(my apologies)
******
vEmpire’s Last Grasp by Richard Morell
CAST OF CHARACTERS
MARY LEE CALDWELL Early 50s, bankruptcy attorney with a strong spiritual side. Mother of LISA-ANNE and JUSTIN.
LISA-ANNE CALDWELL 20, serious and thoughtful. A bit timid and sheltered.
JUSTIN CALDWELL 16. Smart kid with a sense of the pulse of the current cultural moment.
RICHARD MERLIN Mid-40s, African-American, self-described gay “doomer.” Spiritual, but bitter.
WENDY EVERETT 22, deceased. Quirky black sheep of her family.
GEORGIA EVERETT 20, sharp-tongued but deferential with authority. Though that’s changing.
LAURA EVERETT Mid-50s, mother of GEORGIA and WENDY. Deepest denial, flies off the handle when challenged.
TYRONE JEFFRIES 16, truculent, stubborn. Hates to be told what to do. Homophobic.
SCOTT “MAC” McCRORY 16, peaceable, but not very bright.
MANNY GUTIERREZ 16, gay, wears bright colors. A lightning rod in more ways than one.
OGUN The Orixa of the Ironworker. Serious, practical.
WAKIB KAME A Mayan Goddess.
MELEK TAUS The Blue God, Peacock Angel.
The action takes place present day in New Carthage, in various locations, but mostly in the kitchens of the Caldwells and the Everetts. (Double casting allowed, where possible.)
SETTING: The Caldwells’ kitchen. Counters and cabinets. A refrigerator are essentials.
AT RISE: LISA-ANNE, 20, distraught, sits at the kitchen table with a semi-touched bowl of oatmeal in front of her. MARY LEE CALDWELL, her mother, early 50s, stands by a counter holding a coffee cup.
MARY LEE
I want an answer, Lisa Anne Caldwell!
LISA-ANNE
I have to think about it.
MARY LEE
The university’s letter—
LISA-ANNE
And what do you want me to do about it? This is so sudden!
MARY LEE
We can’t afford this.
LISA-ANNE
I don’t want to go part-time.
MARY LEE
Maybe it would just be temporary.
LISA-ANNE
Don’t count on it.
MARY LEE
I don’t blame you for being angry. I’m beside myself.
LISA-ANNE
What a world, what a world.
(JUSTIN, 16, enterprising and surprising, bounds in. He’s dressed more for shop class than for regular schoolwork, in a denim uniform.)
JUSTIN
Good morning, Mom and Sis. Uh oh. What’s going on? Pow-wow?
MARY LEE
Justin, it’s none of your business.
LISA-ANNE
What difference does it make? He already knows.
JUSTIN
About the tuition hike at the university? Heck, it’s the talk of the school, especially amongst all those smarty-pants who want to go there to partay! Hey, sis you thought this might happen.
LISA-ANNE
Not so soon, and not so extreme. There’s no way I’m going to be able to finish on time.
MARY LEE
We’re not taking out any loans.
LISA-ANNE
Don’t worry about that. I ain’t touchin’ the toxic assets.
MARY LEE
I have to think of Richard and Ken. I don’t like how Richard uses the C word to describe the company servicing his debt. That word is demeaning to women, I don’t care if he does want to redefine it. And don’t you go saying it.
JUSTIN
Mom, get with the decade. This is the era of The Vagina Monologues!
LISA-ANNE
I like Richard’s use of “cunt” to denote vampire.
JUSTIN
“It’s the sound of Rush’s fangs going into the flesh.”
(JUSTIN mimcs a vampire “cunting” his victim’s neck.)
MARY LEE
Yeah, yeah. I hate that. But it does conjure an image, I’ll grant you that.
LISA-ANNE
There’s no way I’m going to consider that. All I have to do is look at Wendy Everett. The pain Georgia’s going through.
MARY LEE
Pain? What pain is that?
LISA-ANNE
You don’t know. Oh. Uh…
JUSTIN
What? What about the girl who couldn’t fly right?
LISA-ANNE
She committed suicide. The wake’s the day after tomorrow.
MARY LEE
No! Wendy?
(She spills her coffee.)
Oh, dad blast it!
JUSTIN
Georgia’s sister. Wow.
MARY-LEE
Laura, poor Laura. And Georgia and Barry.
JUSTIN
Drugs?
LISA-ANNE
Her suicide note mentioned her student loans. 100 K. The family—well, you know Mr. E. didn’t really take kindly to Wendy.
MARY LEE
I stayed out of that whole thing. Laura would bring up how ungrateful and disrespectful the oldest was, I’d keep my mouth shut and just nod my head. I learned my lesson. Still. To lose a child. . .
LISA-ANNE
Georgia’s torn up about it. And they didn’t get along well. Of course, Mom and Dad were always holding her up as the example and rubbed Wendy’s nose in kid sister’s achievements. It all seems so futile.
JUSTIN
That’s because it is.
MARY LEE
Justin, don’t help.
JUSTIN
Just sayin’, we all gotta change is all.
LISA-ANNE
You know, he has one bright idea, my jerkwad dorkasaurus brother.
JUSTIN
Yeah, love you too, Sis.
LISA-ANNE
He’s getting a skill.
JUSTIN
I think of it as diversifying. Plumbing and machine maintenance now—might add in welding and metalwork later.
MARY-LEE
You can’t compare yourself—
LISA-ANNE
Mom, stop it. That’s not – the situation is changing.
(KNOCK on the door. RICHARD MERLIN, mid-40s, suburban gay African-American man who’s been through some living, enters.)
RICHARD
Morning, Caldwells. What are you kids still doing here?
JUSTIN
Good morning, Mr. Merlin. Today’s my late day.
MARY-LEE
What can we do for you, Richard?
RICHARD
Ken, Rachel and I have been working diligently on the garden as you know. We wanted to take the time to offer you some of our bounty if you would like it.
MARY-LEE
That’s mighty generous of you. I can’t understand how you can get veggies in February!
RICHARD
It’s cold frame gardening, Mary-Lee. Nothing too sci-fi about it, though I know a fellow up north who heats his soil. Can’t imagine that will continue forever though.
LISA-ANNE
That’s quite a load of greens there, Mr. Merlin.
RICHARD
Yeah, yeah. It all goes to waste if we don’t share. I see I interrupted something.
MARY LEE
We have some family –
LISA-ANNE
Mr. Merlin, I’d like to ask you something.
RICHARD
Um… What is it?
LISA-ANNE
You know the University just – well, it’s like they raised tuition 50%.
RICHARD
Wow. I’m sorry, Lisa-Anne. Are you—
MARY LEE
Lisa-Anne—
LISA-ANNE
Oh, people are going to know anyway, Mother. When they see I’m not carrying books or talking about tests, they’ll figure out that I’m taking a break, at least.
RICHARD
So you’re not going to continue? Well, well, my loan rants convinced you not to go down that road? I’m good for something at least!
LISA-ANNE
Justin thinks it’s a good thing that –
JUSTIN
Hey, don’t go putting words in my mouth! I just said I’ve been expecting something like this to happen. Everything’s getting more expensive everywhere, why not college?
RICHARD
Me too, alas. Another drip of the Chinese water torture that the vEmpire unleashes on all of us. Oh, I coined a new word by the way. How about “necronomy?” Like it, Justin?
MARY LEE
What is this, Richard? Necronomy? vEmpire? Don’t you have anything better to do with your time than make new words up?
RICHARD
Oh, those just come naturally. I don’t have to do anything. Well, Lisa-Anne, Goddess closes a door and she opens another one.
LISA-ANNE
Uh huh, uh huh.
JUSTIN
Hey, Richard. Hear about Georgia’s sister?
LISA-ANNE
Justin, don’t be mean.
JUSTIN
What? I’m just asking if he’s heard is all?
RICHARD
Heard what?
MARY LEE
I don’t know if you knew Wendy. She took her own life.
RICHARD
Oh.
LISA-ANNE
The wake’s Thursday. She mentioned in her note that at least the family was off-the-hook for her student debt.
RICHARD
Goddam cunts!
MARY LEE
Let’s not get you started here.
RICHARD
You know me. I’ve thought of that too, I have to admit. In my weaker moments. Naively walked into an obligation and here I am fifteen years later and it just got below the original principal amount that I had gotten back in 1995. Some days, I just sing death’s praises at my veal fattening pen™. Though it’s improving.
MARY LEE
What’s improving?
RICHARD
Way things are going, both Ken and I wonder if we’ll have jobs come the spring.
JUSTIN
Doesn’t Ken work for the State?
RICHARD
States cut back all the time, you know. Five years ago, Ken would not have believed the possibility. Today…
MARY LEE
Oh, what is this world coming to?
LISA-ANNE
I just have the feeling all this needs to happen. For some weird reason.
JUSTIN
Me too. 2012. TEOTWAWKI—the End of the World As We Know It.
RICHARD
More like the end of this perspective. The planet at least will keep on its merry path. But whither humanity? Who medicated all these people, and when did they stop their meds?
MARY LEE
Oh, Richard.
LISA-ANNE
There have been times at the U when I’ve felt unsafe. Some people just seem to be off the deep end.
JUSTIN
Mr. Merlin, does Rachel have class in the morning?
RICHARD
Oh, she’s already at school. She’s only a junior, but she’s thinking about life after high school. Actually she’s wondering if she shouldn’t have done like you, Justin, and gone Voc Ed instead of going the college track. I don’t know what to tell her.
LISA-ANNE
I was just saying the same thing.
MARY LEE
Now Lisa-Anne, we don’t have to go to the extremes here. College still provides the best way through hard times.
RICHARD
Mary-Lee, college is no guarantee you’ll get anything reasonable. Heck, it’s Harvard MBAs and snooty Ivy-Leaguers who got us into this morass. Lots of those guys in Finance and da gubmint went to my alma mater as you know.
LISA-ANNE
Ironically I wanted to become an advocate for the disadvantaged. Maybe I’ll be one of them.
