Script Sample:
     Hurricane House

DELIA ENTERS from the interior of
the house. She is fully dressed, though
not quite a hundred percent back to
normal. She is pensive. She has
something dreadful to say, and she’s
unsure how and when to say it, but she
knows she must.

DELIA

(Softly)

I’m sorry, Mama.

​

CAROLEENA

(Gazing on LEAVELL, speaks less tenderly than one might expect)

You ain’t got nothing to be sorry for. You’re awake. How you feeling?

​

DELIA
(She meant something else)
There’s nothing wrong with me. Not now.

CAROLEENA

Good.

​

DELIA sits, and stares at the open door, at the outside, where she knows what awaits them.

CAROLEENA (Cont.)

You slept through the last day and a half, mostly. You know you were at the hospital? X-rays and tests--couldn’t find what was wrong.

​

DELIA

I remember the hospital...a little. A needle, when they drew some blood...a nurse maybe...

​

CAROLEENA

(Sharply)

Don’t you wonder what happened in your absence? Don’t you even want to know what’s happened to your sister? If we found her? Been missing for two whole days, and you ain’t even concerned!

DELIA

(Shocked, but quietly, like it’s a surprise yet it makes sense)

It’s been...been two days?

​

CAROLEENA

(Loud and angry)

Your granma was here for a while, but I sent her back home. Just makin’ me more nervous. You been asleep, girl! Don’t you even want to know?

​

DELIA

I know...I know what happened...

​

LEAVELL, awakened by CAROLEENA’s outburst, sits up slowly.

CAROLEENA

How do you know WHAT’S been going on? You been enjoying the comforts of your BED.

​

DELIA

That’s not what I’m saying, Mama. That’s not what I’m saying. I wish it was, I wish to God it was...

​

LEAVELL

(Stands, preparing to go out once more)

Got to go out again. Be back in a few hours...

CAROLEENA

(To LEAVELL)
Don’t you wanna go over the map?

​

LEAVELL

This town ain’t but so big, Mama. I’ve looked everywhere already. The police have looked everywhere. I’ll just...I don’t know.

DELIA

(Quiet, reluctant to speak, knowing the response)

Don’t go, Leavell. There’s no reason.

​

CAROLEENA

You see! You see! Look at her! She don’t give a damn! You heard her yourself!

(To DELIA)
I oughtta smack you across this room!

LEAVELL

Mama! Mama! She’s been sick.

​

DELIA

(More and more difficult for her, grapples for words)
I wasn’t. Not sick, anyway. Something...happened...to me. Something did happen...I felt this pain, gut-wrenching pain. Like somebody was...

(Voice drops to a whisper)

...like I was being stabbed. With a knife. It hurt something fierce. Exactly like I was being stabbed.

​

CAROLEENA

Like you were being STABBED? You were standing here! In the living room! Wasn’t nobody here but us. Now what sense does that make?

​

LEAVELL

She passed out cold, Mama. Something sure as hell happened.

​

CAROLEENA

Must’ve been cramps. Something like that. Woman trouble.

​

LEAVELL

Never heard of “woman trouble” putting somebody in the hospital like that.

​

CAROLEENA

Well now, I don’t reckon you know much about it, anyhow.

​

LEAVELL

I know enough.

(To DELIA)
You’re not pregnant, are you?

​

DELIA

NO. Wish I was. Compared to this, I wish I was. God in heaven, if only it was just that.

​

CAROLEENA

Well what the hell was it? You talk like you know what happened. Three doctors couldn’t figure it out, but you act like YOU know.

LEAVELL
(To CAROLEENA)

Take it easy.

​

DELIA
(In the low voice)

It wasn’t physical. The pain was real, all right. But, you know, it wasn’t physical. I don’t know how to say it...

 

DELIA becomes more emotional,
punctuates her speech near the end
with tiny sobs. The others listen with
growing horror as they struggle with
their own disbelief.

​

DELIA

Mama, Leavell...Delta...Delta’s passed on. Those pains...the attack...remember how, sometimes, I used to say my hand hurt bad maybe...and there wouldn’t...wouldn’t be no reason for it. But Delta would come running out of the
next room, and she’d slammed the door on her hand. Or she...she would say she felt like she was drunk sometimes...
(To CAROLEENA)

You told me once you had to put her to bed, she couldn’t stand up no more, only she never drank a drop of liquor. But I came home so drunk that night my friends had to just dump me on the couch? That’s what this is. She would be feeling what I’m feeling. I would be feeling what she was feeling. I been trying to...trying to find a way to believe that it’s not so...some other way to explain it--some other way! But--my God!--Mama! She was stabbed. Two nights ago, when I felt those pains and I passed out. Delta was being stabbed. I know it just as sure as I’m sitting here. I know that’s what happened. And now...and now, ‘cause nobody found her yet--I know...she’s dead. You got to...got to accept it...she’s gone, Mama, you got to accept it...

​

CAROLEENA
(Explodes in outraged horror)

You shut your filthy--! FILTHY! What makes you say things like that! MY GOD IN HEAVEN--are you so JEALOUS of her--always had a filthy mouth--! Lying! You take this mumbo jumbo mojo SHIT on out of here! You oughtta be going out there with ‘em--instead of--instead of--FILTHY!

LEAVELL

Mama. Calm down. Calm down, now. I don’t think that’s what she--

​

CAROLEENA

CALM DOWN NOTHING!

​

LEAVELL

(To DELIA)
That’s not what you meant, is it?

​

CAROLEENA

That’s what she SAID!

​

LEAVELL

(To CAROLEENA, vainly trying to avoid the meaning)

See, that’s not what she meant...

​

CAROLEENA turns and makes a motion toward DELIA to
physically strike her, then restrains herself.

​

CAROLEENA
(Through clenched teeth)

Let me get my hands on you--!

​

DELIA
(The most honest statement of her life, and the most painful)

I loved her, Mama...I didn’t like her very much, sometimes, but I loved her too. More than you can understand. And now she’s gone...I don’t feel her anymore...