on them, financially and emotionally. My mother says she loves me, but all they do is hurt me. That’s not love. It’s tough love and it’s a lie.
Psychologist: Do you believe your family still loves you?
Sam: No.
Psychologist: You need to let them go.
Sam: With no way to survive? (pause, then spoken quietly) She has a restraining order on me. She told the judge that I yelled and asked her if she knew what it was like to be fucked in the ass by a man. Referring to the jail rape. I never said such a thing. I wouldn’t.
Psychologist: What did she say to you abou the rape? Did you tell her?
Sam: … she said to just get over it.
Psychologist sighs and shakes his head.
Sam nods
Sam: If that’s not bad enough punishment, then what’s next?
Act 2, Scene 3 patient’s room
Sam is laying down
Social Worker: Do you use alcohol or drugs?
Sam: I was clean and sober 18 years in AA, bu I had a beer after that. I sometimes have one, but I really don’t like it. It makes me feel sick to my stomach and dizzy. Same with pot, it just puts me in a fog.
Social Worker: Are you an addict? Alcoholic?
Sam: No, I don’t like the stuff.
Social Worker: Who said you’re an addict? alcoholic?
Sam: My mother’s doctor, psychiatrist. I was only 17
Social Worker: When and why did you drink a lot?
Sam: When I graduated high school and went to college, you know, like most people do. I just wanted to show off and be popular and meet women. I was young.
Social Worker: How did you end up on the system?
Sam: AA sent me to an expensive rehab that drained my father’s insurance. Dad made me apply for disability so as to get medical coverage. I ended up on Social Security when I was 22. Odd time to retire.
they laugh,
Sam: They were weird about thihgs. The first time he caught me drinking, he chased me around the yard with a water hose, yelling that I had to work the poison out of me. Another time, he found a pornographic video in my room and mad my brothers and their friends watch while he took several strokes to it with an ax.
Social Worker: They sound like Puritans.
Sam: Yes, pure control.
Social worker nods.
Social Worker: Why do you fight them?
Sam: I don’t fight. I fight back.
Act 2, Scene 4 The next morning
Social Worker: We’ve found a great place for you in Laguna Beach for disabled artists. It’s in an art colony and run by artists and patrons. You pay for rent and food with your disability check and EBT. You will be provided art supplies and studio space to build your business back. But there is another issue to be dealt with.
Sam: What’s that?
Social Worker: Your mother filed for a conservatorship on you. She wants to put you in an institution. They can be abusive.
They both shake their heads,
Act 2, Scene 5 Mother and Social worker
Mom: No! Absolutely not! It won’t work!
Social Worker: But Mrs. Jones…
Mom: You haven’t heard my side of things. What is he telling you?
Social Worker: There is such a thing as client confidentiality…
Mom: phooey! For the last time I said no. I refuse to pay for it! What is this Art World?
Social Worker: It’s paid for by patrons and disability. It’s a tremendous opportunity.
Mom: He needs to learn a lesson! I said, No! He will see me in court. He tells so many lies and needs to be punished. That was his last chance. Lock him up!
She slams the door and leaves,
Act 2, Scene 3
Rep: Tell me about yourself, Sam. I’m from the colony in Laguna.
Sam: I’m 58 years-old, been drawing and painting since I was 14, have 3 college degrees, two in art related fields, studied abroad in Italy, featured on PBS, KCET, museum permanent collections, galleries, coffeehouses, street markets, Venice Beach artist, private collectors…
Rep: What is your disability
Sam: I can get paranoid, delusional, obsessive, mostly symptoms of psychosis…
Rep: Uh, ok. That’s enough. We’ll call you if we deem to take you.
Act 2, Scene 4
Social Worker: So, what did you inherit from your father?
Sam: a laptop, a tablet, and a painting by Peter Max.
Social Worker: What was the painting worth?
Sam: I googled it and researched the value, then I sold it on eBay for $4000. I used it to pay debts incurred when my father died.
Social Worker: What did your brother and sister-in-law get?
Sam: A car, a paralegal education, a supplementary income, a job in a law firm and a two bedroom house.
Social Worker: What did your father say you were supposed to get?
Sam: A stipend, $1000 monthly so I wouldn’t spend it all at once. Collected as rent from a house they own.
