Coronado

Introduction

I wrote the first draft of “Until Gwen” in a mad rush one night on my front porch in Boston. The porch is surrounded by a hundred-year-old wisteria. This proved crucial because a storm hit that night, a torrent of rain and lightning unlike any I’d ever seen before outside of the South. It was with that mad-scientist vibe, as the rain clattered on the roof and snapped off the street, that I wrote the first draft, from around seven in the evening until about four in the morning. I rewrote it a few times over the next few days and then shipped it off to Great Britain, to the writer John Harvey, who’d commissioned it for an anthology he was editing called Men from Boys. I went back to work on other things. But the story never quite let go. Bobby and Bobby’s Father and poor Gwen kept walking around in my head, telling me that we weren’t done yet, that there were more things to say about the entangled currents that made up their bloodlines and their fate.

Around this time my brother, Gerry, showed up at my house. Gerry’s an actor in New York, and he arrived on my doorstep one Christmas Eve with two actress friends. The four of us spent the next ten days shooting pool in my basement, watching old movies, and talking about the nature of drama and story and the creative process. We also talked, usually around 3 or 4 A.M. in my kitchen, about the various lost loves and discarded hopes that accumulate as one’s life progresses in all its noise and folly. It felt like college, or certainly my early twenties; several nights, joined by other friends, we even ended up sitting on the floor. During those ten days, we hatched the idea that I would finally write a role for my brother and a play for the theater company to which he belongs. An aspect of my brother, Gerry, that’s worth mentioning — he is one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever known. In the top two, actually. The problem is that this innate decency often leads him to be typecast in “nice guy” roles. I promised him I would create his role against type: I would write him the meanest, nastiest, most unconscionable monster I could imagine.

Finding that monster proved surprisingly easy because I’d already written him: Bobby’s Father. I’ve created villains before, but most are tortured or misunderstood and a lot less villainous than we might prefer in terms of our comfort level with the human race as a whole. Bobby’s Father, however, is all-villain-all-the-time. He possesses some measure of charm (I hope) that might make him a fun bar companion on a slow night, but otherwise he’s irredeemable. So I started with him and that led me back to Bobby and Gwen. It also led me back to those kitchen conversations about love and loss and hope. Gradually other characters began to emerge — a psychiatrist and his patient, two lovers carrying on an illicit affair, a sad-sack husband, a comic-relief waitress. I had no idea who these people were or how they connected to the story I’d told in “Until Gwen,” but every now and then one of them would mention a town called Coronado in such a way that suggested a measure of relevance, and I trusted these new characters would begin to account for themselves.

They did. How they did is the point of the play. And if Gwen and Bobby and Bobby’s Father never quite reach Coronado, and maybe none of the characters in any of my stories do either, then that’s okay, I think. It’s the trying that matters. The hope.

Coronado premiered on November 30, 2005, at Manhattan Theatre Source in Greenwich Village. It was produced and performed by the Invisible City Theatre Company, under the direction of David Epstein, with the following cast:

GINA Rebecca Miller

WILL Lance Rubin

WAITRESS Elizabeth Horn

PATIENT Kathleen Wallace

DOCTOR Jason MacDonald

BOBBY’S FATHER Gerry Lehane

BOBBY Avery Clark

HAL Dan Patrick Brady

GWEN Maggie Bell

Coronado was performed as part of the closing-night festivities of the Writers in Paradise Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, on January 28, 2006. It was produced by American Stage Theatre Company and Eckerd College with set design by Scott Cooper. It was directed by Todd Olson with the following cast:

GINA Nevada Caldwell

WILL Steve Garland

WAITRESS Megan Kirkpatrick

PATIENT Julie Rowe

DOCTOR Dan Bright

BOBBY’S FATHER Tom Nowicki

BOBBY Steve Malandro

HAL Drew DeCaro

GWEN Caitlin O’Grady

YOUNG WOMAN Talia Hagerty

MAN Kyle Flanagan

Characters

WILL a man in his twenties

GINA a woman in her twenties

DOCTOR a man in his late thirties

PATIENT a woman in her mid-thirties

BOBBY a man in his late teens, early twenties

BOBBY’S FATHER a man in his mid-forties

GWEN a woman nineteen years old

HAL a man somewhere between forty and fifty-five

WAITRESS a woman of indeterminate age

A MAN and a YOUNG WOMAN

Settings

ACT I takes place in an unnamed bar at various times.

ACT II takes place at the fairgrounds, a parking lot, and the bar, at various times.

Act I

A booth in a bar where a couple, GINA and WILL, sit.

GINA So how was the trip?

WILL Lotta two-light, three-bar towns. Hartow, Rangely, Coronado.

GINA How is that place?

WILL It’s coming up, I gotta say. Might be nice someday.

GINA So you’re back.

WILL And you’re going.

GINA Just for a week.

WILL A week. Jesus.

GINA We can do two weeks.

WILL Without talking? Maybe. Without touching, though?

GINA I could bite through my lip looking at you.

WILL I could…

[GINA looks over at the bar, then back at WILL.]

GINA This is what I remember — the first time you touched me. The first time you ever laid a finger on my flesh. You remember?

WILL It was after work.

GINA You smelled of Paco Rabanne.

WILL You wore that blue blouse.

GINA You said you hated your car. You said…

WILL Yes?

GINA No, you tell me.

WILL Not fair.

GINA Fair-schmair. And yes it is.

WILL I said… I said…

GINA You don’t have a clue.

WILL I said… I said, “If you were air, I’d never take another breath just to hold you in.”

GINA I always wondered if you heard that in a movie.

WILL Nope. All mine.

GINA Say it now.

WILL I just did.

GINA Not quoting. Say it for real.

[Beat.]

WILL If you were air, I’d never take another breath just to hold you in.

GINA Mmm. Good line. Came as a surprise.

WILL To me too.

GINA How is that?

WILL I don’t know. We never know what we’re going to say, do we?

GINA Sure we do. We say “I need a haircut,” and “I’d like a Fiero,” and “I want a shelf organizer.” And “You look terrific,” and “What’s on at ten?”

WILL Sounds so depressing.

GINA Until you.

WILL Until me…

GINA I could say “What’s on at ten?” to you and not feel existential dread.

WILL Until you, I, Jesus, fuck, I, my god, I mean, do you know I look at you sometimes and I just want to fucking cry? To scream? I want to grab you and squeeze you until your bones shatter. Not really, but you know? I want to tell the whole world that I couldn’t kiss you enough, lick you enough, fuck you enough. There is no enough with you.

GINA You know, you know when you’re inside me or when I just catch a look from you — you’re at your desk, I’m at mine — or when I think of the way you looked by the side of the road trying to jack up the car? Saying, “Stop, Gina. Stop laughing”? I think, my god, this is my life? God gave me this? And I think how I could just spread you on a cracker and eat you whole.

WILL I think, I think, I swear to Christ, how my whole life I felt something missing, you know? Like you were out there, somewhere, and I knew it, I did, but I never found you so I finally stopped looking. I told myself it was a fantasy. A child’s dream. Time to wake up, Will. So I did. I stopped believing and I got on with my life. I got on with my life. But then we met. And we talked. And suddenly I knew what I’d always known but tried to convince myself I didn’t.

GINA What?

WILL That you were the piece of me that went floating off into the ether when they pulled me from the womb. And I’m, right, I’m barely a fetus but I’m reaching for you, going, “Hey, come back. Please.” But you’re gone. You’re gone.

GINA Oh God.

WILL Oh Something.

GINA And I think how since the first time you touched me on the…?

WILL Breast.

GINA Chin.

WILL Sorry.

GINA Men. I thought, “Oh God, it all makes sense now. I can breathe. I can live. I’m, I’m home.”

WILL Home.

GINA I’m home, Will.

WILL Let’s kill him.

GINA Let’s kill him.

WILL Yeah.

GINA Who?

WILL Who.

GINA My husband?

WILL Yes.

GINA Okay.

WILL No, no really.

GINA No, no really.

Another booth. The DOCTOR, a psychiatrist, is meeting with his PATIENT, a woman.

PATIENT So, okay, we’re here.

DOCTOR We’re here. At your insistence.

PATIENT No, no. Yours.

DOCTOR You asked to meet. I suggested a public place.

PATIENT A bar. This bar.

DOCTOR A public place.

PATIENT With liquor.

DOCTOR As opposed to a Wal-Mart?

PATIENT As opposed to a Starbucks.

DOCTOR I don’t drink coffee.

PATIENT Maybe you should take it up.

DOCTOR I like tea. It’s better for you.

PATIENT And yet we’re here. So’s it safe to say you like liquor more than tea?

[DOCTOR stands. PATIENT is oblivious.]

PATIENT Can we assume that?

DOCTOR I’m going.

[PATIENT notices him standing.]

PATIENT Doctor, please.

DOCTOR This was a bad idea.

PATIENT Please.

[DOCTOR places some money on the table.]

DOCTOR A terrible idea.

PATIENT Just listen.

DOCTOR There’s enough there to pay for the drinks.

PATIENT Just please listen.

DOCTOR It was unprofessional of me. A bad, bad idea.

PATIENT I keep…

DOCTOR Please don’t drink too much—

PATIENT I can’t…

DOCTOR — if you drove.

PATIENT I used to…

DOCTOR Even if you didn’t.

PATIENT I used to remember things.

DOCTOR There’s a cabstand not too far. In front of that motel.

PATIENT I forget birthdays I had. Parts of high school, college, my twenties, last year.

DOCTOR Because you drink.

PATIENT You’re the one who wanted to meet here!

DOCTOR And why? Why do you think that is?

PATIENT Because you’re projecting?

DOCTOR Nice try.

PATIENT I thought you were leaving.

[He starts to walk.]

PATIENT I know where you live.

DOCTOR [Stops, looks back.] I moved.

PATIENT Two-twenty-four Stellar Lakes Lane.

[Beat.]

Oh, I’m sorry — another round?

[He slides into the booth.]

Another booth. BOBBY and BOBBY’S FATHER.

BOBBY’S FATHER So how was she?

BOBBY I sent her home.

BOBBY’S FATHER Before or after?

BOBBY During.

BOBBY’S FATHER How do you send a whore home during?

BOBBY She kept interrupting the blow job to pontificate on the merits of Michael Bay films.

BOBBY’S FATHER Who’s that?

BOBBY Movie director. Makes all those shitty movies like The Rock and Pearl Harbor and Bad Boys.

