Buried Child (12 page)

SHELLY:
(After silence.)
Vince?
(VINCE
turns toward her. Peers through the screen.)

VINCE:
Who? What? Vince who? Who's that in there? Is someone in there?
(VINCE
pushes his face against the screen from the porch and stares in at everyone.)

DODGE:
Where's my goddamn bottle?!

VINCE:
(Looking in at
DODGE.)
What? Who is that? Who's speaking? Whose voice is that?

DODGE:
It's me! Your grandfather! Don't play stupid with me! Where's my two bucks!

VINCE:
Grandfather? Grandfather? You mean the father of my father? The son of my great-grandfather? That one? When did this start?

DODGE:
Where's my bottle?!
(HALIE
moves away from
DEWIS,
upstage, peers out at
VINCE,
trying to recognize him.)

HALIE:
Vincent? Is that you, Vincent?
(SHELLY
stares at
HALIE,
then looks out at
VINCE.)

VINCE:
(From the porch.)
Vincent who? What is this?! Who are you people?

SHELLY:
(
To
HALIE.)
Hey wait a minute. Wait a minute!

HALIE:
(Moving closer to the porch screen.)
We thought you were a murderer or something. Barging in through the door like that.

VINCE:
A murderer? No, no, no! How could I be a murderer when I don't exist? A murderer is a living breathing person who takes the life and breath away from another living breathing person. That's a murderer. You've got me mixed up with someone else.

BRADLEY:
(Sitting up on the sofa.)
You get off our front porch, you creep! What're you doing out there breaking bottles? Who are these foreigners anyway! Where did they all come from?

HALIE:
(Moving toward the porch.)
Vincent, what's got into you! Why are you acting like this?

VINCE:
Who's that? Who's that speaking?

SHELLY:
(Approaching
HALIE
.) YOU mean you know who he is?

HALIE:
Of course I know who he is! That's more than I can say for you, missie.

DODGE:
Where's my goddamn bottle?
(HALIE
turns back toward
DEWIS
and crosses to him.
VINCE
sings.)

VINCE:
“From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. We will fight our country's battles in the air on land and sea … ”

HALIE:
(To
DEWIS.)
Father, why are you just standing around here when everything's falling apart? Can't you rectify this situation?
(DODGE
laughs, coughs.)

DEWIS:
I’m just a guest here, Halie. I don't know what my position is exactly. This is outside my parish anyway. I’m in the quiet part of town.

SHELLY:
Vince! Knock it off, will ya! I want to get out of here! This is enough.

VINCE:
(To
SHELLY.)
Have they got you prisoner in there, dear?
(VINCE
starts to sing again, throwing more bottles as things continue.)

SHELLY:
I'm coming out there, Vince! I’m coming out there and I want us to get in the car and drive away from here.

Anywhere. Just away from here. Far, far away,
(SHELLY
moves toward
VINCE
's
saxophone case and overcoat. She sets down the wooden leg down left and picks up the saxophone case and overcoat,
VINCE
watches her through the screen,
SHELLY
moves to right door and opens it.)

VINCE:
We'd never make it. We'd drive and we'd drive and we'd drive and we'd never make it. We'd think we were getting farther and farther away. That's what we'd think.

SHELLY:
I'm coming out there now, Vince.

VINCE:
Don't come out. Don't you dare come out here. It's off-limits. Taboo territory,
(VINCE
pulls out a big folding hunting knife and pulls open the blade. He jabs the blade into the screen and starts cutting a hole big enough to climb through.
BRADLEY
cowers in a corner of the sofa as
VINCE
rips open the screen,
DEWIS
takes
HALIE
by the arm and pulls her toward the staircase.)

DEWIS:
Halie, maybe we should go upstairs until this blows over. I'm completely at a loss.

