scene nine

“keys to the cages”

A densely wooded section of the city park is suggested by the outline of trees with hanging moss and vines against a dark night sky. The golden wheel is faintly visible through the jungle-like weeds and there is barely audible music.

Ben and the Girl enter, moving uncertainly in the dark.

girl: I can’t make out a thing, can you?

ben: Not much. Are you scared?

girl: No. It doesn’t matter what happens to me.

ben: Why do you say that?

girl: Don’t ask me, please. Oh, there’s the golden wheel—it’s getting closer. I can hear music. I’m beginning to suspect what it is.

ben: Don’t be suspicious. Keep your faith in possibilities, Alice.

girl: Where are we now?

ben: We’re near the zoo. I can hear the foxes crying.

girl: I wonder what they’re crying for?

ben: The same thing we’re crying for. They long for the hills and freedom the same as we do.

girl: Someone’s coming!

ben: The keeper. The man with the keys to the cages.

[A gruff-looking little man closely resembling the night watchman appears with a huge bunch of keys and a lantern.]

Hello, there, Keeper.

keeper [grunting]: Kind of late to be visiting the zoo.

ben: It’s never too late to take a look at the foxes.

keeper: I don’t like to have ’em disturbed this late. They’re restless little monsters. One of the females’s in the family way and I’m going to take a look at her.

ben: You mean she’s going to have babies in that smelly little cage?

keeper: Sure. Where else would she have ’em?

ben: Out in the woods somewhere would be a lot better.

keeper: The feisty little bitch’ll have ’em here and like it.

ben: I suppose you’ve got the keys to all the cages?

keeper: I’ve got the key to every animal cage in the zoo.

ben: All marked with tags?

keeper: Yep, all marked with tags. —So long.

ben: Just a minute.

keeper: Huh?

[Ben clips him on the chin and seizes the keys. The Girl screams. Music comes up.]

ben [rapidly sorting the keys]: Elephants! Tigers! Kangaroos! Flamingos! Ahh, here it is, foxes!

girl: What are you going to do?

ben: I’m starting out on the career of emancipator! Just one minute!

[He darts out of sight. A steel door is heard clanging open. The excited barking of foxes is heard. Ben comes running back.]

Come along quick before the keeper comes to!

girl: Oh, my heavens, what have you done?

ben: I let ’em loose!

[The Keeper sits up.]

Quick! Follow me! [They rush off.]

keeper: Hey! My God, the foxes! [He jumps up and fires two shots in the air.] Stop, thief! Stop, thief! Help, help! Stop, thief!

[All the animals in the zoo are awakened, and they all roar at once—the braying of the elephant homesick for the jungle, the lonely roar of the lion, the sorrowful chattering of the little monkeys.]

fade

[Mr. E shakes with laughter offstage.]