This was written for my first assigned ten-minute play. As I mentioned, it is inspired by some of the backstory of my larp The Stand. I'm actually pretty happy with this, though I imagine I will want to revise the draft. For the posting here, I have changed the names that actually appeared in The Stand to avoid spoilers, so it should be safe to read if you still want to play the game. To those of you who have played, I'll happily tell you who these characters actually are, in case it's not already obvious.
(A man dressed as a cowboy, RED JED PORTER, sits outside a canvas tent, holding a rag compress to a wound in his shoulder. A young woman in frontier garb, POLLY WALKER, comes out of the tent to check on him.)
POLLY: You sure you’re all right there?
JED: Nothing but a scratch, love. I dug bigger’n that out of my shoulders before.
POLLY: Let’s have a look.
(She lifts the compress to look at the wound.)
POLLY: The bleeding’s slowed. You should be all right, thank God.
JED: Takes more than a peashooter like that to slow down Red Jed Porter. Still, wouldn’t have thought folks at a trading post would have that much fight in them. No matter, was worth the furs we nabbed.
POLLY: I suppose.
JED: Sure were. Beaver and bear and rabbit. We’ll get a good price for them.
(POLLY doesn't respond.)
JED: And how are you, missy?
POLLY: I ain’t hurt.
JED: Not that. You been awful quiet since we got back to camp.
(Pause.)
JED: I know things went bad in there.
POLLY: It was just... that inside man of yours. Diego having to shoot him.
JED: Yeah. Wasn't expecting him to turn on us like that.
POLLY: Seeing that was awful hard.
JED: Folk’s gotten killed before on our jobs.
POLLY: I know, hon… just not with their family right there looking at them.
JED: Yep. That was rough and no mistake.
(Pause.)
POLLY: Did you see his wife there?
JED: I did.
POLLY: You see how big she was? She’s going to have a baby soon.
JED: Most like.
POLLY: I never knew they was having a baby.
JED: Nor I. He didn't say nothing to me about it. But ain’t no surprise to me, Polly. Men often get into rough work when they’re going to have more mouths to feed.
POLLY: And there was that little girl.
JED: We didn’t hurt none of them.
POLLY: She was right there when her papa got cut down.
JED: It's a crying shame. That man done them real wrong not seeing them safely away. Best put it out of your mind, hon.
POLLY: My God, Jed, we got their daddy killed.
JED: I could do nothing for him, Polly. He knew what he was getting into.
POLLY: I know he did.
JED: Was his choice to do the job with us.
POLLY: I never even knew his name. Did you?
JED: Sure.
POLLY: What was it?
JED: It was Fred, love. He was Fred Gable.
(Pause.)
JED: Look here, love, the man was a damn fool. Way we planned it, nobody had to get hurt. We made a real sweet deal with him. Should have known better than to try and sell our gang out.
POLLY: Sure should have. But... did Diego have to kill him, though? Right there with his gravid wife and daughter looking on?
JED: Polly, you was there. The man went yellow on us. He was going to give up the whole scheme. Diego had to take care of him or he would have done for us all.
POLLY: He would have done for us because he didn’t want no trouble going on in front of his family.
JED: He knew we was coming. He didn’t have to bring them there. Sure it’s a terrible thing to put a man down before his baby girl’s eyes, but he didn’t leave us no choice!
POLLY: Can’t you do something, though?
JED: Weren't me that pulled the trigger on him.
POLLY: That's right, love. If you thought it was right, it would have been. You're the boss, Jed. If you don't like it, you could say something.
JED: It's not that simple, hon.
POLLY: Diego worships you. He listens to what you tell him.
JED: What you want me to say, Polly? That he's gotta be a kinder, gentler outlaw?
POLLY: I don't know. He's just so fast hauling off with that gun.
JED: Times like that, staying your hand's a good way to get a body killed. Back there, Diego took care of business. It's a hard thing.
POLLY: He’s a hard boy.
JED: Have to be, to run with a life like ours.
POLLY: I don’t think that’s so.
JED: Course it is, Polly. We got to do what we got to do.
POLLY: You ain’t like that, Jed. You don’t just fire a bullet to solve all your troubles. You're clever and brave and not just some murdering bandit. Everybody knows you for that.
JED: That’s for sure. Ain’t no man this side of the territory hasn’t heard of Red Jed Porter. Or his best gal Polly Walker neither.
POLLY: Remember the first time we saw us in the papers?
JED: That was after we ran off with half the stock in the Gregson Cattle Company. Weren’t that a thrill!
POLLY: Remember how you talked that rancher into hiding his herd in the ravine to protect them from rustlers?
JED: When the rest of the gang was down there waiting to make off with them.
POLLY: And what about the time you disguised yourself as a preacher to find where that rich widow hid her good silver?
(JED laughs.)
POLLY: And what about the time you outrode a whole team of marshals to lead them away from our camp?
JED: That was a wild ride, to be sure.
POLLY: That’s why you’re the biggest bandit in the west, love. Ain’t no gunshots did that. That’s why I came out here with you.
JED: And you stuck it out with me all this time. Was better than I could have believed.
POLLY: I'd follow you to hell gates, Jed. Course I'd follow you here.
JED: Of course, a gal like you was never going to spend forever in that one-horse town. You were going to want something more. And we got a lot out here. Freedom, adventure. Being together. I know times like these it ain’t always pretty, but you been happy, right?
POLLY: Of course I been. But... you ever think you'll have enough of it?
JED: Enough of what, the outlaw life?
POLLY: With the killing and such. I swear, Jed, I been glad to be out here with you, but do we want to still be sticking up wagons and rustling cattle when we're old fellows?
JED: True it ain't going to be easy to weather bullet wounds when I'm a graybeard. Maybe you could make a nice little prairie marm, Polly, but I'm not sure with this old reputation of mine I ever could settle down into some little town like I was some respectable gentleman.
POLLY: Nobody'd have to know what you really were. It’s your name that’s famous, not your face. With a different name they might not think anything of you.
JED: I suppose that's something. But what if they ever found out? They’d hang me soon as look at me.
POLLY: Might be.
JED: I fear that may not be for me until I'm a real old graybeard, love.
(Pause.)
JED: It ain’t always like it was today. Tomorrow we’ll move on from here, and things will be like they always are. You’ll forget about this in time.
(Pause.)
JED: Best get to packing, love. We’re moving out in the morning.
(JED stands and goes into the tent. POLLY sits alone, looking off into the distance.)
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