by Dan Isaac
fern: I owe it to John to see that Luke gets his chance!
red: D’you think John would want his boy to lam out of a fight all his own people was in?
fern: I don’t know . . . .
red: Yes, you do. You remember him too well not to. It’s plain as daylight. I know John thru and thru cause I know his boy—Luke his livin’ breathin’ image—John’s monument. Do you think he’d be proud of the choices you’ve made? He wasn’t the first to die in the mines. There was lots of others. Death after death. And some of them not so quick. They could write starvation on pretty near every death ticket they filled out around here and it wouldn’t be very far off. And now these people are fighting for a chance to live. Isn’t that a big enough monument for John—to give 1500 of his own people their last fightin’ chance on earth? There’s your money on the table . . . take it or leave it . . . you have your choice . . . .
fern [crossing to him]: You talk so fast I can’t think . . . .
red: You don’t need to think. Let your man think for you. Ask John what to do with the money.
fern: John?
red: Yeah . . . let him tell you what to do with it . . . .
fern: John . . . [She turns with a bewildered gesture to Luke.]
luke: Let the men have the money, Mom.
fern: Yes, John. They can have the money. Luke will have to get along without it somehow . . . . [She turns to her left toward the door, her movements halting and stiff. She goes out.]
star [with a pitying gesture]: Fern . . . .
red [to Luke]: Go with your mother, boy.
music — curtain
scene nine
Scene: The same.
star: Red, what’re you going to do now?
red: Nothing.
star: Are ya just gonna stay here and wait for them to come and get you?
red: Somebody’s got to get it in the neck. I guess I’m the logical candidate. [Pause.]
star: What are you doing this for?
red: What am I doing?
star: You’re throwing yourself away. Those men’ve come here to kill you. You oughta know that. [Pause.]
red: What did Luke’s mother give me the money for?
star: I dunno. Fern must’ve lost her senses!
red: No, she didn’t. She saw something all of a sudden that she never had seen before!
star [sarcastically]: Oh, she saw the light, huh? [Pause.]
red: Yeah. That’s a pretty good way of putting it.
star: She looked to me like she was struck blind.
red: Maybe she was for a minute. There’s a lot of difference between looking at a candle and then looking at the sun.
star: You say a lot of things that don’t make sense, Red. If I got down on my knees and begged you to, would you do it?
red: What?
star: Get me out of this!
red: Sure, you can go. I told you to go on home with Luke and Fern.
star: You don’t love me. You don’t give a damn for me!
red: You know I do, Star. [He speaks with momentary tenderness.] You’re the only woman that ever rated a dime’s worth with me. But loving and fighting are two different things. You can’t mix ’em.
star: Isn’t there a way out for us, Red?
red: Maybe next spring we’ll go north with all of this left behind us. Then there’ll be plenty of time to talk about love. Those things you said that you wanted. I’m human too. Maybe you doubt that sometimes because I seem hard. I’m not hard. [His voice deepens.] When I look at you I go soft inside, so soft that it scares me. I want to put my hands on you and never take them off!
star [approaching him]: Why don’t you? I like your hands! When you were talking at the meetins I used to look at your hands and feel them touchin’ me! Sometimes I could even feel them striking me and I liked even that! I wanted to get in front of your hands and feel them poundin’ me down, down! I knew from the very beginning that it would be like that! Your hands beating me down! And still I wanted it, Red. I wanted to feel your hands on my body! Knockin’ me down or squeezin’ me tight against you like this!
