Week 23, Day 155 - “People Who Live In Candy Houses Shouldn’t Throw Vegetables”

“People Who Live In Candy Houses Shouldn’t Throw Vegetables”
Written by Joe Janes
6/22/09
155 of 365

CAST:
Hansel, 12
Gretel, 12
Witch, 60s
Phil, 30s
Witch, 100s

(Lights up on Hansel and Gretel, lost, wandering through the forest, which is probably the audience.)

GRETEL

Hansel. We are hopelessly lost. If only those squirrels hadn’t eaten those breadcrumbs.

HANSEL (mouth full of bread crumbs)

Yeth! Thtupid squirrels. (Gulp) I’m thirsty.

GRETEL

Me, too. Hansel. If we don’t find any food or shelter, we will surely starve.

HANSEL

Lost in the forest, surrounded by nothing but vegetation and animals. We will certainly die.

(On stage, Phil, comes out and begins hammering tiles onto a wall.)

GRETEL

Look, Hansel, look! It’s a house.

HANSEL

Yay! A house.

(They run to the stage.)

GRETEL

Not just any house. This house is made out of candy and gingerbread!

HANSEL

I have died and gone to heaven. Look at this window shutter. It’s a peppermint candy. (He tears it off the house.)

PHIL

Hey, what the hell do you think you’re doing?

HANSEL

I’m hungry.

PHIL

Just because you’re hungry doesn’t mean you can bite into somebody’s house. Peppermint shutters cost a fortune and are a bitch to hang.

GRETEL

But we’re hungry.

PHIL

Fine. Go ahead and knock yourselves out.

(Hansel and Gretel take big bites out of the shutter and begin chewing. It dawns on them that something tastes odd about the candy and they spit it out.)

HANSEL

This candy is bad.

GRETEL

It tastes like chemicals.

PHIL

Of course, you jackasses. It’s been weatherproofed. You can’t just have a house made of candy and not weather proof it. Wish that fucking witch had thought about that.

HANSEL

What witch?

GRETEL

There’s a witch in the woods?

PHIL

Not anymore. She used to live here. I bought it from her and I’m trying to flip it.

GRETEL

What happened to the witch?

PHIL

Fuck if I know. I think she took a room at the “Y” in town. She went into foreclosure. Kept taking out mortgages to repair the damn thing. Hail has turned the roof into a sieve. Raccoons ate through the back porch steps. The whole second story is unsafe since last summer’s heat wave. Damn near melted the lollipop staircase. She’s lucky they just didn’t condemn the place. I’m trying to get it into shape to sell it.

HANSEL

We can’t have any of it?

GRETEL

What about the gingerbread? It smells so good in the sun.

(Hansel takes a bite of the house and screams in pain.)

PHIL

Stop eating the house! Last week you could have eaten it. I’ve since reinforced it with chicken wire and steel piping.

HANSEL

I think I broke a tooth.

PHIL

Look. You want to eat something? Grab a ladder and lick the marzipan off the eaves. I haven’t gotten to those yet.

GRETEL

Thank you, kind sir.

(They grab a small ladder and start doing just that.)

PHIL

Call me Phil.

GRETEL

Ew, this doesn’t taste good, either, Phil.

PHIL

That’s probably from all the bird crap. They kept making nests up there.

HANSEL

Eat around it, Gretel.

PHIL

Who the hell makes a house out of candy? I guess just because you’re a witch doesn’t mean you’ve got a brain. One light rain and you already got a ton of damage. Not like my truck, which is made out of Slim Jims. That’s sturdy material. Waterproof. Doesn’t rot. Slim Jims will last a million years. Of course, that doesn’t mean it won’t run out of gas now and then.

GRETEL

Your truck is edible?

PHIL

Yep. Except the tires. You need real tires for tires with these roads. Is there anybody I can call for you guys? Your parents, maybe?

GRETEL

Our parents abandoned us out here.

HANSEL

They said they could no longer afford to feed us.

PHIL

Yeah. I get that. Tell you what. I’ll feed you kids if you help me. There’s a frozen pizza in the fridge. Cool?

(They climb down the ladder.)

HANSEL

Sure.

GRETEL

What can we do?

PHIL

Come inside and help me with the oven, first. Let’s get you fed.

(They all three exit off to the kitchen.)

PHIL (off)

It’s a little tricky. Can’t always tell if it’s on.

GRETEL (off)

I’ll crawl inside of it to see if it’s on.

PHIL (off)

Good idea. Let me get the door.

(We hear Hansel yell as if he just shoved someone. Gretel screams. Phil yells “Hey!” We hear scuffling and the oven door slam. The witch comes out onto stage from behind the house with a saw. She is whistling a happy tune.)

WITCH

Phil?

(Phil comes out from the house.)

PHIL

Oh, hey.

WITCH

I’m done sawing off all the moldy licorice on the back porch.

PHIL

Oh, good. I’ll reinforce the railings with a mix of high fructose corn syrup and epoxy after lunch. Then we’re almost done.

WITCH

I've really worked up an appetite. What do I smell cooking?

PHIL

Some fat German kids wandered by. I threw them in the oven. Give it about 45 minutes.

WITCH

Thanks for helping me get the house in shape.

PHIL

Thanks for not eating me when I got lost. Glad I found a way to be useful to you.

(She smacks him on the head with the flat side of the saw. He falls to the ground and is about to pass out.)

PHIL

Why do you do that?

WITCH

I’m a witch.

(He passes out. She takes salt out of her pocket and sprinkles it on him and starts nibbling on his hand. Blackout)