BEGGING FOR CHANGE: NOTHING GOOD
COMES OF BAD MONEY
Scene 1
The classroom. Raspberry is sitting at her desk. An
announcement comes over the PA system.
Anncr: Would Strawberry Fields come to the office. That’s
Strawberry Fields, come to the office.
(Raspberry gets up, walks out of class and makes her way
down to the principal’s office.)
Secretary: Raspberry, you’re mother has been attacked. You
better go to the hospital right away.
(A bunch of kids come storming into the office.)
Kid 1: You said you were gonna play “Strawberry Fields” over
the PA system.
Secretary: No I didn’t. I was calling a student to the
office.
(The kids tear the office apart.)
Scene 2
The hospital room. Raspberry is sitting beside her mother’s
bed. The TV is on.
Anncr: A woman was viciously attacked with a lead pipe today
as she stood outside her apartment building. The perpetrator has been
identified as Shaketa Nixon, a close friend of the victim who lives only two
doors up the street from her. When reached for comment, Shaketa Nixon told our
newsteam, “I am not a crook.”
(Raspberry’s father walks into the room.)
James Hill: I’m so sorry about what happened. I was at
McDonald’s, you know, trying to collect all the Finding Nemo Happy Meal toys,
and I saw it on the news. Well, I must be going now. Give Daddy some sugar,
baby girl. (Raspberry kisses him) No, some actual sugar, for my coffee. The
lady forgot to put any in.
Scene 3
Dr. Mitchell’s car. Raspberry is lying on the back seat.
Dr. Mitchell: Raspberry, do you want to stop for pizza
before we take you back to our house for the night?
Raspberry: Pizza be fine.
Dr. Mitchell: All right, then.
(They pull up to the pizza place. Dr. Mitchell, Zora and
Raspberry get out of the car and enter the restaurant.)
Spiros: Hey ugly man, hey beautiful ladies. What you want.
Dr. Mitchell: The girls will have the Greek pizza, and I
will have the frog legs. Oh, and could I get that with a bottle of 1941 Chateau
Le Vie de Rothchild?
Spiros: You got it. Before I can serve you the frog legs,
though, I have to chase it down the alley.
Dr. Mitchell: Oh, I’ll help you do that.
Spiros: Right this way.
Zora: I’ll help you too, Daddy. Raspberry, watch my purse
for me.
(Spiros, Dr. Mitchell and Zora exit. Raspberry takes a wad
of bills out of Zora’s purse, then puts most of it back.)
Scene 4
Dr. Mitchell’s car. Dr. Mitchell pulls up to Raspberry’s
apartment.
Dr. Mitchell: Now remember, just go in there, collect a few
things and make sure the place is all right. Don’t take too long. (On the steps
of the apartment building, Dr. Mitchell, Zora and Raspberry notice people
smoking marijuana and drinking whisky) We’ll come back for your things some
other time.
Raspberry: You was raised in the projects, Dr. Mitchell.
Don’t you know how to fight?
(Dr. Mitchell gets out of the car.)
Dr. Mitchell: You wait here.
Girl 1: You better get back in your ride if you know what’s
good for you.
Miracle Nixon: Hey Raspberry.
(She makes her way over to the car.)
Dr. Mitchell: Raspberry can’t talk to anyone right now.
Miracle: I just wanna see her, Pops. Hey Raspberry, tell
your mother to chill and lay off Shaketa. (Bangs her fist on the roof of the
car) You hear me, girl?
Raspberry: Everybody saw what Shaketa did.
Miracle: Your mother was always pickin on her, so she got
what she got.
(People start throwing bottles at the car.)
Zora: (Opens door) Daddy! (A bottle comes flying through the
door and smashes the window on the other side) I didn’t see that coming.
Dr. Mitchell: Lock the doors and windows, now. (To the
people on the steps) You hit her mother with a pipe, and now you want to go
after me and my kids?
(Zora dials 911 on her cell phone.)
Operator: Yo, 911.
Zora: My dad’s a cop, I mean a doctor, and he needs help.
Operator: Don’t worry, he a cop, he can take care of
hisself.
Zora: No, he’s a doctor.
Operator: He a cop.
Zora: No, he’s a doctor.
Operator: Look, foo’, he a cop. He take care o’ hisself.
Shaketa: Look, it’s your mother’s fault for tryin to live
like a decent human bein. She should be ‘shamed o’ herself.
(Dr. Mitchell gets back into the car and they speed away.)
Scene 5
May’s driveway. May, Raspberry and Janai are playing
basketball.
Janai: Your family’s cursed.
Raspberry: A lot of black families are cursed.
(May’s mother and father enter.)
Mrs. Kim: We’re back from picking up the chicken feet and
collard greens.
(They go into the house.)
Janai: Look at all the bad stuff that’s happened to you over
the past few years.
Zora: Yeah, first your father went on dope, then you and
your mother moved in with friends until y’all got kicked out. You were homeless
for a while, then you moved into the projects and was robbed.
Raspberry: Zora, you’re not helping. Besides, your family
got problems too, like … all those problems you have.
