by James Reston
MEGS: You fuckin’ jocks . . . (And suddenly HE blows. HE is at the trophy case and with a sweep of his hand HE sends trophies careening into the wall) You and your fucking jock dreams! I was a truckdriving numbnuts and they drafted me! But you!
DAVE: Yeah!?
MEGS: He enlisted. Mr. High School Hero enlisted! Went marchin’ off thinkin’ those piranha-eyed, cheesefaced motherfuckers was gonna tackle you ’stead a blow you away!!
DAVE: Jacknife set me straight!
MEGS: I stayed alive the only way I could! I rooted in what was happening around me like a pig in shit! And you ain’t gonna blame me or make me feel guilty no more!
DAVE: Thirty feet off the ground in a chopper, Martha, and he’s screaming like a rabid dog to get loose!
MEGS: Yeah! And you so close to lucky Megs, I thought you was tryin’ to cornhole me, man! No way, Megs. I can’t, Megs! Not in a million, Megs! NEVER HAPPEN!
DAVE (Overlapping): We shoulda stayed put, motherfucker. We should have stayed! But we went! ’Cause a you!
MEGS: I had to throw him out of the helicopter, Martha! Commanding officer was threatening to shoot him!
DAVE: Bullshit!
MEGS: You chickenshit. I heard you, Davey.
DAVE: You heard what?
MEGS: I heard. You was scared and tight and you landed wrong and your ankles broke. Bobby and I came back for you. I got hit ’cause a that. And I lay there in the mud with the blood pumpin’ from my chest, blurp-blurp, and I heard you. No, Bobby! Don’t go back for him! Fuck Megs! Jacknife is dead! Don’t go back for him, Bobby! But Bobby did go back, huh, Davey? (DAVE exits) You can’t walk away from that! Bobby did go back! Davey!? Bobby did! BOBBY DID! ‘(Pause. Then softly, through tears) Bobby did . . . (Pause) Maybe we never shoulda jumped outta that helicopter. Shoot away, sir. All of us, we don’t give a fuck! Dead or alive, we’re stayin’ right here! No way we’re goin’ down into that shit! Hindsight.
Pause.
MARTHA (Softly): Joseph?
MEGS: Mmm?
MARTHA: Let’s go out and do something wonderful.
Pause.
MEGS: Whatcha got in mind, you mad miss?
Pause.
MARTHA: I’d like to see your gas station. (Pause) And we’ll go by my school after. I’ll show you where I work. I have keys. I could show you my classroom. Charts on the wall . . . tick-tack-toe on the blackboard. (Pause) Shall I get my coat?
Pause.
MEGS: OK. (MARTHA gets their coats. SHE puts her own on, helps him into his) Sneakin’ back into high school, Martha. If I don’t feel notorious or something.
Pause.
MARTHA: I’ll protect you, Joseph.
Lights to black as MARTHA and MEGS exit out the front door.
Scene 3
It is several hours later. MEGS and MARTHA enter through the kitchen door. There is a somberness, a preoccupation to MEGS that MARTHA is trying desperately to fight. MEGS is carrying a case of soda in his arms. HE holds the door for MARTHA.
MARTHA: Thank you. And thank you for the gasoline.
MEGS: Better you than the A-rabs, Martha.
MARTHA: I like my case of soda too. Thank you very much for that.
MEGS: You’re welcome.
MARTHA: A whole case of white birch beer. What am I going to do with that? (Pause) I suppose I could bathe in it.
MEGS: You don’t want it, Martha, I’ll take it back.
MARTHA: Joseph, no, I’m teasing.
MEGS: Oh.
MARTHA: You tease me unmercifully and then you can’t tell when you’re being teased.
MEGS: Sorry.
MARTHA: Teasing, it shows you’re cared for, doesn’t it? (Pause. MEGS doesn’t respond. SHE continues softly) I think it does. (Pause) Do you know what white birch beer is, Joseph?
MEGS: No.
MARTHA: I’ll tell you if you’d like.
MEGS: Please.
MARTHA: Snow-covered trees in a bottle. (Pause) Joseph, what’s the matter? You’re with me and then you’re not with me.
MEGS: Sorry.
MARTHA: You were hoping he’d be home, weren’t you? He’s not your friend, Joseph.
MEGS: I’m his friend.
Pause.
MARTHA: You’re a lovely man. I mean that.
MEGS: No, you don’t.
MARTHA: I do and you are.
MEGS: I got big bulgy eyes.
MARTHA: Well . . .
MEGS: And I am sorta losin’ my hair.
MARTHA: That’s a sign of virility, Joseph.
