Candles to the Sun

by Dan Isaac

  red: Naw, I don’t wanta dance neither.

  star: Gosh, you’re kind of hard to entertain!

  red: Naw, I’m not.

  star: Maybe I just don’t know how.

  red: It’s easy . . . .

  star: Gosh! You make me feel funny, just settin’ there starin’ at me like that. [Crossing to table.] I feel like I did the first time I ever had a date with a boy! Lissen—they’re playin’ a waltz tune now!

  red: Where did you get that honeysuckle from?

  star: Down there in the hollow.

  red: Is there anymore down there?

  star: It’s plum full of it!

  red: I’d like a piece of it myself. To put under my pillow and dream on tonight. Come awn. Le’s you an’ me take a walk.

  star: Where to?

  red: Down there in the hollow. By the spring. [His voice lowers.] There’s a place down there where the water’s real wide and smooth. You can see the stars in it as plain as you can in the sky!

  star [softly]: I know. I go down there myself sometimes. That’s where I was this evenin’ when I got to feelin’ so blue . . . .

  red: Maybe if you an’ me went down together it wouldn’t make you feel that way.

  star: Maybe it would and maybe it wouldn’t . . . .

  red: Take a chance on it, huh? [Star smiles enigmatically.] Star . . . .

  star: Wait. I got a deck of cards here I tell fortunes with. [She draws a much-worn deck from the table drawer.] Pick a card!

  red [grinning]: Okay. [He draws one and so does Star.]

  star: What you got?

  red: What did you get?

  star: I’m callin’ YOU!

  red: Well, I got the ace of spades!

  star [smiling]: You’re a liar, Birmin’ham Red! Lemme see?!

  red: Honest!

  star: I know you didn’t!

  red: Why? Did you have the deck stacked?

  star: Lemme see that card?

  red [grinning]: Honest. It’s the ace of spades! [He tears it slowly in two, pushes back the lamp chimney and burns both halves. Then with his thumb he presses out the lamp wick. A square of moonlight comes through the window. The rest of the stage is intensely dark.]

  star [softly, with a purring voice]: You liar! You dirty liar!

  red: Star . . . .

  star [tenderly]: You liar, you liar, you—liar!

  [The door is drawn slowly open, admitting a bar of moonlight; they go out; then it is drawn slowly closed. The music comes again more distinctly as though carried up by the wind. Then it fades almost into silence. After a moment Luke’s voice is heard calling.]

  luke: Star—Star!

  [The door is pushed open. He calls her again. He sees she is gone. Then he goes on off down the road, still calling her name. The fiddles continue playing.]

  curtain

  scene five

  Scene: A few months later. Living room of Bram’s cabin.

  The stage is dark as the curtains rise except for faint streak of light from the kitchen where breakfast is being prepared, exactly as in the first scene of the play. The action at the beginning of this scene should follow closely as possible that of first scene, to suggest the sordid monotony of coal miners lives.

  Bram, as in first scene, comes lumbering out of back room, stumbling against furniture and grumbling to himself. In his slow progress he upsets a chair.

  fern [from kitchen]: Good Lord, what a racket!

  bram [crossly]: Wyncha turn the lamp on? Caint see a dern thing in here.

  fern: You oughta be used to the dark by now.

  bram: Hester always had the lamp burnin’ for me when I got up winter mornings. She known how bad my eyes was. She didn’t want me falling and breaking my neck . . . . [He lights the lamp. Pause.]

  fern [thrusting kettle through curtains]: Here, Bram, go out an pump me a kettle full o’ water.

  bram [grumbling]: Hester had things ready. Didn’t tell me to do this and that. You’d think I was— [He goes out slamming the door—pause.]

  fern [coming in with bowls of porridge]: Grumbles to himself like an old man. Getting kind of teched in the head, I suppose— Lord knows he didn’t hurt himself doing things for her when she was living! Oh, JOEL!

  joel[off-stage]: Coming!

  fern [going back to door]: Not so loud. You’ll wake up Luke.

  [Bram has reentered.]

  fern: Set down to your breakfast while it’s hot.

  bram [sitting]: Where’s coffee.

  fern: Boiling.

  bram: Can’t you get things ready on time? Hester always did.

  fern: You know dern well she didn’t. [Going back to door and whispering tensely.] Joel, come outa there and quit making all that noise.

