at the last

AT THE LAST

a play by Roger Maybank

Characters:    ELI, a man in his forties

EMER, a woman in her forties

FRANK, a young man

CHAD, a young man

JOHN, a leprechaun

JACK, a leprechaun

(A broad shelf, two to three feet higher than the forestage, and covered in tired plastic grass, runs the width of the stage, and takes up the back two-thirds of it. The front of the shelf is hung with white cloth, giving a makeshift appearance of a white chalk cliff. Two ageless leprechauns, JOHN and JACK, in traditional, but ‘life-stained’, garb, and wearing the leather aprons of traditional cobblers, are sitting at the downstage left edge of the shelf, with a last between them, on which one or other of them hammers sometimes (soundlessly) with a cobbler’s small hammer at a piece of shoe-leather; at other (most) times they gaze into the air of the ‘great space’ stretching from their feet down to the ‘glistening sea’ at the foot of the ‘white cliff’, far below them, and to the ‘featureless far horizon’.)

(On the forestage, a few feet in front of them, ELI is lying, face down, arms outstretched, legs well apart, as if floating. He is wearing worn shirts and trousers, is barefoot. Not far from him is a kind of oilskin bag, evidently with ‘things’ in it.)

(At forestage far right, EMER is sitting. She strokes and moves about a number of dirty, stuffed ‘pigs’, of varying sizes, clustered around her. She seems unaware of anything beyond them.)

(FRANK and CHAD, in worn clothes and stout shoes, are carrying between them a kind of ‘home-made’ coffin, and are moving along a rough zig-zag ‘path’, sketched on the forestage, as if up a path towards the top of the ‘cliff’. The coffin does not appear to be particularly heavy, but they move slowly. FRANK is ahead of the coffin, CHAD behind it.)

JACK: It’s a long way you can see, John, when you’re sittin’ as high as we are.

JOHN: That’s for very sure, Jack. Little though there is to be seen. Except for himself.

JACK: (of ELI) He’s a big man, sure; takin’ up a lot o’ water.

JOHN: Not lookin’ so very big.

JACK: Not from here, he’s not. We bein’ so high up. But down there, standin’ on him, if we was..

JOHN: He’d be bearin’ that easy enough, I suppose.

JACK: You standin’ at the one end o’ him, meself at th’other, the distance’d be so great, we’d probably not be hearin’ a word we were sayin’ t’each other.

JOHN: Our voices’re not o’ the biggest; but I guess they’d be rollin’ along his body a fair way.

JACK: There’d be nothin’ we’d be hearin’ but our own selves. And maybe his breathin’, if he’s still doin’ any o’ that. So far apart we’d be standin’, tis likely the curve o’ the earth’d be hidin’ us from each other altogether.

(Pause. They both gaze steadily at ELI.)

JOHN: Interestin’ him lyin’ on his belly; makin’ it hard for ‘im to breathe.

JACK: Probably not breathin’.

JOHN: Yeah. Probably not.

JACK: Men’re always lyin’ on their belly. In the water. Them that’re there. It’s women that floats on their backs; breasts bein’ light, no bones in ’em, tippin’ their whole bodies over.

JOHN: Couldn’t be a woman anyway, they not flyin’ up at the sun.

(They continue gazing at ELI. FRANK and CHAD set down the coffin; each of them puts a hand in his pocket, pulls it out, smells it, smiles, gazes into space.)

EMER: (stroking the pigs) Roses’ll be givin’ ’em some strength for the climb. Which they’ll sure be needin’. Weight o’ himself on top o’ me I’m still feelin’. Though it’s more’n likely enough his flyin’ up in the air and half-drownin’ in the water’ll have thinned him down pretty near to his bones.

JOHN: Surprisin’ still he’s keepin’. What with the waves, little though they be, breakin’ against him here and there, you’d be thinkin’ he’d be circlin’ round a bit.

JACK: Some folks is so fixed in their ways they’re needin’ tidal waves to move ’em at all.

(FRANK lifts his end of the coffin. CHAD, smiling, keeps smelling his hand, gazing into the distance.)

FRANK: The coffin’s not o’ the heaviest, but the carryin’ of it’ll be the easier if we’re both of us liftin’ it.

CHAD: Just smellin’ the roses a bit longer. Keep ’em, and her, in my nose while I’m carryin’ him.

FRANK: Just think o’ them. Near as good as smellin’.

CHAD: (picking up his end of the coffin) Near as hell to heaven.

FRANK: Well, it’ll have to do, Us standin’ here won’t soon be gettin’ him up there. And the day’s not goin’ to be lastin’ forever. (looking ‘down at the water’) And the feet o’ either of us trippin’ on a loose bit o’ chalk in the dyin’ light, all three of us’ll be tumblin’ down the cliff face and into the sea.

(They walk along the ‘path’.)

CHAD: Wonder which’d get there first. The air’d maybe be holdin’ back the coffin somewhat, it bein’ big for its weight; so it’s arrivin’ after us, and bangin’ right on our heads.

FRANK: (wry smile) That, or arrivin’ not soon enough for us to hold onto it, keep us from drownin’.

EMER: (smiling, stroking the pigs) Always his way, never changin’; others to look after him, and he after nobody.

JACK: Who’s he up to lookin’ after? Face in the water, no sign o’ any bubbles showin’ he might be breathin’.

JOHN: Won’t be doin’ any more o’ that in this life. Water in his lungs lappin’ up against the skin inside ’em that’s all charred with their breathin’ in the fiery light o’ the sun, that was havin’ no air around it to soften it up a bit.

(CHAD stops walking. FRANK strains forward a moment, shrugs, stops.)

CHAD: We shouldn’t’ve left her there. Wolves could eat her, probably have.

FRANK: Eatin’ the pigs first; time they finish them, bellies’d be full to burstin’.

CHAD: Coulda’ taken her with us. She’d maybe’ve liked a bit of a journey; him waitin’ for her at the end.

FRANK: It was her waitin’ for him was the arrangement. Where’d he find her if she’s not there?

CHAD: Time he’s took he’d ‘ave been lucky to be findin’ even the bones o’ her. And who said he was comin’ back? Only himself. That nobody but herself would be believin’.

FRANK: Maybe why he wants us carryin’ him to the top o’ the cliff. Hopin’ maybe we’ll see ‘er from there, find our way back to bury her, what’s left o’ her. Bones’d be enough, you can see bones pretty easy—they bein’ white, crows an’ rats picked ’em all clean—if you can see far enough.

CHAD: Might be seein’ them still at it; which I could be doin’ without.

(They continue walking.)

EMER: Seein’ he was always good at. Eyes like a’ eagle’s. And whatever he was lookin’ at was the only thing there was. Sometimes, and times enough for the times between ’em to pass easy, meself.

JOHN: Didn’t pass that on. They lookin’ about ’em like purblind moles most o’ the time, the wonder is they even saw ‘im floatin’ there in the shallows.

JACK: And knowin’ him well enough to know it was him, and pull ‘im out o’ them.

JOHN: Which they might as well not have bothered themselves to be doin’, since anythin’ he mighta been feelin’ still would only be the fish maybe ticklin’ the one part o’ his body he was ever much interested in.

JACK: Him thinkin’ he’ll be fertilizin’ them maybe, or even the sea itself; playin, in his head, the way he was always likin’ to, the halfway man between it and the sun he was thinkin’ to reach out his fingers to..

JOHN: Be lucky now if he can be fertilizin’ anythin’. And if he was thinkin’ he could be takin’ the opportunity to be pullin’ th’old snake up from the bottom, and maybe even ridin’ on her back—like he’ll have heard of betters than himself doin’—he’ll have been sure thinkin’ again about that too.

JOHN: If he’s learned—as we can maybe be hopin’ from the fallin’ that brought ‘im where he is—that he wasn’t up to ridin’ on the light. It takin’ a touch as light as itself to do that, such as not one in a million o’ them is havin’.

JACK: Maybe thinkin’, proud man that he is, that ridin’ the snake’d be easier. Which’d be well worth the seein’, if he’s tryin’ it.

JOHN: And her at the same time tryin’ to swaller him up; so he’s cryin’ an’ weepin’—like a frog on a somethin’ smaller scale—at feelin’ himself, feet first, dragged into her stretched-open throat.

(They gaze into space. FRANK and CHAD set down the coffin, sit on it.)

CHAD: If you hadn’t kept kickin’ him in the crotch, when we came upon him that first time, we’d not—I’m thinkin’—be havin’ the weight o’ him now to be carryin’, and this cliff bein’ one o’ the highest hereabouts..

FRANK: Who said I was kickin’ him, there or anywhere else?

CHAD: It was you yourself sayin’ it, and often enough to make me believe you. To get him off your back, you said. Which was why I’m stlll seein’ him not walkin’ easily when he was walkin’ away; not with the straight back o’ his earlier days.

FRANK: (standing up, looking about him uneasily) It was his trying to hold onto his earlier days that led me to be kickin’ him, as you’re callin’ it, in his later. Though I never laid a foot or hand to his body at any time; just words that came outa me, maybe kinda harsh, now and then.

(He pushes his hand in his pocket, pulls it out, smells it covertly; but CHAD sees him doing it.)

CHAD: Well whatever you’re likin’ to call it, it was a good long while, for all our steady lookin’, before we were seein’ any sign o’ him again.

FRANK: You bein’ there the whole while, you’ll have been seein’ for yourself It was not the crotch of his body that I was kickin’. Nor the back of mine that he was climbin’ on..

CHAD: (standing up) Yeah, I’m knowin’ that. (putting his hand in his pocket) But however it was you were hittin’ him, it’s one the reasons he’s here in the box..

FRANK: There’s a whole lot more’n one reason for that. And the most o’ them of his own makin’.

CHAD: Yeah. But the end of it is, she’s left waitin’ there in the midst o’ her pigs, where whatever she’s goin’ to be seein’ of him will only be pictures she’s got stored away in her head.

