GHOST WORLD

by McLure, James

On a park bench in Central Park, you can meet anyone. Here two strangers meet and strike up a familiar conversation, familiar, at least to Penderton. Finally he recognizes his new bench mate, Jackie Jack, the Sturgeon King—a character in an unfinished play Penderton had penned years ago. Jackie Jack pleads his case for a second act, a completed life, as he offers examples of too many other characters in unfinished or discarded plays, who are wandering around waiting for their second acts. Penderton at first declines to agree to write a second act to give Jackie Jack a complete life, but comes around to the idea just as it’s getting dark. As Jackie Jack escorts Penderton out of the park, Penderton is really being taken further into his own broken mind.