Act 2 Scene 5
Social Worker: Why did your mother put you on a restraining order?
Sam: To protect herself and keep me away from the money, the family trust.
Social Worker: did you get anything else?
Sam: They put all my paintings in a storage unit with limited access. So, I can’t get to it or sell the art. As stated, I don’t have a car.
Social Worker: Do
Sam: Yes, from my inheritance, it’s unnecessary.
Social Worker: But where would they put it?
Sam: My mother lives alone in a two-story house, but they won’t keep it there. The storage unit was my brother’s idea, not mine, although I am basically paying for it.
Act 2, Scene 6
Social Worker: Why do you think your mother hates you?
Sam: not sure. She’s just looking to scapegoat me so as not to look at herself or her own sickness.
Social Worker: Where did she come up with the idea of blaming you for everything?
Sam: She got it from an episode of the Brady Bunch where the middle child, Peter, was to have the most problems. She says she didn’t know how to raise us, so she learned from watching tv, but the Brady’s didn’t hit their kids.
Social Worker: What is your sister like?
Sam: She’s hot-headed but likes to play the victim. Like she did with the joke.
Social Worker: What about your older brother?
Sam: Violent, seems to want me dead. Hit me over the head with a brick when I was two, joined the military so he could legally kill, but was kicked out for stalking a woman. Married a mail order Ukrainian wife. He’s the executor to the will, but I have no way to contact him.
Act 2, scene 7 visitation room. imaginary
Mom: Most parents give up on mentally ill children.
Sam: That’s not true. The people living at the boarding homes get lots of visits from family, just not me.
Mom: NAMI says it’s your fault, your sickness that is.
Sam: I know, they blame me. That just gives you more excuses.
Mom: You’re the one with the excuses, always blaming everyone…
Sam: That blame word gets you out of everything.
Mom: I’ve had enough of this crazy talk. Goodbye.
She grabs her purse and leaves slamming the door,
Act 2, Scene 8
Caseworker: I’m not a social worker. I can’t get you HUD housing of Section 8 and I can’t ask your mother for your inheritance. I’m just your case manager.
Sam: But looks at how it affects me.
Caseworker: It doesn’t even affect you. How does it affect you? Just when you’re out of money?
Sam: It affects me every day. I could have something better.
Act 2, Scene 2 past experience
Sister: Just admit it, you’re an asshole!
Sam: What?
Sister: You’re an asshole! Just say it! You get the house!
Sam: No! Why did all the money go to mom to starve me?
Sister: Don’t you remember when we were young, how she cooked and cared for us in dirty clothes. Don’t you think she deserves it?
Sam: Not at my expense.
Act 2, scene 10 Older brother past experience
Older Brother: So, some family members wanted to leave their share to Sam and his little brother. But I called them all to change their minds. I just asked them all if they wanted to opt-in and they all did.
Sam: You talked them out of helping us?
Mom: Samuel! Behave! Your older brother Is FAIR!
Sam: Yell it, louder mom! It will make it more believable!
Mom: Do you want me to call the police?
Sam: Sorry mom.
Mom: Is there any way to help Sam now? Like an apartment?
Older brother: Buy a lottery ticket (laughing)
Act 2, Scene 11 Sam reads a letter from his brother,
Older Brother … that being said, you smoke, and you are in poor health. Men in our family age faster and die younger. The women in mom’s family tend to live well into their 90’s. You will die first and will never see a penny of the money. Most funds that ever make it you will be the result of poor planning. Dad said that to me.
Act 2, Scene 12 therapy past
Therapist: Samuel, This this is your doctor. I spoke with your mother even though you told me not to. Have you considered being conserved?
Act 2, Scene 13 past with lawyer
Lawyer: Samuel, this is your lawyer. Your mother gave me all your medicine. I am no longer representing you, but her instead. If you want your meds, you will do as I say…
Sam narrative: The lawyer was not disbarred even though I filed for it. The therapist was cleared of breach of confidentiality claiming he was told by Sam it was ok to treat his mother and discuss his case. The family lawyer backed the older brother. I was not to see a penny.
Nurse: This is a 5250, a two week hold. You may not be here the whole time.
Act 2, Scene 14 Groups
Nurse: Samuel wake up!
Sam: yes
Nurse: I have some questions for you!
