Buried Child Read Free Page B

crying softly to himself but keeps husking corn. Pause.)
    DODGE: (
To
HALIE.) Why'd you have to tell him that? Who cares where he got the corn? Why'd you have to go and threaten him with expulsion?
    HALIE: (
To
DODGE.) It's your fault, you know! You're the one that's behind all of this! I suppose you thought it'd befunny! Some joke! Cover the house with corn husks. You better get this cleaned up before Bradley sees it.
    DODGE: Bradley‘s not getting in the front door!
    HALIE:
(Kicking husks, striding back and forth)
Bradley's going to be very upset when he sees this. He doesn't like to see the house in disarray. He can't stand it when one thing is out of place. The slightest thing. You know how he gets.
    DODGE: Bradley doesn't even live here!
    HALIE: It's his home as much as ours. He was born in this house!
    DODGE: He was born in a hog wallow.
    HALIE: Don't you say that! Don't you ever say that!
    DODGE: He was born in a goddamn hog wallow! That's where he was born and that's where he belongs! He doesn't belong in this house! (HALIE
stops.)
    HALIE: I don't know what's come over you, Dodge. I don't know what in the world's come over you. You've become an evil, spiteful, vengeful man. You used to be a good man.
    DODGE: Six of one, a half dozen of another.
    HALIE : You sit here day and night, festering away! Decomposing! Smelling up the house with your putrid body!
    Hacking your head off ‘til all hours of the morning! Thinking up mean, evil, stupid things to say about your own flesh and blood!
    DODGE: He's not my flesh and blood! My flesh and blood's out there in the backyard!
(They freeze. Long pause. The men stare at her.)
    HALIE:
(Quietly)
That's enough, Dodge. That's quite enough. You've become confused. I'm going out now. I'm going to have lunch with Father Dewis. I'm going to ask him about a monument for Ansel. A statue. At least a plaque.
    DODGE: That oughta heal things up. A statue.
(She crosses to the door up right. She stops.)
    HALIE: If you need anything, ask Tilden. He's the oldest. I've left some money on the kitchen table.
    DODGE: I don't need a thing.
    HALIE : No, I suppose not.
(She opens the door and looks out through the porch.)
Still raining. I love the smell just after it stops. The ground. It's like the ground is breathing. I won't be too late.
(Shegoes out the door and closes it. She's still visible on the porch as she crosses toward left screen door. She stops in the middle of the porch, speaks to
DODGE
but doesn't turn to him.)
Dodge, tell Tilden not to go out in the back lot anymore. I don't want him back there in the rain. He's got no business out there.
    DODGE : You tell him yourself. He's sitting right here.
    HALIE: He never listens to me, Dodge. He's never listened to me in the past.
    DODGE: I'll tell him.
    HALIE: We have to watch him just like we used to now. Just like we always have. He's still a child.
    DODGE: I'll watch him.
    HALIE: Good. We don't want to lose him. I couldn't take another loss. Not at this late date.
(She crosses to screen door left, takes an umbrella off a hook, and goes out the door. The door slams behind her. Long pause,
TILDEN
husks corn, stares at the pail,
DODGE
lights a cigarette, stares at the TV)
    TILDEN:
(Still husking.)
You shouldn'ta told her that.
    DODGE:
(Staring at the TV.)
What?
    TILDEN: What you told her. You know.
    DODGE: What do you know about it?
    TILDEN: I know. I know all about it. We all know.
    DODGE : So what difference does it make? Everybody knows, everybody's forgot.
    TILDEN: She hasn't forgot.
    DODGE: She should've forgot.
    TILDEN: It's different for her. She couldn't forget that. How could she forget a thing like that?
    DODGE: I don't want to talk about it!
    TILDEN: Why'd you tell her it was
your
flesh and blood?
    DODGE: I don't want to talk about it.
    TILDEN: What do you want to talk about?
    DODGE: I don't want to talk about anything! I don't want to talk about troubles or what happened fifty years ago or thirty years ago or the racetrack or