A one-act play set during the mid-80s in South Africa. Jon faces the possibility of being ordered to fire on black neighbors–but defiance means disrupting the life of his young family. Drawn directly from my family’s experiences. Any inconsistencies in setting or language are my own. Crisis of Conscience is available in full, formatted for production. Requests can be forwarded to richenda@richendagould.com

I hunched over in the white ash, my long, thin tail twitching behind me. My knobby fingers dug through the dust, searching at the roots of a twisted plant. The wind brought the scent of more burning, and a quick glance across the mountain showed that the men were herding flame again. When I was young, I had feared the fire and the humans who controlled it, but having only narrowly avoided the ravages of a natural bushfire, I had learned a healthy appreciation for this strange activity. Besides keeping the mountain from burning up in one fell swoop, their fires created a steady and predictable supply of my favorite treat:

Burnt protea flowers.