Entry 32 in the Mondo Awards end-of-the-year Inspire-us contest is a play. We have included some of the author’s stage directions and notes to self.
CAST OF 6….ALL GAZANS
GRANDMOTHER….AGE UNDETERMEND….70?
ABDUL…AGE 40
WIFE OF ABDUL..AGE 40
ABU….CHILD OF ABDUL AGE 13
SETTING IS ONE ROOM…..SPARSE….UTILITARIAN… 1 UNMADE BED.. 3 CHAIRS….1 TABLE IN MIDDLE OF ROOM. CHEST OF DRAWERS ON BACK WALL UNDER A BLANKET COVERING A WINDOW. CHEST IS 3 OR 4 DRAWER, NOT HIGH, JUST RIGHT FOR SITTING ON……A SINK IS OFF TO ONE SIDE ON THE BACK WALL.
CURTAIN CLOSED AT START.
WARN AUDIENCE THE LIGHTS WILL GO DOWN, BRIEFLY,
2 SEPARATE TIMES NEAR THE END….SIGNIFYING A PASSAGE
OF TIME
LIGHTS GO DOWN IN THEATER…NOTHING VISIBLE…
CURTAIN OPENS …STILL NOTHING VISIBLE IN TOTAL
DARKNESS
ABDUL, HIS WIFE, HIS SON ABU AND HIS MOTHER (GRANDMOTHER) ARE ONSTAGE….
A SONIC BOOM……..VERY LOUD BA..BOOM!.
JET HEARD RECEEDING .
ABDUL…. “Damn damn damn those F 16s!” Damn their sonic booms!”
HE FUMBLES IN THE DARK WITH A MATCH THAT
GOES OUT.. THEN ANOTHER. MATCH GOES OUT…
ABDUL “Damn”
HE FUMBLES WITH ANOTHER MATCH…FINALLY
ONE STAYS LIT ALLOWING HIM TO STUMBLE TO
A LIGHTBULB HANGING FROM THE CEILING BY A
LONG CORD
ABDUL…. “Damn them….they broke the windows with sonic booms months ago, now they
do it just to keep us awake at night. Damn those Zionists and damn their
American planes”.
Wife.. “Hush your cursing…and anyway, you shouldn’t complain, those poor babies next door are the ones really hurting. They think every sonic boom is the start of more bombing and start crying. Elise says they sleep only fitfully and whimper in their
sleep nearly all night.”
ABDUL …”Yeah, those Zionist are trying to drive our babies crazy but they can’t.
Palestinians are strong. We will outlast them. We’ve lasted 60 years and we’ll keep
outlasting them. We will.”
Wife…. “You say that but…..”
SUDDENLY SHE IS INTERRUPTED BY LOUD INSISTENT
KNOCKING ON THEIR FRONT DOOR …STAGE RIGHT
ABDUL QUICKLY STEPS TO DOOR AND PUTS EAR TO
DOOR WITHOUT OPENING IT…WHISPERING…
ABDUL….”Shush….shush….”
page 2
KNOCKING BECOMES EVEN LOUDER AND FRANTIC…
AHAB… “Let me in…let me in….Quick….It’s me…Ahab…let me….”
ABDUL .QUICKLY OPENS DOOR AND PULLS THE FRANTIC
AHAB INTO THE ROOM ….SLAMS DOOR….
ABDUL…..”What are you doing here? Why so early? It isn’t even light… Who’s after you:”
AHAB “Close the door, close the door…close it…”
ABDUL “It’s closed!” “What’s goin’ on?”
AHAB MOVES TO CENTER OF THE ROOM AND
QUICKLY BEGINS TO SHUCK HIS COAT… SHIRT…
WIFE IS STANDING BESIDE THE UNMADE BED.
GRANDMOTHER IS SITTING IN A ROCKING CHAIR
AND BEGINS SLOW ROCKING….HER ROCKING
IS STEADY, UNCHANGING…STEADY JUST AS
SHE IS THE STEADYING INFLUENCE OF THE
FAMILY SHE REMAINS THE PILLAR OF
STRENGTH DURING THE UNFOLDING TURMOIL…
AHAB “Here” AS HE HANDS HIS COAT…THEN SHIRT TO
ABDUL…
UNDER THE SHIRT IS A BULKY VEST WRAPPED
CLOSELY AROUND AHAB’S CHEST
SHEEEIIIIIITTTTT !!!!! IT’S A BOMB!
