FLEISHMAN RISING
ACT ONE
The beach at a seaside
resort a few years ago. Upstage is a bench and to the right a pier.
We can see part of a tent with a sign proclaiming: MADAME PLACATA: Psychic
Extraordinaire.
At rise, FLEISHMAN
enters. HE is a relatively young, relatively attractive man. Surveying
the beach, he finds a spot center stage, slowly and carefully removes his
shoes and stockings, then his shirt, tie and trousers. Beneath he wears
a bathing suit. But instead of going toward the water, HE sits down and
proceeds to cover himself with sand: first his legs, then his torso and
finally his head. BATHERS enter: HANDSOME YOUNG COUPLE, SMALL BOY WITH
BEACHBALL, ELDERLY WOMAN---all stepping either over him or on him. Then
MARY ELLEN appears. She carries a blanket and a picnic basket, sets them
both down where Fleishman is covered and proceeds to eat her lunch ignoring
the heavy mound next to her. At last FLEISHMAN pushes the sand from his
face and sits up dejectedly.
FLEISHMAN
I could have been on all
the Six O'clock Newses throughout the world.
MARY ELLEN
Hmm?
FLEISHMAN
For an entire day---at some
place or other---it would be Six O'clock, and someone would be crying in
thirty-seven different languages, "Fleishman! Fleishman! Fleishman!"
MARY ELLEN
Why on earth would they be
saying that?
FLEISHMAN
The idea of a man drowning
himself at the beach!
MARY ELLEN
Lots of men drown themselves
at the beach.
FLEISHMAN
In the sand?
MARY ELLEN
Nya.
FLEISHMAN
Something as extraordinary
as that and you say "nya"!
MARY ELLEN
Nya.
FLEISHMAN
Why, in years to come in
different countries and thirty-seven languages, somewhere, at dinner tables
throughout the world, someone would be saying, "Do you remember Fleishman?
Oh, it was before your time, but it was one of the most baffling, arresting
cases in modern annals. Some believe it a simple suicide. But would a simple
suicide be done in the sand? No, my friends, this was no simple suicide!
This was the work of a hostile foreign power."
(a pause)
Fleishman! Fleishman!
Fleishman!
MARY ELLEN
Just about every suicide
nowadays is blamed on a hostile foreign power.
FLEISHMAN
You make me feel just great.
MARY ELLEN
I'm sorry.
FLEISHMAN
You make even the idea of
it futile and stupid. And it was the best idea I ever had.
MARY ELLEN
Have a sandwich.
FLEISHMAN
What kind?
MARY ELLEN
Crab salad.
FLEISHMAN
Crab salad causes cancer.
MARY ELLEN
Since when?
FLEISHMAN
All kinds of recent medical
studies. It's the primary factor in adrenal cancer.
MARY ELLEN
Then try this.
FLEISHMAN
What?
MARY ELLEN
Pimento cheese.
FLEISHMAN
Pimento cheese?!
MARY ELLEN
What does pimento cheese
cause?
FLEISHMAN
In Sri Lanka, the population
has the highest per capita rate of pimento cheese consumption in the world.
Our government started them on the blasted stuff to keep them on our side.
Also to get rid of a pimento surplus.
MARY ELLEN
And?
FLEISHMAN
They just happen to have
the highest rate of dropsy.
MARY ELLEN
For a man who was just about
to drown himself in the sand, what difference does it make?
FLEISHMAN
You do wonders for my self-esteem.
MARY ELLEN
I'm sorry. I really am sorry.
I can't get excited about sand suicide or what crab salad causes or Sri
Lanka's dropsy. I'm sorry, but I just can't. You see, it's because of what
I am. Or, I should say, what I was.
FLEISHMAN
Which was what?
MARY ELLEN
A fan.
FLEISHMAN
That explains everything.
MARY ELLEN
You remember the Butchers?
FLEISHMAN
The Butchers?
MARY ELLEN
They were wildly popular
for at least eight months. They had terrible scarred faces and used to
sing with buzz saws and meat cleavers in their hands.
FLEISHMAN
Oh, yes.
