by Karen Sunde
Ahhhh!
Hoyatu: (Grabs, flings Jawea) Fool! You’ve lost your chance! A healer? Hah! You’re nothing.
Jawea: Let me back in the steam!
Hoyatu: No! You harbor rage; their evil is in you. If you have power, you’ll kill.
Jawea: No! I’ll do what you say. I can stop.
Hoyatu: Can you?
Jawea: I didn’t kill him; I only tried. Please, I’ll sit quiet.
(Resumes her steam seat. Men huddled in alarm, where Teddy’s fallen)
Kat: They're lost; the mountain will take them.
Faye: No! Teddy couldn’t do this.
Kat: Any other man, you'd believe it.
Faye: (Runs away) Nooo!
Hoyatu: To regain your power, you must absorb these men. Accept them! Free your spirit! You cannot be choked with hate.
Jimbo: Teddy, climb out of there!
Teddy: My leg's smashed!
Brad: Quiet! The bear's near.
Teddy: My bone, it’s sticking...Ahh!
Brad: (Reaching down) Take my hand.
Teddy: I can't!
Jimbo: Try!
Teddy: Just leave me here!
Brad: For the bear to eat?
Teddy: You’d like that.
Jimbo: You whining turd.
(Behind Jawea, Hoyatu stands, becoming Blood White)
Jawea: (Feeling him transform) Hoyatu, what's happening to you?
Hoyatu: Clouds drift through my bones.
Brad: Lift him.
Teddy: Leave me! And I won’t have to tell Faye.
Brad: Lift!
Teddy: (Pain of the lifting) Aaaah!
Jawea: Hoyatu, you’re changing.
Hoyatu: (Stands in shadows as Blood White. Amplified whisper) Be still or you bring danger! I will fight until they see what is hidden. Call the child's spirit to join you. She must stand in her dream.
Jawea: (Into the wind) Sally...come!
(Jawea's call wakes Sally. She lifts herself, happily– )
Sally: Mommy, I see light.
Lena: No...
(Lena tries to restrain Sally, but she's rising to her feet)
Lena: Don't go.
Sally: It's so bright. My daddy's there.
(The hunters, with Teddy propped between them, stand cowering)
Teddy: (Gasping) I see Blood White.
Jimbo: Our Father who art in heaven..
Brad: Face him. Just face him.
Sally: I'm not afraid.
(Jawea sees the hunters raise their guns, even Teddy, as he buckles to the ground. Terrified, they chamber their rounds, ready to attack)
Jawea: Blood White, they'll kill you!
Jimbo: That's no bear.
Jawea: I can't stay still.
Brad: That's him!
Sally: I want to see.
Jawea: Hoyatu, I'm coming!
Hoyatu: Do not move! No matter what you see.
Jimbo: Something's not right.
Hoyatu: To regain yourself, you must accept what is.
Brad: That's Blood White. Kill him!
Jawea: No!
Hoyatu: If you fight, all will die. But if you don’t, and if he gives his life...
Jawea: (Defiant) Aaah...! (But she stops short as she hears– )
Sally: Jawea...?
Jawea: Sally? (Joy; her sight clears) Come, I can see now. I see all of time.
(Blood White turns to attack hunters. Jawea sees as though floating above it. Brad fires the first shot. Blood White spins as he's hit, seems stunned, then rises with blood-curdling roar. The hunters are terrified, but try to regroup)
Teddy: Jesus, Brad!
Brad: He's hit. Don't panic. We've got him.
(Blood White drops to charge Brad. Jimbo steps between, is hit full force by Blood White. Jimbo screams, his arm swings up bent, then dangles loose)
Jimbo: Ahh!
Jawea: Sally, your dream has come to life. You must see it. Come to me now.
(Matu holds Lena, because bundle Lena holds is no longer Sally. Sally is gliding to Jawea. Jawea reaches for Sally's hand; they join, watching the battle. Blood White charges Brad. Wooden flute, for the spirit journey beginning. Brad is hit, sprawls)
Brad: Jawea's here. She's got us.
(Jimbo goes for his pistol; Teddy tries to get off a shot. Blood White and Brad locked in wrestling, ferocious)
Sally: Daddy! It's my daddy and the bear.
