Book of Days.

qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 1

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

BOOK OF DAYS
BY
LANFORD WILSON

DRAMATISTS
PLAY SERVICE
INC.
AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

BOOK OF DAYS
Copyright © 2001, Lanford Wilson

All Rights Reserved

CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that performance of BOOK OF
DAYS is subject to payment of a royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the
United States of America, and of all countries covered by the International Copyright Union
(including the Dominion of Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth), and of all
countries covered by the Pan-American Copyright Convention, the Universal Copyright
Convention, the Berne Convention, and of all countries with which the United States has
reciprocal copyright relations. All rights, including without limitation professional/amateur
stage rights, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television,
video or sound recording, all other forms of mechanical, electronic and digital reproduction,
transmission and distribution, such as CD, DVD, the Internet, private and file-sharing
networks, information storage and retrieval systems, photocopying, and the rights of
translation into foreign languages are strictly reserved. Particular emphasis is placed upon the
matter of readings, permission for which must be secured from the Author’s agent in writing.

The English language stock and amateur stage performance rights in the United States, its territories,
possessions and Canada for BOOK OF DAYS are controlled exclusively by DRAMATISTS
PLAY SERVICE, INC., 440 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016. No professional or
nonprofessional performance of the Play may be given without obtaining in advance the
written permission of DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, INC., and paying the requisite fee.

Inquiries concerning all other rights should be addressed to ICM Partners, 730 Fifth Avenue,
New York, NY 10019. Attn: Buddy Thomas.

SPECIAL NOTE
Anyone receiving permission to produce BOOK OF DAYS is required to give credit to the
Author as sole and exclusive Author of the Play on the title page of all programs distributed
in connection with performances of the Play and in all instances in which the title of the
Play appears for purposes of advertising, publicizing or otherwise exploiting the Play and/or
a production thereof. The name of the Author must appear on a separate line, in which no
other name appears, immediately beneath the title and in size of type equal to 50% of the
size of the largest, most prominent letter used for the title of the Play. No person, firm or
entity may receive credit larger or more prominent than that accorded the Author. The
following acknowledgment must appear on the title page in all programs distributed in
connection with performances of the Play:

Originally commissioned, developed and produced by

the Purple Rose Theatre Company, Chelsea, MI.

The World Premiere of BOOK OF DAYS was presented by the Purple Rose Theatre Company,
Jeff Daniels, Executive Director, Guy Sanville, Artistic Director and
Alan Ribant, Managing Director. The production was directed by Guy Sanville.

BOOK OF DAYS was subsequently produced by Repertory Theatre of St. Louis,

Steven Woolf, Artistic Director, Mark D. Bernstein, Managing Director,
and by Hartford Stage, Michael Wilson, Artistic Director and
Elaine Calder, Managing Director.

The foregoing must appear in type no smaller than 50% of the size of the producer’s credit.

SPECIAL NOTE ON SONGS AND RECORDINGS

For performances of copyrighted songs, arrangements or recordings mentioned in these
Plays, the permission of the copyright owner(s) must be obtained. Other songs, arrangements
or recordings may be substituted provided permission from the copyright owner(s) of such
songs, arrangements or recordings is obtained; or songs, arrangements or recordings in the
public domain may be substituted.

Reprint Copyright Page.indd 2 1/20/2016 11:50:58 AM

Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 3

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

For Jeff Daniels and the Purple Rose Theatre Company

Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 4

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

BOOK OF DAYS was originally commissioned, developed and

produced by the Purple Rose Theatre Company, Chelsea,
Michigan (Jeff Daniels, Executive Director; Guy Sanville, Artistic
Director; Alan Ribant, Managing Director). The world premiere
of BOOK OF DAYS was presented at the Purple Rose Theatre on
April 2, 1998. It was directed by Guy Sanville; the set design was
by Bartley H. Bauer; the lighting design was by Dana White; the
sound design was by Daniel C. Walker; the prop design was by
Danna Segrest; the costume design was by Mark K. Copenhagen;
the stage manager was Anthoney Caselli; and the assistant stage
manager was Robyn Heller. The case was as follows:

RUTH HOCH .................................................... Suzanne Regan

LEN HOCH ............................................... Wayne David Parker
BOYD MIDDLETON ..................................... Dennis E. North
GINGER REED ....................................................... Carey Crim
MARTHA HOCH ................................................. Sandra Birch
WALT BATES ...................................................... Jim Porterfield
SHARON BATES ......................................... Michelle Mountain
JAMES BATES ........................................................ John Lepard
LOUANN BATES .................................................. Lisa Sodman
EARL HILL ........................................................ Joseph Albright
REVEREND BOBBY GROVES ...................... John Hawkinson
SHERIFF CONROY ATKINS .......................... Randall Godwin

BOOK OF DAYS was sponsored by generous gifts from Olympia

Entertainment and The Mosaic Foundation (of R. & P. Heydon).

4
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 5

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

BOOK OF DAYS was subsequently produced in collaboration by

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri (Steve
Woolf, Artistic Director; Mark Bernstein, Managing Director) and
Hartford Stage, Hartford, Connecticut (Michael Wilson, Artistic
Director; Tracy Brigden, Associate Artistic Director; Elaine Calder,
Managing Director). The play opened in St. Louis on September
10, 1999. It was directed by Marshall W. Mason; the set design was
by John Lee Beatty; the lighting design was by Dennis Parichy; the
sound design was by Chuck London; the costume design was by
Laura Crow; the stage manager was Glenn Dunn; and the assistant
stage manager was Scott De Broux. The cast was as follows:

RUTH HOCH .................................................... Suzanne Regan

LEN HOCH ...................................................... Matthew Rauch
BOYD MIDDLETON ...................................... Jonathan Hogan
GINGER REED .............................................. Shannon Burkett
MARTHA HOCH ...................................................... Dee Hoty
WALT BATES ........................................................... Jim Haynie
SHARON BATES ............................................... Pamela Dunlap
JAMES BATES .................................................... Alan Campbell
LOUANN BATES ............................................... Bellamy Young
EARL HILL ......................................................... Boris McGiver
REVEREND BOBBY GROVES ............................. John Lepard
SHERIFF CONROY ATKINS ............................. Tuck Milligan

Casting was by Will Cantler of Bernard Telsey Casting.

Mr. Mason was sponsored in St. Louis by Metropolitan Life

Foundation.

This production moved intact to Hartford Stage, Hartford,

Connecticut, opening October 21, 1999. The stage manager was
Denise Yaney; the assistant stage manager was Elizabeth Moloney.

Presented at Hartford Stage as part of the Innovators on the

American Stage Series sponsored by Philip Morris Companies, Inc.

5
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 6

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

CHARACTERS

RUTH HOCH — Bookkeeper for the Dublin Cheese Plant.

LEN HOCH — Manager of the cheese plant, Ruth’s husband.
BOYD MIDDLETON — Stage director from out of town.
GINGER REED — Assistant to Boyd.
MARTHA HOCH — Len’s mother; junior college dean and
teacher.
WALT BATES — Owner of the cheese plant.
SHARON BATES — Walt’s wife.
JAMES BATES — Walt’s son.
LOUANN BATES — James’ wife.
EARL HILL — Dairy inspector at the cheese plant.
REVEREND BOBBY GROVES
SHERIFF CONROY ATKINS

The entire cast acts as CHORUS.

SETTING

A recent summer in Dublin, Missouri, county seat of Chosen

County.

6
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 7

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

BOOK OF DAYS
ACT ONE

CHORUS
WALT. Dublin, Missouri
MARTHA. Population four thousand, seven hundred and
eighty
SHARON. Fifty-nine miles southwest of Fort Leonard Wood
WALT. Seventeen miles northeast of Springfield.
SHERIFF ATKINS. A pool hall
GINGER. Coffee shop
JAMES. (Red Dot Cafe)
GINGER. (Six booths and a counter that seats fourteen)
LEN. A cheese plant
EARL. Hardware
LOUANN. Dress shop
SHARON. Beauty parlor
WALT. Dry goods store, smells like wheat
SHERIFF ATKINS. (Jeans, khakis
JAMES. underwear, overalls, shirts, ties)
MARTHA and WALT. Dublin, Missouri
WALT. County seat of Chosen County.
JAMES. Big brick court house
LOUANN. As perfect a cube as a child’s alphabet block
BOYD. In the middle of the town square
EARL. One giant elm on the lawn,
WALT. The county extension office is studying to see why that
tree is still alive
GINGER. High school
MARTHA. (Sixty-eight percent go on to college)
RUTH. Educated community

7
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 8

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

EARL. Four bars

REVEREND GROVES. Five churches
SHERIFF ATKINS. One damn good family restaurant
RUTH. Community theater
BOYD. Movie theater
GINGER. (Four screens)
JAMES. Video rental
LEN. Pizza Hut
RUTH. IGA
GINGER. Dairy Queen
WALT. Farmers plow up arrowheads in the spring when they
prepare the ground for corn
SHERIFF ATKINS. Soybeans
LEN. Rye
EARL. Sorghum
MARTHA. Library
SHARON. Two pharmacies
JAMES. Golf course
LOUANN. Two malls
RUTH. A clean
WALT. Quiet
SHERIFF ATKINS. Wide awake
REVEREND GROVES. Prosperous town.

RUTH. (Singing solo.)

And you can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
A hundred miles, a hundred miles,
A hundred miles, a hundred miles,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles … *

CHORUS (Overlapping the song.)

WALT. The smell of smoke from burning leaves lays on the air
in the fall for days
SHARON. But right now it’s still spring.
SHERIFF ATKINS. May fifteenth

RUTH. (To the audience, a book in hand.) I suppose it’s as good

* See Special Note on Songs and Recordings on copyright page.

8
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 9

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

to start here as anywhere. (Sits, opening the book, frowning. The

chorus exits. Len enters carrying a bag of groceries.)
LEN. Getting off book?
RUTH. Oh, you love talking that theater talk, don’t you.
LEN. Is that right or is it getting off lines?
RUTH. I’m not going to tell you. I like knowing one thing you
don’t. Only you’re right. No, I’m reading Bernard Shaw’s
introduction.
LEN. What have you learned?
RUTH. We need a better dictionary.
LEN. What? [i.e., what word?]
RUTH. Uh. (Looking back.) “Crap-u-lous.” I don’t think it
means the obvious.
LEN. (Going off to dump the groceries.) No idea. Call Mom, she
has a good dictionary. (Ruth goes to the phone.)
RUTH. No. I don’t want to bother her. She’s — Well, what the
hell. (She dials the phone. One button.) I don’t think it’s important
but anything that might shed some faint light on — she’ll
probably just know it. She usually does. (On phone.) Martha, hi.
You got your Shorter OED handy? You’ll probably just know it.
“Crapulous.” I don’t think so, it’s Bernard Shaw, (Beat.) No, he
didn’t like the name George. That’s the only thing I’ve learned
about him. That and he was a huge flirt but may never have had
sex in his life. At least with his wife. (Yelling off, informing Len.)
“From ‘crapulence’: gross intemperance; debauchery.” (Back to the
phone.) Thank you. While you have it handy, what about
“vulpine”?
LEN. (Entering.) Foxy, cunning.
RUTH. “Of or like a fox,” Martha said. At the same time.
(Phone.) You both just knew that off the top of your heads?
Coming over later? Good. Want to talk to your son? I’ll tell him.
(Hangs up.)
LEN and RUTH. She’s watching Jeopardy.
RUTH. I’m all wrong for this; I’m a hundred years too old, my
eyes are wrong.
LEN. I love your eyes.
RUTH. They’re too close together.
LEN. For what?

9
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 10

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

RUTH. For Joan.

LEN. Is there a contemporary portrait of Joan of Arc?
RUTH. Uh, I don’t think so.
LEN. Nobody will notice.
RUTH. (Reading.) “Joan appears in the turret doorway. She is
an able-bodied country girl of seventeen or eighteen, with an
uncommon face: eyes very wide apart, a short upper lip, a resolute
mouth, and handsome fighting chin.”
LEN. Well, you’re — able-bodied.
RUTH. Do I have a short upper lip?
LEN. I think the handsome fighting chin is more important. I
got short ribs for dinner.
RUTH. Oh, God. Fat. Shaw says nothing about Joan being
grossly overweight.
LEN. First rehearsal tomorrow. We’re celebrating.
RUTH. I love short ribs. With my life.
LEN. So that means dinner in about three hours. What do you
want for dessert?
RUTH. No dessert. God.
LEN. How about black raspberry cobbler?
RUTH. You’re the devil. (Len leaves. To the audience.) Don’t
think less of me, but I don’t cook. I can, you just don’t want to be
there. And Len loves to cook and he’s incredible and for me it’s a
chore. Also when I cooked he spent most of the time in the
kitchen, looking over my shoulder. Which drove me crazy and he
didn’t even realize he was doing it. So!

CHORUS
WALT. We’re going back a couple of weeks —

RUTH. Oh, shit. (Ruth, rushed, hurries off.)

CHORUS
MARTHA. — To May first. The Day of the Audition.
REVEREND GROVES. River Street Theater.
LOUANN. Eighth season, seats two hundred and nine.
JAMES. Six shows a year, five-week runs.
SHARON. People drive for an hour and a half

10
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 11

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

MARTHA. Sixty percent of the audience is from Springfield.

WALT. Good number drive up from Branson.

(Boyd is in the back of the house.)

GINGER. This is Ruth Hoch. [Note: Hoch rhymes with “Coke.”]
(Ruth enters.)
RUTH. (Shading her eyes from the stage lights.) Hi. I think I
shouldn’t be here. I didn’t know this one wasn’t a musical.
Someone said the next show was Saint Joan by George Bernard
Shaw and I said what else has he done and they said My Fair Lady,
and I said, good, I was in Carousel and I think that’s by the same
guys.
BOYD. It isn’t.
RUTH. It isn’t? No, No, Nanette?
BOYD. No.
RUTH. No?
BOYD. No.
RUTH. Paint Your Wagon?
BOYD. That’s actually by the same composer and lyricist as My
Fair Lady, but it’s not Shaw. Shaw wrote the play My Fair Lady is
based on.
RUTH. Oh. That’s a completely different thing, isn’t it?
BOYD. Pretty much.
RUTH. If you knew my work, you could have just told me I
wasn’t right for it. Martin Bowers directs most of the things here
and he knows everybody in town. A guest director from out of
town is at kind of a —
BOYD. What do you do, Ruth? When you’re not singing?
RUTH. I’m the bookkeeper down at the cheese plant. My
husband’s the manager.
BOYD. (No hope.) OK. And what did you prepare for us today?
RUTH. Uh. “You’re a Queer One, Julie Jordan.” Who knew? It’s
really a duet, but I do it as a solo.
BOYD. Have you any dramatic monologues?
RUTH. Not really.
BOYD. Comic?
RUTH. Not really.
BOYD. All right, let’s hear “You’re a Queer One, Julie Jordan.”

11
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 12

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

RUTH. You don’t even have an accompanist on the — oh, what

the hell, I think just get it over with, right? (She composes herself to
sing, fingers an imaginary piano introduction, and begins to sing.*
Boyd comes up on stage, cutting her off.)
BOYD. No, wait. Who are we kidding? I wouldn’t be able to tell
a thing. Not really. I’m very sorry.
RUTH. I understand. My fault. (Going off, stops.) Oh. I know
a thing from Shakespeare. I mean I did a scene with this kid in
college, I haven’t thought about it in — if I can even remember
the —
BOYD. Great. Go to it. And Ms. Hoch — for future reference,
a speech from Shakespeare is called a — is it dramatic?
RUTH. Uh, I guess maybe “romantic.”
BOYD. Is called a dramatic monologue.
RUTH. I’ll remember. Could you get back out there? I mean
I’m talking to someone who’s not close. He’s more — out there.
BOYD. No problem.
RUTH. OK. I come out on my balcony at night and don’t know
he’s down there listening. (She composes herself a moment.) “O
Romeo, Romeo!”
BOYD. Oh God.
RUTH. I’m sorry?
BOYD. No, sorry, go on.
RUTH. (Composes herself again. She does the speech simply and
beautifully.)
Oh, Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
’Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
Thou art thyself though, not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is not hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,
* See Special Note on Songs and Recordings on copyright page.

12
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 13

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

Retain that dear perfection which he owes

Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;
And for thy name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.

Then he says something and she realizes he’s heard her, and she
says:

Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face;

Else would a maiden’s blush bepaint my cheek,
For that which thou hast heard me speak tonight —

CHORUS
WALT. That gives you a fair idea.

RUTH. But I did the whole scene.

CHORUS
MARTHA. Damn near the whole play.

RUTH. I wanted to get to “I should have been more strange.”

CHORUS
REVEREND GROVES. I think we get the picture.

