HOLLER RIVER

A play

By

Caridad Svich

Performance rights and enquiries:

Elaine Devlin Literary, Inc., 411 Lafayette Street, 6th Flr. NY, NY 10003 USA.

Tel: 212-842-9030. Email: [email protected]

Or author at [email protected]

or ND Alumni Desk at [email protected]

Figures:

[The choruses may double, Skyler & Riley may also. Thus, this play could be performed
with ten actors, as below, or with six.]

FALL, The One Who’s Been, a former soldier, mentor and friend to En, a wreck

EN, The One who was from Here and is Now Returning, a soldier who’s coming back
home, on the road, on the path from all and to all

SKYLER, a stranger on the road, was a soldier once, too.

RILEY, the one who is barely beginning, on the road to training.

& The Ones that Tend (1st Chorus):

KYLE, leader of the sewing circle and friend to Fall, getting by on getting by

MORGAN, member of the sewing circle, a sense of mischief somehow

CASEY, member of the sewing circle, hand dealt but carries on

& The Once-Miners (2nd Chorus):

AXE, leader of the miners, now drinks and waits, slightly adrift

JO, drinks and waits and harbors resentment

CLEM, drinks and waits and tries to make peace

Places:

In the town: The backyard of all backyards where Fall sits, the frame of the house where
the Ones That Tend sew, the frame of the tavern and a spot up near the hill overlooking
all. And the road of all roads through the country and toward the river.

2
Notes On Text, Performance and Casting:

This play may be performed with an interval after scene eleven.

Text in parenthesis should not be spoken.

This play should be cast openly and inclusively. Gender-neutral names and pronouns
are deliberately used throughout.

A “conventional” reading of this play would render Fall, En, Skyler, Riley and the Once-
Miners as all male, and the Ones Who Tend as female. But I strongly encourage a non-
“conventional” rendering of this cast. It would be advised, for example, to render Fall as
female-identified and En as male-identified or vice versa. Likewise with all of the other
roles.

There are moments of song in this play. They are all original songs inspired by folk and
blues music. The songs may also live in a musical palette inspired by Charles Ives and
John Adams, depending on overall production aesthetic.

Only one of the songs “Low Valley” has a lead sheet, as of this writing, composed by
and available from the author. It is preferred that this version of “Low Valley” be used in
performance. The rest of the author’s lyrics may be set by another composer.

When performing this text, embrace a sense of the mythic.

3
One

The One Who’s Been, also known as Fall, in the backyard of all backyards, wallowing in
a vestige of tobacco and liquor

FALL: Everyone’s always looking for a story.

They wanna know how things were, and how things are gonna be.

But what they don’t know is that there isn’t a story.

Just how we live and dream.

Reckon you don’t know what I’m talking about

Looking at me with those eyes,

Like I ain’t right in the head,

Like somebody told you once “all the old ones are messed up in mind.”

Well, I’m not gonna lie.

I am pretty messed up.

I’m what they call a bonafide wreck

Got no quarrel with that.

Know my own mind.

Know what I know too

‘bout what the mind does

4
When a ghost come through it.

They’re all round here.

Spitting fire.

Raining hurt.

Angry sonsofbitches of sonsofbitches.

With what they’ve all gone through in this here land?

You’d be angry too.

Reckon you’d be a beast.

Like one of them primeval creatures

Staring at the mighty world

Wonderin how’d it all come to this?

People say it’s what we’ve done,

what we’ve ALL done that’s made things how they are.

I say, if that’s what you wanna believe,

Got no right to dictate your conscience.

It’s not like I don’t think things, though.

Especially at this hour.

5
Ghosts are real thick.

Hovering something fierce.

Have half a mind to kick them out.

But what good would that do?

They’d just come back.

This land’s as much theirs as anyone else’s.

Kick dirt.

That’s all I can do.

Kick. n hope I’ll make it to ‘nother day.

6
Two

Next to the backyard, in the frame of the house, are The Ones That Tend. They are a
sewing circle, and they are sewing pieces that will make a flag.

KYLE: gonna punch out my lungs with all that dirt, kickin it up like that.

MORGAN: No need to exaggerate.

KYLE: Fall’s makin a mess out there.

CASEY: Land is land, Kyle. Good to kick sometimes.

KYLE: what you smokin, Casey?

CASEY: huh?

KYLE: talk like that?

CASEY: talk how I talk.

KYLE: frettin kind.

CASEY: no fret here. Just sewin. What we do, right?

MORGAN: who else gonna?

CASEY: Not every day one of our own comes back.

MORGAN: After all the wars.

CASEY: Not every day we get ourselves a real homecoming.

MORGAN: if at that.

KYLE: would be nice to see En again.

7
CASEY: may not even remember us.

KYLE: how’s that?

MORGAN: En’s been gone a long, long time.

KYLE: (was) Like family once. Gotta remember us.

CASEY: know what they say.

KYLE: hmm?

CASEY: soldiering changes a person.

KYLE: don’t change who you are deep inside.

MORGAN: well…

KYLE: a person’s still who they are, no matter what they’ve done or gone through.

CASEY: may not even be true.

KYLE: how’s that?

CASEY: En coming back.

KYLE: Heard.

CASEY: may just be a rumor.

KYLE: cruel to rumor something like that if it ain’t true.

MORGAN: know how people are. Lousy at most things, but cruelty?

That comes easy somehow.

CASEY: (they) revel in it.

MORGAN: like it fed some part of the soul.

8
KYLE: pay no credence to false rumors. En’s coming back. That’s what I’m believing.

CASEY: (with irony) keep on sewin’.

MORGAN: (with irony) cotton bound.

They sew. Time passes.

KYLE: make this flag, make all this nice.

MORGAN: then what?

KYLE: fix things.

CASEY: what we fix?

KYLE: world.

MORGAN: dreamin’.

KYLE: somebody got (to).

CASEY: and then?

KYLE: live nice.

MORGAN: what’s that even mean?

KYLE: like regular people.

CASEY: nobody regular nowhere no-how.

KYLE: sure is.

CASEY: seen ‘em?

KYLE: up the hill.

9
CASEY: who (are) you talkin?

KYLE: you know.

CASEY: them?

KYLE: …

CASEY: Kyle, there’s nothin’ regular bout them.

KYLE: more than most.

