Welcomeby Richard Stuart Dixon
© Richard Stuart Dixon, 2003
(Note: Performance of this play requires the author’s permission. Please contact Good School Plays for details.)
Production Notes:
• running time: approx. 60 minutes
• style: realist drama
• suitable for general audiences
• 25 characters (16 female, 9 male)
• a good play for learning to perform episodic realism with parallel plots
• black-box staging (no set required)
Summary of Script Content:
• “Swimming Hole” explores the adventures of a group of young people and their elders in a small prairie town as they try to stabilize their confused feelings during the summer of 1968.
(This play was first performed in February, 2004, at Gleneagle Secondary School in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.)
∗Published Online by Good School Plays, March 8, 2018.
Go to:
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Scene 6
Scene 7
Scene 8
Scene 9
Scene 10
Scene 11
Scene 12
Scene 13
Scene 14
CHARACTERS:
MR. RAUL SPONDORI, 52, Principal of Silver Willow Secondary
MISS NANCY FLICKUS, 26, English Teacher at Silver Willow Secondary
MRS. TIMOTHEA ERSKINE, 44,Typing Teacher at Silver Willow Secondary
CONSTABLE HAGAR DOBERMAN, 35, RCMP
SKY LANDRY, 33, Widow
BILLY NOVAK, 18, Tough Guy
MARIE McNAIR, 17, Billy’s Girlfriend
BUCK MILLIGAN, 18, Tough Guy
FRANCINE CLOUTIER (“Cloo-shay”), 17, Buck’s Girlfriend
TOMMY GRIFFIN, 48, Baldaur’s Dad, a Farm Machinery Salesman
ROSIE GRIFFIN, 46, Baldaur’s Mom
SANDY GRIFFIN, 16, Baldaur Griffin’s Sister
BALDAUR GRIFFIN, 17, Gr. 12 Student at Silver Willow Secondary
VANCE KRUPA, 17, Gr. 12 Student at Silver Willow Secondary
RONNY DEVLIN, 17, Grade 12 Student at Silver Willow Secondary
TAGGIS MOLINE, 18, Grade 12 Athlete at Silver Willow Secondary
TIFFANY JENSEN, 18, Grade 11, Taggis Moline’s Girlfriend
LORETTA DISNEY, 39, Veronica’s Mother
VERONICA DISNEY, 16, a Deaf-Mute Girl at Silver Willow Secondary
WENDY LARSEN, 15, Grade 10 Student at Silver Willow Sec.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF, 16, Grade 10 Student at Silver Willow Sec.
MARTY ROSS, 15, Grade 10 Student at Silver Willow Secondary
COLLEEN PINHORN, 16, Grade 10 Student at Silver Willow Secondary
SERENA REDFERN, 18, Grade 12 Student at Silver Willow Secondary
MARY BIRD, 50, called “Crazy Mary” by some of the townsfolk.
SETTING: It’s late May, 1968, in Silver Willow, Saskatchewan. The winds of change are blowing through the little town on the banks of Wolf River.
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 1:
(MARY BIRD is on stage. She is standing on the bank of Wolf River at a place known simply as “The Swimming Hole”. She is shouting, trying to deal with the thoughts in her mind.)
MARY
Hey! Hey! Get away from me! Get out! Get out! You got no business here! Scram! Leave me alone!
(CONSTABLE DOBERMAN enters and watches her shouting.)
MARY
I’ll sic the dogs on you! Get out of here! Get out!
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Take it easy, Mary. Take it easy. I’ll give you a ride back to town, okay?
MARY
I wanna stay here, Constable Doberman, by the river. I wanna stay ‘cause I might just jump right into that muddy water.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Now why would you want to do that?
MARY
It’s all quiet under that water. No noise. I hate the noise, Constable Doberman.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Come on, now, I’ll give you a ride home.
MARY
You see them kids over there, dancing and prancing?
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Those are just poplar trees, Mary, bending in the wind.
MARY
Dancing and prancing and raising a ruckus?
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Come on, now. You can listen to my radio in the car. You don’t want to get lost again, out here on the prairie.
MARY
We’re all lost, Constable. All of us. You feel that wind?
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
It never stops blowing.
MARY
The wind won’t let nothing stand still, not even for a second.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Guess you’re right.
MARY
You got to watch out for them kids. The wind’s gonna blow them into the river, and the river’s gonna carry them away from here forever.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
I can’t arrest the wind and the river, Mary.
MARY
You got a donut in your car?
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
No, but I’ll get you one if you come into town with me.
MARY
Where you gonna find a donut in Silver Willow?
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
At the Blue Sky.
MARY
The Blue Sky?
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Mrs. Landry’s café.
MARY
The only donut she’s got for sale ain’t the kind you can eat, Constable.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
What kind of talk is that?
MARY
Most every night, one of them trucks with eighteen wheels pulls up alongside her café around closing time.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
No law against that.
MARY
And some old truck jockey slips through her back door.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
No law against that either.
MARY
And when the lights go out, the truck’s still there waitin’ in the dark, like a big old guard dog.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Them truck drivers get awful lonesome hauling their rigs down the empty road, Mary. Can’t blame ‘em for that.
MARY
All men are lonely.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
And women?
MARY
Women have the seeds of life in them.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
So they’re not lonely?
MARY
Women are like prairie flowers, springing from the earth and blooming in the summer of their lives, all beautiful, then sharing their seeds with the earth to make more flowers. They’re a part of everything. But men, they’re just loose and drifting, like old dead leaves in the fall. They’re not attached to nothing.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Did you ever have kids, Mary?
MARY
I don’t remember.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
One day I’m going to marry some good woman and have kids of my own.
MARY
They’ll break your heart without even trying.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Rather have a broken heart than no heart at all.
MARY
You ever shoot anyone with your gun?
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
I don’t even carry it.
MARY
What if someone was to point a gun at you and shoot you in the heart?
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
I’d die from a broken heart.
MARY
Why don’t you lend me your heart for safekeeping?
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
I’m not sure I’ve got one.
MARY
That’s a sad thing to say.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Guess I’m just a dried up old leaf blowing across this prairie.
MARY
You men are all the same: all tough on the outside, but just all lonesome on the inside.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Let’s take that ride.
MARY
Don’t drive fast.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
I won’t.
MARY
Everything’s going too damn fast.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
I’ll drive slow.
MARY
All right, then.
(hollering)
Hey! You kids look out for the wind! It’s going to blow you into the river! Hey, grab hold of each other before it’s too late! Hey, you listen to me!
(MARY runs off.)
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
(shouting)
Mary! Mary!
(to himself)
Damn it, I don’t have time for this!
(shouting)
Mary!
(CONSTABLE DOBERMAN chases off after MARY.)
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 2:
(BALDAUR GRIFFIN, VANCE KRUPA, and RONNY DEVLIN enter.)
VANCE KRUPA
Constable Doberman’s everywhere. Even out here.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
He won’t be back. Crazy Mary took off into the bush like a spooked coyote.
VANCE KRUPA
He’ll be looking for her for hours. Good old Mary Bird!
RONNY DEVLIN
We could go to jail for this.
VANCE KRUPA
If Serena shows up.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
She’ll be here.
RONNY DEVLIN
Maybe she’s a narc.
VANCE KRUPA
What if she’s a narc, Baldaur?
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
There’s no way they’d send a narcotics agent to Silver Willow, Saskatchewan, for god’s sake.
RONNY DEVLIN
But what if they did?
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Well, they didn’t. So shut the hell up, Ronny.
VANCE KRUPA
Face it, Baldaur. She’s not gonna show.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
She’s not that late.
RONNY DEVLIN
We’ve been waiting for an hour.
VANCE KRUPA
Why’d she ask us to help her, anyways?
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
She said we had “good vibes”.
RONNY DEVLIN
Hippie talk.
VANCE KRUPA
She talks like a hippie, but that doesn’t mean she is one.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
She’s been to San Francisco, wears beads, loves psychedelic music, and has a strobe light in her bedroom, so that makes her way more of a hippie than you, Vance.
RONNY DEVLIN
A strobe light!
VANCE KRUPA
How do you know she’s got a strobe light in her bedroom?
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
I saw it flickering when I walked past her place.
VANCE KRUPA
You’ve been spying on her.
RONNY DEVLIN
You’re in love with her!
VANCE KRUPA
You want her.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Make love, not war, man. I’m trying to love everyone.
VANCE KRUPA
Seventeen and still a virgin.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
I’m trying.
RONNIE DEVLIN
Can a guy be a virgin? I mean technically?
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Shut up. Here she comes.
(SERENA REDFERN enters.)
SERENA REDFERN
(making the peace sign)
Peace, brothers!
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Peace, Serena.
VANCE KRUPA
Uhhh, peace, and love.
RONNY DEVLIN
Hi!
SERENA REDFERN
(looking around)
This is a holy place, brothers, a spiritual refuge!
VANCE KRUPA
This is where we go swimming in the summer.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Naked.
RONNIE DEVLIN
Except for our swim trunks.