RUTH. Shit.
BOYD. Damn good. Thank you.
RUTH. Christ. I think I actually understood that. When we did
it in class I had no idea what the silly twit was talking about.
BOYD. Funny how that happens, isn’t it?
RUTH. Anyway —
BOYD. I think we have our Joan. I was about to give up.
RUTH. Who did you decide — ? Oh. Like that?
BOYD. Like that. We may have to cut your hair.
RUTH. Hey. Only I think Martin Bowers, the artistic director
here, intended for his daughter to be Joan.
BOYD. I’ve known Martin for years. He’s a good man but
Cassandra can’t act.

13
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 14

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

RUTH. Oh. Well, maybe she can play one of the other girls in
the play.
GINGER. There’s a couple of women in the first act.
BOYD. Yeah, they have about one line apiece.
GINGER. Perfect, she can’t fuck that up.
RUTH. Why do I have the feeling I’ll never get another part in
this theater?
BOYD. That’s not my problem, I’m just here for this gig.
RUTH. Great attitude.
BOYD. Yeah, I’m known for my compassion.

CHORUS
SHERIFF ATKINS. Dublin, Missouri
MARTHA, WALT and EARL. Seventeen miles northeast of
Springfield
WALT. Len’s mother
SHARON. Martha Hoch
WALT. Dean of Harwood Christian College
LOUANN. Just outside Springfield
JAMES. Eleven miles from Dublin
WALT. Enrollment almost three thousand. (The chorus, except for
Len, Ruth and Martha exit. Martha is around fifty, brilliant and fun.)

MARTHA. I can’t for the life of me understand what the hell is

going on with these kids today, I just saw a girl walking out of the
pharmacy with her body pierced and stapled in every possible —
rows of silver rings and studs through her lip, her cheek, her
eyebrow, on her neck, her nose, her bellybutton — you know
damn well she’s got one on her clit.
LEN. Mom.
MARTHA. I’d like to see her drop that in the dish at airport
security.
RUTH. I know. I don’t get it at all.
MARTHA. And I’ll bet you a dollar she’ll be in my Freshman
English Composition class this fall.
LEN. They’re just trying to express their individuality.
MARTHA. Yeah, individuality and license. Let freedom ring.
God above. Still they’re not as bad as — I swear half my kids don’t

14
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 15

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

know they’re alive. They live a calm, sexless denial of every human
impulse. Passionless, humorless little automatons. What is that? In
the ’60s we — well the late ’60s, we rejoiced in our bodies. I don’t
mind them raising hell at that age, but the option now seems to
be between self-mutilation and total denial of your existence.
RUTH. I don’t get it.
MARTHA. (Mocking.) And after all the indiscriminate sex and
the endless ingestion of drugs we endured to set them free. We
didn’t put ourselves through those perilous experiments for
ourselves. We did it for them. For our children. And our children’s
children. (Pokes Ruth.)
RUTH. I heard that.
MARTHA. Good. Slopping barefoot and naked through the
rain and mud at Woodstock. For what? To make our country free!
Liberation! And look at what the Perforated Generation has done
with it. I’ve got to get myself another story. I have thoroughly
worn out Woodstock, haven’t I?
LEN. What are you talking about? I was conceived at
Woodstock. It’s my one claim to fame.
MARTHA. Well, we think so, hon. It’s altogether possible.
LEN. It got me through college. It got me laid. Twice.
MARTHA. Well, good, darling, I’m glad. But truth be told we
were so stoned back then, I didn’t know where I was most of the
time.
LEN. You went to Woodstock. You hitchhiked all the way from
Marshfield.
MARTHA. Oh, I was there. There are pictures to prove it. They
were published in “alternative” magazines all over the world. My
tits ended up on a 1970 calendar. August, I think. I was: (Singing,
waving her arms.) “Let the sun shine … ” I just wasn’t there. And
it’s altogether likely that you were conceived there, so rest assured.
And … that your father was really your father. Eighty percent.
LEN. She loves doing this to me.
MARTHA. Well, the way that bastard turned out, it’s nothing
to brag about.
RUTH. What wife is he on now?
MARTHA. “On” is funny. He’s on four of them at once last I
heard. In We-don’t-know-or-care-where, Mexico. God was he a

15
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 16

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

good looking man. Well, at least he hasn’t lost his spirit.

RUTH. Martha, you have more spirit than … if the chancellor
of that school you run knew your background, you’d be out on
your butt.
MARTHA. Oh, don’t I know it. What a fucked-up school.
There shouldn’t be such a thing as a Christian college. They let
them look like freaks to give them the illusion of independence,
but Walt Whitman is definitely not on our shelves. Poor
Chancellor. Poor students. God knows what they’re fit for after we
get finished with them.
LEN. You’ll find the originality and spirit in them. You always
do. It’s why you’re there.
MARTHA. Sisyphus pushing that bloody rock, honey. (Len puts
a sliver of cheese in her mouth, and one for Ruth.)
LEN. Taste that.
MARTHA. Whoa, that’s delicious.
LEN. That’s the two-year-old.
RUTH. That’s great.
MARTHA. Smoother than I expected.
LEN. Yeah, that classic Cheddar bite comes later.

CHORUS
REVEREND GROVES. At dinner Len, Ruth, Boyd and Boyd’s
assistant.
JAMES. (At the same time.) Boyd, and Boyd’s girlfriend — uh,
assistant.
REVEREND GROVES and JAMES. “Ginger.”
SHERIFF ATKINS. May twenty-third. The Day of the Feast.

(Martha goes. Ruth pulls Len aside before they join Boyd and Ginger.)
RUTH. I think he’s sleeping with her.
LEN. With Ginger? How? He’s only been here seven days.
RUTH. Three weeks. And he’s, you know, (All that jazz.) “West
Coast” — “Hollywood.”
BOYD. Just one rule. We’re not going to talk shop.
GINGER. Thank God.
RUTH. Thank God.
LEN. Really? ’Cause shop is about all I know.

16
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 17

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

RUTH. Don’t believe him he knows everything.

BOYD. You can talk your shop, just not our shop. I don’t want
to think about fifteenth-century France.
GINGER. Nothing French. Or English. Or Classical. Or Shavian.
RUTH. You wanted to see the garden. We better hit it before it
gets dark. (Ruth and Ginger leave. An oven timer sounds offstage.)
LEN. Be right back. (Len goes off. Boyd turns to the audience with
enthusiasm.)
BOYD. (To audience.) OK, I came out here. Never been in a small
midwestern town in my life. These people in this company are
excellent. Martin has taught them beautifully. Last thing in the
world I — and Ruth! The thing is, we’ve only had a week’s
rehearsals, already she’s astonishingly good. Doesn’t know it at all.
The thing is, she is Joan; knows firearms, used to hunt in the
woods with her dad. And that total commitment to her
convictions. The tenacity of a bulldog. Not a romantic bone in her
body. Joan was a warrior. Where can you find authority like that
today? Except the religious and political crackpots — but she’s —
sorry, no shop. (Len returns.) That’s the best meal I’ve had in about
three years. If that’s Midwest cooking I’ve been living in the wrong
part of the country.
LEN. My grandmother was half Alsatian, half Italian, taught me
to cook. Tonight was basically a variation on a — uh, something I
promised we wouldn’t talk about tonight.
BOYD. Family secret?
LEN. Classic French.
BOYD. God, can they cook. Absolute bastards otherwise. So,
Leonard, how do you make cheese?
LEN. (Thrown.) Oh. Uh. Len. I haven’t been called Leonard
since I was — well, actually I’ve never been called — (To hell with
it. With gestures.) You take a lot of milk, separate the curds from
the whey, sell the whey to a company that makes alcohol, sell
bricks of curd to a big company like Kraft or Borden. They chop
them up, heat them up, pasteurize them up, add water and
emulsifying salts and God knows what else and call it Cheddar or
English or Monterey Jack or whatever their marketing division
decides Americans will fall for.
BOYD. You don’t sound very enthusiastic about the ultimate

17
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 18

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

product.
LEN. Oh damn, did that show? Since Walt made me manager,
been a little over two years, I’ve been experimenting. Trying to see
what we can really do if we’re interested in doing something worth
doing. (Walt enters.Walt is about sixty. Big man. Oddly stoic. He
wears a suit.)
WALT. How much you thinkin’, Len?
LEN. You’re asking, I’ll tell you. I’d like to convert the whole
works, our whole production. We could do it in less than three
months.
WALT. Then you’d be out of a job. ’Cause I’m not going to close
down for three or four years while your cheese sets in a cave
somewhere to age.
LEN. Hell, Walt, you got all the money you’re ever gonna need.
WALT. Don’t worry about how much money I need. What’s
your second plan?
LEN. Minimum, for now, to start: Hold back maybe ten
percent. I’d like more, but ten percent to start. I can run the
numbers on it.
WALT. I know the numbers; what’ll it make?
LEN. Down the road, probably twenty, twenty-five percent
increase in profits.
WALT. Bull. How far down the road?
LEN. In three years we’ll know if it’s working. We might have
the provolone in less.
WALT. (Musing.) Provolone. You ever buy a provolone in the
supermarket?
LEN. Rubber.
WALT. I had a provolone in Florence, Italy over thirty years ago
that I can still taste. In the good sense. Ripe, creamy, had just a
little bite on the tongue, just a little grit in the texture.
LEN. I know. I think ten percent won’t break us.
WALT. Me, you mean. Won’t break me. I had your kind of
interest when I started the business. Too damn long ago. I didn’t
go into it to sell to a processing company, but God! The money
they offered. Kraft came to me, offered me a deal — too good to
turn down. Now, when I can stomach it to show up here, it’s
just — a routine with no product. Hi, guys, doing a great job, and

18
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 19

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

back to the car. (Leaving.) Anymore, I’d rather fish. Spend my time
down in Florida.
BOYD. Sounds like an OK boss.
LEN. Oh, yeah, he’s great. So I’m trying to develop an aged
provolone for Walt, and a real cheddar. It’s coming along. We can
sell the cheddar in one-year increments. (Is he a hopeless romantic
or just enthusiastic about cheese?) The year-old is full-flavored, has a
creamy texture, nothing like what you usually think of as cheddar;
second year it intensifies quite a bit, gets fuller; third year has a real
rounded, almost fruity character. Then — at four the sharpness
starts to take over. That real cheddar taste, no relation to ninety
percent of what passes for cheddar. Then the five-year-old — if
we’re doing it right, and damn few do — that has what you’re
after: It’s pungent, sharp, a little sour, and has this deep, deep
flavor. With a long, really sharp but mellow aftertaste. That’s the
sign of a good cheese. That aftertaste. That’s — (He pauses or he
would cry. He recovers, covering his embarrassment. More
businesslike.) Much more than five years all your mistakes start to
show. We’ve got the one year and the two; it looks like we’re on the
right track. I think we’ve already got the provolone. I really do. I
gave some to Sharon to surprise Walt.
BOYD. (He has been smiling at this phenomenon.) Yeah? I can see
how you and Ruth were attracted to each other. You’re complete
opposites, complete complements. How do you know it’s going to
turn out cheddar instead of Limburger?
LEN. No way. They all have a different — (Boyd is smiling.) OK,
now you’re just baiting me, see if you can get me to make a fool of
myself again. I hear myself, I sound like a …
BOYD. I have nothing but respect for someone who believes in
what he’s doing.
LEN. What are you doing here, Boyd? In Dublin? I mean, it’s
great having you, but a big-time Broadway director, won that
award —
BOYD. I was nominated for the Tony, twice, actually, and lost
to a hack. He said graciously. And the same fucking hack both
times.
LEN. Well, and movies. Even I’d heard of you.
BOYD. You had not.

19
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 20

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

LEN. Well, I’d heard of your movie. I think.

BOYD. I’d like to believe you’d heard of the first one. Not the
second I hope. Made a good independent film. Moved to Los
Angeles. The studio gives you a pile of bucks to make your second
movie, and then starts telling you how to make it, reshoots the
ending, butchers it in the editing, won’t let you take your name off
it, and when it flops big time, “Nobody returns your phone calls.”
LEN. That really happens?
BOYD. All the time. The Hollywood Story. And not a damn
nibble since. Four years. So, here I am.
LEN. I thought you would say you love the play and you’d go
anywhere and walk through fire to do it.
BOYD. I walk through fire less often than I used to.

CHORUS
EARL. The Ozark Mountains
SHARON. Lakes and rivers
SHERIFF ATKINS. Great fishing
WALT. The whole countryside so beautiful in the spring it could
break your heart
LOUANN. Dogwood trees
GINGER. Redbud
EARL. Dairy farms
BOYD. The grass so green it hurts your eyes
LEN. Black-and-white Holstein cows
JAMES. Big red barns
REVEREND GROVES. Rolling, rolling hills
MARTHA. (Singing solo.) “Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river”
RUTH. (After “Rolling hills.”) Fiery red and yellow in the fall
SHARON. Color like nowhere else on earth
REVEREND GROVES. Shepherd of the hills country
SHERIFF ATKINS. Tornado Alley
LOUANN. Middle of the Ozarks
EARL. Tornado Alley.
BOYD. We have to get James in here somewhere.
GINGER. The boss’ son. Most popular young man in town.

WALT. (To the audience.) I’ve never been so shocked or so proud

20
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 21

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

of anything in my life. James’ senior year. They held the finals of

the Missouri State High School Basketball Tournament in
Independence that year. Sharon and I drove up for the whole
tournament, wouldn’t have missed it. Final game. For the
Championship of the State of Missouri. Class 3A. Little Dublin
versus Jennings, suburb of St. Louis — seven-foot-tall center, a six-
foot-ten player on guard, fastest boy I ever saw in my life. He’s on
James like a swarm of hornets all game. They’re a fast-break team;
we’re all ball-control, slow-paced games, wait for your shot. OK.
End of double overtime, still tied, 34-34, lowest score for Jennings
in thirteen years. This is for the championship. We go into triple
overtime — back then it was sudden-death. First team to score
wins. Bobby Groves gets the tip for Dublin, brings it down, passes
the ball, good ball-handlers, the whole team; no shot clock back
then. I think they passed the ball so much the Jennings team fell
into a coma or something. Suddenly, out of nowhere, James has
the ball — my son — thirty feet from the basket, cool as a
cucumber —

CHORUS
REVEREND GROVES. Ice water in his veins.

WALT. — and shoots. And that damn ball — I swear to God I

saw it in … slow motion. It just arced up like a rainbow and fell
straight down. Snapped through that net; never touched the rim.

CHORUS
BOYD. Nothing but nylon.

WALT. I’ve never been so shocked or so proud of anything in

my life.

CHORUS
SHARON. I’ll bet I’ve heard him tell that story word for word
a hundred times.
EARL. Oh, yeah.
REVEREND GROVES. James Bates.
MARTHA. Late May. A Day for Old Friends.

21
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 22

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

(James is the best-looking and best-liked young man in town. Thirty-

four, high-school-basketball-guard build.)
JAMES. Hey, there.
RUTH. (She’s in rehearsal clothes.) Hi, James.
JAMES. How’s my favorite cheerleader?
RUTH. Your favorite cheerleader is my cousin and you’re
married to her.
JAMES. I keep forgettin’ that.
RUTH. I know you do. And I’m bushed. Congratulations. I
heard you finally passed the bar exams. What was it, the seventh
try?
JAMES. Lucky seven. Yeah, I was goin’ for the record. I actually
studied this time; six whole d-a-m-n months. What are you
bushed about?
RUTH. I just got out of rehearsal. I don’t even know what
language we’re speaking in there.
JAMES. LouAnn said you’re doing another show.
RUTH. It’s a very moral play. You should make it a point to see
it.
JAMES. You know better than that. Church comes down pretty
hard on “congregating for prurient purposes.” Like entertainment.
I’m afraid Bobby prefers our congregation to get their morality
from the Bible.
RUTH. Oh, balls. The last time I was at your house, LouAnn
was in your rec room with that fifty-two-inch TV watching Blue
Velvet.
JAMES. (Fully aware of the irony.) In the sanctity of our home.
We’re very lenient on some things. (Sexual innuendo.) We just try
not to expose ourselves in a public kind of situation.
RUTH. Meaning you’ll expose your dick but not your mind.
JAMES. You got the foulest darn mouth on you for a woman.
You know that?
RUTH. What are you doing at the stage door?
JAMES. I thought maybe Ginger’d like to spin down to the
river, cool off some —
RUTH. That’s not gonna work, she’s fucking the director.
JAMES. (Laughing.) That mouth again!
RUTH. You just bring out the dirt in me, James. Lying around,

22
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 23

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

“studying for the bar” the last six years. Looked to me like all the
studying was taking place on the Springfield golf course.
JAMES. Hey, I work for a state congressman. I can’t help it if the
bulk of our business is transacted out on the links.
RUTH. Yeah, or studying in that phony-blonde beautician’s bed
in Springfield.
JAMES. Nothing is going on there. You’re the second person
this week —
RUTH. I’m glad you passed the bar. Maybe you’ll make yourself
useful for a change. We didn’t vote you Most Likely to Succeed so
you could screw around.
JAMES. What are you up to now, honey? You need a lift?
RUTH. I got my car. Going home to a cool shower.
JAMES. Well, take care of yourself, sugar. Don’t wear yourself
out.
RUTH. Don’t call me sticky names, James. You call me Ruth.
JAMES. And a good Christian name it is, too. Ruthy. (Ruth
leaves him, smiling and shaking her head.)
WALT. So proud of anything in my life. All that’s changed now.
(The town siren is heard. (Len and Boyd enter.)
BOYD. What the hell is that?

