Gidion's Knot

by
Johnna Adams

Johnna Adams Agent Contact:

203 Glassworks Blvd, Unit A Bruce Ostler / Kate Bussert
Cliffwood, NJ 07721 Bret Adams, Ltd. Artists Agency
562-209-4785 448 West 44th Street
[email protected] New York, New York 10036
212-765-5630
[email protected]
 Gidion's Knot

Cast of Characters

HEATHER CLARK, 40s-50s

CORRYN FELL, 40s-50s

Setting

A 5th grade classroom in a public school in the Lake Forest suburb

of Chicago.

Time

Early April. The present year. Monday. 2:45 pm to 4:15 pm.

Playwright's Note

When a character name is followed by an ellipsis, as such:

HEATHER

. . . .

This indicates a non-verbal response to the previous line.

The ellipsis line may be played in many ways: as a pause, a beat,

a look, a movement, a silence, a smile, a sudden thought, or it
can just be used to give the scene some air, some room, some
tension, etc.

When several ellipses lines are strung together it is helpful to

think of them as bouncing non-verbal responses, e.g., one
character shrugs another character reacts to the shrug with a toss
of her head.

A slash (/) in the middle of a character's line indicates an

interruption. The next speaking character should begin her line
where the slash appears.
A fifth grade classroom.

20 desks are arranged facing a

blackboard. Each desk has a cubby hole
filled with books, pencils and other
detritus of childhood.

To the side there is a teacher’s desk

where HEATHER CLARK sits grading
papers.

The walls are filled with bright and

cheerful posters of Greek and Hindu
gods (Zeus, Aphrodite, Hera, Vishnu,
Ganesh, Siva, Buddha, Kwan Yin, etc.)

Children’s writing assignments (poems,

stories, reports, etc.) fill every part
of the walls not covered with gods or
lesson notes. There are probably 50
posted assignments.

Five or six decorated foam core boards

on one wall, featuring reports on Greek
mythology and Alexander the Great.

It is 2:45 p.m. Classes end at 3:00

p.m.

HEATHER grades her papers and from time

to time sips from a cup of tea on the
desk in front of her. Her cellphone is
on the desk beside her.

She looks at the phone. She picks it up

and checks to see if she has a message.
 2

Nothing. She puts the phone down and

leaves her hand on it for a long time,
staring at it.

She goes back to grading.

There is a knock at the door. She is

surprised. No one knocks. People just
walk in. She stands, a little
uncertain.

HEATHER
Yes?

Another knock. The knocker can’t hear

her through the door.

She goes to the door and looks out a

moment through a small window.

She opens the door.

HEATHER (cont’d)
Yes?

CORRYN FELL enters hesitantly.

HEATHER (cont’d)
Are you looking / for . . . ?

CORRYN
I have a parent teacher conference. Is / this--. . . ?

HEATHER
Do you know the room?
 3

CORRYN
I thought . . .--

HEATHER
If you go to the office and speak to the office manager she
can tell you which room you’re looking for. Just give her the
teacher’s name.

CORRYN
The office manager?

HEATHER
Carole. She’s at the desk.

CORRYN
Thank you.

HEATHER
All right.

CORRYN goes out.

HEATHER returns to her desk. She stares

at her phone.

Another knock, then CORRYN pokes her

head back in cautiously.

CORRYN
I’m sorry. The office?

HEATHER
It’s down the hall and to your left-- at the end of the hall
there.

CORRYN
Oh. Okay. Thank you.
 4

CORRYN leaves.

HEATHER stands for a long moment in the

middle of the room.

She goes back to grading papers.

Something breaks inside her.

She stops and puts her head in her

hands, taking deep breaths almost
hyperventilating, trying not to sob.

She shakes her head, and under her

breath--

HEATHER
God . . . oh god . . . . god . . .

She gets up and walks around the room.

She picks up her cellphone and puts it

down.

She almost has herself under control.

A knock at the door.

HEATHER (cont’d)
Oh god.

She crosses to the door as CORRYN comes

back in.

CORRYN
I’m / sorry--
 5

HEATHER
Down the hall and to your left--

CORRYN
I found it. I found Carole.

HEATHER
You need directions to the room?

CORRYN
You’re very helpful, aren’t you? I mean you’re irritated and
not very good at hiding it, but still . . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I’m sorry. That came out-- . . . .

HEATHER
Yes. It did.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
Do you need help finding the room?

CORRYN
No, I found the room.

HEATHER
No one was there? If you ask Carole--

CORRYN
This is the room.
 6

HEATHER
No. No, I don’t--

CORRYN
418.

HEATHER
No, I don’t have anything.

CORRYN
Two thirty. I’m a little late.

HEATHER
I don’t have anything scheduled.

CORRYN
Yes. I wrote it down.

CORRYN pulls a rumpled piece of paper

out of her purse.

CORRYN (cont’d)
Two thirty. April 5th. Room 418. Ms. Clark.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
You’re Ms. Clark.

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
I set it up. Here--

CORRYN gives HEATHER the paper.

 7

HEATHER
That’s strange, I--- I’m sorry.

CORRYN
That’s all right. You forgot, I guess.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I can come back. You’re unprepared, I can see that.

HEATHER
No, it’s fine. Come in.

CORRYN
Thank you very much. And thank you for making time.

HEATHER
I don’t think you were at open house.

CORRYN
No.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I set it up with Carole, I guess. I called her. Friday
afternoon.

HEATHER
About?

CORRYN
About my son.
 8

HEATHER
Who is your son?

CORRYN
Gidion.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . . oh god. . . .

CORRYN
We set up a parent teacher conference. The principal was
supposed to come, too.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I guess she forgot.

HEATHER
No. Of course not. It’s just-- . . . .

CORRYN
. . . .
 9

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I missed open house. So we never got to meet.

HEATHER
You’re Gidion’s mother. Mrs. Gibson.

CORRYN
No. That was his father’s name. Ms. Fell.

HEATHER
Mrs. Fell.

CORRYN
You can call me Corryn.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
You sent a note home with my son. Asking to meet with me.

HEATHER
Mrs. Fell.

CORRYN
Telling me he was suspended.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
There was a voicemail message, too. . . . Saying to call.

HEATHER
. . . .
 10

CORRYN
And I called and set something up. I guess with Carole maybe.
Someone in the office. She didn’t tell you?

HEATHER
No, she did.

CORRYN
You forgot.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Well. We set this up.

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
So here I am.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
Mrs. Fell--

CORRYN
No, it’s Ms.

HEATHER
Ms. Fell.
 11

CORRYN
You can call me Corryn. If you’d like.

HEATHER
I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so very, very sorry.

CORRYN
Thank you.

HEATHER
I didn’t forget. I just. . . . I didn’t think you’d--

CORRYN
You sent a note home with my son. And left a message. Asking
to meet with me. How could I not come?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
He’s my son.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
You look pale. Have I given you a shock?

HEATHER
Oh god.

CORRYN
I didn’t mean to.

HEATHER
. . . . .
 12

CORRYN
We did have an appointment.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . . .

CORRYN
What did you want to talk about?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
About my son?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Was it his grades?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Attendance? Excessive tardiness? Running in the halls?

HEATHER
I don’t . . . .

