Five

Lights up.

AURORA speaks directly to the
audience.

          AURORA
My mother spoke in tongues. She didn't talk about speaking in
tongues, which is kinda interesting when you think about it but not
unusual for her. She was quiet. There were times when my
mother didn't speak for a week. She didn't talk on the phone and
didn't say a word to daddy. Her silence was another member of
the family. It was there at the table and there when we were in the
car. We all adjusted to her. Our natural tendency to talk was
lowered like the flame on a stove. We responded to each other
with one or two words or nods and gestures. Monasteries can
only sound like football stadiums compared to our house. You
didn't notice until you were exposed to other families. I went out
with this one Puerto Rican boy who I didn't like. But his house
was torrent of talk. They argued, they shouted, they made jokes. It
was all in Spanish and I couldn't make sense of one word, but that
didn't matter. You could get lost in the noise. After a while, I would
have go back home where there was nothing but the wind
whistling through the windows.

SARAH and CAL walk in from
the right and sit down on the
bench. They sit still and stare
straight ahead.

At church she wasn't different. She would take her place in the
pew and even when there was great shouting - and there was
always shouting and crying and wailing at mother's church -
even then mother was still. She mostly bowed her head or stared
straight ahead. Then there would be a the smallest of moments
and sometimes it was early in the service and sometimes it was
late - as if the whole congregation was inhaling before rushing
into another frenzy. And in this gap is when mother shot up out of
the pew and ...

AURORA stops.

          AURORA
Even after I heard her speaking in tongues over and over again, I
couldn't get used to the idea. We used to play records backwards
to hear the Satanic messages. That's how mother sounded. Of
course as soon as I could, I left. It's the same old story. I thought I
was running away from what scared me. But I was running away
from what I was going to become. I knew that as soon as I met Dr.
Way.

AURORA walks off to the left.

          SARAH
I don't know where they are coming from.

          CAL
Tourists.

          SARAH
The traffic at all hours of the day. The parking lot for the grocery
store in town scares me. It's too busy. You hit somebody there
and the police won't come. You're left to fend for yourself.

          CAL
It's just tourists.

          SARAH
I can't drive at night. I'm getting cataracts.

          CAL
She's gorgeous. She's just like I remembered. She's better.

          SARAH
I'll probably be all but blind in a year or so.

          CAL
No. You can get the cataracts removed.

         SARAH
That's what I mean. I can't. Who'll take care of me? What will I do
with Olin?

          CAL
Anna is here. And now Aurora.

         SARAH
Anna can't handle herself. Aurora won't stay. She never stays.
She gets her money or clothes and then she's gone.

         CAL
Really?

          SARAH
Olin will hate me for puffing him away. He can't live shut in like
that. He can't. Even now he doesn't know who Anna is, but he
thinks he has to work. He has to be out here.

         CAL
Sure.

          SARAH
That's the way he was raised. I have to be by his side every
minute. You visit the nursing home. How will they handle him?

          CAL
I don't have an inspector's license.

          SARAH
I can't believe I'm even thinking about this.

         CAL
They've been down there a long time. In high school she walked
through the halls and all the clocks stopped.

          SARAH
I have to pray. Lead me in prayer.

          CAL
Oh. Uh. Now?

          SARAH
I have to pray. I have to find some peace or I will lose my mind.

SARAH gets off the bench and
gets down on her knees. She
bows her head. There is a small
pause.

         CAL
Um. Why was Aurora in jail?

SARAH looks up at CAL.

          SARAH
What?

          CAL
          (Looking off to the right)
Nothing. Nothing. Aurora is coming.

          SARAH
Will you pray with me?

SARAH bows her head and
continues to pray. AURORA and
DR. WAY walk in from the right.
AURORA is holding a Y-shaped
rod close to the ground.

          DR. WAY
This is more than enough. We would be in paradise here.

          AURORA
I told you, didn't I?

          DR. WAY
The magnetic fields are super-charged.

          AURORA
Yes.

          DR. WAY
Maybe we'll build more classrooms near the house. Because who
wouldn't want to come here? Feel that sun. I love it!

AURORA and DR. WAY see that
SARAH is praying and they stop.
SARAH finishes her prayer and
slowly gets off her knees and sits
on the bench.

          AURORA
Sarah, how is Olin?

          CAL
He's with Anna in the house. He had an accident.

          AURORA
He fell?

          CAL
He fell in a hole.

          AURORA
Just now?