MARY LEE
Don’t talk like that! Lisa-Anne, things will pick up. They have to, or, or—
RICHARD
Or what? There’ll be riots in the streets? People are too much like cows if you haven’t noticed. Or they’re hopped up on some sort of speed that … It’s madness. Lisa-Anne there’s no reason you can’t do that on your own. In fact, I think you’re going to have to because what would be taught wouldn’t work today anyway. Things are changing and accelerating well beyond the printing of textbooks. Last month’s are already outdated! And then you have the middlemen out there who are making their little careers and lining their diamond-studded coffins with other people’s blood, sweat and tears who will try to worm you out of your own understanding of things and force you off to get certified, and then once you do and see through the curtain to the man pulling the switches like Dorothy and Toto, they’ll ask “Who you going to believe? Your lying eyes or we-da-Expoitz?” That’s the time to run the other way. Been that way for awhile now, and I’m quite frankly disgusted. Yeah, well, just one other thing and I’ll slash-snark for now and head to my Dilbert Hell Cubicle Farm. All that expertise and sophist. -ication. crap is all a racket to keep us distracted and afraid and therefore easier to control and, if need be, eliminate. The truth is we are already enough–wise enough and talented enough to take care of things, but we’ve bought these lies that we can’t pursue what’s right because—“well, you’ve got to go to graduate school for that”. Where you get to sit in a room with a professor—that’s if you’re lucky enough to get the real thing instead of a T.A. who’s got to go flip burgers or tend bar or strip at the club later. And then you’ll listen to their tap-dance and their obfuscation and get your certification that you understand the theory and the applications and the methodology, along with a healthy dose of disgust and all that wonderful debt to play in. But you know something? You probably won’t get to work with the people you’re thinking of, and to make the valuable mistakes you need to make along the way and to find the wonders of your own self either. We’ve severed ourselves from our own intuitions and awareness and we walk around like medicated sheep.
MARY LEE
Speak for yourself. I’m not a sheeple.
RICHARD
Did I say you were? Well, on that note. Come on over any time. Abundance is all around us if we but open our eyes to it. Obatalá be blessed.
(RICHARD exits.)
LISA-ANNE
Well, that was a bit rude of him wasn’t it?
JUSTIN
Actually, I think he caught on real well.
MARY LEE
Just what is that supposed to mean?
LISA-ANNE
I wasn’t saying he was wrong. Just rude.
MARY LEE
You both think I’m a sheeple!
JUSTIN
Baa baa!
LISA-ANNE
Justin!
MARY LEE
I knew it. I just knew it. My own home!
JUSTIN
Hey, Mom. Love ya lots, and sorry and all. But you hold on to things. You do and you know it.
MARY LEE
Just shut up and let the adults handle it.
LISA-ANNE
You’re hopeless.
MARY LEE
Tell him that. Not me.
(LISA-ANNE and JUSTIN look at each other. LISA-ANNE shrugs her shoulders. JUSTIN shakes his head.)
Both of you. Well this is a fine how-do-you-do! Didn’t expect to have the veil ripped from my eyes.
LISA-ANNE
Guess I’ll head over to the Everetts, see how Georgia is doing. I’ll keep you posted.
MARY LEE
Lisa-Anne Caldwell!
LISA-ANNE
Mom, just let it go. You’re going to have to anyway, else you’ll get dragged.
(LISA-ANNE kiss her goodbye, exits.)
MARY-LEE
I can’t believe you kids. All we’ve done for you.
JUSTIN
Yeah, yeah. Heaped all this debt on us and the next 6 generations that we won’t ever be able to pay back. You know, I’m one of the gentler ones. Azazel St. Paul thinks we should line every one up over 35 and shoot you all.
MARY LEE
Who the hell is Azazel St. Paul?
JUSTIN
Lead singer of Azazel and the Jehovah Lovers.
MARY LEE
What is that a metal band?
JUSTIN
They’re like Christo-Satanic Death Punk Goth. With an occasion soupcon of Brit-style bubble gum.
MARY LEE
Christo-Satanic? You blow my mind sometimes.
JUSTIN
Their philosophy is that Jehovah and Satan are the same being. But they’re also mad at the Bankster-Gangster-Thugs in Suits. Title of one of their songs you know.
MARY LEE
You’re enlightening me. So, Justin do you feel I should be shot too, then?
JUSTIN
Actually, I’m scared for you. “Let the adults handle it?” Heh. The rest of us need to pry your iron hands off the controls and give you a time out, or at least help you drive the craft onto some far-off place where you can do the least damage. Richard gets it. He hates his job, and that’s the best thing can be said for it.
MARY-LEE
Don’t you talk to me about Richard. Freak. How does Ken put up with him? You have to go to school!
JUSTIN
Yep. That I do. Really though. You’re selecting what you want to see. Lisa-Anne, me—and Wendy Everett, who took the easy way out—we all see a different landscape than you. It’s a lot harder to be young these days than it was 20 years ago. Have a good day, Mom.
MARY-LEE
Be careful. I worry.
JUSTIN
Smart mother, you are. You’ll go far.
MARY-LEE
Oh hush.
(He exits.)
What are we doing?
SCENE TWO
Summerlands, or wherever people go after they die. WENDY EVERETT skips onstage. A free spirit, 22 forever now.
WENDY
Hey hey hey! I’m Dead Wendy Everett. I took the easy way out I suppose you could say, only . . . I don’t think it really was all that easy. But unlike a lot of living folk, I could see long ahead where all this was going. At least I could save myself the misery. I know George and Mom and Dad are suffering. They’re quite angry with me! Months from now, they’ll read my long letter to them and they’ll understand. I really wasn’t strong enough for this ride, and better to get out early rather than to be a drag later.
I’m no pioneer, but that’s what it’s going to take for the rest of you to get through this pass. Difficult times as they happy motoring way of life vanishes all around you, in dribs and drabs and sudden jerks and jolts along the way. I saw this cartoon when I was a child—Allegro non troppo. It was an Italian film and there was a story about a cat who is starving and cold and she gets into this building and her fantasies become real, and she feels joy. But then reality intervenes and one by one all the images go poof! She comes back to her horror existence until at the end of the film, she too disappears like the living ghost she was throughout. Always to us in the audience at least. We’re like that kitty, see. All our existence is built on something we knew couldn’t last, and like a man on death row, we’re being offered our last meals before we do the dead man walk.
I just was ahead of the game. That’s all.
Millions of souls will join me soon enough, alas. The way things are set up, it will become a couple billion before too long. There’s no reason to be depressed about it though! “Grey skies are gonna worsen! Put on a happy face!” Many of these souls were curious about our existence and they wanted to experience meat reality at least once, and they knew this time would be most troublesome and terribly exciting. It was too rich for my blood, though. Seen my past lives—the only one where I was famous was in Song Dynasty China. I was a minor poet and bureaucrat in the Emperor’s chambers. Famous in that life time, lost to obscurity thereafter.
WENDY (CONT’D)
I’ve seen future-to-you lives too. We all return to the jungle. Don’t worry, that’s not as bad as it sounds to you softened up backyard barbecue addicts. “Mixed grill anyone?” We lose much in the process, though this loss opens up the way for a different way of being that’s much more hospitable and honest. More open, more flexible. These descendants are communicating with you, guiding you to better actions. If you but open your eyes and ears.
Their wisdom could save your lives. If you want your lives saved. Maybe you’re like me? Hi!
I wasn’t strong enough. Your loss? Possibly. The students and those people who have huge quote-unquote education debt – yeah, education in quotes because it’s really more just extra prison time where we need to study and look busy – these people are going to revolt soon. Ironically, in your overlords’ short-sightedness, the society you live, move and have artificial being in has put so much investment in a powder-keg that they’re trying to control, that they and to some extent you think will pay some great dividends… some day, and the time has gone poof! Right before their eyes. The bills came due like two weeks ago. The pressure makes the contents explode.
So I’ve exploded. Whoopee! At least I did so in a contained way. Thousands like me are here in the Summerlands readying for our next lives. Unfortunately some get to go right back into the earth as babies. Can you imagine what it’s going to be like for the children of the Octuplet Moms now? One of them is one of us, I know. Poor little girl.
I look forward to my future life. I’ll just be a part of a nomad tribe, wandering around in FUSA. That’s “Former United States of America.” Food will again be plentiful. Circumstances will change when we just up and decide to leave it.
Some of you are doing that now. It pisses off the Powers That Be. But whether they admit it or not, they’ve played this game to their ultimate checkmate. Man plans and God laughs. She’s laughing hysterically right now as Mother Earth tells us not so gently that the party’s now OVER. She’ll send lots of us to our beds without supper, the greedy and the devoured alike.
Get ready folks. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
SCENE THREE
A workshop in a Vocational Education plumbing school. JUSTIN works at assembling a sink with TYRONE JEFFRIES, a charismatic African-American teen, and SCOTTY “MAC” MCCRORY, a friendly but aimless sidekick.
MAC
Why do they give us all this easy stuff to do?
TYRONE
Why are you complaining? It makes us look good.
JUSTIN
There must be a reason for it. Probably to know our jobs backwards and forwards.
MAC
Seems a waste of time. Why can’t we get on with it?
JUSTIN
It is maddening.
TYRONE
Hey guys, I asked Kendra Thurston out to the movies!
MAC/JUSTIN
Oh, come on! No way! Who do you think you are?
TYRONE
She said yes.
MAC
Dang, some guys. You’ve got balls, Tyrone.
JUSTIN
What are you going to go see?
TYRONE
She wants to go that 3rd version of Rosemary’s Baby.
MAC
Oh, she likes to be scared and clutch at a guy’s rippling bicep, eh?
TYRONE
“Rippling bicep?” What kind of talk is that?
MAC
Back cover of one of my Mom’s romance novels.
JUSTIN
“Where Ladyhawke finds herself swept off her feet by Antonio, who rides in on a fierce stallion and carries her off to bliss.”
TYRONE
Sounds queer to me. Hey, what’s this nut and washer?
MAC
Say what?
TYRONE
These ones here right next to me. We done left something out!
JUSTIN
Great. Just great.
MAC
We have to start over? Oh, man!!!
TYRONE
Houston, we have a problem.
JUSTIN
It’s my faut. I tried to rush us through it.
MAC
Eh, it’s all our fault. We all wanted to just be done with it.
TYRONE
Speak for yourselves, boys. I like doing this work. In fact, I like it so much, I myself left these puppies out.
JUSTIN
Huh?
MAC
Why in hell you do that?
TYRONE
So we can take our sweet time on sinks. Before we move on. To toilets.
JUSTIN
Good point. Say, did you hear about Wendy Everett?
MAC
My brother kind of liked her. What about her?
JUSTIN
She checked out, man.
TYRONE
Lotta that going on.
MAC
Pills?
TYRONE
GSW to head?
JUSTIN
You know, I didn’t ask.
TYRONE
I did hear some chick killed herself by driving into a bank through the side wall, like 90 miles per hour.
MAC
What’s going on? Why are people acting so crazy?
TYRONE
Always been this way, the way I see it. Just a lot more nuts out there in the open I guess.
JUSTIN
This can’t last.