[They embrace passionately for a minute.]
red: Star.
star: What?
red: You’re like fire in my blood!
star [eagerly]: You’ll go? [They embrace again. Pause.] You’ll go—you’ll go—
red [steeling himself]: Not now! I can’t, I can’t! Next spring. [He breaks away.]
star: Spring’s a long way off!
red: Not so long. You can hear the ice dripping off the roof now.
star: Lots of things can happen between now and spring.
red: I’ve got to take a chance on that.
star: It’s too big a chance! Red, do you know what’s going to happen? I can feel it comin’ just as sure as I could feel your hands on me the first time I saw you walkin’ down that street out there! You’ve got to go away with me, Red! [She is talking to his back.]
red: When I go away it’ll be because I won, not because I got beat.
star: Maybe you won’t win or lose. Maybe you’ll just be— [She gasps.]
red: Pushing up daisies? [He crosses to the cot and lies down.] It’s no use, Star. We got to wait til this thing’s over.
star [going and kneeling on floor near head of bed]: But I can’t wait—I want you now Red. All of you. Not just part. Maybe I’m sort of blind in one eye or something but I can’t see things your way. All I can see, all I can think of, is just us, you and me, the rest don’t matter!
red: That’s not being blind, I guess. That’s just being a woman. [He lies down on the cot. She seats herself beside him.] I could feel the same way.
star: Could you, Red?
red [lighting a cigarette]: Sure I could, If I’d let myself.
star [also lighting a cigarette]: Well, why don’t you then? Why don’t you stop trying to be a tin god? What do you get out of it, anyway?
red: Something bigger than me.
star: What’s that?
red: You wouldn’t know.
star: No, I guess I wouldn’t!
red: I didn’t either for a long time. I had to leave the best part of my life behind me before I began to understand what I was living for. I used to live like you. Just for myself and my own good. Or maybe some dame that had me bothered. I thought that was all that mattered. Then up north in the anthracite fields, the workers were starving. My brother was working along trying to help and I saw him get struck down with a brick bat by a bunch of thugs that the operators had hired to dust him off. They cracked his head open. Killed him. Just for trying to help his own people over a tough spot. I guess that changed me. Ever since I’ve wanted to fight, not for myself, not for my own gain, but for all the other poor lunks that don’t get a square deal . . . [He sits up on cot.] Ain’t that something worth fighting for?
star [stands up]: All I know is I love you and I want you for myself. The rest I can’t see. Oh, Red, I don’t want nothing to happen to you! [She throws herself down on the cot besides him. She grabs him.] If anything happened. I couldn’t stand it, Red! [Sobbing.] Something inside of me just aches when you ain’t with me. Just to think. If that was to go on all the time I couldn’t stand it, Red. I’d kill myself. I wouldn’t think twice about it. I’d do it that quick! [She snatches his shoulders.] Red, honey, I love you something awful, you’ve got to believe me, Red!
red [softly]: Sure I do.
star: But you don’t love me that way, do you Red? [Pause.]
red: Not—now.
star: Do you think you’ll ever?
red [after a pause]: Maybe next spring sometime.
star [bitterly]: Maybe next spring sometime! It’s always sometime next spring. And maybe next spring it’ll be winter and maybe there won’t even be any next spring! Oh, my God, Red, what do you think love is?
red [rising from the cot]: Love’s a warm bed to lie in when a man’s through fighting. [He goes to the window.]
star: Is that
all?
red: That’s all I can say it is now. There’s a bunch of men in the street. The Rover boys. You’d better clear out.
star [jumping up with a frightened cry]: They’re coming here! [She rushes over to the lamp and turns it out. Torch glare comes through the window and a threatening murmur of voices.]
red: Take this money Luke gave me and turn it over to the men. Get out the back way.
star: Red!
[He throws her across the stage to the inner door.]
star: What’re you going to do? [She throws her arms around his neck.]
red: Nothing!
[With a sudden crash the door is broken in and the band of terrorists enter.]
leader: Come outa there, skunk!
red [stepping into the torch glare]: I’ve been expecting you boys.
leader: Hope we haven’t kept you waiting. [To others.] Tie him up.
red: You aren’t afraid of my two hands against all that artillery are you.
star [wildly]: What are you going to do with him? What are you going to do?
leader: One of you boys take care of the lady. [Star is pinioned and gagged by one of the men.]
red: Let go of her!
