The Kentucky Cycle

by Robert Schenkkan

Calm down, Pappaw, it ain’t nothin’. Ain’t nothin’ to worry about.

  RANDALL: Lemme go, please, lemme go!

  Jed enters stage right, a hoe in one hand.

  JED: Let’im go, Pa.

  RANDALL: Jed!

  He tears himself out of Ezekiel’s hands and throws himself at Jed.

  JED: All right now, Randall, what’s goin’ on here?

  RANDALL: I just . . . I wanted to . . . I just wanted to see you and . . . and . . . Preacher said . . . said he was gonna damn me to hell and . . . and then they was . . . they was gonna eat me and . . . and . . . !

  JED: Ma?

  JOLEEN: Boy’s a natural-born liar, say anythin’ come into his head.

  RANDALL: I am not!

  JOLEEN: Hush now, Pappaw, it’s all right. Sshhh.

  JED: Pa, what’s your side o’ this?

  EZEKIEL: All them Talberts gonna burn, don’t need no special curse from me!

  RANDALL: See!

  JED (amused): Didn’t Jesus say somethin’ about “suffer the little children to come unto me”?

  EZEKIEL: Oh, he gonna suffer’em, all right!

  JED: He’s just a kid, Pa.

  EZEKIEL: Little snakes grow into big ones!

  JOLEEN: Amen.

  JED: Pappaw all right?

  JOLEEN: He just fine. Little excited, that’s all. Aren’t you, Pappaw?

  PATRICK: Zchkk ghckkkk . . .

  JOLEEN: Huh? I think he wants some tobaccee, Zeke.

  Zeke crosses over and puts a twist of tobacco into his father’s mouth.

  JED: What’d you want to see me about that’s so all-fired important, Randall? My pa here may damn your soul, but everybody knows his bark’s a whole lot worse’n his bite . . .

  EZEKIEL: Says who?!

  JED: But Mr. Talbert catch you here and he gonna whip your butt up one side and down the other.

  RANDALL: I know.

  JED: So, what is it? Hurricane? Tornado? What?

  RANDALL: I wanna come live with you!

  Beat.

  JED: Well, and we’d love to have you, right, Pa?

  EZEKIEL: Lord have mercy!

  JOLEEN: Amen.

  JED: But I don’t think your daddy he gonna be too happy about that.

  RANDALL: I don’t care, I hate him!

  JED: Don’t talk that way about your pa, boy—it ain’t right.

  RANDALL: He’s goin’ away anyhow. He don’t have to know anything about it.

  Jed and Ezekiel share a quick look.

  EZEKIEL: Told ya.

  JED: That a fact, now? Where’s he goin’?

  RANDALL: He’s goin’ off to fight them Yankees! And I wanted to go off with him, but he said I was too young and that’s when I decided I was gonna run off and live with you! I reckon I can kill Yankees as good as anybody.

  EZEKIEL: Bloodthirsty little savage.

  Jed waves him quiet. Randall unties his bundle.

  JED: When’s your daddy takin’ off?

  RANDALL: He rode off this mornin’ collectin’ folks. They all gonna leave tomorrow. See here, I took his pistol!

  JED: Well now, that’s really somethin’, innit? That’s one of them new Colts, I bet! Look at that, Pa.

  EZEKIEL: Lemme see.

  JED: Now, I know you’re angry, Randall, but I sure don’t think you shoulda gone and borrowed that gun off’n your daddy without askin’ him.

  EZEKIEL: Gotta mighty sweet action on it.

  RANDALL: If I’d asked him he’da just said no.

  EZEKIEL: Boy’s gotta point.

  JED: Whatever. Ain’t none of our business, nohow. But as to your stayin’ here, Randall, well, that dog just don’t hunt. Your daddy have a fit he even know you visitin’ us. You know that.

  RANDALL: I know.

  JED: So, what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna suggest you just sneak on back to home and put that gun away afore your daddy sees it’s missin’.

  RANDALL: Don’t see why I can’t stay. I like you a lot more’n my daddy. He isn’t gonna miss me.

  JED: Sure he would—he’d miss you somethin’ fierce. Your daddy, he’s just a busy man, that’s all.

  EZEKIEL: Yeah, bleedin’ folks dry is a full-time job.

  JED: Now my mamma gonna fix you somethin’ to eat, and then you gotta get on to home, you hear?

  Randall drops despairingly to the ground and rolls his bundle back together.

