Each One Reach One: Young Writers: Play

“I know you’re my mom and everything. I trust you, but in a way I don’t.”
- excerpt from My Relationship

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My Relationship
A Play by Javier H.

Performance: November, 2002
Hillcrest Juvenile Hall, San Mateo

Chararacters: T-Bo the Redwood Tree, age 15
Lena the Redwood Tree, age 32, T-Bo’s mom

Time:4:00pm, Today
Place:In Redwood City, Rolison Street. In the backyard. It’s big, has grass all over the place. It has flowers, roses. There’s a house. It has a nice smell, it smells like the cologne of the owner’s house. There’s people playing around, playing basketball. We can hear cars passing by. Everything is all nice, organized.
At Rise: T-Bo the Redwood Tree and his Mom are having dinner.

T-Bo:		Mom, I wanna know where my dad is at.

Mom:		I got no idea where he’s at.

T-Bo:		What do you mean you don’t know where he’s at? You know where he at. You just don’t wanna tell me. You have something secret between you and my dad.

Mom:		No I don’t.

T-Bo:		If don’t have a secret, just tell me where my dad is at.

Mom:		I don’t want you to meet your real dad, because your dad is not a good father. He used to be in the backyard – drinking salt water, smoking grass. He never took care of you. He never used to feed you. Basically, he didn’t care about you.

T-Bo:		I think you’re lying, ‘cause you never told me that.

Mom:		I ain’t lying to you son. I’m your mom, so how can I be lying to you?

T-Bo:		I know you’re my mom and everything. I trust you, but in a way I don’t. I can see it in your face. Like you trying to act all serious. When you talk to me, you don’t even want to look at me, make eye contact.

Mom:		(Starts crying) It’s time for me to stop lying and tell you the truth. I don’t want you to meet your real dad ‘cause I don’t want you to know how I was when I was with him. (T-Bo gets hella mad and starts throwing leaves around)

Mom:		Son. Calm down. I’ll tell you where your dad is at. I’ll give you a few days to calm down.

T-Bo:		No. I want to know right now. I want to find out the truth – why you left him or why he left you. So are you going to tell me? Or are you going to keep lying to me?

Mom:		No. I’m going to tell you the truth right now. I was cheating on him. I wasn’t coming home. I was around my friends, hanging out, going to parties, getting drunk. Basically, you’re going to find out he left because I was doing all this kind of stuff.

T-Bo:		So where he at?

Mom:		He lives in the jungle.

T-Bo:		I don’t know where the jungle’s at.

Mom:		He’s in Africa.

T-Bo:		Thank you for telling me where he’s at. I still love you. But you have to go. I don’t want you to be around ‘cause you lied all this time.

Mom:		I’ll go. ‘Cause I did lie to you. Son, remember that I still love you. And I’ll be here for you if you need me. Goodbye. (She hugs and kisses him.)


		The End.