MORGAN: dreamin’.

KYLE: Listen, Morgan, I know what I’ve seen.

MORGAN: seeing and being are two different things.

CASEY: why you wanna be like all them up the hill, anyway?

KYLE: never said.

CASEY: implying.

KYLE: hush.

CASEY: (I) can’t say now?

KYLE: shh.

They listen to The One Who’s Been sing, as a haze of liquor settles in…

“Late River”

FALL: LATE I KNOW

WHERE I’VE BEEN

DOWN THE ACHING LAND.

10
RIVER STRONG

SALTY KIN

GIVE YOUR HIRED HANDS.

LATE I KNOW

THROUGH THE DAY

DOWN THE STINKIN WIND.

RIVER LONG

SALTY KIN

GIVE YOUR TIRED SKIN.

A moment.

MORGAN: what’s Fall singin?

KYLE: ghost song.

MORGAN: think?

KYLE: (of the) old ghosts from the old days.

CASEY: not mine.

KYLE: eh?

CASEY: no ghost of mine knows that song.

KYLE: we ALL know that song.

11
CASEY: huh?

KYLE: hired hands, all of us. hired, tired hands bleeding through everything.

They sew.

The song (from before) echoes.

FALL: LATE I KNOW

WHERE I’VE BEEN

DOWN THE ACHING LAND…

MORGAN: tell that song to settle, it’ll settle.

KYLE: not my place.

MORGAN: hollered at Fall before.

KYLE: never get between a soul and their liquor.

CASEY: I’ve done.

KYLE: huh?

CASEY: plenty of times.

KYLE: brave one?

CASEY: hollered QUIT GODDAM NOW

till nothin left of their song but a squeak, tiny as a bug in the moonlight.

A phrase from the song (from before) echoes again.

12
FALL: RIVER LONG

SALTY KIN

GIVE YOUR TIRED SKIN…

KYLE: cryin’ song

MORGAN: is it?

KYLE: of a soul dying.

CASEY: not yet.

KYLE: soon, though.

MORGAN: and then what?

CASEY: celebration.

13
Three (a song of kinship)

A little further out, on the road, The One Who was From Here and is now Returning,
also known as En, carries the weight of the world on their back.

EN: Hold this piece, they said.

Hold it in your hand, En.

This piece of cotton

flag

will carry you far.

It’s your country.

It’s your kin.

It’s everywhere you’ve been.

Hold this piece, they said.

Hold it in your hand, En.

This piece of coal

work

will send you under.

It’s your family.

It’s your sin.

It’s nowhere you’ve ever been.

14
Hold nothing, I say.

Road is a mile of want.

And it never stops wanting.

No matter how far you roam.

No matter which way the wars they send you to blow.

Always here, this cotton.

Always here, this coal.

Always here, lickin’ at your soul.

Heard me a story

Down from long ago

‘bout some child that wanted to come home.

Said they’d been lost.

Said they’d gone astray.

Said all rivers had run through them

By the break of day.

What’s that child gonna do

When they got nothin’ to their name?

15
A piece of cotton.

A lump of coal.

A long-ago Sunday for one who’s comin home.

16
Four

In the frame of the tavern, the Once-Miners gather in their usual place that’s seen better
days.

AXE: Heard say En’s comin back.

JO: Who said that, Axe?

AXE: Them all… down the road, sewin’ like Christ All-Mighty.

CLEM: talk. All talk. Why would En come back here when they’ve been everywhere?

JO: what soldiers do.

CLEM: not all, Jo.

JO: well…

CLEM: some never come back. Some stay where they’ve been sent. Piece of the earth.

AXE: know what I mean.

CLEM: comin’ back to what?

AXE: just comin’ back, Clem, no what in mind.

JO: turn right back from whence they came (when they) see all this.

AXE: how you mean, Jo?

JO: not what it was at one time.

CLEM: never was what it was.

AXE: eh?

CLEM: Here’s a myth.

17
JO: people say.

AXE: people say all sorts of things. People are wrong.

Nine times outta hundred (are) dead wrong,

but they say anyway cuz tongue gotta move, make a bit of noise.

JO: bones.

AXE: eh?

JO: whole lotta bones tell their stories. Ain’t some noise.

AXE: wake up wrong side of everything this morning?

JO: speakin’ truth.

AXE: truth that bends or truth that stands?

JO: there’s no talkin’ to you, Axe.

AXE: there’s talkin’ all right. But there’s talkin’, and then there’s talking.

CLEM: don’t know where En’s really been.

AXE: (heard) say En’s been to that war, and that other war,

and that other war we never called a war.

JO: soldiers go everywhere.

AXE: must’ve seen… hella seen.

CLEM: come back to this.

AXE: not so bad.

18
JO: that your sign?

AXE: eh?

JO: put up some sign, tell people to visit?

“hey, come on over, this here’s not so bad.”

flip that sign over, (say) “it’s worse.”

AXE: piss off.

CLEM: would like to see that sign.

JO: right?

CLEM: tall and big, thirty-foot-wide, off the side of highway 49.

JO: woot.

CLEM: drink my liver dry with a sign like that.

AXE: wouldn’t even know how.

CLEM: (the) hell you say?

AXE: …

CLEM: ever seen me not hold down my liquor?

AXE: …

CLEM: if you’re still thinking ‘bout that one time.

AXE: we were in the mine, right?

JO: sweating coal.

AXE: and you took it upon yourself to nearly take us all down with you.

CLEM: I was sick.

19
JO: too sick to know what you were doing?

CLEM: what’re you rainin’ on me for? That was hella long time ago.

JO: ain’t rainin’.

AXE: …

CLEM: the way liquor flows in this town… (could) make us a whole other river.

AXE: it’s the way we live.

JO: eh?

AXE: It’s the way we do and have done.

Say what they like up in those halls of power,

in this, in this one mad thing, we are all, all the same:

drinkin ourselves to sleep

‘til (the) next summer’s rain.

20
Five

In the backyard of all backyards, Kyle tends to Fall.

KYLE: Get yourself cleaned up, Fall.

FALL: No need.

KYLE: can’t have En come upon you like that.

FALL: may not even.

KYLE: eh?

FALL: been gone how long? Not a word?

KYLE: soldiers don’t got time.

FALL: Left without as much as a goodbye, contempt in their eyes.

