Heap of Trouble!
You don’t always know the whole story.
On a hot summer day during the last week of June 1933, nine-year-old Emily has run off after getting into a fistfight. Her older brother Charlie has been sent to find her and bring her home.
One Act Drama – 1M, 1W, Single Set, 12 minutes
EMILY
I told you. I don’t want to go home. Why don’t you just go away and say you couldn’t find me.
CHARLIE
Can’t do that Em. Pa told me to find ya.
EMILY
Well, I ain’t coming back. I ain’t gonna get punished for defending myself.
CHARLIE
You gave Cory Robinson a bloody nose.
EMILY
He deserved it.
CHARLIE
I ain’t sayin he didn’t, but Pa don’t put up with any fightin. Don’t matter what that Robinson kid said or did.
EMILY
He said we was nothing but trash.
CHARLIE
I told you. It don’t matter what he said. It’s up to us to turn the other cheek.
EMILY
He said you were stupid.
CHARLIE
He said what!
EMILY
He called you stupid. He said you was too stupid to win that spelling bee.
CHARLIE
That little rat.
EMILY
He said there was no way trash like you could be that smart. He said the only way you could have won was by cheating.
CHARLIE
Cheating!
EMILY
Cheating and lying.
CHARLIE
That bastard.
EMILY
That’s when I hit him.
CHARLIE
You hit him because he called me a cheat.
EMILY
I did.
CHARLIE
Well, I didn’t know that.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Emily (Em) – the younger sister about 8 or 9.
Charlie – the older brother about 11 or 12.
SETTING
A wooded area near the train tracks a mile out of town. A knotted rope hangs from a tree branch.
TIME
It is a hot day the last week of June 1933.
STORY OF THE PLAY
Emily has run off after getting into trouble and her older brother Charlie has been sent to fetch her.
