Excerpt from a new play...SACRIFICE

In case you missed the current issue of The Dramatist - which, I know, you may have, but you would have missed an excerpt of my play. And that would be too bad - so here is the excerpt.

The full play - will be coming soon to a reading or workshop or production near you, contact me if you want to make that happen sooner than later...


SACRIFICE takes place in South-East Iowa. Emmie's been brought from the city to her grandmother's struggling farm by her father, an un-employed truck driver.


4.

EMMIE (16) and MONTGOMERY (14) are target shooting with the rifle. Cans lined up along the fence posts.

EMMIE
Underneath the flat flat flat are downward holes. Mole hills. Filled with ugly. Filled with crazy. Filled with you kill us or we’ll kill you worse.

MONTGOMERY
How’d you get so smart?

EMMIE
I wouldn’t call it smart.

MONTGOMERY
What would you call it?

EMMIE
Wide-eyed and hungry.

MONTGOMERY
I don’t know these things.

EMMIE
You never had crazy in your house. You live with crazy in your house you might end up with the eyes you need to see what’s going on behind things. Under things.

MONTGOMERY
Teach me.

EMMIE
People only learn what they need to learn.

MONTGOMERY
Maybe.

EMMIE
You don’t think so?

EMMIE nails her target.

EMMIE
It’s how it is. You learn cause you need to figure things out to survive. Like if you’re stuck in a house with creepy old dudes wanting to teach you stuff. And most of them you figure out quick – don’t have anything you want to learn. You do anything you can to be away from them. But some of them – well, few and far between, but – some of them are just sad guys who know too much.

MONTGOMERY
I know about that.

EMMIE
You do not. There was this one guy, used to party with my mom. They call it a party but it’s no fun really. Anyways. He wanted to protest the missile silos. He’d camp out on the prairie. Just sit out there with a sign that said ‘no.’ Claimed he was there for a whole year. Some people would bring him food and visit with him, but mostly people threw shit at him and yelled.

MONTGOMERY
What’d he teach you?

EMMIE
Patience. C’mon. We need to practice.

MONTGOMERY
I didn’t get my turn.

EMMIE
You don’t need to know this – you’ve got other things to figure out.

MONTGOMERY
Like what?

EMMIE
Like how far you’ll go. Like whether you’re ready for what I’ve got planned.

MONTGOMERY
What do you have planned?

EMMIE
Figuring it out. So that guy right? Who sat in front of the silos?

MONTGOMERY
Yeah

EMMIE
Well nothing happened. They still built them. There are still missiles in the ground not far from here with their gyroscopes revolving ready to go. So he didn’t get what he wanted.

MONTGOMERY
They saw him.

EMMIE
As a lame ass loser. Somebody to kick who didn’t kick back.

MONTGOMERY
Emmie?

EMMIE
What?

MONTGOMERY
Who are you fighting against?

EMMIE
That’s what I need to figure out.

MONTGOMERY
Maybe it’s not like that – maybe there’s not really one person, or one thing to fight.

EMMIE
There’s gotta be.

MONTGOMERY
My mom says there isn’t. She says it’s all wrapped up together – fight down one thing and something else grows up.

EMMIE
Like the hydra.

MONTGOMERY
Uh - maybe -

EMMIE
Do they even teach you things here? The hydra. Hercules had to destroy this thing with like seven heads, but each time he cut one two grew in its place.

MONTGOMERY
What’d he do?

EMMIE
Killed it. With the help of his friend. He’d cut off a head and his friend would burn the neck so nothing would grow.

MONTGOMERY
So you need me.

EMMIE
Probably. Probably I do.

EMMIE considers MONTGOMERY for a moment. MONTGOMERY is nervous.

MONTGOMERY
What?

EMMIE
Well -

MONTGOMERY
What?

EMMIE
If there’s no one thing then you’ve got to find out everything you can about what there is, find the weak spots.

MONTGOMERY
My mom says it’s no good to fight.

EMMIE
What do you do then?

MONTGOMERY
Love. Pray. Mostly love. Mostly people need to be loved.

EMMIE
Easier to run.

MONTGOMERY
My mom says you gotta deal with yourself where ever you are. Gotta make where you are right. Running just makes you tired.

EMMIE
That’s a lie. Running makes your heart strong, makes your legs last forever. That’s the kind of thing you need these days. Your mom doesn’t know. Nobody knows. Not really.

EMMIE takes aim at the cans. Hits them all, one by one.