MARY ELLEN
Well, I was a fan. I say
"fan", and yet it was so much more. I was eleven at the time. The perfect
age. And the Butchers---they were incomparable! It wasn't just their marvelous
scarred faces and their singing as they hacked away at all the instruments
on stage in addition to the backdrop, the klieg lights and the proscenium
arch. Nor was it the fact they wore nothing but blood-stained aprons, either.
It was the danger of it all.
FLEISHMAN
The danger?
MARY ELLEN
You don't remember.
FLEISHMAN
Yes, I do. Vaguely. But I
was absorbed in other things then---the Church, philosophy, electrodynamics,
girlie magazines…
MARY ELLEN
You see, the danger was that
the Butchers carried their cleavers and saws everywhere they went---even
to bed. And one never knew---never in a million years---when one of them,
in the midst of all us shoving, idolizing, hysterical young girls, would
suddenly reach out and hack away. Sometimes they wouldn't hack away at
all. They'd just let us grab at them and strip off their bloody white aprons.
This inconsistency increased the overwhelming element of suspense and danger.
FLEISHMAN
But didn't people object?
MARY ELLEN
Only old-fashioned, fuddy-duddy
reactionary groups. But the government didn't object. It was in the days
of all the talk about overpopulation. And the Butchers did more to eliminate
the problem than any of those myriad national contraceptive plans.
FLEISHMAN
Oh.
MARY ELLEN
I almost got mine once. It
was the most exciting single moment of my life. I had run away from home
to follow them from city to city, from country to country. Thousands of
us had run away from home to follow them. Cleaver Wives, they called us.
It didn't take long for us to know that of the whole group one in particular
was more likely to be aroused and start hacking away. So us regulars would
flock to him at the end of the show. Ripper Rogers. What a man! He was
next to the oldest of the group. Fifteen. We'd gather round and cry out,
"Ripper! Ripper! Over here! Look at me! Here I am!" Each vying with the
other to be honored by his cleaver.
FLEISHMAN
And?
MARY ELLEN
In Ankara was the first time
I ever got close enough to him. Eleven years of the usual suburban hostility
suddenly welled forth within me and gave me the strength to claw my way
right up to the front. "Look at me, Ripper! Look at me!" I cried at the
top of my lungs---as close to him as I am to you right now. But no matter
how I screamed or how close I got, he didn't give me that much notice.
FLEISHMAN
So what did you do?
MARY ELLEN
Well, he was wearing this
blood-stained white apron, of course. And right where the neck of the apron
crossed his chest was this exquisite tuft of reddish hair---peeping out
like some exotic flower in a steaming hot desert. I don't know where the
courage came from, but all at once I reached up and started pulling them
out one by one saying, "He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me…" That
did it. Ripper drew back his cleaver and let it fly---right in my direction.
FLEISHMAN
What happened?
MARY ELLEN
If I'd only been thirteen!
FLEISHMAN
Why thirteen?
MARY ELLEN
Then it would have taken
off the scalp. But being only eleven it didn't even graze me. Instead it
got the girl in back of me. She was the same age, but being Scandinavian
it got her right in the neck. The media dubbed her "the Ankara Anne Boleyn."
(a moment's silence)
So now you see why nothing
after the Butchers can really excite me.
FLEISHMAN
Barbarous.
MARY ELLEN
Oh, I won't deny that. But
the difference was that us children never called it anything but love.
While the adults all stayed home and watched it televised and said how
barbarous it was and never left their sets even to go to the bathroom.
FLEISHMAN
It's still the most barbarous
thing I ever heard.
MARY ELLEN
But at least I've had that.
What have you had?
FLEISHMAN
I?
MARY ELLEN
Yes.
FLEISHMAN
It's not what I had. It's
what I expected to have.
MARY ELLEN
(fingering the sand)
This?
FLEISHMAN
(angrily)
Yes, this!
(then plaintively)
No, if this were all
I would have gone through with it.
MARY ELLEN
Then you expect…?
FLEISHMAN
All my life I've expected.
MARY ELLEN
What?
FLEISHMAN
That's just the point. I
don't know exactly. But something. Very special. It's the expecting I can't
bear anymore. And yet it's the expecting that often kept me innocent and
alive and vulnerable. But because I was innocent and alive and vulnerable,
I could never successfully grab at whatever passed by which looked like
what I had expected. And so the expectation began to strangle me.
