AFTER THE FIRE

                                          # 23 in a series of daily one-act, one scene plays

[ACT I, Scene I: a police inspector talks to the owner of the Endurance, a ship that left harbor and burnt completely before it could return to the pier]

POLICE INSPECTOR: Samuel Connolly?

SHIP OWNER: Died in the fire.

POLICE INSPECTOR: Steven Haper?

SHIP OWNER: He too died in the fire.

POLICE INSPECTOR: Peter Stovic?

SHIP OWNER: He actually made it to shore, but then he died. Entered the tavern apparently and drank himself to death. Bit of a drinker, you see. Without the others to stop him it was inevitable.

POLICE INSPECTOR: Hmm. Richard Williams?

SHIP OWNER: Dead, but people claim his ghost is upstairs [points to lit window above].

POLICE INSPECTOR [picks up handful of pebbles and throws them against window. It opens and a man looks out]: Are you Richard Williams?

GHOST: No, I am his ghost, and as such I am outside the laws of man.  Now leave me be [goes back inside].

POLICE INSPECTOR: Well, I guess I'll leave this for the insurance men then.

SHIP OWNER: I plan to leave it on the bottom of the harbor.

POLICE INSPECTOR: Well, goodnight then.

                                          (curtain)