The Magic Tower and Other One-Act Plays (27 page)

EMERSON
[
overlapping and rising
]: I think I
better—

CHARLIE
[
overlapping
]: Disappointment, anxiety an’ depression is what makes her stuff.

EMERSON
[
overlapping
]: Leave you all till this family dispute
is—

STACEY
: Charlie?

CHARLIE
[
With nervous heartiness
]: Come on down here, Stacey.

STACEY
: My clo’se are still drenched.

CHARLIE
: We walked here from the bus station in the rain.

STACEY
: Wasn’t a cab at the depot. Lent my raincoat to a friend who left town with it, ha ha!

CHARLIE
: I’ll light the gas-logs in the fireplace.

STACEY
: Good, good. I’d appreciate that. [
She hitches up her skirt on the landing to adjust her pantyhose
.]

CORNELIUS
: Tell her not to come down till she’s completed dressing.

STACEY
: My pantyhose just don’t fit right.

CORNELIUS
: Jesus.

STACEY
: I never did like these things, preferred to wear regular garters but they’re hard to get now, seem to’ve gone out of style.

CORNELIUS
: What’s she tawkin’ about?

STACEY
: Awright, got it fixed now.

CHARLIE
: This is Stacey, Pop.

STACEY
: Hi, Pop.

CORNELIUS
: Excuse me for not gettin’ up.

CHARLIE
: Pop’s got arthritis, Stacey.

STACEY
: That’s all right. My Granddaddy’s got that, too. I know all about that.

BELLA
: Here’s eggs. [
Bella enters the living room with a tray bearing a moist and frowsy-looking omelet
.]

CHARLIE
: Mom, this is Stacey.

BELLA
[
To Stacey
]: Why, how d’you do. [
Noticing her stomach
.] How d’ you do. I thought you all might be hungry so
I—

CORNELIUS
: My wife thinks everyone’s hungry.

STACEY
: Well,
I
happen to
be
.
—Hello
, Mom.

BELLA
: Hello. What’s your name, honey?

STACEY
: Stacey, it’s a family name they give me as a first name.

CORNELIUS
: Why?

STACEY
: That’s a lo-oong, long story, Pop. You see, my
uncle—

CORNELIUS
: Don’t tell it right now, huh?

STACEY
: Could I, could
we—have
something t’ drink, Mom?

BELLA
: Y’know we been up in Memphis for several days. I was gonna make you some cocoa or hot milk but the milk’s gone sour. [
Charlie takes a pint bottle of whiskey out of his trench-coat pocket. Bella gasps
.] No, no, not whiskey, son! Charlie’s older brother just died
of—
[
She sobs
.]

CORNELIUS
:
—Terminal—alcoholism
, at thirty-one!

CHARLIE
: Pop, don’t shout it like that. You’ve upset Mom. Sit down, Mom.

STACEY
: Let’s talk about it tomorrow, not tonight.

CORNELIUS
: I’m a believer in talkin’ all things out that can be talked out as quick as possible, Miss.

CHARLIE
: Stacey.

CORNELIUS
: Stacey what?

CHARLIE
: T’morrow she is gonna be Stacey McCorkle.

CORNELIUS
:
Is
she?!

CHARLIE
: Bright and early tomorrow her last name will be mine.

BELLA
:
—Oh
. . .

CORNELIUS
: What d’ya make of that, Bella? Something or nothing?

BELLA
: Oh, I’m delighted about that.

CHARLIE
: Yes.

STACEY
[
Crying a little
]: Yes. So happy I could die!
—Just
dieee!

CORNELIUS
: I think we could use a little more light in here. [
He attempts to turn on light from the over-stuffed chair, topples back and overturns the floor lamp behind him. It hits Bella on the head
.]

STACEY
: Oh, my! Did that hurtcha, Mom?

BELLA
: What?

CHARLIE
: Floor lamp hit your haid.

BELLA
:
—Did
it?
—No
.
—No
.
—I
’ll tell you something. A big hurt like we got up there in Memphis, it,
it—sort
of numbs you to anything else for a while.

CORNELIUS
: I expected it sooner. Quart of scotch and a fifth of bourbon a day. Not satisfied with that so he spent his nights out at bars.
—I
know what kind of bars, I was infawmed of that right here in Pascagoola.
—’Swhy
I sent him to Memphis.

BELLA
: I must’ve done something wrong in his upbringin’.

CHARLIE
: Don’t blame yourself all the time. When I had to pick him up and take him home from those bars, well, I didn’t know that scene but I sure did recognize it.

CORNELIUS
: So you can see and hear and draw deductions
from—

BELLA
: Yais, brought Chips up wrong, somehow.

CHARLIE
: Mom, Chips had two parents.

CORNELIUS
: I made that comment, remember?

CHARLIE
[
flaring
]: Me remember? Nothin’ from you but ridicule and abuse, you mean ole bastard!
—Never
felt nothin’ for no one under this roof and you know it as well as we did.

CORNELIUS
: Git th’ hell out of here with your bright-and-early-bride-to-be tonight!

BELLA
: No.
—No
.
—I—

CORNELIUS
: I happen to own this house
and—

STACEY
: I never stay a place where I ain’t welcome. Lucky we didn’t unpack.

CORNELIUS
: Cause you couldn’t wait to get back at it again.

BELLA
:
Cornelius, please
!

CORNELIUS
: Please
what
?
—Your
worthless son and this pregnant tramp here? I want them out. I say out!

BELLA
: Don’t mind what he says. Cornelius is sufferin’ more than he knows from our loss.

CORNELIUS
: No loss to me.
—A
relief
! Relief to him and t’ me! Deliverance.