MARY ELLEN
(pointing to the tent)
Well?
FLEISHMAN
(reading)
Madame Placata…
MARY ELLEN
That's what she's there for.
FLEISHMAN
Oh, I don't believe in that
kind of thing. What did she tell you?
MARY ELLEN
Me? I never went. I know
no matter what happens in my future nothing will ever bring back Ripper
Rogers.
FLEISHMAN
You mean from obscurity?
MARY ELLEN
From the dead. One of his
partners, Howlen Dawg. It was outside the Coliseum in Rome where they had
just given one of their most memorable concerts. Ripper was in a rare,
wild, carefree mood. He started mimicking the fans. "Looky here, Howlen
Dawg! Over here, Howlen Dawg! Here I am, Howlen Dawg!"
FLEISHMAN
But…
MARY ELLEN
Howlen was very near sighted.
FLEISHMAN
You mean…?
MARY ELLEN
Right in the larynx. I think
in the long run it was the thing that really split up the act.
FLEISHMAN
(back to the sign)
Psychic Extraordinaire.
MARY ELLEN
I'm told she is. I meet lots
of people who swear by her.
(FLEISHMAN regards the sign as he puts on his clothes.)
FLEISHMAN
How can any rational person
believe in something like that? It's all fraudulence and deception…chicanery
to foster hope…subterfuge for the soul…an opiate for the indolent… To think
people actually pay good money to con artists who'll tell them what they
want to hear…You can get as much accuracy from a fortune cookie as you
can from these so-called mystics with their turbans and their crystal balls…
(But as he speaks,
HE is moving closer to the tent and the tent is moving closer to him. Lights
rise inside the tent and darken on the beach. Tent contains a table, upon
which sits a crystal ball, two chairs and a large wheel. The wheel resembles
an astrological wheel of fortune except that in place of zodiacal signs,
it has a dollar sign, a pair of shapely legs, a ship, a townhouse, a muscular
arm, a jet plane, a burst of stars and a pot of gold. MADAME PLACATA sits
with her feet on the table, a cigar dangling from her mouth and a supermarket
tabloid clutched in her tight little fists. As soon as FLEISHMAN enters,
she slaps the tabloid into a drawer, douses the cigar and sits gazing into
the crystal ball.)
FLEISHMAN
Hello.
(MADAME PLACATA does not look up, but continues to stare into the ball.)
MADAME PLACATA
Name.
FLEISHMAN
You're the psychic. You tell
me.
MADAME PLACATA
Name!
FLEISHMAN
Fleishman.
MADAME PLACATA
Date of birth?
FLEISHMAN
Thirty days come September.
April, June and November.
MADAME PLACATA
(unamused)
Place of birth?
FLEISHMAN
I don't believe in this kind
of thing, you know.
MADAME PLACATA
Place of birth!
FLEISHMAN
Longitude 60 1/2, latitude
42 point 7, 3:45 am Greenwich mean time.
MADAME PLACATA
Background?
FLEISHMAN
Background?
MADAME PLACATA
Come, come. Your passport,
resume.
FLEISHMAN
(fumbling in his pockets)
Yes…passport…
(handing it to her)
Resume…
(SHE glances perfunctorily at the passport, then the resume.)
FLEISHMAN
It's all there---parochial
school, Yeshiva normal, the Sorbonne---employment: counterman, salesman,
engineer, salesman, counterman. Married: yes. Divorced: who isn't? Lover:
no---sometimes---always. Organizations: AWFS---Allied Water-Flipper Sportsmen…
MADAME PLACATA
Enough!
(rising and spinning the wheel)
Just as I thought!
September---Yeshiva---counterman---salesman---counterman---married---
divorced---oversexed---water-flipper---longitude
60 1/2, latitude 42 point 7---Fleishman rising. Ten dollars.
FLEISHMAN
But…
MADAME PLACATA
Well?
FLEISHMAN
I was just…
MADAME PLACATA
You're not satisfied?
FLEISHMAN
Well, yes…yes, I am. I mean,
Fleishman rising…that's very good…that's wonderful. Isn't it?
MADAME PLACATA
Twenty bucks.
(HE hands
her a bill.)
FLEISHMAN
Yes. Thank you.. Thank you.
