Plays for Three by Eric Lane

Author:Eric Lane [Lane, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2015-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

KENNY: What about Greg?

DYSON: He tested positive for crystal meth. (After a beat.) Dunk and Drew have to report at eight A.M. back in Charleston tomorrow, then they’ll ship ’em out to boot camp. (Brief pause. DYSON’s affect hardens.) Way to go.

GRAHAM: I’m—

DYSON: Don’t apologize, Grammy. Don’t you dare fuckin’ apologize.

GRAHAM: I wasn’t going to. I was gonna say—I’m proud of him. (Brief pause. DYSON pops out his spent shell and reloads. He begins to get uncontrollably sad-angry, his speech faltering slightly.)

DYSON: I stayed married eighteen years just to be a father to that kid.

GRAHAM: No one made you.

DYSON: Oh yeah, like I had a choice. Not everyone has to Adopt.

GRAHAM: (Starting after “choice.”) Cheryl’s the best thing that ever happened to you, and you know it—

DYSON: (Overlapping, never having stopped.) I’ve taken the one life I get and spent Half of it holding it together just for Him, just to make him into a Person that Matters—

GRAHAM: And that’s half of why he’s going, I’m sure, to get out from under that weight!

DYSON: (Overlapping.) I’ve fallen in love three times, seriously in love—

GRAHAM: You don’t even know what love means—

DYSON: (Overlapping.) —and each time stayed married, being the Wrong One in the household the whole time, being the Wrong One every day, for Him—and now I’m gonna Lose him?

GRAHAM: You were always gonna lose him—

DYSON: But not in such a stupid, useless way! Not in the dumbest, wrongest, most dishonest war ever waged! It’s so fucking pointless! (DYSON raises his shotgun and aims it at GRAHAM.)

GRAHAM: What do you think you’re gonna do, shoot me?

DYSON: Yeah.

GRAHAM: Uh-huh.

DYSON: I’m gonna do it, Grammy, I’m serious. (DYSON cocks his shotgun, trembling. GRAHAM doesn’t flinch. When he speaks, it’s with more disappointment than judgment.)

GRAHAM: God. What the hell happened to you? Do you remember, Kenny, when we used to take turns riding on top of the cab of Eric Eichelberger’s pickup down the Fish Hatchery Road?

KENNY: Yeah…?

GRAHAM: He used to do ninety miles an hour, this guy, strapped on with jumper cables. Ninety miles an hour. Best I could ever do was forty—? (After a beat.) And all those big, exotic plans of his, remember? He was gonna go to Scotland, right, that was the plan after we saw Local Hero, he was gonna go to Scotland. And after that it was gonna be India and Egypt. Dice was gonna see the world. (After a beat.) But what did he do instead? He came back from the Boundary Waters and immediately said no to a full ride at Northwestern—so he could go to SIU?—and then he got Cheryl pregnant on purpose just to make sure he’d never have to leave town again. (After a beat.) You were my fuckin’ hero. What happened? (Long pause. GRAHAM starts to collect his things.)

DYSON: Don’t move, Grammy, I mean it.

GRAHAM: (As in “get real.”) Please. (GRAHAM picks up his gun and walks over to KENNY. Thunder rolls.) Kenny, I’m sorry about—Lady.

KENNY: Thanks. (Kenny looks at DYSON, then at GRAHAM, and realizes it’s over.

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