RED BIKE

A play

By Caridad Svich

For performance rights contact”

Elaine Devlin Literary Inc., 411 Lafayette Street, 6th Floor, NY NY 10003 USA
Email: [email protected]
Or
Author at [email protected] and US mobile 213-709-5321
RED BIKE: So, it’s like this: you’re eleven years old, you live in a small town and the
times are dark, as they say. But you have a bike, a bike you love, a bike that makes you
dream about a world bigger than the one you live in. One day you take a ride through
the outer edges of your town and something goes awry. Let’s call it an accident. Let’s
say it causes you to see the world anew. Or maybe it just causes you to see the world
for what it truly is.

RED BIKE Cast and text breakdown:

A play for one performer. But may also be staged with three.
The performer(s) may be any gender and age (from late teens and above). Casting,
however, must be inclusive and reflective of the world.
If the play is cast with three performers, then they may alternate stanzas, and speak at
times in unison. An intergenerational cast is preferred. But actors need not be all of the
same gender, ethnic or racial identity.

The speaker in the text is a child of eleven years of age. But the performer(s) should not
be eleven. No attempt should be made to make the performer “appear” to be a child in
affect or clothing. We know how to play pretend. Get on with it.

All of the text in the play is spoken, except for stage directions in parentheses.

This play is divided into 50 discrete frames or sections, each of which could be seen as
a micro shift in the play’s universe.
In other words, it is possible that after each section, there is an extended breath, a
suspension, or a silence.

Or perhaps
A movement sequence
Or a dance break
Or just being with the audience in light
Sharing the space for a moment,
Before the next section begins.

2
1

You want it. You dreamt about it. You have it.
The red bike
You saw it in the window
It smiled at you
You knew it
You two were meant to be

‘Cause this is not just any bike

This is the RED BIKE
The one that when you go down the street, everyone will see you
Everyone will stop, and say, hey, red bike

Envy
That’s right
You will inspire envy

You know about this

Because you’ve been learning about envy for a long time
Even though you’re only eleven
Envy is in your bones
It’s the cool sneaks and the amazing car and the kick-ass tech device

Your parents talk about things like this

Only they use different words

Your parents talk about the things they want

The things they’re told they must want to be good citizens, to be good people

3
Your parents work hard
They have ten jobs but they say they have two
They pretend they’re happy
But they’re anxious
You see them

They rub their temples

They hide their smiles
They put the bread away in the bread basket
And don’t dunk them in the eggs

Even though they want to

Even though it’s yummy to eat eggs sunny side up
Or over easy, as my dad says
And dunk, dunk, dunk the bread
And slop up the gooey yellow mess

They know better

They watch their cholesterol
They watch their clocks
They watch the news
And get red in the face
And let their anger go to their shoes
To their stomach
To their knees
Shoulders
Neck

They say we’re fine

They say go on now

4
Go for a ride
See ya later
Make sure you lock up the bike if you stop somewhere

They say these things

Because they know what these things mean

They say these things

Because the news is bad
And chaotic and depressing and confusing
And makes them feel like they don’t know anything
About how the world works
And how they’re going to pay their bills next month

My parents wish they didn’t have bills

They wished they owned things
Real things
That last

Like that Guy in the center of town

That owns all those buildings and the airport and the park
And the water supply
And other things too
Invisible things
Like stocks and derivatives and securities

I heard him once

5
He was talking on the phone
Really loud
Near the luxury condo he built

The luxury condo with the FOR LEASE sign

The luxury condo that’s been empty for months
But people say is all bought up
All bought up by other people in other countries in other cities

Who are these people?

Will we ever get to meet them?

I don’t know half of our neighbors

This town is moving so fast
It’s like lightning
That’s what my dad says

I wish I knew what he meant

Like, how can earth and rock and concrete and brick and steel and glass
Move
Like
Lightning?

But I believe him

‘cause he knows things
He has five jobs when he says he has two
And he’s been working his whole life

6
Gets up at 5 AM
Goes to the warehouse

You know it
You’ve seen it
It’s just up the road
It’s HUGE
It’s the WAREHOUSE

It’s where the ol’ corn field used to be

Or maybe it was wheat?

Back in the day, the Ol’ Guy says

When we’re on the bus
Back in the day this all here was growing

I’m, like, okay

Back in the day, we made things, the ol’ guy says

And he gets a catch in his throat
And I think he’s gonna cry
And get all meepy
Like in one of those stupid movies or something
But he doesn’t
He just says, ‘way of things
Just the way things are now

7
5

My dad’s been working in that warehouse

Ever since I can remember
He moves boxes around
Orders that come in
Stuff that gets shipped out
He says the warehouse is full of stuff from floor to ceiling
Piles of stuff that all sorts of people want
And need to get NOW

All that stuff?

He says, yeah

That’s a hella lotta stuff

He says, yeah
And they’re building another warehouse a couple miles down

Filled with more stuff to ship out?

He says, yeah

I’m, like, hell

What we gonna do with all that stuff?