          CAL
No. He stained his pants today. Anna took him to the house to
change. What are you holding?

          AURORA
Wait. He fell in a hole? What hole?

          SARAH
The Lord is gonna provide for me.

          DR. WAY
(To CAL)
Hole? You mean a ditch.

          CAL
No. Trespassers dug a hole here to get crystals. They left it
open. Olin fell in.

          SARAH
He could have died.

          DR.WAY
Did she see the trespassers?

          CAL 
According to the newspaper, the diggers have been very busy.
Anna isn't the only one that has been hit.

          DR. WAY
You said diggers. They know there are more than one? 

          CAL
I don't know. The newspaper said there are two. Maybe
somebody did see them. It was the local paper. They always get
things wrong. You know I bought some crystals. I was curious. I
don't know what I'm supposed to do with them.

          AURORA
          (To SARAH) 
I'm sorry. I didn't know, Sarah I thought Anna was helping.

          SARAH
She has, but Olin wanders. He doesn't understand what's
happening.  He doesn't listen. You haven't seen him.

          AURORA
I'm here now.

          SARAH
He has to go in home. 

          AURORA
A home? Why can't he stay here? What do the doctor's say? 

          SARAH
His brain is a raisin. There's no hope.

          AURORA
Sarah, I want Alan - Dr. Way - to look at him. 

          DR. WAY 
The medical establishment dismisses me out of hand. Which I
take as a ringing endorsement. 

          AURORA
He can help, Sarah. You won't believe what he can do. He can
find a water well in a desert and he can locate tumors in the body.
All with his mind.

          SARAH
We spend whole days with the doctors. We can barely pay them.
Then we have to pay for the prescriptions. So I don't have money.
I don't have money for you.

          AURORA
Sarah.

          SARAH
I don't know that your sister does either.

          AURORA
I'm not askin'. I didn't say a word about money. Dr. Way will look
at him for free. I'm not leavin' either. That wasn't me. I'm sorry ...
I'm here and I've got a great plans. A great future.

          SARAH
You have to make peace with God.

          AURORA
I'm at peace with myself.

          SARAH
Your mother was right. We have to surrender and make peace
with God. Then you will be happy. We will all be happy.

SARAH gets up and starts to
walk back to the house.

          I'll go to the house and see about Olin.

AURORA starts to use her Y rod.
She is walking slowly from one
side to the other. When the rod
dips down, she stops at the spot
and then moves on. DR. WAY
walks over to the trellis and
starts to pick some grapes.

          DR. WAY
What excites me is the idea of being called a hillbilly. You know?

          CAL
No.

          DR. WAY
I've been called everything else. Charlatan and heretic and you
name it. After a while, you wear a label as if it was a badge of
honor. Hillbilly will be the pinnacle. I can't wait! Then when they
find out I'm from Nebraska ... these grapes!

          AURORA
          (Meaning her Y-rod)
Look at these twitches. Look, Alan!

          DR. WAY
I'm starving.

          AURORA
This garden. I should have stayed 10 years old forever. I was
never sad here.

          CAL
          (To AURORA)
What are you doing?

          AURORA
We used to run in that tunnel straight from the house to the garden.

          DR. WAY
You haven't seen a diving rod?

          CAL
I haven't.

          AURORA
The vines should be cut back. I can't believe Anna has let it get
that way. Mother made Daddy build the tunnel as a birthday
present to me.

          DR. WAY
The whole system is dying out.

          CAL
The system?

          AURORA
I used to walk through when sun was shining and making dots of
light inside. I felt like I had gone back in time. Back to the
beginning of the world.

          DR. WAY
What did I tell you, Aurora? They're ignorant.

          CAL
No I'm not.

          DR. WAY
But you are. You don't know what she's doing, do you?

          CAL
Well ... no.

          AURORA
Surely you've seen a water witcher before.

          DR. WAY
He hasn't. The old witchers have gone to the great beyond.
Nobody knows what it is anymore, which is in our favor.

AURORA'S Y-rod bends down to
the ground.

          AURORA
          (To CAL)
Come here.

          CAL
Cal. My name is Cal.

          AURORA
OK. Stand here, Cal.

CAL stands at the spot.

          CAL
Cal Gaston. We went to school together.

          DR. WAY
Aurora, we eat sometime soon, right?

          AURORA
          (To CAL)
I'm sorry.

          CAL
Oh. Can I move?