HALIE:
I don't understand it. I just don't understand it. He was the sweetest little boy! There was no indication,
(DEWIS
drops the roses beside the wooden leg at the foot of the staircase, then escorts
HALIE
quickly up the stairs,
HALIE
keeps looking back at
VINCE
as they climb the stairs.)
There wasn't a mean bone in his body. Everybody loved Vincent. Everyone. He was the perfect baby. So pink and perfect.

DEWIS:
He'll be all right after a while. He's just had a few too many, that's all.

HALIE:
He used to sing in his sleep. He'd sing. In the middle of the night. The sweetest voice. Like an angel.
(She stops for a moment)
I used to lie awake listening to it. I used to lie awake thinking it was all right if I died. Because Vincent was an angel. A guardian angel. He'd watch over us. He'd watch over all of us. He would see to it that no harm would come,
(DEWIS
takes her all the way up the stairs. They disappear above,
VINCE
is now climbing through the porch screen onto the sofa,
BRADLEY
crashes off the sofa, holding tight to his blanket, keeping it wrapped around him.
SHELLY
is outside on the porch,
VINCE
holds the knife in his teeth once he gets the hole wide enough to climb through,
BRADLEY
starts crawling slowly toward his wooden leg, reaching out for it.)

DODGE:
(
To
VINCE.)
Go ahead! Take over the house! Take over the whole goddamn house! You can have it! It's yours! It's been a pain in the neck ever since the very first mortgage. I'm gonna die any second now. Any second. You won't even notice. So I'll settle my affairs once and for all.
(As
DODGE
proclaims his last will and testament,
VINCE
climbs into the room, knife in his mouth, and strides slowly around the space, inspecting his inheritance. He casually notices
BRADLEY
as he crawls toward his leg.
VINCE
moves to the leg and keeps pushing it with his foot so that it's out of
BRADLEY
’s reach, then goes on with his inspection. He picks up the roses and carries them around smelling them,
SHELLY
can be seen outside on the porch, moving slowly center and staring in at
VINCE. VINCE
ignores her.)
The house goes to my grandson, Vincent. That's fair and square. All the furnishings, accoutrements, and paraphernalia therein. Everything tacked to the walls or otherwise resting under this roof. My tools—namely my band saw, my skill saw, my drill press, my chain saw, my lathe, my electric sander—all go to my eldest son, Tilden. That is, if he ever shows up again. My Benny Goodman records, my harnesses, my bits, my halters, my brace, my rough rasp, my forge, my welding equipment, my shoeing nails, my levels and bevels, my milking stool—no, not my milking stool—my hammers and chisels and all related materials are to be pushed into a gigantic heap and set ablaze in the very center of my fields. When the blaze is at its highest, preferably on a cold, windless night, my body is to be pitched into the middle of it and burned ‘til nothing remains but ash.
(Pause,
VINCE
takes the knife out of his mouth and smells the roses. He's facing toward the audience and doesn't turn around to
SHELLY.
He folds up the knife and pockets it.)

SHELLY:
(From the porch.)
I'm leaving, Vince. Whether you come or not, I'm leaving. I can't stay here.

VINCE:
(Smelling the roses.)
You'll never make it. You'll see.

SHELLY:
(Moving toward the hole in the screen.)
You're not coming?
(VINCE
stays downstage, turns and looks at her.)

VINCE:
I just inherited a house. I've finally been recognized. Didn't you hear?

SHELLY:
(Through the hole, from the porch.)
You want to stay here?

VINCE:
(As
HE PUSHES
BRADLEY
’s leg out of reach.)
I've gotta carry on the line. It's in the blood. I've gotta see to it that things keep rolling,
(BRADLEY
looks up at him from the floor, keeps pulling himself toward his leg.
VINCE
keeps moving it)

SHELLY:
What happened to you, Vince? You just disappeared.
(Pause,
VINCE
delivers the following speech front.)