(HE pauses at the entranceway.)
MADAME PLACATA
Well?
FLEISHMAN
Isn't…isn't there anything
else?
MADAME PLACATA
Isn't Fleishman rising enough?
FLEISHMAN
Yes, I mean, well…others
have Fleishman rising…or do they?
MADAME PLACATA
You are all the same. Twenty
bucks.
(HE hands her another bill. SHE seats herself in front of the crystal ball.)
I see…
FLEISHMAN
Yes?
MADAME PLACATA
In the past…
FLEISHMAN
No! In the future!
MADAME PLACATA
They are the same.
FLEISHMAN
No!
MADAME PLACATA
Something so special…
FLEISHMAN
Yes?
MADAME PLACATA
One of six…
FLEISHMAN
One of six?
MADAME PLACATA
Separated at birth from your
sibling…
FLEISHMAN
Oh, no. Only two. A brother
in Poughkeepsie and a sister in East DePeer.
MADAME PLACATA
The real family.
FLEISHMAN
But that is.
MADAME PLACATA
But that isn't.
FLEISHMAN
What?
MADAME PLACATA
(back to her crystal ball)
Stolen from them at birth
by a hostile foreign power…
FLEISHMAN
Yes? Yes?
MADAME PLACATA
How extra…!
(SHE clutches her throat.)
FLEISHMAN
What is it?
MADAME PLACATA
(barely audible)
Laryngitis…
FLEISHMAN
Oh, no! You must go on! I
always thought I was adopted!
MADAME PLACATA
(under her breath)
Don't we all?
FLEISHMAN
Please!
(In desperation, HE pulls out his wallet and hands her more bills.
SHE recovers
her voice instantly.)
MADAME PLACATA
Unbelievable!
FLEISHMAN
What? Tell me!
MADAME PLACATA
You…with your Poughkeepsie
brother and your East DePeer sister…you are in reality…
FLEISHMAN
Yes?
MADAME PLACATA
One of sextuplets.
FLEISHMAN
WHAT?!
MADAME PLACATA
(throwing a cloth over the glass)
Enough! I must rest now.
FLEISHMAN
One of sextuplets?!
MADAME PLACATA
Out!
FLEISHMAN
But there's never been any
sextuplets! I mean, before fertility drugs.
MADAME PLACATA
If you were stolen at birth,
how would they know? They would say "quints" and call it a day.
FLEISHMAN
But…
MADAME PLACATA
Fatigue overcomes me. Out!
(SHE shoves him out
the entranceway. Lights come up on the beach where MARY ELLEN still sits,
munching dreamily on a pear. Tent slides out of view.)
FLEISHMAN
I always thought there was
something…
MARY ELLEN
What?
FLEISHMAN
It's too uncanny!
MARY ELLEN
What's too uncanny?
FLEISHMAN
She…she…I was stolen at birth
by a hostile foreign power…
MARY ELLEN
What's so uncanny about that?
FLEISHMAN
It's what I was stolen from.
It's…no, it isn't. It's too…
MARY ELLEN
You're talking in circles.
FLEISHMAN
And yet…ever since I can
remember…especially when I was little… I can't explain the feeling…of…how
can I say it?
MARY ELLEN
Please don't. I hate feelings
described. They either are or they aren't. But when you start describing
them, they never turn out to be the feeling, but always some other feeling,
some lesser feeling.
FLEISHMAN
She said one of six. I was
stolen from six.
MARY ELLEN
Families of six are not uncommon.
FLEISHMAN
But sextuplets!?
(MARY ELLEN slowly stops munching.)
MARY ELLEN
Sextuplets?
FLEISHMAN
It's too absurd. Isn't it?
MARY ELLEN
Well…
FLEISHMAN
She is wrong---from time
to time?
MARY ELLEN
I don't know.
FLEISHMAN
But you said you had friends
who...
MARY ELLEN
Not friends. People. Just
people along the pier.
FLEISHMAN
And?
MARY ELLEN
Well, I've no way of telling.
FLEISHMAN
Why?
MARY ELLEN
We'd never see each other
again. Or if we did see each other again we would avert our eyes and pass
in silence. Maybe it's because we would try to confide in each other. It's
such a lovely satisfying thing…to confide in someone. It's such a lovely
satisfying thing that you never want to see them again, you feel so embarrassed.
