| Henry: |
|
What’s
up? What’s goin’ on? How you doin’?
|
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
What it
look like fool? I’m doin’ ok I guess. How’s
the family?
|
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
I
don’t know. I never been home. Moms be trippin’.
Anthony’s cool though. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
I want you
guys to stay together because when I leave, the family
gonna need you.
|
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Man, I ain’t
tryin’ to hear this now. I came here to talk to
you and see how
you’s doin’.
|
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
Boy,
don’t make me beat your ass.
(They both laugh) |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Nah,
for real? I’m tryin’ to get my life together.
I don’t really have time
for Moms and Anthony. They can look out for theyselves. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
If I was
able to get up, you know we’d be fightin’.
|
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Yeah,
right. You hungry? |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
Yeah.
Feed me that food right there. |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
What’s
this? What is this stuff? |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
That’s
what they feedin’ me. Pea soup and crackers. |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
I
could go to the store for you. It’ll be like old
times. I’ll sneak in a
cheeseburger so you can gum it, ‘cos you know you
ain’t got no teeth.
(Both laugh) |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
For
real, though? I could go for a cupcake. I’m tellin’
you, you gonna need
your family. That’s all you got. Other female animals
don’t care. |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
I know.
I want to be with my family, you know. But if I go hang
out with
Mamma and Anthony I won’t be able to get my life
together. I think I’m ready now– ready to
have a family. And plus, Mamma don’t like me anyway.
She favors Anthony the most.
|
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
You
wanna know the reason why? |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Yeah. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
Because
you don’t listen. You came from a perfectly good
family. We always give you what you want – and you
brother – you guys just mess up on us all the time. |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
What do
you mean?
|
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
By not coming
home. Doin’ what you want to do, stayin’ out
late, goin’ to
mess with them cheetah girls. That will get you in trouble
in the long run.
|
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Yeah, right.
I got hella girls buyin’ me stuff.
|
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
Don’t
say nothin’ when you catch somethin’.
|
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Yeah,
right. Like what? |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
Anything
– Them nasty animals be carrying fleas, ticks, flies,
mosquitoes,
and the worst of them all: Boogers. |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Never
that! Because I will slap them polar bear girls if they
give me
somethin’. I will be mad! |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
How’s
Anthony doin’? |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Well,
all right. He’s not really worried about you in the
hospital. He knows
you gonna get through this. Guess what Anthony told me? |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
What? |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Man.
Anthony told me that he ain’t my brother no more
because I don’t mess with a lot of polar bears and
cheetahs no more. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
What?
What you doin’? What happened to all that Sexy Hen
this, Sexy Hen that? |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Man,
I’m tired of that stuff. I listened to what you used
to tell me. I alway s listened.
(Mopie laughs) |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
You
always listen? Man, let me run it down to you, you never
come home. When you do come home, you don’t do me
no good. You don’t take care of me. I can keep goin’
on and on. |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Man.
I got a reason why I be stunnin’. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
What’s
that? |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Man,
I’m 18 now and I see a lot of stuff, like hangin’
with female animals,
with friends, goin to catch-the-ball games and lookin’
for a wifie. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
So
you mean to tell me you ain’t got time for the family? |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
No,
I didn’t say that. You didn’t hear that come
from my mouth. You be
hatin’. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
Nah,
I don’t be hatin’. It just I be tryin’
to look out for you. |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
I
know you do , but you put too much on it. All the time!
You always tellin’ me do this, do that. And I’m
tryin’ to do my own thing. Feel me? So, when you
comin’ home? |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
Doctor
say that I’m gonna be ok and be able to come home.
But when I do, you guys gotta promise me that you guys
gonna be there – you and your brother –to help
me. |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Fo’
sho’. I’ll do anything to make you happy. If
that’s what it takes, I
will do that just for you. But I also have to get ready
for my family. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
Yeah,
right, what family? You too young for all that stuff.
Don’t you know
what you got to do? You can’t even take care of yourself.
