America Finding Her Way
Page 18
but they will burst past her)
Lena: I'm going to bed.
Faye: Now?
Dove: It's dawn already.
Kat: And you're dressed for company. Got a lover coming?
(They're in, and make themselves comfortable)
Faye: The big white hunters took off. We're on our own.
Lena: I don't want to see anyone. I want sleep.
Kat: How's Sally. (Looking for some) Got any coffee?
Lena: Kat.
Kat: (Playing dumb) What. Relax. Sally sleeping? We'll go in a minute.
(Silence. Lena's not going to thaw. Kat wonders how to reach her. Faye and Dove begin to doubt they should be there, but they're ensconced now)
Lena: What are you doing here?
(Kat just stares at Lena. Dove wants to escape)
Faye: Well we just...
Lena: You're scared.
Dove: (Nervy) What?
Lena: All of you. You're afraid if you sleep, you'll get visions of what a man looks like mauled.
(The women go white, picturing what they fear)
Kat: Now don't start...
Lena: ...with his bones mashed, and his face eaten away.
Faye: Let's go, Kat.
Lena: ...or his neck, or his belly.
Kat: Or any other readily available part.
Faye: Don't joke, Kat! I'll get nightmares.
Lena: Will Jimbo come home that way?
Kat: Shut up!
Lena: Will Teddy have legs to carry him?
(Faye starts crying; Dove holds her)
Kat: (To Lena) Happy now?
Dove: You can't stop 'em. They've always done it.
Lena: And we wait.
Kat: So that’s life.
(Silence)
Faye: They're scared too. But if they beat the monster they win.
Lena: Win what? Jimbo's losing his homestead.
Kat: There's no contracting. He can't go back to logging, that's finished too. What's he sposed to do? With three kids.
Faye: Teddy's been scared since he found his buddy Nelson...
Lena: When he'd shot-gunned his face?
Faye: ...morning they came to auction his machinery.
Dove: Month after Nelson's your best man.
Kat: Was one helluva winter. (Swallowing the lump in her throat) But, hey! Our boys're out climbing the mountain.
Dove: It's a lift, anyways.
Kat: Jimbo's so primed, he got it up last night. First time since Christmas.
Faye: (Giggling blush) Go on.
Kat: Oh, Missy, pump your stud while you can. After 20, he'll take a long slide down. Double quick, when he's got no job.
Dove: (Laughing) You tell it.
Lena glares an accusation at Dove. Dove faces Lena, unashamed)
Kat: Bank on it– There ain't no fun in a man who don't feel like one. How bout that, Lena?
Lena: (Looks at Kat, chalk white) Just go, please.
Kat: Since Sally took sick Brad's been a shadow of himself, ain't he.
(Lena's mouth opens, but no sound comes; she turns her face away. Faye's embarrassed at Kat's pressing Lena. Dove's curiosity sizzles)
Kat: You and Brad were the hottest thing this town ever saw. Tears my heart out to see you now.
(Faye, anxious to change subject, takes a rag-doll from her pocket)
Faye: I made Sally something...here.
Lena: (Dragging her face back to look, says hoarsely) That's real pretty, Faye.
Faye: Should I put it in by her? She's asleep, ain't she?
Lena: She won't take notice either way. If her eyes are open, she's awake.
(Faye tiptoes to Sally's bed, pulls Dove with her. Kat presses Lena)
Kat: Sure you feel abandoned that Brad went off, but he's gonna burst, Lena. I half-think that's why Jimbo cooked up this hunt.
Lena: So Brad could escape.
Kat: Sure.
Lena: What about me? What about Sally.
Faye: (Returning) I guess she's awake, but she... (Silence as Sally’s condition sinks in) I'm seeing Doc in the morning, Lena, I could... You want we should go – I mean, me and Dove?
Lena: Yes. All of you.
Faye: But Kat should stay. You need to talk it out, Honey.