(He pulls his hand out of his pocket, turns half-away from FRANK, sniffs at his hand, smiles faintly. FRANK sees him do it.)

FRANK: More’n I can say of meself, havin’ no picture at all o’ him, as far back as the first words, whatever they were, that in my head anyway, and maybe out o’ my mouth, I was spittin’ at him. And what’s the use anyway o’ such pictures, that himself was always so lovin’ that they’re probably still slidin’ about on the inside walls o’ the coffin, while himself is nothin’ but a dead body.

CHAD: That body o’ him that knew better than he did the mess his head had got him into, and took things into its own hands to get ’em all out o’ here.

FRANK: (bitter smile) Leavin’ the finishin’ trade t’ ourselves.

CHAD: Somebody’s got to do it. Can’t leave the whole management o’ the world to the ravens and rats.

FRANK: They’d not be complainin’.

CHAD: (smiling) Couldn’t trust ’em—rats anyway, crows has a deal more sense—to be drawin’ any kind o’ guideline between the still quick and the dead.

(They stand up, shoulder the coffin, continue walking along the zig-zag path.)

JOHN: (gazing at ELI ‘in the water’) It’ll be a great relaxin’ for ‘im, lyin’ there, that’s sure; after all his high flyin’.

JACK: A man that’s been flyin’ up as high in the air as he was, will not be relaxin’ in the coupla days given him at the moment. He’ll be a fixed man, sure; whether it’s the air or the water his body’s sittin’ in. Man like that, inside, thinks he’s on fire. Weren’t for the flesh o’ his body, that knows better, the water’d be pourin’ right into the midst o’ him, and boilin’ so great in the fire o’ him it’d be turnin’ to steam in a minute, steam so thick there’d be nothin’ you nor I—nor them poor folk there (indicating FRANK and CHAD), if they’re carin’ to—would be seein’ at all.

(FRANK and CHAD stop to rest, remain standing, shouldering the coffin.)

FRANK: It was him squintin’ at the sun when the top edge of it was hardly clearin’ the near trees, and the next minute on his feet and out the door, not even botherin’ to close it after him, that got to me.

CHAD: Left it open, probably, so she could watch ‘im goin’; and she did, and happy enough by the look o’ her, he havin’ done what he came to do. I’m still seein’ those first beams o’ sunlight catchin’ her body as she was sinkin’ down to the floor among the pigs, seemin’ glad to be with ’em again, touchin’ ’em all over.

FRANK: Us too, and not makin’ much difference between us and them.

CHAD: (little grin) Wasn’t much, except for the few clothes on us, that they weren’t havin’.

(FRANK and CHAD continue again walking along the path.)

EMER: So beautiful the one was as a baby, and so ugly the other, I never thought they’d grow up so I could hardly tell ’em apart. Tiresome they were then, always tryin’ to make me comfortable, which I was anyway. He knew that well enough. And he could see them then, they bein’ full grown, in his way o’ seein’. Though every time it came into my head to tell him they were boys o’ his own makin’, he’d laugh, and ask when he’d ever had time enough, in his life o’ searchin’, for that sort o’ larkin’. Like it took any time at all, given the fair length o’ life we been handed.

CHAD: Wherever he was goin’ off to, and the whole time until he was comin’ back, I guess (little grin) the smell o’ her pigs’d be lurkin’ somewhere in his lungs; like it’s still fillin’ up both o’ mine.

FRANK: Mine too. And hers, for sure; much as she’s lovin’ them. Remember her shoutin’ out that day that she couldn’t any longer bear the smell o’ pigs?

CHAD: (grinning) Like she didn’t know she was the one herself that brought ’em all inside. Myself, I thought it was the only air there was, pigs bein’ there a fair good while before we were.

FRANK: Used to wonder what he thought o’ the smell o’ them, and all the soft gruntin’ they made, on those times o’ his comin’ through. Maybe turned ‘im on, smellin’ and feelin’ them all round them both; as he’ll not now be doin’ again.

CHAD: I’d be feelin’ all peaceful myself, lyin’ there and makin’ noises o’ my own to be goin’ with his and their gruntin’ both.

JACK: (peering at FRANK and CHAD, as if they are a good distance off) Coffin those boys’re carryin’ is not lookin’ too heavy; which is to the good, themselves not lookin’ too strong.

JOHN: (under his breath) They should, though, be makin’ it look heavier. Bit o’ verisimilitude never hurts. Anybody watchin’ and knowin’ about body weights’d be thinkin’ it’s maybe only got a baby, or child o’ some kind, in it.

JACK: It’s a big coffin, sure, for a baby.

JOHN: Had to make it big, o’ course, since they’re knowin’ who’s in it; but the fella watchin’..

JACK: They may be thinkin’, the climb bein’ so steep, they’d never get it up here, if he was bein’ his full weight the whole way.

(FRANK and CHAD set the coffin down, breathe deeply, as if recovering their breath.)

FRANK: Comin’ to think we’d ha’ been better off leavin’ him there in the water.

CHAD: How could we be doin’ that, with her tellin’ us, and more’n once, he wanted to be left on the top o’ the cliff? God knows why. (smiling) For the view maybe.

FRANK: View o’ nearly nothin’, and eyes seein’ nothin’ anyway.

(They lift the coffin and continue slowly along the zigzag path.)

JOHN: So they’re carryin’ a coffin that’s lookin’ like it’s got near nothin’ in it at all, the whole way up here, where there’s near nothin’ livin’ already to be dyin’.

JOHN: They’ll be throwin’ it over th’edge, like as not; guessin’ that’ll be what he’s wantin’. Nothin’s gonna be buried in this rock here. Sure not without the tools they’re not havin’.

JACK: (under his breath) They forgettin’, leavin’ ’em down there on the beach.

JOHN: (under his breath) He can bring ’em with ‘im when he’s comin’ hisself.

JACK: You’re sayin’ they’re carryin’ it all the way up here, and it gettin’ heavier all the time, from the look o’ them, just to be throwin’ it down again into the sea?

JOHN: No knowin’ at all about these folk, what they’ll be doin’ next. (thin smile) If it was a baby inside there, it could be gettin’ one o’ their christenin’s the same time as it’s drownin’.

JACK: Probably be landin’ the coffin right on the poor fellow down there. Waves of it—if it’s missin’ him itself—will at least be movin’ ‘im about pretty fair, they probably bein’ good-sized ones. Worth seein’, that’d be.

JOHN: Well, whatever it is they’re havin’ in their heads to do, they’ll be soon enough doin’ it, now they’re reachin’ the top o’ the cliff.

(They both watch FRANK and CHAD lift the coffin to set it down on the shelf, FRANK and CHAD indicating by the ‘straining of their bodies’, that it has become ‘much heavier’. They ‘just manage to push it onto the shelf’, sit down to catch their breath.)

JACK: (under his breath, to ELI) Time you were gettin’ up there.

ELI: (turning his head to look towards FRANK and CHAD) That’s a long climb. Don’t know if I’m up to it. Body bein’ so heavy with the seawater.

JOHN: (under his breath, hand half-hiding his mouth) Just think of it as a kinda shelf they’re sittin’ on, and you’ll be findin’ it no distance at all.

JACK: (under his breath) Only don’t let ’em be seein’ you ’til you’re safe in the box, or one o’ them at the least, in his fright’ll easy be tumblin’ off the cliff to his own sure death.

JOHN: (under his breath) And take th’oilskin bag with you; that they forgot.

(Nodding doubtfully, ELI picks up the bag and moves cautiously towards FRANK and CHAD, trying to shelter his passage from their eyes by sheltering his own; which they make easy by carefully not looking his way. Climbing onto the shelf, he circles round behind them. They gaze out ‘over the sea’. He pulls up the lid of the box, settles himself into it, the bag in his arms, and lowers the lid.)

JACK: (looking ‘down at the sea’) He’s sunk. Bound to happen sooner or later. Body soaked right through with the sea.

JOHN: He’s maybe swimmin’ a little under the surface.

JACK: Him? That could hardly be flutterin’ his hands in the wavelets? He’s drowned, and a lesson to anyone seein’ it.

JOHN: Probably only us. (looking at FRANK and CHAD) That lot’s got their own concerns.

(FRANK and CHAD look around, as if ‘waking’. They stretch, lift themselves up to their feet.)

CHAD: Better just see if he’s all right.

FRANK: What could be wrong with him?

CHAD: It was a long climb.

FRANK: He wasn’t the one makin’ it.

CHAD: Coulda’ got bruised.

FRANK: You don’t bruise after you’re dead. One o’ the benefits.

CHAD: I’ll just give ‘im a look.

(CHAD opens the coffin; they both look down into it.)

CHAD: Don’t look much like ‘im. Face’s all swollen an’ shiny.

FRANK: That’ll be all the seawater in ‘im. It’ll soon enough be drainin’ out.

CHAD: Don’t look like him at all. He didn’t have black hair, it was all grey, white nearly.

FRANK: He’ll have been dyein’ it when we weren’t lookin’; doin’ every outside thing he could not to get old. (dry chuckle) Sickle came from the inside, where he wasn’t lookin’.

(They continue looking down into the coffin. FRANK pokes a finger into it.)

FRANK: Cheek’s gettin’ soft. Water must be drainin’ outa him.

CHAD: (looking down at his feet) Yeah, sure is. Runnin’ past my foot like a river.

FRANK: Better rest a while, let ‘im get a bit lighter, before goin’ on with it. Time bein’ on our side, havin’ stopped movin’ on his.

(They sit downstage of the box, gaze into space.)

JACK: (looking at the edge of the shelf in front of the coffin) Sunlight’s makin’ little rainbows in the water tricklin’ outa him, fallin’ over the edge.

JOHN: Nothin’ like a rainbow, any size, to cheer the day.

JACK: Not cheerin’ them too much.

JOHN: They’ll not be seein’ it where they’re sittin’. And they bein’ in the dumps from the dyin’ o’ their father.

JACK: We’re knowin’ it’s their father?

JOHN: Seemin’ likely.

JACK: They’re not seemin’ too sure o’ that theirselves.