  JOLEEN: Feed him? I’m so hungry I can’t sleep and I’m s’posed to feed him?! Feed him what?

  JED: Give’im a little piece of cornbread, Maw.

  JOLEEN: Hit’s comin’ outta your supper it is. Ain’t comin’ outta mine.

  RICHARD: Randall! What are you doing here, son?

  Randall freezes as his father, RICHARD TALBERT, strides on. Richard is a tall, thin, impatient man with a condescending attitude. He wears a new and rather garish Confederate lieutenant’s uniform topped by a wide-brimmed hat with an enormous plume.

  I said, what are you doing here?!

  RANDALL: Nothing—I just . . .

  RICHARD: Did I tell you not to come down here?

  RANDALL: Yes, sir.

  RICHARD: Did you disobey my order?

  JED: Boy didn’t mean any harm, Mr. Talbert. . . .

  RICHARD: I reckon I know how to raise my own son without your help.

  RANDALL: It wasn’t his fault, he—

  RICHARD: You speak when you’re spoken to! Now come here!

  Randall trudges over reluctantly.

  You disobeyed my orders, didn’t you?

  RANDALL: Yes, sir.

  RICHARD: What do you think I ought to do with you?

  RANDALL: Punish me.

  RICHARD: How do you think I ought to do that?

  RANDALL (hopefully): Send me to bed without any supper?

  Richard just stares at him.

  Whip me.

  RICHARD: You sure?

  RANDALL: Yes, sir.

  RICHARD: Put your hand out.

  Randall does so. Richard strikes his hand several times with his riding crop.

  Are you crying?

  RANDALL: No, sir.

  RICHARD: Don’t you shame me in front of these people. You’re a Talbert! These people work for your daddy, and someday they are gonna work for you. Now how’re these people gonna look up to you if you cry? Put your hand back out there.

  Randall does so. Richard hits him again.

  Now say you’re sorry.

  RANDALL: I’m sorry.

  RICHARD: Now go home. Go on!

  Randall grabs his bundle and runs off behind the house. Richard turns to the Rowens.

  They grow up fast, don’t they?

  Silence.

  JED: You ride in on the gray mare?

  RICHARD: On the roan. Mare’s doin’ all right, though. You did a good job—look like she’s gonna be fine.

  JED: I’m sure glad to hear that, ’cause that’s a mighty fine horse.

  RICHARD: Oughta be, what I paid for her.

  JED: I was fixin’ to come up to the big house tonight after I got cleaned up and take another look at her.

  RICHARD: I appreciate that, Jed, but that wasn’t what I came by for.

  JED: Yes, sir.

  Beat.

  RICHARD: I’d like a drink of water, if you don’t mind.

  Beat. Nobody moves.

  JOLEEN: Help yourself.

  JED: Here, let me get that for you, Mr. Talbert.

  EZEKIEL: Man can get his own water, Jed.

  JED: It’s no trouble, Pa.

  Jed pumps a cup of water and hands it to Richard. Richard drinks, then swaggers over to the porch and addresses Patrick.

  RICHARD: Afternoon.


  No response.

  Can he hear me?

  JED: Hard to tell when he can and when he won’t.

  RICHARD: How old is your pappaw?

  JED: Eighty-five this spring.

  JOLEEN: We think.

  EZEKIEL: Nobody’s too sure.

  RICHARD: Eighty-five. Isn’t that something? I tell you, you gotta cherish’em when they’re alive. Isn’t a day that goes by I don’t miss my daddy.

  Patrick spits a stream of tobacco juice amazingly close to Richard, who beats a hasty retreat.

  JOLEEN: Pappaw! Look at the mess you gone and made!

  She wipes Patricks chin. Ezekiel grins.

  JED: Mighty fancy uniform you wearin’ there, Mr. Talbert.

  RICHARD: You like it?

  EZEKIEL: Purrrty.

  JED (quickly): Very impressive.

  RICHARD: My girls made it for me.

  JED: That a fact? Miss Rose Anne and Miss Julia Anne did that themselves, did they?

  RICHARD: Well, their momma helped, of course. But they designed it and did all the work. Hey, what do you think of this plume, huh? You wouldn’t believe what that feather cost.

  JED: Well, I was just gonna ask you about that, sir. That a real feather, off a real bird?

  RICHARD: Oh yeah.

