Teardropped
by Conrad A. Panganiban
CAST OF CHARACTERS
SWIVELS: 40s. Male. Photographer.
TEARDROP: 40s. Male. Prisoner. Awaiting execution in 3 days.
Lights up on SWIVELS and TEARDROP sitting across from each other at a table. SWIVELS is looking around very nervous.
TEARDROP
Thanks for coming.
SWIVELS
Uh… yeah. So, um, you look good.
TEARDROP
It’s just another room.
SWIVELS
Right. Right. Sorry.
TEARDROP
You didn’t do anything to be sorry for to be in here. But thanks for coming by.
SWIVELS
Yeah. It’s just… a little out of the blue. Gotta be at least 10 years.
TEARDROP
Thirteen years, seven months, fourteen days to be exact.
SWIVELS
That long since graduation?
TEARDROP
Seems like a lifetime ago, Swivels.
(SWIVELS lets out a chuckle.)
SWIVELS
Been a long time since anyone’s called me that.
TEARDROP
So what do people on the outside call you?
SWIVELS
John. Just John.
TEARDROP
John? Nah, Swivels is more you. That what everyone called you.
SWIVELS
I remember it being only you who called me that.
TEARDROP
That was because everytime you walked down the hallway and a cutie would pass you up… whoosh.. your head would go that way, and then another one would pass you up on the other side, and whoosh, their goes your head the other way. Swear, man, your head was on a swivel! Funniest damn thing at Eastside High!
SWIVELS
I wasn’t that obvious.
TEARDROP
Oh, yeah you were! Tell me something though.
SWIVELS
So you can hold it against me?
TEARDROP
Trust me, there’s nothing I can hold against you from in here. But on the reals,.. did you offer to take pictures of some of the cheerleaders?
SWIVELS
Never underestimate the power that a camera has over girls with low self-esteem.
TEARDROP
Not only a photographer, but a psychologist to boot! So, ya still swivelin’?
SWIVELS
Nah. Once I found my wife, I stopped swiveling.
TEARDROP
For reals?
SWIVELS
For reals.
(TEARDROP holds out his fist for a dap. SWIVELS obliges.)
TEARDROP
Congrats, Man. She a photographer too?
SWIVELS
Nah. But she was a cheerleader.
(TEARDROP lets out a huge laugh.)
TEARDROP
No shit!
SWIVELS
It’ll be five years this May.
TEARDROP
You did good.
SWIVELS
Yup.
(Pause.)
TEARDROP
So when do you wanna start?
SWIVELS
Anytime you want.
TEARDROP
How about never?
SWIVELS
I’m sorry.
TEARDROP
No. Don’t be. As I said, you don’t have to be sorry for anything. I’m in here because of my mistakes.
SWIVELS
We could start now?
TEARDROP
Sure.
(SWIVELS opens his bag and pulls out a camera.)
TEARDROP
I hope you didn’t have too much trouble getting that in here.
SWIVELS
A little, but it helps that I’ve been taking the Warden’s family portraits for the last couple of years.
TEARDROP
He’s a good man.
SWIVELS
Yeah. He wishes that there was something more he can do for you.
TEARDROP
No. He gave the okay for you to come here and that’s plenty enough. How do you want me?
SWIVELS
Um. Just be yourself. Let’s just talk and I’ll snap some pictures.
TEARDROP
You sure you don’t want any action model poses?
SWIVELS
Maybe later.
TEARDROP
Okay.
SWIVELS
So let’s start with, why did you want to have pictures taken of you?
(Through this section, as TEARDROP opens up to Swivels, SWIVELS sporadically takes pictures of Teardrop.)
TEARDROP
Boy… where to start? I guess it’s because I just want to leave something behind, you know. You remember Mr. Durham?
SWIVELS
Junior English.
TEARDROP
Remember when he died from cancer in the next year? All of a sudden like. Boom. And they said that, if we wanted to, we can go to the gym after school and they were going to do a special memorial for him or something. Remember that?
SWIVELS
Yeah.
TEARDROP
All my other boys took off, but I felt like I needed to pay my respects and all cuz he passed me. Ain’t no lie, I wasn’t the best student… but I dug what he taught. It meant something to me. In this crazy world, when I never really felt like no one listened to me, he took the time to do that. So I had to take the time to pay my respects and all then.
SWIVELS
I got a couple of pictures with you at that memorial. I can bring it next…
TEARDROP
Time. All good, brotha. Anyways, the thing I remember most about that moment was seeing all the pictures of him, you know. Smilin’ and shit. Him with his students, his friends and family. And that shot of him with his baby.
SWIVELS
Pretty sad. Just born too. His daughter goes to my son’s school.
TEARDROP
Papa Swivels. (beat) And then at the end of everyone’s speeches, just before the last image of him smiling at the camera, there was a photo of him sitting at his desk looking out the window like he was thinking about something.
SWIVELS
He said that he was looking at the new Freshman waiting for the school bus to take them home. A new life waiting for them and he was wishing that they could keep wondering what life will be like after high school. Where they’ll go to college. If they’ll ever find that something they’ll be passionate about.
TEARDROP
And you really captured that with that photo.
SWIVELS
Thanks.
TEARDROP
Anyways, a lot of the people I rolled with are either in here with me or six feet deep. And to the homies that aren’t here… it’s just that at their funerals and such, they show’ed pictures of them throwin’ up signs and what not. None of them smilin’. Just chill, you know. And I don’t know if I wanna go out like that. Like some empty well, full of darkness devoid of any life which only water could bring.
SWIVELS
That’s pretty deep. Who wrote that?
TEARDROP
I did. Junior English. (beat) Anyways, because of that pen-ultimate image of Mr. Durham, I knew that I didn’t want to go out with the last image of me like my boys. And I let him down, yo.
SWIVELS
Mr. Dunham?
TEARDROP
It’s too cliché to say that he was the only one who listened to me and, on the real, the only one to believe in me. But he did. He said, “Junior, watch your back. I know that you’re destined for great things.” What went down, went down, but every night right after the night buzzer sounds, I always think back to those words and that picture you took. And I want people to see that part of me too. Not just some fuck-up who shot a 15year-old kid who got in the way of a stupid decision to rob Homeboy Liquor. Not like any image of me could change their minds or anything, but that’s not me and I just hope that something can come out of this where they will be able to see that, you know?
SWIVELS
Yeah. Yeah. I know.
(SFX: A buzzer)
(SWIVELS places his camera back inside his bag.)
SWIVELS (CONT.)
That’s my cue. Hey, um, I’ll talk to Jim again and ask if it’s okay to come visit you tomorrow if you’re cool with it?
TEARDROP
That’d be cool. Do you think you can come here on Saturday?
(Pause)
I mean, I understand if you can’t. Last minute and all. I just don’t have anyone…
SWIVELS
Yeah. Yeah, I can be here.
(TEARDROP, while looking down, extends his hand towards Swivels, which he accepts and shakes.) I’ll see you tomorrow.
TEARDROP
Fo sho. And, um. Thank you for doing this for me.
SWIVELS
Tomorrow.
TEARDROP
Tomorrow.
(Exit SWIVELS.)
As lights begin to fade, a projection of TEARDROP’s last picture is shown.
Blackout.
END OF PLAY