Back Bog Beast Bait was first produced at the American Place Theatre on April 29, 1971, with the following cast:
| SLIM: | Beeson Carroll | |
| SHADOW: | James Hall | |
| MARIA: | Antonia Rey | |
| PREACHER: | Bob Glaudini | |
| GRIS GRIS: | O-Lan Johnson-Shepard | |
| GHOST GIRL: | Yolandé Bavan | |
| BEAST: | Leroy |
The production was directed by Tony Barsha.
The play opens with the song “Back Bog Blues” sung by GHOST GIRL:
BACK BOG BLUES
I got those boxed in back bog blues,
I know you heard them, they ain’t nothin’ new.
But if it’s a crime to cry in your brew,
Somebody tell me what else I should do.
Crocodillies don’t bother me,
I can’t blame them for my misery,
It’s just the climate of this swamp country,
I can’t wait to get back home to Tennessee.
I need more than three squares and a bed,
I gots to take care of the state of my head,
If it weren’t for snortin’ an occasional red,
But I ain’t sayin’ that I wished I was dead.
I can’t hitchhike on no bayou bog,
The best friend I got’s a tiny green frog,
If I had me a Ford or a Cadillac,
I’d be out of here and I would never come back.
I still remember those Nashville nights,
The drive-in movies and the honky tonk lights,
But there’s one thing that worries me,
If I go back, who’s gonna recognize me?
(Repeat first verse)
Words and Music by SAM SHEPARD
A shack in bayou swamp country. A wall of bare boards upstage. A boarded-up door center with a large window on either side of the door. On the walls are pictures of Jesus and assorted saints and a crucifix. A table center stage with a Mexican-type silk tablecloth with fringe. An oil lamp in the middle, hanging from the ceiling. Two chairs either side of the table and two mattresses, one against each wall, covered with Indian blankets. The stage is dark. Soft swamp noises; frogs, birds, bugs—then the shriek of a wildcat. A baby cries. The lights fade up softly. A pause as the baby continues to cry. A loud knocking at the door. Pause. The baby stops crying. Another series of knocks. MARIA, a dark-skinned woman with long straight black hair, a white cotton blouse, a long purple dress with red roses and a blue shawl with long fringe, comes on. She is very pregnant, has bare feet and carries a rifle. She squats down so she can’t be seen through the windows from outside. More knocking. MARIA moves fast underneath the windows to the door and stands up, flattening her back against the door. A face appears in the stage-left window, peering in. Then one appears in the stage-right window. Both faces disappear. More knocking.
MARIA: Who is there!
SLIM’S VOICE: It’s the men you hired, ma’am!
MARIA: What men!
SLIM’S VOICE: The men from the high country!
MARIA: What is my name?
SLIM’S VOICE: Miss Maria, ma’am!
MARIA: How much I pay you to come!
SLIM’S VOICE: You ain’t paid us nothin’ so far, ma’am!
(MARIA unbolts the door and lets the two hired gunmen in: SLIM and SHADOW. SLIM is tall, he wears cowboy boots with spurs, jeans, a black satin shirt, a black leather jacket, a black cowboy hat with an Indian band, black leather gloves, and two pearl-handled handguns tied down to his hips. SHADOW is younger, shorter, and darker skinned. He wears moccasins, brown leather pants, a flannel lumberjack shirt, a beaded vest, and a Sioux headband. He has one handgun. They each carry rifles and packs over their shoulders. SLIM’s rifle is a Winchester and SHADOW’s is a sawed-off shotgun.)
(MARIA quickly bolts the door behind them, then points her rifle at their heads. They raise their arms politely.)
SLIM: Now, ma’am, there’s no need to be so uppity. Don’t you recognize us?
MARIA: Come by light.
(She motions them over to the table and looks closely at their faces. She lowers the rifle.)
SLIM: Now that’s better. Nothin’ to make a man feel less sure of himself than a woman pointin’ a rifle at his head. Eh, Shadow?
(He jabs SHADOW with his elbow.)
SHADOW: That’s right, ma’am. Nothin’!
MARIA: You like coffee?
SLIM: Now that would sure hit the spot, ma’am.
SHADOW: Yeah, boy. And some fatback and biscuits if ya’ got some.
(MARIA nods and exits.)
(SLIM and SHADOW look around the shack, then set their gear down on the floor and sit in the chairs, SLIM stage left and SHADOW stage right. SHADOW pulls out some chewing tobacco from his vest and offers it to SLIM.)
Care fer a little Red Man, Slim?
SLIM: No thanks.
(SHADOW bites off a hunk and chews as SLIM cases the joint with his eyes.)
Might as well’ve set ourselves up in a cracker box as try to defend this shack.
SHADOW: How ya’ mean? Seems simple enough. One of us each on a window and the woman coverin’ the rear. Ain’t no one gonna’ try comin’ ’cross that back bog anyhow. And the front’s clear.
SLIM: Like I tried explainin’ to ya’ before, Shadow, it ain’t no “one,” no person, it’s a “thing,” a beast.
SHADOW: Said yerself it was once a person, a man.
(He spits a big gob of tobacco on the floor.)
SLIM: It was. Maybe. Least that’s what the woman said.
SHADOW: Well, ain’t there no way to tell?
SLIM: We’ll know soon enough.
SHADOW: If it was a person once then chances are it’ll still act like one.
SLIM: We can’t be countin’ on that. We gotta’ get ourselves ready fer anything.
(MARIA enters with a tray of coffee and biscuits. SLIM leaps to his feet and draws both pistols lightning fast.)
Oh. ’Scuse me, ma’am. Just keepin’ on my toes. Gotta’ make sure we earn our wages.
(MARIA puts the tray down on the table. SLIM sits back down.)
SHADOW: Speakin’ a’ wages, what is it you plan to pay us anyhow? Just outa’ curiosity. My partner and I sorta’ took the job outa’ good faith, if ya’ know what I mean.
MARIA: I cannot pay you nothing.
SHADOW: Now wait just a darn minute!
SLIM: Hold on, Shadow.
MARIA: But my man leaves me something.
(She reaches in her blouse and pulls out a small gold wasp.)
SLIM: Yer man? Well, where is he? How come he ain’t here helpin’ ya’?
MARIA: He is killed by the Tarpin.
SLIM: Oh. Well, I’m sorry to hear that.
SHADOW: What’s the Tarpin?
(He spits again.)
MARIA: The pig beast. The beast kill my daughter. She about to be a woman and the Tarpin kill her. My man go after pig beast and not come back. He leave me this. You take.
(SHADOW takes the wasp from MARIA and holds it in his hand.)
SHADOW: What’s this here? Looks like a hornet or somethin’.
(He bites it.)
Hm. Real gold, maybe. Can’t be worth much though. This ain’t even gonna’ pay fer horse fodder, Slim.
(He spits on the floor.)
SLIM: Shut up. Look, Maria, did you ever see the Tarpin?
MARIA: Yes. I see.
SLIM: Could ya’ tell us what it looks like?
MARIA: It is as big as man. Two heads.
