Prompt 9: Water by the Spoonful

In scene 7, Odessa is meeting with with John to talk one on one, these two characters interact within one of the two worlds that connect to form the world of this play. One of those worlds surrounds the relationships among a group of recovering drug addicts that interact in an online chatroom. The other half of this world is the world that Odessa left in her attempts to get clean and become a better person. In this scene we see the cleaned up Odessa meeting with John to get to know him in order to eventually help him get off cocaine. Odessa is portrayed as a nurturing and respectable woman who makes it hard to believe she was ever on drugs. During this coffee date, the two are interrupted by Elliot and Yaz, who have come to confront Odessa and demand a large sum of money from her to contribute to Aunt Ginny's funeral. When addressing her son and niece, Odessa is portrayed in a darker light with a lot of baggage. This scene is the first time the two worlds coexist and create a jarring contrast to the way we begin to perceive Odessa. Hudes' reason for revealing the skeletons in Odessa's closet at this point in the play was to prove to John that even though someone can look like they have it all together on the outside, it doesn't necessarily mean that they do. Therefore, helping him recognize the severity of his own addiction, which changes his life fore the better, and instills in him a loyalty to Odessa, which is eventually what saves her life. It is important for Yaz and Elliot to enter Odessa's seemingly peaceful world at the time that they did, the story couldn't have continued without that interception.