Mrs. Kim: (Sticking her head out the door) Why are you two
being so mean.
Zora: We didn’t mean—
Mrs. Kim: Go make yourselves useful. Come help me unpack the
groceries. The collard greens don’t look so good, but if you scrape off the
hard and wilted parts they aren’t so bad.
May: They’re completely hard and wilted.
Mrs. Kim: Oh, never mind, then.
(Janai follows Mrs. Kim into the house. )
Raspberry: It’ll be time to go soon. Mama should be done her
catscan by now.
(May sinks a basket. Her sleeve rolls up, revealing a brand
new tattoo which says ONE HUNDRED PERCENT BLACK.)
Zora: Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, when did you do it.
May: Got it done yesterday. Don’t touch it. It still hurts.
(Janai comes out of the house and notices the tattoo.)
Janai: What you wrote on your arm ain’t even true.
May: It’s like, a joke or something.
Mr. Kim: (From the kitchen) May, you have branded yourself
like a slave.
Janai: Like you would know about that.
Mr. Kim: Actually, Japan
invaded Korea
many centuries ago and made the people their slaves.
Janai: (Running away) Aaahhhhhh, knowledge.
Scene 6
The hospital room. Raspberry enters. Her father is there.
There is a man sleeping on the bed.
James: Hey, baby girl. This Shabooboo. Shabooboo, wake yo’
butt up. This my daughter, Raspberry.
Shabooboo: Hey, there. Your father and I went to high school.
Who’da thought we’d end up on the streets together? Regular pals. Friends for
life. Partners in our success.
James: Well, we better get out of here soon. Virginia never could
stand no riffraff. Do you wanna use her shower and her toothbrush before we go?
Shabooboo: Sure, I do dat shortly.
James: Not before me, you ain’t
(He goes into the bathroom.)
Shabooboo: Well, while your father’s in the shower, we might
as well get this party started. We gonna crank up the godfather of soul, Mr.
James Brown.
(He pulls a small cassette recorder out of his pocket. An
old James Brown cassette starts to play. Shabooboo pulls out a bottle of
whisky, drinks and starts dancing around wildly. Raspberry passes out.)
Shabooboo: Pussy.
Scene 7
Outside Raspberry’s apartment building. Raspberry and Sallow
are hanging out. Raspberry is drinking a pop.
Raspberry: I’m so thankful the local TV station held a
telethon for Mama and me. It raised five thousand dollars.
Sallow: Yeah, yo’ mama probably down at the car dealership
right now buyin a new ride.
Raspberry: Ha, yo’ mama don’t even have a car. She walkin.
In fact, isn’t that her walkin down the street right now?
Sallow: Jeez, it is. How about a sip of your pop.
Raspberry: No. I don’t want your germs.
Sallow: Give me your ****ing pop. (He playfully takes it
from her and runs down the street. Raspberry chases after him. They run two
blocks in about five seconds) Shoot, I’m all out of breath. Let’s sit down over
here on this rusty old car.
(Sallow sits on the car and it collapses.)
Shabooboo: Oooohhhh.
Sallow: Shoot, I think somebody lives in there.
Raspberry: You owe me fifty cents for that pop.
Sallow: Screw you. You got money.
Scene 8
The courtroom. The judge, the district attorney and
Shaketa’s lawyer enter.
Shaketa’s Lawyer: So, what sentence do you think would be
most appropriate for this girl given all the publicity it’s gotten?
Judge: Well, since the court system is so overburdened to
begin with, I think it’s best if we find some way to avoid this matter going to
trial altogether.
D.A.: What do you suggest. I mean, this girl’s records as
thick as a phone book
(Holds up a phone book.)
Judge: No, Mr. District Attorney, that is an actual phone
book.
D.A.: Well, regardless.
Shaketa’s Lawyer: How about we flip a coin.
Judge: That sounds like a good idea. Heads it goes to trial,
tails it doesn’t.
D.A.: But what’ll we tell Shaketa, the victim and her daughter
and of course the media?
Judge: Just say something like too many technicalities or
some bull like that.
D.A.: OK, here we go.
(He pulls a quarter out of his pocket, throws it in the air,
catches it, and turns it over to the back.)
Shaketa’s Lawyer: Well, that’s settled. Let’s play
battleships.
Scene 9
Outside of Raspberry’s apartment building. Raspberry comes
up the street. Her mom is sitting on the front steps, planting flowers in pots.
Raspberry: Hi Mama.
Virginia Hill: Hi, sweetheart.
Raspberry: What are you doing?
Virginia: Oh, I’m just planting some flowers. I told the old
lady across the street her snapdragons looked really nice so she wanted me to
take her down to the store to get some more. Oh, by the way, I have some good
news.
Raspberry: What?
Virginia: I got a new job. I’m goin to be workin down at the
mental institution buzzing people in and out. Well, I have to go get dinner
started.
(Raspberry’s mom goes into the house. Miracle comes over.)
Miracle: Apparently yo’ mama didn’t learn not to stick her
nose in other people’s business.