BOBBY’S FATHER I like those movies. They’ve got clarity.

BOBBY Clarity.

BOBBY’S FATHER

Yeah. No one’s all confused about how they feel or what they want or any of that whiny-ass bullshit. They want to fuck the blond chick, they feel like blowing shit up. It’s pure. So you sent her home.

BOBBY I gave her cab fare.

BOBBY’S FATHER She didn’t use it.

BOBBY Huh?

BOBBY’S FATHER She came over to my room.

BOBBY Your room.

BOBBY’S FATHER Somebody had to prop her ego up, poor girl like that.

[They stare at each other.]

BOBBY So what’d you do after?

BOBBY’S FATHER I rinsed my dick in the sink and drove her home.

BOBBY You drove her home.

BOBBY’S FATHER I’m speaking Czech?

BOBBY People do have a way of disappearing in your company, Daddy. You drove her home.

BOBBY’S FATHER I drove her home. Yes.

BOBBY Where’d she live?

BOBBY’S FATHER Home.

[Beat.]

So what was it like?

BOBBY You’ve never been?

BOBBY’S FATHER Been in county a couple times, but the big house? No, no, boy, not for your old man. So tell me, come on.

BOBBY It was like prison, Dad. The hard cons say you only do two days in prison. The day—

BOBBY’S FATHER That right?

BOBBY — you go in and the day you get out. I did the day they transferred me from the hospital ward and the day you picked me up in a stolen car with a hooker in the backseat.

BOBBY’S FATHER And a bottle of Beam, don’t forget.

BOBBY And a bottle of Beam, thank you.

BOBBY’S FATHER And some coke. That too.

BOBBY That too.

BOBBY’S FATHER So how’s the memory?

[BOBBY laughs.]

BOBBY’S FATHER What?

BOBBY “How’s the memory.” I took two bullets to the head, old man.

BOBBY’S FATHER I thought one glanced off.

BOBBY Two bullets hit your fucking head, you don’t get hung up on specifics.

BOBBY’S FATHER That how it works?

GINA and WILL stare at each other. Gina’s husband, HAL, approaches with a pitcher of beer in one hand, three shots in the other, and three beer glasses dangling from his fingers.

GINA [Eyes still on WILL.]

Hi, honey.

HAL Little help?

[WILL helps him place the pitcher and glasses on the table.]

WILL There you go, boss.

HAL Mighty white of you, I must say. Many times as I’ve been in here, you’d think I’d have some suck with the bartenders. Nope. I wait like everyone else.

GINA Lost in a sea of the great unwashed. Poor baby.

[HAL sits beside her, begins pouring beers.]

HAL It’s a trial. Lucky I’m such a sweetheart. So you took care of that Coronado thing?

WILL Wrapped it up this morning. Came back as soon as humanly possible.

HAL Now there’s a sense of industry. I’ll drink to that.

[HAL and GINA and WILL throw back their shots.]

HAL I always told you, honey. Didn’t I always say?

GINA You always said.

HAL In-dustrious. You okay?

GINA Fine.

HAL Sure?

GINA Really. Yeah. Just tired.

HAL Oh, I heard a good one today.

[GINA lights a cigarette.]

HAL Do you have to?

GINA Do you?

HAL Fair enough. You smoke your cancer stick, I’ll tell my joke. It’s just I love her so much, you know, boy?

WILL So the joke?

HAL Oh, right. I heard this from Frank. You know Frank, right?

WILL Frank in Shipping?

HAL No. That’s Frank Stebson. I’m talking about Frank in Accounts Receivable.

WILL No. I don’t know him.

HAL Frank. Frank. You know the guy. Frank Corso. Big whale. Works in Accounts Receivable.

WILL No.

HAL Sure you do. Always doing Saturday Night Live routines on Monday morning? Wears ties that play music? Frank. Funny as shit. He—

GINA Doesn’t seem he knows the man.

HAL You don’t?

WILL ’Fraid not.

HAL Frank. From… Well, anyway, there’s this guy who—

WILL Is this Frank?

HAL What? No. This is the joke.

WILL My apologies.

HAL

Okay. Well, there’s this old boy and he’s got a son, kid’s, you know, twenty-two or so, always loafing around the house. One day, the guy says to his son, “You need to get up on out this house and find yourself a wife cuz we about done feeding your ass.” So the kid comes back about a week later, finds his father in the basement, says, “Daddy, I found me a woman.” Father says, “Where she at, boy?” Son says, “Setting on the couch in the living room.” So the father, he takes a stroll up there, then comes running back down to the basement. He says, “Boy, you can’t marry that girl. She’s your sister, but your mama don’t know it.”

[WAITRESS comes up to the table.]

WAITRESS You all alright here?

WILL Take another round, thanks.

[WAITRESS nods and leaves.]

HAL

So the son comes back a week later, the father’s out in the shed. Boy says, “Daddy, I found me another woman.” Father says, “Where she at?” Son goes, “Setting on the couch in the living room.” Father goes into the house, takes a look, comes running back to the shed. “Son, you can’t marry her either. She’s your sister too. But your mama don’t know it. So get rid of her.” ’Bout a week later, the son’s sitting in the house, sad and all, and his mama comes in, says, “What happened to those nice girls you were bringing around? I thought you were gonna marry one of them.” Boy says, “But, Mama, Daddy said I couldn’t cuz they was my sisters.” The mother says, “What?” And the boy says, “That’s what he said. He said you didn’t know about it.” The mother says, “Well, don’t you worry, son, you marry whichever one you please, cause he ain’t your daddy.”

[HAL laughs uproariously. WILL chuckles. GINA smokes. The WAITRESS returns, places their drinks on the table.]

GINA Keep ’em coming, okay?

DOCTOR and PATIENT.

DOCTOR So you’ve been forgetting.

PATIENT What’s the missus think of the new digs?

DOCTOR So you’ve been forgetting.

PATIENT Go to Crate & Barrel, did you? Get the latest stemware?

DOCTOR You’ve been forgetting.

PATIENT A lot.

DOCTOR What’re you on?

PATIENT Nothing but the shit you prescribed. What’s it? Haldol. I had a dog once. Had him from the time I was four till I was sixteen. His name was BB and when you stuck your nose in his fur it smelled like cinnamon. Don’t ask me why, but it did. And I can tell you how he didn’t so much walk as trundle. Is that a word? He trundled and his butt sashayed like a French hooker’s. I loved that dog. So how come I can’t tell you what kind of dog he was?

DOCTOR He was a mutt?

PATIENT If he was a mutt, I’d tell you he was a mutt. I’d remember he had a mutt’s face. But I can’t see his face. I can’t remember what he looked like.

DOCTOR You can’t see his face.

PATIENT Twelve years of my life and I can’t see his face. It’s the noise, the noise, the noise, don’t you think?

DOCTOR What noise?

PATIENT

What noise? The fucking bells, the whistles, the plethora of fucking choices for fucking nothing. The fucking Coast or Irish Spring or Ivory Snow. The SUVs and handbags and coats and diet pills and fitness programs and everything new-and-fucking improved! And you buy it so it’ll fill those places in you that never did fill, those places you carry around in you like extra lungs? It’ll make you feel right, but you’re not filled, you’re not right. And then you wake up and you can’t remember what your dog looked like. Jesus Christ.

DOCTOR Take a breath.

PATIENT I’m breathing. I didn’t forget how to do that.

DOCTOR Well, that’s something.

PATIENT Yeah, that’s something. Who are you?

DOCTOR What?

PATIENT Kidding.

BOBBY and BOBBY’S FATHER.

BOBBY’S FATHER So you didn’t stash it at Gwen’s house?

BOBBY Not that I recall.

BOBBY’S FATHER Think.

BOBBY I’ve been thinking.

BOBBY’S FATHER So you’re sure it’s not there.

BOBBY I didn’t say I’m sure. I said “Not that I recall.”

BOBBY’S FATHER Well, recall better.

BOBBY Would that I could. Where’s Gwen?

BOBBY’S FATHER I told you two years ago, that girl got gone. No note, no nothing, just blew out of town. Forget her. Shit, you forgot everything else. Forget Gwen. Hear me? Forget Gwen. So where do you think it is?

BOBBY Like a bulldog on a pork chop.

BOBBY’S FATHER You’ve got to have some theories.

BOBBY Where’s Gwen?

BOBBY’S FATHER Caracas. Uzbekistan. Kathmandu. I told you. I don’t know.

BOBBY So maybe it’s with her.

BOBBY’S FATHER No.

BOBBY Why not?

BOBBY’S FATHER You told me.

BOBBY I did? What I tell you?

BOBBY’S FATHER You called me from the hospital parking lot.

BOBBY I did? The hospital? No shit?

BOBBY’S FATHER Dumb fucking move if ever there was one, her dropping you there.

BOBBY I seem to remember I was bleeding all over the place by that point, starting to talk all funny.

BOBBY’S FATHER Oh, sure, you remember that.

BOBBY So what’d I say when I called you?

BOBBY’S FATHER You fucking with me?

BOBBY Perish the thought.

BOBBY’S FATHER Are you?

BOBBY Just asking what I said.

BOBBY’S FATHER You said, “I hid it somewhere safe. No one knows where but me.”

BOBBY I said all that? Wow. What else I say?

BOBBY’S FATHER Nothing. Cops had pulled up by that point, were calling you motherfucker, telling you to drop the fucking phone and get on the fucking ground you fucking motherfucker. You hung up.

BOBBY Cops do love saying “fuck.” So I guess Gwen doesn’t have it.

BOBBY’S FATHER No, she doesn’t.

BOBBY Huh. Well, let’s hope something jars my memory.

BOBBY’S FATHER Yeah, let’s.

The DOCTOR sits alone in the booth. The table is littered with empty glasses. The WAITRESS approaches.

WAITRESS Let me get some of those out of your way, honey.

DOCTOR Thanks.

WAITRESS You guys want another?

DOCTOR Sure. Why not?

[The WAITRESS leaves as the PATIENT returns from the bathroom. She sits, looks across at him. They both laugh.]

PATIENT What?

DOCTOR What, what?

PATIENT You’re lit.

DOCTOR I am.

PATIENT How unseemly of you.

DOCTOR I hate those “un” words that have no correlative.

PATIENT Big-word breakfast this morning?

DOCTOR You know what I mean. You hear of someone being un-seemly, but never seemly. No one says “His behavior was impeccably seemly.” Or did you ever hear of someone being “kempt”? No really. You’re always un-kempt. I’d like to be there, alive and ticking, the day someone says “This is Ted. He’s kind to his mother, has perfect dental, drives an Audi, and is astonishingly kempt.”

