some play by melvin and adnaan (it sux)

Theme: Examination of how a slight difference in otherwise similar backgrounds can result in drastic differences in the later lives of two people.

Characters: Adnaan
Melvin
Alfredo
Javier

Scene: Living room in a tiny shack in a poor estate. Included in the setting is a table that is located near a window.

Adnaan: Yo Melvin. Have you read about the teenage dude who committed suicide or not?

Melvin: The teenage student that jumped to his death because of relationship problems is it?

Adnaan: Ya! That one! Crazy man, take his own life because his girlfriend dump him.

Melvin: Teenagers nowadays. But can you imagine if that girl hadn’t dumped him? He probably would still be alive today.

Adnaan: True true. Waa! Just one detail like that can mean life or death. One single moment.

Melvin: I dunno about you but I think it’s kinda freaky how just a single incident like that can change a person’s life. A single moment, detail.

Adnaan: Ahh! Cut the rubbish la! We’ve got a play to act out. Hurry la!

(Scene starts with Alfredo seated at table reading through some letters)

Alfredo: (Gets up abruptly with a letter in hand) Why? Why doesn’t he give up? For weeks now he has been sending his letters and for weeks I have thrown out every single one of them. Yet still they come. The letters! Why don’t they stop coming? Why does he still persevere? Does he think that I will just relent? That my heart will suddenly soften and I will give in? Because I shall not! For almost fourteen years I have slogged my guts out, working day and night to pay for her to have an education. Since my parents passed away, I have looked after her, and look after her well I have and I shall. She is much too young to have a lover, much less one such as he!

Alfredo: (reading from the letter) ‘My heart melts when I see you’, he says. What is his heart made from butter? And there is more! ‘You are my light, my day brightens when you are near’ What, is a lout like him suddenly Romeo? Next he will be coming at night and kneeling outside the house ‘Juliet where art thou’ he will sing too! No! My sister shall not end up with one such as him, she will marry a rich man and she will escape from this poverty. I will not let her ruin her future. I will not let her go with one such as he! So he should give up! This heart of mine is too scarred and I will not have her experience the pain that I have felt since the day of that crash. (voice starts to drift) I will not. Cannot.

Alfredo: (sinks back down onto the chair, it is as if the strength has left him) I must be strong on this! I do this for her sake! Hers! (sits slightly slumped looking out of window)

Enter ???

(Javier appears through the window, he is slinking around outside the shack and trying to see into the window))

Alfredo: (finds new strength on seeing him) There he is! Again he comes to linger around outside our house, trying to get a glimpse of her! The sight of him boils my blood! What shall I do? Should I confront him? I must be strong! And firm! He must know that he cannot just come and try and disrupt my sister’s life! Yes! He must! (tears up the letter in his hand)

(Alfredo storms out of the shack and approaches ???)

Alfredo: You!

(scene freezes for awhile)

Adnaan: Waa! This Alfredo guy damn shiong man! Wanna fight ah!

Melvin: Ya! This guy like abit crazy! Talk to himself, have mood swings. Scary man.

Adnaan: Hmmm. I wonder what Javier must be thinking. If I were he, I wouldn’t dare to go for a chick with a bro like that.

Melvin: That’s why you are still single la! Ay but I agree man; it sure would be interesting to see what Javier must be thinking.

(returns to freeze frame of previous scene)

(scene rewinds)

(Alfredo is sitting on the chair; Javier is outside of the window)

Javier: There he is…so good-looking, so full of charisma. Can’t stop thinking about him, since the day he helped me at the coffee shop. Those bullies will never bug me again. God took mom and dad away from me, but He has given me Alfredo. The way he walks and looks, just like dad, and the way he talks reminds me of mom. How I long to be in his arms again. But wait, will he understand? And that little girl who is always with him, who does she think she is? Alfredo is all mine! We now go to the same laundry, the same barber, we wear the same shoes, and I even bought his brand of underwear. Oh the weird feelings he sends down my spine, the joy of seeing him, being near him, but the fear of approaching him. Just so scared to talk to him, tell him my feelings, or even jus a “hi”. I wrote him letters, but I got no reply…


Javier: I keep standing here, waiting for him to come by the window. He seems to be a bit more playful today, oh where are you Alfredo? Oh there he is, and he is reading the letters! OH MY! OH MY! THIS IS SO EXCITING! I wonder what he is thinking…OH NO! He jus saw me! Should I wave? Oh dear where did he go? Oh he is coming this way! OH MY GOD!

Javier: Oh Hi Alfredo, how are you?

Alfredo: How am I! Wait, how do you even know my name you creep? Why do you come here everyday?

Javier: Oh so you do see me…I come here to see you…

Alfredo: Oh please cut the crap ok, the letters, coming here so often, always following me around… what are you trying to do? Get to my sister thru me!

Javier: No no no, its not your sister, you got it all wrong. Its…

Alfredo: Now you lie to me!


*******************

Melvin: Ay Adnaan. That’s like damn déjà vu man. Its like we were just talking about that boy and how a little detail could change his life and then…

Adnaan: Ya! I thought so too! I mean though its two different cases, but yet they share like a common thread. Don’t you think that Alfredo’s and Javier’s past are very similar, just that one had a sibling and the other didn’t?

Melvin: Yes! That’s exactly what I was thinking, and just because of that one small detail both of them ended up so differently.

Adnaan: Oh boy! Maybe if Alfredo didn’t have a sibling to add purpose and love to his life, he might perhaps have ended up like Javier, confused and stuff.

Melvin: And if Javier had experienced more love and perhaps had something for him to focus on in life then maybe he would have been like Alfredo?

Adnaan: Aiya! Enough la! My brain is damn confused now. Let’s just clear up and go home.

Melvin: Set ah