Lodestar Quarterly

Issue 7 • Fall 2003 • Drama

The Hot Month

Taylor Mac Bowyer

Scene VIII

Scene VIII

JOSEPH, sits leaning against LEN, at JOSEPH's home. LEN, unbeknownst to JOSEPH, is beside him stroking JOSEPH's hair. JOSEPH talks to an imaginary friend.

JOSEPH
So we're having this family outing at the beach. Somewhere in Peru, although, I've never really been to Peru, wouldn't even know if they have beaches, but that's where the outing takes place. Peru. Sounds like a beach place. So we're having this family celebration, everyone is all smiles, so much smiling going on it hurts, like you just ate something real tart. Tart smiles. My kid decides he wants to bury me in the sand. Dutiful dad says okay. It's fun. Lots of painful smiles. So he buries me and we're still smiling. Only my head's sticking out. And the family is playing dress up with my head. No body, just a head. Smiles. No teeth just lips. The sun is real hot this day. I start thinking if I could only get in the water, the cool water, then maybe I could get this waxy smile off my face. It's really painful. So I try to get up only I'm stuck. I can only move my nose and parts of my eyebrows. I was always good at moving (He motions with his eyebrows.) Only I guess I'm not as good as I thought. Nobody notices. Everyone's having so much fun. They're all just laughing away. Tight laughter through waxy smiles. (He demonstrates.) Right. The more I try to flag them down the tighter the dimples. My dimples keep getting tighter. Tart tight dimples. Big encasing dimples. And the sun, you'd think would melt the wax away but it keeps stretching that thing on my face. Not the eyebrows, the smile. It keeps stretching and making the smile real tight. Right. Sun burn tight. Painful tight. Growing pain tightness. I can see the water inching its way toward me and I say to myself it's okay. I just have to wait until the tide reaches me. 'Til the water cools down the smile. Relaxes the smile. So I wait. I wait. I'll just wait.

Another door is heard being knocked down offstage. RED and GRIFFIN enter.

RED
We've come for the teeth, you dog snatcher.

RED punches JOSEPH.

JOSEPH
OW.

GRIFFIN
Red?

LEN
A fight! A fight! A Hopi and a White!

GRIFFIN
Lenny!

JOSEPH
My name's Joseph.

RED
Peaches, don't get too close.

GRIFFIN
You could've broken his nose. You probably did.

RED
He's a thief.

GRIFFIN
So are you.

RED
You don't steal people's dogs. You don't steal people's teeth.

GRIFFIN
You all right?

RED
I'm telling you, Griffin, stay back.

GRIFFIN
He's bleeding. He's crying. You made him cry.

RED
Crap.

JOSEPH
I found the dogs in a truck.

RED
My truck.

JOSEPH
I thought they were abandoned.

RED
They're mine.

JOSEPH
They were hungry.

RED
So you feed them, there's no need to steal... stop crying. I didn't hit you that hard.

GRIFFIN
He's bleeding.

RED
You're not helping.

JOSEPH
I'm a little stuck, huh?

GRIFFIN
What?

JOSEPH
"No!
That's not for you.
Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing."

RED
Oh, dear.

JOSEPH
Dr. Seuss. My kid, he likes that. Boom Bands.

GRIFFIN
Lets get you cleaned up.

Lights out on JOSEPH's home as MAG walks on stage.

Next Page:   Scene IX   (page 11 of 12 pages)

All Pages:   See the entire play on one page

Table of Contents:   The Hot Month

Taylor Mac Bowyer's plays include The Hot Month (recipient of the Ensemble Studio Theater's "Next-Step Fellowship"), Red Tide Blooming, Dilating (an evening of one-acts), The Levee (published by Vintage), Blue Grotto, and the solo-play Okay. He is a member of the Circle Repertory Lab and has acted with The Jean Cocteau Repertory, Mabou Mines, Dixon Place, and at several regional theaters. As drag performer, Taylor Mac, he has performed in venues such as Joe's Pub, FEZ, and the San Francisco Opera House.

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