KYLE: still…

FALL: leave be, Kyle.

KYLE: Give drink, then.

FALL: ain’t you sewin’?

KYLE: break.

FALL: takin’ it easy now?

KYLE: (almost as a toast) ragged clouds in the moonlight.

Kyle drinks.

FALL: how’s flag comin along?

21
KYLE: stitch by stitch.

FALL: getting it right?

KYLE: this is one history we do know.

FALL: shouldn’t go to such a fuss for En.

KYLE: not just for En.

FALL: Fuckin kid may not even want a flag.

KYLE: you are in a foul mood.

FALL: just truth.

When I came back from my wars, I sure as hell didn’t want a flag.

KYLE: why the hell not?

FALL: filled me with sadness.

KYLE: some wars.

FALL: huh?

KYLE: are necessary.

FALL: (you) think that?

KYLE: sometimes you need a sacrifice, a big sacrifice, to make things right again.

FALL: and so, you stitch a flag?

KYLE: …

FALL: (I) remember when flags meant something.

hold it close in our hands, weep for those passed, and those long passed too.

22
KYLE: still do.

FALL: not the same.

in times before, there was this heaviness you could just feel in the air

When something bad went down, something real bad.

It was like the whole entire world would stop.

And we’d say, let the tears flow.

Let them all flow n make a mighty river.

Now, it’s like we’re all rabbits.

KYLE: (you’re) getting soapy.

FALL: don’t you recall?

KYLE: too much re-callin’ messes with your brain.

FALL: never would say something like that before.

KYLE: people change.

FALL: what am I, then? Relic?

KYLE: dinosaur.

FALL: ice age?

KYLE: pre-historic.

FALL: miss me, though.

KYLE: miss this town more.

FALL: hmm?

23
KYLE: how it used to be.

FALL: when En was…?

KYLE: how they looked up to you.

FALL: taught En everything I knew, what thanks I got.

ingrate of a kid.

KYLE: don’t do things to be thanked.

FALL: talkin’ ‘bout being noble?

KYLE: …

FALL: I think if someone does something for someone else,

treats them like they’re own blood,

thanks are in order.

KYLE: “we’re all sonsofbitches of sonsofbitches in this here land.”

FALL: huh?

KYLE: isn’t that what you always say?

FALL: being a sonofabitch got nothin to do with giving thanks.

A moment.

KYLE: all that soldierin’… where you think En’s been?

FALL: everywhere.

KYLE: hurt?

24
FALL: Always some kinda hurt.

KYLE: hurt’s no good.

FALL: land’s full of it.

KYLE: ghost songs.

FALL: sing ‘em.

KYLE: …

FALL: used to have a voice on you, Kyle.

KYLE: never.

FALL: melty kind.

A moment.

FALL: ghost through the trees.

KYLE: is it?

FALL: rage in the eyes.

KYLE: (you) make me think things.

FALL: …

KYLE: when En comes…

FALL: if they…

KYLE: treat them right.

25
FALL: I am one honorable human being.

KYLE: wreck.

FALL: and a bonafide wreck. Yeh.

26
Six (a song of darkness)

On the road, closer now to the town, En in twilight.

EN: Sometimes darkness

Itches your skin

(Like) a growlin’ kind.

Wants more than it needs.

Needs more than it gives.

Darkness touches you

One war to another,

As you set upon the path

of when you were a once-child.

Is this where I’m from?

Is this where I’ve been?

Is this the land that calls me kin?

Darkness holds

A soldier’s distress.

The once-child calls

Tender regrets.

27
Reckon a fire

Will loose itself

Through this country

‘fore I find myself rest.

28
Seven

In the frame of the house, Morgan and Casey.

MORGAN: Night’s fallin’ hard.

CASEY: yeh.

MORGAN: ain’t even close to finished yet.

CASEY: this flag, this flag is gonna take us some time.

MORGAN: …

CASEY: Kyle got heart set on En returnin’.

MORGAN: bound to.

CASEY: can’t imagine En a soldier now,

Especially not one coming back.

MORGAN: Fall sure loved that kid. Like one born to them.

CASEY: broke Fall’s heart when En left.

MORGAN: sat themself out back, never set foot anywhere else.

CASEY: like a rock.

MORGAN: big rock.

CASEY: rooted to the earth.

MORGAN: sometimes I think En was the best of us. for a while.

CASEY: how you mean?

MORGAN: good heart, good intentions.

29
CASEY: best beware of those.

MORGAN: eh?

CASEY: road paved with good intentions is a thorny n treacherous road.

MORGAN: still…

CASEY: hmm?

MORGAN: I’d like to think En’s done okay.

CASEY: set on your path, walk where the sun leads, let mercy be your guide.

MORGAN: what’s that?

CASEY: words that were said once to the kid from the mines.

30
Eight

En is sleeping on a patch of land, when they are come upon by Jo, who does not
recognize them.

JO: Off my land.

EN: wha?

JO: Get off my land.

EN: was just-

JO: no sleepin here. See the sign?

EN: uh…

JO: speak right?

EN: was…

JO: don’t got time for strange tongue. Go on.

EN: was…

JO: carry on.

EN: …

JO: what’re you starin’?

EN: …

JO: Face them down.

EN: wha?

JO: head n eyes. down. strange tongue.

31
EN: …

JO: down. understand?

EN: nods, and looks down

JO: go on.

En walks away.

32
Nine

In the frame of the tavern, Axe and Clem.

AXE: Land overrun.

CLEM: what now, Axe?

AXE: strange ones comin upon, wanting rest.

CLEM: strange how?

AXE: hurtin kind, lost kind, wanting things.

CLEM: stealin?

AXE: ghosts rise.

CLEM: don’t believe…

AXE: tearin eyes.

CLEM: when was this?

AXE: Jo’s. in the night.

CLEM: seen someone?

AXE: sleepin on their land.

CLEM: what’d Jo…?

AXE: put a gun to them.

CLEM: head?

AXE: threat.

33
CLEM: afoul of the law.

AXE: person gotta protect, Clem.

CLEM: who says?

AXE: God’s law.

CLEM: whose god?

AXE: bow and pray.

CLEM: many a time we’ve hungered rest.

AXE: not like that.

CLEM: hired hands, tired hands, we are all, all in this place.

AXE: land costs.

