Lucy Bell

Prompt: It happened at the Christmas Party - From Episode 04

After a transplant, divorce rates are high. The statistics don’t lie. 

When I met Rob he really turned my head. He played me Procul Harum as I sunbathed on the deck of his canal boat.  The barge prow cut through the oily water like a knife through butter. I put up far less resistance.

It’s the Parish Council drinks. Tinsel round the windows. A complimentary glass of wine.

“Have you connected with your donor?” 

“I’m married to her”

I wish Rob wouldn’t talk about his new kidney. He brandishes it at parties like a BAFTA. They took his old one out keyhole. It’s me with a five inch scar on my back. Three weeks in ITU I’ll never see again.

“What’s it like, having part of someone else inside you?”

A stifled snigger from the councillor. 

“It’s brought us closer, actually.”

Rob reaches past me to the trestle table. Lifts the bottle. Refills. His sixth glass. 

I don’t enjoy his work boots on my white carpets, and I don’t like him to marinade my kidney.

“Darling? I don’t have a spare…”

“Don’t nag,” he says, squeezing my waist.

So it happened at the Christmas party, really. 

I decided to be a statistic.

Lucy Bell is the Artistic Director of Documental Theatre which creates new theatre and audio inspired by interviews, archive and lived experiences. She was the recipient of the Kevein Eyelet Award 2020 and Ronald Duncan Playwriting Award. She has had selected plays in the Bristol Old Vic Open Session 2018/19, is resident artist at Exeter Phoenix, and an alumnus of the Soho Theatre Writers Lab.