A Play by Ronnie W.
Performance: September, 2001
Youth Guidance Center, San Francisco
Time: 4:30 pm
Place: At a park in a field, a work booth in the center. Bulls are tacklin each other.
At Rise: Sammy, a bull, seeing Marcus, his younger brother.
| Sammy: |
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What are you doing here?
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| Marcus: |
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(excited)
What’s up? Where you been? I didn’t know what happened to you. Mom or dad didn’t let me know nothin.
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| Sammy: |
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Mom should’ve told you. I told her to tell you what was goin on with me. You’re old enough to know what’s goin on cause you’re gettin to that age limit now. Marcus, I’ve been gone for a long time. It seems like I’ve been gone forever. |
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| Marcus: |
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Sammy, it has been forever. Why haven’t you come home yet? Why is you at this park?
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| Sammy: |
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I’m at this park for a reason.
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| Marcus: |
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So tell me what the reason is. |
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| Sammy: |
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I’ve been goin crazy so people called the SPCA on me and they came and picked me up. They thought I was crazy. That’s why they kept me in the cage so long. So now they lookin for me. So now I’m wanted. |
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| Marcus: |
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Is you really crazy? I know you ain’t. You my big brother. You can’t be crazy. If you crazy, then I’m crazy. You can’t be crazy because we got the same bloodline. I feel mad cause you coulda been teachin me things that you known a long time ago. I feel bad because I shoulda been learning this. Since you didn’t teach me then, I want you to teach me now cause I really need it.
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| Sammy: |
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(aside)
I wanna teach him something, but not the kinda things I know, like doin crazy stuff, because he might go psycho with it. He might hurt somebody with it. That would make me feel bad, like it was my fault that I taught him all that. I knew I shoulda kept it to myself. That was a bad decision.
(to Marcus)
I wanna teach you some good stuff. Not no aggressive stuff. Not nothing that could intimidate somebody. Not stuff that could hurt bulls. |
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| Marcus: |
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Big brother, I really need this. Why don’t you teach me? I wanna be like you. I wanna be king. |
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| Sammy: |
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I don’t wanna teach you nothin like that cause you could hurt somebody. I want you to become a young man. It means a lot. You gonna have to start takin responsibility, takin care of yourself, start goin out and lookin for a job, don’t look like a little kid anymore. |
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| Marcus: |
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If I be king, I am gonna take responsibility. I am gonna do young man things like go out, buy my own stuff, learn how to sign an applications, learn how to dress up like a young adult. I gotta learn this. I wanna tell bulls what to do. I wanna rule everybody. I’m tired of bulls tellin me what to do. I wanna run everything. I’d get to do what I wanna do when I wanna do it. It would make me feel proud cause I’d be king. |
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| Sammy: |
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Brother, I know what you wanna be but I don’t want you to do that I did to cause a problem so I’m gonna think about it before that day comes. |
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| Marcus: |
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You gotta be quick cause the show to be king is tomorrow. So hurry up and get your mind straight. If you’re gonna say no, say no. If you’re gonna say yes, say yes. Don’t hold it back from me. I’m tired of waitin. It makes me feel unloved and depressed, unhappy not knowin what to do, not knowin no tricks, not knowin nothin. I’m a young teenager tryin to be a king but I can’t get what I want. |
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| Sammy: |
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(trying to really explain it, but Marcus isn’t getting it)
Marcus, face it, I’m not teachin’ you that so get it through your little itchy head. Little boy, you still a baby tryin to be a big boy tryin to be a king. If you be king, you don’t know that you’re gonna have to go through. Some fighting drills, head-up drills, runnin through walls, runnin through bulls. I want an exciting life for you. I want you to have a young adult life, not a full adult life, cause you ain’t old enough yet. If I give you the stunts, you gonna trip out and the SPCA’s gonna come and get you. I don’t want that to happen to you. |
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The End. |
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