CLEM: hurt’s the same. World hurts all over.

AXE: when we got…

CLEM: got what we make.

AXE: not even ours, not outright. So, when we got… land.

CLEM: ain’t worth killin over. Nothin worth killin over.

AXE: Jo just spooked them a bit. Said nothin bout killin.

CLEM: ghosts (are) gonna rise with murderous tongues.

AXE: no fear here.

34
CLEM: why’re you trembling, then?

AXE: ...

CLEM: shiverin.

AXE: …

CLEM: fear’s got you blind.

AXE: …

CLEM: gonna devour you to bits.

AXE: need to get back to the mines.

CLEM: do what?

AXE: fill our lungs up dark as the earth’s blood.

CLEM: those days are long gone.

AXE: in us, though. What’d we do with what’s in us, n what we’ve lived through?

CLEM: bury it.

AXE: huh?

CLEM: put it all behind.

Clem sings a bit of a ghosted, stomping blues.

“Down river”

CLEM: LATE RIVER,

LATE RIVER, COME DOWN.

35
SWEET RIVER,

SWEET RIVER, THIS TOWN.

LATE RIVER, WEAR ME DOWN.

NO REASON

NO REASON, NO HOW .

Axe joins in.

AXE: LATE RIVER,

LATE RIVER, COME DOWN.

SWEET RIVER,

MAD RIVER, THIS TOWN.

AXE & CLEM: LATE RIVER,

AXE: WEAR ME DOWN….

CLEM: NO MERCY.

NO MERCY, NO HOW .

A moment.

36
CLEM: what’d En make of all this?

if/when they come back.

AXE: make what they make.

CLEM: nothin for no one?

AXE: that’s right.

37
Ten (a song of war, in memory)

In the backyard, Fall stirs.

FALL: thinking of you all the time now, En.

Say you’re coming back.

Say you’re making peace.

Sayin too much for my dreams to be released.

When I was a soldier,

When I was a knight, back in some story long ago

I held you in my arms.

I watched you through the night

As the rain of all rains washed away our fight.

Said to myself, this kid is gonna be our light.

I could see it.

I could see the gleam in your eyes.

N then it was

Like it always is.

Like it’s always been

In times like this.

38
War called you

From the deep hollow of the mines

Like a dark holler from the river wide.

Like it done to me once.

Strange battle cry.

Fall releases a battle cry. It lingers in the air for a moment.

And you followed

Like you knew the sign.

And in the distance, as if in Fall’s memory, we hear and see En release a battle cry.

And then, En rehearses the movements and gestures of a military drill, led by Fall.

A duet. A ritual.

You held out your hands.

You raised your arms.

You marched in step

To the promise of glory.

One leg and then another.

One shot and then another.

39
Proud sons, proud daughters,

Proud all that dare say

They were here to serve.

All honor to their name.

Proud ones all

for they know no blame,

When they see their valor

Buried in shame.

40
Eleven (the tale of the one and the other)

On the road there’s a spot on a small hill overlooking the town. En rests there, when
they are come upon by Skyler, one unknown to them.

SKYLER: Sleepin?

EN: I’m goin.

SKYLER: it’s all right.

EN: on my way.

SKYLER: don’t mind.

EN: huh?

SKYLER: can sleep all you like.

EN: this your land?

SKYLER: no.

EN: whose, then?

SKYLER: no one’s.

EN: land always belongs to somebody.

SKYLER: not this.

EN: how’d you know?

SKYLER: vision.

En walks away.

41
SKYLER: where are you goin?

EN: just goin.

SKYLER: need to rest.

EN: done restin.

SKYLER: see it in your eyes.

EN: What’d you see?

SKYLER: we’re the same.

EN: talk like this to everybody you come across?

SKYLER: not everybody.

EN: just me?

SKYLER: name’s Skyler. You?

EN: …

SKYLER: shy?

EN: fuck that.

SKYLER: not shy.

EN: name’s En.

SKYLER: that all?

EN: for now.

SKYLER: how long (have) you been back, En?

42
EN: from what?

SKYLER: hell you’ve been.

EN: what’s it to you?

SKYLER: Just askin.

EN: what for?

SKYLER: we’re the same, right?

EN: you keep sayin.

SKYLER: me? I’ve been back some time now.

EN: where from?

SKYLER: hell. you know.

EN: huh.

SKYLER: think I’m lyin?

EN: don’t know you.

SKYLER: name’s Skyler.

EN: so you said.

SKYLER: used to work in the mines.

back when they were roarin. Remember those times?

EN: don’t know.

SKYLER: hell screwed up your brain?

EN: don’t know what hell you speak.

43
SKYLER: Know it better than me. Seen its flames up close.

EN: what’d you know about me?

SKYLER: what I see.

EN: “we’re all sonsofbitches of sonsofbitches in this here land.”

SKYLER: who said that?

EN: Someone who taught me things once.

SKYLER: believe them?

EN: whatever it is, ain’t got.

SKYLER: huh?

EN: nothin to my name.

SKYLER: who says I want?

EN: everybody wants.

SKYLER: not me.

EN: rich?

SKYLER: hardly.

EN: then you want. All that don’t have? want.

SKYLER: not me.

EN: above it all, Skyler?

SKYLER: hell no.

44
EN: then what? On some quest? Some kinda religious thing?

SKYLER: Put my faith in people.

Put my faith in the land.

EN: do nothin but send you under.

SKYLER: this land’s bountiful.

EN: sound like Fall.

SKYLER: friend of yours?

EN: Taught me things.

SKYLER: sonsofbitches of sonsofbitches?

EN: yeh.

SKYLER: that all Fall teach you?

EN: no.

SKYLER: what else?

EN: war and drink.

SKYLER: bourbon?

EN: whiskey.

SKYLER: want?

EN: now?

SKYLER: no time like the now.

EN: the now?

45
SKYLER: the now of the now. Isn’t that what they say?

EN: Straight whiskey?

SKYLER: fuckin early. But what the fuck, right?

A shared swig of whiskey.

EN: hmm.

SKYLER: right?

EN: mmm.

SKYLER: sometimes only whiskey…

They drink.

EN: sonsofbitches of sonsofbitches.

Some time passes.

SKYLER: so, how long you been back?

EN: long enough.

SKYLER: ain’t tellin?

