NATHAN ROSS FREEMAN 353 JONESTOWN ROAD SUITE 299 WINSTON-SALEM, NC 27104 PH: (910) 777-0648 FX: (910) 777-0648 E:MAIL: nfreeman@bellsouth.net "V I R G I N S" a drama Written by NATHAN ROSS FREEMAN Copyright (C) 1992 (MELODIC RAP/SONG DURING TRANSITION FROM PRELUDE TO SCENE 1) YOUR BEAUTY IS AN ANGEL FALLEN FROM SPRING SKIES. FUMIN CUMIN CUMIN CUMIN PUFF GOES THE DRAGON CRACK / JUST A HIT SNUCK YOU FROM BEHIND THE BACK STROKIN STROKIN' YOUR LONG LOVELY THIGH MIND, YOU ARE / ONCE UPON A TIME DOIN DOIN DOIN TIIIMME ... SUCKIN' ON SWEET FANGS OF SWEET CRACK I WANT YOU SOFT UPON A PILLOW, CANDLE LIT BUT DEE SMOKE DRAGON, CATCHES YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN I'LL MAKE YOU A QUEEN FOR A DAY SWIPE YOU FROM THE DRAGON CAVE DON'T BE AFRAID YOU RAPTURED CAPTURE FRACTURED BY THE FANGS OF SWEET CRACK DOIN DOIN DOIN TIIIME I WILL FIND YOU, FIND YOU, FIND YOU AND BRING YOU OUT ... TINA TIME: PRESENT CHARACTERS: CECIL MEACUM: A 33 YEAR OLD AFRICAN-AMERICAN SOCIAL WORKER. TINA: A 30 YEAR OLD AFRICAN-AMERICAN, EX-ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE FOR A NOTED WOMEN'S PANTYHOSE CORPORATION, NOW A STREET HUSTLER WHORING FOR HER CRACK HABIT. DUDLEY: WHITE FEMALE REGIONAL SUPPLIER WHO TAKES DUDLEY'S (THE NEIGHBORHOOD DRUG KING PIN NOW IN JAIL) PLACE TILL SHE REPLACES HIM. G-MAN: A 9-13 YEAR OLD BOY, DEALIN' DOPE ON THE CORNER UNDER THE EMPLOY OF DUDLEY. MYRNA: TINA'S SISTER, 40-48 SET: STAGE RIGHT: CECIL'S BEDROOM: A COCKTAIL TABLE, TWO SITTING CHAIRS, A SMALL BED AND A NIGHT TABLE. A FRAME SUGGEST HIGH CEILINGS AND HUGE DRAPED WINDOWS. STAGE LEFT IS A STOP SIGN, STREET LAMP AND STOOP OF BROKEN BRICK. THE ENTIRE SET SHOULD BE EMBELLISHED WITH BACK DROP, CYC, STOCK SLIDES, ABSTRACT AND DOCUMENTARY ART WITH A FOREBODING YET COLORFUL, NEON, MUSIC VIDEO TYPE DETAIL AND SURREALISM. THE SET ITSELF SHOULD BE A PERFORMANCE STATEMENT WITH THE ATTENDING CYCS, CANVASES AND ARTIFACTS DEPICTING URBAN LIFE, CRACK, INNOCENCE AND CORRUPTION, SUCCESS AND FAILURE, PAIN AND THE PLEASURE, DARKNESS AND SUNSHINE, THE HIGH AND THE DOWNSIDE, THE RISE AND FALL, IN SHORT THE CRISSCROSS TO THE OTHER SIDE. ***A COMPROMISED OR TOURING SET MAY CONSIST IN TOTAL OF: STOP SIGN, SL AND COCKTAIL TABLE WITH TWO CHAIRS, SR. NATHAN ROSS FREEMAN - VIRGINS - COPYRIGHT (C) 1992 ACT I SCENE 1 TINA STANDS BEFORE THE AUDIENCE DRESSED IN A STATE OF THE ART BUSINESS SUIT. SHE DELIVERS WITH STAUNCH DIGNITY. TINA Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am your top Account Executive, 1989-90. I have created in your employ two additional international markets, in a region of the world that few tourist even venture; markets that have increased your revenue by 7% in the last five quarters. They are wearing our hosiery in Red China and the sloping tundra of Russia. I worked hard. (TINA BEGINS TO TAKE OFF HER GLOVES AND TOSSES THEM TO THE SIDE. NOTE: TINA'S STRIP MUST REFLECT THE LOSS, PAIN, FEAR AND DEGRADATION. SEXUAL MESSAGES WOULD BE TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE.) And having enjoyed your employment for seven years ... (SHE TAKES A PEARL NECKLACE FROM AROUND HER NECK.) I am leaving here now. Before each of you is a copy of my resignation in a purple envelope. Purple is the color of royalty and sorrow. (REACHES INTO HER JACKET POCKET, PULLS OUT A RED LACE SCARF IN EXCHANGE FOR THE NECKLACE AND TIES IT AROUND HER NECK) I was asked to leave here. We all know the deal with resignations. It was your conclusion, for reasons, my urine indicated, I had a problem, a drug problem. I was fired. (UNBUTTONS JACKET) TINA WE EXPERIENCE THE TRANSITION IN HER DISPOSITION WHICH REFLECTS THE TIME PASSAGE OF TINA'S DELIVERY AS SHE REPORTS HER FALL INTO THE WORLD OF CRACK) ... Now I'm gonna work the odd jobs. Maybe manage a Burger King, one of the all night joints, make connections in the parking lot, break time. But the char broil heat, people talkin', talkin' talkin', the smells, too hectic. I quit. (TAKES OFF JACKET) So then I settle down a bit, maybe doin' the stock room of some big chain bargain store. Ain't nothin' but ex-folk doin' back room stock work. Ex-wives, ex-cons, ex-drop outs workin' they way through community college, and lottsa crack heads. In the back, doin' time. Boss loves short term crack heads pilin' things with all their nervous energy. Routine is somethin' a rock star can't do more than a New York minute. (UNBUTTONS BLOUSE) I'm doin' at least seven rocks a day, laying up with whomever to get me by, over sleeping, 'cause crack lets you sleep when it gets good and ready, so the dark room shit, liftin' stuff and carrying on gets old before a month's pay, anyway ... (SEARCHES BRIEFLY, FRANTICALLY IN HER POCKET BOOK FOR SOMETHING, FINDS IT, RELIEVED, LEAVES IT, LOOKS UP AS IF SHE FORGOT WHERE SHE WAS AND WHAT SHE WAS SAYING.) ... Where was I? It's been one year since yawl said good-bye, plus six months from having my welfare check taken from me, cause some lame, my welfare man, turned me in for havin' a job on the side. TINA Mr. Meacum, I called him the Mee-chum man who was always trying to rap to me on the side. He told me with a lump in his throat that he had to cut off my check ... Fraudulence, they call it. So I spit in his face ... He just wipes it away, says he's sorry and, well, sorry ... (TAKES OFF BLOUSE TO REVEAL A SATIN MATERIAL TIGHTS TOP.) So never say never. They say, they, who says never ever, be the ones wind up always and forever ... No job, recession, no welfare, depression, no choice ... Think you won't whore? ... Blame it on the sun, if you want. I even had to give up on the beeper man, that is, having my sweets delivered. Who's the beeper man? Like yawl don't know. There are a whole lot of yawl goin' to church on Sunday, comin' home, mowin' the lawn waitin' for the beeper man to return your call, cause yawl can't be seen in the street. Yawl thinkin' I'm somebody 's exception to the rule, a mishappenin', a fluke in this upper middle class world ... (BEGINS TO UNZIP THE BACK OF HER SKIRT) ... Where do yawl think the stuff, the drugs, the coke the smoke make the big money? In the streets sellin' quarters to some street corner floozie? Is that what you think I am? Think you won't whore? How many of yawl sittin' in front of me remember the first moment you crossed to the other side, at some party, experimentin' with some friend who said, aw, just take a puff? Uuuuhm, a puufff! TINA (TAKES OFF HER SKIRT TO REVEAL BLACK, TIGHT SHORT-SHORTS.) How many of yawl call the beeper man who delivers in 30 minutes or less? Don't worry, I won't tell, 'cause YAWL DON'T EVEN KNOW! (REACHES INTO HER POCKET BOOK AND PULLS OUT A PIPE. FLICKS HER BIC AND HEATS UP THE PIPE.) Yawl don't even know that Bic is the best kinda lighter to heat my stem. Yawl don't even know it's the crawly, smelly, dungeon breath, sweet back of the mouth ... (TAKES A LONG DRAW ON THE PIPE WITH THE APPROPRIATE REACTION TO A FREE- BASE RUSH.) ... uuhhhmm, puff of smoke ... CRACK gonna turn these United States of America into a pillar of salt, sister Lot. Yawl don't even know ... 'cept yawl whom has crossed over the line in the break room, back room, bath room, house party, cruising in the mall parking lot, sucking, swallowing, ghostbusting a piece of the rock, till you're outta stocks. Yawl don't even know. Yeah, for the rock, you'll whore. You'll whore. (CECIL APPEARS IN SOME ABSTRACT AREA OF THE STAGE, PACKING UP THINGS IN HIS OFFICE AS THOUGH HE IS LEAVING FOR GOOD. CECIL DELIVERS AS TINA TAKES OUT PINS IN HER HAIR, COMBS IT, APPLIES CHAPSTICK, PULLS OUT HER PIPE, LIGHTS IT, PUFFS.) CECIL It's just something about her. I wasn't misusing my position. I wanted to help her any way I could. She used to call me the Mee-chum, man ...Why'd it have to be me, the one to bust her. You should have seen the look on her face. She didn't like me very much anyway. You should have seen the look on my face. I felt it. CECIL A mirror in her eyes. God, I wanted her. She knew it ... Long legs. Long, long legs. Thick. Tight. Eyes. Eyes. She saw that I wanted ... Then investigation ... She called me the Mee-chum man ... Welfare fraud ... She spit in my face. I was embarrassed. But it came from her mouth. That's all I could thing about. It came from, from, lips ... warm ... God, I'm so sorry, baby. I'll find you. I will find you and it will be alright. LIGHT FADES ON CECIL. TINA PUFFS, WALKS OVER TO THE STREET CORNER, SITS ON THE BROKEN BRICK STOOP, AS THE LIGHTS SLOW CROSS FADE TO MOON BLUE-YELLOW. BLACK OUT SCENE 2 SATURDAY NIGHT LIGHTS FLASH THE ATMOSPHERE ON THE CORNER. TINA GETS UP FROM THE STOOP, SHOWCASES HER WEARS. TALKS TO A WHITE CUSTOMER IN A PICK-UP TRUCK. TINA Hey, baby. You look like you could use a break today, pick-up truck man. Have it your way. What's up? Top or bottom. $30 which either. 50 for both. I even got papers. I'm HIV clean and I just came out tonight, fresh .. You must be outta your mind. What you think this is? Your great-grand ma's plantation, Master jack? You want a privileged discount? What kind of endeavor is that? That's right. Endeavor! E-N-D-E-A-V-O-R. So do me or dis outta here. I can't, I won't stand here and negotiate, N-E-G-O-T-I-A-T-E what I know to be a bargain dream for you at any price ... Wait, wait ... I'll do you a once in a life time offer. $30 top with two minutes and counting on the bottom ... Wait, wait, damn! Give me twenty-five. I'll give you top. No bottom. And I ain't swallowin' nothin.' Unlock the door and drive down to the left in that parking ... Oh, you know the place, huh? ... What you mean you did me before? ... I don't know you ... When?... You did me for what?! Get the hell on before I kick a whole in your door big enough for you to explain to your wife. Go on. GET OUT OF HERE! (TO THE MAN AS HE PULLS OFF) Don't come back this side of town. (TINA IS HOPPING FROM KICKING THE CAR DOOR. G-MAN STROLLS ONSTAGE WHISTLES TO SIGNAL LOOK-OUTS. HIS BEEPER GOES OFF OCCASIONALLY DURING THE CONVERSATION.) G-MAN Awww, baby, the things we do to get even. TINA I ain't your baby. You just a baby and life's gonna get even with you and your momma for the things you do. I told you, DON'T CALL ME BABY! G-MAN Don't talk about my momma. This baby got a niner in his pampers. TINA I'll take that niner, stick my finger in it, and blow you back in time, you ... you, come here ... No, stop, come here for real. For real, stop. Help me out. G-MAN Naw, naw, don't ask me that. No credit. TINA Aww, come on G-man. Help me out. You know I'm good for Friday. G-MAN I know your goody check was cut off. TINA Just a hit. C'mon. Just a corner. G-MAN I don't do credit. It's the law. No credit. No checks. Cash. Dudley'd wipe my ass with that pole. You know it. TINA Dudley's in jail and I'm the only one even goes to see him. G-MAN See him my ass. I know 'bout that program they got,'slammin' in the slams,' a weekend bam, and when you get home from SEEIN' Dudley, nobody sees you for a