          DR. WAY
I don't want to be out here like idiots if there's food on the table.

          AURORA
          (To CAL)
Yes.

          DR. WAY
          (To AURORA)
Is there food on the table?

          CAL
What's on this spot?

          AURORA
          (To DR. WAY)
You know as much as I do. But I'm sure we'll eat.

          CAL
What's here?

          AURORA
A vein of water. Underground. About 60 feet.

          CAL
Cool.

         AURORA
Anna introduced you as a minister. Are you from my mother's old
church?

          CAL
No. I'm the pastor at the Methodist church in town.

          DR. WAY
Even if I had a roll or something to go with the grapes ...

          AURORA
Then you aren't the fire and brimstone type. That's good news.
Even with my learning to be more tolerant, I can't deal with
that kind of judgment. We're gonna do positive work. Help
people instead of condemn them.

          CAL
How can you help Olin? Sarah says that the doctor's say it is
hopeless.

          DR. WAY
I'll look at him.

          CAL
With what?

         DR. WAY
My eyes.

          AURORA
He'll be looking at his energy field.

          DR. WAY
Right. That's the specific test. But I'll look at him from top to
bottom. I'll listen. I'll consider his diet and his living space and
what music he likes. I'll look at where he sleeps at night. Move a
bed and you might change his whole life. I've seen it. Here's what
doctors do. Doctors stare at one corner of the room and say, "This
looks fine. No problems here!" Meanwhile, the whole house
crashes to the earth behind them.

          CAL
That sounds far-fetched to me.

          DR. WAY
I don't doubt that it does.

          CAL
No, I mean, I don't know about your theory. I don't think you'll be
able to understand much by talking to him. Your Aunt asked me
to come because she's been so upset. She's a member of my
church. One of the few.

          DR. WAY
Aurora, are there any crackers, anything in the car?

          AURORA
I don't think so.

          DR. WAY
We have to do something about this. I have to eat.

          CAL
Methodist rolls have been dwindling for years. Nobody sees any
change through the next century.

          AURORA
What are Methodists doing about it?

          CAL
Whining. Mostly whining.

          DR. WAY
Organized religion will go the way of the dinosaur in the next 20
years. Catholicism may hang on longer. Future generations will
wonder why their parents had to financially support these huge
buildings with stained glass.

          CAL
          (To AURORA)
Are you two lovers?

          AURORA
Whoa!

          DR. WAY
Here it comes!

          AURORA
That's a bold question.

          CAL
I suppose.

          DR. WAY
We expected gossip and strange looks not a direct accusation.
But then we didn't count on facing a member of the clergy.

          AURORA
I'll answer you if you tell me why Anna is leaving me and Dr. Way
out here. She ran in the house as soon as she saw us.

          CAL
I have no idea.

          AURORA
I was prepared for the passive aggressive freeze out. I deserve
nothing less. But I wanted to tell her how things have changed
with me. We have a proposal to make that could change
everything. Her life. Your life too. You aren't being honest.

          CAL
I wouldn't lie to you.

          DR. WAY
          (To AURORA)
Well, this is a farce.

          AURORA
          (To DR. WAY)
She'll come out.

          DR. WAY
A complete farce.

          AURORA
We haven't been here long.

          DR. WAY
Resistance. Everywhere I turn. I'm gonna forage in the woods ...
we passed an apple tree I think.

DR. WAY walks off to the left.

          AURORA
Alan. Stay close.

          CAL
          (Picking up the Y-rod)
Can I try your ... um . . . this?

          AURORA
          (Watching ALAN)
Yeah.

CAL is now walking around with
the Y-rod.

          CAL
Aurora.

          AURORA
Yes.

          CAL
He's gotta be thirty years older than you.

          AURORA
I never notice.

          CAL
You've got to be kidding.

          AURORA
No. He talks to Russian leaders almost every week. He doesn't
make it a big deal. Look at how he dresses. He's simple and
direct. Spend one hour with him and everything you thought was
so important seems stupid.

          CAL
          (Still trying to work the Y-rod)
That's sappy.

          AURORA
It's tragic you think so.

          CAL
I'm hurt. But I'll get over it. I've been praying that you would come
back.

          AURORA
You ought to be praying for something else.

          CAL
But you are what I want.

           AURORA
You don't know me.

          CAL
I used to.

          AURORA
I'm sorry. Whatever you knew or think you Used to know is dead.
I'm not going backwards, I'm going forward.

