NOVEMBER 7, 2025 – Just when I was searching for a topic for today’s post, one was handed to me on a proverbial silver platter, nicely polished, served by a butler in full livery. The delicacy on the platter can be best described by way of a simple mini-play with the working title, Actually Ashley.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Illiana, our 10-year-old granddaughter.
Ashley, Illiana’s classmate and bestie.
Blake, Illiana’s mother.
Cory, our son; Illiana’s father.
ACT ONE – “The Offense”
SCENE: Kitchen inside the home of Illiana, Blake, and Cory. The family plus Ashley are seated around the table eating ramen noodles.
ASHLEY: [Spoken to Blake, out of the blue.] You look exactly like the Worst Mom Ever on Tik Tok.
Dangling noodles slide off Blake’s fork and splash into the soup as she looks at Ashely in disbelief; Cory drops his fork—and his lower jaw—and turns his head toward Illiana, who’s sitting beside him; Illiana swings her head to look at him; as their eyes meet, she pushes her eyeglasses back onto the bridge of her nose.
Lights fade; curtain closes.
ACT TWO – “Redemption”
SCENE: Front door of the same house several days later.
With a bouquet of roses in one hand and a card and bag of Cheetos in the other, Ashley rings the doorbell; Blake opens the door; Ashley hands her the “peace offerings.”
BLAKE: What’s this for?
ASHLEY: I’m sorry for what I said to you.
BLAKE: You can come in.
Blake holds the door open; Ashley steps in and hands Blake the card, flowers and Cheetos; Illiana joins them by the doorway.
ILLIANA: [Surprised] Hi!
ASHLEY: Hi.
Blake hands the flowers and Cheetos bag to Illiana and opens the card; screen bearing an image of the inside of the card drops down over center stage; it reads . . .
ACTUALLY, you don’t look like the Worst Mom Ever.
ACTUALLY, you look beautiful.
ACTUALLY, I’m sorry for what I said.
ACTUALLY, it wasn’t true at all.
/s/
Ashley
Blake smiles; gives Ashley a big hug; Ashley then turns to leave.
ASHLEY: Ga-bye.
BLAKE AND ILLIANA: Ga-bye!
ILLIANA: See ya at school tomorrow.
ASHLEY: Okay!
Blake closes the door and smiles as Illiana hands her the flowers and Cheetos; Blake gives the card to Illiana, who reads it.
ILLIANA: I guess from now on we call Ashley, “Actually Ashley,” since she’s actually okay, right Mom?
BLAKE: Yes, honey. Actually, she’s okay.
Lights fade; curtain closes.
* * *
As Cory said after he’d related this story to me, “You can’t make this up.”
We’re left to wonder what thoughts Ashley had after the offense and what Illiana might’ve said to her about it, as in “If you ever want to come over to my house again, you’d better apologize to my mom”—something Illiana would say under such circumstances. Or perhaps Ashley knew the instant she’d uttered the offensive words, she knew she’d done wrong and later told her mom, who knew what needed to be done. In any event and however much we might speculate about what transpired between the two friends and between Ashley and her mom (it’s unlikely Ashley bought the peace offerings on her own; plus she would’ve needed a ride to make the delivery), what greater evidence then the “Actually” card, flowers and a bag of Cheetos do we need to be assured that contrition and redemption help make our world go ’round?
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© 2025 by Eric Nilsson
