Trey is now 22, and it has been a year since he’s been released from juvenile hall. He was sentenced to stay there until he turned 21. He believes he has completely reformed. He was taken in by his grandparents and has been living with them until now. Just a week ago, their house was broken into by presumably burglars and Trey’s grandparents were severely beaten. His grandmother didn’t make it, while his grandfather is in critical condition. The doctors believe he doesn’t have much longer.
TREY
Pa?
MCCOY
Come in, come in
TREY
You look…
MCCOY
Ah, you can say it. Not so good. Old. Five minutes away from becoming a corpse.
TREY
No, no, I… how are you?
MCCOY
Alright. Come in, come in. take this chair here.
(Trey takes a seat in the chair next to his bed. There’s a long silence before he puts his head into his hands)
TREY
I shouldn’t have gone out with Trevor, I shouldn’t have, especially to just go and drink
MCCOY
No, no don’t start
TREY
Then Nona would still be here (pause) you guys are all that I have
MCCOY
Come on, stop it. How do you think I feel? I couldn’t even protect her. My hands, they used to pick brick by brick and build walls. Now, as you can see, they are useless. Useless to help my wife
TREY
Pa…
MCCOY
Trey, don’t worry about a roof over your head after I’m gone…
TREY
No, no Pa I don’t care…
MCCOY
Oh you’ll care when winter comes around. Don’t talk such nonsense. Our house is your house. And you better take care of it, okay? No parties, no girls, no loud music late at night (winks). And water Nona’s plants. She’d kill me if I didn’t remind you.
TREY
Okay Pa
MCCOY
Listen. Just be a good man Trey. I’ve seen the change, you’ve lived the change for a year now.
TREY
Okay Pa
MCCOY
I know the past is the past. What that man has, or whatever that thing was that attacked me and your Nona, is not inside of you.
TREY
Ok…
A nurse enters. Trey decides to leave the two alone and stands outside the hallway. He looks down at his phone and he sees that it’s his girlfriend of three months, Monica. She has arrived at the hospital.
MONICA
Where is he, is he okay?
TREY
Yes, yes… or at least I think so. Let’s talk outside.
MONICA
Outside? I want to see your grandfather.
TREY
He’s my grandfather. The nurse is with him anyways
MONICA
Allriiiight…
(They exit out the entrance)
MONICA
What’s going on?
TREY
I dunno
MONICA
Well do you think he’s going to make it?
TREY
I don’t know Monica. Stop asking.
MONICA
Well jeez, Trey, sorry for caring
TREY
Yea, just stop reminding me that he’s gonna be gone soon
MONICA
I wasn’t…
TREY
Yea you were. And he isn’t your grandfather. So stop acting like it.
Monica looks down, completely offended.
TREY
You just… it’s not your grandfather in there. To come home and to see... to see him, lying there… at the bottom of the couch, next to Nona… in her blood- God, you couldn’t even recognize her. With the life just stolen away from her. I thought, I thought he was gone with her too. In that second, I felt this incredible pain that had been building up, building up, building up since I walked through that door, until it washed away into this numbness... And I saw the two people that I had loved the most, the ones that… loved me, and would never hurt me…. I saw them lying there.
MONICA
Oh my god… Trent…
TREY
And, there was the chair… the back was completely broken off and one of the legs was covered in, in, it was this deep color. It was laying down right beside her, not even hidden, not even ashamed of what it had did. I stood before that, thinking, what’s left? What’s left? Is there anything in the world that I have anymore…
MONICA
But I’m here…
TREY
Yea and for you to walk into this. I can’t ask you to stay.
MONICA
But I will
TREY
You shouldn’t. It won’t get any better
MONICA
How do you know? How can you say this?
TREY
Because I’ve spent a lot of time alone. Thinking. A lot of time thinking alone. And during all that time, there wasn’t a day that I didn’t plan what I was going to do for them. How I’d be better for them
MONICA
But you are!
TREY
No, it’s too soon for you to tell. I already know that at least. I’ll admit, it look like I was starting to… heading in the right direction but…
MONICA
Don’t. Just shut up.
TREY
You don’t understand what it takes to create this something, this something inside of me. I thought the peace and silence of four years would be enough, just enough to kick it out. But it’s alive and well. And it’s only been saving its energy these past years, ready to really show me.
MONICA
I don’t understand Trey.
TREY
You’re not suppose to. You’re the lucky one. You’ve never had to see where I’ve been.
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