Mandy's Debut

Mandy prepares to present two original plays at Whit's End for an English assignment. Connie has advised her to write about people and places she knows, so Mandy has cast Whit, Connie, Eugene, Bernard, Nathaniel, and herself as familiar versions of themselves. A large audience gathers after Mandy's mother advertises the performances throughout town, and Whit reassures the nervous young playwright as the curtain rises.

In the first play, Nathaniel rushes into Whit's End with a rumor that Whit has been taken to the hospital with a stomach problem. Connie immediately assumes responsibility. Earlier, she had persuaded Whit to taste a sandwich after admitting some doubt about its mayonnaise. She imagines that the bite made him ill after he went home.

Eugene dismisses Connie's conclusion because other people ate the sandwich without harm. He then claims responsibility himself, presenting a grandly worded version of the same scene. In his account, Whit strains his back while helping lift a heavy box. Mandy insists that her new hamster is the true culprit because it bit Whit's finger and made him dizzy.

Bernard calls the hospital and learns only that Whit has already left. He then remembers that Whit slipped on a floor Bernard had just mopped. Soon all four are arguing over which careless act sent their friend to the hospital. Whit returns in perfect health and explains that he was only visiting Esther Gordon.

Esther's accident has strangely combined every possibility the others imagined: bad mayonnaise made her sick, a slippery floor caused her to fall into a hamster cage, lifting the cage hurt her back, and the escaped hamster bit her. Whit appreciates everyone's concern but points out that they have accepted blame where none belonged. He is usually trying to teach them to take responsibility, and their exaggerated guilt at least proves that they have listened.

The second play begins after a successful Easter presentation at Whit's End. A telephone call requires Whit to leave town and help a friend for an uncertain length of time. Before going, he gives everyone clear work: Connie must make ten gallons of ice cream with the old machine, Eugene must repair glitches in the existing Noah program, Bernard must wash the windows, and Mandy must clean the theater and organize the props.

Mandy begins her task, but everyone else becomes distracted. Connie writes a slogan in hopes of winning tickets to the grand opening of Mega World. Eugene decides that rebuilding the entire Noah program will impress Whit more than the simple repairs and takes his computer apart to install upgrades. Bernard postpones Whit's windows so he can earn extra money on another job, repeatedly promising to do them tomorrow.

When the afternoon crowd approaches and Connie discovers there is no ice cream, she tries to save time with Whit's new machine despite his specific instruction. Her sweater catches in the mechanism, and the broken switch will not stop it. Eugene unplugs the machine, but leaking ice cream causes a dangerous electrical failure that damages his hair and interrupts the power.

At the same time, Bernard hurriedly sprays the outside windows with a hose and sends water through an open window in the computer room. Eugene's dismantled computer is ruined. Connie, Eugene, and Bernard angrily trace the disaster through one another's choices, each trying to make someone else responsible for the consequences of work none of them completed.

Whit returns sooner than expected and finds the chaos. Only Mandy has done the job assigned to her, so he gives her family the Mega World tickets he received from the friend he has been helping. Connie loses the opportunity she had neglected her work to pursue, while Eugene and Bernard discover that their supposedly better plans have accomplished nothing. Whit sends all three back to the original tasks and chooses the return of an unprepared master's servants as the subject of his next Sunday-school lesson.

After the performances, Whit congratulates Mandy and praises her cast. When he mentions a real trip to help a friend, Mandy jokingly predicts another vague return and another cleanup assignment. This time Whit gives a definite Tuesday return, and a crew is already cleaning the theater. Then he remembers that the shop is short of ice cream and calls for Connie, giving Mandy's first night as a playwright a fitting final echo of her own work.