Candles to the Sun

by Dan Isaac

  first miner: They paid me a dollar in scrip. Outa that I had to buy carbine an’ powder for my next day’s work. I had to pay for a bit that got broke through no fault of my own. I had ten cents left for supper—a dime to eat on.

  second miner: You’re lucky you ain’t got a wife an’ six kids.

  [An angry murmur comes from the Chorus.]

  third miner: My kids’re swole up in the belly frum not gittin’ fed.

  second miner: Yestiddy I caught my youngest puttin’ dirt in her mouth.

  third miner: Hell, mine eat grass for supper!

  first miner: We’re human, ain’t we?

  second miner: No, the operators’re human but we ain’t.

  third miner: By God I know my ole woman’s human.

  first miner: We’re all human.

  second miner: What do you say, Bram? Are you with us?

  bram: I ain’t with no strikers if that’s what you mean. Strikin’ won’t do you no good. Blind as I am I can see a damn sight more plain than you can about that.

  tim adams: It ain’t the company’s fault. There’s a depression in the coal industry, like everything else. They got to cut their prices to meet competition.

  first miner: Okay, cut prices. But who pays for it?

  chorus of miners: We do!

  first miner: Do they dig down in their own bank vaults?

  second miner: Hell, no they take it out of our lunch boxes!

  tim: Why, it ain’t even profitable to keep these mines runnin’ at the present price o’ coal. If it wasn’t for the company store they’d have to shut down.

  first miner: They shut down up in Pennsylvainy for eighteen months. Miners took to bootleggin’. Diggin’ out coal themselves and sellin’ it. Operators caint do nothin’ about it.

  tim: That ain’t legal.

  third miner: What of it?

  first miner: We got to live somehow!

  chorus of miners: We gotta live!

  sean [wanting to hold the show]: We don’t want talk. We want ACTION! We been askin’ it long enough around here. Now we start dishin’ it out. These sonsabitches, whadathey think they are, huh? I guess we got our constitutional rights. Wahddayasay? Vote the straight Democratic ticket in every election they ever had in this goddam state of Alabama. Yezzir. Run out the niggers, keep the lousy furriners out, we’ll have a free country someday, these goddamn sonsabitches caint keep us down on our bellies in dirt, we got our constitutional rights, they respeck em or by God we’ll have the biggest necktie party state of Alabama, I’ll tell the cockeyed world!

  [Bram rises and pushes him violently in the face. Sean falls to the floor.]

  bram: Shut up. Shut yer blasted mouth.

  [There are murmurs from the miners.]

  bram: Shut up all of you.

  fern [entering]: Bram. [Silence.] Your last son’s layin’ dead in there. Ain’t you got no decent feelings for the dead?

  [Song and prayer are heard from other room.]

  luke: Why can’t they leave him be? Joel don’t want that. He wants a clean quick buryin’. He doesn’t want to be slobbered over by a bunch of groaning old women. Can’t they let him alone in there?

  bram: Stop!

  [As the song rises — Fern puts her hand over Luke’s mouth.]

  curtain

  scene eight

  Scene: Star’s cabin. One or two nights later.

  The curtains open on a lamp-lit interior. Red sits by the stove. Star wears a loud black-and-white checked skirt with a red blouse and gold bracelets that jangle on her wrists like manacles. Star paces about the room, looking now and then through the burlap-curtained window. Red is at the table playing solitaire.

  red: Caint you quit walking up and down like that? It gives me the jitters.

  star: Well, at least make a little noise. [She is near him.] It’s so quiet now you can hear the ice dropping off the roof. [She turns to the window.] You can almost hear yourself think. What’s going to happen around this place anyhow?

  red [sitting down at table and writing]: I wish I could tell you.

  star: I never known it so quiet in my life. It makes me feel like something awful was hanging over my head, getting ready to fall the next minute. [She pulls a jug from under the bed and is pouring drinks during the following lines.] I thought strikes made more noise than this. [To window.] I thought people shouted and threw things and made a big crash-boom-bang! [She laughs nervously.] Now everybody’s inside with the windows covered up like they was hiding from something. Store’s closed. Everything’s closed up. Even people’s mouths. They don’t even say nothing to each other.

