6 December 2006
Getting Enigmatic
Act I scene i
The Hayden clan is shacked up inside a house in Beverly, MA, rented by the World Socialist League, organization-cum-communal sect to which Joe Hayden, 17, belongs. Lodgings are temporary as Joe is constantly moving around Boston and surrounding areas in order to avoid Police surveillance and harassment of his community activism work. It is afternoon/early evening, roughly 4:45-5:15, mid-to-late February, the year is 2000. The weather is cold with gusty wind, and sky is pitch black, outside.
Interior: Danny’s bedroom. Floor is cluttered with books, toys and some radical literature. Danny is aged 9, Joe’s half-brother. He is an introverted child, by nature, with sandy light brown hair in a bowl cut, slight freckles on his upper cheekbones and a shy, but sometimes goofy smile. Nicole is a middle class girl, interested in environmental issues and studying marine biology. She became estranged from her very conservative parents upon meeting Joe, and has since run away to join the League. She is blond-haired, very attractively, built. Lately, she has taken to wearing bandanas around her head.
At this time, Danny is horsing around on the floor with Nicole, 16, Joe’s girlfriend. Joe, Danny and their cousins, Molly and Jonathan, both 8 were all born and raised in the League, which was founded in part by Joe and Danny’s late father, a Vietnam Veteran and former Meatpackers Union organizer. All are orphans. It has not been often that the kids live together with, as they are mostly in the care of the sect’s Connecticut compound and Joe is used to shacking up with friends and different members of the group.
The two are passing the time, roughhousing and whatnot, as Nicole adores her boyfriend’s little brother.
Danny stands, lurches, arms outstretched, toward Nicole, who was lying on the floor ready for him to pounce.
Danny: You are getting very enigmatic.
Nicole: What?
Danny rolls the words off his tongue very slowly, allowing the words to linger, pronouncing the last one with the most prominence.
Danny: Youuu arrre getting ve-RRY enn-ig-MAT-ic.
Nicole: What do you mean?
Danny: I’m making you get very enigmatic. Like, ‘you are getting very sleepy.’
Nicole: Do you know what ‘enigmatic’ means?
Danny: It means ‘mysterious.’
Danny pounces. Nicole meets his advance with her own arms outstretched in grabbing the active boy’s hands, valiantly blocking him as he makes his best effort to pin her down. Danny contorts his face into a bulldog expression, struggling to get the better of the older girl. It is not more than two seconds later that Nicole wrestles him to the floor, straddling him, pinning him down with her legs. Danny grunts and giggles as his half-heartedly squirms to free himself.
Nicole: Why would you want to make me mysterious?
Danny: I want to make everything mysterious. In my world everything’s mysterious.
Nicole sits up and nudges Danny off her. Danny turns away, looks downward. Expression on his face becomes pensive.
Nicole: Hey, kiddo, are you doing all right?
Danny: Yeah.
Nicole: You sure? ’Cause I just get worried is all.
Danny: I’m fine. Why are you always asking that? I was having fun. Can’t we just keep having fun?
Nicole: Ok, ok. Sorry, let’s just keep on having fun. All right, I’ve got an idea. How about we read some Calvin and Hobbes books?
Danny: Nah, I want to work on drawing my comic characters. My new guy, ‘Captain Zarod’ is gonna be pretty cool.
Nicole: ‘Zarod?’ What’s that mean?
Danny: Nothing, it’s just a name I made up.
Nicole: Want me to stay and help you come up with stuff?
Danny: That’s okay. Joe’s promised he’d help me out with it later. We’re making the guy so that he’s someone like Robin Hood or Zorro. That way he won’t be all imperialist and stuff like most superheroes.
Nicole: Joe says superheroes are imperialist?
Danny: They’re always out to make the whole world like Fascist Amerikka. They’re “ALL-E-GOR-REES to PAT-ern-alist Amerikkan PRE-TEN-SHUNS.
