Cali is a young woman in her early twenties who puts a lot of work into her paintings. We see her painting in the opening of the scene, to watch her double over in pain from the ringing in her hears. She is deaf. Through her story we find out that she is, as her mother always told her “slow.” When her mother gives birth to a little boy Cali get so be the big brother, but she also has someone she can play with that is on her same level. She loves playing with him. She is the best big sister she has the ability to be. Through a series of flashbacks, we see her younger playing and bonding with her little brother, but we also see her in her world. She is behind on things, his mind doesn’t work as it should at her age but she never lets that slow her down. One day she is playing cops and robbers and she is the cop. She fills her water gun in the sink and begins to look for her brother and in her mother’s room under the bed she finds a gun and decides that it would be so much more fun to play with Mom’s gun. She finds her brother, shoots him, and doesn’t understand why he is all red. The close shot of the gun takes her hearing and she regains her ability to communicate by learning sign language. She now paints pictures of all red. The memory of what her mind sees on that day. The constant ringing in her ears reminds her of what happened but also of the presence of her brother, even if it’s only through the pain and the paint he will never be forgotten as one of best friends. Within the piece the actor transitions between being an adult and being a child at different ages in her memory. (*Performance may be done by any gender student with the permission of the writer. The actor will have to do sign language throughout, but amount is up to the performer.)