Sam: ok
Nurse: Do you have any hobbies or activities that help you?
Sam: I make music and art and sell it online.
Nurse: What kind of music and art?
Sam: Portraits and Punk Rock
Nurse: What do you do with your time? What do you like to work on?
Sam: my website
Nurse: Your what?
Sam: My website. I use it to sell music and art.
Nurse: who is your support? Family? AA?
Sam: I have a few friends online.
Nurse: Attending groups is good for your record and helps you get out sooner. Right now, we’re having, Listen to music group.
5250 paperwork –
Patient continues to do poorly, with severe depression and suicidal ideation to wander into the streets and end his life. He has command auditory hallucinations and is unable to manage his current symptoms. Unable to contract safely. We find him to be a danger to himself and we are assigning him a public defender.
Act 2, scene 16 the nurse’s station
Sam: What are ‘command auditory hallucinations?’ I talk to myself. That’s it! I voiced suicide to get my family’s attention. That they might help, but they didn’t. Social Security reduced my check a few hundred dollars.
Nurse: Command auditory hallucinations are voices that tell you what to do.
Sam: I don’t have that, who determines that?
Nurse: I don’t know
Sam: Who decides that? Who wrote this?
Nurse: I don’t know.
Sam: I don’t believe I’ve even seen a psychiatrist, or can I talk to the Patient’s Rights rep.?
Nurse: I’ll let him know.
Sam: Can I get some Nicorette gum?
Nurse: What is your full name?
Sam: Samuel Jones
Nurse: hold on
Act 2, Scene 17 Consultation room
Sam: Hello, this is Samuel Jones, I a patient at Westside Hills Ward 2 East side. Social Security cut my check and my family refused to help. So, I publicly voiced suicidal ideations to get their attention, but ended up in a psych ward instead. I was placed on a three day hold and now a 14 day hold. The 5250 says I have commanding audio hallucinations, voiced that tell me what to do. This is untrue. I talk to myself as I am a writer and practice how the writing would sound to the reader. I am not wondering into the streets to die or end my life. I fear homelessness and came here because of it. I currently have a home in a room and board in Garden Grove. I don’t know who wrote and determined this. I haven’t seen a psychiatrist since I’ve been here.
I would like to contest the hold. Please contact me immediately. If the assessment and evaluation are inaccurate, then then the treatment will be inaccurate. Especially with the medicine, that would affect my brain chemistry.
Sam: Yes, this is Sam Jones. I’m in room 23 East side Ward 2 of Westside Hills Behavioral Center. The statement and charge for hold are completely inaccurate. I would like to contest the hold on the basis that if the diagnosis is wrong, the treatment will be wrong as well. It’s like a nurse just took my words and twisted them around without listening to me. Medications for acute schizophrenia for that are very sedative. I’ve seen people take them. If they legally force them on my, I could be a zombie.
Act 2, Scene 18
Sam: They’re completely ignoring my family and their role in all of this.
Nurse: We’re not treating them. We’re treating you.
Sam: So you just blame it all on me with a misdiagnosis?
Act 2 Scene 18a GROUP – Anxiety group room
Nurse: the diagnosis in the legal document means nothing. You may not stay the whole time. We all have family problems, Sam!
Sam: I feel disregarded and not taken seriously.
Nurse: You have to prove the claim in the document is untrue.
Sam: I thought we were innocent until proven guilty.
Nurse: How did your family affect you?
Sam: I don’t know the difference between love and hate.
Act 2 Scene 18b GROUP – MUSIC AND SINGING
Kermit the frog: Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers and me…
Act 2 scene 19 ‘noopy
Sam: What’s with the teddy bear?
Franchesca: That’s Mr. Cuddles III
Sam: When I was a toddler, I carried around a worn out stuffed Snoopy. I called him ‘Noopy. He went everywhere with me. Were there Mr. Cuddles I and II?
Franchesca: No, I just call him Mr. Cuddless !!!
Sam: I call him ‘Noopy Bear.
Act 2 Scene 20 Patient’s Rights
Patient’s Rights: You will have your hearing Thursday.
Sam: They lied about me in the document, art they treating me for that? Command voices?
Patient’s Rights: That’s something you’ll have to bring up.
Sam: I want the treatment, but what they wrote… it’s not what I told them.
