Bone Cage by Catherine Banks Read Free Book Online Page B

missing Trav.
    That’s all. I swear on Trav’s grave that’s all.
    Did I ever once before, or after that, bother you, Chicky?
    No, not once, you know it.
    CHICKY
    You just had your hand on my zipper.
    CLARENCE
    No, not on your zipper. I was touching you there, because what you got inside is precious, Chicky.
    CHICKY
    What are you raving about?
    CLARENCE
    Mom’s eggs are past it now. She used them goddamn hard anyway. They won’t work for this, not her eggs but you’re his half sister and you’re only twenty-five…. Listen! There’s this place, Chicky. There’s this place that can clone Travis. Alls you need is good eggs,
your eggs
would be good for this, and his DNA – I got that.
    CHICKY
    You’re crazy. Nothing’s going to bring him back.
    CLARENCE
    This will.
    CHICKY
    How can you be so stupid? They’re taking your money off you.
    That’s all they’re doing. There isn’t a place where they clone people.
    CLARENCE
    Give me your eggs and I’ll show you.
    CHICKY holds the knife up to her belly.
    CHICKY
    What do you want? You want me to slice open my belly and hand them to you like this? Like this?
    CLARENCE
    They don’t need to cut you open, they wash them out.
    Then they take the DNA from Trav…
    CHICKY
    Travis. Travis. I know I’m not a blood relative. I know that, but I’ve lived in your house since I was three years old. Doesn’t that mean anything?
    CLARENCE
    You was awful good to Travis. You watched him and talked to him.
    He always wanted Chicky after he got sick.
    CHICKY
    That’s the only thing? What I did for Travis.
    Don’t you ever see me?
    Donalda—
(fuck)
I hate my name.
    Has anyone ever seen me my whole life?
    CLARENCE
    I’d sit and watch him lying next to you, his face whiter than the
    hospital sheets.
    That time, Chicky, that one time I thought if I could lay next to you like he had, maybe I could stand him being…
    CHICKY
    Dead.
    Dead.
    Artist’s renditions, make-believe cloning places won’t change that.
    CLARENCE
    I’m telling you it will work.
    I’m sending his DNA.
    CHICKY
    Was it you?
    Oh, Dad, it wasn’t you, was it? Digging up Trav’s grave?
    CLARENCE
    Kevin told you. It was Merv.
    CHICKY
    I know what Kev wants to think.
    Where did you get his DNA from, then?
    CLARENCE picks up the parcel holding it tightly.
    CLARENCE
    We got things around.
    CHICKY
    You couldn’t dig up his grave, could you, Dad?
    CLARENCE
    I got his baby teeth, don’t I?
    CHICKY
    Is that what you’re sending them, you swear it?
    Show me what you’re sending them.
    CLARENCE
    I don’t got to show you nothing.
    Are you going to give your eggs to Trav or not?
    CHICKY
    No, Clarence.
    CLARENCE
    I thought you loved him.
    I thought, “Chicky will help me bring him home.”
    CHICKY
    No.
No!
    CLARENCE
    No, but you’ll let that one stink them up.
    Yes, I mean Reg.
    CHICKY
    Reg isn’t you, Clarence, he don’t want anything from me. He don’t ask me to clean his house or clean up his shit. Reg is the one person in my life who loves me. Reg. When Travis died he held me, the only one,
he held me
. He’s loved me since I was fourteen.
    CLARENCE
    You ain’t fourteen stupid anymore.
    Reg gets the only thing he wants from you every time he spreads your legs.
    CHICKY
    Jesus jumping Christ.
    She lunges at him. CLARENCE leaves quickly.
    I’ll do it, too. I swear I will.
    CHICKY puts the knife down on the table.
    Lights down.
    Â 

Scene 13
    Saturday afternoon. CHICKY sits at the table sipping wine. CLARENCE is watching TV. LISSA bursts in with KEVIN close behind.
    LISSA
    Hi, Chicky. Where’s the bride?
    CHICKY
    She’s fixing her dress, Lissa, what are you doing?
    LISSA
    Keving said I can watch.
    KEVIN
    She was already waiting at the church. I told her it was gonna be
    a hour before it started. Krista won’t care, will she?
    CHICKY
    Probably.
    KEVIN
    You sit