week. Sell some of that stash you could have my spot. He doin' alright? Don't answer that, I ain't suppose to ask. Gotta play by the book. Far as the deal go I still work his route. TINA Just a hit. Pinch it off one of those in the bag. G-MAN What?! They my quarters. I can't break 'em up. TINA Ah, ain't nobody gonna notice. Come on, G, I'm shakin', I gotta work. I'll double it, pay you before dawn. G-MAN It's not the content, it's the intent. Gotta have it, for the habit. (G-MAN REACHES IN HIS POCKET PULLS OUT A PLASTIC BAG. TINA TRIES TO BE COMPOSED, TRYING FOR THE HUNGER NOT SHOW. G-MAN HANDS A PIECE OF CRACK TO TINA. IT IS MUCH LARGER THAN SHE HOPED. IT'S A LEAST WORTH 50.) Aw, baby, that's sweet. I can get off this corner for serious minute with this. G-MAN You owe me. Bring me all your business tonight and I'll throw you a bone. How you wanna do that pick-up truck man. TINA You know the deal, shut up and don't ask me nothing like that no more. Get the fuck on. Standin' here to long. Things we do but CAN'T get back. We gotta find a way to stop brown baggin'. Think you can? G-MAN Hey, that's your weight. I just sells. I got the Zip lock rock and anti-lock glock. Whose got a bag but to sell what's in it. I ain't no hustler. I'm a Businessman. Anyway, who knows, who cares 'bout finding a way. Stay alive, pump the juice. But I'll tell you what if you don't laugh. I like to go fishin'. One day I'm gonna have my own lake; in the mountains, like the one we went to in juvenile doin' that survival course shit. Maybe the beach. Big house and I don't mean the Big House. I just want to make the juice. Mo money, mo happy. Cut through all the dumb shit. That's what it's about. I'll hire somebody to read for me. Ain't like they gonna get over. See, I'm smart in other ways. Ain't got a lotta vocabulary, but I got good comprehension. I can look somebody in the eye and see a lie before they tell it. (HEARS SOMEONE WHISTLE) Chex you later. I Gotta finish the block. I got deadlines. My beeper is maxed out. Here come traffick. Gotta glock 'em before homeboy do. (TINA EXITS. G-MAN TO MIMED CUSTOMER CAR THAT HAS JUST PULLED UP. COMPETING AGAINST OTHER HUSTLERS ON THE CORNER) G-MAN What you lookin' for? (TO A COMPETITOR) HEY TONY, GET THE FUCK G-MAN ON, YOU KNOW BETTER. (TO THE CUSTOMER) Yeah I remember you. pull up, get out the car. Hey, hey, get out the car. Hey, how much you want? I got it. I got it. (CUSTOMER HAS PULLED OVER, GOTTEN OUT. G-MAN SPEAKS TO HER SOME DISTANCE FROM WHERE HE SPOKE TO HER IN THE CAR.) Solid gold, look at the yellow, cooked, baby. I'm rock hard for you. Naw, naw, not him. Chex his out. He's down to the bottom of the bag. Soda crumbs. Chex mine out. Smell it, taste it. Pick out the biggest one. You know me. OPP. Here, here, lick the powder off my finger. Whack! Make you freak. His ain't shit. Come on, come on before the man come around. Good butter yellow rock. Cookie to go? Four quarters and here's a hit for the daddy. Burn low, sip slow, go a long way. Come back, take me home, do the oochee coochee ... (HEARS SOMEONE WHISTLE) 5-0 gotta go ... (G-MAN TAKES OFF, EXITS, AS CECIL ENTERS THE STAGE, TIE AND SHIRT, JACKET THROWN OVER HIS SHOULDER.) CECIL (YELLING AFTER G-MAN) I'm lookin' for Tina. (TINA COMES UP BEHIND HIM. SHE'S HIGH.) TINA You look like 5-0. (CECIL TURNS AROUND.) Whas up? CECIL I have been lookin' for you ever since ... TINA Mutha faa, Me-chum man! Are you crazy. What the hell you doin' out this way Saturday night? Don't tell me YOU ... Ha! I should go to the papers. Blue nose in the nest. You under cover? What you gonna do, turn me in because I spit in your face, or shall I cut your balls because you put me out in the street. You betta go home to your momma. Go tell honey you're home. You don't want no parts of me. CECIL Listen to me. I ... I ... just. I never got a chance to tell you ... TINA I'll see you later. With a tie on, my word, you oughta know better. CECIL Just five ... TINA Five what? Five dollars? Time is money. (CECIL REACHES INTO HIS POCKET AND PULLS OUT CRUMPLE BILLS.) CECIL What's the goin' rate? TINA Baby, the thought of you with your pants down! (LAUGHS UNCONTROLLABLY) TINA Me-chum man swayin' in the wind, or am I flattering you? Get outta my face. Ain't no habit got me that strung out that I'm gonna do the likes of you. CECIL Talk! TINA Talk?! CECIL Talk, I just want to talk. TINA Plleeeze! Whas up? What do you want? Get on away from here and outta my face. CECIL This may sound corny, but I felt bad about cutting off your funds. I was just doing my job. I didn't do the investi ... TINA You already spent five dollars, give me twenty plus that and I'll give you five minutes ... CECIL (HANDING HER A CRUMPLED TWENTY AND A FIVE DOLLAR BILL) Ah, the investigation. I wish you knew how long I kept them away from you. You were scheduled to lose your check six months before they made me cut you off. They were going to prosecute you. TINA Well, woop-dee-doo. So now you're suppose to be my hero, 'cause you staved off the enemy for six whole months. But you still got your job, judging from the dacron tie and I'm still out here. So, hero, what's the biggee? CECIL I resigned. TINA That was stupid. CECIL Got tired of fighting for people who say I'm the enemy. TINA You were. Considering ninety out of every hundred welfare dollars go to you and not us. You didn't know that? CECIL Yeah well ... TINA So you got your ninety on you? CECIL Can we talk? TINA Time is up. You spent your money. CECIL Five minutes can't be up. TINA It's hell out here, time, laws, rules, everything is relative. It's what you can MAKE HAPPEN at the moment. All you got to do is be bad enough to back your shit up. Now I contend that your five minutes are up. And I am bad enough to walk away with you standing here studdering to yourself. Are you bad enough to stop me. I spit on the ground and you got niggers from four squares beatin' the soles of your feet. CECIL All I got is a five. TINA All I got is twenty five and no bank card. CECIL Got change for a hundred? TINA Not so loud, are you crazy. You got a bill? (HE SHOWS IT TO HER.) Well, what's up? CECIL I need to know you, ah know what's goin' on with ... TINA HEY G-MAN, COME HERE. (G-MAN APPEARS FROM ANOTHER ENTRANCE THAN HIS LAST EXIT.) Come here. G-MAN (HAND BEHIND HIS BACK PREPARED TO REACH FOR SOMETHING) What's up. What you want? CECIL I ... G-MAN Naw, man, I asked her. TINA Chill. He's an acquaintance. (TO CECIL) Give me the money. CECIL HE has change. G-MAN For that?! How many of 'em you got. I'm the houseman. Give me all your chips. Stop lookin' around so much, man, you make me nervous. CECIL (GIVES G-MAN THE HUNDRED) Damn, you can't be but fifteen. G-MAN (COUNTING OUT THE CHANGE) By time I'm fifteen I'm outta here doin' condo action. CECIL Should we be doin' this out here. I mean, in the open ... I G-MAN You left your parking lights on, three blocks up. If I was you I'd walk home or carry this stuff up your ass. TINA Give him fifty back and I want weight. G-MAN I stashed the weight. Guy shows up with a tie at midnight, everybody ditched their shit. Ghost town action. In a minute. (G-MAN TAKES A DIFFERENT EXIT THAN HIS ENTRANCE) CECIL He's just a kid. TINA Plleeeze! CECIL How much time does this buy me? TINA I got to go somewhere and do the dope. You got somewhere? Where's your car? CECIL Nooo! No way. Not in my car. Are you crazy? TINA As crazy as you buyin' dope on the corner in a monkey suit. CECIL Would you consider goin' to my place? TINA HEY G-MAN, LET ME SEE YOU AT FIVE O' CLOCK. CECIL Five o' clock?! He's got my money. Ain't about no five ... TINA Five o' clock, equals five rocks, equals you don't get no change, equals we go to your spot and I can grant you at least one hour, and no sex. Your freak on me and I cut your balls, send half to your wife. CECIL I'm not married ... TINA ... Any more? ... You live alone? CECIL Yes. TINA Girl friend got a key? CECIL I live alone. All alone. (G-MAN RETURNS FROM YET ANOTHER ENTRANCE, GIVES TINA THE ROCKS.) G-MAN That's a weird brother. Boy starts talkin' to himself, take him out. I'd noble his knees stomp his kicker. TINA You just stay away from that old hag. G-MAN Oochee coochee time! Later. (G-MAN EXITS, OF COURSE, A DIRECTION DIFFERENT FROM ALL THE OTHERS.) TINA Let's go. I'll carry. Keep my window down just in case. You just drive. Wear your seat belt, use your blinkers and drive three miles over the limit. Take the expressway. CECIL It's out of the way. TINA Take the expressway! (THEY EXIT) CECIL I don't believe it. I just spent one hundred and twenty five dollars. TINA Ain't it a bitch. BLACK OUT SCENE 2 WE'LL CALL HER DUDLEY. ACTUALLY, DUDLEY WORKS FOR HER. AND G-MAN WORKS FOR DUDLEY. SHE IS DUDLEY'S SUPPLIER'S SUPPLIER. SHE MAKES DOPE POSSIBLE TO IMPORT WHOLESALE INTO THE US. G-MAN IS STANDING BY THE STOP SIGN. DUDLEY ENTERS. DUDLEY I'm looking for G-man. Know where I can find him? G-MAN You lookin' to be snatched, and ain't never heard of him. You 5-0? DUDLEY I'm 5'4" ... G-MAN ... I mean ... DUDLEY ... What would good would it do to tell you I'm not a cop? How 'bout if I tell you I'll wipe your ass with that stop sign? G-MAN That's the pass word. How you know Dudley? What's up? What's the hook with ... DUDLEY He handled things wrong, got the 'big head' as you people call it. But you will call me Dudley, or your 1-800 momma, or aunt somebody. Dudley got stupid, let me down, got locked up. He always talked about you. Claims your his best, he can trust you. I didn't believe him when he told me you were so young. I got a problem with that. If I was a grown up junky I'd rip you. G-MAN And You'd get Aikedo, Tai Quan Do, and a ten millimeter to smoke in your pipe. Gangbangers don't even fuck with me. DUDLEY Dudley says if anything ever happened to him only you could get me his stash. Get to his old lady, Tina, that is. G-MAN Yeah, right, I'm supposed to believe that ... DUDLEY Calls you oochee coochee G-Man. Says you're bad ass for a teeny- bopper. Tina's his g-bitch. Come here. (G-MAN WALKS OVER TO HER ALL COCKY.) See, you'll call me Dudley, because I don't exist. It's like in the movies. All this, everything around is all a front. Dudley works for me and I work for people who don't want anybody to know they exist. You know, people who own legitimate businesses, live in nice neighborhoods, run for elections and stuff like that. You don't think Dudley got the power to do all this, do you? I mean somebody stupid enough to cruise his turf in a Mercedes 700 series. If it weren't for the fact that Dudley got caught with so much of our stuff hid somewhere, I wouldn't bother putting my lily white behind on the line explaining all this in some filthy alley in de ghetto, holding a gun to some banshee boy in the hood, pickaninny kid. Now I gave you the pass word, he said you'd understand, so let's play the game, 'cause just like in the movies somebody'll DUDLEY drive real