Make people happy

8
6

When people ask me what my dad does

And what my mom does
I say, they make people happy

I figure it’s as good an answer as any

People don’t really want to know about some warehouse
Or some store or some clinic or some school
Where people do basic things
Everyday impossible things
‘cause it just makes them think about stuff

Like, how they’re gonna pay their bills

And how the insurance keeps going up
And how everyone says everything is fine
But they can’t get their breakfast sandwich
At that place anymore, ‘cause it got shut down
And when the hell is something else gonna open up there?
Man, that place has been empty for, like, ever

I hear them
I know
Like, when I’m on my bike
I’m, like, a radar
Or a drone or something

9
7

I see them sometimes

The drones

Dude says they’re planes

But I’m, like, no way, man, they’re drones

Can’t you tell?
What movies you been watching?
Drones everywhere, man
Watching us
Keeping our secrets
Making a mess of everything over there
Seen the news?

No. I don’t watch the news. Nothing to do with me

You jokin’, right, Dude?

Listen, I don’t got time for this

And we stop watching the sky

And I get back on my bike
And dude heads down the road
To the ol’ dollar store that’s a two dollar store now

I think dude’s messed up

10
The news got something to do with something
‘cause why else would it make everyone like a fuse?

The FOR LEASE sign

Is gleaming
The guy’s wearing a suit

It was hot
Not like today
But still hot
And I thought he must be sweating like a pig in that suit

Like that cartoon on Saturday morning

The one with the guy with the gun
And the stupid animals running around looking for food

Stocks and derivatives and securities

It’s like he was chanting

Like he was praying to some god
‘cause he kept looking up at the sky

I thought that’s the guy

That’s the guy that owns half of this town
That’s the guy that cut down all of the trees

He looked at me

11
Red bike
I could see it on his face
He wanted it too

Red bike, red bike, red-

I turned the corner

He went back to looking at the sky

Stocks and derivatives and securities

That guy is smart

He has a vision
Everyone says so
A vision of the world

I have visions too

But I don’t tell anybody
‘cause people don’t wanna hear from some kid

They’re, like, go on now

Go for a ride
See ya later

I wish I could tell them

I wish I could tell them what I see
But it’s hot

12
And I’m sweaty
And the air is murder

And I’m thinking that if I don’t get to that hill over there I’m meat
‘cause the hill is where you get the best ride
The hill is where you see the whole city

10

I am so sweaty
I shouldn’t have worn these clothes
I’m so stupid sometimes

My legs are giving out, too

I am so not cut out for a marathon
I dream about it sometimes
Like, if I were on the tour de France n shit

I know you need a whole lotta money n sponsorship n stuff

And, like, they’re all on dope
But still…

Riding through those hills

Up those curves
Winding up and down those roads
In the rain
In the sun
Past the trees and the dog shit
Man oh man, wouldn’t it just be…

13
11

Dreams and visions are two different things

I know
The ol’ guy on the bus told me

He said his great-great-something or other

Went on this vision quest
Totally for real

Went out to where that abandoned silo is now

Way, way out, out past the warehouse and the Waffle Stop

Went out there with no food, no nothing

Freaky-ass cold at night
And prayed
For his family and his friends and who knows what else

Cried like a baby just born

Eyes like rain
For days and days
And nights and more days

Got sick, too

Got all kinds of everything
Bugs biting
Earth creaking
Waffle Stop sign blinking through the core of night
Thought: this is death

14
This is where I meet you, my friend

And then outta nowhere

Some kind of animal
Come outta shadow and light
Looking like it’d seen better days
Like it had lived the past of another animal
And had come back in a new shape

Stood near the silo

Eyes like fire
Song in its throat
Something about smallness and rage n chaos in the belly

Animal stared
Night fell like seven moons
Freaky as hell

But the ol’ guy’s great-great something or other

Stayed
With the animal
Through the night
And another day

Until there was no sound

Just light
And an amazing kinda wonder

Like the weight of the world

Was dancing with them

15
Like in some disco or something
Thump, thump, thump
Dancing its heaviness through the body
Animal beams

Great-great something or other laughs

Rain down both their faces
They can’t stop dancing
Can’t stop moving
Voice calls out from somewhere, hey, you, where’d you get that joy?

And then nothing

Like the silo is just the silo

And the Waffle Stop sign is making that kinda buzzy sound
That neon sometimes makes

And it’s just cold

And here

12

The hill’s not that far

I can see it now
My legs are starting to find themselves again
Still hot, though
Why is it so hot this time of year?
Shouldn’t be this way

16
Dad says it was never like this when he was a kid
Mom says she don’t remember
Everybody’s screwed up about the weather these days
Even dude says spring is gone

The news is killing us, someone says

Drone flies past

I just want to be a good person

Hell, I got a red bike
The same red bike I stared at through the window
Same red bike my parents said I had to wait for
‘Til that check come in
And that other check come in
And that lottery ticket give us five dollars extra

And I know, I know it’s made in some other country far away
But what the hell am I supposed to do?
Like, they don’t make it here anymore
That company shut down years ago
Somebody gotta make red bikes somewhere
So kids like me can dream

13

On the hill now

Man, it is something, right?
The whole town is looking at me

17
Hey all. Look here. See.

Envy
Sometimes it feels good
Sometimes you wanna revel in it
Look at me
Look at me
Look. At. Me.

(And maybe something physically astonishing occurs. An act of daring and

ecstatic joy.)

14

Something sticks
On the ground
Greasy
I am moving
Fast
Hella fast
Down this hill

Brake. Come on. Brake.