CORRYN
The reason you suspended him?
 13

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I’d really like to know. I’ve been wondering. Your note was
vague. The voicemail was cryptic. I’ve been up for about 72
hours. I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep because I’ve been playing
this conversation out over and over again in my mind,
wondering how it will go. You were more vocal in these little
fantasies. You contributed. You explained. . . . I don’t
know why you . . . did this to him. I don’t know what
happened.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
He looked devastated. When he handed me the note. He was
shaking. He--

HEATHER
God! . . . oh god . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . . god

CORRYN
I’m sorry.

HEATHER
I don’t know/ what--

CORRYN
I didn’t mean--
 14

HEATHER
God. / I just--

CORRYN
Would you like me to get you some water?

HEATHER
I didn’t think--. . . .

CORRYN
You look bloodless.

HEATHER
I didn’t think you’d keep the appointment. It never occurred
to me that you would keep the appointment.

CORRYN
He’s my son.

HEATHER
I took it out of my calendar.

CORRYN
I see.

HEATHER
I didn’t think you’d--

CORRYN
Well, I did.

HEATHER
I didn’t think you’d still want to talk about--

CORRYN
About my son?
 15

HEATHER
That it might be painful to. . . .

CORRYN
Yes?

HEATHER
To talk about him so soon after his death.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Well.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
We had an appointment.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
Yes. Okay.
 16

CORRYN
Good.

HEATHER
I’m really very sorry--

CORRYN
You’ve said so.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Thank you. . . . I’m sorry I missed open house. Gidion’s
father is dead. I’m a single mother. Getting a babysitter on
a school night is like squeezing milk from stones. Do you
have children?

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
Oh. . . . I never thought I would either. Pets?

HEATHER
What?

CORRYN
Do you have pets?

HEATHER
I’m not sure how I can help you, Ms. Fell.

CORRYN
Corryn, please. This doesn’t have to be adversarial. Does it?

HEATHER
. . . .
 17

CORRYN
How long have you been teaching?

HEATHER
Two years.

CORRYN
Really? You don’t look young enough to be right out of
school. You must have had a career before this, am I right?

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
What was it?

HEATHER
I was in advertising.

CORRYN
And you got sick of making all that money and wanted to make
a difference.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Good for you.

HEATHER
Maybe we should reschedule. Find a time when the principal
can join us.

CORRYN
Maybe she’s just running late.

HEATHER
You should be with family now.
 18

CORRYN
I’m exactly where I should be.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
Okay.

CORRYN
You sent a note home with my son.

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
You suspended him. Five days.

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
He was fighting with another boy.

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
He came home bruised. With dried blood on his mouth.

HEATHER
I don’t know anything about that. That must have happened
after he left school.
 19

CORRYN
Was he beat up a lot? Picked on?

HEATHER
I never saw that happen.

CORRYN
But the day he was suspended he was beaten up. You didn’t
know?

HEATHER
I’m not surprised.

CORRYN
You’re not?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I was.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . ?

HEATHER
He made some of the children angry.

CORRYN
And you. He made you angry.

HEATHER
Yes.
 20

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
This isn’t what I expected.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
That was very honest.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
He made you angry.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Okay.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
This is nice. Your room. Colorful.

HEATHER
Thank you.

CORRYN
It’s warm.
 21

HEATHER
Thank you.

CORRYN
I envisioned a barren tomb. Painted prison green. Desks in
depressing rows. Hard tile flooring that your heels made
ominous clicking noises against as you paced up and down the
rows, stroking the black chins hairs and warts covering your
thick, bovine neck. A lovingly framed portrait of Stalin at
the front of the room for the children to genuflect before as
they file in.

HEATHER
I sent it out to be cleaned.

CORRYN
That’s funny. You surprise me, too.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
What did you imagine I was like?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
You must have little mental images of all the parents. What
they’re like.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Do I surprise you?
 22

HEATHER
I knew you were a single mother.

CORRYN
How?

HEATHER
A writing project I gave. I asked them to describe their
father.

CORRYN
He had nothing to write about.

HEATHER
He wrote about his grandfather instead.

CORRYN
He never met either grandfather. He made it up.

HEATHER
No. He wrote about what he imagined his grandfather’s corpse
was like. In the earth.

CORRYN
Well, that’s original. I bet you never had a paper like it in
all your two years of teaching.

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
Is that when you began to hate him?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Come on.
 23

HEATHER
I didn’t hate him.

CORRYN
Come on.

HEATHER
I didn’t hate him.

CORRYN
Honesty?

HEATHER
I did not hate him.

CORRYN
Liar.

HEATHER
Ms. Fell. I think you should leave.

CORRYN
It’s all right. I’m not angry about it. For Christ’s sake. I
don’t like everyone I meet or everyone I know. I freely hate
some of them. It isn’t their fault. It just happens that way.
I’m sure Gidion was the same. I’m sure you’re the same.

HEATHER
I don’t think this is accomplishing anything.

CORRYN
And in return, I don’t expect everyone I meet to like me. I
hated some of my teachers. My fifth grade teacher in fact.

HEATHER
It’s too soon for this.
 24

CORRYN
I feel certain she hated me too.

HEATHER
Let’s reschedule for a time when the principal and the school
counsellor can join us.

CORRYN
I don’t expect you to like each and every one of your
students, that would be inhuman.

HEATHER
I’ll walk you to your car.

CORRYN
He hated you. It just happens sometimes.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
You should take some time to grieve before . . . this. We all
should take some time--

CORRYN
What did you mean when you said we should reschedule for a
time when the principal can join us? Is the principal not
able to join us?

HEATHER
I’m sure she thought that you wouldn’t feel up to this
discussion at this time.

CORRYN
Or that it no longer mattered.
 25

HEATHER
That it might be in poor taste.

CORRYN
That this conversation no longer mattered.

HEATHER
That it wasn’t the priority at the moment. Your grief is the
priority.

CORRYN
We had an appointment.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
And no one canceled it. You didn’t cancel it.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I would appreciate it if the principal would join us.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Please.

HEATHER
She’s taking a personal day.

CORRYN
Excuse me?
 26

HEATHER
She’s taking a personal day today.

CORRYN
That’s what I thought you said.

HEATHER
She took the news about your son very hard.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Okay.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Get her in here. Call her at home.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
I’ll talk to Carole.

HEATHER goes out.

CORRYN walks around the room. She reads

some of the children’s reports posted
on the walls.
 27

She looks for GIDION’s name on one and

does not find it.

She looks inside a desk.

She looks at one of the foam core board

presentations on Alexander the Great.
It is titled: “THE GORDIAN KNOT.” There
is a large, complicated knot fastened
to the center of the foam core board
with a tin foil-covered cardboard sword
hovering above it.

She touches the knot and reads some of

the text on the report board.

The school bell rings.

Children pour out into the hallways,

calling to one another and banging
lockers open and shut.

CORRYN is startled.

Slowly, she works up her courage to

approach the door and stare through the
window into the hall.

She watches the children closely as the

sounds die away.

She stands not moving.

She sits at a desk and waits.

HEATHER reenters.
 28

HEATHER (cont’d)
Carole spoke with her. She says she’s on her way here.

CORRYN
Where does she live?

HEATHER
Not far. Fifteen minutes.

CORRYN
Good. I’ll wait.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Do you have that paper?

HEATHER
. . . ?