fast around THAT corner and blow your infant brains out. And if I was 5-0, just like in the movies, I'd do the same thing, so ... GET ME MY STUFF, OR DUDLEY'S DEAD. HERE'S HIS WALLET. (G-MAN CHECKS THE WALLET.) G-MAN I don't care if you're Gotti's bitch. I gotta hear from Dudley, 'cause just like in the movies, you got to go through me to get to who got the stash. You ain't gonna do shit to me. AND if it's Dudley's time to buy it, ain't nothin' to me. Can't be, 'cause that's the way he raised us. To carry on. What, you think I'm afraid to bite the bullet. And... (G-MAN WHISTLES.) You got 15 seconds to vanish, or a whole tribe of my people gonna be all into you with some shit that's gonna put you on Inside Edition, strip your hit man's car and snatch his uzzie. (AS DUDLEY EXITS) Get Tina. Find Tina. Dudley's broad. Dudley wants to see her and she'll tell you what to do. Then I'll be back. And You TWO better HAVE MY STASH! BACK OUT SCENE 3 TINA AND CECIL WALK INTO HIS APARTMENT. IT IS LOFT-LIKE. TINA LOOKS UP AT THE HIGH CEILINGS AND WINDOWS, AND BECOMES MELANCHOLIC REMEMBERING A TIME WHEN SHE LIVED COMFORTABLY, IN SUCH A METROPOLITAN LIFE STYLE. TINA High ceilings. It's weird. Nice place. Reminds me of the city, I mean downtown-city. Where I used to live. I had high ceilings too. High life. I'm not sure I want to be here ... long. CECIL Is it worth my hundred twenty-five dollars to say that ever since I met you I've been trying to know you? (TINA PULLS OUT HER PIPE FROM HER BELT-BAG. THE PIPE MADE FROM A LIQUOR SHOT BOTTLE WITH A HOLE MELTED ON THE LABEL SIDE, RUBBER WASHER INSERTED. SHE PULLS A GLASS STEM FROM THE CROTCH AREA OF HER SHORT- SHORTS. SHE BEGINS TO CAREFULLY INSERT THE STEM INTO THE MODIFIED HOLE. THE STEM HAS A SCREEN MESHED INTO IT, ABOUT 1/4 INCH LONG, RECESSED ABOUT 1/16TH OF AN INCH FROM THE TOP. TINA RUMMAGES AROUND IN HER BAG LOOKING FOR SOMETHING. TINA You got a razor? Single edge? CECIL (GOES TO A DRAWER OF HIS NIGHT TABLE BESIDE HIS BED.) I may have one or a reasonable facsimile. I want you to know that I do not want anything from you that you do not want to give. I am attracted to you and have been. But not just sexually. Sometimes you meet a person, someone who just catches you off guard ... here's a pen knife. That's ... TINA ... An unreasonable facsimile. I bet it's dull. CECIL I haven't used it in ... TINA ... I need a glass of water ... CECIL ... Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't offer you anything. I was so conscious of being on the clock. I'll put on some music. TINA And a spoon. CECIL EXITS FOR A MOMENT. WHILE HE IS GONE TINA METICULOUSLY CUTS THE ROCK INTO SMALLER PORTIONS. SHE APPEARS BOTH COOL/RELAXED AND ANXIOUS/INTENSE. SHE PLACES ONE OF THE ROCKS AT THE TOP OF THE STEM. MUSIC COMES FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE IN CECIL'S PLACE. CECIL RETURNS WITH THE GLASS OF WATER, STOPS AT THE DOOR UNSEEN BY TINA AND WATCHES HER. TINA TAKES A LIGHTER FLICKS IT WITH HER MIDDLE FINGER, HOLDS THE LIGHTER SIDE WAYS AND HEATS THE TOP OF THE STEM BEING CAREFUL NOT TO TOUCH THE GLASS WITH THE FLAME. SHE SHIFTS HER POSITION, SLOUCHES IN THE CHAIR, TAKES A DEEP BREATH, PLACES THE MOUTH OF THE PIPE TO HER LIPS, PLACES THE FLAME SLIGHTLY ABOVE THE OPENING OF THE STEM, WHICH IS UPRIGHT, AND SIPS, EVER SO GENTLY. AFTER THE FIRST LIGHT SIP, THE ROCK BEING MELTED, SHE TURNS THE STEM SIDEWAYS, WAVING THE FLAME UNDER THE STEM BRIEFLY, RAPIDLY, ALL THE TIME DRAWING SMOKE IN HER MOUTH EVER SO SOFTLY, SMOOTHLY, SHE TAKES THE PIPE AWAY FROM HER MOUTH. LAYS HER HEAD BACK AND LET'S THE SMOKE FLOW FROM HER MOUTH IN ONE LONG EASY EXHALE. HER FACE CONTORTS, HER EYES ROLL. HER COMPOSURE IS NIRVANA. CECIL SETS THE WATER AND SPOON ON THE TABLE AS IF THEY WERE CHINA) CECIL Why did you turn the pipe side ways. TINA Ah, G-Man, baby, good shit, as always. Why don't you bring that TINA candle by your bed over here and light it. CECIL I don't believe it. We have a romantic in the house. (CECIL ALMOST RESPONDING AS IF TO A MILITARY ORDER, HE QUICKLY GETS THE CANDLE, BRINGS IT TO THE COFFEE TABLE AND LIGHTS IT, SITS IN THE OTHER CHAIR.) TINA (DIPPING WATER IN THE SPOON CAREFULLY POURING, DIPPING TILL SHE GETS JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT.) Gravity, baby. You try to melt it without burning it. You try to get work it into the screen without losing it down the stem. (SWINGS THE PIPE HIS WAY, A GESTURE FOR HIM TO TRY.) That's why you turn it side ways. Let me heat it for you. I don't want to waste ... CECIL Noooo. I feel bad about doing marijuana. And one jay sends me over the moon. Two beers and I pee all night. I picked the wrong profession to really want to try anything newer than old college experiments. As a matter of fact. I was wondering how to approach you about some good programs ... TINA (WHILE TINA TALKS SHE TAKES THE KNIFE, CUTS ANOTHER PIECE OF ROCK, PLACES THE PIECE IN THE SPOON OF WATER AND ROTATES THE SPOON OVER THE CANDLE) Went rehab three times over the last eight months. Aw, baby I been basin' for two years. If you did decide to take a puff, TINA I'd be jealous of you. I still get a rush, but what I wouldn't give to be a virgin again. My first hit was like being a virgin, you know? Somebody comes up to you, my old man as a matter of fact, boyfriend, that is. Young boy, plaything after I got divorced. My ex was a hell of a man but I got tired of him and all my male peers being intimidated by my prowess. Man couldn't function seeing me carry a brief case. So I went to the other extreme. I was fascinated by young hard heads at the time, a distraction from the sterile corporate world, as it were. Plus I was in control. (REFERS TO WHAT SHE IS DOING WITH THE SPOON) Buy rock off the street, you don't know what you're getting. The shit could be mixed with formaldehyde. That's the advantage of having a beeper boy. Regular customers know what they are getting. You should have yours delivered, God forbid you ever ... well any way, you make rock by doing just what I am doing now. Got any baking soda? CECIL No. TINA It'll just take longer to dry. When you heat a rock it breaks down to the raw cocaine. This will be a little smaller when I finished. You heat the water in the spoon till the rock melts ... (SHE TAKES THE SPOON AWAY FROM THE FLAME, DIPS HER FINGERS IN THE GLASS OF COLD WATER AND SPRINKLES DROPS IN THE SPOON) TINA and sprinkle, sprinkle till you see the rock getting hard. This is foreplay. It's a part of the high. A big part. Then ... (POURING THE WATER FROM THE SPOON BACK INTO THE GLASS A LITTLE AT A TIME: SPRINKLING, POURING, SPRINKLING, POURING) ... you let it cool till it's hard. I didn't have to do this, 'cause G-Man's stuff if gold. But since you were so generous and don't want any, what the heck, this is going to be the bust. (SHE PICKS UP THE KNIFE AND GINGERLY SCRAPES THE COOLING ROCK FROM THE SPOON ONTO THE TABLE AND CUTS A LARGER PIECE FROM THE UNCOOKED ORIGINAL AND PUTS IT IN THE STEM. SHE LET'S THE COOKED PIECE HARDEN AND SAVE FOR LATER.) What was I talking about? CECIL Being in love with a hard head. TINA In LOVE. Wow. I haven't uttered that word in a long time. L-O-V-E ... An-tee-way, all the time I am indulging in my hardhead, young boy, fantasy, I'm trying to talk the boy into some kind of future, like maybe a GED. Build me a boy in a cage, then set him free a man of my making. The Ex claims I was to insecure 'bout what I had to offer a grown man. What can you offer a man that's gonna change his narrow ways. A man ain't a challenge. A man is man. CECIL I never heard you talk this much, even when you came to the ... TINA An-tee-way, He comes up to me and wraps his arms around me, shows me this sculptured glass bowl thing lookin' like some Star Trek prop and says, "Just take a puff of this. I need you to understand me, where I am at, why you say I can't hear you, why your VCR is missing." I tell him don't be givin' me nothin.' Two glasses of beer would give me a bladder infection ... He kisses me on the forehead, baby, baby soft, looks at me with his hazel browns and says, I still hear his voice, see his eyes, he says, just like this, "Please, just one, for me." (THERE IS A LONG PAUSE) So I ... did it. First puff and ... I cried. Right away I cried. Bust my cherry, baby. It was wonderful. It takes all of you. No love. No room. We split up in a week. All he meant was my next hit. So don't start, okay? Can't stand the sound of the word sex. Love. (SHE HEATS THE STEM) CECIL But what about ... (TINA LIFTS HER HAND TO TELL CECIL NOT TO TALK WHILE SHE TAKES ANOTHER HIT. SHE DRAWS DEEP, CARELESSLY BURNING, PUFFING THIS TIME. SHE RECOVERS) TINA What time is it. CECIL About one AM. TINA No, I mean how much time we been here? CECIL 'Bout ... TINA This is your stuff, by the way, whether your doin' or not. You can tell me to get the hell out if I'm not using your time right. You better say what you got to say. When the hour is up I am leaving. CECIL Suppose there is still some left? TINA No such thing. And if there is I'll either take it with me, which I prefer, or you can tell me to go to hell, and I'll go. CECIL I prefer that you leave none of it here and take none with you. TINA In that case we both get what we want. I smoke, you talk. By the way, I was all wrong about you. I like you. Your a trip. Unbelievable. Any rock star would love to be in my shoes. Hard to imagine somebody like you exist. Don't trust anyone one doin'. Nobody. CECIL Not even you? TINA I won't steal, but I'll ride the ride with every stride. Who TINA wouldn't. Don't worry about your privacy. I don't share my leads, as the corporation tell you. Who'd believe me anyway. Somebody who will spend a bill and charge nothing but words. Nice to be inside doin.' Nice not to be alone doin' especially with somebody who's not doin'. You a trip! No, you don't have to worry about me sharin' YOU. And I won't come or call unless invited. I bet you'd be a real freak on the pipe. Okay? So. Talk. (FOR THE REST OF THE SCENE SHE CUTS AND PUFFS, PUFFS, PUFFS, CUTS, NEVER PAUSING EXCEPT TO LET THE PIPE COOL, ALWAYS CHECKING TO SEE IF THE COOKED ROCK IS HARD COLD YET) CECIL (TAKES A FOLDED PIECE OF PAPER FROM HIS POCKET) I wrote a poem about one month after we cut you loose. See the date. TINA You a trip. You can't be real. You ain't no serial killer, are you? CECIL Want me to read it? TINA Yeah. CECIL YOUR BEAUTY IS AN ANGEL FALLEN FROM SPRING SKIES. HARD TIMES, FUMIN' ... TINA Give it here, can I take it with me? CECIL I wasn't finished. After all you said about your life, love, etc., what I had to say is ... TINA Can I take it with me? I don't want to listen to it, now, under the circumstances. Especially the way it starts off. CECIL You don't like it. TINA Sounds too close. Spare yourself, sir, the Me-chum man. Just leave it over here by me. CECIL Suppose, suppose I was for real. Suppose, now, just suppose I was someone to never ask, to