AHAB… “Here, help me”.
HE HURRYS TO UNFASTEN THE VEST….
IT COMES OFF ONLY AFTER A STRUGGLE….
HE STARTS TO HAND IT TO ABDUL, WHO’S
APPALLED…NOT SURE WHETHER TO TAKE
IT OR NOT…
ABDUL “No…No…” EVEN AS HE FINALLY TAKES IT AND
HOLDS IT
AS FAR FROM HIS BODY AS HE CAN…..
LIKE THE BOMB IT IS…
ABDUL “It’s not going to go off is it?” PLEADINGLY
AHAB “No” “It won’t go off”… “You have to touch the little blue line to the red one and that will set it off, so be careful they don’t come near each other”…
ABDUL “Damn …damn..damn!.. “Damn!”…..”why give this to me? What the hell is going
on? You trying to kill us all?”.
( (page 3)
AHAB “Don’t worry, it’s a little hard to get the two wires together. It won’t go off unlesss you really mean for it to.”
ABDUL “Don’t worry?” “Don’t worry hell?” “What the hell am I doing with this thing”
HE MAKES EFFORT TO GIVE IT BACK TO AHAB…
BUT AHAB WON’T TAKE IT
AHAB “Hide it quick…I’ve got to run…they’re after me…
HE GLANCES AT THE CEILING….AS WE NOW HEAR
THE SUDDENLY INCREASING SOUND OF A
HELICOPTER’S WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP……
AHAB “Gotta go”…”Gotta run like Jackal on fire”.
AHAB “Hide it and I’ll be back” VOICE TRAILS OFF “if I make it. I’m so sorry but you are the only ones I can trust….I’m so sorry. Please please forgive me…I’m so sorry”.
AHAB LEAVES BY THE DOOR HE ENTERED…
HELICOPTER THUMP THUMP THUMP LOUDER THEN
BEGINS TO RECEED…
ABDUL SETS THE BOMB VEST VERY VERY
CAREFULLY DOWN IN THE MIDDLE
OF THE ROOM.. ABDUL, WIFE. AND ABU MOVE
TO AROUND THE BOMB….BUT AT A RESPCTABLE
DISTANCE…
ABDUL “What the heck?” …….
HE KNOWS IT’S A BOMB…BUT HIS WHAT THE
HECK? IS LIKE WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON
THAT THIS HAS TO HAPPEN???
ABU GETTING EXCITED AND THEN, ALMOST BESIDE
HIMSELF WITH EXCITMENT….
ABU “It’s a bomb dad, a suicide bomb” “a suicide vest bomb”. “Let me see, let me see”
HE ATTEMPTS TO SQUAT DOWN CLOSER TO
BOMB BUT ABDUL (HIS DAD) JERKS HIM BACK
ABDUL “Get back…get back”
HELICOPTER WHUMPING ABATES
ABDUL “Get back” “What am I going to do…????????” …..
ABU “Dad…dad….let’s…let’s…uh….let’s…uh…uh….”…..
ABDUL “I don’t know……….I just don’t know……”????…
LOUD EXPLOSION FROM DIRECTION OF STAGE
RIGHT….PEOPLE SHOUTING IN THE DISTANCE
FAMILY UPSET…UNSURE WHAT TO DO.
ABDUL “I think I know… I think I know….I know…………I
know…” … (page 4)
VERY SAD, THEN DISTRAUGHT….SITS DOWN
HARD ON THE BED…SLUMPS IN SADNESS….
ABU “What??? What?”
ABDUL “The helicopter shot Ahab.”
ALL VISIBLY RESIGNED..NOD IN AGREEMENT
ABDUL “Damn them damn them, damn those Zionists…
THEN FAINTLY…BUT HEARD BY EVERYONE…
ABDUL “Damn me”….
LONG PAUSE…PREGNANT PAUSE
GRANDMOTHER “Now son..don’t curse them…that doesn’t help… AHAB should not have
had a bomb” “Bombs and cursing don’t help. They haven’t…..they never will”
You know Allah teaches peace.”
ABDUL “But Mom they probably just killed AHAB….I’m going to see”.
ABDUL STARTS TOWARD THE DOOR…..BUT
PAUSES WHEN WIFE GRABS HIS ARM..