SHADOW: Two heads?
(He spits again.)
SLIM: Shut up, Shadow. And quit spittin’ on the woman’s floor.
MARIA: Tusks like the wild boar.
SLIM: Does it make any sound?
MARIA: Snorts like a pig.
SLIM: That’s all?
MARIA: Yes.
SHADOW: Two heads. Sure.
MARIA: It sometimes breathe fire. It have lights.
SLIM: Lights? What kinda’ lights?
MARIA: Blue. Red. And gold.
SLIM: Where do the lights come from?
MARIA: The eyes. The head.
SLIM: What’s the body look like?
MARIA: Thick brown skin. Like the pig. It is coming to kill my son.
SLIM: How do you know that?
MARIA: It has castrated all the sons in the lowland. My son is the last. It will kill my son. Then kill me.
SLIM: Why you?
MARIA: I am with child. It wants all children to die. All humans. It wants to stop our race.
SLIM: How do you know that?
MARIA: It tell me.
SLIM: It spoke to you?
SHADOW: She ain’t playing with a full deck.
SLIM: Maria, it spoke to you, the beast?
MARIA: Yes.
SLIM: How? Did it use words?
MARIA: It speak through my brain.
SLIM: In English?
MARIA: In Cajun.
SLIM: Are you Cajun?
MARIA: No.
SLIM: Then how do you know it was Cajun?
MARIA: You are from high country. You do not know the ways of the lowland. It speak in Cajun.
(MARIA exits.)
SHADOW: Well, what do ya’ make a’ that?
(He spits again.)
SLIM: She’s telling the truth.
SHADOW: So you really think there’s a beast out there?
SLIM: Listen, I never been in this part a’ the country before but I can tell ya’ one thing. It weren’t no human being that burned off that land that we come across. Not even a stick a’ shrub pine left. It’s gotta’ be some kinda’ beast that’d do a thing like that. All them antelope with their bellies ripped out. What hunger you ever seen leaves a carcass layin’ like that?
SHADOW: Ya’ got me, Slim. How come she says it talks though?
SLIM: Can’t figure that out myself. Unless it’s some kinda’ mental telepathy like the Arapaho have.
SHADOW: Maybe it is an Arapaho in some kinda’ crazy costume. A renegade gone loco.
SLIM: Not this far south. Nope, it’s somethin’ bigger and spookier than you or me can reckon to. Somethin’s goin’ on down here, Shadow. Somethin’ horrible’s goin’ on.
SHADOW: Well, it ain’t bad coffee the woman makes. I say we stick it out a couple days and rest up. Get some good grits in our gullets and move on. We can’t be hangin’ around just waitin’ fer the damn thing to turn up.
SLIM: Didn’t you hear what she said, Shadow? That Tarpin beast means to annihilate the human race. That’s you and me, boy. It starts with the kids. Kills them off one at a time. All the kids. The boys. You know what that means? No boys—no men. No men—no babies. No babies—no people. Do you remember seein’ one living soul the whole time since we crossed over from the high country? Not a one. This woman and her baby boy and her unborn in her belly are the last living things in this neck of the woods. And once it finishes with its dirty work here it’s gonna’ move on. Move north. To the high country.
SHADOW: Well, you know me, Slim. I only took to this hired gun racket recently. Doggin’ bulls was my specialty. The only reason I took up with ya’ was ’cause I thought I’d make myself a tad more money. I never expected ya’ to go in fer no heroism.
SLIM: It ain’t heroism! Golldangit, Shadow! Come down to earth, boy. It’s pure and simple survival. It’s either us or him.
SHADOW: “It.”
SLIM: “Him,” “it,” what’s the difference. We’re gonna’ have to do somethin’ about it sooner or later. It might as well be now. Better than goin’ back home to the ranch and waitin’ for it to come terrorizin’ the wife and kids.
SHADOW: What wife and kids! What ranch! Come down to earth yer own self.
SLIM: I told ya’ about my dreams, Shadow. Now don’t begrudge me that. A man can dream, can’t he?
SHADOW: Sure, but not all the goddamn time. Ya’ can’t always be walkin’ around like a woman in love.
SLIM: And ya’ can’t be walkin’ around like a mad dog kicked out in the cold, neither. I’ve had my fill a’ lonely campfires and beans from a can. I want somethin’ more. I’m gettin’ on in years, Shadow. You, you’re still young and wiry. You could always go back to bulldoggin’ if ya’ hankered to. Not me. There was a time when the speed a’ these two six-guns was all the security I needed. Now, I’ve lost a good tenth of a second or more. Sometimes even the right draws faster than the left. There was a time last month when I even got my thumb stuck on the hammer. Things like that make a man start to wonder. I have nightmares a’ bein’ gunned down on the street by some a’ these hotshot young dudes that a’ been sproutin’ up.
SHADOW: Shh! What’s that?
(They both snap into action and duck down behind their chairs. They listen. Silence.)
SLIM: What? I don’t hear nothin’.
SHADOW: Shh!
(They listen again. A scraping sound comes from outside, then a moan. They signal to each other, then quickly crawl over to underneath the windows. They listen. Again the scraping and the moan. SHADOW whips out a knife and signals to SLIM. SLIM slowly, carefully reaches over to the bolt on the door. A pause. SHADOW nods, then suddenly SLIM unbolts the door and yanks it open.)
(An old PREACHER with a long gray beard and a clerical collar staggers in. He is dressed like an Amish priest and covered with blood, his clothes ripped and slashed. SHADOW grabs him from behind and holds the knife to his throat. SLIM slams the door shut and bolts it. The PREACHER is dazed.)
State yer business, old-timer.
SLIM: Hold it, Shadow. Can’t ya’ see he’s injured? What’s the matter with you?
(SHADOW loosens his grip and puts the knife away. SLIM helps the PREACHER over to the table and lays him down on it.)
Come on now. It’s all right. No one’s gonna’ hurt ya’. Jest lay yerself down there. Come on. That’s it.
(SLIM lays the PREACHER on his back across the table with his arms and legs hanging over the edge.)
Shadow, get Maria. See if she’s got any whiskey and some boiling water.
(SHADOW exits. SLIM starts ripping the PREACHER’s shirt off.)
Just take her easy there, mister. We’ll see to what ails ya’. That’s right. Breathe deep. There ya’ go.
(The PREACHER speaks as he struggles to sit up while SLIM pushes him back down.)
PREACHER: Take courage, my children, cry to God and He will deliver you from the power and hand of the enemy!
SLIM: Jest settle down, mister. No one’s gonna’ hurt ya’. Take it easy.
PREACHER: My children, endure with patience the wrath that has come upon you from God. Your enemies have overtaken you, but you will soon see their destruction and will tread upon their necks!
SLIM: Shadow! Hurry it up!
PREACHER: They shall be wasted with hunger and devoured with burning heat and poisonous pestilence, and I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with venom of crawling things of the dust!
SLIM: Shadow!