never take what wasn't from the heart, that ... that I could someway, match the high, with another high, like a subliminal bedside tape ... TINA ... Like you subliminally mentioning bedside ... CECIL ... Please, I'm running out of time ... TINA (THERE IS ONE LAST NICE SIZED PIECE ON THE TABLE PLUS THE COOKED PIECE THAT IS COLD HARD NOW) TINA You right, I ain't skimpin' from here on in, being I got to swallow the rest of this before I go. I got to meet the two o'clockers, out from the clubs. It's nigh on prime time. And you have wet my appetite ... CECIL ... Suppose, there was a way out. TINA There is a way out. Me, I'm my only way out, counselor, you know that. CECIL Would you take it if there were? If ... TINA I said I been in rehab ... but those are thoughts when the sun rises and ... CECIL I want to be there, no lectures, I just want to be around, just in case you get the urge to try, and whether you do or not ... TINA Is this a proposal? (SHE CUTS THE ROCK IN HALF, LOADS AND HEATS IT. CECIL KNOWS NOT TO TALK TILL SHE IS FINISHED BUT AS SHE GASPS THE SMOKE OUT:) You can go ahead and finish. CECIL It's a proposition. I'm not attached and I don't have any kids. I have money. No strings. Just spend time. TINA You got more money tonight? CECIL I get paid two days from now. TINA Let's talk about the future when it gets here. CECIL Will you see me for dinner sometime, before, if I agree to ... TINA ... Feed me after? It's not the way it works. I can't promise. CECIL Will you see me as often as you can? TINA This is nice, now. A real break, but I don't know how comfortable it will be, me doin' and you virgin. Something tells me that's gonna get old. Something tells me I'll start feeling bad about that and your money. I got to have the freedom to do where I want to do. You don't want to be around me when I don't want to be around. CECIL Yes! Yes I do. Even then. I'll go in the other room. But if I buy, you do it here, with me, and give me a chance to do other things with you. TINA Like what? CECIL Like at least ask if you want to go to dinner, play cards, act the fool, see a movie ... TINA Have sex? CECIL Make love? Maybe. The look in your eyes when you came in here. You remember and some part of you wants it all back. I know your history. TINA That's right, you do don't you. If you were anybody else and didn't treat me so good the way you did tonight, I'd say sure, baby, anything you say and enjoy the lie. But, no, I won't promise you what I don't even know. This is not Christine. This is Tina. The whore. Now for the real deal. (SHE CUTS THE COOKED ROCK INTO TWO PIECES AND LOADS ONE) Whateva else you have to say on the subject, please, say it before I do this. I don't want to hear nothin' heavy after that. CECIL I just want to know what I would have to do. The world needs somebody like you back. TINA Pllleezze! CECIL I know I sound like some "Say No" ad. I don't have time to CECIL ... I am afraid what I would do to have ... to know you ... keep you alive ... God, I sound so corny. Right now I believe I'd go down with you to bring out. I feel dangerous. You are dangerous. You make me jealous of that stuff. What's the big deal, that it could take a queen off her throne ... TINA (LAUGHS) Now that WAS corny ... CECIL I want to know you ... I ... TINA STOP! ... YOU-ARE-A TRIP!!! I can't take anymore. I don't think it would be a good idea. (TO HERSELF) I don't believe I'm saying this to a sugar daddy guarantee, (TO CECIL) I don't think you should ever see me again. And if I can manage it, I'll avoid you like the plague I am. CECIL Tina ... TINA Stop! Enough. I got to get out of here. (SHE HOLDS UP HER HAND TO WARD OFF ANOTHER WORD FROM CECIL. SHE STROKES THE PIPE WITH HER BIC. SHE IS MORE METICULOUS THAN EVER. SHE PULLS, DRAWS, HEATS, SIPS, BREATHES THE COOKED PIECE LIKE SIPPING SOME REVERENT WINE AT AN ALTAR. SHE LET'S OUT THE SMOKE, RAISES HER HANDS IN THE AIR AS IF IN CHURCH, SHAKES HER HEAD, LET'S OUT AN EROTIC SIGH AND SHOUTS IN ORGASM) YES GOD! YEEAAHSSS! THAT WAS IT. (SHE RECOVERS ENOUGH TO ENERGETICALLY BEGIN TO HEAT THE STEM AGAIN) CECIL Give it here. I want a hit. (TINA CALMLY PUTS THE PIPE DOWN, STANDS, STRAIGHTENS HERSELF, ADJUST HER CLOTHES) TINA Take me back where you found me. CECIL I ... TINA NOWWW!!! CECIL Hey, calm ... TINA No! You calm. When I came in here and offered you a hit, I did it because I thought you were bullshitting me. I said, watch this guy either go to grabbing me or the pipe. Got to grab one or the other. Can't be wanting to talk. (MOCKING) "Want to come to my place." Breathing like a dog in heat. Then I saw you say, "No," and maybe I WAS high, but I swore I lookin' at Jesus in the flesh, sitting before me, forgiving this sin and gonna just sit and watch over me to make sure the fires of hell didn't burn me while he was here. (HANDS HIM THE PIPE) Here! ... Get you some of what's left in the cooker. I'll take this with me, if you don't mind, and I know this is your rock ... (INDICATING THE PIECE OF COOKED ROCK ON LEFT) TINA ... but I cooked it and I am going to do for you what you can't do for me. I am going to take it out of here and spare your ass. I ain't talked about the downside. The bug eyed darkness after the light. Who would. For every minute on the high you serve an hour on the downside. Now get me outta here. (TINA REACHES FOR THE LAST COOKED PIECE, INDEED THE LAST OF IT ALL. CECIL BEATS HER TO IT, PICKS IT UP.) CECIL No. TINA Let's go, please. CECIL Okay. (CECIL GETS UP. THEY ARE ABOUT TO EXIT. TINA TURNS TO HIM.) TINA Just let me hit what's in this pipe and take half of that with me. CECIL No. (TINA SHOWS HIM HER HANDS SHAKING) TINA (IN A RAGE) Look, you done blew my high!!! CECIL Give me a moment to consider it. You can finish the pipe in the mean time. TINA Yeah, and then if you say no, I ain't got nothin' to get myself together for third shift ... (CECIL PUTS THE ROCK ON THE TABLE ABOUT TO CUT IT WITH THE KNIFE) No!!! Let me do it. You do it wrong an it crumbs. (SHE CAREFULLY CUTS IT. PLOPS IN THE CHAIR. HEATS THE STEM. TAKES A SHORT DRAW TO GET GOING AND SHOVES IT IN HIS DIRECTION. CECIL TAKEN OFF GUARD, PAUSES, TAKES THE PIPE AND GOES FOR THE LIGHTER. SHE SNATCHES HER HAND WITH THE LIGHTER AWAY) No!!! I'll light it. You'll burn it up. Now put it in your mouth, draw from the stomach, NOT YET, dummy. When I say so draw like you're sipping from a straw. Aand DON'T PULL HARD! When I say pull do it. When you see the bottle fill up with smoke, the objective is to keep it filled by pulling soft. Now Get a good breath ... Now let the breath out slow and when your all out of air begin to pull gently, gently. (TINA KNEELS IN FRONT OF HIM AND CORRECTS THE POSITION OF THE PIPE STEM TO HORIZONTAL. CECIL LET'S OUT A BREATH AND NODS HIS HEAD THAT HE IS READY. TINA WAVES THE BIC UNDER THE STEM. CECIL BEGINS TO PULL) You're pulling too hard. Gently, from the stomach. Yes, yeeess, that's a baby. Wow, you got wind, baby, yeah, you gonna fly. (CECIL WAVES FOR HER TO TAKE THE PIPE AWAY. TINA SITS BESIDE HIS CHAIR AS IF TO MAKE ROOM FOR HIM AND SOFTLY RUBS HIS BACK.) Now hold just for a moment and let it out slowly, slowly. (CECIL, ALREADY SWOONING, LET'S THE SMOKE OUT SLOWLY, HE WRAPS IS ARMS ABOUT HIMSELF TO PROTECT AGAINST AN ENORMOUS SHUDDER AND SIGH THAT FOLLOWS, LEANS TOWARDS TINA ROCKING HIMSELF) CECIL Ho ... hol ... hollld ME!!! ... TINA ... Man, don't start ... CECIL ... hooollld ME!!! TINA You are a trip. (TINA LOOSELY WRAPS HER ARMS AROUND CECIL AND PATS HIM, THEN GIVES IN TO A TENDERNESS SHE HAS LONG FORGOTTEN IN HOLDING/BEING HELD AND HOLDS HIM TIGHT AND ROCKS HIM LIKE A BABY) CECIL All I saw... all I see is love. TINA Men usually do. That or violence. I don't see the difference. (TINA LET'S GO ABRUPTLY, STANDS INDIFFERENTLY.) Let's go. I gotta go. (AS SHE GRABS THE OTHER HALF OF THE COOKED ROCK AND PIPE AND QUICKLY THROWS IT IN HER BELT BAG) CECIL But there is some more ... TINA NOW! I gotta go. This is mine. let's go. CECIL I got the bank, ah, my bank card. Can we come back here? TINA Happens every time ... Sure we can, baby, I'm easy. Welcome to the other side. BLACK OUT INTERMISSION ACT II PRELUDE MUSIC-RAP ACCOMPANIES G-MAN BY THE STREET LAMP. G-MAN What?! You my big who? Big brother? Who sent you? My momma called the who association? Aw, come on man, don't you feel stupid. Does she know I got these rocks? How you think she got the phone on to call you? School? Do you go to school? Yeah? College, huh? What's your minor, major or whatever they call it? Engineering, huh? Well, dis me. I like your car. I can get you some kickers for the joint. Roll down the strip, like Dudley says, with a war cry, thumpin' to the tribal beat of judgement day. Betta nix that idea, though. White folks 'fraid of tinted windows, with bass bammin' niggas they can't see. Reminds 'em of days to come. Dooms day shit, people under the stairs ... Got a cellular? I'm gonna get me one of those cellular joints. I already got a beeper and a dirt bike. Better stay away from them corporations when you get out, man. They good for gettin' brothers to buy shit, givin' them credit cards and stuff. Then when life gets decent and his woman gets used to them clubs and trips, they dis 'em on the layoffs and they gotta store they whole life in the pawn shop ... (PATTING HIS BEEPER) They my main customers. Ain't no money on the streets. I'm glad they doin' all the bustin' and say no shit in the projects. Takes the heat off the beeper dealers and the Maxima customers. G-MAN I just do the block between beeps. Get anywhere in the city in 45 with my dirt bike. It's a $700.00 bike. Man's got to go into business for himself. A job is a job and an honest man ain't got a chance, big brother. I'm out here 'cause I can't see goin' to all that school just to get tripped down the aisle. I'm out here so my momma can have a phone, and cable. Didn't she tell you that? ... Hey, do me a favor, you wanna be somebody's big brother. Man told me there is a difference between self employed and self supporting. Says its important to know when I'm old enough for the IRS to keep tabs. Go find out the difference for me. I don't read so well. Go leave the info with moms. You won't find me here anymore. Thanks to you I gotta relocate. And, hey, ain't you got no brothers of your own? I got four. And I ain't the oldest. Last thing I need is another brother. Dad's dead. Ask your association they got anymore of them. BLACK OUT ACT II SCENE 1 SCENE 1 IS A MEDLEY OF VIGNETTES DEPICTING THE TYPICAL AND ATYPICAL BEHAVIORS OF TINA AND CECIL UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF CRACK. THE CHANGES OF COSTUME AND SET BETWEEN VIGNETTES ARE PERFORMANCES ACCOMPANIED BY CHOREOGRAPHY AND ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS. HAPPY AND PLENTY THE CHOREOGRAPHY AND MUSIC COMPOSITION "HAPPY AND PLENTY" ARE PERFORMED AS A PRELUDE TO THIS "HAPPY AND PLENTY" RIFF. IT'S WEEKS AFTER CECIL'S