[He lurches forward. The lamp is smashed. Much noise. Star is screaming. First she is struck down near one side—then someone fires and Red falls.]
one of band: There’s a bunch coming. We better scram out of here.
leader: Let ’em have it if they try and stop us! Come on!
[They crowd out the door. Outside there is a pandemonium rising to a crescendo. Torches glare through the windows and door. There is a sudden burst of firing.]
star [pulling herself across the floor to Red’s body—sobbing wildly]: Red—Red—Red.
curtain
scene ten
Scene: Bram’s cabin. About two months later.
Winter has broken up and it is now one of those clear, tenuous mornings in early spring. A thin clear sunlight pale as lemon-water comes through the windowpanes of the cabin which is even barer and cleaner-looking than usual in this strange light.
Fern comes slowly out of the back room. She looks very tired and worn in her plain black calico dress. She stands by the window. After a while she appears to see someone coming. She goes to the door and opens it. It is Star.
fern: Star!
star: Yeah. I come to tell you good bye.
[She steps inside, dressed gaudily as ever but her youth suddenly gone. There is a tragic dullness in her face and voice. She carries a shabby traveling case.]
fern: Where you going, Star?
star: Birmingham. I’m pulling out on that seven o’clock train. It’s about time for it, ain’t it?
fern: Yes, but—
star: I’ll set here by the window where I can see it coming. [She pulls a chair to the window and sits down, nervously lighting a cigarette.]
fern: Where you going, Star?
star: I just told you. Birmingham.
fern: Yes, but—
[She seats herself uncomfortably opposite Star who avoids her eyes. Neither speaks for a moment.]
fern: Birmingham?
star: Yeah.
fern: What’re you going to do in Birmingham, Star?
star [nervously]: I dunno. Something’ll turn up.
fern: Yes, Yes, a-course it will.
star: I’m sick of this place. I’ll be damned glad to see the last of it. [She stands up.] I—I guess it’s nearly time for the train. I told the station man to flag it. I—I wanted to see you before I left. I haven’t seen you since the night that—[She drops her cigarette and grinds it beneath her toe.]
fern: What are you going to do in Birmingham, Star?
star [sharply]: I told you once already!
fern: Oh, yes, yes, I—forgot.
star: There’s a woman in Birmingham sent me the money. Said for me to come on up an’ she’d see what she can do for me. She runs a sort of house there.
fern: Oh. A boardin’ house?
star: Yeah, a sort of boardin’-house. She said there might be something I could do around there til I got on my feet.
fern: That oughta be nice.
star: Uh-huh. Better than nothing. I’ll give you the address. Here. If you ever need something—drop me a line. I’ll try to send you a little money from time to time.
fern: Money?
star: I’ll be making some.
fern: I don’t want money.
star: Red would want me to send you some. He was going to pay you back that money you gave toward the strike. Red was that kind of guy. Maybe I can pay most of it back myself if I keep working steady.
fern: There’s no call for you to give me a cent. I don’t need it now.
star: You’ll want it for Luke. He’s the last of us. I—I keep thinking about something Red said—the night he got killed.
fern: What was it?
star: He said the reason you give up your money was because you seen something all of a sudden.
fern: Yes. That was it.
star: I said it seemed more to me like you’d been struck blind all at once, and he said, Yes, maybe you was struck blind for a minute. There was a lot of difference between looking at a candle and then looking at the sun.
fern: He said that? [She stands up, a little puzzled.]
star: Yes. That’s what he said. I thought I’d better tell you. Maybe you can make more sense out of it than I can, huh?
fern: Yes. Thank you, Star.
star: They say the strike’s about over. I guess they can thank you and Red for that! [With passion.] He didn’t get killed for nothing! [More quietly.] And you didn’t give your money for nothing, neither. The work’ll be safer now an’ I guess they’ll have to pay fair wages . . . that’s the train blowing. [They both cross and meet stage center.] I’ve got to be off. Good bye.
fern: Good bye, Star. Good luck.
star: Thanks. I’ll need it. [She picks up her suitcase, then glances toward Bram’s door. A little of her hard surface reappears.] You can tell Bram good bye for me, too.
fern: I will Star.
star [with a harsh laugh as she runs out the door]: You can tell him I’m gone to town to buy me a new silk kimona!
