CHARLES
Stand.
Painful, stiff, RAY stands up.
CHARLES
Sit.
RAY sits/collapses on the straw
mattress.
CHARLES
Stand. Hurry.
RAY stands.
CHARLES
Sit. Sit!
RAY sits/collapses.
CHARLES
(enters and paces the length of Ray's
mattress, precisely)
Yes, I still own you. I fear, though, are you falling in love with suffering? A Christ
complex? Why you allow another 2 fingernails taken? 3 more toenails sacrificed for who?
(pause)
Drilling your teeth resumes next. Your last 2 visits. And other teeth broken? How many
pulled out? All for who?
(pause)
We won't let you comfortably pass out this time.
(pause)
10,712 nerve endings in a human body. 10,712 opportunities to extract honesty.
(pause)
His name?
(pause)
His name.
(pause)
His NAME!
(pause, sardonically)
Then, have your Christ complex.
Red GLOW suddenly brightens fully.
RAY arches - silent pain.
CHARLES smiles, sips brandy.
Red GLOW dims.
RAY collapses.
CHARLES
You see, we try to supply what pleases you. Yet you refuse us equal charity.
Blue SPOTLIGHT brightens on
LORETTA, who raises her head, looking
out:
LORETTA
(recites)
Memories keep life close
Flood your mind with tomorrows
Again in the embrace of our love.
CHARLES
(to Ray - always)
Five weeks. Ican go on forever. Can you?
Pause - RAY stares out.
CHARLES
Don't fall in love with death. Or I will make you regret ever being born. A true
waste for us all.
(smiles, sips brandy)
Red GLOW suddenly full-bright.
RAY arches - silent pain.
LORETTA
(recites)
As branches of trees endure
The first blows of an ax
So I endure until my
Tomorrows fill with love again----
RED GLOW dims.
RAY collapses.
CHARLES
The human spirit wants life, wants happiness to soar on. Be happy. Make me happy.
And life will be returned to you the moment after you utter a name---
During the following, LORETTA smiles
on Ray.
RAY
(recites, with difficulty)
----Memories keep life close
Flood my mind with tomorrows----
CHARLES
----Ah, yes, safe in your imagination. You think.
RAY
(continuing, recites)
Again in the embrace of love.
CHARLES
All problems eventually reveal their own solutions. I promise I will find your
limit----
RAY
(recites - difficulty)
----As branches of trees endure
The first blows of an ax----
CHARLES
----Besides imagination, have you embraced God?
RAY
(continuing, recites)
So I endure until my----
CHARLES
That Grand Wizard of Wisdom...here I am!
(laughs)
RAY
(continuing, recites)
Tomorrows fill with love again.
(smiles in defiance)
CHARLES
I think you anticipate God's final deliverance? You'll be swept off to safety? Eternal
life? But why...why do you think God is on your side?
(pause)
Remember this: God sent you to me!
Laughing, CHARLES exits, slams
up-stage door shut - bright White
LIGHT out - partial Blue Light
remains.
RAY sags, exhausted.
Blue SPOTLIGHT full-bright, and
LORETTA returns by Ray.
LORETTA
Our first trip south together.
(pause)
Fleeing winter.
(pause)
Like two waifs we arrived at that beach town. Balmy clean sea air at the warmest tip of
the country.
(pause)
Ray? Help me live again. Make us live together again.
RAY
White coral ocean.
LORETTA
The bottom white coral, the water clear green and so warm.
RAY
Fish, all brilliant colors.
LORETTA
And beautiful, they swam unafraid everywhere around us as we waded in.
RAY
(tensing)
Swimming...free.
LORETTA
Coconuts swaying high up in the tall palm trees?
RAY
(builds)
Walking again, no walls, open space stretching on and on and on----
LORETTA
(overlaps - urgent)
----Suddenly a coconut fell right by us----
RAY
----Walk in warm sun on me walking free, free----
LORETTA
----Concentrate. Remember you struck the coconut on the curb edge till it broke open
while----
RAY
(peak)
----I can't remember how warm sun feels!
LORETTA
See us there. White warm coconut milk spilling out. We drank it laughing, spilling. Ray?
That each town? Warm together? Eating coconut together, clean beautiful salty ocean at our
feet---
RAY
(calm)
----Like natives.
LORETTA
Yes. Imagining ourselves barefoot native islanders.
RAY
Free islanders.
LORETTA
We roamed together ignoring all the people as if we had discovered that small
island.
RAY
Our warm hideaway.
LORETTA
Only us there together.
RAY
Eating coconut fallen from trees.
LORETTA
Fish from the ocean.
RAY
Almost catch them by hand, almost.
LORETTA
The nights, moon rising from the ocean.
