Cinnamon Raisin Bread
__________________________

A comic sketch

by 

Jeff Barker

								321 Albany NE
								Orange City, IA  51041
								(712) 737-8090
								barker@nwciowa.edu

				Royalty and Rights

To obtain rights to produce this play and for a royalty quote, send a request to one of the following addresses: 

Mail:		Jeff Barker
321 Albany NE
Orange City, IA 51041

E-mail:		barker@nwciowa.edu

				Cast of Characters

(Will and Jentina are two young children intended to be played by adult actors.)

Will:			a five-year-old boy, gentle, careful

Jentina:		a six-year-old girl, passionate, secure

			Scene

The front steps of Will’s house.

				Properties

A couple of suitcases with some clothes in them.  
A small cardboard box that contains a lot of bread wrappers, a crude wooden plane, and some odds and ends of junk.

(Perhaps a bit of the classic hymn “Day by Day” by Carolina Sandell Berg is heard under the following two lines of narration.)

				HE
We take you to a porch step at the front of a white, two-story house in a small, mid-western town.

				SHE
One morning in late summer, two small children arrive.

(Piano sustains on a suspended chord.  WILL is standing, stretching his finger toward something.  HE wears a Cubs cap.  There are a couple of suitcases with some clothes in them.  At his feet is a small cardboard box that contains a lot of bread wrappers, a crude wooden plane, and some odds and ends of junk.)

				JENTINA
Hi, Will.

				WILL
Hello, Jentina.

				JENTINA
What are you doing?

				WILL
Seein' if I'm growin' any.

				JENTINA
You never came to the park to play this morning.

				WILL
I know.  My mom said I had to stay close to the house.

				JENTINA
Oh.  What have you got?

				WILL
A box of my brother's junk.

				JENTINA
What are you doin' with the suitcases?

				WILL
They're my brother's.

				JENTINA
Oh.  What are you doin' with the box of junk?

				WILL
Takin' it to the garbage.

				JENTINA
Oh.  
(SHE leans over to sneak a nonchalant peek.  Leans back.)
Anything good in it?

				WILL
I don't know.

				JENTINA
Where'd you get it?

				WILL
My brother's cleanin' out his room, and he told me to take this out to the trash "or else."

				JENTINA
We better check it.
	(JENTINA slides the box over.)

				WILL
He said, "or else."
	(WILL slides it back.)

				JENTINA
So.
	(JENTINA slides the box over.)

				WILL
I was just takin' a little break.
	(WILL slides it back.)

				JENTINA
Take a break.
	(JENTINA slides the box over.)

				WILL
"Or else."

				JENTINA
I heard you.

				WILL
This is not a good day to make my brother mad.

				JENTINA
	(gasp)
What happened?!

				WILL
Nothin' yet.  But my Mom's been cryin' all morning.

				JENTINA
Really?

				WILL
And my Dad's been goin' "(huge sigh)."

				JENTINA
Whoa.

(JENTINA looks at the box and slides it over again.  WILL slides it back.)

				JENTINA
What's wrong with everybody?

				WILL
We might be takin' my brother away to college any minute.

				JENTINA
(a gasp)
Your mean high school brother is going away to college?!

				WILL
Yep.  If he gets his room cleaned up.  My Dad said, "We gotta go!"  But my Mom said, "If he's not smart enough to clean a room, he's not smart enough to go to college."  I'm not sure if she really wants him to go.

				JENTINA
My mom says I have to go to college.  But she cries every time we drive by the grade school.  That's an emotional reaction.  Because I'm starting kindergarten next week.  I'm going to be a psycicologist.  You seem kinda depressed, Will.
	(SHE slides the box toward herself.)

				WILL
I am not!
	(HE slides the box back.)

				JENTINA
	(leaning back, with a clinical tone)
Um, hummmmm.

				WILL
I'm fine.

				JENTINA
Let's see you smile.

	(WILL smiles briefly.)

				JENTINA (continued)
With your teeth.

	(WILL bares his teeth.)

				JENTINA (continued)
	(leaning back, with a clinical tone)
Um, hummmmm.

				WILL
Quit it.

				JENTINA
What's bothering you, Will?
	(SHE slides the box toward herself.)

				WILL
Nothing.
	(HE slides the box back.)

				JENTINA
What are you thinking about?

				WILL
Nothing.

				JENTINA
What would you like to tell me about?

				WILL
I don't know.

				JENTINA
	(taking ahold of the box)
There might be some really good junk in here.

				WILL
It's not our box.  My brother said to take it out to the trash "or else."

				JENTINA
"Or else" what?

				WILL
I don't know.

				JENTINA
Don't you know?
				WILL
No.

