by Neil LaBute
JERRY Just like I’d dreamed about. Seriously.
TOM And we were just giddy the rest of the day. This was in September and we snuck off to San Diego to be at that hotel that was in the movie with Marilyn Monroe and the guys dressing up like two women … you know the one! It’s, ummmmm …
JERRY I’d never been to the Hotel Del Coronado. Just gorgeous, this big ol’ place propped up on the beach there … just very …
TOM I took my tux off but I could not get my husband—or wife or whatever the hell I was gonna call him now—he wouldn’t take his off! Said he was gonna go downstairs and get some cigarettes …
JERRY My one vice.
TOM He’d been a smoker for years—works out religiously but wouldn’t think of giving up his nicotine! (Smiles.) He was standing there, at the door to the room, smiling at me, this big grin on his face. Asking me if I wanted anything. Some Twinkies or whatever.
JERRY Somebody loves “Hostess.” It’s true …
TOM I said “No thank you, I’m a married man now …” and we laughed and I blew him a kiss. Out he went.
JERRY They didn’t have any Marlboros there in the little gift shop so I went out into the streets. Looking for a 7-11.
TOM And … apparently … he ran into three guys who were coming up from a swim. Just some college kids from what the news said … and the police report.
JERRY I was walking along in my tux, carrying a bag of mangoes and one of those stupid roses that you buy—the single ones with a bit of plastic around the petals—they keep ’em right up there by the checkstand so I got one for my fella …
TOM And they must’ve said something because I know that … he could never let shit go … you know? Ever. Some guy two feet taller than him and ten years younger and he’d go after ’em like a little rooster if it was about us or being gay or, like, any of the stuff he believed in. Those kids in Africa or, or Amnesty International—he’d be up in your face and telling you that you’re full of shit! (Laughs.) That was just him. You know?
JERRY I remember these surfer boys passing …
TOM He wasn’t found until the next morning. Down by the rocks, where the water runs up onto the beach …
JERRY It’s just funny … one day I’m standing in New York, the next thing you know I’m walking down a street with palm trees on it! I mean, palm trees!! With a rose in my hand and a paper bag full of strange fruit and, I dunno, this … love, I guess. Yeah, love in my heart for him and everybody else. Right? Even the three guys who are moving toward me now, three boys who are getting louder as they come …
TOM The story made the papers and was kind of a big deal, especially after all the … anyway. Yeah. (Beat.) One day, few months later, somebody sent me a picture of us, before all that, standing on the courthouse steps as we waited in line to go in—and I keep it out where I can see it now; I’ll give it a glance when I head off to work or out for a run, that kinda thing—it’s of the two of us, both in our suits and smiling and from a distance or, if you stand back from it just a bit … you know what?
JERRY I couldn’t see their faces but they were laughing and the sun was just behind them as they came closer … laughing at me.
TOM We’re like that couple you see on top of a cake. That little plastic couple, only it’s two guys. Us. Vibrant and young and frozen for a moment. I mean … well, you get what I mean, right?
For a moment, the two men come together as one—hands held tight and smiling out toward the audience.
TOM Us standing there and smiling, as if all was right with our lives and not anything could possibly go wrong. You know?
JERRY They were laughing and it was getting louder but to me, on this day and how I was feeling … it sounded like birds singing …
TOM As if nothing in the whole wide world was able to scare us or hurt us or frighten us …
JERRY These beautiful little birds … singing just to me from up in Heaven above …
TOM No, not us. Not ever again …
Suddenly a light over JERRY blinks off and out. He is now lost in the darkness.
Their hands unlock. TOM stands alone in the fading light.
He tries to smile but this too fades away.
Silence. Darkness.
OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS
Over the River and Through the Woods will have its American premiere in New York City at the Planet Connections Theater Festivity in June 2013.
A living room. Spartan furnishings. Not because of money but by choice. Scandinavian design.
TWO WOMEN on the couch. Not talking but staring at each other. One older, one younger. A tea service nearby.