PREACHER: Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked, because he was angry! Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him! He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet! He rode on a cherub and flew; he was seen upon the wings of the wind! He made darkness around him his canopy, thick clouds, a gathering of water! Out of the brightness before him coals of fire flamed forth! The Lord thundered from heaven and the Most High uttered his voice! And he sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning, and routed them! Then the channels of the sea were seen, the foundations of the world were laid bare, at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils!
(The PREACHER falls back into a comatose state as SHADOW enters with MARIA carrying a bottle of whiskey and some hot water in a bowl.)
SLIM: Well, it’s about goddamn time. Never cottoned too much to sermons ever since I was a kid.
MARIA: Who this man?
SLIM: Search me, ma’am. He’s wounded pretty bad though. Looks like that beast done it. He’d probably be beholdin’ to ya’ if ya’ fixed him up some.
MARIA: I no tell you to let strangers in.
SHADOW: We thought he was that pig beast, ma’am.
MARIA: Pig? He no pig.
SHADOW: I know, but we thought …
SLIM: Never mind, Shadow. Look, ma’am, if ya’ don’t mind, we’re a little tuckered from the ride—could we just make use of yer mattresses?
MARIA: Yes. Sleep. I wake you up.
(MARIA rips off the PREACHER’s shirt and dresses his wound. SLIM goes to the stage-right mattress and gets ready for bed.)
SHADOW: Well, that’s a fine how-do-you-do. Here I’m all riled up about pig beasts and the annihilation a’ the human race and you wants to sleep.
SLIM: Suit yerself, boy. Here’s an old man talkin’.
SHADOW: Ya’ want a bennie or a red or somethin’, Slim?
SLIM: Sorry. Don’t go in fer dope much. Straight whiskey’s my nemesis.
(He grabs the bottle from MARIA and offers it to SLIM.)
Let’s have us a little celebration on the successful crossing of the fearsome lowlands without one single tangle with the much heard about but seldom seen pig beast.
MARIA: That medicine. No for drink.
(She grabs the bottle back and goes on with tending to the PREACHER.)
SLIM: Listen, boy, we was hired to do a job. That job depends on us bein’ fit and able. Now I ain’t one to get in the way of a man’s pleasures, but when it starts goin’ contrary to the best interests of …
SHADOW: All right! I don’t need no lecture. Go ahead and flake out. I’m takin’ a walk in the moonlight. There any pretty young Cajun babes out there in the woods yearnin’ fer the likes a’ me, Maria?
MARIA: No Cajun.
SHADOW: Yeah, OK. Just thought I’d check. Well, see ya’all later on.
(He picks up his rifle and goes out the door.)
SLIM: Don’t get ate up now!
(MARIA crosses quickly to the door and bolts it. SLIM has his boots and guns off. He takes off his pants, revealing long john underwear underneath. He crawls under the covers. MARIA goes back to the PREACHER.)
How’s the old goat doin’?
MARIA: Goat?
SLIM: The preacher man. Think he’ll pull through?
(MARIA doesn’t answer.)
You don’t savvy even half a’ what I’m sayin’, do ya’?
(Pause.)
How would ye’ like a little roll in the old sack, baby?
(MARIA keeps dressing the PREACHER’s wounds.)
How ’bout suckin’ on my ding dong or somethin’? Talkin’ that-away makes me feel almost as young as that Shadow boy. Almost. Bet you knocked ’em dead when you was nineteen, didn’t ya’, Maria?
MARIA: Yes?
SLIM: Nothin’. I’ll just bet you had ’em lined up though. Yessir. A regular Mardi Gras Cajun queen. Funny you’d wind up way out here like this. On the lam. Runnin’ scared. Too bad about yer old man. Musta’ been a nice fella. Hell of a way to go. Gettin’ ate alive like that. That is the way he does it, ain’t it? Must be. Horrible death. Me, I always think about dyin’ by the gun. You know, like in the Bible. He who lives by the sword and all that malarkey. Still, it’s true. There’s some young whippersnapper out there just waitin’. Just practicin’ and practicin’ on old soup cans and waitin’ to put another notch on his six-gun. ’Course he don’t know it’s gonna’ be me. We ain’t never met personally. I don’t really have no enemies ’cause I killed ’em all. Most of ’em wasn’t even my own enemies. They was somebody else’s. Still they’re all dead and that’s a good feelin’, knowin’ there ain’t no one doggin’ ya’ night and day just to plug ya’ in the backside. Ain’t got no outstandin’ debts neither. Guess I owe Shadow a nickel or two from poker and beer but that’s about it. Don’t owe no man nothin’. Guess you don’t neither, do ya’, Maria?
MARIA: Yes?
(The baby starts to cry softly in the next room. MARIA exits. The PREACHER lies unconscious on the table as SLIM keeps talking.)
SLIM: Guess not. Still it gets lonely just draggin’ around from one two-bit town to the next. Lookin’ fer people with enemies. Enemies and money is all I need to stay in business. Most of my clients are just plain cowards. Cowards or women or rich gentlemen from Boston that never learned to even holster a six-gun, let alone shoot the damn thing. Bankers and financiers and loan sharks. Men who make the country run. Not like me. Me, I’m out to make a few bucks. Save up a roll fer the ranch. The wife and kids. Keep the belly warm. It’s no good bein’ homeless, ya’ know. It eats at a man from the inside out. Ya’ wonder where all the people went. At night. They go away from ya’. They got fires and warmth inside. Outside the world swallows a man up. He gets lost in it. There’s no end to it. He starts cravin’ fer some warmth like a hungry dog. Fer a lover, a friend.
(The lamp and the lights start dimming softly.)
Just some conversation. That’s sorta’ why I hitched up with that Shadow boy. Just so’s I could ramble on to some human being instead a’ that damn pinto or the sage brush. I ain’t alone though. I know that much. I ain’t to be pitied no more than the rest of ’em out there. No more than this old preacher man. Hey, preacher man? I bet you got stories to tell. And the rest of ’em out there. That Shadow boy out there in the night with his heart poundin’ just from bein’ born. Just from the moon and the stars. I can still remember how that felt. To still feel part of the earth. Lost in all that space but not givin’ a goddamn ’cause it meant you was free. Free to be alive. I can feel myself growin’. Not older, just growin’. Growin’ outwards.
(The lights fade to black. Soft blue light comes up on the side of the stage. The GHOST of MARIA’s dead daughter appears dressed in a long blue gypsy dress. She sings.)
LOWLANDS
Chorus:
Lowlands, lowlands, heave away, Joe.
I had a dream the other night.
’Bout a dollar and a dime a day.
Dreamed that the earth was sunk into the sea.
’Bout a dollar and a dime a day.
(Chorus)
Blue was the only color we could see
At a dollar and a dime a day.
Nothing but ship and star and sea
At a dollar and a dime a day.
(Chorus)
Hope that was just a dream I had
At a dollar and a dime a day,
If you don’t drown the sea will drive you mad,
At a dollar and a dime a day.
(Chorus)
TRADITIONAL
New Words by sTEVE WEBER and ANTONIA
(Cross fade to stage.)