FIRST HIT. CECIL AND TINA ARE IN BACK ROOM, GETTING HIGH. CECIL IS CURLED AROUND TINA'S LEGS, WHO IS PICKING AT HIS PIMPLES. CECIL HAS PIPE IN HAND, SMOKING. THERE IS A GENEROUS PORTION OF ROCKS ON THE TABLE. THROUGHOUT THIS VIGNETTE THEY ARE SMOKING, CHANGING SCREENS, CUTTING ROCKS, ALWAYS DOING THE RITUAL OF KEEPING THE PIPE LIT, THE SMOKE FLOWING SMOOTHLY. TINA All that shit laid out. You tryin' to kill me? CECIL I want you here. I want you here all the time. I can't do this alone. How could anyone do this alone. What can you do with this high by yourself. TINA Oh, man, you are still to new. A trip. You'll find out. Just like reefer. First it gives you the munchees, makes you horny, makes you want to rap. Then, suddenly you just want to go to sleep. You just want to get high. You alright with me, though. I don't know if you are good for me, but you're damn good to me. Too good to be true. Really. I've known you for four weeks and not once did you make me, ask me ... Nevermind. CECIL What? To have sex? TINA Nevermind! CECIL C'mon, what? TINA You have taken me off the streets. Like R&R. Like ... Safe. I don't know if it's the dope or the whorin' that makes sex like taking medicine. Sometime I feel you. I could be walkin' down the street. And I just laugh. It feels good. It's as much ... as close as I can ... If someday we never speak to one another again I will always remember ... And I know it can't last. That why it's like R&R. A break in the war. But you outta workin'. Unemployment's run out. Money, you know? Even killin' yourself cost money. I keep thinkin', preparin' myself for the day, maybe tomorrow, when I got to do the do, streets. What a bummer. What a bum. Why you keep me like this. I feel kept. CECIL I associate it with you. Gettin' high. TINA That's a hell of a thing to say ... CECIL ... I mean, it's the way I came into it. It's the way ... TINA ... Look, I don't care ... CECIL ... It's the only way I can keep you. TINA How you know. You ever try. CECIL You wouldn't give me the time to say hello if this shit, as you call it ran out right now. TINA You can't hurt my feelings. CECIL I ain't tryin' to hurt your feelings ... TINA ,,, Maybe rub my dignity the wrong way. But, back to reality, you right. I only know what you got. And when that's gone, I'm gone. So let's be straight on that, so you don't have to worry about what you say. Just pass the heat and get off my legs. Let's be happy. CECIL Yeah, as long as there is plenty. Machine took my bank card. We smoking the rent. TINA I don't want to hear it. CECIL Well what are we going to do when the well runs dry. I know what CECIL you'll do. What about me. Where ... TINA I - DON'T - WANT - TO - HEAR - IT! (HE HITS HER PLAYFULLY. SHE HITS HIM BACK HARD, PLAYFULLY. HE PULLS HER TO THE FLOOR. THEY WRESTLE, LAUGH, GET WINDED, LAY ACROSS ONE ANOTHER, THEN BOTH RISE AT THE SAME INSTANT AND REACH FOR THE PIPE, WHICH MAKES THEM LAUGH AT EACH OTHER HORRIFICALLY. TINA GOES TO HER CHAIR, ALWAYS THE SAME CHAIR. CECIL GOES TO THE OTHER CHAIR, TINA CUTS A PIECE LOADS IT, LIGHTS IT, TAKES A LONG DRAW AND HANDS IT TO CECIL. SHE STILL HEATS IT FOR HIM.) TINA 'Bout time you be feeding yourself, Mee-chum man. CECIL Yeah. Let's be happy. I really do love you. TINA Shut up. (TINA PULLS HIM OFF HIS CHAIR, PULLS HIM TO HER, WRAPS HIS ARMS AROUND HER LEGS AND STARTS PICKING ANOTHER PIMPLE, ON HIS FOREHEAD, HER FACE UP CLOSE TO HIS, HER LIPS ALMOST TOUCHING HIS. CECIL IS STILL, VERY STILL, AS IF NOT TO DISTURB HER BREATHING ON HIM.) (THE SONG "MONSTERS" BY MICHAEL WILLIAMS IS PERFORMED WHILE CECIL RUBS STAINS INTO HIS DAY-OLD CLOTHES TO SHOW TIME HAS PASSED AND HE HASN'T CHANGED HIS CLOTHES IN DAYS. LAUNDRY IS PILED SOMEWHERE. TINA, ON THE OTHER HAND, WALKS HER BEAT LOOKING FRESH. IT IS A CHOREOGRAPHIC RITUAL DEPICTING THE FRANTIC, YET PEDANTIC EFFORT TO DO THE EVERYDAY MASKING OF THE DEGENERATION OF CARE AND ENERGY - ALL MOTIVATION FOCUSED ON THE NEXT HIT.) PHONE SEX (TINA AND CECIL ARE SITTING, WAITING. CECIL IS STARING AT TINA.) TINA What you lookin' at. Call G-Man. CECIL I did. TINA Call him again. CECIL He told me not to. Said he'd get here soon as he could. TINA What's taking him so long? CECIL Bike. At the shop. Went to pick it up ... We could make use of this time. We don't have to just sit here like this all the time like waiting for time to begin. TINA What are you talking about? CECIL I want to make love to you... TINA ... Why can't we just let ... CECIL ... We can do it before he gets ... TINA ... it happen ... CECIL ... here ... THE PHONE RINGS. THEY BOTH RUN TO IT. CECIL ANSWERS THE PHONE WITHOUT TAKING HIS EYES OFF TINA. IT'S THE LANDLORD.) CECIL I know I told you I'd have it today. TINA (TO HERSELF PICKING UP HER THINGS TO LEAVE)) Damn! You just got to spoil it. Why can't you ... CECIL (TO TINA) Why can't I what. I didn't say you had to I only ... (TO LAND LORD) Everybody gotta live somewhere, sir ... TINA ... I'm getting outta here. Dis this shit ... CECIL (TO TINA) Where you goin'? sit down. TINA Who you telling to sit down? CECIL (TO TINA) SIT DOWN, I SAID! (TO LAND LORD) TOMORROW, but to be sure ... (TINA IS HEADING OUT. CECIL GRABS HER. SHE PULLS AWAY. CECIL WAVES MONEY IN THE AIR.) CECIL (TO TINA) Don't come back ... (TO LAND LORD) No. No I was talking to someone else. (TINA STOPS IN HER TRACKS AND BEGINS TO TAKE HER CLOTHES OFF LIKE SHE IS IN AN EXAMINING ROOM. NON CHALANT, DISTANT, COLD. (TO LAND LORD) CECIL Thursday. Okay, okay, someway, tomorrow. Just chill and have a nice day, damn, you'd think you owned the place. You're just the supe and YOU'RE two months behind. (CECIL HANGS UP THE PHONE, GOES OVER TO TINA WHO IS STRIPPED DOWN TO HER UNDERWEAR.) TINA ... So! ... (CECIL WALKS OVER TO HER. HE SOFTLY, TIMIDLY WRAPS HIS ARMS AROUND HER, BEGINS TO KISS HER AROUND THE NECK AND FACE. SHE IS A STATUE. HE BEGINS TO GET FEVERISH. SHE PUSHES HIM AWAY, WALKS LIKE A ROBOT OVER TO THE BED AND LIES DOWN. Come on, come on, hurry up, and I want my money. Twenty dollars. CECIL Well, then, let me add insult to injury. (CECIL REACHES INTO HIS POCKET AND SMOOTHES A TWENTY ON THE NIGHT TABLE, TAKES OFF HIS SHIRT THROWS IT ANGRILY ON THE FLOOR. THROWS HIS SHOES ACROSS THE ROOM, BANGS HIS FIST ON THE NIGHT TABLE. RIPS UP THE TWENTY IN THREE PIECES. TINA TRIES TO GRAB HIS HANDS TO STOP HIM. THERE IS A KNOCK AT THE DOOR. THEY BOTH FREEZE. CECIL QUICKLY PUTS ON HIS SHIRT AND HEADS FOR THE DOOR. TINA TRIES TO PUT THE PIECES OF MONEY TOGETHER, LICKING AND SMUDGING ALL THE WHILE GETTING DRESSED. CECIL GREETS G-MAN AT THE DOOR.) G-MAN Leave me out there like that again and yawl lose your air time for a week. CECIL Hey, li'l brother. Come on in. Where your been? TINA (ZIPPING, PULLING, STRAPPING) You stand me up like that again, bo-eeey, and I'll kick your little TINA ass. (CECIL GIVES G-MAN THE MONEY.) CECIL This is my money due rent, boss man. I got another 20 spot in the room. Just some loose stash. (TINA HANDS G-MAN THE TORN TWENTY) I don't need it. Man we gotta talk credit. We deserve consideration. TINA I'll clear it with Dudley. (CECIL CAST A STRONG GLANCE AT TINA.) BLACK OUT SEX AND MONEY TINA IS BY THE STREET LAMP. SHE HUMS THE TUNE THEN SINGS A VERSE TO AN ORIGINAL SONG COMPOSED AND WRITTEN BY MICHAEL WILLIAMS. TINA Yeah, some of 'em claim to want to save me. Others want to contribute if I be their exclusive thang, thang. Rich ones. Sovereign as some of those jacuzzi shoppers may be: don't touch me. If I can't get paid for the offense of lovin,' screwin,' then kiss my ass and lick too. Might as well 'cause I figure what's the use. What's the use of some love shit you know is going to hurt. Stupid. I use to be somebody's good bitch. But the comp was to heavy, male egos runnin' the way they do with me being an educated TINA corporate prodigy, high IQ and all. And I loved him so ... heart break then a sedative take. How about a drink. How about some reefer, snort a line, push a needle, talk to momma, find a young boy who puffs the pipe. Transcendence, new age music is in line with the gospel and satanic ritual, psycho couch and talk show shit, selling your soul is sellin' your soul to no matter who. I sold my heart to the Junk man and look at me now. Somebody owes me. I was s-t-u-p-i-d. Only thing smart I did bein' in love was gettin' rid of all the seeds before they turned to weeds. Imagine bringin' crumb snatchers into this oil spill, world o'gate. I see whores on the corner walkin' their children to the medical center. South Africa. Crack the whip. Crack is the whip. Step outta line and see if you won't whore. BLACK OUT GHOSTBUSTIN' CECIL IS ON THE FLOOR CRAWLING AROUND WITH A FLASH LIGHT SEARCHING FOR CRUMBS OF CRACK. THE CHOREOGRAPHY AND MUSIC COMPOSITION "GHOSTBUSTING" IS PERFORMED WHILE TINA IS DELIVERING IN THE SHADOWS LAUGHING, SNEERING AND MAKING FUN OF CECIL GOING THROUGH THIS COMPULSIVE AND DEMEANING PHASE OF ADDICTION. TINA ("..." = time elapse (5-10 sec.) while Tina watches Cecil) Well, look what we have here. Mr. virgin rock star ghostbustin' with his beamer's ... Don't beam him up yet, Scotty ... Don't do that, baby. Don't even get into it. It never ends ... Over there, over there, I see somethin' white, on the rug, on the white shag rug ... bust 'em baby ... crawl, beg, hope, dig, roots, dig to TINA your roots ... find your dreams, rox star, baby, they in there. Find one for me ... Dumb Ass. BLACK OUT HAPPY BIRTHDAY AN ORIGINAL ARRANGEMENT BY MICHAEL WILLIAMS OF "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" IS PERFORMED AS THE LIGHTS RISE ON CECIL HANDING A GIFT COMPLETE WITH DEEP GREEN WRAPPING AND A PINK BOW TO TINA. CECIL Happy birthday. TINA So this is why it was so urgent that I WALK over here. What's wrong with the car. Where is it. CECIL Repo man struck in the night. TINA Sorry to here that. CECIL Will it make a difference. TINA Why you keep asking me that every time something happens? I feel half guilty for ... Anyway why? CECIL Why what? TINA This birthday thing. CECIL I love you ... I ... TINA (OPENING THE GIFT) Never mind ... How'd you know it was ... Oh, that's right, you had my files. I had forgotten about birthdays. Let's see what we have here. (SHE PULLS OUT A PIPE. IT'S ONE OF THOSE PIPES MADE OF GLASS. ONE PIECE WITH THE GLASS AND STEM ALL MADE IN ONE MOLD.) What the fuck is this?! A JOKE? CECIL What do you mean? TINA What do I mean?! Happy birthday?! You love me? And you GIVE ME A PIPE?! CECIL I ... TINA (IN A RAGE TO TEARS) I-I-I-I-I nothin'! A rose plucked from hell, a used hair drier, a book of food stamps but you give me a PIPE? And you say I am special, some queen underneath my dry ass skin. (SHE THROWS THE PIPE IN AN ATTEMPT TO BREAK IT. CECIL CATCHES IT BEFORE IT CAN IMPACT ON SOMETHING.) CECIL I'm sorry. Yeah, your right. What was I thinking. (CECIL GOES TO HOLD HER, COMFORT HER. SHE PUSHES HIM AWAY. HE GRABS HER AROUND HER LEGS AND SOBS. SHE SOBS. CECIL TURNS HER LOOSE.) CECIL