Our Better Angels

Fourteen-year-old Mallory’s alcoholic mother died in a car crash. Mallory is petulant and strong-willed, but her insolent attitude and life choices betray the guilt she feels for not curing her mother. Her great-uncle, Roland 61, is a retired welder and widower. He was wrongly convicted as a young man for child rape. His deceased wife, Tess, pressed for his case to be re-opened. Through DNA testing, his conviction was overturned after taking beatings in prison for ten years. Mallory and Roland feel betrayed for different reasons. Now, living together, they must somehow learn to live, trust and ultimately love each other. Each Sunday, Roland saddles his horse, Buster, and rides down the lane to Tess’ gravesite. He sits for hours talking to her. She was his Angel of Mercy. As Roland tells Mallory in the second act: “That woman trusted before there was trust. She loved before any was returned. She gave me life when I had none.” Tess wrote heart-rending letters to Roland while he was incarcerated. Hope, and how to grab it and never let go, permeated each line. Mallory stumbles across these letters and they give her clearer insight into Roland’s past – and to her own salvation. The story has an antagonist, Jag, the spoiled, sociopathic son of the richest family in the small town. Mallory initially clings to Jag’s powerful presence; but she later learns that the lessons Roland teaches through example are the right path for her. Roland, through life on his small farm, teaches Mallory to confront her mother’s betrayal. Mallory, through her innocence and her need to be loved, forces Roland out of his emotional shell. The final act has Jag running the horse into a ditch and Buster breaks his leg and must be put down. That is the defining moment for Mallory, and she ends any contact with Jag. But Jag is not done. When Roland leaves to inspect a neighbor’s farm implement, a drunk Jag tries to rape Mallory in the barn. Roland realizes he saw Jag’s truck parked down the lane from his farm and races back. A horrific fight between Roland and Jag ensues. Roland’s mind goes back to the fights he endured in prison and he wins the life-threatening battle. The sheriff believes Jag’s story that Roland tried to rape Mallory, and Roland is arrested. Mallory awakes in the hospital and is told Roland is in jail. With strength she did not know she had she sprints to the sheriff’s office to tell the true story. The not-so-hidden antagonist to Mallory and Roland’s happiness is to help the other come to terms with their emotional pain.