Patient’s rights: You can tell them Thursday
Act 3 HEALING AND WELLNESS
Scene 1
Sam: What am I taking?
Nurse: This is Abilify, a mild anti-depressant. Your lithium became toxic, and you had to stop taking months ago. So, we’re trying new medicine for you to stabilize you. Your moods were erratic. We’re also trying some anti-anxiety meds temporarily to cope with your family’s abuse. You’ve been anxious.
Sam: One pill can change the world.
Nurse: Something like that.
Sam: Ok, just don’t tell AA.
laughter
Sam: Can I make an appointment with the social worker? The place I’m at takes 90% of my money and serves one meal a day.
Nurse: That’s it? One meal and a bed?
Sam: …and a bowl of cereal for breakfast. I want to see if there’s a place in Laguna to do my art.
Act 3, Scene 2
Narrator Sam: There are some evil people in my family. I need to go to the Social Security office and get my payment straightened out. Sober livings don’t work. They’re filled with convicts, and they don’t like a J-KAT. In independent living sounds best for me. I just need to find one nearby.
I only know one place in Laguna Hills. It was owned by a former psychiatrist who lost his license prescribing narcotics. A couple people died. His manager didn’t like me, and she beat me up. I had to leave.
The anti-anxiety medicine is working. It’s not like a beer, or a joint where I have a fog or a cloud in my head. It just takes the tension out of my neck, shoulders and back, like a massage to calm me down. Nonetheless, it’s only a temporary prescription.
Sam: What is this? Strange People Anonymous, I’m Sam and I’m strange.
Act 3, Scene 3
Narrator Sam: The Illumination Foundation is a free residential shelter. There were going to take me in before I moved the room and board. I’m going to try again. I’m going to stay the extra 14 days if I have to and not contest the hold, then move to somewhere I can afford. I doubt I’ll get my rent money back from the room and board.
Social Worker: Are you going to wake up? Are you going to contest the hold.
Sam: no
Sam Narrator: So, I agreed to the 14 day hold. Staff believes I will be released before then. However, if it pushes further, I will be conserved and lose my art business.
Franchesca: You look so old. I’ll call you, AARP
Sam: You look so young, I’ll call you Barely Legal.
Act 3 scene 4
Sam Narrator: The other patients, mostly female, were outcasting me and keeping me from sharing, even in groups. So, I thought I’d have some fun with them.
Sam: I used to be a sex addict, but I overcame it with Jesus… nurse, do you have a bible? (nurse hands him a bible) Thx. This is my shield. My protection from anything that will hurt me. This is the holy bible shielding me from anything harmful and evil like you…
Sam Narrator: Something is going on with the medication that’s making me not write as much.
Franchesca: There’s no such thing as true love anymore.
Sam: What?
Franchesca: There’s no such thing as true love.
Sam: Ok, let me take a stab at this, you’re saying there is no true love. The problem, however, is not that there isn’t love, but you’re use of the word, true. I studied logic in college and got an A. What you’re are doing is called, the true Scotsman fallacy. It started with an argument on a late night talk show between Johnny Carson and Sean Connery. Connery said, “A Scotsman doesn’t eat brisket,” or something like that. Carson replied, “I have a friend that’s a Scotsman and he eats brisket.” Connery replied, “Yes, but a true Scotsman wouldn’t” This begs the question, What is a true Scotsman? A man born in Scotland? A boy whose parents are Scots? Or according to Sean Connery, someone who doesn’t eat brisket?
The problem comes with the word true. Which often raises the bar impossibly. Let’s try this again. Ron has a company job, a company car with taxes and a paid vacation. I tell Ron that I work at the corner store as a cashier, and Ron says I don’t have a real job. I clock in, clock out, pay taxes, work 40 hours a week. Why would it be that my job isn’t real just because Ron makes more money than me? My job isn’t real… Of course, it is and Ron is a just braggart and a showoff. Again, this is the misuse of the word real, much like the word true.
Let’s take another example. In AA someone often shares that they are a real alcoholic. So, the rest of us are fakes and we can all go home?
Ok back to true love. The problem, as stated, is in your use of the word, true. Let’s take it out of the sentence. There is no love. Well, that’s ridiculous. If you look around, there’s lots of love. Love between a man and a women, gay love, transgender love, love of a parent and a child, brotherly love, spiritual love, love of a cat and her kittens, a dog and it’s owner, a hummingbird pollinating a flower. Love is all over the damn place!