I'd take you to wherever you want to go now, but ... (THE LIGHTS GO OUT.) TINA Damn black outs. CECIL (LIGHTS CANDLES HE HAS PRESET AROUND THE ROOM) No black out. They gave me till five yesterday. The electric company. I'll have 'em back on ... (TINA BEGINS TO UNDRESS) What are you doing? TINA Giving myself a present. CECIL Tina ... TINA ... Shhh! Light that candle. The one by the bed. HAPPY BIRTHDAY REACHES ITS DENOUEMENT AS THEY PREPARE FOR BED: TWO VIRGINS BEING DELICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER. BLACK OUT SCENE 2 SCENE OPENS WITH TINA SITTING IN CHAIR, SHORT JEAN SKIRT, RED SILK BLOUSE, LEGS PROMINENT. SHE IS PUFFING THE PIPE. HANDS THE PIPE TOP CECIL. TINA Don't pull so hard, damn, I thought you said you got this for me. Give it here. See! (CECIL FEELS THE BOTTLE, GRABS BACK HIS HAND) Feel that. The bottles hot and the screen is probably burned. (TINA TAKES A CLOTH AND WIPES THE PIPE, AN ATTEMPT TO DRAW THE HEAT FROM IT. SHE THEN PULLS THE STEM OUT AND PUTS THE PIPE AND STEM IN HER POUCH.) CECIL Wait, wait, there is some more in there, just, just ... TINA ... There's nothing in there ... CECIL ... Maybe you just want to keep ... TINA ... What! Keep what? CECIL There's some more in there. TINA There's nothing in there that can do anymore for me. If I want to take some shit from you I would walk out with everything you got and you couldn't raise your voice to whisper. Beggin' for some damn fumes and accuse me of cheating you. Here! TINA (THROWS THE PIPE ON THE FLOOR) Walk me around the corner. CECIL I... damn why ... Can't we stay, and just... damn I don't have any more money, TINA Please let's go. GET ME OUTTA HERE. DROP ME OF THE NEAREST CLIFF, JUST GET ME ... CECIL FINE! (THERE'S A KNOCK AT THE DOOR. CECIL AND TINA FREEZE.) Who is it? TINA You expectin' somebody? CECIL Who is it? TINA Well let me out another way. I don't want nobody ... MYRNA Is Tina there? CECIL You told somebody where I LIVE?! TINA Nooo! It might be the a set up. MYRNA Is Tina ... Tina I know you're there. It's Myrna. TINA It's my sister. CECIL You got a sister. TINA You knew everything else. How come ... CECIL (HEADING FOR THE DOOR) Just a minute. (CECIL OPENS THE DOOR. MYRNA IGNORES HIM. STEPS RIGHT BY HIM, AND CONFRONTS TINA.) MYRNA Come home, NOW! And I ain't talkin' 'bout those dump of shacks you beamers be layin' around at night. I mean HOME. CECIL Hey, wait a minute, my name is ... nevermind my name but I do live here. MYRNA I know your name. Half the wrong side of town knows your name, fool. That's what they call you. You look like one. (CECIL AND TINA EXCHANGE GLANCES WHOSE THEME READS: HOW'S THE WHOLE WRONG SIDE OF TOWN KNOW ABOUT HIM AS A FOOL UNLESS TINA ...) TINA You just can't come in here ... MYRNA ... Oh no? Want me to send somebody else. How about your parole officer? TINA I don't give a fuck who you call, this is my life ... MYRNA ... Life my ass. And I'm tired of covering for you, girl. Momma ... TINA Momma, what's this got to do with momma? MYRNA None of HIS business, that's what. Now come on, I got my ride watin' 'round the corner. Told them I was going to see a friend about a meeting. TINA I ain't goin' nowhere till I know what's up. And I AIN'T goin' to no more of them meetings. Yawl might be trying to put me in that place again, kidnapping me. MYRNA Aw, bitch, I don't even believe there's hope and I ain't got MY life to waist ... CECIL I'm going to step outside and let you two talk. MYRNA Yeah, they say you was a bright wimp too. (CECIL STEPS OUTSIDE AND WAITS. OCCASIONALLY LOOKING ON THE GROUND FOR THE UNREALISTIC POSSIBILITY OF FINDING A GRAIN OF DOPE. TINA AND MYRNA JUST STAND FOR A MOMENT. MYRNA LOOKS AROUND.) TINA Well? MYRNA You know momma ain't well and daddy's to old himself to help her. I got my family ... TINA ... Ain't nobody tell you to have all them kids ... MYRNA ... Anyway, Herman is working two jobs ... TINA ... All them kids, I guess so ... MYRNA ... AND I gotta my hands full enough ... TINA ... I told you they need to be put in a nursing home. MYRNA Listen, you ... you ... Arghhh ... They call out to YOU. They send for me, but they call out to YOU, college girl. Yeah, I got a few kids and a decent man. Yeah we eat regular and my children say no to drugs and momma and daddy still call out to YOU, they precious thang, thang. I don't care if you stick your MYRNA filthy unkept head in the sand and breath dirt. I DON'T CARE! (CALMS HERSELF) MYRNA All ... I ... know ... is that your parents need you. The arthritis has set in momma's leg so ... so (BEGINS TO BREAK DOWN) ... so bad, that she, can't ... walk ... I mean it takes ten minutes from the porch to the side walk and she says ... Where's my ba- ... (PAUSE/RECOVER) Nevermind what she says. Daddy sits and sits and sits. Retirement blues. This crack thing has chewed a hole in the family. Empty, empty, dark. My oldest one keep askin', "Is Aunt Christine comin'," evertime some holiday ... I don't care what it takes. Either you get enough of whatever it takes to do for daddy and momma what they did for you or you die with them. You hear me! IF anything happens to them, or me or mine, and I even THINK that had you been there ... and you weren't, I will kill you, little sister. Do you hear me? No, no, don't you turn away, you look at me bitch. I will kill you! No more me coverin' for your illness, tellin' everybody some lie about how well you doin', headin' off trouble at the pass comin' you way. Ain't no cure for crack? Ain't no CURE for old age! Ain't no cure for what's going to happen to all yawls black asses, fuckin' with the ammagedon they done brought into our neighborhoods. You reach down deep, deep inside to where you used ride around on daddy's work bench back and you find your way home, MYRNA you hear me. 'Cause the next time I come for you I'll be wearin' black, flyin' on the wings of the angel of death to personally send you straight to hell without a trial. Trip out on that everytime you start flippin' on the upside or cryin' on the downside about nobody loves you. I love you. And I'll, swear for my name, kill you. Now turn your eyes away from me, got the nerve to be welling up, don't you dare shed a tear. TURN AWAY. So I can leave with my back turned to yours. (SHE STEPS OUTSIDE. CECIL IS STANDING DISARMED. SHE WALKS RIGHT BY CECIL AS IF TO IGNORE HIM, TURNS SUDDENLY.) Betta save yourself, mister. You already dark under your eyes. You must be a very stupid man. Culprit! CECIL I love her. (MYRNA GIVES OUT A SHORT LAUGH WHICH BREAKS INTO UNCONTROLLABLE, HAUNTING LAUGHTER AS SHE DISAPPEARS. CECIL CONTINUES TO STAND OUTSIDE. TINA REMAINS INSIDE.) TINA Got any money? CECIL Got the TV. Never look at it anymore anyway. BLACK OUT SCENE 3 TINA IS IN JAIL. POSSESSION. SHE'S JONESING. CECIL ENTERS. SCENE CAN BE DEPICTED BY A LIGHT TEMPLATE. CECIL Why are they keeping you? You told me they never keep you. TINA Get me outta here. CECIL I'm trying to raise bail now. By morning I'll have it. TINA I know about havin' it. You'll smoke it. CECIL No I won't. TINA (LITTLE GIRL EMOTIONAL) Yes you will. CECIL I said I won't. TINA (CRYING LIKE A BABY) Please, please, Cecil, get me ouuut. Get me ouuut. I'm in jail. I'm in jail. I-I-I can't be here. I'll kill myself before I stay here. Please ... CECIL I am not going to let you stay in here another day. TINA Pleeese ... CECIL Shhh! I'll get you out, Tina, first thing in the morning. Whatever it takes, I'll get you out. TINA You got a bump? ... CECIL ... Shhh! Girl you crazy? Want me in there too. Seems like ... TINA ... You got a bump? I got a way you could sneak me a hit ... CECIL NO! TINA Get me out before I die. CECIL Okay, but things are going to change. You hear me? Things are going to change. (CECIL BEGINS TO EXIT.) TINA YOU GET ME OUTTA HERE. YOU WEREN'T SUCH A SORRY WIMP ASS NIGGeR I WOULDN'T BE HERE. RUNNIN' OUTTA MONEY. NOT MY FAULT. YOU PUT ME OUT IN THE STREETS. YOU DO THAT MONEY AND I'LL, I'LL ... PLEASE, TOMORROW, OKAY? I LOVE YOU, CECIL!!! BLACK OUT SCENE 4 G-MAN IS STANDING IN A LIGHT ALL HIS OWN. A MICHAEL WILLIAMS COMPOSITION ACCOMPANIES. G-MAN I don't know what it's got to do with anymore. Use to be money and all them lies they tell you about black and proud, goin' to school, get a job to be laid off. Maybe it was Dudley talkin' easy money. I heard all the shit. I'm out here, mam, because, after awhile, it's just what's happenin'. Like my daddy use to tell me about little kids in Viet Nam. All they ever knew was war. He said if things go on long enough, the kids wind up bustin' the groove, carryin' the load. Ain't no biggee. What choice we got when all the grown ups got shell shock. Where we gonna go. Crack IS the neighborhood. It's just the joint, the whole joint. That's the way it is. You got guys like me out here pushin' rocks. And the good kids with the A's are sneakin' out the window, escapin' neglect or abuse, to be with the bad kids or gettin' ragged, even shot. Either way, if your a kid in the hood you get tagged. Ain't no good or bad in war, lady. Everybody is in it whether they like it or not. It's chemical warfare and crack is the grease. I'm gonna get dissed one day. Ain't about do I want to live. See, we don't know nothin' about future. We be wonderin' what yawl talkin' 'bout progress. To make progress you need protection. Shiiit, even Malcolm had to watch out for his own boys, and King, well, I've seen worse happen at a motel. Yeah, we have hope. To get as much of the gold before we go. Sir Juice. Money shines the G-MAN brightest when you ain't got a lot to look forward to. When it's about time being now. All we got is sun up to sun up. Join the juice, get a gang, buys you the day. Got some protection. I seen to many homeboys kilt for havin' they shoes untied, just being in the way. We ain't got no protection. You gonna protect me? You gonna close your shades. And that's okay. Life's worth as much as a trick to play on somebody. (TAKES HIS NINER OUT AND AIMS IT.) POP. Fooled ya. It was loaded. Heh, heh, heh. I mean, we at war, lady. And I'm a war baby. Yeah. (A GUN SHOT IS HEARD. MUSIC. G-MAN IS DEAD. LIGHTS FADE VERY, VERY SLOWLY ON HIM AND RISE ON TINA IN SOME OTHER ABSTRACT SPACE.) TINA (ROCKING HERSELF, SMOKING HER PIPE. DEEP EMOTIONAL TRAUMA OVER G-MAN'S DEATH) Aw, ahhh, G-Man, baby, little baby, gone. Gone! Sweet, baby, Brown baggin', baby. Never gon' get even. G-Man ... G-Man ... G-Man ... (TAKES A PUFF OF HER PIPE. G-MAN FADES OUT. TINA SOBS TRAUMATICALLY. TINA FADES OUT.) BLACK OUT SCENE 5 CECIL IS CLEANING AND SWEEPING. DUDLEY KNOCKS ON THE DOOR. CECIL ANSWERS IT. DUDLEY Hi. You don't know me. I'm a friend of Tina's. Is she here? I heard she had a run in with the law. It is my understanding that you were the hero that set her free. CECIL I haven't seen Tina in a week. I don't know where she is. DUDLEY She owes me money. I was sent here by her former, guy named Dudley. CECIL Dudley the drug