SERENA REDFERN
You should take them off.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
There’s leeches.
RONNIE DEVLIN
They suck blood.
VANCE KRUPA
Got to protect our private parts.
SERENA REDFERN
You shouldn’t freak out about blood.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Did you bring the seeds?
SERENA REDFERN
In this little sack.
VANCE KRUPA
What do they look like?
SERENA REDFERN
Little round balls.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Like yours, Vance.
VANCE KRUPA
Ha, ha, so funny. We’re not in junior high school any more, Baldaur.
SERENA REDFERN
A pregnant woman’s belly is the shape of a ball.
RONNY DEVLIN
The sun is a ball.
VANCE KRUPA
So’s the earth.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
My name has “ball” in it. BALL-daur.
SERENA REDFERN
If “Baldaur” comes from French, it would mean “balle d’or” or “golden ball”, like these seeds.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Far out. My head’s a golden ball like a marijuana seed.
VANCE KRUPA
Where are we gonna plant the seeds?
SERENA REDFERN
Where they get lots of sun and moisture and good warm earth.
RONNIE DEVLIN
What if someone finds them?
SERENA REDFERN
Then they get high instead of us. Nothing wrong with sharing.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
How long till there’s leaves we can smoke?
SERENA REDFERN
I don’t know. I’ve never grown it before.
VANCE KRUPA
This is a historic moment. The first pot plants in the history of Silver Willow, Saskatchewan.
SERENA REDFERN
They won’t be the last. Let’s find a perfect spot to bury these. Then later, we can come back and bless the seeds by moonlight.
(They exit. CONSTABLE DOBERMAN enters.)
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Mary, Mary, where the hell are you?
(CONSTABLE BOWMAN exits and MARY enters.)
MARY
Look at him, plowing through the bush like a big ‘ol bulldozer.
(MARY exits.)
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 3:
SETTING: Outside the Maple Leaf Hotel and Beer Parlour.
(BILLY NOVAK and BUCK MILLIGAN enter. They are punching each other in the shoulder and rough-housing.)
BILLY NOVAK
Friday night’s coming up, Bucky Boy, and the air’s hot and sticky.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Perfect for gettin’ hammered at the swimming hole.
BILLY NOVAK
All we gotta do is wait here in front of the good old Maple Leaf Hotel.
BUCK MILLIGAN
And wait ‘til some drunk comes out of the beer parlour.
BILLY NOVAK
Then get him to bootleg.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Did Old Man Griffin pay you yet?
BILLY NOVAK
Ten bucks.
BUCK MILLIGAN
That’s a helluva lotta money for hosing the dirt off a couple of Massey Fergusons.
BILLY NOVAK
It ain’t easy washing crud off tractors, smart guy.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Ten bucks buys two cases of beer. Three if the bootlegger don’t charge.
BILLY NOVAK
The day I hit twenty-one, I’m gonna walk into the Maple Leaf soon as it opens, and chug draft at twenty cents a glass till I throw up and pass out.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Ten bucks’d buy, uh, uh, lemme think. Fifty glasses of draft!
BILLY NOVAK
Draft tastes flat, but it’s strong.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Fifty glasses, Billy. Good times.
BILLY NOVAK
Where are them chicks?
BUCK MILLIGAN
Always late.
BILLY NOVAK
You getting any lately?
BUCK MILLIGAN
That’s for me to know and you to find out.
BILLY NOVAK
Just how am I gonna do that? Peek in your Chevy when you’re parked in the bush?
BUCK MILLIGAN
That Chevy’s seen a lot of action.
BILLY NOVAK
Here they come.
(MARIE McNAIR and FRANCINE CLOUTIER enter.)
MARIE McNAIR
Well, looky here, Francine, a couple of studs.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
Studs? You mean “duds”!
BUCK MILLIGAN
You’re late.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
No. You’re early.
BILLY NOVAK
You gonna let her lip you off, Bucky Boy?
MARIE McNAIR
Francine wears the pants, dontcha Francine?
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
Yah. Bucky’s my little mama’s boy, my little poodle.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Arf! Arf! Arf!
(BUCK pretends to be a poodle, barking, begging, sniffing at FRANCINE.)
MARIE McNAIR
(while BUCK does his poodle act)
Look at that! Ain’t he cute!
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
Down, boy, down big fella! Don’t slobber on my slacks!
BILLY NOVAK
Buck, for god’s sake, ya give men a bad name!
BUCK MILLIGAN
If I gotta beg for it, I’ll beg. A man has needs.
MARIE McNAIR
Man? Man? I don’t see no men!
BILLY NOVAK
Gimme ten minutes in the back of Bucky’s Chevy, and you’ll see how much of a man I am.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
All talk and no action.
BILLY NOVAK
Don’t get lippy, Francine.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Yeah, watch your lip, Francine. Billy and me are buddies.
MARIE McNAIR
Then maybe you and him should go in the back of that ol’ Chevy.
BILLY NOVAK
Shut up, you dumb skrag.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
Don’t you go calling her a skrag, Billy Novak, you little peckerwood.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Me and Billy are men, now. You want us to prove it? Huh? Real good?
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
Watcha gonna do, punch each other in the shoulder some more?
BUCK MILLIGAN
We’ll beat up a couple of hippies.
BILLY NOVAK
Yah. Coco-bonk a hippie and split his head open.
(BILLY tries to coco-bonk BUCK, but BUCK catches his head and knees him in the belly. BUCK goes down and pretends to be hurt, moaning like a sick cow.)
MARIE McNAIR
Billy!
(going to BILLY and comforting him)
What’d you do that for, Bucky, ya big goof!
BUCK MILLIGAN
Them hippies look like girls. They’re the one’s that ain’t real men.
BILLY NOVAK
(leaping up)
Fooled ya!
(BILLY and BUCK nudge each other and snicker.)
MARIE McNAIR
You little pricks.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
Me and Marie should dump you two kids and hitch a ride to Saddle River.
MARIE McNAIR
The guys there know how to appreciate us.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
They don’t act like snot-nosed brats in a playground.
BUCK MILLIGAN
We’re gonna beat up some hippies.
BILLY NOVAK
Yah. And cut their hair.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
Where you gonna find hippies, huh?
MARIE McNAIR
You got some hippies hidden under a rock?
BUCK MILLIGAN
There’s that new hippie chick.
BILLY NOVAK
Yeah, that Serena chick with the beads.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
You gonna beat up a girl?
BUCK MILLIGAN
She’s been hanging around Bald-head Griffin and his gang of pansies.
BILLY NOVAK
That makes them hippies too, so we’re gonna kick their heads in.
(BILLY and BUCK snicker.)
MARIE McNAIR
She’s a cow.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
She comes into our town like she’s some kind of queen.
MARIE McNAIR
Probably never takes a bath.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Filthy hippies.
BILLY NOVAK
Pot smoking, acid dropping hippies.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
This is a beer and liquor town.
MARIE McNAIR
We don’t want no drug-smoking freak like her round here.
(TOMMY GRIFFIN enters, on his way out of the beer parlour.)
BILLY NOVAK
Hey, Mr. Griffin!
(BILLY and BUCK take MR. GRIFFIN aside while MARIE and FRANCINE watch from a distance.)
TOMMY GRIFFIN
You get them tractors hosed down, Billy?
BILLY NOVAK
Sure did, Mr. Griffin.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
I gave you ten bucks to do it, so they better look good.
BILLY NOVAK
They’re as clean as the Queen of England’s naked ass, Mr. Griffin.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Don’t make fun of the Queen, son. We fought a war so she could keep a nice shine on her royal tush.
BILLY NOVAK
I didn’t mean nothin’ by it, sir.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Will you do us a favour, Mr. Griffin?
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Sure, boys.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Will you buy us a couple cases of beer?
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Now why would I do a thing like that?
BUCK MILLIGAN
Because you’re a hell of a nice guy.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
That I am, boys, that I am. Where’s your money?
BILLY NOVAK
(handing over the ten dollars)
Right here, Mr. Griffin.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
(taking the money)
I’ll meet you in the alley, but I’m keeping the change.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Whatever you say, Mr. Griffin.
(MR. GRIFFIN exits back into the beer parlour.)
BILLY NOVAK
He’s three sheets to the wind.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Just like we’re gonna be tonight.
(MARIE and FRANCINE cross to BILLY and BUCK.)
MARIE McNAIR
How much is he gonna buy?
BUCK MILLIGAN
Two cases.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
That’s six each.
BILLY NOVAK
Tell you what. We’ll take that beer down to the swimming hole and drink it fast to get hammered. Then we’ll find those hippie punks and kick the crap out of them.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
Now you’re talking, Billy-boy.
(They whoop and exit. MARY enters.)
MARY
Everything out here in the bush is alive. Everything. And it’s all talking to me.
(MARY exits. CONSTABLE DOBERMAN enters.)
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Mary! Mary! Damn it to hell, where are you?
(CONSTABLE DOBERMAN exits.)
Return to Scene List
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 4:
SETTING: The main office of Silver Willow Secondary School.
