ACROSS THE LAKE
By Johnny Culver
917 691 6884
Characters
Middle aged Man – apparently lower class, paranoid.
Middle aged Woman - upper class, kind, sympathetic.
Young Woman - peaceful,
angelic.
Setting
A tattered,
wooden elevated rail car, in a gritty collapsing city.
It is a cold, wet afternoon.
The rail car stops and the
doors rattle open. A man and a woman get on, removing their hats and gloves.
WOMAN
You should have helped that
poor woman carry her stroller up the steps. It’s slippery out there. You didn’t
have to ignore her. Poor helpless thing.
MAN
I know it’s slippery out
there. Dark, dirty, sooty, and slippery. That’s why I didn’t help her. What if I
slipped, carrying that stroller? The child falls out, down the steps, and onto
the street? She wouldn’t be a poor thing any longer. She would call the law on
me and take everything I have!
WOMAN
Oh, please, that would
never-
MAN
The woman screams, the
officials come, she accuses me of injuring her child, and I am taken away to
the stationhouse and miss today’s appointment with the jaw healer? I would be
poor, out of work, and eventually drafted to fight in the Battle of the Lake,
never to return!
WOMAN
Please-
MAN
I have waited for a week to
see the jaw healer, lost wages from my job, because I was home in pain.
WOMAN
Forget it.
MAN
My supervisor at the factory
is not too fond of me to begin with, and another day away would put him over
the top. I would come back to my post and find someone had replaced me!
(Thinks)
The doorman at the factory!
He always looks at me in an odd way when I leave after my shift. He would
certainly like to replace me, making ammunition for the Battle…and I would be
back on the streets, with my biography, looking for work!
WOMAN
But your pain would be gone.
MAN
But how would I pay the jaw
healer with no job?
(The rail car begins to move)
Let’s just sit down.
(They sit)
I hope the jaw healer takes
a little bit off his fee when he sees how clean my teeth are. I scrubbed and
picked my teeth, and rinsed with the strongest cleaner I could find.
WOMAN
I really don’t think that
makes a difference to him. Jaw healers see all kinds of teeth, in all kinds of
mouths. Dirty and clean.
MAN
I wonder, when other people
go to the ear healer, do they clean their ears? Use a cloth to clean them all
out? Make the ear nice and strong?
WOMAN
That’s silly. What if you
were going to the eye healer? How would you clean your eyes? Make THEM strong?
MAN
I would think you would read
a book, with small print, in dim light. That would make your eyes strong. Use
all they eye muscles, so the eye healer wouldn’t think poorly of you. Think less of you, and they suggest you fight
in the Battle of the Lake.
WOMAN
That’s enough silliness.
Just think about the pain going away, after the jaw healer removes that aching
tooth. Son you’ll be back at your post at the factory, making ammunition for
the Battle. And I told you that you don’t have to worry about the fee for the jaw
healer. I will advance it to you, and you can pay me back. Later.
MAN
What a kind sister you are,
finding me a jaw healer, accompanying me and-
(The rail car lurches)
Ow! Don’t they care that I am
in pain? This rail car moves so slowly. Everything moves so slowly!
WOMAN
We could have taken a street
carriage. I offered-
MAN
It’s too late now.
(Patting her hand)
Don’t be upset. I forgive
you.
WOMAN
Ha! Forgive me? For what?
MAN
You could have offered a
little more strongly, seeing how much pain I am in.
WOMAN
Quiet, you! Just sit and be
quiet.
(They sit in silence, until the rail car stops and the doors
open. A plain young woman enters and sits away from them She carries a large
envelope)
That poor girl, she must be
frozen, in that thin wrap. Look how plain she is, oh my. And
odd looking…
MAN
Plain is right.
(Looks closer)
And look at those teeth.
They could easily put your jaw healer’s eldest through many years at the
university!
(The rail car begins to move)
You are right, what an odd
looking girl.
(He starts to stand, and stretches)
Well, I think I’ll just look out and see where we are…-
WOMAN
You know perfectly well
where you are! What are you doing? Sit down!
MAN
Just looking out the window…
(Moves close to girl, spies envelope she is carrying, and
goes back to seat)
WOMAN
What was that all about? You
are the nosiest man I have ever met!
MAN
She is holding an envelope.
On it is printed, “MY BIOGRAPHY” in big letters.