WIFE “Now don’t go to the crossing gate, just go to the corner. Your’e liable to get shot, you
know how the the soldiers are…they are ready to shoot anyone at any time…and they’ve
been on edge lately”.
ABDUL “They’re on edge all the time. Just look at them a tiny bit too long and you’re lucky
just to be hit with a rifle butt. They beat Ara Akbar to the ground yesterday and broke his
arm. All just because he was a little slow getting his shirt off to show he didn’t have a
bomb under it. And he’s older than Mother.” A PAUSE…AND THEN “Those
damned Zionists wouldn’t let
us through their gate or an ambulance come for him to take him to the hospital. Those
bastards. His sons carried him home in their arms. A man that old will die
without treatment…I don’t know what they can do about that arm. It looked awful,
hanging and flopping…..”.
GRANDMOTHER “Well, that’s what making bombs and setting them off gets you”.
ABDUL “But Mom, we tried turning the other cheek and it gets us nowhere. They still pound us
every day with bombs and bullets and take our land and our water and destroy
our orchards and treat us like prisoners. Every day. Every damned day. We
are prisoners…prisoners in our own land…the whole of Gaza is nothing but a prison”.
“Gaza is nothing but a giant prison”.
“I’m not even a man anymore. I used to be a fisherman but If I try to go out and fish,
those crazy Zionist boats shoot at me. The’ve stopped all our fishing”.
“We can’t even fish off our own shore for being shot at.”
CONTINUES…SICK TO HEART…
“I haven’t had a regular job for 2 years. Only when the Zionist’s let a little flour in,
then I can work at Mahabi’s bakery and that doesn’t happen once a week.” page 5
BITTERLY
“Not even once a week. If Mahibi didn’t let me work and give me extra bread
we’d all starve to death.
AGAIN DETERMIDLY
“But hell Mom, we’re slowling starving to death as it is. Slowly,”
WITH DIMINISHING VOICE,
“slowly, we’re being starved to death.”
“I”m nothing……just nothing……I can’t even be a man to my son….last week the Zionist
bastards took him from me and tied him on the front of their truck as a shield……and
drove through the streets looking for Hamas…….They did that to a kid….My son….My
son…..My only son……used for a shield…..I couldn’t stop them….
Damn them……..damn them…….damn them….damn..damn.damn.
I’m not a man…….I’m nothing….nothing….just a shadow of a man…..No hopes…..No
dreams….no future…no nothing….
I can’t hold my head up like an Arab should….I go outside?….I have to sneak around
next to walls like a rat. like a rat!!!!! Like a damned rat!
LONG PREGNANT SILENCE BROKEN WHEN
WIFE UNDERSTANDS THE EXTREME NEED TO
CHANGE THE SUBJECT
Wife “Hush, hush..I hear the babies next door. They are crying. Poor things,
they haven’t had enough to eat and the bombs are scaring them to death. The
F-16s and helicopters and drones make them think bombs are coming next and they run
at the very first sound to get under a bed and cover themselves with blanket after
blanket. Elise is going crazy trying to take care of them. She’s given up hope
Haraba will ever come home. He’s either dead or locked up forever in one of those secret
Israeli prisons. The children are hungry, scared and have no father….
PAUSE
“It’s awful….so awful…”
LONG PAUSE
Wife ” The poor things cry more than they sleep. I’ve got to go over and help Elise”
WIFE STRUGGLES FOR WORDS
WIFE “I’ve got to…”
ABDUL GETS HIMSELF TOGETHER AFTER HIS
WRENCHING SELF-FLAGELLATION
ABDUL “Let me look out the back door first”.
HE CAREFULLY OPENS THE DOOR, STAGE LEFT..
PEERS OUT …. SIGNALS IT’S OK.
page 6
ABDUL “Stay close to the wall as long as you can”.
WIFE EXITS.
ABDUL TO GRANDMOTHER (HIS MOTHER)
ABDUL “How’s your breathing? I heard you coughing this morning. Have you taken
your digitalis? Your heart pills?”
GRANDMOTHER “I will in just a minute, but first you have to get rid of that bomb. I
won’t have it in our house. We aren’t Hamas and we don’t need any more trouble
than we already have with the Zionists. If they find that bomb here we’ll all be in prison.
ABDUL “No mom, we’d all be dead that’s what we’d be…
“Oh mom…mom… I have to bow and play a sniveling coward when I see a bastard
Zionist soldier.. They make me get on my knees and beg them to let me have your
medicine”.
