Bone Cage by Catherine Banks

Scene 2
    Lights up.
    CHICKY sits next to the river.
    CHICKY
    I don’t know how my head gets tired mowing sod fields but it does.
    It hurts all day like when I was waiting for Trav’s next breath, and then the next one.
    There’s this elm tree on the edge of the river
    I mow past fifty times a day.
    It’s dead, been dead for a few years like all the elms.
    This tree looks exactly like a scarred, burnt-out woman.
    An old woman who had twenty kids and they all died of cancer of the brain while she was at the store.
    The branches are broken off ’n what’s left looks like arms thrust over her head, panicked.
    Where her breasts were are these two gaping holes and she’s got
    a bigger hole that looks like a vagina opening up, only its below her ribs like where Christ was wounded.
    She’s got a face too.
    The peckers have been at her but she got these two eyes and the bark below them is buckled, like a mouth getting ready for a good bellow.
    â€œI told you to stay away from the goddamn river.”
    There’s a lot of power in her anyway
    and she’s not too happy with me.
    Rolling up the sod, taking up a layer of soil every time.
    I tell her it’s a job so I can stay.
    She tells me it’s my soul.
    My soul, I tell her, isn’t worth anything.
    She knows that because I’ve told her everything in the last three years as I’ve mowed past her.
    I’ve showed her all my
(pause)
warts, let’s just say.
    But still she waves those old arms at me
    tells me I’m peeling away my only hope of
redemption
    thin layer by thin layer.
    The lights expand to show KRISTA, standing behind CHICKY, fumbling with a tightly rolled square of paper. JAMIE and KEVIN are sitting up on the bridge. The distance is suggested by the fact KRISTA and CHICKY must shout up to the boys to be heard.
    This is their summer hangout. They know this place like they know their own bodies. It is Saturday just before noon.
    KRISTA
    (reading)
“Love…
    Is patient and kind: love is not
    Jealous, or conceited, or proud,
    Or provoked; love does not keep
    A record of wrongs; love is not
    Happy with evil, but is pleased
    With the truth…”
    CHICKY
    Krista what is that?
    KRISTA
    It’s our scroll.
    (reading)
“Love never gives
    Up: its faith, hope and patience never fail.
    Thank you for sharing with us every
    Precious moment of this day.
    Jamie and Krista.”
    It’ll be rolled up by the plate and have a fuchsia ribbon tied onto it.
    CHICKY
    Do we always have to talk about the wedding?
    KRISTA
    Excuse me for wanting a perfect wedding day.
    (pause)
My guts are tender. I must be ovulating.
    CHICKY
    Krista if you aren’t having your period or PMS then you’re
    ovulating, or you got break-through bleeding.
    KRISTA
    Doctor can’t find no reason for it.
    The doctor told me to go off the pill soon as I can.
    CHICKY
    You said you didn’t want kids ’til you build.
    KRISTA
    When we’re married we can use something else.
    CHICKY
    What difference will
being married
make?
    KRISTA
    It will is all.
    CHICKY
    Yeah right. You hear anything about Carol from anybody?
    KRISTA
    No. Like what?
    CHICKY
    Nothing. Nothing I said.
    KRISTA
    You got some dances in last night.
    CHICKY
    Two fast ones.
    KRISTA
    Reg’s not going to slow dance you with Carol standing right there.
    CHICKY
    Reg slow dances Carol with me standing right there.
    KRISTA
    Even if they don’t have sex anymore, she is his wife.
    CHICKY laughs.
    What?
    CHICKY
    You are going to be just like all the rest you know.
    Soon as you’re a wife I’ll be the enemy.
    KRISTA
    I told ya I won’t be. You won’t be.
    CHICKY
    Okay. You going for a swim?
    KRISTA
    No, I think I’m ovulating.
    CHICKY
    (Jesus.)
    KEVIN sits to the left of JAMIE. He has his arm hooked around the side rail of the bridge. He is unable to unhook his arm for any reason, as he is afraid of heights. JAMIE is the ultimate cool to KEVIN’S