Lena: (Moves abruptly to look out) Go. I want you gone. It's getting light.
Dove: (Low) Told you there's a lover.
Kat: (Brushing Dove aside, challenging Lena– ) What if Sally dies while Brad's on the mountain.
Lena: (Choked) Don't say that.
Kat: You know she could.
Lena: Get out of here!
Kat: You'll blame him, won't you.
Lena: I don't blame him!
Kat: Course you do. And even if you didn't, he's so wracked with guilt, he's near out of his mind. I see him. Why do you think he's hanging at Benny's all the time. Pouring his guts out to Dove, here.
(Dove chews her lip, and looks the other way)
Kat: You think it's cause you froze him out? Hell it is. I grew up with him. He'd never stand for that, if he didn't think he deserved it. He's dying inside. The only thing he could do to please you is the one thing he's helpless to do – bring Sally back. Doc's told you. You know I love her like my own daughter. But we all know – Sally's dying. Ain't gonna help her to kill the daddy, too.
(Lena stares at Kat – struck, then crumples, sobbing. Kat scoops Lena into her arms)
Kat: Oh baby, cry. We'll put you to sleep. And when you wake we'll have a great breakfast.
Lena: (Protesting) No...
Kat: You got flour left, ain't you?
Dove: Benny's got some rotten bananas and choke cherries. I'll run get 'em.
Lena: (Panicking) No...
Kat: See? Sizzling johnnycakes. And Faye'll make coffee. Those guys'll be sorry they're tromping the chilly mountain.
(Knock. Surprised pause. It's what Lena was waiting for, but what to do now?)
Faye: Who's that? It's not even six.
Kat: Phantom lover.
Dove: (Looking out) An Indian.
Kat: Be damned, Lena. You turning blood?
Lena: (Catching her breath, stands) Let her in.
Kat: It's a squaw?
Dove: Probably begging.
Faye: What for? Their casino's raking it in.
(Lena thrusts past them, to open. Jawea stands looking at her. She's barely more than a girl, but poised and still)
Lena: Please come in.
Kat: (Wary) Lena, I don't think you should...
Dove: (Muttering) Looking to steal.
Jawea: (Looks at them, doesn't move) Got bad air here?
Lena: These women are leaving. I'm Lena. Please come in. I've finished the bowl Matu asked for.
(Jawea moves in, ignoring the others, who buzz, uneasy, offended)
Faye: Matu’s that battle-axe won’t give the time of day.
Dove: ‘Less you’re a hunky brave; she’s got a fresh one every new moon.
Lena: (To the women) Do you mind? (To Jawea) Please sit; be comfortable. This is Kat, Faye, and Dove, on their way out. And you are...Jawea?
Jawea: I need to wash.
Lena: (A little thrown) Certainly. Right through there.
(Lena directs Jawea to the bathroom, off.)
Faye: Least she'll be clean.
Lena: You’re gone.
Kat: What's going on? Who the hell is she?
Lena: (Deep breath, then– ) Jawea's come for the pot I made Matu.
Kat: Yeah? And how do you know Matu?
Lena: She trades baskets for coffee at the Post.
Kat: While calling every shot out there.
Lena: All I know is she liked my pots. (Beat) So. I'll see you all later?
Dove: I heard of Jawea.
Kat: What?
Dove: Big to-do on the
rez. Since her "woman-rites" last summer.
Faye: Is she the one?
Kat: What?
Dove: She's a healer.
Kat: What! Lena...
Lena: (Quickly, hushed) Quiet. Be quiet. This is my business.
Kat: Your business. This pagan...
Lena: How many did we lose from flu this winter, Kat? Six, eight, thirteen? Your mother, your nephew...
Kat: What's my mother got to do with this? They lose twenty, thirty at the rez every year. They ain't even got a hospital. They load them out on truck beds.
Lena: Not this year.
Kat: And before she died, Mother said...
Lena: This year, the rez only lost two.
