KEVIN
I’m sorry, here take it. I made it for you.
But CHICKY is gone.
Chicky, I’m sorry.
You slow danced with me.
Merv and them are lying.
I never did what they said I did.
KEVIN sits on the sand. He hits himself on the bruises. He is near tears.
I could do it with you, Chicky.
I could do it with you.
Above, LISSA, a plump girl of fourteen, comes out onto the bridge. She is humming “Happy Birthday” and carrying a colourful umbrella. She stops and looks down at KEVIN.
LISSA
Is my brother Robby here?
KEVIN
Do you see him?
KEVIN pulls himself together. She comes down calling.
LISSA
Robby? Robby, Robby, Robby.
KEVIN
He ain’t here. He left.
LISSA
He’s got to come home for supper.
It’s his birthday.
Mom got a bucket of chicken.
Sarah Lee cake.
You hurt yourself?
KEVIN
Yeah it looks that way.
LISSA
(importantly) Yeah, it looks that way.
KEVIN
How come you got that umbrella? It’s not raining.
LISSA
Nope.
KEVIN
So how come you got it then?
LISSA
Mom got it in town.
KEVIN
Don’t touch my eye.
LISSA
Does it hurt?
KEVIN
Yes it hurts.
LISSA
Mom kisses hurts.
KEVIN studies her a long moment. She gives his eye a quick kiss.
KEVIN
It feels better but it hurts right here.
LISSA kisses his cheek.
Now it hurts right there.
LISSA, giggling, kisses his other cheek quickly – shyly.
Didn’t work that time.
LISSA kisses him with more intent.
You got it.
You got any hurts.
LISSA holds out the back of her hand.
LISSA
Cat scratched me, Keving.
KEVIN
I see that.
KEVIN kisses her hand very gently. LISSA smiles and brings her hand back.
I hurt under here too.
KEVIN points to under his T-shirt.
I can’t even see all my hurts back there.
Do I got any?
KEVIN slips his T-shirt off. LISSA looks shyly, then begins to kiss his back in little flutters. She is so childlike.
LISSA
All done.
KEVIN
But now you got all my hurts on your lips.
KEVIN reaches for her and starts to pull her mouth towards his. This is still a game to LISSA. KEVIN lays her down and moves to kiss her. At that moment KEVIN realizes what he is doing is wrong, and he pulls on his T-shirt.
You better get home, Lissa.
Robby’ll be waiting for his birthday supper.
LISSA
Don’t want to.
KEVIN
You’ll miss the birthday cake.
LISSA
Don’t care.
KEVIN
And the present opening.
LISSA
(darkly) Robby’s presents.
KEVIN
You want a present?
LISSA
Mom says, “Not your birthday, missy.”
KEVIN
If I give you a present, will you go home?
LISSA
Don’t know.
KEVIN
Okay. Too bad, it’s a nice present.
LISSA
Okay okay okay!
KEVIN turns around and closes his hands around the little
porcupine. He turns back.
KEVIN
Okay, open my hands.
LISSA
That’s not a present with Happy Birthday! paper.
KEVIN
It’s better. It’s harder to open.
LISSA half tries, but in the end he makes her work to get his hands apart.
LISSA
Oh, a porcupine. It’s dead.
KEVIN
No. It’s asleep.
LISSA
That’s okay, it’s not dead, it’s asleep. It’s mine, right Keving?
KEVIN
Yeah.
Before he is aware of what she is up to, she kisses him on the lips hard.
Lissa! Don’t kiss me ’cause I give you something.
LISSA
(sulking) I want to, Keving.
KEVIN
(angry at her innocence) No you don’t! Go home, now.
LISSA
Bye, Keving.
LISSA hurries away. Kevin sits with his head in his hands.
Lights down.
Scene 8
Early Wednesday evening. JAMIE sits in Clarence’s chair with the phone in his lap. He gets up, goes and gets a beer, and comes back to the phone. He dials a long distance number. The audience does not hear the voice on the other end of the call, but the lines are included within square brackets to help the actor give his lines the proper weight.
JAMIE
[GCT Flight School, Janet speaking.] Yeah, hello, I’m calling to… [Can you hold the line please?] Yeah, sure.
JAMIE paces around waiting to be taken off hold.
Yeah, hi, I’m calling about the ad you ran in the paper out here. [Where are you calling from, sir?] Nova Scotia. [Oh, those ads, we ran them several months ago.] Yeah I guess it’s been a couple of months. Anyway, I am very interested in joining your heli-logging team. [What position?] Pilot. [You are a pilot?] No, training, sorry, training to be a pilot… you know, be the one that flies the trees out. I’m experienced in the woods. [Yes?] Yeah, I’ve worked the processor for four years. [Chainsaw trained?] I’ve worked chainsaw, but I’m looking to, you know, do the helicopter training. [We’ve met our training quota for this training period.] Oh, so when is the next training session. [April if we have enough trainees sign up.] Nothing before like, next April? Okay, could you put my name on the waiting list now? [Well maybe I should tell you the requirements and costs.] Yeah, sure. [You want to write this down?] Yeah, I got a pen and paper and everything, go ahead.