  [There is a rap at front door. Fern opens the door to Tim Adams, the storekeeper. His manner is embarrassed.]

  tim: Howdy, Mizz Pilcher.

  fern: Hello, Tim. Come in.

  tim: Mighty nasty weather we been havin’ lately. [Goes to right.] Ole Hetty my sister’s come down agin with the break-bone fever. Seems like every winter she has to come down with a spell.

  fern: That’s bad. I guess you’ve come here for money agin?

  tim: Well, you know how it is, Mizz Pilcher. Gomstock’s been kicking agin about givin’ out so much credit. Fore God I got to collect on these here back bills or I’ll git thrown out on my ear. That’s orders. Nothing more from the store without cash and all the back bills paid up.

  fern: Bram! Tim wants money!

  bram: Money? Who’s got any money ’round here? All I got’s scrip an’ damn little of that. Here, take it all and God bless you! [Fern takes it to Tim.]

  fern: And he says we can’t buy no more on credit.

  tim: That’s right. It’s on a straight cash basis now on. Company orders. [Counting.]

  bram: Cash?

  fern: Think fast, Bram!

  bram: Think fast about what?

  fern: You give him all the scrip you got and there ain’t a scrap in the house for supper. [She goes to the window.]

  tim: Well, you know how it is, Mizz Pilcher. They useter run the company store for the mines but now they run the mines for the company store. The coal business is all shot to pieces. It’s a wonder they don’t quit operating altogether.

  [Joel enters.]

  joel: Hi, Tim. Gettin’ any business since you fired me? [He goes around below table to Tim.]

  tim: Naw, even gittin’ shut of you didn’t do us much good. Well, I hope you all’ll make out somehow. It ain’t just you, you know, it’s the whole camp—so long.

  joel: So long, Tim.

  [Tim exits.]

  joel [sitting in the middle chair]: Kinda cold this morning, huh. Good possum weather! Where’s coffee?

  fern: Coming. Set down and eat your mush.

  [She scurries outside to the kitchen for the coffee pot. Then returns. Luke appears in doorway. He is wearing the outfit of a miner. Fern goes to Joel’s right. Luke looks sheepishly toward kitchen door. He and Joel exchange signs. Bram grunts vehemently and bends over food.]

  joel: Hey, Fern, pour three cups!

  fern [from kitchen]: Three cups? What for? I’m not drinkin’ mine now. [She hastens back in, at first not noticing Luke. Halfway to the table she see him, gasps, and stops short.] LUKE! [Her exclamation is in a tone of absolute terror.]

  bram [jumping up]: None of that foolishness, now! Luke’s made up his mind. He’s gonna go to work with me and Joel this morning.

  joel [grabbing coffee pot, which she had begun to empty on floor]: Here, I’ll take that! You’re spilling what smells like pretty good coffee to me! [He fills three cups on the table.]

  fern [in low stricken voice]: Luke! [She comes around the table.]

  luke: I’m sorry, Mother—I tried to tell you last night—I couldn’t—I know how you feel about me going to work in the mines, but don’t you see, it’s . . . .

  fern [facing Bram and Joel]: You can’t do this to me! [She and Luke
stand at the side door.]

  bram: Of all the doggone foolishness! Gimme that sugar—

  joel: You’d think he was goin’ out to rob a bank or something instead of doing an honest day’s work in the mines, the way she’s carrying on! Eat your breakfast, Luke and don’t pay no attention to her.

  [Fern staggers against the wall.]

  luke: Mother! What’s the matter?

  fern: Nothing. I’m all right. I just had such a funny feeling inside like something had fallen to pieces . . . Git those clothes off, Luke, and go back to bed. It ain’t daybreak yet. You shouldn’t try to scare me like that. It ain’t right. I got too much to worry about as it is—Bram, there ain’t no milk this morning. You’ll have to drink your coffee black . . . .

  bram: No milk, huh? Set down, Luke, and drink your coffee. We’re gittin’ late.

  joel: Yeah, come on, Luke. Don’t stand there gawking at her. She’s just makin’ a scene like they always do when they want to have their own way about something!

