the news:
They set your motherâs date an hour ago.
Isabel Cassandra: Death by poison!
JOHN wails.
Lights narrow: GRANNY , the cross, the sign: SURPLUS STORE.
HT sings as he enters from Surplus Store.
HT : If you ever get to Houston
Boy you better walk right
You better not gamble
And you better not fight
â¦Whatâs all the fuss? Whereâd everybody go?
Maâam, I heard my friend Iâm waiting on
Raising his voice in here. I know his voice.
GRANNY wakes to see HT standing before the cross.
GRANNY BLACK: Whose ghost are you? Which one? Which murdered angel?
HT : Do I look like a ghost? Iâm not a ghost.
(Am I a ghost?â¦I donât remember dyingâ¦)
Iâm waiting on a friend, a friendâI know his voiceâ
GRANNY BLACK : Harold Thomas Watson! I see you!
I feel your fangs sinking into my soul!
I didnât tell him to! Nobody told him!
Demons sent and fetched him, slapped him, rocked himâ
Everybody knew heâd kill somebody.
Iâm the one he should have killedâhe loved me!
Iâm the one he should have killedâI loved him!
I swear Iâm leaving town. Iâm bound for Dallas.
I wonât be here among your children nor
Your childrenâs children on the Huntsville streetsâ
Theyâll never have to look at me again!
Leave this poor old woman to the black
And miserable damnation love has earned her.
Her wailing blends with ambulanceâs siren.
BLACKOUT
Part II
About a year later.
Split scene: Left, hospital waiting room. Right, hospital room.
Lights up stage right:
Hospital room. Early summer morning. Dark but for the light of the monitors, and a bit of dawn.
SIMON lies in bed, a silhouette.
Â
SIMON : I have kissed your prayers kissed your prayers
Roller coaster rollinâ through the rain
The oceanic shoulders of the throng
Undulating slowly breakfastward
Mobile tit!
NURSE has entered. She opens the window.
NURSE : Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â A lovely one is coming!
Lovely! Iâll just crack the jamb before
The hot of the day, soâs you can breathe the morning.
â¦O, Lordy God, it smells so sweet and green
It almost nearly stinks.
SIMON :Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Soft fuck-me music
Plays the little baby radio
Bare room shaken by a passing train
NURSE : The little baby radio. Thatâs cute.
She turns on radio. While she fluffs his pillows, records his vitals, etc.:
JIMMY BOGGS [ sings on radio ]:
All your promises
The things you said
NURSE : That Jimmy Boggs is just untalented.
JIMMY BOGGS [ sings on radio ]:
Using grand words
Like eternity and love
NURSE : A singing voice like garbage cans turned over.
She cuts the radio.
SIMON : Your holy pussy your precious cunt
Thereâs never been a sweeter ride to Hell
NURSE : How quiet and delicious is the air.
Like anything can happen in the world.
What an atmosphereâ¦Ah, God. Ah, Godâ¦
They mow the lawns, it drags me back to Dallasâ¦
I wish they had the ice-cream trucks again⦠Meanwhile,
WILL BLAINE has entered in medical smock.
WILL : You wish they had the ice-cream trucks again.
SIMON : The generous wide feet of pachyderms
NURSE : Weâre almost done here, Doc.
WILL :Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Iâm not a doctor.
Just a tech.
NURSE :Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Blood?
WILL :Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â In a sense.
NURSE :Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Letâs seeâ
SIMON : Geezing bugspray in the slimy night
NURSE :âDo you have orders? I donât seem to haveâ
WILL : Uhâno. Iâm not your colleague. Actually,
Simon is my brother.
NURSE :Â Â Â Â