1.
(Three Birds: Sage, Pooper and Sid Vicious. Their wings move, their dialogue overlaps.)
SAGE
There’s a town in Central Texas, just off the Llano, named Babyhead
POOPER
It’s near the mountain, it’s named after the mountain really
SID VICIOUS
It’s named after the cemetery
SAGE
The story goes
SID VICIOUS
It’s probably not true. It’s “oral” history.
SAGE
The story goes that during the time of the settlement of Texas, when everyone was traveling in covered wagons
SID VICIOUS
hiding from us – the pussies
POOPER
I’da pooped ‘em good.
(Pooper and Sid Vicious hi-five)
SAGE
Texas- and most of the country really – was still pretty wild, and still in the process of being taken from the Indians. One of the main military forces was the settlements, because they could fill up the territory of many of the mostly nomadic tribes. Also, once there’s a settlement, the settlement demands to be protected, so killing is justified.
POOPER
I know who I’da killed.
SID VICIOUS
Are you fucking kidding me? I’da smoked you in a second, you twat.
POOPER
You wish.
SAGE
The story goes that the Comanche, in order to send a clear message to the settlers, a clear message that they were not welcome in Indian country, stole a baby girl from one of the settlement camps before they had settled
POOPER
Savages.
SID VICIOUS
That’s war.
SAGE
They chopped off the baby’s head and put it on a spike on top of a mountain. As a symbol.
SID VICIOUS
GET THE FUCK OUT! Right?
POOPER
Right
SAGE
Right. And that mountain became known as Babyhead Mountain.
POOPER
This is what I’m saying… They named the mountain after that? I would have named it Sunshine Hill or something like that. Happiness Grove, not Babyhead.
SAGE
The land was fertile there, so many ranches started to sprout up. Eventually, it became a
town of sorts. They didn’t have a post office or anything, but, they found that
they did need one civic institution – a cemetery
SID VICIOUS
BABYHEAD CEMETERY!
SAGE
Right. And that’s how the town got it’s name
POOPER
From a baby’s head on a spike.
SID VICIOUS
fuck me
SAGE
This is the stuff that floats in the air in Texas.
POOPER
I would have named it Happy Sunshine Cemetery. Don’t take their name. Why,
why let them win? They’re baby-killers.
(The birds fly away and reveal scene 2.)
2.
(Deborah in the hospital bed, flanked by Friends One and Two. She is in full make up and holding the carcass of her stillborn child. She holds it to her breast, her arms around it as though it were alive. It is black and blue all over and looks like an enormous bruise.)
DEBORAH
Get a picture.
(Friend One and Friend Two look at each other. Friend Two goes to take a picture.)
FRIEND TWO
(beat.) Ready?
DEBORAH
Yes.
(Friend Two takes the picture.)
DEBORAH
I want you to get one up close too.
(Friend Two and Friend One look at each other. Friend Two goes in for a close up.)
FRIEND TWO
Can you still feel the drugs?
FRIEND ONE
She didn’t have any drugs.
TWO
I thought they were going to drug you.
ONE
She said she didn’t want it.
DEBORAH
Take some more pictures. It’s digital, so you don’t have to worry about wasting any film.
ONE
Deborah.
DEBORAH
Yes?
ONE
Can we let the doctor back in the room?
DEBORAH
Not yet.
ONE
Deborah – I think they should take him now.
DEBORAH
Say his name first.
TWO
I’ll go get the doctor.
(Two exits.)
DEBORAH
The doctor’s an idiot. Say his name.
ONE
The baby?
DEBORAH
Yes.
ONE
Why?
DEBORAH
Just do it.
ONE
Fernandinho.
DEBORAH
‘Dino. He exists.
ONE
Existed.
DEBORAH
He exists.
ONE
Maybe somewhere. Somewhere else.
DEBORAH
Did Fernando come?
ONE
He’s in Africa, sweetheart.
DEBORAH
I thought he’d come.
ONE
He couldn’t have.
DEBORAH
What’s next?
ONE
You throw this damn thing behind you and move on. We’ll help you.
DEBORAH
You couldn’t possibly understand.
ONE
It doesn’t matter whether I do or not.
DEBORAH
It does.
(Two returns with the Doctor, who is comically drunk.)
DOCTOR
Hi. (He pulls out a bottle of booze and offers them a taste. They all just look.)
Babies are always a disappointment. Whether they’re born dead or alive. There’s no way your child can live up to your expectations. Especially if you’re someone who has wanted one, someone who has thought your whole life about the child you’d someday have. The child is a fantasy. A kid that will have and be everything that you were not,
who will do everything you couldn’t do. You’ve disappointed your mother. Think about it. She wanted you to be a great dancer. She wanted you to be Nureyev. Instead, you’re just who you are. And your mother has had to change her expectations of you as you’ve grown up. She’s had to change what it is that makes her proud – what she wants for you
DOCTOR (cont’d)
– all to be a supportive, good mother. But you haven’t given her what she really wanted and that’s why she wants grandkids so badly. She’s given up on you. You’re hopeless.
(He drinks.)
When children die young, we always talk about the potential that was lost. What could have been. It’s better to lose them this way. They remain a fantasy. They are great dancers, great poets all.
DEBORAH
No one who has a baby talks that way.
DOCTOR
They’re cowards! They get overwhelmed by the baby googilee eyes! That doesn’t make it the truth.
DEBORAH
Doctors are always a disappointment. Before you go to one, it always seems like they will know something about the human condition. It always seems like they will be able
to heal you in someway. But, the best they’ve ever done for me is give me a prescription and allow my health to get worse and worse.