Jawea: No. It's not the bear.
Sally: Stop them, Jawea!
Jawea: I can't.
Sally: My daddy will die!
Jawea: You stop them.
(Brad is dangerously mauled. Bleeding, he staggers back)
Sally: (Stepping out, calling) Daddy?
(Sally walks straight to Blood White, is taken up in his forearms, lifted. She clings to the bear, cub fashion. Brad draws pistol, dizzy from wound, can’t believe his eyes– )
Brad: Sally...?
Sally: Don't shoot, Daddy.
(Jimbo and Teddy are cocking their weapons)
Brad: (Horrified, choked, staggering) Sally, no...
Sally: Don't shoot.
(Brad drops his weapon, collapses to his knees)
Brad: (Hoarsely, to the others) Don't shoot.
(All still. Sally slides out of Blood White's hold, who snorts, sets her down, brushes her off like a troublesome cub; she steps toward Brad. Brad transfixed, watching her. As soon as Sally's clear, Jimbo and Teddy fire. Blood White staggers)
Jawea: Hoyatu, no!
Brad: Don't shoot!
(Sally glides toward Brad's arms, but then slips aside to Jawea, and Brad closes his arms on nothing. Then Brad turns and staggers forward, offering himself to Blood White)
Jimbo: Brad...my God!
Teddy: He's mad.
(Blood White roars with anger of his wounds, enfolds Brad to crush him. Jimbo and Teddy shoot many times; Blood White jerks, spins, and falls on Brad. Blood White is dead. Sally is gone. Jawea's arms uplift. She has stood her test)
Jawea: (Moved) Sally saw, and I still stand, Hoy – a – tu...!
(Jimbo and Teddy, bloodied, stagger to Blood White, roll him. Beneath, Brad is crushed, barely breathing)
Teddy: Brad! Can you hear me?
Jimbo: (Sobs, reaching for Brad) Why did you stop us?
Brad: (Growls like cornered animal) Don't touch me!
Jimbo: We'll take you home.
Brad: You've got your bear. Take it.
Teddy: Brad's finished, Jimbo.
Jimbo: We can't leave you.
(Brad gropes for, pulls, cocks his pistol at Jimbo)
Brad: Take your bear! Go!
(Jimbo and Teddy, severely wounded, strain to hoist Blood White's carcass, and go. Brad, near death, drags to Jawea, who, with uplifted arms and face, is softly chanting)
Brad: (Mouth open, no sound but air) Aaaaa...
(Jawea does not hear him, and he cannot speak, so he embraces her feet)
Brad: (Soft cry) Aaaaa...
(Jawea looks down, then touches Brad’s head. He shakes, weeping, then is still)
____________________________
Tavern
Western music, but dissonant. Women huddled, drinking; Faye drunk, reaching for more.
Dove: You don't want more. It's bad for the baby.
Faye: Give me! I want to die quick.
Kat: (Dark) Much too simple.
Dove: Stop her, Kat.
Kat: Faye, stop – you gotta help me here. We have to figure how this could happen, what sick depravity the mountain drew out of them.
Faye: I don’t want to know. And if I do live, Teddy will never see his baby.
Kat: (Raises head at distant sound) What's that?
Dove: What.
Kat: Some kind of...cry.
Dove: (Looks out) Oh my god.
Kat:
What.
Dove: Coming down... It's the bear.
Faye: (Groggily) Into town?
Kat: Is it white?
Dove: No it's all...
Kat: (Coming to look) ...bloody.
Faye: (Groaning, sick, holding her belly) Oh god.
Dove: He's still creeping, but he's...
Kat: (Cries out) Aah!
Faye: (Coming to look) What.
Dove: He collapsed, and he's...
Kat: It's not the bear.
Faye: It's them.
(Kat grabs Faye. Dove holds her, too; the three women are welded)
Dove: Jeez! They're just a mass of...
Kat: Can't they move?
Dove: Do something!
Faye: (Trying to twist away) No.
(Jimbo and Teddy inch on stage on their bellies, Teddy clinging, so Jimbo's under, dragging most weight. They make a bloody pile)
Dove: (Frozen) Help them.
