The Stonemason(4)

MAMA Don't hit him on the ear you'll make him deaf like they done Edison in the movie.

Across the table Papaw is eating peaceably.

CARLOTTA (Holding one hand over the receiver) Mama make them quit.

Ben shakes his head and goes back out. Soldier gets up and rights the chair and stands there and Big Ben subsides and Mama sits back down and Ben comes back into the room with the paper and gives it to his father who glares up at him and takes it. Ben sits at the table and helps his plate to eggs and sausage and begins to eat.

MAMA (To Soldier) You set down over there. You ain't excused. Benny is she goin to school today?

BEN Yes. She says she is.

MAMA You ask her if she looked outside?

BEN Yep.

MAMA She sick?

BEN (Smiling) She's sick. She's looked outside. She's going to school.

MAMA Why don't you take her a cup of coffee down there?

BEN I offered to but she said she didn't want any. (To Big Ben) I want to use your truck today.

BIG BEN (Reading the paper) Where you goin?

BEN Haul a load of rock out to the farm.

BIG BEN Don't call on me when you get stuck.

BEN I won't.

MAMA That thing ain't got no heater in it and it ain't got no floorboard.

Big Ben does not look up from his paper. He takes a sip of coffee and continues to read.

BIG BEN You better see if they any sand in the bed. I don't know where you get any at today.

MAMA You hear that? Twenty two degrees.

Ben finishes his breakfast and wipes his mouth and pushes back his chair and rises and takes his plate to the sink and then goes to the door.

BEN Soldier.

SOLDIER What.

BEN Come out here a minute.

SOLDIER What for?

BEN Just come out here.

SOLDIER I ain't excused.

BEN You're excused.

Soldier gets up wearily and follows Ben out of the kitchen. They come to stage left where a light illuminates a white sofa and a white chair and a coffee table.

BEN Sit down.

SOLDIER I ain't tired.

BEN Just sit down.

Soldier sits wearily in the sofa and throws his arm across the back of it. Ben sits on the arm of the sofa.

BEN What do you want to do that stuff for?

SOLDIER What stuff?

BEN That telephone business. Trying to get out of school.

SOLDIER Maybe I don't want to go today.

BEN You don't want to go any day. That's not the point. You don't have a choice.

SOLDIER You ain't my daddy.

BEN Is there somebody leaning on you at school?

Soldier drums his fingers on the back of the sofa in a bored fashion.

BEN Is there?

SOLDIER They ain't nobody at that school that I'm scared of.

BEN What happened to your eye the other day?

SOLDIER What other day?

BEN Last week. Week and a half ago.

SOLDIER I done that playin basketball.

BEN Where were you playing basketball? You quit the team.

SOLDIER You think they ain't nobody play basketball cept what's on the team?

BEN Why did you quit?

SOLDIER I don't need the aggravation.

BEN Was it because you didn't make the A team? You would of made it next year.

SOLDIER I don't need to play on no B team.

BEN Everybody starts on the B team. Don't they?

SOLDIER Not everbody.

BEN But most.

SOLDIER That's them, this is me. Ben studies him. He shakes his head.

BEN Your mother's right you know. You're going to get in trouble running around with that bunch of trash.

SOLDIER It ain't nothin to you.

BEN Yes it is.

Ben studies him.

BEN You want to work for me Saturday?

SOLDIER I got other business to tend to.

BEN All right. You want to go out and start the truck?

SOLDIER Where's the keys at?

BEN They're in it.

Soldier gets up and goes back into the kitchen and out the back door. Ben watches him go, then gets up and exits offstage. We hear him go down the steps. In the kitchen Mama is clearing the table. Papaw gets up and goes to his room.

BEN (Offstage) Babe, I'm gone.

Is Melissa awake?

Are you okay?

All right.

I love you.

Ben returns to the living room and enters the kitchen. Soldier comes in the back door stomping the snow off his shoes. Ben goes to the back door and takes his coat down off a peg. He looks outside. Papaw is dressed in his coat and gloves and is standing by the woodstove holding his hat.

BEN Soldier.

SOLDIER What.

BEN I thought you were going to start the truck.

SOLDIER Cain't start it without no keys.

BEN The keys are in it.

SOLDIER No they ain't.

BIG BEN (Without looking up from his paper) The keys is in it.

SOLDIER (Looking from Ben to Big Ben and back again) What truck you talkin bout?

Ben buttons up his coat and pulls his gloves out of his coat pocket and puts on his hat.

SOLDIER I thought you meant the pickup.

BEN You sat right there and heard us talk about Grandad's truck.

SOLDIER You said truck I thought you meant your truck.

BEN (To his grandfather) You ready?

Papaw claps his gloved hands together. Ben gets the thermos of coffee off the sideboard that his mother has put there and returns to the door. The dog looks after him.