Ray+Charles+-+Monologue

Ashley Royalty

(Ray Charles was lying on a cotton white bedspread in a small hospital located in Beverly Hills, California. He was just a month shy of the age 73 and was in the late stages of liver cancer. Ray’s hand trembles as he reaches for the Braille newspaper laid on the coffee table adjacent to his bed. He begins to read it, and suddenly notices an ad stating “Wanted: skilled blues pianist for the Sky Night pub. Hours: nightly. Good pay!” This causes Ray to start reminiscing about his life, and how he didn’t let the obstacle of blindness get in the way of his musical career.)

It all started the summer of 1939 when I first started having some problems with my vision, so my mama scheduled me an appointment to go see the doc. When we arrived the doc. looked me over and sadly announced, "I'm sorry son, but you are in the early stages of going blind." I quickly responded with "Come again," knowing for sure that he must of made a mistake. Only he hadn't. Man, was that a shocker to me, I mean I was just a child then. (Ray picks up his mug, and slowly starts sipping his all-time favorite drink, a mixture of coffee, Bols Gin, and sugar. Ray pauses for a second thinking to himself.) Hmm… lets see… now where was I? Oh yea, you see but my mama had brought me up to fend for myself, and to be an independent person. So in other words, I was somewhat prepared, that is after I got over the shock. I decided that I wasn’t going to be like all the other typical blind guys, yea I know that some may call it stubborn, but I refused to be led around by dog or a cane for that matter.

(Ray starts to recall instances that he had to go through, and overcome in order to get to where he was at today.) To tell the truth, I don’t think I would have survived without my mother being there in those crucial times of my life. I recall several occasions when the neighbors would come over and holler at my mama for allowing a blind boy to ride his bicycle around town. Now I know that it doesn’t sound like this was being there for me, but she and I were fully aware that I could do anything I sat my mind to, and by that I mean anything.

Some people may of thought that my mama would have went all soft on me and all, because of the incident of going blind, but no-sir-re, matter of fact she still gave me all the same chores. One of which included chopping wood. I know that a blind boy swinging an ax around seems like an accident just waiting to happen. Hey but my mama had faith that I could do it, so I guess that her faith rubbed off on me.

As you may know, or as you may soon figure out is that there has rarely been anything in my life that I somehow couldn’t overcome due to my blindness. Now I’m not saying that I didn’t have obstacles, because man did I sure have my share of those. For example, how was blind guy supposed to be paid? Is he just supposed to trust that his employer is paying him adequately? So since I couldn’t see what bills were being paid to me, I always requested my payment to be in singles. This way I made sure a crook wasn’t scamming me.

Well speaking of money, I had been traveling to many different places, searching for a gig that I could possibly find to help me stay on my feet. I ended up in Seattle, and I was running low on bread, the money kind and the food kind as well, so I had to obtain a job. So to be able to get to my job, I started riding the bus. I soon realized that I had to figure out a way to be able to determine where my stop was. So after a while I realized that there was this pretty good-sized dip in the road where I needed to get off at. So once we hit that dip I knew to pull the cord signaling that it was my stop. Boy oh boy, you should have seen the awed expressions of my fellow passengers. I even heard one of them whisper, “How on earth does a blind boy know where his stop is?” Only if they knew. (Ray Chuckles, but quickly ceases, because it brings to much pain to his abdomen due to his liver cancer.)

There was a point in my life when I pondered about where I would be today if I had the visual experience, but then again I might not of got that far. I mean without my sight, I had to rely on my hearing. So, instead of seeing magnificent things, I had to turn to hearing magnificent things. I think that this profoundly enabled me to grow so fond of the piano. You see, to me the piano was more than just music to my ears, it had passion and feelings that only came from that heart and soul. If I had lost my hearing instead of my sight, I don’t think that there wouldn't have been much of a world left for me. To be able to see and to see only a sheet of musical notes possesses no emotion, but to actually be able to hear those joyous notes is just an indescribable experience.

(At 1:35 a.m. Ray took his last breath, and slowly drifted away.)

Bibliography Page:

The book “Brother Ray” http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/10/obit.charles/index.html http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_3X_How_is_liver_cancer_diagnosed_25.asp http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/c/Raycharles/ray_charles.htm

Corey-- Stage direction is nice. Sometimes it starts to fell a little like a biography, just make sure its not fact after fact. great job.

Olivia-- Awesome choice! Ray Charles is the bomb. There were a couple of spelling mistakes... like when you say "would of" it should really be "would have." I love it though, and I love how you were all proper in the stage directions but when he was speaking it actually sounds like the way he would speak. <3

Erica: i think u could of had a little more detail like when he finds out hes going blind. I like how you started it about reflecting his life. It really sounds like your Ray Charles, good ending.

Ms. Schoen -- It is amazing Ashley what you can do when you apply yourself!! Well written and nicely done. Only one problem I see....You jumped to Seattle. How did we get there? The transition is a little off other than that it is very nice.