(Two figures are at different parts of the stage, relating their accounts of the same incident. One is Darrel, a teen or young man who has just participated in the attempted hold-up of a convenience store that ended in the death of his friend. The other is Ray, the old man who runs the store. If you wish, you could convert Ray to Ramona, an old woman. Darrel is distraught; Ray is angry, determined, convinced he’s done right.)

DARREL (distraught): Oh, fuck. I mean, God damn! I had no idea it would turn out like that, man. I mean, God damn, me and Jimmy had been in that store, what, about a million times –

RAY (angry): God damn punks. Always hanging around my store. Messing with things.

DARREL: We’d just hang out there, you know. We weren’t causing no trouble. Just a neighborhood thing.

RAY: God damn punk kids up to no good. The whole rotten bunch of ‘em.

DARREL: All the times we’d been in there, all we ever saw was that old man. You know, the real mean one who never said anything. Just sorta grunted at you.

RAY: Always carrying on, making a God damned racket.

DARREL: First we just started, you know, pinching some gum, that kind of thing. Nothing big. I mean, it’s just gum, right?

RAY: Don’t think I didn’t know what they were doing. Oh I knew.

DARREL: It was Jimmy’s idea. I swear it was. It wasn’t mine.

RAY: Little bastards were stealing from me.

DARREL: Every now and then he’d catch us, make us put it back. We thought it was like a joke, you know?

RAY: Nobody steals from me and gets away with it.

DARREL: Then Jimmy started getting ideas, you know. Started talking ‘bout things.

RAY: I could tell the little God damn punks were gonna be trouble. You could just see it in ‘em. Older they got, the worse they’d get.

DARREL: It all started one day when we wanted to buy some drinks and didn’t have any money. And the old man, he didn’t give you credit, no way, didn’t matter whether he knew you or not.

RAY: Wasn’t like when I was growing up. Kids back then had respect. Nowadays, nobody respects nothing.

DARREL: So Jimmy started talking about ways to get even, you know?

RAY: So I figured with the way this neighborhood is going, I need to be able to protect myself, you know?

DARREL: Jimmy said he saw this movie on TV, right? Said he watched it over and over. Said it’d work for sure.

RAY: I read in this magazine about this fellow in Virginia who set things up just like this, you know.

DARREL: So Jimmy gets these ski masks, right? And some PVC pipe from this construction site down on the corner.

RAY: So up over the counter I’ve got my cigarettes, right? Put ‘em up high where the kids can’t reach ‘em, you know.

DARREL: He says come on, this is gonna be easy, it’ll be just like in that movie.

RAY: Never know when I’m gonna need it, right?

DARREL: So one night we pull on these masks and go into the store –

RAY: It was just about closing time when these two punks come in and start hanging around.

DARREL: Jimmy’s got his PVC pipe in his pocket; it looked real as shit, man.

RAY: God damn punk has a piece in his pocket!

DARREL: Jimmy points it at the old man, you know, in his coat; he was just messing with him.

RAY: Little fucker tells me it’s a God damned hold up!

DARREL: Jimmy tells him reach for it, old man!

RAY: So I’m reaching. I’m reaching all right. I reach right up for that cigarette case.

DARREL: The old man’s got his hands up in the air just like this. That’s when Jimmy told me to go ‘round behind the counter.

RAY: Right between the Camels and the Kools. You talk about slick. It was just like I’d read about in that magazine.

DARREL: I said, man, Jimmy, I dunno, just make him give us the money, OK?

RAY: Little fuckers started arguing between themselves. That gave me time.

DARREL: Jimmy wouldn’t listen to me, man, you know how Jimmy is, or was, or oh fucking Christ!

RAY: Glock. Nine millimeter. Kept that fucker loaded, too.

DARREL: Jimmy starts yelling, get the God damned money! Get the God damned

money now!

RAY: Just like that, I whip that bad boy down and, bam, I let the motherfucker have it in the chest.

DARREL: Next thing I know, God damn! The old man’s got a fucking gun and he’s shot Jimmy! Jimmy’s laying there on the floor, he’s got blood spewing out of his chest, his eyes are rolling around in his head, he wasn’t saying nothing –

RAY: I turn on that other little son-of-a-bitch and say "all right, motherfucker, you wanna be next? ‘Cause I can damn well make sure you’re next, by God!"

DARREL: He shot Jimmy! God damn! He shot Jimmy! And all Jimmy had was a length of PVC pipe! Jimmy didn’t have no gun! And he shot him!

RAY: Cops told me I’d done ‘em a favor. Said if I hadn’t done it, they’d have had to do it themselves someday.

DARREL: And God damn, it’s all my fault. It’s my fault.

RAY: Ain’t had no trouble with ‘em since, that’s for damn sure.

DARREL: Cause I was the one who told him I was thirsty.

-------- THE END -------------

Cast of characters: Two male

Darrel, a teen-ager who was involved in an attempted hold-up that ended in the death of his friend

Ray, an old man who runs a store and shot an unarmed teen who tried to rob him

Dwayne Yancey

1791 Mount Pleasant Church Road

Fincastle, VA 24090

Days: 540 981 3113

Nights: 540 473 3313

dwayneyancey@yahoo.com