Issue 3 • Fall 2002 • Featured Writer • Drama
Nicola Harwood
VI
And When the Ice Begins to Melt: Rivers
RCMP investigating Lily. Lily sits as though at the principal's office.
RCMP
Missing Lily. The woman and the girl. Both missing.
LILY
Big jack shit.
RCMP
It was reported someone stole the woman's car -- a young Native kid. Sounded a lot like your kid, Lily.
LILY
Frances can't drive -- she's only fourteen.
RCMP
And that the mother was last seen with you. In your car.
LILY
And you know I'm not allowed drive.
RCMP
Lily you better start cooperating right now.
LILY
So would we call this high level, low level, or medium level?
RCMP
I'm warning you.
LILY
You never come all the way out here when it's a Indian.
RCMP
What am I supposed to do? Drag every one of you in to sober up?
LILY
Fuck you.
RCMP
When was the last time you were sober, Lily?
LILY
I'm so fuckin' sober it hurts.
RCMP
Dryer than cat shit and twice as nasty.
LILY
Why you think I seen 'em?
RCMP
You see everything.
LILY
Maybe that's what's wrong with me.
RCMP
There are rumors.
LILY
What rumors?
RCMP
New information, Lily. New facts have come to light. Concerning your husband. The night he disappeared. Where were you?
LILY
I was at Reena's.
RCMP
Between midnight and morning.
LILY
I was passed out in the bushes behind Reena's.
RCMP
You and Alex had your...difficulties.
LILY
Yeah, well he's a mean drunk.
RCMP
And you?
LILY
I'm mean all the time.
RCMP
Where were you the night Alex Jack disappeared, Lily?
LILY
I told you where I was.
RCMP
Did you follow them to town?
LILY
No!
RCMP
No one's got any memory of seeing you after Alex left for town.
LILY
They were all passed out!
RCMP
Six weeks before Alex Jack disappeared you ended up in Williams Lake hospital with three broken ribs and a concussion.
LILY
I fell down some stairs.
RCMP
A black eye and twelve stitches in your cheek.
LILY
That's my business. That's my and Alex's business!
RCMP
At this point in the investigation --
LILY (spits it out)
Investigation!
RCMP
You are our prime suspect.
LILY
Me!?
RCMP
You.
Silence.
RCMP
All I need is directions, Lily. All I need is for you to point me in the right direction.
Alice, quite lost.
ALICE
Cowshit to creek. Creek to.... A firepit. Still warm from last night. This particular cut in the bank. Triangle. Square. Circles. Are perhaps the most difficult geometric form to draw without the assistance of a mechanical aid. Is this my firepit? Are these my footprints?
Martha, also quite lost.
MARTHA
There are holes. There are holes. In our knowledge of pre-contact civilizations of the Chilcotin plateau and Fraser River Canyons. There are holes in the content, in the way we see -- let's see -- we focus on the...facts. The matter. Width, depth, weight, and mass. But what about the non-facts. The archeology of space? Where we may or may not exist.
For instance in the burial patterns of the Upper Fraser River peoples. We cannot seem to figure out how they disposed of their dead. Missing.
People do not just disappear. There is evidence. There has to be evidence.
The facts. The fact of skin. The fact of bone, of blood, of intestines and teeth. The contents of the stomach at the time of death. The space where teeth should have been, or a skull -- no longer whole. No longer, a fact.
That tells us something.
Alice and Martha, intercut.
MARTHA
Shapes. Appear in the half light.
ALICE
I thought I saw someone.
MARTHA
A man. Then, when I approach --
ALICE
Nothing. Other times --
MARTHA
Other shapes. I don't recognize.
ALICE
The nights are not warm and the last fire I had was three days ago. I have not eaten in as many nights.
MARTHA
Animals or...?
ALICE
I never believed --
MARTHA
Hanna?
ALICE
Perhaps one should prepare oneself for the inevitable. But how?
MARTHA
HANNA!
Hanna and Frances. Standing on a cliff high above the Fraser River. Dawn. They both face downstage. Frances slightly downstage of Hanna, she nurses a split lip, a bruised face.
HANNA
You coulda got us killed.
FRANCES
You don't know nothin' about us up here.
HANNA
You promised. You said.