CHORUS
REVEREND GROVES. That’s the noon whistle.

LEN. James. Hey.

JAMES. Len.
LEN. Haven’t seen you down at the plant in six months.
JAMES. (Turns to Boyd.) I keep trying to tell him, I had enough
of that place to last me a lifetime.
LEN. Sorry. Boyd Middleton, James Bates. Boyd’s working with
Ruth on the play they’re doing here.
JAMES. You’re the director.
LEN. James’ dad’s my boss.
BOYD. Pleased to meet you. (James just checks him out.)
LEN. James used to work down the plant, summer vacations,
every day after school he didn’t have basketball practice. You never
saw anyone that grim and determined. Boy —

23
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 24

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

JAMES. Operative word there being “grim.”

LEN. I thought sure Walt was grooming him to take over
management.
JAMES. I imagine that’s the way Dad saw it too. (More to Boyd.)
I worked those seven summers at four dollars and fifty cents an
hour, and with every turn of that paddle, stirring those stinkin’
vats, I was saying, “This is one day gettin’ my fuzzy butt out of the
cheese business.”
LEN. Even Walt couldn’t see the economy of puttin’ a lawyer to
work stirring curds.
JAMES. I talk to Earl. Sounds like you’ve finally got it pretty
much the way you want it.
LEN. Some things working out.
BOYD. You’re a lawyer then.
JAMES. Yes, sir, as of last Tuesday, I am officially one of that
overcrowded superfluous breed of man. Good to meet you, Boyd.
(James and Boyd leave as Ruth enters, visibly upset.)

CHORUS
MARTHA. June first.

RUTH. Oh God.

CHORUS
SHERIFF ATKINS. Blood and feathers all over the backyard.

RUTH. Oh, God, honey.

LEN. What’s wrong?
RUTH. Wally killed a bird, a catbird. The one that’s always out
at the birdbath.
LEN. You don’t know it was that one; there’re catbirds
everywhere this year.
RUTH. Well, they’re all so wonderfully friendly, or unafraid.
LEN. Well, they’ll learn that doesn’t pay, won’t they?
RUTH. Len!
LEN. Honey, Wally killed the catbird, you didn’t kill the catbird.
Cats are supposed to kill catbirds. Catbirds got their name on ’em.
RUTH. I know that. But I saw it. I was on the phone with

24
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 25

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

Martha, I guess the bird was hopping around in the grass and
suddenly Wally just jumped out from the bushes and there was a
chirp and a tumble, I’m yelling. It was Wild Kingdom in the
middle of the backyard.
LEN. What did Mom say?
RUTH. Martha said Wally killed the catbird, I didn’t kill the
catbird. It’d be different if he ate them.
LEN. How would that be different?
RUTH. Well, it’s just sport to him. It’s the white man killing all
the buffalo.
LEN. What do you want?
RUTH. Nothing, I’m fine. How was your day?
LEN. You know what it’s like down there in this weather. Spent
half the day in the refrigerator. Earl’s bitchin’ to Walt again about
the volume we’re losing on “Len’s pet project.”
RUTH. Tell Earl it’s his job to be sure the farmers’ milking
parlors are sanitary, he’s got nothing to say about the way things
are run at the plant.
LEN. Supposed to rain next week, break this heat. Everything’ll
look better.
RUTH. Yeah, sure.
LEN. What?
RUTH. No. It’s so — nothing. It’s just rehearsals are going — I
can’t do this girl. She’s too complicated and too simple. It’s
impossible. Nobody’s like that.
LEN. I was reading about it. Said most people consider Joan one
of the most challenging parts ever written for a woman.
RUTH. You were reading about Saint Joan? — Well, no, that’s
what you do.
LEN. What do I do?
RUTH. If you hear about something, you read up on it so you’ll
know what they’re talking about. I would just sit there and say …
duh.
LEN. Just curious what you got yourself up against. Compared
Joan to Hamlet. Of course Hamlet couldn’t decide on action and
Joan is unshakably committed to action. And the truth of her voices.
RUTH. I’m not smart enough to play Joan. You should play
Joan.

25
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 26

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

LEN. Boyd’s sure happy; says you’re a genius.

RUTH. Well, we both know that’s a lie.
LEN. Honey, it’s early. You’re always like this during the first
couple of weeks. You were like this with Carousel.
RUTH. Well, this one’s no — merry-go-round
LEN. So what do you want me to do with the catbird out there?
You want me to cook it?
RUTH. (Smiling.) No.
LEN. If he’s the one that was always at the birdbath, at least we
know he’s clean.
RUTH. Leave it for the animals.

CHORUS
REVEREND GROVES. Big colonial house
SHERIFF ATKINS. columns across the front
MARTHA. the garden goes on for days.

(Earl and Walt enter, talking to James and LouAnn. Earl and Walt
are each cleaning a shotgun. Earl is a big man, the same age as James.
LouAnn is about thirty.)
EARL. Hey, ol’ buddy.
JAMES. How’s it hangin’, Earl?
EARL. Pretty goddamned low if you want to know.
LOUANN. Would you two not talk that talk with me around?
EARL. This humidity is killin’ me, LouAnn. Do you believe this
weather? Whoever thought Missouri was habitable was crazy as a
barn owl.
JAMES. It’s a killer, ain’t it?
EARL. I’m better than I was. Took off at noon, I jumped in the
river down by the Sparta bridge, bare-assed naked. Come out I
didn’t even dry off, just walked up and down the riverbank with
my arms out like a scarecrow, coolin’ down.
LOUANN. People could see you from the highway down there.
EARL. LouAnn, I don’t care. It was that or die.
WALT. Some reason the heat’s never bothered me.
JAMES. We know Dad, you’re superhuman.
WALT. I didn’t say that. Never could take the cold. Goes right
through me. (Sharon enters. She’s fifty-two, a good Christian lady

26
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 27

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

and quite beautiful. Dresses well.)

SHARON. Are you going to work, James? Are you fixin’ to fix
your carburetor or help your dad and Earl clean their guns?
JAMES. Uh, I hadn’t planned on it.
SHARON. Well, then roll your sleeves down. Why do you do
that? You ought not to let him get away with that, LouAnn.
LOUANN. Him listen to me?
JAMES. Mom’s afraid I’ll disgrace her. Look low class.
SHARON. Don’t be ridiculous, this is America, we don’t have
classes here. I just expect a son of mine to dress like you respect
yourself. And the people around you.
JAMES. When I’m a hundred years old, Mom is gonna be a
hundred and eighteen; we’re going to be sitting in the old folks
home, she’s going to be saying, James, don’t talk with your mouth
full, people will think you were born in a cave.
SHARON. It’s called a nursing home, not an old folks home.
Show some respect.
JAMES. (To Earl.) What did I tell you?
EARL. (Grinning.) Shit. (Sharon looks at Earl. He wilts.)
SHARON. Earl, we don’t use those words in this house, you
know that. (To the audience as the others work.) Walt and I took the
whole summer off last year. We loaded up the Winnebago and
struck out north to the Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy
Horse Monument, carved out of a single granite mountain. Bryce
Canyon, the Grand Tetons, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Old
Faithful. It was wonderful. (Sincerely.) If you haven’t seen those
places, if you haven’t done that, you’ve got to do that for yourself.
Just to see what an incredible country we live in. Most people, city
people — I think they don’t know what this country is. All those
people criticizing America. They’d be completely different people
if they could really see this country. (With compassion, not critical.)
Of course we got back, the guy that mows the lawn had been sick,
didn’t get someone to replace him, I couldn’t believe it. The garden
was weeds to your waist. Hardly had time to get things done
before it was time to go down to Florida.
LOUANN. They have a gorgeous place in Florida.
SHARON. Walt’s never liked cold weather. The last seven years
we’ve had a house down there. Spending more and more time —

27
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 28

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

I think Walt almost thinks of that as home now.

WALT. Stuart, Florida —
SHARON. Pretty town —
WALT. On the St. Lucie Inlet. You want to have a place to go if
you get sick.
SHARON. That isn’t going to happen, you’re not going to
get — He had a heart attack four years ago. Only fifty-six. So he
thinks about a place where he’d want to rest up, get his strength
back.
WALT. The fishing’s so good down there. Sail and marlin. You
go out, catch the Gulf Stream; fishing’s better in the warmer water.
In two hours you can drift fourteen, fifteen miles north on the
Stream. There at Stuart it runs about seven miles an hour. Then
you come inland, sail back down home.
SHARON. Cold weather’s never suited him. Doesn’t bother me,
never has. I kind of miss the snow.

CHORUS
RUTH. (To the audience.) If you listen very closely you can hear
it in the distance. (Everyone listens. Silence. Silence. Then a very
distant shot-gun shot. Pause. They exit.)
BOYD. The day of worship. Outside the church. A Sunday
morning ritual.

(Outside the church. The congregation, off, sings the last verse of “Just
As I Am,” followed by just the piano. Reverend Bobby Groves greets his
parishioners as they leave the church. James, LouAnn and Sharon stop
to chat. Groves is thirty-four, good-looking, magnetic, sincerely caring
and energetic. Sharon thinks he’s pretty hot.)
JAMES. Good sermon, Reverend.
REVEREND GROVES. Yeah, I saw you networking at the
back of the church.
JAMES. I can’t get away with anything with this guy. I heard
every word, Bobby.
LOUANN. Sure you did.
REVEREND GROVES. How are you, LouAnn?
JAMES. Bought that new dress to match her car.
REVEREND GROVES. Looking good. Sharon, tell Walt he

28
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 29

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

doesn’t have to wait for Easter every year to come to church.

SHARON. Oh, Walt. Even beautifully as you preach, Bobby,
you know Walt can’t abide sermons.
JAMES. He’s afraid somebody might tell him what to do.
REVEREND GROVES. Conroy, how’s that new little baby girl
of yours?
SHERIFF ATKINS. She’s an angel, Bobby. I haven’t had a wink
of sleep in four months.
SHARON. I remember. (Ruth and Ginger come from inside.)
REVEREND GROVES. Good morning, Ruth. I didn’t believe
my eyes when I saw you out front this morning. Any chance of us
persuading Len to come around?
RUTH. He has to cover down at the plant on Sunday.
REVEREND GROVES. I know, we just can’t convince those
cows to keep the faith. Miss Reed, I believe that’s the shortest skirt
that ever walked into this church.
GINGER. It shrunk in the wash.
SHARON. I enjoy all you young people showing up. I knew
when Bobby joined the ministry he’d start bringing in the youth.
You know James, don’t you —
GINGER. We went together my whole junior year.
SHARON. Well, of course you did.
JAMES. Come on, Mom, I’ll drive you home. Let’s go, LouAnn.
(Reverend Groves watches them leave. Earl joins them.)
REVEREND GROVES. That’s a good man. I think he’ll make
a fine candidate for state representative this fall.
GINGER. You’re joking.
REVEREND GROVES. Well, he’s been working for
Representative Pratt the last five years.
RUTH. The old boy’s retiring?
REVEREND GROVES. Prominent family, tight with the
farmers, closest thing we have to a sports hero.
GINGER. And that qualifies him for government?
EARL. Saw you here this morning, Ruth, thought you’d got lost.
Don’t you belong down in Springfield at the Episcopal Church?
RUTH. Yeah, but that’s not where you go to keep up with
what’s going on in Dublin.
EARL. So you two doing research for that Morality Play James

29
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 30

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

says you’re putting on?

REVEREND GROVES. James said that?
EARL. That’s what he said. Nice sermon, Bobby.
REVEREND GROVES. I suppose Saint Joan is a Morality Play
in a way. I’m not sure whose morals it represents.
GINGER. You’re familiar with the play?
REVEREND GROVES. The Christian Ministry isn’t nearly as
ignorant as the rest of the country likes to hope.
RUTH. (To Ginger.) The Episcopalians are fine for me but
they’re a little naive for Joan.
REVEREND GROVES. I always pictured Joan as a little naive
herself. Ladies. (Reverend Groves retires. They stare after him.)
RUTH. Smooth. Very smooth.
GINGER. Also cute as a button. You know those buttons you
like to put in your mouth and kinna bite on?
RUTH. Oh, stop.

CHORUS
GINGER. Commencement Day, high school graduation
SHERIFF ATKINS. Brand, spanking, new building
JAMES. Took twelve years to pass the bond to build it
LEN. Old building had to damn near fall down first
LOUANN. Whole county tighter with their money than the
bark on a tree
GINGER. Outside, on the lawn
SHERIFF ATKINS. People just beginning to show
LOUANN. High school band setting up
LEN. June fifth.

(Martha, Walt and Sharon find their way to a seat.)

MARTHA. You have someone from the family graduating?
SHARON. Walt just likes to be here to show his respect.
MARTHA. The feudal lord nods to his vassals.
SHARON. Not at all. Shame on you. High school graduation is
a big deal for Walt. You giving the commencement speech again
this year?
MARTHA. No, just a quick hello, be introduced. I’ll see a lot of
them at matriculation.

30
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 31

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

WALT. It amazes me the way you’ve turned out, Martha, dean

of a college.
MARTHA. Junior college.
WALT. Everyone used to point and say, Ain’t it a shame she
turned out so wild, and her the brightest kid in school.
MARTHA. Being wild back then was smoking in public.
Painting daisies on your cheeks.
SHARON. I wish I’d have known you better back then.
MARTHA. No you don’t. I was a mess.
SHARON. Walt’s never believed in going on to college. He
didn’t do it so he thinks it’s a waste of time.
WALT. No, some guy getting ready to cut me open, take out my
appendix, I’d darn well want to see his diploma. I just say if you’re
going to be a farmer, you’re going to manage a cheese plant, like I
always thought James would, you’re better off with job experience
than a lot of English and history.
SHARON. James hasn’t done so badly by us. They’re putting
him up for the Assembly.
MARTHA. I heard that.
WALT. Only thing worse than a lawyer is a politician. I’m OK
with it now. But that was the biggest disappointment of my life.
You think you’re doing it for your boy; turns out you don’t know
what you’re doing it for. Took the pride right out of it for me.
Maybe your boy is going to give me some of that pride back. Last
night Sharon put a little plate of cheese and a pear in front of me
for dessert.
SHARON. I thought for a minute he wasn’t gonna eat it.
WALT. I took a bite of pear, a sliver of provolone — and I was
back in Florence, Italy on our honeymoon. I been waiting thirty
years to have that experience again.

CHORUS
MARTHA. June sixth. A Night of Temptation.

(Walt, Sharon and Martha have left. James is sitting, legs stretched
wide, as Ginger enters, car keys in hand.)
GINGER. Excuse me, what are you doing sitting on my porch?

31
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 32

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

JAMES. Well, I’d say I was just having a smoke, but I don’t
smoke. Saw your little red Subaru last night. Parked outside the
motel where they got that director staying.
GINGER. I’m his assistant on Saint Joan.
JAMES. And you can’t do that at the theater, you have to go to
his bedroom to assist him?
GINGER. Oh, drag your mind up out of the gutter, James, if
you can find it. We’re working. I’m scheduled to direct The
Rainmaker, the last play this season, which is very important to
me. I need all the advice I can get.
JAMES. What in the devil’s work is he doing here, is what I’d
like to know. Did you ask yourself that?
GINGER. He’s directing George Bernard —
JAMES. Oh, balls. You are so simple I’m surprised you
can dress yourself. A man who’s done all those plays in New
York, movies, eight or nine TV shows, got his bio in Who’s
Who, is going to come here because of our famous local culture?
Wake up.
GINGER. Maybe he wanted a break. Maybe he —
JAMES. From what? That’s the question. He didn’t come all this
way just to bang some sweet redhead. No disrespect, but I imagine
they got all those they need in Hollywood.
GINGER. What do you want?
JAMES. I thought maybe we could go for a spin.
GINGER. Oh, good lord, James, I don’t spin with married men.
JAMES. You still holding that against me?
GINGER. And we’ve got a ten A.M. call tomorrow. And I
already told you that LouAnn is a friend of mine. I don’t go out
with —
JAMES. What are you talking about? I didn’t say go out. I said
go for a ride.
GINGER. I hope we’re both smart enough to know what would
happen.
JAMES. I’d hope so. When did you get to be so standoffish?
GINGER. When did you get to be so married. Or so gropey.
JAMES. Oh, come on. When in the last four years have I even
touched you.
GINGER. What do you call having your hand around my waist,

32
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 33

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

around my neck, halfway down my blouse? Grabbing me from

behind, pushing your body up against me. I put my legs up in the
booth over at the Red Dot or somewhere, you come by and run
your hands over them.
JAMES. What the H-E-double-L is wrong with women that a
man can’t even be friendly anymore?
GINGER. Jesus. Good night.
JAMES. I’m a warm-natured guy.
GINGER. Oh, yeah, I’d say you were. (Ginger leaves, going past
him to her door.)
JAMES. You just watch that guy, sugar.