Sometimes…if their nose turns up naturally---or their eyes are really scared---so
scared they seem cold and distant---then you actually get to avoid them
when they pass by.
FLEISHMAN
But she never told them…
MARY ELLEN
Sextuplets? No. Not that
I know of.
FLEISHMAN
Then why me?
(MARY ELLEN shrugs.)
It's a terrible shock,
you know.
MARY ELLEN
I can imagine.
FLEISHMAN
And yet, at the same time,
it's positively cathartic!
MARY ELLEN
I can imagine.
FLEISHMAN
If it's true.
MARY ELLEN
Yes.
FLEISHMAN
But why shouldn't it be true?
Why would she tell me such a thing?
MARY ELLEN
Yes, why?
FLEISHMAN
And you did say people swear
by her.
MARY ELLEN
Absolutely.
FLEISHMAN
Then it must be true.
MARY ELLEN
There's only one thing.
FLEISHMAN
What?
MARY ELLEN
There were no sextuplets
in the days when you were born.
FLEISHMAN
But if I were stolen at birth,
how would they know? They would say "quints" and call it a day.
MARY ELLEN
But quints were almost as
much as a phenomenon then. And why would they steal you?
FLEISHMAN
They didn't single me out
because I was I. They just grabbed at random.
MARY ELLEN
I didn't mean that. I meant
why?
FLEISHMAN
It's perfectly logical. Any
country which produced sextuplets in that era before fertility drugs would
be on all the Six O'clock Newses for days and days---even months and years.
It's one of the few really good things that were still good and at the
same time of interest to the public. Even if the government had nothing
to do with it, it still reflected upon them. Like the Dionnes did wonders
for Canada. You see?
MARY ELLEN
Yes. That makes sense. Although
I daresay…
FLEISHMAN
What?
MARY ELLEN
You wouldn't very well know
which country you were stolen from.
FLEISHMAN
What do you mean?
MARY ELLEN
I mean this could be the
hostile foreign power.
FLEISHMAN
It would be easy enough to
check. How many quints were there? I'm not a Dionne. I know that.
MARY ELLEN
No. You're not a Dionne.
FLEISHMAN
There were others. Not many.
But there were.
MARY ELLEN
As I said, quints were still
exceptional. And they would have still been on all the Six O'clock Newses.
Now if they were quads…
FLEISHMAN
You mean…?
MARY ELLEN
Exactly.
FLEISHMAN
Two of us were stolen---leaving
only four!
MARY ELLEN
Or maybe three---leaving
three.
FLEISHMAN
Oh, but it becomes intricate.
What if four---leaving two. Or five---leaving one.
MARY ELLEN
Surely there must be books.
FLEISHMAN
On just quads?
MARY ELLEN
Yes, on just quads, on just
trips, on just twins. There are books on everything these days. Why there
was once a whole book written just about Ripper Rogers' pelvis. Not his
abdominals or his gluteus. Those were two other books.
FLEISHMAN
I wonder if I could look
up my birthday first in the one on quads…
MARY ELLEN
Oh, I'm sure they're cross-indexed.
The one on Ripper was.
FLEISHMAN
I must find the others!
MARY ELLEN
Oh, I should think so.
(clutching her throat)
My heavens---the pulse.
I haven't felt it there since---you know when.
FLEISHMAN
How thrilling to find them
all---to be together again---all six of us! You know, of course, what this
could lead to.
MARY ELLEN
Oh, yes!
FLEISHMAN
A revelation of international
proportions!
MARY ELLEN
(downcast)
Oh.
FLEISHMAN
What?
MARY ELLEN
I was thinking of a sextet.
FLEISHMAN
A sextet?
MARY ELLEN
Maybe rock, maybe punk, maybe
classical. You could make a fortune.
FLEISHMAN
A sextet?
MARY ELLEN
You don't know the satisfaction
there'd be. For you, for them, for everyone.
FLEISHMAN
But what if some of us---I
don't mean me---but some of the others---were tone-deaf?
MARY ELLEN
Not a soul would care.
FLEISHMAN
But---don't you think that
it's---well, commercializing a gift of nature?
