Three one acts (Almost Christmas, Bailing Out and Thicker than Water) bridge the thin lines between secrets and revelations, between life and death, between the past and the future in these thematically related stories. The evening can be played with a cast of three (A younger M and F and an older M), or with separate casts for a maximum of 7 performers (3F, 4M). Some adult themes and language. Almost Christmas - At midnight on Christmas Eve, a bitter waitress tries to get money from a crusty drunk and the bar's naive new owner to fund a trip to kill her abusive father. Merry Christmas! Bailing Out - Life goes on, even in a ward for terminal patients. Reginald Niebold, stricken with cancer, holds a secret that his symptoms have deteriorated and his time is almost up. Niebold, however, is determined to wring the last moments of joy out of life, and his irrepressible spirit will awaken even jaded Nurse Lauder, who has worked on the ward too long to care anymore. Thicker than Water - Joe and Sal - a feisty young couple, smart, sarcastic, and deeply in love - are challenged on the night Joe comes home with unexplained blood on his shoes. Sal tries to cope as best she can - in spite of her phobia about blood, anxiety over the pregnancy test she's been waiting for, fear of AIDS and an inexplicable rain of blood falling from the sky... Nothing is quite as it seems in this exploration of anxiety and hidden secrets in a seemingly perfect relationship.

**NOTE** There are carrier issues downloading Digital Acting Editions to phones. It will not work. These files need to be downloaded to a desktop, laptop, or tablet.