CHORUS
LEN. About a week ago.
SHERIFF ATKINS. After work.

(James stands as Earl joins him.)

EARL. (Off.) What’s happening, hoss?
JAMES. Hey, buddy. (Earl offers him a stick of gum.) Big Red?
EARL. I like it. Goin’ out to Muller’s. You feel like kicking up
some dust?
JAMES. Naw, you go on.
EARL. Come on.
JAMES. I’m past due in Springfield.
EARL. You hear what that little shit’s got your dad doing down
at the plant?
JAMES. Saw they was moving in more vats.
EARL. You know why? I guess it’s not enough they built that
whole refrigeration house for him to wash his fucking provolone.
(Walt has entered as Earl exits.)
JAMES. (With Walt now.) I hope you’re not forgetting you got a
contract.
WALT. I’m forgetting nothing, just don’t worry about it. It’s not
your concern.
JAMES. You’re already shorting them more than a thousand
pounds a day. Kraft is not going to let you cut back again. They
have a contract for a certain amount from us. They’re not going to
stand by and watch some two-bit outfit short them. And on top

33
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 34

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

of that to go into direct competition with their —

WALT. We’re in no competition with anything they make.
JAMES. They’ll cut us right off at the knees; we won’t have a
place to sell our product.
WALT. It’s my product, it’s not our product, sonny. And you got
no say in what happens to it or what I do with it. And you won’t
have. You gave up your say in that plant a long time ago, mister.
Just don’t you worry about what’s happening down there.
JAMES. You’re letting that simple squirt walk all over you.
Throwing away one-fifth of your volume now, what’s it going to
be next month?
WALT. (Quite angry.) I told you not to worry about it! You don’t
want to be involved down there, that’s fine. You don’t have to be
involved down there. You go play your politics and I won’t tell you
your business and don’t you start trying to tell me mine. (James
walks out. The sky has turned an ominous green.) My God, would
you look at that sky.

CHORUS
MARTHA. June seventh.
RUTH. The night of Walt’s death.
SHERIFF ATKINS. Texas
GINGER. Louisiana
LEN. Mississippi
LOUANN. Alabama
EARL and MARTHA. Tornado Alley
LEN. Oklahoma
SHARON. Arkansas
RUTH. Missouri
BOYD. Kansas
GINGER. Tennessee
EARL and MARTHA. Tornado Alley
EARL. Nebraska
SHERIFF ATKINS. Illinois
LEN. Iowa.
REVEREND GROVES. Tornadoes move from southwest to
northeast
SHERIFF ATKINS. From as little as a few feet wide to a mile

34
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 35

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

across
LEN. Travel distances as short as a quarter of a mile
EARL. Up to six hundred miles.
MARTHA. Winds as high as 300 miles an hour.
SHARON. Updraft to 200 miles an hour
SHERIFF ATKINS. Nature’s most destructive force
BOYD. People report it sounds like a huge train rolling over
you.
SHERIFF ATKINS. One guy said it sounded to him like
Niagara Falls. (Beat.)
MARTHA. June eighth. Four-thirty A.M. Dublin, Missouri.

(The storm comes in darkness except for the lightning. Thunder, loud,
long and shaking. Lightning reveals LouAnn in her nightgown, holding
her bed pillow, standing, looking up at the sky. The tornado is a
deafening roar for a moment then gone, followed by the continuing
storm, then a slow silent dawn and a beautiful after-the-storm-
morning.)
RUTH. It’s gorgeous. It’s almost cold.
LEN. (In his shorts, putting on his clothes.) Good sleeping weather
tonight. Where’s the batteries for the transistor radio?
RUTH. Aren’t they in the refrigerator?
LEN. We must be out. “Be Prepared,” right? I couldn’t find
them. Coffee’s on the stove, ought to be ready. No phone, no
electricity. We have stuff in the freezer, not going to keep more
than five or six hours. I got to go down to the plant. Storm like
that, I just hope the generator kicked in. There’s gonna be trees
down all over the place.
RUTH. With the power out most the farmers will be milking by
hand.
LEN. Bobby Wheeler’s milking forty-three cows, I know for a
fact his generator’s down.
RUTH. Lord. Better go help him rather than go to the plant.
LEN. I couldn’t milk a cow if my life depended on it. (Sheriff
Atkins enters.)
SHERIFF ATKINS. Len. Thought you’d be down to the plant.
I went down there first.
LEN. I’m just leaving, Sheriff. What can I do you for? (Sheriff

35
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 36

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

Atkins takes Len aside, whispers something to him.)

RUTH. What? What?
LEN. Oh, my God. Oh, good Lord.
SHERIFF ATKINS. I’m sorry, Len. I hate being the one to tell
you. Worst part of my job.
RUTH. What?
LEN. Sheriff says Walt got killed last night, out in the storm.
RUTH. Oh, no. Oh, God. How?
SHERIFF ATKINS. Some kind of hunting accident. His gun
went off when that monster mother of a tornado came through
down by the lake last night. I thought maybe you’d want to drive
with me over to tell Sharon. (A pause. They turn to Sharon, but she
is refusing to do the scene.)
SHARON. No. I didn’t say any of those words. That didn’t
happen.
LEN. I’m afraid it did, Sharon.
SHARON. Well, I’m not about to do it. (Boyd whispers urgently
to Sharon, who shakes her head “no.” The play cannot go on.) Well,
I’m sorry! (He whispers again, but again she shakes her head.) “No,”
I said.
BOYD. Well how do you expect — I don’t — uh. Ginger, will
you step in here and do Mrs. Bates’ breakdown for us?
SHARON. I didn’t have any breakdown and I don’t say words
like that.
BOYD. Ginger? Will you step in here and do Mrs. Bates’
breakdown for us?
GINGER. OK. Sure.
SHARON. I didn’t say any of those words. (Ginger, playing
Sharon, screams. Len, Sheriff Atkins, Earl, LouAnn and Ruth run to
her. The real Sharon stands at one side, deeply moved, unable to take
her eyes off the scene.)
GINGER. (As Sharon, truly livid. A harridan, total reversal of
character. Beating on Earl.) What the hell were you doing setting
out for a duck blind in the middle of the night. Ducks don’t
fucking fly at that goddamned hour. (Hitting Earl everywhere.) It’s
your goddamned fault, you piece of shit! Son of a bitch! How in
hell could you let that happen. What did you do? You answer me
you bastard. Don’t you have any sense at all?

36
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 37

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

EARL. (Over the above as she hits him.) I’m sorry, Sharon, I’m
sorry, I’m sorry.
GINGER. I want to see him!
SHERIFF ATKINS. Sharon, you don’t want to see what that
shotgun did to Walt, you don’t —
GINGER. Goddamnit, you’re going to fucking take me there
now. LouAnn, where’s that asshole worthless son of mine?
LOUANN. (Strong.) I don’t know, Sharon.
GINGER. Well, then you drive me down to the morgue to see
the body of my husband. (LouAnn and Ginger leave.)
SHARON. (Shaken.) I didn’t say any of those words. And if I
had I would have been perfectly justified. (Reverend Groves enters.)
Oh, Bobby. What will I do without that man? (To the others.) I
know you all cared for him. But I want the sisters from my Church
with me now. (She leaves.)
EARL. I swear to God it looked like the storm was letting up.
We’d been planning this for over a month. I come up to the back
door, I thought, He’s not going to be up, he’ll have chickened out
and gone back to bed with this rain. I was already gettin’ pissed he
hadn’t called me, save me from coming over. I knocked real light
on the back door — hell, he was up and dressed, had a thermos of
coffee made, rarin’ to go.
I swear it looked like the storm had passed, we thought it was
over. It was starting to get light out. Then by the time we got out
to the lake, it started getting darker and darker, we got out of the
truck, walked to the blind with Walt’s flashlight, it started raining
like I don’t remember ever seeing rain before; you couldn’t see your
hand in front of your face. And the wind, goddamn, I never been
in a wind like that.
And then she comes. Goddamn. Barreling down like a freight-
train. Oh, Jesus. We couldn’t see a goddamned thing, but Walt and
me both knew what it was. Walt had his mouth right in my ear,
yellin’, Lay down flat and hang on to something. My ears were
poppin’, chest about to explode from the change in pressure. You
never hear about that, no one had ever told me about that. I took
the sheriff out to see the place. The track it left was, the sheriff
said, almost a quarter of a mile wide, twelve miles long. It had
taken every tree, every bit of underbrush, every blade of grass right

37
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 38

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

down to the mud. You could see how the actual twister missed us
by about thirty feet. But it had downed a lot of trees around where
Walt and me was. Walt must have been twisted around,
disoriented. Goddamn was he strong. You could see where he had
crawled maybe ten feet. He had his shotgun there, under him, and
he was down under the branches of this oak, you couldn’t tell if
the tree got him first or his gun did. Sheriff said it looked like the
tree pushed him, got him off balance, caused him to twist the gun
around. God, Len, his chest, part of his face, is just gone. Sharon
can no way have an open casket.
LEN. I didn’t hear a thing but the rain and thunder.
RUTH. I didn’t even hear that, I slept right through it.
LEN. I have to go down to see him.
RUTH. I’ll come with you.
LEN. Maybe you hadn’t better —
RUTH. Oh, God, honey. You’re the one that’ll faint, not me.

CHORUS
MARTHA. If you listen very carefully. (Silence. Silence. Then a
distant shotgun shot.)
SHERIFF ATKINS. June twelfth. The Day of the Funeral.

SHARON. (Sitting, talking to Martha.) Bobby Groves said to

tell Walt he didn’t have to wait till Easter to come with me to
church. I didn’t know I’d be bringing Walt to church in a bronze
casket. When you’re so close to someone, when everything you do
is for him, all you’ve known is him, your life is him — and then
he’s taken away — it’s like there’s more of you gone than there is
left. (Pause.) I was the prettiest girl in my class.
MARTHA. In the whole town.
SHARON. When we started going out, it was just so logical. I
was eight years younger than him, but even that was right. I was
so thankful that I was pretty for him because he deserved that.
Someone who’d keep herself up and keep things running
smoothly. We wanted a daughter too, but that wasn’t God’s will. I
think I made a good, quiet life for him. I know I tried. I hope
that’s what he wanted. There were nights he’d read the paper after
supper and go to bed without saying one word all night. It never

38
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 39

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

failed to make me worry that I’d done something.

MARTHA. He was a hard man to know. He was one of the few
men I’ve known who knew when to keep his mouth shut.
Unfortunately, he didn’t always know when to open it.
SHARON. I know.
MARTHA. You need to get a life, Sharon.
SHARON. I’m never going to get used to the way you talk. I
was looking in the mirror this morning. I was thinking, I’m fifty-
two. I don’t know if that’s young or old. I could say I was middle-
aged, but how many people do you know who are a hundred and
four?
MARTHA. You’re a woman with her life ahead of her.
SHARON. No, my life was buried out there in that graveyard this
afternoon with a big ugly stone getting ready to be put on top of it.
MARTHA. You can choose any stone you want if you don’t
like it.
SHARON. No, that’s probably the last thing I can do for him.
The monument people called up, I said, just the biggest, most
vulgar one you’ve got. I’m worried about James.
MARTHA. I thought he’d never stop crying at the funeral.
SHARON. He hasn’t said a word since Walt died. Not one
word. And that’s not James. (James and LouAnn. James has a stony,
silent expression, which is our focus.)
LOUANN. It was a beautiful service. I think everyone in town
was there. Farmers from all over, and their families. I’ll bet every
dairy farmer within a hundred-mile radius. He was the most
respected man in this part of the state. He thought the sun just
rose and set by you. Would you like something to drink? I made a
pot of coffee. There’s sodas in the fridge. Iced tea? (Pause, no change
of tone.) I’ve never been so humiliated in my life. Sheriff comes to
the door with Ruth and Len, six in the morning, asking for you.
Wanted you to go with him to help him tell your mom. I didn’t
even lie. I said, I don’t know where James is. He didn’t come home
last night. He sometimes doesn’t come home till nine or ten in the
morning. Sometimes he just goes right to the courthouse without
coming home first. Always with a clean shirt and a clean shave, and
a clean change of clothes. He’s a very clean young man. Innocent
Len Hoch, naive as a child. Said, “Where does he go to, LouAnn?”

39
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 40

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

And I said, I don’t give a good goddamn, Len. Where he goes. Or

what he does there. (James leaves the room.)

CHORUS
GINGER. June fourteenth.

(Boyd and Ruth at rehearsal.)

BOYD. Come on!
RUTH. It’s just difficult to concentrate. All this …
BOYD. What are you feeling?
RUTH. Boyd, I’m so screwed up with what I’m feeling, I can’t get
in touch with myself at all. I’m feeling — I’ve never had a death in
my family, someone close, someone I really knew or worked with. I
miss him. Just the other day I was upset because our stupid cat had
killed a bird. Now that seems almost sacrilegious to — and —
(Indicating the script.) this! Is just so insignificant and pointless and
petty. We’re going to “put on a show.’’ You just want to laugh at the
inappropriate, self-serving, smallness of it.
BOYD. Seems like that sometimes, doesn’t it.
RUTH. And I keep thinking, I don’t know what, but
something’s not right. Walt was the most careful son of a bitch
with firearms I’d ever — I don’t see how he could — it’s just not
— well, something’s not right.
BOYD. It’s always hard to accept that someone’s really gone,
especially in an accident, something sudden.
RUTH. It’s not just that. And I mean I know nothing will bring
him back, but just to be working on something so — .
BOYD. No, Ruth, we don’t have the power to bring Walt back.
But the thing is, you do have the power to bring back George
Bernard Shaw. And you can bring back Joan of Arc. I know it’s just
two days after the funeral —
RUTH. Boyd, something’s not right.
BOYD. OK, something’s not right. I’ll be glad to discuss this
with you until the cows come home, outside of rehearsal, but we
have to keep on schedule or tech will be a nightmare.

CHORUS
GINGER. June sixteenth.

40
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 41

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

(Ruth comes from the theater. She is preoccupied and deeply

disturbed.)
LEN. Took the Chevy into the shop. Thought I’d hitch a ride
with you. How’d it go today?
RUTH. (Not hearing.) What go?
LEN. Rehearsal.
RUTH. Len, don’t ask every damn day how it’s — who knows?
We’re into the trial scene. The bastards forced Joan to recant. She
thought after that they’d let her go home. Then she finds out, even
after she’d recanted, they intended to hold her in a dungeon for
the rest of her life.
LEN. Who did?
RUTH. The Inquisitor, the Chaplain, the Church, Len. I
thought you read the damn play — (She breaks off. She’s thinking
over these quotes, not performing.) She says, I can live on bread and
clean water, when have I asked for more? But to shut me from the
light of the sky. (Pause.) You know, she says how can you shut me
away from all the simple things of life like — the fields, trees,
sunshine. And: Without these things I cannot live; and by your
wanting to take them away from me, or from any human creature,
I know that your counsel is of the devil, and that mine is of God.
(Pause.) She actually said that. Joan of Arc actually said that. She
called the Church the counsel of the devil. (Beat.) That sure
cooked her goose.
LEN. I’d guess it would.
RUTH. But the thing is, it hasn’t changed. In six hundred years!
They were just hiding behind dogma and power and
they still do. Refusing to hear or see anything other than their
blind … What’s different? (She falls into thinking. A pause.)
LEN. You want to drive? You want me to drive?
RUTH. What?
LEN. Where’s your mind, honey? What do you feel like having
for —
RUTH. (Overlapping him.) Len, damnit, not now. I’m not hungry.
I don’t give a damn what I eat. Go home, I’ll walk, forget it.
LEN. It’s more than two miles —
RUTH. I know the goddamn distance, damnit. Go on! (Ruth
leaves. LouAnn storms into James’ and Earl’s conversation.)

41
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 42

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

CHORUS
GINGER. June seventeenth. A Day of Reckoning.

LOUANN. (Angrily.) Hiding out in your office? This must be

special, I haven’t seen you in here in three months.
JAMES. LouAnn you know d-a-m-n well not to come in here
when I’m with someone.
LOUANN. You’ll enjoy this one, Earl, this is rich.
JAMES. We’re talking business here. There’s going to be some
swift changes made around here, sweetheart, you better hold onto
your panties.
LOUANN. Honey, you have no idea. I paid a visit to your
beautician girlfriend in Springfield this morning. You know her,
Earl? Cheap as shit —
JAMES. What the hell are you talking about?
LOUANN. — but I’ll bet she gives great head. You know her,
Earl?
EARL. I don’t know what you’re talking about, LouAnn.
JAMES. (Over.) You just get out of here with that talk.
LOUANN. Well, you should see her. You’d get a big kick out
of it. Cause she happens to be five months pregnant with James’ kid.
JAMES. LouAnn, I’ll hit you, I swear to God I will.
LOUANN. You will not ’cause I will sue you for every cent
you’ve got. What you have to know, Earl, if you boys don’t talk
about these things and you don’t already know it, is that James and
I have never once had sex without a condom since the day —
JAMES. Shut your filthy mouth —
LOUANN. — we were married four years ago, because James
doesn’t want children yet. Not by me. Not ones he’d have to take
responsibility for.
JAMES. Get out. Just get on out of here with that crap.
LOUANN. You think there’s going to be some swift changes?
Honey, you ain’t got no idea of the swift changes there’s gonna be
around here. (She storms out.)
JAMES. (Overlapping her.) And you can stay gone for all I care!
EARL. What’s going on, buddy?
JAMES. Earl, I’m in love for the first time in my life. It’s killing
me.