MAC
What can’t last?
JUSTIN
All of it. Take this country for example. America, greatest country on earth, right? Yet Tyrone here is as like to be put in jail as to get a job. And what about the crazy drunks in the churches?
TYRONE
Some of them’s good people.
JUSTIN
In the pews, maybe. Not the ones at the pulpits, taking advantage of people’s fears, blaming their problems on others. Immigrants, environmentalists, gays. What about their own sorry-ass choices? And that’s another thing. We bitch about politicians, but don’t we have the numbskulls we deserve? Don’t we on some deep level think we’re all just scumbags and then act like Mormons, pretending to be good when all we want to do is control your asses? We’re all fucking psychopaths, I think sometimes.
MAC
You sound like a traitor.
JUSTIN
All I’m saying is we call ourselves United. That’s a lie. Tyrone, you going to give a pat on the back to Manny Guiterrez and say he’s your bud?
TYRONE
No-account faggot? What are you crazy?
JUSTIN
Mac, Tyrone just proves my point right there. If we were United states you wouldn’t think twice about it. We’re so divided and conquered, our divisions have sub-sub-subdivisions. Army of One indeed. All of us sheep. Ready for god knows what kind of slaughter, less we wake up and see what’s really going on. Emperor’s got no fucking clothes, man.
MAC
You off your meds?
JUSTIN
And do you have a prescription too? Is your Kool-Aid prescribed by a doctor?
TYRONE
Let’s get back to finishing this sink. I can’t believe I’m hearing a conversation like this.
(They work on disassembly in silence.)
MAC
Man, you got some nerve.
JUSTIN
Manny Guiterrez, Mac.
TYRONE
Maybe I don’t want to be in the same country as those people.
JUSTIN
Tyrone, there are people who don’t want to be in the same country with you. And me too, and Mac.
TYRONE
Well, in our case, that queer shouldn’t be a factor.
JUSTIN
And with that he crosses over to the dark side.
TYRONE
Godwin’s Law, Justin.
JUSTIN
Don’t have to go there. Pol Pot? Robert Mugabe? Glenn Beck?
TYRONE
Since when did you become a cocksucker lover?
JUSTIN
Dude, I’ve always been friends with gays. You just haven’t—
TYRONE
Yeah, yeah. You’re gonna burn in hell with your faggot brethren.
MAC
Tyrone, you don’t really mean that.
TYRONE
Sure do. It’s what my church believes.
JUSTIN
Hey, I got a bible question for you.
TYRONE
You know I didn’t ask for this.
JUSTIN
It’s actually about a word, a Hebrew word, Tyrone. Do you know the Hebrew word for adversary? Or for Defense or Offense, like the Tigers or the Pistons?
TYRONE
Those are gonna be different words, man. I know adversary is Satan, though.
JUSTIN
So, you don’t think the offense is the adversary of the defense? Or that right now, you and I are being adversarial. How does that work exactly?
TYRONE
So what’s your point?
JUSTIN
Just that you need an adversary. You need to be an adversary. Ergo, in Hebrew …
TYRONE
You. Are. Crazy.
JUSTIN
You need satans, you make yourself a satan in the process.
TYRONE
I am not Satan. It is not satanic to hate sin.
JUSTIN
You make yourself into an adversary against whatever the adversary-slash-satan in you wants to satanize, and in the process, you satanize yourself. You live by splitting things in two, well…
MAC
This is getting too deep for me.
TYRONE
You know, I don’t even want to do this anymore. I can’t take your judgments.
(JUSTIN laughs.)
Laugh if you want, demon sinner. I’m on the righteous path.
JUSTIN
I’m just a mirror, dude. I’m another you.
TYRONE
Motherfucker! Motherfucker!
(MR. ALVAREZ, the shop teacher, barrels onstage toward them. The BOYS get quiet when they see him.)
MR. ALVAREZ
So, guys. You should be done with this sink by now. But I hear some cussing and some arguing going on. Don’t tell me it’s over who gets to use what wrench now. Tyrone?
TYRONE
Yes, sir?
MR. ALVAREZ
I’m thinking you especially need to calm down. And Mr. Caldwell, I don’t see why you have to goad this Roman Candle here. I heard your words, guys, and for what it’s worth Caldwell, you make a few interesting points. I want you all to look up the words diabolic and symbolic in the dictionary and get back to me tomorrow.
TYRONE
Diabolic means “of the devil.”
MR. ALVAREZ
Oh, I think you’ll be surprised, Mr. Barber. Carry on. In quietude, please.
(HE exits. The BOYS silently return to work on the sink.)
TYRONE
Huh. I found where they go.
MAC
Good job, Tyrone.
TYRONE
See what you’ve done? Now we have homework.
JUSTIN
Two g.d. words in the dictionary? What, isn’t there one in Mr. Bristol’s classroom?
TYRONE
Yeah, yeah.
MAC
Hey, you guys know why Helen Keller can’t have any kids?
JUSTIN
Why?
MAC
She’s dead.
(THEY laugh for a moment. MAC smiles broadly, but TYRONE and JUSTIN eye each other warily.
SCENE FOUR
IN THE EVERETT LIVING ROOM. LISA-ANNE and GEORGIA EVERETT, a fulsome lass of 20, with lots of curly brown hair, sit and have coffee. GEORGIA has been crying, but seems to be in a more thoughtful moment.
GEORGIA
It’s no secret we didn’t get along. Wendy was a bit neurotic. Diagnosed bipolar her junior year of high school. Still she was smart, determined to surpass my reputation at Algonquin High.
LISA-ANNE
I got along with her all right, but didn’t realize she had all that.
GEORGIA
Don’t you too, though? How’s your family taking the rate increase?
LISA-ANNE
I may not be able to continue. Why did they have to do it mid-year? Did they think we’d knuckle under and say, “OK, Daddy? Hurt me more!”
(LAURA EVERETT, a tall, stately and handsome woman, enters. She’s barely holding it together. She carries in a tray of cookies.)
LAURA
Please tell Mary-Lee for me thank you for the lovely flowers.
LISA-ANNE
It’s the least we could do, Mrs. Everett.
LAURA
Did I hear that you doubt you’ll continue at the University?
LISA-ANNE
Signs seem to point to not now.
GEORGIA
She’s determined not to get any loans.
LAURA
I didn’t know she suffered so. I’m afraid Barry and I took too hard a line with her.
GEORGIA
You can’t blame yourself, Mom.
LISA-ANNE
We all live in it, this atmosphere of debts. Look there for what ails us. We assume too much about things like the Market will solve it. My next door neighbor says we trust too much in experts, but they don’t know what they’re doing either.
LAURA
I can’t take hearing about politics right now, Lisa-Anne.
GEORGIA
Oh, mom, that’s not political, per se. Wendy’s suicide was an act of martyrdom, pure and simple. She saw herself like a poster girl for Les Miserables, or one of those Buddhist monks who set himself on fire. We can’t avoid the politics of her death, especially since she sent copies of her note to that activist group.
LAURA
I’m going to check on that caterer. She hasn’t gotten back to me.
(She exits precipitously.)
LISA-ANNE
She’s really trying hard not to see it, isn’t she?
GEORGIA
Mom really things it’s her fault. Dad . . . Well, he’s in the banking industry. I hate that she got those activists involved. They think they’re going to save our generation, then save the world.
LISA-ANNE
Activists? What are you talking about?
GEORGIA
Well, I don’t know what was going through her sick little mind, but she sent her suicide note to these people out on the West Coast who have made it their business to publicize the predatory practices of student lenders. That they prey on the unsuspecting and the ignorant. They take your dreams for a better life through college and sell you their loans, and once you sign on the bottom line, you’re in for a world of hurt.
LISA-ANNE
Well, Mom and Richard & Ken all said the same thing to me, but maybe not so bluntly.
GEORGIA
I’m sure Richard was blunt, Lisa-Anne. Anyway, Wendy got in touch with them once she. . . Well, she came to believe that college was a waste of time.
LISA-ANNE
But she was so gung ho about it last I talked to her! When did this idea come to her?
GEORGIA
Oh, you know Wendy. For all we know it could have been a mean caprice.
LISA-ANNE
You don’t really think that though, that she’d kill herself on a whim?
GEORGIA
Oh, I don’t know! I don’t know what to think. But these activists are already touting her letter, saying that even bank executives’ daughters are suffering.
LISA-ANNE
Wow. That’s …
GEORGIA
Crazy. Yeah.
LISA-ANNE
(respectful silence)
GEORGIA
We always used to fight. As kids, then as teenagers.
LISA-ANNE
“Keep it fresh! Keep it fresh!”
GEORGIA
I may have to hurt you for that. Came to loathe that phrase. Life is a box of produce.
LISA-ANNE
Remember that time she introduced us to that Born Again?
GEORGIA
Dennis? He came out of the closet, you know.
LISA-ANNE
Good for him!
GEORGIA
Parents cut him off, but that’s not a big loss in my estimation.
LISA-ANNE
Bible College and everything!
GEORGIA
They wanted him to, but that summer he met this lawyer from the City at a local business fair. One thing led to another and …
LISA-ANNE
Poor guy. A lawyer? Really? I suppose it could be worse.
GEORGIA
Heh, sure. Remember the week after she met Dennis, she made friends with Grisly Grossman?
LISA-ANNE
Goth Girl of the Boston Goth Girls, donchaknow!
GEORGIA
“Black, you know. It’s the new goldenrod.”
LISA-ANNE
Wendy did gravitate toward the characters all right.
GEORGIA
That she did. Oh, all things said and done, I guess I loved her. I probably will miss her. At least the loan obligation ends at her death. Dad can rest assured.
LISA-ANNE
Well, no bitterness there.
GEORGIA
I’m sure that asshole colleagues of dear old dad are trying to make suicide less palatable for the kids. Heartless, these vampires. I suppose in some twisted way, Wendy thinks she got the last laugh.
LISA-ANNE
I don’t know what to say.
GEORGIA
I know. Imagine what it’s like for me. Dad’s skipping the funeral.
LISA-ANNE
Cold.
GEORGIA
I think he’s feeling confused. Won’t talk about it. At least he’s not going golfing like Cadwalader and Sterling want him to. What brand of crack are his bosses smoking? Had to draw the line somewhere.
LISA-ANNE
Hm. Wendy had their number. I guess dead old dad’s too, huh?
GEORGIA
Wendy held us all in the balance. We were found wanting.
SCENE IVE
THE SUMMERLANDS, WORLD OF DEATH—YEA! WENDY EVERETT sits with the ghosts, we the audience. She chats conversationally with all’s’yall.