  red [bitterly]: No. They’re scared to. They need something to put the fight back in them.

  star: What most of ’em need’s a square meal. When’s that glorious relief gonna come to the rescue?

  red: Soon as they can.

  star: Soon as they can? That might be next Christmas. Or maybe April Fool’s Day.

  red: I figure a week or ten days.

  star: That ain’t soon enough.

  red: I know it.

  star: If they don’t git food right away they’re bound to give up. Sure ain’t a scrap to eat in camp—and the store’s closed. Gomstock pulled a pretty smart trick when he had all the stock trucked outa the store before he shut it down. Now there ain’t even a thing left to steal. How long d’you think they’ll be holdin’ out on empty stomachs?

  red: We got a truck. We could get supplies from Oakland if we had the money.

  star: There’s been nothing but scrip in camp for months and not much of that.

  red: There’s three hundred dollars in camp.

  star: You’re crazy! Where is it? [She moves toward him.]

  red: Luke’s mother.

  star: Fern? Oh! You won’t get that.

  red: Why not?

  star: You think she’d give that up?

  red: I’m counting on it.

  star: She worked ten years for it. Doing washing. So’s she could send Luke to school in Tuscaloosa. She’d sooner quit breathing.

  red: It’s the only money in camp. We’ve got to have it. The strike depends on it.

  star: The strike could go to blazes before she’d part with any of Luke’s college money! [She picks up the cups.]

  red: How do you know?

  star: I’m a woman and she’s one, too. Our own men’s all we care about.

  red: Maybe some women ain’t as selfish as you give ’em credit for.

  star: That’s just one of your boy scout ideas. [She goes for the whiskey.] Fern won’t give up her money. You’re barking up the wrong tree, old boy.

  red: If she don’t we’re washed up. With that money we could feed the camp for two weeks. She wouldn’t hold out on the whole camp that way.

  star: Huh! That’s what you think! I guess you need a drink. [She replaces the jug under the bed.]

  red: What makes that jangling noise every time you move?

  star: My bracelets. Why?

  red: Take the damn things off. They sound like chains rattling.

  star: God knows we need something to make some noise around here. [She hands him a tin cup of whiskey.] Toss it down. There’s nothing like a shot of corn to cure the jitters.

  red: Where did you get that rot-gut from?

  star: Never mind where I got it. Just drink up and see if it ain’t what the doctor ordered. Forget about this strike business. People got to go on living strike or no strike . . . .

  red: I don’t want whiskey. What kind of a dog do you think I am? There’s kids in camp that havin’t got milk to drink and I’m not gonna lap up whiskey so I can forget it!

  star: Oh, act human for a change. Don’t you ever git tired of acting like a saint around here? [She drinks and as she moves the bracelets jangle.]

  red: Take those jangling things off!

  star: I won’t.

  [Red seizes her and tears off the bracelets.]

  star: My fav’rite bracelet. [She automatically stoops
to pick up fragments.]

  red: Star, why don’t you— [He turns.]

  star: Why don’t I what? Go on and say it!

  red: Maybe I’d better move out of here.

  star [slowly]: No, you can’t do that. [She comes to him.]

  red: It ain’t safe for you.

  star: How do you mean not safe?

  red: Me being here.

  star: You mean there might be trouble?

  red: There’s bound to be. [He goes to the window.]

  star: What’s safe for you’s safe for me!

  red: Anything might happen. Tonight or tomorrow.

  star [after a pause]: Ain’t you got sense enough to see I’m plumb gone on you?

  red: I ain’t got time for that. [He turns slightly.]

  star: When will you have time?

  red: This thing’s first. That’s got to wait.

  star: You’ll never have time if you stay around here!

  red: Maybe not.

  star: You don’t know how sweet life could be for you or you couldn’t wait so easy. I wanted a lot of things I’ve never got. I know how swell it would be to get things you wanted always. I want things, Red, that you and I could give each other. A real home and kids. [She goes to the lower end of bed.]

  red: That’s new ain’t it? I thought you didn’t want no part of that.

  star: I didn’t. Not with no other man but you. You’re the first.