The lights come back up to morning light. The PREACHER is still on the table, SLIM is still in bed. SHADOW’S VOICE from outside.
SHADOW’S VOICE: Rise and shine! Rise and shine!
(More banging. The sound of a girl giggling along with SHADOW.)
Every man to his post! The place is surrounded with pig beasts! Every man to his station!
(SLIM suddenly rolls out of his bed across the floor with both pistols in his hands, at the ready. More banging.)
Shake a leg in there! Slim! The sun’s been up for hours!
(SLIM gets up, goes to the door and opens it. SHADOW enters with GRIS GRIS, a young girl with long black hair and a long purple dress. She wears big gold earrings, rings on every finger, necklaces around her neck. SHADOW and GRIS GRIS have their arms full of large yellow mushrooms. SLIM locks the door behind them.)
Good morning, old scout. This here is Gris Gris.
SLIM: Mornin’.
SHADOW: We picked ya’ some breakfast. All we need is some hot boilin’ water in a kettle and we’re in business.
GRIS GRIS: Ya’ fry mushrooms, ya’ don’t boil ’em. Ya’ fry frog legs. Ya’ fry fish eyes. Ya’ fry water moccasins. Ya’ fry everything down here. Ya’ fry men sometimes.
SLIM: Looks like you got yerself a live one there.
SHADOW: What’s the old preacher man still doin’ here? He’s blockin’ up our breakfast table.
SLIM: Where’d ya’ expect him to spend the night?
SHADOW: Well, it ain’t nighttime no longer. It’s time he moseyed on. Come on, Gris Gris, set these over here.
(They go to the other mattress stage left and dump the mushrooms on it.)
Come on, Slim. Help me move this old dude off the breakfast table.
SLIM: Leave him be, Shadow. He had a rough day.
(SHADOW hoists the PREACHER up on his shoulder and lifts him off the table. The PREACHER starts to babble again. SHADOW can’t decide where to put him.)
SHADOW: Come on now, Lazarus.
PREACHER: The Lord has set the sun in the heavens, but has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. I have built thee an exalted house, a place for thee to dwell in forever.
SHADOW: Well, it ain’t this house, brother. It’s crowded enough as it is. Gris Gris, move them mushrooms outa’ the way there.
(GRIS GRIS moves all the mushrooms from the bed over to the table. SHADOW flops the PREACHER down on the mattress.)
PREACHER: He boasted that he would burn up my territory and kill my young men with the sword and dash my infants to the ground and seize my children as prey, and take my virgins as booty!
SHADOW: Aw, pipe down, ya’ old stomper.
GRIS GRIS: Who’s he?
SHADOW: Some old Bible thumper the wind blew in.
(GRIS GRIS takes out a long knife from her boot and starts cutting up the mushrooms on the table. SHADOW kisses her on the cheek. She giggles. SLIM is getting dressed.)
PREACHER: Then my oppressed people shouted for joy; for weak people shouted and the enemy trembled; they lifted up their voices and the enemy were turned back! The sons of maidservants have pierced them through; they were wounded like the children of fugitives, they perished before the army of my Lord!
SHADOW: Sure does know his Bible, don’t he?
SLIM: Yer gonna’ be old one day yerself, smart ass.
SHADOW: But I ain’t gonna’ be unconscious one minute and runnin’ off at the mouth the next.
PREACHER: Woe to the nations that rise up against my people. The Lord almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgment … fire and worms He will give to their flesh! They shall weep in pain forever!
GRIS GRIS: Your ass. Who is this zombie, anyway?
SHADOW: I don’t know.
GRIS GRIS: Why don’t you kick him out? He’s takin’ up my oxygen.
SLIM: Look, girl, you just arrived here and ya’ might have some respect for an older man.
GRIS GRIS: I might. I might get down on my knees and eat worms too but I ain’t gonna’.
SLIM: Where’d you find this one, boy?
SHADOW: Ain’t she somethin’?
SLIM: Y’all plannin’ on eatin’ this poison?
SHADOW: Sure. Gris Gris here knows how to tell the good ones from the bad. Don’tcha’, girl?
GRIS GRIS: Sometimes. Sometimes I make mistakes and get the scuzzy ones. The dark ones. The ones with bloodstains marked on the rim.
SHADOW: Shoulda’ seen it, Slim. A whole mountain of these yellow buttons. Looked like a poppy field from a distance, but Gris Gris knew right off they was magic mushrooms.… Didn’t ya’, girl?
SLIM: What mountain? There ain’t no mountain. I wouldn’t touch them things with a ten-foot pole.
(MARIA enters.)
SHADOW: This here’s Gris Gris, ma’am.
MARIA: You eat, then go.
SHADOW: Now that ain’t very neighborly.
SLIM: She’s a swamp girl, Shadow. She belongs in the swamp.
SHADOW: You belong in the zoo, old man.
SLIM: You can’t talk to me like that and get away with it.
SHADOW: Ya’ wanna’ go fer yer gun, old man.
MARIA: No fight! This is peaceful home. No fight. I fix breakfast, then these two go.
SLIM: I don’t think the preacher’s ready yet, ma’am. He’s still babblin’ on about God and such.
MARIA: You wake him up for to eat.
SHADOW: We picked ya’ some nice fresh mushrooms, ma’am. How ’bout puttin’ ’em in a skillet for us?
MARIA: Where you get these?
SLIM: Says they found ’em on top of a mountain. Now you tell me Maria, is there a mountain anywhere near here?
MARIA: No mountain.
SLIM: There. What’d I tell ya’.
SHADOW: Well, I guess it’s our word against yours. And here’s the evidence sittin’ right here on the table.
SLIM: That don’t mean nothin’. Ya’ coulda’ picked mushrooms anywheres. Maybe they belong to that pig beast. Maria, you ever seen mushrooms like these here?
MARIA: Not so big. So yellow. They bad poison. Black magic.
GRIS GRIS: Black as the inside of a dog’s mouth. Black enough to burn holes through your skull. Black, black, black!
SLIM: I say they’re beast bait, somethin’ that beast put out there to trick us into eatin’.
MARIA: Then we all die.
GRIS GRIS: And our ghosts are taken by the voodoo man. And our souls are stripped down and licked clean by the sons of Osimandias.
SHADOW: Well, Gris Gris and I’ll eat ’em then and you two can have ham and eggs. That way if we die there’ll still be two of ya’ left to fight off the beast.
SLIM: No dice, Shadow. We’re gonna’ need every gun we can muster up when that beast decides to come through the door.
SHADOW: Goddammit, we picked ’em and we’re gonna eat ’em!
SLIM: Shadow, fer once in yer young life listen to reason. Now I been around some and I learned how to smell out a trap or two in my time. This mushroom business smells mighty peculiar. Now first off ya’ tell me ya’ find these here toadstools on top of a mountain and there just ain’t no mountains around here. Second of all—
SHADOW: Me and Gris Gris here is eatin’ these mushrooms fer breakfast, Slim. And if you aim to stop us yer gonna’ have to kill us.
MARIA: No fight here. Fight outside.