GRANDMOTHER “My son….my son..” …. ….”my son.”…
SO SAD HERE..
GRANDMOTHER “Well at least you get me medicine. Omar, has heart disease… dropsy,
Just like mine and he can’t get medicine. I’d share with him but I’m not sure if it’s what
he needs.
ABDUL “I’m going to see about AHAB. I’ll be back in 10 minutes. Don’t let Abu leave
the house and damn sure don’t let him near the bomb!!!”
GRANDMOTHER “Wait… Put that thing in here.”
SHE SLOWLY WALKS TO THE CHEST ON
THE BACK WALL OF THE ROOM….OPENS IT
REMOVES WHAT APPEAR TO BE FOLDED
CLOTHES WHICH SHE HOLDS AND MOTIONS
ABDUL TO PUT THE BOMB IN THE CHEST..
HE GINGERLY LIFTS THE BOMB, AND, AS IF
CARRYING……A BOMB…..PUTS IT CAREFULLY
IN THE CHEST….
GRANDMOTHER STARTS TO LAY THE CLOTHES
BACK IN THE CHEST…HE SAYS…HISSES
ACTUALLY,
ABDUL “Don’t dare touch those wires… Don’t let the wires get together”.
ABU GETS IN THE WAY AS HE TRIES TO BE
RIGHT ON TOP OF THE BOMB WATCHING
EVERYTHING VERY INTENTLY
ABDUL GLARES AT ABU AND SAYS
ABDUL “Ok, anyone comes in, don’t dare look at the chest. Look anywhere
but at the chest….I’m going to see about AHAB”
ABDUL EXITS STAGE RIGHT
page 7
ABU “I sure would like to see the bomb again…”..
GRANDMOTHER “No. We need to get rid of it”. “We need to get it out of the house”.
ABU (all excited) “I can take it and leave it at Al Omar’s house. It was bombed last week,
no one lives there. It’s only a couple blocks.”
GRANDMOTHER “No. We’ll wait until your dad gets back and he can take it somewhere.
“We don’t need to be any part of the violence. This violence has got to stop and it will
if we just obey Mohammad’s words about how Muslims must follow the trail of peace.”
ABU “That ain’t gonna happen Grandmother. Peace ain’t gonna happen. The more
we give in to the Zionists the more they bomb and starve us . And just look at what’s
happened to your sister in the West Bank. The Zionists squatters took over her
town last month and destroyed her house and most of the others and are building
big white apartments on her hilltop. And now she lives in a tent. She didn’t even
have time to get her furniture out of the house. They were only able to get their
pictures and a few clothes before those armoured American Caterpeller’s leveled it. She
couldn’t save anything….nothing…not a thing…. only her pictures…. “
“How the hell can she hang pictures in a tent?” “The squatters uprooted her olive trees and she has no way to live other than to work as a maid for the squatters.”
“A slave really. That’s all she is…not a maid….but a slave…
The squatters take over all the good land and the water in the West
Bank. They build on the hilltops just so they can look down and spy on their slaves. They have their own private roads the slaves can’t use.” “They are bastards.
“We try peace and they do desolation”. “Peace ain’t gonna happen Grandmother.”
GRANDMOTHER “Watch your mouth Grandson. Cursing doesn’t help….(changes tone) “We have to try to make peace…The Koran tells us to make peace in the world,”
JUST THEN WATER STARTS RUNNING IN A SINK ON THE
BACK WALL NEXT TO THE CHEST
GRANDMOTHER (excited as much as an old woman can manage) “Hurry…..hurry. Get
the pots and pans and get the water while it’s running.”
ABU (Irritated) “I know the routine Grandmother. I know it”… (as he rushes to get pans
from under and near the sink to fill them with water)
GRANDMOTHER “Hurry. Hurry.”
ABU (very irritated) “I know GRANDMOTHER!”
GRANDMOTHER “Now grandson…you shouldn’t….”
ABU “I’m sorry Grandmother I didn’t mean to talk to you like that….It’s just….. “
THIS PLAY IS A CONTINUOUS DOWNER….THE
page 8
TONE IS RELENTLESSLY DEPRESSING….IT
SHOULD BE INTERRUPTED BY OCCASIONAL
LEVITY…..BUT LEVITY IS NOT MY LONG SUIT
….IT ISN’T EVEN MY SHORT SUIT…NOR IS
SPELLING….SO…IF POSSIBLE..HAVE ABU
STUMBLE WITH THE UTENSILS AND FLOP
A BIG CRASH….MAYBE A POT CAN BE MADE
TO ROLL TO FRONT OF STAGE AND OFF
INTO THE FRONT ROWS…. A LIGHTER
MOMENT IF YOU PLEASE….