(As the leprechauns too gaze blankly into the distance, ELI sits up in the box, breathes deeply, stretches, looks about keenly, as if thinking himself alone.)

ELI: No question about it. This will be the finest site in the world for the buildin’ o’ the tower. As I was not, at my last time o’ bein’ here, seein’ so clearly. Fallin’ through the empty air and seein’ the clifftop approachin’ me ever closer, will be what has opened my eyes.

FRANK: (gazing into space) That soundin’ like the old guy’s voice?

CHAD: (gazing into space) A bit. Soundin, anyway, like the sort o’ thing he liked to be sayin’.

FRANK: What’s this fallin’ he’s talkin’ about?

CHAD: I don’ know. (thin smile) Maybe gettin’ things backwards as usual; thinkin’ our carryin’ him up here was fallin’.

FRANK: Wouldn’t’ve been seein’ much from inside the coffin to open his eyes t’anythin’.

CHAD: Well if it’s not him talkin’, who is it?

(They turn their heads to look at ELI, who only then sees them, looks from one to the other, gives them a ‘cheerful smile’. They look at him distrustfully.)

FRANK: (sourly) It’s him.

ELI: It was not in the time o’ restin,’ as best I could, in the coffin, but in the fallin’ in the sunlight pursuin’ me, that I was seein’ so clearly the fairness o’ the situation; and which was consolin’ me for the landin’, which might well have been a hard one; though, in the actuality of its happenin’, it was otherwise. As you’ll doubtless have seen for yourselves.

FRANK: Weren’t seein’ nothin. Keepin’ you from fallin’ outa our hands was all we were up to.

CHAD: And keepin’ on our own feet, path bein’ rocky, and steep.

ELI: The hands o’ Him up there—that could well have been catchin’ and holdin’ onto me, had they been willin’—were aware, as you were not, that the work allotted to this life o’ mine, was not in the full sunlight o’ the sky, but on this very same earth I was born out of.

FRANK: And died back into, we were thinkin’. Or would be, when we got you to a place where you’d have the kind o’ view she said you always said you were likin’.

ELI: (peering ‘over the sea’) The view from here is certainly of that nature; and, it being so extensive, there would be no difficulty at all in seeing your enemies approaching you, however far and many they might be.

FRANK: (to CHAD) What enemies is he thinkin’ he’s got?

CHAD: Guy with the scythe, who else?

FRANK: View to the end o’ the world and he’ll no more be seein’ him comin’ than anybody does.

ELI: (peering towards JACK and JOHN) You lads are still here, I’m seein’. Keepin’ the place steady, the while I was away myself.

(JACK and JOHN look up from their last. FRANK and CHAD look confused.)

JACK: Where else’d we be needin’ to go?

JOHN: Our work bein’ right here.

ELI: I’d’ve done well meself to have remained a while longer, till my thoughts were more settled as to what was needed o’ me might best be accomplished.

JOHN: Awaitin’ the right time is a wise man’s virtue.

ELI: But bein’ then still on the younger side o’ life, and thinkin’ o’ meself— standin’ here, as I was, in the middle o’ the extremes o’ the created world, that was so far apart they could hardly be said to know the other one was even there—as the very one needed, and perfectly situated, for the task o’ bringin’ the both o’ them together..

JOHN: (under his breath to JACK) A high an’ fine idea it was indeed; and us in the middle o’ them when it was happenin’, burnt and drowned to death at once.

ELI: Which only ended—as I had not been seein’ the matter clearly—with meself bein’ bottom up in the seawater there below.

JACK: (Under his breath) Whole backside of you a-steam from the sun.

ELI: So that you might say—as regards my own perceptions of ’em anyway—they were a good way further apart when I finished than when I began.

JOHN: (under his breath) Like most o’ the fine acts his kind are undertakin’.

ELI: But the tower I’m havin’ now in mind to be buildin’, will soon enough be changin’ all that; standin’ here, as it will be, on the broad and steady back o’ the serpent. Which you’ll be feelin’ as well as meself in the deeps below the very chalk under our bums.

JACK: (to ELI) Broad its back may be, comparin’ it with a multitude o’ other things that is less so; but steady sittin’, let alone standin’, on its ever- weavin’ and rearin’ body, without that chalk between us, is a far way from our idea o’ comfort.

JOHN: To say nothin’ o’ raisin’ upon it a tower such as you’re havin’ in your own mind.

ELI: That will, o’ course, be no easy task, as I’m not deceivin’ meself. It’ll be needin’ more’n muscles and good will.

CHAD: Who’s he talkin’ to?

FRANK: Himself, who else? Like anybody half outa his mind.

(ELI, as if hearing FRANK and CHAD, turns to look at them, blinking, as if to see them better.)

ELI: You’ll be the young men that’re thinkin’ they’re sons o’ mine, I suppose.

FRANK: (to CHAD) Yeah, and wishin’ we weren’t.

CHAD: (to FRANK, with a little smile) And if we could make the world the way he can, we wouldn’t be.

ELI: You’ll be keen then to be helpin’ me to get along with the work in hand, and smartly. For the which this bag (standing up with the oilskin bundle in his arms) will be all that we’ll be needin’ apart from the strength and skill of our own bodies; it havin’ within it a few o’ the good instruments we’ll be requirin’; and which, knowin’ the need would be comin’, I’ve been carryin’ with me, from the first time o’ my dyin’; tradition havin’ persuaded the livin’ gathered round my coffin that I’d not be so likely to be troubling them after my goin’, if I were provided with the wherewithal to continue my life’s dreamin’ over the hill.

FRANK: (under his breath) So he’s a trouble to us instead. And what’ve we got to keep ‘im dreamin’, and away from us, when he goes this time?

CHAD: (under his breath) Pretty well nothin’. (small grin) Roses from our pockets? What’s left o’ them.

(As FRANK and CHAD watch him suspiciously, ELI unrolls the oilskin, revealing a small collection of builders’ tools, which he lays on the ground outside the box. JACK and JOHN look towards them, keen-eyed.)

ELI: Their fortunate fear of the thereafter, and of my bein’ restless in it, has enabled these fine instruments to be sheltered here from the stress of the dyin’ world..

CHAD: (under his breath) He was the one was dyin’.

FRANK: (under his breath) Probably what he’s sayin’. Always seein’ things, like you say, backwards.

ELI: ..While I myself was experiencing the fierce enmity of fire and air, and the healin’ o’ the blest water.

JOHN: Got a few fine lookin’ instruments there. Which we might be well usin’ ourselves, th’ opportunity comin’.

(As if hearing them, ELI moves to block their sight of the tools with his body, and gestures to FRANK and CHAD to ‘come closer’.)

ELI: You’ll do well to keep a close eye on those men there (indicating JACK and JOHN). They’re as sharp-witted a pair as the world’s seen in these last scores o’ years; and if they’re seein’ anything they think they can use for the makin’ o’ shoes, their fingers, as sharp as their wits, will soon be seizin’ them.

FRANK: (under his breath to CHAD) Own wits’re leavin’ him. Brains awash in seawater. Seein’ people where there ain’t none.

ELI: (half to himself, looking towards JOHN and JACK) On th’other hand, if they’d be willin’, they’d be effective helpers, havin’ the skills with tools that they’re famous for.

JACK: (to ELI) If there’s some wages involved..

JOHN: (to ELI) We’d not be askin’ much. But as it’ll be takin’ us from our real work..

ELI: The glory of the creation itself will be for you, as for meself, quite reward enough.

JACK: That’s a way o’ seein’ it, o’ course.

JOHN: (under his breath) Way suitin’ to hisself.

ELI: (shrugging, turning from JACK and JOHN) It’s well to be reminded that there’s no trust to be found in those lads. We’ll be the better off to be doin’ what we can on our own. (reaching his arms toward FRANK and CHAD) If you’ll be good enough, as your mother’s dear sons, to be helpin’ me out o’ this coffin..

(They bend forward to offer him their shoulders, on which he supports himself with his hands as he steps out of the box. He winces as his feet touch the grass.)

ELI: On the other hand—keepin’ the mind in balance bein’ o’ the first water in this world—they’re known to be great artificers o’ every kind o’ footwear. And good thick-soled shoes are just what I’m needin’ at the moment, the chips and crumbs o’ chalk bein’ so many and painful to me waterlogged feet; near as many they are as the spare blades o’ grass themselves.

(JOHN, punching holes around the edges of a piece of leather the shape of a foot, and JACK, threading thongs of thin cord through holes in another such piece of leather, glance at each other.)

ELI: That havin’ its good side too, o’ course, makin’ a firm and solid base for the tower, and the houses o’ the people livin’ round it, and the chalk itself bein’ excellent for the many wells and reservoirs o’ fresh water the people will be needin’ for their drinkin’ and washin’. (pulling a piece of thick cord from among the tools, stretching it taut, testing it for strength) But for the beginnin’ o’ the great work..

JACK: (looking towards ELI) Nice bit o’ cord that, better’n what we got here.

JOHN: That’s the truth. We’ll probably be findin’ a moment to make a exchange. Shoes bein’ for him anyway.

JOHN: And he’ll never be needin’ it for his ‘tower’ anyway, hands bein’ good for little but wavin’ in the air in gestures.

ELI: Nothing will be needed but this simple length o’ cord; it bein’ the measure o’ the base and whole great height o’ the tower which will be risin’ here, if it’s bein’ used in accord with a well-trained mind. One end of it, fixed to a point in the ground (picking up a stick) by this equally simple stick, and stretched to a distance that the mind assesses as proper to the task, will then, if kept taut, and the man holdin’ it (picking up another stick and looping the cord round it, drawing it tight) fittin’ another simple stick into a loop in it at that point, may then, holdin’ the point o’ the first stick steady against the ground, movin’ the other in a curving line, such as the taut string’s allowin’ (doing this), he ensurin’ the while that it’s remainin’ taut, he will, willin’ or nillin’, be returnin’ to the point at which he began to scratch his line in the earth; havin’ in this way completed, to the amaze o’ the unknowin’ onlookers around him, a faultless circle.

