Issue 3 • Fall 2002 • Featured Writer • Drama
Nicola Harwood
CHARACTERS
Lily
Female. First Nations. 36 years.
Alice Campbell
An explorer. A ghost. White. circa 1908.
Martha
An archeologist. White. 35 years.
Hanna
Female. White. Martha's daughter. 14 years.
Frances
Female. First Nations. Lily's daughter. A boy-girl. 14 years.
RCMP
A white police officer.
SETTING
The Central Interior of British Columbia, 1970.
STAGING
The play needs to have defined areas that are transformative, have the ability to be isolated with light and indicate different locations. Simple boxes can indicate a car. The only specific set piece required is a rickety roost above stage left for Lily. Her roost is her home, her ground -- even though it's in the air -- and she never leaves it until the final moments of the play.
All characters onstage. We hear drums, rattles, and sighs. Lily above the stage. Lily aims a .22-caliber rifle at Alice Campbell who is on her knees, facing downstage, hands clasped around a wooden paddle, eyes downcast, praying. Lily speaks to Alice's back. Alice does not hear Lily.
LILY
Red Tide! Red Alert! Let's go fishin'! Come on, paddle! Paddle the damn boat! Over there! Put in over there -- on that beach -- yeah, that's right. Okay -- how about some clams for dinner? Sound good? Alright then. Come on, dig! Gonna rain tonight -- can you feel it? Use the stick, stupid. Dig! Deeper! Follow the bubbles. Those clams got one foot and no eyes -- you got two of everything! Red Tide. Moon's up. I'll get a fire goin' out back. We'll have ourselves a little potlatch, eh? Never mind the Coast Guard. Never mind the RCMP. I hitchhiked all the way out to Bella Coola special for this red tide. I don't care if you're Alexander McKenzie, I don't care if you're Christopher Columbus or Captain Syphilis Cook. We're gonna have ourselves a potlatch! A real Indian supper. Indian ceremony. You bet. The real thing. Clams, oysters. Enough for everyone. Come on now, dig. Dig!
Lily fires the gun. Alice simultaneously swats a mosquito on her neck. Sound out.
ALICE
There are two seasons in this country. The season of the ice and the season of the mosquito.
LILY
Dig!
Lily fires again. Alice slaps her neck again. Stands.
ALICE
Hardship?! Imagine for one minute the hardships of the Great Explorers! Months of struggling against the elements, the currents, the terrain! Never knowing what the next turn in the river might bring, never even knowing where one was half the time! But these strong and brave men never shrank from their duty to the Great Dominion of Canada. And neither shall we. Forward! Press on!
Alice throws her paddle over her shoulder.
LILY
I said dig!
Lily shoots again. Alice slaps herself again.
ALICE
Bloody gnats.
Alice strides off.
We hear the opening of "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane.
Hanna and Martha.
MARTHA
To begin our journey we must keep in our mind's eye three maps. North America 12,000 BC. Where the Bering Straight is today -- a land bridge.
HANNA
Vancouver, 1970. East Hastings. Midnight. I'm stoned on a tab of white blotter acid. I trip over a man slumped on the sidewalk. His face is dark. Ruptured and bleeding. I stumble into a cafe and order a burger.
MARTHA
And where the mountains are today, where the forests and rivers are today: ice.
HANNA
The sheet of acid was printed in faint purple lines with the picture of a unicorn with wings. I don't have any money, the table has begun to swirl brown and muddy, like a river, and all I can think of is the periodic table, today in chemistry class and the fact that all matter that exists is made up of only 92 re-occurring elements and that the table is just an arrangement, an arrangement -- when the woman starts swearing at me in Chinese and I run out and trip again on the man. But this time I see his eyes, open and deep black like the last ice age. That old. That ancient. And he hands me a vodka bottle, empty, and I turn and I start to run.
MARTHA
And when the ice begins to melt: rivers.
HANNA
I run and I run and I run.
Frances.
FRANCES
The salmon run red and thick, coursin' through the river like blood. My father's tied himself with a rope to the Jack pine just behind me and he's standin' out on a rock, leanin' over the river holding his long-handled dip net and the river is brown and muddy and wild and it keeps throwin' itself at him like it wants him, like it wants to drag him under. He told me I gotta wait up on the cliff, but I'm not waitin', I'm climbin' down. Down toward the river.
MARTHA
Artifacts from the banks of the Fraser River, including a human skull, our most treasured possession -- have been carbon-dated to eleven thousand BC.
FRANCES
I gotta get right next to the water, feel it -- so I jump -- out on a big sandstone rock -- dry and still as the hills behind me but I'm surrounded by the water like a crazy fuckin' storm 'til my old man sees me and he starts yellin' at me to get back up away from the river and onto the cliff and then like a slow motion movie I watch him start to slip off the edge of the wet rock he's standin' on and I'm too far away, stuck there, standin' there -- "don't fall, don't you damn well fall, don't you goddamn die right in front of me!" -- and the rope catches him just then and he looks at me, his black eyes laughin' like of course he wasn't gonna die.
MARTHA
We have reason to believe further excavation of sites along the Fraser River will be equally productive. Our team will spend 12 weeks this summer preparing a field survey of the area and attempting a preliminary dig.
FRANCES
Not yet. Not then.
MARTHA
And of course all mapping and survey work will be on file for future teams.
HANNA
Map of the Vancouver streets, torn and dark as the sky above me; rain about to fall.
FRANCES
Map of the Chilcotin plateau, the Fraser river cutting through it like a knife.
HANNA
Map of the Coast Mountains disappearing into sky, drowning in cloud.
FRANCES
Map of the river buried deep in the heart of the salmon fighting their way home year after year.
HANNA
Map of that man's face.
FRANCES
Map of my father's face the night he disappeared.
HANNA
A journey across ice.
FRANCES
Map of the skull of a dead man. The ridges and hairline cracks that divide the skull into plates.
HANNA
Continents like bodies.
MARTHA
And of course, all artifacts, including human remains will become the property of the University where they can be properly preserved.
Alice enters, paddling.
ALICE
There is but one thing on this planet longer than the equator and that is the arm of British Justice, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are the men who enforce it.
RCMP officer enters and strikes a proud and happy pose.
ALICE
The little band of red-coated riders, scarcely a thousand in number, spurring singly across the plains, they turn up on lone riverway or lakeside just when most needed.
Alice paddles off. RCMP writing up shift notes.
