Bone Cage (6 page)

Scene 11

Thursday, early evening, KRISTA is sitting at the table. A garment bag is draped over the table.

CHICKY comes in from work and half turns to leave when she sees KRISTA.

KRISTA

Hi.

CHICKY

Hi.

KRISTA

I brought your dress. She did a good job hemming it.

CHICKY looks at her puzzled.

Jamie told me you're still gonna be my maid of honour.

CHICKY

He did? Oh what the
(fuck)
. Yeah, yeah.

KRISTA

Thanks for, you know, saying you'll do it.

I think you were right. I should have gone with black heels not

white sandals with the fuchsia dress.

CHICKY

It doesn't matter.
(trying again)
It'll look okay. Good.

KRISTA

I'm trying so hard to make everything nice.

CHICKY fiddles with a smoke but doesn't light it.

I was talking to Reg's wife.

She said something I thought I should tell you.

CHICKY

Why would I want to know what she says?

You're thinking like a wife.

KRISTA

Carol said that at the beginning when Reg started seeing you, she never stopped him because you was in love with him, and you was only fifteen and she couldn't bear to see you hurt that bad.

CHICKY

What's that supposed to mean?

KRISTA

She was being nice.

CHICKY

What are you telling me that for?

KRISTA

Don't you want to know it?

CHICKY

I didn't say I'd be your maid of honour, but I'll be your maid of

honour, but don't you ever talk to me again!

KRISTA

Chicky… Chicky.

We're doing the groom's family pictures here at 2:30.

You can come get ready at my house if you want.

CHICKY ignores her. KRISTA leaves.

Lights down.

 

Scene 12

Late Thursday night. CHICKY is curled up on the couch, asleep. CLARENCE comes in carrying a well-wrapped parcel ready for the mail. He takes an apple from the sideboard and a large jack-knife from his pocket. He cuts the apple with the knife bringing pieces to his mouth on the knife. He watches CHICKY. He goes to the couch and kneels beside her. He leans into her, laying his hand reverently on her belly.

As soon as his hand touches her, she wakes and pushes him hard onto the floor.

CHICKY

Get the fuck away from me.

CLARENCE

Chicky, I need to talk to you.

She sees the knife.

CHICKY

Jesus, what are you doing with that knife?

What you coming at me with a knife for?

CLARENCE

Here.

He gives the knife to her.

I wasn't trying to hurt you. I was sitting at the table eating an apple is all, and I got to thinking about you, Chicky.

CHICKY

I
don't
want you thinking about me.

How would you like it if I came at you with a knife? Uh? Uh? I'm the one who's got reason to do it, too.

CLARENCE

I was eating an apple, Chicky, that's all.

CHICKY

Couldn't hold me down that time, so you gonna do it with a knife.

CLARENCE

I wasn't touching you like that that time.

You thought I was touching you like that?

CHICKY

You crawled into my bed.

CLARENCE

I was missing Trav.

That's all. I swear on Trav's grave that's all.

Did I ever once before, or after that, bother you, Chicky?

No, not once, you know it.

CHICKY

You just had your hand on my zipper.

CLARENCE

No, not on your zipper. I was touching you there, because what you got inside is precious, Chicky.

CHICKY

What are you raving about?

CLARENCE

Mom's eggs are past it now. She used them goddamn hard anyway. They won't work for this, not her eggs but you're his half sister and you're only twenty-five…. Listen! There's this place, Chicky. There's this place that can clone Travis. Alls you need is good eggs,
your eggs
would be good for this, and his DNA – I got that.

CHICKY

You're crazy. Nothing's going to bring him back.

CLARENCE

This will.

CHICKY

How can you be so stupid? They're taking your money off you.

That's all they're doing. There isn't a place where they clone people.

CLARENCE

Give me your eggs and I'll show you.

CHICKY holds the knife up to her belly.

CHICKY

What do you want? You want me to slice open my belly and hand them to you like this? Like this?

CLARENCE

They don't need to cut you open, they wash them out.