Nicole: Allegories to paternalist pretensions. That’s what Joe says?
Danny: Yeah.
Nicole: Wow, you know Danny, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you talk about anything political.
Danny’s attention is wandering. He looks all around the room and down at the floor. He doesn’t make eye contact. Nicole keeps her words focused straight at his face as she is dedicated to boosting his self-confidence. She keeps talking, despite his obvious waning interest in conversation.
It’s just that I’m aware that you kids’re taught these things by the League. I went to public school. I’m not used to “alternative schooling.” I still got a lot to learn about that. I mean—don’t forget, you know I haven’t had the same kind of education your family has. It hasn’t even been two years that I’ve been with Joe, and Joe’s been trying to show me the way to being a better socialist.
Danny fiddles around with the Legos on the floor.
Hey, Dan, you there? Hello?
Danny: I hear you.
Nicole: Good, just checking. I mean, I hear your cousins repeating every speech Joe makes all the time, but I’ve never been sure you were into all of it.
Danny: Into what?
Nicole: Politics, the revolution. You know.
Danny: I don’t know what you mean, “into?”
Nicole: I mean, I didn’t know you were interested. Usually I see you with your Legos and fantasy comics.
Danny: They’re bombing all over Yugoslavia, and those Cuban brown-shirts in Miami want to hold Elian Gonzales prisoner from his father. And the Boston pigs are wailing on Joe and making us move and hide all the time. It’s like Joe says. We gotta stick together for if they come for us.
Nicole: Danny, I feel for exactly what you mean. We were all scared crazy, when those cops jumped Joe outside the rec. center and arrested him. I know you weren’t with us at the time, but I’m sure Molly and Jon told you all about it and they were terrified.
Danny looks up at her, then down again as if, silently acknowledging what she is saying.
But the thing is, I just wonder. Do you ever feel like maybe you worry a little bit too much about what Joe tells you to worry about, when you should leave that worrying up to us and keep on just, I don’t know, doing what you do and have fun?
Danny looks perplexed that Nicole would ask such a question.
Danny: No! I always worry about what Joe tells me to. Why do you say that?
Nicole: I just…it’s just that…oh never mind.
Danny: I listen to Joe, ’cause Joe’s the best big brother ever and I love him and he loves me and I owe him so much for how he takes care of me and my cousins! And Joe’s always so sad all the time, so when I make him happy, I’m happy.
Nicole smiles sweetly, touched by Danny’s heartfelt dedication.
Nicole: I know…I’m sorry I ever brought it up. Let’s not talk about that anymore.
Oh, well…Hey, I know that in case you really want to impress Joe, you might want to change the guy’s name to ‘Field Marshall Zarod.’ Joe’d get a kick out of that. It sounds more like a revolutionary.
Danny: Really? Ok, I guess I’ll do that.
Nicole: Well you don’t have to change his name. It was just a suggestion. You don’t have to do it because I suggested it, you know?
Danny: No, it’s okay. I like it. It’ll make Joe happy.
Nicole sighs, gets up and walks toward the door.
Nicole: Ok, I guess I’ll leave you alone then.
Danny retrieves his sketchpad and colored pencils from off the floor next to his bed. Nicole hesitates before exiting.
Nicole: Ok, I’ll let you know when everybody’s home. Then we’ll order pizza. If you want something, you can just call.
Danny: Ok.
Nicole takes a step out the door. Danny calls her before she can exit.
Danny: Nicole?
Nicole: Yeah, hon?
Danny: I’m really glad that you’re here now. I really like it when you stay with us.
Nicole: I’m glad too. Have a fun sketch time.
Nicole turns once more.
Danny: Nicole?
Nicole: Yeah?
Danny: Power to the people.
Nicole: Power to the people.
Nicole quietly exits, shuts the door behind her. Danny, left on stage, is now completely engrossed in his drawing. Stage is quiet, we focus on Danny drawing and humming for several moments. Stage goes dark.
End of Scene
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