by Karen Sunde
kitchen, from off) Getting some bananas, alright?
Jen: Your clothes are laid out, Jamy. God, look at you; you're going to have to shower. Where do you think you're going...Jamy! Who's out there?
Jamy: (From off, exiting) Gaia.
Jen: (Pause, lost) I don't think the folks know what to do. They're like tracing a spider-thread hoping it doesn't wisp off into nothing.
Mike: With Jamy?
Jen: He's not always hostile, he's just...a ghost. Did you see? He looks right through you.
Mike: I see how it could dislodge your parenting instinct. At least they can rejoice that you're a winner.
Jen: Forget it. They think they failed with me because I'm looking to get rich.
Mike: Ahh, but that's a good ole American virtue.
Jen: They call it "soulless."
Mike: You see...
Jen: They did teach me to work for it, so I'm not a complete loss.
Mike: …those two are unregenerate anti-establishmentarians.
Jen: And you’re well disguised – with your Ferrari swagger, your multi-digit wardrobe, your...
Mike: (Brushing tuxedo that's hanging in doorway) Don’t let appearances fool you, darlin’
Jen: Your suave is not for real?
Mike: Them that flash, need cash.
Jen: What?
Mike: Real wealth seldom looks it. But who knows that? I dress to cover the tracks I had to cross getting here.
Jen: You were poor? But Nam was a rich kids’ revolution.
Mike: Who told you that?
Jen: (Moving to him suggestively) Listen, I've been fantasizing about your unregenerate generation all my reactionary life.
Mike: Don't tempt me, baby. Fiction is far more fun than truth.
Jen: You mean – settle for a story at bedtime, little girl?
Mike: (Warning) Ah ah ah. (Goes back to folding brochures) We must not nudge this extraordinarily productive relationship toward the scandalous. The "papers" would be on us in a milli-second.
Jen: Ohh, but it's all right for you and Mom to...
Mike: Speaking of "papers," what's Mimi going to do?
Jen: Sell it.
Mike: (Stops what he's doing) No!
Jen: She put it on the market yesterday. Dad didn't tell you?
Mike: He said advertising had picked up.
Jen: Not the point. His defiance is the point.
Mike: What do you mean? I've diplomatized his ass off. I feel like I'm in a marathon arm wrestle. Did you see the piece he wanted to run on the Project's development kick-backs?
Jen: Yeah.
Mike: He'd have smeared half the people on that list of yours. We'd have had a big zero count tonight.
Jen: The piece wasn't that bad. And if it's true...
Mike: Timing, my dear, timing. Mimi would arrest on the spot.
Jen: Oh, he'll find another angle. He refused to down-scale production, and that flipped her. In half a second she was on the phone to her lawyer – "It's up for sale. Start taking bids."
Mike: Right out from under him. God. Did I tell you I went after her for a contribution?
Jen: No shit. Bet she sees you as the peon her son dragged in.
Mike: Jacob liked me. She remembers that.
Jen: Grand-dad did?
Mike: He saw the glint of a “comer.” Kind of ambition he wanted in Alan.
Jen: So you knocked on Mimi’s door – big grin, slotted jar in hand?
Mike: Gold-plate pen, darling. Just a pen.
Jen: And?
Mike: Oh, she tea-caked and fussed me over, but did not dip for her son's campaign. Nope. Not a bit impressed.
Jen: Probably afraid he'll burn the flag on the steps of the state-house.
Mike: No, she just seemed disconnected. Waiting – for something else.
Jen: There is no way you'll get him into this tuxedo.
Mike: Don't worry – as long as you got the right size.
Jen: I can't picture it.
Mike: Never seen him on? He moves into action like a tiger.
Jen: Maybe...when something breaks in the newsroom.
Mike: Yes, "when" is the key. The moment he's convinced...his stroke has absolute power. It bores through to your backbone. You're riveted – to him and his cause. (Beat) So once they've felt it, they can't let him rest, and he can't refuse. He's a leader.
Jen: Well. (Little laugh) Wow.
Mike: What's your mother wearing?
Jen: (Beat) You'll have to ask her.
Mike: Ok. Will do. (Heads for stairs)
Jen: Clever move. Except she's not home.
Mike: Not home?
Jen: Nope.
Mike: We have to be scarce in half an hour!
Jen: Tell that to her synapses.
Mike: I don't believe it.
Jen: Wasn't she always like that?
Mike: (Worried) Hmmmm?
Jen: So...absorbed?
Mike: No. She was the spark, the lightning...
Jen: What was it like, the three of you on the barricades?
Mike: (Dreaming) Hayride at first frost.
Jen: What?
Mike: (In the present) Sorry, I keep forgetting.
Jen: What.
Mike: You're too young for the image.
Jen: Well I've never seen her “spark.”
Mike: Miss Muffet, I believe you're fishing.
Alan: (Enters from front door, to Mike) My god, you look like Halloween.
Mike: You're not insulting this tender young-uh woman?
Alan: So they still make 'em like that? (Kisses Jen) Beautiful, Jenilla.
Mike: OK, you've gone over your speech?
Alan: Mike...
Mike: The only thing to watch for – should they get onto the Project – is to stay between. Let both City Slope and Parkside imagine they can claim you. And what's true – absolutely – is "we haven't finished studying the issue."
Alan: That creaks, Michael.
Mike: Nothing can be crystal, anyway, until all the owners are declared. Am I right?
Alan: (Flops into chair) Right.
Mike: (Picks up bottle) Tonight is not about urban angst. Tonight is about getting you on the slate.
Alan: (Indicating champagne) You cracking that, or just waving it around?
Mike: Later, champ.
Alan: I could use a whiff of something.
Mike: Tough day?
Alan: Had better.
