Rogues Gallery: The Vagabonds
Bill Starbuck
The Rainmaker
A Radio Play
Bill Starbuck bursts into the lives of the Curry family one hot, dry August night in a small Midwestern farming town. He's a brash, smooth-talking con man, ready to bilk these folks out of $100 with his promise of rain to save the cattle and crops that are dying in a terrible, never-ending drought.
But there's another side to Starbuck, one showing remarkable insight into human nature and sensitivity to the needs of others, transforming those he comes into contact with. He brings a bit of romance into spinster Lizzie's drab, ordinary life, and helps young Jimmy Curry regain the self-esteem that is continually eroded by his stern older brother Noah.
As Bill spins his fairytale stories of love and adventure, it becomes clear that he needs these magical dreams as much as anyone. Unhappy with who he really is, and believing that you must "dream you're somebody . . . be somebody", he reinvents himself as the man he's always wanted to be. Needing a name better suited to the vision he's created of himself, he chose "Starbuck," because it "has the whole sky in it, and the power of a man." He would like things to be as wonderful when he has them, as they are when he's wishing for them, so he moves from town to town, chasing the elusive miracle he's wanted to make happen all his life.
Ed Collins
Wilderness Survival for Girls
Ed Collins is a bearded, scruffily dressed squatter, holed up in an empty vacation cabin in the Colorado Rockies. But he's more of a loser than a thief, one of the disenfranchised, invisible and ultimately disposable souls who has moved to the woods, doing what he must to scrape by, and wanting only to be left alone. And he discovers his luck has now gone from bad to worse when he returns to his "home" and finds it's been invaded by three troubled teenage girls, out for one last weekend fling before heading off to college.
Seriously annoyed at having his life disrupted once again, Ed wants only to get his things and leave, and uses intimidation to bluff his way through. But the girls, already spooked by an evening of alcohol, pot and the lurid stories one of them has told about an old rape-murder in the area, panic and use Ed's own gun to take him hostage.
During the ensuing evening, the girls convince themselves that Ed and the murdering rapist are one and the same. Aware of his increasingly precarious position, he comes close to escaping their clutches more than once, first using charm, and then reverting to bullying to frighten his captors when he believes he has the upper hand. But when the tables turn once more, he tries to humanize himself in their eyes in a last desperate attempt to avoid the fate he is certain awaits him.
Jeremy
Desert Cross
Jeremy appears to be a self-absorbed man who is quick to anger, and whose impulsiveness has landed him in a great deal of trouble. A bus ride to visit an ex-girlfriend ends in disaster, when he learns she doesn't want to see him. While engrossed in a heated phone conversation with her, his bus takes off, leaving him stranded on an empty stretch of desert highway. With no luggage and no means of transportation, he rails at the fates for his misfortunes, deeming himself a loser in God's eyes.
Is it luck or something else that has a young couple pulling up in an old Volkswagen van to offer Jeremy a ride? His wandering alone in the desert, as well as a lighter painted with a likeness of Jesus convinces the two newlyweds - David and Marie - that Jeremy is actually the savior personified. Frightened by their fervor, he tries to run away, but later plays along, using his quirky sense of humor to find out what they expect of him. After giving them a blessing that is perhaps a bit more heartfelt than he had intended, Jeremy begins to enjoy his new role, and the rapt attention with which his hosts hang on his every word.
David's jealousy, disappointment, and his fear of being alone, later cause him to turn a gun on the other two, and it's Jeremy who provides the words of comfort and sanity that keep the situation from ending in tragedy. Early the following morning, while David and Marie sleep, Jeremy steals some of their money and starts to slip away unnoticed. But in the end, Jeremy has a change of heart and is unable to leave them. It could be an attack of conscience; he may simply have nowhere else to go; or just maybe he's become a better person somewhere along this journey of discovery. Facing the idea of going off on his own, he might have come to the realization that he needs these two as much as they seem to need him.