RCMP
June 18th, 1970. Ten PM. Hastings and Main. Two prostitutes in altercation. Eleven forty nine PM. Wedding reception party at Fraser at nineteenth: noise complaint. One forty three AM. First and Cambie. Domestic dispute. 5:19 AM
We hear Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Sweet Mary." Hanna is up in a tree -- her arms extended as though she is about to try flying. It has been raining. She is soaked through. Sirens. Flashing blue and red lights.
HANNA
Hydrogen compounds --
RCMP sees Hanna. Approaches her carefully.
RCMP
Now come down out of there --
HANNA
-- such as H2O --
RCMP
You are not a bird.
HANNA
-- are present in all biological matter!
RCMP
You are not a bird.
HANNA
And God said -- "Let there be Hydrogen!"
RCMP
Hydrogen?
Hanna drops -- RCMP catches her.
HANNA
Hey!
They struggle, spin, and he hands her to Martha.
RCMP
We found her in Stanley Park. Up in a tree.
Lily hollers. RCMP turns to her. Frances haunts the edge of the stage.
LILY
Yee-haw! Okay let's head north! Map a' Dog Creek road to Williams Lake Stampede! Pile in the truck and head to town: the Maple Leaf Hotel just as she's closin' down. Climb up top the roof of the bar. Have a few beers -- watch the sunset! Sunrise -- whatever!
RCMP
Lily, come down offa there right now! I'll haul you in for disturbing the peace!
LILY
Ya-hoo!
RCMP
I'm warning you!
LILY
Fuck you, Douglas.
RCMP
I'm not Douglas, I'm MacIntyre.
LILY
Have a drink!
She wings a bottle at him. Frances exits.
RCMP
That's it, I'm coming up.
LILY
Whoa! McIntyre! Someone's stealin' your car!
Flashing blue and red lights.
RCMP
Hey! Hey!
RCMP runs off after his car. Lily peers off the edge of her platform.
LILY
Thing is -- getting' up here's one thing -- gettin' down's another.
Martha and Hanna.
MARTHA
I thought you were dead.
HANNA
Maybe I am.
MARTHA
Don't say that.
HANNA
How do you know what's real?
MARTHA
You stink like...
HANNA
I stepped in dog shit.
MARTHA
Where were you?
HANNA
At the park.
MARTHA
You said you were going to Kim's... I called Kim's.
HANNA
I tried to call you.
MARTHA
You weren't at Kim's.
HANNA
But I lost my money.
MARTHA
You can't just disappear...
HANNA
I got lost.
MARTHA
You're fourteen years old.
HANNA
When's Dad coming home?
MARTHA
He has nothing to do with this.
HANNA
You said a few weeks.
MARTHA
I was wrong. I'm sorry but that's the way it is. I can't make it any different and the sooner you accept that fact --
HANNA
What if I turn out like him?
MARTHA
You won't turn out like him.
HANNA
That's what he said. That I'm just like him.
MARTHA
You can't believe what he says.
HANNA
And what you said. You always used to say it: You're just like your father.
MARTHA
You need to go to bed. We both need to go to bed. What's wrong with your eyes? Your pupils? Why are they so black? And what the hell were you doing up in a tree?
Alice enters with two large duffel bags. She drops the bags, one on either side of Hanna and Martha.
ALICE
And now we begin the rapids. Ninety miles of which we are about to run!
Alice exits. Martha picks up her duffel bags.
HANNA
You can't make me go!
MARTHA
It's twelve weeks not the rest of your life.
HANNA
What about Dad? Who'll visit him?
MARTHA
It'll do you good to get away.
HANNA
From what?!
MARTHA
You want to be like him is that it? Is that what this behavior is about? Seeing if you can grow up and be just like him?
HANNA
It's better than being like you.
MARTHA
GET IN THE CAR!
Martha drops the bags and abruptly pushes Hanna to a sitting position. Martha sits next to her as though driving.
HANNA
Mother: angry scientist. Father: mad scientist. Me: (she sighs).
Ten hours driving in my mom's Pontiac station wagon. I load up on carsick pills -- its almost like being stoned only I sleep a lot. Eyes open, staring. Staring into sky. Dry as ashes. Beat. Dust.
She reaches out and feels the air.
HANNA
Everywhere. Dust.
Martha and Hanna arrive. Martha gets out of the car. Looks around. Frances appears. Martha doesn't see her. But Hanna does. Hanna and Frances stare at each other. Electric.
MARTHA
Hello?
Martha exits searching. Hanna watches Frances.
FRANCES (speaking to Lily)
There's some white people here.
LILY
Indian Agent?
FRANCES
No.
LILY
New social worker?
FRANCES
...no.
Martha enters.
MARTHA
I can't find anyone -- abandoned or something. Jesus. Ten hours driving and now this.
HANNA
I saw someone...
Lily appears.
LILY
Hey.
Martha jumps, startled.
MARTHA
Oh! Hello! I'm from Simon Fraser University. We're going to be surveying the area...
LILY
You're gonna survey the reservation?
MARTHA
Not exactly.
LILY
Why not -- lots to see...
MARTHA
Do you have a telephone?
LILY
Poverty. Alcoholism.
HANNA
Dogs.
LILY
A lotta broke cars.
MARTHA
Is there someone I can talk to?
LILY
You're talkin' to me.
MARTHA
Someone in charge...a...government. Representative. Perhaps if there were someone...
LILY
White?
MARTHA
With directions. Appropriate directions. I am meeting the rest of -- I'm trying to find my survey team -- the turn off -- down to the river...but there are no signs, no indications, no distinguishing features...
HANNA
Sky. Blue with a thin veil of cloud. Hills, brown with stains of purple and black. Iron oxides. And sand. Empty beer bottles. Scattered pine and fir. Dark green. A church spire. White. Shacks. And... dogs.
MARTHA
Oh my goodness...
HANNA
Fucking.
MARTHA
I really just need to find my team.
LILY
You got a cigarette?
MARTHA
I don't smoke.
Frances moves around the stage, avoiding Martha's gaze. Climbs into the "car" with Hanna.
LILY
What else you got in there?
MARTHA
Scientific equipment. Map-making equipment. Nothing that would interest you.
LILY
Don't be so sure.
HANNA
Mom.
LILY
I been thinkin' I wouldn't mind makin' a few measurements. Maybe consult the ancestors about the precise boundaries of our last treaty. Maybe draw up a few maps of our own, eh?