GRANDMOTHER “I know you don’t mean to be short with me…. it’s this being penned in by fear and hard Israelis that has us biting at each other. It turns husband against wife, wife against husband and even grandmothers against grandsons. (thoughtfully)
Youknow? The fear of bombing is almost as bad as the bombing.”
ABU FILLS POT AFTER POT AFTER PAN
BACK DOOR BURSTS OPEN…WIFE
RUSHES IN.
WIFE “The water’s on! Get the pots and…”
ABU “What does it look like I’m doing? Washing dishes?”
WIFE “That’ll be the day…you don’t do anything to keep the house clean And don’t sass me
young man…”
ABU “Well….I…….”
GRANDMOTHER…. “Stop…stop….quit fighting…. the water’s on. You should be
celebrating instead of fighting.. We’ve been fighting like scorpions in a bottle…
We need to practice being better Muslims.”
ABU “Muslims my ass….. Oh….I’m sorry Grandmother….so sorry… It’s just so….”
SILENCE REIGNS WHILE ABU AND HIS MOTHER FILL POTS AND PANS…
WIFE (thoughtfully) “It will be so nice to wash my hair”.
ABU “Momma…why is washing your hair so important? I can go weeks at a time
without a bath and it doesn’t bother me.”
WIFE “Well, nothing makes a woman feel cleaner than when she has just washed her hair.
It makes a woman feel fresh and your hair smells fresh and it is soft
and manageable.”
ABU “Never mind momma. You can have my bathwater and wash your hair with it and
I won’t ever have to take a bath.
SERIES OF KNOCKS ON FRONT DOOR
SECRET PATTERN TO KNOCKS FAMILY
USES.
ABDUL ENTERS
ABDUL “They killed him”. …… “They killed him”. “They killed him over and over again.”
“The helicopter machingunned him and then circled back and machinegunned him again
and circled back and machinegunned ….(groping for words) …..butchered…the……the.
. .. that….was left….”.(as he clinches his fist.) (he collapses…inwardly…not on page 9
the floor. ..but collapses inwardly)
ABDUL “They killed him”. (then in a low voice, a confeesion…slowly) “I killed him”.
DEAD SILENCE IN THE ROOM AS EVERYONE
HEARD HIM….
FINALLY
ABDUL “Yes. I killed him”.
GRANDMOTHER (quickly) “No, don’t even say that…. don’t say it….”.
ABDUL “I killed him”…..(long pause) “Mahabi has me going to the crossing gate every day to see if flour will be allowed through that day…..and…..(slowly)…one of the Israli
soldiers has been meeting me and giving me digitalis for your heart”. “In return…..
(slowly) I have to give him “”””information””””…(that word, “information” makes him sick
to say it)……
ABDUL (continues) “So the bastard wanted to know of anyone that did metal or sheet metal
work. They are looking for whomever is making the damned rockets being fired at your
old home town, Sderot.
“Yes I did, I told the Jews AHAB worked with sheet metal, building ductwork.
Well, ….they started shadowing him with drones and you know how he can’t hear,
well, they followed him and ,,,,well…. they somehow found out he was making bombs.
..not rockets”
(sighs then silence) “They killed him……….. and I killed him”.
GRANDMOTHER “I sort’a knew that’s how you got my medicine, but didn’t ask. Only a
few diabetics get insulin and only a few people with dropsy get heart medicine.
Everyone knows something isn’t right there…. Why don’t the
Israelis just give us all, all of us the medicine we need?”
“And another thing….my old home town was not Sderot. My old home town
was Najd…..Najd was destroyed by the Jews in 48 and that,,,that abortion.
..that Sderot.. was built on the ruins of my Najd….
ABDUL “Well.. that’s how the damned Zionists get collaborators….. They get them by giving drugs to collaborators….only to collaborators… That’s it….I’m a collaborator.
“But,,,but,,, I just didn’t think Ahab was doing anything wrong and thought it was a false
tip. I was wrong. ………….I killed Ahab.”