JACK: Him thinkin’ he’s the only man in the world knowin’ that.

JOHN: That we can do, and anyday, with no cord at all.

JACK: Well, he’s a young man still. With agein’, he’ll be learnin’ a bit more about what he don’t know.

ELI: Thus establishin’ the very place on the earth out o’ which the tower’ll soon be risin’, it’s sheer sides alight with the many glitterin’s from the waves o’ the sea below.

(Looking into the light shining on his face from downstage, ELI pulls the sticks from the string, lets them fall to the ground, continuing to hold the string in the hand which he lifts to shade his eyes.)

ELI: Those glitterin’s bein’ a touch hard on the eyes of a man not long ago punched out of the sky itself by a fist so big I’d not easily be imaginin’ a bigger, and the air rushin’ past me to fill up again the space it was letting me fall through like I was a falling star, and burning like one I was, no doubt o’ that. And expecting at the end o’ the fallin’ to be drowned outa this world altogether. Only by the will o’ fortune, and the inner strength o’ me own body, was I able to break through its surface as though it was the merest tissue; and let it cradle me into its watery gentleness, like a mother her dearest child; and feel the healin’ of it flowin’ right through me.

JACK: And them two hulks aware o’ nothin’ but their own clumsy feet on the rocks.

FRANK: We’d have been seein’ that well enough if you’d ha’ been falllin’ through the night. Not the easiest o’ things to see fallin’ stars in the daylight.

CHAD: Fell then, we’d sure ha’ seen ‘im, splayed out against the light o’ the moon. But the light o’ the sun blinds a man’s eyes to nearly midnight.

EMER; No need o’ seein’ ‘im at all, when I could feel him, with me eyes closed, fallin’ right through me heart.

JACK: Made a splash as big as any three men, all o’ them bigger than hisself, and those two are seein’ nothin.

JOHN: Waves from it even carried off a fair few chunks o’ chalk from the base o’ the cliff. More falls like that and we’ll be findin’ us in some danger ourself.

ELI: (to FRANK and CHAD) Those lads there saw me falling the full way from the height o’ heaven to the sea that caught me. Not bein’ cursed with the purblind eyes such as you’re cursed with yourselves.

CHAD: (to FRANK, under his breath) Somebody he’s seein’ there, by the cliff-edge.

FRANK: Where there’s nobody to see. Outside his own head.

JACK: In his head they’re thinkin’ we are; when he’s seein’ us as clear as the air itself.

JOHN: Seawater’ll have washed his eyes of all the dust he was fallin’ through. Theirs’ll probably be having a lot o’ chalk in ’em from their long climb.

ELI: (playing with the string between his hands) It was the cool wetness o’ the water which was the greatest blessing to a man parched and charred by the sun as unforgivin’ as the desert itself. And gentle to fall through it was, not like the empty, thoughtless air above it; so it was ever more slowly I was fallin’ through it, and it caressin’ me the whole while, and turning me round till I was rising upwards in it again. An experience a leaf, dry with the year’s endin’, might be havin’ in the air, but not a body as heavy with the good earth as my own.

EMER: Heavy it is, I’m knowin’ that well enough; but his eyes on the sun’s risin’, light as they were, were soon carryin’ the whole of it away with them.

(As if hearing something ‘on the wind’, ELI turns his head towards EMER.)

EMER: Always knowin’ when to go; when to come and when to go; followin’ his own heartbeat. Wavin’ his big hand good-bye, his thin lips nearly smilin’ and his eyes full o’ the light o’ what he was seein’ in his own head, every time he was goin’ wherever it was. Never once seein’ the boys lyin’ by me, thinkin’ they were some o’ the pigs, though every time of his comin’ they were bigger, and sometimes awake when he pushed open the door.

FRANK: (putting his hand in his pocket) Or soon enough after, noises they were makin’.

CHAD: (putting his hand in his pocket) Yeah.

ELI: (looking towards EMER) There’s somethin’ like a woman way over there, just this side o’ the horizon. I can see her pretty clear. The wind’s catchin’ and frettin’ the loose clothes she’s wearing, well- soiled they are from the earth she’s sittin’ on.

EMER: He knew he could leave, and I’d be all right. Others comin’ through’d care for me, kinda care I was wantin’ sometimes, that the pigs weren’t givin’, and the smell o’ the roses dyin’ in their box, however tight I was closin’ it, makin’ the nights colder.

FRANK: That’ll be her he’s seein’. (looking towards EMER) Can’t see ‘er myself.

(They pull their hands out of their pockets, smell them, make wry faces, wipe their hands on their pants.)

CHAD: Me neither. Can smell ‘er though.

FRANK: Yeah.

EMER: It was the smell o’ the pigs was attractin’ the most o’ them. Me own smell that kept ’em. No trouble in that, boys sleepin’..

FRANK: (grinning) Oh yeah. Noises she’d make, even the pigs weren’t sleepin’.

EMER: Long as they went off with the first light. ‘Twas only the ones o’ them who weren’t goin’ then that made the trouble. Or were wantin’ me to go with ’em. Where’d they have in mind us goin’? Walk the highroads, me in a fine floral dress, him in bright shoes, wavin’ down passin’ cars that’d never stop. (giggling) If they did, and smelled me, they wouldn’t be stoppin’ long. (gazing into space) Smell o’ the roses, even then, bein’ hardly more’n what was left in me own nose.

(FRANK and CHAD look at each other, put both their hands in their pockets, pull out handfuls of dry roses, sniff them, shrug.)

CHAD: Smell o’ roses is not lastin’ a minute out in the air, air’s swallowin’ it like it’s needin’ it for its own life.

FRANK: (throwing his roses over the ‘cliff’) Well let it have ’em then.

CHAD: (throwing his roses over the ‘cliff’) For whatever good’ll come o’ it; there bein’ nothin’ in ’em any longer worth the breathin’.

(They wipe their hands on their pants.)

ELI: It’s not th’air, but your own pockets, that’s swallowed the smell o’ those dry things you’ve thrown from yourselves; the air bein’ enough here for the whole world to be breathin’ and not complainin’, though the pockets o’ the both o’ you are near starved to death of it. (chuckling) No wonder it is that you can’t see the woman you were sayin’ good bye to, and not so far back either, kissin’ her you were on both her dirty cheeks, like the good sons you are; her own face not givin’ much hint o’ her knowin’ what you were doin’; lookin’ more, as she was brushin’ her cheeks, like she was feelin’ the droppin’ o’ rain, (grinning) or o’ birds, though there was none o’ either in the air above her.

FRANK: In her dreamin’, they coulda been hundreds, and us not seein’ them; since she was asleep when we left her.

CHAD: (smiling) Dreamin’ o’ roses probably, nose then bein’ full o’ them.

ELI: What ‘roses’ are ye talkin’ about?

CHAD: (indifferently) Roses.

ELI: I can hear, and well enough, it’s roses. What I’m askin’ (looking toward EMER) is where she’s seein’ them; there bein’ none o’ any kind anywhere near her. If there were, I’d ha’ smelled them sure, likin’ the smell o’ roses more’n most things.

(FRANK and CHAD look at him in surprise.)

CHAD: (to FRANK, under his breath) Maybe that’s why she was likin’ them so much.

FRANK: (under his breath) If he ever told her, who told her nearly nothin’.

ELI: What’re you whisperin’ for?

FRANK: Talkin’. Just talkin’.

ELI: What’re you talkin’ about?

FRANK: (coldly) Roses.

CHAD: (shrugging) We took her some roses.

FRANK: Whole sackful. From a valley some way from her, where you must never ha’ went, where they were growin’ thick an’ many.

CHAD: She sayin’ how she was tired o’ the pigs, smell o’ the pigs; day after day she was sayin’ it.

ELI: Kick ’em out then. Didn’t have to be there. It’s her that brought ’em in. Company, she said; for days I wasn’t there. (chuckling) Good many o’ those. And for the warm bodies o’ them on winter nights.

CHAD: Yeah, she liked that, we all did. But the smell o’ them had got to her.

FRANK: So we took her the roses. Tipped the whole sack ‘o them over her head.

CHAD: And they kept spillin’ and spillin’ all over her, like the sack was makin’ ’em itself; till those that wasn’t caught in her clothes here an’ there was all over the floor o’ the shack at her feet.

FRANK: (grinning) And we havin’ to push the pigs back with our feet, that were wantin’ to eat them. While she just stood there, breathin’ and breathin’ in the smell o’ them.

ELI: There’s nothin’ smells like wild roses. Nothin’. But I never smelled ’em when I was with her.

EMER: (holding the box in her hands) And how would he be doin’ that? Since what the pigs left o’ them I put in the box, to be holdin’ their smell inside it; (sniffing at the box) which it nearly hasn’t, smell leakin’ out through the tin like the heat itself.

FRANK: Smells aren’t lastin’ that long, ‘less they’re inside you. (wry smile) Like the pigs inside us.

CHAD: But she sure as hell smelled them roses then, her whole body heavin’ with her breathin’ of the air into her. (grinning) Before she grabbed us both, with those big hands o’ hers, and pulled us down onto the floor with her, and rubbed her face..

FRANK: (low laugh) And our faces..

CHAD: And her whole body in those roses, and rolled about in them, like a pig herself in the best mud in the world.

FRANK: Holdin’ onto us the while so tight, I was hardly breathin’ any air myself, and what I could was smellin’ more o’ her own sweat than the roses.

CHAD: I was hearin’ her own breathin’ right near my ear; and it growin’ slower and easier, until her hand holdin’ me went all slack.

FRANK: Yeah. And us the same. Just lyin’ there we were, breathin’ in the roses in the middle o’ all the pigs. Until we heard her snorin’.

CHAD: That she was still doin’ when we were wakin’, and it near light.

FRANK: Pigs still sleepin’, lucky for us; them wakin’, wantin’ their mornin’ feed, she’d’ve woke to give it ’em. And we’d never’ve got away.