PATIENT Wow. You are so lit.

DOCTOR I am. It’s pleasant.

[WAITRESS returns with their drinks. She leaves.]

PATIENT Bit of a slippery slope we’re on, Doctor, don’t you think?

DOCTOR What do you mean?

PATIENT Weren’t you the one who advised me against being coy? Who’s coy now?

DOCTOR Madam, I object to the imputation. I am not being coy, I am being drunk. And if the slippery slope to which you refer has an end point of illicit sexual congress, I can assure you that the liquor has made that far more of a moot point than a likely occurrence.

PATIENT You’re too drunk to get it up.

DOCTOR Precisely.

PATIENT Who’s going to need a cab now?

DOCTOR Cheers.

PATIENT But won’t the missus wonder where the car is in the morning? And why that car was left outside a honky-tonk in the unincorporated part of the county?

DOCTOR Let’s leave her out of this.

PATIENT You leave her out of a lot, I’d bet. Is she pretty?

DOCTOR Yes.

PATIENT Smart?

DOCTOR Very.

PATIENT Don’t-drink-don’t-smoke-what-do-you-do kinda gal?

DOCTOR I’m not trying to make it bad.

PATIENT You’re not trying to make it bad?

DOCTOR I’m trying to make it good. I am.

PATIENT Meeting me in a bar so you can fuck me, that’s trying to make it good?

DOCTOR I’m not trying to fuck you.

PATIENT Yes, you are.

DOCTOR No, I’m not.

PATIENT Yes, you are.

DOCTOR No, I’m—

PATIENT This isn’t your office. This isn’t therapy. This is you trying to tap my ass in a fucking bar.

DOCTOR No, no. I removed that from the table. You remember? I did. I said I was too drunk. I did.

PATIENT Then why are you here?

DOCTOR Because you called me.

PATIENT So?

DOCTOR So?

PATIENT So?

DOCTOR Grace, I—

PATIENT My name’s not Grace.

DOCTOR Your name’s not…?

PATIENT My name’s not Grace. Close, but no Ci-Grace.

BOBBY and BOBBY’S FATHER settle into a booth.

BOBBY’S FATHER Well, that was utterly fucking fruitless.

BOBBY I got some glue.

BOBBY’S FATHER Gives me such a warm feeling inside. Where is it?

BOBBY Right here.

[BOBBY produces a tube of Krazy Glue. He applies some to the ashtray, then affixes a coin to it.]

BOBBY’S FATHER No, I meant—

BOBBY Shit’s amazing. You could glue a monkey’s ass to a guy’s head and it would never come off. The guy’s stuck with it, the monkey shitting all over his head, and he’d have to feed it, I guess, but that monkey’s just banging away on the guy’s face and the guy can’t do a fucking thing short of scalping himself or that monkey’s there for life.

BOBBY’S FATHER Fuck the glue. Where is it?

BOBBY Beats me.

BOBBY’S FATHER The memory, right.

BOBBY It’s a tricky thing.

BOBBY’S FATHER Sure, sure. Common problem — people misplacing a three-million-dollar diamond.

BOBBY You misplaced a wife.

BOBBY’S FATHER She misplaced me. Then she died.

BOBBY The two events entirely unrelated I’m sure.

[BOBBY’S FATHER reaches out and grips BOBBY’S ear.]

BOBBY’S FATHER We’re not going to have this conversation again. Hear? Now where’s the fucking diamond?

[Beat.]

You think blood’ll save you?

BOBBY Who’s it ever saved?

BOBBY’S FATHER Oh, well, now… a lot of shitty princes, a few useless princesses would have been ass-fucked and toothless ’fore they were twelve else-wise.

BOBBY Outside of royalty. Who’s it ever saved, Daddy? You?

BOBBY’S FATHER Your ear’s getting all sweaty.

BOBBY Give it back.

BOBBY’S FATHER But it’s mine.

BOBBY We’ll call it a loan.

[BOBBY’S FATHER smiles, lets go of his ear.]

DOCTOR and PATIENT.

DOCTOR You lied to me.

PATIENT You fucked me.

DOCTOR We fucked. Let’s be plain. Okay? Let’s be plain. We fucked. Once. A mistake I’ve admitted to repeatedly. I then referred you to another psychiatrist who specializes in the very same.

PATIENT The very same.

DOCTOR Patients who have developed sexual and/or emotional attachments to their therapists.

PATIENT And/or?

DOCTOR Look — Grace or no Grace — we fucked.

PATIENT Let’s be plain — you fucked me.

DOCTOR We fucked.

PATIENT You fucked me.

DOCTOR We fucked.

PATIENT I know you are, but what am I?

DOCTOR I—

PATIENT What?

DOCTOR I—

PATIENT What?

DOCTOR You shouldn’t have told me you abetted in a murder, Grace.

PATIENT That’s your out? You slid your dick up and down and up and down and up—

DOCTOR I know, I know.

PATIENT — and down my clitoris. You remember that? And that was before you entered me. That was before.

DOCTOR I know. But.

PATIENT “But.” Christ, you worked it like a wand and I came—

DOCTOR Stop.

PATIENT — twice — twice — before you even entered me. So, I dunno, what was that on your part? Confusion?

DOCTOR You told me, you told me…

PATIENT What’d I tell you?

DOCTOR You told me — after — as we were lying together, and only then, that you’d helped someone commit murder. Nine months of therapy? Not a fucking word.

PATIENT Sure, but I’d never had your cock in my mouth before.

DOCTOR What — what — what does that have to do with anything?

PATIENT You ever had a cock in your mouth, Stephen?

DOCTOR No.

PATIENT Well, then…

DOCTOR You abetted murder. That’s a capital crime.

PATIENT I’ve done worse.

DOCTOR You’ve…?

PATIENT I’ll bet there’re people everywhere — right now, right here in this bar tonight — who’ve done a whole lot fucking worse.

WILL, in a booth, chats up the WAITRESS.

WILL I have no idea. Really.

WAITRESS Well, he gave me the ring.

WILL Sure.

WAITRESS But he said hang it around my neck.

WILL Exactly.

WAITRESS From a chain.

WILL And that’s not the same.

WAITRESS You don’t think?

WILL You don’t.

WAITRESS No, I don’t. You’re right.

WILL I mean, I dunno. It could mean something real significant for him. But guys, you know?

WAITRESS Exactly. Guys. But you’re a guy.

WILL Well, okay, I guess. I’m a—

WAITRESS Right. You’re a man.

WILL I try.

WAITRESS I was so sorry to hear about…

WILL I know, right? Jesus. Who would have thought? I mean, you think of all the ways you could go…

WAITRESS A train?

WILL A train. You believe that shit?

WAITRESS I’ve passed out in some weird places, though, so there but for the grace of god, I guess.

WILL That’s the thing of it, though. What’s he doing down by the fairgrounds that time of night?

WAITRESS It bugs you, huh?

WILL And then to just stroll over to the train tracks and take a nap? Johnny Law accepts it, but it fucking pisses me off.

WAITRESS You think…? No.

WILL And he’s… I want all the T’s crossed and all the I’s dotted. You think that’s too much to ask?

WAITRESS No, no. And now she’s…

WILL What?

WAITRESS Well, you know, the timing. They’d been planning it for so long and then it finally happens and he…

WILL Dies.

WAITRESS Oh god. What is she going to do?

WILL I’ll look after her. A man who wouldn’t in these circumstances?

WAITRESS I know. I know.

[Notices GINA returning from the bathroom.] You want another round, Will?

WILL Sure.

WAITRESS Should she be…?

WILL I dunno. But she is. Okay?

WAITRESS Of course.

[The WAITRESS waves her fingers at GINA and heads to the bar. GINA approaches the booth and she’s obviously pregnant. She sits.]

GINA Flirting?

WILL No.

GINA I heard she’s a hermaphrodite.

WILL Hey, can you be gay and a hermaphrodite at the same time? Is that physically and emotionally and, well, gender-ly possible?

GINA It’s a question.

WILL Hell of a question, I think.

GINA Were you flirting with her?

WILL Absolutely.

GINA Really.

WILL Can’t flirt with you, can I? Bar’s got eyes, babe.

[The WAITRESS returns with their drinks, places them down.]

WAITRESS You feeling okay, honey?

GINA Phenomenal.

[The WAITRESS shoots WILL a look and then departs.]

WILL It’s all okay.

GINA No.

WILL It is.

GINA I don’t think so.

WILL What’s different?

GINA There’s one less person in this booth for starters.

WILL Yeah, I miss those jokes. You?

GINA Don’t do funny on this, okay? He’s dead, Will.

WILL Yes, he is.

GINA And it doesn’t seem to trouble you.

WILL No, Gina, it doesn’t.

GINA How is that possible?

WILL Eight hours sleep, proper diet?

GINA You’re clever. Clever and pretty-mouthed. Clever ain’t enough.

WILL You looked around? This is one dumb-ass county, honey. You want me to feel bad because Hal is dead. You want me to feel fear that we’ll be caught. You want remorse. Doubt. I don’t got any of that. Oops.

GINA Bastard.

WILL I want to reach out and hold your hands but I can’t because everyone’s watching. That hurts. Everything else, though? He’s dead. He’s gone. I can live with it.

GINA You’re energized by it. Reborn.

WILL I’m born.

GINA I’m nauseous.

WILL Let’s—

GINA In the existential sense.

WILL I still can’t believe they taught Sartre at community college.

GINA He’s dead.

WILL Yup.

GINA Because of us.

WILL Yup.

GINA What will God say?

WILL “Welcome to the club, don’t park on the lawn.”

GINA Fuck you.

WILL What’s God going to say? “Gee, I was busy killing Indonesians in an earthquake and I hip-checked a few hundred thousand Africans with a sneak famine, but allow me to punish you for Hal.”

GINA You really don’t.

WILL Don’t what?

GINA Feel. Feel anything about this.

WILL Life fucking goes on, Gina.

GINA No. Don’t you understand?

WILL Yes. In your belly right now.

GINA No.

WILL In your womb.

GINA It’s all shit, Will. It’s all stopped. The whole fucking clock. We killed a human being. We murdered. He might have told bad jokes and he might have been a racist and a sexist and a… a—

WILL Douche bag?

