A Play by Sal
| CHARACTERS: |
LIONHEART the LION, age 15, FIREHEART the LION, age 34
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| SETTING: |
Hawaii. On the top of a volcano. Lava. It smells like firewood, it is dirty, and there are a lot of footprints. It sounds like lave exploding and burning.
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| TIME: |
Sunset-sunrise, August 28-29
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| AT RISE: |
Both Lionheart and Fireheart are looking at each other from far away. Fireheart has devil wings. Lionheart does not have anything. They are walking toward each other, slowly.
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LIONHEART
(In an angry voice) Father
FIREHEART
(Soft, evil laugh) It’s been a long time, Lionheart. (Smiling). How old are you? Fourteen, fifteen? It doesn’t matter.
LIONHEART
(angry) I’m fifteen, father. I’m not here to chit chat.
FIREHEART
Come on son. You don’t want to talk to your old man?
LIONHEART
(angry voice) No
FIREHEART
I know why you are here. Because you want to give me a punch, don’t you?
LIONHEART
No. That’s not all. I want to unleash rage against you and I want to see fear in your eyes.
FIREHEART
You think you are the only one that can unleash rage in this family? (Angry) You’re wrong.
LIONHEART
(Loud) What?
FIREHEART
The rage that you have came from my life. I am the one who gave it to you. It came from me.
LIONHEART
(Head facing down) Why did you do it? (Silent for a little) Why did you make my life so difficult? Why did you leave me when I needed you the most? Why did you give me the rage when you could have sent it to someone else? Why?
FIREHEART
Lionheart, the reason I left you is because I didn’t want you to do the same stuff, like sell your soul to the devil. The rage will go through your veins. It is the family tree—even if you kill me, the rage will go on, generation, by generation.
LIONHEART
(Surprised) You did all that and left just to protect me? … I don’t believe you. My life was living in hell without you. And I do not enjoy hell like you. (Mad, loud voice) I had to take care of my sister by myself because of you. I had to get beat up because of you. And I will never ever be like you.
FIREHEART
So, that’s how you feel when I left you—I am sorry. But I am not sorry because the of the rage you are showing me.
LIONHEART
(Loud voice) What? I am going to kill you.
FIREHEART
(Creepy smile) Come and kill me then. I am waiting.
LIONHEART
(Screams and runs toward his father. Then he stops to think). Wait… what am I doing?
FIREHEART
I’m waiting. Still no stab.
LIONHEART
I am not going to kill you. I am not like you. I don’t kill. I am a kind person. I’m lion heart.
FIREHEART
Lionheart, I guess it is time to tell you about your rage.
LIONHEART
Fine father, tell it.
FIREHEART
Lets go back, years ago, where it all started. Your great grand father fought the true devil lion. Its name was the green reaper, the soul reaper. They fought for ten years. The devil lion was using his rage against your great grandfather and of course the devil lion was winning. At the end, the devil lion was on top of your great grand father and almost killed him. But… the devil lion forgot about something: Your great grandfather gave his love up in exchange for rage and he used his rage to kill the devil lion. At the end, your great grand father won but the devil lion passed all of his rage onto the lion who killed him and that rage has been passed down. That is the story about your rage.
LIONHEART
Something is happening to me… what is it? There are chains on me… I’m dying.
(LIONHEART dies for twenty seconds and then comes back. He appears to hear voices).
Who are you? What is going on? I see the light. My heart is saying that I’m not meant to die here. I am going to face my fears. I am not going to be like my father. (LIONHEART screams madly).
FIREHEART
(Surprised) What?
LIONHEART
(Getting up from death) Father, not yet.
FIREHEART
What? How did you come back?
LIONHEART
God brought me back. And since I heard your story, it is time for you to hear my story.
FIREHEART
Fine then, I’m listening to you.
LIONHEART
Three years after you left me all alone, my mom’s side of my family found me and raised me. I was with them for five years. After I left, I found my sister on the ground and I raised her by myself. After some time, me and my sister were taken by the lion of darkness to a cave full of skeletons. I didn’t fight back, but later my rage came into me and the lions of darkness were defeated. The rage was in me for two years—when it unleashed in my body, my body turned red, my muscles were pumped up and my face was a monster. My speed was on top level and the feelings, the heart, and the love were shut down. At the end, love and hatred fought in my body. The love got power and destroyed the hatred and sealed it up in my heart. That is my story.
FIREHEART
How about your sister?
LIONHEART
My sister fell into lava. Or that is what people say, but I think that is a load of B.S.
FIREHEART
That’s what you think it is… enough about your sister for now. Let’s talk about your rage. So why did you come here to find me today?
LIONHEART
I came here to unleash my rage that is sealed in my heart. I plan to punch you until my last rage is gone. I will lose it all in my last blow and then it will be gone from me forever. Be careful father, I am not myself. (LIONHEART gets mad and goes into rage mode and screams.) I will make sure that my children and my children’s children and my children’s children’s children will never feel rage and I will make sure that you never see my rage ever again.
FIREHEART
Son, you have underestimated me. Now you will see true rage upon your father.
LIONHEART
I am not afraid. Father, you feel my rage.
FIREHEART
Let’s go son. I’m sorry, but I must do this.
(Both lions go toward each other, fists high. LIONHEART is unleashing his full rage. They jump and go to punch each other. Except FIREHEART stops and his son keeps going and punches his father. FIREHEART falls on the edge of the volcano, he is very close to falling in. He rests there a minute and then gets up. He looks at his son and he is afraid of him.)
FIREHEART
(scared voice) Get away from me
LIONHEART
I’m not going to hurt you father. I already accomplished my goal: to put fear in your eyes and make sure that I will never be like you. Now my time is up and I am leaving.
FIREHEART
Wait son. I have to say something. I am sorry for what I Have done to you. I am sorry for leaving you and I am sorry for passing the rage onto you. I feel so hopeless. I think I don’t deserve to live, but I do deserve to go to heaven. I am sick of serving the devil lion. I want to be with my son. I love you son, but I must do this.
(FIREHEART jumps into the volcano and commits suicide. After he dies, he gets his soul back and goes to heaven. From heaven, he talks to his son).
FIREHEART
Son, I love you.
LIONHEART
I love you too father. (aside) I accomplished my goal. I saw fear in my father’s eyes and I am glad he is going to heaven. For every tear I drop it seems I am missing a part of myself. Why do people die? Why do people kill other people for their own mistakes? Why do people unleash their rage on each other? I am LIONEHART and I am brave. With the heart of a lion, there will be no fear behind my eyes nor rage, nor any other bad feeling. Only happiness and love. Since my rage is gone, I can be a good father for my sons someday. When I look at the sky I think about me and my father, lying on the clouds, I am thinking about futures. For my children and my grand children. I see the sunlight of god’s creations and when I am done looking at the sky, it seems it was just a dream, all nightmares are just dreams, and one day the world will be in peace, like it was long ago. Hear these words: Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do it and listen to these three words: Don’t give up.
(LIONHEART became a great father and had many children who were each successful. His father went to heaven and no longer serves the devil lion and he found his sister who didn’t fall into a pit of lava.)
THE END