Then they take the DNA from Trav…

CHICKY

Travis. Travis. I know I'm not a blood relative. I know that, but I've lived in your house since I was three years old. Doesn't that mean anything?

CLARENCE

You was awful good to Travis. You watched him and talked to him.

He always wanted Chicky after he got sick.

CHICKY

That's the only thing? What I did for Travis.

Don't you ever see me?

Donalda—
(fuck)
I hate my name.

Has anyone ever seen me my whole life?

CLARENCE

I'd sit and watch him lying next to you, his face whiter than the

hospital sheets.

That time, Chicky, that one time I thought if I could lay next to you like he had, maybe I could stand him being…

CHICKY

Dead.

Dead.

Artist's renditions, make-believe cloning places won't change that.

CLARENCE

I'm telling you it will work.

I'm sending his DNA.

CHICKY

Was it you?

Oh, Dad, it wasn't you, was it? Digging up Trav's grave?

CLARENCE

Kevin told you. It was Merv.

CHICKY

I know what Kev wants to think.

Where did you get his DNA from, then?

CLARENCE picks up the parcel holding it tightly.

CLARENCE

We got things around.

CHICKY

You couldn't dig up his grave, could you, Dad?

CLARENCE

I got his baby teeth, don't I?

CHICKY

Is that what you're sending them, you swear it?

Show me what you're sending them.

CLARENCE

I don't got to show you nothing.

Are you going to give your eggs to Trav or not?

CHICKY

No, Clarence.

CLARENCE

I thought you loved him.

I thought, “Chicky will help me bring him home.”

CHICKY

No.
No!

CLARENCE

No, but you'll let that one stink them up.

Yes, I mean Reg.

CHICKY

Reg isn't you, Clarence, he don't want anything from me. He don't ask me to clean his house or clean up his shit. Reg is the one person in my life who loves me. Reg. When Travis died he held me, the only one,
he held me
. He's loved me since I was fourteen.

CLARENCE

You ain't fourteen stupid anymore.

Reg gets the only thing he wants from you every time he spreads your legs.

CHICKY

Jesus jumping Christ.

She lunges at him. CLARENCE leaves quickly.

I'll do it, too. I swear I will.

CHICKY puts the knife down on the table.

Lights down.

 

Scene 13

Saturday afternoon. CHICKY sits at the table sipping wine. CLARENCE is watching TV. LISSA bursts in with KEVIN close behind.

LISSA

Hi, Chicky. Where's the bride?

CHICKY

She's fixing her dress, Lissa, what are you doing?

LISSA

Keving said I can watch.

KEVIN

She was already waiting at the church. I told her it was gonna be

a hour before it started. Krista won't care, will she?

CHICKY

Probably.

KEVIN

You sit here, Lissa. Stay out of Krista's way.

LISSA

Okay.

JAMIE and KRISTA come out of the bedroom together.

KRISTA

Well, is your mother coming or not?

CHICKY

She said she would see you at the church, Jamie, or the firehall for sure. She said to tell you she'll make one hell of a grandmother.

JAMIE

I told you she wouldn't come here for the pictures.

LISSA

I like your bride's dress, Krista.

KRISTA

What is she doing here?

CHICKY

She can watch, can't she, Jamie?

JAMIE

Okay with me.

KRISTA

Nobody is supposed to see the bride before the wedding.

CHICKY

We're all seeing her, one more won't matter.

LISSA

That's a pretty bride veil…

KRISTA

Don't talk to me, Lissa.

Okay. You heard,
(referring to the photographer)
the groom's family first.

CLARENCE, JAMIE and CHICKY move as though they are being directed by a photographer. JAMIE sits and the others gather behind him. They hold a pose as KRISTA speaks her monologue. On the last photo CLARENCE holds the picture of Trav to his chest.

When I was a kid I had a thing about jackets and coats.

Jeez I hated walking the road in a new one. Thinking all those moms looking out their kitchen windows, and people driving by asking themselves, “Now who is that walking down the road.”

