The Stonemason (12 page)

SCENE III

B
EN
Because I thought of my father in death more than I ever did in life. And think of him yet. The weight of the dead makes a great burden in this world. And I know all of him that I will ever know. Why could he not see the worth of that which he had put aside and the poverty of all he hungered for? Why could he not see that he too was blest? At times I think I came to the life of the laborer as the anchorite to his cell and pallet. The work devours the man and devours his life and I thought that in the end he must be somehow justified thereby. That if enough of the world's weight only pass through his hands he must become inaugurated into the reality of that world in a way to withstand all scrutiny. A way not easily dissolved or set aside. Perhaps in his final avatar he might even come to sit holding his hat at a wooden folding table borrowed from a church basement watching the wind cross the world, already beyond wind or world or anything which they might propagate or anything at all.

I lost my way. I'd thought by my labors to stand outside that true bend of gravity which is the world's pain. I lost my way and if I could tell you the hour of it or the day or how it came about I should not have lost it at all. Soldier did come back. He came back and we met secretly and I gave him money and sent him away again. Yet even before any of this I had a dream and this dream was a cautionary dream and a dream I did not heed.

In my dream I had died or the world had ended and I stood waiting before the door of some ultimate justice which I knew would open for me. I stood with my job book beneath my arm in which were logged the hours and the days and the years and wherein was ledgered down each sack of mortar and each perch of stone and I stood alone in that whitened forecourt beyond which waited the God of all being and I stood in the full folly of my own righteousness and I took the book from under my arm and I thumbed it through a final time as if to reassure myself and when I did I saw that the pages were yellowed and crumbling and the ink faded and the accounts no longer clear and suddenly I thought to myself fool, fool do you not see what will be asked of you? How He will lean down perhaps the better to see you, regarding perhaps with something akin to wonder that which is his own handiwork, He whom the firmament itself has not power to puzzle. Gazing into your soul beyond bone or flesh to its uttermost nativity in stone and star and in the unformed magma at the core of creation. And ask as you stand there alone with your book—perhaps not even unkindly—this single question: Where are the others? Where are the others. Oh I've had time in great abundance to reflect upon that terrible question. Because we cannot save ourselves unless we save all ourselves. I had this dream but did not heed it. And so I lost my way.

The dining room at the farmhouse. There is a long dining room table and chairs, an antique sideboard. The table is partly cleared and Mama enters and takes up more plates and carries them out to the kitchen. Ben is sitting at the head of the table and Maven and Mason are sitting at the table and Carlotta enters and takes up some dishes to carry them to the kitchen. She is about seven months pregnant. The telephone rings and Maven starts to get up but Ben motions to her to sit down.

B
EN
I'll get it, Babe.

He comes to the telephone and picks it up and says hello and then listens.

B
EN
(
To telephone
) No. No. You stay where you are. I'll be down there in twenty minutes.

He pauses and listens.

B
EN
Listen to me. Stay where you are. I'll be there in twenty minutes.

He hangs up the phone and returns to the table. He bends and kisses Maven.

M
AVEN
What is it, Ben?

B
EN
Got to go, Babe. I'll be back in a couple of hours.

M
AVEN
Oh Ben...

B
EN
(
Holding up his hand to Mason, his other hand on Maven's shoulder
) Mason.

M
AVEN
(
Turning
) What is it?

B
EN
Just something that's come up. Somebody in trouble. It's nothing really. But I have to go.

M
AVEN
Are they in jail?

B
EN
Not yet. (
He smiles
) I'll call you if I need your services.

He exits.

SCENE IV

A cheap hotel room in the central city at stage right. A nineteen year old black youth is lying on an old fashioned bed with an iron bedstead. He is dressed in cheap flashy clothes. He has a thin moustache and he is smoking a cigarette. Street sounds from below. There is a knock at the door and he gets up and goes to the door and opens it. Ben is standing at the door.

B
EN
Hello Soldier.

S
OLDIER
What say, Ben. Long time no see. Come in. Come in.