  red: Yeah? You wanted freedom. You didn’t want to be tied down you said.

  star: I didn’t want to be tied down with Jake Walland or any of his kind. That’s what I meant by wanting freedom. Now I don’t want it anymore. I want the kind of life that you could give me and if I can’t have that kind of life, Red? I don’t want any kind of life at all. Yeah. That’s how gone I am!

  red [rolling a cigarette]: All I can say is you’re making an awful fool of yourself. [He walks to the table.]

  star: You don’t mean that.

  red: I do. I’m not a woman’s man.

  star: What kind of a man are you? I can’t figure it out. Sometimes I look at you and I feel like I was looking at somebody I never seen before in my life. There’s two of you I guess.

  red: Two of me?

  star: Yeah, one of you’s a flesh and blood man. The other’s someone else and he hates me.

  red: You’re wrong about that. He don’t hate you. Star, he’s just afraid of you because he’s got a big job to do and he’s afraid that you might try to stop him. [Luke knocks—Star stands up.]

  red: Who’s that?

  luke [in a low tone]: Me.

  red: Oh, it’s Luke. [Red lets him in.] What’s up?

  luke [a little breathlessly]: I thought I better tell you — a truckload of men just come into camp.

  red: Yeah?

  luke: They’re holding some kind of confab down in the basement of the company store.

  red: What’d they look like? [He grabs Luke.]

  luke: I didn’t get a look at them. They drove up without any headlights and stashed the truck out in the woods back of the store. Some of us snuck back there to look at it and—

  star: Red, it’s the—

  luke: So what? Maybe it’s a good thing they decided to start something. Joel Pilcher’s getting smashed wasn’t enough. What we’re spoiling for’s a good fight! [He goes to the window.]

  luke: You better round the men up.

  red: No. Let the Rover boys make the first move.

  star: Red! You’re the one they’ll come for first. The lamp! [She suddenly turns the lamp out.]

  red [angrily]: What did you blow that out for?

  star: They could shoot you through the window, you fool!

  red: Well, that’s my funeral. Turn the lamp back on. [Luke re-lights the lamp with a dim flame so that most of the room is in shadow.]

  star: Red, you can’t stay here! [She comes to him at the window.] You’ve got to hide somewhere.

  red: Me hide? [He goes to table and turns to Luke.] Did you get it? [There is silence.] The money! Did you get it?

  luke [in a strained whisper]: Yes. [Reaches into pocket and pulls out a roll of bills.]

  red [eagerly taking the money]: What luck! This’ll see us through a couple of weeks! Luke, your mother’s won this fight for us! You tell her that for me, Luke! It will be her sacrifice that done it!

  luke: I can’t tell her. [He moves to the inner door.]

  star: Red, you give him back that money! You fool, don’t you see he’s stole it from her! [She runs to Red.]

  red: Stole it! No! She gave it to him! Luke?

  luke [turns]: Yeah. I stole it from her. I had to. You see—she wouldn’t give it up. I seen it wasn’t any use asking her so I waited til she’d gone out and found where she kept it hid—under a loose board—an’ I stole it!

  star: Give it back to him, Red. He ain’t got a right to steal from his mother like that.

  red: You asked her for it and she wouldn’t—?

  luke: She wouldn’t hear of it. She nearly went crazy when I asked her.

  red: And so you stole it from her?

  luke: I had to. We got to buy food for the camp.

  star: You ain’t keeping it are you, Red?

  red [after a pause]: Sure I’m keeping it! [He turns to Star.]

  star: You’ll make a thief of Luke?

  red: I’m the one who stole this money.

  star: Yeah, and Fern’ll have you locked up for it mor’n likely!

  red: We’ll drive over to Oakland and buy a truckload of rations in the morning. Luke, you better take Star home with you.

  star: Take me? This here’s my cabin. I’m not going nowhere. [She goes to the window.]

  red: Stay away from that window. Go on home, Luke.

  luke: I’m staying, too.

  red: I’m not asking you to go, I’m telling you. Go on!

  luke: I can’t face her now.

  star [at the window]: You’ve got to. She’s coming here right now.

  luke: I can’t face her! [He moves away from the door.]

  star [opening the door]: He’s here.

  fern [entering]: Luke! I thought this was where I’d find you. [She turns to Red.]