The OLDER ONE speaks first:
THE OLDER … tell me again.
THE YOUNGER I can’t.
THE OLDER You can’t or you won’t?
THE YOUNGER … I dunno … I just …
THE OLDER You don’t want to say it or you really can’t do it because it scares you and makes you sick … almost sick to your stomach. Like that kind of “can’t?”
THE YOUNGER I’m … not sure. Both, I guess.
THE OLDER I see. (Beat.) Alright. I see.
THE YOUNGER I don’t … that’s not really something I wanna do right now. Go through all that. Not again.
THE OLDER Why?
THE YOUNGER …
THE OLDER No, I’m just asking you “why” because I mean, if it is true, if what you’ve said is true and we go through with this, you are gonna be asked about it two hundred times more … dozens and dozens of times and by different people. By men. Lots of men you don’t even know and they will not all be friendly to you—I know you … I’m connected to you, related to you and care about you—but they won’t. None of them will.
THE YOUNGER I know that … but … they’re …
THE OLDER Many of them will be wanting to make you say it over and over and over again, all the things you told me and in even more detail … greater detail … and not because they believe you and want to help you—whereas I do … I want to help—but they will try to trip you up and say you’re a liar and bring you down, that will be the requirement of their job, to do that, to make you fumble and cry and retract what you’ve said or taped or written down on paper. That is what’s going to happen … if you continue on with this. (Beat.) I’m just telling you so that you fully know what you’re getting in to. (Beat.) Okay?
THE YOUNGER Yes. I understand.
THE OLDER You do?
THE YOUNGER I do, yes.
THE OLDER I’m saying this for you. Warning you.
THE YOUNGER I know.
THE OLDER Not for me. Or him. (Beat.) For you.
THE YOUNGER I understand …
THE OLDER I hope so.
THE YOUNGER I do. I think I do.
THE OLDER Alright. I just … because he knows those people … those men … has worked with them and been friends with them and, and … for all these years. So many years. They are his friends and they’ll want to protect him … to help him, not you. Do you see?
THE YOUNGER I think so.
THE OLDER You do? You completely understand that? That your life is about to never-be-the-same-again, no matter what you say after that? (Beat.) I mean, even if afterwards you were to say “wait a minute … maybe all or some or none of that really did happen … maybe most or some or all of that was just a dream,” your life will already be altered. Along with the lives of the other people you’ll have brought down with this—myself and you and everyone else—I’m not even including all the other family members who’ll be asked to talk or comment or testify, no, I’m not counting any of them in this—but that’s what will happen if we make the call. Or go down to the station. Or hire a lawyer. (Beat.) Just so you know …
THE YOUNGER … that’s … I guess I didn’t really think about all that happening …
THE OLDER No, probably not.
THE YOUNGER I mean … I don’t wanna make you �
�� or my parents … hate me … I don’t. I just need the truth to be … I wanna tell the truth about this. About him.
THE OLDER I know you do.
THE YOUNGER You do?
THE OLDER Yes, I know you do. I can see that. That you want to tell the truth. The real and honest truth … to be truthful.
THE YOUNGER I do.
THE OLDER And the truth is so … it’s complex, you know that, don’t you? It’s so so hard to know truth sometimes. The complete truth.
THE YOUNGER That’s true.
THE OLDER But that’s what you need to tell me right now … here, with me … while there’s time. (Beat.) You need to do that. You have to.
THE YOUNGER I know. I mean … I want to.
THE OLDER No, not “want,” no … that’s not enough. You “have” to. You have to do it … for all of us.
THE YOUNGER … right …
THE OLDER Please, sweetheart. You have to.
THE YOUNGER I know … I will … I already have once, just a little while ago I did, but I’m also … I feel like … I need to tell it to others, too. Other people … (Beat.) But I’m … I really don’t mean to hurt you with this. I really really don’t.
THE OLDER I believe you.
THE YOUNGER You do?
THE OLDER Oh yes. I do. I believe you.
THE YOUNGER Thank you.