MARY ELLEN
Oh, dear, you are old-fashioned.
FLEISHMAN
Won't others think it so?
MARY ELLEN
Those who would think it
so are not the kind of people who attend concerts. And just think of the
inherent potential! Why, you don't even need cleavers and buzz-saws!
FLEISHMAN
I should hope not!
MARY ELLEN
Although a change of costume
might help. I mean, after the public gets over the novelty.
FLEISHMAN
I never expected we'd wear
the same clothes all the time. That is, we'd all be dressed alike, but
we'd change off…
MARY ELLEN
In the uniforms of Cossacks…of
vaqueros, of monks…
FLEISHMAN
But it should come after.
After the international scandal.
MARY ELLEN
I don't see why they can't
come at the same time.
FLEISHMAN
It would be a little nerve-wracking,
wouldn't it?
MARY ELLEN
But that's what fame should
be. Nerve-wracking, overwhelming, pulsating. Every moment crowded to the
hilt. So that you long to rest, but no one will let you. Even without the
sextet---with just the finding of them and the international scandal---you'll
be so keyed you wouldn't want to rest anyway. So you might just as well
stay up and sing. And make money.
FLEISHMAN
But after finding them, there'd
be so much we'd want to talk about---how we were separated, where we grew
up, what has happened in our lives---
MARY ELLEN
You wouldn't want to tell
all the first few nights. You'd grow to bore each other to tears. And you
don't want that.
FLEISHMAN
Oh, no. I couldn't bear that.
MARY ELLEN
Besides, after you discover
how you were separated and where you were taken and how you were foisted
onto alien families, what else is there to tell? How many things in a person's
life are really worth talking about? You don't want to get that awful weary,
abrasive feeling scraping the bottoms of your minds searching for incidents
to tell each other.
FLEISHMAN
No.
MARY ELLEN
So better you should sing.
FLEISHMAN
You are very wise.
MARY ELLEN
The costumes are terribly
important.
FLEISHMAN
Well, I thought for the international
scandal we'd wear simple business suits.
MARY ELLEN
That's all right for an international
scandal, but not for a nationwide singing debut.
FLEISHMAN
I'm not very good at this
kind of thing. I'm a little conventional.
MARY ELLEN
Well, it's very complex.
Not only the conception, but the fabric. It should be very sensual. The
trouble is we're running out of sensual fabric. Gold lamé, black
satin, leather, suede---they've all been used to death.
FLEISHMAN
But you say the Butchers
wore just white aprons…
MARY ELLEN
Ah, but they depended on
the two most saleable commodities in the world today: sex and violence.
All you've got is the fact that you're sextuplets.
FLEISHMAN
All?!
MARY ELLEN
I don't mean to put it down.
I think it's frightfully exciting. But I'm talking in terms of a long-range
career---not just a flash in the pan.
FLEISHMAN
I see.
MARY ELLEN
Whatever you wear should
be part of the overall conception---yet not obvious. Still not too subtle.
For instance, Let's say you were billed as The Sextup Sextet. I don't say
that's the right name. It may be a bit too intellectual. But let us, just
for the sake of argument, say that's what you are: The Sextup Sextet. Your
first costumes should carry out that theme.
FLEISHMAN
Not baby dresses and pacifiers!
MARY ELLEN
Don't be facetious.
FLEISHMAN
I wasn't really. I don't
know what will sell.
MARY ELLEN
This is quite serious, because
after you find out who they are and you contact them, you must make it
all tempting enough for them to want to join you.
FLEISHMAN
Tempting enough? Why, I thought…
MARY ELLEN
You must cover every eventuality.
I mean, if you're to do this properly. Let us say again for the sake of
argument that you discover one of them is in a hostile foreign power.
FLEISHMAN
Yes?
MARY ELLEN
It's not easy to get out
of a hostile foreign power as you know. Especially if we discover that
this particular sibling was stolen from here and taken there. And if you
discover it was the other way round…
FLEISHMAN
You mean I was stolen from
there and taken here?
MARY ELLEN
Do you think our government
would let you leave to go to their government?
FLEISHMAN
We could always meet in a
neutral country.
MARY ELLEN
How many neutral countries
are there? You decide to play just the neutral countries and your career'll
be over in two months.
