13 June 2015

PROMPT:  A modular (non-linear) narrative. Imagine a narrative that fit on a deck of playing cards. Every time the cards get reshuffled, the story changes. For an example, see the movie Clue. 

Andy Johnson, writer/educator 

LANA, foster mom, and IBRAHIM, foster dad, are on stage together.
The sound of a door opening and closing.  Ibrahim alerts to the noise.
IBRAHIM
(anxious)
Was that the door?
LANA
(not looking up from the table)
I didn’t hear anything.
Sound of a door slamming.
IBRAHIM
(resigned)
Shit.
LANA
That was a door.
They both stand and look at each other.
IBRAHIM
(knowing the answer, but hoping for something different)
I should follow?
LANA
Of course you should follow!
Ibrahim starts off stage right.
IBRAHIM
(checking his pocket)
I’ve got my phone.
Ibrahim exits stage right.  Lana takes a big sigh and goes back to fiddling with the table.
Lights down.
Lights up.
Ibrahim and Officer Brown are on stage.
IBRAHIM
(driven)
She ran away.
OFFICER BROWN
Who ran away?
IBRAHIM
Katrina.  Katrina ran away.  We couldn’t take it.  A few months before we’d had a young woman, Apache...
OFFICER BROWN
...Apache?  Like the in... Native American Apache.
IBRAHIM
Her mother drank, used drugs.  I don’t know.  She pimped Apache out when she was ten for drug money.
OFFICER BROWN
Is she in jail!?
IBRAHIM
Apache?
OFFICER BROWN
Her mother.
IBRAHIM
No... Apache ran away from our home six times.  Six times in a month!  When Katrina ran away, we... we just couldn’t...
Lights down.
Lights up.
Ibrahim is alone on stage.
IBRAHIM
I remember everyone of them.
Paces.
IBRAHIM
I have pictures.  They’re on my screensaver.  An endless loop of young happy women.
Paces.
IBRAHIM
Two are happy today.  Two out of ten.  Twenty percent.
Paces.
IBRAHIM
That would be a pretty poor batting average in professional baseball.
Paces.
IBRAHIM
I don’t even know where most of them are.  Their gone from my life.  Wisps of memory.  An endless loop...
Paces.
IBRAHIM
One of them still lives with us.
Paces.
IBRAHIM
She’s not one of the happy ones.
Lights down.
Lights up.
Ibrahim sits on stage covered in sweat, staring off into the distance, dazed.  The side of his face is bloody and there is blood on his sleeve.  Lana comes on and goes to Ibrahim and kneels next to him.  She wants to hug him, but the blood and sweat impede her.
LANA
Are you all right?!
IBRAHIM
I’m... I’m fine.
LANA
There’s... blood.
IBRAHIM
(looking around)
Is Apache alright?
LANA
They’ve loaded her into the ambulance.  I’m not sure where they are taking her.  Are you hurt?
IBRAHIM
No.  Just tired.
LANA
Your face and your shirt are covered in blood.  Are you sure you’re alright?
IBRAHIM
She cut her arm with a piece of sharp glass.
Ibrahim mimes cutting his arm.
Lights down.
Lights up.
Randy, 45, CPS worker, two over stuffed black garbage bags at his feet, is on stage with Ibrahim.
RANDY
(taking a large plastic ziplock bag out of the top of one of the garbage bags with three prescription pill bottles inside and handing it to Ibrahim)
These are her meds.
IBRAHIM
Jeez, Randy.
RANDY
She’s got... issues.
IBRAHIM
Don’t we all.
RANDY
Serious issues.
IBRAHIM
If my mother and father didn’t want me, I’d have serious issues too, but why was she in a Residential Treatment Facility.
RANDY
Anger, defiance.
IBRAHIM
So... teenage stuff.
RANDY
Rage.  The last foster home she was in, she broke stuff, hit a couple of kids.  Since you don’t have any other kids...
Silence.
IBRAHIM
Trash bags?
RANDY
(sighing)
I hate it, but that’s standard foster care luggage.
IBRAHIM
Really bolsters their self image.
Lights down.
Lights up.
Ibrahim and Officer Brown are on stage.
IBRAHIM
(near break down)
We just... couldn’t...