SHADOW: Anywhere ya’ want it.
(A pause as SLIM and SHADOW face each other off. SLIM breaks the tension by going to the PREACHER.)
SLIM: Guess I’ll try wakin’ up the old geezer. Lord knows he could use somethin’ in that belly after all he’s been through.
SHADOW: Gris Gris, why don’t you and Maria go in the kitchen and fetch us a skillet so we can get to fryin’ these things. Go on.
GRIS GRIS: Come on, Mama Reux. Let’s see what you got in your kitchen. Let’s cook up a potion for these dudes.
(SHADOW picks up a piece of the mushroom and smells it. He pops it into his mouth and chews. He sits on the table and keeps popping pieces of mushroom into his mouth and watching SLIM, whose back is to him as he tries to wake up the PREACHER.)
SLIM: Come on, old-timer. Time to face a new day.
SHADOW: Never figured you to be one to back down, Slim. Least not from a bulldogger like me.
SLIM: (To the PREACHER) Come on, now. Get some hot breakfast in yer belly and you’ll be a new man.
SHADOW: Me, I couldn’t go on livin’ with a fear like that. No sir. That kind of uncertainty about yerself. I’d rather die a fool than back down in front a’ women folk like that.
SLIM: Jest open yer eyes and take a big yawn. Come on. Can’t sleep the whole day away.
SHADOW: ’Course now, it just may be that you was takin’ pity on me. Just may be that. Knew you was faster all along. Takes a lot a’ courage to turn the other cheek. Don’t it?
(SLIM wheels around and knocks SHADOW off the table onto the floor. He gets on top of him and straddles his chest, pinning his arms to the ground.)
SLIM: Now listen, you saddle tramp no ’count. The only reason I took you on was ’cause I was tired a’ makin’ it alone. If I needed a fast gun I could a’ had my pick a’ the best. Plus, I felt sorry for ya’. Sittin’ around whittlin’ on fence posts; carvin’ yer initials in bar stools. Let me tell you somethin’, boy. Now you listen good. Don’t you ever push me again. You hear? Not never. ’Cause I’ll blast you wide open like a bale a’ sawdust.
(The PREACHER suddenly sits up on the mattress and looks around as though waking up from a long sleep. SLIM and SHADOW relax and watch him. The PREACHER stands up and walks across the room. He stops and looks around. He sees the mushrooms on the table and walks over to them. He picks one up and eats it. SLIM stands.)
Wait a minute. Don’t eat them things. Them’s beast bait.
(The PREACHER smiles. He speaks as though talking to no one in particular.)
PREACHER: And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Say to the people of Israel, These are the living things which you may eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. And the swine, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you.”
(The PREACHER crosses back to the mattress and lies down and goes back into a trance state.)
SLIM: Now if that don’t beat all.
(SHADOW gets up off the floor.)
SHADOW: I say we turn him back out. He ain’t right in the head, Slim.
SLIM: You wouldn’t be neither if that beast had grabbed you out there.
SHADOW: There ain’t no beast! Maria’s made it all up. I’m tellin’ ya’, me and Gris Gris tramped all around out there last night and the worst thing we seen was a hoot owl with a water snake wrapped around its beak.
(GRIS GRIS enters playing her fiddle. As she enters the room, SHADOW doubles over in pain, clutching his stomach and moaning.)
SLIM: Shadow, boy!
GRIS GRIS: My fiddle plays a death song. I sing it through my ears. Frogs move in me. Crawdaddies play with my soul. Something moves my fingers over strings. Something strikes the bow like a torch.
SLIM: It’s them damn toadstools! … Come on!
(GRIS GRIS makes no move to help but keeps playing her fiddle like a death chant. SLIM pulls SHADOW over to the stage-right mattress and flops him down.)
GRIS GRIS: You zombies rip me up. Your death walk. Death stance. Staring into what you can’t see. Take me, not the night. Turn your back on the beast. But you can’t. He’s close now. His breath breathes your breath. You are him. He’s in you.
SLIM: You put a spell on him! You’re nothin’ but a demon witch!
GRIS GRIS: Spells are meant to be broken. But you’re locked in. You got no keys. You got no gris gris. You got no magic to use. Well, let me give you some. I’ll pass it around. There’s stuff to spare in the air. Take it. Take some mojo root jam. Some John the Conqueroot jam. Some toad skin. Some fish tooth. Some cocoa leaf juice. Some swamp gas. Moss blood. Anything is useful. Use your dirty socks if you can find your feet.
SLIM: Maria!
GRIS GRIS: And don’t think he ain’t comin’ ’cause I called him up. I talked to his teeth and he answers like the owl. He’s hootin’ out for this shack. This little pile of sticks. We’re all gonna’ burn at his stake. So get ready to see through fire. Get set to smell flesh. Signify on your knees if you got the balls. ’Cause snakes is gonna’ slither on your zombie corpse!
(During this, SHADOW has been going through convulsions, with SLIM trying to hold him down. When GRIS GRIS finishes, SHADOW collapses. SLIM covers him with the blanket, then turns to GRIS GRIS.)
SLIM: You poisoned him.
GRIS GRIS: Poison’s in the air, Jack. Some people take it, some leave it.
SLIM: You poisoned him with them toadstools. You knew they was poison. Shadow was my right-hand man. So now you gotta’ look to your left. A left-handed gunman. Now that’s something to strut your stuff about. None a’ this candy cock sidekick shit. Use your left, baby. Look to your left. Watch out!
(SLIM wheels and draws to his left side as though about to fire at an unseen gunman.)
GRIS GRIS: There he is! Lurkin’ in the Spanish moss. A dark black mustache man crouched in the leaves, crawling through the ferns with a knife gleaming ’tween his jagged teeth. He’s out for you like a swamp dog smellin’ coon blood. Your time is comin’, cowboy.
SLIM: No! I done him in in Nogales. No! It was Santa Fe. No! Elko, Nevada. That was it. I finished him. I remember his face. His teeth were gushin’ blood. He ain’t comin’.
GRIS GRIS: There’s another one! Watch it now!
(SLIM wheels again drawing his gun.)
He slinks, this one. He preys on wounded knees. He knows your hat size. He’s followed your saloon trail. He knows your boot prints backwards.
SLIM: Not him! I got him good. Two chambers and he still kept comin’. But he died at my feet. At my feet! He kissed my boot! He kissed it and thanked me for it! I remember you! All month, trackin’ through powder snow. Found him in a pine ridge. Not that one! He’s gone! Gone, I tell ya’!
GRIS GRIS: There’s more out there. More shadows.
SLIM: Nothin’, I tell ya’! They all been done! No one’s comin’ but some beast we don’t even know about! I’ll tell ya’ another thing. I dealt with witches before. You ain’t the first. You ain’t got no power over this fox, honey. I’m goin’ out there. I’m goin’ out there to find this here mysterious mountain you conjured up. And if I find it I’m gonna’ tear it down. With my bare hands. I’m gonna’ make a rumble that they won’t stop hearin’ till the lowlands falls into the sea! Then I’m comin’ back for you and you best be ready. ’Cause no one puts a spell on this dude. No one! You hear?