EN: stopped counting.

SKYLER: road, then.

46
EN: yeh.

SKYLER: all this time?

EN: …

SKYLER: whiskey, then.

They drink.

EN: tell you one thing. this land’s bit to hell.

SKYLER: think?

EN: On the road, holes everywhere,

Trees bent to the ground,

Fuckin birds leanin sideways into the cracks in the earth.

Try to find some place to sit, just be?

goddam miracle IF you find it.

Signs everywhere.

SKYLER: how you mean?

EN: buy this, buy that, make a killin.

SKYLER: always been.

EN: worse now. Can’t even see the sky

SKYLER: right here.

EN: was on this stretch of road for a while.

Didn’t know where the fuck I was.

47
Sky buried in some corner of a building.

Thought I was gonna go outta my mind.

SKYLER: don’t look.

EN: how the hell I’m not gonna look?

It’s ALL OVER.

All over, all over.

And when you wanna sit?

Fuckin be?

There’s always someone lookin at you,

Like you’re an animal, rodent, piece of trash.

SKYLER: …

EN: tell myself, this is the heart of the darkness right here

And not one in some story-book.

SKYLER: river.

EN: huh?

SKYLER: always got the river.

EN: river’s like a fuckin cesspool.

SKYLER: hella worse long time ago.

at least it’s sorta clean now.

EN: tried to swim in it.

48
SKYLER: why’d you do that?

EN: just go under. Feel the rush.

SKYLER: crazy shit.

EN: when it’s just you and the water,

there ain’t no country tellin you nothin,

no sergeant telling you nothing,

no no one telling you nothing.

SKYLER: …

EN: water just is.

And you are swimming in the IS of it all

And everyone can go straight to hell

Or wherever you wanna send them in mind.

SKYLER: yeh.

EN: feels good.

Feels like you haven’t felt in a long-ass time.

N then you come up outta the water,

N it’s like your skin is burnt to hell,

N you think where the hell it was that I just was?

N it’s then you remember

The sound of some person shot through the chest,

49
The wail of some kid,

The cryin’ eyes of some soldier trying to do you in

When you can’t even see ‘em,

can’t even taste the hate in their mouth.

Tongue spits.

Rain of anger.

Rain of thunder.

Rain of all rains from some story long ago

That some teacher told you once

When they were drunk on their ass,

Wasted from all days,

Thinkin you were some light

That was gonna give them grace.

N you think this here is just dirty water,

Dirty land,

Pukin dirt from a mess of wars long passed.

SKYLER: way it is

EN: A piece of cotton.

A lump of coal.

A story lived long ago.

50
SKYLER: why come back, then?

EN: …

SKYLER: to all this?

EN: laughs

SKYLER: what?

EN: laughs

SKYLER: …

EN: miss it.

SKYLER: earth?

EN: earth, sky, old clothes on the clothesline, ants wriggling under my toes.

SKYLER: stink of the mines.

EN: Big stink.

SKYLER: same as me

EN: huh?

SKYLER: missed it, too. Made myself come back.

Folks say “Skyler, you come home from your wars fresh as some daisy.”

EN: use that word?

SKYLER: I say to them, “my wars are the same as your wars,

Only I keep them inside, tight as a drum.”

That what you do, En?

51
EN: skin’s my drum.

SKYLER: same as me.

EN: mess’a noise inside.

SKYLER: hit it?

EN: sometimes.

SKYLER: feels good, right?

EN: punch my stomach so hard I puke like a baby.

SKYLER: wanna?

EN: whiskey.

SKYLER: so?

EN: …all right.

SKYLER: on my count?

EN: …do it.

SKYLER: gotta say the words, though.

EN: words?

SKYLER: ol’ muthafucka.

EN: huh?

SKYLER: only way it works for real

EN: where’d you-?

52
SKYLER: it’s legend.

EN: …ok

SKYLER: ready?

EN: yeh.

SKYLER: one, two…

En and Skyler punch themselves in the stomach. Ritualized punching.

They holler in tandem

EN & SKYLER: ol’ muthafucka, ol’ muthafucka, ol’ muthafucka, ol’ muthafucka,

ol’ muthafucka…

After a little while, they stop, breathless, in pain.

Maybe En pukes. Maybe Skyler pukes too.

And then, they laugh. Full of everything and nothing.

SKYLER: (simply) ol’ muthafucka…

EN: yeh.

Interval.

53
Twelve

In the frame of the house, Kyle, Morgan and Casey sew the pieces of the flag.

KYLE: Racket all night.

MORGAN: what racket?

KYLE: didn’t you hear, Morgan?

MORGAN: no.

KYLE: birds squawkin, sky movin every which way

MORGAN: storm?

KYLE: racket. Couldn’t get a bit of shut-eye.

CASEY: up the hill.

KYLE: heard it, too, Casey?

CASEY: like people killin themselves over something.

MORGAN: hallucinatin.

CASEY: heard it plain.

MORGAN: getting like Fall.

CASEY: none of us are like Fall.

MORGAN: close though.

KYLE: kept thinkin we’d lost all the fabric.

Thought to myself, how are we gonna make this flag now?

54
MORGAN: Mind.

KYLE: what’d you say?

MORGAN: don’t need flag to know what it means.

KYLE: huh?

MORGAN: got the flag in mind.

KYLE: you need some breakfast.

CASEY: think I know what Morgan means.

KYLE: you too?

CASEY: don’t need the thing to know the thing, right?

MORGAN: something like.

KYLE: eggs and beans.

CASEY: flag’s for whom?

KYLE: huh?

CASEY: who’s the flag for, anyway?

KYLE: Casey, you wanna upset me when I haven’t had a lick of sleep?

CASEY: flag’s for show.

KYLE: Hush.

CASEY: not like En don’t know what it all means, not deep inside.

KYLE: shh.

In the backyard, The One Who’s Been stirs and sings a low driving, rolling blues.

55
 “Deep water”

FALL: DEEP IN THE WATER

YOU SAW ME WHOLE.

DEEP IN THE RIVER

YOU SAVED MY SOUL.

DEEP IN EVERYTHING

YOU GAVE ME COAL.

