Water By The Spoonful

Orangutan and Chutes&Ladders chat online. Orangutan talks Chutes&Ladders through calling his estranged son. The son picks up and says, “Hello,” and Chutes&Ladders hangs up without speaking to him. Chutes&Ladders tells Orangutan that there was no answer. Meanwhile, Yaz and Elliot enter Odessa’s apartment to get the computer. Elliot logs on as Haikumom and starts chatting with Orangutan. When Orangutan discovers his identity, she asks Elliot about his recovery from overdosing on pain medications given for his war injury. This revelation shocks Yaz. She begs Elliot for more information. When he tries to walk away from the conversation, the Ghost appears, blocking his path. Yaz relents and says they need to make it to the pawn shop before it closes in fifteen minutes. 

Orangutan and Chutes&Ladders chat online, while Chutes&Ladders sits at his desk at the IRS. Chutes&Ladders tries to convince Orangutan that trying to find her birth family in Japan is a mistake. He tells her a story of when he had been clean for five years and went to see his son. Chutes&Ladders’ son told his children that their grandfather was just a lost man, andpolitely asked Chutes&Ladders to leave. Chutes&Ladders relapsed that day, and he wants to help Orangutan avoid the same pain. They argue, and Orangutan accuses Chutes&Ladders of being a coward before logging off. Chutes&Ladders throws his phone into the wastebasket. He sees a package from “Haikumom Ortiz” on his desk and rips it open. It is a pair of water wings. He puts one on his arm.

Three separate scenes happen at the same time. Yaz and Elliot give the sermon for Mami Ginny at her funeral. Odessa sits in her apartment, spooning water from a mug and pouring it onto the floor. At a Sapporo train station, Orangutan freezes on the platform, too scared to board. Elliot walks off the during the eulogy. Yaz closes, saying, “Elliot is the standing, walking testimony to a life. She. Was. Here.” Odessa turns the cup over, and it is empty.

Chutes&Ladders talks on the phone at his desk at the IRS, making a deal to sell his car.

Elliot and Yaz break into Odessa’s apartment to find Odessa unconscious, in a heap on the floor. They call 911 and Yaz’s mother. While they move her to the couch, Odessa has an out-of-body experience. Her astral projection stands off to the side, telling the audience about the first time she met her dad, when he flew in from Puerto Rico. He was late, and his luggage was spinning around on the carousel, alone and abandoned. In Sapporo, a policeman shines a flashlight into Orangutan’s face as she lies sleeping on the platform. The policeman offers to help, but Orangutan walks away. Odessa and Yaz see a “radiant white light” pouring in from above (74). Yaz tells Odessa they love her. A police siren blares, and Odessa crawls back into Yaz’s arms on the couch, where she has really been all along. The scene ends with Yaz urging Elliot to forgive Odessa. 

In the chat room, Chutes&Ladders tells Orangutan that he bought a plane ticket to Japan to come visit her. She is thrilled, typing, “Oh, you dollface, you ducky!” (77). Fountainhead logs on to tell them that Haikumom/Odessa is in the hospital. Her recovery resets back to day one. She went into cardiac arrest after using crack for the first time in six years. Chutes&Ladders and Orangutan urge Fountainhead to take care of Odessa and help her get to a rehab. Fountainhead agrees, and then he adds that someone needs to take over site admin because Odessa would want only good language in the chat room. Yaz signs on as Freedom&Noise and agrees to be the new site admin. Fountainhead calls his wife to tell her he has to take care of a friend in the hospital. Fountainhead gives his wife his login and password and tells her to read the online chats. 

Yaz and Elliot are in a hotel room in San Juan. Yaz/Freedom&Noiseintroduces herself to the chat room. Elliot tells her to forget the online community. Yaz talks about how she feels helpless about all her family’s suffering, and that she wants to do something. They are about to leave, to go scatter Mami Ginny’s ashes, when Yaz excuses herself to go make a phone call in the lobby. When Elliot is alone, the Ghost appears and asks him the same question, “Momken men-fadluck ted-dini gawaz saffari?” (84). They tussle, and the Ghost grabs Elliot’s wallet and flips through it, looking for something. Elliot freezes when the Ghost touches his face. The Ghost disappears, and Elliot empties a bottle of pills into his hands and stares at them, “wanting to throw them away” (85).

The final scene opens with Fountainhead/John taking care of Odessa, who is very weak. John bathes her and says that they have plenty of time before they check her in at the rehab. Odessa leans in to whisper something to John, and he repeats her question: “Did someone put on water wings” (87). Chutes&Ladders meets Orangutan in person at Narita airport in Tokyo, and they hug and have a warm greeting. Yaz and Elliot are at a waterfall in El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico. Yaz tells Elliot that she bought Mami Ginny’s house, and she wants Elliot to move in with her and help her fix it up: “It’ll be the Cousins House” (90). Elliot tells Yaz that he is flying to Los Angeles. He needs to get away because he is becoming a person he does not want to be. Elliot confesses that he wanted Mami Odessa to relapse, and he knew what buttons to push to get her there: “If I stay in Philly, I’m gonna turn into it. I’m gonna become one of them. I’m already halfway there. You’ve got armor, you’ve got ideas, but I don’t” (92). Yaz encourages him to go and says that she will stay home and “hold down the fort” (92). In the midst of their conversation, the audience sees John lift Odessa out of the bath. The stage directions say, “She is dripping wet and seems almost radiant, and yet deeply, deeply sick” (92). Together, Yaz and Elliot count to three, toss Mami Ginny’s ashes, and the stage goes black.