WENDY
You know, that’s really not fair. I didn’t judge them. Much. But I felt like I was found somewhere and brought in from the cold, you know? Ever felt that way? I’m sure that had I lived in the 19th century, I’d have been made a scullery maid or something. Never felt like I was a true Everett. Now that I’m with you all, here in the world of death (gosh it’s a lot like a theater audience – Weird), I see things much differently. Heh. Goodbye to remotes clicking! Other things are much more mystical than I supposed. I was always that way. When I was little, I really could see dead people. Like yourselves. I could see spirits, but it was hectored and beaten out of me. Dad, Mom and Georgia just don’t know that I’m still here with them. They’re in for a lot of pain. You can see it coming, can’t you? It’s too bad in some ways I killed myself. I really could help them by flailing and failing in front of them. Going through my suffering and learning how to survive, even under the cloud of the cunting student default. The homeless will teach them. But in this lifetime, I had a bit of past karma to work out. A balancing out of lifetimes. Well, I was one of the original Thugs in India in my previous life. I’m excited about my next life though! I’ll be born into a loving family in what is now considered Maine, but in the future it’ll just be home. There will be no Maine, no United in Name Only States of Fauxmerica. Yes, I see things so differently here. Many levels of seeing. Poor nationalists, refusing to accept that America, France, Brazil, Russia, Belgium just plain no longer exist except as words on disconnected maps. San Marino, Liechtenstein—well, maybe they’re all right. Even Switzerland as an entity – pffft! Gone. I sure don’t envy your livers! You’re undergoing a great shift right now, out of a destructive lifestyle and into a time of darkness that you defy at your peril. Bless your hearts. Darkness has comfort in it, but you have to embrace it. Our bodies need the dark, not just the skin at night, but the skin itself as a cover, holding the organs inside the cavity, the muscles and the bones out of view. Do you really want to see someone’s heart beating? I don’t. Oh, on second thought it would be a kick for five minutes, then I’d be all like, “grody” and all. Oh, cool, earthy darkness that complements the light. Heck, the light needs to shine on something. My goodness, all that can be perceived is such a tiny speck of all that is. The mother universe is … well, oceanic doesn’t even describe her. And then all the other things I didn’t see before – the brownies, the little brown people, the gnomes. I hope I can help old Barry, Laura and Georgia. Even Georgia’s friend Lisa-Anne. She’s been handed a real opportunity to expand. Maybe she’ll be the one to help my family. No, it’ll be the other one, the boy. Friend. Yes. These pesky Everetts need something all right!
SCENE SIX
IN THE CALDWELL KITCHEN. MARY-LEE speaks on her cell, sitting at the kitchen table, peeling carrots.
MARY LEE
Look, I’m tired of going through this. My daughter would still – but there has to be something . . . This is really unfair . . . Listen, I’m sorry to be – Don’t you raise your voice at –
(JUSTIN enters, mopey.)
Hello? Hello?
(She closes her cell.)
What is this world coming to?
JUSTIN
Something the matter?
MARY LEE
I’ve been trying to deal with the university financial people. They won’t budge. There’s got to be a way for Lisa-Anne.
(JUSTIN shrugs his shoulders.)
So what’s up with you?
JUSTIN
I’ve gotta get new friends.
MARY LEE
Hallelujah! I’ve been telling you that for years!
JUSTIN
Oh! That’s the last thing a teenage guy wants to hear, his mom agreeing with him! Tyrone’s usually been a great fellow. Then he joined that godforsaken church…
MARY LEE
That kid is more of a bully than you have made him out to be, though his sister Oshun is a delightful sort.
JUSTIN
He’s going to disown his family once he gets his own place.
MARY LEE
He’ll learn one of these days. Something else bothering you?
JUSTIN
I don’t think I can talk to you about it.
MARY LEE
You might be surprised. Try me.
JUSTIN
I don’t know …
MARY LEE
Come on! Out with it.
JUSTIN
I think. You should. Liquidate your 401(k).
MARY LEE
What? Why?!?
JUSTIN
I think you’re going to lose it otherwise and that money could come in handy, because we don’t know why. Because I also think it’s a symbolic act. You’ll be placing a put on this crappy system, this vampire society and help it to crash like it should.
MARY LEE
(Alarmed)
So, what are you saying? You’re not … Thinking of going out like Wendy?
JUSTIN
No—Oh, God, no! Richard got me to thinking, and . . . Then Mr. Alvarez gave me this goofball assignment to look up “diabolic” and “symbolic” in the dictionary. You know, it’s interesting because the dictionary gives the one definition of diabolic as about the devil, you know? But the word symbolic is something different, and the roots said it comes from the Greek for “to throw together.”
MARY LEE
… Okay …
JUSTIN
Well, I was thinking huh. Dia-bolic, Sym-bolic. Symbolic implies unity, and what does Diabolic imply? So I looked up other words beginning with d-i-a, and it means “apart.” So, symbolic throws it together, and diabolic throws things apart. See?
MARY LEE
Wow. That’s … wild.
JUSTIN
Yeah. Well, I was thinking Mr. A was trying to tell me something because I got into this big fight with Tyrone in class today. His asinine judgments. But … well, I’m kind of pissed off at everyone over 40 right now.
MARY LEE
Oh, honey… You have every right to be. There are a lot of criminals out there. Somehow they’re the ones who run things, squandering any hopeful possibilities that may have emerged when I was young and idealistic.
JUSTIN
Criminals like Mr. Everett?
MARY LEE
….
I was gong to say that was a bit unfair, but then again how would I know? He is a banker. They’re the ones who got us into the mess. Or I should say led the way. But, you know who am I to judge? I’m guilty too.
JUSTIN
Oh, yeah. And you caused Hitler.
MARY LEE
What?
JUSTIN
And that Great Depression thing? Yeah, your fault. And also the Macarena. What were you thinking there, Mary Lee Caldwell?
MARY LEE
Well, let me say in my defense that I only want for there to be peace in the world. Okay, maybe I’m being ridiculous. All I’m acknowledging is that I made a contribution. And part of that was in passing on some bad behaviors to you and Lisa-Anne.
JUSTIN
You know, I think the school raising its fees could be the best thing that could happen to her. Richard thinks so.
MARY LEE
Don’t talk to me about Richard! Why he doesn’t just join these crazies in the street with their cardboard signs saying “The End is Near” I don’t know.
JUSTIN
Oh, Mom. He doesn’t have to. You actually agree with him, you know.
MARY LEE
Now you’re being facetious.
JUSTIN
You say the same things he does, but he says it with an edge, and from both a wider view and a detailed eye at the same time.
MARY LEE
When did you start to listen to the crackpot?
JUSTIN
He seems like a decent guy. But then Tyrone gets all Biblical about gays. “THE gays,” he says. I just started talking to him one day out of curiosity. He told me that my going to Voc. Ed would save my life, and that I was pretty damn smart to see through all the college scams going on. Called me brave and far-seeing. So how could I not?
MARY LEE
I still think you’re throwing it all away. You’re a bright boy.
JUSTIN
Throwing what away? There’s nothing to throw. I don’t think any of this can or should be saved. We’ll have to pick through the ruins and keep what’s valuable. You talk about squandering your ideals and accomplishments. Our generation gets to live with your choices, you know. And unless as Richard suggests, there’s some jubilee forgiveness of all debt coming – which would be smart, effective and go a long way to establish goodwill, which means with those criminals you noticed running things it ain’t gonna happen – we also get to fight not only you, but each other and Richard’s generation for the scraps. That is if we don’t do something radical and necessary like secede from the state and the country.
MARY LEE
Whoa, hold on there boy! Slow down. Secede? What, are you some Chuck Norris wannabe?
JUSTIN
People from all politics can approach secession, Mom.
MARY LEE
I only hear about it in backwaters like Texas and Alabama.
JUSTIN
Vermont.
MARY LEE
Those people are considered crazy in Vermont.
JUSTIN
Maybe in Burlington and Montpelier. But there’s more to the state than just the corporate towns.
MARY LEE
Corporate towns? Burlington???
JUSTIN
Oh, come on! Like the downtown isn’t a zombie trap! Even if it is a nice walkable zone. And they’re popping up in Oregon, Hawaii, even Connecticut has one.
MARY LEE
Justin… How did you go from the playful kid to talking about secession? Help me out here.
JUSTIN
Well, there’s more to me than meets the eye. I’m finding that out about myself too, as I go along.
MARY LEE
I always knew that, but you’re going a mile a minute.
JUSTIN
More like hundreds of miles a second, but I won’t quibble.
MARY LEE
Oh, don’t go all indigo now. I don’t like what you’re saying. But I look at the banks “too big to fail.” So why not break them up? And I know why, it’s because the thuggerment won’t let them go.
JUSTIN
Thuggerment? And you say you don’t listen to Richard.
MARY LEE
He didn’t come up with that one, just so you know. That was Laura Everett’s doing if you must know.
JUSTIN
Must have heard it from Wendy, I bet. May she rest in peace. Well, they’ll have to let go, or get dragged.
MARY LEE
Ain’t that the truth. And so, you think America’s too big to fail too, huh?
JUSTIN
(snorting)
I think a lot of people think that, but I live as if the U.S.A. has an F in front of it. For Former. Even my teachers call it a paper tiger now.
MARY LEE
(not sincerely)
This is the greatest country on earth.
JUSTIN
Too bad the idea of countries themselves is in the crapper, swirling around the bowl.
MARY LEE
How’d you get to be so dark?
JUSTIN
Mom, all I can do is say what I see, what I feel. I see how unprepared I am. I don’t know – maybe that’s a good thing? I’m 17, maybe I’m not supposed to be. Maybe I’m supposed to learn as I go and pass it on.
MARY LEE
Now you’re talking like a survivalist. That Richard!
JUSTIN
Don’t blame Richard, Mom.
MARY LEE
I do. Filling your head with –
JUSTIN
Mom, no. I find things out on my own then I take them to him. We talk. He’s the only one I know who gets it. I read things on the web. Books find me, they find me! He’s just a sounding board. Always reminding me about what I have now.
MARY LEE
Well, you better remember. I’ve slaved away enough you know.
JUSTIN
As a labor litigation lawyer, I know. I remember all the nights we had to eat a meager supper, but we’ve always had a nice home. I’m grateful.
MARY LEE
And I’ve still got the mortgage. Even in this scary economy.
JUSTIN
Should we change the subject?
MARY LEE
Maybe we ought to. The wake is Thursday, by the way. By the way, Mr. Everett won’t be in attendance.
