Everybody’s an expert in other people’s lives.
In the dramatic scene from the one-act eplay God’s Green Earth, Mooney has done something bad as revenge on behalf of his sister Darby.
MOONEY: I don’t blame you none.
DARBY: Blame me?
MOONEY: For going out into the world.
DARBY: Oh, that.
MOONEY: I’m not mad at you.
DARBY: What gives you the right to think you could be mad at me?
MOONEY: No, not mad. I’m not — I don’t look at you differently.
DARBY: I should hope not.
MOONEY: Sometimes we do things cause we have no choice, right?
DARBY: You’re not going to start preachin’ at me now.
MOONEY: No, no, I ain’t no preacher.
DARBY: I’ve dealt with enough sermons. It’s all anybody ever does. Preach! Everybody’s an expert in other people’s lives. Least of all their own!
It’s always easier to look on the outside in than to be on the inside of things. That’s why I always try to look at who I am from a distance an’ try to gain some kind of perspective, advising myself as if I’m not myself… it never works.
There’s no breaking free of myself; no matter how hard I try, the b’tch sticks to me like a mouse trapped on glue.
Pathetic! Wretched! Rancid life!
I’ve been stained, Mooney. And when a person’s been stained, they’ll never be clean again.
…I will never be…again.
Darby goes to a mirror and looks at herself.
She laughs hysterically.
Would you look at that? My face! (laughs) Looks like I just competed. Surely, I lost.
MOONEY: Are you gonna be alright, sis?
DARBY: My cheek is just swollen, is all. It’s biology, really. Inflammation occurs when the body tries to protect itself.
MOONEY: I want to protect you.
DARBY: You? (smiles) You’re much too scrawny to protect me.
MOONEY: Well, I’m still growing up, and I aim to fill out as I come of age.
DARBY: Fill out?
MOONEY: I aim to get stocky.
DARBY: Stocky? (laughs) You look like the thinner side of a broomstick!
MOONEY: Why you always laughing at me?
DARBY: Come on now, don’t get all offensive. Maybe one day you will get big and strong and…
We hear the sound of someone moaning.
Darby looks at Mooney concerned.
Mooney looks out the bedroom doorway.
In comes Dean, their father.
Dean is crawling on the floor with a bloodied head.
He tries to grab at Mooney’s leg, but Mooney violently shoves him off.
Dean crawls to the center of the room and passes out on his stomach.
What the hell happened to him?
MOONEY: He’ll be alright.
DARBY: What did you do?
MOONEY: He had it comin’.
DARBY: WHAT DID YOU DO?!
MOONEY: He, he, he –
DARBY: SAY IT!!
- To read the full one-act ePlay, find purchase link below:
In the one act eplay God’s Green Earth, Darby and her brother try to come to terms with the loss of their father and the life they wish to have. 1 Woman, 2 Men. Drama.
