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Not For Sale
Wren, sixteen, is running the yard sale before her family moves to a smaller place. Everything on the lawn must go. One scuffed guitar case leans against her chair with a tag that says not for sale, and her mother, a buyer, and her little brother all want it gone.
Characters
- WREN (LEAD) - 16 to 17, runs the cash box, stubborn, has been the adult in the house for a while
- CAROL - 40s, her mother, packing a whole house by Tuesday and out of patience
- MR. HALE - 60s, a buyer who knows a good instrument when he sees one
- BENNY - 9, her little brother, counting quarters and thinking about pizza
Setting
A front lawn on a Saturday morning, folding tables covered with a family's belongings, a sign that reads EVERYTHING MUST GO.
A front lawn on a Saturday morning. Folding tables covered in dishes, lamps, coats. A hand-lettered sign: EVERYTHING MUST GO. WREN sits behind a cash box. An acoustic guitar in a scuffed case leans against her chair. Its tag says NOT FOR SALE. MR. HALE is looking at it. BENNY counts quarters at the end of the table.
MR. HALE
The guitar.
WREN
Not for sale.
MR. HALE
It's at a yard sale.
WREN
It's next to a yard sale.
MR. HALE
The tag's on it.
WREN
The tag says not for sale. That's why the tag is on it.
MR. HALE
(opening the case)
Solid top. Somebody didn't take care of it, but somebody built it right. I'll give you forty.
WREN
Please close the case.
CAROL comes out of the house carrying a box of books.
CAROL
Is he asking about the guitar?
WREN
He's leaving.
CAROL
Sir, everything on the lawn is for sale. My daughter is being sentimental.
WREN
Mom.
CAROL
Wren. We talked about this.
WREN
You talked. I listened. That's not the same as agreeing.
BENNY
Forty dollars is a lot.
WREN
Count your quarters, Ben.
BENNY
I did. It's eleven dollars. Forty dollars is a lot more than eleven.
MR. HALE
Sixty.
WREN
It's not an auction.
CAROL
Sixty is fair. It's got a crack in the neck.
WREN
It's got a crack in the headstock, and it's from when he dropped it on the porch step the night he was showing me the G chord, and it still holds a tune, so it's fine.
Beat. CAROL sets the box down.
CAROL
It's been two years.
WREN
I know how long it's been.
CAROL
Two years, and one postcard, and he didn't come back for it. He's not coming back for it. He isn't, honey.
WREN
Then it's mine.
CAROL
It doesn't fit in the apartment.
WREN
It's a guitar. It fits in a closet. It fits under a bed. It's not a piano.
CAROL
It's not about where it fits.
WREN
(standing)
Then say what it's about. Say it in front of the man with the sixty dollars. Go ahead.
Silence. MR. HALE closes the case, gently.
MR. HALE
I'll look at the lamps.
WREN
Thank you.
He moves off. BENNY comes over.
BENNY
If you sell it we could get the good pizza. Not the coupon one.
WREN
Benny.
BENNY
He didn't even play it. He said he was gonna learn and he didn't.
WREN
He was gonna teach me. He said when I was sixteen. That's what he said.
BENNY
You're sixteen.
WREN
(quietly)
Yeah. I know.
She sits back down. CAROL comes closer.
CAROL
I'm not trying to take him away from you.
WREN
Yeah, you are. You're trying to take him away from all of us, and you think if the stuff's gone, it'll be easier. And maybe it will be easier for you. I'm not there yet.
CAROL
Wren, I gotta pack a whole house by Tuesday.
WREN
Then let me take one thing out of it.
MR. HALE returns with a lamp. He sets it on the table and puts a twenty down.
MR. HALE
For the lamp.
WREN
It's marked twelve.
MR. HALE
I know what it's marked.
He looks at the guitar case.
MR. HALE
My daughter kept her mother's sewing machine. Doesn't sew. It's in her hall closet. I used to think it was a waste of a closet.
WREN
And now?
MR. HALE
Now I think a closet's a closet.
He goes. WREN puts the twenty in the box. She looks at CAROL. CAROL looks at the guitar for a long moment. Then she picks it up.
WREN
Mom.
CAROL pulls the NOT FOR SALE tag off. Looks at it. She takes a marker from the table and writes on the back of the tag. She sticks it back on the case and turns it so WREN can see. It says: WREN'S.
CAROL
Put it in the car. Front seat. Before I change my mind.
WREN takes the case. She holds it a second longer than she needs to.
WREN
(to Benny)
Coupon pizza.
BENNY
(sighing)
Coupon pizza.
She carries it to the car. CAROL watches her go, then turns back to the tables. Lights fade.
End of script