JUSTIN
Wow – that’s – his own daughter.
MARY LEE
I can appreciate his position, Justin. It is rotten though. Whole thing, rotten.
JUSTIN
Why didn’t she just become an activist? A movement is brewing, you know.
MARY LEE
Some people just aren’t strong enough.
JUSTIN
Some people are stronger than they think. Stronger than they know.
MARY LEE
Well, I – Hmm. I thought Wendy did have more spunk. What happened to her? Is life today so bad?
JUSTIN
That’s a tough one.
(Cell phone rings. JUSTIN picks up.)
Yep. Hey, Mac. Great, what’d he do now? What? That skeezoid! The fuh… So what do you want me to do about it?
(IN THE PHONE: “I DON’T KNOW.” JUSTIN holds the phone away from his ear.)
Easy Mac. Don’t shout. Where are you? Great… Do you want me there/ OK. Keep me posted. Yeah, sucks to be sure.
(Hangs up.)
Tyrone assaulted someone.
MARY LEE
You’ve gotta get better friends. Anyone you know?
JUSTIN
This big queen on campus.
MARY LEE
You shouldn’t use words like that.
JUSTIN
Mom, Manny calls himself the Big Queen of Stanton High. Why not?
MARY LEE
Tyrone put his homophobia into action, eh?
JUSTIN
Got on his case about it today. Suppose he was reacting to me, trying to make a statement.
MARY LEE
How is this Manny?
JUSTIN
Mac said he’s in the hospital. Didn’t know the details. Tyrone let him have it outside a Stewart’s. There are probably quite a few witnesses.
(sits in the chair, deflated. Sighs.)
MARY LEE
Dumb and a bigot.
JUSTIN
The two usually go hand in hand.
SCENE SEVEN:
HOSPITAL ROOM. A beaten up MANNY GUTIERREZ lays in bed. Unconscious. THE ASTRAL MANNY stands downstage talking with WAKIB CIMI, a Mayan deity.
ASTRAL MANNY
So what? I’m gonna die?
WAKIB CIMI
No. You undergo initiation.
ASTRAL MANNY
Initiation? Into what?
WAKIB CIMI
You are becoming a shaman. You will survive this and bring certain power and information to your world.
ASTRAL MANNY
Power and information huh? Well, I certainly would like to see that.
WAKIB CIMI
The fellow who beat you is still out-of-control.
(LIGHTS DIM, the following delivered over microphone)
DEMON (O.S.)
Righteousness. I know God’s will. That was what Jehovah wanted.
TYRONE (O.S.)
His blood be upon him.
DEMON (O.S.)
Yessssssssss! Yessssssssssssss!
(LIGHTS up to full.)
WAKIB CIMI
He has a common belief-disease.
ASTRAL MANNY
That was …
WAKIB CIMI
A disease.
(He touches MANNY’s third-eye point. MANNY shudders and moans.)
ASTRAL MANNY
I don’t feel so good.
WAKIB CIMI
You don’t feel anything now, my friend. Except in your soul. Which got the brunt of that.
ASTRAL MANNY
All that viciousness. All that hate. And . . . Something else…
WAKIB CIMI
A fatigue brews underneath, a desire to jettison the demons. See? They suck the energy, seek more. Seek victims. The fellow Tyrone saw you as one. An offering to this disease.
ASTRAL MANNY
I saw the disease as a demon.
WAKIB CIMI
Look closer. Hear closer.
(LIGHTS dim. The voices repeat the same dialogue as before, but switch.)
TYRONE (O.S.)
Righteousness. I know God’s will. That was what Jehovah wanted.
DEMON (O.S.)
His blood be upon him.
TYRONE (O.S.)
Yessssssssss! Yessssssssssssss!
(LIGHTS up to full)
ASTRAL MANNY
Guy’s split-screen batshit crazy. Maybe I want to be dead.
WAKIB CIMI
Not your time yet. We go visit Xibalba now.
ASTRAL MANNY
Who’s Xibalba?
WAKIB CIMI
She is also a place. Source of all that is. Goddess Mother of all things.
(BLACK LIGHT suffuses the stage. Body parts appear to fly this way and that.)
ASTRAL MANNY
What’s happening to me?
WAKIB CIMI
Relax into your dismemberment. You be recreated in brokenness, new parts and arts talking and creating with each other. New configuration.
ASTRAL MANNY
I – don’t –
WAKIB CIMI
Surrender into it. Easier that way.
(In bed, MANNY sighs deeply, volubly. Black Light eases into regular darkness after a bit of this corporate apart-flying. A spot flicks on MANNY’s face in the bed. He gasps himself into consciousness.)
SCENE EIGHT
THE EVERETTS’ HOME, LIVING ROOM. GEORGIA and LAURA perch on chairs, in their tasteful black.
GEORGIA
Well, that was a lot harder than I thought it would be.
LAURA
What did you expect? Clowns and balloons?
GEORGIA
A little less judgment maybe. They didn’t have to express it all, did they? Lisa-Anne back me up on this.
LISA-ANNE
I was so shocked that first woman – I didn’t know what to say.
GEORGIA
You mean Mrs. Whiteface.
LAURA
Tessa Whiteface is a mean-spirited old biddy.
LISA-ANNE
Maybe I should go.
GEORGIA
No. Mom, none of us understood the alien child. She always described herself as from some planet Maldek or something. One time she was talking with that strange friend she had in high school, you know? Lizardine, who drove a school bus?
LAURA
How could I forget Lizardine? The embarrassment!
GEORGIA
It’s just common decency to at least give comfort to the grieving. Yeah, Wendy and I kept each other arm’s length, just to say hello and all. But she was my sister, and she outlined her reasons for her action, and I for one think we should see what she was experiencing.
LAURA
How can we not address it? Particularly since she went so blazingly public about it? News cameras—the humiliation!
GEORGIA
She was suffering, Mom. We added to it.
LAURA
Don’t pin this all on us.
LISA-ANNE
Mrs. Everett, I’m sure I even added to Wendy’s self-torment. I bragged that I wasn’t taking loans –
(WENDY enters. Of course no one sees her.)
LAURA
Oh, the loans, the loans, the loans! What a crock! She knew what she was doing, disobeying our wishes. We knew – (cutoff thought: “what’s best for her”
GEORGIA
Yeah, Wendy. Why can’t you be Georgia-Twin #1? We don’t like you being Wendy and all, and maybe you could just become a knock-off of your younger sis, because we got it right with her. So because you’re not Georgia-Twin #1, we’re not going to fund your further education. Tough noogies.
LAURA
That’s unfair!
GEORGIA
You’re right! We were unfair. Totally unfair, and the vampires stepped in and sucked her life dry.
WENDY
Payback’s such a bitch, isn’t it?
LAURA
I will not discuss this further.
GEORGIA
Suits me fine. Lisa-Anne, do you think I could stay at your house for a couple of days?
LAURA
You’re just – why, you can’t –
GEORGIA
Mom, I’m the smart one about emotions, OK. Like with that funeral protest in front of Dad’s bank?
LAURA
What is it with people who don’t get how business is done?
WENDY
You see what I had to live with? I really could have checked out a LOT earlier than I did.
LAURA
Fine. Go. It’s probably better.
(LIGHTS DOWN on all but a pinspot on WENDY.)
WENDY
It’s really a shame. Being in this vortex to wherever, I can see a lot more than meets the eye. Mom and Dad each have a big hole in them. They each know about it, each knows the other has it too. Each tries desperately to find the stuff that will fill it up, or evade knowing the lip of this abyss in the center of their beings. Sometimes they forget it’s there, but it haunts them at the edges as it chafes at their spirits. To them, all this is airy-fairy, hippy-dippy stuff. You know, like that other stuff: Blood and flesh and muscle. OK, that’s unfair, but still, people with no patience for the artistic and mystical only want .01% of all existence, and they think that should be enough. It’s tough to raise parents these days. And as far as my eternal soul is concerned? Am I going to hell in an Williams Sonoma handbasket? Of a sort—I get to be born back into this world again. Turns out this suicide was part of a soul contract. I’m somehow here to rescue these pathetic excuses for two-legged organisms. My central point of this agreement was to take this final act and publicly force out a whole bunch of skeletons ready for burial. And begin the Everett family initiation. One Barry and Laura thought they could put off forever, but oh my—I guess I forced their hand. Dad chose a line of work particularly vulnerable to pitchforks and torches. He’s got some hard times ahead, and they don’t show me whether he makes it or not. Same with Mom, but she at least has some hidden reserves. Always knew they were there, but she violently represses it. That will be her best friend. Georgia to her credit, at least wants to face it. And good ol’ Lisa-Anne has a more balanced head on her shoulders. The Caldwells are so much more solid. A kinder bunch of souls. Mom and Dad came in like gangbusters, but they’ve steered toward a waterfall full-throttle. Choice is theirs—get to the shore for a bit and reconsider or … But they’re so used to their despair. I wonder if they’ll survive getting rid of it.
SCENE NINE
The Caldwell kitchen. RICHARD sits as LISA-ANNE washes dishes and puts the cups and plates in the dishwasher.
RICHARD
It’s necessary for us human beings to tell stories. We need them to help us have a context, as well as to impart information. We’ve been telling ourselves some destructive stories for millennia. Time we told new ones.
LISA-ANNE
Mr. Merlin, I feel lost. What’s my new story?
RICHARD
Do you really think I can tell you that? Your brother, now. He’s telling a new and different story. Turned his back on the ones being told now. Admirable, it is.
LISA-ANNE
He doesn’t even watch TV anymore. Rebel.
RICHARD
TV could be telling new stories, but for now, it’s controlled by necrotic necromancers who clutch so tightly to the old. Lisa-Anne, I’m afraid it’s going to get worse before it gets better. I suspect as this way of life convulses in its death throes, it will get ugly indeed. Poor Georgia Everett – her family’s on a death trip. Oya’s coming to sweep the old order away. So much dead branches. Her sister saw the writing on the wall.
LISA-ANNE
There’s more to Wendy’s story than that.
RICHARD
Yeah, and where is she then? Ain’t here no more! She made a choice. Who knows? Maybe in the other worlds it was the right one? Mysteries abound.
LISA-ANNE
You’re a trip, Mr. Merlin. How do you do it? Live in both worlds at once?
RICHARD
The new stories haven’t taken root. We need to work inside this old frame and nurture the new seedlings sprouting up. Like you, for example!
LISA-ANNE
Me? I feel so useless.
RICHARD
You’ve been presented with a great opportunity! Jobless AND you can’t go to the slave factory to get the treadmill BA? You’ve got the grand opportunity for detox.