42
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 43

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

CHORUS
MARTHA. (More urgent.) June eighteenth. A Day of Discovery.

(Sheriff Atkins enters with Walt’s gun as Ruth, Len and Sharon enter.
James and Earl stay on watching, not in the scene. Boyd watches as
chorus.)
SHERIFF ATKINS. I knew James would want to have Walt’s
gun.
SHARON. I don’t want that stinking thing that killed my
husband ever in my sight again.
RUTH. Would you look at that gorgeous piece of hardware.
(Holding it.) Boy, that smell takes me back. Hoppe’s [Hoppies]
Number Nine Powder Solvent. Nothing else in the world smells
like that.
LEN. Don’t put that up to your face, Ruth, scare me to death.
RUTH. It’s not loaded, Len. Come on.
LEN. It still gives me the willies. Just put it down. (Beat.)
Honey? Honey …
RUTH. Conroy, have you done anything to this gun?
SHERIFF ATKINS. What do you mean?
RUTH. You didn’t clean it or anything like that?
SHERIFF ATKINS. No, ma’am. Didn’t want to handle it any
more than I had to, if you want to know.
RUTH. Smell the end of the barrel. Does that smell like a
stinking gun to you? (Sheriff Atkins holds the gun to his nose,
gingerly, smells. Looks at Ruth.)
SHARON. What?
RUTH. (Exasperated.) Walt’s gun has not been shot.

CHORUS
MARTHA. Cue lights.
BOYD. End of Act One.
EARL. (Turns to the audience.) Intermission. (Blackout.)

End of Act One

43
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 44

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

ACT TWO

CHORUS
BOYD. By now it’s mid-June. A Day of Redemption.

(The church congregation has been singing a hymn. They hum now as
Reverend Groves stands in the church’s baptismal. Earl takes off a robe
and, only in his undershorts, walks into the water.)
REVEREND GROVES. Upon your profession of faith in our
Lord Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Earl holds his nose and Reverend
Groves dunks him. Earl comes up sputtering, gasping for breath but
quickly calms, holds the Reverend a moment and ascends the stairs of
the baptismal. The congregation leaves. Sharon is with Martha, still
in the church.)
SHARON. — And I still keep seeing Walt. It’s the strangest
thing. My heart goes right into my mouth. It’s weird to get that
feeling you get when the elevator’s going down too fast, that
“whoa” you get in your stomach and chest. You know that?
MARTHA. The Ferris wheel goes over the top and starts down.
SHARON. It’s weird to get that feeling when you’re just
standing still on the ground. It’s never really Walt, I’m not
hallucinating; it’s just a big man in a nice suit, moving like the way
Walt moved. Assured and — and for a second my mind plays a
trick on me and I think there’s Walt and — “whoa.”
MARTHA. No, that’s pretty much like hallucinating.
SHARON. Well, you would know.
MARTHA. Yeah, trust me on that one, huh?
SHARON. Reverend Groves has been just such a — beacon.
He’s been by to sit with me almost every day. If he can’t come, he
always calls to ask how I am.
MARTHA. Sharon, I’ve got two words to say about that: “Rich
Widow.”
SHARON. Oh, good Lord. Why does everything have to be

44
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 45

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

base and vulgar with you? We talk and we pray together.

MARTHA. You scare me sometimes. That “beacon” of yours is
an important, young, good-looking part of a Big Ambitious
Church. With very wide arms, very big ideas, and quite a churning
political agenda. And that’s a furnace that’s gonna need a powerful
lot of stoking.
SHARON. I know it will. I am rich. It’s almost disgusting. I
knew we had money, but I had no idea what things were worth.
Did you know that boat of Walt’s cost almost a million dollars?
MARTHA. The price tag is just the beginning. And he always
wanted the best.
SHARON. Well, it surprised the heck out of me. (They leave as
Reverend Groves joins LouAnn.)
REVEREND GROVES. LouAnn, I don’t know what you want.
LOUANN. I want my lawfully wedded husband, James, to
stand in this chapel where we were married and say before Christ
and our congregation that he’s been unfaithful to me with Heather
Raulston in Springfield. And I want him to say to me and to
Christ and to our congregation that he is sorry for it. And to
solemnly promise he will not see her again. Before God. That’s
what I want.
REVEREND GROVES. Louann, I don’t know what you’ve
heard. But I’m sure that’s not true. You can’t ask a man publicly to
destroy his reputation.
LOUANN. I want him to save it, you hypocrite!
REVEREND GROVES. I can’t help you if you’re going to be
hysterical, LouAnn. You’d better think what you’re saying —
LOUANN. — You darn right I’m hysterical.
REVEREND GROVES. I’ll talk to him and see what this is all
about. Don’t you think that would be a better solution?
LOUANN. No, Reverend, I think that sucks. You talk to him
every day. (Crossed fingers.) You two are like that. And you don’t
know or you refuse to believe one thing about him.
REVEREND GROVES. Well, sucks or not, that’s the way it’s
going to be.
LOUANN. Why? Why won’t you —
REVEREND GROVES. — Even if what you say were true,
you’re not thinking of the pain you’ll cause his mother. Sharon

45
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 46

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

Bates has lost her husband, now, on the basis of some rumor, you
want to take away her only son.
LOUANN. It’s not some rumor. I’ve met her.
REVEREND GROVES. I won’t have you stand in front of this
congregation and humiliate yourself like that.
LOUANN. You’re not hearing what I’m saying.
REVEREND GROVES. You go home to your husband now,
LouAnn.
LOUANN. My husband isn’t at home. He hasn’t been home in
a week. He’s living adulterously with Heather Raulston who is
pregnant with his child.
REVEREND GROVES. Louann, if a woman tries to defame a
man I know to be good — be it either as a part of someone’s
political agenda, or her own —
LOUANN. — You are making no sense at all —
REVEREND GROVES. (Plowing over her.) Or for whatever
money she thinks she can get from her slander — then that
woman will be subjected to the swiftest force of the law. I can
guarantee you that.
LOUANN. Are you mad? Are you drunk? What good would —
REVEREND GROVES. You and James have suffered a terrible
tragedy. The whole town suffers with you for your loss. For all our
loss.
LOUANN. Are you talking about Walt? Walt didn’t give a damn
for me, or for James for that matter.
REVEREND GROVES. You go home and think about this
conversation. Ask for God’s guidance. He’s always there for you,
LouAnn. And you think about how you can be a better partner to
your husband. (Reverend Groves leaves. Ruth enters. The
conversation is continuous but in another place.)
LOUANN. That man is crazy as a bug.
RUTH. That man is a real sweet cookie, LouAnn.
LOUANN. He talks in circles.
RUTH. Oh, yeah. (As the others enter.)
LOUANN. Oh, shh. Don’t say anything in front of everybody.
(LouAnn leaves as Len, Earl and Sharon join Ruth.)

46
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 47

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

CHORUS
MARTHA. Remember this.
BOYD. June eighteenth.

(Sheriff Atkins enters carrying Walt’s shotgun.)

SHERIFF ATKINS. I knew James would want to have this.
RUTH. (Admiring.) Lordy, lordy. Would you look at that
gorgeous piece of hardware. Boy, Walt always had the best, didn’t
he? (Handing it to Len, who holds it awkwardly.) Feel that.
LEN. What am I supposed to be feeling? Is this the best? (Ruth
takes the gun back, turning it in her hands; handling it expertly,
checks for load, sights it.)
RUTH. Close enough. Custom-made J. Purdey & Sons, British
side-by-side. Engraved full sidelock. A gun like this sets you back
who knows — thirty to probably fifty thousand bucks.
LEN. You’re joking. For a shotgun? Ruth’s dad was a collector so
she knows.
SHERIFF ATKINS. I’m pretty good with a rifle. Shotguns I’ve
never really known that much about.
SHARON. I know I don’t want that stinking thing in my sight
ever again.
RUTH. “Stinking” is very subjective when it comes to real quality
firearms, Sharon. Boy, that smell takes me back. I’ve got to call Dad,
I haven’t talked to them in over a week. Hoppe’s Number Nine
Powder Solvent. Nothing else in the world smells like that.
LEN. Don’t put that up to your face, Ruth, scare me to death.
RUTH. It’s not loaded, Len. Come on.
LEN. It still gives me the willies. Just put it down. (Beat.) Honey?
(She is in a thinking trance, frowning. They look at her.) Honey? …
That’s what she’s been like for three weeks. You say something to her
and she’s Saint Joan, off being burned at the stake.
RUTH. (Autopilot, not thinking.) The execution happens
offstage. You know that. (Beat.) Conroy, have you done anything
to this gun?
SHERIFF ATKINS. What do you mean?
RUTH. You didn’t clean it or anything like that?
SHERIFF ATKINS. No, ma’am. Didn’t want to handle it any
more than I had to, if you want to know.

47
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 48

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

RUTH. Smell the end of the barrel. Does that smell like a
stinking gun to you? (He does, gingerly. Looks at her.)
SHARON. What?
RUTH. (Exasperated.) Walt’s gun has not been shot.
SHARON. I imagine with all that rain ...
RUTH. Water doesn’t wash away the smell of gunpowder,
Sharon.
SHERIFF ATKINS. No, it don’t. (Sharon leaves. Earl joins
Sheriff Atkins in a different place. Len, Ruth and the others look on.)
EARL. (Perfectly earnest and truthful.) Could have happened any
number of ways. Dark as it was, he could have got my gun by
mistake.
RUTH. Walt’d know with his eyes closed. Weight, feel, you
couldn’t possibly mistake those two guns.
EARL. I don’t even remember having my gun, what I did with
it. I just threw myself down on the ground like he said and prayed.
I could have thrown it anywhere.
SHERIFF ATKINS. Your gun’s been fired, Walt’s hasn’t.
EARL. I know, Conroy. I don’t even want to think about it.
How something like that could happen.
SHERIFF ATKINS. If he threw it down, it could have
discharged when it hit the ground.
RUTH. Very unlikely.
LOUANN. With the noise of the storm he might not have even
heard it.
EARL. No, I heard it. I’ll hear that shot for the rest of my time
on earth. I can’t think about it. Please. That night was the end of
my — life. I began an entirely different life that next morning.
SHERIFF ATKINS. I think we all did, Earl.
RUTH. Walt didn’t.

CHORUS
MARTHA. (Listening.) Listen.
JAMES. Silence. (Beat.)
GINGER. Silence. (Beat. Then a distant gunshot. Earl and Sheriff
Atkins walk off.)

LEN. Honey? … What are you thinking?

48
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 49

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

RUTH. I’m thinking, If a tree falls in the middle of a tornado

and there’s only one asshole there to hear it, does it make a noise?
(Reverend Groves and Boyd are at the end of a one-on-one basketball
game. Boyd quite out of shape and winded, Reverend Groves not even
breaking a sweat.)
BOYD. Uncle.

CHORUS
MARTHA. July first. A Day of Reasoning.

(Reverend Groves and Boyd enter a locker room. During the scene,
Reverend Groves will slowly change from his basketball clothes to a full
dress suit and tie.)
REVEREND GROVES. I’ve read a lot of Shaw, and a lot about
him. Most of the plays and prefaces, at least.
BOYD. You’ve got me beat.
REVEREND GROVES. His music criticism’s phenomenal. All
the essays justifying his Socialist and atheist beliefs are a different
story.
BOYD. I’m surprised you’d read something your church
discourages.
REVEREND GROVES. We’re encouraged to be fully acquainted
with the scope of the task. Ginger Reed asked if I knew Saint Joan,
and I said I had read it. But to refresh my memory, I went back to
the text …
BOYD. And discovered the play is anti-church.
REVEREND GROVES. Pretty nearly. I have no interest in the
Catholic doctrine. Normally I wouldn’t pay much attention to
those boys. Shaw would be interested in Joan’s story because he
could use it to underline his thesis of the corrupting power of
stultified thinking.
BOYD. I think he was impatient with any bureaucracy.
REVEREND GROVES. (Takes note, smiles, lets it pass.) I can’t
decide if Joan was just incredibly stubborn or mad as a hatter.
BOYD. Damn stubborn. Perfectly sane.
REVEREND GROVES. You don’t think maybe she was a
couple short of a six-pack? Hearing voices? I know that —
BOYD. — Reverend. I’m surprised at you. The Bible is

49
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 50

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

chockablock with people hearing voices, seeing angels.

Extraordinary people get extraordinary ideas. Ideas must hit them
like a thunderbolt. I know of any number of people who’ve heard
the voice of God or some saint or member of the family who’s
been dead for years. I’ve thought I heard my mother speak to me
several times. If an idea happens to occur to someone as a voice,
who’s to say it isn’t just as likely a sign of genius as a sign of
insanity.
REVEREND GROVES. Joan’s voices were entirely different,
and I’ve always thought very suspect. They sent her out three
separate times alone on stupid skirmishes. Gilles de Rais had to
ride out after her and save her butt. And Gilles de Rais!
“Bluebeard” in your play. His beard wasn’t blue by the way, but it
must be effective on stage.
BOYD. Should play like a house afire. I was waiting for you to
hit on Gilles —
REVEREND GROVES. — Just that she’d be comrades, with
someone so monstrous. Saint Joan and the bloodiest child
murderer in history?
BOYD. That was later, after his father died.
REVEREND GROVES. Grandfather.
BOYD. Right.
REVEREND GROVES. It was only two years after Joan that he
started sexually assaulting and slaughtering young boys from all
over the —
BOYD. — I can’t get into it. It has nothing to do with what
we’re doing. And don’t tell Ruth. You’ll screw her up completely.
She has to think of Bluebeard as her defender, not some monster.
She can’t —
REVEREND GROVES. She had no defenders! Where were
they after her capture? Who spoke for her? Bluebeard didn’t. The
king didn’t.
BOYD. I know. Where were they? That’s more bothersome than
anything in her whole history —
REVEREND GROVES. She was a wild hare, she couldn’t be
trusted to listen to the commanders. She wanted to fight, they
wanted to sign a treaty, go home and be shut of her. The French have
never been fighters. Shaw says nothing about their betrayal of —

50
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 51

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

BOYD. Shaw’s play is a play, it’s fiction, it’s …

REVEREND GROVES. Socialist, anti-church propaganda.
BOYD. It’s a damn good show. Aren’t you going to shower?
REVEREND GROVES. No, I didn’t really work up a sweat.
BOYD. Thanks!
REVEREND GROVES. I have a meeting in 15 minutes. I don’t
understand the Epilogue. They burn her at the stake and then they
all come back five hundred years later and say, Oh, golly, they’ve
just made you a saint, and I didn’t do too badly as King and the
Executioner says, I was really sorry to light that fire under your
tail, but now we’ll all live happily ever after. You’d think the writer
would end with the execution.
BOYD. Not Shaw’s style.
REVEREND GROVES. Joan had already made the Church
look like idiots — What did she gain, in the end?
BOYD. France as a nation. She gained, eventually, the
unification of France.
REVEREND GROVES. Even her voices abandoned her when
she was captured. The voices of the Catholics’ Saint Catherine and
Saint Michael, essentially the voice of God she thought, deserted
her. No. I’m sorry. God doesn’t behave like that.
BOYD. Oh, good lord. God behaves like the most appalling
bully I’ve ever heard of. Maybe He needed a martyr that day.
REVEREND GROVES. So that six hundred years later the
Catholics could decide that denying the Church’s authority was
perfectly all right and canonize her.
BOYD. Well, as you say, there’s no accounting for the Catholics.
One era’s witch is another’s saint. Actually you’ve been a great help
with the voices. Ginger says in your church people often speak in
“tongues.” That’s been helpful in justifying —
REVEREND GROVES. — They might be inspired by God to
speak in tongues. Another member of the congregation might
interpret those tongues. That’s not claiming to hear the actual
voice of God.
BOYD. In any case, it’s been helpful to —
REVEREND GROVES. I was thinking. We’re a religious
community. An ordinary, God-fearing, church-going people.
Every community has its own standard of morality; we have ours.

