The Stonemason(17)

BEN But you hope she likes you.

MASON Yes.

Ben smiles and sips his tea. Mason smiles.

MASON You didn't ask me if I like her.

BEN I know you like her. I knew you liked her when I saw you in there sitting on the sofa.

Mason smiles. Footsteps on the stairs overhead.

BEN Here she comes. I'll ask her.

MASON Ask her what?

BEN If she likes you.

MASON Hey, come on.

BEN You said I should ask her.

MASON (Smiling) Hey, don't fool around.

Carlotta comes in the kitchen. Ben laughs. Mason pushes back his chair and rises.

MASON Hi.

CARLOTTA (Looking at Ben) Ben, you leave him alone.

BEN Hey Babe. Mmm, you look good.

He turns to Mason.

CARLOTTA Ben.

BEN (Laughing) Hey, we were getting along like a house afire. Weren't we, Mason.

MASON Yes. We were.

BEN I think this is one of the better ones you've had in here all week.

CARLOTTA You know, I don't think I could bring myself to actually shoot you. But poison's not out of the question.

Ben regards her more seriously.

BEN You're such a pretty lady.

Carlotta is a little flustered. She turns to Mason.

CARLOTTA Are you ready?

MASON Mmm-hmm. Ben, good to see you.

Ben rises and they shake hands.

BEN You all have a good time.

Ben watches them exit out the kitchen door.





SCENE III

The kitchen at night. Ben at the kitchen table with his cup of tea and his notebook. The light comes on at the podium and Ben takes his place there.

BEN That summer Papaw and I contracted work on our own, just working evenings and weekends. We still worked on the house at the farm too but we were building old style stone chimneys and fireplaces for people and we'd take them on field trips and show them the old work and if they had souls in their bodies they would see all that we showed them and we were amazed at how quickly a love and a reverence for reality could be restored in them. They'd talk about what they wanted and Papaw would say little and smoke his pipe and they would look at some old chimney standing in a field and they would look at Papaw and they would grow more quiet themselves and then they would stop talking altogether and we would drive back and they'd ask us when we could begin. Sometimes if a client was really interested we'd take him all over the county. We'd show him work that Papaw had done eighty years ago. We'd show them walls and cellars and chimneys and houses and springhouses and bridges. Some of those old cellars and footings contain enormous stones and Papaw says it's because the houses were built first and you had scaffolding and teams of oxen and tackle and men and you could use the big stones but when you were building a wall you were pretty much on your own and you did it as you could. Most of the old slave walls as they are called were built in the winter when farm work was light. But I've seen stones in cellars and in the base of chimneys that would weigh two thousand pounds. I've seen old bridge piers built of rubble stone weighing two and three tons apiece and no two stones alike and laid up without mortar sixteen and eighteen courses high and steeply battered. I've looked at barns and houses and bridges and factories and chimneys and walls and in thousand structures I've never seen a misplaced stone. In form and design and scale and structure and proportion I've yet to see an example of the old work that was no perfectly executed. They were designed by the men who built them and their design rose out of necessity. The beauty of those structures would appear to be just a sort of a by—product, something fortuitous, but of course it is not. The aim of the mason was to make the wall stand up and that was his purpose in its entirety. The beauty of the stonework is simply a reflection of the purity of the mason's intention. Carly says I have this mystique thing about stone masonry. She says nobody understands it Even my father thinks it's crazy. She says no one know what I'm talking about. She says no one cares. In all this of course she's right. And she says you can't change his story and that ruins should be left to ruin. And she's right But that the craft of stonemasonry should be allowed to vanish from this world is just not negotiable for me Somewhere there is someone who wants to know. Nor will I have to seek him out. He'll find me.





SCENE IV

The kitchen, afternoon, GUESTS and their CHILDREN in Sunday clothes are leaving, going out through the living room. Mama is saying goodbye to cousins and other kin and a PHOTOGRAPHER thanks her and shoulders up his camera and tripod and exits. Maven is nine months pregnant. Ben is in the kitchen talking to a REPORTER. The other guests all leave and the lights dim out in the living room and Mama goes upstairs and Maven goes to the basement apartment.

REPORTER (Looking through his small notepad) His name is spelled conventionally isn't it?

BEN Yes. Just Edward. There wasn't any creative spelling back them. Blacks couldn't spell.