  JED: I’ll be darned. Sure wouldn’t want to run up against that critter.

  RICHARD: Must be big as a mule!

  JED: Big as a horse!

  RICHARD: Horse feathers!

  They laugh. Richard tosses what’s left of his water on the ground.

  Sweet water.

  JED: Any sweeter ’n’ you could boil it down for molasses.

  RICHARD (laughing): I reckon.

  EZEKIEL: Somethin’ on your mind, Mr. Talbert, or you just come by to whip kids ’n’ waste water?

  RICHARD: Spare the rod, Preacher, spoil the child. As to wasting water, I reckon I can do whatever I like with it, seein’ as how it’s mine. It and everything else around here. (Beat.) The fact of the matter is, I come down here to talk to you, Jed.

  EZEKIEL: I’m head of this family, and anything you got to say you can say it to me!

  JED: Easy, Pa.

  RICHARD: Whoa—easy there, Preacher. Nobody’s gonna run off with your flock. He always this touchy?

  JED: Only when he ain’t had his nap. You know.

  RICHARD: Oh, I see. They do get that way, don’t they?

  EZEKIEL: Well, I reckon I don’t need to stand around here and be insulted to my face! Joleen, get inside that house! Come on, Jed!

  He moves up to the porch and turns back to Jed.

  You comin’?

  JED: You go on inside if you’ve a mind to, Pa—I’m gonna hear what Mr. Talbert come all this way to say.

  EZEKIEL: I can tell you what he come over here for—he come over to make trouble.

  JED: Let the man speak, Pa, ’fore you go damning him to hell.

  RICHARD: See now, you always been a levelheaded fellow, Jed—unlike some of your kin. And I admire that about you. I know there’s been bad blood between us, between my daddy and yours, but it doesn’t always have to be that way, don’t you think?

  JED: No, I reckon it ain’t written in stone.

  RICHARD: Of course not. Times change, people change. We got a lot in common, you know? We’re like two people sharing the same well—doesn’t matter how much we might disagree, it doesn’t make any sense for either one of us to piss in the water.

  EZEKIEL: Make a lot more sense just to shoot the other fellow.

  JED: Pa.

  RICHARD: What I’m trying to get at here, Jed, is maybe it’s time to bury our common differences and to join forces against a common foe. Those cowards down in Louisville may have voted Kentucky neutral, but when this war heats up there won’t be any such thing.

  JED: Long as we mind our own business, don’t see why anybody ought to bother us out here.

  RICHARD: Lot easier said than done. You sure gonna feel different after old Abe Lincoln come in here and take your slaves away.

  EZEKIEL: We ain’t got no slaves here.

  RICHARD: It isn’t just slaves. They take our niggers away, they aren’t gonna stop there. They gonna come take our cows and our horses and everything else we got.

  JOLEEN: We ain’t got no cows or horses neither.

  RICHARD: I know that, Joleen—I’m trying to get to a bigger principle here!

  EZEKIEL: Oh, a principle.

  JOLEEN: What’s a principle, Zeke?

  EZEKIEL: That’s one of those sweet nothin’s the big boys whisper in your ear while they pull your pants down.

  RICHARD: Now, look here . . .

  JED: Pa’s got a point, Mr. Talbert. It sure look like a rich man’s war to me. Don’t see why poor folks oughta be in a hurry to go die in it.

  RICHARD: It isn’t about property! It’s about somebody livin’ miles and miles away tellin’ you and me how we got to live. That isn’t why your granddaddy and my granddaddy came out here and whipped the Indians off this land. Now, there’s a Confederate army getting organized down in Bowling Green. I’m looking to raise a company of men to go down there and show those boys how to make war! I reckon you can shoot about as good as anybody in these mountains, and I know there isn’t anybody here or in the bluegrass can touch you for your way with horses. I want you to ride with me.

  Beat.

  JED: Well, that’d be a real honor, sir, but I just don’t know. Who’s gonna look after things here? We just set out the corn, who’s gonna bring it in? We owe you seed and tools and I don’t know what all, how we gonna make enough to pay you anything on what we owe with me gone?

  RICHARD: My field niggers’ll get in your crops. Isn’t white man’s work anyway, is it? And for every week you ride with me I’ll knock a nickel off what you owe. Now that’s fair, isn’t?

  EZEKIEL: He just tryin’ to buy you, Jed. Tell him you ain’t for sale, you or any other Rowen!