				JENTINA
Don't you want to know?

				WILL
What?

				JENTINA
"Or else" what?

				WILL
Well, "'Or else' what?" is just one of those kinda questions that I feel okay not knowin' the answer to.

				JENTINA
Will, I just want to see if your brother threw away any good junk.  You're my very best friend in the whole wide world.  Please?

				WILL
We better not.

				JENTINA
You're afraid.

				WILL
No, I'm not.

				JENTINA
Yes, you are!

				WILL
Huh, uh.

JENTINA
You're afraid of "or else", and you're afraid of what's in the box, and you're afraid of me and your brother going off to school and leaving you behind.

	(a beat, because WILL is stunned by her accuracy)

				JENTINA (continued)
Will?
Will?  
What are you thinking?
	
				WILL
Nothin'.

				JENTINA
Well, I wish you would think something so I could tell you what it means.
	(beat)
You don't have to be afraid, Will.  You'll get to go to school next year.  And it's not your fault you were slow in gettin' born.

				WILL
I wish you didn't have to go to school.  I wish my brother didn't have to leave home.  I wish things could just be the way they are.
	(pause)
I wonder if God knows about all this.

				JENTINA
I'm never gonna change.  Even when I go to school.  I'll always be your best friend in the whole world.  And I won't let them....  I won't anything.  I just won't.

	(WILL is lost in thought.  JENTINA looks in the box.)

				JENTINA (continued)
How come your brother had all these bread wrappers?

				WILL
	(reaching to get them back)
That's his favorite snack.  Cinnamon raisin bread.  He eats it whenever he builds his airplane models.

				JENTINA
What's this?

				WILL
That's a model plane I made for him.  But it doesn't fly very good.  I guess he got tired of it. 

				JENTINA
You made this?

				WILL
You better put it back.

				JENTINA
And your mean high school brother is throwin' it away?

				WILL
He's not always mean.

				JENTINA
This is a beautiful airplane.

				WILL
Sometimes he tells me neat stuff.  About airplanes.

				JENTINA
Can I keep it?

				WILL
And about what he wants to be when he grows up.

				JENTINA
I'm keeping this airplane.  Forever.

				WILL
But he never tells me unless I ask him first.

				JENTINA
Forever and ever.  Please don't make me put it back.

				WILL
That's another thing I'm afraid about.  I'm afraid that where my brother's going, no one will ask him stuff about himself.  So no one will ever know that he has a little 5 year-old brother who likes him even more than his new friends do.  Unless he tells them.

				JENTINA
Which he won't do.

				WILL
Unless they ask him.

				JENTINA
Yeah, unless they ask him.

				WILL
And they won't ask him.

				JENTINA
They won't.

				WILL
No.  They won't.

				JENTINA
Unless they can't help themselves.
(JENTINA grabs a bread bag and sticks it in her shirt pocket.)
What would you do if you saw me looking like this?

				WILL
I'd say, "Why do you have that bag in your pocket?"

				JENTINA
It's a clue.

				WILL
A clue to what?

				JENTINA
Exactly!  
	(grabbing a shirt out of the suitcase and putting a bag in it)
This is for when he goes to class, so the teacher can ask him.  
	(grabbing another shirt and bread bag)
And this is for when he goes to church, so the preacher can ask him.

				WILL
(WILL gets into the act, grabbing another shirt, or some pants.)
And this is for when he goes to eat, so the cooks can ask him.  

				JENTINA
And the girls.
(SHE then places the homemade airplane in the suitcase.)
And this is so they can ask him about his little brother.

(THEY look in the box.  THEY dump the entire remaining contents of the junk into the suitcase and zip it up.  THEY sit.  THEY stiffle a snicker.)

				WILL
I think we're going to get to find out what "or else" means.
	
(Piano plays a few phrases of "Day by Day” continuing until the characters exit.  After music establishes, JENTINA stands, deep in thought.)

				JENTINA
Will.  Promise me that you'll never go away to college.

				WILL
Okay.  Except to take my brother.

				JENTINA
Okay.  And I won't either.  I won't become a psycicologist, and I'm not ever going to change.

				WILL
Me, too.

				JENTINA
Okay.
	(beat)
Even if you grow to be really old like your brother?

				WILL
Even if I grow to be really old.

				JENTINA
Good.  'Cause things shouldn't have to change.

				WILL
No, they shouldn't.  
	
(JENTINA exits.  WILL stands, picks up the box, looks up, positions himself as at the beginning, and reaches as high as HE can.  Still can't quite reach, which frustrates him a bit.  But tomorrow's another day.  HE exits.  Piano concludes.)

				END OF PLAY