Wandering Companion
Teaser: Corinne Ashland just hit puberty. She has started the struggle for identity, but at the same time the struggle for her own faith in God. Her parents are recent to separate and starting counseling when without warning her father dies in an accident. She is bitter towards God.
Her best friend, Nathaniel Johnston, doesn't understand her predicament, but tried to comfort her, reassure her, and attempt to give her reason to have faith in God. It does little help.
Joshua Ashland is Corinne's older brother. He's a sophomore in college and he's a biology major striving to get into medical school.
Characters:
Corinne Ashland, 13 - Main character, Freshman in high school, female
Joshua Ashland, 20 - Sophomore in college, pre-med, male
Nathaniel Johnston, 15 - best friend, Sophomore in high school, male
Mom Ashland, 47, female
Props:
Spaghetti
A back-pack
A kitchen with a table, 3-4 chairs, and an accessible fork
A bedroom with a bed and a bedside lamp
Pencil
Homework
Paper
Car keys & a purse
Stage Set: the Ashland family kitchen and Corinne’s bedroom
[Scene 1]
[Corinne sits at the table, homework spread out. She's frustrated to no end, throwing pencils and paper in every direction. She looks tired and naturally, annoyed]
[Sound of the front door opening]
Joshua: [yelled from afar] Anyone home?
Corinne: Kitchen! [throws a pencil at the door where Joshua enters a few seconds later]
Joshua: Hey, Cat. Where's mom?
Corinne: [scowls] Not sure. She's never home anymore.
Joshua: [taken a-back] Wow, okay, what's wrong Corinne?
Corinne: Nothing, okay. [glances back to her homework and sighs.]
Joshua: Not 'nothing'. Want to talk about it? [Josh sits across the table from Corinne, hands held out for the taking.]
[Corinne stares and looks away. She's not in the mood for a sibling chat]
Joshua: I hardly come home, and this is the reception I get. [drops his hands onto the table] Thanks Cat.
Corinne: [sad] I'm sorry. I just don't get this biology and mom doesn't show up at home until way past midnight most nights. I don't think she'd handling dad's death very well.
Joshua: [sighs] I figured. [perks up] Wait, you don't get the biology? I'm a Bio major. What are you doing not asking me? [some teasing influence in his voice]
Corinne: [smiles] Who said I wasn't going to ask you? Dr. J, could you help with my biology?
Joshua: [clears his throat] I'm a very busy man running a hospital. But I think I can make time to help my little sister with her important biology. She has to get into nursing school somehow. [wink]
[Corinne laughs as the kitchen door opens. Nathaniel Johnston walks in, back-pack in hand, a plate of spaghetti in the other]
Nathaniel: Brought you dinner, Corinne. [sets down back-pack and notices Joshua] Oh, Josh. Hey.
Corinne: He was going to help me with biology. You got any problems too difficult for that brain? [second thought] Thanks for the spaghetti.
Nathaniel: You would think not, but I got a few. You'll help, Josh? [sets the plate by Corinne, grabs a fork from a drawer, and sits down at a chair.]
Joshua: No prob. I am the smarty in biology.
[The three start work on the biology as Corinne dives into her spaghetti]
Nathaniel: Not going to pray first?
[Corinne stops mid bite, eyes narrowed]
Joshua: What?
Corinne: [finishes bite] God's got two sides. Good and bad. I’m the same. He's on my bad side right now.
[Joshua and Nathaniel both cough simultaneously, sounding like they both are saying "what?"]
Corinne: You two are so bad at covering up your messages.
Joshua: Corinne, would you care to explain what is going on? This is not like you.
[Corinne shifts in her seat. She's embarrassed and nervous about what they noticed.]
Nathaniel: Corinne, why are you mad at God?
Corinne: [irritated] Oh, come on. I can't have some resentment to some thing up in the sky that takes my father away? It's not easy when your mother doesn't care about you and your father is dead.
Joshua: [carefully treading water] Oh, Corinne. I know it's not easy with dad gone. I'm sorry I haven't been here like I should. College is no excuse. And I don't know what to say about mom. But you don't have much of a reason to be mad at God. He didn't take dad away. That was the Devil. I understand why you would blame God - it seems like the best place to put that blame. But Cat, if you want to talk, we can. I-
Corinne: [she stands as she says this] For some reason, I'm not allowed to handle grief in my own way. [she exits the kitchen and is heard running up the stairs. A door is heard slamming. Probably her bedroom door.]
Nathaniel: Oh boy.
Joshua: I offended her. [sigh] Nat, how do we get her mind unwrapped from around that tree?
Nathaniel: [ponders] Let her see the truth?
[The two sit and chat for a few more minutes before Nathaniel leaves and Joshua heads upstairs to his bedroom.]
[Scene 2]
[Corinne is asleep in her room when Mom Ashland comes home. After a short chat with Joshua downstairs, Mom heads upstairs to her daughters bedroom. She knocks, seeking a talk.]
Corinne: [sleepy] Yes?
Mom: Honey, can I come in?
Corinne: [groan] Go away.
Mom: [opens door and walks in away. She gently sits on the edge of the bed and turns on the bedside lamp] Honey, we should talk.
Corinne: Not now, not tonight.