(She pulls the flowers out of the pots and scatters them
over the sidewalk.)
Raspberry: What’d you do that for?
Miracle: I’m black. Since when do I like anything beautiful.
Think about it. We prefer to live in cities with crime and absentee fathers and
drugs all over the place. We hate beautiful things like classical music and
flowers.
Scene 10
The bus. Raspberry and Janai are sitting together.
Raspberry: So did you hear what happened to May?
Janai: No, what?
Raspberry: Someone snuck into her house and cut off her
hair. Then they hung a sign up in the girls bathroom saying HARD TIMES AT HOME,
THREE BAGS FOR $2.50.
Janai: That’s awful. It’s like I always say: when you hear a
suspicious noise at night, yell FREEZE AND SMILE.
Raspberry: Well, you don’t know it was a black person. It
could have been someone else disguised as a black person.
Janai: Someone in blackface? Those racists!
Raspberry: I mean it could have been a white person. There
always makin trouble for us. I mean they kept us as their slaves as recently as
a hundred and forty years ago.
Janai: Or it could have been the Asians themselves, making
it look like a black person did it. They always tryin to get us just because
are people like to order Chinese food and beat up the drivers.
Scene 11
The apartment. Raspberry and her mom are sitting on the
couch. Ming’s father enters.
Ming’s Father: Hello, Mrs. Hill. I was so sorry to hear
about what happened. I hope you are feeling better.
Virginia: I’m feeling much better, thank you.
Ming’s Father: Sorry I didn’t come visit you in the
hospital. Hospitals aren’t my thing. I figure people don’t want you to come and
sit with them for hours and try to make conversation when all they want to do
is recover. I didn’t even go into the hospital when my mother was dying. I
mean, what would I have said? So, Mom, you’re dying. How is that working out for
you? Well, I must be going now. Goodbye.
Virginia: Goodbye.
(Shaketa’s lawyer enters.)
Shaketa’s Lawyer: Mrs. Hill, I am the lawyer representing
Shaketa Nixon. I just came over to let you know that the judge has decided not
to prosecute her.
Virginia: Why on earth not?
Shaketa’s Lawyer: No reason.
(Shaketa, Miracle and her friends can be seen down on the
street starting to have a party. They are smoking weed and drinking wine.)
Shaketa: Let’s celebrate the way blacks always do. Let’s
burn down the neighbourhood.
Miracle: I wouldn’t have wanted you to go to jail. You’re my
sister.
Miracle starts crying. Virginia comes outside with a carioke
machine.
Virginia: OK, there’s only one song that’s appropriate for a
black girl on a wine crying jag because her sister has escaped going to jail.
(Virginia puts a CD in the carioke machine. “Sometimes When
We Touch” comes on. Miracle starts singing. Everyone else joins in.)
White Man: Hows she goin? What’s goin on?
Shaketa: We’re celebrating because I’m not going to be charged
for beating this woman with a lead pipe.
Miracle: You lookin for a fight, white boy?
White Man: Yeah, I’m always lookin for a good time. (He
pulls the cork out of a bottle of wine with his teeth and drinks) Hey, did I
ever tell yous about the time I went to Vancouver ?
Scene 12
Daddy Joe’s Restaurant. Raspberry, Janai, May, Ming, Sallow,
and Q are sitting around a table.
Raspberry: It sure was a good idea you had, May, skippin
class to come here.
May: Well, I wanted to get the chance to see all you guys
before I went to California
for the summer.
Janai: Why you goin to California ?
May: Oh, my parents are sending me there to live with my
father’s side of the family because I’m pregnant.
Raspberry: Oh.
May: Yeah, it’s gonna suck being around Koreans all the
time. They get The Korean Black Channel. It shows all this black-oriented
programming in Korean, and they walk around saying snatches of black slang to
each other all the time.
(A waitress comes over.)
Waitress: So what do you wanta eat?
Sallow: Why don’t we just get a big plate of barbecue chips
with vanilla pudding for the table.
Waitress: Right, then. It’ll be here when it gets here.
Scene 13
The apartment. Raspberry is sitting on the couch. James and
a friend enter.
James: Hi, baby girl. Do your mother got any money, or do
you think she’d mind me takin a few of her precious things?
Raspberry: Who’s your friend?
Friend: My name is Abduala Mohamed Husain Omar Said Ben al
Akbar Khan. I am a black Moslem.
James: So how ‘bout it? I need money bad.
(He goes into the bedroom. Raspberry and the friend follow.
He lifts up the carpet and starts pulling money out.)
Raspberry: Hey, daddy, that’s ours. Mama and I worked real
hard for that money.
Friend: Sorry, little girl.
James: Yeah, we need some crack bad.
Raspberry: Wait, isn’t smoking crack against the tenants of
Islam?
Friend: Shut up.
James: Smoking crack is my career. How dare you try and
hinder me in my career.
James and the friend exit.
Closing credits.
Based on “Begging for Change: Nothing Good Comes of Bad
Money” by Sharon Flake.
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