CORRYN
The one Gidion wrote about his grandfather? I saw some of
them posted on the wall but not his.

HEATHER
I gave them back their papers. Except for the ones I posted.

CORRYN
Oh.
 29

HEATHER
He didn’t bring it home?

CORRYN
I don’t know if he did.

HEATHER
You could check his book bag.

CORRYN
I’ll do that.

HEATHER
Or his locker.

CORRYN
Where is it?

HEATHER
We’ll call the facilities manager and he can take you to
Gidion’s locker and cut off the lock.

CORRYN
Thank you.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
Or it might be here. In his desk. If he didn’t take it home.

CORRYN
Which is his desk?
 30

HEATHER
You’re sitting at it.

CORRYN
Oh--. . . . This? This is . . . ?

HEATHER
I assign them the seat they sit in on the first day of class.
And you see it a lot during open house. The parents come in
and choose the same seat.

CORRYN
Oh.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
How strange.

CORRYN stands up and stares at the

desk.

HEATHER comes over and begins to take

things out of the desk and lay them on
the desktop when it is clear that
CORRYN can’t do it.

CORRYN watches the items as they are

revealed: two textbooks (math and
social studies); a box of pencils and
map pencils; a compass; a protractor;
three folders with comic book
superheroes on the covers; a spiral
notebook; two stapled class assignments
with A+ written on them in red ink; and
a folded note.
 31

CORRYN takes the note as HEATHER looks

at the two writing assignments.

HEATHER puts one of the papers in front

of CORRYN.

HEATHER
It’s this one.

CORRYN opens and reads the note.

CORRYN
Who is Seneca?

HEATHER
She’s a girl in my class. She sits behind Gidion.

CORRYN
She passes him notes.

HEATHER
Sometimes. She uses her phone and texts people the rest of
the time.

CORRYN
Gidion doesn’t have a phone, so I guess she had to do it old
school. She did this.

CORRYN goes to the Gordian Knot

presentation and points to it. Seneca’s
name is written on it.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
This is nice. I like this.
 32

HEATHER
I did too.

CORRYN
Good topic.

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Who names their daughter Seneca? That’s as bad as Gidion. No
wonder she liked him. She did like him?

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
Did she have a crush on him?

HEATHER
I think she did.

CORRYN
A girl named Seneca sat behind Gidion and had a crush on him!
She passed him notes because she couldn’t text him! How
wonderful. This says “Jake’s a peehole. He’s LYING like a
peehole.” Lying, all caps. “Don’t get mad. That’s what he
wants. I believe you that he did it. I always believe YOU not
that dicksnot.” You, all caps.

HEATHER
. . . .
 33

CORRYN
She expresses herself well. Very clearly.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I like her. She reminds me of me. They say boys always look
for their mother in a mate. What does she look like?

HEATHER
She dyes her hair platinum blonde and wears false eyelashes
and a stuffed bra. She has a nose ring.

CORRYN
She’s eleven?

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
Wow. . . Wow.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Did her parents have a parent teacher conference with you at
some point, too?

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
Really?

HEATHER
. . . .
 34

CORRYN
Okay. Lucky me then. Who’s Jake?

HEATHER
He’s a boy in the sixth grade.

CORRYN
Is he one of the children that Gidion made angry? On Friday?
The day he died?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
There’s a Jake on facebook who left comments on Gidion’s
facebook page over the weekend saying “You’re a faggot” and
“You’re a lying faggot.” After Gidion was dead, in fact, so--
. . . untimely.

HEATHER
He couldn’t have known Gidion was dead. The kids didn’t know
until this morning.

CORRYN
Oh, well, then.

HEATHER
It’s not an excuse.

CORRYN
No, it’s not.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .
 35

HEATHER
Jake’s been troubled lately. It’s out of character if he did
that.

CORRYN
You like Jake. He’s one that you like.

HEATHER
He’s a good boy who has had a difficult year.

CORRYN
What did he think Gidion was lying about?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . ?

HEATHER
We should wait for the principal.

CORRYN
. . . . All right.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

CORRYN picks up the paper about

GIDION’s grandfather and skims it.

HEATHER
. . . .
 36

CORRYN
. . . .

She reads part of it out.

CORRYN (cont’d)
“My grandfather’s hands are brown apple cores. Buried in dirt
like seeds. He used to take me hunting for ravens on a lake
and put handfuls of candy corn in my pockets when I wasn’t
looking. His teeth twisted in his mouth when he smiled and
now they have fallen out and his jawbone smiles empty. We
miss the smell of his cigars around the house sometimes.”
. . . .
He never met his grandfather.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . . A+?

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
Good grade. But you didn’t post it? On the wall?

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
Too depressing?

HEATHER
I can’t post everything that’s good.

CORRYN
Oh.
 37

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
It has a hole in the corner.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
From a thumbtack. A hole here in the corner. Like the papers
that are posted.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
It was posted once. You took it down.

HEATHER
I rotate the papers posted on the walls. Take some down on
Fridays. Put more up.

CORRYN
When did you take it down?

HEATHER
I don’t remember.

CORRYN
Okay.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .
 38

HEATHER
Can I get you something to drink? The faculty lounge is just
/ down the hall.

CORRYN
No thank you. I’m fine.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
Just let me / know.

CORRYN
Yes. I will.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN stares at her.

CORRYN
Oral hygienist?

HEATHER
I’m sorry?

CORRYN
Truck stop waitress?

HEATHER
. . . ?

CORRYN
I’m trying to guess what you imagined I was like.
 39

HEATHER
I didn’t really.

CORRYN
After I didn’t come to open house.

HEATHER
There are lots of parents who can’t make it.

CORRYN
Tattoo artist? . . . . Horse wrangler?

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
What did you think?

HEATHER
I had no idea.

CORRYN
You must have formed an idea. From Gidion. An impression of
what his mother was like.

HEATHER
You can’t ever predict.

CORRYN
Stripper?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Oh, come on. You thought about it.
 40

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
If you didn’t think about before, you did after you heard
what happened.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
I thought you might have a job that required overtime, I
guess.

CORRYN
Okay.

HEATHER
Or that made a lot of demands on your time.

CORRYN
Oh. Doctor. Lawyer. Something important.

HEATHER
I suppose.

CORRYN
Rocket scientist. Maybe a labor organizer trying to unionize
Walmart.

HEATHER
I didn’t have anything to form an impression around.

CORRYN
Do you want to know what I do?
 41

HEATHER
Of course.

CORRYN
Yes, I can see you’re eaten alive with curiosity.

HEATHER
I don’t think your personal life or your son’s is any of my
business.

CORRYN
Why should you care?

HEATHER
I just don’t want to be intrusive.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
What do you do for a living?

CORRYN
You’ll laugh.

HEATHER
I doubt it.

CORRYN
No you will. You won’t see this coming. Any guesses?
 42

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
Oh, guess. Guess. One guess.

HEATHER
Accounting?

CORRYN
Accounting? God, no. Accounting?? Why on earth . . . ?

HEATHER
I don’t know. It came to mind.

CORRYN
I don’t know why.

HEATHER
I’m sorry.

CORRYN
Gidion wasn’t good at math. What gave you the idea?

HEATHER
I’m not good at guessing games.

CORRYN
Accounting.

HEATHER
What do you do, then?

CORRYN
You won’t see this coming.

