Lodestar Quarterly

Issue 7 • Fall 2003 • Drama

The Hot Month

Taylor Mac Bowyer

Scene X

Scene X

Sunset. MAG, GRIFFIN, RED, and JOSEPH are all crammed in RED's bench/truck. There's not enough room so GRIFFIN is sitting on JOSEPH's lap. All five dogs, unseen to us, are in the hatch. RED is honking the horn and giving someone the bird out the window. Silence.

MAG
Well, this is fun. (RED starts to roll a cigarette) No smoking, please. Baby on board.

RED
(To GRIFFIN) Are you the father?

GRIFFIN and MAG
No.

JOSEPH
There is no father, she had an immanent conception.

MAG
Immaculate.

JOSEPH
Sorry, sometimes I mess up words like that.

RED
(to MAG) I knew there was something special about you. You have one powerful third eye.

MAG
Yeah, that's what all the girls say. I hear you wield lightning?

RED
On occasion.

MAG
We're just a special group. Griff speaks to the comatose, I astro-project, what do you do, Joseph?

JOSEPH
I don't know.

MAG
You can be the tooth fairy. Oh, it's time to pull out the angel cards.

RED
I love those.

MAG
Of course you do.

GRIFFIN
Mag.

MAG
What?

GRIFFIN
Just be nice.

MAG
Or what? She'll electrocute my ass.

RED
I just might.

MAG
Did you really have shock treatment?

RED
(To GRIFFIN) You told her that?

MAG
I tend to overhear things during drug-induced torpors. Did you really have shock treatment?

RED
Yeah, they shocked me. The whole fucking world shocks me. Hey I knew this girl, used to rub her hand on the carpet at school and chase after all the boys, ZAP! ZAP! She was one tough cookie... ZAP! We're all wishing we had the power of the Zap girl.

MAG
I thought you already had the power of the Zap girl.

JOSEPH
Anyone wanna sing road songs?

RED
Sure.

MAG
He was joking.

JOSEPH
Too bad.

RED
I was?

GRIFFIN
Can I have my teeth?

MAG
No.

GRIFFIN
Why not?

MAG
I swallowed them.

GRIFFIN
Just give them to me.

MAG
No.

Silence

RED
(Sings) "She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes. She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes. She'll be coming round the mountain she'll be coming round the mountain, she'll be coming round the mountain when she comes. We'll all go out and meet her..."

MAG is unable to handle a second verse.

MAG
He was joking.

JOSEPH
Does anyone know where we're going?

MAG
Someplace serene. Quiet. Clean.

RED
Mexico City.

MAG
That will do.

JOSEPH
We're not really going to Mexico are we? I have to work in the morning.

GRIFFIN
I thought you were stuck in the waiting place.

JOSEPH
Oh, well...

GRIFFIN
You're welcome to leave at anytime. (They keep driving in silence.) We're going east, shouldn't we be going south?

RED
Oh, dear.

JOSEPH
We're lost?

RED
You see more when you get lost.

MAG
We're lost.

RED
You're never lost.

MAG
Enough with the slogans already.

GRIFFIN
Margaret. (MAG throws the teeth out the window. LEN appears and catches them. LEN disappears.) What did you do? Stop the truck. Why would you do that?

MAG
Keep driving. Come on. The police are gonna be looking for the band of gasoline robbers and the crazy mother who stole her baby from the local hospital. We have to go.

GRIFFIN
Get out.

RED
We're stopping, my ass hurts. Nobody cares about us.

GRIFFIN
What did you do?

RED
You know if there is a God, he better kiss me soon or I'm gonna get a flat ass from all the sitting I seem to be doing.

RED puts the truck in reverse and parks it. Everyone files out. GRIFFIN scrambles about looking for the teeth.

MAG
I'm sorry.

GRIFFIN
You're sorry. Look for them.

MAG tries to give the baby to GRIFFIN so she can look.

MAG
Here.

GRIFFIN
No way.

MAG
Jesus Christ. (She gives JOSEPH the baby) Here.

GRIFFIN
Did anybody see where they landed? Oh, fuck.

