GRANDMA, PRAY FOR ME by Nishan Parlakian Characters MICKEY GRANDMA DIAMOND PEARL AGATE DEACON VIRGIL DR. CYCLOPES DR. ACHILLES DOCTOR ATTENDENTS Setting The main action of the play takes place in a ground floor living room and outside yard of a two-story house, a little world apart from the world. In the yard are hedges, flowers, (i small fence. A wooden stairway leads to the unseen apartment above. In the living room there are a doorway leading to the kitchen and an archway through which other rooms may be reached. The period furniture is well-worn. Doilies decorate the soft chairs and the sofa. Prologue (MICKEY as an older man, is lighted in a natural part of the stage. He wears a raincoat and hat. As he approaches the audience, appropriate elements of scenery and characters become illuminated as though a memory of his past takes on life again.) MICKEY Every now and then I drive off the highway before leaving the city for my home in the suburbs. A kind of unconscious impulse takes over and I always end up here — at the beginning. I walk down this street — it's all changed now. New people. Abandoned houses. Years ago I lived here on this street. In this house. There's nobody here now. But I remember when it throbbed with life. It was a different kind of time. Laundry hung on back yard lines, push cart vendors lined the curbs, doctors actually made house calls. I was born here out of a need—how shall I put it — it was a need for the decimated Armenian people to live on after the holocaust of 1915. God tossed them to the far corners of the earth. My people came to America. Early on, hard working men like my father - Deacon as he was familiarly called — had little time for writing poetry. (Illuminate DEACON.) Somehow he made time between midnight and dawn to express his deepest thoughts.Mom worked hard too, marketing, cooking, cleaning (Illuminate DIAMOND.) And so did Agate the widow in the apartment above us living on a small pension. (Illuminate AGATE.) Her daughter Pearl became a typist right after graduating high school. (Illuminate PEARL.)And I finally buckled down too, even though I had poetic inclinations like my father. The same faith that pulled Armenians through the centuries guided our family through those prayerful days of my youth. Prayer — GRANDMA convinced us that prayer had more power than medicine. I see her there framed in the window fingering her beads and reading her Bible. (Illuminate GRANDMA.) On a sunny morning, I would call to her. — "GRANDMA, come out into the sun!" Blackout Act I When the lights come up, we are in the past. MICKEY as a young man (raincoat and hat discarded), moves into the scene. It is a morning many years ago. The sun shines brightly. In the yard, MICKEY looks into the sky and stretches. GRANDMA sits in the darker living room knitting. MICKEY Grandma, come out into the sun! GRANDMA Let me finish my work. MICKEY Come out. You need the sun. GRANDMA Without it there is no life. MICKEY Everybody knows that. GRANDMA Only when you ask them. MICKEY How can you get well without the sun? GRANDMA My time for getting well is gone. MICKEY I'll open your folding chair for you. GRANDMA I used to sit in the sun for hours with you. In that chair. Your father brought it when he saw one day I was old. I used to wheel your carriage to the sun to make you strong. And I sat in that chair. But that chair is good for the young, hard for the old. MICKEY You're not old, Grandma. GRANDMA These white hairs mean I know something. I know I am old. The old know such things. MICKEY What things do they know? GRANDMA At the door of death they know all of life. MICKEY Then you can't know much. GRANDMA I know that every day is a day to live. MICKEY Everybody knows that. GRANDMA Not until you ask them. Do you know it? Do von know it today? MICKEY Today I thought I'd think. GRANDMA And yesterday? MICKEY I thought. GRANDMA And tomorrow? MICKEY I need more time. Everything is disconnected and sad. GRANDMA Keep sad thinking for night. MICKEY Don't you see, Grandma? I've got to think things through, I've got to find my place in the sun. GRANDMA You'll find it in the moon. MICKEY But today is different. I feel it. Today something is going to happen. Today I'm going to find my way. GRANDMA Today is a beacon day. It tells you once again that you are alive. MICKEY I know I'm alive. GRANDMA Not many people do. MICKEY Everybody knows they're alive. GRANDMA Only when you ask them. Only then. In the old country, in Armenia, called Turkey, I was born—who