LISA-ANNE
And from what am I detoxing?
RICHARD
You can quiet down, go into meditation. Ask your source for assistance and guidance for your next right course of action. Each of us is more powerful than we think we are. Calls for responsibility though. Whatever our paths are out of this old culture a-dyin’.
LISA-ANNE
Justin tells me you have other lines of work besides working for the State.
RICHARD
Work is a loose term for what Ken and I do. We make a living from various sources. And we’ve been training ourselves in different trades. Ken’s getting better at blacksmithing, and I’ve taken up more homey crafts – sewing, tomato cultivation, candle making.
LISA-ANNE
I love your garden. All those varieties! And you teach?
RICHARD
Tutor. Don’t get much money from that. Justin’s told your mother he wants to start a garden. Maybe you could help with that? And this is more radical, but perhaps you could try and take in a friend or two? I see Miss Georgia hanging around here more.
LISA-ANNE
She’s taking time away from the family. They’ve got issues.
RICHARD
Smart girl! Well, I’d suggest you all quietly go about finding who you like to be with, who gives you energy and who you enjoy giving energy to. The time may come when you’ll need to anyway, and you won’t get a choice. Not that I am saying the world itself is going to end, mind you. You may have heard me referred to as a “doomer.” Derisively? Well, I’m no such thing! The old system is doomed, yes. But there will be life after the vEmpire’s Last Grasp.
LISA-ANNE
Huh. Did I tell you about that boy at Justin’s school? Who got attacked by Justin’s friend?
RICHARD
I read about it in the papers, but – Justin’s friend, eh?
LISA-ANNE
Tyrone Jeffries. And the boy, Manny Gutierrez, awakened from his unconsciousness. People say he’s different now. He’s making most of the nurses nervous. Guess there’s one who thinks he’s just fine.
RICHARD
Springfield Med?
LISA-ANNE
ICU. Or he might be in his own room now.
RICHARD
The weird nurse is Lila Tracy no doubt. Hm. I wonder if this boy in the ICU is presenting a new story too? May be useful.
LISA-ANNE
Scary.
RICHARD
Oh, all adventures are scary. That’s why they’re adventures.
LISA-ANNE
I think I just want to be domestic.
RICHARD
Then the Brownies will get you! Ooga-booga! There’s adventure here too. Especially as what we’ve thought of as home vanishes before our eyes. We’re all thrust into it whether we like it or not. We need to get through this best we can with as many people as we can personally tolerate.
LISA-ANNE
We have no community here in this troubled place.
RICHARD
We hunger for it though. I practice engaging people in line at the grocery store. Heck lines at the HannaChopper are at least good for that!
LISA-ANNE
Oh, I zone out in line at the store. So I don’t get too irritated with the person in front of me who gets into it with a newbie or a fed-up clerk.
RICHARD
You owe it to yourself to be present even then. I should talk. I zone out behind the computer in my office all the time.
LISA-ANNE
It feels like all my dreams and goals have collapsed.
RICHARD
Only the fake ones. Maybe you need to grieve them.
LISA-ANNE
Not ready for that. Not ready for any of this.
RICHARD
Oh, you’re fine. Resilient! Your mother and brother have rubbed off on you and you don’t even know it.
LISA-ANNE
Mom’s really scared. She thinks her job’s on the line.
RICHARD
All jobs will soon be quaint relics, memories along the lines of “what were we thinking?” Our ersatz economy goes down the old crapper, and I say “hoopla!”
LISA-ANNE
What is to become of us?
RICHARD
That, my dear, is in the hands of powers much greater than you and me. We just get to show up to ourselves in the present moment. Look around us, look at our own back yard. Right here, right now. Why see? It’s spring! A gorgeous day keeps unfolding. I’m grateful for this beauty. Aren’t you?
LISA-ANNE
When I was younger, I wanted to live in a flower house. Hm. You suggest I help Justin with a garden. Perhaps I should make my own little place?
RICHARD
And figure out your story? In the language of zinnias and begonias?
LISA-ANNE
I like portulaca and asters. Dusty millers and coleus. Wow. That’s invigorating.
(She closes dishwasher and sets it going.)
RICHARD
Maybe you should think about herbs too. I know a gal in Madisonville. Perhaps she takes apprentices or teaches classes.
LISA-ANNE
That could be fun. Got to start somewhere. The grocery store, huh?
RICHARD
Anywhere people go who might just be able to have more than two lines of conversation with you. Not rock concerts or pick up bars though.
LISA-ANNE
More than half of those people are drunk or high.
LISA-ANNE
Sobriety. Helps.
(They listen to the pleasant churn of the dishwasher.)
SCENE TEN
IN TYRONE’S CELL. PHOBOS, a fear entity circles around a weakened TYRONE, lapping at his energy.
TYRONE
(moaning)
In the name of Jesus, kill the queer who made this injustice happen. Finish my sacred job for me.
PHOBOS
Yes, yes! More, more.
(TYRONE continues moaning hateful supplications. WAKIB KAME bolts in. TYRONE bolts upright, alert.)
WAKIB KAME
I see you.
PHOBOS
You’re not wanted here.
TYRONE
Who’s there? What the – ?
WAKIB KAME
I’ve been compelled by this entity’s actions incited by you. It’s not about him, you know.
PHOBOS
We’ve supplanted your kind. You have no power here.
(WAKIB KAME slashes the air in PHOBOS’s direction. A golden light streams down upon the Fear Entity, who shrieks in pain. TYRONE shudders.)
TYRONE
That’s it. I’ve lost my frickin’ mind. Devils are tearing me apart. Jesus help me. Kill the bitch.
PHOBOS
I will not be treated so cavalierly.
WAKIB KAME
Too bad your boy hasn’t learned about containment.
PHOBOS
Useless in any case. I too need freedom. Are you here to destroy him?
WAKIB KAME
No. I come to transform you. What happens to him after? His choice.
(WAKIB KAME invokes a pulling motion, and PHOBOS is sucked into his arms. Flashing light, stage darkens.)
TYRONE
Damn! I feel like my left kidney’s attacking my right. Unhhh…
(We hear him fall off his bed.)
SCENE ELEVEN
IN MANNY’S HOSPITAL ROOM. MANNY sits up. JUSTIN sits in a chair by his bed.
MANNY
Are you here to continue the abuse?
JUSTIN
I don’t condone what Tyrone and his buddies did to you.
MANNY
He’s getting his.
JUSTIN
Don’t tell me about it. Is revenge going to help?
MANNY
This isn’t revenge. I know you’ll find this hard to believe, but while I feel the deepest anger, I’m also grateful to Tyrone Jeffries.
JUSTIN
You want a frickin’ medal? You want to be canonized maybe?
MANNY
A tiara and a float would be just fine. Look, after the incident, wherever it was I floated to, it was … I went somewhere. Like those near death stories, I discovered a powerful guide who showed me things. You want to hear something crazy? He showed me you.
JUSTIN
He showed you me? Like how.
MANNY
(satiric)
Oh, we become lovers.
JUSTIN
In your dreams pal.
MANNY
Just kidding. No, he showed me I could tell you these things. For some reason, you would get it. Your friends are surrounded by entities nourishing themselves off their fears. They have been getting a huge energy returned on their energy invested.
JUSTIN
Like as with the oil, except the EROEI is getting weaker.
(MANNY looks at JUSTIN quizzically.)
Energy returned on energy invested. The initials?
MANNY
Right, right. With each succeeding generation, these entities appear to be getting stronger, but they actually have always been easy to dispel. They keep us in the dark, in divided states, tell us lies that so-and-so is worse than they are because of this, that, the other. All the isms are separating, exclusive. Dying.
(JUSTIN studies MANNY.)
What?
JUSTIN
I get the feeling I’m not talking to the silly frivolous queen I sneered at in the halls at Springfield Central.
MANNY
Tyrone’s attack changed me. Ripped open a veil that had been obscuring the true reality. Things are not what they seem. We see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Have you met your guides yet?
(TWO SHADOWY FIGURES dance near JUSTIN, then dance out. MANNY smiles.)
JUSTIN
You know, you’re really freakin’ me out.
MANNY
Oh, pish! It’s thrilling you, I can tell. Everyone has guides. I have quite a few. You think I’m crazy. That shouldn’t be strange to you though.
JUSTIN
Excuse me?
MANNY
Well, you did switch out of the Honors track. What was that about?
JUSTIN
My sister’s at State, and she shared with me the university catalogue. Flippin’ through it I though, “what’s all this for?” All that’s gonna happen is I’ll come out and have to work at something that doesn’t really –
MANNY
You’ll end up being a burger flipper of the corporate type. Instead of “You want fries with that?” it’ll be, “scanned, faxed, mailed or overnight?”
JUSTIN
I hadn’t put it together in quite that way. But Mac’s brother was out of school and living at home for 3 years before finally landing a gig. In collections at a law firm—what a kick in the balls! Degree in IT. He kicked himself for not going into engineering, but I doubt it’s all that much either. Not with Chinese and Indians undercutting everyone.
MANNY
Well, you are ahead of the curve. You’re a teacher. A way-shower.
JUSTIN
You know, I daydream about that. Sure I’m smart. Maybe even Ivy League smart.
MANNY
Hm. Ivy League’s overrated. Look who got us where we are! We’re being told balance it out or vamoose. All of us.
JUSTIN
Getting knocked around sure awoke the preacher in you.
(MANNY angrily crosses his arms, looks away.)
I seem to have struck a nerve.
MANNY
It’s all right. My guides told me I should watch for the ego crap. That’s the danger of being shown things. Justin, I’ve been given so much, I don’t know what to do with it all. Preaching is so ugly. I’ve never done that before. God, how tempting it is.
JUSTIN
No?” Mr. “One must never wear pearls with corduroy?”
MANNY
OK. Shriek. I’m finding my way.
JUSTIN
You know, you are cracked. And so am I. But I also see that it’s something rarer these days to meet people who recognize it when you call them on their actions. And really take it in. So you just showed me, hey, you can take a hint. That right there says maybe you do have a lesson or two for me.
MANNY
I’m not perfect. Got a lot to learn.
JUSTIN
When you’re ready to move, there’s a fellow I’d like you to meet. Think you and Richard will get a real kick out of each other.
SCENE TWELVE
The Caldwell Kitchen. LISA-ANNE stirs a bowl of cookie dough while MARY-LEE sits at the table with a teacup.
MARY LEE
Lisa-Anne, I just want to let you know that no matter what happens you always have a place here.