FLEISHMAN
I never thought of that.
MARY ELLEN
You see how each detail must
be thoroughly worked out in advance. What's the matter?
FLEISHMAN
I don't know if---if I have
it in me…
MARY ELLEN
You have no choice. It's
your life!
FLEISHMAN
But up until a little while
ago…
MARY ELLEN
That's the way things happen.
FLEISHMAN
The problems appear insurmountable.
MARY ELLEN
You can always go back to
this…
(SHE fingers the sand.)
FLEISHMAN
No! And yet---isn't there
an in-between?
MARY ELLEN
For others perhaps. But not
for a sextup!
FLEISHMAN
But the others---the other
sextups---they don't know!
MARY ELLEN
Ah, but you do. And that's
where the difference lies.
FLEISHMAN
Still and all…
MARY ELLEN
(rising and beginning to place things back in her wicker basket)
All right. If you don't
feel you have it in you, then it's silly to even talk about it. The worst
thing in this world is to force an emotion. No one knows that better than
I. After Ripper got it in the throat, I didn't simply retire from the scene.
I found another idol, then another, then another. And each time I tried
to convince myself it was just as overwhelming. But finally I had to face
the truth. You cannot go back to the kind of thing which once excited you
but no longer exists. And it's useless to go out and look for something
else. That something else either comes to you or it doesn't. For a few
moments this afternoon, I thought… No matter. Clearly I was wrong.
(SHE begins to walk off.)
FLEISHMAN
No, don't go!
MARY ELLEN
But what's the use?
FLEISHMAN
Listen! Flags!
MARY ELLEN
Flags?
FLEISHMAN
Whatever country we were
stolen from---six superbly designed…
MARY ELLEN
Tight-fitting…
FLEISHMAN
Flags!
MARY ELLEN
(moving back to him)
It does in a way carry
out the theme.
FLEISHMAN
I do hope it isn't England.
Plaids were never flattering.
MARY ELLEN
We really don't have much
choice.
FLEISHMAN
But we can hope. Oddly enough,
bottle green has always been an especially good color. I don't have the
courage to wear it though.
MARY ELLEN
Why?
FLEISHMAN
It's out of fashion, and
I hate to call attention to myself.
(Enter HANDSOME YOUNG
COUPLE we saw at the beginning. GIRL is furious. SHE rushes on pursued
by BOY.)
BOY
Get your fuckin' ass back
here!
GIRL
Up yours, mother-fucker!
FLEISHMAN
But if I look good in bottle
green, chances are the others would also look good in bottle green.
GIRL
The first pair o' knockers
you get your fuckin' little beady eyes on! I saw you slip your fuckin'
address into her fuckin' bikini. Well, I've had it, asshole, up to here!
FLEISHMAN
(attempting to ignore them)
Yes, bottle green. Oh,
I do hope it was Brazil!
BOY
(doubling his fist)
One more fuckin' word
out o' that muthuh-fuckin' red-smeared cesspool…
(GIRL hauls off and
slugs him, then whirls around, passes Fleishman.)
FLEISHMAN
Of course I was wondering
if maybe it wouldn't help---to promote international peace, that is---if
we were all dressed in different flags…
(GIRL stops in front of Fleishman.)
MARY ELLEN
I think that would defeat
the sextup theme.
FLEISHMAN
Well, the idea was…
GIRL
Two can play at that game,
asshole!
(SHE plops herself down on Fleishman's lap.)
FLEISHMAN
Hey!
BOY
Get the fuck back here!
FLEISHMAN
Please! I'm in the midst
of something important!
(GIRL tosses his head back and kisses him wildly.)
BOY
Get offa her!
FLEISHMAN
Off of her?!
BOY
I'll kill the both o' ya
mother-fuckers!
(HE kicks Fleishman
in the chest, pries Girl off of him and smacks her across the face. Through
all this, MARY ELLEN shows little more than a perfunctory interest.)
BOY
Cunt!
GIRL
(slapping him back)
Prick!
(BOY wrestles her
to the sand, slugging her a couple of times. GIRL slugs him back, grabs
his hair, bites him.)
FLEISHMAN
Oh, this is terrible! They'll
kill each other! Police! Someone! Help!