FRANCES
Look at me. This ain't no sacred place.
Beat. Silence.
HANNA
It's like we're on the edge of the land. Like we've come right to the edge. The river. The canyon. The sky.
FRANCES
It doesn't mean nothin'.
HANNA
It's not sacred?
FRANCES
Nothin's sacred anymore.
HANNA
What about me?
FRANCES
What about you?
HANNA
You...touched me.
FRANCES
I touched you. And now you're leavin'. I must have the magic touch.
HANNA
I'm not leaving.
FRANCES
You're leavin'. Your leavin' soon as we get your Mom's car back. You'll be gone.
HANNA
Then we won't take her car back.
Beat.
FRANCES
The night he disappeared. I left. I left and I come down here to the river. Hardly any moon -- just enough to see the edge of the canyon up above. I thought if I just waited. Waited out the party. Waited out the hangover the next morning. Maybe he wouldn't start again the next afternoon. Maybe. If I waited long enough.
You touch me. You touch me...your hand goes through me like I'm not here.
HANNA
It doesn't feel that way to me.
FRANCES
Well, it does to me.
HANNA
You touch me. Your hand goes through me like fire.
FRANCES
You're leavin'.
HANNA
I know.
FRANCES
You're not that Shuswap girl at all.
HANNA
No. I'm not.
FRANCES
What are you anyhow?
HANNA
Nothin'. Crazy.
FRANCES
No, you're not.
Hanna approaches Frances and then suddenly turns and runs.
FRANCES
Hey -- hey!
Hanna comes to a sudden stop. She is now at the very edge of the river. Frances catches up to her just as she jumps off the bank, across water and on to a large rock.
Hanna turns back and starts to laugh.
HANNA
Come on! Jump! Come on!
Frances jumps. They cling to each other, laughing.
Passion ensues.
We hear a crash. Alice, like a great moose, enters and stops.
FRANCES
What the hell is that?
ALICE (to herself -- about seeing the girls)
A human being.
HANNA (simultaneously with Alice)
A human being.
FRANCES
From where, the museum?
ALICE
Two. Human beings.
Alice approaches.
ALICE
My luck! To come upon two lovely girls. On the middle of a rock, in the middle of the river. In the middle of nowhere! Doing some exploring yourselves?
Frances looks at Hanna.
ALICE
Or perhaps you're stranded! My goodness -- keep your wits about you Alice. A pole? -- a plank ? A paddle!
She reaches her paddle across to them to grab hold of. They each do and jump back to shore.
ALICE
Looks like I arrived in the nick of time! Alice Campbell, explorer!
She thrusts forward her paddle then corrects herself and thrusts forward her hand.
FRANCES
We're just leaving.
ALICE
No! Don't go! Gracious -- I don't think you comprehend the gravity of my situation. I've had a bit of a difficult time of it...In fact I'm quite lost. Pause. If you would be so kind as to lead me toward someplace where I might refurbish my supplies. Somewhere, something... resembling civilization?
Frances looks at Hanna.
HANNA
We can take you back to the reservation.
Frances looks at Hanna like she's nuts.
ALICE
The reservation. That sounds civilized. Very good then. The reservation!
Frances pulls Hanna aside.
FRANCES
Are you nuts? What if she's a killer?
HANNA
She's not a killer.
FRANCES
She's got a paddle.
ALICE
I don't suppose I could impose upon the two of you for something to eat or drink?
Frances hands her a half empty bottle of wine.
FRANCES
This all we got.
ALICE
Ah -- Dionysus --
She swigs out of the bottle.
ALICE
Civilization is at hand.
They exit.
Lily up in her roost, she has a red bandana tied around her neck, she's cleaning and loading her rifle. RCMP is tied up, on his knees, center stage in imitation of the first image of Alice at top of play.
LILY
How about that time at Stampede I turned them wild bulls loose into the ring during the RCMP musical ride -- you remember that, Johnson?
RCMP
McIntyre.
LILY
That was pretty damn funny. One of them cops fell off right into a pile of horse shit.
RCMP
Lily, you are stepping over the line this time. Way over the line.
LILY
It was a joke.
RCMP
Resisting arrest...assault with a deadly weapon!
LILY
Can't you cops ever take a joke?
RCMP
You know how this will end. You know how it always ends.