And the best part of love… Everybody gets to do it! There is no you’re too fat or you’re too skinny, no only the cute, no only the pretty, not the short, not the funny, not in poverty or lots of money. There seems to be no requirement to love. There is no, You have to be this tall to ride the ride. There is only love and only you can do it… And when love reciprocates, and comes back to you, Thats probably the best thing that can ever happen to you. I’m almost 60 and I know it’s happened to me once, maybe a few times, and it happens to other people all the time. But you’ll never know if you never try. Everybody gets to love! That is the lesson of love that I have learned from my life. Go! Love! Enjoy! I’m done with you for now, maybe someday you can tell me how it goes for you. Goodnight!
Act 3, scene 5
Sam Facebook post: Ok, I’m going to a shelter in Santa Ana. My stuff is in an old room and board in Garden Grove. I need to get my stuff from GG to SA. It won’t all fit on the bus, and I can’t afford Uber. If you don’t believe me, I’m not the one coming up with excuses. You are.
Comment: Love your mother. No one cares. Lol
Social Worker: In your text, you blame everything on your mother, family, and the system… why not look at yourself?
Sam: Why would anyone want to read a story about a man that creates his own problems?
Social Worker: Because you are one that can stop it. You play the victim, hopeless, powerless… and that is the philosophy you seem to be fighting… like AA.
Sam: I’m not hopeless or powerless. I just can’t seem to defeat them, and I’ve been fighting family and those institutions for years. To accept them would truly mean defeat. So, I write about them, the pen is mightier than the sword. And a computer is even faster and hits the whole neighborhood at once! A poet fights with words.
Social Worker: Ugh!
Act 3 scene 5a past memory
Rocco Ragusa social media post: Sam has been removed from the art colony. Have nothing to do with him!
Sam narrator: Over 100 friends lost in one post. I’d forgive them, but they don’t feel they need it. That’s why I don’t look at my part in things, because they never look at theirs either. It would just give the enemy the upper hand.
Social Worker: The world is your enemy Sam, surrender.
Sam: Not with my cold dead hands!
Act 3, scene 6 in the room
Franchesca: Sam, come here… shh!
Sam: What?
Franchesca: Shh!
She kisses him with a peck on the lips…
Come in.
They enter the room, take off their clothes and make love
MUSIC – BECAUSE THE NIGHT – PATTI SMITH
Franchesca: Say nothing as though this never happendd and only we will remember it.
Patti Smith: There was only one song in the entire manuscript and it was mine. I asked him why and he said it reminded him of mentally ill love making.
Act 3, scene 7
Sam: The meds make me feel peaceful, but less intelligent. I use the extra energy on my profession, my art, music, writing and videos. It creates a natural high, like drugs, but better.
Doctor: It also causes you to lose your senses, Sam. You get in trouble…
Sam: I know. I just wish there was a pill that kept one thing and not the other.
Doctor: I agree, but for now it’s Trazodone. I’ll see you tomorrow. Try to wake up early.
Sam narrator (writing): My plan is to get into a shelter from here and save money to take my art books to Comic-Cons. If I make enough money from the books, I can scale the business by doing more conventions of Comic Con and such websites on the net as well as psychiatric conventions, if not, the shelter should find me housing. I have to be careful as they are strict. One slipup and I’m homeless.
Act 3, scene 5 notes on paper
List of shelters –
Mercy House… Santa Ana, CA
Freedom house… Laguna Beach, CA
Bridges… Anaheim, CA
Nurse: I’m your RN tonight if you have any concerns.
Sam: I slept all day and woke up for dinner. Stayed up all night. Fell asleep just before breakfast.
Nurse: That’s something you can tell your doctor.
Sam: What if I’m asleep when the doctor comes?
Patient: The doctor didn’t wake me up and I’m not getting my Norco’s.
Sam: I’m not taking narcotics.
Nurse: No, you’re not. The doctor will wake you up. I’ll make a note of it.
Sam: It happens at home a lot. It just seems to go off cycle naturally, my sleep, and then it straightens up like the moon.
Nurse: I’ll make sure you get your meds.