(Kat just stares. Faye won't look, has her face buried on Kat)
Dove: They're your men.
Kat: Yeah...
Dove: They're alive.
Jimbo: (Gasping) Kat...
Dove: Would you rather they weren't?
Kat: (Forcing through her nausea) Faye. You've gotta look.
Faye: No.
(Lena approaches, carrying limp Sally [dummy]. She looks calmly at men. She's crazed)
Lena: Where's Brad?
Jimbo: (Gasping) Lena, he was bad. Gone.
Teddy: (First croak) He took his pistol, and...
Dove: Sit down, Lena.
Lena: (Walks off) Sally’ll take me there. She knows the way.
Dove: Sally's dead, Lena; lay her down!
Lena: No, Sally’s on the mountain. She’s gone hunting with her daddy.
Dove: You can't climb. Wait.
(But Lena disappears. No one has moved)
Teddy: Faye...
Jimbo: The mountain let us live.
Kat: Yeah.
(Faye just stares at Teddy, won't move)
Jimbo: I don't know why.
Teddy: Faye...
Kat: Take him home, Faye. (Pause) What else you gonna do?
(Faye silent, looks at Kat)
____________________________
Hoyatu’s Perch
Jawea speaking to air
Jawea: I didn’t want you to die.
Hoyatu: (Unseen) Then you shouldn't have come.
(Hoyatu appears behind Jawea. She sees him as though he's floating in front of her)
Jawea: Hoyatu. Why did you die?
Hoyatu: I slipped.
Jawea: Don't make fun of me!
Hoyatu: Death is nothing. A sleight of hand, maybe, or of shape. The hunters won’t hunt again.
Jawea: But I didn't want you to...
Hoyatu: I’m speaking here! And I rule. You're like a sapling on a burned out slope; starving deer will devour you. No one's ready for this "sharing" of yours. In spite of that, I saved you.
Jawea: But didn't I save...?
Hoyatu: You’re insufferable! But you show promise, (Distaste) so you will take my place.
Jawea: And dry up on this mountain? No!
(Hoyatu's leaving)
Jawea: Take your place as what?
Hoyatu: Whatever you will.
Jawea: I did what you said, and look what happened.
Hoyatu: You learned nothing? Be a light to your people.
Jawea: But my light must spread to the Others.
Hoyatu: (Exasperated, roars) I'm talking! (Calm) The hunters think they won. Good for them. It was time for me to go. The mountain can no longer be held by a hermit bear. But Blood White lives. They killed nothing. And none can survive alone. So. You have your power. Show them. (Backs away, is gone)
Jawea: What power? What about Sally?! Hoyatu!
(Jawea is alone. She takes it in, begins to sense life in the air around her, feels life flowing into and beyond her hands; stretches them out and upward– )
Jawea: Sally... Come. It’s time.
(Jawea above/behind where Brad is lying as part of forest floor, and we hear– )
Lena: (Off) Brad... Brad?
(Lena drags on exhausted, with lifeless Sally [dummy])
Lena: Here you are. I knew she’d find you.
(Lena drops to ground, lays Sally against Brad, then, dissatisfied with how dead they look, she props Brad against herself, so Sally, now real, lies across him)
Lena: Sally showed me the way to climb.
Brad: (Hoarse, choking breath) Lena...
Lena: Shhh, don’t speak.
Brad: Lena...
Lena: (Breathing deep) Oh, the air’s clear up here. So beautiful.
Brad: ...Sally came to me with Blood White.
Lena: They said you went straight at the bear and let him crush you.
Brad: Sally was healed, Lena, and it was so bright.
Lena: They said you were dead.
Brad: How could I be? Blood White’s not a bear. He’s just an old man walking down the mountain...who let me see Jawea.
(Lena smiles, holds Brad, rocking, hums, while Matu sees Hoyatu moving toward her, and opens her arms for him)
Sally: (Waking) Daddy...
Lena: I told you we’d find him.
Sally: Are you home from hunting?
Brad: Oh yes.
Sally: Then I'll be Jawea. My warm hands touch you.
(She lifts her hands to Brad's face.