I’ve been down this hill a million times.
What the hell is going on?

Brake. Come on. Brake.

The hill is taking me

18
This is wrong
This is doom
I’ll never make the tour de France now

I’ll be like that biker in the Olympics

The one who went careening off the road
Crash splat
And lay there crying like a pup
Knees and legs and arms smashed to shit

Pity
I will inspire pity
Not envy
What is the world coming to?

Brake. Come on. Brake.

It’s gonna be all pain now

Get ready for the inevitable, friend
It’s just you and the hill and the red bike
Going
Hell
Knows
Where

15

What’s that?
Bird? Squirrel? Rabbit?

19
Am I gonna be a murderer now?

Move outta the way, animal

I’m holding onto the handlebars as if life
MOVE OUT
Mirage
Am seeing things now

Breath races
Heart pumps
Three hundred billion seconds per minute
Thump thump thump
Like at a bad disco or something

I’m thinking about my math homework

I’m thinking about Dude

And how I promised I’d help out with their band

I’m thinking ‘bout the grass that needs mowin’

And the dirty laundry I stuffed in the back of the closet
And how I told mom and dad I’d be home before dark

The world is gonna eat me alive

16

Panic
Panic is the worst

20
Panic is not a superhero move
And we’re superheroes, right?

What’d Dude and I swear to each other back in first grade?

We are superheroes

Just stay calm

Focused
Alert
In the zone
Be in the zone
Zen

What’s Zen?
How do I get Zen?

Heart pumps like a mad fist

Beads of sweat on my forehead nose lips

This is not looking good

I’m gonna die
I’m gonna die on this stupid hill

17

Wait
This can’t be the end
I just started
I’m just a kid

21
I got my whole life

I’ve been through plenty of shit before

I’ve been through hella stuff

Like, when I fell in the backyard

On that steel thing
And got all those stitches

That took weeks of healing

And it was nice, right?

It was ice cream and staying in bed

And being sick from school
And people visiting and calling
And asking about me all the time
I was a star
I was a superstar
It was great

I am a superstar

What the hell am I worried about?

This is just a road
This is just a bike moving way too fast

So what? I can handle it

I can handle anything

22
18

My mom handles six jobs even though she says she has two
And she still has time to be a mom
And do things
And ask me how I’m doing

Sometimes she even gives me a kiss on the forehead

And just looks at me
Like I’m the most special person in the whole world

She does all that

When I know she cries sometimes
I’ve seen her

That time in the dollar store

She was crying in aisle nine
Next to the laundry detergent and the toilet cleaner
She didn’t see me
I had a bag of skittles in my hand
Wanted to ask her if we could…

But when I saw her

I just

Shoved the skittles back onto the shelf in aisle five

Later, in the car, on the way home

I touched the back of her neck

23
Like, it’s okay, mom
Whatever it is, it’ll be okay

She didn’t say nothing

But she smiled
And put music on

Something really stupid on the radio

All those heartbreak songs
Mom loves them
She started singing at the top of her lungs
Roll the window down
Make some NOISE

19

Air’s like a tunnel

Like it don’t even exist now
I’m just flesh and wheels

Even the road’s gone

Must be someone laughing somewhere

Isn’t that what Dude says their people say?
When shit goes down, someone must be laughing somewhere

I’m like a cartoon

The one where the animal is on the scooter
Hits a rock in the road

24
And flips up into the air
A gazillion times
Head wobbling
Teeth chattering
Body parts moving every which way
Boing boing boing
Look at that thing go

Animal starts dreaming of the ol’ days

Back when life was easy as pie
Sit in a hammock
Rock to some sweet music
Kick up your feet
And think of the future

20

When I was five I made a list

Of everything I wanted to be

Superstar pirate astronaut helicopter ice cream maker diver climber builder ninja warrior
movie-maker Oscar winner Nobel winner scientist inventor history teacher philosopher
poet shaman singer leader fire-breather lion beast1

My parents said lists make us wish for the impossible

They’re unrealistic
Stop making lists

1
This list could be longer. It is encouraged in rehearsal to ask the performers and members of creative team to add
to this list from their own childhood perspectives. It is also possible to ask the audience to contribute to the list, if
the staging allows for organic interaction.

25
But I didn’t listen
‘cause I’d seen mom and dad make lists
And not just for groceries n shit
But for next year and the year after that

All kinds of dreaming

‘Bout taking trips

And buying a house
And owning things

One list was just appliances

Another list was cities

Are we moving? I ask

They don’t say
But I can see them thinking

Whole lotta towns we could be in

I make a face

Don’t look at us like that, kid

We know some things ‘bout things

I say, yeah
But in my heart I know better

26
21

I’ve seen them come back from all those wars

And they sure looked like they needed a big-time list
A new list to start their lives
Or make them up again

And I thought if I ever gotta go to some war

Fight for hell knows what

Stocks and derivatives and securities

I’d sure as hell make me a list

‘cause even if there’s no future
Even if they’re just five people left in your town
You gotta make things mean something
Hell yeah

22

Ol” guy says people back in his town

Back in the middle of the middle of the country
They’re all old
Like, real old
And they’re all men, too
Old, old guys sitting in some town
Watching it die

I ask ol’ guy on the bus, what do they do?