BELLA
:
Oh, God, don’t say that,
that’s—

CHARLIE
: Like him, Mom.

BELLA
: No, no. Your daddy cared about your brother, I know he cared for Chips, for,
for—Chipton
deeply, very deeply, so deeply he couldn’t touch food on the plane home from Memphis.

STACEY
[
Picks up framed table photograph
]: Is
this—
?

BELLA
: Yes, yes.

BELLA
:
—Chips
.
—Chipton
.
—Chipton
McCorkle, the second, named after his granddaddy.
—Cornelius
just
didn’t—

CORNELIUS
: Didn’t
what
?

BELLA
: Understand.

CORNELIUS
: Understood too much!

STACEY
[
taking photograph
]: Very good-lookin’ young man.

CORNELIUS
: Not good-lookin’ but pretty like a girl!

BELLA
: Don’t.

CHARLIE
: No, don’t Pop!

STACEY
: Don’t. I know boys like this.

CORNELIUS
: Still looked pretty as a girl laid out in his casket. So you know his kind huh?

STACEY
: Yes, I know boys like this. They used to flock to the Goose and Gander, an after-hour place where I was employed as waitress befo’ my engagement to Charlie. Yais, boys like this come there when the bars closed for our fifty-nine cent breakfast of aigs, sausage, and grits, and biscuits, horse biscuits with sawmill gravy and with chicory coffee.

BELLA
: Well, now. She cooks.

STACEY
: I made acquaintances with them, sympathized with their problems, and gave them advice.

CORNELIUS
: What advice?

STACEY
: I always advised the couples to stick together,
not—

CORNELIUS
: Sashay around?

STACEY
: No, settle, make homes together.

CORNELIUS
: Promiscuous relations is what they live for.

STACEY
: Only some, not all. I know of some had permanent arrangements. And I brought some to Jesus. I’m a bawn-again Christian.

CORNELIUS
: You are a what did she say?

CHARLIE
: Stacey’s a born-again Christian.

STACEY
: LET’S PRAY TOGETHER! WE ARE LOST SHEEP, ERRED AND STRAYED FROM THY WAYS, BROKEN YOUR HOLY COMMANDMENTS, ENGAGED IN FORNICATION, HAVE MERCY UPON US, FORGIVE US OUR CARNAL DESIRES AND LEAD US BACK TO THE FOLD. MERCY, HAVE MERCY UPON US THAT YIELDED TO THE TEMPTATIONS OF THE FLESH, YES, JESUS, WE IMPLORE THY FORGIVENESS! THY DIVINE MERCY, CHRIST! MAKE US FIT FOR SALVATION! DESERVING OF LIFE ETERNAL, LAWD, LAWD, SHOW US THE WAYYYYYYYYYYY!

CORNELIUS
: Shudderup, goddam it, help me outa this chair.

BELLA
: Honey, let’s pray QUIETLY together.

CHARLIE
: Stacey, Mom says quietly.

BELLA
: It don’t have to be quite so loud!

STACEY
: OH, IT IS COMIN’ ON ME! WAIT, IT’S COMING, I FEEL IT, THE GIFT OF TONGUES! WHAHOOOOOOOOOOO! BE-BE, YAIS, BAH! OH, BLESSED! BE, BE, BE, BE, LIEVE! ALL, ALL, ALL COME FORTH! BAH! BOW! WALLAH, YAIS, WALLAH! SALVAREDEMPTION IN ME, DEEP, DEEP SALVAREDEPMTPION, GLORY IN ME, AH, GLORY, GO DEEP IN ME IN GLORY, AH, AH, GAH, WALLAH, WOMB! WOMB I WOMB. . . . [
As if arrived at orgasm, she falls back onto the carpet
.]

BELLA
: Charlie, think she’s in labor, hope she don’t drop the baby. Excuse me honey. [
Steps over Stacey’s head
.] Cornelius, call the hospital.

CORNELIUS
: I’m callin’ the POLICE! [
He is on the phone
.]

BELLA
: Wha’s your father say, Charlie?

CHARLIE
: Pop! Whacha doin?

CORNELIUS
[
on the phone
]: POLICE! QUICK! SEVENTEEN SOUTH ELMA!

CHARLIE
: Police? Ignore that call. My Dad
is—
[
He jiggles the hook
.]

CORNELIUS
: Is
what
? Say it. I want to hear it!

CHARLIE
:
Vicious, crazy ole man
!

CORNELIUS
: Said it!
—Confounded—
!

BELLA
: Cornelius, he didn’ mean it!

CHARLIE
: I
did
mean it, Mom!
—How
can you conterdict me? In
this house all these years? Destroyed a son, a daughter! Persecuted us all!

STACEY
: Amen.

BELLA
: Charlie, be still! Cornelius is your father!

CHARLIE
:
—Stacey
, can you get up?

STACEY
[
moans
]: Nooo.

BELLA
: How long is she
been—
?

CHARLIE
: Seven months.

BELLA
: I better make her some cocoa.

CHARLIE
: You said the milk’s gone sour, Mom.

BELLA
[
inspired
]: Call the Moose Lodge and ask for one to come over. Several
if—

CHARLIE
: The police had hung up
before!—

BELLA
: The Moose Lodge will come over. Cornelius belongs, is a Moose.

STACEY
[
springing up, arms aloft
]: CHRIST COME IN THE DOOR! Enter
this—

CHARLIE
: Stacey, no, just the yard dawg!

STACEY
: BLESSED SAVIOUR HAS VISITED THIS HOUSE! Where, where, where? [
Etc
.]

CORNELIUS
:
Shudder up
!