Buried Child Read online

  VINCE: (From the porch.) Vincent who? What is this?! Who are you people?

  SHELLY: (To HALIE.) Hey wait a minute. Wait a minute!

  HALIE: (Moving closer to the porch screen.) We thought you were a murderer or something. Barging in through the door like that.

  VINCE: A murderer? No, no, no! How could I be a murderer when I don't exist? A murderer is a living breathing person who takes the life and breath away from another living breathing person. That's a murderer. You've got me mixed up with someone else.

  BRADLEY: (Sitting up on the sofa.) You get off our front porch, you creep! What're you doing out there breaking bottles? Who are these foreigners anyway! Where did they all come from?

  HALIE: (Moving toward the porch.) Vincent, what's got into you! Why are you acting like this?

  VINCE: Who's that? Who's that speaking?

  SHELLY: (Approaching HALIE.) YOU mean you know who he is?

  HALIE: Of course I know who he is! That's more than I can say for you, missie.

  DODGE: Where's my goddamn bottle? (HALIE turns back toward DEWIS and crosses to him. VINCE sings.)

  VINCE: “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. We will fight our country's battles in the air on land and sea … ”

  HALIE: (To DEWIS.) Father, why are you just standing around here when everything's falling apart? Can't you rectify this situation? (DODGE laughs, coughs.)

  DEWIS: I’m just a guest here, Halie. I don't know what my position is exactly. This is outside my parish anyway. I’m in the quiet part of town.

  SHELLY: Vince! Knock it off, will ya! I want to get out of here! This is enough.

  VINCE: (To SHELLY.) Have they got you prisoner in there, dear? (VINCE starts to sing again, throwing more bottles as things continue.)

  SHELLY: I'm coming out there, Vince! I’m coming out there and I want us to get in the car and drive away from here.

  Anywhere. Just away from here. Far, far away, (SHELLY moves toward VINCE's saxophone case and overcoat. She sets down the wooden leg down left and picks up the saxophone case and overcoat, VINCE watches her through the screen, SHELLY moves to right door and opens it.)

  VINCE: We'd never make it. We'd drive and we'd drive and we'd drive and we'd never make it. We'd think we were getting farther and farther away. That's what we'd think.

  SHELLY: I'm coming out there now, Vince.

  VINCE: Don't come out. Don't you dare come out here. It's off-limits. Taboo territory, (VINCE pulls out a big folding hunting knife and pulls open the blade. He jabs the blade into the screen and starts cutting a hole big enough to climb through. BRADLEY cowers in a corner of the sofa as VINCE rips open the screen, DEWIS takes HALIE by the arm and pulls her toward the staircase.)

  DEWIS: Halie, maybe we should go upstairs until this blows over. I'm completely at a loss.

  HALIE: I don't understand it. I just don't understand it. He was the sweetest little boy! There was no indication, (DEWIS drops the roses beside the wooden leg at the foot of the staircase, then escorts HALIE quickly up the stairs, HALIE keeps looking back at VINCE as they climb the stairs.) There wasn't a mean bone in his body. Everybody loved Vincent. Everyone. He was the perfect baby. So pink and perfect.

  DEWIS: He'll be all right after a while. He's just had a few too many, that's all.

  HALIE: He used to sing in his sleep. He'd sing. In the middle of the night. The sweetest voice. Like an angel. (She stops for a moment) I used to lie awake listening to it. I used to lie awake thinking it was all right if I died. Because Vincent was an angel. A guardian angel. He'd watch over us. He'd watch over all of us. He would see to it that no harm would come, (DEWIS takes her all the way up the stairs. They disappear above, VINCE is now climbing through the porch screen onto the sofa, BRADLEY crashes off the sofa, holding tight to his blanket, keeping it wrapped around him. SHELLY is outside on the porch, VINCE holds the knife in his teeth once he gets the hole wide enough to climb through, BRADLEY starts crawling slowly toward his wooden leg, reaching out for it.)

