Water By The Spoonful

Elliot and Yaz eat breakfast at Swarthmore College, where Yaz works as an adjunct music instructor. Elliot asks Yaz for helping taking care of his mom, who has been receiving chemo treatments. Yaz asks Elliot to be her witness as she signs her divorce papers. They wait for Professor Aman, a colleague of Yaz’s, who has agreed to help Elliot. Elliot wants Professor Aman to translate an Arabic phrase that has stuck with Elliot since his military service in Iraq. Professor Aman asks Elliot if he wants to be a consultant for a friend’s documentary on Marines in Iraq. Elliot takes the filmmaker’s contact info, and Professor Aman translates the Arabic phrase. It means, “Can I please have my passport back?” (11). 

Scene Two introduces the online community at the core of the play. Characters are referred to by their online names. The online community is for people recovering from addiction to crack, and Haikumom (Elliot’s birth mother, Odessa) is the site administrator. Haikumom and Chutes&Ladders are delighted to see Orangutan log on, because they haven’t heard from her in three months. Orangutan has ninety-one days sober and has traveled to Japan to find her birth family, who gave her up for adoption.