The Stonemason (13 page)

They sit.

M
AVEN
If that were true wouldn't it be all the more reason...

B
EN
All the more.

M
AVEN
But you won't change your mind, will you?

B
EN
I don't feel wrong. I just feel guilty.

They sit.

M
AVEN
What about Mama, Ben?

B
EN
What indeed.

SCENE VI

The hotel room. Soldier is lying on the bed in his underclothes. He has his mouth open and he is dead. A syringe and a length of small rubber tubing lie on the night table. A burned out book of matches. A spoon. Street sounds. The cooing of a pigeon. There is repeated knocking at the door. Finally the door opens and Ben enters. He comes in very slowly and surveys the scene. He comes to the bed and puts a hand to Soldier's neck. He picks up the spoon, the syringe. He lets them fall again. His mouth is compressed in anger and in sorrow. He pulls the chair up to the bed and sits down and holds his face in his hands. The pigeon calls. After a while Ben gets up. He looks down at Soldier. He takes the paraphernalia from the night table and puts the items in the side pocket of his jacket. He looks around the room. Then he takes Soldier's trousers from off the foot rail of the bed and goes through them and takes out his billfold and puts that in his jacket pocket. He stands looking down at Soldier. Then he turns off the bedside lamp. There is just the light from the window. The pigeon calls. He turns and leaves the room.

SCENE VII

A telephone booth at stage left. Ben is talking behind the glass.

B
EN
Yes. The Fairfax hotel. No. I don't know. I opened the door and there was a dead man on the bed. Yes. Room two twelve. It's not a joke. Well call the hotel. Have the clerk check. Yes. No, I opened a wrong door.

He hangs up the telephone.

SCENE VIII

The farmhouse dining room. Ben alone at the table with his cup of tea before him. Maven comes in in her robe. She bends and kisses him.

B
EN
Good night Maven.

M
AVEN
Are you sicklied o'er with the pale cast?

B
EN
What?

M
AVEN
(
Smiling
) Are you deep in thought?

B
EN
That's not what I'm deep in.

M
AVEN
Is it about Soldier?

B
EN
Yes.

She stands rubbing his shoulders.

M
AVEN
Do you want to tell me about it?

B
EN
I don't want to.

Maven sits down. Ben shakes his head. He looks at her.

B
EN
I lied to you. God, look at me. I didn't tell you everything.

M
AVEN
Tell me now.

B
EN
He's dead.

M
AVEN
(
Softly
) Oh God.

B
EN
I don't know what to do.

M
AVEN
What happened?

B
EN
He was dead when I got to the room.

He reaches in his side pocket. He takes out the syringe. He takes out the spoon. The tubing.

B
EN
Here. Here are some of his toys. His last effects.

M
AVEN
Oh Ben...

B
EN
I don't know what to do, Maven.

M
AVEN
They'll know who he is... They'll...

B
EN
I took his billfold too.

M
AVEN
Oh Baby.

B
EN
When I saw him I just... I've never known such sadness. It was like I couldn't breathe. And then it just made me mad. I sat there in the room with him. And I just... I was in a rage.

M
AVEN
What are you going to do?

B
EN
I don't know.

M
AVEN
You can't just let them...

B
EN
Why can't I?

They sit in silence. Maven shakes her head.

M
AVEN
He's still part of this family, Ben.

B
EN
He's dead.

M
AVEN
That's not good enough.

B
EN
So it's not good enough.

M
AVEN
If he's dead why can't he come home, Ben?

B
EN
What am I supposed to tell Carlotta?

M
AVEN
(
Echoing Ben's phrase
) What indeed.

B
EN
And Mama.

M
AVEN
And Mama.

B
EN
I can't change anything, Maven. There's nothing I can do. It won't make anything better for anybody. It will just make everything worse. A lot worse.

M
AVEN
You intend to take all this to the grave with you?

B
EN
Why not?

M
AVEN
I don't think you can.

B
EN
Alive I can manage to keep him from wrecking this family but now that he's dead I'm helpless against him?

M
AVEN
Something like that.

B
EN
God, Maven.

M
AVEN
I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear.

B
EN
I know.