EMER: Like a drug they were. The smell o’ them was so sweet in all the air around me, I’d ‘a slept the whole day through, if the pigs hadn’t woke me. (stroking the pigs) Pigs is the truth. I hope they’re knowin’ that now, the smell o’ them risin’ inside ’em through whatever’s left o’ the roses.

ELI: But you’re still smellin’ them roses, I’m thinkin’, for all your talkin’. (looking away from them) Or anyway were, not long back. Or you’d not’ve found me by the edge o’ the water.

FRANK: (thin smile) Found without lookin’.

CHAD: (smiling) Roses then only fillin’ our heads with herself.

(They both turn away from ELI, gaze into space. EMER’s hand pats the tin box)

EMER: More o’ them roses, I’m hopin’, than has been left to me; the pigs havin’ et nearly the lot o’ them. Probably not much relishin’ them neither, but food’s food, and they’re knowin’ what things come first.

(She opens the box, sniffs inside it, shrugs.)

EMER: Well, I wanted them, wanted the scent o’ them fillin’ the whole o’ me body, so there’s nothin’ more to be said about that. (closing the box) And it was time the boys were goin’, which they knew; they havin’—knowin’ it or not—his seed in the midst of them. And they bein’ already all caught up in his dreamin’, which they sure weren’t knowin’, were even cursin’ him in their hearts, they bein’ boys still, though hairy. And the dreamin’ o’ himself not bein’ so easy to touch, or smell, as roses, though they’re maybe thinkin’ it is. Without the pigs’ stink in their noses, it’d be them who’d be fallin’ off that cliff- edge into the sea, the way himself has done over and over again. (smiling) Which he can do, and they can’t; (low laughter) because it’ll always be me he’s landin’ on.

(She gazes into space.)

CHAD: (little smile) Maybe the first o’ the others—comin’ to her when we was gone—were comin’ more for the smell o’ the roses than the pigs. There bein’ dreamers among them too, like as not.

FRANK: (appearing about to put his hand in his pocket, but doesn’t.) They’d have had to be quick, the smell o’ them so fast fadin’. (to ELI, coldly) But for yourself, for all your ‘love o’ roses’, they weren’t even smellin’ the air right around her.

ELI: Some things some people don’t have to smell. They’ve got it deep inside ’em. Like I’ve got her. A man don’t fly past the moon all on his own.

JOHN: He’s rememberin’ he did that now, is he?

JACK: He’ll soon be rememberin’ his fine outstretched hand touchin’ the sun.

JOHN: And forgettin’ the fist that ‘touched’ him.

ELI: And there’s no need whatever for you to be talkin’ to me like I was your father, that ‘failed’ you. Even if she’s right about a couple o’ my seeds clinging to a egg or two o’ hers, that don’t make of me anythin’ more’n a passin’ boar is to them pigs; I havin’ hardly any real sight o’ you from that day to this. (looking from one to the other) And there bein’ in this world many things much more worth the sight of.

FRANK: (to ELI) Or any real sight o’ her either. So it’s not surprisin’ that—for all your high talkin’—you’re rememberin’ near nothin’ o’ her at all.

ELI: Your very own mother, you’re meanin’, are you? I’m rememberin’ her very well. Flower o’ womanhood she was, body and soul. (gazing downstage, smiling) They were all o’ them flowers, in a field as big as all I can be seein’ now from this handsome cliff edge; and myself the wind blowin’ over ’em, rufflin’ their petals. (looking towards EMER) But they all o’ them were herself, the great cup that was overflowin’ with me.

EMER: When it comes t’overflowin, there was none o’ them, before or after, that could touch him.

CHAD: (to ELI) It’s nothin’ at all o’ herself at all you’re rememberin’; but your own fine pictures. Which aren’t includin’ her lookin’ out through the open door of the mornin’s you left her.

FRANK: Even the pigs weren’t gettin’ no food those mornin’s. Sure not us. But them, it’s seemin’, you’re rememberin’ well enough.

ELI: They bein’ such short times I was with her, what would I be rememberin’ o’ her in particular, but the pigs? Which none o’ the many others I was with, here an’ there, was lyin’ among, that I noticed. Nor had they any roses neither, nor any other kind o’ flower, to sweeten a bit the air about ’em.

FRANK: (under his breath) Not havin’ us to gather ’em.

ELI: And anyway, the time it takes to make a (glancing from CHAD to FRANK) poor copy o’ yourself bein’ so brief.. Took longer, there’d be a lot fewer o’ you about, and the world a much roomier place.

CHAD: (putting his hand in his pocket) Took her a fair while, and her bein’ on her own, to bring out th’each o’ us.

ELI: Natural enough then it was, that she preferred to stay in the one place, and leave th’ actual travellin’ to me.

FRANK: Coulda left the stayin’ to you too.

ELI: (looking down at the slack string between his hands) I’d ha’ stayed, I’d ha’ died.

JOHN: That’ll be a true word enough.

JACK: And no tower’d ever be built on this cliff, nor houses clusterin’ round it, I’m supposin’, with a fair number o’ people in ’em to leave out little gifts for us from their kitchens, keepin’ the wolves from our door.

(ELI, looking steadily at the string between his hands, slowly stretches it taut. CHAD pulls his hand out of his pocket, sniffs it covertly; his lips twist in disgust. He wipes his hand on his pants.)

ELI: (to FRANK and CHAD) It’s natural enough, your eyes bein’ as blighted as they are, that you’re not seein’ what they (indicating JACK and JOHN), havin’ clear ones, are already havin’ some idea of how, from this bare bit o’ geometry (indicating the taut string) the tower I’ve in mind to be buildin’ will be begun.

FRANK: (under his breath) As clear to their eyes, as them to ours.

CHAD: And that bit o’ string’s the ‘geometry’ that’s goin’ to be buildin’ it, eh?

ELI: This ‘bit o’ string’ is like that in the story you mayn’t have heard of— your bein’ out in the world as yet so short-lived—which is seen by the man with only one eye, and that seein’ poorly, as a snake wrigglin’ over the ground towards him, so he’s screamin’ bloody murder before he’s bein’ bitten by it; calmin’ down only when somebody with one eye more than himself says it’s only ‘a bit o’ string’, what’s he to be fearin’ of? Himself with the two eyes not seein’ that it’s not a string at all; but the snake the first man thought it was, though not seein’ it proper, bein’ hardly out o’ the crawlin’ position he was more used to, so not knowin’ at all that it was out o’ the body o’ this snake itself—the right time, and man, comin’—that the great tower that was lyin’ adream in space, would be risin’, stone by stone, up into the sunlit air.

FRANK: You, I suppose, bein’ that right man.

ELI: That we’ll be seein’ when the stones are risin’.

JACK: It’ll be a fair sight to be seein’ when they do.

JOHN: An’ if they do; even himself, on that score, not bein’ too sure, I’m thinkin’.

ELI: (holding the string slack between his hands) At the beginnin’ o’ things—which it takes some travellin’ and even some flyin’ in the air towards the moon—beyond it bein’, as you learn, beyond the skills o’ nearly th’all o’ us—

JOHN: Fist knockin’ a bit o’ sense into ‘im there, anyway.

ELI: —and a fall right to the bottom of the sea, where that snake’s best to be seen, the whole of its body writhin’, and so big there’s not a fool in the world would be thinkin’ it was just a piece o’ loose rope, the necessary first step (stretching the string taut between his hands) is to straighten out that snake. And then to keep it straight, so makin’ sure that the full measure o’ the life of it, which is the life o’ the very earth itself, will be surrendered into the work.

(He holds the string taut at different angles; when vertical, it measures the distance between his forehead and his crotch.)

ELI: It learnin’ in that way what’s bein’ asked of it, and it becomin’ willin’ to do it; which no amount o’ force would otherwise be persuadin’ it to.

FRANK: (under his breath to CHAD) Now he’s a snake charmer. (thin smile) Playin’ the flute with his tongue.

CHAD: (under his breath to FRANK, grinning) More likely way, you could say, to be rousin’ it, or yourself anyway—if you could manage it— than a pretty bar o’ music.

ELI: And what’s bein’ asked of it, when it’s as hard as the stone itself we’re standin’ on, is to be both the foundation o’ the tower, and the core o’ its upward risin’ right to the lowest clouds o’ heaven; they bein’ the highest your ordinary man can reach to..

JOHN: He’s learned that, at least.

JACK: Experience is far an’ away the best teacher.

ELI: When it is so stiffened, it will, of its own desirous accord, stretch itself upwards, in multiples o’ the length o’ this little string, out of its watery home and as high into the empty air as its length is now in the water —which is to say the length of the whole way around this world— towards the eye of the sun that has been blinding it.

JOHN: Be blindin’ it the more the higher it goes.

JACK: He’s the one’ll be doin’ the seein’ for it, I suppose. Havin’ been there, some o’ the way there, hisself.

FRANK: (under his breath to CHAD) Normal size snake won’t do him. Has to be one as big as the world itself.

CHAD: (smiling, under his breath to FRANK) Where’s the flowery lady that’s likin’ small snakes?

JOHN: (to ELI) What I’m not quite seein’ is what’ll be holdin’ the snake upright when your own hands are not holdin’ the string to guide an’ encourage it; they havin’, if we’re understandin’, a good many other tasks set out for ’em.

JACK: And the distance to the sun bein’ somethin’ greater than your normal walk through the woods..

JOHN: And the winds up there bein’ probably o’ the fiercer kind..

JACK: The snake, if not your own vigorous self, will surely be tirin’ well before even the clouds has been breached by it.

ELI: The string itself is but a tool towards achievin’ the end o’ the matter, by establishin’ its beginnin’; and may be abandoned when its work has been done; the task then falling to these other tools at me feet, —nicely preserved as they are from the ravagin’ o’ the seawater by their oilskin casin’—to cut from this firm stone at our feet all the material I’ll be needin’ to build the tower, stronger than any wind blowin’ against it, for the serpent to be risin’ up in, out of its watery bed; the head of it stretchin’ higher and higher into the air towards the waitin’ globe o’ the sun.

