Bone Cage (5 page)

Scene 8

Early Wednesday evening. JAMIE sits in Clarence's chair with the phone in his lap. He gets up, goes and gets a beer, and comes back to the phone. He dials a long distance number. The audience does not hear the voice on the other end of the call, but the lines are included within square brackets to help the actor give his lines the proper weight.

JAMIE

[GCT Flight School, Janet speaking.] Yeah, hello, I'm calling to… [Can you hold the line please?] Yeah, sure.

JAMIE paces around waiting to be taken off hold.

Yeah, hi, I'm calling about the ad you ran in the paper out here. [Where are you calling from, sir?] Nova Scotia. [Oh, those ads, we ran them several months ago.] Yeah I guess it's been a couple of months. Anyway, I am very interested in joining your heli-logging team. [What position?] Pilot. [You are a pilot?] No, training, sorry, training to be a pilot… you know, be the one that flies the trees out. I'm experienced in the woods. [Yes?] Yeah, I've worked the processor for four years. [Chainsaw trained?] I've worked chainsaw, but I'm looking to, you know, do the helicopter training. [We've met our training quota for this training period.] Oh, so when is the next training session. [April if we have enough trainees sign up.] Nothing before like, next April? Okay, could you put my name on the waiting list now? [Well maybe I should tell you the requirements and costs.] Yeah, sure. [You want to write this down?] Yeah, I got a pen and paper and everything, go ahead.

JAMIE sneaks a swig of beer. He doesn't write any of the information down.

[The course can take up to five months.] I am interested in the three-month course. [If you want to be able to fly at night…] Yeah, Jesus, five months, okay. I do want to be able to fly at night. [The cost is forty thousand dollars.] Four thousand [Forty.] no, I was joking you, I knew you said forty… thousand. [And we'll need a medical and high school graduation certificate.] Right, medical sure… listen, I got a buddy who is interested in doing training too, but… he's real experienced in the woods too. He, the guy, didn't graduate from high school but he's getting, I mean he's got the GED thing. [Well he would have to take an entrance test make sure his math was up to speed.] Yeah, sure I'll tell him about that test you know, 'cause he needs to know if his math is, like you said, up to speed. Thanks now. [Should I take your name.] No… no I won't leave my name.

JAMIE hangs up.

Fuck you, lady.

(quietly)
Fuck
me.

Lights down.

 

Scene 9

It is 2 a.m. on Thursday morning. The river scene is lit by a street lamp mounted on the bridge. CLARENCE comes down to the beach. His clothes are covered in dirt, which he is attempting to brush off. He begins to wash his hands in the water. He is throbbing with excitement. He stops, calming himself. He reaches into his hunting vest and takes out a square of cloth. CLARENCE carefully unwraps it and cradles the small bone in his hand.

CLARENCE

You'll see you'll see you'll see.

I did it for you.

That's all I want.

JAMIE

Clarence.

This is God.

JAMIE sits in his usual spot on the rail nursing his fifth beer – the empties are lined up beside him. JAMIE burps loudly.

CLARENCE

Jesus, Jamie, Christ—

JAMIE

That's me.

CLARENCE

You scared the shit out of me.

CLARENCE wraps up the bone quickly and puts it back in his vest.

JAMIE

(laughs)
What have you got there?

CLARENCE

Nothing.

JAMIE

You've got
something
, you put
something
in your pocket.

CLARENCE

I ain't got nothing.

He washes his hands again.

JAMIE

What are you doing down there, washing your hands?

CLARENCE

I ain't doing nothing no worse than you.

JAMIE

Ah ah ah, remember Oprah. Talk to your kids.

CLARENCE

A man can come down to the river.

JAMIE

At 2:30 in the morning?

CLARENCE

You're here. What are you doing?

JAMIE

Thinking about going for a swim.

CLARENCE

The lamprey ain't left the river yet.

JAMIE

I don't see any eels.

CLARENCE

I don't need to see them, I know they're there. It hasn't thundered and lightninged yet.

JAMIE

What do they do, Clarence?
Holy shit
, it's thundering and lightning out there boys, time to wiggle our asses out of here so folks can swim.

CLARENCE

It kills them off. The old people know that.

JAMIE

You got all the answers, don't ya, Clarence?

JAMIE comes down to stand beside CLARENCE. JAMIE invades CLARENCE's space, forcing him to move back and step around JAMIE's building rage.

Well here's a question for ya.

What was I going to be when I grew up?

CLARENCE

Trav was gonna be a soldier.

JAMIE

Yeah yeah “in the Airborne” and I was gonna be…?

CLARENCE

I remember you telling us you was going to be an astronaut, only you said astrosnot.

JAMIE

That's because I was fucking four years old. What did I want to be when I was sixteen? When I quit school, what was I quitting I was gonna be?

CLARENCE

You never said.

JAMIE

I brought the information home from the guidance counsellor… set it right on the goddamn kitchen table.

CLARENCE

That was years ago.

JAMIE

Found out you let them put me in the retarded math.

CLARENCE

No, Chicky told you it was non-uni
(…versity prep)
.