M
AVEN
I think it's all on the line, Ben. Right here.

B
EN
Don't tell me that.

M
AVEN
You told me that principles were absolute or they weren't principles. That it couldn't have to do with other people because other people change. You said there could be no exclusion clauses. That if you gave your word to someone you had to keep it even if that person were to turn against you. You had to keep it no matter what they did.

B
EN
I said. I said.

M
AVEN
Yes. You said, Ben.

B
EN
How am I supposed to tell her this, Maven? How?

M
AVEN
Don't you see what you're doing? You're getting to say, Ben. And it's not up to you. You can't know another person's torment. You of all people. Things come easy to you.

He starts to speak.

M
AVEN
No. They do. You cant judge, Ben. You can't get to say.

B
EN
I just don't think I can do it.

M
AVEN
Everything you worked for, Ben. It was all because you didn't think it was fair. You didn't think it was fair that people should not have what they'd worked for. You didn't think it was fair that people were left outside looking in. You didn't think it was fair that people should be singled out for dispossession or condemned to ignorance or that they should be robbed because they had no recourse or insulted because they had no rebuttal. You said there were some things that people didn't have to deserve. You said there were some things you couldn't deserve. Things so sweet or so precious or even just so common to all humanity that there was no deserving them they just were given and you couldn't question them whether they fell to you or to someone else you couldn't question them. Maybe that dead boy doesn't deserve to be buried with his family. But Ben does he have to? Does he have to?

Ben looks up at her.

B
EN
Why are you crying? Is it because of Soldier?

M
AVEN
No.

He leans and takes her face in his hands and kisses her eyes.

B
EN
When Melissa was born I walked into the room and I was... I guess I was crying and I looked at you and I didn't know what to say and I said thank you. And you laughed. Do you remember?

M
AVEN
Yes.

He kisses her again.

B
EN
Let me call. Before I lose my nerve.

He rises and goes to the telephone and dials.

B
EN
Yes. For Louisville. Do you have the number for the police. No. It's not an emergency. Thank you.

He pushes down the receiver and dials the number.

B
EN
Hello. Yes. My name is Telfair and I'm calling in regard to... in regard to a man who was found dead at the Fairfax Hotel this morning. Yes. I have an identification. Yes.

He waits. He looks at Maven.

B
EN
Yes. Black male. Nineteen. Yes. He was nineteen. He was my nephew. Telfair. His name. Benjamin. His name was Benjamin.

SCENE IX

At stage right, the family cemetery with the stone farmhouse in the background. There are a number of stone markers and part of an iron paling fence. All the family are present and dressed in mourning and the minister is reading the service over the casket.

M
INISTER
Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me. And horror hath overwhelmed me. And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away and be at rest. Lo then would I wander far off. I would lodge in the wilderness. I would hast me to a shelter from the stormy wind and tempest.

A wind is blowing across the little cemetery and Carlotta who is standing next to her husband turns away and goes stage left a few steps and stands looking out away from the service. She takes off her hat and veil and shakes out her hair. Her mouth is set and her face is hard.

M
INISTER
Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongue: For I have seen violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof. Iniquity also and mischief are in the midst of it

He breaks off and looks up.

M
INISTER
For it was not an enemy that reproached me. Then I could have borne it.

SCENE X

Night, the farmhouse dining room. Ben is sitting alone with his elbows on the table and his forehead against his fists. A light comes on in the kitchen behind him and Carlotta enters the room. She comes forward and stands looking down at him. She is still dressed in black. Ben raises his head. Then he turns and looks up at her.

C
ARLOTTA
We're leaving tomorrow. As soon as we've found a place we'll send out for the furniture and things. I'm going to let you and Mason make whatever sort of agreement he thinks is fair about the house. I'm sorry it's on your land. We can't move it.

B
EN
I'm sorry, Carly.

C
ARLOTTA
I don't think you are.

B
EN
I know. But I am. I don't know what else to say.

He looks away. She is standing looking down at him. She shakes her head. He turns and looks at her again.

B
EN
What about Mama?

C
ARLOTTA
Mama's not going anywhere.

He looks away again.

C
ARLOTTA
Tell me one thing.

B
EN
Anything.