(RAUL SPONDORI, NANCY FLICKUS, and TIMOTHEA ERSKINE enter.)
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
I must insist that we discuss this right here in the main office, Mr. Spondori.
RAUL SPONDORI
It’s Friday, Mrs. Erskine. Couldn’t we wait until Monday? I’ve got a nice little pork chop waiting for me at home.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
Mr. Spondori, you are the principal of this school.
RAUL SPONDORI
I am aware of that, Mrs. Erskine. It is a burden of which I am not particularly fond.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
Then you should also be aware that, as we speak, illegal drugs are making their way into the hands of our students.
NANCY FLICKUS
Timothea, the kids here at Silver Willow Secondary don’t have access to drugs.
RAUL SPONDORI
Quite right, Miss Flickus. This isn’t San Francisco, Mrs. Erskine.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
That new girl, Serena Redfern, is from San Francisco.
RAUL SPONDORI
I don’t see the connection.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
The girl is a hippie, and hippies have ways of getting drugs from faraway cities.
RAUL SPONDORI
Are you suggesting she sells drugs to other children?
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
I wouldn’t put it past her. She’s a bad influence. And Miss Flickus is encouraging her.
NANCY FLICKUS
Why, Timothea, that is a grave accusation.
RAUL SPONDORI
A grave accusation indeed. What do you mean, Mrs. Erskine?
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
I mean Miss Flickus’s English classes. Those free verse poems, and those records she plays. hippie music. That incense she burns, and those pyschedelic posters.
NANCY FLICKUS
I’m trying to reach out to them in ways they can understand, ways they can relate to.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
You’re teaching them things that’ll lead to grievous mischief.
RAUL SPONDORI
Now, now, we must try to be civil. I have a migraine headache and your shouting is making it much worse.
NANCY FLICKUS
Mrs. Erskine, you seem to think that the hippie movement’s use of psychedelic substances is somehow misbegotten, that marijuana is a dangerous drug. But it’s not.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
(indignant)
I beg your pardon?
NANCY FLICKUS
Marijuana. It’s not dangerous.
RAUL SPONDORI
I’ve heard that it leads to harder drugs, Miss Flickus, and ultimately to heroin.
NANCY FLICKUS
That’s silly.
RAUL SPONDORI
Silly?
NANCY FLICKUS
In this town, kids who’ve never smoked pot are already using a deadly drug.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
And what drug is that, pray tell?
NANCY FLICKUS
(her voice rising)
They drink booze every weekend. They get drunk and do stupid things.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
(her voice rising)
Alcohol is a social lubricant that’s as Canadian as maple syrup!
NANCY FLICKUS
(her voice rising even more)
And far more dangerous than marijuana!
RAUL SPONDORI
Stop it! Right now! I cannot countenance shouting in my office! What exactly do you want from me, Mrs. Erskine?
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
I want you to put a stop to this hippie behaviour before it gets out of control.
NANCY FLICKUS
The kids are already out of control, Mrs. Erskine, with alcohol. Mr. Spondori, I challenge you and Mrs. Erskine to go with me to the swimming hole tonight.
RAUL SPONDORI
(attempting humour)
It would be inappropriate for me to go swimming in the nude with two of my female teachers.
NANCY FLICKUS
I’m serious. I want you to watch what the kids in this town really do on a Friday night. We’ll keep a discrete distance and discover the truth.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
Out of the question. We have no right to spy on them.
NANCY FLICKUS
You’ve been spying on me.
RAUL SPONDORI
All right! If it will help stop my staff members from bickering with each other about nothing, I’ll go to the swimming hole with you.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
I have no intention of going out to that place of hormonal teenage rituals.
RAUL SPONDORI
Mrs. Erskine, you’ve raised the issue of drug use, you’ve accused Miss Flickus of misconduct, and you’ve taken up too much of my precious time. Go with us, and we’ll see if there’s any truth in what you say.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
Very well. Against my better judgment, I’ll take part in this ridiculous outing. But I’m sure I will be vindicated.
(They exit. CONSTABLE DOBERMAN enters.)
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Mary! Mary! Say, I think I walked past here already? Which way is north?
(CONSTABLE BOWMAN exits. MARY enters.)
MARY
He’s going in circles, just like life itself. Maybe he’ll learn something.
(MARY exits.)
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 5:
SETTING: The empty lot beside WENDY LARSEN’S house.
(WENDY LARSEN and TRINITY KORSAKOFF enter.)
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
Another boring Friday night hanging around this dumb old vacant lot.
WENDY LARSEN
We could watch T.V.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
Only one stupid station, Wendy.
WENDY LARSEN
The CBC is not stupid, just Canadian.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
It’s boring. This town’s boring. You’re boring.
WENDY LARSEN
I love you, Trinity.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
What?
WENDY LARSEN
I love you. You are a child of the universe. We all are.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
Don’t be a goof.
WENDY LARSEN
Do you want a hug, Trinity?
(attempting to hug WENDY)
You need a big, warm hug!
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
Get away from me, you fruitcake.
WENDY LARSEN
Still bored?
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
No. Now I’m ticked off, Wendy Larsen.
(TRINITY shoves WENDY.)
WENDY LARSEN
(pushing back)
Hey, hands to yourself, Hans!
(WENDY and TRINITY start wrestling playfully. MARTY ROSS and COLLEEN PINHORN enter.)
MARTY ROSS
Look who’s making love.
COLLEEN PINHORN
They’re so cute.
(TRINITY and WENDY get up.)
WENDY LARSEN
Trinity said that if I was a guy, she’d marry me.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
You little liar.
(TRINITY and WENDY start to fight again.)
MARTY ROSS
They’re bored.
COLLEEN PINHORN
They’re always bored.
MARTY ROSS
We’re always bored.
(TRINITY and WENDY stop fighting.)
WENDY LARSEN
Let’s go dance to records.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
I’m sick of Sergeant Pepper’s.
MARTY ROSS
The Beatles are the best band in the world.
COLLEEN PINHORN
The Rolling Stones are better.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
Jimi Hendrix. He’s god.
WENDY LARSEN
Jefferson Airplane. Janis Joplin.
MARTY ROSS
The Doors. Jim Morrison. He’s deep. He’s deep, isn’t he, Colleen?
COLLEEN PINHORN
Sexy, too.
WENDY LARSEN
Watch me!
(WENDY does some hippie dancing, humming a weird tune, floating about, all curvy and free and
full of uninhibited abandonment. TRINITY joins WENDY in the dance.)
COLLEEN PINHORN
They’re such fruitcakes.
MARTY ROSS
Have they been drinking?
COLLEEN PINHORN
Hippie chicks! Hippie chicks!
COLLEEN and MARTY
(becoming JANIS JOPLIN singing at a concert, while TRINITY and WENDY dance)
Come on, come on, take it!
Take another little piece of my heart now baby!
You know you’ve got it,
If it makes you feel good!
(Everyone stops, laughs, claps, in the happiness of the moment.)
MARTY ROSS
Let’s go to the swimming hole tonight!
WENDY LARSEN
Right on! Right on! Dancing in the moonlight!
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
The guys will be there. They always are.
MARTY ROSS
Yeah, drinking beer. Let’s make them share.
COLLEEN PINHORN
Two sips and you’re drunk, Marty.
MARTY ROSS
Cheaper that way.
WENDY LARSEN
Do we always have to drink to have fun?
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
I wish we could get some pot.
WENDY LARSEN
I want to know what its like.
MARTY ROSS
Pot doesn’t make you stupid like booze.
COLLEEN PINHORN
How do you know?
MARTY ROSS
All those people writing songs about it. They’re not dumb.
WENDY LARSEN
They make it sound like being in heaven.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
I bet that hippie girl Serena Redfern knows what it’s like.
MARTY ROSS
I bet she has some.
WENDY LARSEN
Maybe she’ll be at the swimming hole. We can get her to give us some.
COLLEEN PINHORN
If she has any.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
I say we go to the swimming hole and if Serena turns up, we’ll offer her twenty bucks for some pot.
WENDY LARSEN
We each put in four.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
Don’t you mean five?
MARTY ROSS
How much could we get for twenty dollars?
COLLEEN PINHORN
How much do we need to get stoned?
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
I guess maybe one joint each. Four joints altogether.
WENDY LARSEN
Five bucks for one joint. That’s a lot more expensive than beer.
MARTY ROSS
We don’t even know if she has any.
COLLEEN PINHORN
What if she tries to rip us off by selling us alfalfa or oregano?
WENDY LARSEN
Alfalfa?
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
I know the difference between oregano and pot.
MARTY ROSS
You’ve never seen pot.
WENDY LARSEN
I bet it looks like rolling tobacco. All brown and moist and stringy.
COLLEEN PINHORN
I think it’s green.
MARTY ROSS
Can pot make you freak out?
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
It’s not as strong as acid.
COLLEEN PINHORN
I heard it’s like having a church organ inside your head.
MARTY ROSS
A church organ?
WENDY LARSEN
We’ve got to try it if we want to find out what everyone’s talking about.