JOSEPH
I think they went over the edge.

JOSEPH stands still looking out while the others scramble about on the ground.

MAG
It's getting dark, we're never gonna find them.

GRIFFIN
I don't understand.

MAG
We have to go.

GRIFFIN
Why would you do it? Keep looking.

MAG
I'm being difficult. I'm sorry.

GRIFFIN
Why did you have the baby? Why didn't you tell me? Anybody?

MAG
I didn't have much of a choice, I forgot.

GRIFFIN
That's convenient.

MAG
Fuck you.

GRIFFIN
You never acted like you were pregnant, like you had something special inside you.

MAG
How are pregnant woman suppose to act? You tell me Mr. Faggot.

GRIFFIN
Sacred.

MAG
Don't Griff, just don't.

GRIFFIN
Did you want it? Really?

MAG
It's not an it.

RED
I get so sad for the world, it's all gotta end soon, and then I think, "At least the population explosion is declining."

MAG
The support here is overwhelming.

GRIFFIN
I guess I can understand wanting a baby in your hour of need. They're cute and cuddly and will love you unconditionally, 'til they learn otherwise, anyway. Everybody has their dysfunctions.

MAG
You really think that's why I had her?

GRIFFIN
YOU THREW MY TEETH OFF A CLIFF. (GRIFFIN looks out at the cliff.) What is this?

JOSEPH
The Rio Grande.

RED
My God, it's just like Thelma and Louise.

GRIFFIN
Only different.

RED
Shhh, fantasy, spoil, shhh.

MAG
I never talked about it with you. It was so quiet inside, just a little extra heartbeat, a little extra rhythm. I couldn't say. Too scared I wouldn't be able to hear her. You ever feel that way, like you couldn't possibly open your mouth?

JOSEPH
I have. I do, most of the time.

MAG
Me, too.

RED
Peaches, I'm leaving you.

GRIFFIN
What?

RED
This relationship is completely... what's your word?

GRIFFIN
Dysfunctional.

RED
It's time to be healthy. The healing process takes a long time. For every bad thing you do to yourself it takes twenty good things to take the bad away.

GRIFFIN
That doesn't seem fair.

RED
It's not. I'm sorry, short and sweet. It's always the best way.

MAG
I hope you're not breaking up on account of me.

RED
Falls approaching soon. It's such a blessing, the new season. I live at the place that sound travels to. All the sound in the universe travels through me. Sound is sneaky that way. You may think it stops when you can't hear it anymore but you'd be wrong. It keeps going 'til it catches me. If I stay in one place too long, the sound knows where to get me, I go a little nuts. A person's brain was only built to take in so much noise. That's also why I know such an assortment of stuff. Every conversation that's ever been, has journeyed to these ears. I'm catching one from France as we speak. I wish I knew what it meant. The only thing in French I know how to say is, "How is Monique?" "Qui est Monique?"

MAG
That's "Who is Monique?"

RED
Shit. Really? Shit. Nobody ever said it anyway.

JOSEPH
We're not going to Mexico then?

RED
Mexico, New Mexico what's the difference? (Suddenly there is a change in the lights -- the sun has set in fast motion and night is passing quickly. Everyone notices.) Shooting star season in the dessert. Coming to an end. The last big hurray. (They watch in wonder. MAG takes her baby back from JOSEPH. GRIFFIN separates himself from the others. He continues looking over the edge of the Rio Grande. LEN enters and approaches him.

LEN
Time's running out, Griff.

GRIFFIN
Time: A system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future.

LEN
Right. Did you know the French used to have their own calendar?

GRIFFIN
No.

LEN
After the revolution. They wanted to eradicate all forms of religion from their system so they got rid of the "Before Christ" phoo phaw and started naming the months after things in nature. The Misty Month, The Harvest Month, The Fruity Month.

GRIFFIN
Interesting.

LEN
The Muslim countries have their own time measurement system, too. The Chinese. The Jewish. Astrologers. We used to go by the Julian calendar until Pope Gregory decided he wanted his name put down in history. Man makes up this theory called time, then battles it out for the copyright. Whatcha looking at?