GINA But he was human. He had birthmarks and a mother who held him and a favorite smell and—

WILL He liked to take long walks on the beach and his favorite color was blue and he cried whenever he watched Brian’s Song and yet — and yet and yet — he’s passed on. Like your grandparents, like your dog, like a friend who got colon cancer.

GINA But we’re why he’s gone.

WILL And I’m good with that.

GINA I’m not.

WILL You better get good, honey.

GINA I—

WILL You better get good. ’Kay?

GINA You are — you’re energized.

WILL I’m the man who loves you. See that. Okay? I’m the man who loves you and lives for you.

GINA I can’t get it out of my head. The whole thing. I can’t. Save me.

[She reaches across the table toward him.]

WILL Not here.

BOBBY and BOBBY’S FATHER.

BOBBY’S FATHER She’s all you thought of in prison, I bet.

BOBBY All I thought of since. All I thought of before.

BOBBY’S FATHER I don’t know where she got to.

BOBBY I know that.

BOBBY’S FATHER Do you?

BOBBY But when you’re seen — when you’re seen — in this life, it’s not natural to just let that go.

BOBBY’S FATHER How you going to find her, though?

BOBBY I just, I just, I think of her, I see her, I, and I say to myself, I say, “She’s out there. Waiting.”

BOBBY’S FATHER She ain’t waiting, son. She ain’t. They don’t wait. It’s not their gift. That’s why we love them. Because if we blink, they could be gone. We look right instead of left, they’re already on a bus. Because they leave.

BOBBY Not her.

BOBBY’S FATHER Not her?

BOBBY Not her.

BOBBY’S FATHER Well, fuck her.

BOBBY Already have.

BOBBY’S FATHER You think anything’s changed since we fucking cave-painted? They suck our dicks so we’ll go to sleep. They share our beds so we’ll keep them warm. They fuck us so we’ll pay the electric. And if they suck our dicks and share our beds and fuck us just right, they know we’ll buy them earrings and cars and fucking gym memberships. Because they can be alone, but they can’t survive. And we can survive, but we can’t stand to be alone. And that’s it.

BOBBY That’s it?

BOBBY’S FATHER We hunt, they eat. We build, they dwell. We produce, they use.

BOBBY That’s my inheritance, the sum of my received knowledge from you?

BOBBY’S FATHER What did you think — you beat the house? You were the one guy in the history of time who found the perfect woman? You fucking infant. The free lunch ain’t free, the check ain’t in the mail, no one ever fought a war over truth or good intentions, and the only way not to lose is not to play.

BOBBY More pearls. Thank you.

BOBBY’S FATHER Where’s my diamond?

BOBBY Where’s Gwen?

BOBBY’S FATHER I told you.

BOBBY Tell me again. Where’s Gwen?

BOBBY’S FATHER I—

BOBBY Not good enough. Where’s Gwen?

A slow song on the jukebox. PATIENT lights a cigarette.

DOCTOR Those things will kill you.

PATIENT You think?

DOCTOR I never meant to—

PATIENT [Waves it away.] No one ever means anything.

[PATIENT stands, dances in front of him. He watches. She holds out her hand.]

PATIENT Come on. Dance with me.

DOCTOR Don’t be ridiculous.

PATIENT I’m not being ridiculous. I’m being rhythmic. Come on. I’ll even attempt to give a straight answer to a straight question.

DOCTOR You will, huh?

PATIENT Come on. I love this song.

[DOCTOR stands and she pulls him out onto the floor. They dance, she much better at it than he.]

DOCTOR What’s worse than murder?

PATIENT What?

DOCTOR You said you’d bet there are people in the world, in this bar, who have done far worse than murder. I’m wondering what that could be.

PATIENT Did I say that? I must have been trying it out — the concept, the line. I do that sometimes. I don’t mean anything by it.

DOCTOR Sure you do.

PATIENT After all your years climbing around in people’s heads like a cranial janitor, do you think people know why they do things? People rationalize, they turn their delusions into something romantic that they can disguise as ethics or principles or ideals. People are selfish, Doctor — odiously, monstrously, but in so small and paltry a monstrousness that we barely notice it.

[The DOCTOR tries to break away from her, but she grips him hard, grinds against him.]

PATIENT If we could have everything we wanted in an instant without fear of consequence? No worry of jail or societal reproof of any kind? No having to look our victims in the eyes because the victims have conveniently vanished? If we could have that? Stalin’s crimes would pale in comparison to what we’d do in the name of love. In the name of the heart wanting what the heart wants. So don’t fucking ask me what’s worse than murder.

[She drops his hand, steps away from him. Long beat.]

DOCTOR You’re a sociopath. You are. And I’m leaving.

PATIENT I will blow up your life.

DOCTOR What?

PATIENT You heard me. I will tell your wife and I’ll tell the Ethics Board and I’ll tell the police and I’ll make a scene so loud the only place to put it will be the front page. So don’t you think of walking out of here, you fucking theoretician.

BOBBY and BOBBY’S FATHER.

BOBBY’S FATHER This memory of yours…

BOBBY Yeah?

BOBBY’S FATHER Well, it’s a might selective, wouldn’t you say?

BOBBY If I could remember what it’s being selective about, I’d probably agree with you.

BOBBY’S FATHER I’m just trying to think of what you’ve forgetten besides, oh, the location of a three-million-dollar stone. Seems like you remember every other fucking thing.

BOBBY Let’s try your memory. Where was I born?

BOBBY’S FATHER Not this shit again.

BOBBY What’s my mother’s maiden name? Hell, what’s her first name? Do I have a birth certificate?

BOBBY’S FATHER I don’t believe in paperwork.

BOBBY Is Bobby even my real name?

BOBBY’S FATHER It suffices. Look, your mother’s dead.

BOBBY So you say.

BOBBY’S FATHER Why would I lie?

BOBBY You’ve built your whole life on “Why would I tell the truth?” and you’re asking me that? Let’s start with an easy one. Where was I born?

BOBBY’S FATHER New Mexico.

BOBBY How hard was that?

BOBBY’S FATHER No, wait, my bad. Actually it was New Orleans. I get the News mixed up. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t New Jersey, though. Where’s my diamond?

BOBBY New Hampshire.

BOBBY’S FATHER Oh-ho. Now I’m seeing it.

BOBBY It’s sinking in finally, huh?

BOBBY’S FATHER You were born here.

[BOBBY sees the truth in his father’s face.]

BOBBY This shitty little town?

BOBBY’S FATHER This shitty little town.

BOBBY So when we came here three years ago, you were, what?

BOBBY’S FATHER Nothing. Scamming hurricane insurance in trailer parks, just like I said, just like we did. I ain’t got no connection to this place no more. Just figured we’d pop in, as always, hit hard and fast and be gone. But you fall in luv, fuckhead.

BOBBY And stumble across the diamond.

BOBBY’S FATHER Yeah, that was a nice benny.

BOBBY [Stunned.] Here?

BOBBY’S FATHER Right here. Probably why you always get a woody for the fairgrounds.

[BOBBY stiffens. BOBBY’S FATHER is oblivious, throwing back his drink.]

BOBBY The fairgrounds?

BOBBY’S FATHER You always loved that place, right? Well, let me tell you something — makes me believe in genetic memory, boy, ’cause that’s where you were probably conceived. Hey, that’s an idea, maybe it’s there.

BOBBY The fairgrounds? Yeah, that sounds right.

BOBBY’S FATHER What?

BOBBY I said that sounds right. Want to go look?

[BOBBY’S FATHER throws some bills on the table and stands.]

BOBBY’S FATHER I’ll drive.

The DOCTOR and the PATIENT.

PATIENT So I’m a sociopath.

DOCTOR You have sociopathic tendencies.

PATIENT You’re parsing. I hate that. Have some balls. I either am something or I’m not.

DOCTOR The human psyche can’t be reduced to a simple this-or-that equation.

PATIENT Sure it can. You, for example, are effete. A repulsive quality in anyone, but in a man? And like most people who are effete, you’re pompous, and like most people who are pompous, you’re insecure, and like all people who are self-consciously insecure, you make the rest of the world pay for your fucking insecurities. So if I have to choose between flaws, I’ll take mine, thank you.

[DOCTOR’S beeper goes off. He looks at the number.]

PATIENT The missus?

DOCTOR I’ll tell her I left it in the car.

PATIENT How’s the baby?

DOCTOR Took his first steps last week. You hear about it, but you’re never prepared for how… miraculous it seems.

PATIENT I know.

DOCTOR Oh, I didn’t realize you were around long enough.

PATIENT For what?

DOCTOR To see your son take his first steps.

PATIENT I wasn’t. I watched from afar. They might not have been his first steps, but they were the first I saw him take.

DOCTOR Are you finally ready to confront what leaving him did to you?

PATIENT Is it true men are most likely to fool around on their wives in the first year after childbirth?

DOCTOR Is that what happened to you?

PATIENT That’s what happened to you. To your wife. Why do you think that is?

DOCTOR Because…

PATIENT What?

DOCTOR Because suddenly we’re replaceable.

PATIENT Let me tell you something — you’re always replaceable.

DOCTOR Suddenly we realize it. Men need to feel useful. Needed.

PATIENT Yawn.

DOCTOR I’m serious. Nothing makes you feel more… ancillary than seeing the love that used to be reserved for you transferred to a child.

PATIENT Men need to feel worshipped. But once they have it, they get bored and go trolling for new parishioners.

DOCTOR You reduce everything to a negation of honest emotion.

PATIENT Who’s rationalizing now? You put your dick in my mouth because you felt ancillary? Boo-hoo.

DOCTOR I love my wife.

PATIENT Ha!

DOCTOR I love my wife. And I strayed, I failed. I did. But I love my wife. Hurts to hear, doesn’t it? Because if one person can love — love deeply, if not flawlessly — then your belief that love is nothing but linguistic finery, well, it all goes up in smoke, doesn’t it? And you’re revealed as a fraud.

PATIENT Ooooh. Doctor. My. Cutting to the quick, are we? I never said I didn’t believe in love. I believe in love plenty. And no, my husband wasn’t unfaithful after the baby was born. My husband was dead. My lover killed him.

GINA returns from the bathroom, settles into the booth. She is nine months pregnant. WILL is throwing back the Buds and shots of Jim Beam. They are silent for a long time.

WILL We just don’t talk anymore.

GINA What do you want to talk about?

WILL I’s just fucking with you, baby. In a nice way.

GINA I wasn’t.

WILL Oh god, here it comes.

GINA Did you quit your job?

WILL Who ratted?