How you gonna take care of a family? |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
What
you mean? I know I can. Actually, I can’t. I’m
not even really ready. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
Duh!
I coulda told you that. So what’s goin’ on with
you and your brother?
You know he look up to you and wanna be just like you. |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
I
know(Sings) He really, really like my style.
He told me that I’m not his brother no more. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
Why? |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Because
I wasn’t cheatin’ on female animals no more
and he got mad because I taught him everythin’ he
know. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
Well,
Henry, to tell you the truth, you’re a ho. And your
brother – you guys
mess with all these different animal women and now that
urge not to claim
each other. |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Man,
what you think I should do? |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
Talk
to your brother, set him down and talk to him. Slap him
a couple of
times if you have to because I built the family and it
needs to stay together no
matter what. Orange juice is thicker than water. |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Seriously,
when you commin’ home? Because we miss you –
especially me. I miss beatin’ you up!
(Mopie laughs) |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
If
I were to die today, what would you do? Who would you
go to? |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
You
ain’t gonna die. If you did, I will do what I gotta
do to survive in this
wild ozone layer. I would move in with my cousin. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
What
about your brother? Where he gonna go? How you know he
don’t wanna live with Mamma? |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Don’t
trip, chocolate chip! He can live with our cousin also.
But you know
how Anthony is. He’s Mamma’s favorite and she
need the company. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
I
look at you face and looks like somebody been beatin’
you up. You look like an old man. Kinda like me. Seriously
son, I’m happy to see you. |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
I
know, I know. Who wouldn’t be happy to see Henry?
It was rainin’ earlier today. |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
I
know ‘cos I’m cold. Throw that blanket on me
over there.
(Henry gets the blanket, puts it on his dad. Next this
he know, a black
shadow came walking in the door.) |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
What’s
that shadow right there at the door? Oh, it’s Mamma.
What’s up Mamma?
(Mopie’s eyes get very bright) |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Now
that she’s here, I’m leaving. I’ll see
you tomorrow,
(He gives his dad a kiss on the cheek) |
|
|
|
| Mopie: |
|
UH!
Booger germs! Now I’m really gonna die!
(They both laugh. Henry leaves) |
|
|
|
|
|
Time:
Next day, 11 AM
Place: Henry’s cousin’s home in East
Palo Alto.
At Rise: Henry and Anthony in living room, sitting
down on the floor talkin’.
(Henry goes outside to get a little walk and the next
thing you know, the zoo
hunters catch him with a rope. They throw it on his arms
to he can’t run.
Henry gets thrown in the van.) |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
What
I do? What I do?
(While he in zoo jail, a lot of other animals and young
animals in there for
murder and stiff say that he should do what his father
said. Family comes
first, all that other stuff second. He goes to animal
church and hears another
lion talk about the elephant god. It changes his life.
The elephant god tells him to go to his family. The humans
treat him real bad. They give him nasty food, yell at
hi, and keep him locked in a room. He doesn’t want
to come back. The next month Henry gets out because they
caught the wrong animal. He goes home) |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Man,
I should go to the hospital and check on my dad. See what’s
up.
(He goes to the hospital. Turns left, turns right,
goes up in the elevator
and walks inside room 21. Sees this old moose. He walks
back outside and stops a cheetah doctor) |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
What
happened to the old lion in room 21? |
|
|
|
| Doctor: |
|
Oh,
sorry. He passed two days ago. |
|
|
|
| Henry: |
|
Oh
my God!
(He sits down and starts crying.)
Why? Why this has to happen to me of all animals? What
do I do now? He’s gone . I can’t believe it.
The only man I ever loved. He’s gone. Never coming
back. Nothing matters to me anymore. Now I got to do what
I got to do. Man, it’s over and I don’t’
care about nothing’ no more. No animal girls, no
humans, no food, no playing’, no going’ places
or nothing. I know what I have to do and it’s going
to be hard, but it’s time to go home. |
| |
|
|
| |
|
The
End. |
|