MARTHA
I don't know anything about treaties. I am a scientist. Who you really need to talk to is...I don't know who you need to talk to. The government. Maybe. Department of Indian Affairs...I am a scientist from Simon Fraser University. Part of an archeological team.
LILY
I'm Shuswap from Soda Creek. Part Chilcotin but no one in the family wants to talk about that.
MARTHA
Directions --
LILY
Don't suppose you saw any ghosts on your way here, eh?
MARTHA
Ghosts?
LILY
There's one in particular I'm tryin' to locate. A man. Black hair, going gray...
MARTHA
I am a scientist --
LILY
-- my husband.
MARTHA
Your --
HANNA
Mom --
MARTHA
Hanna --
Martha turns and sees Frances in the driver's seat.
MARTHA
Who is that in my car?!
FRANCES
You need directions?
HANNA
She's gonna show us the way. I guess.
Frances grins at Hanna and Martha.
FRANCES
This thing a' automatic or what?
Black.
Alice paddles in.
ALICE
There has always been a West. For the Greeks there was Sicily, Carthage was the western outpost of Tyre; and young Roman patricians conquered Gaul. But the West we are entering upon today is the Last West, the last unoccupied frontier under a white man's sky.
Lily.
LILY
June 21st, 1793. Alexander MacKenzie, one dog, six Frenchmen, one hundred and twenty two pounds of pemmican and thirteen gallons of rum come flying around the bend of the Fraser River in a birch bark canoe and damn near give my ancestors a heart attack. Since then. Beat. Ten generations my family been giving white people directions. I got this job from my cousin, Tommy, eh. He died when he drove off the road out by Billy's place couple winters ago. Anyway -- he wasn't so good a guide. Had a lousy sense of direction. I been tryin' to get outta the business. I don't get the same job satisfaction I used to. Now I know where I'm takin' 'em. Where we'll all end up. But they keep knockin' on my door. Night after night. I get woke up and they're standing out there in the dark. Them blue eyes. Like winter got in there and covered the earth with snow. Left only a cold blue sky.
ALICE
21st of June, 1908. I observe an emersion of Jupiter's second satellite by which I find our longitude to be one hundred and twenty-two degrees west from Greenwich. Latitude: Fifty-two degrees, forty-seven minutes due north. Local Indians tell us that further south along the river are rapids tall as a tree. Cliffs of sheer stone. But if we seek the "big water" there is a route overland, commonly referred to as "The Grease Trail."
Lily smells her stew.
LILY
I like to have a pot of stew on for all these late night visitors. Clams from Bella Coola. (Lily picks up a Camas lily.) Nodding Onion. Picked it myself. Course you gotta be sure you're not mixing it up with Poison Onion. Look a lot alike those two. Only one of 'em's tasty like a regular onion. Sweeter, though. The other. Well. Not so good for the digestion.
She throws it in the pot.
ALICE
It is at this juncture that we must make the most important decision of our life. To trust the Indians or not to trust the Indians.
Lily picks up another leaf.
LILY
And for that real authentic Indian flavor: Indian Hellbore. Picked it south of Bonaparte Lake. On Poison Hill.
She grins. Throws it in the pot. Alice turn to Lily. Lily, stirring her stew, spies her.
ALICE
Ahoy!
LILY
What the hell are you?
ALICE
Alice Campbell. Explorer! Following in the footsteps of the intrepid Alexander McKenzie -- you may have heard of him.
LILY
I heard of him.
ALICE
You may also have heard of me --
LILY
I don't think so.
ALICE
First white woman to travel the entire length of the McKenzie River? Now engaged in paddling McKenzie's route to the Pacific Ocean. And just as he did many years ago -- I seek your wise advice.
LILY
Go home.
ALICE
Too late for that, I'm afraid! Now according to MacKenzie's journals, he left the river at 52 degrees north and heading west, traveled overland, along a well-known Indian trail.
LILY
Ain't no trail around here.
ALICE
But according to my calculations...
LILY
McKenzie never left the river. He floated all the way to the coast. Go ahead. It's smooth sailing all the way. Flat as a pancake.
ALICE
But I have it on expert authority that not much further south I should meet a series of trepidatious rapids and be dashed to pieces on the rocks!
LILY
Whose expert authority?
ALICE (confused -- refers to her notes -- looks about her -- looks at Lily)
Well...local Native authority...
LILY
Stew?
ALICE
Stew?
LILY
All local Native ingredients.
ALICE
I am famished. A steady diet of pemmican and rum's enough to turn even a Frenchman's stomach! (aside) It should be noted that the kindness of the local Indian peoples is seldom surpassed in civilized circles!
Indeed! I should be very happy to eat some of your stew!
Lily lowers a bowl down to Alice who digs in enthusiastically. Lily watches her for signs of poisoning.
ALICE
Me: never much of a cook. Schoolteacher. In fact in 1903 I became the first female principal of this province. But that's all behind me now. Now I am an adventurer! And this. The open road, or river, or trail! Living la vida solo! Such as it is. This is living. Hmm. Remarkable flavor. Fish is it?
LILY
Clams. From Bella Coola.
ALICE
Delicious!
LILY
You don't feel nothin'? Like a wind blowing through you?
ALICE
I feel that all the time now.
LILY
Twisting in your gut like a knife, like a spear?
ALICE
Oh no. I'm quite well armed. Thank you. And with the most modern of weapons. My very own shotgun. Just in case.
LILY
Nothin'?
ALICE
It's not nothing. Let me tell you. I shot my own moose on the McKenzie River. Well. Again. Thank you for the stew. A most peculiar and unique flavour. Now...
Lily smelling her own stew.
LILY
Nothin'.
ALICE
...if you would be so kind as to point me in the direction of said trail -- I should hastily disembark my trusty canoe and set about on foot!
LILY
I told you, ain't no trail.
ALICE
Then I shall have to camp right here!
Alice drops her pack.
LILY
Oh, that trail.
Lily motions to Alice to come close. Uses hand gestures as though imparting an important "Indian" secret. Each image has a gesture.
LILY
Follow the cow shit 'til you hit the creek. Follow the creek till you hit the mountains. Follow the mountains till ya hit the sea.
ALICE
Cow shit, creek, creek, mountains. Mountains, sea. Straightforward, good enough then. And thank you so much for the delicious stew!
Alice pulls her pack on her back and sets off, paddle in hand. Lily pulls the bowl back up and smells it.
LILY
Can't even kill a goddamn ghost.
Martha and Hanna. Martha checking off equipment list.
