Cinnabar by Laurie Blazich

This Play is the copyright of the Author and may not be performed, copied or sold without the Author's prior consent

ACT 1
Scene 1

(Elmer and Silas enter, dirty, exhausted and breathless. They collapse on the
ground.)

SILAS: I'm beat. I tell you. I can't do another day on the furnace.

ELMER: Nobody's going to be doing nothing pretty soon.

SILAS: You don't think so?

ELMER: Way things are going. Look how it's petering out.

SILAS: I can't ever get that furnace smell out of my nose.
Look at that. Your lucky gold piece turned all white.

ELMER: Yeah, that's the quicksilver.
Where'd you take off to, anyway?

SILAS: Who said I took off? I just ran up to the office.

ELMER: Oh. Forrest and Andy ain't back yet?

SILAS: I don't want to be here when Forrest catches you with Belinda.

ELMER: Mind your own business!

SILAS: After everything that happened, you don't want to—-

ELMER: He ought to get over that. It's been a year.

SILAS: Where the hell's Andy!

ELMER: You thinking he ain't looking so good?

SILAS: No. Got to get him out pretty soon.
I have to get him in to the doctor.

ELMER: Ha! I'd like to see you get him in there.
Anyways, you'd have to take off work.
(Silas shrugs.)
Two of you gone a whole day?
What's the doctor going to do for him?
You're fooling yourself.
You got to get him out, 'cause he got all the signs.
We ain't got long here anyways. Nothing left to dig.

SILAS: Looks that way.

ELMER: We had it down so good, didn't we? Like clockwork. Our
billfolds was fat. What a time we was having!

SILAS: Yeah. It was great.

ELMER: I mean, except for the sickness and dying and all.
Si, you got to get him out of here.

SILAS: Maybe you ought to look to what you have to do.

ELMER: I'm working all I can. That's what I'm doing. And
I'm looking for some better digs and faster money to come along.

SILAS: You are, huh.

ELMER: What do you mean by that?

SILAS: Never mind, Elmer. You wouldn't understand.

ELMER: Look here, Mr. Snooty. What's wrong with wanting me a
place and working 'til I get it?

SILAS: Nothing. There are things that go on. That they get away
with. If we had the Wobblies in here, things'd be different.

ELMER: The Wobblies! Who the hell are the Wobblies?

SILAS: The IWW! The Industrial Workers of the World!

ELMER: Si, when you talk in riddles it don't set right with me.
We got to work.

SILAS: Let's go to town Sunday. Have dinner at the hotel.

ELMER: Now wait just a minute. First you're taking Andy to the
doctor instead of working. Then you're sounding like you'd as
soon we don't work no more, then you're going out on the town.
That quicksilver's getting to you.

SILAS: We don't work Sunday.

ELMER: I don't know, Si. Pay keeps going down, we'll never get
our behinds out of here. Soon enough we'll be working for nothing.

SILAS: All the more reason to pull out a dollar, get cleaned up and
have a nice dinner.

ELMER: We use up a day's pay and we're further behind than we
was the day before.
(Silas reacts with annoyance.)
All right. All right. Sure, Si. What the heck. I'll go to dinner
with you.
Before long, we'll all be dead. And owing the paymaster. He'll
have to pick us up by the ankles to shake the coins out of our pants.
(They laugh.)

SILAS: Paymaster's a fool.
And you're a tightwad.
Come on. Let's get Andy to town. He needs to see town once in awhile.
Why don't we forget about the paymaster for a little while.

ELMER: Sure.
He thinks he can whip us into making more cinnabar. "We need 3
more flasks!" "You're slowing down!"

SILAS: He might have a surprise or two coming.

ELMER: That quicksilver's getting in your brain, Si. You're
near bad as Andy. You're talking about our grub stakes here. I got
mine in sight. Ain't no one getting between it and me.

SILAS: Hold on. We're just going to dinner, not tying the knot.
I'll take Andy to the doctor next day. You won't lose a day.
Unless you want to come along.

ELMER: To the doctor? No thank you.
You told Andy's people you'd look out for him.

SILAS: I do look out for him.

ELMER: Make your money and get out. Or just get out. One or the
other!

SILAS: There's certain things—-

ELMER: Oh, stop all that! Are you going to be moving on then or not?

SILAS: I am. We are.

ELMER: You just said he ain't—-

SILAS: I said we are.

ELMER: You ought to just go back to San Francisco. You got your high
falutin' folks there. I'd like to get an eyeful of the big city myself. It ain't that far.

SILAS: Not far enough.
There are people in this world that owe for the things they've done.

ELMER: Silas, you are always talking confounded talk.

SILAS: Leave it be, El.

ELMER: You and me's always been square.
(He waits for confirmation from Silas.)
You got something on your mind you ain't saying. Come on, Si.
What is it?

SILAS: I don't know.

ELMER: You don't know? Si, you best get yourself right on over
see the Gypsy fortune teller. Them Gypsies got the gift.