JOHN: And how will you be managin’ the like o’ that from the clifftop down here where we’re all findin’ ourselves?

ELI: I shall be in the tower, like any mason worthy o’ the name, haulin’ up —with that (kicking at a coil of rope) rope—stone after stone, laying course after course o’ them, to shelter the serpent from the winds and, as much as possible—though that’ll be a fair sight more difficult—from the burning light o’ the sun itself.

JOHN: And who then will be fittin’ those stones that you’ll be needin’, into the loop at the other end o’ the rope, as you’ll be wantin’ them?

JACK: Our own fine hands, you’ll be understandin’, not bein’ the equal o’ such heavy work.

ELI: The two young men there (indicating FRANK and CHAD) will be helping me. It is for that purpose that I have brought them here.

CHAD: (to FRANK) He was the one brought us, was it?

FRANK: (to CHAD) Yeah, and in his head it’ll be us are goin’ to be choppin’ all that stone out o’ the chalk o’ this cliff. And to no good at all, since he’s never goin’ to be buildin’ it, never havin’ done anythin’ in his whole life but talk. (shrugging) Eh, the good in that, if you’re havin’ to look for it, ‘ll be in the folks passin’, if any ever do, not havin’ to wonder what it was fell over here, leavin’ all those dead stones. ‘Cause there won’t be any.

CHAD: (grinning) And the content o’ the serpent, back to lickin’ its own tailbone for kicks.

ELI: (to JOHN and JACK) The three of us workin’ together—I showin’ ’em how—before you’ll be realizin’ the half of what’s happenin’, the tower’ll be lifted so high, the clouds, thick though they may be in their aimin’ to stop its risin’, will be vainly clusterin’ round the lower part o’ it only; its upper part bein’ high above them in the clear sunlight.

CHAD: Hidin’ itsself from the ladies’ longin’ eyes.

ELI: The head of it by then shinin’ as bright in the sun’s light as the moon it’s thrustin’ its way beyond.

FRANK: Doin’ what the moon’s doin’ already, and well enough. Re-inventin’ the wheel.

CHAD: Moon’s doin’ it only at night. (grinning) He’s goin’ to play the moon in full day.

FRANK: Kid’s sky-rocket more like; a few sparklin’ bright colours and then nothin’.

JOHN: (under his breath to JACK) Beams of it’ll not be cool like the moon’s, I’m wagerin’, but burstin’ all hot around us like the sun itself.

JACK: (under his breath to JOHN) If we’re to be given a choice, which is unlikely, the brief seein’ ‘d be better by a deal than the steady hot feelin’.

ELI: (gazing upward) The sun, observin’ from its great height the unceasin’ rise towards it of the great tower, will naturally—it failin’ to understand the purpose o’ it—be exertin’ the power o’ its own greatness to repel it.

JACK: That’ll be doin’ for us sure.

JOHN: Burnt to charcoals we’ll be. And them there too; not, in their dullness, seein’ it comin’. So there’ll be no soul about to use us to grill a fish on.

JACK: Whole sea, that the snake’s left it to fend for itself, ‘ll be dry as dust.

JOHN: It’ll not be leavin’ its bed at all, is my opinion; bein’ deaf, like snakes is generally, to his foolish talk about his bit o’ string; that’s good for nothin’—except in his head—but tyin’ a nice pair o’ sandals to feet cut about by the chips o’ chalk he’s complainin’ of.

ELI: (gazing steadily at the sky) The sun, seein’ how little is the effect its burnin’ beams are havin’ on the tower stretchin’ closer an’ closer to its own self, like it’s aimin’ to be thrustin’ itself into its very heart, is shrinkin’ and shrinkin’ into itself..

JACK: (looking round) Which’ll be makin’ the light a lot darker.

JOHN: And th’air colder. (to ELI) Which you’ll be findin’ the more so, sure, high up as you’ll be, hot though the sun may be on yer outer skin.

ELI: Hot and cold at once I’m knowin’ it’ll be; and bearin’ it as well as I may, by the keepin’ in mind of it’s bein’ a sure sign of the comin’ together in meself o’ the two o’ them that’re makin’ things—for us that’re caught in the middle o’ them—so much the one or th’other, but never the two together, that we’re at our wits’ end to know how to live with the both o’ them that won’t live with each other.

JACK: They not bein’ well fitted for that, willin’ or not.

JOHN: And what’s the good o’ willin’ when you’re not able?

ELI: (stretching the string taut between his hands) The only way out o’ this unendin’ and painful dilemma—as it’s taken me some while and hard experience to discover—is to be buildin’ this tower between the two of ’em. And there’s no place better in the world than this for my doin’ it.

FRANK: (under his breath, ironically) And no man better fit to be doin’ it.

ELI: It bein’ as near as possible to halfway between those two that’ve got to be brought together; and at the same time kept well apart.

(He gazes at the horizon.)

JOHN: The last bein’ easier than the first.

JACK: For the first not to be burnin’ an’ drownin’ us at once, this tower o’ his had better be stayin’ as stiff and strong as he’s thinkin’ it is.

FRANK: (to CHAD) If he’s havin’ in mind the snake swallowin’ the sun, we’d be doin’ well to tell ‘im a few o’ the disadvantages.

CHAD: (to FRANK, grinning) We could watch that fallin’ easy enough, the light o’ it bein’ nicely subdued, all the way down through its stiff, and maybe enjoyin’ it, body to the sea.

FRANK: (to CHAD, thin smile) Him doin’ both the swallowin’ and the bein’ swallowed. So he can keep himself right in the middle.

ELI: And when I’ve got it up there, so it’s standin’ in the clear air, with the skin o’ the snake linin’ the inside o’ its walls, and th’outside o’ them glistenin’ in the sun with the millions o’ waterdrops all over it, anybody with any strength in his legs at all will be able to climb right up inside it—takin’ though it may the most o’ the years o’ their lives— until there’s hardly any stones at all around them, but those enough to be holdin’ up the great spaces o’ air that they’re lookin’ through to distances so great those left on the ground can hardly be even imaginin’.

(He looks around him ‘exaltedly’. He sees EMER, looks away; looks at her again; keeps looking.)

CHAD: (under his breath) He’s seein’ her.

FRANK: (under his breath) Yeah.

ELI: Even that woman there, faraway over the earth though she is, will be clearly seen by anyone lookin’ her way; and the wind blowin’ about her catchin’ and frettin’ the loose clothes she’s wearin’, dirtied the lot o’ them with the earth she’s sittin’ on.

FRANK: He’ll be right enough about the wind. Shack’s so full o’ cracks an’ holes, she might as well be outside.

ELI: (to FRANK and CHAD) She’ll be the woman, by the looks o’ her, the two o’ you were once sayin’ good bye to, whenever it was. And her bein’ the mother you’re claimin’.

CHAD: (to ELI) Us leavin’ her is all o’ her you’re seein’, high in the air as you’re seein’ yourself to be? Nothin’ whatever of your own goin’.

FRANK: (thin smile) And..comin’. And goin’.

ELI: From your mother, you’re meanin’? When was I goin’, leavin’ her? If you’re askin’ her when that was, she’ll be tellin’ you I never went out the door.

CHAD: But all you’re rememberin’ o’ her yourself is the wind frettin’ her dirty clothes.

EMER: What’re they expectin’? He’s not rememberin’ anybody. How’s a man to travel so high he can touch the moon, if he’s weighted down by a bag o’ memories?

FRANK: (aside) Even the stink o’ the pigs he says he’s rememberin’ somewhat will’ve been nearly breathed out o’ his lungs by the ‘high clear air’ he’s so long been thinkin’ o’ himself as livin’ in.

CHAD: (aside) Not like us, that the stink o’ them’s so deep-buried in, we’ll never even find the door to his great tower—open though he may be leavin’ it—and that clear air it’s to be risin’ in. (ironic smile) The more so, as it’s likelier than not never goin’ to be built.

JACK: There are towers to be built and places to be buildin’ ’em that those hulks are not knowin’ of; that’d fall to their deaths from the perilous edge they’re standin’ so near to, though it’s not three foot above the ground.

ELI: And she wasn’t the kind o’ woman you’re thinkin’ she was; nor anythin’ like. Lookin’ out the door after my goin’ she may ha’ been; but it wasn’t to hold me back. For what we were doin’ together— when we were doin’ it—she had her choices, and made ’em, of dozens o’ others, to keep her warm o’ cold nights, when the pigs weren’t quite all she was needin’.

EMER: (turning to look at ELI) Some stink o’ the pigs in you still, as you’re knowin’ better than they are the truth o’ things, for all your flyin’ off to the moon.

(ELI, evidently hearing EMER, looks at her steadily, and she at him, as if from a great distance. FRANK and CHAD have evidently heard nothing.)

EMER: (opening her mouth as if to shout, then speaking normally) And is that the moon itself, then, that you’re sittin’ on?

ELI; (uninflected voice) It is a white cliff, rising out of the sea.

EMER: And that sea is on the moon?

ELI: It is across the bay from where you are sitting yourself.

CHAD: (under his breath to FRANK) Who’s he talkin’ to?

FRANK: (under his breath to CHAD) Who’s he ever talkin’ to?

EMER: You were a long time gettin’ there, for a way so short.

ELI: I didn’t come here straight.

EMER: Ah, that would be in keepin’ with your goin’ by night, and I sleepin’.

ELI: It is at night that the moon is best seen. When it Is full. As it was.

EMER: With that much light, I might’ve come with you.

CHAD: (under his breath, looking towards EMER) Her lips’re movin’, like she’s talkin’.

(They both look steadily at EMER.)

ELI: (his voice becoming more natural) You were heavy with the boys. You’d have fallen. And I’d have fallen with you. And the moon would have died in us both.

EMER: If it was shinin’ for you to go to it, it’ll not be happy seein’ you sittin’ on that near cliff.