COLLEEN PINHORN
We don’t want to miss out.
MARTY ROSS
If everyone else is getting high, I guess we should too.
(VERONICA DISNEY enters. She is deaf and mute. Marty waves hard at her and mouths her words clearly.)
MARTY ROSS
Hi, Veronica!
(The other girls shout Hi! as well, speaking overly clearly, and waving at VERONICA. VERONICA waves back at the girls and runs over to them.)
MARTY ROSS
(overemphasizing and making signs with her arms and hands)
We’re going to the swimming hole. Want to come?
(VERONICA looks doubtful and shakes her head “no”.)
WENDY LARSEN
(with hand signs)
Why not?
(VERONICA points offstage and pretends to be her mother, wagging her finger and moving her lips as if to say “No, you can’t go to the swimming hole.”)
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
Her mom won’t let her.
BABE McMANUS
Her mom’s such a downer.
COLLEEN PINHORN
Veronica never gets to do anything.
WENDY LARSEN
Let’s kidnap her and take her to the swimming hole!
MARTY ROSS
That’s real smart. Her mom will come looking for her and find us smoking pot.
(LORETTA DISNEY enters.)
LORETTA DISNEY
There you are.
(LORETTA goes to VERONICA and touches her shoulder. She enunciates clearly so VERONICA
understands).
LORETTA DISNEY
You come home now, honey. It’s time for supper.
(VERONICA pulls away from her mother and sulks.)
LORETTA DISNEY
Why is she sulking? What have you girls been up to?
WENDY LARSEN
Nothing, Mrs. Disney. Veronica just wants to hang out with us.
LORETTA DISNEY
She needs adult supervision.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
We’re almost adults, Mrs. Disney. We can look after her.
LORETTA DISNEY
What about her supper?
MARTY ROSS
We’ll get burgers and shakes at the Creemette, Mrs. Disney.
LORETTA DISNEY
What are you planning to do tonight besides eating greasy food, girls?
COLLEEN PINHORN
We’re just going to watch TV at Wendy’s house, Mrs. Disney.
LORETTA DISNEY
I guess that would be okay.
(VERONICA runs over to her mother and hugs her.)
LORETTA DISNEY
But she’s got to be home by ten.
WENDY LARSEN
How about eleven-thirty? That’s not very late for a Friday, Mrs. Disney.
LORETTA DISNEY
I don’t know. Do you promise to watch out for her?
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
(going to VERONICA and putting her arm around her)
I’ll take personal responsibility for her.
LORETTA DISNEY
Thank you, Trinity. She’s just so trusting. It would be so easy for a young man to take advantage of her.
MARTY ROSS
It’s a “girls only” get together, Mrs. Disney.
LORETTA DISNEY
Yes, well.
(making VERONICA watch her lips)
Be home by eleven-forty-five, Veronica. And don’t drink any beer or liquor!
(VERONICA nods her head vigorously “No!”)
WENDY LARSEN
We’re not going to be doing any drinking, Mrs. Disney.
LORETTA DISNEY
That’s good. There’s too much drinking in this town. Take good care of her.
(LORETTA DISNEY exits.)
MARTY ROSS
Why did we just do that?
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
I dunno. Veronica looks so lonely, I guess.
WENDY LARSEN
Well, at least she won’t tell on us.
COLLEEN PINHORN
Let’s go get those burgers.
(They exit. MARY enters.)
MARY
Everything’s on fire. Some of it burns fast, some of it burns slow.
(MARY exits. CONSTABLE DOBERMAN enters.)
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
I should quit while I’m ahead and go back to town. But where the hell is town?
(CONSTABLE DOBERMAN exits.)
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 6:
SETTING: ROSIE GRIFFIN’S kitchen.
(ROSIE GRIFFIN enters, wiping her hands on a tea towel. TOMMY GRIFFIN enters from the opposite side.)
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Mmmm. Smells like tuna casserole.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
It should be done in ten, Tommy.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Where are Sandy and Baldaur, Honey?
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Sandy’s in her room and Baldaur’s out with his pals.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Did he get his hair cut today like I asked?
ROSIE GRIFFIN
No, Tommy.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
The little bugger. He looks like a girl. I’m embarrassed to be seen with him.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
He’s eighteen. You can’t order him to cut his hair.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
If he wants to live here, he’s got to cut his hair and look like a man.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
He’ll be leaving soon enough. There’s nothing for him here in Silver Willow.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
That’s another thing. He’s always complaining about this town.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Young people get bored in small towns. Always have, always will.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Horse crap. They’re selfish and ungrateful. Silver Willow has given them everything they’ve got.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
And what have they got? An outdoor skating rink in winter with a wind chill of thirty below, and long, hot boring summers with no jobs.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
I just paid Billy Novak ten bucks to clean tractors.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Which he’ll spend on beer.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
That’s his business. Baldaur could have washed those tractors, but he’s too good for that.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Billy Novak’s a punk.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
(his voice rising)
He’s a good kid. Wears his hair a decent length and acts like a man, not a drugged-up hippie.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Ssshhhh! You’ll upset Sandy.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
I’ll shout if I want. It’s my house. I pay for it. I pay for you. I look after the whole damn lot of you!
(SANDY enters.)
SANDY GRIFFIN
What’s the matter, Daddy?
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Come give your daddy a hug, little lady. Your mom’s treating me mean.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Hmmmmphhhhhh.
SANDY GRIFFIN
(going to him and hugging him)
Did you have a good day at work, Dad?
TOMMY GRIFFIN
I damn near sold a seed drill to Randy Hogg, Sandy. After his third beer, I had him ninety percent convinced. But then his old lady came into the bar and hauled him out like a fish on a hook.
SANDY GRIFFIN
Awww, Daddy, why do you have to sell machinery in the bar instead of at the office?
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Because the farmers round here are a bunch of drunks.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Don’t forget they were soldiers in the war like me. And farming’s a hard life. Gotta have beer to unwind.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
And drive into the ditch on their way back to the farm.
SANDY GRIFFIN
Daddy, I got 78 out of 109 on the science test.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Seventy eight? That’s a “B”, isn’t it?
SANDY GRIFFIN
Almost.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Damn it, Sandy, can’t you at least get a “B”?
ROSIE GRIFFIN
She’s doing better this term, Tommy. Don’t rain on her parade.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
I guess you’re not cut out for school, Sandy. You’re going to have to find a nice hard-working man and get married.
SANDY GRIFFIN
Don’t tease, Daddy.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
I’m not teasing, child. That’s the sad part.
SANDY GRIFFIN
Do you really think I should get married, Daddy?
TOMMY GRIFFIN
In a couple of years. A woman’s place is in the home.
SANDY GRIFFIN
I got something to tell you, Dad.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Well, then, tell it.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Sandy, I don’t think you should…
SANDY GRIFFIN
Let me be, Ma. I got to tell him.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
What? What?
SANDY GRIFFIN
Well…
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Don’t keep me in the dark, child!
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Sandy, he’s not ready.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Ready for what?
SANDY GRIFFIN
He’ll never be ready, Ma. Now’s as good as time as any.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Will someone tell me what’s going on?
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Tommy, Honey, Sandy…your little girl…she’s not so little any more.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Tell me something I don’t know.
SANDY GRIFFIN
Dad, Daddy, I…I’m in the family way.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Family way? Family way? In the way of who’s family?
SANDY GRIFFIN
I’m pregnant, Daddy.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Pregnant? What the hell! Don’t kid around, Sandy.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
She’s not, Tommy. I took her over to the doctor’s at Saddle River a week ago last Tuesday. He phoned the results today.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Well, I’ll be jiggered.
SANDY GRIFFIN
Don’t be angry, Dad.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Who did it, Sandy? I’ll kill the son-of-a-bitch.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Sandy doesn’t want to talk about the father.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Oh no? She’d better talk about him, the little prick. Who is he, Sandy?
SANDY GRIFFIN
He doesn’t want to marry me, Dad.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Hell, he’ll marry you, all right.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
She won’t tell me either, Tommy.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Sandy, some guy knocked you up. Now he has to do the right thing.
SANDY GRIFFIN
I don’t want him, Dad. I don’t love him.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
What’s love got to do with it?
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Do I have to remind you, Tommy?
TOMMY GRIFFIN
What?
ROSIE GRIFFIN
About you and me, nineteen years ago?
TOMMY GRIFFIN
I knocked you up so I married you. Now he’s got to marry Sandy.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Times are changing, Tommy. A woman doesn’t have to marry a man she doesn’t love.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Are you saying you don’t love me, Rosie? Because if you are, I’m gonna have to ask you to pack your bags and walk out that door.
SANDY GRIFFIN
What about me? I’m sixteen and I’m pregnant.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Look, Sandy, you’ve got to tell me who the father is. I won’t sleep and I won’t eat until I know.
SANDY GRIFFIN
But it won’t make any difference.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
I promise I won’t do anything to him. I just need to know.
SANDY GRIFFIN
You promise?
TOMMY GRIFFIN
I promise.