[She goes out. In a dazed manner Fern seats herself again in the rocker. The train whistle blows more faintly, dying away. After a while Luke enters.]
luke: Another truckload of rations came through just now. Look, Mother. Look at this. Half pound of fatback, two pounds of beans, cornmeal, coffee— [He crosses to table.] Where’s Bram? He’ll sure be glad to get coffee!
fern [dully]: Bram went back to bed.
luke: He’s queer in the head again this morning. He called me John. He said he was glad to see I’d quit working up there in them Yankee mines.
[Fern is apathetically silent.]
luke: How about fixing some coffee?
fern [getting up slowly]: All right. [She walks to the inner door after having gotten the package.]
luke: I’m going to the mines. I reckon the strike’s about over. They say Gomstock’s ready to sign. Red’s getting killed stirred up such a hornet’s nest around that old buzzard’s head, they say he was willing to make peace at any terms! [Then, softly.] Mother, the men won’t forget that it was your money that pulled them through.
fern: It wasn’t my money, Luke. It was yours. [Pause. She avoids his eyes.] Now you’re going back in the mines. [Sharply.] That’s where you’re headed, ain’t it?
luke: I guess I got to go back for a while. But maybe it won’t be for good.
fern [grimly]: No. Maybe not for good.
luke: You ain’t sorry, Mother?
fern [harshly]: Sorry for what?
luke: That you give up the money?
fern [bitterly]: Naw, I ain’t sorry, God help me, it was you or all the others. I’m just a bit tuckered out, that’s all. There’s a great—tiredness—in me. [She moves her chair near the door.] I’m tired clean through. [Laughs.] Don’t pay me
no mind. I’m nothin’ but an old woman, without much sense . . . .
luke: You ain’t old, Mother. [He moves near her awkwardly trying to comfort her.]
fern: Ain’t old? [She laughs harshly.] I’m as old as those everlasting hills out there! That’s how old I am.
luke [moving toward the door]: I reckon the hills’re old all right. But they’re as strong as they ever was, ain’t they? [He opens the door.] And they’re beautiful, too. Oh, Lord, but they do look swell at sunup. It hurts you inside. It makes you stop breathin’ almost . . . there’s a right heavy mist this mornin. It’s thick as wood smoke down in the hollow. Gosh, but you’d think that the woods was on fire with the sun shinin’ through ’em like flame an’ them clouds o’ mist risin’ away . . . now that the frog storm’s over I reckon we’re due to be havin’ some real spring weather right soon . . . . [He goes out. Fern pours Bram’s coffee.]
bram [stumbling out of the back room and grumbling]: Whyncha turn the lamp on? Caint see a dern thing in here. [He moves toward Fern.]
fern: It’s daylight, Bram.
bram [groping for a chair]: Hmmm. It must be the dead o’ winter, the light’s so dim. [He gets to his chair.]
fern [rising]: No, it’s almost spring again. The sun’s been up an hour.
bram: Funny I ain’t heard the whistle.
fern: The whistle ain’t blowed, Bram. The strike’s still on. [She speaks to him as though to a child.]
bram: The strike, huh? Oh, yes, I keep forginnin’ about the strike. Then there ain’t no call to hurry I reckon.
fern: No, take your time, Bram. Leave your coffee set for a while til it cools. I just poured it outa the pot.
bram: Where’s the milk, Hester?
fern: Gone. Hester’s dead.
bram [dully]: Gone? Yes, I keep forginnin’ about that, too. You’re Fern. Where’s all the others?
fern: What others?
bram: John and Joel and Star.
fern [after a pause]: They’re all gone.
bram [stirring his cup]: All gone, huh? And Luke, where’s he?
fern [somewhat grimly]: He’s gone, too.
