Susan Hayden: California Poets Part 7, Scene from a Play

Susan Hayden (photo by Alexis Rhone Fancher)

July 1st, 2024

California Poets: Part VII

Susan Hayden

Scene from a Play

Author's Note:

"Scene One was once the original Tent Show—a twelve minute play produced in a workshop at Padua Playwrights and in the Other Voices Writing Workshop at the Mark Taper Forum (starring Alan Toy and Grace Zabriskie). I used Scene One as the jumping-off point for what would become an extended one-act, produced at the Met Theatre in Los Angeles, starring O-Lan Jones, Arliss Howard and Tom Bower."

from TENT SHOW

 

A play by Susan Hayden

Characters

ESTELLE DEL MONTE

An entertainer in the old-fashioned sense. Ageless.

LUCKY DAVIS

A paraplegic magician/mystic.

VAUGHN HOOVER

A pseudo-cowboy-gambler.

Setting

A tent show in a mythic town outside Hibbing, Minnesota. Very far north. The kind of town that was once occupied by a “real” population but has been semi-deserted for decades.

SCENE ONE: Production

ESTELLE’S dressing room/sleeping place. ESTELLE’S performance has ended and she is unwinding with LUCKY.  The song,”I’m a Woman,” sung by Peggy Lee plays. Center stage is a speckled card table and next to it sit ESTELLE and LUCKY; she, in a fold-up chair, he, in his wheelchair. ESTELLE’S legs are stretched over LUCKY and he is rubbing her feet. ESTELLE wears a tight black lace slip, seamed pantyhose and full makeup. Her worn stilettos are strewn on the floor. LUCKY wears a wildly-colored paisley suit and tie and bubble-toe boots.

ESTELLE (cigarette dangling from her mouth)

You have NO idea what he smelled like.

LUCKY

Can’t say I wanna find out.

ESTELLE

Cashmere. In the winter time. Wet wool. His sweat smelled like wet wool.

LUCKY

Why ya tellin’ me this, Estelle? Tryin’ to put me off? I’m only just startin’ to love you.

ESTELLE

I know you are, Lucky. And I like it.  That someday you’ll love me. That you probably love me now…

LUCKY

So I ain’t interested in the sweat of another man. Only my own. My sweat!

ESTELLE

Well, if anyone knows how to work my pulse, it’s Vaughn.  He was here! But he didn’t say anything.  And I played his song. Our song. That Peggy Lee tune. It was after your act. You were sitting there when I climbed onto that table-top and did that little dance. You saw me.

LUCKY

Yeah, I saw ya.

ESTELLE

I watched your eyes on me.

LUCKY

An’  I watched your eyes on him. (Stops rubbing her feet, drinks from a bottle of Maker’s Mark).  I gotta say, Estelle., I never seen ya like that. Like someone cast a spell on ya. Like ya was possessed.

ESTELLE

“My old flame, I can’t even think of his name..” God! That was our song before we were even split. Doomed from the get-go! Bastard ran out before the end of the song.  I didn’t get to give him a hug, nothing. And he didn’t bother to go to a Hallmark shop and buy me a real card with a sweet sentiment printed inside. Just a flat flower-shop card, the kind you get for free. Do you know what it said, Lucky? “I’m offa booze and into purity.” (Groans). Good riddance!

LUCKY (Resumes massage)

Yeah. You deserve someone who knows how to handle a real woman.  Treat her right! Someone…who’s good…with his hands. (Stops massage, reached for a pair of round balls under his wheelchair and begins to juggle).

ESTELLE

Do you know how to handle a real woman, Lucky?  (He nods). Then don’t stop with the feet.  It feels too good. You know how to make me feel too good.

LUCKY (Reluctantly resumes massage. ESTELLE reached for his bottle, drinks straight from it). Real women. Ain’t many o’  them left.  An’ I ain’t talkin’ ole-fashioned types, neither. It’s the edge I like. The edge.

ESTELLE

I have “the edge,” don’t I, Luck?

LUCKY (A bit shy)

Ya hafta ask, Estelle? (Concentrating on massage). Golly, ya got beautiful feet. Dancer’s feet. Toes like fingers. Makes all the difference in the world when you’re rubbin’ them.

ESTELLE

Now Vaughn, he had the best feet. Jesus-Feet.

LUCKY

Pardon?

ESTELLE

Jesus-Feet! You know when you see those ancient paintings of Christ. Whether he’s carrying the cross or if he’s on it? Haven’t you ever noticed his feet?  They’re flawless. Smooth. Tan.

LUCKY

Yeah, right. With nails through ‘em.

ESTELLE

Those damn stilettoes. They’re killing my feet.  Destroying them. Sometimes my feet burn so bad. It’s from the inside. Like something’s gone wrong. (Catches herself and lightens up).  One night, I’m going to show up on stage in my sequined gown, wearing a pair of thermal socks with rubber sneakers.