THE OLDER … but you will.
THE YOUNGER What?
THE OLDER You will.
THE YOUNGER I don’t … I’m not sure what you mean. What will I do?
THE OLDER Hurt us. Hurt me. You will do that … if you go through with it. (Beat.) You have to see that. To know it.
THE YOUNGER … I … I guess so …
THE OLDER You do.
THE YOUNGER I suppose I do.
THE OLDER I know you do. Of course you do.
THE YOUNGER I mean …
THE OLDER No, you know it will. You know that … and not just hurt. No. You will destroy us … ruin us. Finish us off … if you do this. Continue with this …
THE YOUNGER …
THE OLDER For something that took place—if it did take place—so long ago. Years ago.
THE YOUNGER But it did happen. It did. I promise.
THE OLDER And I believe you … you know I do. I am not sitting here and saying that you’re a lying or ungrateful child or anything like that … you can see that, can’t you? And no matter how much we’ve handed you, how much we’ve done for you or given up for you: you know only the truth matters to me. Isn’t that right? You know that.
THE YOUNGER Yes.
THE OLDER And you trust me, don’t you?
THE YOUNGER I do. I really do.
THE OLDER You do?
THE YOUNGER Yes.
THE OLDER Please tell me if you don’t …
THE YOUNGER No, I do … that’s why I’ve … I came to you because of that … because I do …
THE OLDER Because if you don’t—and I can even see why you might not, understand why you’d be afraid—but if you are or don’t like me, believe in me, then we should …
THE YOUNGER Of course I do. I mean, I said it to you. Not my folks or any of my friends … you are the only person I’ve told.
THE OLDER Oh.
THE YOUNGER … so …
THE OLDER Just me?
THE YOUNGER Yes. You. I called you and … then …
THE OLDER Really? Is that true?
THE YOUNGER Absolutely. I came to you with it.
THE OLDER No one else?
THE YOUNGER No one.
THE OLDER Not even a boyfriend or, or, or just … someone from that job of yours?
THE YOUNGER … I don’t have a boyfriend …
THE OLDER That’s right, of course … I’m sorry …
THE YOUNGER … it’s alright …
THE OLDER And no one else? Don’t you see a social worker or someone? That woman …?
THE YOUNGER My therapist?
THE OLDER Yes. Her. That’s what I mean. Therapist.
THE YOUNGER She’s … yes, I do go there a few times a month …
THE OLDER Surely you’ve told her about all this …
THE YOUNGER … no, I haven’t.
THE OLDER No?
THE YOUNGER Not yet. I haven’t yet … but …
THE OLDER Why not?
THE YOUNGER I wanted … I thought I should talk to you first …
THE OLDER That’s right … we’re family.
THE YOUNGER Yes.
THE OLDER We’re connected.
THE YOUNGER True.
THE OLDER By blood. You and I have the same blood in us. Flowing through us …
THE YOUNGER Yes … and, and … and I love you …
THE OLDER I love you, too. You know that, right?
THE YOUNGER Yes.
THE OLDER And I would never hurt you … or let you be hurt …
THE YOUNGER … no …
THE OLDER So you know you can tell me …
THE YOUNGER I can.
THE OLDER … tell me everything …
THE YOUNGER Yes.
THE OLDER … about what happened.
THE YOUNGER I can. Yes. (Beat.) I have.
THE OLDER But …
THE YOUNGER What?
THE OLDER Nothing … ever happened here, did it? I mean … not really …
THE YOUNGER …
THE OLDER I’m not saying I don’t believe you, but nothing did. Right? Not … at least not while I was watching you. Correct? (Beat.) Just tell me that much. That it wasn’t—if something did happen—that it wasn’t here or while I was watching.
THE YOUNGER No.
THE OLDER I don’t know what that means. “No.”
THE YOUNGER Not here … but … no, not in the house. I mean, not this house. It wasn’t here, but it did happen. (Beat.) He would …
THE OLDER This was at the cabin, you said … isn’t that what you told me? Earlier?