ELI: You’re in the right there. But it was a fair way further to go to than I knew about. Bein’ then still young in my body.

EMER: But the boys there, with just a few roses in their pockets, found it in no time.

CHAD: I’m hearin’ her now. Inside me and out.

FRANK: Yeah. (frowning) But there ain’t no smell o’ roses now in my pockets. Nothin’ but the smell o’ pigs.

CHAD: Don’t need ’em now, since they got us here.

FRANK: If it was them that did.

ELI: They found the cliff, anyone can find that; and they had the help of me guidin’ them from the inside o’ the coffin.

EMER: And the little men’s shoes they were wearin’, protectin’ their feet from the hard chalk.

CHAD: Talkin’ about us.

FRANK: What’re they knowin’ about us?

EMER: Which it was myself settin’ them right on that road, by givin’ them the first money their little hands were holdin’, and tellin’ them if they’ll always be lettin’ the little men shoe them, they’ll be feelin’ nowhere on the earth too hard to bear.

JACK: That’s a good woman; one o’ the few that’s payin’ us a mite o’ respectful attention.

ELI: Pity you didn’t think to tell me. The chips o’ chalk up here are very painful to my feet; they bein’ soft with my many days in the water, walkin’ on any but the gentlest ground, which nobody but a fool would call this, is a pain to them which I’ll not even be botherin’ to try to give you some idea of.

EMER: I thought it was only in your head you’d be travellin’; where barefoot is better’n shod. Had you been wearin’ even their dainty shoes, you’d have fallen out o’ the air far sooner than you did, and with your hittin’ the top o’ the sea, they’d ha’ dragged you right down through it to the bottom. No coffin at all, nor sons as strong as giants, would’ve been carryin’ you then to the green cliff top you’re so complainin’ of.

JOHN: She might be tellin’ him, now he’s but a few yards from us, that we’re ready enough to fit his feet to the shoes he’s complainin’ o’ needin’. If he’ll just be bringin’ with him that nice bit o’ string.

JACK: It seemin’, from the way he’s playin’ with it, and just fiddlin’ with those good instruments, and talkin’ with those louts o’ sons that’re not even seein’ us, that we’ll be havin’ to wait more’n our usual two or three hundred span o’ years to see even the first rows of stones risin’ up from this ground.

JACK: You’re in the right there. Even in his head itself, there’s little but a sketched picture o’ walls an’ windas, the higher ones o’ the latter bein’ the brighter, as that’s where he’s seein’ himself sittin’, with his eyes lookin’ over the sea and the horizon that’s enough for most people, and around the whole world itself.

JOHN: Leavin’ us here down below, where all we’re wantin’ is that bit o’ string he’s already lost sight of, to make some stout sandals for some other unfortunate man, whose feet are still walkin’ painfully on this harsh ground.

ELI: (to JOHN and JACK, while looking steadily at EMER) The purpose in the buildin’ of a holy tower is not for the providin’ o’ food and raiment for those unfortunates, ill-used by nature, at its gate—though they will, o’ course, be given out by the houses round—but to be breathin’ out to the world beyond its walls the scent, and the spirit within the scent, that’s livin’ in the temple at its very heart.

EMER: Which th’all o’ us will be bein’ grateful for, I’m sure.

FRANK: (to CHAD) Temple now he’s goin’ to be buildin’. Throne for himself in the middle of it, probably.

CHAD: (to FRANK) Where he’ll givin’ answers to people’s prayers; and kindly lettin’ ’em kiss his hand, or his ring or.. (grinning) whatever.

EMER: (to ELI) The poor lads’re not havin’ any good idea at all of who y’are. And how would they? Havin’ nothin’ o’ you anywhere about ’em; and near nothin’ now o’ me neither, but the smell o’ my body they’re rememberin’ as the pigs; since they’re not any longer smellin’ the roses.

ELI: Got none anymore to smell, as they threw ’em off the cliff a while back. (wry smile, letting the string go slack between his hands) Probably wishin’ they could be doin’ the same with me.

EMER: They were only to be helpin’ ’em on their way to findin’ you. Though we were none o’ us knowin’ it then.

ELI: Well, they did that, I guess, some way or other; there still bein’ some kind o’ scent left to them when they were findin’ me; judgin’ from the way they were then smellin’ their hands when they were takin’ them outa their pockets—which, they being young men, was not often— and smilin’ a bit; somethin’ they’re not much prone to. (broad smile) I bein’ the one then that was prone, and smilin’, floatin’ down there in the shallows o’ the sea that was warm from the tide comin’ in over the hot sands; remindin’ me o’ the warmth o’ your own body.

EMER: (smiling) You’ve a memory to be pridin’ yerself on, if you’re rememberin’ that; so few the times it was happenin’. Though it’s like things we’re smellin’, I suppose; that’re stayin’ inside us without our thinkin’ about ’em.

JOHN: Must ha’ been something livin’ in those happenin’s; for him not to be thinkin’ about ’em; thinkin’ bein’ the curse o’ him altogether.

FRANK: What’s he got to remember anyway, that he thinks he does? Flash in the pan.

CHAD: (grinning) Two flashes.

FRANK: Yeah. And he’s outa there, before any stink o’ those pigs can be stainin’ his fair skin.

CHAD: (sniffing under his arm) Like they’re sure still stainin’ ours.

ELI: (gazing steadily at EMER) Few the times may ha’ been, but I was there when I was. And it was never in my head, in the while I was lyin’ with you, to be anywhere else at all.

EMER: (smiling gently) I was feelin’ that; at the time.

ELI: Even when I was goin’ out the door, I could feel you in your eyes lookin’ after me. (wry smile) If you’d looked away, I’d not ha’ been able to go; thinkin’ you wouldn’t be there when I came back.

EMER: There’d ha’ been no need o’ your comin’ back; since I was goin’ with you. You were never out o’ my sight. Till the day, fallin’ outa the sun like you did, you were floatin’ in the shallows o’ the water, and all I could see o’ you was your body.

CHAD: Yeah, then anybody could see you; the water bein’ so shallow, your toes were stirrin’ up the sand under it.

FRANK: Wonder it was you were still floatin’ at all, body then bein’ so full o’ water.

(ELI, not appearing to hear what FRANK and CHAD are saying, gazes into space.)

CHAD: And more full still by the time we had the coffin ready to lift you into; that takin’ us a fair while, the tools that was with you..

FRANK: That was probably makin’ your fall from the sun the faster..

CHAD: ..we weren’t seein’. And wood to be makin’ it of was only flotsam, with old nails in some parts of it.

FRANK: And what slowed us the more was the skills we were lackin’.

JOHN: They’d ha’ been a lot quicker at the work, and the work itself a deal better done, if they’d thought to be askin’ us for a bit o’ help.

JACK: Blind as they are to everythin’ round ’em, they’d as much be thinkin’ of askin’ help o’ the flotsam itself.

FRANK: But slow as we were, you were still smellin’ fresh when we lifted you into the coffin.

CHAD: The sea preservin’ the flesh o’ your body; as we were thinkin’. (wry smile) And yourself—as we weren’t then knowin’, you not sayin’— not bein’ dead.

ELI: I was sunk a long way inside meself then, was hardly feelin’ your hands on my body. (to EMER, removing the looped ends of the string from his fingers) That fallin’ was th’end of it, as I wasn’t then seein. Bein’ still too near the ground to see you as clear as I can now.

(He lets the string fall from his hands to the ground. JOHN and JACK look at it keenly.)

JACK: (under his breath) Moment we’re waitin’ for.

JOHN: (under his breath) Lookin’ like he won’t even be wantin’ a fair exchange.

JACK: (under his breath) And wantin’ the shoes now, probably, more’n ever.

EMER: It’s not so difficult to be seein’ me, as you were findin’ it.

ELI: (gazing at EMER) It’ll be the not lookin’ more’n the not seein’ that was blindin’ me outside eyes. Inside, I was seein’ you always, lookin’ or not.

FRANK: Inside himself he can see anything he wants to.

CHAD: Yeah. But he still wanted to go. And go again.

ELI: (half to himself) It was the hawk in the air over me that was the..beginnin’ of my goin’.

EMER: That hawk I’m rememberin’ meself.

JOHN: Hawks in fair numbers to be seen about us here.

JACK: Fine birds they are.

ELI: Right over me it was, hoverin’ in the air—the way they can an’ do— and I lyin’ on my back in the grass, lookin’ up at it; and all around me, that I could see from the corners o’ my eyes, poppies were noddin’ their heads in the light wind.

EMER: I was seein’ you there well enough, though not comin’ nearer than the fair few yards separatin’ our bodies, my own bein’ heavy with the first o’ the boys inside it. Whichever one it was.

FRANK: (under his breath, to CHAD) Which of us was it?

CHAD: (under his breath) I don’ know. (little smile) Maybe we’re twins.

FRANK: She’d be knowin’ that, herself.

CHAD: I don’ know. Her not knowin’ which of us was first. And one of us bein’ so ugly. (grinning) Probably me.

FRANK: (grinning) Well, you ain’t noticeably now; so I must ha’ got uglier, balancin’ us out.

ELI: The sun bein’ right in the midst o’ the clear sky over me, and the hawk in the midst o’ the sun, I wasn’t at first seein’ it at all. And then I was, like somethin’ as black as the sun itself was bright, that it was so big it was blockin’ off from me altogether.

EMER: It was swoopin’ down at a mouse hidin’ in the grasses and poppies about you. A pale, coppery hawk it was, with its wing-tips and tail feathers full black.

ELI: It was like the sun had gone right out o’ me life, and I was lyin’ in the mortal dark.

EMER: It was soon gone, its wings carryin’ it swift outa there, mouse squealin’ in its claws.

ELI: I thought it was itself squealin’, and right inside my ears. The whole o’ my head was squealin’ and the whole o’ my body was shiverin’ in the midst o’ those poppies; and if I’d been one o’ them, and my clothes nothin’ but petals, I’d ha’ stood up in the grass there as naked as I was born.