27
He says they talk about the old days
Talk about how they didn’t do nothing for their town
But let everybody go

All the young ones couldn’t wait to leave

So, they said go on now
Go for a ride
See ya later

Except they didn’t come back

‘cause there was nothing to come back to

And pretty soon it was just them

Buy the bread and milk at the lil’ store

Eat pizza at the diner on Saturdays
Drink at the bar for hours and a day

Watch their loved ones die

Bury them in the lil cemetery
And wait
Wait
Until they’re gone
And the whole town
Vanishes
Right along with them

What was the name of that town?

Hamburger.

28
I say to ol’ guy, are you shitting me?
That town’s called Hamburger?

Ol’ guy says watch your language

How old are you anyway, kid?

Eleven

Eleven’s too young for curse words

Who made them rules?

People

What people gotta do with words? Aren’t words just words?

Ol’ guy says his ol’ town is dead and he don’t wanna talk about it no more

Hamburger
I got a mind to look up that town and call his bluff

But I can see ol’ guy thinking

His brow creases
Gets a far-away look in his eyes
He left his town, too, you see
He was one of the young ones

And now he’s old

And he’s here
And I bet he’s thinking one day

29
One day this town is gonna die
And is he gonna watch it happen?

Gets all angry for a second

And says
That guy, that guy who’s bought half this town
He’s gonna ruin it for all of us
No trees anymore
Just condos
Steel and glass

Where are we gonna live?

Where are we gonna go?

Hamburger.

He makes a face

23

But then
We start laughing
Both of us

Silly kid laughing

Baby laughing
Giggling hiccupping roaring
Like we both ate the best hamburger in our lives
All juicy and melt-y and smelling like fire n onions n hickory smoke

30
And we’re tellin’ the whole world about it on some commercial somewhere

I LOVE THIS PLACE

I LOVE WHERE I AM
I’M GONNA SAVE THIS TOWN
FROM ALL OF THE STEEL AND GLASS AND BULLSHIT

BRING BACK THE TREES

PLANT SOME SEEDS
KEEP YOUR FAITH IN THIS TOWN

I’m thinking with talk like this

Man oh man, we could run for some office somewhere
We could be SUPERSTARS

24

So, I’ve basically stopped looking at the road

I’m letting the bike do what it does

If my superhero powers don’t kick in

Then I’m facing the biggest most spectacular crash
In this town’s history

Make the evening news

Make the headlines
Go viral

Maybe I’ll get a book made out of my life

31
Or a movie
Or a series
Or a video
Or a song

Three minutes of a song can change a person’s life

Isn’t that what they say?

I’ll be that person

The one in the song

THE KID WITH THE RED BIKE

People will pray to me

Send flowers to me
Light candles in my name
Forever young

25

Man, this shit is messed up

Like, we all wanna be famous
But not like that
Not for some accident

Hell, they’ll just say I was stupid for even going down this hill
And forget all about me

I’ll be like that curse in that story

32
Don’t mention the kid with the red bike
They’re bad news
Bad juju

26

Breeze
Faint as anything
But it feels good
Like hope

27

I wanna call somebody

But I got nothing on me
It’s just me and the bike

How I’m still on this thing

Is like a miracle

Should’ve crashed by now

Should be on the road pavement grass
Splitting my nose lips knees

If I were the ol’ guy

I’d say this got something to do with the gods

If I were Dude
I’d say this got something to do with my natural superhero moves

33
If I were my mom and dad
I’d say I am grounded for weeks

Not that my mom and dad don’t believe in miracles

But they’re more practical than that

Like, they go to church and talk to people

And make nice on Sundays
But they’ve seen too much of the world
To believe in grace

I mean, you can ask ‘em

But I’d bet you anything they’d say no
Before they’d give you the party line
They’re honest like that

28

Sometimes
Sometimes
I think about the gods
Way up there
And the ones down below too

And all of the mess they get themselves in

Like, way bigger messes than us

And it’s like, envy, you know

34
Monster envy
Like, deep

‘cause I’d like to hang out with them

And stir things up

Just to see if I could

Just to see if I’d last

29

Some gods die slow deaths

Before they become super gods

Like that guy who got chained to a rock

He was a god, right?

And he totally got the shit kicked out of him

If it wasn’t for that kid that got sent to that island

To ask him all of those questions bout fire n stuff
He woulda never made it to super god

I mean, I don’t think I’m a super god

But it’d be fun, right?

To walk round all proud

Thinking I got some connection to things
Thinking I got some lineage

35
30

Ol’ guy used that word once: lineage

It made me smile
‘cause I could see how it made him look up and out

I said, man, that’s a big ass word

He looks at me, you cursin’ again?

I was, like, just words

What have your people been teaching you?

Stuff

What kinda stuff?

