CHARACTERS
(In order of speaking)

MILLIE MIDLETON, a bright 14 year old who harbors a powerful need to become the Emily Dickinson of the 21st Century. Like her mother, she is critical of her father’s eBay addiction.

KATE MIDDLETON, mother and wife who has become deeply annoyed over the expensive “toys” her husband brings in from his eBay transactions. However, she has an unexpressed, and probably inexpressible, longing buried deep within her middle-class soul.

CHESTER MIDDLETON, a dreamer and optimist ever hopeful his frequent eBay buys will each prove superior to the previous one. In addition to his obsession with gadgets and doodads won through eBay, he has yet another longing he doesn’t even know exists.

+++++

TIME & PLACE

The present in the living room of the Middleton home

+++++

SYNOPSIS

As wife Kate and daughter Millie spy on Chester MIddleton from inside their home, he sneaks in with a package. Kate and Millie comment sarcastically on past eBay treasures of his, including such abject failures as the antique electric muscle relaxer that nearly fried Kate. With great flourish he unwraps his latest find for which he has paid a lot: a clouded mirror, in the center of which is a large eye, but not, as he explains, the evil eye, but rather a charm directed against said evil eye. He further explains that the ancient lady who sold the mirror on eBay has sent along with it a papyrus document containing Egyptian hieroglyphic transliterations necessary to effect the magic spells she absolutely knows the mirror can do. Kate and Millie are scornfully skeptical.

Using a lipstick and the chart, Chester writes Millie’s name on the mirror in phonetic hieroglyphics, then persuades her to face the mirror and make the secret wish it requires. She feels foolish but does what she’s told. Suddenly she recites a marvelous original love poem, her very own, which she delivers grandly as she creates it on the spot. Chester and Kate are stunned. Chester now rapidly lipstick-writes his own name on the mirror in hieroglyphics, makes his wish, and undergoes a remarkable change that shocks and displeases Kate and Millie. Then Kate snatches away the lipstick to take her turn. Following her wish, an extraordinary transformation occurs, even more radical than Chester’s. Appalled, he grabs the mirror and slams it down. His destruction works because immediately the respective spells that worked their magic on the three Middletons are, like the mirror itself, shattered. At least so they momentarily think.