RAY
Silky nights.
LORETTA
We made a small fire on the beach.
RAY
Waves breaking close.
LORETTA
Cooling night air.
RAY
Fire light a golden flicker-dance over your face.
LORETTA
Your hand reaching to me golden.
RAY
That golden flicker-dance over the side of your face, we lay back.
LORETTA
Together.
RAY
Cool sand under us there beside the small fire----
Up-stage DOOR is thrown open. Shaft
of bright WHITE LIGHT
slices in across the room.
CHARLES enters and stands silhouetted
in the White Light.
CHARLES
Did you call?
(pause)
Did you call?
(pause)
Alas, still no friendship.
(enters)
LORETTA retreats to "her
area" and Blue SPOTLIGHT partially
dims.
CHARLES sips brandy.
Pause.
CHARLES
Stand up.
With difficulty, RAY stands.
CHARLES
Sit down.
RAY sits/ collapses.
CHARLES
Boring, isn't it? Still. Stand up...hurry!
With difficulty, RAY stands.
CHARLES
Sit...hurry, hurry!
RAY sits/collapses.
CHARLES
Yes, I still hold respect.
(sips brandy, then)
Now, to truly earn my friendship...is it Rowley?
(pause)
Fallon?
(pause)
Gontarski?
(pause)
Kiminski?
(pause)
Manning?
(pause)
I grow weary. A weary man reacts in extreme. Often regrets the deed later, but
then, it's already done. Garvey?
(pause)
Farrington? He's a cold prick.
(pause)
Kenner?
(pause)
No...it's Fallon and Garvey with others, Pearson and Dillon? The Four-Horsemen of Bagged
shit!
CHARLES laughs, sips brandy, crouches
by RAY who flinches
away expecting some violence.
CHARLES
Expressionless. Never betray any pleasure. Even now, nothing. Impressive.
(pause - sips brandy)
Alas, I have time. And a limitless array of expertise. All the new electronics...prods,
electrodes and probes my younger colleagues admire. The young don't appreciate quality
of expertise. I'm old-fashioned. A traditionalist. As you are. We have tradition in
common. Besides our pricks, and, your wife.
Was that...a twitch? Involuntary reaction to...prick?...or to your wife?
Twitch all gone now. But all problems eventually reveal their own solution.
Take...this piece of wire. A solution. Thin metal wire, oh, eight inches long. Five inches
is enough, for anyone. Quarter-inch by quarter-inch slipped into the end of your cock?
Imagine. Then...fire.
Close before Ray, CHARLES flicks a
lighter on and heats the end of
the wire.
CHARLES
(Continued)
Small flame. But thin wire. Metal heats easily, very quickly. Even beyond to melting.
CHARLES shuts the lighter, holds wire
close to Ray's face; and
RAY watches cautiously, expecting a
burn.
CHARLES
(Continued)
Not to kill you and make a hero or some symbol of courage, dignity, or freedom's crusader?
No. Not a pig-shit traitor. You should be viewed in all your piss-stinking vileness.
(stands away, tosses wire aside, sips
brandy, then)
A simple name. Sooner the better. Or...while your urethra is being cauterized, your cock
left a charred lump?...then I'll have his name. Believe me.
(starts, returns)
Puzzling. Parts bloody, broken, pissing blood and very soon a worthless cock all to
protect a stranger?
(crouches by Ray)
Why? This colleague you protect is a stranger. You think not. You, a noble believer
in unity, bonds, in brotherhood! Truly, can you be such a complete fool?
(stands, paces)
~ Continued ~
CHARLES
(continuing)
I think not. I fear you are you turning into a Tiger? Transformed from a mouse? Tigers on
the loose are disturbing. After all this, will we have to kill a Tiger?
(halts, stares, sips brandy, then)
Consider this: Perhaps at this very moment your esteemed colleague enjoys soft
music playing, fine brandy such as this in his hand----
(swirls brandy in the glass under
Ray's nose)
Yes, a silken taste of a civilized delight. Which, your colleague enjoys at this moment,
while slow-dancing with a beautiful woman? That stirring in his balls?...that gradual
thickening of his cock as he moves against----
(a thought)
Perhaps, even, enjoying all these pleasures in your home?
Small reaction from RAY that CHARLES
notes, smiles, sips
brandy.
Blue SPOTLIGHT partially brightens
over LORETTA who faces
Ray.
Through the following, the Red GLOW
gradually brightens to full.
LORETTA
(desperation builds)
That beach town...the small motel?
CHARLES
(always to Ray only)
He's sipping your brandy?
LORETTA
Late, we went out to the pool, no one else around?
CHARLES
He's sitting close beside your wife?