EMER: (smiling) Like I was always seein’ you. It was only you that was seein’ those clothes on your body. Till you weren’t.

ELI: It was the sun that burnt ’em off me; that I thought I was too far from, if somethin’ no bigger’n a hawk could be blockin’ it out.

EMER: Burnt off you, outa you, more’n your clothes.

ELI: Scales from me eyes, you’re meanin’.

EMER: Blood from your heart. If you’d not fallen into the sea, you’d be blowin’ about still in that burnin’ air, no more life in you than in the dry roses the boys’ve thrown over the cliff; where the breeze’s still frettin’ ’em back and forth on the sands.

JOHN: There’s nothin’ at all like the seawater for washin’ the dust from a man’s tired body.

(ELI looks over the cliff edge to ‘the sea’ below.)

ELI: Can’t see ’em. Sand’s so bright with the sun.

EMER: It’ll be darker soon enough. And the moon’ll be risin’, just the right light for seein’ ’em. If they’re still there, the wind itself not risin’ too much with the sunset. But there’s no use to ’em now anyway, smellin’, as they do, of nothin’ but pigs.

FRANK: (wry smile) Smellin’ o’ us, like he said. Stink o’ our pockets.

CHAD: (grinning) Sand smellin’ us, and feelin’ only the near nothin’ weight o’ the roses, will be glad o’ that wind she’s talkin’ of, to blow the stink o’ us away from it. Out onto the sea, that don’t care.

(ELI stretches his body forward, looks steadily toward EMER.)

JACK: The one’s likely to be blown away is himself, standin’ as he is so near to the edge.

ELI: Your bein’ so far away from me now is what I’m most feelin’. Which that wind you spoke of could maybe be changin’ if it’s blowin’ up here as well.

EMER: No tellin’ where winds’ll blow.

(JOHN and JACK look up at the sky.)

JACK: The sun’s dyin’ outa the day, that’s clear enough.

(The light becomes ‘warmer’.)

JOHN: And a fine light it’s makin’ all round us.

ELI: It would not be takin’ too much wind, I’m thinkin’, to lift me whole body into the air..

JACK: Thinkin’s the beginnin’ o’ everythin’, as they say.

ELI: The hawk takin’ the sun outa me, and the seawater the sun, there was fair little o’ me left for them (glancing at FRANK and CHAD) to be carryin’ up here, they knowin’ why or not.

EMER: They’re were knowin’. Since I was tellin’ ’em, since they were boys —and they still listenin’ to what I was sayin’—how it was there was your only home, where you’d be climbin’ up, on some ladder o’ your own makin’—like you were tellin’ me at all the times we were lyin’ together, and you usin’ your tongue then for talkin’—to be findin’ again the sun’s light the hawk had taken from you.

ELI: If I were havin’ the wings o’ that hawk now, I could be takin’ what’s left o’ that light away from you, by flyin’ right down to you (spreading out his arms) an’ hoverin’ right over you, sun warmin’ me back, so all you‘ll be seein’ is meself (rising on his toes, leaning out over the ‘cliff”), and your eyes all wide and your body awaitin’ for me to..swoop down and..

(As if struck by a sudden wind, ELI loses his balance, waves his arms in the air to regain it, slumps to the ground as if to save himself from falling off the ‘cliff’. With ‘clutching hands’ he lowers himself from the shelf down to the forestage, where he rolls over a couple of times before coming to rest in the same position he was in at the beginning. JOHN and JACK shiver violently, as if the ‘cliff’ is shaking. FRANK and CHAD stand motionless, looking down.)

JACK: This time, I’m thinkin’, he’s goin’ to be takin’ us as well.

JOHN: (of FRANK and CHAD) They two are not feelin’ it at all.

JACK: There’s little such as them are feelin’.

(CHAD sees the string lying on the ground at the ‘cliff edge’, stoops and picks it up. JOHN and JACK gradually stop shivering.)

FRANK: Not be needin’ that now.

CHAD: No, guess not.

(He seems about to drop the string again, but doesn’t.)

JOHN: If that’s the way they’re thinkin’, and the cliff’s still standin..

JACK: (looking around) Which it looks like doin’, surprisin’ly.

JOHN: ..Those instruments himself has left lyin’ there could come in handy for makin’ a useful thing or two ourself.

(FRANK reaches out a hand, takes hold of the loose end of the string, stretches it until it is taut between him and CHAD. EMER tucks the box under her arm, picks up one of the ‘pigs’ with her other hand, and ‘painfully’ stands up.)

EMER: Better be goin’ to him. Since he’ll sure not be comin’ to me.

FRANK: (looking steadily at the taut string) On the other hand, like he was always likin’ to be sayin’..

(EMER walks to ELI, kneels beside him. She lays the pig by his face and empties a trickle of dry rose petals from the box onto his body; then lies down beside him, on her back.)

JOHN: (looking at ELI and EMER) Floatin’ on her back, like we were sayin’ they do.

(FRANK sees a closed compass at his feet, drops his end of the string, picks up the compass. JOHN and JACK look at him uneasily. )

FRANK: Hm, compass. Another o’ his tools for measurin’ things.

CHAD: (measuring his body with the string) What things?

(FRANK opens the compass and, holding it with his thumb and forefinger, moves the points about on his chest)

FRANK: I don’ know. (continuing to ‘measure himself’ with the compass) I guess, usin’ it, we’ll be findin’ out.

CHAD: Usin’ it for what?

FRANK: (awkwardly) For..that..tower he was goin’ to be..buildin’.

CHAD: What’re we knowin’ about buildin’ a tower?

FRANK: Yeah. Nothin’. But maybe with the things here he’s left us.. (kicking at a tool on the ground) Most o’ ’em good for nothin’ more’n diggin’ and cuttin’ the stone, that he was no more up to than (thin smile) flyin’.

CHAD: (wry grin) Which’ll be why he was wantin’ us here with ‘im.

FRANK: Yeah; our bodies bein’ equal to doin’ the things his own wasn’t..

CHAD: Only we shoulda been askin’ him, before he was leavin’ us, about the way o’ usin’ these measurin’ things, that he had in his head was so important for tower buildin’. Too late now.

FRANK: Always was too late; since nothin’ he ever had in his head—hawks or snakes or towers as high as the moon—was ever goin’ to be gettin’ him off of the top o’ this cliff. (wry grin, gesturing downstage) Except that way. Thinkin’ and fallin’ bein’ nearly all he ever did.

CHAD: Well, us havin’ not even his thinkin’ for guidance, our chances now o’ raisin’ it much higher’n our own heads are poorer than most things. And by a long way. (peering towards JOHN and JACK) Maybe them over there could give us some help in the use o’ these..tools.

FRANK: (looking up from measuring his feet with the compass) Who? Over where?

CHAD: (pointing to JOHN and JACK) Them, that he was always talkin’ to, and seemin’ to think they knew what he was tryin’ to do, Though they’re still lookin’ to me more like shadows than real folk.

FRANK: (peering towards JOHN and JACK) Can hardly see anythin’.. Yeah, some shadows maybe. But if they’re the guys he was sayin’ were here, and he knew ’em from some other time, we’ll be better, I’m thinkin’—from what he was tellin’ us about ’em—to be keepin’ the tools away from their sharp fingers.

CHAD: I was just thinkin’ they could maybe help us in learnin’ the knack o’ usin’ them; since we’re goin’ to be needin’ all the help we can get, if we’re goin’ to be buildin’ this tower out o’ just that compass and this little bit o’ string he liked to be callin’ a snake.

FRANK: I’ve nothin’ against talkin’ to ’em; if you can hear ’em. Myself, I never heard nothin’ but sometimes their hammerin’.

CHAD: Maybe, hopin’ to get their hands on the tools theirselves, they’ll be offerin’ some guidance.

FRANK: We’ll be better not countin’ on it. (turning away from JACK and JOHN) Learnin’ on our own how to use ’em’s the better way.

CHAD: I guess. If we can. (wry smile) Pretty big doubt.

FRANK: Worth the tryin’.

CHAD: Yeah. I guess.

FRANK: (with a slight smile) And practisin’ them on ourselves to begin with will maybe be givin’ us some ideas.

CHAD: Measurin’ you’re meanin’. Yeah.

(With a slight hesitation, he reaches the taut string towards FRANK, and measures his arm with it. FRANK, beginning to grin, measure’s CHAD’s chest with the compass. JACK and JOHN watch them.)

JACK: Lookin’ like we’ll be waitin’ a while longer for those fine tools.

JOHN: Another couple o’ their lives is not so great a while to be waitin’.

EMER: (sleepily) They’ll maybe be makin’ somethin’ out o’ what they’re doin’, there’s no knowin’ o’ that. Nor o’..anythin’ much at all.

(She nestles her body closer to ELI’s body. He rests his arm on her body.)

(FRANK and CHAD, measuring each other’s body playfully here and there with the string and compass, find themselves in each other’s way, grow mildly competitive, then, still good-naturedly, aggressive. JACK and JOHN, watching them keenly, begin to strike rhythmically and soundlessly on their last with their hammers. FRANK pushes the string aside to measure CHAD’s chest; CHAD, in return, pushes the compass aside. FRANK backs off slightly, narrows his eyes, closes the compass. CHAD, watching him, half-crouches, holding the string taut and vertical in front of him; he hisses through his teeth. FRANK lifts his body up to its full height, holds the compass over his head, like a dagger, pointing it threateningly towards CHAD. They circle round each other, like ‘warriors’, moving in closer and closer to each other, until their bodies suddenly touch; and are jolted, as if by electric shock. As they stare at each other, their bodies relax, and their ‘weapons’ fall from their hands; and the arms of each enfold the other.)

(The bodies of ELI and EMER gently rise and fall, as if floating on ‘the sea’.)

(JACK and JOHN lay their hammers down gently and gaze at the far horizon.)

(The lights dim out.)

(Prophet Elijah Monastery, Hydra. 11. vi. 2016)

(edited Hydra, 8-10 viii. 2016)