  DODGE: (To VINCE.) Go ahead! Take over the house! Take over the whole goddamn house! You can have it! It's yours! It's been a pain in the neck ever since the very first mortgage. I'm gonna die any second now. Any second. You won't even notice. So I'll settle my affairs once and for all. (As DODGE proclaims his last will and testament, VINCE climbs into the room, knife in his mouth, and strides slowly around the space, inspecting his inheritance. He casually notices BRADLEY as he crawls toward his leg. VINCE moves to the leg and keeps pushing it with his foot so that it's out of BRADLEY’s reach, then goes on with his inspection. He picks up the roses and carries them around smelling them, SHELLY can be seen outside on the porch, moving slowly center and staring in at VINCE. VINCE ignores her.) The house goes to my grandson, Vincent. That's fair and square. All the furnishings, accoutrements, and paraphernalia therein. Everything tacked to the walls or otherwise resting under this roof. My tools—namely my band saw, my skill saw, my drill press, my chain saw, my lathe, my electric sander—all go to my eldest son, Tilden. That is, if he ever shows up again. My Benny Goodman records, my harnesses, my bits, my halters, my brace, my rough rasp, my forge, my welding equipment, my shoeing nails, my levels and bevels, my milking stool—no, not my milking stool—my hammers and chisels and all related materials are to be pushed into a gigantic heap and set ablaze in the very center of my fields. When the blaze is at its highest, preferably on a cold, windless night, my body is to be pitched into the middle of it and burned ‘til nothing remains but ash. (Pause, VINCE takes the knife out of his mouth and smells the roses. He's facing toward the audience and doesn't turn around to SHELLY. He folds up the knife and pockets it.)

  SHELLY: (From the porch.) I'm leaving, Vince. Whether you come or not, I'm leaving. I can't stay here.

  VINCE: (Smelling the roses.) You'll never make it. You'll see.

  SHELLY: (Moving toward the hole in the screen.) You're not coming? (VINCE stays downstage, turns and looks at her.)

  VINCE: I just inherited a house. I've finally been recognized. Didn't you hear?

  SHELLY: (Through the hole, from the porch.) You want to stay here?

  VINCE: (As HE PUSHES BRADLEY’s leg out of reach.) I've gotta carry on the line. It's in the blood. I've gotta see to it that things keep rolling, (BRADLEY looks up at him from the floor, keeps pulling himself toward his leg. VINCE keeps moving it)

  SHELLY: What happened to you, Vince? You just disappeared. (Pause, VINCE delivers the following speech front.)

  VINCE: I was gonna run last night. I was gonna run and keep right on running. Clear to the Iowa border. I drove all night with the windows open. The old man's two bucks flapping right on the seat beside me. It never stopped raining the whole time. Never stopped once. I could see myself in the windshield. My face. My eyes. I studied my face. Studied everything about it as though I was looking at another man. As though I could see his whole race behind him. Like a mummy's face. I saw him dead and alive at the same time. In the same breath. In the windshield I watched him breathe as though he was frozen in time and every breath marked him. Marked him forever without him knowing. And then his face changed. His face became his father's face. Same bones. Same eyes. Same nose. Same breath. And his father's face changed to his grandfather's face. And it went on like that. Changing. Clear on back to faces I'd never seen before but still recognized. Still recognized the bones underneath. Same eyes. Same mouth. Same breath. I followed my family clear into Iowa. Every last one. Straight into the corn belt and further. Straight back as far as they'd take me. Then it all dissolved. Everything dissolved. Just like that. And that two bucks kept right on flapping on the seat beside me. (SHELLY stares at him for a while, then reaches through the hole in the screen and sets the saxophone case and VINCE's overcoat on the sofa. She looks at VINCE again.)

  SHELLY: Bye, Vince. I can't hang around for this. I'm not even related. (She exits left off the porch, VINCE watches her go. BRADLEY tries to make a lunge for his wooden leg. VINCE quickly
picks it up and dangles it over BRADLEY‘s head like a carrot. BRADLEY keeps making desperate grabs at the leg. DEWIS comes down the staircase and stops halfway, staring at VINCE and BRADLEY. VINCE looks up at DEWIS and smiles. He keeps moving backwards with the leg toward up left as BRADLEY crawls after him.)