  [Luke turns his back on Fern. Red and Fern face each other.]

  fern [furiously]: You, Red, what’ve you done with it! [Red looks at her without speaking.] My money! I know you got it. You was after it. Luke told me so. Now give it right back to me!

  star [at the window]: Give it back to her, Red.

  fern: Give it right back to me this minute!

  red: I guess I had the wrong slant. Star was right. I was barking up the wrong tree . . . .

  fern: You give it back to me!

  luke [starting to protest—turning]: Mom, I—

  fern: You, Luke! How could you steal from me like that?

  red: I told him to ask you for it—you wouldn’t let him have it.

  fern: Let him have it! Why should I? I worked for that money ten years!

  red: You know what it’s needed for?

  fern: Yes, I know what you want it for. I want it for Luke. It’s Luke’s money, all of it, saved up for him!

  luke: I won’t take it! [He walks to the table.]

  fern: Oh, it ain’t just for you neither. It was for your father too. It was to pay him back something I owed him. He never got a chance to live decent like he wanted to. I was going to see that you did. And a woman don’t work ten years like a dog for nothin’!

  red: Nothing?

  fern [her voice hoarse with bitterness]: John was buried in a pauper’s grave. In a plain box coffin with the lid nailed down. There’s a dumpyard off at the side that stinks of garbage. The day they buried him the wind was blowing from that direction and instead of crying over his grave, I got sick at the stomach. That was our last goodbye. And that was a sweet one, wasn’t it? I didn’t have money enough to buy him a stone to put over his head. When I come down here I thought maybe I could earn him one. So I took in washing.
But after a while it struck me that maybe I could put up something better than a tombstone for him to be remembered by. Luke was so much like him. He was John all over again. A life that come out of him. But I could make Luke everything that John couldn’t be. And that would suit him a whole lot better I thought than a stone with his name and a couple of dates carved on it! That’s what I been working for ten years and I ain’t going to give it all up for nothing! [She sinks onto the stool—Star sits near her.]

  red [waiting til she has calmed somewhat before speaking]: For nothing? There’s fifteen hundred people in camp. Do you call them nothing? [He goes to her.]

  fern: Only one of them’s my son!

  red: Why not the others?

  fern: The others?

  red [still quietly]: John was a coal miner, wasn’t he?

  fern: He was killed in the mines! But not Luke—he’s gonna get away.

  red [looking at Luke]: Away where? To Heaven and play on harps?

  fern: Someplace. Away of all this!

  red [sarcastically]: Oh, Beulah land, my Beulah land! Beautiful isle of somewhere! The land of brotherly love—the land at the end of the rainbow where you find the big pot of gold—the land of the lemonade rivers and the sugar cake trees—the land where they shingle their houses with gooseberry pies! Yeah, I’ve heard about it in fairy stories. That’s where you want Luke to go. I’ve always had a hankerin’ for a place like that myself. A place where they don’t have locks and fences ’cause every man loves his neighbor . . . a nice place, huh? When you get there, Luke, I wish you’d pick me out a corner lot in the suburbs. Not too far off the car-line. You know, a place with southern exposure and a good view of the sunset . . . . [He bursts into derisive laughter.]

  star: Quit kiddin’ her, Red. This ain’t no jokin’ matter.

  red: Excuse me, lady. I’m in a fanciful humor tonight. I guess that comes of not over-eating. [He lights a cigarette, walks to table, then to window, and then comes to Fern and speaks harshly.] There ain’t no place like that. I’m a guy that knows. It’s all over this world you got to fight and fight hard to go on living and you can’t get out of it by moving to no other place this side of Jordan!

  fern: There must be peace somewhere!

  red: If there is, lady, I must’ve overlooked it. Peace is something a guy’s got to make for himself. It ain’t a thing he happens to come across like a four-leaf clover. Or a nickel somebody lost in an alley. It’s something he’s got to work for himself. And he’s usually got to fight for it, too. Running away don’t help. What good would that do?