copyright © 2002 Drake Iowa/Nick Clark

FOUR CYCLE X - The Dinosaurs Along I-80 by Drake Iowa

[LIGHTS UP. DAUGHTER and BUS DRIVER are relaxing, not really aware of each other on the stage. OLD WOMAN enters, pregnant as you please.]

OLD WOMAN

[To no one in particular, or to whoever will listen.] I have a feeling this one's going to be a boy. My very own son. You could say this is the first time I'll be a mother.

DAUGHTER

[Suddenly taking an interest] Mom?

OLD WOMAN

Yes, dear?

DAUGHTER

You are my mother, aren't you?

OLD WOMAN

Well, you're my daughter. But I, eh, I wasn't much of a mother to you anyway...

DAUGHTER

Well, I mean - I know you didn't give birth to me...

OLD WOMAN

No, dear. My husband did.

DAUGHTER

Yeah. So... are you my mother?

OLD WOMAN

Do you want me to be?

DAUGHTER

[beat] I don't know.

[LIGHTS FLICKER BRIEFLY. OLD WOMAN exits. MONSTER enters.]

DAUGHTER

Hello?

[MONSTER looks up sadly]

I think you're the one I'm looking for. May I ask...

MONSTER

I am a monster.

DAUGHTER

That man out there brought me in his pickup. [She points out the window.] Do you recognize that one with the roof sheared off?

[MONSTER looks out the window.]

MONSTER

[Very nervous.] That man brought you here? Who is he?

DAUGHTER

He's a robber who only speaks Spanish. He broke into my father's house and saved my life. But that's another story. [beat] What do you mean 'monster'?

MONSTER

A perversion. Inhuman. Monstrous.

DAUGHTER

[Puzzled] You look okay to me.

MONSTER

Who was your father?

DAUGHTER

The robber told me you know about him. The best farmer in the state. Ran only gasoline on account of his diesel allergy. Kinda funny. He got in the habit of wearing a sombrero to the fields and he wound up keeping it on most nights too.

MONSTER

[disturbed] I am a monster. I'm a terrible monster. That man with the sombrero on at night. God help me I tried to stop but my brakes - the gravel just...

DAUGHTER

It's okay. You never meant to, but you want to know something?

[MONSTER looks up, frightened.]

You know why you couldn't find him?

MONSTER

His body was gone. There was a skunk smell and I passed out. A bus came.

DAUGHTER

I know. He didn't want to be found.

MONSTER

You're saying...

DAUGHTER

You're not a monster.

MONSTER

The man in the truck told you that?

[DAUGHTER nods]

How did he know?

DAUGHTER

Love is... Are you a monster?

MONSTER

[beat] I don't know for sure...

DAUGHTER

In my part of the state, the phone lines are buried, and they go right under my dad's fields. Did I mention he was getting the highest yield in the state?

[MONSTER shakes head slowly]

Well, he was, um... You know the Taj Mahal?

[MONSTER stares for a moment.]

Nevermind. "Love is a fire of the earth and we should let it torture our spirits."

MONSTER

I don't understand what you're saying.

DAUGHTER

I don't think I can explain it.

[LIGHTS FLICKER & DIM SLIGHTLY. OPERATOR enters. MONSTER and DAUGHTER exit.]

OPERATOR

¡El amor es un fuego terrestre, y tú debes dejar que te torture el espiritu! Love is a fire of the earth and you should let it torture your spirit. Our words traveled through the earth, rich with love, and caught fire. For hours our words burned like diesel smoldering under special corn and special beans. My mouth grew so hot from the exchange that when I kissed him, his face blistered and eventually fell away. The more I spoke, the hotter the words, and eventually all my words, even the ones I spoke long ago turned to quiet flames and burned themselves up. Words like that are tremendous; buildings stop burning, heart attacks clear up forever, jealous boyfriends put down their guns and rethink their lives. [beat] But now I just drive the harvester.

[LIGHTS DIM MORE. OPERATOR exits. OLD MAN enters. OLD WOMAN re-enters. OLD MAN and OLD WOMAN approach each other gradually during the following speech, and embrace at the end of it.]

BUS DRIVER

You gotta listen carefully. It won't show right away, but it'll be better if you listen. Those rules are to protect you. You gotta listen close. Listen close enough to hear the corn growing at night. There are words and wounds and shouts and sounds in these fields and out of them that... Dang it. If you don't listen...

[OLD MAN and OLD WOMAN embrace. FADE TO BLACK.]

"FOUR CYCLE X - The Dinosaurs Along I-80" IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED, TRANSMITTED, PRINTED OR PERFORMED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR

"FOUR CYCLE X - The Dinosaurs Along I-80" debuted November 22, 2002, performed by Aprille Clarke, Nick Clark, James Erwin, Michele Thompson, Denise Dooley (operator), Chris LaVoie (bus driver).

Four Cycle:
[pt1, Law Abiding Bus Driver]
[pt2 - The Old Man Who Could Not Drive A Tractor]
[pt3: Prodigal Daughter]
[pt4, The Pungent Trucker]
[pt 5, the Neighbors on the Porch Swing]
[pt 6a - Barbed and Wired]
[pt 6b - Family Reunion]
[pt7 - The Nurse From the Quilting Club]
[pt8 - The Monster and the Truck]
[pt9: Somnambulatory Grain Harvester]
[X - The Dinosaurs Along I-80]

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