ROSIE GRIFFEN
Sandy…
SANDY GRIFFIN
It was…Taggis Moline.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Taggis Moline!
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Taggis Moline! The son of the richest man in town?
SANDY GRIFFIN
He’s a wonderful basketball player.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
He’s got a girlfriend. They’ve been going together for a long time.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
I got to talk to this boy.
SANDY GRIFFIN
You said you wouldn’t hurt him!
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Did I say I was going to hurt him?
SANDY GRIFFIN
No, but…
TOMMY GRIFFIN
I just got to talk to him. To hear his side. I want to hear him say to my face he won’t marry my daughter.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Tommy, don’t go bothering the boy. He made a mistake. Boys do that. Sandy made a mistake too. They’re just kids. Kids get mixed up and do things they regret.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
He’ll be down at that swimming hole tonight with the other kids. We’re going there and making him tell the whole damn lot of them what he’s done.
SANDY GRIFFIN
No, Daddy, I don’t want everyone to know what we did.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
You shoulda thought of that before you did it. Now come on.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
If you’re going to go, go by yourself, Tommy. Leave Sandy and me out of it.
SANDY GRIFFIN
No, please Mom,if he’s gonna do it, I want to be there when he does, and I want you to be there too, please?
ROSIE GRIFFIN
But why, Sandy?
SANDY GRIFFIN
Because if the truth’s going to come out, Dad can’t do it by himself. It’s got to come out whole, and it can’t do that without you and me.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
All right, Sandy. You’re right, and you’re a brave girl. I got to be brave too.
(They exit and CONSTABLE DOBERMAN enters.)
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Wish I had a cigarette. There’s nothing better than a cancer stick when you’re lost in the bush.
(CONSTABLE DOBERMAN exits. MARY enters.)
MARY
He’s starting to settle down and accept his fate, the poor devil.
(MARY exits.)
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 7:
SETTING: TIFFANY JENSEN’S front porch.
(TAGGIS MOLINE and TIFFANY JENSEN enter.)
TIFFANY JENSEN
We can sit here on Dad’s front porch.
TAGGIS MOLINE
You sure he won’t mind, Tiffany?
TIFFANY JENSEN
He and Mom are at the Maple Leaf drinking beer, Taggis.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Seems like that’s all anyone ever does in this town.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Not us.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Yeah, not us.
(They sit.)
TIFFANY JENSEN
It’s almost grad, Taggis.
TAGGIS MOLINE
One more summer and I’m off to Regina.
TIFFANY JENSEN
You don’t even need those scholarships.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Dad’s generous.
TIFFANY JENSEN
I’ll miss you.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Likewise.
TIFFANY JENSEN
No you won’t.
TAGGIS MOLINE
I will too.
TIFFANY JENSEN
There’s lots of girls at the university, Taggis Moline.
TAGGIS MOLINE
So?
TIFFANY JENSEN
They’re looking for rich guys to marry.
TAGGIS MOLINE
So are you.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Shut up.
TAGGIS MOLINE
All right.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Don’t ever say I picked you because you’re rich.
TAGGIS MOLINE
All right.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Not ever.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Sure.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Because I didn’t.
TAGGIS MOLINE
I know.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Did Miss Flickus play records again in English class?
TAGGIS MOLINE
Yeah. White Rabbit. It’s about drugs.“One pill makes you taller, one pill makes you small.”
TIFFANY JENSEN
“And the one that mother gives you don’t do anything at all.”
TAGGIS MOLINE
What kind of pill doesn’t do anything?
TIFFANY JENSEN
The birth control pill.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Oh yeah.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Like with me. I take the pill, and nothing happens.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Too bad other girls haven’t figured that out.
TIFFANY JENSEN
What?
TAGGIS MOLINE
I mean, who wants to get pregnant when they’re just a kid?
TIFFANY JENSEN
Well, you don’t have to worry.
TAGGIS MOLINE
But I do.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Do what?
TAGGIS MOLINE
Worry.
TIFFANY JENSEN
I’m not going to get pregnant, Taggis.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Tiffany, I…
TIFFANY JENSEN
I’m not going to get pregnant. And even if I did, I know you’d do the right thing.
TAGGIS MOLINE
What is “the right thing”?
TIFFANY JENSEN
You know.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Marry you?
TIFFANY JENSEN
Yes. And that’s why you’ve got to be careful.
TAGGIS MOLINE
You think I’m not careful?
TIFFANY JENSEN
I mean when you go to university.
TAGGIS MOLINE
I doubt if I’ll get pregnant.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Don’t tease. There are girls there who might try to trap you.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Don’t you trust me?
TIFFANY JENSEN
Of course, while you’re here in Silver Willow with me. But you’ll be gone for a year.
TAGGIS MOLINE
I don’t want to hurt you.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Then don’t let some girl trap you into marrying her.
TAGGIS MOLINE
I couldn’t marry someone who…
TIFFANY JENSEN
Someone you don’t love?
TAGGIS MOLINE
Yeah. Something like that.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Then be careful.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Do you want to go to the swimming hole tonight?
TIFFANY JENSEN
Changing the subject?
TAGGIS MOLINE
Let’s just go have some fun with the others.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Couldn’t we just spend the evening alone?
TAGGIS MOLINE
Let’s go to the swimming hole.
TIFFANY JENSEN
They’ll be drinking like always.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Nothing else to do.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Thanks.
TAGGIS MOLINE
That’s not what I meant.
TIFFANY JENSEN
If I’m so boring, why don’t you just go to the swimming hole without me.
TAGGIS MOLINE
You’re not boring.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Then what am I?
TAGGIS MOLINE
It’s just that two people can’t be everything to each other all the time.
TIFFANY JENSEN
But you’re going away.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Not for two months.
TIFFANY JENSEN
I guess that makes me pretty stupid, thinking I was everything to you.
TAGGIS MOLINE
You’re a sweet kid, Tiffany.
TIFFANY JENSEN
How can you call me a kid after…after all we’ve been through, all I’ve given you.
TAGGIS MOLINE
We’re both just kids. That’s the point.
TIFFANY JENSEN
The point? The point of what, Taggis?
TAGGIS MOLINE
All the sex stuff. I mean, we’re kids but we do dangerous things because we don’t feel like kids when it comes to sex.
TIFFANY JENSEN
If you’ve got something you need to tell me, you better just come right out and say it.
TAGGIS MOLINE
That sounds like a threat.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Maybe it is.
TAGGIS MOLINE
I wish I was back in elementary school, when the only sort of sex was a quick kiss behind the caragana bushes in the playground.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Talking about bushes, I’m sick of you beating around the bush. If you’ve got something to say, say it, and quit being so damn indirect!
TAGGIS MOLINE
(getting up)
I’m going to the swimming hole. Coming?
TIFFANY JENSEN
You big jerk. You know I’d follow you anywhere. Why can’t you do the same for me?
(TAGGIS and TIFFANY exit. MARY enters.)
MARY
Everything in the world is made out of stardust, and stardust is made out of God.
(She exits. CONSTABLE DOBERMAN enters.)
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
The sun’s going to go down soon. I got to find my way out of here.
(CONSTABLE DOBERMAN exits.)
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 8:
SETTING: The street on which LORETTA DISNEY lives.
(SKY LANDRY enters from stage left, LORETTA DISNEY from stage right.)
SKY LANDRY
Hello, Loretta!
LORETTA DISNEY
Mrs. Landry. What brings you to my humble street this early in the evening?
SKY LANDRY
I had to shut down early tonight because the grill’s broken, so I thought I’d take a nice summer walk.
LORETTA DISNEY
It’s a fine evening, all right.
SKY LANDRY
Are you out looking for Veronica?
LORETTA DISNEY
I found her, Mrs. Landry. She’s off to spend the evening with friends.
SKY LANDRY
She’s a lovely girl, so sweet-natured.
LORETTA DISNEY
That’s both her strength and her weakness.
SKY LANDRY
How so?
LORETTA DISNEY
She trusts everyone. She’s so full of love she doesn’t see the bad side of things.
SKY LANDRY
I guess she’s got to lose some of her innocence if she wants to survive.
LORETTA DISNEY
I guess. But it’s hard to let her go out into the world on her own.
SKY LANDRY
I wish my mother would’ve let go of me when I was young enough to learn without getting hurt too bad.
LORETTA DISNEY
You’re saying I’m over-protective.
SKY LANDRY
No. I’ve no right to judge you, Loretta.
LORETTA DISNEY
If you don’t mind me saying so, Mrs. Landry, I’d like you to know that I consider you a brave woman.
SKY LANDRY
Brave?
LORETTA DISNEY
The way you stick it out in this little town, no matter what people say.
SKY LANDRY
And what do people say?
LORETTA DISNEY
That you…that you’re…
SKY LANDRY
That I serve a lot more than veal cutlets at the Blue Sky?
LORETTA DISNEY
A lot of men go there.
SKY LANDRY
I’m a widow, Loretta. I run a café on the highway and truckers like the way I cook, and maybe the way I look. It’s a living, that’s all.