Like for a day or something nobody would know who I was.

That won't ever happen when Jamie and I are married.

Marrying Jamie, people will always know who I am.

LISSA

Keving, how come you're not in the picture?

KRISTA

Lissa, shhhhh.

You'll have to leave.

LISSA

Pretty shoes.

KRISTA

Bride and groom with groom's parents… parent.

JAMIE, KRISTA and CLARENCE pose.

CHICKY moves away. She starts to speak as they go through the poses.

CHICKY

The summer I turned fifteen I did something that people who knew me then would never have believed. It happened at the river. He'd brought a bunch of us swimming 'cause we were haying all day, and hot. Us girls were swimming in our shorts and white T-shirts so our bras would show through. The boys swam through our legs grabbing our crotches saying it was an accident, they was “stuck” or “drowning, honest to fucking God.” He sat on the beach smoking, watching me like he had all summer. It was the first time I felt that feeling in my nipples.

CHICKY motions LISSA into the photo, which KRISTA resents.

He said he needed to see Clarence so he'd drop me off last. Then he asked and I said, “Yes, okay,” and he took me back to the river. He brought me down to the water and he said he didn't have any right, he was a married man with kids even. He said I was so beautiful, and he wasn't trying to start anything up with me because that kind of man disgusted him, but he needed me to know that he loved me. And just saying it helped him so much and if he could once in a while tell me that, he'd be okay – never happy now, but okay. Then he stood up and he was walking up the bank. I knew how to stop him. I took off my T-shirt, my bra still damp from the river and

I said, “Reg!”

I did that, shy little me did that,
I
pulled
him
to me.

KRISTA

Bride and groom, best man and matron… I meant
maid
of honour.

LISSA

Yeah! Keving! Say cheese.
Cheese.

KRISTA

Kevin.

KEVIN

Shhh, shh.

LISSA

He's my boyfriend. Keving is.

JAMIE

Way to go, Kev.

CHICKY

Don't be sick.

KEVIN

I saw her at the church is all.

KRISTA

We'll never get to the church if we don't get these pictures done.

JAMIE, KRISTA, CHICKY and KEVIN begin to pose.

LISSA

Krista and Jamie can have sex now. Mom says.

Mom says married means having sex. Hens and roosters don't get married. Not dogs. Mr. Bull don't marry the cow – that's silly.

Sex is loud. I can hear the bull when I have to stay put in the house 'cause he's doing his business. I can't go out to the barn, he might think I'm a little cow with a red bum come to visit. No, don't say that, that's a dirty girl. Mom stays put in the house too. She talks
(loudly) like this. “Lissa get the Electrolux and do the front room.”
She talks like that 'cause sex is loud. Sex is loud.

KRISTA

What did she say?

CHICKY

Lissa, what are you thinking about?

LISSA

Nothing.

JAMIE

Sounds like she's thinking about
something
,
eh, Kev?

KRISTA

Jamie!

Bride and groom –
only
,
Lissa
.

KEVIN

Jame, you should bring the eagle in, put it on your shoulder.

JAMIE

Can't. I let him go.

CHICKY

He can't fly.

JAMIE

I took the bunch of them up to the clear cut this afternoon and let them all go. The cages are empty.

KRISTA

They die anyway.

JAMIE

We're all dying, baby.

KRISTA

Oh that's a nice thing to say on our wedding day.

Like a jinx or something.

JAMIE

When it's my time, put me out in the woods.

If there's any left around here.

KRISTA

Jamie we're going to be late.

They begin to pose.

CLARENCE

I caught a wild fox once

Kept it at the fox farm for years.

It never tamed one bit.

The fox-farm foxes

They was like pets.

Take them to a show

Let them out of their cage

They'd follow behind you

To the show room just like a dog

Jump up on the show table and lay down quiet?

You couldn't expect any animal to be that quiet.

My ones loved to be brushed out

Silver foxes I had.

But that wild vixen one

She never changed.