MARTHA
Whiskbroom, dustpan, hand trowel. Shovel. Small paintbrushes, tape measure and ruler. Dental picks, grapefruit knives, kitchen spoons, and wooden tongue depressors. To think I left being a housewife to study archeology.
HANNA
At night I dream I am flying. Low over brown muddy water. Down the river -- surrounded by cliffs of blue and yellow clay.
MARTHA
Tomorrow a site datum will be established and triangulated to property pins.
HANNA
Crows and ravens. There's one raven, lands on the table, cocks its head and peers into your eyes looking for something.
MARTHA
Appropriate extensions will be made for exposing and recovering specific artifacts.
Several good-sized arrowheads and two cobble choppers have already been discovered.
HANNA
Food, I guess. Or something else.
MARTHA
We're having some problems with the equipment. Going missing.
HANNA
I found an arrowhead near our tent. Just lying there. On the surface.
MARTHA
Two survey rods, a camera, and a box of Dentyne gum gone this morning.
HANNA
In the twilight -- bats like black snow.
MARTHA
Every evening an Indian man stops at the top of the path and stares down at us.
HANNA
The nights here are thick with stars.
MARTHA
Coyotes sound like children. Beckoning. They're small, much smaller than I imagined.
HANNA
Mom?
MARTHA
Yes?
HANNA
Do you ever wish you were an animal?
MARTHA
Sometimes.
HANNA
Which one?
MARTHA
When I was a kid I used to wish I was a horse.
HANNA
Did it ever happen?
Martha smiles. Looks at herself.
MARTHA
Guess not.
HANNA
I wish I was a bird. A big black bird.
MARTHA
You look more like a mouse. A curious little mouse.
Martha kisses her head and exits.
Hanna stands with her eyes closed and her arms extended. Frances enters. Watches her. Watches her some more.
FRANCES
What are you doin'?
Hanna jumps.
HANNA
Nothin'
FRANCES
Tryin' to be Superwoman or somethin'?
Beat. They stare at each other.
HANNA
Do you have a horse?
FRANCES
No. You got a car?
HANNA
No.
FRANCES
Well, then. Guess we're stuck here.
HANNA
What do you call this place?
FRANCES
Alkali Lake.
HANNA
Alkali. Turns litmus blue.
FRANCES
That white mud.
HANNA
Corrosive. Alkali.
FRANCES
That's not our word for it.
HANNA
What's your word for it?
FRANCES
I don't know.
Pause.
FRANCES
There's a dance Saturday.
HANNA
A dance?
FRANCES
You comin'? You and your Mom. All these hippies you're camping with.
HANNA
The survey team.
FRANCES
Yeah.
HANNA
I don't know.
FRANCES
We got a band. Slow Riders from Edmonton.
HANNA
Are you gonna go?
FRANCES
Everybody goes.
Beat.
HANNA
Then I guess we'll go.
Pause. They can't think if anything else to say. They exit in opposite directions. Martha makes a note.
MARTHA
June 21st, 1970. Nine fourteen PM sunset. Hanna seems content again. It always works on her. The wild. The work. I have called the RCMP to report the stolen items. And the man, standing up on the road.
We hear hollering and loud country music. Martha hears it but as an echo. It disturbs her. Music rises. Frances enters, masculine and spiffed. She lights a cigarette. Hanna enters. She wears a summer dress, strings of brightly colored glass beads around her neck. They stare at each other for a second.
FRANCES
Where's your mom?
Martha looking for Hanna.
MARTHA
Hanna?
Hanna looks behind her.
HANNA
She decided not to come.
Pause. Awkward. Hanna folds her arms about her as though cold. Frances whips off her red plaid jacket and hands it to Hanna.
FRANCES
You want this?
HANNA
No.
FRANCES
I got. I mean. I'm not cold.
Hanna takes the coat.
FRANCES
Drink?
HANNA
Of what?
Frances produces a bottle of cheap red wine. Opens it and hands it to Hanna.
FRANCES
Colona Royal Red!
Hanna smells it. Drinks. Makes a face.
FRANCES
You like it?
HANNA
Tastes like fruit juice.
Frances grins. Drinks out of the bottle.
FRANCES
Fruit juice with a kick!
We hear a loud whooping yell from inside. Hanna looks toward the yell.
FRANCES
Let's go in.
HANNA
I don't really know how to dance.
FRANCES
Nobody does! Come on.
They exit.
Martha -- disturbed from sleep.
MARTHA
Footsteps. Circling. Someone, something, big. Circling the tent. Right next to my head. So loud. And it's dark. Black. So dark I can't see my hand in front of my face. I reach for Hanna. Not there. Gone. "Hanna?" Suddenly: an explosion, running, crashing into the bush. And he's gone. It. Is gone. Whatever it was. Gone.
Lily.
LILY
Alexander McKenzie was the first white guy to come through here, eh? The people thought he was a ghost. So they took him on a trail far away from the river. They thought if they took a ghost too close to the river it would scare the salmon away.
Me. I'm not scared of no ghosts. I wouldn't have no family if I didn't talk to ghosts. Sometimes I get arguing with the ancestors in the Safeway parking lot, eh? My grandmother and her sister want to go sit outside the Ranch Hotel and visit with their relatives from Sugarcane. I tell her Grandma -- they all dead like you -- I'll just be sitting there talking to the air. Or my sister Helen, since she died in that house fire at Soda Creek. Interfering all the time. I tol' her to keep her dead hands off my business -- I guess she got nothing to do over there where she's dead but come and follow me around over here where we alive.
When it gets to be too much I pick a basket of snowberries -- they're Saskatoon berries over there in the Land of the Dead. I put 'em out on the porch and the next morning. All gone. I guess they get hungry, you know. Ghosts.
My husband. Alex Jack. Disappeared last year. Stampede weekend. The RCMP they didn't do nothin'. But he isn't dead. Cuz we never found his body. You know. When someone disappears --
Sometimes I put snowberries out special for him -- but they always there in the morning. Sometimes I think I hear someone walkin' around the house at night. Sometimes I think he gonna pull me over there with him -- into that place between dyin' and living. And then. That's when I get scared.
Loud country music, men yelling, sound of smashing glass. Frances and Hanna enter, they are laughing, stumbling. They are almost finished their wine. Frances is trying to light a cigarette.
HANNA (looking up)
Stars.
FRANCES
Damn.
HANNA
Planets.
FRANCES
Ouch. Shit.
HANNA
Mars.