GINA You don’t deny it.

WILL No. I just want to know who ratted.

GINA I might be on maternity leave but I still have friends.

WILL Saved your life in ’Nam, did they?

GINA Did you quit your job?

WILL I already said I did.

GINA Why didn’t you tell me?

WILL I’m telling you now, right?

GINA Only because I asked. Only because I—

WILL ’Member when we used to have fun? You remember that?

GINA I’m nine months pregnant. What do you want me to do — snort some blow and do it standing up against the chain-link fence?

WILL I want a friend. A companion. Someone with balls and no fear of this bullshit life.

GINA I’m pregnant.

WILL That’ll change. But you? Since Hal—

GINA You promised you’d never say that name.

WILL Fuck that. Since Hal, you’re a wart. All sad and sniffling and drag-ass bitchy. You’re your mom. You’re my mom. You’re standing locked to the earth and letting it suck you dry instead of moving and telling the earth it ain’t got no fucking title on you until it chases you down and swallows you.

GINA There’s no end to you. You never stop sucking.

WILL We’re here for a blink, baby. Father Time burps and clears his throat? We’re over. And you want Barca-loungers from me? Fucking cookouts and layaway? We work our lives and save up just enough and get a time-share or some shit?

GINA I’m wet.

WILL Fucking mortgages and trade-ins and trips to the mall on Saturday? So — what — we can play by the rules and still fucking die? That ain’t going to be me. Take your fucking world. Take it. Let it suck you.

GINA My legs are wet, Will.

WILL It’s a good speech, yeah? That’s what I’m saying. We can go all Bonnie and Clyde and blow up this—

GINA My water just broke, you moron.

WILL “Moron” ’s kinda harsh, don’t you think?

GINA Will.

WILL All right, all right. What do we do?

GINA Can you drive?

WILL Fuck no.

GINA Flag down your girlfriend and tell her to call the taxi.

[WILL waves his arm wildly and the WAITRESS appears.]

WILL Call us a cab, V?

WAITRESS Gonna leave that sweet new truck of yours in the parking lot?

WILL Uh, V—

GINA A fucking cab, please!

WAITRESS Oh.

WILL Yeah.

WAITRESS Oh!

[The WAITRESS bolts. WILL finishes his shot.]

GINA I am not having this baby with you.

WILL Thank god, I was going to mention — I’m not into that delivery-room concept either. All the guck? I mean, I love you and all, but—

GINA You will not be the father of this child.

WILL A little late for that.

GINA Yeah?

[Slams the table in pain.]

I’m having this baby and you’re fucking MOVING OUT.

WILL We’ve had this discussion. You know how I feel about—

GINA It’s Hal’s, you dumbshit.

[The WAITRESS appears.]

WAITRESS It’s on the way, guys. It’s on the way. Hold on.

WILL [Nods.] Kind of a private moment, V.

WAITRESS Oh. We’re all pulling for you all.

[She runs off. WILL takes GINA’s hand.]

WILL It ain’t Hal’s.

GINA Your trip to Hartow and Rangely and Coronado, remember? Our vacation after you got back? Do the math.

WILL Ain’t Hal’s. Know how I know? Because it’s mine. It’s mine.

GINA Have fun proving that, you shit. God! Get me to a fucking hospital!

WILL [Yanks her hand toward him.] Suck that pain up. Suck it up. You want to eat Cheetos on the couch watching Donahue the rest of your days and getting pig-fat, that’s your prerogative. But don’t you think — not for one fucking second — that you’re taking my child.

GINA I will cut your throat.

WILL You wish.

GINA I will.

WILL That’d be great. Two dead lovers within a year. You get out of prison, the kid’ll be — what — thirty-five?

GINA Let me go.

WAITRESS [Offstage.] Three minutes on the cab!

WILL You’ll drag your tired ass to some fucking trailer park and knock on the door and tell this adult that you’re its momma. And it’ll spit in your face. Killed both its daddies? Damn. What a piece of shit you are.

[He lets go of her hand.]

GINA I will kill you.

WILL Kill you first, bitch. You try and run. Just try.

GINA I’ll kill you, Will.

WAITRESS [Offstage.] Dispatcher says “Two minutes!”

WILL Make a deal?

GINA [Screaming from the contractions.] Fucking deal? I’ll—

WILL Yeah, yeah. Kill me. I got that. Baby, look in my eyes. You wouldn’t make the county line. Come on. Look in these baby blues. Look.

GINA [Teeth clenched.] Your fucking deal?

WILL Girl, it’s yours.

GINA I don’t…

WILL Girl, it’s yours. Simple as that. You pop out an “X,” go with god.

GINA This is my child.

WILL If it’s a girl, it is. Can’t mold no girl, that’s for sure. But if it’s a boy? Baby, I can show that child a world within the world that no one ever imagined. A true world.

WAITRESS [Offstage.] We’re down to seconds now, Will!

GINA There’s laws.

WILL Not for me. You high? I will hunt you down. You know that. Ends of the earth, baby.

[WILL proffers his hand. GINA clenches her fists, screams through gritted teeth.]

GINA You’ll never touch her?

WILL You have my word.

GINA Never see her.

WILL Never.

GINA Write? Nothing?

WILL I never existed.

GINA I would empty the gun.

WILL And hit a barn. But whatever. If it’s a boy, though?

GINA I despise your breath. Your sweat. Your—

WILL Shake my fucking hand, Gina.

WAITRESS [Offstage.] Taxi, Will!

GINA I can’t. I—

WILL I don’t know how to stop anymore. You know that. I don’t know how.

WAITRESS [Offstage.] They’re right over there!

GINA If it’s a girl you—

WILL Disappear. Come on. Cab’s here.

[He grabs her hand. Shakes it. GINA looks at the hand.]

ACT II

The fairgrounds. Night. BOBBY strolls with GWEN. In the background, the sounds of a carny in full summer swing.

GWEN So tell me about her.

BOBBY I can’t remember her.

GWEN Baby, everyone remembers their mama.

BOBBY I can, a bit. Here and there. But there aren’t any pictures.

GWEN There’s gotta be pictures.

BOBBY If the old man ever took any, he burned ’em after she died.

GWEN That’s crazy. How could he not have taken one single picture?

BOBBY He said, “You think it’d bring her back? No really, that’d be cool. Maybe if we had a whole stack of pictures, she’d pop up from time to time, make us breakfast.”

GWEN Your father did not say that.

BOBBY He did.

GWEN Even he can’t be that cruel.

BOBBY He can.

GWEN Well, you’re not cruel.

BOBBY Never been tested. Hell, everyone’s nice until some kind of hard choice is put in front of them.

GWEN Bobby, I hate to break it to you, but you’re good. You just are.

BOBBY You’re good. Jury’s out on me. I mean, Christ, Gwen, I’m nineteen years old and I’ve been on the short con since I was six.

GWEN You never conned me. You tried…

BOBBY It worked.

GWEN Only because I let it.

BOBBY You say.

[They kiss, a peck that turns into something longer.]

GWEN Owned your ass then. Own it now. Say it, bitch.

BOBBY Never, never.

[He lifts her and she slides her legs over his hips.]

BOBBY You own me.

GWEN You own me too.

BOBBY Shit’s about to get real serious.

GWEN I know. I—

BOBBY This is my old man we’re talking about. My old man and money.

GWEN Baby, how many times are we going to go over this?

BOBBY As many times as we have to. Look, he thinks we’re going to burn him. Because we’ll be the first ones to touch that diamond. Shit, because on general principle he thinks everyone’s out to burn him. Because he’d burn us if he had the chance.

GWEN But we’re not. We’re—

BOBBY That won’t save us if anything goes wrong. If everything doesn’t go exactly according to plan, he’ll get it in his head that there was a double cross. He will. It’s how he thinks. It’s all he thinks. If this thing goes south, Gwen? Jesus.

GWEN It won’t.

BOBBY So walk me through it.

GWEN Bobby!

BOBBY Come on. One more time. Baby, please. I got to know you can do it in your sleep.

GWEN [Sits. By rote.] Our best assumption is that poor, lonely George hid the diamond in his mother’s room at the assisted-living place. But he still has to get out of town with it and his mother’s been stuck in the home. But — lucky us — transportation date out of state set for…?

BOBBY Gwen.

GWEN For…?

BOBBY Day after tomorrow.

GWEN So we go in tomorrow in our spanking new nurse and orderly uniforms and find where he hid it.

BOBBY Which entrance we use?

GWEN Southeast rear.

BOBBY That’s the exit.

GWEN Sorry, sorry. Northwest entrance, key code one-six-four-three. Up the north staircase to the third floor. Her room is first on the right through the door. Three-ten.

BOBBY Nurses’ station?

GWEN Twenty-two yards to the left.

BOBBY Janitor’s closet?

GWEN Directly across from Three-ten.

BOBBY Security rounds?

GWEN Ten-ten, ten-forty, eleven-ten.

BOBBY Fire escape?

GWEN To the right, end of the hall.

BOBBY We run into a security guard?

GWEN I rip my blouse, scream rape, and point at the guard.

BOBBY Run into a nurse and a guard?

GWEN Point at the nurse.

BOBBY I’m laughing all the way to prison here. Laughing hard.

GWEN Okay, okay. You take the security guard, I take the nurse, it’s every robber for herself.

BOBBY In the event we’re split up?

GWEN Rendezvous right here.

BOBBY If I don’t make it?

GWEN Bobby.

BOBBY If I don’t make it, Gwen?

[GWEN stares at him.]

The fairgrounds. Night. The DOCTOR and the PATIENT.

PATIENT Used to be a train ran past here. Route dried up, so they killed the service. Still see the tracks, though.

DOCTOR It’s too dark.

PATIENT They’re there. Dated a cop once. He drank so much I always figured he became a cop for the drinking. He told me once, swear to god, “Ever want to kill someone, Gina? Do it with water or a train. Fucks the evidence all to hell.” Irony, right?

DOCTOR So your name’s Gina.

PATIENT According to the birth certificate, yes, sir.

DOCTOR You killed your husband with a train.

[Beat.]

He scream? He cry? Beg?

PATIENT Not so much.

[GINA, WILL, and HAL enter. HAL’s arm is swung around WILL and all three have been drinking. HAL’s carrying a bottle.]

HAL It’s fucked-up. I mean, I have kids from Number One. Now Number Two had no interest. She was nutritionally imbalanced anyway, so what the fuck. But Gina? Shit, boy, I never dared dream.