CUZ YOU SAID

NOT ENOUGH

IN THIS WORLD

NOT ENOUGH

IN THIS CRAZY MESS OF A…

NOT ENOUGH

TO HOLD YOU DOWN

NOT ENOUGH

TO WEAR A STINKIN CROWN

YOU GOTTA MOVE

56
On the next two verses, Kyle, Morgan and Casey may perhaps join in, harmonizing with
Fall.

DEEP IN THE WATER

TO SEE ME WHOLE.

DEEP IN THE WATER

TO SAVE YOUR SOUL.

DROWN LIKE A MOTHER

NEEDING HER CHILD.

WHEN (ALL) THIS & THE OTHER

DRIVES YOU WILD…

DEEP, DEEP, DEEP IN THE WATER.

SLEEP, SLEEP, SLEEP IN THE WATER…

A moment.

KYLE: Fall?

Nothing.

KYLE: You okay out there?

57
Nothing.

MORGAN: Gone back to sleep, I bet.

KYLE: Shh.

MORGAN: know how Fall gets.

FALL: Lost my things.

KYLE: huh?

FALL: all my things, they’re gone.

KYLE: what things?

FALL: from the wars. Had me a box of things out here, before En took off.

MORGAN: talkin mad now.

KYLE: hush.

CASEY: …

KYLE: I’ll be out in a sec, Fall.

Nothing

KYLE: hear?

FALL: angry sonsofbitches of sonsofbitches.

KYLE: I’ll get you some eggs. Everything will be fine.

58
FALL: eggs?

KYLE: breakfast.

FALL: goddam morning. When’d it come up?

KYLE: When you were sleepin, Fall. Like it always does.

Fall rummages through something in the backyard. Loud and unruly kinda noise.

MORGAN: whole town’s getting strange.

KYLE: how you mean?

MORGAN: Jo come upon someone on their land the other night.

KYLE: huh?

MORGAN: strange people walkin ‘round, getting into everything.

Pretty soon, whole land’s gonna be overrun.

don’t know where we’re gonna live, what land’s gonna be left.

CASEY: blood.

KYLE: what now?

CASEY: pricked myself; gone onto the fabric.

KYLE: not so bad.

CASEY: try to do something right by En, and I ruin it all.

KYLE: All this can be fixed. Everything in this world can be fixed.

59
FALL: where’s my godamm medal?

KYLE: will you SHUT THE HELL UP?

MORGAN: flag’s done.

KYLE: what?

MORGAN: flag.

KYLE: so it is.

60
Thirteen

In the backyard of all backyards, Fall sits in midst of a mess of useless things from long
ago.

FALL: This is all I’ve left now.

A medal.

Looks like nothing more than a coin

If you saw it from afar.

But this medal is

Someone I held close once.

Someone I blessed.

Someone I laid to rest.

‘nother soldier just like me.

‘nother soldier bleedin on the leaves.

Picked them up.

Carried them in my arms.

“I will save you,” I whispered into their ear.

“I will do everything I can to lift you up,

and make you stand upon this earth again.”

61
And for a while

Soldier smiled,

Opened their eyes,

Caught a spark of mischief on their face.

“You?

Fall?

One like you that can’t even get from here to there

Without a pint in your hand

You are gonna save me?”

We laughed.

“Whiskey,” soldier sputtered,

Like a whole river of song

Was contained in that one word.

“Get me some goddam whiskey.”

And with that,

Soldier passed.

I cried.

Not the kind of cry you think.

62
Not the kind of cry they do in theaters and the like.

Mine was hushed and quick and crumpled.

But it was a cry nonetheless.

As I carried Skyler in my arms,

For that was their name,

The length of one night

And another day.

63
Fourteen

In the frame of the tavern, Axe, Jo and Clem in the thick of the morning.

JO: Would do it again, if I had (to).

CLEM: you say now.

JO: say now and always, someone comes upon my land?

I will do everything I can to run them out.

AXE: brave one?

JO: like you even know what.

AXE: think I don’t?

JO: as long as I’ve known you.

AXE: eh?

JO: lots of talk but when the real doin needs to get done.

AXE: I do.

JO: huh.

AXE: not like Clem.

CLEM: on me again now?

AXE: always on you, will never forgive you that blast back then.

CLEM: how long since the mines been shut,

n you are still talkin like we’re in there every day.

JO: coal breathes.

AXE: through all.

64
CLEM: not me.

AXE: forget it now?

CLEM: I put all of that to rest.

JO: but when folks come ‘round n ask, you sure do tell.

CLEM: I tell them straight:

every one of my people died from something in those mines.

Don’t have to know too much to know what we’ve all gone through here.

AXE: everywhere.

CLEM: land’s overrun, yeh, but not the way you think, Jo.

JO: don’t think anything. Got my own mournin to think about.

AXE: all got mournin’, between the wars and the mines.

JO: just want what’s mine to stay mine, that’s all.

En appears

EN: that what you say to all who come through here?

JO: strange tongue.

EN: that’s right.

JO: what’d I tell you?

EN: head down, eyes down.

JO: fuck you come here, drink our liquor?

65
EN: this is a bar, right?

JO: See the nerve on this one?

AXE: what’d you want, eh?

EN: want?

CLEM: go on your way, go on.

EN: not goin anywhere.

AXE: Do what we say. No trouble come your way.

EN: what if I want?

JO: some ghost get inside you?

EN: maybe.

AXE: trouble the land that owns trouble, no good can come from it.

EN: I’ll wait.

Waits.

JO: just like that?

callin us out.

Drinking my whiskey and callin us out.

66
En sings, from memory, as a taunt. The song that is recalled has the feel of a very old
drinking song, perhaps northern English or Scottish in its vague origin.

“Waste of Days”

EN: WASTIN’ THEIR DAYS, DAYS UPON DAYS

‘TIL ALL IS SAD AND BLUE

THE SORRY HASTE

OF TIRED HANDS

BURNING THROUGH N THROUGH.

JO: where’d you learn that?

EN: taught it to me once.

JO: strange tongue, what are you talkin?

EN: (sings) THE BLUE OF DAYS,

THE MAD DISGRACE,

THE BITTER WASTE OF COAL

THAT DROWNS OUR TASTE

IN EMPTY BOWLS

OF SORROW AND REPOSE.

JO: we settle this in the open? you go on?

67
EN: settle how?

AXE: Only way there is.

EN: fists?

JO: open and ready

EN: itchin, eh?

JO: come on.