  bram: No use you taking on like this, Fern. Luke’s a grown boy now and he’s goin’ to work in the mines. Good Lord. I been through this with Hester so many times before that I’m good and sick of it I can tell ya! What’s wrong with him being a coal miner? It’s as honest, respectable work as a man can do!

  fern [after a pause]: What’ wrong with it? It killed Luke’s father, it did. It won’t get Luke. I swore to myself, yes, I swore before God that I’d never let Luke go down in them mines. It ain’t just for myself but for John, too, that I made up my mind against that. And it’s over my dead body that he goes and that’s no lie! You heard me, Luke. [She moves toward him.] Get back in there and take them mining things off. You ain’t going down in the coal mines this morning or no time else! D’you hear me?

  luke: Mother, won’t you let me explain how it is? [He is sitting now.] It’s not for good. Just for a few months. I need the money, Mom. We need two hundred more dollars than we got now if I’m gonna go through school in Tuscaloosa next fall . . . .

  fern: I’ll raise it somehow. I earned most of it already and I can earn the rest. You see if I don’t. But not this way, Luke. You’ll never go down in them mines while I’m here to stop you. Now go back there and git them things off you and let’s not have no more talk about—

  joel [getting up in exasperation]: Leave him be, Fern. [He goes around right of the table.] You’re crazy. There’s nothing else for Luke to do. Is there, Luke? With things the way they are now, a man’s good and lucky to get a job in the mines—’specially with them shut half the time and men laid off right and left. It was damned white of the “super” to say we could put Luke on. And we got a good spot for him, too, a new entry that’s just been opened!

  luke: Don’t you see, Mother? [He gets up.]

  fern: I see, I see! I’ll tell you what I see—I see your dead father’s face when they took him up from the mines, when they carried him in to the house on a plank and pointed to it and said “That’s your husband” and expected me to believe them. I can see those eyes of his staring at me like he was trying to think of something to tell me but couldn’t . . . If he could’ve told me anything he would’ve told me to keep you out of the coal mines, Luke, and that’s what I’m going to do!

  bram [getting up]: Hester said the same thing about John and then about Joel. Both of them went on down in the mines— You caint stop ’em, Fern, the mines are in a man’s blood . . .

  [Joel crosses back of rocker.]

  fern: John hated the mines—I guess I should know. But it was the only thing he could do. [Crosses to Joel.] But Joel, you went to school. Hester saw to that. She even got you a job in the company store.

  joel: I know she did. Mom was pretty swell. But it wasn’t any use. Ole lady Abbey got me kicked out of the store. It wasn’t my fault.

  fern: You didn’t have to work in the mines. That’s what killed Hester. That being underfed and overworked. But that was what finished her, when you went to work in the mines. She gave up and died then.

  joel: What else could I do? Good Lord, I’m nearly twenty-two. Luke, he’s seventeen. Both of us’ll be wantin’ homes of our own before long.

  fern: Luke’s getting a real education. I’ll see to that. I’ve been working my hands to the bone all these years . . . .

  luke: That’s what I don’t want you to do any longer, Mom.

  bram [rising angrily]: That’s enough of all this here arguing back and forth. I’m the one that’s running this house—if it hadn’t been for me— [He moves between Fern and Luke.] —you and your boy would never set foot in that door. Hester was dead set against it—Joel, here, can bear me witness for that! Now come, Luke, drink your coffee and let’s be goin’.

  joel [around back]: Drink your coffee, Luke. You won’t have nothing on your belly till supper if you don’t. And believe me it’s damn cold down there on that fifth level—

  fern [breathlessly]: The fifth level? [She staggers to the rocker.]

  bram: Sure, the fifth level—what of it? [Goes to stove.]

  fern: No, no, not the fifth level. Luke, that’s the one Star’s man— [She raises a hand to her mouth and gasps.]

  bram: Star’s man WHAT?

  fern [continuing with effort]: That’s the one Star’s man said wasn’t safe!

  joel: Come on, Luke. She’ll keep us here arguing all day if you let her! [He takes Luke’s arm and pulls him away from the table.]

  fern [screaming]: Not the fifth level, Luke, not way down there! Star’s man told her that the props down there ain’t no good. They’re like matchsticks, he said. They won’t hold up. Oh, Luke, you can’t go down there. Don’t let him, Bram. Not down there, the fifth level, not down there—oh, please Luke!