LILY
I do know McIntyre. I know too damn well how it'll end, that's why I figure I got nothin' to lose. I'm not playin' by your rules anymore. Fuck that, McIntyre. Fuck that and fuck you.
She grins. Checks the sights in her gun.
Frances, Hanna, and Alice in car. Alice is a little drunk.
ALICE
Curriculum! Curriculum. Bully crap on that! It was Delia. Delia who brought her own blood of Christ to Sunday service in a lead cut crystal wine glass. Delia -- assaulting the sensibilities of the school district headmaster's wife by sliding her hand up the woman's leg during the "Our Father." Delia, entirely unaccustomed to hardship of any sort; who upon the suspension of my teaching license and subsequent loss of income, immediately returned to live with her previous on Saltspring Island.
Bully crap on Delia!
And so I set off. Completely alone. The masculine ideal. Alone against the elements. The terrain. The mosquitoes! If not for my personal accomplishment then for the accomplishment of my unfortunate bloody sex!
Silence.
FRANCES
So you were headin' to the coast?
ALICE
"Overland Assault!" West Coast of Canada. Mid-sized river engorged with spring runoff -- Slipped! Fell! Three days no food, no fire...disoriented, hypothermic, about to give up the ghost -- so to speak...when suddenly -- as though out of a bucolic dream from a distant time and place...I come upon: two young women clutched in an embrace! (pause, whispers) The love that dare not speak its name!
Hanna and Frances look at each other.
ALICE
That's what Oscar Wilde called it.
Still no response.
ALICE
Historically, the Greeks maintained homosexual alliances provided balance to the overburdened facility of marriage.
Frances chokes when she hears the word "homosexual." Hanna spins around.
ALICE
Sapphic love is another popular reference!
HANNA
Sapphic what?!
ALICE
"Some say cavalry, others say infantry
or a fleet of long oars is the supreme sight
upon the black earth,
I say, it is the one you love..."
FRANCES
Who the hell are you?
ALICE
Paddler, precursor, ancestor.
FRANCES
Ancestor?
ALICE
Of you. Of her. Of sorts.
FRANCES
You don't look like any of my ancestors.
ALICE
We're not exactly blood related --
HANNA
Or mine.
ALICE
-- in this family.
FRANCES
What are you, a ghost or something?
ALICE
In fact. I am.
HANNA
You're dead?
ALICE
Yes. I suppose you could call me that. Yes. I'm dead. Quite dead in fact.
Hanna touches Alice.
HANNA
You don't feel dead.
ALICE (realizing this)
No. I don't.
HANNA
Do you like it?
ALICE
Being dead?
HANNA
Being a... (looks at Frances, grins) lesbian.
Frances chokes again.
ALICE (smiles)
"I could not hope to touch the sky with my two arms."
She raises her arms. They pull to a stop. Lily's gun pointing straight at them. They are now at the reserve.
LILY
What the hell are you doing here?
FRANCES
That's a cop.
RCMP
Lily, this is really a bad thing you are doing. A really, very bad thing.
HANNA
Maybe we should go.
LILY (referring to Alice)
I thought I got rid of you.
ALICE
Almost! I became terribly lost and my life was in danger!
LILY
You don't have a life. You're dead!
ALICE
Cowshit to the creek, creek to the mountains, mountains to the sea! What kind of absurd directions are those?
LILY
Look -- there's no use arguing with a ghost -- they got no sense of logic.
RCMP
LILY!
LILY
Shut up, McIntyre.
FRANCES
Mom, what are you doing?!
ALICE
What brutal savagery is this that confronts me? An RCMP? In bondage?
FRANCES
This is insane. You are insane.
LILY
No -- this is war! An occupation! Pass me up some of them rocks down there.
FRANCES
What for?
LILY
I'm building my defense.
ALICE (to RCMP)
Looks as though you've gotten yourself in a tight spot -- but that's not unusual for a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. We've arrived just in time! A theatrical event! An opera! A novel come to life! Let me get my knife!
Alice brandishes her knife.
LILY
Goddamn it. I'm changing the course of history!
RCMP
Too late for that.
LILY
Stop her!
