Take Three

By Dave Preston

Linda has been trapped for twenty years in a dangerous, abusive marriage. Why has she stayed so long? Will she finally take the way out that’s been offered?

Kate is not trying to have it all, she’s just trying to be a successful working mother, friend, wife and lover. Why doesn’t she shed some of the self-imposed load and play just one of these roles wholeheartedly?

Ruth does seem to have it all, but she’s crying all the way to the bank, and back to her single bed.

Take Three lets these very different women tell their stories, honestly, candidly, and with the hope that, whatever their situations, change is possible. Even if it takes everything they have.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dave Preston
• Release date: Aug 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9780969954026

Dave Preston

Dave Preston is a writer and musician, born in North Yorkshire where he lived on a farm and was raised by a mother who worries too much. After studying agriculture, engineering, and computer science he leapt across the ocean to live and work in Canada.He is the author of five books (and contributor to several others) and four plays, as well as hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles and columns. He's an award-winning brewer and winemaker, and also admits to writing poetry.Weekends often find him playing guitar and singing in a rock and roll band (though his mother worries that he's getting too old for all this, and his knees often agree).He lives on Vancouver Island, BC, with too much garden, and almost too many dogs.

Book preview

Take Three

A play by Dave Preston

Published by White Rose Content at Smashwords

A Division of White Rose Consulting, Inc.

© 2018 Dave Preston

ISBN 978-0-9699540-2-6

Discover other titles by Dave Preston at Smashwords.com

The author and publisher disclaim any liability in

connection with the dissemination of this work.

Take Three

© Dave Preston 2018

Characters:

LINDA – A British-born woman in her early forties

KATE – a woman in her early thirties

RUTH – a woman in her late thirties

Three women tell their stories.They speak candidly to the audience, as they would to a mirror, or to the best friend they never had.

Setting is urban Canada, 2013

SCENE 1 – LINDA in the kitchen.

[LINDA, a British-born woman in her early forties, is sitting at her kitchen table. She is crying. It is early evening, and quiet]

LINDA: Well... that's life I suppose. Could be worse. Hah! That's what my old mum used to say. Could be worse, she'd say, wiping the blood off her face and putting her blouse in to soak... as soon as the old bugger had fallen asleep... or gone back to the pub. Could be worse... Yeah, an' it could be a bloody sight better, ma. A bloody sight better!

Funny, y'know. I used to think that I would just grow up an' leave all that behind. It was only him. Me dad. There's only one like him I thought... But there aint. First thing I did when I grew up was meet Brian. It was quite a thing then, getting one of the blokes from the pipeline project.

They were on good money, better than the local lads in the yards. And he was Canadian, and smoked foreign cigarettes. God, to think I fell for an accent and the price of a decent night out.

We used to go to Wally's Restaurant, twice a week, maybe three times. Before I met Brian I'd only been there for me mum and dad's twenty-fifth. And it took me mum two months to pay for that. Vera Parker said If it was me being taken to Wally's every Friday and Saturday I'd 'ave 'im down that church aisle, Linda, before that bloody pipeline's finished.

So I did. Married the bastard when I was seventeen.

After the pipeline