Until the day she died

Every time I went in the shed to feed her

She'd take a lunge at me.

JAMIE and KRISTA are done.

KRISTA

Maid of honour?

CHICKY

Aren't we done yet?

KRISTA

I paid for the package with the maid of honour and the bride photo.

They pose awkwardly in silence.

JAMIE

Clarence has this story he tells about his tame fox-farm foxes and this wild vixen he live-trapped and how she used to fight him. He says, “And every time I fed her she'd lunge at me.” He's proud of that story like it's explaining something. Like it's supposed to mean something. Anyway, that wild vixen was lunging to get to the door, to get to that crack of light opened up behind him.

Jesus, some poet should write a poem about those foxes and Clarence's perforated bowel.

The pictures are over.

KRISTA

Okay, now we're done.

Oh my God, we've got to get to the church.

JAMIE

Any beer at that church, Kevin?

KEVIN

Grape juice.

JAMIE

Better have one for the road.

KEVIN

Better have.

KRISTA

You two are supposed to be at the church now!

CHICKY

I'm going with the guys.

KRISTA

No. The maid of honour rides to the church with the bride.

(teary now)
That's part of the maid of honour's job. It ruins

everything if she doesn't.

CHICKY

All right.
(Jesus.)

LISSA

Here comes the bride, big fat and wide.

Here comes the groom, sweeping up the room.

KRISTA

Kevin, take Lissa with you!

Okay, Chicky help me check my makeup and then we can go.

They go to the bedroom.

Jamie goes to the coffee table—a small well-polished oval—and rubs his hand over it.

JAMIE

That's one frigging nice table, Kev. That's the same wood?

KEVIN

The log we pulled out from below the swimming hole. Told you,

didn't I?

JAMIE

Something that waterlogged had this inside of it.

KEVIN

It's the river what makes it beautiful, Jamie-boy. Brings out the grain of it.

JAMIE

Fucking A, Fucking A plus.

KEVIN

I got a plan for tonight.

JAMIE raises his beer.

JAMIE

To the plan.

KEVIN

I'll catch Mr. Merv on his own tonight.

JAMIE

You don't have to do it for us, does he, Clarence?

CLARENCE

Do what?

JAMIE

Get Merv for digging up Travis's grave. If
he
did it, eh Clarence?

CLARENCE

I never told nobody to go after nobody.

KEVIN

I never said you did.

I'm taking care of it, I told you, Jamie.

I got a plan.

JAMIE

Okay, Kev, you handle it.

Then it will be done.

KEVIN

Lissa, come on.

KEVIN and LISSA leave. JAMIE starts after but stops.

JAMIE

Got any fatherly advice for me, Father?

CLARENCE

I told you what I think.

JAMIE

Maybe you can tell me what a great son I've been, and how you loved being a father to me. No? Oh, wrong son. I know it was you who dug up his grave.

CLARENCE

What liar told you that?

JAMIE

I saw you at the river hiding something, remember?

CLARENCE

What I did, never hurt nobody.

CHICKY comes out of the bedroom.

JAMIE

I'm sure Travis would love to know you was digging up his bones, sending them off to some swindlers in Scotland to end up in some garbage dump.

CLARENCE

They do not. They
do not.
You forget, I bred foxes all my life, I know what science can be done. They'll get Trav's DNA and put in healthy eggs and he'll be born again.

KRISTA comes out.

JAMIE

No he won't. The funny thing is, if Travis was alive he'd be cursing you out and maybe marrying someone you like even less than Krista.

Are we going to the church or not, Krista?

JAMIE and KRISTA leave as CLARENCE shouts at them.

CLARENCE

You don't know that, you don't know that. Trav was never ordinary, not one day of his life. I can help bring him back. I can make all of it right this time. Get him to the doctor before that bastard tumour starts, 'cause it will be inside his brain waiting, but this time I'll know, this time I'll be ready. Chicky, this time I'll be able to save him, right?

CHICKY

I'm
never
doing anything for you
ever again
.

CHICKY leaves.

Lights down.