Stuff bout stuff

Ol’ guy got all serious

And said lineage was not something to make a mockery of
‘cause it’s our bloodlines and the songs we got inside
And the fires too
And the little aches we pretend not to notice
Except when we feel them late at night
And our chest is just about bustin’ outta itself
He said lineage tells us who we are
N who we could be too

36
‘cause maybe somewhere in our line
There was someone that never did what they set out to do
But they dreamt about it
And their dreaming got inside you when you were born

So that when you’re on the road

Clinging to the handlebars like life
You think the tour de France is possible
Is something you were made for

31

So are the dreams you got

‘Bout someday owning a house

Not a big house

Just enough to not have to worry ‘bout rent all the time
And payin’ everybody everything every month
And seein’ how you’re gonna stretch things til Tuesday, like my dad says

You could even maybe get a nice outfit

Just to walk round and feel good ‘bout things

And maybe get that little elephant mom likes so much

From that antique store down in that village we went to once

And eat ice cream made with jasmine and roses

And feel all peaceful
Like the world’s a good place

37
N you’re doing good by it

And maybe sing a little song too

‘cause it’s nice to sing sometimes

(sung, very simply)

I am here
I am here
Look out, world. I am here

(Back to…)

Breeze comes at you

As you speed down the hill

Happy
Like, for real, happy

32

You remember that time you went to that famous theme park
That everyone swore was the happiest place ever

It made you anxious

And it made your mom and dad n everyone else crazy anxious

You felt so empty when you walked outta there

Like someone had dug a hole in your heart

38
And all this misery was just oozing outta you

And you wanted to shout

All of your sadness
Into the sky

And you thought I HATE THIS PLACE

I hate someone tellin me I gotta be happy all the time
I hate feelin like I can’t buy all the stuff I want

While that stupid lady with the white hair and the killer boots
Spent five hundred dollars on that ONE THING

‘cause she could

‘cause it made her feel more important than everyone else
In the whole entire store

And how you want to shout at her

CALL HER OUT
And tell her she was the stupidest person in the world

‘cause her stuck-up-ness was just shit

And it was so gonna catch up with her someday
When she was lookin outta her luxury condo
At the plaza with no trees
Feeling all alone

‘cause that ONE THING

That ONE THING couldn’t save her life

39
33

The gods pray for us, Dude says

The gods are in us, ol’ guy says

We are gods, I say

But we forgot where we came from

One day
Our memories will come back to us
And we’ll stand as tall as that lady
Even if all we have are our little things
Made of plastic and fake china and cracked wood

34

I’m feeling dizzy now

Arms tense
Legs spent
Stomach fulla cheese and soda

I forgot to eat right

I just walked out the door
Goin for a ride
Didn’t know anything was gonna happen

Drone hovers

40
Hey, drone, help me out here
Do something for the world

Drone keeps flying

Headin over there, I bet

To where the real godforsaken mess is

I don’t even wanna think about it

‘cause the news?
The stuff over there?
Man oh man, it’s like the stuff over here times a hundred

Mom and dad think I don’t see the pictures

When they put the news on
They think I got my mind on toys n shit
But I see

35

Like, that kid2 sitting on that piece of cardboard

Next to the grocery store
They’re always sitting there
In their black clothes
N stinky hair
Moving their head up n down
Making sounds their mouth
Like they’re wailing or pleading

2
The gender of this other kid is intentionally ambiguous, hence the use of “their.”

41
Or just asking the light in the sky to send them peace

Nobody says anything

We all act like the kid’s not there
Cuz the kid’s always there
Always

A fixture, someone says

We got tired of trying to help

Don’t want it anyway

Lazy
Don’t wanna look for a job

The kid makes sounds

Moves their head up and down
Anxious
Crazy anxious
Making signs in the air

I wanna give the kid a dollar

Mom says,
Get inside,
Get in the car
NOW

We drive away

Kid keeps moving their head up and down

42
Why can’t I give them a dollar?

That kid will just spend it on drugs

With a dollar?

Be quiet now.

We ride in silence

I’m thinking of the kid n their stinky hair

And how they looked so young

We could be kin

Be quiet now

Who’s to say?
Maybe somewhere down the line
We’re blood or-

Be QUIET

I slam the door to my room when we get home

The dollar burns in my pocket
Next time, next time I’m gonna give
Don’t care what anybody says

43
36

The air sings a song of reason

I’m feeling strangely hopeful
Maybe this is what happens when a person’s crossed the divide

My body feels as light as air

My head is full of dreams
I’m thinking maybe tonight we will win the lottery
How cool would that be?

Not having to think anymore

‘Bout what we need and what we’re gonna do
Cuz we’ll have everything

37

Like the Guy

The one who owns half this town
People say he’s evil
People call him all sorts of names

And yeah, he killed the trees

And yeah, he’s don’t really care ‘bout us
And yeah, he’s a big monster

But I saw him once

On the other side of town
Far, far away from his luxury condo

44
He was sitting in some little restaurant
All alone
Totally not the kind of place you’d expect him to be

Cuz this place was, like, little

Ten tables at most
With plastic placemats and plastic glasses
And day-old bread in the bread basket

He was eating a quiche

HUGE cake of a thing
I was, like, what the hell is that?
Quiche, a voice said

It was all yellow with bits of green and a weird crusty kind of edge
And it looked like it had been sitting in the freezer for a hella long time

He was wearing his suit

But it wasn’t pressed

His face was puffy

His eyes were red

He kept looking at his phone

But not doing anything with it

Just looking
Staring
Picking at his quiche
He ordered a soda

45
HUGE soda

He slurped
Made noises
Looked at the phone
Asked the server for the time

I was, like, what’d he need it for?