WILL Well, boss, dreams have a way of coming true.

GINA At a price, of course.

HAL Ain’t that the Bible truth? But, baby, trust me, ain’t no price on this. You could leave my ass and take half my money and the beach house in Corpus, and I wouldn’t care. Ha! Long as I had me a little shit kicker to kick shit with?

[HAL sits suddenly. He laughs and hoots at the moon. GINA and WILL can’t stop staring at him and then each other.]

HAL Yeah, a little tyke! A little tyke! Yee-hee. Got-damn!

DOCTOR So…?

PATIENT I know. Right?

DOCTOR But, you could have—

PATIENT Oh, Doctor. Please. We are all — all of us — about the children.

Headlights cut across the fairgrounds. BOBBY and BOBBY’S FATHER exit their car offstage and enter the fairgrounds.

BOBBY’S FATHER So we getting warm?

BOBBY I’m feeling all tingly.

BOBBY’S FATHER I always liked this place off-season, the tarps flapping in the wind, faint smell of elephant shit.

BOBBY Ain’t no elephants at a fair.

BOBBY’S FATHER No?

BOBBY You’re thinking of the circus.

BOBBY’S FATHER The circus. I hate trapeze artists. Women all look like men and the men all look like cock smokers. And don’t even get me started on fucking clowns.

[BOBBY stops at a freshly turned mound of dirt. He kicks it lightly with his foot.]

BOBBY Mandy?

BOBBY’S FATHER Who the fuck’s Mandy?

BOBBY The hooker.

BOBBY’S FATHER That was her name? Huh.

[BOBBY kicks the mound again.]

BOBBY Oh, no, right, you drove her home. Which was where again?

[BOBBY’S FATHER chuckles softly.]

BOBBY’S FATHER This has been nice, reconnecting and shit.

BOBBY A time to treasure.

BOBBY’S FATHER You think I’m shitting you, but I missed you, boy. I’m the only daddy you’ve ever known and you’re the only son I’ve ever known and we had ourselves some times over the years.

BOBBY Name one.

BOBBY’S FATHER I could name a hundred.

BOBBY Try one.

BOBBY’S FATHER Why you gotta be cold?

BOBBY I’m not being cold. I’m asking—

BOBBY’S FATHER

You’d a preferred going to some same-as-every-other-fucking-kid grade school? Playing video games in some stink-ass suburban basement? Some stink-ass suburban town with a mall looks like every other mall? You get through high school and go to college, study business or poli-sci? And then get you a job, a 401(k), marry the receptionist because she smiles at you right and gives okay head? And then you’re thirty-five and she ain’t giving any head anymore and you’ve got two kids crying for fucking video games and sneakers and your soul feels like a tomato left on a warm porch, but, wait, you got a couple pornos in the closet and a new fucking car and the supermarket’s right down the street! So — hey — living large! And there’s only fifty-five years to go if you live right, don’t smoke or drink or eat food that tastes good, all so you can die in Florida in a nice white house while Guatemalans water your lawn. Hey, have at it.

BOBBY You do like to spew, don’t you?

BOBBY’S FATHER You were born off the grid, raised off the grid, and lived off the grid. Shit, you don’t even have a social.

BOBBY They had to create it in county. Take my name on faith. Intake guard said he’d never seen anything like it. I didn’t exist.

BOBBY’S FATHER And ain’t that fucking hot?

BOBBY What if I wanted to be part of the grid?

BOBBY’S FATHER Who wants that?

BOBBY What if I wanted the choice?

BOBBY’S FATHER Dang. I’m tearing up. Look.

[BOBBY walks around, looking at the earth, cocking his head every now and then.]

BOBBY Yeah…

BOBBY’S FATHER Yeah?

BOBBY Sure. This could be the area.

BOBBY’S FATHER It’s really coming back now, huh?

BOBBY Little bit.

BOBBY’S FATHER ’Cause I’m ’bout spent on patience.

BOBBY I ’spect you would be.

BOBBY’S FATHER Never my strong suit.

[BOBBY’S FATHER produces a gun, taps it against his leg.]

BOBBY That supposed to help my recall?

BOBBY’S FATHER Figured it might could hurry it up some.

BOBBY Oh, you did?

GINA, WILL, and HAL in the positions we last saw them.

HAL You don’t think I know, boy? Shit. My job is bullshit. I sit in a room every day just waiting to smell its lack. Its presence? I can smell that ’fore you even open the door.

WILL Boss, I’m being friendly here.

HAL I seen your friendly before. You think you’re good because you grew up not wanting. Not wanting ain’t good. It’s just not poor. You ain’t rich, but poor? That’s evidentiary, son. That’s experience. You ain’t never had experience, so you only imagine you have a soul.

WILL I have a soul, boss.

HAL So you claim. Where the missus at?

GINA We’re all drunk. Whyn’t we just—

HAL Whyn’t you just sit the fuck down?

[HAL pulls out a pistol. GINA sits. WILL doesn’t.]

HAL Said, “Sit.”

WILL Not going to do that, Hal.

HAL Sit.

WILL No.

GINA Sit, Will.

WILL Speak your piece, Hal.

HAL Yeah. I’s right about you, boy.

GINA Jesus! You want me to measure them for you?

HAL Will knows.

GINA Knows fucking what?

HAL Knows you never stop pedaling.

GINA I’m drunk, but what’d you smoke?

HAL You never stop pedaling. It’s the law. Even if there’s no one around to see, you never stop. ’Cause the moment you do? You ain’t worth shit. No smiles from the salesmen, no “How do?’s” from the waitresses, no welcome woof from the dog. You stop pedaling? Hand that dick over, pick you out a satin pillow.

GINA I don’t know what you’re talking about.

[Lights up on the DOCTOR and the PATIENT, watching.]

HAL He does.

PATIENT They never stop. They never fucking stop.

DOCTOR Who?

WILL Just making sure you don’t drink too much, boss. Hope you’ll be making that Coronado trip with me come Monday.

PATIENT You. You. You. You fucking…

BOBBY and GWEN, exactly as they were.

BOBBY If. I. Don’t. Make. It. Gwen.

GWEN It’s ours, baby. Ours. Not yours. Not mine. Ours. And definitely not fucking his. I’m not just going to—

BOBBY Yes, you are. He will never stop looking. Even when you’re positive you’ve left no tracks. Even when all logic says he wouldn’t, he couldn’t? He’ll still be looking.

GWEN You’ve already told me this.

BOBBY Did you fucking listen? You do not fuck around with this man. If anything happens to me, you get that diamond to him — by FedEx, by private courier, by Pony Express. I don’t care, but you get it to him, and you don’t deliver it in person, and still you run. You run till you’re out of earth.

GWEN He’s a man, Bobby.

BOBBY He’s a lot less than that.

[Puts his arm around her.]

You take naps, watch TV, read magazines. You daydream and make love and wonder what you’re gonna wear and where you might be in ten years and if you’ll ever have children. He doesn’t. He lives to get. Robs to get. Wakes up to get. It’s all he does. That makes him better at it than we’ll ever be.

GWEN Then he’s nothing.

BOBBY His nothing’s a whole lot stronger than our something.

GWEN Why not run now, baby?

BOBBY Because we are going to burn him. Because I can accept losing to the prick, but not every fucking time. We’re going to take our cut first before he can burn us. And then we’ll send him his share from a state or two away. And we will fucking disappear, baby. Vanish.

GWEN Did I mention you set my heart aflutter and make me feel all funny inside? How sometimes, like now, I just want to shove my hand in your jeans and—

[BOBBY jerks away from her, but she rolls on top of him.]

BOBBY Hey. Witnesses.

GWEN Where?

BOBBY They could come.

GWEN So could you, fool.

BOBBY I’m serious, I’m serious. If it goes south, you bury it here and send him a postcard telling him how to find it. You don’t get clever. You don’t try to wrangle with him. You tell him it’s here.

GWEN I’ll tell him it’s here.

BOBBY By then, it won’t be our future. It’ll be our noose. I’m serious.

GWEN I’m serious.

BOBBY Gwen.

GWEN Gwen.

BOBBY I am.

GWEN I am.

[She covers his face and body with her own.]

HAL, WILL, and GINA.

HAL Here’s my thing.

WILL What’s your thing, boss?

HAL I’m pedaled out.

WILL You’re a lying sack of shit.

HAL I’m plumb done. I want to reach in that belly right now and pull out a whole baby and spend my final years raising it. I do. Let you—

[HAL fires at WILL’S feet. WILL jumps back. GINA shrieks.]

HAL — run off together and take some of my property and a whole shitload a’ my money. And that’s fine. I just want to raise that child. Problem is, I can see your eyes, boy. And I know you can’t abide that.

WILL I might could.

HAL Might could be full of shit.

WILL The thing is? Hal? You say it now and maybe you feel it but you couldn’t live it then. You’d try, I’ll grant you. But one day, that kid’s one or one and a half or four, and you’ll get bored. Nothing else to do but watch it grow? Fuck, man. And then you’ll need a goal. And you’ll come after us. Because your pride and your fucking money won’t allow you to take it.

HAL You say. But, see, I just want to make someone safe. One person. My person, my child. That’s a long-ass goal. And I’m going to hold its chubby legs and show it how to walk and keep it from biting into the extension cords on the Christmas tree and walk it to school and—

[GINA hits HAL in the head with the bottle. The train whistle blows. GINA hits HAL again.]

GINA Fucking Christmas trees? You’ll keep “IT” safe? What about me?

[WILL grabs her, pulls her back.]

WILL Train’s closing, honey. Ticktock.

BOBBY and BOBBY’S FATHER.

BOBBY Held it in my hand, you know.

BOBBY’S FATHER I assumed.

BOBBY Filled the center of my palm. The whole center of my palm.

BOBBY’S FATHER Big, huh?

BOBBY Big enough.

BOBBY’S FATHER Kinda money that stone’d bring? A man could retire.

BOBBY To what?

BOBBY’S FATHER Mexico.

BOBBY To what, though? Mean old man like you? What you got if you ain’t stealing something, killing somebody, making sure no one alive has a good fucking day?

BOBBY’S FATHER It’s the idea.

BOBBY The idea.

BOBBY’S FATHER Man needs a goal.

BOBBY Uh-huh.

BOBBY’S FATHER Getting awful bored now.

BOBBY Heavens.

[He points the gun at BOBBY.]

BOBBY Where’s Gwen?

BOBBY’S FATHER This is a real fucking gun.

