You’d be too busy selling everything to survive.
In the dramatic scene from one-act play Of Distance Run, Clark confronts his brother about sharing the inheritance their father left behind.
Clark and Pedro sit on chairs facing the backyard where a gravestone rests.
They drink beer.
CLARK: I can’t quite get my head around it.
PEDRO: ‘Round what?
CLARK: Don’t you think it odd, to say the least, that Roger wanted to be buried in his own backyard?
PEDRO: He was happy here.
CLARK: I can’t imagine him ever being happy.
PEDRO: He had his good days.
CLARK: Hell, we all have our good days, but happy—that’s a rare entity, especially when it comes to The Dodger.
PEDRO: Why’d you always call him that?
CLARK: Cause our father dodged life…that’s why.
Clark gets up and walks over to the gravestone.
(He reads the gravestone.) Roger L. Dudson. What’s the L stand for?
PEDRO: Lemuel.
CLARK: Are you sh’ttin’ me? His middle name was Lemuel?
PEDRO: After our great-grandfather, I was told.
CLARK: I never knew that.
PEDRO: There’s a lot you don’t know.
Clark pees on the gravestone.
CLARK: I always told this son of a b’tch that whenever he kicked the bucket, I was gonna piss on his grave. There you have it.
Clark zips up.
Pedro glares at him.
PEDRO: And the only reason why I won’t batter you for it is because I know you’re mentally damaged.
CLARK: What are you so angry about?
PEDRO: I need you to leave.
CLARK: Leave?
PEDRO: You need to go.
CLARK: For taking a piss?
PEDRO: For coming here, interrupting our lives, thinking you got a say in anything!
CLARK: Yeah?
PEDRO: Leave!
CLARK: Got the house, got the land, got the truck..what else are you snatching away from me?
PEDRO: Clark, you need to—
CLARK: Where’s my inheritance? HALF IS MINE! I’m the older brother, regardless and by law half belongs to me.
PEDRO: Dad made a will and entrusted me with his estate and assets.
CLARK: Bullsh’t.
PEDRO: I already showed you the documents.
CLARK: Bullsh’t.
PEDRO: You were in the room when the lawyer went over everything with us.
CLARK: What a crock of horsesh’t!
PEDRO: Those are the facts.
CLARK: What about being a real brother and handing me half?
PEDRO: That’s not what Dad wanted.
CLARK: But I’m your brother. If I were given what you were given, I’d have given over half of what was given to me, so…
PEDRO: No, you wouldn’t.
CLARK: Hell yeah, I would.
PEDRO: You wouldn’t give me a damn thing, and that’s the truth. You’d be too busy selling everything to survive.
CLAR: Give me half.
PEDRO: Why should I?
CLARK: Decency.
PEDRO: You’re wrong.
CLARK: And you’re immoral.
PEDRO: What would you do if I gave you half? Huh?
CLARK: I’d build me a house.
PEDRO (laughs): No, you wouldn’t.
CLARK: I’d build me a house and live in it.
PEDRO: You’d drink your inheritance away. Anything you’ve ever been given has been guzzled down your windpipes. I’ll die first before I hand anything over.
CLARK: Owe I ain’t sorry about nothing, not a goddamn thing, you hear? You don’t even look like him!
PEDRO: It don’t matter!
CLARK: I’m the spittin’ image of him!
PEDRO: That’s not how you earn inheritance.
CLARK: You say EARN?
PEDRO: That’s right.
CLARK: A son shouldn’t have to earn inheritance. He should be granted inheritance. Those are my blood rights. I am the next of kin after our old man. Me!
PEDRO: You didn’t do a damn thing for him his entire life other than torment him whenever you had a free minute.
CLARK: Better than sucking up to him cause you were always too afraid to stand up for what was right.
PEDRO: Afraid of what?
CLARK: You let him pave you down and smooth you out. I refused. I wasn’t going to allow him or anyone to make me fit into some box. You don’t have the right solar plexus.
PEDRO: Solar who?
CLARK: The guts, the stamina, the WILLPOWER to push back that son of a b’tch. You’re meek.
PEDRO: I’m mature. And I loved the guy and spent time with him. And yeah, when he got sick I stayed by his side; I never abandoned him like you. He leaned on me, and I was there…where were you, Clark?
- To read the full one-act ePlay, find purchase link below:
In the one-act eplay Of Distance Run, Clark and Pedro bury their father, but only one of them receive an inheritance. 2 men. Drama/Family drama.