“I just now went to the crossing gate and told them I wouldn’t help them anymore….
,,,,they told me I wouldn’t be getting medicine anymore……..and told me they
had videotaped me giving up Ahab and were going to give it to Hamas”.
“Hamas kills collaborators…… No. trial. Just finds them and executes them…
. I knew the risk…” ……… “I’m a dead man”.
“But I just can’t wait for Hamas to come kill me… I’ve got to do something……something
anything….just can’t wait here for Hamas to knock….
SUDDENLY HAS IDEA….
ABDUL “There is a weakness at the gate. There is a loose gap in the fence page 10
where the electrical wiring meets the barb wire. the guards don’t know about the gap
and can’t see it from their gun post. I can take the bomb and slip into the
back of the soldiers break room and blow the whole gate to where it belongs….STRAIGHT
TO HELL AND BACK!!!!!!
“I’ll bomb the bastards..”
GRANDMOTHER GOES TO THE CHEST AND SITS ON IT
GRANDMOTHER “No….no son of mine will violate the Koran and shame Allah with
such blasphemy. I will not permit it.”
ABDUL (pleadingly) “But Momma?”
LONG PAUSE AS HE TRIES TO FIGURE WHAT
TO DO, WHEN THERE IS OBVIOUSLY
NOTHING HE CAN DO
“I can try to get to Egypt”…. “No…never get there”. “No way”… “To the West
Bank?” “No….no way”..
WIFE “We can hide you here”.
ABDUL “No. They;’ll come search until they find me…and then kill us all”.
WIFE “Someone will hide you.”
ABDUL “And get killed when they find me?”
ABU (excitedly) “I’ll go to Egypt with you”.
ABDUL “Oh I wish that could happen but no…no..you have to stay here and take care of your
mother and grandmother..”
ABDUL (desparingly) “I’ve got to go….Hamas will come…”
EVERYONE KNOWS THIS IS TRUE. SON
AND HIS WIFE AND ABU HUG, KISS AND
IT’S SO PAINFUL….BEFORE LEAVING, ABDUL
GOES TO GRANDMOTHER, GETS ON
KNEES AND WITH HEAD ON HER LAP
STAYS VERY STILL AND QUIET….NO
SOBBING NO CRYING…JUST HEAD ON
HER LAP…
GETS UP….ONE LAST HUG FOR WIFE
AND ABU
ABDUL (so sadly to ABU) “I wanted to teach you to fish….”.
HE ALMOST RUNS OUT THE DOOR
WIFE GOES OVER, LAYS ON BED ON BACK…
ONE ARM FOLDED OVER HER EYES..,…
NO SOBBING…NO CRYING….JUST LAYS
VERY STILL….
ABU (halfheartedly) “Maybe I could go catch him”.
page 11
GRANDMOTHER “No…no he’s gone… he’ll make it to Egypt (even as she knows better)”
GRANDMOTHER (distracted…trying to change subject or do something…anything…)
“Did we get enough water?”
NO ONE ANSWERS
WIFE (sits up in bed, determidly…to no one in particular) “I’m gonna go to that gap in
the fence and bomb the shit out of those bastards to where their God Damned
King David couldn’t find all the pieces”.
GRANDMOTHER “No, no you’re not….(sits even more firmly on chest)… “We must get rid of this beast of a bomb… It will be the death of all of us yet”.
WIFE (strides to door) “I’m not gonna take any more of this”. (goes out door and slams it)
ABU…. “Where has she gone grandmother?” “What is she gonna do?”
SHORT PAUSE AS ABU PACES BACK AND FORTH
FOR A BIT AND THEN
ABU… “I’m gonna see….” (runs to door and out)
AS GM SHOUTS AFTER HIM
GRANDMOTHER. “No! No! Stay here…come back..(voice trailing off)..stay here…comeback”.
AT THIS POINT THE LIGHTS GO OFF FOR A BIT
SIGNIFYING PASSAGE OF TIME
LIGHTS BACK UP
ABU BURST THROUGH DOOR AND HERE THE
YOUNG MAN PLAYING ABU EARNS HIS EMMY
OR OSCAR OR BOTH
ABU…. “Grandmother…grandmother….they killed mommy … they killed her. the tank ran her over….the God damned Goliath tank ran her over”
ABU ‘I’m gonna kill the bastards…. I’m gonna blow that tank to hell and back. I can lay down in front of it, let it run over me and blow it up under it’s belly…I can do it”.