Jen: How about essence of hot shower?
Mike: Heard your desk's up for sale. I'm glad you'll have use for the Governor's.
Alan: Sooner than you can produce it. Mimi moved against my salary this afternoon.
Jen: What! Does she want us on the street?
Mike: She can't move alone.
Alan: No, and the board is only two-thirds with her so far. But she's determined. (Beat) So. How long till my next match.
Jen: (Checks her watch) Oh, juniper. We've got to move, Dad. (Picks up notes)
Mike: Ever suspect you were growing a resident campaign manager?
Alan: A nominating caucus is not a campaign.
Mike: Ha – a wave on a smile is a campaign.
Alan: And I haven't okayed your dropping out, young woman.
Jen: Where else could I get such an education? Now – here's the brief on the Project: Ugly story – "renewal" began in the 50’s; it was the old town, first settled, completely run down, business district shifted, then urban malls...
Mike: The very first settlement?
Jen: Before that, an Indian center, the crossing of rivers.
Mike: Long before the great Condo war.
Alan: I think Dad was involved in the first restructuring of the area.
Mike: Jacob "restructured?"
Alan: Politic for "head em out, move em on."
Jen: Demo
lition. Wipe away the poor.
Alan: They built them low-income high-rises out at City Limits subdivision.
Jen: "Improved" their living standards.
Alan: Right – disaster. Even Dad relented.
Mike: Tough old Jacob?
Alan: He let a piece get printed under the lead: "Poor Used To Be A Way To Live" depicting Front Street in the 30's.
Jen: (Jotting notes while he talks) No shit. Lively?
Alan: Yup. Always a catching-on place where you could collect used bottles, off-load dry goods, wash down the back way at the butcher's, grub a plateful at the diner if they liked your face. And it was life.
Jen: (Writing) A buzzing mesh...
Alan: When did poor-life get illegal?
Mike: When your average family wasn't anymore. Poor.
Jen: (Reading) "That buzzing mesh could always hold more life." Hey – if I ever go back to school, I'll teach ‘em how it's done.
Mike: She's showing fire, wouldn't you say?
Jen: You cut the cute lip, and let him dress. (Hands Alan the tux)
Alan: Kate upstairs?
Jen: No, she's...not here yet.
Alan: No? Oh. (Seeing the tux in his hand) What's this supposed to be?
Jen: It's supposed to be 40 Long, 32-34, studs in left inside pocket.
Alan: Bad joke, sweetie. Did you put her up to this?
Jen: Come on. Just pretend it's a wedding.
Alan: Not a chance, people. This is a political meeting, not a beauty contest.
Mike: It's just a matter of form. Celebration. Everyone sports a uniform.
Alan: I've never been everyone. And I didn't bring her up thinking I was. (Hands back tux, heads up stairs) This is me, take it or leave it.
Mike: Alan.
Alan: And the same goes for the marriage registration. You knew the goods – you sell them (Exits above)
Jen: So much for slipping into a little something less comfortable.
Mike: (Sighs) He'll make it work. He always could. Panache.
Jen: Sure. (Beat) What's with the marriage registration?
Mike: I just want him to call his friend at the records office in Ottawa.
Jen: Ottawa – their registration? It's in Canada?
Mike: I know it's a small thing, but after tonight the opposition'll beat anything they can out of the bushes.
Jen: Sure. (Beat) So what's the date on it?
Jamy: (Sticking his head in from kitchen) Dad here?
Jen: Yes, he's up dressing, but you can't...
Jamy: Sure. I know.
Jen: Look, Jamy, will you just...
Jamy: (Dashing across room and upstairs shouting) Dad! There's someone wants to see you.
Jen: Jamy!
Jamy: (Glancing back at Jen) Dad? You got time to speak to a...constituent, don't you? Dad? (Exits above)
Jen: I'm gonna kill that kid! You watch. He will not make it to fourteen.
Kate: (Entering from kitchen) Does anybody know who that is out there?
Mike: No doubt a spirit of the night, milady, nodding you on your way.
Kate: Jamy's home, isn't he?
Jen: Mom, you've got to hurry. There's only twenty minutes to dress.
Kate: For what, Jennel?
Jen: Mom.
Kate: All this has nothing to do with me. Your father understands. The less fuss you make, the easier it will be on everyone. What time did Jamy come home?
Mike: What's going on, Kate?
Kate: Don't get near me dripping cologne, Michael.
Mike: You and Alan are a team.
Kate: Performing apes? You figured two for the price of one? Sorry.
Mike: Kate.
Jen: Forget it, Mike. She doesn't want him to do it. She's jealous!
(Jen slams out of the room. Alan is walking above, Jamy following)
Jamy: Just for two minutes, Dad. It's a friend of mine, wants to talk to you. Before tonight.
Kate: It’s no good, Mike. Just go before anything gets broken.
Mike: Like this cocoon you’ve spun? I believe in this campaign, Kate.
Kate: And I should hoist the flag because you turned up? I believe in the work I'm doing.
Mike: But it's snuffed your light, Kate. And that’s what made me dare.
(Kate stares at him, turns and moves swiftly up the stairs)
Kate: You can dare all you want. You’ve got nothing to lose.
Mike: (Hitting back) Right. No wife, no kids, no life?
Kate: (Stops midway) You didn't have to creep from underground, so Jen could have a life! She was born on a crusade, Mike. And what did it get us? Exile.
Mike: She appears to have survived. (Beat) Alan’s in the world again, Kate. He's reaching to people, wanting to help. Let him go.
Kate: What makes you think I'm holding him?
Mike: You laid down the rules for coming back: Cross the border, dig a camp, but we will never show our face in daylight again. Not in this misguided country.
Kate: Wrong. I never