GRIS GRIS: Good luck.
(SLIM exits. GRIS GRIS crosses between the PREACHER and SHADOW. She looks them over and says a prayer.)
She danced with a fish held high over her head. She breathed to the moon. The village killed her. Cut off her head and dropped it down a well. That spring all the people died from drinking the water.
(MARIA enters.)
MARIA: What happened to this man?
GRIS GRIS: He’s drunk on air. Maybe you could pull some white charms out of your basket. Do him good.
MARIA: How he get sick?
GRIS GRIS: You must know some magic, Mama. Let’s put the powers into play. Let’s dance a dance. A spirit dance over this poor bulldoggin’ fool. You take the right. I’ll take the left. You take the white, I’ll take the black. It’s a little contest. You wanna’ play?
MARIA: He very sick?
GRIS GRIS: Very sick. He needs a sycamore syringe up his ass.
MARIA: I help.
GRIS GRIS: Good. Then let the voodoo come!
(MARIA bends down over SHADOW and begins a ritual to exorcise his demons. GRIS GRIS goes to stage left and plays high wailing screeches on the fiddle and tries to possess SHADOW with the demons. MARIA hums softly.)
In the heat of a mongoose the lowlands prayed for rain. Rain in the tropics. The Cajuns clacked their teeth. The swamps dried up into cracked mud. Dead snapping turtles lay on their backs baking in the sun. Fish floated on the sand. The rocks turned green. The mystery was real and all the people felt the presence of the beast. Some say they saw him coming in their dreams. Dream language came out of their mouths. Symbols were seen in the shapes of clouds. Dust hung over their homes. A desert was growing. Coyotes took the place of the Blue Tipped Coon Hound. Howls broke branches in the night.
(During this, SHADOW begins to have tremors conflicting between the magic of MARIA and GRIS GRIS.)
Women covered their heads with black sacks with eyes cut like the slit eyes of a wolf. Men covered their mouths. Horses fell in the fields and went stiff with their hooves pointed toward the sun. The sky went black, then changed to white like a photograph of death. The crocodile dives to deeper water, touches bottom, crawls along the muddy bottom, hides his ears from the sound of the land. The stink moves from east to west, then changes wind and moves back again. Their noses are on fire. The eyes water and cause moss to grow on their cheeks. Everywhere the people move in bands of a dozen or less. Breaking up, coming together. Screaming crazy, throwing themselves on their own campfires. Eating the flames. The beast has come.
(The two heads of the pig beast appear in the stage-left window. No sound. GRIS GRIS and MARIA have their backs to the window and don’t notice. Just the audience sees it. It peers in, then disappears, then reappears in the stage-right window and disappears again. GRIS GRIS continues.)
He moves in their thoughts. Tracks them running. Tracks them walking. Tracks them sleeping. Blocks their escape. Tortures their minds with no hope. Drags them down in the bayou mud. Boils their eyes. Crosses their vision. Doubles their senses. Eats them raw and spits them back.
(SHADOW begins to writhe and scream. MARIA keeps up her ritual. GRIS GRIS is relentless, wailing on her fiddle and screaming into the air.)
Blood rains from the sky. The earth opens up and swallows them whole. The sky rips and tears like a paper bag. Carcasses turn into tumbleweeds. The wind blows them back to the sea. The sea bellows the voice of the beast. It rips up the trees and throws them down little broken ships. The sea evens out into a flat green glassy shine and smiles at its dirty work. The beast cackles like the jackal and broken things bob on the surface. The moon sinks behind the sun and the sun shines black. The beast has come. The beast has come. The beast has come.
(SHADOW goes limp and lifeless. MARIA rises slowly. She takes a moment and looks at GRIS GRIS, then exits. GRIS GRIS stares out over the audience, then slowly opens her mouth and makes a silent scream. MARIA, at the very moment GRIS GRIS opens her mouth, screams from offstage. MARIA enters, hands dripping with blood.)
MARIA: My son! My boy is dead!
BLACKOUT
(During BLACKOUT GHOST GIRL is heard singing “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams.”)
WRAP YOUR TROUBLES IN DREAMS
Wrap your troubles in dreams
Send them all away
Put them in a bottle and
Across the sea they’ll stay
Speak not of misfortune
Speak not of your woes
Just steal yourself a holy death
Crouching by the door
Writhe and sway to music’s pain
Searing with asides
Caress death with a lover’s touch
And it shall be your bride
Purple is to yellow as
Sunlight is to rain
Happiness in death you’ll find
Loveliness in pain
Slash the golden whip it snaps
Across the lover’s sides
The earth trembles without remorse
Preparing for to die
Salty ocean waves and sprays
Come crashing to the shore
Bullies kick and kill young loves
Down on bar room floors
The gleaming knife cuts early
Through the midnight air
Cutting entrails in its path
Blood runs without care
Violence echoes through the land
And heart of every man
The knife it stabs existent wounds
Pus runs through matted hair
Excrement filters through the brain
Hatred bends the spine
Filth covers the body pores
To be cleansed by dying time
Words and Music by LOU REED
(As song is ended, the lights come up slowly on SHADOW and the PREACHER on different sides of the stage. They are both coming out of their respective spells, the rhythms of their language and action shifting from one side of the stage to the other. They are the only two onstage.)
SHADOW: Gimme a good bull! That’s all I’m askin’! A good bull! All I need’s a good ride! Just one good ride! That’s all I’m askin’! Gimme the Twister or Buttermilk or the Monsoon! Any a’ them! Gimme somethin’ with some heart in him!
PREACHER: Now you kids be back before dusk and don’t be bringin’ back no slimy things. Empty your pockets out ’fore you come in the door. You hear? Stay away from the black folk. You cross the tracks and you’ll get a whoopin’ sure as I’m born. I seen you playin’ with black Willie. I seen you. Now don’t lie to me! Don’t you lie or the Lord’ll paddle yer blue jeans off.
SHADOW: Tucson. Couldn’t make it in a day anyhow. Could hitchhike out to Omaha. Tuba city. The damn circuit. They don’t make the circuit for a poorboy. Every cowpuncher come along thinks he’s a star right off. Just off the range. Shoulda’ stuck with stock cars. Get a damn Ford out there. Don’t gotta’ depend on no bull. Every Brahma’s different. Stick to bulldoggin’. Never can tell. Not like a damn Ford. Just stomp it. ’At’s it. ’Atta boy. Slipstream the mother.
PREACHER: The bobwhite says “Bob White.” The whippoorwill says “Whip poor will.” We could put a message in a White Lightning bottle and send it to a faraway place. Just toss it in the Gulf a’ Mexico. No tellin’ who’d find it. We could write a joke. Like “Who Killed Cock Robin.”
(In another voice.)
You boys get on away from them skiffs. Get on, ya’ hear! Go catch yerselves some catfish. Make yerself useful.
(Another voice.)
Let’s play the jukebox down at Jango’s place.
(Another voice.)
