The Comet Of St. Loomis
by Ed Simpson

It's a pleasant summer evening at the Throckmorton Ridge Motor Court and owner Charlie Loomis is planning a romantic evening of comet gazing with his ex girlfriend Trudy.

The comet Akashi is due to make a rare and mystical appearance in the night sky.

Charlie, a decent but lonely man, finds his patience and good humor strained to the limits as his plans are continually disrupted by people seeking help.

Annie, the court's teenaged maid, wants advice and reassurance as she awaits the imminent arrival of her baby.

Her video game addict of an air headed husband is so freaked by the approaching birth that he has developed a disturbing inability to speak to her.

Instead, he converses with the unborn child.

Martin Gray, the neurotic honorary mayor, is upset because his town is teetering on the brink of insolvency.

For some strange reason, he is sure that Loomis can save it.

An increasingly frazzled Loomis is then confronted by a stranger from out of town.

Jack Miles is everything Loomis isn't suave, handsome, successful and cynical.

It develops that he went to high school with Loomis, and he proceeds to regale everyone with tales of Loomis' hapless school career as the butt of countless pranks and cruel jokes.

In fact, Jack has been searching for Loomis.

Jack's revelations, interrupted by the onset of Annie's labor, force Jack and Loomis to confront their shared past and uncertain future in this gently comic play about survival during hard times.