LORETTA DISNEY
Danny, my husband, had enough life insurance for me to pay off the mortgage and look after Veronica. So I don’t have to work like you do.
SKY LANDRY
I married a man who lived hard and drank too much, the kind of man who could lose his head over nothing.
LORETTA DISNEY
What happened to him?
SKY LANDRY
He lost his head. He was driving a big Cat D-9 while he was drunk, bulldozing gravel. It rolled over on him. The roll cage came down on his neck and he…lost his head.
LORETTA DISNEY
My Danny died of multiple sclerosis. It took a long time. At least your man died quick.
SKY LANDRY
And poor. No insurance. No nothing. Just debts.
LORETTA DISNEY
It’s a good thing you didn’t have kids.
SKY LANDRY
I was eighteen and pregnant when he died. I gave her up for adoption right after she was born.
LORETTA DISNEY
Do you know where she is? Do you want her back?
SKY LANDRY
They don’t tell you anything. Maybe that’s best.
LORETTA DISNEY
At least you’ll never have to watch her suffer. Watching our children suffer is the most painful thing on this earth.
SKY LANDRY
I can’t watch her suffer, but that doesn’t make it any easier. Maybe it makes it worse.
LORETTA DISNEY
How’d we get talking about this?
SKY LANDRY
We were talking about your girl Veronica, about her innocence. Was she born deaf?
LORETTA DISNEY
Deaf and mute. I’d be worried about her, but those girls she’s with are good kids.
SKY LANDRY
What are they doing tonight?
LORETTA DISNEY
Going to Wendy Larsen’s to watch T.V. and talk. Except Veronica can’t talk.
SKY LANDRY
Wendy Larsen’s? But I saw them headed up the road out of town, toward the swimming hole.
LORETTA DISNEY
The swimming hole? They didn’t say anything about going to the swimming hole.
SKY LANDRY
I guess they weren’t telling you the truth.
LORETTA DISNEY
I got to go out there and bring her home. I don’t want her hanging around by the river. It’s got deep holes and she can’t swim.
SKY LANDRY
I’ll walk out there with you and keep you company.
LORETTA DISNEY
Thanks, Mrs. Landry.
SKY LANDRY
Call me Sky.
LORETTA DISNEY
That’s a pretty name.
SKY LANDRY
Is it? What makes it pretty?
LORETTA DISNEY
Why, I don’t know. I suppose because the prairie sky’s so beautiful.
SKY LANDRY
Even in winter, when the sky’s like a gray slab of slate and cold enough to make your spit freeze before it hits the ground?
LORETTA DISNEY
That’s not so pretty, I guess.
SKY LANDRY
My name’s like my life. I’m sure you appreciate the irony.
LORETTA DISNEY
(looking at SKY with growing respect)
Indeed I do.
(They exit. CONSTABLE DOBERMAN enters.)
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Maybe I should climb a tree, or start a signal fire. Good thing it’s not winter.
(CONSTABLE DOBERMAN exits. MARY enters.)
MARY
He’s having a hell of a good time. When a man gets well and truly lost, he forgets all his troubles.
(MARY exits.)
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 9:
SETTING: The Swimming Hole.
(RAUL SPONDORI, NANCY FLICKUS, and TIMOTHEA ERSKINE enter.)
RAUL SPONDORI
So this is the famous swimming hole.
NANCY FLICKUS
It looks innocent enough.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
No children around.
RAUL SPONDORI
Perhaps we should disrobe and enjoy a pleasant plunge into those brown waters.
NANCY FLICKUS
Mr. Spondori, I think you’re half-serious about that.
RAUL SPONDORI
I was young once, ladies. The girls considered me to be quite a fine specimen.
NANCY FLICKUS
Forgive me, Mr. Spondori, but I’d rather not see you in the nude.
RAUL SPONDORI
Why, Miss Flickus, you aspire to be a modern young woman, but in fact you are a bit of a prude.
NANCY FLICKUS
I’m simply responding to the context. Perhaps if we were married…
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
Mr. Spondori is old enough to be your father, young woman.
NANCY FLICKUS
Where you ever married, Mr. Spondori?
RAUL SPONDORI
For a short time to a remarkably pretty young woman who went by the name “Desdemona”.
NANCY FLICKUS
(teasing)
How Shakespearian! Did you snuff out her life with a pillow, like Othello?
RAUL SPONDORI
Nothing of the sort. She left me for a welder from Medicine Hat.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
You’re just teasing us, making it up. You ought to be more professional, Mr. Spondori.
RAUL SPONDORI
(performing a villain)
And am I “making it up”, Miss Erskine, when I say I could easily drag you into the river and hold you under until your eyes bugged out and you shuddered to an untimely end?
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
(easily meeting his challenge)
I daresay I could turn the tables and push your head into the muddy bottom, Mr. Spondori, while you kicked and thrashed in your death throes!
NANCY FLICKUS
Are you trying to make some sort of metaphysical point, Mr. Spondori?
RAUL SPONDORI
(turning to her)
Yes, Miss Flickus, I am.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
Would you care to explain the point?
RAUL SPONDORI
With pleasure. Never forget, Miss Erskine, that though I am a school principal, I am also a man. You would be well-advised to enlarge upon that fact with your withered feminine imagination.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
Be warned, Mr. Spondori: there’s nothing withered about my capacity to withstand your bullying. I shall report your threats to the school board.
RAUL SPONDORI
Do so. It will give me great pleasure to tell them all I know about you and your secret dalliance with Father James.
NANCY FLICKUS
The Catholic priest?
RAUL SPONDORI
None other.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
I seek only to debate the tenets of Catholicism with him.
RAUL SPONDORI
In his bed?
NANCY FLICKUS
(intervening in the dispute between the two jealous and unconfessed lovers)
We’re here to observe the youth of the town, are we not?
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
Quite so, Miss Flickus. What do you recommend?
NANCY FLICKUS
I suggest we hide in those trees over there.
RAUL SPONDORI
(coming to his senses)
First I must apologize for lapsing into dramatic hyperbole. I can’t think what’s come over me.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
If anyone in Silver Willow got wind of your cockamamie confabulations, Mr. Spondori, it would result in your immediate dismissal.
NANCY FLICKUS
You’ve let your imagination run away with you, Mr. Spondori. Don’t forget we’re here to engage in some simple social science, that’s all.
RAUL SPONDORI
Listen! The sound of youths approaching! Let us hide, and quickly!
(They exit.)
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 10:
SETTING: The Swimming Hole.
(BALDAUR GRIFFIN, VANCE KRUPA, RONNY DEVILIN, and SERENA REDFERN enter.)
SERENA REDFERN
The prairie’s beautiful at night. Look at that sunset!
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
We’re used to it.
SERENA REDFERN
Oh, you should never take beauty for granted, Baldaur.
VANCE KRUPA
I like to sit on the roof of my house and watch the sun go down.
SERENA REDFERN
Those asphalt shingles are so unnatural. You should sit out here on the warm earth, Vance.
RONNY DEVLIN
You say the word “should” a lot, Serena.
SERENA REDFERN
Do I? I’m sorry. It’s just that I often feel so disappointed with people…straight people…in their little plastic world.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Did you get high a lot back in San Francisco?
SERENA REDFERN
I smoked pot sometimes, and hash.
VANCE KRUPA
Did you ever do acid?
SERENA REDFERN
No. I had a friend. She called herself “Nova”. She took acid and freaked out.
RONNY DEVLIN
Did she try to fly?
SERENA REDFERN
No. She just rolled into a little ball on a Persian carpet and lay there shaking.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Bummer.
SERENA REDFERN
It really was a bummer. The worst kind of bummer. She was a lovely girl, but as fragile as that sunset.
VANCE KRUPA
What happened to her?
SERENA REDFERN
She pulled a silver locket from her neck and threw it across the room as if it was a snake. We found a phone number in it. Someone dialed the number. It was her parents in St. Paul, Minnesota. They flew out and took her away.
RONNY DEVLIN
Did she come down from her high?
SERENA REDFERN
I don’t know. I still have the other half of that hit of acid.
(pulling out a tiny piece of paper)
See?
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Is that really LSD?
SERENA REDFERN
I was supposed to take it with her, but I chickened out.
VANCE KRUPA
Why did you keep it?
SERENA REDFERN
To remember her.
RONNY DEVLIN
I wonder if those pot seeds have started to grow yet?
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
It’s only been a couple of hours, Ronny.
SERENA REDFERN
It doesn’t take long for seeds to germinate. Like the seed in a woman when it’s been fertilized.
VANCE KRUPA
I totally agree. I can almost see the dirt moving as those seeds come to life.
SERENA REDFERN
Vance, you’re a good guy, but you can stop wasting your time trying to impress me.
BALAUR GRIFFIN
Ouch! Didn’t see that coming, did you, Vancy-Pants?
SERENA REDFERN
You guys need to understand something. I know how it is for you, but I’m not going to be able to help you out with the whole sex thing.
RONNY DEVLIN
Sex?
