A Play by Gus M.

Performance: May, 2002
Hillcrest Juvenile Hall, San Mateo


Time: 5:00 pm
Place: A cave with a sun roof so there’s light inside. Yellow violet purple plants.
Monkeys helping out getting sick animals ready for the ape doctors. Wall gives animals privacy.  On the floor is a lot of soft grass for the patient to lay on.
At Rise: Mijo, a cheetah, lying down on the grass, bandage over one eye, paws
bandaged, piece of his ear missing.  Green Eyes, a cheetah, looking out a hole in
the wall looking outside just thinking of that appropriate thing to say.



Green Eyes:

(turns and faces Mijo)
Por la virjen Mijo.  I did not know this was gonna happen.

 
Mijo:

Get the hell outta here.  If you were there this would have never happened.  If you would just stop and think about others instead of yourself.  There’s only one thing that I ask you to do almost every single day is to stop drinking cactus tequila juice and eating marijuana plants but you just can’t do it.

 
Green Eyes: I’m sorry for everything I’ve done. You’re my cousin.  You’re older than me and you know better but who would’ve thought you would’ve gone on a hunt by yourself.
 
Mijo:

If you would’ve done what I asked none of this would have happened. For a long time I thought I could trust you but your addiction just seems to get the best of you.  I feel you care about the cactus tequila juice and marijuana plants more than you care about your flesh and blood.  So get out of here.  I don’t ever want to see you again.

 
Green Eyes:

Why you so fast to kick me outta the cave?  I’m your cousin.

 
Mijo:   Why so fast?  Why so fast?  I gave you more than 3 chances and you expect me to give you one more chance.  You’re nothin’ but a worthless cheetah.
 
Green Eyes:   (aside)
I know why Mijo’s being so harsh on me but I truly want to change but he just doesn’t know that I got caught by the rhinoceros and they stopped me.  They’re always out to get some cat.  I just can’t tell him cause I’m wrong either way.  I should’ve went to his tree first thing in the morning like he told me to.  Instead I went and got wasted.  Right now before I drink and eat I feel weak but when I do it I feel nothing could hurt me. I feel powerful and the sense of feeling relaxed, never to feel upset, all the time being happy, until this happened.  How could I tell Mijo that I could change?  I know in my heart I could change.
 
Mijo:  

What are you doing?  You’re just sitting there. Don’t you have anything else to say?

 
Green Eyes:   I’ve made up my mind.  I’m gonna change.
 
Mijo:   You can’t change.  You’re incompetent and a fool.  What makes you think you could change?
 
Green Eyes:   I’m tired from always running from my problems. I’m tired of being me. I needa fess up and get on with my life.
 
Mijo:   (aside)
I don’t know what to do. I really need Green Eyes right now but he’s a fool. He doesn’t want to help himself. I don’t know if I should push him away or give him one last chance. I need him to take care of me and I need him so we can have the trust we used to have. When I first seen him come out of his mom for the first time I knew we were meant to be more than cousins and more than brothers and nothing will be able to separate us.  Ever since then we never seen the light of day without each other. I remember the first time we hung out for the whole day by ourselves how many female cheetahs approached both of us. It was like something you could never imagine.He would never argue for which one he wants and we both always respected each other for what we have to say. That’s all I ever wanted from Green Eyes. Since he is family, I guess I’ll give him one more chance.
 
Green Eyes:   Watch, you’ll see. I can do it.
   
  Scene 2
 
TIME:  8 months later
PLACE:  A lake.  Smells like a hot summer day, lot of tall grasses, looks like a new day for him.
AT RISE:  Green Eyes is sitting by the lake drinking water, watching the other animals.
   
Green Eyes:  

I feel good that I kept my promise to Mijo.  I never expected this to be that easy to quit.  To me it feels like it was just all mental, a mental addiction, not physical.  I didn’t really need it. We got back like we used to be with all the trust and honesty and faith.  I feel good.  But some reasons I’m kind of glad that Mijo got hurt.  That experience showed me I could quit.  It made me realize that the drugs were taking more of my time and my life away from my cousin.  But at the same time I wish I would’ve realized that sooner because if I did I think that would’ve never happened to him.

   
  Scene 3
 
TIME:  Same
PLACE:  A new tree house in Santa Breezy.  Trees all over the place. Smells like fresh pine,
flowers, spring.  A lot of cheetah females around ready for male cheetahs.
AT RISE:  Mijo’s on one side of the tree house getting a gazelle that he killed earlier for this occasion and there’s female cheetahs on the other side.(starts to think)
   
Mijo:   I’m very proud of Green Eyes.  I never would’ve thought he would’ve gone through with it.  He actually proved me wrong.  He made me feel that I could trust him once again and never have a doubt in my mind that he would never do anything from the past.  He hasn’t got in any trouble and tomorrow we will both go on the hunt we were meant for before all the frustration and anger and heartbreak that had happened.  No other two cheetahs ever got a grown giraffe and we’re gonna be the first to ever do it.
(Mijo gives female cheetah the gazelle)
   
  Scene 4
TIME:  7:25pm the next day.
PLACE:  One of Mijo’s cheetah lady’s tree houses
AT RISE:  After they just finished doing what cheetahs do.  Lying in the tree cuddling and purring to each other.
 

 

   
Mijo:  

Oh no!  I gotta go!

   
 

Scene 5
 
TIME:  Sundown.  The sun is barely going down  Just a little light left.
PLACE:  On a plain with tall grass, few trees.  It’s cold and mysterious.
AT RISE:  Green Eyes is on the floor of the plain very hurt after his chase.He’s almost dying. The prey, a giraffe, is dead right next to him.As Mijo runs to Green Eyes,
he sees Green Eyes and he starts running faster. When he gets there, it’s too late.
Green Eyes is taking his last breath.

   
Mijo:  

I’m sorry cousin.I never thought this would ever happen to me. After all the time I nagged at you and told you what to do, it backfired on me and now you’re here bleeding to death.  I should’ve remembered that we were gonna go on this hunt together but my own addiction on female cheetahs got the best of me.Now I wish that I would’ve died at the hospital cave. Now I would have to live alone with no one to trust.

   
Green Eyes:  

Don’t  feel sorry.This is a foolish act that I did.This is my fault that I thought I could do this hunt without you.When you didn’t show up I thought this would be my chance just to prove to you that you would’ve never gotten hurt if you would’ve done it carefully but I guess I was wrong. Everything is my fault. Everything always is. All I ever wanted to do is be just like you.
(he dies)

(Mijo lies down with his paws over Green Eyes’ with his head down.)

   
    The End.


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