ABU GOES TO GRANDMOTHER ON THE CHEST
AND THEY GET INTO A PUSH FIGHT
ABU “I will not….must not…can’t…will not..(running out of words..stumbles verbally)….I..
can’t….I…..(trails off)…”
FINALLY ABU SEEMS TO COME TO SOME
SORT OF COMPROMISE WITHIN HIMSELF.
ABU “I’m going…to……….”
HE GOES TO A CORNER, SEARCHES A BIT,
COMES UP WITH A SLINGSHOT…A
page 12
SLINGSHOT OF BIBLICAL TIMES… 2 LONG
LEATHER STARPS JOINED TOGETHER WITH
A WIDER LEATHER POUCH.
STRAIGHTENS IT, SMOOTHS IT, MESSES
WITH IT A BIT….SLINGS IT AROUND HIS
HEAD SEVERAL TIMES….IS SATISFIED.
ABU “I have 5 round rocks and I’ll do my best to kill those bastards”. (goes back to the
corner and quickly finds the rocks)
SWINGS STRAPS AROUND A COUPLE
MORE TIMES, APPEARS SATISIFIED
ABU “I’m leaving”….(and before GM can do anything, he’s out the door but shuts it quietly)
THE LIGHTS ARE AGAIN BROUGHT DOWN
TO SIGNIFY THE PASSAGE OF TIME…
WHEN THEY COME UP
GRANDMOTHER IS STILL ON CHEST
THEN, IN A BIT, THERE IS A TENTATIVE
KNOCKING ON THE DOOR…SHE IS
HESITANT AND WORRIED BUT BEFORE SHE CAN GET TO THE DOOR IT OPENS…A MAN WE HAVEN’T SEEN BEFORE, A PALESTINIAN, ` SURPRISED…ENTERSSLOWLY,APOLOGETICALLYRELUCTANTLY..
…CARRYING A BLACK PLASTIC BAG
WITH 10 LBS OF WET TOWELS IN IT……BUT IT AIN’T WET TOWELS.
THE PALASTINIAN…. “I didn’t think anyone was…. here…. “I”…..”I”……….”I”…(and trails off…unable to speak for a bit)….
“Abu… he…..well… he …uh…..he broke the only thing that
could be broken on a Goliath tank… with a rock…he broke the searchlight…..
LONG PAUSE….TERRIBLE NEWS…
WRENCHING NEWS…
THE PALESTINIAN “They shot him……………………shot him with their cannon”
AWKWARD AWFULLNESS HERE…
THE PALESTINIAN “I’m so sorry…I had no idea anyone was here.”
HE CAREFULLY SETS BAG ON FLOOR
THE PALESTINIAN “I thought the house was empty and the bulldozer is coming….
coming soon… to tear the house down… you know they do that…bulldoze
a house where anyone lives that causes them trouble….. Abu caused trouble..
……he broke a searchlight…..(faintly) with a rock.”
“I brought Abu back, cause I knew he’d want to be …to be..buried in…his home.”
“The bulldozer is coming…..soon…”
THE PALESTINIAN QUICKLY LEAVES…RUNS AWAY, ACTUALLY….
GRANDMOTHER STANDS QUIETLY…SLOWLY
page 13
SHE SAGS…DROOPS
GRANDMOTHER FINALLY PULLS HERSELF
TOGETHER…WALKS SLOWLY TO THE CHEST
…STANDS THERE….AND WITH BACK TO
AUDIENCE, OPENS CHEST, REMOVES THE
BOMB, SETS IT ON THE CHEST…UNAFRAID
OF IT…THEN UNDRESSES DOWN TO WAIST
…STRAPS BOMB ON…PUTS CLOTHES BACK
ON…WALKS TO THE PITEFUL SACK IN
THE MIDDLE OF THE FLOOR….
GRANDMOTHER (with passion she addresses the sack)
“Grandsons are loved,,,,, even if they don’t bathe”.
SHE TURNS, STRIDES TO THE DOOR,
LOOKS BACK FOR JUST A MOMENT,
EXITS AND CLOSES DOOR SOFTLY…
I COULD ONLY WRITE THIS….IT’S YOURS TO MAKE IT A SUCCESS….
WHATEVER GOD THERE IS, PLEASE HELP GAZANS
AND PALESTINIANS EVERYWHERE.