LISA-ANNE
I’m not going to kill myself.
MARY LEE
Don’t think I haven’t noticed you moping. I know my daughter.
LISA-ANNE
Mom . . . OK. I used to think Justin’s decisions were eccentric and that he’d get tired of slumming with retreads and join the ranks of the college-bound –
MARY LEE
Oh, he has GOT to get better friends.
LISA-ANNE
Oh? And who would that be? He’s as smart as me, maybe even smarter. I have to admit though he’s really seen through some of the illusions.
MARY LEE
You’ve been talking to Mr. Tinfoil next door, haven’t you?
LISA-ANNE
Briefly. He came over with seedlings. Oh, I’m so excited! Starting a garden myself. But Richard was the one, Mom, who said the University would soon find itself foundering, that everything too big to fail would crash and burn too.
MARY LEE
Well, not everything big is crashing.
LISA-ANNE
Whether things do or don’t, I still feel we’re all on our own. At least we talk with Richard and Ken. Our other next door neighbors – well, who the hell are they?
(LISA-ANNE starts mold cookie dough balls on a cookie sheet.)
MARY LEE
I’ve seen the husband, or is it the son? Hey, why are you talking this way? What’s gotten into you?
LISA-ANNE
I’m not in school and haven’t looked for a job, so I’ve had a lot of time to think. To create a space to ask myself “What now? And who the hell do I know myself to be, anyway?” I’m still ruminating. Got all the time in the world.
MARY LEE
Don’t be too sure of that.
LISA-ANNE
Huh?
MARY LEE
Lisa-Anne, I’m seeing a lot of problems down the line developing and higher-ups try and assure us that these things will all work themselves out. And they’ve been saying this line of crock for months. One day, I think I’ll go into work, and they’ll tell us the place has decided to wind it up. And we’ll not longer have jobs because the company’s called it quits.
LISA-ANNE
Is it really that bad?
MARY LEE
My colleagues and I discuss it well out of earshot. We’re seeing more and more clients curtailing our services, aggressively bargaining for reduced rates, paying invoices partially 90 days late. It’s been a gradual process, but it still feels fast to me.
LISA-ANNE
If you lose your job . . . we haven’t paid off the mortgage, what will we eat … ?
MARY LEE
You know about the house, it wouldn’t matter much. The Town Sheriff has said she won’t kick people out of their houses. Of course the Banks don’t want to hear that, and are trying to get someone to run her out of office.
LISA-ANNE
The Banks! Who do those snakes think they are? Sorry. I didn’t mean to smear snakes by linking them to bankers.
MARY LEE
Now, now, Mr. Everett is in a hard position.
LISA-ANNE
Which he and all the others like him brought on themselves. And Mrs. Everett – well, I can’t talk to her either.
MARY LEE
I remember when we were your age. Way back when it was Carol Burnett and American Graffiti. Such good friends, though even then I could see that Laura had no idealistic bone in her body. She and Barry fit in like Flynn as they used to say. Now… It’s disconcerting to be one of the Luhv Generation and watch this world we’ve had a big hand in making go up in a puff of smoke. Thought we could help take this planet and make it better, teach the world to sing and live in perfect harmony. Heh.
LISA-ANNE
Well, Wendy could sometimes go on about the frickin’ Baby Boomers. Not that I ever did that.
MARY LEE
I don’t know, Lis. Sometime in the 80s, it’s like we all made a choice to move away from being risky and chose to be safe. As we understood safe at the time. Slowly but quickly, too, our way of life got more uniform, more one note. Sure enough, one leads right into the other. You know, it’s bugged me for a long time that everywhere I go, I see the same stores, and the little shops and businesses I used to shopping at in my 20s and 30s are gone. They couldn’t compete. I admire people today who try small business. But with all the overhead …
LISA-ANNE
I learned a bit about that in the economics class last semester. All these extra costs at different levels of government. State, County, Municipal. Sometimes the city they incorporate in. More and more the businesses give way because they can’t make payroll and keep up with the fees.
MARY LEE
That’s just one factor, honey. That ain’t even half of it.
LISA-ANNE
Wow, it’s a lot worse than I thought. You know we should take some of these to the other next door neighbors. See who they are. What do you think?
MARY LEE
I don’t know honey. It’s an idea. I need a little nap, though. I’m going in the other room and lie down for awhile.
(MARY LEE exits. LISA-ANNE finishes the cookie dough balls and puts the cookie sheet in the oven. She gets a cookbook from one of the cabinets and pages through it when JUSTIN enters.)
JUSTIN
Cookies? What a good idea!
LISA-ANNE
This. Is. So Weird.
JUSTIN
What? That it’s like old times, huh Sis? Can I go play Xbox now?
LISA-ANNE
Asshat. I can understand why moms go to work. Except for mom coming home a mite early, I’ve spent the whole day by myself.
JUSTIN
Sounds like paradise, it does.
LISA-ANNE
Paradise? Try loony bin! You’ve got school. Gosh, I miss it. Only been gone a week. How pathetic am I? Here’s an interesting recipe.
JUSTIN
Georgia still here?
LISA-ANNE
She’s not gone back home to Barry and Laura, no. Her mid-terms are coming up. So jealous. It’s better she stays here anyway. Rumor has it they’ve been fighting.
JUSTIN
Huh. So what’s for dinner?
LISA-ANNE
I think I’m going to try my hand at chicken roti. I’ve always liked it at Jamaica Breakahs.
JUSTIN
That’s ambitious. And about time, too.
LISA-ANNE
Ken suggested I get Brussels sprouts and turnips –
JUSTIN
Ew!
LISA-ANNE
And roast them. He was making some when I went over there. Smelled pretty good. They’re cooling over by the pantry.
JUSTIN
But – but … they’re still Brussels sprouts and turnips!
LISA-ANNE
Be bold and adventurous, bro! I’m willing to give it awhirl. You never know.
(He looks in a pot on the stove.)
JUSTIN
What’s in here?
LISA-ANNE
Brown rice, millet and amaranth.
JUSTIN
What are millet and amaranth?
LISA-ANNE
Grain, Justin. Like wheat, or oats. Or rice?
JUSTIN
OK, OK! Sheesh. Looks like you sprinkled bird seed.
LISA-ANNE
Birdies like millet. Remember the one time Mom got what she thought was cous-cous but it tasted different? Always wondered what that stuff was.
JUSTIN
Did I like – I think I liked that!
LISA-ANNE
Well, I wandered around the Food Co-Op. You don’t know how bored I’ve been. I only looked in the classifieds the one day. Eesh.
JUSTIN
Think long term, sis. Think of the world that’s evolving, the way our lives are changing. Heck, we don’t even know if the government’s going to survive.
LISA-ANNE
I don’t want to hear your Mad Max scenarios.
JUSTIN
Hey! I’m insulted! I never get all mutant zombie biker here!
LISA-ANNE
Yeah, well, wev. I still don’t want to hear that noise.
JUSTIN
Ken and Richard will –
LISA-ANNE
And I will respectfully change the subject. Moving on!
JUSTIN
So. Wanna hear about my day?
LISA-ANNE
Um… Maybe. Sure.
JUSTIN
Voc Ed is different without Tyrone. Mac’s gone completely silent. Thinks it’s my fault somehow that Tyrone’s in the klink.
LISA-ANNE
Well, Mac’s not the brightest of fellows.
JUSTIN
Agreed. I did get a nice chat with Mr. Alvarez though. Interesting guy. Did you know he used to do what Mom does?
LISA-ANNE
Yes. So did you. Unless you weren’t listening.
JUSTIN
Huh?
LISA-ANNE
He worked for their biggest competitor? Luxor?
JUSTIN
Ax-man Alvarez? That was him?
LISA-ANNE
Duh! Evidently he lost his edge a few years back, and decided to go a different route. She was bowled over that he ended up teaching plumbing and air conditioner repair at SHS.
JUSTIN
He said as much. Wow. I didn’t know that was him. Well, turns out the legal stuff comes in real handy when he has to go out on house calls with some of his fix-it work. Still, the trade is what saves him, both his ass and his mind!
LISA-ANNE
Huh. I’m not about to go over to Odette’s Cosmos-tology to become a beauty consultant, thank you very much.
JUSTIN
Why even consider that at all?
LISA-ANNE
Richard mentioned herbs and medicines. That might be something.
JUSTIN
Yeah. And we can plant some herbs with tomatoes.
LISA-ANNE
And flowers. I’ve already started pricing seeds. It’s crazy how many seed catalogs there are!
JUSTIN
Tell me about it. Well, don’t be hasty. You’re still in shock.
LISA-ANNE
Mom wonders if I’m going to be the next Wendy.
JUSTIN
She doesn’t know you as well as she thinks she does. You’re in shock. You’re not down.
LISA-ANNE
Yeah. Thanks. I didn’t know you could notice things like that.
JUSTIN
I’m learning all sorts of things about myself. You know, I really am pissed off about all this. What did these adults do all these years? How could they spend our future the way they’ve done?
LISA-ANNE
You’re the one who sounds like Wendy. Going off on the Boomers and Banksters as if they were the same thing.
JUSTIN
Lisa-Anne, you’re pissed off too. Banksters? Banker-gangsters?
LISA-ANNE
Richard uses that – Oh! That’s good!
(She pulls out the cookie tray, puts it to the side.)
Hey, what do you know about the Charbonneaus?
JUSTIN
Absolutely nothing. The people next door, right? Though I’ve not seen their cars out in a long time. For all we know, it could be unoccupied right now.
LISA-ANNE
I haven’t seen them either. Weird. Maybe you’re right about this being an opportunity. Ken told me about a couple other ways I can go. Organic architecture at this place in Vermont. They give certifications. Don’t laugh, but they have a class called “Power Tools for Women.”
JUSTIN
Why would I laugh at that?
(HE looks at the cookies, feels how hot they are.)
I look forward to eating you later. Sooner, hopefully.
LISA-ANNE
I have to admit, I’m intrigued.
JUSTIN
Mr. A thinks we’re going to be thrown on our own resources soon, but he thinks we are all much more powerful than we believe we are.
LISA-ANNE
Just like Richard. You know, I look at Georgia – she’s a pillar of strength.
JUSTIN
So are you. Like sees like, Sis.
LISA-ANNE
Since when did you become my cheerleader? Not that I’m telling you to stop. Huh. We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for. Wendy…
JUSTIN
That’s a shame. She said things like that?
LISA-ANNE
Well. You know how she was. Sometimes she and the Lizbot could get downright creepy. The way they just sort of stared at you with this “Amusing creatures, these humans” smirk. Still, Wendy certainly knew how to set it off. Ballsy in a sick way.