I don’t like Jango. Last time he tried to whoop me fer stealin’ sugar.
SHADOW: Least in football ya’ got all that paddin’. All that cushion. More bones broke in a rodeo than ever was in football. Let me see the nurse. The head nurse. They got no right holdin’ me here against my will. I gotta’ earn me a livin’. I ain’t gonna’ go into traction neither. I don’t care. I’ll ride a damn Brahma with two legs broke and my collar bone flappin’. I don’t give a damn. Lemme see the doctor. It’s my leg, ain’t it? Nobody else’s. It’s my neck.
PREACHER: Remember that Packard used to set out in front of Sukie’s garage? That thing was so beautiful. I used to walk past there thinkin’ about the shine on them fenders. I used to look at my teeth in that paint job and just grin and grin. Well, one day I stole it. That’s right. I couldn’t believe it. There it was just settin’ there with the engine hummin’ and the keys in it and everything. And I just hopped in the son of a bitch and took off. Drove and drove like a crazy man. Finally got it stuck in a bog. I just left it there. I just laughed and laughed and left it there.
SHADOW: They never tell ya’ the worst. A man’s got a right to know. It’s my life, ain’t it? Don’t let ’em take my leg off no matter what. They’ll have to shoot me first. They’ll have to shoot me.
(Loud banging on the door. Outside SLIM is heard bellowing.)
SLIM’S VOICE: All right. Open up in there. What’s going on?
(More loud banging. SHADOW and the PREACHER lie motionless.)
Open up, I tell ya’! It’s me! Slim! What the hell’s goin’ on? Open up this door ’fore I bust it down!
(More banging as MARIA enters from the kitchen. She goes to the door and opens it slowly. SLIM enters. MARIA bolts the door behind him.)
SLIM: What’s goin’ on, Maria? Didn’t ya’ hear me out there?
MARIA: My son is dead.
SLIM: Dead? What do you mean?
MARIA: That beast kill my son.
SLIM: The beast? He was here? Now look, Maria, I been walkin’ all over tarnation out there and I didn’t see no sign a’ no beast. Are you sure you’re telling the truth about this whole thing?
MARIA: That beast come. My boy is dead.
SLIM: You know what I think? I think it’s that damn swamp gypsy. I think she’s at the root a’ this beast thing. Where is she anyhow? Maria?
MARIA: My boy is dead.
SLIM: I know that. And I’m sorry. There ain’t nothin’ I can do about it now. We gotta’ find that swamp girl and find out the truth about what’s goin’ on or we’re all gonna’ be dead. Now where is she?
MARIA: She gone.
SLIM: Well, where’d she go?
MARIA: She vanish.
SLIM: All right now, can the mumbo jumbo! I’m sick and tired a’ all this fool magic stuff and visions flying around. Now where’d she go?
(GRIS GRIS enters from the kitchen playing her fiddle gently. She saunters onto the stage.)
GRIS GRIS: You lookin’ fer me, cowboy?
MARIA: No! You go back. You hide.
GRIS GRIS: I’ll hide when there’s somethin’ to fear, Maria. Right now I’m naked as a snake.
SLIM: Now you look here, girl. I don’t know what yer game is, but you best come out with the truth or I’ll be forced to take drastic measures.
GRIS GRIS: You gonna’ stake me out in the sun and pour red ants down my ears?
MARIA: She knows nothing. She is Cajun girl. She is strange to you.
SLIM: She’s strange all right. Strange enough to send me on a wild goose chase looking for a mountain full a’ yellow mushrooms. Strange enough to put a spell on my partner here. Strange enough to conjure up some beast that don’t exist. Now ain’t that the truth? You been lying all along? Maria, is she the one who first told you about the beast?
SLIM: Well, who did then?
MARIA: We know. The lowlands know. There is a beast. There is something that comes in the night.
SLIM: Well, you’re gonna’ have to handle him alone then, ’cause me and Shadow is hightailin’ it outa’ here. Shadow! Shadow! Get up, boy!
(SLIM goes to SHADOW and shakes him. SHADOW jumps up as though wakened out of a sound sleep.)
SHADOW: I’m gonna’ need some new tread on that left rear. Don’t wanna’ make no pit stops the first time around.
SLIM: Shadow! Listen to me! We been fooled! We been taken for a couple dumb ranch hands. There ain’t no beast at all. You was right all along.
(SHADOW gets up and begins to move about the stage as though preparing for a stock-car race.)
MARIA: He very sick.
SHADOW: Just make sure the windows is busted out. I don’t want to be stickin’ my head through no glass. Where’s my gloves? I need my gloves!
GRIS GRIS: Gloves coming up.
(GRIS GRIS goes to SHADOW and puts a pair of invisible gloves on his hands.)
SLIM: You stay away from him. You done enough damage already.
PREACHER: If you think I’m evil, evil is what I am. A poacher by trade. A preacher poacher. At night my skiff skims the surface of the bayou swamp. Slides noiseless down through lily pads. Bullfrogs jump out of my path.
SHADOW: I’ll need my helmet too. Just in case. Don’t wanna’ get no whiplash.
GRIS GRIS: Helmet!
SLIM: Shadow!
PREACHER: We boys, we young ones ain’t been schooled in the morals. A gator’s a gator. Long scaly prehistoric, jagged-tooth fish beast. With a hide that brings money.
SHADOW: My dark glasses! My shades! My ankles need to be taped.
SLIM: What you done to him? What you done to my boy?
SHADOW: Check the crank case! Transmission! Four forward! On the floor! Radiator! Fan belt! Tachometer set! Rip off them mud flaps, we ain’t gonna’ be in no slush! This is asphalt country!
PREACHER: At night we go shinin’. Flashlights like little ember fires glazing along the surface. Catch the gleam of the gator’s eyes. Like two big cigars burning in the night. A twenty-two short’ll do the trick.
SLIM: You take that curse off him!
GRIS GRIS: He’s not cursed. He’s saved. Look at his eyes. He’s in heaven driving flat out through the pearly gates!
SHADOW: Take the first bank at a hundred and twenty. Push the straightaway up to one eighty. Back it down! Down shift! Keep it outa’ fourth! Slipstream the Corvettes! Watch out for the red Pontiac! Number seven! Number seven! Break him out of the chute! Now!
GRIS GRIS: Now! Go to it, cowboy!
(SHADOW sits down on the floor and pretends he’s behind the wheel of a stock car. He goes through the sounds and actions of shifting and driving in a full-tilt race to the death.)
SLIM: Maria! Would you stop that mumbling! We gotta’ get some order in this house! Maria!
PREACHER: Some boys like to rope and wrestle ’em. But not us. We like to be cruel. Shoot ’em right between the eyes. They die right on the soot and turn over on their backsides, and float right to the surface.
SLIM: All right! Cut out all this nonsense or I’m gonna’ start whippin’ some ass!
PREACHER: Then you drag ’em up on shore. Jamie Lee has his hatchet out and turns the gator over. He chops straight down into the neck. The legs jump out and twitch like a giant frog.