  VINCE: (To DEWIS as he continues torturing BRADLEY.) Oh, excuse me, Father. Just getting rid of some of the vermin in the house. This is my house now, ya know? All mine. Everything. Except for the power tools and stuff. I'm gonna get all new equipment anyway. New plows, new tractor, everything. All brand-new. (VINCE teases BRADLEY closer to the up left corner of the stage.) Start right off on the ground floor, (VINCE throws BRADLEY‘s wooden leg far offstage left. BRADLEY follows his leg offstage, pulling himself along on the ground, whimpering. As BRADLEY exits, VINCE pulls the blanket off him and throws it over his own shoulder. He crosses toward DEWIS with the blanket and smells the roses, DEWIS comes to the bottom of the stairs.)

  DEWIS: You'd better go up and see your grandmother. I think you should. It would be the Christian thing.

  VINCE: (Looking upstairs, back to DEWIS.) My grandmother? There's nobody else in this house. Except for you. And you're leaving, aren't you? (DEWIS crosses toward right door. He turns back to VINCE.)

  DEWIS: She's going to need someone. I can't help her. I don't know what to do. I don't know what my position is here. I'm quite out of my depths. I'll be the first to admit it. I thought, by now, the Lord would have given me some sign, some guidepost, but I haven't seen it. No sign at all. Just— (VINCE just stares at him. DEWIS goes out the door, crosses the porch and exits left, VINCE listens to him leaving. He smells the roses, looks up the staircase, then smells the roses again. He turns and looks upstage at DODGE. He crosses up to him and bends over, looking at DODGE‘s open eyes, DODGE is dead. His death should have come completely unnoticed, VINCE lifts the blanket, then covers DODGE's head. He puts DODGE‘s cap on his own head and smells the roses while staring at DODGE‘s body. Long pause, VINCE places the roses on DODGE’s chest, then lays down on the sofa, arms folded behind his head, staring at the ceiling, his body in the same position as DODGE's After a while, HALIE is heard coming from above the staircase. The lights start to dim imperceptibly as HALIE speaks, VINCE keeps staring at the ceiling.)

  HALIE'S VOICE: Dodge? Is that you, Dodge? Tilden was right about the corn, you know. I've never seen such corn. Have you taken a look at it lately? Dazzling. Tall as a man already. This early in the year. Carrots, too. Potatoes. Peas. It's like a paradise out there, Dodge. You oughta take a look. A miracle. I've never seen it like this. Maybe the rain did something. Maybe it was the rain. (As HALIE keeps talking offstage, TILDEN appears from left, dripping with mud from the knees down. His arms and hands are covered with mud. In his hands he carries the corpse of a small child at chest level, staring down at it. The corpse mainly consists of bones wrapped in muddy, rotten cloth. He moves slowly downstage toward the staircase, ignoring VINCE on the sofa, VINCE keeps staring at the ceiling as though TILDEN weren't there. As HALIE continues, TILDEN slowly makes his way up the stairs. His eyes never leave the corpse of the child. The lights keep fading.) Good hard rain. Takes everything straight down deep to the roots. The rest takes care of itself. You can't force a thing to grow. You can't interfere with it. It's all hidden. Unseen. You just gotta wait ‘til it pops up out of the ground. Tiny little shoot. Tiny little white shoot. All hairy and fragile. Strong though. Strong enough to crack the earth even. It's a miracle, Dodge. I've never seen a crop like this in my whole life. Maybe it's the sun. Maybe that's it. Maybe it's the sun. (TILDEN disappears above. Silence. Lights go to black)

  END OF PLAY

  A VINTAGE ORIGINAL, FEBRUARY 2006

  Copyright © 1977, 1979, 1997, 2006 by Sam Shepard

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by

  Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  Originally published in the United States in the collection Buried Child, Seduced, & Suicide in Bb by Urizen Books, Inc., New York, in

  1979. Revised in 1997 by Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

  CAUTION: This play is fully protected, in whole, in part, or in any form, under the copyright laws of the United States of America, the British Empire including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the copyright union, and is subject to royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, radio, television, recitation, and public reading, are strictly reserved. All inquiries for performance rights should be addressed to the authors agent, Judy Boals, Judy Boals, Inc.,

  307 West 38th Street, #812, New York, NY 10018.

  Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Shepard, Sam, 1943-

  Buried child : a play / Sam Shepard.—Rev. ed.

  p. cm.

  1. Farm life—Drama. 2. Family—Drama. I. Title.

  PS3569.H394 B87 2006

  812’.54—dc22

  2005054691

  eISBN: 978-0-307-49427-6

  www.vintagebooks.com

  v3.0