knows what day. But as I grew older, I learned I needed a birthday. A day to celebrate life. Give this birthday of yours to life. It helps you remember to live for all your days. MICKEY What are you trying to tell me, Grandma? GRANDMA Life is a gold coin for every breath. MICKEY I know that, Grandma. GRANDMA Not many people do. And by the time they learn, it is too late. MICKEY Oh Grandma, do you really know me? My feelings, my thoughts, I'm not like other men. GRANDMA All grass is green. MICKEY What are you trying to tell me, Grandma? GRANDMA You are a seed which has not taken root. Our life is not stone which stands for centuries. Flesh goes fast. MICKEY Wait! GRANDMA I wait and I pray. Whatever you have done, I have prayed. But you confuse the angels. MICKEY Where have I gone wrong? GRANDMA My boy, we have come to this earth to go to death in pain. Adam gave it to us. Not many people know that. MICKEY Everybody knows that. GRANDMA Ask them and see. I read it in the Bible in the warmer season when more light comes through the window. My father used to tell me not to fear around this time of year that the days were getting short. He used to say a lighter season would come again. If it comes again for me, I will read again and I will pray for you. But if it does not come, I cannot pray. MICKEY Grandma, pray for me. GRANDMA Winter is coming. I want you to buy a coat. (She puts her hand under the cushion of her chair and pulls out a piece of folded newspaper. She hands it to MICKEY.) Open it. (He does and holds up a gold bead necklace.) It is gold. Buy your coat with it. MICKEY I can't take it. GRANDMA Take it from your grandfather. He gave it to me when we were married. We were not rich, but we were not poor. You should have seen our house. It was not on the top of the hill and not on the bottom. It was in the middle. I wore those beads of gold to the cathedral. I was a golden girl and had other things of gold. My husband gave them all to me. He would have given me more, but they killed him when he was young. MICKEY I'll use it when I need it. GRANDMA I will put it on the bottom of my chest again. When I die, Mickey, you will find other things there I want you to have. There are the pictures of my daughter and her two little sons. They were killed in the genocide. The children would have been married now. There would have been the children of children. MICKEY I'll have children, someday. GRANDMA Buy the coat first. Earn the money for your marriage. MICKEY If I wanted to get married, I'd get married, I don't need money to get married. GRANDMA Yes, that is what they tell me. People borrow to live. The systems change. In my time I went with a good dowry to my husband. Find a girl with a good dowry. MICKEY Wait. Wait a little longer. GRANDMA I am a dried grape. I am but today's guest. MICKEY Stay for tomorrow. GRANDMA I am tomorrow's stranger. MICKEY Never to me. GRANDMA A spinning comes in my head when I go from room to room. It will bring me down some day. Last year I could dry your mother's dishes. This year a dizziness comes over me. And my eyes. I am almost blind. And my feet... they can hardly carry me. There are only small things left for me to do. I can still pray over my beads. I pray for you. MICKEY What are you trying to say? GRANDMA Is the upstairs one in your eye? MICKEY I don't know. GRANDMA Does she favor you? MICKEY I don't know. GRANDMA I've seen you talking to her. MICKEY But not about getting married. GRANDMA I have heard that you showed her around the town. MICKEY We took a walk. This isn't the old country. People fall in love before they get married. GRANDMA The systems change. When my husband was killed I knew I loved him. I never walked with him before we were married. He had seen me drawing water from the village well. MICKEY That's what I mean. He was like a stranger. GRANDMA He was a neighbor and a countryman. In those days that is all an eligible man had to be. MICKEY You wouldn't want me to marry the upstairs one, would you? You said her mother was evil eyeing me. GRANDMA But I know all about the mother. Marry her daughter and she will bless you. MICKEY I haven't asked her to go out again. GRANDMA I know. I know. You have no coat and you are ashamed. (DIAMOND, MICKEY's mother, enters.) MICKEY The question is, grandma: Will I be happy if I marry her? DIAMOND Who are you marrying? MICKEY No one. DIAMOND Who is "her"? MICKEY Pearl, upstairs. DIAMOND You wouldn't want to marry her. GRANDMA You might. DIAMOND She's not good