EN: my whole life, I’ve been fightin, here, there, fuck everywhere. Done with that

Jo shoves En. A provocation.

En does not retaliate.

Axe shoves En. Another provocation.

En does not retaliate.

CLEM: enough.

JO: stay out of this.

CLEM: doesn’t want.

Jo shoves En again.

En does not retaliate.

A moment.

68
En starts to walk away.

Stops.

Turns back towards them and punches Jo.

Jo retaliates.

En and Jo fight.

Axe steps in, taking Jo’s side, and thus, taking En on as well.

CLEM: enough. Enough.

Jo and Axe don’t listen to Clem’s request.

They continue fighting En, who is holding their own, almost out of a strange kind of duty,
but likely out of a desire to be done with it all somehow as well. The last fight of all
fights.

Clem drinks, ashamed. Burying themselves in it.

The fight is not even vengeful. It feels driven by spite, anguish, and impotence. There’s
something awkward about it. Lost kids at play in a sad game of old wars.

At a point where Jo has En on their own, tackling them to the ground, Fall appears,
dressed in their soldier’s uniform from long ago, pistol in hand. Bathed and shorn of
their mad haze of drunkenness. Fall fires a shot into the air.

The fight stops.

69
FALL: What kind of mad fuckin mess is this?

JO: This uh

FALL: This uh nothing. This how you treat a soldier when they come home?

AXE: uh

FALL: Give me your hand, En. Let’s get you cleaned up n outta here.

JO: En?

FALL: Lost your memory, Jo?

AXE: uh…

FALL: Lost all your reason, Axe?

CLEM: I just want you to know none of this was my-

FALL: Shut the fuck up.

Let’s go, En. Let’s go.

70
Fifteen

From the spot on the hill overlooking the tavern and the whole town, Skyler is seen.
Skyler sings reprise of “Late River” as Fall carries En over to the frame of the house.

“Late River”

SKYLER: LATE I KNOW ,

WHERE I’VE BEEN

DOWN THE ACHING LAND.

RIVER STRONG,

SALTY KIN

GIVE YOUR HIRED HANDS.

Fall sets En down and tends to their hurt (perhaps a salve for their bruises, or other
forms of healing). All of this is quite simple and tender. Like a parent to a child.

En is conscious and does not put up too much of a fuss. This is not the first hurt En has
gone through nor will it be their last.

As Skyler keeps singing.

SKYLER: LATE I KNOW

THROUGH THE DAY

DOWN THE STINKIN WIND.

71
RIVER LONG,

SALTY KIN

GIVE YOUR TIRED SKIN.

En rests in Fall’s arms. Tired indeed from too many wars.

For a moment, Fall looks up, as if they see Skyler up on the hill.

Perhaps there is a shared gesture between them, one soldier to another.

72
Sixteen

In the frame of the house are Morgan and Casey. They are sewing something we
cannot yet discern.

MORGAN: Hardly recognized En.

CASEY: been a long time.

MORGAN: Was just a kid when…

CASEY: Still is. In a way.

MORGAN: What were Jo and all them thinkin, acting like that?

CASEY: Sometimes no thought. Sometimes just fists.

MORGAN: Shame.

CASEY: …

MORGAN: En’s getting better.

CASEY: healin, yeh. Amazing how much the body can take

MORGAN: work of the gods.

CASEY: work of work.

MORGAN: humans.

CASEY: humans and animals. We are some tough muthafuckas.

MORGAN: laughs

CASEY: never seen Fall like that.

73
MORGAN: how you mean, Casey?

CASEY: reborn, almost.

MORGAN: To think Jo and Axe and all them are apologizing now.

CASEY: Nothing in their brains.

MORGAN: don’t know.

CASEY: say different?

MORGAN: I say they knew who En was all the time n did it out of spite.

CASEY: think?

MORGAN: why else fight?

Kyle appears

KYLE: what are you two doin?

CASEY: finishing up, Kyle.

KYLE: flag’s done, been done.

MORGAN: something for Fall.

KYLE: what even is this thing?

MORGAN: hat.

KYLE: what’s Fall gonna do with a hat? waste of time.

CASEY: why?

74
KYLE: need to get the flag up.

MORGAN: Where are we gonna put?

KYLE: Figure up here. just here, where En can see it.

MORGAN: Back in my ol’ town,

People would lay their flags out on the ground

KYLE: on the ground where?

MORGAN: just on the ground.

CASEY: then what?

MORGAN: look at it

KYLE: walk on it?

MORGAN: No. just look. Earth to sky.

CASEY: what’d you think, Kyle?

KYLE: maybe we just give it to En, let them decide what to do with it

MORGAN: yeh?

KYLE: made it for them, anyway, right?

75
Seventeen

In the backyard of all backyards are Fall and En. Fall is wearing the hat that Casey and
Morgan made for them. En looks at Fall.

FALL: what?

EN: nothing.

FALL: don’t like my hat?

EN: it’s ok.

FALL: ingrate. Don’t know what it is I taught you, but you are one-

EN: “sonofabitch of a sonofabitch.”

FALL: what are you doin’?

EN: drink.

FALL: not now.

EN: don’t want?

FALL: quitting.

EN: in your blood.

FALL: lot of things in my blood. lot of things ain’t right in my blood.

EN: goes to drink again

FALL: quit.

76
EN: Just because you’re quittin doesn’t mean-

FALL: taught you all the wrong things.

EN: nobody teaches anybody anythin.

FALL: huh?

EN: everything I learned, I learned by doin.

FALL: that how you talked to your sergeant?

EN: I never talked to my sergeant.

FALL: raised you up to be a shining light.

EN: what’s that even mean?

FALL: been all the WHERE you’ve been, and you still don’t know?

EN: all I see is sickness all over.

All over, all over.

FALL: that so?

EN: No honesty, no light.

FALL: wasted my days on you, then.

EN: hell pays, hell stays.

FALL: what’s that?

EN: what friend of mine said once.

77
FALL: soldier, too?

EN: yeh.

FALL: here, though.

EN: luck?

FALL: something.

EN: hate my luck.

FALL: why?

EN: can’t get rid of it.

FALL: that what you want?

EN: punch hard, puke, muthafucka.

FALL: no way to live.

EN: how you even know anything ‘bout anything?

FALL: I’m a fool. kind of fool that still believes in things.

