Like We Wasn't People
By Chelsea Terris
Shantrel is a 14-year-old black girl who has been sent to live in a Residential Treatment Center for Mentally Ill Teenagers. The monologue below is from Act One, Scene 7. Shantrel is eating stolen cake throughout her monologue.
SHANTREL
I got this older brother, and one day he's comin' over the house to see me and my moms. I's never seen him before so I's kinda excited. Moms said his Daddy could kiss her ass but maybe the guy was alright. So he comes and he's a fiiiiine n---a, I'm tellin' you, all tall and cut and got this big tat of an alligator on his muscle. So we's eatin' some burger and he starts, you know, rubbin' up on my leg under the table. And I's likin' it. So after, he's like "Wanna go for a walk?" and I'm like "Hells yeah" cuz he my brotha but he a fiiiine, brotha, you know? So we walk far, all the way to the water, cuz my Moms lives by da beach, and then he starts lovin' on me, and it's good, and we's get naked and start skinny-dippin' and he's got a 40 and a pipe and we's partyin'. Alls good till the cops rolled up and booked him for crack. And they yanked us outta the water, all naked, and we's cold, and the cops is like "this your brotha" cuz I guess Moms had called in on him, and theys lookin' me up and down, all cold, like I wasn't no girl with no tits and ass, like we wasn't people, you know? And I started givin' that cop the business, bout' how he can't take this man, this my man, and they's threw a blanket on me and I's here now and ain't neva seen Moms or my man again.