enough for you. GRANDMA She is old with the old and young with the young. DIAMOND She isn't your type. GRANDMA She has a sweet face and obedient manners. DIAMOND There are better faces and manners. GRANDMA For birds with brighter plumes. MICKEY Talk to her, ma. DIAMOND I can't talk to your grandmother sometimes. MICKEY Talk to her. GRANDMA Diamond, I am going to talk to you. DIAMOND I'm not talking to you these days. GRANDMA My ear is so old I have not missed you. DIAMOND I'll talk to you if you'll listen. GRANDMA My ear is brittle, Diamond, but it can bend to you a little. DIAMOND Let my boy alone. Let him enjoy his one life. GRANDMA Let him. DIAMOND But you don't. You want him to marry Pearl. GRANDMA He has walked with her in town. Everybody has seen him. DIAMOND So they walked. He must walk with many to find the one. Because we didn't do what he must do, we have not gone forward. GRANDMA Where would we have gone? DIAMOND Where are we? Still in these walls, only with more years. GRANDMA And my son's years. His son's years. And yes, Diamond . . . your years too. DIAMOND You had no right to my years. GRANDMA I'm sorry I took them. But God knows there is a reason. I know, I know I have bruised your heart these years. I wish time could flow back for you and for me smooth out this curled flesh. But your years were good to me and I grew to love you. DIAMOND Oh, momma, momma, I came to you an orphan. I came to you hungry for love. And I married you not your son. And you took those young years. I hated you for taking them caring for you. But now your wrinkled face is familiar to me like one washing hand is to another. And I love you. I hate you and I love you. GRANDMA Soon, soon I will be gone from your eyes and only love will remain in your heart for me. DIAMOND Don't go old woman. But let me run my house at least. My sin has brought me you, but let my son be. GRANDMA He is where he has always been. DIAMOND There is time for him to see the world. GRANDMA Let him take to his hands and feet. You are not with him forever. DIAMOND I will prepare my son. GRANDMA And who will prepare for his son? DIAMOND He will learn. GRANDMA His eyes are closed. He has no place to turn. DIAMOND You're starting things all over again! MICKEY Don't argue. Listen to me. Listen, momma, listen. GRANDMA (They turn to him.) I've been offered a job. I mean it. It's with Best Way Foods, a frozen shish kebab outfit. It could have a great future. I'd be a kind of billing clerk in the stock room. DIAMOND You don't have to take it. GRANDMA Take it, today. MICKEY Not today, Grandma GRANDMA Then there is no job. MICKEY There is. There is. All I have to do is make a phone call. GRANDMA Then call. Call. DIAMOND Mickey, we need bread. MICKEY Right away, ma. (He goes to the door.) I need money. DIAMOND (Hands MICKEY a bill.) Buy some canned goods, sugar, and eggs, too. (MICKEY goes out.) Come have breakfast. GRANDMA I have had mine. The coffee is made. The honey and olives are on the table. DIAMOND Thank you, momma. GRANDMA Diamond. DIAMOND Yes. GRANDMA Today is Mickey's birthday. DIAMOND Do you want me to get a present for him? GRANDMA (Displays her knitting.) No, I am almost finished with this. DIAMOND That's good, momma. It has a pretty design . (She turns to leave.) GRANDMA Diamond DIAMOND Yes, momma. GRANDMA Deacon never had a birthday. As you know, all I remember is that he was born in April one week after Easter. It was in a year there was a flood. The waters washed the houses away. But our house remained because we were not near the water. We were not too high on a slope, but enough. You should have seen the sight. Even the heavy bread ovens went. And with them the hot breads, too. You can see it was April because the rains came and swelled the Kizil Irmak, the red river that ran through Sivas. DIAMOND I know, momma. The floods came and then the fire, the genocide and the slaughter of millions of us Armenians. The faces of my mother and father are faint memories. I was so young. GRANDMA I know, Diamond. DIAMOND Knit, momma. Knit your twine glove, your toufa, for Mickey's birthday. He will scrub his back with it and it will comfort him. GRANDMA I knit. But the light of my eye fails. DIAMOND Then stop, momma. Stop and think of more stories to tell. (DIAMOND goes out. GRANDMA begins to knit. PEARL, the girl who lives above comes down the stairs and looks in through the window of the living room.) PEARL Hello, Grandma. GRANDMA Hello, young girl. Are you going to work so early? PEARL