OFFICER BROWN
Couldn’t what?
IBRAHIM
Take her back.  We went to see Katrina in juvee... twice.  We talked to her.  Maybe if she asked... But she put on a tough girl act.
OFFICER BROWN
We don’t put kids in juvenile detention for running away.
IBRAHIM
When they picked her up she had a weapon.  Brass knuckles.
OFFICER BROWN
Brass knuckles?
IBRAHIM
I don’t know.  Four foot ten inches tall, she hardly weighed a hundred pounds.
OFFICER BROWN
Brass knuckles...  So they put her in juvee.
IBRAHIM
Yup.
Lights Down.
Lights up.
Atatlanta, sweating, marches across stage.  She stops just before exiting and just as Ibrahim, sweating, enters.  She glares back at Ibrahim.  Ibrahim stops.
ATALANTA
Stop following me!
Atalanta exits.  Ibrahim follows and exits.
Lights down.
Lights up.
Ibrahim and Lana are on stage.
Ibrahim has blood on him as before.
IBRAHIM
How long?
LANA
You followed her for over two hours.
IBRAHIM
Can we go home?
LANA
Yes.
She takes his arm.
IBRAHIM
(looking down at his shirt)
I need to get this off and... and take a shower.
LANA
Let me take you home.
They start off.  Ibrahim stops just before they get to the edge of the stage.
IBRAHIM
We need to find out where they took her.
LANA
Yes, Ibrahim.
IBRAHIM
You need to go see her, Lana.
LANA
I will.  Let’s get you home.
Ibrahim nods and they exit.
Lights down.
Lights up.
Ibrahim is on the stage alone.
IBRAHIM
The state calls itself their parents, and send them off to strangers who have very little training in how to handle a fifteen year old girl who was raped by her grandfather... and her uncle... and their friends... starting when she was five.
Paces.
IBRAHIM
I have pictures of them and they look happy... walking through a sunken dream.
Lights down.
Lights up.
Ibrahim and Officer Brown are on stage.
IBRAHIM
But the last one...
OFFICER BROWN
The last... foster kid?
IBRAHIM
Beautiful, smart.  And crazy as a bed bug.
Silence.
IBRAHIM
One of the girls brought in bed bugs.
OFFICER BROWN
Your kidding.
IBRAHIM
I wish I was.  Thousands of dollars and we still can’t get rid of them.
OFFICER BROWN
What about this last girl?
IBRAHIM
Amarilla.  Her grandfather started sexually abusing her when she was five... or six.  Then her uncle.  Then the members of the drug gang her father ran with.  Her father waited ‘til she was eleven.
OFFICER BROWN
Where was her mother?
IBRAHIM
I don’t know.  Using?  Scared?  I don’t know.
OFFICER BROWN
They would have had to kill me.
IBRAHIM
Me too.
OFFICER BROWN
No wonder she was crazy.
IBRAHIM
We gave her too much freedom.  She was sweet and smart... and... and...
OFFICER BROWN
Crazy as a bed bug.
IBRAHIM
Yup.  She got into drugs and...
Lights down.
Lights up.
Ibrahim and Lana are on stage.  Ibrahim has blood on him as before.
IBRAHIM
I went over to see... how badly she was hurt.
(pause)
When I got close, she smeared the blood running down her arm on my face and...
(he looks down at the blood on his shirt)
... shirt.  Is she alright?
LANA
She’s going to be fine.  It’s not serious.
Silence.  Ibrahim doesn’t move.
LANA
Don’t you want to get that off?
Silence.
LANA
You look hot?  It’s over a hundred degrees out here.
Beat.
IBRAHIM
I am hot.
Lights down.
Lights up.
Ibrahim is on stage with Amarilla and Katrina.  Amarilla carries a bowl.
IBRAHIM
(exasperated sigh)
Amarilla, Katrina, if you feed that cat, we will never get rid of it.
AMARILLA
I don’t want to get rid of it.
IBRAHIM
You know Lana is allergic.
KATRINA
We won’t let it in the house.
IBRAHIM
Just like you don’t sneak out of the house?
AMARILLA
We don’t sneak out!
IBRAHIM
Then why are the screens off your windows.
KATRINA
(innocent, but a bad liar)
So I can sit in the window and look out.
IBRAHIM
And why is there a path worn in the ivy?
Lights down.
Lights up.
Ibrahim and Lana are on stage.  A car door slam is heard.
IBRAHIM
(standing)
That’s them.
Ibrahim walks off stage.  A knock is heard.
IBRAHIM (O.S.)
Come on in, ya’ll.
Lana stands.  Randy, 45, comes in with a teenage girl, 15, Brittney.  She is wide eyed, clings to a stuffed animal and looks terrified.  Ibrahim follows.  Randy and Brittney stop just after coming on stage.
RANDY
This is Brittney.
Ibrahim steps over to Brittney and offers his hand.  Brittney takes a half step back behind Randy, but then shakes hands.
IBRAHIM
Brittney, I’m glad to meet you, my name is Ibrahim.
BRITTNEY
(softly)
Glad to meet you.
Lana comes over and offers her hand.  Brittney and Lana shake.
LANA
I’m Lana, Brittney.  Welcome to our home.
IBRAHIM
(to Brittney)
Your home.
BRITTNEY
(to Randy)
Is this where I’m going to stay now?
Lights down.
Lights up.
Apache enters walking quickly.  Ibrahim, his cell phone to his ear, enters a some steps behind her.
IBRAHIM
I found her.
Atalanta stops and glares back at Ibrahim.
APACHE
(screaming)
Is that the cops?!  Are you calling the cops!?
Ibrahim stops and holds the phone down.
IBRAHIM
(quietly, calm)
No.  It’s just Lana.  I’m letting her know that you’re okay.
APACHE
She doesn’t give a shit about me!  Neither of you does!
IBRAHIM
If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t follow.
APACHE
How could you care?!  I keep running away!
IBRAHIM
(with a smile and a shrug)
I’m just weird that way, young lady.
Apache screams at him and then marches off stage.
IBRAHIM
(following)
I gotta go dear, she’s on the move again.
End of Play.