BOBBY This is a real fucking question. You want your rock? Where’s Gwen?

BOBBY’S FATHER You get taller in prison? I think you did. I’m pretty sure you grew an inch, maybe two.

BOBBY I told her that night to just go, just get, just put as much country as she could between you and her until I got out. I told her even if I told you I had it, you’d have to cover your bets, you’d have to come looking for her.

BOBBY’S FATHER Who’s this we’re talking about?

BOBBY Gwen.

BOBBY’S FATHER You don’t say.

BOBBY I told her if you did find her to tell you I’d only said one word about where I hid it.

BOBBY’S FATHER And what word was that, pray tell?

BOBBY Fairgrounds.

[BOBBY’S FATHER smiles, taps the gun against his outer thigh.]

BOBBY Told her if you truly believed she didn’t know anything you might — just might — show mercy for once.

BOBBY’S FATHER And why would I do that?

BOBBY Because I loved her.

BOBBY’S FATHER Ain’t no such thing.

BOBBY You say! You say!

[BOBBY takes a few steps toward him and he raises the gun again. The sight of it makes BOBBY laugh.]

BOBBY Go ahead. Really. Pull that fucking trigger, tough guy.

GINA and WILL drag HAL toward the train tracks, struggling with his weight. HAL comes back to consciousness but is still groggy as hell.

HAL Don’t. Just don’t. Just listen. I—

[WILL shoves HAL’s gun under his chin.]

WILL Got your gun, Hal. Now shut the fuck up.

HAL [Screaming.] I’LL BE A GREAT FATHER THIS TIME, I WILL, AND GINA, I LOVE YOU, I DO, I KNOW I’VE HAD A FEW WIVES AND A BUNCH OF COCKTAIL WAITRESSES AND SOME STRIPPERS BUT NEVER ANYTHING LIKE YOU AND I’LL BE A GREAT DAD, A GREAT DAD, AND IF YOU COULD JUST SEE MY SOUL AND HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU, GINA, BABY, PLEASE, I—

[They hurl HAL onto the train tracks. SOUND OF IMPACT. GINA grabs her head and screams at the sky.]

GINA Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god…

[WILL tucks the gun under his shirt, stares off.]

WILL Bye, Hal.

[The DOCTOR and the PATIENT watch as the lights dim on WILL and GINA.]

DOCTOR You’ve confused your sins.

PATIENT What?

DOCTOR The hierarchy of them. You think you did something worse than murder? Leaving your child to be raised by Will? You had no choice.

PATIENT I could have died fighting.

DOCTOR End result would have been the same. You can’t fight a guy like Will. You can’t, Gina. The only thing that can stop a guy like Will is a guy like Will.

PATIENT No, I—

DOCTOR Your sin was killing Hal. You had choice there and you made the worst one. Do you even know why?

PATIENT Because we were in love.

DOCTOR You were in love. You could have divorced him. Was it his money?

PATIENT Didn’t hurt.

DOCTOR He’d have given you that. So… Why’d you kill Hal, Gina?

BOBBY’S FATHER pointing the gun at BOBBY. [Beat.]

BOBBY’S FATHER It just come to me.

BOBBY Yeah, what’s that?

BOBBY’S FATHER You’ve known for, what, three years that Gwen is no more?

BOBBY Dead.

BOBBY’S FATHER Whatever.

BOBBY Dead.

BOBBY’S FATHER If you like. Dead.

BOBBY Yeah, Daddy.

BOBBY’S FATHER Three years. Lotta time to think.

[BOBBY nods.]

BOBBY’S FATHER Plan.

[Another nod. BOBBY’S FATHER looks at his gun.]

BOBBY’S FATHER This going to fire?

BOBBY I’d say the odds are a might dubious.

BOBBY’S FATHER It’s loaded. I can feel the mag weight.

BOBBY Jack the slide.

[BOBBY’S FATHER yanks back hard. The slide is frozen.]

BOBBY Krazy Glue. Filled the barrel too.

BOBBY’S FATHER Thought I felt a monkey on my head.

[BOBBY produces a knife, expertly flips the blade free of the hasp.]

BOBBY’S FATHER The other great love of your life. I assume you’ve lost none of your talent with it.

BOBBY Wherever you buried her, you’re digging her out.

BOBBY’S FATHER I got a shovel in the trunk.

BOBBY [Shakes his head.] With your hands.

BOBBY and GWEN sit in each other’s arms at the fairgrounds.

GWEN You think it lasts?

BOBBY What?

GWEN This.

BOBBY Of course. Why not?

GWEN You look around, you see people who’ve been together, I mean, do they look happy? How do you hold something that feels this good?

BOBBY You just do.

GWEN But it’s got to burn after a while. It’s got to exhaust you. Maybe you let it cool a bit, just a bit, so it lets you breathe normal again. But once you do that…

BOBBY We don’t need to breathe normal.

GWEN Everyone needs to breathe normal.

BOBBY We’re not everyone.

GWEN Yes, we are.

BOBBY You’re scared. Tomorrow’s a scary day. But we’ll get through.

GWEN And then what? They never show you the ebb. I mean, it all ebbs.

BOBBY And gathers steam and comes back again.

GWEN You think?

BOBBY I hope.

GWEN I hope.

BOBBY If it’s pure… if it’s pure, well, you hold on to what’s pure about it. You never let that ebb. The other parts, okay, sure, they’ll grow weak at times, but the pure part?

GWEN We’ll get old.

BOBBY Fuckin’ A!

GWEN Fat. Cellulite. Wrinkles. No one will know we were beautiful once.

BOBBY Speak for yourself.

GWEN Bitch.

BOBBY I can’t wait to see each line in your face appear. To know I saw its birth.

GWEN Where did you come from?

BOBBY Pluto. You say I’m good. Well, I don’t know about that. I don’t. But we’re good. I know that.

GWEN I’m going to marry you, shithead. And get fat just to test your resolve.

BOBBY Shave your head while you’re at it, would you? I dig fat bald chicks.

DOCTOR and PATIENT sit in exact same positions as BOBBY and GWEN. PATIENT stares offstage at the sounds of the fair.

DOCTOR This is not remotely appropriate.

PATIENT Let’s not get into “appropriate” again. It’s tired. I’m tired. Just let me sit here for another minute.

DOCTOR Fair enough.

PATIENT How do they do it? All those nobodies out there. Never Weres. Pass through this world, never achieve a single significant thing.

DOCTOR Maybe their definition of “significant” is different.

PATIENT What? Got a raise? Made VP of the Media Affairs Department for Bo’s Discount Furniture? Bought that power mower?

DOCTOR Raised a child. Loved a parent. Died in her arms.

PATIENT Hallmark bullshit. Lifetime Movie of the Week. The Noise we all tune in to so we won’t see that we don’t really matter. We left no mark. Those who are remembered offered a sacrifice.

DOCTOR Everyone makes sacrifices in a relationship. It’s part of—

PATIENT A sacrifice made unto something. An offering thrown on a pyre so the gods know you’re worthy.

DOCTOR Of immortality? Happiness?

PATIENT What adult believes in happiness?

DOCTOR Then what?

PATIENT Completion. The illusion that you exist for a purpose. You commit to, to true love — of a person, your art, your company, your country, your truth? When you feel that, you have to sacrifice something to it or else, else it’s just infatuation.

DOCTOR [Points offstage at the fair.] That’s why you killed a human being? So you wouldn’t be them?

PATIENT Yes. So I’d never, ever be them. And from then on, I had a secret that defined me as bigger than that. Better. More serious.

DOCTOR And now?

PATIENT Fuck you.

DOCTOR And now?

PATIENT Fuck you!

DOCTOR AND NOW?

PATIENT I want to undo it. I want to go back. I want my child. He’s… he’s eleven now. And he’s out there somewhere. With him. With him.

BOBBY’S FATHER has dug about four feet into the grave. BOBBY squats above him, watching.

BOBBY’S FATHER Come on. Let me use the shovel.

BOBBY Tell me about my mother.

BOBBY’S FATHER Let me use the shovel. I got no nails left, I got—

BOBBY Tell me about her.

BOBBY’S FATHER [Eyeing the knife.]

Fuck you. You won’t use that. You don’t have the—

[BOBBY stabs him in the shoulder.]

BOBBY’S FATHER Jesus!

[BOBBY stabs him in the shoulder again.]

BOBBY’S FATHER All right! All right!

BOBBY Tell me something about my mother and I might — might — give you the shovel for a bit.

BOBBY’S FATHER You can’t do this to me!

BOBBY All evidence to the contrary.

BOBBY’S FATHER I raised you.

BOBBY A bit too well, I’d say. Have you ever loved anyone? Anything? I mean, tell me you had a dog as a kid. I’ll buy it. A favorite uncle.

BOBBY’S FATHER I loved you.

BOBBY I was chattel. Big difference. Keep digging. I’m just wondering if I cut you open, if I’d find a heart. Or an engine.

BOBBY’S FATHER Same engine that runs in you.

BOBBY Did you ever love anyone?

BOBBY’S FATHER I loved your mother.

BOBBY What was her name?

BOBBY’S FATHER Nope. That’s mine, boy.

BOBBY How’d you meet?

BOBBY’S FATHER Give me some water.

[BOBBY thinks about it, finally passes him a bottle.]

BOBBY’S FATHER I was a pencil pusher once. Believe that? Regional manager for a grain outfit. Covered sales for a five-state region. Had me a shitty car. Apartment wasn’t bad, kinda nondescript, I guess you’d say. Little patio looked out on a little pool and a bunch of other patios. Thought one day I’d maybe run the show when the old man retired. He was grooming me. Then I met your mother.

BOBBY What happened?

BOBBY’S FATHER What didn’t? The world shook. Never looked the same after that. One day, we came out of the building at the same time, started talking while we walked to our cars. She had on this blue blouse…

[He swigs some water, leans back against the grave. Beat.]

BOBBY That’s it? The blue blouse? That’s your fucking story?

BOBBY’S FATHER You can’t explain love. When it seizes you, what it does. You end up sounding like an idiot. She wore a blue blouse, we talked, I felt like God gave birth to me that day. How about that shovel?

BOBBY Is she dead?

BOBBY’S FATHER She is to me.

[BOBBY lowers his head for a moment. When he raises it, he wipes at some tears.]

BOBBY’S FATHER Now you know.

BOBBY Now I know. Climb out. Go get the shovel.

[BOBBY’S FATHER climbs out, starts walking toward the car with BOBBY a few steps behind, knife at the ready.]