It's not really that early. GRANDMA Ah yes, autumn mornings seem early. PEARL What are you knitting? GRANDMA This is for Mickey's birthday. PEARL (grimacing) Is it today? GRANDMA Yes, today. Ah, why that face? What is it? PEARL I was thinking I don't get paid until tomorrow. GRANDMA Give him this. (She extends the wash cloth.) PEARL Would it be right? GRANDMA How old are you? PEARL Almost eighteen. GRANDMA You are not young, anymore. PEARL Oh, I know. I know. GRANDMA I had a child at your age. It takes a marriage to make a girl blossom. PEARL Did he love you? GRANDMA My husband? I had hair like yours once. It was not so light. But it was lighter than any other girl's around. They called me golden girl. I used to come from the public baths with my cheeks red from the steaming waters. I used to wear a fine cloth lined with beads of gold around my head. They used to whisper in the streets: Here comes the golden girl. My husband gave me the head cloth. I obeyed him. I took care of his grandfather. He was so old I had to lead him around by the hand. I lit his pipe with a magnifying glass held to the sun. And I bore the sons of the son of the son of that man. I took their generations unto myself. By all this, I mean to say I know my husband loved me. PEARL Did my father love my mother? GRANDMA You see, my girl, he died too soon. I know what your mother is like. She was like a second daughter to me. Now she lets her tub overflow. Our ceiling was dripping yesterday. PEARL She's been angry these last few days. GRANDMA When she thinks of your father she becomes angry with me. PEARL She talks with her head turned away and her eyes on me. GRANDMA That is one of the ways of the eye. Something disturbs her my girl. She married an unhealthy man. She soured when he died. PEARL Grandma, she'll never let me get married. GRANDMA There is nothing to be afraid of. You will not grow row sour or stale. Your mother has not thrown her head in here in days. I know she was well yesterday. Her line of clothes was long. How is she today? AGATE (off) Pearl! GRANDMA She sounds well. PEARL How does she know I'm here? GRANDMA That Agate. Her nose takes smells. And her ears take sounds. The devil can do those things. PEARL She always makes me go to work early to impress the boss. Goodbye, Grandma. AGATE(Catches Pearl about to leave.) Ah, ha. So you aren't gone yet. PEARL It was so early. I decided to talk to Grandma. AGATE She's no relation of yours. She is not your grandmother. What were you whispering about? GRANDMA We were whispering like all natural things do. What do trees do in a breeze, Agate? What do they whisper about? They whisper. AGATE Go to work. You must never be late. GRANDMA She is a responsible girl. She knows the time. AGATE My daughter won't be like your lazy grandson who gets up at noon. PEARL Momma. AGATE Am I to hear something from you? PEARL Talk nice. AGATE Your father is dead. We need the money you earn. Go to work. (PEARL goes off, holding back her tears.) Are you trying to turn my daughter's mind? GRANDMA Surely, not me, Agate. AGATE Don't try it, momma. GRANDMA Her mind is hers. AGATE Her mind is mine. I didn't know your grandson was courting my daughter in secret. GRANDMA Who knows secrets? AGATE It was those summer months, and those dresses with the open armpits and the low fronts. I wish winter would come quickly. GRANDMA It comes quickly enough for some of us. AGATE That's good. They won't be able to sit in the parks ... or go to the roof. You don't know I suppose. They were coming down from the roof two weeks ago. GRANDMA The stars are closer there. AGATE It's dark and lonely there, too. You can't get my daughter the way you got your Diamond. GRANDMA Mickey is a good boy. His face is comely. AGATE They are not for each other. GRANDMA Why, Agate? AGATE The why is mine. (Points to her heart.) In here. GRANDMA You are sour, Agate. Every year at this anniversary of your husband's death you become sour. AGATE Then I become sour. It's my right. GRANDMA But there's no need to trouble us all every year. Your husband is dead. My husband died when I was younger than you. AGATE (Points to the archway in the apartment) My husband could have been living now. GRANDMA That story is old, Agate. Too old to bring up. AGATE I can never forget it, momma. It's not in the mind. (Points to her heart in that classical way again.) It is here. GRANDMA And that is why I have had you over me all these years. Are you a curse Agate that every Monday we must get the water