GRIFFIN is still looking over the edge.

GRIFFIN
Lately, I've been imagining horrible things happening to me.

MAG
(To the baby and us) In my dream for the world green is everywhere.

GRIFFIN
It gives me comfort.

MAG
Lots of green, things that grow. Protected by some giant ozone cloche. Not unlike the way a good part of it already is.

RED
I'm sorry I hit your nose.

JOSEPH
It's okay.

GRIFFIN
I contract flesh-eating disease from the corner pay phone.

RED
I forgot, people aren't always malicious. Thought you stole my babies, didn't know.

JOSEPH
I'm glad you got them back.

GRIFFIN
I'm shot down by Peruvian rebels in Kentucky Fried Chicken.

MAG
Winter comes and all the green moves inside. It never dies, just moves in.

RED
You've got good ears, Joseph.

MAG
It understands what you can't say out loud.

RED
Sing me a song. Just for me.

JOSEPH
I only know one song.

RED
That will do.

JOSEPH sings and hums softly "She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain When She Comes." LEN swings the teeth around.

GRIFFIN
I get bitten by a mosquito and die from West Nile Virus in New Mexico... with you holding hands, weeping, beside me. Changing bed pans, my leman sexton. My revenge. You have my teeth.

LEN
They're mine remember.

GRIFFIN
Give them to me Len.

LEN
No.

GRIFFIN
I want 'em back.

LEN
Well I'm not gonna give 'em to you.

GRIFFIN
Don't play, Lenny. (GRIFFIN starts to take them from LEN, who holds them away from him. They wrestle, LEN puts them in his mouth.) What are you doing? You're gonna choke, baby.

LEN
mmmmmmmmm

GRIFFIN
Len, spit the teeth out.

LEN
nnnnnnnnn

GRIFFIN
God damn it, you little prick.

LEN
mmmmmmmmmm

GRIFFIN
Please.

LEN
mmmmmmmmmm

GRIFFIN kisses him. LEN is wary of the kiss at first but then gives into it. GRIFFIN gets the teeth from LEN's mouth during the kiss. GRIFFIN holds on to them and then gives them back to LEN.

GRIFFIN
I used to think if I held you and allowed myself to love you I could fix everything. All our adolescent issues. Moms, dads, bullies, pimples. It all seems a little silly now. I'm sorry. I should be braver. I feel dead.

LEN
I feel dead, you're just a little lost. Watch me.

GRIFFIN
Why?

LEN begins to climb.

LEN
I can stare at the sun. I can look directly at it.

RED
I heard somewhere, that emotion only happens when something surprises you.

LEN
My blood never went cold, on the contrary, it was getting too hot for the organs.

RED
The trick to feeling in this too harsh world is to get yourself in those situations where surprises can happen.

LEN
I've been metamorphosing, becoming a self-luminous heavenly body, so nothing burns away, nothing goes blind.

MAG
Feet only get cold so they can be warmed by the fire...

LEN
I'm sending my rays of light off in search of adventure. Like baby spiders zooming off in all directions. The kind that don't stick around to eat mom.

MAG
...sex is like being held...

LEN
No more vicious trolling for me.

MAG
...and clothes always feel like they just came out of the dryer.

RED
I lose my breath when I think about it.

LEN
All the answers to everything you could possibly imagine are just bubbling away in the sun.

MAG
Things I feel too silly to say to anything but the green.

LEN
You begin to see the moments simultaneously. Live in the moment? They should make that plural.

RED
The surprises are so sweet. You sing so sweetly.

LEN
It's one of those things that steals your breath away, but because it's been stolen, you can't help but breathe.

RED
It's like jumping in ice cold water, this life.

MAG
What a surprise you are.

LEN
Griff.

GRIFFIN
Yeah.

LEN
Watch me?

GRIFFIN takes MAG's hand.

GRIFFIN
Yeah.

GRIFFIN, MAG, RED and JOSEPH watch LEN.

MAG
What a surprise.

The lights shine as bright as the sun. Blackout. End of play.

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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