What if something worth millions of dollars landed in your backyard?
Learning Objective: to write a news article, record a podcast, or create a video news program about the events that unfold in a drama, integrating information from the drama’s nonfiction text features
Scene 1
SD1: Lights come up on an old farmhouse, a barn, and a dilapidated pickup truck.
SD2: In the background stretch barren fields covered in glittering snow.
SD3: Old Karl enters wearing boots that look like he’s had them for decades. He speaks to the audience.
Old Karl: This is the farm where I grew up, near the town of Rock Creek, Iowa. My pop was born here, and so were his pop and his pop’s pop.
SD1: He walks downstage.
Old Karl: I guess you could say we’ve been here just about forever. Farming is no slice of pie, but we’ve always made do with what we have.
SD2: He steps off to the side as the front of the farmhouse lifts away, revealing a modest kitchen, a den, and three bedrooms.
SD3: A family is gathered around a dinner table.
Karl: Is there more meat?
Mama: No, but the potatoes will fill you up.
Ingrid: Can I take the truck tonight? Karl, I can drop you off at Teri’s place if you want.
Pop: Truck’s busted.
Karl: And Teri moved away last weekend.
Ingrid (to Karl): That’s why you’ve been so mopey.
Theo: Seems like everyone is moving away.
Karl: Teri said Rock Creek will be a ghost town soon.
Pop (laughing): Ghosts make fine enough neighbors.
SD1: Pop scoops a heap of potatoes onto Karl’s plate.
Pop: All I ever wanted was this farm and this family. I’m staying put.
Scene 2
SD2: The lights rise on the farmhouse, the next day.
SD3: Old Karl still stands in the corner of the stage. He watches teenage Karl walk through the house.
Old Karl: Our story begins on a chilly morning when my mood matched the sunless sky.
SD1: Karl enters the kitchen and sees Pop fiddling under the kitchen sink.
Old Karl: Whenever we had money troubles, Pop checked the pipes for leaks. You don’t disturb Pop when he’s working on the plumbing.
SD2: Karl peeks into the room he shares with Theo. Theo is still asleep.
SD3: Karl walks down the hall to Ingrid’s room. She’s on the phone and swats him away.
Ingrid: Get out, Karl!
SD1: Karl wanders outside. Mama is tinkering under the hood of the truck.
Mama (to the truck): What’s wrong with you now, old-timer?
Old Karl: You don’t disturb Mama when she’s talking to the truck.
SD2: Old Karl exits. As young Karl walks around the stage, the scene transforms into a wintry cornfield.
SD3: For a long while, everything is silent except for the crunch of Karl’s boots in the snow.
SD1: Suddenly, there is a huge explosion in the sky.
SFX: BOOM!
SD2: Karl freezes. A loud sound punctuates the air.
SFX: Whump, whump, whump
SD3: A shadow passes swiftly overhead. And then, a gigantic—
SFX: BAM!
SD1: The ground trembles.
SD2: Everything goes quiet. Karl’s legs are shaking.
SD3: Mama runs onstage.
Mama: What happened?
SD1: Karl points offstage.
SD2: Pop appears.
Pop: You OK, son?
SD3: Ingrid trudges in.
Ingrid: Karl, what did you do?
SD1: Karl remains too stunned to speak.
Scene 3
SD2: They stand around a mysterious black object half-buried in the frozen dirt.
Pop: Airplane must have broken up. Lucky it didn’t hit the house.
Mama: Lucky it didn’t hit Karl.
SD3: Pop looks at Karl with a strange expression, then hugs him tightly. Theo wanders in.
Theo: That was no airplane. That was a space rock! Wish I’d been awake to see that.
Ingrid: Space rock?
SD1: Theo takes a magnet from his pocket and sticks it on the object.
Ingrid: Only you would have a magnet in your pocket.
Theo: See how the magnet is sticking straight up? This rock is a meteorite.
Pop: A meteor?
Theo: A meteorite. Those are the space rocks that fall to the ground. Meteors are what you see streaking across the sky after a space rock hits the atmosphere and burns up.
Karl: Like a shooting star.
Theo: There was a meteor shower last night, which is why I was up so late. I bet I saw a thousand of them.
SD2: Everyone gazes up at the sky.
Theo: What are we going to do with it?
Pop: The rock? I’ll have to haul it out. It’d wreck my combine.
Theo (laughing): I don’t think you have to worry about the combine anymore. That rock is worth a million dollars.
SD3: Everyone stares at Theo like he’s lost his mind.
Scene 4
SD1: Outside the barn, a crowd of people wait to get in and see the space rock.
SD2: Mama and Pop stand with a reporter.
Reporter: What can you tell me about this meteorite?
Mama: A geologist says it weighs 937 pounds.
Reporter: What are you going to do with it?
Pop: Some fella offered us 2 million for it, but . . .
SD3: A black limousine drives up. A millionaire steps out waving a checkbook.
Millionaire: I’ll give you 5 million right now.
SD1: Pop smiles and shakes his head.
Pop: I think we’ll have to pass.
SD2: Ingrid and Theo rush over to Karl, who is writing in a notebook.
Ingrid: Did you hear that? Five million dollars. Pop just turned down 5 million dollars!
Karl: Yeah.
Theo: What are you writing?
Karl: A poem about the space rock. Trying to, anyway. I keep thinking our lives are about to change forever, but then Mama and Pop don’t seem to want to sell it.
Ingrid: I bet they’re holding out for a better price.
Karl: I’m not sure. Pop spends hours in the barn, staring at that rock. I think he’s got something else on his mind.
Scene 5
SD3: Dim lights reveal the family asleep in the farmhouse. The headlights of a car appear outside and then flick off.
SD1: There is a knock at the door. Pop goes to answer it.