VINCE:
I was gonna run last night. I was gonna run and keep right on running. Clear to the Iowa border. I drove all night with the windows open. The old man's two bucks flapping right on the seat beside me. It never stopped raining the whole time. Never stopped once. I could see myself in the windshield. My face. My eyes. I studied my face. Studied everything about it as though I was looking at another man. As though I could see his whole race behind him. Like a mummy's face. I saw him dead and alive at the same time. In the same breath. In the windshield I watched him breathe as though he was frozen in time and every breath marked him. Marked him forever without him knowing. And then his face changed. His face became his father's face. Same bones. Same eyes. Same nose. Same breath. And his father's face changed to his grandfather's face. And it went on like that. Changing. Clear on back to faces I'd never seen before but still recognized. Still recognized the bones underneath. Same eyes. Same mouth. Same breath. I followed my family
clear into Iowa. Every last one. Straight into the corn belt and further. Straight back as far as they'd take me. Then it all dissolved. Everything dissolved. Just like that. And that two bucks kept right on flapping on the seat beside me.
(SHELLY
stares at him for a while, then reaches through the hole in the screen and sets the saxophone case and
VINCE
's
overcoat on the sofa. She looks at
VINCE
again.)

SHELLY:
Bye, Vince. I can't hang around for this. I'm not even related.
(She exits left off the porch,
VINCE
watches her go.
BRADLEY
tries to make a lunge for his wooden leg.
VINCE
quickly picks it up and dangles it over
BRADLEY
‘s head like a carrot.
BRADLEY
keeps making desperate grabs at the leg.
DEWIS
comes down the staircase and stops halfway, staring at
VINCE
and
BRADLEY. VINCE
looks up at
DEWIS
and smiles. He keeps moving backwards with the leg toward up left as
BRADLEY
crawls after him.)

VINCE:
(
To
DEWIS
as he continues torturing
BRADLEY.)
Oh, excuse me, Father. Just getting rid of some of the vermin in the house. This is my house now, ya know? All mine. Everything. Except for the power tools and stuff. I'm gonna get all new equipment anyway. New plows, new tractor, everything. All brand-new.
(VINCE
teases
BRADLEY
closer to the up left corner of the stage.)
Start right off on the ground floor,
(VINCE
throws
BRADLEY
‘s wooden leg far offstage left.
BRADLEY
follows his leg offstage, pulling himself along on the ground, whimpering. As
BRADLEY
exits,
VINCE
pulls the blanket off him and throws it over his own shoulder. He crosses toward
DEWIS
with the blanket and smells the roses,
DEWIS
comes to the bottom of the stairs.)

DEWIS:
You'd better go up and see your grandmother. I think you should. It would be the Christian thing.

VINCE:
(Looking upstairs, back to
DEWIS.)
My grandmother? There's nobody else in this house. Except for you. And you're leaving, aren't you?
(DEWIS
crosses toward right door. He turns back to
VINCE.)

DEWIS:
She's going to need someone. I can't help her. I don't know what to do. I don't know what my position is here. I'm quite out of my depths. I'll be the first to admit it. I thought, by now, the Lord would have given me some sign, some guidepost, but I haven't seen it. No sign at all. Just—
(VINCE
just stares at him.
DEWIS
goes out the door, crosses the porch and exits left,
VINCE
listens to him leaving. He smells the roses, looks up the staircase, then smells the roses again. He turns and looks upstage at
DODGE.
He crosses up to him and bends over, looking at
DODGE
‘s open eyes,
DODGE
is dead. His death should have come completely unnoticed,
VINCE
lifts the blanket, then covers
DODGE
's
head. He puts
DODGE
‘s cap on his own head and smells the roses while staring at
DODGE
‘s body. Long pause,
VINCE
places the roses on
DODGE
’s chest, then lays down on the sofa, arms folded behind his head, staring at the ceiling, his body in the same position as
DODGE
's
After a while,
HALIE
is heard coming from above the staircase. The lights start to dim imperceptibly as
HALIE
speaks,
VINCE
keeps staring at the ceiling.)