SCENE VII
A telephone booth at stage left. Ben is talking behind the glass.
BEN Yes. The Fairfax hotel. No. I don't know. I opened the door and there was a dead man on the bed. Yes. Room two twelve. It's not a joke. Well call the hotel. Have the clerk check. Yes. No, I opened a wrong door.
He hangs up the telephone.
SCENE VIII
The farmhouse dining room. Ben alone at the table with his cup of tea before him. Maven comes in in her robe. She bends and kisses him.
BEN Good night Maven.
MAVEN Are you sicklied o'er with the pale cast?
BEN What?
MAVEN (Smiling) Are you deep in thought?
BEN That's not what I'm deep in.
MAVEN Is it about Soldier?
BEN Yes.
She stands rubbing his shoulders.
MAVEN Do you want to tell me about it?
BEN I don't want to.
Maven sits down. Ben shakes his head. He looks at her.
BEN I lied to you. God, look at me. I didn't tell you everything.
MAVEN Tell me now.
BEN He's dead.
MAVEN (Softly) Oh God.
BEN I don't know what to do.
MAVEN What happened?
BEN He was dead when I got to the room.
He reaches in his side pocket. He takes out the syringe. He takes out the spoon. The tubing.
BEN Here. Here are some of his toys. His last effects.
MAVEN Oh Ben...
BEN I don't know what to do, Maven.
MAVEN They'll know who he is... They'll...
BEN I took his billfold too.
MAVEN Oh Baby.
BEN When I saw him I just... I've never known such sadness. It was like I couldn't breathe. And then it just made me mad. I sat there in the room with him. And I just... I was in a rage.
MAVEN What are you going to do?
BEN I don't know.
MAVEN You can't just let them...
BEN Why can't I?
They sit in silence. Maven shakes her head.
MAVEN He's still part of this family, Ben.
BEN He's dead.
MAVEN That's not good enough.
BEN So it's not good enough.
MAVEN If he's dead why can't he come home, Ben?
BEN What am I supposed to tell Carlotta?
MAVEN (Echoing Ben's phrase) What indeed.
BEN And Mama.
MAVEN And Mama.
BEN I can't change anything, Maven. There's nothing I can do. It won't make anything better for anybody. It will just make everything worse. A lot worse.
MAVEN You intend to take all this to the grave with you?
BEN Why not?
MAVEN I don't think you can.
BEN Alive I can manage to keep him from wrecking this family but now that he's dead I'm helpless against him?
MAVEN Something like that.
BEN God, Maven.
MAVEN I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear.
BEN I know.
MAVEN I think it's all on the line, Ben. Right here.
BEN Don't tell me that.
MAVEN You told me that principles were absolute or they weren't principles. That it couldn't have to do with other people because other people change. You said there could be no exclusion clauses. That if you gave your word to someone you had to keep it even if that person were to turn against you. You had to keep it no matter what they did.
BEN I said. I said.
MAVEN Yes. You said, Ben.
BEN How am I supposed to tell her this, Maven? How?
MAVEN Don't you see what you're doing? You're getting to say, Ben. And it's not up to you. You can't know another person's torment. You of all people. Things come easy to you.
He starts to speak.
MAVEN No. They do. You cant judge, Ben. You can't get to say.
BEN I just don't think I can do it.
MAVEN Everything you worked for, Ben. It was all because you didn't think it was fair. You didn't think it was fair that people should not have what they'd worked for. You didn't think it was fair that people were left outside looking in. You didn't think it was fair that people should be singled out for dispossession or condemned to ignorance or that they should be robbed because they had no recourse or insulted because they had no rebuttal. You said there were some things that people didn't have to deserve. You said there were some things you couldn't deserve. Things so sweet or so precious or even just so common to all humanity that there was no deserving them they just were given and you couldn't question them whether they fell to you or to someone else you couldn't question them. Maybe that dead boy doesn't deserve to be buried with his family. But Ben does he have to? Does he have to?
Ben looks up at her.
BEN Why are you crying? Is it because of Soldier?
MAVEN No.
He leans and takes her face in his hands and kisses her eyes.
BEN When Melissa was born I walked into the room and I was... I guess I was crying and I looked at you and I didn't know what to say and I said thank you. And you laughed. Do you remember?
MAVEN Yes.
He kisses her again.
BEN Let me call. Before I lose my nerve.
He rises and goes to the telephone and dials.
BEN Yes. For Louisville. Do you have the number for the police. No. It's not an emergency. Thank you.
He pushes down the receiver and dials the number.
BEN Hello. Yes. My name is Telfair and I'm calling in regard to... in regard to a man who was found dead at the Fairfax Hotel this morning. Yes. I have an identification. Yes.