Mom: Yes, now; yes, tonight. Joshua just talked with me. He’s worried about you.
Corinne: [mumbles] Speak for yourself.
Mom: Corinne, please, just hear me out. I don’t want you to feel guilty about what happened to your father. I-
Corinne: I don’t feel guilty. That was easy. Bye.
Mom: That is not what I mean, and you know it. I don’t want you to go thinking this was all in God’s master plan either. It wasn’t His plan. The Devil made it happen.
Corinne: Josh said the same thing. But, mom, just… listen. All my life you and dad taught me about God. We went to church, we sang songs, and we listened to stories, and had family worship. But that all faded when you and dad started fighting. What was I supposed to think? That God was real? You know I have never been baptized. I never committed to this being of higher form. I just acted along with the family. What makes now any different? Dad’s gone, and the family is in pieces. You don’t come home anymore, I’m hanging out with Nathaniel more than ever, and Joshua is wrapped up in his dreams to own St. Jude. I’m just a kid. I don’t know who I am or who I believe in. And dad dying doesn’t help how I feel or where my heart is going.
Mom: [slightly stunned] Oh, Corinne. Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?
Corinne: [irritated] You didn’t ask, nor did you notice.
Mom: Honey –
Corinne: Seriously, I’m tired. Can we discuss this later?
Mom: [slightly offended] Well, I guess, Honey.
Corinne: Good night.
[Scene fades]
[Scene 3]
[Corinne and Josh sit at the kitchen table, chatting about baseball. Mom walks in, the car keys in one hand, her purse in the other. Nathaniel enters in from the outside through the kitchen door at the same time as Mom enters.]
Josh: A-Rod is good, but really, Boston?
Corinne: Chicago, not Boston. Don’t you remember our conversation last month, during the first Cubs versus Mariners game?
Mom: Baseball again? What am I ever going to do with you two?
Nathaniel: At least it’s not about bacteria and surgery again. I’ll never live that conversation down.
Corinne: Gotta love hospitals and science to dig it, that’s all I’m saying.
Mom: Josh, could you grab the laundry for me? I’m heading out to show a house this morning, and I won’t be here when it ends.
Josh: Sure, Mom.
Mom: [leans down and kisses both Josh and Corinne’s foreheads] see you two later. And Corinne [stops on her way out of the kitchen]
Corinne: Yeah?
Mom: We’re talking tonight, okay?
Corinne: [sighs] Sure.
[Mom exits scene while Nathaniel sits at the table]
Nathaniel: Corinne, can we talk? Us three, as a group?
Corinne: What, is everyone going to gang up on me?
Josh: We’re not ganging up on you. We care.
Corinne: [snorts] Care. What a word.
Nathaniel: Corinne, we’re worried. Honestly, blaming God isn’t going to make things better.
Corinne: Thanks. But it’s the best I have. [She stands]
Josh: Okay, hold on. No one is leaving. We just want to talk about this, okay?
Corinne: [scowls] Fine. [Sits]
Nathaniel: I don’t know how you feel, but I do know there can be resentment toward God. And it’s not unhealthy. We all go through a period of transition. But this is odd, Corinne. You’ve never acted like this.
Corinne: Do I have to have before?
Josh: No. [Looks over at Nathaniel] I do know how you feel. And I believe God has a plan. Regardless that dad is gone. I’m sad he’s gone, but I have a life ahead of me, with God leading me. But what about you, Corinne? Is there nothing in you to let God use you, to understand him? To give him the hurt, the pain?
Corinne: You think I’m just the perfect little Christian, don’t you? That I understood everything going on in Sunday school on any given Sunday? That I accepted Christ, right? [Pauses, but doesn’t wait for them to speak] Well, you’re wrong. I never understood him, okay. I wasn’t sure I wanted to accept this higher being. I’ve got enough problems as it is. And taking dad was NOT on my list of acceptance factors. You know, I didn’t want to be in this position. But I guess that’s where I ended up when mom and dad separated, and out of the blue my father leaves us.
Josh: Wow, wow. Okay. I can tell there has been a lot of thought put into this, but –
Corinne: You’re just like mom. Didn’t ask, and now you’re all pushy about it. You must be related. [Stands again, and heads for the living room]
Josh: Corinne, hold on.
Corinne: [Stops her forward motion. And just stand there, unimpressed] Yes?
Nathaniel: What don’t you get about God?
Corinne: Everything.
Josh: Can we help you understand him?
Corinne: [Shrugs] Maybe it’s just too late to understand.
Josh: It’s never too late. This is what mom wants to talk about tonight, is it not?
Corinne: I thought you already knew that?
Nathaniel: You’re brother is not God himself.
Corinne: [snort] I would know that.
Josh: I can’t read mom’s mind, no. But it’s a wild guess. Mom wants to talk about this, okay then. Why don’t we get a head start and talk about it now? So that in the end, you have a better picture of God, and you can decide. The bitterness won’t end Corinne. It’ll fester and grow. You honestly don’t want that, do you? What about dad? How will you remember him? The good or the bad? The beginning or the end?
Corinne: [Is silent for a time then finally says] I guess we should talk about it…
Nathaniel: That’s what we’d like to hear. Come back and sit. Okay?
Corinne: [nods] Sure.
[Scene fads]