JAMIE

Retarded. Retarded to pilot school. You let those teachers screw me.

CLARENCE

They never told me nothing.

JAMIE

No you were too fucking stupid to ask.

Where are you going?

CLARENCE

I'm leaving. It's a free country. You think you can blame everything on to me. My fox farm failed because of fucking Bridget fucking Bardot, my wife left me, my son died… he
died
. What was

I supposed to do when those teachers told me, “Put Jamie in

this math class and he'll get better marks.” Eh? I was a broken

man, what in hell was I supposed to do?

CLARENCE leaves.

JAMIE climbs up on “the high,” on top of the bridge frame. He stands, swinging his arms as though warming up to jump.

Lights down.

 

ACT II

Scene 10

Thursday morning. KRISTA sits at the table writing out thank-you notes. JAMIE comes in carrying a beer and three partridge eggs.

KRISTA

Ten more for you to sign.

I'm not bringing them shower gifts into this house.

I'll keep them at home 'til we move to the trailer.

Same with the wedding ones too.

JAMIE puts the eggs on the table. She touches the eggs.

They're cold.

What's a hen supposed to do with partridge babies anyway?

You shouldn't do that. Walk around looking for them after your shift.

JAMIE

You hear them when you get out of the machine.

KRISTA

You can't hear eggs.

JAMIE

Jesus, I hear their mothers looking for their nests, looking for their babies.

KRISTA

I know you can't hear eggs. I was kidding, Fuzzy.

JAMIE

I told you, don't call me that.

KRISTA

Chicky does. The men at the firehall all do.

JAMIE

I don't want you to.

KRISTA

That's not fair.

JAMIE

Come here.

JAMIE kisses her and whispers something in her ear. She looks at him.

KRISTA

What do you mean?

JAMIE

Mom said “Jamieeee” like “What are you up to, you little shit.” Clarence says Jamie like “not Travis,” the one he wants alive. Like, “
NotTravis
, you going to the liquor store today?”

KRISTA crawls onto his lap. Kisses him on the mouth.

And when the teachers said “Jamie,” well, weren't they thinking Dumb ass?

KRISTA

Jamie, stop—

JAMIE

There.

KRISTA

What?

JAMIE

Even when you are
pissed
at me. There's something – you say Jamie like there's a chance of something… in me.

KRISTA

Jamie jamie jamie jamie jamie…

They kiss.

Want to?

JAMIE

I'm saving myself 'til I'm married.

I can wait.

KRISTA kisses him.

I might have to take a trip to the vet before supper.

The eagle's not looking too good.

He's losing feathers. His eyes look milky.

KRISTA

Half what you rescue dies.

Like that baby raccoon that time.

Like those eggs.

Is that why you're quitting? Chicky told me.

JAMIE speaks his line to the bedroom door, indicating that he knows she is in there.

JAMIE

Sis needs to keep her nose out of my business.

KRISTA

It's my business. I'm marrying you the day after tomorrow.

JAMIE

I don't work chainsaw.

KRISTA

That don't make sense. You hate what the processor does but you won't work chainsaw. You got to have a job.

JAMIE

That's the thing, Krista, in ten years there won't be logging jobs around here.

The woods is tapped out. In ten years,
less
even, there won't be any trees in this valley.

KRISTA

What are you talking about? It's woods all the way to town and that's over forty miles.

JAMIE

You don't know what you're looking at. All along the roads is not woods anymore. What you're seeing is a screen of trees two, three tier deep and behind that hectares and hectares of clear cut.

Everything has been chewed up and spit out. Not one tree standing.

That's why…. Listen, Krista, I'm not saying we can afford to do this right away but I'm thinking—

KEVIN burst in.

KEVIN

Where's Clarence?

JAMIE

Jesus, Kevin, what's crawled up your ass?

KEVIN

Is he here? Where is he?

CHICKY comes out of the bedroom.

Chicky, where's Clarence?

CHICKY

It's the colostomy clinic day at the hospital.

JAMIE

The fun never stops for old Clarence.

KEVIN

Good, good, 'cause if he hears this, he's gonna to have a stroke or something.

CHICKY

Kevin, what are you talking about?

KEVIN

They're burying Betty's boy tomorrow, right?

CHICKY

I told him not to call Betty again. He's telling them to send the body to Florida to be frozen.

KEVIN

No, Chicky, Ronnie went over to check the grave site and he saw.

They've been fucking with Trav's grave.

CHICKY

Who has?

JAMIE

What did you have to tell her for, Kev? Jesus.

CHICKY

Fuzzy, what's he talking about?

JAMIE

It's okay, Chicky. I've taken care of it. I'm getting sod from Reg.

CHICKY

Sod, for what?

JAMIE

It was probably some animal digging around. Forget it.

KEVIN

Ronnie says it weren't no animal. They like dug a big hole straight down the middle of the plot – got Betty all upset. Fucking Merv.

CHICKY

Why would he bother Trav's grave?

KEVIN

Someone
laid a beating onto him at Jamie's stag so he's paying him back.

CHICKY

Jamie.

JAMIE

Do you see a mark on me?