Kat: (Beat) I don't believe it.
Faye: She's only a girl.
Kat: What are you up to? Behind Brad's back, the minute he's gone?
Lena: Did I want him to go? I'd have told him if he'd stayed.
(Jawea reappears. Lena has impulse to shield her, but Kat seems silenced by her presence. Jawea is still, watching them. Faye puts her hand on Kat, to guide her out, and Kat takes a step to go, but is very upset, can't keep quiet.)
Kat: It's not medicine these people do, Lena, it's religion. I know! They draw spirits out of the mountain.
Faye: They take drugs.
Kat: They drum.
Dove: Dance all night.
Kat: It's like voodoo.
Lena: (Steady) You come to my house. You tell me Sally's dying...
Kat: And I'm staying. Brad's my friend since before we were born. I won't let his child be touched by a...
Lena: An Indian?
Kat: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
Lena: What if this girl can cure Sally?
(Stunned pause. No answer to that)
Lena: It's nothing to do with Brad. It's on my head.
Kat: She's Brad's daughter too.
Lena: No. He left. I asked him not to, but he did. So I'm free to go my own way.
Kat: Lena, don't be crazy.
Lena: My way's no crazier than his. He climbs the mountain. All I'm doing is sitting here with Sally, same way I've been sitting every night since Brad left her alone in the woods.
Kat: It wasn't his fault!
Lena: Of course it wasn't.
Faye: Let's go, Kat.
Kat: This'll kill him.
Faye: Let's go.
Kat: Lena?
Lena: (Beat) And what about Sally.
(Kat stares at her, and at Jawea, then bolts for the door. Faye follows with Dove, who looks back at them. Lena is watching Jawea, who's been motionless since she reappeared)
Lena: Forgive us.
Jawea: (Looks at Lena) I'll take off now.
Lena: No. No, please...sit with me.
(Jawea watches Lena a long moment, then moves to sit. Quiet)
Lena: Matu said... (Doesn't know how to begin)
Jawea: Just talk. I only speak American.
Lena: That's not it. I just... It's so important. Matu said you'd help me. (Looks at her) No, I'm lying. She didn't say you'd help, she agreed to send you to talk. She said you were not a trained shaman, but that you had a gift.
Jawea: You don't belong here.
Lena: (Startled, then understanding– ) No. I'm from the coast, by the sea, but my husband...his blood runs deep in the hills.
Jawea: He belongs?
Lena: Your people were here before his.
Jawea: I haven’t got people. I was born in the city.
Lena: That's why you speak only English?
Jawea: I could’ve come from here, but I was...
Lena: (Beat) Lost?
Jawea: Sort of. My mother told a story before she died about the People and the mountain, but I never believed it, because she drank.
Lena: But did she say...
Jawea: (Interrupting) And your child?
Lena: (Startled beat, then– ) Sally's her father's child. Always in the woods. Like a fawn. So there was no way I could take her back to the sea. But now...I don't think she even hears the bob white.
Jawea: (Fixed on Sally) What happened to her.
Lena: (Choked) We don't know. They went for a walk – she and Brad. I'd hauled my pots to the City Spring Fair – there'd been no snow all winter, so no tourists to sell them to. In the woods, Brad always takes his shotgun, for birds. But Sally doesn't like the sound. So when some turkeys crossed up ahead, Brad went after them, and Sally hung back. He told her to wait where she was, but she...she must have wandered. Then, when he got his bird, and called her, there was no answer. (Beat) He got frantic, of course. Shouting for her, searching. And we think now she'd slipped into a shallow den, close by, but wouldn't answer, thinking he was angry. Then when he went off, she fell asleep. It could have been that way. (Beat) Just past midnight, he finally staggered home – to get torches, to get help, wildly hoping someone else had found her. But it was me, dragging back from the fair, who met him. In all my life, I'll never forget the look on his face. (Beat) We went back with Jimbo and