Frances succeeds in lighting her cigarette.
HANNA
There. Red.
Frances drinks from the bottle. Passes it to Hanna. Hanna drinks.
FRANCES
My father was a chief, you know. He used to be chief a' all this land. From here over to the Rocky Mountains. We own it. And seeing as he's dead. Now I own it.
HANNA
You.
FRANCES
That makes me a Indian princess.
HANNA
You don't look like a princess.
FRANCES
What do you know about it?
HANNA
I seen pictures and stuff.
FRANCES
Walt Disney?
HANNA
You look like a boy.
FRANCES
What about it?
HANNA
Indian princesses don't look like boys.
FRANCES
What are you, some expert?
HANNA
No.
FRANCES
I didn't think so.
Silence.
HANNA
Last night I flew out of the tent and I flew around here. All around these hills.
FRANCES
Flew?!
HANNA
At night when I'm dreaming. Sometimes I can fly.
FRANCES
You a witch?
HANNA
You can see how it really looks. From above. The lay of the land.
FRANCES
You weren't flyin'.
HANNA
When I can't get off the ground I flap my arms.
FRANCES
Flap your arms?! What kinda witch is that? A chicken witch?
HANNA
Or hold them up like this.
Hanna lifts her arms toward the sky. More yelling, glass breaking.
HANNA
And I lift off.
FRANCES
You're nuts.
HANNA
Try it.
FRANCES
Nah.
HANNA
Try lifting your arms -- right now -- see what happens.
FRANCES
Nah.
HANNA
Come on. Try it. Try it.
Frances puts the bottle down, puts her cigarette in her lips and stands next to Hanna and lifts her arms. They stand together with their arms raised. Pause. Yelling.
FRANCES
This it?
HANNA
Close your eyes.
Hanna closes her eyes. Frances lowers her arms. Takes her cigarette out of her lips and drags on it. Watches Hanna. Frances turns away, picks up bottle and drinks.
FRANCES
There was this girl -- Shuswap girl. Got kidnapped from Soda Creek. Long time ago. Maybe it was Cree stole her or some other Indians -- took her as a slave -- far away. She was pregnant, eh? She had her baby over there with these other people and it was a boy so those people threw it in the river. They had to kill it so he wouldn't grow up and kill them. One night she escaped. She escaped and walked all the way back home to Soda Creek. All the way. She walked. By herself. Beat. You're like that girl. Come all the way back here.
Hanna opens her eyes and looks at Frances.
HANNA
I've never been here before in my life.
Frances reaches for Hanna and kisses her.
Alice enters bushwhacking with a large machete.
ALICE
As a girl I was given free reign to pursue my tomboyish pleasures in the acres of woods surrounding our Victoria home. Many pleasant hours were spent building forts and performing surgical operations on my small friends. Then I grew breasts. Suddenly my mother began making strange and unusual demands upon my time. More skirts, less pants. More charitable work. Less invasion and plunder. In the dawning of my seventeenth year she brought home a young man for me to "meet." I was forced to take evasive action. Teaching. That or become a nun. And for a woman of my physical and intellectual vigor the nunnery lacked a certain... -- though, mind you, I could well understand the appeal of living among a community of women!
She hacks her way off.
The following morning. Martha enters -- about to work. Hanna enters.
MARTHA
Where have you been?
HANNA
There was a dance.
MARTHA
Where?
HANNA
I was with that girl.
MARTHA
That Indian girl.
HANNA
Frances.
MARTHA
You don't even know her.
HANNA
We were dancing.
MARTHA
Until dawn?
HANNA
I was with people --
MARTHA
What the hell were you thinking --
HANNA
-- not artifacts.
MARTHA
-- that'd I'd sleep right through? That I wouldn't notice when you didn't come home?
HANNA
I'm here, aren't I?
MARTHA
Well, maybe it would be better if you weren't.
Hanna looks at her mother, turns and runs. Beat. Martha exits.
RCMP enters and circles the stage -- searching. Lily, from her roost spies him immediately and watches him until he gets close. Lily is drinking a coke.
LILY
Boo!
RCMP jumps.
RCMP
Jesus Christ. Lily. You scared me!
LILY
You scare me all the time.
RCMP
What do you want?
LILY
What do you want?
RCMP
I'm looking.
LILY
For what?
RCMP
Something.
LILY
Alex Jack?
RCMP
No. Not Alex Jack.
LILY
Why not?
RCMP
There are reports of items going missing. Theft. Scientific equipment. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you? Scientific equipment. And chewing gum.
LILY
A gun?!
RCMP
Gum. Dentyne.
LILY
Oh. Well. Dentyne.
RCMP
We're talking government property, Lily. Very high level. Government. Property.
LILY
Dentyne Gum. That sounds very high level, McIntyre. Very, very high level.
RCMP
Look -- I've got work to do --
LILY
Alex Jack ain't gonna rest till we find his body.
RCMP
Alex Jack's down in Vancouver, passed out on Hastings Street and you know it.
LILY
He never made it that far.
Martha enters upon RCMP and Lily.
MARTHA
Oh. Officer. How good of you to come.
RCMP
Ma'am.
LILY
Any skeletons?
MARTHA
Skeletons?
LILY
Human remains?
RCMP
Lily --
MARTHA
Well -- this is just a test pit --
LILY
What you lookin' for anyway?
MARTHA
Well...traditionally this area was a fish camp...
LILY
Fish bones?
RCMP
You don't have to answer her.
MARTHA
We are looking to determine the types of activities that took place here.
LILY
It was a fish camp.
MARTHA
And the period of use.
LILY
Always been a fish camp.
RCMP
Lily!
MARTHA
Well we recognize that fact...
LILY
Yeah, we had some fish here, alright. Camped here every year for twelve thousand years. Once in a while someone dropped a' arrowhead into the fire.
MARTHA
I suppose that could be seen as the common cycle of events.
LILY
Then the smallpox came. Then the ranchers come in with their cattle and wipe out all the wild potato. Railroad causes a slide in the river -- blocks the salmon run. Welfare comes in, people stop working. Drunk guys start coming on the reservation. Girls go missin'. Men go missin'. All sorts of people go missing. So what about it? Find anything?
MARTHA
Those are not the issues we are studying.
LILY
Well, maybe they should be. Beat. Stew?
MARTHA
Stew?
LILY
Indian stew.
She lowers a bowl. Martha takes it. Lily finishes her coke and throws the can in the excavation pit.
LILY
It's the real thing.