BOBBY’S FATHER She’d take your breath away, your mother. Most beautiful woman I ever saw. Snatch it out of your lungs.

The DOCTOR and the PATIENT.

PATIENT Let’s say we’d let Hal live.

DOCTOR Okay.

PATIENT He gives me the house and half the money, but he takes my child. That was his plan.

DOCTOR He would have been a better father than—

PATIENT

I know that, I know that. But what about me? And even removing me as a mother from the equation, okay, then what? Hal takes the baby, I get the house. Then what? It’s just the two of us, me and Will. And our love. Our love. Which doesn’t seem so hot after a while if there’s not a living, breathing representative of it to remind us. It’s just love. Two people who fuck on Saturday night if they’re not too tired from deciding where to eat the other six nights. But a child walks into the room like a candlewick? And sometimes, if you’re lucky, just by looking at him you remember you were young once. You lived.

DOCTOR We’re not special.

PATIENT I know. I know.

DOCTOR None of us.

PATIENT I do. I know that now.

DOCTOR Do you?

PATIENT Hey, I’m still getting my head around it, but…

[Beat.]

How long since your wife left you?

DOCTOR I never said my wife left me.

PATIENT How long?

DOCTOR She kicked me out six months ago. She… met someone.

PATIENT You let me believe I knew where you lived.

DOCTOR Well, I do. She doesn’t.

PATIENT So she’s not the perfect wife?

DOCTOR She was never even a very good wife. But I was never even a very good husband. I love her, though.

PATIENT Go back to her.

DOCTOR We don’t work. I mean, I mean, there’s what you want and what you can do. And in between? The world fucking waits to take its bites.

PATIENT Didn’t you know that going in?

DOCTOR Who knows that, going in? I knew the odds were a bit against us. I knew we didn’t really… align. But what do you do with the love? Put it on a shelf?

PATIENT Apparently, you do.

DOCTOR Yes. Apparently.

PATIENT Why’d you sleep with me?

DOCTOR Because I was an asshole.

[Chuckles. Shrugs.]

Because pain does that.

PATIENT It does, huh?

DOCTOR I’m sorry. Broke-down, lost-heart sorry.

[Beat. She smiles. She takes his face in her hands.]

PATIENT I want to give you something.

DOCTOR No. No. This ends.

PATIENT It’s not that. It’s not that. Trust me. Can you trust me?

DOCTOR Not really.

PATIENT Just this once. Pretty please?

DOCTOR Okay, but—

PATIENT Shush. Close your eyes.

[He does. Long beat. She kisses each eyelid once. She steps back. His eyes remain closed for a beat. He opens them. He stares at her and she at him.]

DOCTOR Thank you.

PATIENT Thank you. You probably can’t be a husband, but be a father. Okay?

[She takes several steps backward.]

DOCTOR What about you?

PATIENT Oh, yeah. That.

[She smiles and give him a bow. She waves and exits.]

Lights gradually up on BOBBY’S FATHER, his head barely above the grave now. BOBBY perches above the hole.

BOBBY’S FATHER I can’t fucking…

BOBBY Keep digging.

BOBBY’S FATHER Give me a break.

BOBBY Hard, huh?

BOBBY’S FATHER Look, she’s down here. Isn’t that enough? I admitted it. You asked, I answered. What’s the point?

BOBBY Keep digging.

BOBBY’S FATHER But what’s the fucking point?

BOBBY Put your back into it. Use a little elbow grease. Dig, bitch. Dig.

[BOBBY’S FATHER goes back to digging as GWEN enters. She sits behind Bobby, wraps her arms around him.]

GWEN Know what would be cool? If — if, if, if, if — all goes wrong? I put it in me.

BOBBY Don’t even talk ab—

GWEN Just saying. If I swallowed it or inserted it or… what else?

BOBBY You give it to him. You don’t get clever. ’Member?

GWEN The first time I saw you? Here? I swear I thought I’d lose my fucking mind if I couldn’t do this…

[GWEN tongues his neck.]

Where’s your father now?

BOBBY Far away.

GWEN Where’s your life now?

BOBBY Far away.

GWEN Good. Gotta pee.

BOBBY Don’t go.

GWEN Just going to the grass.

BOBBY Don’t.

[GWEN leaves him, exits. BOBBY’S FATHER hits something with the shovel. Looks up.]

BOBBY Throw the shovel back up.

[BOBBY’S FATHER tosses the shovel out of the grave.]

BOBBY’S FATHER You know, your mother and I used to come here and get ourselves some—

BOBBY Time to whip Mom out, is it?

BOBBY’S FATHER Get ourselves some cotton candy and ride the teacups and—

BOBBY What was her name again?

BOBBY’S FATHER

— just feel the night. You know? You know how that feels so good, the night on you? Like to make you crazy that soft, soft touch.

[BOBBY peers into the grave.]

BOBBY What’d you do with her clothes?

[BOBBY’S FATHER looks down into the grave.]

BOBBY’S FATHER Burned ’em.

BOBBY I mean, why’d you take ’em off in the first place?

[BOBBY’S FATHER shrugs.]

BOBBY Look at her.

BOBBY’S FATHER I’m looking.

BOBBY No. Look real close.

BOBBY’S FATHER I see the bones.

BOBBY Look closer. Where her stomach used to be. That general area.

[BOBBY’S FATHER looks.]

BOBBY’S FATHER Well, I’ll be damned.

[BOBBY hits his father in the head with the shovel.]

BOBBY’S FATHER Now hold on—

[BOBBY hits him again. And again. And one more time.]

WILL and GINA in the parking lot.

WILL It’s a pretty color.

GINA Are you flirting with me?

WILL No, I just like the color. I like the blouse. I like…

GINA What?

WILL Huh? Nothing. I just…

GINA Hey, you ever?

WILL What?

GINA Not want to get in your car?

WILL Yeah.

GINA When?

WILL Now. I don’t want to move.

GINA I know.

WILL I love that color.

GINA Thank you.

WILL It, um, suits you.

GINA What suits you, Will?

WILL You.

[WILL touches her chin with his fingers. GINA backs away.]

GINA I’m married.

[WILL shrugs.]

WILL You. You do, Gina.

GINA Oh God.

WILL Oh Something.

BOBBY finishes filling in the grave. He stands in pale, weak moonlight and removes his baseball cap to wipe his brow.

BOBBY I wish… I wish… I wish I’d taken a picture of you. Just one. Just once.

[GWEN enters from the darkness.]

GWEN You don’t need a picture.

BOBBY Yes. Yes, I do.

GWEN No, baby, you don’t. You’re good.

BOBBY Enough?

GWEN Enough. Yeah. You’re good enough.

BOBBY I’m not. I’m not.

[GWEN approaches until she’s an inch from him and BOBBY recoils from the pain. Her lips pass a hairsbreadth from his ear.]

GWEN You are. You are.

[GWEN fades into the dark. BOBBY covers his face with his baseball cap. Long beat. BOBBY removes the cap from his face and places it on his head. He tosses the shovel into the darkness. He takes several breaths. He notices a bench and goes to it. He sits. He pulls his cap tighter down his forehead. Music slowly filters into the scene as the light around him grows enough to reveal—

He sits in a bar booth. A waitress emerges from the darkness. It is not the WAITRESS we’ve seen before. It’s GINA/PATIENT and she looks weary from a long night.]

GINA Solo?

BOBBY Huh?

GINA Just you tonight, sweetie?

BOBBY Just me.

GINA What can I get you?

BOBBY Take a Bud and a shot of Beam.

GINA Right back.

[BOBBY splays his hands out in front of him and studies them. He removes his cap and runs a hand through his hair. GINA emerges from the dark as he rubs his face and leans back against the booth. GINA cocks her head, recognizing something in his movements, the jut of his jaw, his eyes. She looks at the tray in her hand. She looks at him. BOBBY turns his head and notices her. He smiles. She approaches.]

BOBBY New?

GINA New?

BOBBY Here. You’re new here.

GINA Um, yeah. Yeah. Yes, I am.

[She places his drinks on the table.]

BOBBY What happened to V?

GINA V?

BOBBY Videlia. She was the waitress here for, like, centuries.

GINA Oh, she met a man. You know. True love. Moved all the way to Coronado, way I hear it. He’s a musician.

BOBBY Big music town, Coronado? I hadn’t heard.

GINA You know how it is. It’s all big music if you think you can play.

[BOBBY throws back his shot.]

BOBBY And if you can’t?

GINA You find out, don’t you? One way or the other.

[BOBBY nods. He smiles at her. She smiles back. A curious, comfortably awkward beat.]

GINA Well, I should…

BOBBY Sure. You go ahead, um…

GINA Gina.

BOBBY [Offers his hand.] Bobby.

GINA [Shakes his hand.] Nice to meet you, Bobby.

BOBBY The same, Gina.

[GINA has a little trouble letting go of his hand, but eventually she does.]

BOBBY And, hey, Gina?

GINA Yeah?

BOBBY I’m thirsty as all hell tonight. Fact, I’m fixing to howl at the moon. So keep ’em coming, yeah?

[GINA smiles a broken smile.]

GINA You bet, sweetie. But you promise me something?

BOBBY Sure.

GINA You let ol’ Gina tell you when you’ve had enough. Okay? It’s been raining nickels out there the last half hour. You hear it?

BOBBY I hear it.

GINA And the weatherman says it’s going to rain all night. The roads get slick. Real slick. And I want you getting home.

BOBBY Okay.

[She nods and he nods back and she walks off into the darkness. BOBBY spins his empty shot glass as the rain clatters on the roof.

A song comes on the jukebox and BOBBY watches a YOUNG WOMAN appear and start to sway to the beat. A MAN comes up behind her, and she leans back into him. For a few moments, it’s purely sexual, and then she turns in his arms and looks straight in his eyes and mouths the song’s refrain to him, and he looks back at her, helpless and emboldened and in love.

Lights fade on the rest of the bar.

BOBBY watches them with a mixture of enjoyment and envy and heartbreak. When it gets to be too much, he turns away. He spins his empty shot glass again. He looks back at them and gives it all a small, sad smile. He turns back to the table, spins the shot glass.

Lights down on BOBBY.

Only the MAN and YOUNG WOMAN are lit as they dance. They can’t take their eyes off each other.

Lights down on the MAN and YOUNG WOMAN.

The song ends abruptly.

The rain takes over, clattering…

…and faintly, the sound of BOBBY spinning that shot glass.

Lights out.]