Let Me Do the Talking: An Attempted One-Act on Xenophobia and Effective Advocacy

Scene 6

Outside the school on one side of the stage, early the following morning. As sleepy students meander around upstage, ADRIAN walks in front of them with a large, crudely-drawn sign. It depicts a crying stick-figure child sitting in a cage, surrounded by a puddle of bright cyan tears.

ADRIAN: (Stops in place, facing the audience. His volume should startle them.) END FAMILY SEPARATION! THEIR CHILDREN ARE OUR CHILDREN! PROTECT UNDOCUMENTED FAMILIES! (Ad lib and repeat until students upstage become irritated and leave.)

DYLAN enters, fingers shoved in zir ears.

DYLAN: Dude, what are you doing?

ADRIAN: What I wanted you to text me about yesterday!

DYLAN: I thought you just wanted to check in after the whole imagining-my-siblings-orphaned

thing.

ADRIAN: Of course that too, but Dylan, we have to do something about it. We can't just sit and

mope--

DYLAN: (Holds a hand up.) Adrian, it is seven-thirty in the morning. I get it. I appreciate it. But not right now. Just--come get breakfast with me.

Lights down. They move across the stage, where the disgruntled students from outside have settled down with trays of food. As the lights come up, ADRIAN and DYLAN sit in adjacent empty spots close to the audience.

DYLAN: (Mid-conversation.) Yeah. Mom got off early, so we went to a late showing of The Peanuts Movie. The twins loved it—they felt all adult and stuff, it was kinda cute.

ADRIAN: Aww, wholesome...

DYLAN: Buuut then we got home and they wouldn't go to sleep. Brats.

ADRIAN: (Laughs.) My cousins came over for dinner last night, so I kinda got the same treatment. Had to listen to Bubble Guppies music from the den for like, hours on end.

DYLAN: Man, how long's it been since I was at your house last?

ADRIAN: When'd you start babysitting again?

An awkward beat. DYLAN sighs, staring at the table.

DYLAN: This column on Tailor's been giving me hell.

ADRIAN: Why? It's not like he can read anyway, if the slope of his forehead's anything to go by.

DYLAN: I'm not worried about him. It's barely even about him, more on how people can just joke about refugees literally dying on the Rio Grande for a chance at a stable life. I'm just worried about starting a fight I can't win, y'know? Like what if I get in trouble for slander or something and I end up making a scene?

ADRIAN: Then make a scene. The longer we sit here and let people like him do whatever, the more people will believe terrible things about you that aren't true. We at least need to talk about it, and no one will blame you, or "Soapbox Sami" or whoever, for pointing out the elephant in the room.

DYLAN: Okay, you keep talking like I don't think about the repercussions every time I tell someone to let it go. I'm doing my part already. I've been on the paper since freshman year, and this is far from my first time covering xenophobia from other kids. But when you do the interfacing-with-the-masses thing this much for this long, you get tired!

ADRIAN: Hold on, I've never seen you talk about xenophobic stuff.

DYLAN: I wrote on Islamophobia in world history courses last week.

If the last beat was awkward, this one is cringeworthy. ADRIAN, who skipped reading last week's paper, is clearly embarrassed.

ADRIAN: S-Still. Maybe five people read that paper. No offense, but it's true. If a tree falls in the woods and no one's around to hear it...

DYLAN: But there are people around. It's not my fault they don't listen--er, read.

ADRIAN: So what you're saying is, you need a hype man?

DYLAN gives ADRIAN an incredulous look, but ze thinks about it. Morning announcements aren't much of an ad campaign; zir friend's screeching might come in handy after all.

DYLAN: (Zir previous expression falls away, replaced by a smirk and a brief exhale of a laugh.) Yeah, I guess. When do you wanna start?

ADRIAN: How long you need on that article?

DYLAN: About a week.