HEATHER
All right.
 43

CORRYN
Wait for it-- . . . Wait for it-- . . .

HEATHER
. . . ?

CORRYN
I’m a teacher.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
Oh.

CORRYN
I told you. You didn’t see that coming.

HEATHER
That’s terrific.

CORRYN
What’s terrific about it?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . ?

HEATHER
What do you teach?

CORRYN
Literature.
 44

HEATHER
Where?

CORRYN
At Northwestern. In the graduate program.

HEATHER
You’re a professor.

CORRYN
That’s different from a teacher?

HEATHER
That’s a different kind of teacher.

CORRYN
All right.

HEATHER
What sort of literature?

CORRYN
Poetry. Medieval and earlier forms.
Go, thou first of my bards!
Take the spear of Fingal.
Fix a flame on its point.
Shake it to the winds of heaven.
Bid him in songs, to advance,
And leave the rolling of his wave.
Tell to Caros that I long for battle;
That my bow is weary of the chase of Cona.
Tell him the mighty are not here;
And that my arm is young.

HEATHER
. . . .
 45

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
That’s very . . . martial.

CORRYN
They all are. Fighting and fucking. That’s all anybody really
writes about.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
That was part of an Ossian poem. The War of Caros. Probably
not authentic. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it
was fashionable for a while to write poetry in the style of
ancient Scots Gaelic and pass it off as a genuine work of
antiquity. Makes the job for modern scholars a real bitch. A
lot of what we do is to search for something authentic in a
field of bullshit.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Lonely search.

HEATHER
Sounds like a very specialized discipline.
 46

CORRYN
Yes.

HEATHER
And very fascinating.

CORRYN
Really?

HEATHER
You’re an archeologist as much as literary critic.

CORRYN
Perhaps.

HEATHER
That must be a whole world unto itself.

CORRYN
Oh, yes.

HEATHER
A place you could get lost in.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
Disappear into.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
What was your major in college?
 47

HEATHER
Marketing.

CORRYN
Did you get a master’s degree?

HEATHER
I have an MBA and I went back and got my master’s in
education.

CORRYN
Two years ago? Wow. Something must really have gone wrong at
that advertising job to prompt that.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
All that time and money spent on the marketing degree and the
MBA! Just to throw it all away for this.

HEATHER
Okay.

CORRYN
Did you turn forty and have a mid-life crisis?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Men get hair implants, sports cars and new twenty-year-old
girlfriends. We just make bad choices.

HEATHER
. . . .
 48

CORRYN
. . . . Fifteen minutes?

HEATHER
About that.

CORRYN
Well, if she hits all green lights, she should be here to
rescue you soon.

HEATHER
I wouldn’t put it that way.

CORRYN
No. You seem very careful.

HEATHER
(sighs) . . . .

CORRYN
I would really hate to start without her. I know you would
really hate to start without her, too. I guess you feel you
need backup.

HEATHER
No. I think she wants very much to be here with us.

CORRYN
We’re interrupting her personal day.

HEATHER
I’d like to give her that opportunity.

CORRYN
She might be out golfing or something. Does she golf?
 49

HEATHER
If the situation were reversed, and I wasn’t here, I hope she
would give me a chance to get here before she discussed this
with you.

CORRYN
You want to get your stories straight?

HEATHER
No. To give you a complete picture.

CORRYN
At this point a fragment of a picture would be fine, Ms.
Clark.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Do you have a first name?

HEATHER
Heather.

CORRYN
That’s pretty.

HEATHER
Thank you.

CORRYN
Is she coming?

HEATHER
Carole called her.

CORRYN
. . . .
 50

HEATHER
I’m sure she’s coming.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
You could wait in her office if you’d prefer.

CORRYN
Nice try.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . . (sighs)

CORRYN
Could something be delaying her?

HEATHER
I’m sure she’s on her way.

CORRYN
All right.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . . We’re being watched by the Gods.

HEATHER
. . . ?
 51

CORRYN
Aren’t we?

HEATHER
. . . ?

CORRYN points to the deities in the

posters on the walls.

CORRYN
Zeus. Siva. Vishnu. Ganesh. Hermes. I thought our forefathers
died for separation of church and state in this country.
You’ve let the Gods into your classroom.

HEATHER
We’re learning about mythology.

CORRYN
Do your Hindu students think of this as mythology?

HEATHER
We don’t have any. We do have a Greek boy. But he’s Greek
Orthodox.

CORRYN
Oh, that’s funny.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Do you personally believe in any of them?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . ?
 52

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
I believe in Siva.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I don’t think I could have the eyes of the Gods on me all
day.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
Have you planned the memorial?

CORRYN
No.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .
 53

HEATHER
We want to make it a half day at school. That day. Give the
children and their parents the opportunity to attend.

CORRYN
All right.

HEATHER
We had an assembly this morning. A crisis management
counsellor spoke to the children.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
And we’ve told them to speak to someone if they think they
need private counseling.

CORRYN
Was Seneca upset?

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
Did she ask for private counseling?

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
Well. Dyed hair, nose ring, stuffed bra. She wouldn’t. She’s
tough. Probably has an image to maintain.

HEATHER
I spoke to her.
 54

CORRYN
Individually? That was nice of you.

HEATHER
We are going to send a note to all the parents on warning
signs to watch out for.

CORRYN
Maybe her parents will get her counseling.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
What did she say when you spoke to her?

HEATHER
That she missed him.

CORRYN
Was Jake upset?

HEATHER
All of the children are upset.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
They’re making you cards.

CORRYN
. . . ?

HEATHER
The children. Sympathy cards.
 55

CORRYN
All of them?

HEATHER
We wanted to help them express their feelings.

CORRYN
What is that? 180 cards? Is that how many--?

HEATHER
220.

CORRYN
220 sympathy cards?

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
My, my, where will I put them all?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Thanks.

HEATHER
The principal will be collecting them and--

CORRYN
No, you collect them, Heather. You collect them for me.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .
 56

HEATHER
All right.

CORRYN
Good.

HEATHER
I can bring them to the memorial--

CORRYN
I don’t want you at the memorial.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
But go ahead and collect the cards. Do that. Collect them and
then take them home and burn them. In a trash can. Outside if
you think that would drive your smoke detector crazy.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I don’t want them.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I don’t want to even see them.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Jesus Christ.
 57

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
You don’t have to tell the children that you burned them.
Tell the children I loved them. I wallpapered Gidion’s empty
room with them. They’ve really eased my burden and brought me
closer to the god Siva. Or something. Ask the crisis
management counsellor what to say.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Except Seneca’s card. You can mail me that one.

HEATHER
Okay.

CORRYN
I don’t want to see the others.

HEATHER
Okay.
 58

CORRYN
Thanks.

CORRYN reads Seneca’s note again.

CORRYN (cont’d)
Seneca seems all right. She seems perceptive. Is she?

HEATHER
She’s sensitive.

CORRYN
Not perceptive?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
What side did she come down on? In her Gordian Knot report?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN points to the Gordian Knot

presentation.

CORRYN
Cut it? Or figure it out?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Figure it out? Right?

HEATHER
. . . .
 59

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
It wasn’t part of the assignment to take a side.

CORRYN
Oh.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Okay.

CORRYN reads Seneca’s note again.

CORRYN (cont’d)
“Jake’s a peehole. He’s LYING like a peehole.”