51
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 52

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

And one of the basic tenets of our morality is pro-church

authority. An entertainment that’s anti-church, as you
acknowledge Saint Joan is — flies in the face of all we hold dear
and important and — (Laughing.) I’m trying not to say
“fundamental.”
BOYD. Good. You mean we might actually offend someone? It
hadn’t even occurred to me.
REVEREND GROVES. You’d enjoy that, of course. It is kind
of fun to slap a few behinds once in a while. And with state money.
I was reading the program the theater puts out. You’re at least
partially supported by the Missouri Arts Council. So essentially
this operation is funded by state tax money.
BOYD. Possibly it is, I know nothing about it.
REVEREND GROVES. (Abrupt switch.) You know the
Internet is a marvelously useful tool.
BOYD. What?
REVEREND GROVES. The Internet.
BOYD. Oh. Probably so, I’m completely computer illiterate.
REVEREND GROVES. I was able to call up two separate
translations of Joan’s trial. Shaw condensed it considerably, but his
version is basically fair.
BOYD. I’m glad to hear it.
REVEREND GROVES. You can call up anything. The voting
records of every state senator or representative. Or national
congressman —
BOYD. Very useful to your church, I’m sure.
REVEREND GROVES. (A glance at Boyd.) You better believe
it. The botanical name of almost any plant. The newspaper stacks,
back files, of the Los Angeles Times. Anything.
BOYD. (Beat.) That must have been fun.
REVEREND GROVES. Everyone knows everything about
everybody around here. Someone new shows up, we’re naturally
curious. I assume you settled the tax fraud thing. There wasn’t
much mention after the initial brouhaha.
BOYD. Not “fraud,” just stupid back-taxes and fines and
penalties and interest. The usual IRS fascism. I wish the papers
had said “fraud” I could have sued them for enough money to pay
the damn fines instead of having to sell my house.

52
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 53

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

REVEREND GROVES. Ouch. And what about the statutory

rape and sodomy charges? Why were they dropped so
precipitously?
BOYD. (A long wait.) Insufficient evidence. The girl was a
minor but also a prostitute.
REVEREND GROVES. Fifteen?
BOYD. Sixteen. Looked thirty. You have parishioners who
marry by that age.
REVEREND GROVES. Marriage is a very different thing from
forced sodomy in the back seat of a car.
BOYD. Not forced. And front seat. Very awkward.
REVEREND GROVES. I’d imagine so. Then you’re in no
trouble now over any of this —
BOYD. Not at all.
REVEREND GROVES. Lousy business.
BOYD. Oh, yeah. So, what? You going to picket the play?
REVEREND GROVES. (Laughs.) — No, I’m afraid they tried
that in Springfield with an AIDS play, actually tried to close it,
and were made to look pretty much like fools. Just playing into the
hands of the enemy.
BOYD. Not “enemy” surely.
REVEREND GROVES. Hard to say sometimes, isn’t it? “God
behaves like the most appalling bully I’ve ever heard of.” I may
have to steal that. (Reverend Groves leaves.)
BOYD. What the hell is that prick’s problem? It’s George
Bernard Shaw for God’s sake. Nobody is offended by George
Bernard Shaw. It’s George Bernard Shaw. (Boyd storms off. Martha,
Len and Ruth continue the scene. Ruth’s hair has been cut short, in a
boy’s style.)
MARTHA. I’m not surprised, honey. When I was talking to
high school students here about the importance of ratifying the
ERA, one of the church deacons threatened to tell the chancellor
of my college I had once been arrested for drug possession.
RUTH. Good God.
LEN. You never told me that.
RUTH. So what? Everyone in town knows you were wild and
crazy.
MARTHA. Everyone in this town. The chancellor’s never been

53
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 54

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

to Dublin. He lives outside Springfield in a private compound.

The man owns a chain of Christian newspapers. Prints Bibles.
We’re talking a first-class, card-carrying, sanctimonious ass.
LEN. And you weren’t, were you? Arrested?
MARTHA. That’s the sweet point, darlin’. It doesn’t matter. The
least whiff of any infraction. And drugs? Forget it. End of game.
RUTH. And you stopped? Talking about the ERA? I don’t
believe it.
MARTHA. I didn’t exactly stop, I just changed my modus
operandi. For all the damn good it did, huh? And no, Len, I wasn’t
arrested. Exactly. I was strip-searched once, that was fun. (Martha
leaves. They smile as she leaves.)
LEN. First preview tomorrow night. Seems like Boyd just got to
town.
RUTH. Does it? I feel like I’ve been working on this all my life.
LEN. I love your haircut.
RUTH. I can’t look in the mirror. I don’t believe I’m saying it,
but I think we need the audience.
LEN. I’m still forbidden from seeing it?
RUTH. I’d break both your legs. Give it a least a week. Give it
two.
LEN. Not possible. One week.
RUTH. I’m not kidding. (Ruth leaves. As James walks on,
Reverend Groves passes him.)
JAMES. Bobby, I don’t know if you know what’s been going on
with me.
REVEREND GROVES. How can I help?
JAMES. We need to talk.
REVEREND GROVES. I hope to God this has nothing to do
with what LouAnn was talking to me about.
JAMES. We have to talk.
REVEREND GROVES. I’m there for you any time, James.
JAMES. I know, Bobby. I’ll come by. (Reverend Groves walks off.
James turns to Len as Earl joins them.)
JAMES. (To Len.) I’ve been going over Ruth’s books.
LEN. Good to have you down here. Everything in order?
JAMES. No, I wouldn’t say that. Earl, everything seem in any
kind of order to you?

54
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 55

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

EARL. Totally Mickey Mouse far as I’m concerned but it’s not
my call.
JAMES. Looks like your two years of management, cutting back
ten percent the first year, more than twelve the second, all told, has
cost us about a quarter of a million dollars. That’s volume, that’s
not the extra storage barn, refrigeration shed, manpower,
equipment.
LEN. Figure roughly four hundred thousand.
JAMES. Got a buyer for the provolone?
LEN. Your dad was working on it. He knew all the distributors.
I’ve been looking through his notes.
JAMES. So, “No.”
LEN. The first year of provolone will be sold within the month.
JAMES. I hate cheese. It makes me sick even to come down here
with that smell in my face again.
LEN. If we put another ten percent into the cheddar, we already
have a good two-year-old, we could start distribution in a year. If
we hold back the three-year-old two more years, I think we’re
going to have the best aged cheddar America’s ever produced. You
can not rush it, James. Walt was in this for the long haul. You
change horses now, you’re just throwing it out the window.
(Nervous.) That sounds like you’re throwing the horse out the
window. It’s a process that has to run its course.
JAMES. It’s just not your call anymore, Len.
LEN. I know that.
JAMES. You know that? I’m glad to hear it.
LEN. It’s Sharon’s call.
JAMES. What the H-E-double-L does Mother know about it?
LEN. She’ll say, If Walt had a dream, she will damn well want to
see it happen.
JAMES. Kraft can take the whole load off my hands. They’ll
take the provolone and the cheddar, I can cut at least some of my
losses.
LEN. They’d take it and turn it right into their vats — the whole
two years would be lost.
JAMES. Saved. At least part of it.
LEN. James, your dad was in this for the money. I’ll run the
numbers for you. Your profits will be thirty percent more, likely more

55
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 56

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

than that. I’ll get a buyer, we’ll get a contract, it’ll be solid as —
JAMES. I’m not interested in the long haul, Len. I’m not going
to be here. I want this settled and running like it was. I’m not
interested in your gourmet, artisan cheeses or the subtle art of
aging. I got no time for it. I got too many other things to think
about here. (Earl and Len leave in opposite directions. James stands a
moment, Reverend Groves joins him. They kneel together, eyes closed.
It has grown dark.)
REVEREND GROVES. Lord, you know our hearts, you know
of James’ desire to walk in the path of righteousness. And we know
You understand the weakness of mortal men. Lord God our Father
who made us and knows our failings, look upon your son, James,
and help him to find Your strength and a clarity of purpose. Guide
him through this difficult time, Lord. Speak to his troubled and
confused mind. Lord, we pray to You, give us the wisdom, if we
have strayed from Your teaching, to set ourselves right again on
Your path. We ask Your blessing, in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
JAMES. Amen. (After a moment the men get up and walk out.
Ruth enters, going to Len.)
RUTH. Oh, God.

CHORUS
BOYD. The Day of the First Performance.

LEN. What, honey?

RUTH. Oh, God. I had no idea. I can’t do this! Fuck this, man.
LEN. How did it go? The show? How was the audience?
RUTH. What? Oh, I don’t know. They screamed and yelled.
Mostly college kids from Springfield, I think. Some professor
brought his whole damn drama department to the first preview.
They almost wouldn’t leave the theater. Boyd was ecstatic.
LEN. Did they think you did good?
RUTH. I can’t do that. What? Oh, yes, they cried and touched
me and carried on. Rehearsals didn’t tell me what it was going to
be — those judges are so — fixed. It doesn’t matter what I say, they
only have their law or career, there’s no talking to them. I couldn’t
reach them at all. They’re just so fixed! Intractable. They wouldn’t

56
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 57

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

listen to me. Deliberately trapping me, saying things they knew

perfectly well how I had to answer them before they asked me.
LEN. “Joan” couldn’t reach them you’re saying.
RUTH. Well, it’s always been Joan, but it wasn’t Joan tonight. It
was me. And those bastards just hewed to their straight and
narrow ...
LEN. (Beat.) Honey. They toasted her. It’s what they brought
her there to do — and they did it. (A pause. Ruth starts off.) You
were wonderful. I didn’t know you. You were amazing.
RUTH. You were there?
LEN. Of course I was there.
RUTH. You lying cad. You’re no better than the rest of them.
LEN. I wouldn’t have told you if it turned out the show wasn’t
any good or you forgot your words or, you know, tripped over
your sword or something.
RUTH. I threw up. Twice.
LEN. Well, I’m sorry, honey, but at least you did it offstage.
RUTH. Ginger asked if I was all right, I told her to go fuck
herself. Nothing mattered except getting that effete dauphin
crowned in Rheims. Driving the English out of France. Making
the Church Militant believe me. Believe in me. (Pause. Deep sigh.
Exhausted.) I was OK; it’ll get better.
LEN. They’re not going to listen to you tomorrow night either,
honey.
RUTH. Maybe they will if I do it right. I could never really be
Joan.
LEN. What do you mean?
RUTH. I’d rather burn at the stake myself than know I’d been
responsible for even one person’s death.
LEN. The thought of food now will either make you violently
sick or else you’re starving.
RUTH. (Thinks a moment.) I’m starving.
LEN. (Starts to go.) Good.
RUTH. You know what Earl’s doing?
LEN. Yeah, he’s out to get my job.
RUTH. I went down to the duck blind where Walt was shot.
Earl —
LEN. — Why did you go down there?

57
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 58

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

RUTH. Because something’s not right, Len! How many times

do I have to say it?
LEN. I know, honey, but … (Len leaves as Earl enters. He has a
loud chain saw. Ruth stands watching him a moment. He senses her,
turns off the saw, turns around, takes off his goggles. There is an
underlying tension.)
EARL. What are you doing down here, Ruth?
RUTH. I wanted to see where it happened. What are you up to?
EARL. Clearing up.
RUTH. Clearing up what?
EARL. Storm took out a lot of trees. Cutting them up for
firewood this winter. Cleaning up some of the brush, debris.
RUTH. Where’s the tree that hit Walt?
EARL. (Pointing behind him.) See that stack of wood.
RUTH. What happened, exactly, Earl? (Pause. He stares at her.)
Walt was an awfully arrogant man, wasn’t he? Lording it over the
whole town in that casual way he had. Made it look like he was
important and nobody else was, and there wasn’t a damn thing he
could do about it. That’s just the way things were. One thing good
I can say about him is he was about the most law-abiding citizen
I’ve ever known.
EARL. He was that.
RUTH. Working the books for somebody you get to know
them pretty well. Boy, he stuck to the letter of the law like nobody
I know. Every penny owed the government had to be accounted
for. One time we went to Springfield, he drove around the block
fifteen minutes, waiting for it to be six o’clock so the parking space
would be legal. You ever hear of anyone that obsessed with
obeying the letter of law?
EARL. (Beat.) Can’t say I have.
RUTH. (Pause. Looks around.) You came down here on the
seventh of June. Wasn’t it? That night? (He just looks at her. She
looks out over the lake.) It’s not just that there aren’t any ducks out
on the lake. There never are many more than one or two strays in
June, July. The important thing for Walt would be more like …
(No way to avoid it.) When does duck season start, Earl? When is
it legal to go duck hunting? (No answer.) First Friday in October.
Isn’t it?

58
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 59

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

EARL. (He stares at her.) Have you given your soul to Christ,
Ruth? (She stares at him.) You drive on back down to town now.
(He puts his goggles back on and walks off. Ruth leaves.)

CHORUS
MARTHA. July thirteenth. A Day of Departure.

(Sheriff Atkins has been waiting for Boyd.)

SHERIFF ATKINS. Mr. Middleton.
BOYD. Yes, sir. Sheriff — Atkins?
SHERIFF ATKINS. That’s correct. Seems a number of people
in town are more than a little concerned about something.
BOYD. And how can I help?
SHERIFF ATKINS. You ever heard of Megan’s Law?
BOYD. Uh … I’m not really sure what you mean.
SHERIFF ATKINS. My department is required by law to report
the presence of a known child sex-offender when he relocates into
the community, sir.
BOYD. Convicted sex offender, I believe. Which wouldn’t apply
to anyone in the community as far as I’m aware.
SHERIFF ATKINS. I’ve wired the police department in Los
Angeles, I’m waiting for their answer.
BOYD. I don’t imagine I’ll still be here by the time you hear
from them. I’m all finished here, but I’ll be sure they contact you.
Someone has been giving you bad information, Sheriff.
SHERIFF ATKINS. You have a nice trip, then.
BOYD. I’ve nothing to hide. You have a good day.
SHERIFF ATKINS. You understand, I have children of my
own. (Sheriff Atkins leaves.)
BOYD. (To the audience.) I’d rather not entertain that thought.
Christ! (Reverend Groves is with LouAnn.)
REVEREND GROVES. LouAnn, we have to have a talk. I owe
you an apology. I honestly didn’t believe your story of James’
infidelity. James and I have sat long hours together over this. He
feels terrible, and he knows he’s wronged you. James’ been willful
and headstrong. He’s done a lot of hurtful things. He’s betrayed his
pledge to the Church, his pledge to you and his pledge to himself.
To his own honor. (To off.) James, would you come in here with

59
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 60

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

us. (James enters, quietly, looking down.) He’s always been

headstrong and willful. But he tells me he’s grown and I believe
him. He’s grown wiser and stronger. He’s grown to know his own
heart; which is all any man can hope for. James realizes the life’s
companion with whom he can live in honor and raise a family.
With whom he can become a strong and important part of this
community. He has a lot of regrets, I know. (To James, who is near
tears and does not respond.) It’s right to say that? I think most
importantly is the hurt he’s caused you. But James has known for
a long time, that his life was headed in the wrong direction. That
the only honorable thing he could do would be to stop now and
begin to do what he knows to be right in God’s eyes. In many
ways, as you know, your marriage to James was never really
consummated. Not in God’s eyes. James is going to set things in
motion for an annulment of your marriage. He feels, and I must
agree with him, that that’s the only fair and honest way to go on
this. (Silence.)
LOUANN. (Quiet but firm.) I’m gonna talk to a lawyer.
(Reverend Groves and James leave. On their way out, Reverend Groves
stops James a moment.)
REVEREND GROVES. I mean it, buddy. You’re going to keep
your promise to me and to the Church and to that woman in
Springfield. And you will keep your wissle to yourself or I’m finished
with you. (LouAnn may sit, as though hearing this all over town.)
GINGER. He might as well be telling that to my horny little
bulldog. All either one of them knows is chasing tail.
RUTH. (Ironic.) Come on. That cute little beautician is gonna
raise him a family. Be on the podium with him and all their little
rats when he runs for the state senate and then to represent us in
Washington. You know love changes everything.
GINGER. Yeah, sure. Love is something that makes you feel
really good all over for about six weeks.
RUTH. Boyd went back to L.A.?
GINGER. Many tears. Mine. Many promises. His. Said he’d
call. Told me I should change my name. Said “Ginger Reed”
sounded like a stripper. What do you think? (Ruth is staring off in
space.) Honey! Where are you? You’re off on Earl again.
RUTH. (Musing.) I think: The problem with a guy telling lies is

60
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 61

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

it’s so much fun. You get going and you think it’s all sounding so
good, you can’t stop yourself. (Sharon joins them.)
SHARON. I’d have thought Len would already have a thermos.
But if you want picnic stuff, I have a basket set-up we got from the
Hammacher Schlemmer catalog, years ago —
GINGER. I don’t know that — “Hammach” —
SHARON. Hammacher Schlemmer.
RUTH. (Impatient.) Ginger.
SHARON. They have wonderful stuff. Mostly imported. Fine
linens, china, just everything. Expensive, but just the finest —
RUTH. — And the picnic basket?
SHARON. You’ll love it. It has bone-handled flatware, service
for six. Plates, cups, glasses, napkins, I think there’s even napkin
rings. We took it on our vacation. We sat on the very rim of the
Grand Canyon with a tablecloth spread out and had a regular —
RUTH. — That sounds wonderful. And that’s the only thermos
you have?
SHARON. (Snapping; annoyed with being cut off.) We used to
have a two gallon thing. I gave it to the church.
GINGER. We were remembering Earl said that awful morning
that Walt had a thermos of coffee made when he —
SHARON. — Oh, honey, he had to be thinking of somebody
else, some other time.

