TWO WOMEN IN A WAR ZONE Joe McCabe SETTING: Two young women wrapped in tattered blankets huddle on opposite sides of the stage. FIRST: I saw you eat something. Just now. Was it a ginger-nut? SECOND: Oh, no. It has been days since I ate my last ginger-nut. The night the loud and brilliant bombardment began I was so frightened I ate every ginger-nut I had. Just now I ate a raisin. It was only a raisin. FIRST: No. No. No. That was too big to be a raisin. Was it a prune? Or a fig? SECOND: You must be hallucinating again. I have not had anything but raisins to eat for days. Only a few raisins. We are cousins you and I. Fellow travelers in this vale of tears. If you still have any ginger-nuts, you should give one to me. FIRST: I still have three ginger-nuts left. War is hell, but the ginger-nuts still taste as good as ever. I am about to eat one now. It will be delicious. And then I still will have two left: one for tomorrow and one for the next day. I love to look at them and imagine how they will taste. It's a shame you squandered yours so quickly. You must've gorged yourself on ginger-nuts. SECOND: I was afraid you would take them away from me. But now I will starve soon anyway. Unless one of those beautiful bombs kills me first. Then you would die too. You are stronger than I am, but the beautiful bomb will kill you just as easily as it kills me. And your precious ginger-nuts will go to waste. No one will ever eat them. END