SERENA REDFERN
Yes, sex. You know…hippie girl hangs out with three lonely guys. They get ideas about free love and all that stuff. But it’s not free. Believe me, I know.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Hey, I’d be the last one to think it’s free!
SERENA REDFERN
I lived with these freaks in a commune for a month. They were good people, but there was a lot of trouble with sex. Jealousy, misunderstandings, and disease.
RONNY DEVLIN
I don’t need a disease!
SERENA REDFERN
So if you’re looking for sex, meet some girl, see if you love her and if she loves you, and then maybe you can make it without wounding your soul.
VANCE KRUPA
I wasn’t trying to impress you, Serena.
SERENA REDFERN
Sorry, Vance, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. But the rest of it, about sex…it had to be said.
RONNY DEVLIN
You used the word “should” again.
SERENA REDFERN
I suppose I did. Perhaps it’s a subconscious incantation, summoning some sort of moral storm to wash us clean here by the soft brown river.
(The boys look at SERENA with admiring wonderment as she reaches out to the river with open hands, as if she wished to embrace it like a huge brown snake in the Garden of Eden.)
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 11:
(WENDY LARSEN, TRINITY KORSAKOFF, MARTY ROSS, COLLEEN PINHORN, and VERONICA DISNEY enter.)
WENDY LARSEN
Well, well, well, it’s the Three Stooges.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Well, well, well, it’s the Four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse.
VANCE KRUPA
And Little Lulu.
MARTY ROSS
Do you guys have any beer?
RONNY DEVLIN
We’re against alcohol.
COLLEEN PINHORN
Since when?
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Since we wised up.
WENDY LARSEN
We don’t want beer.
VANCE KRUPA
Then why did you ask us if we had any?
MARTY ROSS
Just habit, I guess.
RONNY DEVLIN
Alcohol is the Devil’s nectar.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
You sound like a baptist preacher, Ronnie Devlin.
RONNY DEVLIN
I don’t believe in god.
COLEEN PINHORN
Then what do you believe in, Playboy magazine?
SERENA REDFERN
If you don’t want beer, what do you want?
WENDY LARSEN
Pot.
SERENA REDFERN
Pot? You want pot?
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
Marijuana. Weed. Giggle smoke. Reefer.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
You sound like a thesaurus.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
Don’t call me a dinosaur, Baldaur Griffin, you little creep.
VANCE KRUPA
A thesaurus is a book, you pinhead.
SERENA REDFERN
I think I’m going to go home.
(SERENA begins to exit.)
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
But Serena…
(SERENA turns around to face the group.)
WENDY LARSEN
Did we offend you, Serena?
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
We’re sorry. Really.
MARTY ROSS
We’d like to buy some pot from you.
COLLEEN PINHORN
We have twenty dollars.
SERENA REDFERN
I don’t have any “pot”.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
Do you know where we can get some?
SERENA REDFERN
In about three months you can have all you want.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Serena, I don’t think you should…
SERENA REDFERN
Share the wealth, Baldaur.
WENDY LARSEN
What do you mean “in three months”?
SERENA REDFERN
We planted some marijuana seeds near here today. In three months, there should be enough for everyone.
(VERONICA DISNEY goes up to SERENA and offers her hands. SERENA takes her hands, then hugs her. VERONICA runs back to the others.)
SERENA REDFERN
She’s got the right idea. A simple hug solves a lot of problems.
VANCE KRUPA
Let’s have a love-in. We can all hug.
MARTY ROSS
I don’t know. It’s weird.
WENDY LARSEN
Let’s all hug! Why not?
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Count me in!
(They look at one another shyly, then all begin hugging, except SERENA, who watches patiently. While they are doing so, BILLY NOVAK, BUCK MILLIGAN, MARIE McNAIR, and FRANCINE CLOUTIER enter and watch too. They are holding beer bottles and are drunk. When the others see that they are being watched, they stop and move apart self-consciously.)
BILLY NOVAK
Well, well, well, the hippies are having a little hippie-dippy hug festival.
BUCK MILLIGAN
(to BALDAUR, VANCE, and RONNIE)
Are you three fruits having fun?
VANCE KRUPA
We were just hugging. That doesn’t make us fruits.
MARIE McNAIR
Hippie-dippies and chicky-hippies. My least-favourite kind of people.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
Yeah, the kind of people I like to kick in the ass.
WENDY LARSEN
You’re drunk, Francine Cloutier.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
Gee, are you sure? Maybe I’m just pretending. Come here and smell my breath, you little puke.
BUCK MILLIGAN
Keep talking, baby. You’re getting her all excited.
BILLY NOVAK
Which one of you wants to get your ass kicked first?
RONNY DEVLIN
Can I go last?
BILLY NOVAK
(as he and BUCK move down towards BALDAUR, VANCE, and RONNY)
Which one do you want me to coco-bonk first, Marie?
(BILLY makes butting motions with his head, which causes BALDAUR, VANCE, and RONNY to form a tight little group huddled in fear.)
MARIE McNAIR
What’s that deaf mute kid doing here?
MARTY ROSS
Leave her alone, Marie.
MARIE McNAIR
Maybe she should go for a little swim. That would clean her dirty ears out.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
She can’t swim.
(VERONICA hides behind TRINITY.)
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
Time she learned.
(FRANCINE and MARIE go down to VERONICA and start dragging her toward the water.)
WENDY LARSEN
What are you doing? Leave her alone!
MARIE McNAIR
Shut up, you cheap little tramp!
(MARIE pushes WENDY, who falls down. MARIE and FRANCINE drag VERONICA offstage. The other girls follow, shouting for them to leave VERONICA alone. SERENA remains on stage with the boys, who are held back by BUCK and BILLY.)
BUCK MILLIGAN
Hey, hippie-chick, why don’t you go watch Marie give that kid a bath?
BILLY NOVAK
You could use a bath yourself, you dirty hippie.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
What’s the deal, Billy Novak? We didn’t do anything to you.
BILLY NOVAK
“We didn’t do anything to you!” You did something to me just by getting born, you useless piece of crap.
SERENA REDFERN
Can I have a sip of your beer, Billy?
BILLY NOVAK
I don’t want your hippie lips touching my beer.
SERENA REDFERN
It’s okay. Your girlfriend can’t see.
BUCK MILLIGAN
She wants you, Billy. You’re turning her on.
BILLY NOVAK
You hippie chicks are into free love, right?
SERENA REDFERN
We like to share. Can I share your beer?
BILLY NOVAK
Here you go.
(gives her his beer)
…and remember, any girl who drinks with me has gotta do other things with me as well.
SERENA REDFERN
Thanks. Look, they’re trying to throw Veronica in the river!
(There is hollering and screaming offstage. While the others look, SERENA puts the hit of acid into the beer.)
SERENA REDFERN
Thanks, Billy, that was good.
(SERENA hands the beer back to BILLY.)
BILLY NOVAK
You owe me, hippie chick.
(BILLY guzzles at the beer, drinking down the hit of acid.)
BUCK MILLIGAN
Come on, Billy, let’s go push some of those other skrags into the river.
(BUCK and BILLY exit.)
VANCE KRUPA
You put that hit of acid into his beer, didn’t you Serena.
SERENA REDFERN
He deserves a treat.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
What if he freaks out and goes nuts on us?
RONNY DEVLIN
We should get Constable Doberman.
SERENA REDFERN
No. We should go and help those girls.
(They exit as the shouting and screaming rises up again and dies away.)
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 12:
(TAGGIS MOLINE and TIFFANY JENSEN enter. Subdued shouting still comes from offstage.)
TIFFANY JENSEN
Looks like they’re all having a big water fight.
TAGGIS MOLINE
The river’s cold this time of year.
TIFFANY JENSEN
Taggis, I don’t want to hang out with everyone. Let’s take a drive somewhere.
TAGGIS MOLINE
Isn’t that Buck Milligan and Billy Novak?
TIFFANY JENSEN
Those two give me the creeps. And their girlfriends are even worse.
TAGGIS MOLINE
What’s Billy doing?
TIFFANY JENSEN
Looks like he’s hitting himself on the head.
TAGGIS MOLINE
That’s weird.
(BILLY NOVAK runs onstage and huddles in a ball, followed by MARIE McNAIR.)
MARIE McNAIR
Billy, what are you doing?
BILLY NOVAK
(with intense fear)
Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!
(BUCK MILLIGAN and FRANCINE CLOUTIER enter.)
BUCK MILLIGAN
What the hell’s going on, Billy?
BILLY NOVAK
(leaping up and retreating from his friends)
You got two heads! You got two heads!
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
Quit clowning, Billy.
(The others, except VERONICA, run in and watch the spectacle.)
BILLY NOVAK
(swatting with his arms)
Demons! Demons!
(BILLY runs in a tight little circle, then freezes, staring bug-eyed right at the audience)
BILLY NOVAK
It’s all on fire! Everything’s burning!
MARIE McNAIR
What’s the matter with him, Buck?
BUCK MILLIGAN
I dunno.
SERENA REDFERN
He’s having a psychotic episode.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
A what?
