Cast of Characters

Alexandra (Alex): A 16 year old Southern girl. She’s never                      felt like she fits in. She just got her drivers license. Peter and she have been best friends since kindergarten. She has big dreams that can’t be fulfilled in a small town.

Peter Chow: A 16 year Chinese old boy. A smart, hard working perfectionist who also is a mis-fit. He big dreams that conflict with         his parents’ dreams for him.

Mrs. Chow:Peter’s Mother. Owner of Chow Soon-Fatt Chinese Buffet. A first generation immi-grant who has high hopes and expectations        of her son.

Time and Place: 2015. Thomasville, Georgia.

Opening Scene: (Down Center) ALEX sits in a vintage yellow Citroen inherited from her grandpa and is parked in front of “Chow Soon-Fatt Chinese Buffet” waiting for PETER to meet her after work. It’s a two story historic building in a sleepy southern downtown         area. Many storefronts are empty and there are old apartments above. A Baptist church is on one side and a Weight Watchers is on the other).

       (Up Center PETER hurries out of the front  door of the restaurant still wearing a  dirty white apron and a tall white paper             chef’s hat. He has a backpack slung over  his shoulder).
                             
                                   MRS. CHOW
      (Up Center)(MRS. CHOW leans out the second story apartment window and shouts)
Hurry back, Dong! The Weight Watcher’s Meeting is almost over and you know how angry they get if you keep them waiting!
       
                                       PETER
I know, I know! I’ll be back in time. I only need an hour.
      (PETER walks Down Center opens the car door and gets in).

                                         ALEX

Yes, hurry Dong!
  (ALEX giggles)
     
                                         PETER
My name’s Peter! Only my parents get away with calling me that! How many times have I told you that since first grade? Dong means “winter” in Chinese! I was born in December.
   
                                         ALEX
I know, I know, Peter!

  (ALEX giggles)

I just can’t help myself!
     
                                        PETER
Get yourself together, Alex-a n d r a!

                                         ALEX
Alright, alright, you made your point!
    
                                        PETER
We have serious things to discuss, Alex. Do you have everything your grandpa left for you?

                                         ALEX
Car? Check. Maps? Check. Euros? Check. Grandfather? Check.
      (ALEX motions to her grandfathers remains in a Folger’s Coffee can that has a bright red beret on top)

                                        PETER
Alex, you’ve got to be kidding. Have some respect for the dead!
    
                                        ALEX
Listen, it’s exactly what he would have wanted! We drove around in this vintage yellow Citroen together with our matching red berets every Sunday since I was three. Talking about all about his adventures in Paris and listening to Edith Piaf on tape. Here, I have one for you too!
      (ALEX grabs the chefs hat off Peter’s head and flops a red beret on it)

                                       PETER
      (PETER smiles and adjusts his beret to the side)
I’ll gladly trade in my stinky paper chefs hat for your ridiculous red beret, any day of the week.
     
                                        ALEX
Speaking of stinky, you smell like Sweet and Sour Squid.
      (ALEX makes a face and holds her nose)
I like it better when you smell like Chicken Fried Rice.
    

                                       PETER
Well, you are an expert on stinky aren’t you! Your dad has his union card at the paper plant. I don’t think he can even smell the sulfur on his clothes anymore.
      (PETER holds his nose and takes a deep breath).
Alex, once we leave this miserable tiny town and get to Paris, I’m never going smell like Chinese food or eat Chinese food for the rest of my life! I don’t even want to hear Chinese spoken for a really, really, long,time. That’s what this is all about isn’t it? Recreating ourselves? Changing our destiny!?
         
                                       ALEX
Yes! We can be whoever we want! A fresh start! My parents think I’m just going to fulfill my grandpa’s wishes and scatter his ashes all over Paris. Take him to all of the places we planned to go before he got sick. But I just have to get out of here Peter! My dad told me he “put a good word in for me” at the paper plant for a summer job. He was so excited, I just couldn’t break his heart and tell him how I felt.
       (ALEX pulls out an old leather bound notebook and opens it, pulls out a map and shows it to PETER).
Here’s Grandpa’s first stop. Point Zero, The official city
center of Paris. Then, Eiffel Tower, Le Louvre, Arc De Triumph, Notre Dame…
    
                                      PETER
Are you sure there’s enough remains in that coffee can to cover that many locations?! Sounds like I should have brought measuring spoon from the restaurant!

                                       ALEX
Very funny… And then finally, Edith Piaf’s grave. Right here in the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery. Lots of famous people were buried there. My grandfather always told me it was important to visit cemeteries. To remember that life was to be enjoyed and to appreciate every minute. Just like Piaf’s song “Je ne regrette  rien”, it means “I regret nothing”. My only regret is we didn’t get to do this trip together before he died.

                                        PETER
Well, all three of us are going now and we are going to enjoy every minute of it!
       (PETER puts his arm around the coffee can containing her grandfather’s remains to try and cheer ALEX up).
Seriously, do you know what I regret? But, you can’t tell anyone. Promise? It’s a secret.
                                
                                         ALEX
Promise.
   
                                         PETER
You know how I have a 4.0 GPA, I’m the captain of the Chess and the Physics Team?
        
                                         ALEX
Yes, whatever, bragger!
     
                                        PETER
Well… I passed the written exam for my drivers test, no problem, but…
 
                                         ALEX
But what?!
    
                                        PETER
It’s really embarrassing…
    
                                
                                         ALEX
Go on…  

                                        PETER
      (PETER takes a long deep breath and quickly blurts out)
I’ve taken the road test three times and failed! It’s so stereotypical! I’m so humiliated! My parents have been pressuring me everyday to get my license so they can offer delivery. I’m such a disappointment, I can’t go home!
     
                                        ALEX
You’re actually human? You mean you’re not Peter Perfect after all?!
        
                                      PETER
Funny, Alex. You don’t know what it’s like… I wish I could talk to my parents and let them see the real me, but they have too many hopes and dreams riding on me. They’ve had Harvard Business School brochures posted all over the house since I was five. Can you imagine if I told them that I wanted to be a D.J.?!
          
                                      ALEX
Well, at least they have dreams. My mom works at the dollar store and my dad’s greatest aspiration is to have me work by his side at the paper mill. I don’t have a clue what I want to do, I just know I don’t want to do that!

                                     PETER
We’ve been talking about this for years and now we have the means to fulfill our own dreams, not our parent’s. Let’s go now before we come to our senses and change our minds.
      (PETER pulls out two tickets from his back back and an old cassette tape.)
I have our tickets for Air France right here and a little surprise for you too.
    
                                      ALEX
A cassette tape?! How did you get that?!
   
                                     PETER
An-cient Chi-nese se-cret!
      (PETER says mockingly, hands in prayer position)
I found an old tape player at that junk shop around the block.
      (PETER pops the tape it in the old tape player.)
   
                                     ALEX
You always think of everything Peter! (Edith Piaf’s Je Ne
Regrette Rien song begins to play.) I know Grandpa is smiling ear to ear from heaven! (ALEX straightens Grandpa’s red beret on his coffee can).

                                     PETER
Aller! Aller! Aller! Let’s regret nothing! Let’s go!
     (ALEX turns the key to the old Citroen and you hear the old engine grumble, while Piaf’s voice sings).

                                      PETER
You know Alex, I’ve been thinking about my DJ name. What do you think about D.J. Ding Ding Dong or D.J. Pu Pu Platter?
    
                                       ALEX
      (ALEX giggles and puts her hand on her forehead)
Peter, I think choosing names isn’t in your blood. What do you say we work on it together?! We have the rest of our lives to work on it.

      (Curtin closes)