The Look For My Father

 

By  Luis B.

 

Characters  Ulysses the lion, male, 8 years old, youngest of three

Rose the lion, female, 19 years old, Ulysses’s older sister

 

Setting: The Safari desert outside Rose’s lion’s den. You can hear little cubs in the distance, can see the sun reflecting off the water, crocodiles poking their eyes above the water. Grass is whistling in the wind. You can smell rotting meat in the air, can see large sandstones in the distance and old Jeep tire tracks.

 

Time: 12 pm on a spring day.

 

At Rise: Ulysses doing a full sprint across the Safari Rock Desert to Rose’s house. Rose is laying down on a rock next to her cubs and she sees a familiar face in the distance in the dust cloud. Her face is in shock.

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Ulysses: Aye! Rose!

 

(Rose stands up and looks around.)

 

Ulysses: Down here! We need to talk right now!

 

Rose: What are you doing here? I haven’t seen you in three years.

 

Ulysses: I need to talk to you about what happened back home.

 

Rose: How come you’re all scratched up? Tell me. What happened?

 

Ulysses: Me and Scar got in a fight. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

 

Rose: Well, when isn’t that happening back at home?

 

Ulysses:This time it was different because I actually stood up for myself. I told him it was his fault dad left since he’s always been telling me it’s my fault. We started chunkin’ it and throwing claws. I wanted to come to you. Scar is always blaming me for our father’s disappearance and sometimes I think that’s true. But deep down inside, I have a different feeling. I feel like our father left for different reasons, and I want to know what those reasons are and ask him why he left. I’m done playing the waiting game. You always told me to follow through. And now I feel like I’m ready to follow through.

 

Rose: Why are you telling me this?

 

Ulysses: Because I want your help. I want you to help me come look for our father. You’re the only one who can point him out to me. You know I don’t know what he looks like because he left when I was just a cub.

 

Rose: You’re wasting your time looking for our father when we both know he isn’t coming back.

 

Ulysses: You told me you’d always be here for me, and I need you to be here in this moment.

 

Rose: I am here. You’ll always be my little brother. And I’ll always be there for you.

 

Ulysses: But you haven’t been there for me. You walked away from me.

 

Rose: You don’t even know the whole story or the reason why so you can’t say I walked away.

 

Ulysses: Well you never gave us a reason! As soon as you left, no one paid attention to me. Scar treated me like I’m worthless and Mom is never around. When I was with you, I felt like I had someone there for me. This is why I came to you and no one else.

 

Rose: Well, I never told you to come here. You came of your own free will. I didn’t beg you. The reason why I left is because I was already three weeks pregnant with my first cub and I couldn’t let Mom know because she would tell me to get rid of it. So I had to leave and be with my lion, Leo.

 

Ulysses: I thought you and me were close. We were supposed to trust each other and you’re keeping secrets from me. How do you think that makes me feel?

 

Rose: I know that makes you feel bad. You wouldn’t have understood at the time.

 

 Ulysses: What do you mean I wouldn’t have understood? Explain that to me.

 

Rose: You were a cub at the time, you wouldn’t understand. Life changes just like mine did. I had really big plans for my future and all that changed when I got pregnant. I wanted to travel the world but look, I have a family now and you are just pulling me into your problems and that doesn’t help either. So you can do what you want, because I’m not going with you.

 

(Rose walks away).

 

Ulysses: Rose! Rose, come back! (She’s ignores him and keeps walking.) Okay fine! I’ll go by myself then.

 

(Ulysses walks away with his head down. Ulysses goes out to look for his dad by himself. Three months later. Ulysses is now 9 years old. We see Ulysses walking, still with his head down. Catches a glimpse of his sister walking towards him.)

 

Rose: What the heck are you doing here? I don’t want you here.

 

Ulysses: Well, I came here to tell you that I found dad.

 

Rose: Wait, what?

 

Ulysses: I found out why he left. He told me everything.

 

Rose: Well what’d he say?

 

Ulysses: If you came, you would have known. Why should I tell you if you didn’t want to come with me?

 

Rose: Why are you still being a jerk? Even though I was honest and told you I couldn’t go with you.

 

Ulysses: It wasn’t an easy journey. It wasn’t easy to find him. I had to go to all the animals to see if they knew him or knew where to find him. It wasn’t easy for me to imagine myself actually finding him. It was like he just fell off the edge of the earth, but when I found him everything changed. I saw everything in a different perspective and now I see everything different. The Ulysses you knew 3 months ago is a different Ulysses from the one that is standing in front of you and you can’t be saying that I was being a jerk because I actually wanted to look for our dad, but I don’t want to get into it. I was just on my way home. Hope you’re happy with your family. Bye, Rose.

 

(They go their separate ways.)

 

End of play.



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