SILAS: OK, Elmer.

ELMER: You want to get out, get Andy out. But you'll go and spend
your money on dinner in town.

SILAS: And you go to the fortune teller.

ELMER: That's science. You don't make no sense.

(Andy staggers in, falls to the ground. He is breathing hard, both
exhausted and excited.)

ANDY: New mine's coming on for sure.

(Forrest enters.)

FORREST: What are you talking about?

ANDY: I told you! They got the engineers crawling all over the
place. Bradley's out there waving his arms. Blueprints. It's
what we've been waiting for! It's coming, boys! (Andy coughs,
catches his breath.)

FORREST: No it ain't coming, 'cause I got this, right here!

ELMER: What is that?

FORREST: It's the deed! My deed! My father's deed!

ELMER: Oh come on now.

FORREST: Look at it! Look! Look!

ANDY: They're ready to put in the stakes. They're laying it
out. Say it's a rich son-of-a-bitch. Cinnabar laying right on the
ground for the picking up.

ELMER: Yeah, Forrest, I see it all right. But it don't mean
nothing.

SILAS: Unless it means it's Forrest's place they're about to
mine on.

FORREST: They've burned down the house. Burned down the barn too,
but that don't mean it ain't mine.

ELMER: The lantern did that.

FORREST: My father didn't fall. And he wasn't holding no
lantern.

ELMER: What's done's done. You have to forget it.

FORREST: Forget it? They threw my father out of that hayloft,
Elmer.

SILAS: The ones that were there all swore-No way to prove it was
different.

ELMER (to Silas): Trouble with them Indians is they think they can
go back in time. They don't understand history. They got to make
way. All the land ain't theirs no more.

FORREST: I got the deed. See it? See it?!

ELMER: Settle down, Forrest. I ain't taking your land.
It is too bad it's going in such a pretty place.
Grow anything, a place like that.
And them trees.
It is kind of a shame.

FORREST: Kind of a crime, is what it is.

SILAS: A crime, is it?

FORREST: Killing to get someone's place. Ain't that a crime?

SILAS: Well, Forrest. Who the judge is decides if it's a crime.

FORREST: A crime's a crime.

ELMER: Now hold up. That there is owned by the mining company, same
as here. We got to work. See? That's what I'm saying. New mine
opens up, keeps us working.
You hollering they got your land, saying they killed for it and
everything else, that ain't going to put no coins in our pockets.

FORREST: They killed my father!

ELMER: Well how come you ain't got the land then? Who went to
prison for it?

FORREST: Don't you see? They think they got away with it.

ELMER: Appears to me they have. They got your land and you
don't.

FORREST: It's my home place, Elmer. I know every inch of it. My
Daddy wouldn't sell out. I mean to get it back.

ELMER: All of that's just in here, Forrest (tapping his temple).
You ain't never going to have no proof, long as you live.

FORREST: My father didn't fall out of no hayloft.

ELMER: So you tell me.

FORREST: I ain't standing for this. I told you that from the
get-go. None of what they done was right. You watch me. I will get
back my meadow and my orchard, and I'll put my house and my barn
right where they was.

ELMER: You won't get nowhere.
What do you aim to do with that deed?

FORREST: I am going to go to the court and I'm going to prove the
place belongs to me, not no mining company.

ELMER: You're going to chase your tail like a dumb dog.

SILAS: You'd need a judge Bradley doesn't own.

FORREST: How am I supposed to do that?

SILAS: See if we can't get it into a different court.

ELMER: We? The court? You're going to go up against Bradley?
You're a darn fool.

FORREST: You're the fool, Elmer! You're nothing but a fool.
(Forrest exits.)

ELMER (calling after Forrest): Think about it, Forrest! Why's
Silas all interested. He don't even want to mine no more.

SILAS: Now you've got him all riled up.

ELMER: All them Indians are hotheads. He lost his daddy and his
daddy lost the place for him. I've known men fell out of haylofts.
He just can't stand the idea his daddy lost the place, that's all.
And how come you ain't standing with us!

SILAS: How'd you like to be working a mine on your daddy's old
home place.

ELMER: It's too bad. Like I said. But at least we're going to
keep working.

SILAS: I guess we'll see.

ELMER: You start that "we'll see" and I get to seeing my home
place getting further and further away from me.

ANDY: Yeah, Si. We'll be rich! Then we can get the hell out of
here. (He is interrupted by coughing fit, gasps for breath.)

SILAS: I ought to just get you and me out of here and away from the
quicksilver.

ANDY: You ought to? Speak for your own self. I don't need no
looking after.

SILAS: Yes you do.

ANDY: Anyways, you ain't going nowhere.
Now we got a whole new dig opening up.

SILAS: You think so, huh?

ANDY: I want to know if it's as big as they're talking.

ELMER: Let's have a look-see.