MEGS: Whoa,
MARTHA: You have a wonderful, open smile.
MEGS: I do not.
MARTHA: You do.
MEGS: You’re just leadin’ me on, woman, so’s you can get into my panties.
MARTHA: Now you’re teasing me.
MEGS: Hey, it shows you’re cared for. (Pause. It seems THEY are almost going to kiss) Martha, let’s go look for him.
MARTHA (Desperately): He’s not worth your concern. (Pause) Please. Let’s have our brandy.
MARTHA moves to pour. SHE is stopped by the sound of DAVE entering. There is blood on his face and hands. His shirt is open and there is blood on his T-shirt. His eye is discolored and swollen. HE moves as if HE is in a daze. Long silence.
DAVE (Softly): I . . . uh . . . I fell down.
MEGS: How’s the ground look, stud?
Pause.
DAVE: Martha . . .
MARTHA: What? You want someone to tend your wounds? I’m sorry, David not tonight.
Pause. DAVE wants to say something, cannot.
MEGS: Want some ice for that eye, Davey?
DAVE (Softly): Martha, I’m sorry. . . .
Pause.
MEGS: Come on, guy, sit. Let’s see what you look like under all that blood. Don’t worry, it’s clean. You know me, I have to wipe my nose, I use my sleeve. (HE wipes at DAVE’s mouth) Hold on. (Pause) How can she understand, stud? She doesn’t know. She wasn’t there. (Pause) Hey, we hardly beat you home, guy. Yeah, we been out. I showed Martha my garage. It’s just a garage and all but I put a case a pop in her arms so it turned out OK. You want a birch beer, Davey? Good pop. (Silence) Maybe Martha’d make us some coffee. (MARTHA doesn’t move) Then we went and saw Martha’s classroom. Whoo, stud, beakers and specimens and microscopes. All we needed was a lightning bolt and we coulda created a monster. And we woulda nicknamed him Davey.
DAVE (Softly): Jacknife.
MEGS: That’s my name, don’t wear it out. That’s what Bobby called me.
DAVE: ’Cause you drove the trucks.
MEGS: I did. Crashed a lot of the mothers too. (Pause) Why don’t you tell Martha what your nickname was. I bet she’d like to know. (Pause) No? I will then. High School! ’Cause he loved high school. You was All League and you loved high school. Maybe too much, huh? Ole Bobby had a nickname for everything, didn’t he? (Pause) Huh? Tell Martha how Bobby could make it seem like Boy Scouts sitting around the campfire. Couldn’t he do that? (Pause) He could, Martha. (Pause. It is as if HE is suddenly making a decision) When I first got back, Davey, and was drivin’, I’d see ole Bobby standin’ at the side of the road with his thumb out. Isn’t that something? It’d be late at night maybe and I’d be tired and I’d blink my eyes and there he’d be, standing there in his combat fatigues, Lotta people think they understand what that’s like, don’t they, studhoss. Well, God love’m for bad liars. They can only try. You and me, we know it like it was yesterday morning. Know what else, Davey? Sometimes I’d even pick ole Bobby up. (DAVE groans softly) You believe that? I swear, one time Bobby sat next to me from Pittsburgh, P-A, all the way to Hartford, Connecticut. Wasn’t a bad conversation either. You ever do that? Pick’m up? Davey? Did ya? Davey, did you ever do that?
MARTHA: David, did you ever do that?
DAVE (Softly): Oh, God, Martha . . .
MEGS: You did, didn’t you. What’ja think? Scare ya? Nah. Nothin’ scary about ole Red Sock. That was Bobby’s nickname, Martha, ’Cause h
e loved the Red Sox. Didn’t he, Davey? Huh? Ole Bobby?
DAVE: He was gonna take us to Fenway Park . . . we were gonna cheer . . . oh, Bobby . . . you shoulda stayed put. You shouldn’t have gone back. Bobby didn’t help you, Megs,
MEGS: Died reaching down for me. Opened up like a rose in front a my eyes. Never knew what hit him.
DAVE: Christ almighty, if he’d stayed, he would of lived!
MEGS: Guy, how many nights have I stared at the ceiling thinkin’ that very thought. But he didn’t stay put. Wasn’t in him to leave me any more’n it was to leave you!
DAVE: If I hadn’t been scared, if I hadn’t landed wrong . . .
MEGS: Guy, things happen for a reason!
DAVE: What fucking reason!?
MEGS: I ain’t sure. I’m only workin’ on it.
DAVE: Then how come you’re doin’ so much better than me!?
MEGS: Davey . . . I been blamin’ myself for things I have no control over since first light. The way I look . . . way I talk . . . way I act . . . I was never no high school hero. I didn’t have so far to fall.
