Murder Mysteries a Play for Voices (9781466109827) Read Free

felt too drained to think. I felt very sexless, and
very alone.
    (pause)
    A block or so down the road there was a
bench, and when I reached it I sat down. I threw the stub of the
cigarette onto the pavement, hard, and watched it shower orange
sparks.
     
    RAGUEL NOW
    Hey. Hey pal. I'll buy a cigarette off you.
Here.
     
    NARRATOR -- LIVE
    Jesus. You startled me. I’m sorry. I didn’t
see you.
     
    NARRATOR
    He did not look old, although I would not
have been prepared to say how old he was. Late thirties, perhaps.
Mid forties. He wore a long, shabby coat, colorless under the
yellow street lamps, and his eyes were dark.
     
    RAGUEL NOW
    Here. A quarter. 25 cents for a smoke. Take
it. That's a good price.
     
    NARRATOR -- LIVE
    Keep your money. It's free. Have it.'
     
    NARRATOR
    He took the cigarette. I passed him a book
of matches (it advertised a telephone sex line; I remember that),
and he lit the cigarette.
     
    /SFX/ A MATCH IS STRUCK, A CIGARETTE
LIT.
     
    RAGUEL NOW
    Here.
     
    NARRATOR -- LIVE
    Keep them. I always wind up accumulating
books of matches in America. You people just give them away. Where
I come from you have to pay for them.
     
    RAGUEL NOW
    That a fact, huh?
     
    NARRATOR
    He sat on the bench beside me and smoked his
cigarette. When he had smoked it half-way down, he tapped the
lighted end off on the concrete, stubbed out the glow, and placed
the butt of the cigarette behind his ear.
     
    RAGUEL NOW
    I don't smoke much. A pity to waste it,
though.
     
    /SFX/ A SPEEDING CAR CAREENS DOWN THE
STREET. A RADIO BLARES A ROCK SONG -- THAT DEEP BASS THUMP OF A CAR
STEREO. BRIEFLY WE CAN HEAR THE SHOUTING VOICES IN THE CAR. “GARY
YOU ASSHOLE! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ON, MAN?” A SQUEAL OF
BRAKES.
     
    NARRATOR -- LIVE
    Idiots. Did you see that? They could have
killed someone.
     
    RAGUEL NOW
    I owe you.
     
    NARRATOR -- LIVE
    Sorry?
     
    RAGUEL NOW
    I owe you something. For the cigarette. And
the matches. You wouldn't take the money. I owe you.
     
    NARRATOR -- LIVE
    No, really, it's just a cigarette. I figure,
if I give people cigarettes, then if ever I'm out, maybe people
will give me cigarettes. (chuckles) Don't worry about it.
     
    RAGUEL NOW
    You’re English, right?
     
    NARRATOR -- LIVE
    Yes.
     
    RAGUEL NOW
    That’s that thing the English do, where they
say something like it’s a joke, even though they mean it. So. You
want to hear a story? True story? Stories always used to be good
payment. These days... not so much.
     
    NARRATOR
    I sat back on the bench, and the night was
warm, and I looked at my watch: it was almost one in the morning.
In England a freezing new day would already have begun: a work-day
would be starting for those who could beat the snow and get into
work; another handful of old people, and those without homes, would
have died, in the night, from the cold.
     
    NARRATOR -- LIVE
    Sure. Why not? Tell me a story.
     
     

     
     
     
    RAGUEL NOW
    (coughs, smoker’s cough, then,)
    First thing I remember was the Word. And the
Word was God. Sometimes, when I get really down, I remember the
sound of the Word in my head, shaping me, forming me, giving me
life.
     
    /SFX/ THE SOUNDS OF LOS ANGELES CROSSFADE
WITH
    /SFX/THE SOUND OF RAGUEL’S AWAKENING,
UNDER...
    /MUS/THE WORD WAS GOD -- SILVER CITY THEME
--
     
    RAGUEL NARRATION
    The Word gave me a body, gave me eyes. And I
opened my eyes, and I saw the light of the Silver City. I was in a
room -- a silver room -- and there wasn't anything in it except me.
In front of me was a window, that went from floor to ceiling, open
to the sky, and through the window I could see the spires of the
City, and at the edge of the City, the Dark. I don't know how long
I waited there. I wasn't impatient or anything, though. I remember
that. It was like I was waiting until I was called; and I knew that
some time I would be called. And if I had to wait until the end of
everything, and never be called, why, that was fine too. But I'd be
called, I was certain of