Lily exits.
RCMP
Sorry about that. She's...she's a character. One of the local. Characters.
MARTHA
That's alright. We should be. In the future perhaps. Involving local. Native peoples. It just slows things down a little. Stew?
They gaze into each other's eyes. Music swells.
RCMP
For me?
MARTHA
Yes, you.
They burst into song.
RCMP
Wouldn't it be nice?
Wouldn't it be nice?
Wouldn't it be nice if this were a story --
MARTHA
-- about a lonely, middle-aged, middle-class, white woman --
TOGETHER
-- falling in love --
RCMP
-- with a lonely, middle-aged, middle-class, white man?
TOGETHER
Wouldn't it be nice?
RCMP
Out here on the outpost at the edge of the world.
The winters are bad and the locals are worse.
I haven't been laid in three years this June.
Could it be us? Could it be you?
MARTHA
Scientists, hippies, mad men, and schemers.
I fell for foolish and brilliant young dreamers.
All I want now is a regular guy with regular sex
And a regular paycheck.
TOGETHER
Wouldn't it be nice?
Wouldn't it be nice?
Wouldn't it be nice if this was a story --
MARTHA
-- about a lonely, middle-aged, middle-class, white woman --
TOGETHER
-- falling in love --
RCMP
-- with a lonely, middle-aged, middle-class, white man?
TOGETHER
Wouldn't it be nice?
RCMP
And when I'm finished doing my duty
To my home and Native land --
Lily interrupts.
LILY
Your Native what?!
RCMP
True North, Strong and Free!
I'll retire to Victoria and buy a little bungalow
With just a little lawn to mow
A little lawn for you and me.
MARTHA
I'll retire on a fellowship
Get a research grant from the government
I'll trim my nails and cut my hair
I might even get a permanent.
I'll do my duty. I'll cook and clean for you.
RCMP
I'll do my duty. I'll mow and weed for you.
MARTHA
I'll do my duty.
RCMP
I'll do my duty.
TOGETHER
Wouldn't it be nice?
Wouldn't it be nice?
Wouldn't it be nice if this was a story --
MARTHA
-- about a lonely, middle-aged, middle-class, white woman --
TOGETHER
-- falling in love --
RCMP
-- with a lonely, middle-aged, middle-class, white man?
TOGETHER
Wouldn't it be nice?
Martha throws herself into RCMP's arms. Frances enters. She's still a little high from last night. MARTHA and RCMP break apart.
FRANCES
Whoa.
MARTHA
Oh my goodness. Ten AM and I've gotten almost nothing done.
RCMP
Ten o'clock? Wow. That's late.
MARTHA (to Frances)
If you're looking for your --
FRANCES
Is she here?
MARTHA (simultaneously)
Your --
FRANCES (simultaneously)
Your --
MARTHA
-- mother?
FRANCES
No.
Martha scrutinizes Frances.
RCMP
Boy, is it ever getting late. Gotta get running along. You call anytime. Anytime. Don't hesitate. Okie dokie. Back to work!
RCMP leaves.
FRANCES
What's he doin' here?
MARTHA
We were discussing the dig.
Frances picks up an artifact.
FRANCES
What's this?
MARTHA
A blade. An obsidian blade.
FRANCES
A knife?
Martha nods. Frances picks up a stone.
FRANCES
And this?
MARTHA
That stone was used for weighting a net. You see the indents...the people carved out notches to secure the ties...and this -- a grinding stone. How it fits --
She hands it to Frances.
MARTHA
-- in the palm of your hand.
FRANCES
How come you know all this stuff?
MARTHA
I studied it in university.
FRANCES
Studied us?
MARTHA
Trade routes -- tracking the origins of the artifacts. The materials. This -- (she handles the obsidian blade) -- likely came from --
FRANCES
-- the volcano.
MARTHA
Brought east along the Grease Trail and south down to the coast.
FRANCES
Me and my dad one time -- walked the Grease Trail, you know. All the way to the coast.
MARTHA
Handed from one group of people to another...
FRANCES
Well -- we didn't walk the whole way. We kinda drove along and then we'd walk and check it out. The old places.
MARTHA
Coast, Salish, Interior, Cree...
Frances handles the blade.
FRANCES
That's the sweet spot where the stone broke away perfect -- in a perfect straight line -- prob'ly was a young guy, eh? Hunting -- (she runs the blade down her cheek, then mimes drawing a bow) A big buck -- ten point antlers!
Frances mimes releasing the bow.
MARTHA
A happy ending?
Frances handles the blade.
FRANCES
Maybe.
Pause.
FRANCES
Where is she?
MARTHA
I don't know.
Frances abruptly turns to leave.
MARTHA
Where were you last night?
FRANCES
There was a dance.
MARTHA
All night?
FRANCES
We were lookin' at the stars.
Beat.
MARTHA
I don't know where she is. She took off. Tell her I need her. There's work to finish -- tell her I need her here.
Frances exits.
Alice hiking a steep and circuitous path. A horsefly joins her.
ALICE
Men! I love men. Good conversation. Stimulating intellectual debate. The alchemy of competition. Slaps at the horsefly. But what, after all is the common denominator? Besides hydrogen. And why? Why me? Why them? Why us? Why here? Why now?
Slaps at the horsefly with disgust.
ALICE (continued)
Goddamn horseflies.
It's not that I am without Christian feeling. But once here. Surrounded by the nobility of nature, free of the turgid entanglements of humanity, no longer confounded by social orthodoxies that one becomes truly free. It is here. Captive of this vast wilderness. Where lichen grows upon stone and from that wild ginger takes root to spread across the forest floor offering a bridge for the lowly snail, who much like myself carries his house upon his back -- and whom, upon completing his long, slow journey is promptly fetched up upon the paw of the great black bear as it tears indiscriminately through the remainder of a rotting cedar. Why indeed.
If one were to gaze deeply into this "no man's land" or perhaps as I've been told -- to the religions of the east, if one were able to -- for the briefest moment -- entertain paradox: one might be inclined to ask not "why" but rather: Why not?
She slaps at the horsefly and gets it. Mashes it into the earth with her boot. Satisfied.
ALICE (continued)
Indeed. Why not?
Alice exits.
Hanna. On a ridge above the village. Frances appears behind Hanna. Frances has a half bottle of wine.
HANNA
I always wondered what it would be like. To be Indian.
FRANCES
Take a look.
HANNA
I mean -- you know. Before.
Pause.
