"Regretful Desicions" (Monologue)

Character Description:

Name- Chris

Age- 16

Appearance- Medium-sized, black-haired, Brown-eyed, young boy who dresses like a street punk but really isn’t.

Personality- A friendly, outgoing kid who always does things he shouldn’t just to fit in or be cool but really is a nice kid, a follower.

Audience- He is talking to a CSI investigator who is questioning him about the incident.

Setting- He is in an interrogation room, a kind of dimmed room with only one bright light shining on the young scared boy who is sitting in the center of the room at a desk across from the detective. There is a big mirror stage right where people on the other side can watch what’s going on inside but Chris is unaware of this.

 Regretful Decisions:

(Boy sitting in chair with elbows on interrogation table and hands on forehead)

          It was only supposed to be a prank. I mean, it’s called mischief night for a reason. It was the day before Halloween and all we wanted was just to have a little fun you know. The guy, umm… I don’t even remember his name… uuuhhh (remembers it) oh yeah, Mr. Rutgers. He had to be the most obnoxious, rude, and crankiest old man I have ever met. He would always complain about the dumbest little things like people walking on his lawn.
          One time me, Tim, and Alex were walking home from school on Friday, just playing around, and tossing a football to each other. And I accidentally threw the ball too high and it went in his yard. So John being the “big shot” he is, climbed over the fence to get the football. And before we knew it we saw him standing there at the door with a bat. He started chasing us with it and yelling that he was going to call the cops on us.
          So we thought he deserved a little payback. The plan was just to give him a little scare for being so grumpy all the time. (sobs) It was all John’s idea. He is the leader and the coolest of us three and the most daring. He is always in some kind of trouble. He wanted revenge on the old guy. Alex, Alex is the smarter one of us three. He was the mastermind of the entire thing. Too bad he doesn’t use his brains for something more useful. Me, I was the follower who just went along with them and tried my best to fit in. I always would do stuff to impress them. I knew that the whole thing was a bad idea. They both were bad news. They would always get themselves in trouble and do things they’re not supposed to.
          Me, John, and Alex had devised a plan that we thought would be the funniest thing ever. So every Sunday this guy walks to the same supermarket and back and he crosses the same railroad every time. So we thought we would rig the controls of the railroad lights and put the barriers down as soon as he was in between them. All we wanted to do was to scare him a bit, teach him a lesson for being so grouchy. Everything was going exactly as planned and we were so excited. We all had walkie talkies so me and John followed the guy while
          Alex was back at the railroad messing with the controls. We were behind the bushes looking at him and we put the barriers down right on time.  We were all so happy that everything played out so perfect and it was so funny because he was so scared.  Then the prank was over—we’d had our fun—but when we pulled the lever to make the barriers go back up, it wasn’t working.  Then we heard the sound of a train.
          This was no longer funny. We all looked at each other with fright to make sure that this really was happening, hoping that it was all just a terrible nightmare.  From this point on the entire situation went down the drain. The entire mood changed. Our laughing expressions quickly changed to worry.  Then we looked at Mr. Rutgers. When I saw that look on his face I knew that it was no longer just a Halloween prank. He was so petrified he didn’t know what to do. He just stood there, in shock. He could’ve just moved. He could’ve just moved. I don’t understand why he didn’t move. Everything would’ve been fine. All he had to do was just move. He was just so frozen in horror he didn’t do anything except watch his life come to an end, Groceries in hand and everything. We all wanted to save him but I guess we panicked. By the time we thought out the idea of jumping in front of the train to save him, it was too late.  The whole thing went disastrous right before our eyes and there was absolutely nothing we could do except watch. None of us intended for things to escalate to this level.  If only I could go back in time and not make this stupid mistake that we will all regret forever.  I’ll never forget that face: His eyes were open so wide.