ANDY: Yeah! Let's go. (He has coughing fit.)
Not right now. Think I'll take it easy. I start on furnace tomorrow.

SILAS: I'm on, Andy.

ANDY: You just got off the furnace.

SILAS: You're better at the digging. You have the nose for it.
And the arms. Might help us make up the flasks we're behind.

ANDY: I think you're calling me a baby can't do no work.

SILAS: Everybody knows you're the best miner there is. Anyone can
do the furnace.

ANDY: That why you got the shakes and shudders?

SILAS: I'm doing just fine.
We'll get out of here soon, Andy.

ANDY: I ain't in no hurry. We got a whole new territory to tear into.
I'm on furnace. Don't you fool with it.

SILAS: No. You're not going on the furnace!

ANDY: I can't wait to get on that furnace. You ain't going to
stop me. As I recollect, I got a Mama. And you ain't her.

SILAS: And I told your Mama I'd look out for you.

ANDY: Hey. I been looking out for my own self all my life. I could
outwork you when I was snot nosed and seven.

SILAS: Too bad. I'm signed on. (Silas shows Andy sign-up
sheet.)

ANDY: Give me that! (Andy tries to grab sign-up sheet, has coughing fit.)

ELMER (first to Silas, then to Andy): He needs out of here!
You need out of here!

ANDY: You need to shut up!

SILAS: They need you at the dig.
Anyway, I'm ready for another round.

ELMER: You're ready—!

ANDY: Says you! (Andy menaces Silas.)

ELMER (getting between them): All right now. (Andy has bad coughing
fit, sits, out of breath.)

ANDY (shoving Silas away): Get away from me.

ELMER: I'm ready for supper, myself. (He sets out coffee can with
lupine in it, like centerpiece for dinner table, except on the
ground.)

SILAS: Where's the candelabra, Elmer?

ELMER: I must've picked up city ways from you, Si. Pretty, ain't it.

SILAS: Can't get enough of those lupines. Probably a million of
them at the edge of that stand.
Quicksilver. (He taps his temple.)

ELMER: Last thing alive up behind the furnace. Tough stock. Needed
to stay alive. (He holds it up. Belinda enters with pot of stew and
biscuits in woven basket.)

BELINDA(teasing): Why Elmer! How sweet! Sure is pretty. Take one
of these biscuits. (She holds it under his nose then grabs it away.)
Now there's a smell can make a man hungry. (She sets down biscuits,
ladles stew into their dishes.)

ANDY: Whole place stinks but he's got his posie.

ELMER: Well I-I like them lupines.

ANDY: Place smells sweet like money to me.
(Suddenly angry) Get rid of this fucking thing. (He throws can
aside.) Put your pay slips in the can.

ELMER: Hey!
(Andy takes a bite of his meal, sets down his dish and exits into
bunkhouse while Elmer picks up, then sets down can with broken
lupine.)

BELINDA: What's the matter with him?

SILAS: He's not feeling too good.

BELINDA: Not good enough to eat my stew? I take it personal when
they don't eat my stew. They quit eating, then they go and die on us.

SILAS: He's not dying.

BELINDA: Sorry, Si. He's a tough one.

SILAS: Let him rest a bit.

ELMER: Now where'd the Indian go? Ain't he eating?

BELINDA: I don't hardly see him no more. He doesn't hardly say
hello. Like he don't have no time for me.

ELMER: He don't. (Elmer helps her gather dishes.)
Take a walk now it's cooling off?

BELINDA: That sounds nice.

SILAS: You'll save some for Forrest, won't you?

ELMER: Go get the eggs tonight, Si?

SILAS: Sure enough. I'll check on Andy. Then I'll get them.
It's getting dark. (He rubs his eyes.)

ELMER: Sun just went over the hill. (Silas shakes his head, exits
to get eggs.)

BELINDA: Let's get away from the mine. We'll hear the night
birds.

ELMER: I forgot all about birds. (They walk away from bunkhouse to
rock at edge of woods, where they sit.)

BELINDA: Listen. (She leans against his shoulder.)
He don't never sit still no more.
That there deed is going to be the death of him.

ELMER: Most likely.
Me, I look to how I'm going to get to where I'm agoing.

BELINDA: Like you say, it's a beautiful place, but there's
other—-

ELMER: I got it worked out. One year, year and a half most, I turn
my back on mining.

BELINDA: And get your farm?

ELMER: Yeah. Then you'll hear some birds singing.
Wait 'til you see it.

BELINDA: I'd love to see it.

ELMER: It'll have a bower of roses like you told me. Remember?
Everything just like you like it.

BELINDA: Now Elmer, don't start all that with me, you hear? (She
shoves him with her hand and moves away a little.)

ELMER: You deserve the best life, Belinda. Is Forrest going to give
that to you? Or is he just going to go on and on this way and end up
with nothing.

BELINDA: Can you blame him? Everything took away from him like that?

[end of extract]

Discount Price $7.15 Add to cart