Ella Cartwright
from Unseen Character
(The sofa transforms into a bed. ELLA CARTWRIGHT lies on her back with the telephone extension cord barely reaching her. She speaks on the phone to AMANDA.)
Well, it’s gone is where it’s at. I lost it. They took it. Yep, they took my kidney.
Horrors is right. Carved it right out of me.
A Christian martyr is correct! I’ll tell you what a Christian martyr truly is!
A true Christian martyr is a woman who does not receive enough sleep medicine, I must tell you.
Oh, I am speaking truth, Amanda. I woke up during the operation. Right there on the table. I open my eyes, lying on my stomach and all I can see are shoes. Little white shoes with transparent green socks wrapped around them.
I am lying there on the table staring at the shoes trying to figure out where the heck I am! Looking at the green and white feet below me, and then suddenly that’s when I feel it. A tug. A tug let me tell you. Doctor is tugging on my kidney. My kidney won’t give. My kidney knows it’s my kidney! My kidney wants to stay inside! It wants the sweet companionship of my other kidney. It wants to be with me, under my skin, inside my blood, pumping away close to her sister bladder, loving it deep inside the confines of my natural biological construction. But no, doctor tugs and tugs and tugs some more. And his determination finally wins over!
At the exact moment of the final tug, I finally feel it. Let me tell you, I feel it. I feel like someone’s pulling out my toenail that’s connected to my womanhood. That’s how deep the pain feels. I let out a series of shrieks as high pitched as a pack of hyenas! Lots of commotion immediately follows. And in a few seconds later, I am out again. Quick as a light.
I awake in the recovery room. And the nurse asks me, “Mrs. Cartwright, how are you feeling?”
And I tell her, “I am still feeling the tug!”
“The tug?” she asks me.
“Yes, I can still feel the doctor tugging away on my kidney. Tug. Tug. Tug. Tug!”
Nurse gasps in horror, runs to the telephone and makes a call.
“She knows. Yes, she knows. She claims that she still can feel the tug!”
And if you really want to know the truth, Amanda, I still can feel it. Tug. Tug. Tug. 
Unseen Character (part 2): Introduction and Menu
Review | My Friend Tom: The Poet-Playwright Tennessee Williams by William Jay Smith