Tourist: I know it’s kind of late, but my family and I drove 800 miles to see your meteorite. . . .
SD2: Pop grabs his jacket off a hook.
Pop: Well, come on then. Follow me to the barn.
SD3: Mama gets up and fires up the stove. Karl, Theo, and Ingrid wander into the kitchen.
Theo (yawning): What time is it?
Mama: Past midnight.
Karl: What are you making?
Mama: Griddle cakes for some folks who showed up to see the rock.
Ingrid: Are we going to sell it or not? It’s been months. We could have been millionaires by now.
Mama: Your father and I are still discussing it.
Theo: I have an idea for how we can make a little money right now. When the meteorite fell, little chunks of rocks would have flown off and landed all over the farm.
Ingrid: So?
Theo: If we get a couple of metal detectors, we could find a bunch and sell them.
Karl: People can buy a little piece of star.
Scene 6
Illustrations by Gary Hanna
SD1: The family gathers around the crater where the space rock hit.
Pop: If that meteorite had gone a thousand yards farther west, it would have landed on the Johnsons’ place.
SD2: Pop points to the east.
Pop: Five hundred feet farther, it would have landed in the Earlys’ pond.
SD3: He points to the south.
Pop: About a mile farther, and it would have landed on the Teters’ land.
SD1: Pop points north.
Pop: Two miles farther, it would have landed right in the middle of town. That would have been bad.
SD2: Pop looks from one family member to another.
Pop: But it fell on our land, and the law says it belongs to us. So now we have a decision to make. There’s a museum that wants to give us 7 million dollars for it.
SD3: Karl gives a low whistle.
Pop: We have two choices. Sell it, or keep it.
Mama: We can’t keep it. I like meeting new people, but we can’t have them coming here at all hours.
Pop: I agree. We have to start putting our fields in soon. There won’t be time to show the rock to folks.
SD1: Everyone looks at Pop expectantly.
Pop: What I propose, if we decide to keep it, is to move the meteorite into town. I was talking to the mayor this morning . . .
Scene 7
SD2: Pop stands with the mayor in the town square.
SD3: Signs saying “For Lease” hang in many empty store windows.
Mayor: I tell you, things in Rock Creek have been tough with so many people moving away and businesses shutting down. Seemed like we were going to become a ghost town—until that meteorite fell.
Pop: Is that right?
Mayor: With so many people passing through, the hotel has been full every night. Supplies keep flying off the shelves at the general store. And Joe’s diner? They were about to go out of business. Now they’re packed.
Pop: I’m glad to hear that.
SD1: The mayor squints into the pale winter sun.
Mayor: Have you decided what to do with it?
Pop: Not yet. I got another crazy offer yesterday. But none of them feels right.
Mayor: Why not?
Pop: I feel like the rock belongs here in town.
Mayor: We couldn’t possibly pay you for it.
SD2: Pop nods thoughtfully.
Scene 8
SD3: Pop rejoins the family in the field.
Pop: The mayor said they would build a little museum around our rock. We could go visit anytime we want.
Theo: We would give the meteorite to Rock Creek?
Pop: A permanent loan.
Ingrid: So we get nothing?
Pop: Rock Creek is broke. The town can’t afford to pay us a cent.
SD1: Pop looks at Theo.
Pop: Those little meteorites you’ve been collecting— how many have we sold?
Theo: Close to 600. We have at least 1,200 left.
Pop: Ingrid, you got yourself a car?
Ingrid: Yes, sir.
Pop: Theo, you got that telescope?
Theo: I did.
Pop: And Karl, we’re going to make an addition to the house.
Karl (smiling): I’ll have a room of my own.
Pop: We’ve paid down some of our debt on the farm. We’ve put some money aside for college, and your mother’s got the truck working now. The point is that the meteorite has done us a lot of good.
SD2: Pop kicks a clod of dirt, then looks up.
Pop: Here’s what I believe. Getting what you need out of something is better than getting all you can out of something.
SD3: Everyone is quiet.
Pop: But it’s not up to just me. The space rock belongs to the entire family.
SD1: Pop pulls five tiny meteorites from his pocket. He keeps one and hands out the rest.
Pop: In the barn, there’s a box with a slit in the top. The lid is nailed shut. You go in there one at a time. If you think we should sell the space rock, throw your meteorite away. If you think we should keep it in town, put your meteorite in the box.
SD2: The family nods.
Pop: When you’re finished, go on into the house. I’ll come last and we’ll open the box together.
Karl: And then what?
Pop: If there aren’t five meteorites in that box, we’ll sell the big one, no questions asked.
"Getting what you need out of something is better than getting all you can out of something."
Scene 9
SD3: Theo, Karl, Ingrid, and Mama sit around the kitchen table nervously.
SD1: Finally, Pop comes in with the box. He pries off the lid.
SD2: Without looking, he reaches his hand inside and pulls out a meteorite.
Whole Family: One.
SD3: Pop reaches in again and pulls out another.
Whole Family: Two.
SD1: Pop takes out another rock.
Whole Family: Three.
SD2: Then another.
Whole Family: Four.
SD3: Pop puts his hand back in and feels around inside the box. He pulls his hand out and opens it.
Whole Family: Five.
SD1: Karl stands and brings his notebook downstage. Old Karl walks onstage and stands next to him. They recite the poem to the audience.
Karl and Old Karl:
There’s a space rock in our barn
that fell to Earth upon our farm.
People came from near and far
to see our piece of shooting star.
In the end we had to free it,
because our family didn’t need it.
People come from miles away
to see the rock that’ll always stay.
There’s a space rock in our town.
It stopped the ghosts from coming ’round.
This article was originally published in the October 2020 issue.
1. PREPARING TO READ (10 minutes)
2. READING AND DISCUSSING (45 minutes)
3. SKILL BUILDING