He knows the time
It’s on his phone
But he asked anyway
He wanted to hear someone’s voice
Wanted someone to have the right answer when he asked a question

38

I was sitting in the corner

I’d stopped in for a soda
Don’t usually come by this part of town
Cuz everything here’s slow and dull and smells of gasoline

Ol’ guy says there was a factory here once that made cars

I’m, like, uh-huh

Ol’ guy says this part of town used to be happening

He uses that word “happening”

Like it got some special meaning

46
He laughs
Makes a gesture with his hands
Revels in his secret

I’d been riding past my usual time

I’d been trying to set a record

Not in some book

Just for myself
I figured if I was gonna be in the tour de France someday
I had to start training now

That day my goal had been two hundred miles

I know
I know
They usually do 2200 miles over 23 days
My goal was unrealistic
I know
I know, OKAY?

But if you don’t set a goal, what’s the point?

I’d put in about hundred miles
Between the flats and the hills
I was thirsty

When the restaurant

47
39

Mom and dad had taken me there once

Way, way back
Maybe when I was five
They said it was kinda down home but real good
N we could totally get something authentic there

Didn’t know what they meant by authentic

Cuz food is food, right?

But they said, this place has real food

Like in the ol’ days
Nothing fancy but it will fill you up

The tables are fake wood

And full of stains that won’t go away

The chairs make you slide

Like, they got something on ‘em

The floor is dark n unsteady

Swear you feel you’re gonna fall down
If you don’t look where you’re going
I’m not sure about this place
But mom and dad say, it’s good, you’ll see
Besides, we drove all this way, didn’t we?

They got chicken pot pies and mashed potatoes

48
I got an omelet that tasted like beans
Big tall sodas and cold cups of coffee

40

I am full, the Guy said

As he finished the last bite of his quiche

I was downing my soda

Like I’d raced ‘cross the Pyrenees

Guy was looking at his phone

He sees me

Red bike, red bike

And then he starts crying

Flat out bawling like a child
I’m thinking, if he wants my bike so bad

But no
Cuz he turns his phone over
Puts his head in his hands
And keeps crying

There’s hardly anyone in the little restaurant

The server pretends to pay him no mind

People do things like this all the time in places like these, I hear someone say

49
It’s coming from the front
The cash register

Person behind it looks all of ten

But they’re way older than that

They’re wearing a brown outfit

All brown
Like, they’re in the Brownies or something

They have fake braids and a funny smile

And they’re standing behind the register
Like it’s a fort

“People do things like that all the time”

I wanna smack them

I’m not violent

I’m not prone, as they say
But sometimes this kinda feeling comes over me
And it makes me wanna do things
Really bad things

Don’t you see this guy’s crying?

I bet he’s cheating on somebody, person says

And gives a customer their change

I walk over to the cash register

50
Stare at the person
They look startled

I pull at their fake, store-bought, stupid, dangling braid

Person slaps my hand

Guy stops crying

Looks at us
Looks at me

41

Jump on the bike

Start pedaling as fast as my legs will let
Hear his voice in my brain

Red bike, red bike, red bike

I am flying
No way is he
No hella way is he gonna take this bike away from me

My mom and dad paid good money for this bike

It is mine
All mine
What’s he want with it anyway?
He owns half the town already

51
Greedy sonofabitch
Go cry in someone else’s quiche
LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE

Red bike, red bike, red bike

His voice won’t let up

I am racing
Pushing against myself
Flats and hills
Curves and rivulets
I’m steering like one of them Olympic dudes
Total gold medal shit

Past the warehouse

Past the Waffle Stop
Past the silo
I am an animal now
Made of skin and bone
Air and light

My body is one with the bike

Red, red, red

I am singing a chord of happiness

I’m bleeding joy
Look out, world
LOOK OUT

52
42

Something greasy
Losing control
The sky’s in my face
The ground is nowhere to be found

I am in some kinda cloud

Legs moving
But I can’t feel anything
Arms tensin up
Veins and muscle

The Waffle Stop sign is far away now

The silo is a postcard from long ago
I see a feather floating outta the corner of my eye
It’s the color of sadness
Color of motion
Flecks of blue, grey and aquamarine

I’m sinking into my chest

Falling into a dream

Red, red, red

The Guy’s face is covered in leaves

He moves like a monster

How’d he get here?

53
Why’s he following me?

I try to pedal with all of my might

But I can’t feel my feet

Red, red, red

I’m like one of those kids on the news

From that place far, far away
Weighed down by a desire for forgiveness

My lips are smarting, cracking from the heat

My teeth are numb
My cheeks are drowning in tears
I’m beyond a cartoon on TV
I’m beyond everything

I think of mom and dad

Waiting for me

I think of Dude and their two-dollar dreams

I think of ol’ Guy and how he also talks about winning the lottery

I see numbers on a card

Could be this how we make something out of our lives?

