Catherine

from Golden Ladder by Donna Spector

Genre: Dramedy

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Catherine (female) speaks directly to the audience at the end of Act I.

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CATHERINE

The end of the school year passed in a haze of unhappiness.  Aaron was right:  I was so defensive I’d squeezed my heart into a rock that hurt my chest whenever I breathed.  I was tired of swearing and talking tough.  I didn’t want to be a Presbyterian any more.  But I didn’t want to be an atheist, because if there was a Hell I’d probably go there.  And I didn’t know how to be Jewish.

I kept dreaming about the golden ladder Daddy talked about when I was little.  I knew that was the name of the novel he’d been writing for years, and I wanted to read it.  I thought maybe there were secret instructions for becoming wise, so I could climb that golden ladder right up to Heaven.  But he wouldn’t let me read it till it was finished.  So I had no hope of figuring things out.

Then one morning in the middle of summer I woke up and I knew what I had to do.  The answer was so clear I started laughing, so I knew I was on the first step up that golden ladder.  I had to become a Catholic!