DAVE (So tired): I just want to be left alone. I want Bobby to leave me alone.
MEGS: Embrace him, stud. Take him in your arms. You and me, we got enough shithole memories to last a lifetime. He ain’t one of’m. He was our friend. Our heart. A waterwalker. Did we love him? (Pause) What were we gonna do, when we got back, no matter what? (Pause) Come on. Help me . . . no matter what.
DAVE: I dunno.
MEGS: Yeah, ya do. Come on. We were gonna . . . Davey!
DAVE: I dunno, go to Fenway Park!
MEGS: Best seats in the house, huh? Huh?
DAVE: Hot dogs and beer.
MEGS: And that green grass, fresh mowed.
DAVE: The sun beating down.
MEGS: Take off our shirts, huh? Soak up some rays!
DAVE: And we were gonna cheer. Cheer for Bobby’s favorite team.
MEGS: Cheer so loud, they was gonna start cheerin’ us back, yeah. And then?
DAVE: And then we were gonna . . . (HE stops)
MEGS: What, Davey? (Pause) What?
DAVE: Go fishing . . . opening day. (A silence. HE settles back in his chair, exhausted. MEGS moves away, lost in his own thoughts now) Martha?
MARTHA: Yes?
DAVE: I got in a fight tonight.
MARTHA: I know you did.
DAVE: With kids. The bar was filled with kids in high school letter sweaters, barely eighteen, if they were at all, and I dunno . . . I’d look at them, sis, and it was bringing tears to my eyes looking at them and finally I couldn’t anymore and I started pushing one of them. He looked scared. But he pushed back and when he did I just sorta waded into all of them. And Christ, Martha . . . they didn’t know how to fight . . . they didn’t know how to fight at all. I don’t know what to do. I think I might have hurt one of them. Maybe they’re still there. Maybe I should go back and see if he’s all right.
MARTHA: Maybe you should.
DAVE: I will. (HE moves to the front door. HE stops and turns) I blame people. I blame people so goddam much. (Pause) I’m so sorry, Martha.
MARTHA: I know you are.
DAVE turns to leave. HE sees Bobby’s lucky hat hanging by the door. Pause. HE puts on the hat. HE turns and looks at MEGS. Pause. HE exits. Silence. MEGS moves to the window, watches DAVE go off into the night.
MEGS: It’s snowing. Awful late in the year. Real pretty. Last gasp. (Pause) It’s hard. Martha, sweet Martha, it’s so God-fuckin’ hard to put the fatigues to sleep . . . (Pause. HE moves to leave)
MARTHA: You’re leaving?
MEGS: Thought I would. Let things get back to normal.
MARTHA: Has normal been succeeding so well?
MEGS: Your brother loves you, Martha. Well . . .
MARTHA: We never had brandy, Joseph.
MEGS: You’re right. We didn’t.
MARTHA: One glass. We deserve it.
MEGS: Shoot it in. (MARTHA pours. THEY drink) Sundown. (HE moves to leave)
MARTHA (In despair): Stay? (Pause) We’ll go upstairs.
MEGS: What’s there?
MARTHA (Inaudibly): Bedrooms. (Clearing her throat) Bedrooms.
MEGS (Not unkindly): Who the fuck we kiddin’, Martha?
MARTHA: Mission accomplished, is that it?
MEGS: A woman like you, a madman like me, who we kiddin’ but ourselves?
MARTHA: You brought me flowers and candy and wine. We were having a wonderful time.
MEGS: One a the best I ever had, Martha, but . . .
MARTHA: It doesn’t have to end. If I’ve been fooling myself, I can fool myself a little longer.
MEGS: I can’t, Martha. (HE exits. Silence. Very slowly, as if SHE’s afraid SHE might break, MARTHA sits. Silence. HE returns in a rush, closing the door quickly behind him) Y’know, I bet we woulda left that prom dance early!
MARTHA: Do you think?
MEGS: Yeah! We woulda gone off for dinner at a fancy restaurant! Partridge maybe!
MARTHA: Partridge?
MEGS: Can’t have cheeseburgers, woman! And then maybe we woulda driven someplace. Someplace quiet. And parked. And then . . . who knows?! (Pause. And the false bravado falls away. Softly) Who knows . . . (Pause) I’m real nervous, Martha.
MARTHA: It’s prom night. We’ve been kissing and hugging in the back of your ’57 Chevy for hours. And we’ve had brandy. (Pause) Let’s go upstairs, (SHE takes his hand) It’s time.
As MEGS and MARTHA go up. the stairs, the lights go to black.
END OF PLAY