The monster rustles

The air is thick

54
I think about how everyone’s in a hurry these days
How nobody says I’m sorry
How people don’t know how to talk to one other
How everybody’s robbed of sleep

The monster stares

His eyes are gone
Just sockets now
Just the burning ash of leaves

Red, red, red

He has something in his hand

Can’t make it out
Something shiny

Points it at me
Laughs
But it sounds like a cry
Like someone in the worst kinda pain ever

Red, red, red

43

I’m dreaming of a house

Way out in the country
The house is made of all sorts of things
Patched together from years of living

55
I walk into it
Except I have no feet

I float

My torso is the body of the bike

My arms hang at my sides

He won’t find me here

This place is far, far away
Years from now
Beyond his imagining

The house lifts me into its arms

Cradles me like a child
It smells of old paint and moss and summers by the sea

I want to touch its walls

But it whispers something

I fall asleep

Red, red

Ol’ guy says if you look close, you can see a map of stars
On the soles of your feet

He says weird things that sound

Like they come from some place deep in his past
He wears a red vest and a blue denim shirt

56
And prays for baseball teams

I wonder what it’s like to spend most of your life

On a bus
Taking people up and down, past and through one town and another
A bottle of water in a bucket by the driver’s seat

44

My mom works in the clinic part time

People speak to her in broken languages
They ask her to make things better, please

They have coins in their pockets

And dig dollars out from the soles of their shoes
They say if you tell us we’re okay
If you put it down in ink
We can get a job
A better job
One that will get us one step closer to the lottery

My mom asks them to fill out forms

She has the patience of ten gods
She listens to them
And holds her breath

And doesn’t let on to anyone

That she has the same dreams they do

57
This land is not mine
This land is not yours
This land is just land

45

The monster breathes

Red, red

He looks inside the house

Through the window out front

There’s the stench of old water

Coming from the backyard

There’s the sound of an old party

Moving through the trees

This used to be a theater once, a voice says

This used to be parlor
This used to be a ballroom

The monster wheezes

Crumpling his body against the front of the house
He lets the shiny thing fall from his hands

He’s not run this far this fast in a long time

He misses the sky

58
He misses the things he knows

Stocks and derivatives and securities

His voice is like a green stem

As he lets out another cry
And bangs his fists against the door of the house

I think to open it
But the house won’t let me

The house has got me by the arms

And it won’t let go

It says the future has no time for voices from the past
Especially voices
That wheeze and needle and cry

I struggle in the house’s arms

I’ve never been one for shelter

I long for the road

And the hill
The rivulets and the winding curves
And the way flats become hills become flats again
I tell the house that if the monster wants to see me
I’m ready for him
Even if I can’t tear down the sign that says FOR LEASE

The house caresses my steel torso

59
It kisses my aluminum arms
It rests its hands on my bones threaded with carbon fiber

Go on now, it says
Go for a ride
See ya later

46

There’s a part of the road that smells like fire

I warm to it
Like the breath of the ancients

The shiny thing sticks in the mud

As the monster wheezes
His last days

Red, red

I feel blessed
Strange

In the old books that people read once long ago

It was said monsters ate through the better part of you
So that you could find the rest of your way

Drone hovers

I let the fire lick my tongue

60
Red, red

The city sleeps in a yellow haze

Blue shutters snap against the faint breeze
The silo glows in the distance

Steel aluminum carbon fiber

Courses through my veins
Legs feel the weight of tomorrow
Arms feel the shudder of yesterday

The shiny thing barely glints

As the monster reaches for it

A parade of laughter
A litany of red

It’s a fork, he says

It’s nothing but a fork
Is this what you’re running from, kid?

The Guy is standing

Suit pressed
His hand a phone
The fork dangles from his pocket

I was a eating a quiche, he says to the air

I catch him smiling
Wondering if I’ll give him a smile back

61
Hot

Yes

Way it is here
Way it always is in summer

I have half a mind to turn back

But I can’t find my feet

I left them back at the house

Guy keeps staring

The fork dangles on the edge of his right pocket

Who says I’m running?

Sorry?

I’m not running from anybody

You’re a funny kid

You’re not getting my bike

And then he raises his arms

Like a monster genuine bonafide
Tall, tall up to the sky
The fork in his right hand

62
Gleaming of quiche
From when he bit on it last

He looks like he’s coming toward me

But he’s not moving his legs
He’s planted on the ground
His shoes dusty from the road and the heat

Did you steal that fork?

Are you a thief?

His arms get longer, higher into the sky

Cracking through the heavens

They’ll make you pay for it

He laughs
Loud, big and rumbly
Like a perfect cartoon monster

Except the laugh

Got ‘another note inside
That rings hollow, sad and strange

I stand my ground
Even without feet
Are you a thief?

His laugh becomes an ocean

63
Steel and glass and cascades of numbers
Pour from it

He moves toward me
For real this time

Are you?

Red, red, red

I think now is the time to pull out my superhero moves

Now is the time to turn into a beast
Or something with a cape

But I am frozen
My superhero signals aren’t firing anything to my brain

Guy aims the fork at the universe

Like he’s about to give a proclamation

I AM WHAT YOU MADE ME

And with these words

With these simple words
The fork comes down
Straight
Into my heart

His laughter enters my body

His outsized arms engulf me

64
 I AM WHAT YOU MADE ME

47

I think of our town

Our little town
Stuck in the middle of nowhere
Poised for majesty

There were fields and fields of corn and wheat

The Ol’ Guy said
And now there are just warehouses full of stuff

What are we gonna do?

What are we gonna do with all that stuff?