Ben enters and looks around. Soldier shuts the door and motions him to a straight back chair sitting opposite the bed. Soldier sits on the bed and stubs out the cigarette in an ashtray on the night table.

S
OLDIER
Set down, Ben, set down.

Ben sits in the chair.

S
OLDIER
I went by the house. I seen they was other people livin there.

He looks up at Ben.

S
OLDIER
Don't worry. I wasn't comin in. You out at the farm now.

B
EN
We've been out there about two years.

S
OLDIER
Yeah, well.

Ben studies Soldier.

B
EN
You've been in jail.

S
OLDIER
Shit. Put me in no jail.

B
EN
It's been about a year. I knew what had happened when the checks started coming back.

S
OLDIER
Well, I see you ain't changed. Still know everthing.

B
EN
Everything you've got on is new.

S
OLDIER
Shit.

B
EN
I guess that's why you're here.

S
OLDIER
Why's that?

B
EN
To collect your checks.

S
OLDIER
Afraid I need a little more than them checks.

Ben looks at him.

S
OLDIER
I'm gettin married.

B
EN
Getting married.

S
OLDIER
Yeah.

Ben shakes his head. He looks around the room. He looks at Soldier.

B
EN
Does she know you kill people?

S
OLDIER
I ain't never killed nobody.

B
EN
You were involved in it.

S
OLDIER
That was a long time ago. You don't know.

B
EN
How much does she know about you?

Soldier laughs and shakes his head.

S
OLDIER
You somethin, ain't you? What, you think you goin to blackmail me back? She knows all about me, sucker. She knows shit they don't nobody know.

B
EN
What's her name?

S
OLDIER
You don't need to know her name.

B
EN
How old is she?

S
OLDIER
Old enough.

B
EN
Where's she from?

S
OLDIER
She ain't from here.

Ben studies Soldier.

B
EN
How much money do you want?

S
OLDIER
I need about three thousand dollars to see me right.

B
EN
All right.

S
OLDIER
Should of asked for more.

B
EN
I knew about what it was going to cost me.

S
OLDIER
Yeah. I keep forgettin bout all this shit you know.

B
EN
I'll bring you the money in the morning. As soon as the banks open.

He rises.

S
OLDIER
You don't have a little advance on that, do you?

Ben reaches in his side pocket and takes out a money clip and peels off some bills and lays them on the night table.

B
EN
I'll see you here at ten in the morning.

He opens the door. Soldier rises.

S
OLDIER
What's this dude like that Mama married?

B
EN
You wouldn't like him.

S
OLDIER
Yeah?

B
EN
(
Shaking his head
) You wouldn't like him. He pulls the door shut after him.

SCENE V

The farmhouse dining room at night. Ben and Maven are sitting at the table.

M
AVEN
I wish you hadn't told me.

B
EN
I know.

M
AVEN
Why did you?

B
EN
I don't know. You told me you wanted to know.

M
AVEN
I did?

B
EN
A long time ago.

M
AVEN
I don't remember.

B
EN
I do.

M
AVEN
But you did hide it from me.

B
EN
I was wrong.

M
AVEN
Why did you wait till now?

B
EN
I knew what you'd say.

M
AVEN
Do you think you have to tell me everything?

B
EN
Yes.

M
AVEN
Why?

B
EN
Because. Because the smallest crumb can devour us.

M
AVEN
Is the world really such a hostile place?

B
EN
I don't know. I know that I see failure on every side and I'm determined not to fail.

M
AVEN
Do you think it's fair to Carlotta? You can't think that.

B
EN
I don't. I think it's merciful.

M
AVEN
Why is it up to you?

B
EN
Isn't it up to him?

M
AVEN
You have an answer for everything.

Ben doesn't answer.

M
AVEN
Is he really so bad?

B
EN
I don't know. Yes. He is. I try to give him the benefit of the doubt but there isn't any doubt.

M
AVEN
Maybe he'll change.

B
EN
I don't rule that out. I just think he should do it somewhere else.

M
AVEN
Somewhere else is where he got the way he is now.

B
EN
(
Shaking his head
) No he didn't. He got that way right here. In this family. Nowhere else.