LORETTA
Together we climbed over the fence and slipped into the heated water----
CHARLES
----He's fingering your wife's dress?
LORETTA
Concentrate on us.
CHARLES
Her loose shoulder strap slips, falls aside?
LORETTA
Swimming we brushed together and stopped and kissed as our hands----
CHARLES
----Is she resisting? Is she helping? Until one of her breasts?...and leaning in he...a
lick?---
LORETTA
----Our bathing suits pulled off there in the warm water----
CHARLES
----Then leaning further down he sucks her nipple in while his hand slips down---?
LORETTA
(peaks)
----Us together, Ray----
CHARLES
----slips inside?
LORETTA
----just us together loving each other.
CHARLES
He draws her head down, her mouth onto him----
LORETTA
(overlaps)
----Hold on?----
CHARLES
----and she enjoys taking him into her----
A fierce ANIMAL SHOUT breaks from RAY
- Red GLOW at full.
Pause.
CHARLES
(happily toasts)
Solution!
(drinks)
Red GLOW out.
CHARLES exits by the up-stage door,
slamming it after him - shaft
of bright White LIGHT out.
Blue SPOTLIGHT brightens fully as
LORETTA crosses to Ray.
LORETTA
We're at the lake. It's Summer.
(pause)
Ray? At the lake, you're standing on the dock, out on the end.
Struggling physically, RAY stands.
LORETTA
No. Rest. Imagine us together at the lake----
RAY shoves her away and paces the
length of his straw mattress,
precisely, endlessly - an intensity
building in his movement.
Red GLOW gradually brightens full.
LORETTA
At the end of the dock?...at the lake? You fell in the water and flapped your arms? As if
you couldn't swim. I believed it and ran out. I dove in to rescue you----
RAY
----I wasn't strong enough.
LORETTA
You're faking about swimming and begin to laugh as I lift you----
RAY
----Here, now. I let The Creature see into me.
LORETTA
(attempts to halt his pacing
-impossible)
That doesn't matter now.
RAY
I let The Creature know.
LORETTA
That's all over now. But this way, we're always together now in our special way.
RAY
I know now I can kill.
LORETTA
In whatever ways we want to be together----
RAY
----Killing, I understand now.
LORETTA
Ray?...make us live, not them----
RAY
(mindful only of his thoughts)
----Reject anything that controls. Never allow them any way in. I know all the cautions,
the guards. Yet I failed!
Red GLOW at full.
LORETTA faces forward, bows her head,
Blue SPOT dims, as:
RAY
(pacing relentlessly and precisely)
I wasn't strong enough. I let The Creature in. Weak...weak from caring. Weakened by
love. Ssssh. Even now. Mistake. Never confide. Not even here. Not even to imagination.
Small mistakes, momentary weaknesses. On guard, always strong. Always vigilant. Then The
Creature would not know. To get that moment back?...to help her somehow?
(halts, stares just ahead)
To walk...another step free? To feel sun...God's own graceful warmth again?
RAY looks to Loretta.
Red GLOW fades out, as:
RAY
(Continued - approaches Loretta)
And your touch. Your softness. Your scent...on me. Us alive again and together again.
From behind, RAY gently leans into
Loretta.
Blue SPOT brightens as LORETTA raises
her head, with a hand
caresses Ray.
RAY
Forgive me?
LORETTA
We're together now in this way, always.
RAY
We're at the lake. It's summer.
LORETTA
You fall off the end of the dock.
RAY
You rush out to rescue me.
LORETTA
But you laugh and I know you're faking. Laughing together, we wrestle----
RAY
-----Ssssh! He's close.
LORETTA
Ignore him----
RAY
----I feel him coming close.
LORETTA
No, make us live, only us----
CHARLES opens the door normally
-shaft of bright White LIGHT
pours in - and he enters smiling.
CHARLES
Imagination...yes, the problem and the solution.
LORETTA
(recites - to distract Ray)
Memories keep life close
Flood your mind with tomorrows----
RAY retreats to his straw mattress as
CHARLES goes by LORETTA
who remains at "her area".
Gradually (throughout), Red GLOW
brightens fully.
CHARLES
(lustily)
Seeing your Lo-retta stripped and tied----
LORETTA
(recites - to Ray)
----Again in the embrace of our love.
CHARLES
(continuing)
----I was momentarily jealous of you!
CHARLES sexually grinds against
LORETTA who focuses solely
on Ray.
LORETTA
My heart fled them, fled here to you.
CHARLES
(calls around)
Gentlemen, no more than two at a time...after me!
LORETTA
Never was I there for them, never.
CHARLES
(grinds)
Lovely Lo-retta.