The bus ambles down the road

A road that’s not even a highway

I try to imagine the corn

I try to imagine the wheat
I pretend I’m in some movie

Camera sweeping through vast fields of glory

Nature electric in its bloom
But my imagination fails me
As the bus squawks and hisses to a stop
N ol’ guy says,

65
 We’re running low on gas
Gotta fill up

I sit in the bus

Waiting
Thinking about nothing and everything

I was born into this

Why’s ol’ guy blamin me?

Pure sad, he shouts

Things that happen now are pure sad

What’s he want from me?

I can’t fix sadness
Hell, I’m no good with corn and wheat

I need stuff
We all do
Don’t we?

My dad needs that job

If that warehouse weren’t there,
We’d be starving

‘cause it’s that job, that job that keeps us going

‘cause the other nine jobs he’s got don’t add up to one

Ol’ Guy’s dreaming

Bout some past that’s never comin’ back

66
Pure sad, he mutters

Ground wouldn’t remember how to grow corn and wheat

All it knows now is concrete
Steel and glass

48

My arteries smell of eggs and broccoli

The fork wedges into the membrane of my heart
The monster laughs
As I sputter onto the baking heat of the road

I am what you made me

I see him walk over to my bike

Red, red

He lifts it gingerly onto his arms

Light as a feather

He cries a solemn cry

That sounds as if he is praying

Chaos reigns

As he hurls it down the hill

Down to the edge of the city

67
Past the trees
And the fields
And the small houses clinging to the earth

Crash

The bike hits a massive wall

A splatter of red limbs
Against grey concrete
Wheels, gears, spokes
Scatter their remains
Onto an ocean of gravel

The sound is small

Gentle, almost
An innocent crash

As the monster walks away

And I struggle to breathe

49

In the dictionary
A bike is described as a human-powered
Pedal-driven
Single-track vehicle
Having two wheels
Attached to a frame,
One behind the other

68
Its motion depends on us
Where we go? It follows

But what happens when we don’t know where we’re going?

What happens when all we can think of is the bike?

When I was six I wanted to be a helicopter

I wanted to hover
Like a drone
Over the earth
And be able to swoop down and see things up close

I wanted to rescue people

And fly in combat
Like I’d seen in the movies
I wanted to do good

My mom and dad said human beings can’t be helicopters

And that I should delete that idea from my list of dreams
Be realistic, they said
Think of practical things

So, I thought of all of the things

I saw people do in this town

Like, mow the lawn

Do drugs
Crash parties
Smoke weed
Go to church

69
Marry
Have babies
Get into fist fights

Go to jail
Go to the movies
Watch TV
Watch their screens

Watch football
Watch baseball
Watch basketball
Watch wrestling
Watch anything
Watch everything

Cuss at their children

Wail at their grandparents
Cry over commercials
Beat each other up
to be first in line at a shopping spree

Sit on the lawn

Watch the fireworks
Pray

This land is not mine

This land is not yours
This land is just land

70
And then
Shoot a gun into the air

For fun
For kicks
For love
For hate
For nothing

For nothing

Just to shoot
Just to be
Say I am here
I was here
Someone made me

And then roar

Like animals

Cry
Like babies

Think of the past

Of the rain

Of the days when

People loved each other
And didn’t think about things

71
Like stuff

Stuff they needed

‘cause someone said

If they didn’t have
If they didn’t need

They were nothing

Nothing

Without their stuff

And no one
No one
Wants to be nothing

NO ONE
NO ONE
WANTS TO BE NOTHING

So we became our stuff

And we thought nothing of it

Because it was chaos
And it tasted good

Sweet
Like candy

72
Like skittles and rocks and jelly beans

And our teeth rotted

And our mouths stayed open
And our bellies grew
And our tongues licked the edges of everything

Even when we prayed

Even when we said grace

Until we forgot
We forgot what it is that we wanted
We forgot that the only thing we were here for

Is to learn how to live

And learn how to die

50

The neon sign buzzes in my ear

My mouth is on the edge of the road
Next to the Waffle Stop

Bad turn, someone says

You took a bad turn on the road

I reach for the fork stuck in my heart

But there is nothing
Except for a tiny gash

73
I reach to one side to get up
My feet are aching
What time is…?

I can barely make out the words

Everything is slow and blurry

Supper, someone says

You comin’ in for a waffle?
You got kin?

I look at the faded blue streaks dancing in the sky

I think if I don’t get home,
Mom and dad will be worried sick all night

I’m all right.

You sure?

I start walking
The sun has gone down
The heat has faded
My clothes are sticky, smelly,
N stained with gravel and dirt

I think: I need to get my moves back

Or I am never gonna make the tour de France

When a voice says

This your bike?

74
I see it

Over there
Leaning sideways
Against the faded stem
Of the Waffle Stop sign

Red bike

It stares at me the same way it did once

From behind the store window

This yours?

I think of Ol’ Guy working the late shift on the bus

I think of Dude making their little songs on the drums

I think of how this town may be shit

But it’s all we got

And how sometimes

Sometimes
I like feeling like a superstar

Even though I know I’m just a kid

And by the time I’m twelve
My dreams are hella gonna change
And by the time I’m the same age as Ol’ Guy
If I get there

75
I’ll have seen so much of the world
I’ll wonder how it is one can hold all of that inside
Without making some serious NOISE

Voice says again,

This your bike?

No.

I turn away
And walk home
Into the night.

End of play

76