(The fighting has
suddenly turned into passion, and now the TWO are kissing wildly and rotating
sensually on the sand.)
GIRL
Oh, shit, Cameron!
BOY
Christ, Amber! If we don't
get back to the fuckin' motel, I'm gonna shoot my load right here.
(HE pulls her to
her feet and together THEY rush off. Fleishman's eyes follow them, stunned.)
MARY ELLEN
Now where were we? Oh, yes,
the flags.
FLEISHMAN
I'm all shaken up.
MARY ELLEN
You can't let a silly thing
like that detract you!
FLEISHMAN
Well, it's so---extraordinary---
MARY ELLEN
There's nothing extraordinary
about it at all. And if you're that easily distracted from something as
important as what we were talking about…
(Lights have begun
to change to represent sunset. SHE rises and again takes the wicker basket.)
FLEISHMAN
No, wait!
MARY ELLEN
It's getting late. The tide
is coming in, and I should be home by seven.
FLEISHMAN
Just a little longer. I need
you.
MARY ELLEN
Well…
FLEISHMAN
I was thinking about the
flags. And it's a wonderful idea provided…
MARY ELLEN
Provided what?
FLEISHMAN
Well, it might sound silly
to you, and Lord knows I've never been patriotic in that sense, but if
this were the hostile foreign power…
MARY ELLEN
Every foreign power is a
hostile foreign power to some other foreign power. It just means adjusting
one's hostility.
FLEISHMAN
I think wearing our own hostile
foreign power's flag would be more suitable than wearing some other hostile
foreign power's flag.
MARY ELLEN
I don't see why. The important
thing is to get all six together wherever you really belong. It doesn't
matter where. You can always create your scandal and your sextet. It's
amazing how loyal we can be to any country which decides to love us.
FLEISHMAN
You're wonderfully non-partisan.
It's quite admirable.
MARY ELLEN
(with a shrug)
Years of detachment.
FLEISHMAN
But you're not detached now---about
this?
MARY ELLEN
Well, no---I guess not---not
if I feel the pulse in my throat. I mean, it's not the Butchers. It never
could be. And yet it does give me a certain thrill---like being the first
to know about some national disaster long before it happens.
FLEISHMAN
What a curious analogy.
MARY ELLEN
You know, like an earthquake
or something.
FLEISHMAN
But if you knew about the
earthquake before it happened, you'd make sure you wouldn't be in whatever
place when it did happen.
MARY ELLEN
Not me! I'd make sure I was
there.
FLEISHMAN
And you feel the same way
about this?
MARY ELLEN
Certainly. I want to watch
it step by step.
FLEISHMAN
Then it won't be like the
others.
MARY ELLEN
The others?
FLEISHMAN
Those you confide in and
then avoid.
MARY ELLEN
I hope not! Of course, it
depends.
FLEISHMAN
On what?
MARY ELLEN
On your persevering.
FLEISHMAN
I'll persevere. You needn't
worry. As long as you promise to help.
MARY ELLEN
And I'll help as long as
you persevere. So, it's like that old riddle about which came first.
FLEISHMAN
To make sure you keep your
word I'm going to the library now. I'll start by looking up all the books
on quads.
MARY ELLEN
You mustn't enter into it
like that. You must think of your own desire first.
FLEISHMAN
You're right. And I do want
it. More than want it. You see, it's my destiny.
MARY ELLEN
Exactly. Now I must be going.
FLEISHMAN
I'll see you here tomorrow?
MARY ELLEN
(after a moment's hesitation, then nodding her head)
Tomorrow.
FLEISHMAN
Wait!
MARY ELLEN
What is it?
FLEISHMAN
I don't even know your name.
MARY ELLEN
Mary Ellen.
FLEISHMAN
I'm Fleishman.
MARY ELLEN
Yes, I remember. When you
were trying to drown in the sand.
FLEISHMAN
Good evening, Mary Ellen.
MARY ELLEN
Good evening, Fleishman.
(MARY ELLEN walks
off with her wicker basket. FLEISHMAN stares after her for a moment. Then,
in the orange twilight, HE begins to hum. HE takes an imaginary Mary Ellen
in his arms and waltzes over the sand.. He has never been so happy in his
life.)
CURTAIN