HEATHER
Jake’s become an easy target lately.

CORRYN
What was he lying about?

HEATHER
I’m not sure.

CORRYN
. . . .
 60

HEATHER
I can’t make that note fit with anything I know of.

CORRYN
Why not?

HEATHER
It’s the reverse of what I would have expected.

CORRYN
You think Gidion was lying like a peehole?

HEATHER
I would have expected Gidion to be accused of lying. Or
spreading rumors.

CORRYN
And that’s what this is about? Something he said about this
Jake?

HEATHER
It’s not that simple.

CORRYN
But there’s some sort of fight between them. That’s what this
is about?

HEATHER
When the principal gets here, Ms. Fell, I promise / you, I
will answer--

CORRYN
Gidion started it?

HEATHER
But until she gets here, / I don’t feel that I have the--
 61

CORRYN
What did Gidion say about Jake, the peehole, that got him
suspended?

HEATHER
. . . . (sighs)

CORRYN
. . . ?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
We’re waiting for the principal.

HEATHER
I’d prefer / that--

CORRYN
Okay.

HEATHER
I’m trying to balance Jake’s right to privacy / with--

CORRYN
I think I’ve almost been here half an hour. Have I? My
perception of time shot to hell. I lose several hours in what
feels like minutes and I get lost in minutes for what feels
like hours. Have I been here for half an hour?

I came in here with a simple question. What the hell

happened?

I thought this would be largely a transactional exchange. I

ask, you give. Even-- well, correct me if I’m wrong-- you
have two years of professional experience, but, even if the
circumstances around my son’s suspension weren’t . . .
(MORE)
 62

CORRYN (CONT'D)
charged, let’s say, by the fact of his death, I would expect
the reasons for his suspension to have at least come up in
the first half hour of conversation.

I don’t know what happened.

I’ve been sitting here playing guessing games with you.

Has it been half an hour? You’d know. You’ve been looking at

your cellphone when you think I’m not looking at you.

Am I interrupting something? You’re waiting for a call? If

it’s something important, by all means--

HEATHER
I’m sorry.

CORRYN
I don’t want to wait for the principal.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I don’t believe she’s coming.

HEATHER
. . . .

HEATHER pulls out a key ring. She finds

a key and unlocks a drawer.

She takes out a folder covered in comic

book superheroes and sets it on her
desk.
 63

HEATHER (cont’d)
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
What is it?

HEATHER
What got Gidion suspended.

She offers the folder to CORRYN.

CORRYN doesn’t take it.

CORRYN
It’s--?

HEATHER
Something Gidion wrote.

CORRYN
About Jake?

HEATHER
It doesn’t matter who it’s about.

CORRYN stares at the folder.

HEATHER walks over and puts it in front

of CORRYN then sits near her.

CORRYN stares at the folder.

 64

She picks it up.

She sets it back down and goes back to

Seneca’s note.

CORRYN
Okay. Wait.

“Don’t get mad. That’s what he wants. I believe you that he

did it. I always believe YOU not that dicksnot.”. . . .
“I believe you that he did it.” Wait.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Gidion said that Jake wrote this and Seneca believes him.

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
Seneca thinks Jake wrote this.

HEATHER
No. She doesn’t.

CORRYN
How do you know--

HEATHER
It’s in his handwriting.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .
 65

CORRYN
His handwriting.

HEATHER
He admitted that he wrote it.

CORRYN
His handwriting.

HEATHER
He wrote this.

CORRYN
He typed his schoolwork. He had a computer.

HEATHER
He wrote this.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
I don’t know what Seneca is talking about in her note. Not
this.

CORRYN
What is it?

HEATHER
A story.
 66

CORRYN
. . . ?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
A story??

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
You have got to be kidding me.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
A story??

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
You suspended my son over a story?

HEATHER
I’m going to leave this with you. I’m going to step outside
and let you read it in private.

HEATHER starts to leave.

CORRYN
No, you will not.

HEATHER
I think I should.
 67

CORRYN
No.

HEATHER
I think you’ll want to process things without me here.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
It’s disturbing.

CORRYN
I have a feeling there are miles between what you and I find
disturbing.

HEATHER
Read it and we’ll see.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER starts to leave.

CORRYN (cont’d)
Don’t.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I want you to explain things to me. I don’t want to sit alone
here. I didn’t come here for that. I don’t want to figure
things out. I want them explained!

HEATHER
. . . .
 68

CORRYN holds the folder out to her.

CORRYN
I want you to read it to me.

HEATHER
I’m not going to do that.

CORRYN
Yes.

HEATHER
I don’t intend to read it again.

CORRYN
You will. With me.

HEATHER
It’s not the way you want your son remembered.

CORRYN
You don’t know what I want.

HEATHER
Trust me.

CORRYN
Read it.

HEATHER
You can read it yourself.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
I’m sorry. I honestly can’t read that again. And certainly
not out loud.
 69

CORRYN
As bad as all that?

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
As bad as facing what you did?

HEATHER
That’s not fair.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
That is not fair.

CORRYN
Read it to me.

HEATHER
I can’t do that.

CORRYN
Please read it to me.

HEATHER
I know you’re angry with me. I can’t imagine how angry you
must be with me. And you want to punish me.

CORRYN gets up and puts the folder in

front of HEATHER.

CORRYN
. . . .
 70

HEATHER
I’m not going to.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
I’m very sorry. I don’t think I could form the words. It /
offends me.

CORRYN
I want you / to.

HEATHER
My whole heart goes out to you. But you don’t have the right.
To make me do something / like that--

CORRYN
Do something unpleasant? I need you to.

HEATHER
You don’t have the high ground here!

CORRYN
I need you to.

HEATHER
I don’t know what went on in your house.

CORRYN
Okay.

HEATHER
Once he left this classroom my responsibility ended.

CORRYN
. . . .
 71

HEATHER
This-- this is not a product of my classroom.

CORRYN
I can’t read it.

HEATHER
He learned this in your house.

CORRYN
I can’t read it.

HEATHER
Oh? As bad as that? As facing what you did?

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I need you to do this . . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Because it’s in his handwriting . . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
And I can’t read his handwriting without seeing his suicide
note in my hands.
 72

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Please?

CORRYN holds the folder out to HEATHER.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER takes it and opens it.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
It began during a war, as things do. We all formed tribes and
began killing the teachers. I cut Mr. Shawn apart myself with
a hunting knife my grandfather gave me the last time he took
me hunting ravens. We needed his entrails for our weavers and
our poets.

I think Mr. Shawn was grateful.

(MORE)
 73

HEATHER (CONT'D)
A group of sixth graders had caught him in the cafeteria
earlier, by the vending machines, and cut out his eyes,
flayed him and raped him with the clubs they had fashioned by
cutting the dicks off of their fathers and stretching the
skin over thick poles. He was spitting blood up because of
something they’d broken in him and I think he loved me for
cutting him open.

I took a broomstick out of the janitor’s closet and nailed

one end of his intestines to it and then rolled the rest of
his intestines out of his stomach, twisting them around the
broomstick-- they stretched more than 25 feet when I was
done. Mr. Shawn had told me that intestines were that long in
science class a month ago, but I didn’t believe him until we
started collecting them for the weavers and the poets. He was
lucky. Most kids wouldn’t have killed him first.