HANNA
Back home there's this voodoo store -- a witch store. Yoruba Botanica. Where the Caribbean people go. To make spells and stuff. You can buy snake skins and special oils for scaring people away. Or spells for finding a job.
FRANCES
Whaddya wanna find a job for?
HANNA
I went there one time to see if they could make a spell for bringing people back. They sold me some black powder and told me to shake it out my window every night at midnight for two weeks then cut a lock of my hair and hide it under my front step.
FRANCES
Who were you tryin' to get back?
HANNA
My father.
FRANCES
Did it work?
HANNA
No.
FRANCES
Where'd he go?
HANNA
Crazy.
FRANCES
Oh.
Beat.
HANNA
One time I went to visit him, he took me by the shoulders and looked into my face and said, "You are God's eye" I thought , "Wow." Then we go in the crafts room and everywhere are all these crazy people making god's eyes -- you know those things made with wool.
FRANCES
God's eye.
HANNA
What about you?
FRANCES
What about me?
HANNA
What are you?
FRANCES
Indian!
HANNA
And what else?
FRANCES
Nothin' else!
Hanna smiles at Frances.
HANNA
You're not part snake or wolf or something?
FRANCES
No!
HANNA
You look like it.
FRANCES
Like what?!
HANNA
Like you could be part raven.
FRANCES
I'm not part anything!
HANNA
Drunk?
FRANCES
Fuck you.
Beat.
HANNA
I didn't mean it like that.
Silence.
FRANCES
My father killed a bear one time. He cut the heart in four pieces and he made me eat one piece. He told me I would be strong. Not afraid and filled with wildness. My mother blamed him for doing it -- that he made me into a boy when I was supposed to be a girl. That the bear inside made me crazy like him.
HANNA
And did it?
FRANCES
What do you think?
HANNA
I think there's different kinds of crazy.
FRANCES
You know when you people first come here to this place it was the Indians showed the white man around, eh? Like a tour guide. Anyway, I was thinkin', seein' as you're new here and everything. I'd be your tour guide. Show you around. All the sacred places.
HANNA
Sacred places?
FRANCES
Thing is. We're gonna have to borrow a car.
HANNA
You can't drive.
FRANCES
I can drive. How do you think I got to be a tour guide?
HANNA
You're fourteen.
FRANCES
They teach us young out here.
HANNA
Where are you gonna get a car?
FRANCES
There's cars.
HANNA
I dunno.
FRANCES
Real cheap prices right now.
HANNA
How much?
FRANCES
Couple of them blue beads.
Frances reaches out and touches the beads around Hanna's neck. Touches her face. Beat. Pause.
FRANCES
Come on.
Hanna and Frances exit.
Lily.
LILY
The night Alex Jack disappeared I was drunk on tomato juice and rye. Reena Salis thought that sounded like a pretty good combination. It tasted like shit but she'd already poured the whole bottle of rye into a big bowl full of tomato juice so we had to drink it anyway. Reena's husband Peter Salis decided to go to town and him and Alex always done everything together. So they went. With Johnny Salis too. Peter's brother. It was Stampede weekend. Peter and Alex and Johnny thought they'd go in and watch some of the rodeo -- I was out behind Reena's house when I heard Peter's truck pull outa the driveway spittin' gravel. I was gonna go with them! But they left me behind. Pukin' up rye and tomato juice into the bushes. I didn't even say goodbye to him that night. I guess they made camp up above town in the bush and then Peter and Johnny went down into town to get some booze -- that's what they said. But Alex Jack was passed out on the ground. So they left him. And that's the last anyone ever saw him. They thought maybe he woke up didn't know where he was and he walked off into the bush somewhere. That's what the police said -- he's lost in the bush.
Alex used to be a real fine cowboy. He had his own cattle. Started drinkin'. He lost his cattle, one by one. Then his horse. Frances was always following him around tryin' to get him to go places with her. The old places. Dip netting, hunting. But he wasn't interested. Nobody was interested in nothing anymore.
You try and have protection. But it's like a bow and arrow. Shootin' at the sky. Tryin' to bring down the whole goddamn sky.
Martha cleaning artifacts.
MARTHA
You try and give a child what they need. An education. Exposure to new ideas. Protection.
The last time we went to visit her father he became so agitated that I had to leave the room. But he lets her stay in there with him. Together.
After the hospital then I'm at home with all these... mementos. A marble turtle from Guatemala. A hammered silver vase from Peru. The brown suit. Pressed and ready. It's the artifacts of the higher mind. The containers. The mirrors. Everywhere I look. I see him staring back at me. His accusing brown eyes. His uncomprehending stare.
Alice forging a raging river -- as she speaks she hikes up her skirts, places her backpack upon her head, holds it there along with her paddle and shotgun and begins the crossing.
ALICE
Canadian Women's Press Club. Beat. Women's suffrage. Beat. Cycling. Basketball. Football. Scandal. Beat. A Royal Commission Investigation into the Departmental Examinations in Art. I was charged with permitting my students to use a straight edge ruler to draw a free hand straight line. Needless to say I lost my position as the first woman principal in the province. And three years suspension of my teaching license.
And then -- after all the commotion. The hearing. The suspension. After I lost everything, my dear friend Delia turns to me and says, "Why in heaven's name do you think you alone are above the law."
"Why, indeed! Because Delia, some of us were never meant to draw straight lines!"
Alice slips.
ALICE
Aaaaah!
She falls and is washed away.
Martha cleaning artifacts. Hanna runs in and grabs her coat.
HANNA
Frances is taking me to see sacred places.
MARTHA
We have data to record.
HANNA
Sacred Indian places.
MARTHA
It's late. You can go tomorrow.
HANNA
Mom, please.
MARTHA
Hanna. It's past nine. It's getting dark.
HANNA
Just for an hour, maybe. Like an hour.
MARTHA
No.
We hear a loud revving of a car engine starting. Martha spins.
MARTHA
What the hell is she doing in my car?
Hanna looks at her mother and bolts toward the car and Frances. We hear them pull away, spitting gravel.
MARTHA
Hanna! HANNA!
Martha and Lily. The reservation. Lily above.
MARTHA
I'm concerned there's drugs involved or in the very least alcohol...Hanna's had these incidents recently...She must have...how sacred? Don't they do drugs at places like that? The Mexicans do. I know that much. I just don't want her jumping off any cliffs...or driving into -- Do you have a car ? If you could just show me where you think I might find them.
LILY
There's cars.