JAMIE sneaks a swig of beer. He doesn’t write any of the information down.
[The course can take up to five months.] I am interested in the three-month course. [If you want to be able to fly at night…] Yeah, Jesus, five months, okay. I do want to be able to fly at night. [The cost is forty thousand dollars.] Four thousand [Forty.] no, I was joking you, I knew you said forty… thousand. [And we’ll need a medical and high school graduation certificate.] Right, medical sure… listen, I got a buddy who is interested in doing training too, but… he’s real experienced in the woods too. He, the guy, didn’t graduate from high school but he’s getting, I mean he’s got the GED thing. [Well he would have to take an entrance test make sure his math was up to speed.] Yeah, sure I’ll tell him about that test you know, ’cause he needs to know if his math is, like you said, up to speed. Thanks now. [Should I take your name.] No… no I won’t leave my name.
JAMIE hangs up.
Fuck you, lady.
(quietly) Fuck me.
Lights down.
Scene 9
It is 2 a.m. on Thursday morning. The river scene is lit by a street lamp mounted on the bridge. CLARENCE comes down to the beach. His clothes are covered in dirt
, which he is attempting to brush off. He begins to wash his hands in the water. He is throbbing with excitement. He stops, calming himself. He reaches into his hunting vest and takes out a square of cloth. CLARENCE carefully unwraps it and cradles the small bone in his hand.
CLARENCE
You’ll see you’ll see you’ll see.
I did it for you.
That’s all I want.
JAMIE
Clarence.
This is God.
JAMIE sits in his usual spot on the rail nursing his fifth beer – the empties are lined up beside him. JAMIE burps loudly.
CLARENCE
Jesus, Jamie, Christ—
JAMIE
That’s me.
CLARENCE
You scared the shit out of me.
CLARENCE wraps up the bone quickly and puts it back in his vest.
JAMIE
(laughs) What have you got there?
CLARENCE
Nothing.
JAMIE
You’ve got something, you put something in your pocket.
CLARENCE
I ain’t got nothing.
He washes his hands again.
JAMIE
What are you doing down there, washing your hands?
CLARENCE
I ain’t doing nothing no worse than you.
JAMIE
Ah ah ah, remember Oprah. Talk to your kids.
CLARENCE
A man can come down to the river.
JAMIE
At 2:30 in the morning?
CLARENCE
You’re here. What are you doing?
JAMIE
Thinking about going for a swim.
CLARENCE
The lamprey ain’t left the river yet.
JAMIE
I don’t see any eels.
CLARENCE
I don’t need to see them, I know they’re there. It hasn’t thundered and lightninged yet.
JAMIE
What do they do, Clarence? Holy shit, it’s thundering and lightning out there boys, time to wiggle our asses out of here so folks can swim.
CLARENCE
It kills them off. The old people know that.
JAMIE
You got all the answers, don’t ya, Clarence?
JAMIE comes down to stand beside CLARENCE. JAMIE invades CLARENCE’s space, forcing him to move back and step around JAMIE’s building rage.
Well here’s a question for ya.
What was I going to be when I grew up?
CLARENCE
Trav was gonna be a soldier.
JAMIE
Yeah yeah “in the Airborne” and I was gonna be…?
CLARENCE
I remember you telling us you was going to be an astronaut, only you said astrosnot.
JAMIE
That’s because I was fucking four years old. What did I want to be when I was sixteen? When I quit school, what was I quitting I was gonna be?
CLARENCE
You never said.
JAMIE
I brought the information home from the guidance counsellor… set it right on the goddamn kitchen table.
CLARENCE
That was years ago.
JAMIE
Found out you let them put me in the retarded math.
CLARENCE
No, Chicky told you it was non-uni (…versity prep).
JAMIE
Retarded. Retarded to pilot school. You let those teachers screw me.
CLARENCE
They never told me nothing.
JAMIE
No you were too fucking stupid to ask.
Where are you going?
CLARENCE
I’m leaving. It’s a free country. You think you can blame everything on to me. My fox farm failed because of fucking Bridget fucking Bardot, my wife left me, my son died… he died. What was
I supposed to do when those teachers told me, “Put Jamie in
this math class and he’ll get better marks.” Eh? I was a broken
man, what in hell was I supposed to do?
CLARENCE leaves.