Frances tries to block Alice, but Alice, using her paddle as a hockey stick, shoulder checks Frances and knocks her away. Hanna tries also. Alice decks her out and shoulder checks her also. It's a hockey game and Alice is on a break away. Alice begins cutting loose the RCMP.
ALICE
Not to worry, Officer. Left forward. Victoria Maidens All Star Women's Hockey Team!
RCMP stands, his hands are no longer tied.
RCMP
Game's over. Come down, Lily.
LILY
I'm not comin' down.
RCMP
Then I'm coming up.
He starts to climb up to Lily's roost. Lily picks up her gun and aims it at RCMP. Quietly.
LILY
I ain't goin' nowhere. Not with you. Not this time. You think I killed Alex Jack? I woulda had to stand in line. But you. You're here right in front of me like a spring buck. A stupid spring buck with a bright yellow stripe.
She raises her gun to her shoulder.
RCMP
Lily, don't be crazy.
LILY
Too late for that McIntyre. Way too late for that.
Lily cocks her gun. Alice raises her paddle over her head and charges, bellowing like a moose. Lily spins and shoots her. She falls back, flat out like the wicked witch: toes up. RCMP grabs Lily's gun. Hanna runs to Alice.
HANNA
Oh my god -- call someone. Do something! Somebody.
All stop for an instant. Alice pops up. Checks her chest.
ALICE
Temporary setback!
Alice leaps up with her paddle to charge again. Hanna grabs her paddle to hold her back. They tug of war with the paddle.
HANNA
No!
RCMP starts pulling LILY, trying to get her down off the platform.
RCMP
MOVE! You goddamn stupid squaw. Move!
Frances grabs RCMP by the arm and bites him hard. He drops the gun and spins away, down off the roost, holding his arm.
RCMP
Jesus! Jesus Christ!
RCMP runs right into Martha. Bedraggled and dusty. She carries a bundle.
HANNA
Mom!
MARTHA
Officer. Silence. There was a man. At least I thought -- I saw -- He. It was that man. From up on the road. I'm sure of it. He was -- heavy. Wearing -- That's when I found --
Martha unfolds her bundle, a red checked jacket and within it a skull.
Then I was at the road again. As though I'd never left it. I walked. I just kept walking 'til I got here. Martha looks at Lily. The cause of death appeared...self-inflicted.
Silence. Martha hands the skull and jacket to Frances.
LILY
Get out. All of you. Go away.
RCMP
Lily --
LILY
Get out of my way.
Lily comes slowly down out of her roost. Martha goes to Hanna and they hold each other. Silence. Long pause. Lily takes the skull.
Long pause. She sits.
LILY (to Frances)
That night. I told him I wasn't gonna be his wife no more. I told him not to come home. I told him, I said. Don't come back home no more.
Long pause. Martha to RCMP.
MARTHA
If you'd like directions....
Black.
Lily in her roost. She is sewing a pair of moccasins. Frances and Hanna. Hanna has small fragments of paper.
LILY
Winter comes up here like a bare blade. Trees crack. Frozen lake cracks with a boom you can hear for miles. And the dark. Some days when a storm's in, the only color anywhere: beads. Blue, red, yellow, and green. Sky blue. White.
Moccasins, lined with beaver.
FRANCES
They got Greyhound buses go right to Vancouver, eh?
HANNA
Fragments. Pieces of poems. Like tiny fractured bones.
FRANCES
I won't get lost?
HANNA
Sappho bones.
FRANCES
I don't wanna end up in Alberta.
HANNA
Translucent. When you hold them up to the light --
FRANCES
You'll show me the sights.
HANNA
-- whole lives.
Alice comes gliding through.
ALICE
There's something to be said for getting lost. Experimentation. Free hand. Lines that cross and re-cross and don't seem to lead anywhere at all. Note the progress of the river. Born in the mountains, it runs first north, then east, then south and finally: west.
LILY
So his feet won't freeze. So he can walk home anytime he feels like.
FRANCES
Maybe two, three days. We'll have a look around, eh? You and me.
HANNA
You and me.
Frances catches her from behind. Hanna lifts her arms, scatters the poems.
HANNA
"I could not hope to touch the sky with my two arms."
Hanna and Frances kiss.
ALICE (looking at Hanna and Frances)
Ah. Youth. Desire. Good weather. What more could one possibly need?
End of Play.
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