  RICHARD: Hell, Jed, everybody says the war’s gonna be over in six weeks. What have you got around here that’s so much more exciting?

  EZEKIEL: That’s the devil talkin’ in him, son, sure as I’m standin’ here!

  RICHARD: Don’t you ever want to get out of these mountains, Jed, and have a look-see? You want to spend the rest of your days looking at the south end of a northbound mule?

  EZEKIEL: He ain’t goin’ and that’s that!

  RICHARD: Well, if your daddy won’t let you . . .

  JED: I can make up my own mind.

  EZEKIEL: You ain’t goin’!

  JED: And why the hell not?!

  EZEKIEL: ’Cause I’m tellin’ you not to!

  JED: Save your preachin’ for Sundays, Pa.

  JOLEEN: Jed!

  EZEKIEL: Don’t you dare talk to me like that, boy!

  JED: I’m the one does the work around here, I reckon I’m the one should make up my own mind. You gettin’ old and—

  EZEKIEL: Old?! You hear him, Jesus, spittin’ in your face and violatin’ your most sacred commandments! Exodus! Chapter twenty! Verse twelve! “Honor thy father and thy mother!”

  JOLEEN: Amen!

  EZEKIEL: Fall to your knees, sinner, and beg for forgiveness! Old! If Jesus could roll that stone away and rise up outta his cold tomb, I can surely come down offa this porch, old as I am, and still whip your butt!

  JED: When do you ride out?

  RICHARD: First thing tomorrow morning.

  EZEKIEL: You ride with that thing there, don’t you bother to come back!

  JED: Count me in.

  EZEKIEL: You hear me! You go and I’ll put the curse of God on you, boy! He’ll rot you from the inside out and send your unrepentant soul straight to hell!

  JOLEEN: Ezekiel!

  EZEKIEL: “A pla
ce of unquenchable fire!” Matthew, chapter three, verse twelve! “A place of memory and remorse!” Luke, chapter sixteen, verse nineteen! “A place of misery and pain!” Revelations, chapter fourteen, verse ten!

  JED: Pa. I’m tired of Jesus, and I’m sure tired of these mountains, but most of all . . . I’m tired of you. I’m goin’.

  EZEKIEL: Come on, Joleen.

  He and Joleen go inside the cabin, slamming the door.

  RICHARD: Didn’t mean to . . .

  JED: You didn’t light the fire, you just stirred the pot. That’s been comin’ for a long time, and I’m obliged to you for makin’ it sooner rather’n later. (Beat.) Sunup?

  RICHARD: Want to make an early start. Get to Bowling Green by week’s end.

  JED: I’ll be there.

  He gives Richard an awkward salute. Richard starts off.

  Mr. Talbert?

  RICHARD: Yeah?

  JED: All I got to wear’s what I got on. . . . I . . . uh . . .

  RICHARD: Need some kind of uniform?

  JED: Now, I don’t need any kind of big, fancy feather or nothin’, but . . .

  RICHARD: I’ll see what we can do when we get to Bowling Green.

  He exits. Jed watches him go. Beat. Ezekiel and Joleen step cautiously outside.

  EZEKIEL: He buy it?

  JED: Hook, line, and sinker.

  EZEKIEL: Hell, he swallowed the damn pole!

  Everybody bursts into laughter.

  JOLEEN: How you kept a straight face talkin’ about that uniform I will never know!

  JED: Had to pinch myself! Got the blood on my palms to prove it.

  EZEKIEL: Oh, lord! I thought I’d bust a gut.

  JOLEEN: Amen.

  JED: “Horse feathers!”

  EZEKIEL: For a horse’s ass!

  JED: Damned if he didn’t look like some kind of giant gray chicken! Brwwwkkk! Brwwwwkkk!

  He and Ezekiel collapse on the porch. Joleen hugs Patrick.

  JOLEEN: What you think of your family now, Pappaw? Huh?

  PATRICK: Chkkzz bddgghh.

  JOLEEN: He says you’re bad boys, you are.

  EZEKIEL: Now, I know you gonna want to get to it quickly, son, but you just take your time, you hear? We waited a long time for this—

  JOLEEN: Long’s I can remember . . .

  EZEKIEL: —and we can wait a few more weeks.

  JED: What’s good, you think?

  EZEKIEL: You gonna have to feel your way about that. . . .

  JED: Late at night? Maybe when everybody’s asleep. . . .