I put the thick roll of Mr. Shawn’s intestines over my

shoulder and started walking to the gym, which is the room
where we kept the weavers.

Outside of Ms. Harris’ room, a tribe of fifth graders were

raping Ms. Clark, Ms. Tologos and Ms. Harris. The boys were
raping them, the girls were slowly slicing away their nipples
with vegetable peelers they’d won in the great cafeteria war
against the lunch ladies. These kids didn’t want anything
more than this. They didn’t care about the weavers or poets.
So they left the teachers raped and scarred and blind, but
didn’t take their entrails. So I killed Ms. Tologos and Ms.
Harris and rolled their entrails onto the broomstick with Mr.
Shawn’s.

It was harder with Ms. Clark. They’d left her one eye and she
was watching me. She was naked and they’d taken her nipples,
her tongue and she was so ripped apart down there, it looked
like dogs had been at her and not just kids. But, I really
needed her entrails. More than she did at this point.
(MORE)
 74

HEATHER (CONT'D)
So I put my knife in her remaining eye and twisted it into
her brain. And I rolled her entrails up with the rest.

Around the corner in the hall outside the nurse’s office, the
nurse, Carole from the office and the fat principal were
hanging from the walls by nails punched through their wrists
and ankles and knees and shoulders. Their bodies were just
gaping, empty bags. No entrails to salvage.

And then I saw Jake Powell. Jake’s tribe and their first
grade slaves. That was the truly sick thing. Jake was raping
the same first grade kid he had been raping even before the
war began. You all already knew about that. This dumb little
kid with glasses. Jake used to have to sneak around about it,
but with the teachers dead or dying, he could do what he
pleased.

I watched him torture his first grade slaves for a while-- he

maimed and raped and bled and squeezed and screamed and
sucked and chewed and twisted. Even before the war Jake was
wrong.

When the weavers give me my cloak, maybe I can do something

about him.

The broomstick was heavy and I had enough guts, so I made my

way to the gym, where the weavers worked.

Since the weavers started working, the gym stopped smelling

like a gym and started smelling like a butchers’ shop and a
toilet. All those entrails being braided and woven. You
wondered how the weavers could stand it, but when they
changed into weavers, maybe they lost their sense of smell.
We had been in home period, in Ms. Clark’s room when the
first weaver was chosen.

We don’t know by who, some think there are aliens on earth

like the body snatchers and some think God did it.
(MORE)
 75

HEATHER (CONT'D)
But whoever did it, in the middle of class this girl suddenly
screamed and her eyes turned into balls of blue glass and her
arms stretched out like poles and her hands grew new fingers
and grew big. This was happening in other classes, but we
didn’t know that. And she started asking for entrails. Not to
eat, but to make things with.

So we put her and the others in the gym and they started
making looms out of the janitor’s supplies. And we started
killing for them. We had to give the weavers what they
needed.

Some of us sort of hung back to see what the weavers were

making from the teachers’ entrails before we started killing
and gutting. But when the first cloak was made and the first
poet climbed the hill, I knew I had to kill however many
teachers I needed to so that I could have one.

I gave a weaver my last pile of entrails and she tied them

onto the ends of the other entrails I had brought her and
started weaving. The cloth the weavers make from the
teachers’ entrails is like nothing you’ve ever seen. It’s
like a river and a taste of salt. It’s like an ocean with
fish moving through black water.

When the weaver finished my gut-cloak she put it around my

shoulders and I felt the pull. And I walked out of the
building to the soccer field where the tribes who kept the
first through third grade kids as slaves had made them build
a mountain. And I climbed the mountain and joined the poets
there.

We watch the war and we write about the great deeds done or
the horrors done. And that is how God remembers you-- the way
we write you. And no other way.

CORRYN
. . . .
 76

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

HEATHER shuts the folder and puts it in

front of CORRYN on a desk.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
He was passing it around. To the other students.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
It’s my responsibility to-- . . .

CORRYN
. . . .
 77

HEATHER
I’m sure you understand.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
I’m sure you understand now.

CORRYN
. . . ?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
I don’t know what it must be like to listen to this. I can’t
imagine what it-- . . . . I don’t think, at heart, that he--
. . . . Well. . . .

CORRYN
This--

HEATHER
Hard to stomach. I know. Believe me.

CORRYN
No. This is-- / it’s--

HEATHER
I know this isn’t all there was to him.

CORRYN
No. This is--
 78

HEATHER
I know he / was--

CORRYN
This is magnificent!

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .
This is wonderful writing.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Strong. Fearless. Fierce. Brave. Cruel.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Remarkable.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
This is a wonderful story. About art and its purpose. About
man and divine judgement. Oh god.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
God, it’s beautiful.
 79

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Oh, god. . . . It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.
How can you--?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
How could you?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
It’s beautiful.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
I disagree.

CORRYN
Why?

HEATHER
I have a responsibility to my students. To protect them.

CORRYN
From what?
 80

HEATHER
From things like this. Damaging things.

CORRYN
Poetry?

HEATHER
Hate-filled, poisonous attacks.

CORRYN
Oh, god!

HEATHER
He passed this around to a room full of children.

CORRYN
What do you think children are?

HEATHER
I know what they are. I work with them. For them. Every day.

CORRYN
All right, what are they?

HEATHER
Fragile.

CORRYN
Fragile! Bullshit! Children are not fragile. They’re stronger
than any of us.

HEATHER
That’s not true.

CORRYN
Yes, it is true. You want children to be something they
aren’t.
 81

HEATHER
Protected.

CORRYN
Innocent. That is some ridiculous Victorian-era idea that
we’ve inherited about childhood. That it’s sacred, that
children are innocent and pure. And that they want to be that
way. / To stay that way.

HEATHER
I don’t think it’s / ridiculous.

CORRYN
Childhood is not a suspended state of innocence-- it is the
condition of rapidly losing / innocence.

HEATHER
You asked what I expected you’d be like--

CORRYN
You can’t stop that from happening.

HEATHER
This.

CORRYN
You shouldn’t want to.

HEATHER
This.

CORRYN
Am I wrong?

HEATHER
Yes.
 82

CORRYN
Oh, God. I put him here. Into a pit. Full of the
unenlightened. Into the hands of / the conventional.

HEATHER
An inability to accept responsibility

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
is what I expected.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Have you ever heard of the Marquis de Sade?

HEATHER
I don’t see the relevance.

CORRYN
Have you heard of him?

HEATHER
We don’t teach him here.

CORRYN
Yes, but surely you’ve heard--

HEATHER
I’ve heard of him.
 83

CORRYN
Was he a genius?

HEATHER
I don’t think your son was a tortured genius, Ms. Fell.

CORRYN
He’s been studied for hundreds of years.

HEATHER
I think something was wrong. In his life.

CORRYN
He’s in libraries, except where they are censored by people
with limited imaginations.

HEATHER
Maybe he had been hurt.

CORRYN
Who the hell are you to tell my son what not to write about?

HEATHER
His teacher.

CORRYN
What were you teaching him? How to disappear into some mold
you wanted to pour him into?

HEATHER
This decision wasn’t about him. It was about the other
children. Their well-being.

CORRYN
Have you read the Marquis de Sade?

HEATHER
Why?
 84

CORRYN
That’s probably a yes.

HEATHER
God.

CORRYN
Did you enjoy it?