JUSTIN
If you say so.
LISA-ANNE
I don’t feel very powerful, Justin.
JUSTIN
You’ll find the right key in.
LISA-ANNE
Wonder how long we have. Don’t you feel like something’s going to blow any day now?
JUSTIN
I’ve felt that way my whole life! Don’t you know me?
LISA-ANNE
I had no idea!
JUSTIN
You don’t really pay all that much attention to me, do you?
LISA-ANNE
Not until recently. Sorry. Older sister’s prerogative. Speaking of which, can you tenderize the chicken?
(JUSTIN sullenly moves to do as asked. MARY LEE enters, yawning and stretching.)
MARY LEE
The oddest thing . . . I think I dozed off for a few minutes there.
JUSTIN
Mom, they’re running you ragged.
MARY LEE
Yeah, yeah. . . What can I do? If I don’t – I’m too scared to think about it.
LISA-ANNE
How could we have let this happen? How could we just think someone would step in and fix it all? We’re all such babies.
MARY LEE
Um . . . Well, I don’t know what to say to that.
LISA-ANNE
We just go blithely along, listening to the buzz and churn of the commercials, the pabulum music. And we just go along to git along.
JUSTIN
Sis? Where’s this coming from?
LISA-ANNE
I don’t know. Just thinking about Wendy’s ranting note. Damn banks.
MARY LEE
Well . . .
JUSTIN
Get no argument from me.
(pummels the chicken.)
MARY LEE
I heard AmericanationalBank’s threatening to hire its own police force if the various law enforcement agencies stop performing evictions. What are those people thinking?
JUSTIN
Well, looking at the one family we know –
LISA-ANNE
Justin –
MARY LEE
Laura came to me yesterday. She’s not holding up well with all the mess. Her husband’s been away, and Georgia spends her time here. My friend is lonely, guys.
LISA-ANNE
I’ve not seen Mr. Everett for a good ten days. He took a business trip to Boston the other day, I guess.
MARY LEE
I tell you it feels like there’s a war on, but no one’s come out and declared it yet. We’re all divided, a lot of us are on an us side and a lot of us are on another us side, against all the Thems. And you know, that’s the old Caesar idea of divide and conquer, only we’re all divided against each other. We’re all partisan sheep most of the time, shepherded by crazies. Justin, you’re going to turn that bird into a pulpy mess if you keep that up.
JUSTIN
Oh, sorry.
MARY LEE
So, chicken? And chocolate chip cookies and salad? What else you got going on for dinner?
(She looks in the fridge and pulls out the container with the Brussels sprouts.)
MARY LEE
(wincing)
What possessed you!?
LISA-ANNE
Ken suggested I try something different. I think they’re tasty.
(Suddenly, the kitchen door bursts open. WAKIB KAME and OGUN enter, and look at JUSTIN.)
LISA-ANNE
Goodness. The wind can really be fierce!
MARY LEE
Sounded like a shot from a cannon.
JUSTIN
What the – ?
OGUN
Do not be scared. Your associate told you we might come.
JUSTIN
Uh . . .
MARY LEE
Justin?
JUSTIN
You can’t –
WAKIB KAME
They can’t see us.
LISA-ANNE
Knock it off, guy. We’re getting ready to have dinner.
WAKIB KAME
You now get to know the next leg of your journey. Walk with us.
JUSTIN
Walk with you? Uh . . . Mom?
MARY LEE
You see something don’t you?
JUSTIN
And you guys can’t.
OGUN
She has faith this one.
MARY LEE
I always knew you were special!
LISA-ANNE
He’s just joking, Mom.
MARY LE
Lisa-Anne shut the door.
JUSTIN
Maybe. After I go. I’ve evidently got somewhere to be.
LISA-ANNE
It’s almost dinner.
OGUN
You will need nourishment. Take some with you.
JUSTIN
I guess I’m going to be gone for a bit.
(He goes about getting Tupperware to make a take-out dinner for himself.)
Guess I’ll be giving your infamous Brussels sprouts a try on the road.
LISA-ANNE
What’s he doing? Mom?
MARY LEE
It’s a mystery. I – I want to keep you home, Justin. But I’ve been wondering if something . . . Anything I can do to help?
OGUN
Yes, she have fine faith.
JUSTIN
These guys are saying you’re already doing it, I guess.
MARY LEE
What do they look like?
JUSTIN
One looks like something out of Aztec Mexico, and the other’s a black man with a hammer.
LISA-ANNE
You guys are starting to freak me out!
MARY LEE
This world is so much bigger and weirder than we think. I’ve seen some things. It’s partly why I married your father, but we’ve hidden our weirdness so most wouldn’t know. Justin, trust these two.
JUSTIN
I’ll be back as soon as I can.
MARY LEE
Go with God.
LISA-ANNE & JUSTIN
Mother . . .
(JUSTIN exits with his 2 guides. The door swings shut behind them.)
MARY LEE
Wow. It just got cold in here.
LISA-ANNE
Uh . . . What just happened?
MARY LEE
Be still and just sense.
(They still for a moment. LISA-ANNE fidgets.)
LISA-ANNE
I hate it when you get all electro-whack like this.
MARY LEE
What is electro-whack?
LISA-ANNE
Why couldn’t I have a normal mother?
MARY LEE
There’s an off-kilterness to you too, daughter mine. Shapeshifting one. You are so good at that, you don’t have a sense of who you are yet. The false reality will leave us all behind soon enough.
LISA-ANNE
This reality is all there is.
LISA-ANNE
Oh, I think we’re going to find out that it’s a lot less than it’s cracked up to be. Microscopic, in fact. Now. I’ll see to that chicken.
SCENE THIRTEEN
The Everett living room. LAURA lies on the couch in a light sleep/trance. WENDY stands nearby. GEORGIA enters with her book bag. She looks around, confused.
GEORGIA
Is anyone here? Mom? Is anyone –
(LAURA sits up, unseeing, looking out toward the Audience.)
Mom? Are you all right?
(WENDY moves to GEORGIA and smiles. GEORGIA turns and sees her.)
Uh, . . . I wondered if –
(WENDY silently raises her hand to her lips (the sign for hush now), and points at LAURA.)
LAURA
(not her own voice)
I am Mother Earth. I give you a dream of tomorrow. Your way of life harms you, is now passing away. Difficult times ahead. Change in the offing. Your cars will serve as scrap. Good service ahead for them. Unfortunately much conflict over this and other things. The well-fed ones will go hungry. Some of the destitute will find sustenance. Those quick to embrace the ancient ways. Can’t go back, but must recover the ancient ways to move forward. Move in any direction. Death from standing still in fantasy. Death throes alternate with birth pangs. My soils initiate you into a new way of life. The ancient will live alongside the worthwhile in the new. Gods and Goddesses return, as they were before, incarnate. Some acting in Godly realm. Fifth Dimension. Energies available to help in transition. Know that you who can listen to the trees, who open to animal wisdom are protected. All wayshowers with things to do. My daughters you are listening. This maternal vessel is caught up in the selfish trance. She needs your help. I come to you through her through careful planning. You’ve always known this area of your being. She very afraid. You and your husband-to-be must guide her Georgia. The time has come for you to blast through fear, find out more of who you really are. What you are capable of. Time humanity found and recovered its true work as a people amongst all others. Stone, four-legged, six-legged, eight-legged, no-legged, wingéd, water, standing people. All. A beautiful version of me awaits those who would choose it. Mother Earth saying so long. We meet again. Hugs now.
(GEORGIA and WENDY both hug LAURA, who collapses in GEORGIA’s arms. WENDY stands back and sends energy.)
GEORGIA
It’s okay, Mom. Mommy, it’s all right.
(LAURA starts to come to. Confused she looks up at GEORGIA.)
LAURA
Georgia? Where are you dragging me to?
GEORGIA
Oh, Mom. It’s who you dragged in that I’ve got to tell you about. You’re not going to believe it.
SCENE FOURTEEN
On the side of a hill, just after dusk. MANNY and JUSTIN stand next to each other while WAKIB KAME and OGUN keep watch. Crows and ravens caw in the near.
MANNY
So what do you think of this?
JUSTIN
I don’t know what to think. I know I’m supposed to be here. And I’m not surprised you’re somehow a part of it. But I hope we don’t have to have sex or anything.
MANNY
Hard to say. If so, it would all be kept totally secret—that’s the way these things work.
JUSTIN
Yeah, right.
MANNY
Whatever happens, it’s nothing personal.
JUSTIN
Am I supposed to find that comforting?
MANNY
I would. I think I’m here to help because I’ve been through something already. I have a sense of what to watch for.
JUSTIN
You’ll have to tell me how you got past the hospital staff.
MANNY
Oh, we who understand have friends in low places.
WAKIB KAME
Strip, fair one.
(JUSTIN glares at WAKIB KAME, and starts to strip.)
MANNY
Just do it. This is mystical time and place we’re –
(JUSTIN gets down to his shorts. BOTH HE and MANNY are struck dumb. Various other figures dance in and out of the darkness. JUSTIN and MANNY both beam huge smiles.)
JUSTIN
My body feels so different. Wow we’re like, beautiful!
MANNY
We were before we went through … whatever.
JUSTIN
Yeah. Young.
MANNY
And old too. There’s old geezers in side each of us.
JUSTIN
I like it, I like it. Gosh, I wonder if this is forever. Or is it just for now, to see everything so amazingly gorgeous.
MANNY
Better than Avatar, that’s for sure. I hope it lasts beyond.
JUSTIN
I see what’s what… We’re ..
MANNY
Like I said, this working is secret. Feels like we’re obligated.
(A female version of each of MANNY and JUSTIN enter, and frolic with each other. The two boys feel everything they do.)
Whoa! Did you have a whole body orgasm?
JUSTIN
(speechless)
MANNY
Your reputation is safe with me.
JUSTIN
Will it be like that?
MANNY
Oh, we’re boys. It’s not quite the same.
JUSTIN
That like, changed me dude.
MANNY
Hope I don’t disappoint you. Our secret
JUSTIN
Knew I could count on you.
MANNY
Ain’t doing it to safeguard your rep. This is sacred. It’s part of the intention. Create a safe container. You’ll understand later.
(JUSTIN and MANNY look deeply into each other’s eyes. They kiss. They stretch out on the ground. BLUE LIGHT bathes the stage as the figures continue to dance and frolic, as the female JUSTIN and MANNY dance erotic pas de deux. Alternating heavenly music/primal beat.)
END OF ACT ONE