(abruptly shoves her aside, crosses
to Ray)
Though, she didn't fully appreciate me.
LORETTA
(always to Ray)
Took my body, but never me.
CHARLES
Exquisite ass. At least, while she lasted.
RAY
I wasn't strong enough to protect you!
CHARLES
Protect?
LORETTA
Your love...our love shielded me.
CHARLES
Protecting a most exquisite ass, yes. Like the nature of my young colleagues and
their youthful exuberance once unleashed? Peril on the day Youth's nature gains control.
Yet, some inspiring moments, too.
(withdraws photographs from jacket
pocket)
Remembrances. Especially for you.
CHARLES crouches by RAY who pushes
further away - initially.
LORETTA
(desperation throughout)
At the lake. Concentrate. It's summer----
CHARLES
----Here you see lovely Lo-retta with two of my younger associates. Do look.
CHARLES attempts to draw Ray over.
RAY snaps to bite
(unsuccessfully) his hand.
CHARLES
(finger)
Tiger-Tiger...I learned. My younger, less cautious days.
(then)
Here, in this photo? See this most inspiring aspect? Loretta's face, is
this...enjoyment?
LORETTA
Pulling you from the water we laugh together and wrestle togeth----
CHARLES
----And here?
LORETTA
Ray?
CHARLES
Amazingly pliable Lo-retta.
LORETTA
Reject anything that defeats you.
CHARLES
(continuing)
Only engagement makes this position possible.
LORETTA
Reject small mistakes, any momentary weakness----
CHARLES
----And this one? To think that position?
LORETTA
Strength in belief, hold on.
CHARLES
If one releases her true nature? Wild liberation!
(spills a dozen other photos onto the
mattress)
Ah, life's persistent mysteries. Let your imagination reason.
(stands away, roams)
Had Lo-retta only given us his name? So many "what if's", and losses.
(starts out, halts)
I'm waiting up the hall? Yes.
CHARLES exits, gently closes the door
- bright White LIGHT out.
Red GLOW remains on full.
RAY looks at various photos.
LORETTA
Tricks, they'll try anything.
(pause)
Endless tricks.
(pause)
Reject anything that controls you.
(pause)
Never allow them any way in.
RAY
(holds up photo)
I know this look.
LORETTA
With us, I'm imagining us together.
RAY
And this one?
LORETTA
What we feel, together.
RAY
(flares)
With them, not me, them there.
LORETTA
Stay on guard, always vigilant, always strong.
RAY
This look when you're enjoying yourself.
LORETTA
Their tricks, not me. My heart fled here to you.
RAY
(head)
Everything, they've finally taken everything----
LORETTA
----Don't surrender.
RAY
Every-thing!
LORETTA
We're at home together. I'm wearing jeans. Tight up the crack of my ass where you run
fingers around my panty lines---
RAY
----The others taking you, all of them taking you----
LORETTA
----Concentrate. Only we exist. My see-through blouse strung open, wine poured, you
come up behind----
RAY
----The Creature right up that hall!
LORETTA
You're unhooking my belt and drawing my zipper down----
RAY
----He does now!
LORETTA
----While I sit and you kneel and pull---
RAY
(calls off in agony)
----Charles!
LORETTA
Don't. Don't surrender?
RAY
Everything's gone now!
LORETTA
I am whatever you make me into.
RAY
Their images now----
LORETTA
----No. At the lake that summer----
RAY
(calls)
----Charles!
LORETTA
Lean on me for strength. I'm always here for you----
RAY
----I'm alone here...me, me! Just ME!
(calls)
CHARLES!!
Pause - LORETTA, still desperate to
reach him, cannot say more.
CHARLES opens the door - shaft of
bright White LIGHT - enters
and stands silhouetted in the
doorway.
Pause.
CHARLES
Are you using my name in vain?
(pause)
Are you toying with me, Bitch?
(pause - calls off)
Daniel! Your club! Come sex up our retentive guest!
RAY
(still watching at Loretta)
Kiminski.
CHARLES smiles.
LORETTA, in "her area" in
Blue SPOTLIGHTING, faces out:
Red GLOW gradually fades away, and
out, as:
CHARLES
Albert Kiminski, or brother, George?
(pause)
No matter. We'll bring both Kiminski's in for a visit.
RAY
George.
CHARLES
(turns back, smiles)
My friend, at last.
(gestures off)
Whenever you're ready...friend.
(exits, leaving the door open)
RAY stands up and, swaying, gazes
around remembering the endless
weeks in this room. Lastly, he looks
to Loretta staring out.
RAY
(softly)
I'm sorry.
No Response - LORETTA remains facing
out in the Blue
SPOTLIGHT.
ECHO'S BONES