  luke [going out door]: Mother, it’s no use. I’ve got to. It’s—

  joel: Come on. Quit arguing with her. [He and Luke go out the door.]

  fern [desperately]: He said it was too much weight, he knows. He said that they wouldn’t hold up, they’ll fall on you, Luke, you’ll be killed down there! [Bram moves toward her.] Oh, my God, why don’t you stop him, Bram. You can’t let him go down there like that!

  bram: I tell you, the boy’s all right. That Bolshevik’s a troublemaker, he don’t know a damned thing about mines— Now shut up and leave me be!—you’ve made us late already—

  [He crosses. Fern runs to the door and calls after them. Then she collapses moaning into the chair by the lamp.]

  fern: I know, I know—I remember what happened to John. . . .

  curtain

  scene six

  Scene: The same.

  It is about four-thirty in the afternoon of the same day, already getting dusk. Fern is preparing supper, slicing carrots and turnips into a large pot. She has an anxious, distracted air. Every few seconds she goes to the window, lifts the curtain, and peers out. After a while someone knocks. It is Star. Star is dressed and painted in her usual gay fashion but her manner is as anxious as Fern’s.

  fern [surprised]: You—Star—

  star: Yes, me. I know you don’t want me here but I had to come. I get so lonesome sometimes I can’t stand it no longer.

  fern: Come on in an’ set down.

  star: Thanks! [Star seats herself in the rocking chair by the stove, and rocks tensely back and forth without speaking.]

  fern: Look at your hands. They’re cold as ice. What’s happened?

  [Star says nothing.]

  fern: Don’t you want to tell me?

  star: Yes, a-course I do. I can’t keep it to myself no longer. It’s—it’s about—oh, Fern, why did I have to be such a damn fool! [She jumps up from the chair and paces about the room.]

  fern: Don’t git yourself all wrought up like that. It won’t help. Set down and I’ll get you a cup of hot tea. [As she goes offstage.] What makes you think you’re such a fool?

  star: To get plumb gone on a man like this. It’s too late for that now.

  fern: Red? [She looks in.] Set down, now, Star, and—

&
nbsp; star: Oh, I can’t set still. I’ve tried. I can’t do it. Something in me wants to keep moving and won’t let me stop. I’ve been just walking up and down like this for days and days while Red been down there in the mines. [Fern comes back in to the table.] Fern! You’re good and quiet, that’s why I felt like coming here to see you. I thought maybe—

  fern: Would you like a little rum in it?

  star [hysterically laughing]: Rum? Oh, my God, yes. Hester always put rum in her tea. [She sits.]

  fern: I know she did. There ain’t hardly none left now. I remember the first cup of rum tea I had in this house. It was the day I come here. A cold nasty day like this and Luke just a little boy then and me not knowing what to expect when I got here, how they’d treat me, what they’d say when I come—and soon as I got in the door, almost, Hester made me a cup of hot tea with a spot of rum in it—it was more than just a cup of tea, I remember—it was something like God’s own mercy! That was more than ten years ago!

  star [sipping her tea]: Yeah. It was the night after I left here. A lot of water’s gone under the bridge since then— This tea’s sure good.

  fern: Does it make you feel any better?

  star: A whole lot.

  fern: It’s about Red you’ve been worrying.

  star: Yeah—him and the trouble at the mines.

  fern: Trouble! What trouble?

  star: You ain’t heard? They’re talking strike.

  fern: Oh.

  star: There ain’t nothin’ left to do. They’s gotta be a showdown before long. God knows what’ll happen then—

  fern: I don’t hear much out of Bram and Joel—just a word here and there—now it’s Luke—they’ve got Luke in the mines with them now!

  star: Luke! Him in the mines!

  fern: Yes. They took him this morning.

  star [marveling]: And you set here drinkin’ tea! I thought you was determined they’d never catch Luke in the mines!

  fern: I was. So was Hester determined Bram wouldn’t git Joel in the mines. Both of them are down there now. [She stands up.] On the fifth level!

  star: The fifth level!

  fern: Yes, the one Red told you wasn’t safe.

  star [indignantly]: Red told me if he owned those mines he wouldn’t send a yellow cur down there in that fifth level—the props are—