CHORUS
BOYD. (Quietly, looking on.) The trouble with lying …

SHARON. God knows you can’t blame Earl for being confused
about that night —
GINGER. Not at all.
SHARON. — Walt make coffee? I know a lot of husbands do.
They get up in the morning and have the coffee all ready. But we’re
talking Walt. He hasn’t been able to drink coffee in years. And, I’m
sorry, if he’s not going to make coffee for himself, he’s not going to
make it for anybody else.
GINGER. But —
RUTH. (Rather cagey.) Earl was thinking of some other time.
(As though thinking about it.) God. What time did they go out

61
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 62

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

there? Did you hear them leave?

SHARON. I didn’t hear anything that night but that horrible
storm and that dreadful siren.
GINGER. You didn’t hear him get up?
SHARON. Walt’s room is all the way down the hall.
RUTH. Did he sleep in his bed? That night?
SHARON. Why? If you want to know, I don’t want to think
about any of that.
GINGER. We’re just trying to understand.
SHARON. (A little worked up.) Well, if you understand any of
it, you be sure to tell me. Because I’d very much like to —
RUTH. — Sharon, did he sleep in his damn bed that night?
SHARON. (Nearly insulted.) I don’t have any idea.
RUTH. What time did you turn in?
SHARON. Why? I’ve told you I don’t want to — (Thinks a
moment.) I went to Prayer Meeting. I don’t know when Walt went
to bed.
RUTH. The next time you went into his room, the next day,
whenever it was. Was the bed made?
SHARON. (Thinks a moment.) Yes. He hadn’t slept in his bed.
(Sharon leaves.)
RUTH. (With Ginger.) They didn’t go out that night at all. In
the middle of that storm? They went out the afternoon before, or
early evening before the storm even got here. (Ginger is replaced by
Sheriff Atkins.)
SHERIFF ATKINS. For what?
RUTH. I don’t know, Conroy, but they sure as hell didn’t go
out to hunt — unless they wanted to shoot squirrel or bullfrog.
Because that’s what’s in season the first week of June. And that’s
all that’s in —
SHERIFF ATKINS. Walt maybe thought he’d see a turkey; you
don’t know what —
RUTH. Walt wouldn’t shoot a turkey out of season, even on his
own land. The spring season on turkey is the last two weeks in
April. You’re supposed to know this shit, Conroy.
SHERIFF ATKINS. You don’t go to a duck blind to shoot
squirrel, Ruth.
RUTH. I realize that. But it’s easy enough to bang someone over

62
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 63

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

the head with a two-by-four and take them any damn place you
want —
SHERIFF ATKINS. — Whoa, now. Just stop right there.
RUTH. Conroy, think.
SHERIFF ATKINS. I know, Ruth, exactly what you’re doing.
You’re trying to make it out that this wasn’t an accident. Only can
you tell me one reason on this earth for it to be anything other?
RUTH. Well, I’m not very imaginative, Conroy. My mind just
jumps right to the obvious. How does thirty-six thousand dollars
a year sound?
SHERIFF ATKINS. What do you mean?
RUTH. I mean thirty-six thousand dollars a year. I mean Earl
convinces James the cheese plant should be run a different way.
The only thing standing in Earl’s way is Walt, who is behind what
Len’s doing down there. Len makes seventy-seven thousand dollars
a year as manager. Earl is making forty-one thousand. That’s a
thirty-six thousand dollar raise —
SHERIFF ATKINS. — OK, I see now what’s happening. I
thought your artistic temperament was getting the best of you.
You’re afraid Len’s gonna lose his job.
RUTH. That’s got nothing to do with it. Damnit, Conroy.
SHERIFF ATKINS. I don’t want you saying one word of this,
missy. To anybody. Not one word of this craziness or you’re the
one who’s going to be in hot water here.
RUTH. Will you look into it?
SHERIFF ATKINS. What is there — ? Yes, OK, I’ll look into it.
RUTH. He won’t.
SHERIFF ATKINS. Of course I won’t.
RUTH. He thinks I’m crazy. Or greedy.
GINGER. Or both.
SHERIFF ATKINS. (To the audience.) What’s that gonna look
like? It’s clear what’s happening here; and I’m not gonna get myself
involved in some office politics down there. She’s in that play, she
picks up vibes, gets her nerves up, she thinks everyone is trying to
persecute her, she sees enemies and schemes everywhere she looks.
(Starts to leave. Afterthought.) Len Hoch is pulling in seventy-seven
thousand dollars? Shit. I knew Walt paid his help good, but, shit.

63
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 64

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

CHORUS
BOYD. (Announcing the scene.) Family Values.
GINGER. The young politician at home.

(James and Sharon mid-scene.)

JAMES. I just. I don’t want you worrying. You should be free of
all that. Look at you. You’re a good-looking woman.
SHARON. What do you mean by that?
JAMES. Life isn’t over at fifty-two, Mom. Go out. When’s the
last time you had any fun in your —
SHARON. (Slaps him hard.) You shut your mouth. Everybody
doesn’t lead a filthy life like you. You humiliate yourself if you
want but don’t you expect me to humiliate myself.
JAMES. I meant, go out with the girls! And you’ve got your
work. You’ve got responsibilities to the community. You’re an
important part of everything we’re trying to do in this state. You’ve
got to take your position in this seriously. Dad didn’t. He never
even went to church services. He’d hire anybody, he didn’t care if
they were church or not. He didn’t care what we wanted. I don’t
know he even knew what we wanted. I’ve played eighteen holes of
golf with him not saying more than ten words to me.
SHARON. He was tough, I know. He was proud.
JAMES. Not of me he wasn’t. He was proud of me for the last
two seconds of a basketball game sixteen years ago because it made
him look like a big shot. At least you and I were close. That’s what
family was for me. I couldn’t have done anything without knowing
I had you behind me.
SHARON. You were always so bright. I knew that before you
could walk. That you were going to make something of yourself.
You just saw things other kids didn’t see. Noticed things. If you
wanted something, you always found a way to get it.
JAMES. Yeah, yeah, but — boy. Dad’s shoes.

CHORUS
MARTHA. (Watching, quietly.) There are screws and then there
are screws.

64
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 65

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

JAMES. He left awful big footprints.

SHARON. What, Jimmy? You’re afraid you’re not going to stack
up? Don’t be foolish.
JAMES. I don’t want to take on more than we know I can
handle. You think I can do this? Be a deacon in the church, be a
decent representative in Jefferson City, oversee the plant, keep that
working right? And first, after God, take proper care of Heather,
love and protect her and my little daughter? That’s a big load to —
SHARON. (Surprised.) Who said anything about a daughter?
You didn’t say it was going to be a girl. You know that for sure?
JAMES. Heather had a — whatever those things are called.

CHORUS
MARTHA. Sonogram.

JAMES. — It’s definitely a girl. Does that meet with your

approval? Or are you gonna be mad at me for that too?
SHARON. Oh, my God. You know I’ve always wanted a girl.
Oh, James, that’s wonderful. You’re absolutely sure? Can I tell
people?
JAMES. No, now. That’s just between us. You know this town.
There’re people who think it isn’t Christian to even know ahead of
time what it’s gonna be.
SHARON. James, now, you look at me. Of course you can do
those things. And you can do them right. I’ve always told you, you
can be anything you want —
JAMES. I know —
SHARON. — but before you do anything else you have to clean
up this mess you’ve made and get yourself legally married.
JAMES. I know.
SHARON. And you have to do right by LouAnn. If she wants
that house you were living in, then whatever she wants.
JAMES. I know.
SHARON. I want a granddaughter of mine to be able to hold
her head up when you come to Dublin. And you stop worrying
about me. I’m always there for you. (They leave. Martha, LouAnn
and Ginger have been looking on.)
MARTHA. You are going to be so much better off without that

65
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 66

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

bastard, honey. (She leaves.)

LOUANN. I feel like all our marriage I’ve just laid myself out
like a rug for him to walk on.
GINGER. Why do women take that shit?
LOUANN. I feel like a weight has been lifted off me.
GINGER. About a hundred and eighty-five pounds.
LOUANN. No! I wasn’t saying that! A lot more than that. But
— (Stares off. Tears up.)
GINGER. Sweetie, what does your lawyer say?
LOUANN. He says wait, drag it out. James’s got his mother to
sign everything over to him, give him a power of attorney.
GINGER. She’s such a fucking idiot.
LOUANN. So the lawyer thinks if we can postpone any
settlement until he has that paper, then we can really soak him.
But, I wouldn’t want to hurt Sharon.
GINGER. Bullshit.
LOUANN. I don’t need all that.
GINGER. Sure you do.
LOUANN. Oh, stop. I just want to be done with it. I told the
lawyer not to fight the annulment. Also you think about his new
family. He should be married to that woman before his baby’s
born.
GINGER. Oh, for God’s sake, LouAnn.
LOUANN. You have just got to the point where you swear with
every breath you take, Ginger. You should hear yourself.
GINGER. Well, I’m sorry but you really give me a pain in the
rump sometimes. There’s Christian behavior and turning the other
cheek, and then there’s just being a damn fool romantic asshole,
LouAnn.
LOUANN. Well, it’s too bad if you don’t approve, but that’s
what I’m doing. (James charges on, angry, followed by Earl.)
JAMES. What the hell is that truck doing out there?
LEN. It’s pulling out, James, what’s it look like?
EARL. (Entering; overlapping.) What’s that Asher truck doing
here? And who the hell are they?
LEN. — I told you the provolone would be sold. Well, it’s sold.
EARL. What the hell!? (Earl runs out yelling.) Get them back
here. Charley! Call them back. Son of a bitch. Goddamnit!

66
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 67

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

JAMES. That is not your province.

LEN. No, sir, that definitely is my province.
JAMES. You get them on the phone and get that back. That
cheese is going to Kraft —
LEN. Here’s the contract. This is for what they’ve taken. There’s
a provision for delivery every six months.
JAMES. (Overlapping.) Just what the hell do you think you’re
doing?
LEN. I was a little short in my estimate. (With the ledger book
and contract.) You can see provolone weighs out at ten pounds per
one hundred pounds milk, little better —
JAMES. (Not looking.) I don’t give a d-a-m-n what provolone
nothing!
LEN. — You can see the four thousand, six hundred pounds
of —
JAMES. (At the door.) Earl, get your ass back in here.
LEN. James, damnit look at this! (He does, steaming and
distracted.) There’s your price for what four hundred thousand
pounds of milk would have brought. And there’s what they’re
paying for the forty-six hundred pounds of provolone that it
made. Works out about a forty percent better return.
JAMES. What are you trying to pull?
LEN. A good deal for you, if you’d listen. I told you your dad
was in this for the money. I was figuring it’d take three to four
years to recoup the cost of the extra equipment, looks now more
like two.
RUTH. A little less.
JAMES. You can’t get a price like this. (Earl enters. Ruth has come
from her office.)
LEN. You already got it. (Nervous, trying unsuccessfully to be
cool.) Walt would have known how to talk to them, I just had three
distributors down, we had a little tasting party. And then a little
bidding war. It was funny as hell, I wish Walt could have seen it.
They were all in private corners on their cell phones, calling their
office to —
JAMES. You had buyers down here without me knowing about
it, without me here?
LEN. Yes, I did. You would have fucked it up. With, you know,

67
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 68

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

all due respect. (Beat.) Asher has committed to five years, option
for five more. You’ll be way into profits before then.
EARL. If you want to continue with that program, I can make
that cheese as good as Len can.
RUTH. You can not.
EARL. Why don’t you just go tend to your books, Ruth.
JAMES. Not interested, Earl. You call them up and cancel. You
had no right —
LEN. — No way. I can’t. They’re very excited about this, James.
Damnit. They’d probably sue your ass if you reneged now.
JAMES. (Pissed. Leaving.) Any suing happens, you’re the one
who pays, not this company. I don’t want any of this. This is not
going to happen. Earl, come on! Earl! (James starts out; Earl leaves.
James comes back. Yelling off to Earl.) I’ll be right there. James
stands, angry, thinking on his feet.) This outfit will stick to that
price?
LEN. Yes sir. For five years. Then you renegotiate higher.
RUTH. They’re expecting it.
JAMES. You guarantee you can produce what they want.
LEN. No question. I’ve kept back 200 pounds if you want to sell
it here from the plant. Retail. That’d double your income on it.
JAMES. Len, you fruit, I’m not opening up a d-a-m-n frillydilly
gourmet grocery in this cheese factory. Goddamnit! (Snatches the
book.) I’m going to have to look at the figures. I told you I didn’t
want this! I don’t want any fancy-smancy crap around here,
damnit! Damn! (James goes.)
RUTH. Yeah, but he’d so love that money.
LEN. If it was just money, he’d have said yes right off. What the
hell’s wrong with him? He’s got some bug up his butt. Some
competition with his dad or something. Whatever his dad wanted
he wants something different.
RUTH. If James keeps you on as manager that would mean Earl
killed Walt for nothing.
LEN. Oh, God. I wish you’d never thought of that. I can’t look
Earl in the face. Please, just don’t say anything more right now. Let
it drop.
RUTH. What the hell are you talking about?
LEN. For a while. We are in a very delicate position here. We

68
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 69

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

have almost three years in this, and a hell of a lot of company

money invested in —
RUTH. — No. I’m sorry, but that’s irrelevant. I know what
it —
LEN. No, that is very relevant because we are going to end up
in the tank here. Just because you’re telling that story around. Do
you realize how difficult it would be to get another company
interested in what I’m trying to do here?
RUTH. Well, that’s tough. (Len leaves. Ruth sits. James has
entered. She stares at him. He stares down at the ground. Freeze. This
is a natural pause in the middle of a conversation, only we won’t know
it until Ruth speaks. Nobody moves a muscle or breathes. Finally:)
That’s what I think happened.
JAMES. Oh, Christ. I can’t believe it. It’s not possible. Earl
couldn’t do it.
RUTH. I know you’re close to him but I think he did.
JAMES. Have you told Conroy? (James begins to pace.)
RUTH. He thinks I’m paranoid about Len losing his job.
JAMES. You should be. And you losing yours.
RUTH. This is more important. It’s someone’s life. It’s your dad,
my friend, my boss. It’s murder. For money. Cold and passionless.
JAMES. No, Earl can work up quite a passion for money.
(Pause.) I’m going to forget I heard this. You’re crazy, honey. You’re
cute as the Dickens but you’re Looney-Tunes.
RUTH. Well, Conroy is still going to look into it.
JAMES. How?
RUTH. If I knew “how,” I’d do it myself. I don’t know. I guess
just checking out Earl’s balmy story. Ducks? In June?
JAMES. Earl told me they were just going down to work on the
blind. Check it out. You do that in the summertime.
RUTH. Well, you know that won’t wash. There is no way in hell
Walt is ever going to take that gun out of the house before
October first. The only way things could end up looking the way
they do is if Earl went in the house and got Walt’s gun himself.
JAMES. Didn’t happen. I know it looks wacky to your pretty
head, but, honey, believe me. He ain’t got it in him. (James is
replaced by Reverend Groves.)
RUTH. I think what you’re doing is you’re closing that brilliant

69
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 70

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

mind the way you do anytime you hear something you don’t like.
REVEREND GROVES. I was standing outside the court house
yesterday with Sheriff Atkins and you drove by. Sheriff said,
“There goes Joan of Arc.’’ I didn’t realize he was making an
allusion to madness until right now.
RUTH. I thought you had such keen reasoning, Bobby.
REVEREND GROVES. Then maybe you should listen to my
counsel, Ruth.
RUTH. I feel like whoever it was who went all over the
countryside looking for one honest man.
REVEREND GROVES. Diogenes.
RUTH. Only I’m looking for one person who can listen to
reason. I thought that would be you.
REVEREND GROVES. You’d destroy a man on suspicion alone?
RUTH. I wouldn’t have believed a man of God would shield a
murderer.
REVEREND GROVES. I know Earl to be a good man.
RUTH. And you know me and Len to be bad I guess. You know
too damn much. Ask Earl what time they left Walt’s house. Ask
him if Walt made coffee that morning.
REVEREND GROVES. I will not.
RUTH. Not even to hear him lie to your face?
REVEREND GROVES. He would not!
RUTH. Test him!
REVEREND GROVES. I will not!
RUTH. He’ll lie to your face.
REVEREND GROVES. He would not.
RUTH. You know it’s true! (Earl, James, LouAnn, Sharon and
Sheriff Atkins have entered. They are at a church service. Ruth turns
to them and the audience.)
RUTH. (Straightforward, not ironic.) I’m sorry to interrupt your
church service but — something is troubling me very deeply and I
think this is the place to talk about it. Someone gave an account of
an incident. A long, detailed, heartfelt, tragic story of what
happened in a certain place. And we all felt for the pain he was
going through. Everyone did. And then, I don’t know why,
something in my mind, like something out of the corner of your
eye, something sounded wrong. Something in his account wasn’t