SLIM: Girl, you undo your black spell or I’m gonna’ plug ya’ right here and now. This has gone far enough. You got everybody off the deep end here.
GRIS GRIS: You gonna’ plug me, gunman? You gonna’ shoot me down with your six-gun? You gonna’ make me believe you got power in your hands? You got no power. Look around ya’. Look where the power lies. You can’t even pull a nickel outa’ yer blue jeans, let alone a pistol.
SLIM: Now don’t push me, gal. I’m about at the end of my tether.
GRIS GRIS: Oh, yeah, you a mean hombre. I can tell by your outfit.
MARIA: The saints bleed! And all around we are blind! We are blind to the sun! Blind to the moon and stars!
PREACHER: Then me, I use my knife. Got a clean line from the throat all the way down to the tail. We flop him back over on his belly and peel away that skin like a new suit a’ clothes. It comes off clean with a little tugging.
SLIM: You don’t know what it takes, girl. One twitch of the mind. One little snap of the head and I can turn you into a prairie dog, a varmint, a critter low enough to blast into dust. It don’t take nothin’ but a moment! All I gotta’ do is decide. And if I make that choice, you bein’ a female ain’t gonna’ save your hide.
GRIS GRIS: Well, come on then! What’s holdin’ you back? You can see the worst is comin’. You can see the worst is here knockin’ at the door. What do you got to lose?
SLIM: I’m warnin’ you!
PREACHER: Sometimes we gotta’ use the pliers to get a good grip.
And then we roll the skin up into a little package for the buyers and stick it deep down in a gunny sack. Nothin’ left in the mud but a pink naked corpse with the blood oozing down into the earth.
GRIS GRIS: Now fight that corpse, boy! You gotta’ fight that corpse! There’s some life left in him yet.
(The PREACHER begins to wrestle an imaginary alligator. He writhes and moans all over the stage.)
SLIM: I’m warnin’ you! A killer ain’t a pretty sight. I done it before and I’ll do it again! I’ve seen ’em with prayers in their eyes. I’ve seen ’em with wife and kids cowering in the corner. I’ve seen ’em bold and ready to die. All kinds. And they was all the same. At that moment they was all the same. Just like you standin’ there, arms open, ready for the bullet. It’s just a simple thing. Just a simple little thing.
GRIS GRIS: Come on, cowboy man! Come on!
(She plays her fiddle and dances, daring him to kill her.)
SLIM: But I ain’t the same. Something’s changed. It used to be like makin’ love in the highest form. I felt clean and free after it was done. I felt cleansed by the hands of Jesus himself. I felt a flashing burn go up my spine and down the inside of my legs. They fell. They all fell. Oh, the power in that moment! If I could only have that power again! That incredible power to kill and not be afraid. If I could only get it back!
GRIS GRIS: It’s here! Here it is! Here I am!
SLIM: To slaughter a lamb ain’t the same.
GRIS GRIS: How ’bout a bird? An eagle or a crow! I can be what you make me. I can turn into a fawn. A white buffalo. An antelope! A wolf! Make me what you want!
SLIM: It’s gone! It’s gone, I tell ya’!
MARIA: And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery.
SLIM: Everything’s broken like glass. The time’s gone. The past. The blood’s gone from my hands. I’m frozen like a rock. Ancient. Nothing moves. I don’t feel a thing.
(GRIS GRIS wails on her fiddle. SHADOW, the PREACHER and MARIA keep up their rituals. SLIM staggers around like a madman trying to find himself.)
I move outside myself. It must have been another time. That’s it! Another time! This is wrong! I’m not here at all. It was honky tonks and bathtub gin! Railroad men and mule skinners! That was it! This is all wrong! I’m out of my depth. The hands reach for something else now! There’s a different craving! A new hunger! I’m starving to death and fat on buffalo meat! What is it a man cries for when nothing fits? No sense to the music? A new kind of music! A new kind of dance!
MARIA: And another portent appeared in heaven; behold a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems upon his head. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to His throne and the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God.
PREACHER: Ya’ just tickle his belly. It’s the simplest thing. He turns into a puppy dog before your very eyes.
(Suddenly the door crashes in and the beast enters. He is just as MARIA described. Two heads like a pig, he snorts and spits, lights come from his eyes. His skin is covered with slimy green moss. All the characters continue their rituals, oblivious of the beast’s presence. The beast crosses downstage center and faces the audience. The action happens around him. Somehow the beast seems helpless and alone in the situation. He exits.)
SLIM: Something’s taking me over! A scavenger! A coyote dog!
(GRIS GRIS starts hooting like an owl and playing her fiddle. She begins to take on the fluttering movements of the owl. The PREACHER becomes the alligator. He slithers across the floor and attacks SHADOW, chomping down on him. SHADOW becomes a bull, snorting and pawing at the ground, trying to gore the alligator with his horns. MARIA becomes a wildcat, screaming and prowling around the stage. They each have their own animal rhythms and play them out against each other. SLIM transforms into a coyote, howling at the moon. This happens slowly as he says his monologue. “Jilala” is heard softly in the background. It rises slowly through the scene and becomes deafening by the end of the play.)
You can’t take me now! I ain’t had my day! I mean I did! I did! But it ain’t over! This can’t be what I’m left with! Not now! I’ll practice up! Just wait! Wait and see! I’ll get it back! I’ll get back the touch! I got some magic left! I’ll take a little vacation! How’s that sound? Go up in the hills and practice. Yeah. I could do that. No harm in a little rest. Won’t take no jobs for a month. Maybe a year. Sure. A nice long rest. Get my nerves back.
(He howls.)
Just give me a chance! I got both my feet on the ground. I ain’t a man a’ God! I love the earth! I love the land! This is me talking! Just listen for a little bit longer. Just a little bit. Don’t take me without a word. I know you suffer. I can see your silhouette. I feel your pain. You don’t have to prove it. I’m your man. It’s no mistake. But let me say my piece. Just let me speak it out.
(He howls again.)
That’s your voice. I’ve heard it in the West. I’ve heard it yapping around my campfires. But you never listened to me! You never did! Don’t you think it’s fair?
(SLIM drops to his knees and begins to take on the soul of the coyote as he talks. He starts to move around the stage on all fours.)
I’m beyond prayers now! Can’t you see that? I never chose my moves. Something moved in me like a silent hand. Every action, every thought. You can take me now! It’s all right. Now you can have me! Come on, you old desert dog! Come on! I howl!
(He howls.)
I yap!
(He yaps.)
I chew on the carcass of a skunk. I trot across highways where no cars come for days. I devour my young. I am the beast. The beast is me. I’m feeling your blood now. It’s thinner. Your heart beats faster. You look to the right and the left with quick jerks. Afraid to be eaten yourself. Small animals crawl through your skin. You’re infected with desert life. Your loneliness is beyond what humans know. You’ve given yourself to the ground and I give myself to you. It’s only fair. It’s only fair.
(SLIM howls and turns into the coyote. The whole stage is animated with the animal movements and sounds of the characters. The music rises to its highest pitch, then everything goes to silence.)
BLACKOUT