SERENA REDFERN
A psychotic episode.
(BILLY curls up in the foetal position. MARIE backs away from him. No one wants to go near him. They all seem awestruck. At that moment, TOMMY and ROSIE GRIFFIN enter with SANDY GRIFFIN.)
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Taggis Moline!
TAGGIS MOLINE
Mr. Griffin!
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Tommy, don’t shout!
SANDY GRIFFIN
Dad, please…
TOMMY GRIFFIN
I know what you did to my baby!
SANDY GRIFFIN
I’m not a baby!
TAGGIS MOLINE
Sandy?
TOMMY GRIFFIN
What have you to to say for yourself, kid?
TAGGIS MOLINE
About what?
TIFFANY JENSEN
What’s going on, Taggis?
TOMMY GRIFFIN
My Sandy’s got a bun in the oven, and this boy is the one that put it there.
(This announcement brings the crowd into silence attentiveness, except the weak whimpering of BILL, who is still curled up on the ground.)
SANDY GRIFFIN
It’s not a bun, it’s a baby.
TIFFANY JENSEN
You put a bun in her oven?
TAGGIS MOLINE
I did?
SANDY GRIFFIN
It’s okay, Taggis, you don’t have to marry me.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Are you satisfied, Tommy? Have you got what you wanted?
(SKY LANDRY and LORETTA DISNEY enter.)
LORETTA DISNEY
Where’s Veronica? Where’s my little girl?
WENDY LARSEN
Veronica! Where is she?
MARTY ROSS
She must be down by the river.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
Oh, god, the river! What if she’s in the river?
COLLEEN PINHORN
We gotta get down there!
(VERONICA’s friends and BALDAUR and his friends run offstage with LORETTA DISNEY. The GRIFFINS, TAGGIS, and TIFFANY go too. BUCK, FRANCINE, and MARIE stay with BILLY. SERENA watches quietly.)
SKY LANDRY
What’s been going on here? Why is that boy all curled up?
SERENA REDFERN
He’s having a bad trip.
SKY LANDRY
(going up to BILLY)
Somebody should take him to the hospital in Saddle River.
(RAUL SPONDORI, NANCY FLICKUS, and TIMOTHEA ERSKINE enter.)
ROSIE GRIFFIN
Mr. Spondori! What are you doing here?
RAUL SPONDORI
I don’t quite know, Mrs. Griffin. But perhaps it’s a good thing I am.
NANCY FLICKUS
We’ll take this boy to the hospital.
MARIE McNAIR
I got to go with him.
TIMOTHEA ERSKINE
You don’t deserve to, after the way you were behaving.
BUCK MILLIGAN
You was watching us?
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
We’re his friends. We were just kidding around.
RAUL SPONDORI
Uh huh.
NANCY FLICKUS
You better hope those kids find Veronica Disney safe and well, or we’ll all be investigated by the police.
BUCK MILLIGAN
It was Francine and Marie that was hassling her.
FRANCINE CLOUTIER
You put us up to it, giving us beer and getting us all worked up.
(The others enter with VERONICA, who is alive and well, and clinging to her mother.)
WENDY LARSEN
We found her in the bushes, hiding.
MARTY ROSS
We thought she’d drowned!
RAUL SPONDORI
We’re taking this boy to the hospital in Saddle River. Whatever happens after that remains to be seen. Mrs. Landry and Mrs. Disney, will you stay here and make sure these children go home?
SKY LANDRY
Of course.
(MR. SPONDORI, MISS FLICKUS, and MRS. ERSKINE exit with BILLY, BUCK, MARIE, and FRANCINE.)
TOMMY GRIFFIN
All right, now that’s over, I want an explanation from you, Taggis Moline!
(TAGGIS approaches SANDY and the two go downstage together.)
TAGGIS MOLINE
I…I’m sorry, Sandy. I didn’t know. Well, I sort of knew. I was hoping nothing would happen. But I sort of knew.
SANDY GRIFFIN
It’s okay. It’s okay, Taggis. Sometimes things don’t work out like we want.
(SANDY goes back to her family. TIFFANY goes to TAGGIS.)
TIFFANY JENSEN
Taggis, I’m going home now. I don’t want you to follow me. I don’t want to talk to you now. I don’t know if I’ll ever talk to you again. I don’t know.
(TIFFANY exits.)
TAGGIS MOLINE
Sandy?
SANDY GRIFFIN
(stepping toward TAGGIS)
Yes, Taggis?
TAGGIS MOLINE
We’ve got to talk. Mr. Griffin, I need to talk to Sandy alone.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
Talk to her all you want, as long as it’s about marriage.
ROSIE GRIFFIN
That’s enough, Tommy. You’ve done what you wanted to do. Maybe it was the right thing, Maybe it wasn’t. But it’s up to Sandy and Taggis now.
(SANDY and TAGGIS exit.)
ROSIE GRIFFIN
(taking TOMMY’s arm)
Now let’s go home.
TOMMY GRIFFIN
I’ve done what I wanted to do? I’ve done enough? Everyone else is doing all the doing, not me.
(TOMMY and ROSIE exit.)
LORETTA DISNEY
I’m very angry with you girls. You lied to me. What if Veronica had drowned?
WENDY LARSEN
I’m sorry, Mrs. Disney. But you wouldn’t have let her come with us if we’d told the truth, and she’s fine. See, she’s smiling and happy?
SKY LANDRY
She’s safe and sound, Loretta, and maybe a little bit stronger.
LORETTA DISNEY
The next time you girls want to take her someplace, you better tell me the truth.
MARTY ROSS
We will, Mrs. Disney.
TRINITY KORSAKOFF
Let’s go to your place, Wendy, like we said we would.
COLLEEN PINHORN
Will you let Veronica go with us, Mrs. Disney?
SKY LANDRY
She’ll be fine, Loretta. You know that now, don’t you?
LORETTA DISNEY
(after a big breath)
If you bring her home by midnight.
(VERONICA has been watching them speak. She hugs her mother and SKY, and she and the four girls exit.)
SKY LANDRY
Why don’t you come back to my café for a coffee, Loretta. It’ll help keep your mind off Veronica.
LORETTA DISNEY
Thanks, Mrs. Landry.
SKY LANDRY
Call me Sky. And as for the rest of you kids, don’t get to thinking we don’t know what you’ve been up to. We weren’t born yesterday!
(SKY and LORETTA exit.)
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 13:
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
Not much point in blessing those pot seeds now.
VANCE KRUPA
Old Man Spondori will be back to dig ‘em up and throw ‘em away, just when they were starting to come to life.
RONNY DEVLIN
Like spoiling a dream.
SERENA REDFERN
No, like ending a chapter of a story at the right time.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
What’s so right about the time?
SERENA REDFERN
All the things that happened today…tonight…they’re part of our story. And the seeds, and Mr. Spondori, and Billy Novak freaking out…it’s all part of a flow, a journey. We let go of the things that have gone past so that we can touch the things that are here.
RONNY DEVLIN
You didn’t say “should”.
SERENA REDFERN
I’m letting that word go.
VANCE KRUPA
Speaking of letting go, let’s go back to town and see if Wendy and the girls will let us hang out with them.
SERENA REDFERN
Sure. You never know, Vance. Maybe you’ll find the love you’re looking for.
BALDAUR GRIFFIN
What’s going to happen to my sister, to Sandy?
SERENA REDFERN
Your sister Sandy showed us something tonight about strength…real strength, the kind that lives quietly in the heart no matter what’s happening. She’ll be fine.
(They exit.)
Swimming Hole by Richard Stuart Dixon, Good School Plays.
Scene 14:
(CONSTABLE DOBERMAN enters.)
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
I’m back at the swimming hole, but Mary’s gone. I’ll have to call in a search party. Damn, I’ve spent the whole evening running about in the bush like a crazy man.
(MARY enters.)
MARY
Hey, Constable Doberman, did you get lost?
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
What the hell? Where’d you come from?
MARY
I been following you through the bush for hours.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
You were following me?
MARY
It was kind of interesting, watching you stumbling about.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Why didn’t you show yourself?
MARY
You were having too much fun.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Fun?
MARY
You forgot all about your heart.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
I guess I did.
MARY
And it gave them kids lots of time to do what they had to do.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
I told you, Mary, there’s no kids out here, just the trees blowing in the wind.
MARY
Uh-huh.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Now do you want that donut or not?
MARY
Nope. Can’t stand donuts. But drive me home anyway, Constable, so I can see that little town one more time before them kids burn down the past.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Some of the folks in Silver Willow call you Crazy Mary, but you’re no crazier than me, are you?
MARY
I’ll tell you a secret. If you’re a human, you’re born in a crazy place, and you spend your whole lifetime trying to get to a place that’s not crazy.
CONSTABLE DOBERMAN
Does anyone ever get there?
MARY
(offering her hand)
Take my hand.
(CONSTABLE DOBERMAN gently holds her hand.)
MARY
Now you’re in the place that’s not crazy, Constable. Now you’re home.
END OF THE PLAY.