WOMAN
Does that satisfy your
curiosity?
MAN
Of course it’s her
biography. Why would someone carry around the biography of another person? I’ll
just find out what is going on.
(to girl)
Hello, we have not seen you
before.
GIRL
I am new to this town. I
come from…across the lake.
WOMAN
(Suppressing laughter)
From
across the lake? How did you travel so far? I have never heard anyone-
MAN
(Suppressing laughter)
Don’t fool with us. No one
travels across the lake. You’re making that up.
GIRL
I am…
(thinks)
…looking
for work.
I was told there could be work on this side of the lake.
(Looks at man closely)
Are you looking for work,
too?
MAN
If this rail car does not
start moving, I may be…
(Whispers to woman)
She is not telling the
truth. I have never seen anyone from across the lake. Never have and never
will? What do you think the Battle of the Lake is all about?
(Turns back to girl )
Now see here, young lady-
WOMAN
Leave her be.
(To girl)
You know, our mother once
had a friend, who claimed that SHE was from across the lake, just like you. Mother
told us about her long ago. Stories before we went to sleep. Told
me about the crisp, clean air across the lake and green grass across the lake.
MAN
Nonsense.
GIRL
Really? I would like to meet this
friend. Perhaps I could?
WOMAN
Well, that’s not possible,
because, you see, she was put away, just as long ago. No one has seen her
since. (The rail car begins to move)
Mother just stopped talking
about her. The stories ended.
MAN
A little off, that friend of
mothers was. I remember hearing about her very well. Always talking about this across
the lake, that across the lake, the great glass and
steel cities and the fast moving rail cars, made of silver. She is better off
where she is. Put away.
(eyes girl)
Put far away.
(turns away)
We have to get to the jaw
healer!
GIRL
(Reaches out)
But there are glass cities
across the lake! And crisp, clean air! And food for everyone, and places for
everyone to learn! To be healed!
WOMAN
(to girl)
So, if things across the
lake are all that you say, why are you here? Why did you …cross the lake?
(points)
That’s impossible. No one
has crossed the lake, through the Battle.
GIRL
I did not say I crossed
the lake. I said I came from across the lake.
MAN
Whats the
difference?
GIRL
I traveled…around the lake.
Not across. Others have done it, too. Gone all around the
edge, to get to this side.
WOMAN
Around the
lake? I
have never heard of such a thing.
(The rail car jolts)
The rail cars, across the
lake, do they run faster and smoother than ours? The rail cars made of silver?
MAN
Don’t lead her on. Don’t
fall for her tricks.
(to girl)
If it is so wonderful across
the lake, why are we fighting the Battle of the Lake, have been for generations
now. Our factories make ammunition and weapons to be used in the Battle If you people across the lake are so
smart, why don’t you win the Battle of the Lake? Put us out of our msery?
(The rail car stops)
Ow! With
your crisp clean air and cities of glass?
GIRL
(Standing)
For my people, the Battle of
the Lake ended long ago. Too many lives
were lost; too much was wasted in the fight. We don’t fight any more. We build
and learn and grow. We learned to go around the lake. Not across it.
(Goes to opening door)
The Battle is over.
MAN
Nonsense! Ever since I, we,
can remember, our men have been sent into the lake to fight the Battle. They
never return, because you have slaughtered them. Destroyed them and their
weapons!
WOMAN
The Battle of the Lake has left
behind widows, orphans, poverty and hopelessness. Our father left to fight the
battle and never returned! What you say cannot be true.
GIRL
(Almost frustrated by their close mindedness)
What I say is true. Your
father and the men you have sent off to fight have become welcome guests of our
cities. That is why I, and others, have come to this side, to tell you. To help
you see.
(She steps off rail car and turns)
One day you may listen.
(The doors close on her and the rail car begins to move)
MAN
What silliness.
WOMAN
Utter nonsense. Let’s be on
our way.
(Looks across car)
Look, the girl has left her
biography behind.
MAN
Foolish
thing.
(He stands and moves to the envelope)
Should we read it?
(Holds envelope)
WOMAN
And read her lies about
across the lake?
(Pause)
We have to get you to the
jaw healer.
MAN
You’re right.
(He puts down envelope and returns to his seat)
Cities of glass, ha!
WOMAN
Clean air, never!
(They sit, staring at the envelope. The rail car continues on
its way)
END OF PLAY