HEATHER
This is a fifth grade classroom.

CORRYN
This is a small box. Full of smaller boxes. One of which you
tried to keep my son in. And when he couldn’t fit inside it,
he shot himself in the head.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Over not fitting in a box cut to your dimensions.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
The Marquis de Sade is going to be in libraries and studied
and marveled over for centuries after you are a dead,
forgotten fifth-grade teacher who failed to make a go at
advertising.
 85

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
He was a beautiful writer.

HEATHER
I don’t share your appreciation for the Marquis de Sade.

CORRYN
No. . . . My son.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Gidion was a beautiful writer.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
He wanted to be a writer. He was going to be one.

HEATHER
. . . .
 86

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Jake raped a first grader.

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
Gidion thought Jake raped a first grader.

HEATHER
He did not.

CORRYN
That’s what he / wrote--

HEATHER
No. He did not. That’s / absolutely--

CORRYN
Was Jake accused / of--

HEATHER
That’s not the point.

CORRYN
Not the point?

HEATHER
This--

She gestures toward the folder.

 87

HEATHER (cont’d)
No matter what this was about, it was-- in itself-- enough to
/ justify a suspension--

CORRYN
But, is it true?

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
Jake was never accused / of anything like--

HEATHER
Jake is the victim here. What your son / did to Jake--

CORRYN
Raping a first grader?

HEATHER
Don’t. Just don’t. I can’t / discuss it--

CORRYN
It’s a simple / question.

HEATHER
With you.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Jake’s just an easy target lately.
 88

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
(from Seneca’s note)
“Don’t get mad. That’s what he wants. I believe you that he
did it. I always believe YOU not that dicksnot.”

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
“Don’t get mad. That’s what he wants.”

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Jake wanted to make Gidion mad. Faggot. Revenge. He read
this. He beat Gidion up.

HEATHER
This isn’t his fault.

CORRYN
I know that.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
But was Gidion right?

HEATHER
If he left those messages on Gidion’s facebook page-- it had
to be the first time he has ever done anything / like that--
 89

CORRYN
I don’t care if he and Gidion fought. I don’t care if he
raped the entire first grade class. I just want to know if my
son was right. If this--

The folder.

CORRYN (cont’d)
--is what I think it is.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I don’t care about Jake. You think that I think like you.
That I have a cause. That this is an opportunity for me to
demonstrate my essential human goodness. By putting together
a PR campaign at my kitchen table to raise awareness about
cyber-bullying. Going on talk shows and bragging about how
I’m turning lemons to lemonade by lobbying for legislation to
prevent eleven-year-olds from typing the word faggot on
facebook.

You know all about PR campaigns, Heather, being an advertiser-

- you could help me with my cause. Get someone to write a
movie of the week about our selfless campaign. How we quit
our teaching jobs to devote ourselves full-time to lobbying
congress to pass “Gidion’s Law” which is the name we will
give our new legislation to make it sound touching and
socially necessary. Instead of fascist and inhumanly
invasive. And they will create keyboards intelligent enough
to detect when a child is typing the word faggot on the
facebook wall of another child, and then keyboard will
deliver a paralyzing electric shock to the child’s fingers
while simultaneously erasing every word the child has ever
written.

God, we’ll be famous, Heather. Warmly praised, too.

(MORE)
 90

CORRYN (CONT'D)

If you want to violate human rights in this country. All you

really have to do is slap a dead child on the issue. You want
every person who has ever looked cross-eyed at a child put on
a registry and denied basic civic rights? Point out a dead
child. You want a camera on every street corner? Find one
corner where a child died. You want tougher seat belt laws,
massive product recalls-- dead, dead, dead child.

He didn’t die because of what Jake did. Or what Jake wrote on

his facebook page. He didn’t die because of what he wrote, or
because you suspended him. He died because he couldn’t face
telling me about it--

. . . . god damn it . . . .

He could have told me this. God. I’m not a good mother. There
are a million things he could have done and not wanted to
tell me. A million things I would have been unequipped to
hear. I lived in fear of those things. I’m not a good mother.
There are so many things that could go wrong-- so many ways I
could ruin things-- but this? This?

This was my good mother moment.

What happened?

He could have told me this. I would have told him: “This is

magnificent. You are a poet. You’re perfect. They’re wrong.”

My good mother moment. The one time-- the one time I would
have been the mother he needed and not just the one he got.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .
 91

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I don’t know what I did to make him think he couldn’t tell
me. And I’m honest with myself. If I knew I wouldn’t be
afraid to tell you I’m a failure-- I just don’t know at what.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
We had a boy at the school this Fall. A first grader. He was
troubled.

CORRYN
. . . ?
 92

HEATHER
There were things going on at home. Things with his older
brother’s soccer coach. Things happened to him. And Jake was
his math tutor.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
And he accused Jake of touching him.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
We kept it quiet.

CORRYN
But the kids found out. Gidion found out.

HEATHER
The boy’s parents apologized when he admitted to them that he
was lying.

CORRYN
Was he lying?

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
Gidion believed Jake did it.

HEATHER
No. He liked Jake.

CORRYN
They were friends?
 93

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Gidion was standing up for this kid. This little kid.

HEATHER
I don’t think so.

CORRYN
He was. He believed that Jake did it. This was an accusation!

HEATHER
Jake spent a lot of time with this younger boy.

CORRYN
Right or wrong-- he thought it was the truth. That he had to
tell the truth.

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
He wanted to tell the truth! Yes!

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Yes.

This.

It’s based on a story I used to tell him when he was little.

About the Great Poets’ war.

Once upon a time in the green hills of ancient Gaul, two

warring clans met on the battlefield of Ballycrief.
(MORE)
 94

CORRYN (CONT'D)
Each clan had a master poet and a poet's apprentice. And they
sent their poets to the top of the hill. So they could see.

Because men aren't afraid of dying, but they are afraid of

not being remembered.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
No. That’s not what I meant.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
He liked Jake?

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
Jake beat him up. Called him a faggot.

HEATHER
Before that.
 95

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
He liked him?

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Liked him?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . ?
 96

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN picks up the folder.

CORRYN
You think . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Angry?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Jealous? Of the first grader that he thought Jake had . . .
loved?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Jealous.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Oh.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Oh. . . . Ha! Poor Seneca.
 97

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Okay.

HEATHER
Sometimes there are situations in life where you want to do
something very much, but you just can’t.

CORRYN
No. There are situations where you don’t do what you want.
That’s all.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Fifteen minutes.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
She said she was coming. She’s a liar.
 98

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
Why isn’t she coming?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . ?

HEATHER
(sighs)
She talked to the school superintendent. He told her not to
talk to you.

CORRYN
. . .?

HEATHER
Without the school board’s attorneys present.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
They’re worried about you suing the school district.

CORRYN
Do I have a case?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Are you supposed to be talking to me?
 99

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . ?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I see. She’s a coward.

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
You’re not. Whatever else you are, you’re not a coward. Or a
liar, which is surprising given your background in
advertising.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Are you married?

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
No kids. You live alone?

HEATHER
Yes.

CORRYN
You have a cat. There’s a photo on your desk.
 100

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER’s control slips, like at the

start of the play.

Her control dissolves.

She sobs. Painfully.

CORRYN (cont’d)
Oh, god! . . . Oh, God!. . . hey . . . hey-- . . . It’s all
right.