KEVIN

Don't blame Jamie, we was only getting back at Merv for what he did to me.

CHICKY

This has gone far enough, Kevin.

Merv's got kids.

KEVIN

He don't act like it. If you got kids you don't dig up some other kid's grave.

JAMIE

No – not some other kid's grave.

Kev. Go get the sod from Reg, okay?

KEVIN

What about Merv?

CHICKY

You don't know that it was him.

KEVIN

You kidding? You tell her, Jamie.

JAMIE

Maybe it wasn't.

KEVIN

Jamie, he did it, I know it, you know it.

JAMIE

I'll meet you at the grave – make it look like nothing happened there for Betty tomorrow.

KEVIN

Let me, Jamie. I'll fix it up right.

Then I'm going to go get that son of a bitch.

KEVIN leaves. CHICKY looks at KRISTA.

CHICKY

Are you going to do something?

KRISTA

What? Besides Merv… he started it, right?

Kevin will be a mess in the wedding photos.

CHICKY

I don't care about your
(fucking)
wedding pictures.

KRISTA

See, Jamie? Make her stop ruining our wedding.

Well?

I'm going home.

KRISTA seems to expect JAMIE to go with her.

I said I'm going home.

KRISTA leaves clearly angry.

CHICKY

I don't think even Merv would do something like that.

JAMIE

It don't matter to Kevin who did it.

He needs for it to be Merv.

CHICKY

Why?

JAMIE

Look, Chicky. Merv did something to Kev, Kev's got to take Merv on.

If he wants to live around here anyway.

CHICKY

What did he do to Kev to make him so crazy?

JAMIE

I don't ask what Merv the perv does. You saw him. They got him good and drunk that's for sure. Maybe they fed him some Viagra, made him look at someone's dick and told him if his pecker got hard it meant he's a queer. Anyway, you know they got his underwear off him one way or another.

CHICKY

He's acting like he's going to kill Merv.

JAMIE

If Kevin got laid, sis, he'd be all right.

CHICKY

You know he might be the same to me as you.

JAMIE

You're putting a lot of faith in shit Mom told you.

CHICKY

You tell Kev, that's enough.

JAMIE

I'll tell, don't mean he'll listen.

CHICKY

When are you going to B.C.?

JAMIE

Soon enough.

CHICKY

Not soon enough.

You've had that ad for months.

Have you called?

JAMIE

That ain't your business, but yes I did.

CHICKY

So you are going?

JAMIE

Soon as I get the money together.

CHICKY

You
quit
your job.

JAMIE

Danny's renting the trailer 'til spring. We'll have enough to move out there by then.

CHICKY

You might have the wedding paid off by then.

Why are you marrying her? It's not like you're lovesick.

JAMIE

Now you sound like her
.
“Do you love me? Do you really really love me”? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccccckkkkkkk.

CHICKY

She'll stop you from going.

JAMIE

No she won't. Krista's going too.

CHICKY

You'd do better on your own.

JAMIE

I need one person with me who knows me.

CHICKY

You marry her, you'll be stuck.

She'll get pregnant…

JAMIE

No, we ain't having kids for a long time.

CHICKY

You're being a stupid married man, and you're not even married.

JAMIE

Yeah, I heard Carol's preggers.

CHICKY

Yeah, well, so I know what I'm talking about.

JAMIE

You know, sis, old Reggie's using you up, same as he's using up the interval land. What are
you
sticking around for?

CHICKY

Haven't you noticed I've been taking care of you?

JAMIE

So now you don't have to. And don't wait around here for some someday family reunion. Mom probably doesn't know who your father is, for sure.

CHICKY

I can't stand living with you sometimes.

JAMIE

I'm not saying anything against you. It's her I'm talking about.

CHICKY

You used to have a heart. You used to have feelings.

JAMIE

Yeah?

CHICKY

You weren't like this before.

JAMIE

Before when?

CHICKY

I don't know. Before Travis died. Before you quit school.

Before you started drinking every day.

JAMIE

You know what I feel these days?

CHICKY

What?

JAMIE

(pause)
Nothing.

CHICKY

No… tell me.

JAMIE

Nothing is what I feel after a twelve-hour night shift shaking inside that machine. Hearing everything outside it get tore up. The men say don't walk around a section you've just clear cut. Earl and them say if it makes you feel bad don't do it. I can't just walk away… leave things half-dead and dying.

CHICKY

Is that why you're drinking, causing trouble with Merv?

JAMIE

Merv isn't anything. All that is just… something stupid to do.

What makes you feel better after a sunny afternoon of stripping the top soil off interval land?

CHICKY

I certainly don't go beating up people.

JAMIE

Have you looked at Reg's wife lately? Carol looks like you've given her a bruising more than once.

CHICKY

Jesus.

JAMIE

And you're worried about what I'm doing to Merv's kids?

CHICKY

Jesus you've got some nerve.

Well, I'm not being the maid of honour for your funeral.

JAMIE

I told her you will.

CHICKY walks out the door.

You are right, sis, I have some nerve, but it's shot to hell.

Nothing another beer won't fix.

JAMIE takes a long drink.

Lights out.