THE 2026 PROJECT, 52 SUNDAYS, 52 MONOLOGUES

Did WE Save the Daylight?
BY JEFFREY LO

SUSAN.
She’s in bed.
She’s tired.
It’s 11 PM or so.
Today is daylight savings.
Spring forward or whatever.

SUSAN
I saw this thing on Instagram.
It said, “Did we do it? Did we save the daylight?”
…
That’s real talk.
I feel that.
Because like…
I’m so groggy right now.
And tired.
And I’m just like…
We better have saved the daylight because I feel like hell right now.
We better have saved something.
Shoot.
Anything.
…
I took a nap.
I know. Bad idea, right?
It made me feel worse. Naturally.
Like.
I felt like I was slowly melting.
Like truly melting.
So I crawled myself to bed.
And I didn’t really plan to fall asleep but also – what else was I planning to do?
But I lied down.
And then boom.
I was asleep.
And then boom.
My eyes opened.
And like three hours had passed.
How did that happen?
No idea.
Crazy.
Also, why did I fall asleep for three hours?
Daylight savings only takes away one hour, right?
Nope.
It feels like it took my life.
My soul.
Daylight savings took my soul.
Anyways, I woke up more tired than I was when I took the nap.
Or at least that’s how I feel.
But I had to wake up because I have all of this stuff to do before work tomorrow.
But the problem is, I woke up too tired to do any of the stuff so I just sat staring at a wall for what felt like another three hours and then I was like, you know what? I better just go back to sleep for real and just figure this out tomorrow, but then I couldn’t fall asleep – probably because I took the nap – but I’m got MORE tired from the nap and now I’m just in hell.

Silence.
SUSAN looks at the stuffed turtle next to her in bed.
The turtle is staring at her.
Oh I forgot to mention, she’s been talking to this turtle the whole time.

SUSAN
What the heck am I talking to you for?
You’re a stuffed turtle.
You’re so cute though…
(Hugging the turtle:)
God I’m so tired.
Why can’t I fall back asleep?
Is my energy the sacrifice needed to save the daylight?
…
Yeah.
That must be it.

END.