CORRYN goes to HEATHER and holds her

awkwardly. She finds tissues and puts
them in HEATHER’s hands.

CORRYN (cont’d)
It’s-- . . . It’s all right. . . . oh, god. Please don’t.
You’ll make me, and I can’t, I’ll-- . . . It’ll be all right.
It’s all right. Just don’t-- . . . . (sighs)

HEATHER
! ! ! !

CORRYN
. . . .
 101

HEATHER
! ! ! .

CORRYN
It’s okay.

HEATHER
! ! . .

CORRYN
It’s okay.

HEATHER
! . . .

HEATHER has most of her control back.

CORRYN
There. Okay. There.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Okay.

HEATHER
I’m all right.

CORRYN moves away.

 102

CORRYN
Okay.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Okay.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . ?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER touches her cellphone.

HEATHER
The vet.

CORRYN
. . . ?

HEATHER holds up the cellphone.

HEATHER
The vet.

CORRYN
Oh, god. Your cat’s sick? You’re waiting for a call from the
vet?
 103

HEATHER
(nods)

CORRYN
Is she going to be okay?

HEATHER
(shakes her head)

CORRYN
. . . .

CORRYN laughs.

CORRYN (cont’d)
I’m sorry! Oh, god. I’m sorry. . . .

Laughs again.

CORRYN (cont’d)
But, Jesus, really? How much more depressing is this
conversation going to get?

Oh, god.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .
Sorry.
Your cat is dying?

HEATHER
(nods)
 104

CORRYN
I’m sorry. What’s wrong with her?

HEATHER
Diabetes.

CORRYN
Oh. She won’t get better?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Well. . . .

HEATHER
They’re going to call me.

CORRYN
But she isn’t going to get better.

HEATHER
He.

CORRYN
He.

HEATHER
They’re going to call.

CORRYN
So, the vet’s going to call you and-- what? You’re going to
go down there?

HEATHER
. . . .
 105

CORRYN
And put your cat to sleep?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Well, this is bad timing. Huh?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
You’ve been through this before? With other pets?

HEATHER
(shakes her head)

CORRYN
Well. It’s never easy. It won’t be.

HEATHER
I don’t think I-- . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
I don’t think I-- it’s hard--

CORRYN
I’ve done it three times. Two dogs and a cat. Now-- no more
pets.

HEATHER
. . . .
 106

CORRYN
How long did you have him?

HEATHER
Fifteen years.

CORRYN
He had a long life for a cat.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
What happened?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Was he just prone to diabetes?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Or did you overfeed him?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .
 107

CORRYN takes a paper out of her bag and

puts it on HEATHER’s desk.

HEATHER
. . . ?

CORRYN
Sign this.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
You’re supposed to sign it when we’ve had our parent teacher
conference.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Part of the bureaucratic machinery of school suspension.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
A form you need for his file, I guess.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
The principal needs to sign it, too. To confirm that we
chatted.

HEATHER
. . . .
 108

CORRYN
I don’t know what we’ll do about her signature. Write the
word “coward” in the blank?

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
You sent this home with him. I’m supposed to meet with you
and get it signed.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Unless it is no longer important.

HEATHER takes the form and finds a pen.

CORRYN (cont’d)
I was grading papers when he gave it to me. I knew it was
something big. He couldn’t look at me.

He was shaking.

He gave it to me. I looked at it. I saw what it was and told

him everything would be all right. Asked him if he wanted to
talk about it.

He had blood on his nose. Someone had hit him in the nose.
Jake, probably. Jake, who he liked at one time. I guess.

He shook his head no. He pulled away when I tried to wipe the
blood away. He went up to his room.

I called after him telling him everything was all right and I
would take care of this. I called the office. Carole. I made
this appointment.
(MORE)
 109

CORRYN (CONT’D)

I didn’t hear him go into the garage.

I called him to come down for dinner. He didn’t answer so I

started up the stairs to go get him and I heard the gun shot.
I thought he was upstairs still and I couldn’t imagine--

I called out again and told him to stay in his room and then
I went into the garage.

He had taken garbage bags-- the ones for gathering dead

leaves, and taped them in a large rectangle on the floor.
Like a tarp. But, he didn’t understand. Because he put the
gun under his chin. So, nothing. . . nothing landed on the
tarp. So.

He didn’t leave behind the tidy mess he thought he would.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
He left a note.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
“I’ve gone to stand with the poets.”

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .
 110

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
That’s beautiful.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Thank you.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
That was honest.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
You don’t say that to someone. When someone tells you what
her child’s suicide note says, you aren’t supposed to say
“that’s beautiful.” It really isn’t appropriate. But you said
it. Because you felt it.

HEATHER
. . . .
 111

CORRYN
Thank you.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

HEATHER signs the paper.

CORRYN
Do you have someone to go with you?

HEATHER
. . . ?

CORRYN
The cat.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I’m not offering. Just asking.

HEATHER
No.

CORRYN
Oh.

HEATHER
. . . .
 112

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
They said that I don’t have to be there. If it turns out that
nothing can be done, I can just give them permission to do it

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
And they’ll just

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
And I don’t have to

CORRYN
Yes you do.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
You have to. He was your cat.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Come on. You’re tough. Right?

HEATHER
. . . .
 113

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
(shakes her head)

CORRYN
You have to! He’s your cat! You do it!!!

CORRYN grabs her and shakes her.

HEATHER cries out, surprised, and tries
to push her off.

While CORRYN is talking, they end up on

the floor.

CORRYN (cont’d)
Do it! DO IT! He’s your cat! You talk to him while they kill
him. Talk to him and tell him you love him. Sing him his
favorite songs. Put his favorite stuffed toy in his paws and
then watch them do it to him! It’s your job, damnit! Watch!
You watch his eyes-- that’s how you’ll know it’s time-- you
won’t be able to breathe for watching his eyes and waiting
for them to turn glassy-- and even if he doesn’t know you’re
there with him-- you’ll know-- you overfed him, damnit! It’s
your fault. Your fault! You be there! You put out the damned
cat food. And now your cat’s become an ocean and the vet
can’t catch it in the cup he’s holding out. You have to be
there to catch the rest of it. The whole ocean and the fish
and cold and black and the way he’s going to die and wave
after wave of that ocean until he’s gone! It all matters
until he’s gone-- every second of it!

CORRYN lets her go. They are on the

floor, staring at one another.
 114

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Or you’ll always regret it.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
Okay.

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Okay. Good.

CORRYN gets up and goes to Gidion’s

desk. She gathers everything that was
his together, putting some things in
her purse and carrying others.

CORRYN (cont’d)
. . . .
 115

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
Tell the principal I was sorry I missed her. Give her that
form. If you have someone cut the lock off of Gidion’s locker
have someone bring his things to my house and leave them on
the porch.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
I blame you for this.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
. . . .

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN
(sincerely)
I’m sorry.

HEATHER
. . . .

CORRYN leaves.

HEATHER gets up and straightens the

desks and chairs that were moved around
during her struggle with CORRYN.
 116

She goes to the door, which CORRYN has

left partly open, and pulls it shut.

She sits at her desk and picks up her

mug. She stares at it as if it were
unfamiliar.

Her cellphone rings.

It rings again.

It rings.

It rings.

End of play.