THE YOUNGER Uh-huh … when we were camping. At night.
THE OLDER What we used to call “outdoors.” (Beat.) My father would say “out-of-doors” to me, that’s the way he learned it. As a boy …
THE YOUNGER I know.
THE OLDER I’ve told you about him. Before.
THE YOUNGER Yes. I remember.
THE OLDER That’s what he would say. “Out-of-doors.”
THE YOUNGER I see.
THE OLDER And so … this happened … you say that it happened to you … outdoors. Out-of-doors.
THE YOUNGER It did. (Beat.) Yes … but inside the …
THE OLDER When you were sleeping, you told me.
THE YOUNGER Yes.
THE OLDER When you were asleep. You were asleep at the cabin and it happened …
THE YOUNGER … that’s right … or … or … maybe …
THE OLDER I remember when you’d come home from a trip up to the lake—you always seemed very happy. You’d run to the back door with all the fish you’d caught together and show me, drag them in on a line all slippery … across the floor … and you’d smile up at me. (Beat.) You’d be smiling.
THE YOUNGER … I was?
THE OLDER Yes. Not sad, but smiling.
THE YOUNGER …
THE OLDER Always. Happy and holding his hand.
THE YOUNGER That’s … I don’t … remember that.
THE OLDER Maybe not, but I do … all of you home from the lake and you’d be laughing … happy and excited and alive.
THE YOUNGER I can’t recall ever being … happy. (Beat.) I’ve been—I mean, I remember that, the coming home with fish and being … I did like the cabin and the … the lake was—but when I was sleeping, I can remember waking up and seeing him there … not in his bunk and the others were asleep, my dad and my brother and … they were all downstairs sleeping … but not him … he would sit by my bed, on the edge of it and slowly pull down the … he would tu
g on the zipper of my sleeping bag with a finger to his lips, hushing me while he opened the bag, bit by bit, each tooth of the zipper springing open and uncovering me … and then his hands would … I already told you about this … his hands would be so warm and … and … and … wet … they were damp and he would … start on my tummy and the rubbing … it would go like this … (Doing it to herself with one hand.) Down and down and down … until he got to where he wanted to be. That’s what he would do. (Beat.) I was not asleep … his breath was— I’m … I did not dream it or imagine it or create it in my mind. It took me so long to remember this … to figure it out … to see into the past and put the pieces of the puzzle together, but I know now what he did to me. I do. (Beat.) Up there. In the woods.
THE OLDER I see. (Beat.) At nighttime. Sleep time.
THE YOUNGER Yes.
THE OLDER When you were sleeping.
THE YOUNGER Yes.
THE OLDER Asleep.
THE YOUNGER Yes. I mean … no. Not asleep. No.
THE OLDER Yes … you said … yes …
THE YOUNGER No, in bed … not sleeping …
THE OLDER You said he woke you …
THE YOUNGER Yes.
THE OLDER From sleep.
THE YOUNGER I was … no … drifting …
THE OLDER But … you said you were …
THE YOUNGER No. I was drifting off … not asleep yet but in that place where … I was adrift.
THE OLDER I see.
THE YOUNGER I wasn’t asleep … no. I wasn’t.
THE OLDER Alright then. If you say so … if that’s your version now then I was wrong.
THE YOUNGER I don’t mean to be … but no. I was not sleeping.
THE OLDER Fine.
THE YOUNGER I wasn’t.
THE OLDER That’s alright. It’s fine. I’m sorry.
THE YOUNGER I really wasn’t …
THE OLDER I understand. (Beat.) And then … he would stir you. Right? He came in and he was … his actions stirred you awake. Or …?
THE YOUNGER … I think so. Or else I just woke up.
THE OLDER You mean … how? How did that happen?
THE YOUNGER On my own. Or … maybe … I was already …
THE OLDER That’s—I don’t want to do this to you, sweetheart, be the one to … but that’s different than what you just said … or said the other time, too. On the phone.