Kai's Short Story Blog

A reimagining of the ending of "Vaulting the Sea" by Xuan Juliana Wang  Taoyu would look back on that moment nearly every day for too long. What if he just didn’t jump. Would staying put have been better than jumping poorly? But then what would have happened to Hai? His life would be ruined. He be a failure just like Taoyu.  But now Taoyu is just another bad diver. His training was never enough. His friendship was never enough. Taoyu’s perverted mind just wanted more. More than friends.  Now they are less than friends. Less than acquaintances. Hai will probably never to to Taoyu again. And it’s all Taoyu’s fault. His distracting from his life, from diving. His fault for leaving his mother to die. His fault for leaving his team to lose. His team lost gold because Hai and Taoyu’s jump was anything but in sync.  Taoyu was kicked off the team. There was no question about it. Everyone knew Taoyu failed. He had no one to blame but himself.  On his way back home. Not ...

  CAST  Tracy : Lead. A young girl  Lin : Tracy’s younger sister  Mother : Tracy and Lin’s tired mother  Man : Random middle-class guy on the street  Salesman : Skilled salesman selling damaged barbies.  Barbie-Q: A short play  Written by: Kai Schwartz  Based on the Barbie-Q short story by Sandra Cisneros  (Tracy and Lin walk together through a busy street, passing vendors and merchants while playing with their Barbies. Ken ‘enters’ the game. Ken is pretend and Tracy and Lin mime having another doll. Lin’s barbie steals Ken. During stealing, Lin takes Ken from Tracy.)  (Girls get carried away and bump into MAN on the street. Tracy drops her handbag and loses hold of her Barbie. She goes to quickly pick up her Barbie but forgets about the bag.)  MAN: Hey! MOTHER ( Embarrassed ) : Oh, I’m so sorry. They just get so carried away. I’m so sorry to have disturbed you. I…  MAN: Oh it's alright. I used to have a daughte...