from your wash? Are you a curse that we must listen to your stampings and bangings? AGATE That could be, momma.You promised me and you took back your promise. GRANDMA It was just a way of talking. AGATE Over here it would have been a way of talking. But over there it was not a way of talking. Didn't I used to carry your water for you from the village well. I used to sit by the well in the middle of the square over there, and wait for you to come every day. And didn't you used to say: My son is yours my little Agate. GRANDMA Then they killed my husband, my daughter and other sons and their children. I came here with only that one son. You were late in coming here, my dear. I never knew if you would come or even if you were alive. He became of age and even more and married. I tell you this it could be, for the last time. Hear it well and forgive and forget. AGATE Only death will make me forgive and forget. GRANDMA Death will. Ah. Ah. DEACON (enters.) Good morning, momma. Who are you talking to? GRANDMA Agate. DEACON (Goes to the window and bends over to talk to Agate.) Oh, hello, hello, Agate. How are you? AGATE Oh, well. How are you, Deacon? DEACON Not too well now that you ask. AGATE You look well. DEACON Do I? AGATE You color is good. DEACON Come in then a while. It's hard to see you bending like this. AGATE I have work upstairs. DEACON Come in for my sake for a little while only. AGATE All right, Deacon (She goes to the door.) GRANDMA Tell her about the ceiling. DEACON That's woman's business. (Agate enters.) Sit down. Sit down. That looks like a new dress. GRANDMA It has been on her line for a year. DEACON Your eyes are turning on you, momma. That looks like a new dress. AGATE You just haven't noticed it before, Deacon DEACON Perhaps. AGATE I like your tie. DEACON That's my taste. AGATE Yes, I like it. DEACON Diamond doesn't like it. It's a fitting tie to work in on a day like this. AGATE You don't usually go to work this early. DEACON There are a few orders I have to fill. AGATE How is work? DEACON Slow for us especially who are in our autumn years. AGATE You aren't old yet, Deacon GRANDMA If we get old should not our sons, Agate? DEACON That's true too, momma. AGATE Your son should be working at your side. DEACON I think he should. Yes. And I brought him in. liked it even less than I do. He quit in one week. What about your daughter? What does she do these days? AGATE She works. DEACON I see her sometimes in the morning. She is id looking girl. AGATE Your son is a good looking boy. DEACON But alas, he doesn't work. AGATE Maybe he will soon. DEACON If he did he could take my burden from me and marry your daughter, too. AGATE I don't know, Deacon DEACON You hurt me, Agate. After all we meant to each other. I thought some day our children could get married to each other. AGATE Oh, Deacon! DEACON Oh, Agate! AGATE Oh, Deacon! DEACON Agate, Agate, I would be a contented man if something went right. And I had thought our children marrying was the right way. AGATE Oh, Deacon, it could be. DEACON Do you think so, Agate? AGATE Momma says his looks are comely. GRANDMA (to DEACON) I have always said he looks like you. (DIAMOND enters unobserved.) AGATE And you look comely, Deacon DEACON Yes, you always said it. AGATE Even when I was young and used to carry momma's water. DIAMOND He is not so comely in his underwear. DEACON Good morning, Diamond. Agate says she likes the tie. DIAMOND She is thinking of twenty-five years ago. Yellow would have looked good on you then.Your breakfast is ready. DEACON Excuse me all. I must, as they say, fuel my body. (DEACON and DIAMOND exit to the kitchen.) AGATE Do you think your grandson will go to work with his father? GRANDMA If the wind blows that way. AGATE You ought to talk to him about it. GRANDMA Why, Agate? AGATE For his good. GRANDMA For his good, eh Agate. Well, I am not certain, Agate. His mother tells me not to talk to her son. AGATE You have a right to.You have cleaned diapers. GRANDMA Your advice could make a little trouble. AGATE What's a little trouble for friends? GRANDMA Your talk is warmer than it was. AGATE It's no warmer or colder. GRANDMA Agate, why do you say you do not like me when you do? (DIAMOND enters.) AGATE I don't dislike you momma, or any of you. DIAMOND Then why do you stomp on your floors. AGATE Your ear takes such sounds. DIAMOND Not as much as yours. You know who in our house from upstairs. AGATE You make such noise. Your voices come through my windows and even wake me in the night. DIAMOND