JAMIE climbs up on “the high,” on top of the bridge frame. He stands, swinging his arms as though warming up to jump.
Lights down.
ACT II
Scene 10
Thursday morning. KRISTA sits at the table writing out thank-you notes. JAMIE comes in carrying a beer and three partridge eggs.
KRISTA
Ten more for you to sign.
I’m not bringing them shower gifts into this house.
I’ll keep them at home ’til we move to the trailer.
Same with the wedding ones too.
JAMIE puts the eggs on the table. She touches the eggs.
They’re cold.
What’s a hen supposed to do with partridge babies anyway?
You shouldn’t do that. Walk around looking for them after your shift.
JAMIE
You hear them when you get out of the machine.
KRISTA
You can’t hear eggs.
JAMIE
Jesus, I hear their mothers looking for their nests, looking for their babies.
KRISTA
I know you can’t hear eggs. I was kidding, Fuzzy.
JAMIE
I told you, don’t call me that.
KRISTA
Chicky does. The men at the firehall all do.
JAMIE
I don’t want you to.
KRISTA
That’s not fair.
JAMIE
Come here.
JAMIE kisses her and whispers something in her ear. She looks at him.
KRISTA
What do you mean?
JAMIE
Mom said “Jamieeee” like “What are you up to, you little shit.” Clarence says Jamie like “not Travis,” the one he wants alive. Like, “NotTravis, you going to the liquor store today?”
KRISTA crawls onto his lap. Kisses him on the mouth.
And when the teachers said “Jamie,” well, weren’t they thinking Dumb ass?
KRISTA
Jamie, stop—
JAMIE
There.
KRISTA
JAMIE
Even when you are pissed at me. There’s something – you say Jamie like there’s a chance of something… in me.
KRISTA
Jamie jamie jamie jamie jamie…
They kiss.
Want to?
JAMIE
I’m saving myself ’til I’m married.
I can wait.
KRISTA kisses him.
I might have to take a trip to the vet before supper.
The eagle’s not looking too good.
He’s losing feathers. His eyes look milky.
KRISTA
Half what you rescue dies.
Like that baby raccoon that time.
Like those eggs.
Is that why you’re quitting? Chicky told me.
JAMIE speaks his line to the bedroom door, indicating that he knows she is in there.
JAMIE
Sis needs to keep her nose out of my business.
KRISTA
It’s my business. I’m marrying you the day after tomorrow.
JAMIE
I don’t work chainsaw.
KRISTA
That don’t make sense. You hate what the processor does but you won’t work chainsaw. You got to have a job.
JAMIE
That’s the thing, Krista, in ten years there won’t be logging jobs around he
re.
The woods is tapped out. In ten years, less even, there won’t be any trees in this valley.
KRISTA
What are you talking about? It’s woods all the way to town and that’s over forty miles.
JAMIE
You don’t know what you’re looking at. All along the roads is not woods anymore. What you’re seeing is a screen of trees two, three tier deep and behind that hectares and hectares of clear cut.
Everything has been chewed up and spit out. Not one tree standing.
That’s why…. Listen, Krista, I’m not saying we can afford to do this right away but I’m thinking—
KEVIN burst in.
KEVIN
Where’s Clarence?
JAMIE
Jesus, Kevin, what’s crawled up your ass?
KEVIN
Is he here? Where is he?
CHICKY comes out of the bedroom.
Chicky, where’s Clarence?
CHICKY
It’s the colostomy clinic day at the hospital.
JAMIE
The fun never stops for old Clarence.
KEVIN
Good, good, ’cause if he hears this, he’s gonna to have a stroke or something.
CHICKY
Kevin, what are you talking about?
KEVIN
They’re burying Betty’s boy tomorrow, right?
CHICKY
I told him not to call Betty again. He’s telling them to send the body to Florida to be frozen.
KEVIN
No, Chicky, Ronnie went over to check the grave site and he saw.
They’ve been fucking with Trav’s grave.
CHICKY
Who has?
JAMIE
What did you have to tell her for, Kev? Jesus.
CHICKY
Fuzzy, what’s he talking about?
JAMIE
It’s okay, Chicky. I’ve taken care of it. I’m getting sod from Reg.
CHICKY
Sod, for what?
JAMIE
It was probably some animal digging around. Forget it.
KEVIN
Ronnie says it weren’t no animal. They like dug a big hole straight down the middle of the plot – got Betty all upset. Fucking Merv.
CHICKY
Why would he bother Trav’s grave?
KEVIN
Someone laid a beating onto him at Jamie’s stag so he’s paying him back.
CHICKY
Jamie.
JAMIE
Do you see a mark on me?
KEVIN
Don’t blame Jamie, we was only getting back at Merv for what he did to me.
CHICKY
This has gone far enough, Kevin.