70
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 71

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

— well, wasn’t correct, wasn’t right. He couldn’t have expected

anyone else to notice, we were grieving, we weren’t questioning —
REVEREND GROVES. (Quiet and grave.) I think you’d better
leave, Ruth.
RUTH. Please. (To the congregation [audience].) But I started to
ask questions.
REVEREND GROVES. You’re obviously upset. I was wrong to
let you go this far.
RUTH. I want to say this.
EARL. (From the congregation.) No. Go home.
REVEREND GROVES. (Going to her.) I’ll escort you, Ruth.
SHARON. (At the same time.) We don’t need your questioning,
we need healing.
LOUANN. (At the same time.) What are you doing here? Oh,
God! Oh, God!
RUTH. (At the same time. Resisting removal.) Nothing could
have happened the way he said. There’s not a word of it true. The
story he told was fabrication. (LouAnn reels as though struck. She
falls to the floor, speaking in tongues; groaning, mouthing harsh
syllables. Sheriff Atkins stands, hands to the ceiling, yelling,
interpreting the “tongue.” Reverend Groves kneels, praying quietly.)
REVEREND GROVES. The Spirit …
EARL. He’s here.
SHARON. Sweet Jesus.
SHERIFF ATKINS. I am here in my house with you always, be
not afraid. There is a serpent amongst you. It comes like a thief in the
night and steals the goodness from my people. This rotten apple can
spoil the whole town. Allow this devil not in my house again.
RUTH. (Continued from above. At the same time. Trying to yell
over them.) I want you to question this person. I want you to ask
him to tell you in this church what really happened last June. Why
won’t you listen! Earl! Tell them.
SHERIFF ATKINS. (Continued from above.) I am here in My
house with you always. I command you to recognize the devil and
cast this liar from My house. (On Sheriff Atkin’s last word the
congregation bursts into song.)
CONGREGATION. (Singing.)
What a fel-low-ship

71
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 72

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

What a joy di-vine

Lean-ing on the ev-er-last-ing arms!
(Ruth is defeated, she sinks to the floor.)
What a blessed-ness,
What a peace is mine.
Lean-ing on the ev-er-last-ing arms!
(The congregation has left. Ruth sits, leaning against Len, exhausted.
There is a very distant continuation of the song on a solo harmonica.)
RUTH. It scared me.
LEN. I’d guess it would. He really said, This rotten apple can
spoil the whole congregation?
RUTH. Um-huh. Something like that.
LEN. At least old Ben Franklin is going to be impressed. Having
God Himself quote his Poor Richard’s Almanack.
RUTH. What?
LEN. “The rotten apple spoils his companions.”
RUTH. I thought it was “the whole barrel.”
LEN. Not originally.
RUTH. Really? That’s Ben Franklin? That’s not from the Bible?
LEN. No way.
RUTH. Well, Ben and God and all the rest of them are probably
real tight up there.
LEN. Borrowing from each other right and left.
RUTH. It scared me.
LEN. Good. It should. (He puts his arm around her. A phone
rings.)
BOYD. (On the phone.) Hey, doll.
GINGER. Hey. About time you called. How’s L.A.?
BOYD. I’m in Chicago. Someone at a theater here saw Saint
Joan and is spreading it all over town that I’m a genius.
GINGER. Excellent.
BOYD. They’ve asked me to direct a play for them. I get to pick
my own assistant. They said it’s OK if I hire someone from out of
town.
GINGER. I’ll have to be back for the last show of the season.
I’m directing.
BOYD. Well, then, I’ll be your assistant on that one. (A phone
rings.)

72
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 73

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

MARTHA. (Answering the phone.) Hello. (Listens a moment.) I

should tell whom to shut up? (Beat.) I see. No, I understand,
you’re admirably to the point. You have a good day, now. (Hangs
up phone.) Fuck. (Martha joins Len and Ruth.) Great fun; said
Ruth was bearing false witness. All over town.
RUTH. He threaten to tell the chancellor you were arrested
again?
MARTHA. No, this one’s going to tell the Springfield News
Leader I’m sleeping with one of my students. Fuck.
RUTH. No, great. Tell them to prove it.
MARTHA. That wouldn’t be too difficult as I am sleeping with
one of my students. I mean he’s in the adult program, he’s thirty-
three but I’m still old enough to be his — much older sister. And
he is still a student which is very verboten.
RUTH. I only told people I thought would look into it.
LEN. The sheriff, Reverend Bobby Groves, James, the entire
congregation of the church Earl attends.
RUTH. Reverend Groves wouldn’t let me tell them anything, I
told you.
LEN. And Ginger.
MARTHA. And me.
RUTH. And the coroner.
LEN. Ruth!
RUTH. Well.
LEN. And Boyd.
RUTH. Not Boyd. He’d left town.
LEN. (To Martha.) You think maybe it was Earl who called you?
MARTHA. I don’t know the man, honey.
RUTH. All right. Damn! I’ll shut up about it. For a while. I
don’t intend to get you fired.
MARTHA. No. To hell with them. I don’t belong at that school.
I don’t believe in a thing they’re doing.
RUTH. You believe in what you’re doing. Damnit.
MARTHA. Well, I’ll just have to do it somewhere else. (Martha
leaves.)
LEN. It’s locking the barn door, Ruth. Enough people know
what you think. This town? Everybody will know it by tomorrow.
(James and Earl in a quick crossover.)

73
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 74

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

EARL. What the hell does the coroner want to talk to me about?
JAMES. What do you mean?
EARL. Said for me to come by and talk to him and the sheriff
tomorrow. Whatever the hell it is, I don’t like it.
JAMES. Calm down old buddy, relax.
EARL. Pete Moses said I ought to kill that bitch Ruth Hoch, I
think he’s right. (They are gone.)
LEN. Everybody’s going to be saying you’re trying to blame a
good man for something he didn’t do.
RUTH. I can’t help that.
LEN. This isn’t the town we grew up in anymore, honey.
RUTH. I know it isn’t.
LEN. We’ve got no family here.
RUTH. I know.
LEN. And frankly, I don’t want to raise a family here.
RUTH. I don’t either. You’re saying we should move. “And leave
show business?” Hell, there’s got to be another cheese plant in
Missouri that’d like to make history.
LEN. I started looking through my files, making calls, the night
you stuck that gun up to your face.
RUTH. How did you —
LEN. You don’t play chess. You learn to see the logical outcome
of your actions. Think ahead.
RUTH. Definitely my short suit.
LEN. It’s not going to be easy. They may want someone in
Bowling Green.
RUTH. Where’s that?
LEN. I don’t know. That way I think.
RUTH. I wouldn’t want to move too far from your mom.
LEN. That might not be a option.
RUTH. Bowling Green would let you do what you want?
LEN. No. It’s just a job.
RUTH. So, you’d just manage? Or would they let you run
the —
LEN. Not manage. Just work the floor. It’s not certain they’re
even hiring.
RUTH. Len. You can’t … Well, it doesn’t have to be right away.
LEN. Yeah, it pretty much does. I can’t work down there. Let

74
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 75

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

Earl have it.

RUTH. What happens to all the cheese you —
LEN. All go bye-bye, honey. Can we not talk about it? We know
what we have to do. That’s gonna have to be enough. (Ruth turns
to Sharon. Sharon has her arms crossed in an unforgiving stance.)
RUTH. I hate to do this to you, Sharon, but things have just
gotten too complicated. Len and I wouldn’t feel right about
working down — well. We’re going to have to leave. (James joins
them from inside. A united front.) Len’ll stay on till you can find
somebody to replace him.
JAMES. No, he won’t.
RUTH. If you need him he will. You can’t run Dublin Cheese
Plant yourself.
JAMES. There isn’t any Dublin Cheese Plant.
SHARON. Kraft has been making us an offer every six months
since I can remember.
RUTH. Well Kraft will love for Earl to take over; it’s what he’s
been after all along. If we’d known he’d kill Walt to get it we’d have
left a —
SHARON. — You shut your mouth! I don’t want to hear that
talk. None of your slander. Now is not the time for it. You’ve done
enough.
JAMES. Earl’s gone.
RUTH. Gone? Whadda you mean?
JAMES. Oh, get real. What’d you expect?
SHARON. That shouldn’t surprise you, Ruth; the way you’ve
been talking. Forman called here, said he didn’t show this
morning, none of the farmers on his rounds have seen him.
JAMES. I went by. He’s not at the house.
SHARON. His mother said he didn’t come home last night.
You’ve got her worried sick.
RUTH. Oh, God. Oh, God. James. I just got the most awful
creepy-crawly feeling down my spine. Oh, boy, have I been blind
as a — you’re not going to get away with it, buddy.
JAMES. I don’t know what you’re talking about half the time.
You say anything more and I’ll have your ass in court before you
can finish your sentence.
SHARON. There’s no call for that language.

75
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 76

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

RUTH. I can think of a lot of things Earl would do. I can’t think
of anything he wouldn’t do for you, but —
JAMES. Be careful what you say, sugar.
RUTH. — Earl would not run away. Earl doesn’t have the sense
to know when he should run away. Oh, God. And it’s my fault.
SHARON. Whatever it is that’s happened, I’m glad you know
it’s on your head. (They turn their backs on Ruth.)
RUTH. Dear God, forgive me. (Turns to Reverend Groves.
Tired.) Did you always know? Or were you just trying to run
damage control after the fact?
REVEREND GROVES. I’m exhausted, Ruth, I’ve been out
with the sheriff and members of the congregation, deputies,
looking for Earl since —
RUTH. — So have I, so’s Len, so’s the whole town, Reverend.
Truck headlights up and down the river. So’s the whole county —
REVEREND GROVES. — I’m not omniscient, Ruth. I can’t
know everything. Neither can you. This is ripping my heart out.
The law of the land demands proof and the law of the Church is
set down in clear strictures. I can only hope my counsel is for the
greater good.
RUTH. The greater good. My God the horror that’s been done
in the name of the —
REVEREND GROVES. — I’m not God, who can see into a
man’s soul. And neither are you.
RUTH. You may think you’re doing the right thing, Reverend,
and I honestly believe you’re a good man. But your counsel is of
the devil.

CHORUS
BOYD. We’re going back to last night now. And then we’ll say
good night.
SHERIFF ATKINS. Midnight. Barnes Woods.
LEN. A mile and a half outside Dublin.

(Earl is drinking a beer, an empty can beside him. He has a clipboard

with a number of pages of handwriting. James has a briefcase. Both
stretch out on the ground. The ensemble is watching from the dark,
barely seen.)

76
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 77

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

EARL. I got it worked out pretty good. Some of the equipment

Len brought in is just rented. The rest I can get about three-
quarters of cost. I won’t have any problem dumping it.
JAMES. (Taking the clipboard.) You kept it simple I hope. Mom
isn’t the brightest broad with it comes to numbers. I’m gonna have
to walk her through it.
EARL. Look about right to you?
JAMES. Yeah, looks good. Mom should understand it. (Takes a
clean page.) She’s more susceptible to the emotional appeal. Write
“This is something I know I can do right” or “I can do this for
you.” Sort of an introduction. (James hands the clipboard to Earl.
Earl writes. James continues.) Lawyer says I’m gonna get about the
quickest annulment in the history of the state.
EARL. When’s it final?
JAMES. Two or three weeks. End of August.
EARL. (Re: his note.) How’s “I know I can do this right, Sharon’’
look?
JAMES. That’s good. Perfect.
EARL. Your mom gonna sign the powber — power of attorney?
JAMES. That’s signed, sealed and in a fireproof safe.
EARL. I feel weird.
JAMES. You are pretty weird.
EARL. No, to my stomach.
JAMES. I had it last week, it’s going around. Or nerves. Only
you don’t have nerves.
EARL. I got nerves. What are you talking? I got nerve I haven’t
even used yet.
JAMES. That kind of nerve, for damn sure. But you have got to
be the worst liar I ever heard. You’re about as bad at lying as Mom
is at cussing.
EARL. Whatta you mean?
JAMES. We said you were going to keep it simple.
EARL. You said we’d never talk about it.
JAMES. Hell, Ruth Hoch damn near told the whole town in
church Sunday.
EARL. She’s got no creditability.
JAMES. Her mother-in-law does.
EARL. No way. Couple of hysterical women.

77
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 78

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

JAMES. Yeah? What does the coroner want to talk to you about?
You said a simple hunting accident. You have to drag in an act of
God, homey stories about Dad making coffee for you. Dad didn’t
drink coffee. Hasn’t for years.
EARL. How the hell am I supposed to — to know.
JAMES. And at a duck blind? You don’t think. You’re always
leaving loose ends for somebody else to tie up for you.
EARL. What does that mean? Best just to leave it. Let’s go back
to town.
JAMES. (Looking around the place.) Remember Linda Barnes?
They moved off. Her dad used to own this woods. Still call it
Barnes Woods. Junior year we came out here damn near every
night. I was dating some girl in Springfield, Linda was going with
Shorty, she wouldn’t let him get to first base. I’d leave Springfield,
Shorty would drop Linda off at her house. She’d drive her dad’s car
down here, I’d drive mine. She brought a quilt, kept it in the trunk
of the car. Daytime, I’ll bet you could have found a hundred
condoms scattered around here. Probably rotted by now. Shorty’d
tell everybody how he was scoring, I just let him talk.
EARL. I feel like shit tonight. I got a shill a shit. (Laughs.) A chill
or sometha.
JAMES. You drunk on two beers again?
EARL. I’m OK. When you going to tell Len and Ruth they’re
outta — outta there?
JAMES. You ready to go? (Earl tries to get up and falls over,
grunts, laughs quietly.)
EARL. Give me … hand. Bud — buddy …
JAMES. This note looks good. I swear, you print like a ten-year-
old.
EARL. I know. When you gonna tell them they’re out?
JAMES. Everything in its time.

CHORUS
LEN. August.
SHERIFF ATKINS. September.

REVEREND GROVES. (A eulogy.) For who hath known the

mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor?

78
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 79

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

CHORUS
LEN. October.

(James folds Earl’s note, drops it on the ground beside Earl. Gets the
beer can from the ground, takes the other empty can from Earl’s hand
and puts them in his briefcase.)
EARL. (Weakly.) Hey, buddy.
JAMES. You’re dead, Earl. (Earl stares at him.) You took one
mother dose of poison. Out of remorse, I guess. Everyone’ll
understand. (Beat.) It wouldn’t work, buddy. I tried to make it
work for you, but you just talk too d-a-m-n much. You know?
You’d get in that coroner’s office and within five minutes, you’d be
saying, “Well, hell, it wasn’t my idea!” (Earl’s head sinks; James
stands by him. It’s growing dark.)
RUTH. Oh, dear, sweet God, forgive me.

CHORUS
MARTHA. Halloween.

REVEREND GROVES. Or who hath first given to Him and it

shall be recompensed unto Him again.

CHORUS
LOUANN. November.
MARTHA. James wins an uncontested election to the Missouri
State House of Representatives on the same day his daughter is
born.
SHARON. Thanksgiving.
LEN. December.
SHERIFF ATKINS. Earl’s body is found in Barnes Woods by
two boys and their father, out looking for a Christmas tree.
REVEREND GROVES. For of him, and through him, and to
him, are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen.

CONGREGATION. Amen.

CHORUS
LEN. January.

79
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 80

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

MARTHA. Len and Ruth move to Bowling Green on New

Year’s Day.
GINGER. February.
BOYD. March.
LOUANN. April.
SHARON. Spring came late.
REVEREND GROVES. May.
GINGER. June.
LEN. July.
SHERIFF ATKINS. (To the audience.) Good night.
BOYD. (To the audience.) Sleep well.
MARTHA (To the audience.) Safe home. (The lights have faded to
black.)

End of Play

80
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 81

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

PROPERTY LIST

Phone
Book (RUTH)
Bag of groceries (LEN)
Cheese (LEN)
Shotguns (EARL and WALT, SHERIFF ATKINS)
Car keys (JAMES)
Stick of gum (EARL)
Script (RUTH)
Bag of groceries (LEN)
Shotguns (EARL, WALT, SHERRIF ATKINS)
Car keys (GINGER)
Stick of gum (EARL)
Pillow (LOUANN)
Clothes (LEN)
Dress suit, tie (REVEREND GROVES)
Chain saw, goggles (EARL)
Ledger book (LEN)
Contract (LEN)
Beer can (EARL)
Clipboard with handwritten pages (EARL)
Briefcase (JAMES)
Empty beer can (JAMES)

81
Book of Days.qxd 8/12/2015 10:37 AM Page 82

AMD230505 THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MACAO FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

SOUND EFFECTS

Oven timer
Siren
Gunshot
Congregation singing last verse of “Just As I Am,” followed by
song on piano
Thunder
Tornado
Ongoing sounds of storm
Song played on harmonica
Phone ring

82