LUCKY (Changes motion of his fingers)

This here’s called “The Caterpillar.” Helps make the right kind o’ contact with the deposits under your skin. See, the form here, at the ball o’ your foot. (Elaborate display).  Means…your body’s clogged, in certain areas. I learned all this from one o’ them Globe Mini-Mags ya buy at the store, called “Asian Secrets of the Hand and Foot.” They’re into rubbin’ feet in Japan. It’s considered a healin’ art over there. So… this guy Vaughn, he ever rub your feet?

ESTELLE

No, but he was good at other things.

LUCKY

Best way is to rub toward the direction of the heart. This calls for a one-handed focus.

ESTELLE

I remember one time Vaughn gave me a Swedish massage. And he wasn’t even from Sweden!

LUCKY (Throws her feet town in anger)

It’s like I’m livin’ in the shadow of a loser. A ghost. From your past. Who’s still alive and well in your memory. Happens to me all the time. There’s always a fuckim’ ghost when I meet a lady. Someone better. Who came before.

ESTELLE

Better? You’re wrong there. No man is better than the next. Just different.  The word “better”only applies to women. (Frantically searches her purse for cigarettes and when she can’t find them, empties the contents onto her lap).

LUCKY

Bullshit!

ESTELLE

You see, Lucky. Men come in all shapes and sizes. Women, too but it has more to do with quality-control. A woman’s mind…seems to have so much more room for expansion, growth. And you know, a woman will change for a man. A man will never change for a woman.

LUCKY

Don’t count unless ya change for yourself.

ESTELLE

And Vaughn, he was like a teacher to me. Caught me in “mid-cycle.” I was available. To learn things.

LUCKY

Ya ain’t available now?

ESTELLE

It’s kind of the opposite with you. You’re…refreshing. Vaughn, he’d been to college. Well, trade school. He was a wood-finisher. A craftsman.  He had a skill. It’s not easy to finish wood.

LUCKY

I got a skill. Magic’s a rare skill!

ESTELLE

Now, now. You don’t have to compare yourself.

LUCKY

I ain’t. You brought this guy up. (Resumes massage again, a little less enthusiastically). Hey, did ya catch that little tike on the sidelines who wanted me to teach him the Invisible Rooster trick? Couldn’t o’ been more than four.

ESTELLE

Vaughn…read books. A lot of books. Literature. Got me to read too. Before him, I only read beauty and gossip magazines. Tabloids. You know, like the National Enquirer, etceteras. He…started me with Sleeping Beauty. “The Basics” he called them. Next thing you know, I’m reading The Classics. Writers, from places like the Far East. Like Europe!

LUCKY

I think my parents were from Europe.

ESTELLE

Lucky, that’s not the same thing. (She laughs). Everyone’s parents were from Europe unless they came off the Mayflower. These writers…had theories.

LUCKY

What’re ya readin’ now?

ESTELLE

I don’t know the name of it. It’s under my bed.  Something about the French Revolution, some revolution…Oh, who has time anymore?

LUCKY

Listen, Estelle. I’ve had about enough of all this talk. Let’s close up this hole an’ go somewhere pretty.

ESTELLE

Lucky, it’s Two a.m. Maybe even Three. I need my beauty sleep.

LUCKY

So the hell what? That river outside’s got real live fish in it! Eel an’shit. I can teach ya to swim. Teach ya to fish.

ESTELLE

How?!

LUCKY

I done a lotta swimmin’ in my day.

ESTELLE

I’m an indoor woman. That’s the edge you like. Besides, water scares the living daylights out of me. Many years ago, at a show in Vegas, they wanted me to do a water dance in the shallow end of a plastic pool. Do I look like Esther Williams to you?

LUCKY

A little.

ESTELLE

Well, I flat-out refused to jump in. So I stood there. Looking swell in my one-piece.  And they still paid me, I might add. They honored my contract. That was the year I got to shake Dean Martin’s hand, for real life. Bet you didn’t know he had sweaty palms? At first, I thought it was because he was so nervous to be meeting me, an up-and-coming up-and-comer. But—much to my chagrin—I later found out that it’s an actual medical condition lots of people acquire. Apparently old Dino used it to his advantage. His wedding ring finger was especially slippery, if you know what I mean. Jewelry of convenience.  (Pause). Please keep rubbing, Lucky. (He won’t). Plleeeeasse! (He can’t refuse now). I taught Vaughn so many things. He was a good listener, too. Way back when, he’d listen to me for hours at a time. Singing. Talking. Rambling on like I do. And he’d sit there. Drinking. Polishing wood. And listening. Kind of like you. Kind of like now. Then I taught him to talk, and watch out! Pretty soon, I knew all his secrets. Hidden meanings to things. From his past. Things about the world. Mystical stories of his travels. He used to frequent the tents way before he met me. One time, outside a show in Des Moines, he met a two-headed lady with one big heart! Said she could love a whole circus. She was the headlining act for tricksters like you. Only it was she who held all the real magic. Her two brains could

ESTELLE (CON’T)

transform anything. Relationship got tough, though, when he couldn’t figure out which set of lips to kiss first. He had trouble making decisions. That’s when he met me!