EN: like all them?

FALL: eh?

EN: Axe and Jo and Clem, sittin in that tavern,

believing in some promise they’ve been told,

believing in some myth that the mines are one day gonna roar again.

FALL: I’ve a different kind of believing.

EN: Like Kyle and Morgan and Casey? That kind?

78
FALL: what have you got against people?

EN: hate lies.

FALL: no lies here.

EN: your life is pure?

FALL: I’m proud of what I’ve done.

EN: and what is it you’ve done, Fall, mighty Fall?

FALL: …

EN: how long you worked?

FALL: …

EN: how long you served?

FALL: …

EN: and all you’re doin, all you’ve got is to sit here, in the middle of emptiness.

Time passes.

FALL: I wouldn’t expect you to understand.

EN: what’s that?

FALL: how a person gets on in life

EN: I’m too stupid, right?

FALL: sometimes a person wants to be someplace cuz that’s where they feel wanted.

EN: river goes, river flows.

FALL: something like that.

79
Time passes.

EN: I like this yard.

FALL: don’t grow anything ‘cept weeds.

EN: ever try? plant things? Real things?

FALL: no.

EN: then you don’t know.

FALL: aim to find out?

EN: …

FALL: not much of a goal.

EN: don’t want goals.

FALL: gotta live by something.

EN: live by this.

En hits their head and chest with their palms over and over. A ritual.

A moment.

FALL: darkness comes like a sleeping tiger.

When it does, you gotta take all, all that it gives

Fall embraces En.

80
EN: what’d you-?

FALL: do better than me. Do better than all of us.

Fall sits, closes their eyes.

A moment.

En goes to pick up drink (likely whiskey), but then stops and sits near Fall.

From the frame of the house, Kyle sings the kind of song Fall asked them for once, as
they fold the flag. It is a simple song that feels as if it too was sung once long, long ago.

Casey and Morgan may help Kyle with the folding, if the staging allows.

“Low valley”1

KYLE: YOU WALK ALONG THE YELLOW MOON

YOU WALK IN PATHS OF RED

YOU WALK AS IF THE WORLD IS STILL

THERE IS NO PLACE TO REST.

OH BITTER EARTH, SURRENDER ME

FIND ME IN LOWER GROUND

FOR WHEN I WAIT

1
“Low Valley” – music and lyrics by Caridad Svich, inspired by a folk song.

81
I WAIT FOR YOU

DOWN IN LOW VALLEY.

During the following verses of the song,

Kyle walks into the backyard, hands En the flag. A gift, an offering.

En takes it.

Kyle touches En’s forehead. A blessing, simple and quotidian.

En accepts it.

Kyle touches Fall’s forehead. A moment.

Fall passes.

YOU WALK THE EARTH IN HOLLOW TONES

YOU HUSH THE THREAD OF ANCIENT SONG

AND WHEN YOU WALK THE EARTH IS STILL

THERE IS NO PLACE TO REST.

WHAT IS THAT WAKES THE SLEEPING EAR?

AND LIGHTS THE LIGHT

OF ACHING GROUND

82
OH QUIET SONG OF LUCID BLOOD

DOWN IN LOW VALLEY.

FOR WHEN I WAIT

I WAIT FOR YOU

DOWN IN LOW VALLEY.

83
Eighteen

Some time passes.

In the backyard of all backyards, En unfolds the flag that Kyle, Casey and Morgan made
for them and starts to lay it out, when Riley walks in.

RILEY: Need help with that?

EN: No.

RILEY: why not?

EN: just don’t.

RILEY: they say Fall lived here.

EN: who said?

RILEY: people. Back in my town.

EN: knew Fall?

RILEY: heard.

EN: Stories, I bet.

RILEY: hella soldier. Miner, too, once. real firecracker.

EN: your people used that word?

RILEY: different word.

EN: curse word.

RILEY: my people do no cursing.

EN: none?

84
RILEY: …

EN: what is the world coming to?

RILEY: rabbits.

EN: hmm?

RILEY: what my people say.

EN: what’s your name anyway?

RILEY: Riley.

EN: where (are) you headed?

RILEY: training.

EN: basic?

RILEY: yeh.

EN: do your push-ups.

RILEY: I’m strong.

EN: yeh?

RILEY: beat everybody at wrestlin at school.

EN: little arm wrestle?

RILEY: nah.

EN: why not?

RILEY: you’ll lose. Big time.

EN: how’d you know?

85
RILEY: you’re weak.

EN: try me.

Riley positions themselves for a simple, basic arm-wrestle.

En does the same.

They wrestle.

After a little while, without being obvious about it, En lets Riley win.

EN: What’ve you been eatin?

RILEY: Told you.

EN: go into basic like that, you’re gonna move far fast.

RILEY: if they let me.

EN: they’ll let.

RILEY: how’d you know?

EN: been.

RILEY: Just like Fall?

EN: help me with this, Riley.

RILEY: how’d you mean?

EN: get that corner over there.

RILEY: what’s this?

EN: gift.

86
RILEY: what’s it though?

EN: flag.

RILEY: don’t look it quite.

EN: what’s it look like to you?

RILEY: weird.

EN: some say this is everywhere we’ve been.

RILEY: everywhere, everywhere?

EN: just about.

RILEY: how can this be everywhere when we’re still fightin?

EN: this is what they call history.

RILEY: Oh.

EN: don’t like history?

RILEY: I always get a B.

EN: B’s not bad.

RILEY: it’s stupid.

EN: why?

RILEY: everyone knows A’s are what matter.

EN: where?

RILEY: Life.

EN: basic, eh?

87
RILEY: …

EN: said all your goodbyes?

RILEY: fuck that.

EN: thought your people did no cursing.

RILEY: sometimes.

EN: …

RILEY: you’ve been all these places on the flag?

EN: yeh.

RILEY: what (were) they like?

EN: road.

RILEY: long?

EN: just road.

RILEY: Fall been too?

EN: Fall was everywhere and everywhere else not even on this flag.

RILEY: hell.

EN: wish you coulda met.

RILEY: What you think Fall woulda said?

EN: …do your best.

RILEY: that all?

EN: want more?

88
En looks at the flag laid out on the ground.

For a brief moment, the flag is reflected in the sky, and then it’s gone.

End of play.

89