You pay attention. You even know what we eat. AGATE I can smell the cooking. DIAMOND You sit on the landing steps. AGATE I don't have to. GRANDMA This Agate. This Agate, Diamond. She does not have to. DIAMOND You two are too friendly, today. GRANDMA Our days are too short to be unfriendly. DIAMOND (to GRANDMA.) Only yesterday you were complaining about the water. AGATE My tub is small. DIAMOND Do you wash your clothes on the floor? GRANDMA Daughter, let your hearts be cool.. DIAMOND Is she a daughter, now? AGATE I didn't ask to come in. There won't be the day I'll come again. GRANDMA Come again, Agate. AGATE My heart has turned to stone. GRANDMA That is so hard. AGATE You will have to make your fires hot to melt this heart. (AGATE exits and goes upstairs.) DIAMOND Why give face to that woman? GRANDMA She has her good days. DIAMOND She is after my son. GRANDMA She has her dreams. MICKEY (Enters with a bag of groceries, places it on the table and offers the change to his mother). Can I keep the silver? DIAMOND Take the dollar. MICKEY I'm keeping a record of everything I owe you. GRANDMA Write your debts on ice. DEACON (Enters from the kitchen.) I am here. GRANDMA I greet you with the sun. DIAMOND Did you finish your breakfast? DEACON Yes. Yes.I ate the eggs, DIAMOND And one slice of toast. DEACON Two slices. DIAMOND How many times must I tell you. You'll get fat. . DEACON You have no interest in my shape. So what is there? DIAMOND You're the one who wants to look young. DEACON (Hand on belly.) I have decided this can't be helped. If our age doesn't give us wrinkles it gives us other things. (He walks to the door and stops. He seems like a diver afraid to dive from a high board.) I am going to work. I am going to work! I am going to work!! DIAMOND So go. You go every morning. DEACON Well, say something to me. DIAMOND What can I say? DEACON Say . . . come home safe. DIAMOND Come home safe. DEACON All right. GRANDMA Goodbye, son. DEACON Goodbye, momma, I am going to work. One of you say you love me. GRANDMA I love you, son. DEACON I know you do, momma. You have always loved me. Love me forever. Son, say you love me. MICKEY Pa. DEACON All right. DIAMOND Goodbye. DEACON I am going to work! DIAMOND Deacon! DEACON Oh world, I am going to work. Once again I am going to work and I am almost sixty. I would not go, but I go. And I am smiling and crying. (Goes to the door.) I understand oh world how you feed me and hurt me. (Puts his hand out the door.) Look at my fist. It is in the sun. This fist is hot. It is another heart. My outside heart. I need it to boil my blood and push it around. I am not well on shady days and in the winter. My heart is then gone and I become frail. Son be my sun. MICKEY What pa? DEACON Be my sun in wintertime and take my hand. Warm it and push my blood around. MICKEY Sure pa. DEACON But you can't, son. MICKEY I will, pa. DEACON You will take my hand in wintertime? I am alone, son. I am alone. I work for you and you and you. I am almost sixty and I am going to work. I am only one hand. Have mercy on me. Soon winter will be here. MICKEY I'll help you. DIAMOND He's in one of his moods. He thinks he's declaiming his poetry again. Go have breakfast, Mickey. MICKEY (goes to his father.) Pa, here I am. DEACON Don't touch me. It's all right. I am a man. a man. Stay away from me. I am alone, but I am not alone. I have my thoughts. I have such visions. If I could stay home today and put them down on paper what would Toylstoy's or Goethe's thoughts be compared to mine. Ah, ah it is good to be alone and not to be alone. DIAMOND You should have been a monk. DEACON I should have been a lot of things. Now I thoughts in my thoughts. And all your thoughts are so many small thoughts. They weigh mine down, create imbalance, and now mine cannot fly, fly high up to the sky. Ah, ah, where did your lives intermingle with mine and your thoughts... DIAMOND (protectively.) Go eat, Mickey. DEACON Body, blood, and sweat. Eat, eat. DIAMOND Deacon! Leave him alone he is only a boy. DEACON Are you a boy, my son? MICKEY I wish I knew, pa. DEACON If you are, I am a young man. When you were a boy, I used to rub your head. MICKEY I know, pa. DEACON My father did that to me. When I was small. Oh, father, why did you leave me? My father was a God! Momma, tell them about poppa. GRANDMA My husband was a good man. DEACON You see son. He was great. Go eat, Goodbye. (DEACON exits. DIAMOND follows him. MICKEY enters the the kitchen. DIAMOND and DEACON pause in the