BARBARA: (She looks at him) I�ve forgotten what we were talking about dear.
SR.: Who did you marry many years ago?
BARBARA: Why you of course, what a weird question.
SR.: And who was your son?
BARBARA: Why George W. of course.
SR.: Now tell me, (deep breath) whose head do you have on your stick?
BARBARA: A terrorist�s.
SR.: Look carefully and truly this time, you will see all too soon.
BARBARA: Oh! Oh no! What am I carrying?
SR.: Look carefully, you�ll see.
BARBARA: (she looks completely shocked, unable to do anything else.) I see so much pain here.
SR.: Does it still look like a terrorist?
BARBARA: No, it�s my boy W. I have his head. How, how did this happen, why am I holding his bloody head?
SR.: Oh, the truth is so hard. (Pauses, stares at Barbara who stares intently back.) You killed him, you and the other feminists. (Barbara looks expectantly for more information) Up there on the mountainside.
BARBARA: Why? Why? Why would he venture up into those hills when we were not ourselves? Did someone force him into an ambush?
SR.: He challenged big business and tobacco, he challenged the ideals of free women, this set him up as a target for many people, but mostly for Virginia. Virginia caught him in her snares and brought him to you girls.
BARBARA: We must�ve been mad. We were taken over by the drugs in our cigarettes; I didn�t think they could be that bad. (Both stand silently for a minute.) Virginia brought us down. Did she bring him down too? Was he mindless?
SR.: In the end, yes she also had George W. under her influence. Now my household is ruined, and I have no other son to put in the presidency. I might have to settle for my nephew.
(To the corpse) You were a good man; you held our family together by amusing us. Now that you�re dead, I�ll have no more political power or leverage. Now you won�t be there, I won�t hear your voice calling me. I won�t have anyone to watch after me or my poor wife. I might even have to do more commercials. Anyone can look at my son�s death and learn that you should just give in to big business, don�t try to fight the system, even when you�re at the very top.
CHORUS: I feel for you Mr. Bush, but your son deserved his punishment, painful as it is for those who he left behind. But do not fear because things will change, and they could be for the better.
VIRGINIA: (powerful voice over from offstage) George Sr. I will cut off the money that sustains your lifestyle. You will have to leave this area, and you will be left destitute.
SR.: I know we�ve done wrong, but we�re sorry, we repent. You are too severe in prosecuting us.
VIRGINIA: I am part of a major corporation and you insulted me and the other companies within it.
SR.: Anger does not become a lady. Revenge does not suit corporations either.
VIRGINIA: The courts have no problem with your banishment.
BARBARA: (despairing cry) That�s it then? We�re banished?!
SR.: I�m afraid so. (painfully) Oh, we�re too old to start over in a new land.
BARBARA: Where will we go that they won�t cast us out again?
SR.: I don�t know yet, I couldn�t say.
BARBARA: Oh, what a terrible disaster, if only I�d known. It�s certainly too late now, though.
SR.: My wife, come along, come with me away from our home.
BARBARA: (crying) Farewell good citizens, you have witnessed our downfall. Ah, it is too late for us, but I hope you all fare well.
CHORUS: Many are the shapes that business will take, many the surprises that it can pull. What was thought likely did not transpire, and what was unlikely--manipulation made manifest. This is how the matter ended.
End.