Act 3 scene 6 hallway
Staff: Everybody, clear the hall! Go to your room now!
Sam: This is the part where the foreigners get mean.
Staff: GO TO ROOM!!! NOW!!!
Sam: I call my mother everyday so as not to end up homeless or end my life. She has blocked me on her phone. She knows why I call.
Staff: GO TO ROOM!!!
Sam: ok, ok, don’t get bitchy!
Staff: No bitchy! Go now!
Act 3 scene 7 TV Room
Sam: We can’t hear the TV, any of it. So we really don’t know what we’re watching. We just sit here and behave. So, the staff doesn’t get mad at us…
Patient: Gotcha!
Act 3, Scene 7 GROUP TIME – SHELTER VS. BOARDING HOME
Patient’s rights rep.: You won’t make it in a shelter, Sam. They want you back in the group home.
Sam: I can’t afford the group home and my family won’t help. For some reason they want to make me homeless, ever since my father died. My best bet is the shelter. It’s free and has a housing program. The boarding home doesn’t.
Rep: Both the owner and your case manager want you back.
Sam. The case manager is not a social worker, and they both tend to lie. Is there a counselor on staff I can discuss this with?
Rep: Your social worker is working on getting you into the illumination foundation.
Sam: Thank you.
Act 3 Scene 8 Goals Group
Group leader: Everybody, what is your favorite outdoor activity?
Sam: panhandling.
Group leader: Crisis centers keep you housed from homelessness for only two weeks and offer no housing services, we do!
Sam: Actually, they do. You get to use your phone and the internet, and they provide you with a reference book, with numbers to call. The last time I was in this facility I was dropped off in the middle of nowhere and left homeless by another social worker.
Group leader: No, you weren’t.
Sam: Yes
Group leader: who?
Sam: I don’t remember his name. He was older with blonde hair.
Group leader: No one here looks like that.
Sam: Oh! You’re good!
Mother in Imagination: We’re letting you go with love and keeping all the money! Jackpot!
Social worker: I talked to your case manager, and boarding home owner, they want you back. You can go home now.
Sam: Social Security cut me back hundreds of dollars. I only get $950. The rent is $750, the rest goes to my website and maybe cigarettes. I’m broke to the penny. It’s just too expensive for me.
Sam narrator: Mother said so herself, this isn’t just about money as the goal is to make me homeless on the streets. I am fighting my own family by fighting the unreasonable of family. That have strict rules in shelters like not sleeping in and clean your room military style early in the morning. If I slip there, I could end up on the streets. However, they also have housing plans like HUD and Section 8. The caseworker and boarding home aren’t offering that. I could get my own apartment and have a real-life woman over, paint in oil and watercolor again and put my art on the walls. Yes, it is true, such places exist.
So your family gets mad, throws you to the streets. You eat out of garbage, sleep on cement, but the psychologist justifies it because the family is often paying the bill.
Sam: So, the punishment is destruction. They destroy your finances, your business, your educations, maybe even your relationships, your talents and paintings. They are ruthless often not knowing when to stop.
Social Worker: We couldn’t get you into a shelter. Can we advocate for you for cheaper rent at the room and board.
Phone rings
Social worker: Hold on, yes I’ll put you on speakerphone.
Scott Wyland: Yes, this is Scott Wyland. I own three galleries and studios in Laguna Beach as well as our new venture, Art world, for disabled artists. We looked at your website, Sam, and it was fantastic, art, books, music, merchandise, videos… What with AI sneaking up on us we feel Sam’s art and talent on the computer to be beneficial to our community and I will patron or sponsor him in. Is that ok Sam?
Sam: Definitely
Social Worker: I’m sorry the system couldn’t do more. There are so many to help and so few that do…
Wyland: I think the most important part is love. Sam has lost his family, we will be his newfound one.
Sam: Thanks, Wyland.
Wyland: Glad to have you aboard.
Act 3 scene 9 – Art world
Wyland: Welcome to Art World.
Gates open, Wyland is wearing a top hat and singing. The gates to Art World open displaying an array of beautiful art. Franchesca comes out and hugs Sam.
Wyland - We're your family now Sam. You'll be safe. Remember this, if all we have is a dream then let us dream iit.
MUSIC – PURE IMAGINATION from Willy Wonka
The end
If all we have is a dream… then let us dream it!!