dealer? DUDLEY You know him? Silly of me to ask. CECIL I know somebody who works for him. DUDLEY Yes, well, I know all about you. The little fella that worked for him, works for me, as did Dudley work for me and you owe the little fella some money, quite a bit of money, credit, the little son of a bitch knew better, which means you owe me in light of the fact that Dudley will be away for quite awhile. I need to talk to Tina on some other matters. You got my money, $700.00, I think it is. You got my money? CECIL No. DUDLEY Is that why you haven't been making any calls lately? CECIL No. DUDLEY On the wagon? (NO RESPONSE) Well if you are that explains why she hasn't been around. She's been going to visit Dudley at the big house, did you know that? (NO RESPONSE) You don't know anything about Christine, do you? (NO RESPONSE) Do you? CECIL What's this, an interrogation? Who are you that everyone works for you? That I have to pay YOU. I'll pay the 'little S.O.B. Where is he? DUDLEY Dead. CECIL What do you mean, dead? DUDLEY Shot, glocked, burned, dissed-missed. Somebody out to get DUDLEY Dudley's turf. MY turf. They got to him before I could, given out credit to miss queen bee, on your behalf. Couldn't pay his debt. I'm the regional manager, so to speak. We target therapeutic communities, so to speak. CECIL (DISBELIEF, WROUGHT) Dead? G-Man. Just a baby. DUDLEY Pleeese! CECIL Pleeese? PLEEESE?! You sound just like her. HE-IS-JUST-A-BABY!!! DON'T SAY ANOTHER WORD. HE IS JUST A BABY ... DUDLEY Was! ... A baby whose teat fed you goodies. You dare get vindictive, self righteous on me, huh?. Before you levy some indictment against those of us who gave the little pecker what little fun in life he had, indict yourself. You kept him in business. You junky, if anybody, you killed him. And if you don't get me that money within forty eight, poetic justice will be served on your black ass and they won't even find the ashes. Get me my money ... Sorry about G-Man. I really am. Thank God this shit isn't in my neighborhood. I have two young ones myself. Way of the world, my man, the shit flows into the black DUDLEY hole for those unfortunately not in power. BLACK OUT SCENE 6 LIGHTS RISE TO A CECIL AND TINA WHO ARE ALREADY AT IT. CECIL So what are we about, huh? TINA Rock stars, baby. CECIL Why didn't you tell me about Dudley the dealer. You fuckin' with the head honcho dealer who got bagged and's got lily white as an employer, and you treat ME like I'M nobody. You go and visit him in behind those bars that you just couldn't stand one more day. Dudley get you out? G-Man spread out in your filthy streets ALL NIGHT, so I hear, stinkin' in his own blood. And I looked and I searched and I waited, hunted you down and had to physically drag you to his burial. Couldn't find you for the funeral. How could you do that to him. How can you do what you do to me ... It's not the dope, I don't want to hear that shit. It's more basic, like let's go back to whatever character flaw led to your downfall, what, the nagging husband or the hardhead, is that where it started? You got some kind of built in freak flaw that was destined against all odds and good parents to become what you were always meant to be - a slut, freak, whore, junky, BITCH? TINA What you call me? CECIL What, I'm sure Dudley called you whateva, wheneva you crawled begging on hands and knees with YOUR arms wrapped around HIS legs ... Bitch ... TINA ... WHO'S A BITCH. I'LL KICK A BONE OUT YOUR FRAIL ASS ... MOTHA FUCKA ... CECIL SHUT UP, WHO YOU SCREAMIN' AT? THIS IS MY HOUSE. AND AIN'T NO SLUTS AND NO DOPE ALLOWED ON THE PREMISES ANYMORE. GO-BACK-TO-JAIL. JUST GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE. (TINA FIDGETS, GROWLS, TURNS OVER THE TABLE, AND ATTACKS CECIL. CECIL TRIES TO RESTRAIN HER AT FIRST, BUT SHE GOES TO FAR, PUSHES HIS BUTTON WITH A CROSS TO THE CHIN AND THEY GO AT IT WRESTLING, FLINGING, TUMBLING TILL THEY ARE EXHAUSTED.) CECIL You're right. It's the downside that gets you. Not the high but the minutes, hours, days, months of utter and complete sadness that drives you to the next hit. Oooh, the sadness, what I wouldn't give for a hit to stop the sadness. I been clean for three weeks. I don't even remember the high. I just want the sadness to end. Everything is so, so sad. I want me back. (SOBS) I want me back, so bad. What was I like. What was it like to want something else. I liked me. I liked me. I want me back! TINA Sometimes I just get tired and lay off for a few days. Longest TINA was a week. It's like I got to leave town on a space ship to get a thought without the smell of smoke jumpin' my back like a baby crying. Like a child you got to take care of, that don't ever, ever stop whining. So what's up? You got any money? CECIL Dammit, didn't I just suggest to you that I don't want any part of the shit, or anybody doin' the shit. You got me shaking now just being here. And I ain't apolo ... TINA I need money for an abortion. You don't have to trust me with the money. I wouldn't. All you got to do is go with me to the clinic, pay the cashier and disappear. CECIL What, they got one of them weekend inmate screw a mate pity pussy sessions at the Big House. His goldy locks boss came to collect our debts. Ask her for the money. She wants to see you anyway. What you got she wants so bad? You been holding out on me? You got hold of some of Dudley's stash? You be gofer for the two of them? Dudley got you pregnant or do you know who? You better get an AIDS test, that's what you better do. Poor kid. Yeah, kill the jailbird fetus before you find out who the father isn't. TINA (WITH GREAT EFFORT TO CONTROL A RAGE RESPONSE) TINA Last time I went to see Dudley I told him I been in jail and I can't ever see that happenin' again. Yes, I was the liaison between the white girl and Dudley. I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised how many street deals are networked from prison. I told him I wanted out. He kissed me on the cheek and said, "Run and don't stop till you're happy." Hands on glass is as near I ever got to him. If I was doin' the beat you woulda found me. You couldn't find me 'cause I was at my sisters. I been at my sisters since you bailed me out the Hall of Justice. CECIL Right. TINA Right what, mother fucker? What the hell do I have to lie to you for. You candy ass, wind up toy, pencil dick punk. Who are you I gotta lie with your lost everything self 'cause you looove me? I feel sorry for ya and I need some money to get this thing outta me. So I humble myself to tell your case workin' unemployed, displaced, disposable, cleeean for three whooole weeks, pie back ass what's the deal. What can, or HAVE you done for me, but buy me a pipe for my birthday? ... I lit the candle, boy. I lit the candle. First time and last time for a long time. I lit the candle! ... YOU didn't feel it, Mr. romantic? All night long ... EYE to EYE, all wet night, table catchin fire for the candle meltin', and you ain't had breath to blow it out. TINA Remember? WE DIDN'T SMOKE NOTHIN' THAT NIGHT. WE WENT TO SLEEP. So much love you got but you ... Look, I'm gettin' outta here. You don't have to do shit for me. My character flaw is never listenin' to my first mind. No. I ain't trying to bust the habit. Sooon as I leave here I'm gonna get me some, enough to get you outta my mind. But I don't want no drug money from you. Ever! I asked you to give me money so I can get rid of your LOVE child, as it were so I can get on with my life ... as it were. I'm gonna say this and so help me God if you so much as LOOK like you gonna react one way or the other ... (PULLS A KNIFE FROM HER POUCH. THREATENS CECIL WITH IT) IT'S YOURS. (CECIL WALKS UP TO TINA, PLACES A HAND AROUND THE BLADE. SHE LET'S GO OF THE HANDLE AND FLOPS IN THE CHAIR.) CECIL You ain't been out on the streets? (TINA IS ABOUT TO REAR UP.) Now I'm not questioning anything, I'm just ... I need to know have ... TINA Givin' head a couple of times, but Nooo, I haven't had penetration since that ... Wow, I must be outta my mind up here trying to prove ... Like I care. Just get the outta my way so I can accept your invitation to get outta your life. (TINA GETS UP AND IS ABOUT TO HEAD FOR THE DOOR. CECIL GRABS HER SHE TRIES TO PUSH HIM AWAY. HE HOLDS TIGHTER UNTIL SHE HAS NO RECOURSE BUT TO DROP HER HANDS AND INDULGE HIM. THE MOMENT BETWEEN THE ACTORS SHOULD DETERMINE THE NATURE OF THIS ENCOUNTER.) CECIL Tina ... suppose ... now just suppose ... TINA Oh, lawd, here comes the trip. CECIL Now just suppose, the baby could be alright. (TINA TRIES TO PULL AWAY SUDDENLY. CECIL HOLDS FAST.) Suppose, now, just suppose I could have it, you know, take care of it. No strings. Least you can be sure when I say no strings, I mean no strings. TINA You never cease to be a trrrip. You stupid, crazy and outta your mind if you think I would ... You talkin' 'bout a crack baby and no tellin' what all else is wrong with me ... I'd have to have every kind of test ... I couldn't go through that. I need to get high to even think about it and when I do that's the last thing I'm gonna think about. CECIL Just suppose, Tina. (MYRNA COMES BUSTIN' THROUGH THE DOOR.) TINA (PUSHES CECIL AWAY) Man, let me go. MYRNA Christine, I'm tired of sittin' out here. All manner of life is peekin' through my car window with some comment about how much back I got. What you doin' with yourself, Mr. Culprit. Looks like you gained some weight. Must be oversleepin'. TINA Shut up, Myrna, let's just go. CECIL Myrna, can I have a word with you? MYRNA A word and I count. TINA Myrna! MYRNA Wait in the car. TINA Myrna, this ain't none ... MYRNA ... We on my time, ridin' on my dime. (TINA EXITS AND STANDS OUTSIDE.) What do you want? CECIL Has she been staying with you? MYRNA Mr., don't be checkin' up on her, with me. If that's where she MYRNA said she been then that's where she been. CECIL I remember the first time I met you. MYRNA So, you an elephant. CECIL Please! MYRNA Now you a beggar. Talk. CECIL How many months is she. MYRNA Between two and three. CECIL What can we do? MYRNA We who? We the people, we the family or me and you, the latter CAUSIN' me to recollect how hard I laughed when you said something ... 