John & Rheumina the Musical

Children have a way of playing while adults create a living hell around them. As they mature into young adults, they sing, dance, and fall in love. This is the story of John and Rheumina. The chaos around them is challenging but they make life fun and playful.
Ten-year-old John Earl met Rheumina Wilson in Kirtland in 1837. He sees eight-year-old Rheumina as a nuisance. The two families build homes across from each other in Nauvoo, Illinois in 1841. When John is sixteen and Rheumina is a lovely fourteen, she is no longer a nuisance. Their friendship begins to bud into romance when Rheumina's father manipulates his daughter into an engagement with Samuel Brighton. (Samuel is forty-two as Rheumina turns sixteen.)
John is determined to win her hand using adolescent tricks. His creative shenanigans drives her closer to Samual. Rheumina forces John to quit trying but he tells her he can't stop loving her. In February 1846, the two families line up on Parley Street to cross a frozen Mississippi River. Now twenty, John makes one more desperate attempt. He manages to get to Rheumina and proposes marriage. After confessing she has loved John since Kirtland, Rheumina runs off in tears. The two families use different strategies to move west. With Samuel pushing for marriage, John and Rheumina's chances for love forever is hopeless, or is it?