yard.) DIAMOND Deacon DEACON What? DIAMOND You won't forget. DEACON Forget? DIAMOND It will soon be cold. DEACON I know. DIAMOND And smile today. DEACON I smile a little every day. DIAMOND Not often enough. DEACON I used to smile. Oh, oh, you should have seen me when I used to. Barefoot, I would run to the hills and I would sit under a cool summer sky . . . for it was cool on the hills in the summer. I would smile at the sky and then my eyes would fill with tears. DIAMOND Smile like that again. DEACON No more. No more. DIAMOND No more for me, only for Agate. DEACON Her I knew when I was twenty-five and she was twelve. I was promised to her. DIAMOND (with mock fervor) And now you're mine, all mine. DEACON Are you jealous my Diamond? DIAMOND Of losing your flashing eyes and black hair? No Deacon, just smile. DEACON You don't understand. You never understood. You took my smile away. DIAMOND I understand. She would not have. DEACON No. Not at all. She is hope; you reality. That's all. Women, women take the philosophical smile of men away. That smile which is the soul. DIAMOND Then Deacon you stole your own soul away. DEACON You took my loneliness from me. I used to commune with things and thoughts. DIAMOND Then you should have stayed with those thoughts and things and not come near me. DEACON I was not so young, but you were my first beloved. DIAMOND I knew less than you. DEACON Please, my Diamond: My jewel, I love you. I love you after all these things. This is an autumn love. But be satisfied that I love you. The first folly was passion. Forgive me and yourself and take this autumn love. DIAMOND I was lost in this country. And then we married. And I was still lost. There was no romance. Not even a little like the romance of a movie story or a soap opera. DEACON And no romance of my thoughts. The romance of looking up to the sky and smiling in pure happiness and crying in pure joy. DIAMOND All right, DEACON It is done. We are done. We are in the mold and the wax is cold. He is here and he is our son. And you must learn that. DEACON He is our son. And today is the day he was born. We will be ready for him tonight. Take care of my mother. DIAMOND She is my necklace. (DEACON exits and DIAMOND enters the house.) GRANDMA Diamond. DIAMOND What is it, momma? GRANDMA Take care of my son. DIAMOND He is my yoke. GRANDMA He is just tired. DIAMOND So are we all. We need a change. GRANDMA It will come. DIAMOND When? GRANDMA The Lord knows, soon. (DIAMOND begins to go.) Diamond. (Diamond stops and turns.) Forgive me for speaking to your son. But I could not help it. He has not had my milk. But I too have cleaned him. DIAMOND Old woman, you are too old to ask for forgiveness. Your age is wisdom. When I am worn a little more, I too may speak like you. Yet there is that red coal of adventure glowing in me, but long since gone from you. I see only the highest and greatest things for my son. Things that most of us have in our dreams, only. (MICKEY enters.) Did you eat? MICKEY I'm not hungry. DIAMOND Breakfast is an important meal. MICKEY The taste of his sweat is in it. DIAMOND What's the matter, Mickey? GRANDMA Come to me. DIAMOND Momma, what is this? What is he talking about? Momma, it is like Deacon when he was a boy. GRANDMA Diamond, there is nothing to fear. I am praying. (She bows her head to pray.) DIAMOND Momma, he needs less pressure, more rest. GRANDMA Diamond, go to your kitchen. (DIAMOND exits in tears. GRANDMA begins to pray with her beads.) MICKEY Are you praying for me? GRANDMA I am, son of my son. MICKEY What are you praying for? GRANDMA Peace of mind. MICKEY And heart. GRANDMA And soul. (There is a moment of deep silence. Church bells sound softly and the room is illuminated by light that comes from stained glass windows.) MICKEY Are you still praying, Grandma? GRANDMA The peace of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost remain with you always. MICKEY Your voice is the sounding of church bells. And in your eyes is the brilliant light of stained glass. How can I express it? (He kneels beside her.) Shouldn't there be thunder, Grandma? GRANDMA It will come. MICKEY Will I see the lightning? GRANDMA I pray the heavens will open and you will see the light. (There is thunder and lightning. This continues for a while during which time MICKEY makes a phone call.) MICKEY I am going to work, Grandma: Pray for me. (He pauses at the door.) I am smiling and crying. I am going to work. Somebody say something. GRANDMA: Der Voghormia. Lord have mercy.