SEGMENT 15 of the musical "CANDELESCENCE" (written by Secretary Michael); illustration by Jennifer Stolzer; the latest SCRIPT is found below; click to find the sheet music to this segment's necessary song: "Nonviolence Takes a Long, Long Time" and its countermelody "One By One Destroy Each Gun"
Segment 15: Disgunsemble
(inside Garden School classroom; music class; TWIMFINA has guitar and is leading children in a slow, peaceful song)
CHILDREN
(singing)
NONVIOLENCE TAKES A LONG, LONG TIME
NONVIOLENCE TAKES A LONG, LONG TIME
IT TAKES A LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG TIME
IT TAKES A LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG, LONG TIME
SCOUT
Twimfina, Walter has something he needs to tell you.
WALTER
I do not.
SCOUT
(emphatically)
Yes. You. Do.
TWIMFINA
Hey! What’s gotten into you two? Up to now you’ve been working so nicely together.
SCOUT
This has nothing to do with that. Walter has something he needs to tell you.
TWIMFINA
If Walter has something that he doesn’t want to tell me, then Walter has something he doesn’t want to tell me. I don’t need to know his secrets. I respect his privacy.
SCOUT
Walter has a gun.
TWIMFINA
(concerned)
Walter, do you have a gun?
SCOUT
I’m sorry, Walter.
TWIMFINA
(with firmer voice)
Walter, do you have a gun?
WALTER
(resignedly)
Yes.
TWIMFINA
Where is the gun?
WALTER
(holds up bag)
TWIMFINA
(takes bag, opens it)
Where did you get this, Walter?
WALTER
I found it in the schoolyard, down by the road.
TWIMFINA
(removing old revolver from bag)
Uh! Those imbeciles from the GGG must have dropped it.
WALTER
But I never pointed it at anybody!
TWIMFINA
(removing bullets from cylinder)
Yes, Walter, I know that you would never do that.
POCA
Are you going to give it back to the GGG?
TWIMFINA
Zero possibility, Poca. They purposely scare people with their guns. Nobody should ever have to live in fear. I hope they lose ALL their guns!
AKEELAH
Why don’t we sell it? We can probably make some money from it.
TWIMFINA
And cause other people to get hurt or frightened? Them instead of us? We may be poor, Akeelah, but we’ll never bet THAT poor.
EDDIE
We could hide it where nobody will ever find it.
TWIMFINA
There IS no such place, Eddie. Even the dinosaurs that got hidden 66 million years ago are being found all the time. No, we’ve got to do what any educated, socially responsible person would do with a gun. We’ve got to destroy it.
POCA
Destroy it? How?
TWIMFINA
(opens her backpack and takes out a little screwdriver)
With one of these, Poca. With a little screwdriver a person can completely take apart a gun – or, to use the technical term, ‘disgunsemble’ it. Can you all say ‘disgunsemble’?
CHILDREN
Disgunsemble.
TWIMFINA
That’s right. Let’s all disgunsemble this ugly thing before Guru comes back for Math class. I’ll take out the screws, and then you take all the little pieces outdoors. Scatter them as far as you can so that nobody will ever be able to put this thing back together. Okay?
CHILDREN
(happily agree)
TWIMFINA
And let’s give our heroes, Walter and Scout, the first pieces to scatter. They deserve it because they’re the ones who saved us from all the bad things that might have happened from this gun.
CHILDREN
(happily agree)
TWIMFINA
(while taking apart the gun)
It’s kind of fun to take guns apart. There’s even a song for it. Would you like to learn it? After all, this IS supposed to be our music class.
CHILDREN
Sure!
TWIMFINA
(singing)
ONE BY ONE DESTROY EACH GUN AND SET US FREE
(Students repeat)
ONE BY ONE DESTROY EACH GUN SO WE CAN BE
(Students repeat)
FREE TO WALK DOWN ANY STREET, FREE TO SMILE AT THOSE WE MEET
(Students repeat)
FREE TO LET OUR CHILDREN PLAY, FEAR HAS TAKEN THIS AWAY
(Students repeat)
BRING BACK HOW IT USED TO BE, BRING BACK OUR COMMUNITY
(Students repeat)
BIT BY BIT WE’LL GET THIS DONE, ONE BY ONE DESTROY EACH GUN
(Students repeat)
TWIMFINA
Now you sing it again while I sing its piggyback.
(While the children sing “One by One” a second time, Twimfina sings the earlier song “Nonviolence Takes a Long, Long Time” as a countermelody)
CHILDREN AND TWIMFINA
(singing both songs simultaneously)
ONE BY ONE DESTROY EACH GUN AND SET US FREE
(Nonviolence, takes a long, long time)
ONE BY ONE DESTROY EACH GUN SO WE CAN BE
(Nonviolence, takes a long, long time)
FREE TO WALK DOWN ANY STREET
(It takes a long, long)
FREE TO SMILE AT THOSE WE MEET
(Long, long)
FREE TO LET OUR CHILDREN PLAY
(Long, long)
FEAR HAS TAKEN THIS AWAY
(Time)
BRING BACK HOW IT USED TO BE
(It takes a long, long)
BRING BACK OUR COMMUNITY
(Long, long)
BIT BY BIT WE’LL GET THIS DONE
(Long, long)
ONE BY ONE DESTROY EACH GUN
(Time)
END OF SEGMENT 15