DOCTOR
(Scribbles a prescription and tosses it to Deborah.)
Here – take these when you feel like it. It will help with the swelling and to kill the milk production. Anyone else need some drugs?
(Friend One and Two shake their heads no.)
DEBORAH
Hey doc.
DOCTOR
Yeah?
DEBORAH
Do you still have to pay if you’re baby dies?
DOCTOR
Gotta pay. Everybody’s gotta pay.
DEBORAH
You’re all sons of bitches.
DOCTOR
It’s time for me to take the baby to the morgue, ma’am.
DEBORAH
Say his name.
DOCTOR
I don’t do that kind of thing.
DEBORAH
You just kill them. You don’t say their names?
DOCTOR
Give me the baby, please.
DEBORAH
You’re a drunkard.
DOCTOR
I’m conducting an experiment. To study the effects. Give me the baby.
DEBORAH
No.
DOCTOR
Give me the baby.
DEBORAH
No.
ONE
Deborah
DEBORAH
You fuck off.
DOCTOR
Give me the baby or I’ll get a nurse in here to restrain you.
DEBORAH
I’d like to see the nurse who’s gonna rip this child from my arms, you mother fucker. You’re welcome to give it the best goddamn shot you have.
(pause)
TWO
The body doesn’t matter, Deborah.
It’s just a dead body. Fernandinho exists. He just doesn’t exist in that body. It’s a nutshell.
(Two moves towards Deborah.)
TWO
This, in your arms, is not your baby boy. This is the package he didn’t come in. Loosen your grip. Loosen your grip, Deborah. Give him a chance to breath.
(Two takes the baby and hands it to the doctor, who exits with it.)
Let’s go home.
(The birds change the scene.)
3.
(Fernando walks onstage with a phone. He’s calling from Africa. We hear the long beep of an answering machine and then-)
FERNANDO
(sings) Congratulations Mama! I hope it went well. I’m sorry that I missed it, baby.
Meu Bem. Things are going well here, but I won’t bore you with all the details. Minha Querida. I know that us being apart is hard on you. I’m sorry that I can’t promise you more of myself, but I’m a young man, Deborah, I’m just not interested in all this at the moment. I hope it’s not rude to say. But, now you have what you always wanted, yes? Life is incredible – the way it provides us with these opportunities. There’s a woman here, a woman that I met, who has been a refugee in eight different countries in her life. Isn’t that amazing? In Europe and in Africa. I have met people here that have been through such terrible things in their lives. It’s like the favelas in Brazil, except it’s totally different because it’s Africa and not Brazil. Oh. And the coffee. The coffee here is amazing – it’s so much richer than what you can get in Texas. Maybe this is foolish to talk about. I don’t know what to say at a time like this. I wish you a congratulations from the bottom of my heart. I hope that it is everything you’ve ever wanted it to be. You call me back okay? So we can have a two-sided conversation. Not just me talking too much on your machine. Meu Bem. Congratulations! Maybe we’ll talk on Monday? Is that a better time for you? I’ll try you then. Goodnight dear. Get some sleep.
4.
(Deborah switches on the lights in her apartment. It’s empty. On an end table is the breast pump that Deborah would have used to pump milk for her son. She sits on the couch and looks at it. After a moment, she turns it on, and we hear its sucking/breathing noise. After a moment, she opens her shirt and begins pumping.)
DEBORAH
(slowly) Mm.. Mom…. Mamma….. Mammmma…. Mama.
(The 3 birds appear.)
SID VICIOUS
Mommy? (pause) Mommy?
DEBORAH
Birds.
SID VICIOUS
Mommy, what made you want to be a mommy, Mommy?
DEBORAH
What?
SID VICIOUS
What made you want to be a mommy, Mommy?
DEBORAH
What are you doing?
SAGE
Children are beautiful and I wanted to have one.
DEBORAH
What’s happening?
SID VICIOUS
But, why did you have me instead of any other child?
SAGE
There is an immovable and all knowing spirit in the sky, my dear. This spirit looked at you, resting amongst the unborn, and looked at me, here amongst the living, and the spirit knew that we were the perfect match.
DEBORAH
I don’t understand. Why are you here?
SAGE
Birds take care of their young.
DEBORAH
Are you going to kill me?
SID VICIOUS
Mommy, what made you want to be a mommy, Mommy?
SAGE
(playing it cool) Huh?
SID VICIOUS
Why did you make me?
SAGE
I dunno. Why does anyone have kids? I was doing well, I was making so much money at the time, I needed some kind of endless black hole void to throw it all in to.
SID VICIOUS
What’s a void?
SAGE
You’ll learn when you’re older.
SID VICIOUS
Why do you love me?
SAGE
Cause you’re little and fat and helpless. You remind me of every man I’ve ever dated.
SID VICIOUS
What’s a man?
SAGE
They’re the ones that are gonna teach you about the void.
SID VICIOUS
Is Daddy a man?
SAGE
Technically.
SID VICIOUS
Why did you have me instead of any other child?
SAGE
I don’t know. You’re what I ended up with.
SID VICIOUS
Would you love me if I was ugly?
SAGE
Who said you’re not?
SID VICIOUS
Would you love me if I was dead?
SAGE
I don’t have much choice do I? You’re the one I got.
DEBORAH
You have to be more baby-like.
SID VICIOUS
More baby-like?
DEBORAH
Yes.
SID VICIOUS
-
DEBORAH
Just go with it.
SID VICIOUS