LUCKY (Stops rubbing again)

An’ you believed this crock o’shit?

ESTELLE

Of course I believed it. What’s not to believe?

LUCKY

We share things. We’re just startin’ to, ain’t we? We share our dreams. Never had that with no one. Well, maybe one other gal.

ESTELLE

It’s the hardest thing finding someone to talk to. And we can…be intimate…and feel safe about it, I suppose.

LUCKY

If this “thing” ya had goin’ with this Vaughn character was so good, why’d he leave ya, huh? Why ain’t he here with ya now, rubbin’ your feet?

ESTELLE

I left him! Men don’t leave me, ever! Couldn’t sit still. I got restless. He hated me singing in public, got jealous of all the guys looking up my skirt, and you know, I never could perform household chores very well. And…I ran out of secrets to tell him. I had to go create some more. So I took off, but he followed me.  Detroit. Iowa City. Mississippi. Even Nashville. Planted himself on every redneck barroom across the country while I’d play the moveable tents, the traveling minstrels. When I landed in Texas, that about did him in. He was born there, but he couldn’t come home, if you know what I mean. He said he was tired of not being his own man. Said he couldn’t’ polish wood for five days in a town, then take off again and leave the wood unfinished.  He was a wood finisher.  Besides, everywhere didn’t have good wood. Texas did, but it also had younger men.  And he was getting old. Anyway, we lasted off and on until Hollywood. Florida, that is. I tried to be faithful, but I had lots of opportunity. And…I used to have trouble saying “no.” Infidelity runs in my family. It’s a genetic thing. So here I am. In your arms. In your hands…

LUCKY

Are ya with me, Estelle

ESTELLE

Do my calves. Lucky. (He does so, reluctantly).  “A beautiful woman is only beautiful if she’s a balance of two things. One: Purity. Two: Violation.”  Vaughn used to say that. And now he himself has swung to purity.

LUCKY

I’ve a feelin’ he’s pullin your chain, Estelle. If he’s tellin’ ya he’s swung to purity, he’s totally corruptible. Take it from a man who knows.  Purity is just a standard we set up to follow, like the Bible an’ shit.  I seen churchgoers who were the cheatin’ kind, like on their loved ones. I seen priests who were queer. I done some things too, Estelle. Bad things. I know ya think I’m clean, but don’t let this face fool ya. I got my own set o’ rules.

ESTELLE

What rules?

LUCKY

It’s a silent code. So, uh, ya still never told me what ya taught the son-of-a-bitch. What d’ya really teach him, Essie? To kiss? That real special way ya know how to kiss?!

ESTELLE

No, Lucky! I have to admit, he taught me!  He taught me to kiss that way I do. Said the key was, don’t let the other person’s mouth intimidate you and take over. He said…kissing really started…with a decision to surrender to it. To be set free. And then your mouth starts to have a life of its own and then your brain gets put to rest for as long as the kissing lasts. Eventually, the two mouths grow familiar if they kiss enough times.  You know, Lucky, I believe that in my lips lies the power to ruin a man’s life!!

LUCKY

I believe ya. Cuz o’mine. You’re ruinin’ mine! (He throws her feet down once and for all).

They freeze in position.

LIGHTS FADE.

END SCENE.

Tom Bower, O-Lan Jones and Arliss Howard

in the actual production of Tent Show at the Met Theatre

Alan Toy and Grace Zabriskie in the original Tent Show

Author Bio:

Susan Hayden is the author of Now You Are a Missing Person, a hybrid memoir in stories, poems and fragments (Moon Tide Press). The book received a Kirkus Star from Kirkus Reviews, was an Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist, a Zibby Awards Finalist and included in Los Angeles Public Library’s Best of 2023/Literature and Fiction. She has contributed to numerous anthologies, including From Venice to Venice (El Martillo Press), Beat Not Beat (Moon Tide Press), Los Angeles in the 1970s (Rare Bird Books) and The Black Body (Seven Stories Press). Hayden is creator/producer of Library Girl, a monthly literary series now in its 15th year at Ruskin Theatre in Santa Monica. The proud mother of singer/songwriter Mason Summit, she lives in Santa Monica with her husband, music journalist Steve Hochman.