MARTHA
They took my car.
LILY
I'll take you.
MARTHA
You will?
LILY
Sure. I know where they are.
MARTHA
What about the police? Should I call the police?
LILY
Oh no, no need to bother about that guy. We'll go -- just the two of us.
MARTHA
Where? Where are we going?
LILY
Like you said -- sacred places.
Hanna and Frances in Martha's car. Yelling, country music. Tires squealing. Glass breaking. Hanna and Frances come to an abrupt stop. Sound of bar under.
FRANCES
Welcome to the Ranch Hotel!
HANNA
I thought you said sacred places!
FRANCES
First bar to let Indians drink inside.
HANNA
Why are we here?
FRANCES
Lookin' for someone.
HANNA
Who?
FRANCES
My father.
HANNA
We can't go in there. You can't go in there.
FRANCES
Why not?
HANNA
With me.
FRANCES
You wanna know what it's like to be Indian.
Frances starts walking into the bar. Hanna grabs her.
HANNA
No!
FRANCES
Let go of me.
HANNA
Let's get out of here. Come on, please.
FRANCES
Go then! GO! Take your Mom's car and go.
HANNA
I can't drive!
FRANCES
Then walk.
Frances pulls away and goes into the bar. Hanna hesitates. Follows.
Lily, still above, sits as though driving. Martha also sits, below, as though being driven. Lily turns the car, they bump over a pothole and she pulls to a stop. Martha is uneasy.
MARTHA
Where are we?
Lily climbs out of the car. (She remains above the stage) Starts pulling out all the stolen equipment.
LILY
This is the camp Alex Jack made the night he disappeared. Last place anyone saw him alive. You got all this fancy equipment. Money. A whole crew of hippies working for ya. Lookin' for arrowheads. Maybe it's time you started lookin' for something a bit more contemporary.
Dumps equipment on the ground.
MARTHA
I am looking for my daughter!
LILY
Welcome to the club.
Lily climbs back in her "car."
MARTHA
Where are you going?
LILY
Gotta get back home. Got something on the stove.
MARTHA
Oh no you're not -- you're not just leaving me here. You can't just leave me here. I don't know where I am -- I could --
LILY
Only four, five hour walk back as the crow flies. But then -- you find them girls. They'll give you a ride.
Lily disappears.
Alice dripping wet with only her paddle and broken compass. No shotgun, no pack.
ALICE
The truth is, exploration is not a vague science. You do not wander about aimlessly until you happen to strike upon some thing or some where. The ocean perhaps. The edge of the world. And fall off of it. No. Quite the opposite. Exploration consists of detailed observations culminating in relatively accurate predictions based upon applied assumptions. Which is something people of the great Western civilizations have come to have great faith in. Assumptions.
She looks one last time at her broken compass, bangs it against her leg. Bangs it again.)
I swear "true north" has become an oxymoron.
She wanders off.
MARTHA
Hanna!?
Martha exits, searching for Hanna.
The bar. Frances and Hanna. Sound of bar.
FRANCES
I see him from the back. I recognize his black hair -- kinda messy and his big shoulders and his red checked wool jacket. I know it's him. I don't care if he's drunk. I don't care if he tries to hit me. I'm here to take him home and make him stay there, make it so he never goes to town that night. He'll stay home and in the morning we'll go get firewood or maybe just drive around. I got it in my head -- the map of that night all drawn up ready for him to say "I never drove to town with Johnny and Peter Salis. No.
I stayed home. Next day, you and me went to get firewood or maybe we just drove around. You remember."
Or maybe I'm gonna kill him when I find him. Make him turn around and if I could I'd drive a bullet between his wide black eyes. Maybe I'm gonna kill him this time.
And I come up on his back and I'm double scared now cuz it's the same dream, the same nightmare that I touch him on the shoulder and he turns around and there's no face at all, just a pile of white ash like under the stove and so I go up to him --
HANNA
You. You are supposed to take me to the sacred places. A new place. A very old place. Anyplace. But this. Not this dark bar full of men. Not here. Not this.
FRANCES
Every two weeks I come to town and I walk through every bar in town lookin' for my father. He's there. He's in every one of them and I'm walking from one bar to the next looking for the back of his head, looking for a trace. And every time I go up to him and touch him on the shoulder and make him turn around and look at me. Make him turn around and look at me. Make him turn his face around and look at me.
HANNA
There's no one. There is no one who has ever looked like you ... and I look. We are ghost lovers. Maybe we don't exist at all. Without a route home, guidelines or measurements. All I need is one fixed point and I can make a map. Find out where we are. Find the place where we could be. One fixed point. A planet. A star. Your face. Mars. Look at me. Turn around and look at me. Turn your face around and look at me.
Hanna reaches to touch Frances . Sound of bar out. Frances swings abruptly to face Hanna, fist raised. Sound back in.
FRANCES
Why did you follow me in here?
HANNA
You brought me here!
FRANCES
You like it?
HANNA
No.
FRANCES
Come on. It's the wild west. We'll have a few beers. We'll dance.
HANNA
Where's your father?
FRANCES
Come on. Let's dance.
Frances pulls Hanna to her, starts to kiss her.
MALE VOICE
Hey!
Someone grabs Frances from the back and she turns and swings. Hanna screams. Black.
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.
Acknowledgements
The playwright would like to acknowledge the contributions of First Nations women and men who shared their stories and insights with me, including Phyllis and Andy Chelsea, Helen Sandy, Kristy Palmentier, and Marie Clements.
The playwright would also like to acknowledge the Alchemy Program for Emerging Playwrights at the Jon Sims Center for the Arts in San Francisco and the Playwrights Theatre Center, Vancouver, BC for their valuable contributions to the development of this play.
The character of Alice Campbell is inspired by Agnes Deans Cameron, first white woman to travel the length of the McKenzie River and first woman principal of British Columbia. I have, however, taken liberties with the story of her life, and so Alice Campbell, although inspired by an actual woman, is indeed a fictional character.
Finally, I would like to thank friends, mentors, and fellow artists; Tracy Ward, Brian Thorstenson, Toni Mirosevich, Roy Conboy, and Sue Ondre for contributing generously of their time and expertise in the growth and development of this play.
Horse Latitudes is dedicated to my stepfather, Dave Jones, who worked to put white and brown people to work and believed in racial equality long before it was popular. It is also for Phyllis Chelsea of Alkali Lake Band whose determination and vision has led so many people out of chaos and into clarity. Peace.
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