'bout ... CECIL Nevermind ... What can I do? MYRNA Monkey said to the rabbit, "Betcha can't climb a tree." Rabbit said to the monkey, "Betcha can't live under the ground." God MYRNA come along struck the tree with lightening and flooded ever nook, and cranny of the earth. And with a voice of thunder God said to the Monkey and the rabbit, "All bets are off." Now that fable I just told you has about as much a moral as donkey dung. But it's got ya thinkin', don't it? You want advice whether you should dig a hole or climb a tree? The nearest homeless person got plenty advice for nickel beer. But in your situation your time would be better spent calculating how long you can tread water. Bye. (MYRNA GOES OUT THE DOOR WITHOUT LOOKING BACK. TINA PUTS HER ARMS THROUGH MYRNA'S AND THEY WALK AWAY.) MYRNA Girl, you picked a gem there. The culprit. (THEY DISAPPEAR. SLOW FADE ON CECIL STANDING AT THE DOOR. DUDLEY COMES OUT OF THE SHADOWS.) DUDLEY Got my money? (CECIL GOES TO PULLS A ROLL OF MONEY OUT OF HIS POCKET, SHOVES IT IN HER HAND.) DUDLEY What about Tina? CECIL What about Tina? Dudley You give her my message. CECIL You got business with Tina you know where to find her. DUDLEY It would be more prudent for me to deal with her here, off the streets, for obvious reasons. I fail to receive the respect I require out in the jungle. Those project people have no regard for status. CECIL That money I just gave you does more than pay a debt. I puts a spell on my door, that says I ever set eyes on you again in my life and I'll be doin' life. And if I ever catch you near Tina ... Well, let it suffice to say you genocidal mother fuckers who bring this shit into target communities have a knight in shining armor that's gonna cut all yawls throat before I die. I'm taken the battle straight to the filthy dome of the Pentagon. And if you don't like what I said and plan to uzzie me, well take note that I have sent five letters to five headlining people, one of which sits on one of them inner circle investigative committees. It's a chain letter, you heard of a chain letter, haven't you? Keep that in mind should anything happen to me, or Tina, mine or hers, Mrs. Anglo-Saxon, Hillary Witbaum III. (DUDLEY HAS A GASPING RESPONSE TO HIS KNOWING HER NAME.) Yeah, that's right. Dossier action. System taught me well how to keep tabs. Now get the hell out of town, go find refuge among CECIL those Italians or south of the border cartels yawl hire to do your dirty work and let sleeping dogs lie! Your time in nigh! DUDLEY Well, sir, let me tell you ... CECIL ... SHOOO!!! (DUDLEY QUICK STEPS INTO THE SHADOWS AND EXITS.) BLACK OUT SCENE 7 TINA IS STANDING ON THE CORNER. SHE IS LOOKING, POSTURING FOR SEVERAL CARS PASSING BY. TINA (TO A CAR PASSING) Hey! Whas up? I ain't seen you in weeks. Be out tonight! Got somethin' for ya. You know the deal. (A VOICE FROM THE SHADOWS. IT'S CECIL. CECIL APPEARS IN THE ABSTRACT SPACE HE OCCUPIED ACT I PRELUDE. WE SEE HIM. TINA HEARS HIM IN HER MIND. TINA IS MUMBLING TO HERSELF.) CECIL YOUR BEAUTY IS AN ANGEL FALLEN FROM SPRING SKIES. UPON A SOFT PILLOW, CANDLE LIT TO NEST DEAR BABIES (TINA IS FROZEN AT THE WORDS, CECIL'S VOICE IN HER HEAD. CECIL APPEARS IN SOME ASIDE SHADOW.) BUT DEE SMOKE DRAGON, CATCHES YOU FROM BEHIND ONCE UPON A TIME YOU ARE A QUEEN HIDDEN IN THE TOWER CAPTURED BY THE FANGS OF SWEET CRACK DOIN TIME AND I FOUND YOU AND I ENTERED HELL TO BE WITH YOU AND I DRANK THE DRAGON'S FIRE TO BRING YOU OUT NOW FALLEN KING, QUEEN SIP CANDLE LIT POISON INSTEAD YET, I AM THE HERE DRAGON BREATH SWEETENED BY CECIL LOVE'S DOWN TRODDEN PHOENIX FIRE I RISE I FLY I SNATCH, GRAB, TUCK YOUR WILL UNDER MY CROWN WINGS I SEIZE TALONED HOPE, SWOOP, SWOOSH, SLAM BANG RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF SMOKE FLAMES TOKE SMOOTH AS FEATHER I WILL TICKLE A LAUGH OUTTA FEAR IN YOU WOMAN SIT BY MY SPEAR, I STRIKE - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE (TINA COVERS HER EARS) YES, I SAID IT, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE LOVE, LOVE, LOVE AND LOVE, WAIT LOVE, MOVE LOVE, BUST LOVE, GROOVE, LOVE, G-MAN LOVE, TAKE LOVE, TAKE LOVE, TAKE IT, TAKE IT TAKE IT ... (TINA CALLS DESPERATELY OUT TO SOME CAR PASSING.) TINA HEY! HEY! COME HERE. YOU KNOW YOU WANT THIS. SWEET HIPS CECIL I WAIT TILL TIMES END TO BE PURE FOR YOU. ONE DAY DRENCHED IN THE FRESH AIR THAT STILL COMES FROM YOUR BREATH STILL BREATHING WORDS TO THE BABIES PRINCE AND PRINCESSES THEY WILL BE AND ONE DAY WILL BE SITTING AT THE FEET OF THEIR QUEEN MOTHER, YOU ARE CECIL GOLD TINA, CHILD OF GENIUS BEAUTY CHILD OF GOD'S SPRING SKY CHILD OF GOD TINA (SHE IS HIGH, DESPERATE, ROLE PLAYING HER BUSINESS SELF.) Frustration of rising expectations. The core idea of advertising is to make everything around you a subliminal bedside tape, dip in your mind, create the HABIT of buying, needing, wanting. Step one through 13, the never ending story, lost in the jungle for so long it's more than the substance, the poison, dragon's fire, it's the life, the LIFE that has to be conquered, seeing a lighter, ashtray, beer can, money, telephone, cigarettes, soap powder, butter, sitting in the back seat of a car, clubs, dawn, the smell of dusk, empty streets, all the music I will here for the rest of my life, everything drivin' slow, this town, state, red lights, faces, neighbors, food I can stomach, YOUR door, YOUR place, YOU! ... all these things, LIFE, marketing subliminals that will catch at the back of my throat and make me susceptible to the hunger for the rest of my life, life, LIFE. Even in the midst of our sublime happiness ... darling, sweet trip you are ... nevermind the days when I feel so bad, you get mad, we argue and let the actual devil in to drive me to smoke the shit just to get you OFF MY BACK ... (TINA BECOMES MORE AND MORE LIKE SOME BAG WOMAN.) ... AND THE LIMP CRIPPLE LITTLE FUCKER THING GROWING IN ME, IF IT TINA LIVES, IF IT'S NORMAL WILL HEAR, SEE, ALL THAT WE SEE HEAR, FEEL, TO BECOME MORE OF A CREATURE THAN LOVE CAN STAND. I have seen the infant frantic, hyper, bug eyed offspring of Crack running around untamed in the projects. (HOLLERS AT AN IMAGINARY CHILD) STAY OUT OF THE STREET, COME HERE, SAID, PUT, PUT THAT DOWN, ... (BEGINS BEATING THE CHILD) YOU ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO ME IF I HAVE TO BEAT YOUR BRAINS OUT ... (SHE CONTINUES TO SWING AT THE IMAGINARY CHILD, THEN JUST SWING.) YOU WANT ME TO GIVE BIRTH TO A CREATURE OUT OF LOVE. YOU WANT ME TO ... CECIL LOVE, LOVE, LOVE AND LOVE... TINA SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP... CECIL WAIT LOVE, MOVE LOVE ... TINA SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UUUUUP!!! CECIL BUST LOVE, GROOVE, LOVE, TINA (WALKS OVER TO THE STOP SIGN AND BEGINS TO SHAKE IT VIOLENTLY.) TINA STOP IT, SHUT UP, STOP IT ... CECIL TAKE LOVE, TAKE LOVE, TAKE IT, TAKE IT TAKE IT ... TINA ... GO AWAY, GO AWAY, GET AWAY FROM ME GO-A-WAY, OUT OF MY LIFE, 'FORE I KILL YOU ... CECIL ... I WILL ... TINA ... I WILL YOU, LEAVE-ME-ALONE, SHUT UP, GO AWAY!!! ... CECIL ... BRING YOU OUT ... TINA ... LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE ... 'CAUSE I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL KILL YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE THE SIGHT OF YOU ... (MYRNA COME UP BEHIND TINA. TINA CALLS OUT TO ANOTHER CAR.) Hey! Hey! pull ... pull over. Whas up? Comere, comere, comere. Pleeese, pleeese get me out of jail. MYRNA Come on, baby. I'm takin' you home. TINA (TO HERSELF AND MYRNA) Fuckas. They don't eeen know. I know. I been der. I ... I used to be somebody's good bitch. On top. Don' need nobody. TINA I'm hungry. MYRNA Yeah. BLACK OUT SCENE 8 TINA IS AT CECIL'S DOOR WITH TRASH BAGS OF CLOTHES. CECIL OPENS THE DOOR. TINA IS CLEAN, PRUNED, NEAT.) TINA Well? CECIL Well? TINA Whas up? CECIL You tell me. TINA I was thrown out. CECIL Yeah, sure. TINA You got a choice. Either take me to get this thing outta me or get some test. Test no good then it's my choice. CECIL You got a choice. You stay, you stay clean, at least in here and no streets, while you're in here. I see you on the street, you live in the streets. And you get help, at least till the baby comes. After that is your business, long as I have full custody of the baby. TINA His name's gonna be Nigel if it's a boy. It's latin. Means TINA black prince. Somethin' else African if it's a girl, which I don't intend havin'. Girls are impossible when they come of age. Boy you can always knock upside the head till he's an old man. No promises. CECIL What's G-Man's real name. TINA I don't know (THEY BOTH PAUSE REFLECTING.) Well? CECIL Well what? TINA I just gotta stand here. CECIL Yeah. For a moment. TINA Moment's all we got. CECIL So we got to make what we got count. (CECIL COMES OUT THE DOOR.) Don't know where your heads gonna be in the next two minutes. (SWEEPS TINA OFF HER FEET, CARRIES HER ACROSS THE THRESHOLD.) TINA Ahh, I don't believe you. You are a trip. Put me down. CECIL Never. (LIGHTS FADE OUT IN CECIL'S APARTMENT. A CANDLE IS LIT. MYRNA COMES UP TO THE DOOR CARRYING A BIG BROWN PAPER BAG. SEES THE SUIT CASES STILL BY THE DOOR.) MYRNA I told you 'bout leavin' me out here in this car, girl. I ain't up for these homeless studs, drippy drizzlin' down the street. You don't need no clothes. I bought you them mission clothes. (NO RESPONSE. SHE BEGINS TAKING POTS OF FOOD OUT OF THE BAG, SETTING THEM BY THE DOOR.) Tell that culprit come get this stuff before they do. Don't call me till next week. Don't hear from you by then I'm be here like the police. (MYRNA WALKS AWAY.) I wonder. I wonder. (MYRNA EXITS. CECIL IS ON THE BED WITH TINA, SHE IS SLEEP ACROSS HIM. HE PETS HER.) CECIL Crack is a wonder drug, designer plague, that instantly takes the soul. With the sips, slow easy sips, a must to sip so easily, and every nerve of hunger in the body remembers even more clearly, it remembers even more with distance and time. Their is no cure. Like some venereal disease there is no mercy for the first shot gets you; maybe not hooked, but, stolen into a hunger CECIL that's like entering in some orgasm made of smoke that comes and comes. The rush, even as I sip brings flowers to my mouth and I am in love with anything that meets my eye. All death, all life at that moment is joy and I want to speak, and herald "How wonderful, how wonderful I feel, taste, so much love, I want to devour you with this love whoever is before me ... whoever. But my testicles are ice and my penis is a stranger for this is all that feels, the smoke-draw-sipping watching the pipe fog, please fog don't go. Let me draw my breath so faintly so you won't go away, so quiet. Nobody will let you speak until the rock is burned and fingernails "ghost bust" microscopic crumbs that might be hiding among the jungle fibers of the shag rug. Just one sip and your life changes forever, even if you never take another ... I see why they kill ... And after the virgin rush there is ... the high ... then ... the edgy down slide, on the down side where nothing matters worry ... down hell sadness ... then ... helpless thoughts wondering where you went, worry sadness, when will you return, want to come home so bad but can't do but hope you never have the means to do that again, and in that sorrow, regret the hunger hits your thumping heart with, "Oh, if I could have just one more sip. If the angel would walk in with the pipe, put to my mouth, what choice would I have. What hope." (TINA STIRS, MOANS IN HER SLEEP SHE REACHES FOR SOMETHING. TINA (IN HER SLEEP) Gi ... give ... here ... don't ... burn. (CECIL REACHES OUT TO HER GRABBING HAND. CLOSES HIS HAND AROUND HERS AND SHE GOES BACK TO SLEEP.) CURTAIN