          CAL
(Referring to the Y-rod)
This isn't working.

          AURORA
Because you're an insensitive jerk like most men.

          CAL
No, I mean this thing. I can't get it to do what it did when you were
holding it.

          AURORA
Of course not. You're not thinking about what you want.

          CAL
That's all I'm thinking about.

ANNA and BARRY walk in from
the left in front of the trellis.
AURORA walks over to CAL.

          AURORA
First, hold the ends with your palms up. You don't squeeze the
wood into sawdust.

          CAL
You had it pointing straight down.

          AURORA
I know. But you have to hold it the right way.

AURORA moves CAL's hands to
the right position. CAL starts to
walk around with the rod.

          ANNA
Aurora. We put your bags in the hall by the car.

          AURORA
Oh. You didn't need to do that.

          ANNA
What's he doing?

          AURORA
He's dowsing. You shouldn't be seeing this. I'm sorry. I wanted to
wait and give you a demonstration and have Dr. Way explain. The
dowsing is one part of his philosophy. Our philosophy, I should
say. It's amazing what can be done with a dowsing rod. A few
minutes ago, I found a big vein of water right here. I mean,
underground.

          ANNA
I don't need water.

          AURORA
I was so lost, Anna.

          ANNA
The county finally connected us to the sewer line. Took them
forever.

          AURORA
I was so lost.

          ANNA
But we don't have to bother with the well anymore.

          AURORA
I don't blame you for ignoring me. You ought to know that. I don't
blame you.

          CAL
Still nothing.

          AURORA
You did what was right. I was scared and hurt, especially when
you stopped taking my calls. As it turned out I only spent a couple
of weeks in jail. It wasn't too bad.

          CAL
Still nothing.

          AURORA
How are you? How is the house?

          AURORA
Anna, we can save the house and the garden. We can turn it
into an international showplace, a paradise. They're gonna come
from all over the world. They're gonna come to see Dr. Way.

          DR. WAY
Wild strawberries!

Everybody looks at DR. WAY,
who is eating and smiling.

          ANNA
What is his obsession with my fruit?

          DR. WAY
They're more tart than sweet.

          CAL
          (To AURORA)
What's your trick? Show me. I might use this in a sermon.

          DR. WAY
I found pecans, too.

          ANNA
          (To AURORA)
Nothing at this house needs to be saved by you.

          AURORA
The trellis is in bad shape. We can restore everything. I'm only
offering help.

          ANNA
God himself couldn't restore this trellis. This isn't a fairy tale
where you walk in and wave a wand and everything is better. The
arrogance.

          CAL
          (To ANNA)
Anna, you ought to let her show you. You should. She held this
stick, this rod, and it was pointing straight until she walked right
here. And then, wham, the end shot straight down. I mean,
straight down.

          DR. WAY
Here's one convert already. And a Methodist minister at that.

          ANNA
The house is full. Sarah doesn't want to be alone with Olin so now
they'll be here tonight, maybe longer.

          AURORA
There are three bedrooms upstairs.

          ANNA
What you don't know is that the ceiling is leaking. The ivy on the
chimney has grown through the roof. I don't let anybody sleep up
there.

          CAL
They can stay at my place.

          AURORA
          (To ANNA)
We can sleep on the floor.

          DR. WAY
We can?

          ANNA
All right . Fine.

          DR. WAY
My back is a good deal older than yours.

          ANNA
You'll be gone in the morning anyway.

          DR. WAY
          (To CAL)
You have an extra bed?

          AURORA
          (To ANNA)
I won't.

          CAL
A sofa bed.

          AURORA
I know it's easy to be cynical.

          ANNA
Don't take my blue suit. I just bought it. Excuse me. Barry and I
have to fill in this hole by the fence. It will be too dark to
work soon. So.

ANNA and BARRY walk off to the
right.

          CAL
Yeah, the sofa bed is ungodly uncomfortable. It's got that steel
bar right in the middle and a mattress as thick as a communion
wafer. You're liable to go blind from pain after one night on it.
Hardly the great extra that they advertise.

          AURORA
Welcome home, Aurora.

          DR. WAY
I'd like a real bed if I could get one.

          CAL
Then you could stay here.

         AURORA
Welcome back.

          CAL
Aurora could stay with me. Just an offer.

          DR. WAY
          (To AURORA)
So?

          AURORA
Yes, Alan. What?

          DR. WAY
Is there dinner?

Lights dim to blackout.

End of Five

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