Act 1, Scene 9: “Home Again?”

TRL is driving on Route 10, the main artery leading to the Big City. The highway bisects suburbia, spreading its suburban lifeline as it goes: Target, Wal-Mart, Super Stop & Shop, BJs, Home Depot, Lowe's, Barnes & Noble, Trader Joes, TGI Fridays, Relax the Back, Gymboree, endless car dealerships, the occasional old fashioned Roadstop Diner/Clam Shack/Softserve Ice Cream Shed. It is dusk, a black purple glow descends over the stop lights and asphalt. TRL fiddles with the radio dial, on his way to Lowe's to pick up a sprinkler. The lawn is dying in the heat. He stumbles on a Talking Heads song. "Once in a Lifetime." He turns up the volume. The beat pounds.

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack.
And you may find yourself living in another part of the world.

Yup, yup, thinks TRL.

And, you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile.

He looks over the hood of the Volvo station wagon.

And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife.

S did look nice this morning, remembers TRL. He nods and smiles.

And you may ask yourself: well, how did I get here?

Fuck, yeah.

… And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?

A large mortgage and constant upkeep.

And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?

To Lowe's, says TRL as he makes a sharp right into the parking lot.

And you may ask yourself
Am I right, am I wrong?

TRL resolves to pick up beer after Lowe's.

And you may tell yourself
My god! What have I done?

And a big bottle of Jagermeister. You can take the boy out of college, but you can never take the college out of the boy.

He pulls into a parking spot and gets out of the car. The sky is now a velvety black tinged with shimmering purple. He breathes in the warm summer air. The sky sits over the huge parking lot and the surrounding land like a soothing blanket. They say you can’t go home again, and after living in cities for the past 15 years, it is probably that much harder, but TRL finds something comforting in the familiar summer warmth that feels like his suburban adolescence.