WILLIAM CARTER 

Legacy

CHARACTERS 

JOSEPH, seventies, in poor health, married to Helene 

HELENE, seventies, wife of Joseph

SETTING 

Dining room

 

TIME 

Present day

 

Lights up on JOSEPH, reading a newspaper, sitting down in a chair next to a table, in a hospital gown. HELENE, seventies, sits next to him, looking out the window. No window is needed. Beyond the window, the audience sits.

JOSEPH: Ha! They put it in the paper!

HELENE: I wish you would just be quiet about it.

JOSEPH: How? How am I supposed to do that, Helene? How the hell am I supposed to do that?

HELENE: Joe, don’t get too worked up. The doctor said not to get your heart rate too high.

JOSEPH: How am I supposed to do that?

HELENE: Let's just drop the flying saucer talk.

(JOSEPH stands, paces.)

JOSEPH: I saw what I saw!

HELENE: And nobody doubts that—

JOSEPH: Do you?

HELENE: Joseph, you know—

JOSEPH: You think I'm crazy.

HELENE: I never said that.

JOSEPH: You didn't have to.

HELENE: It's just…

(Beat. JOSEPH sits.)

JOSEPH: I was abducted.

HELENE: I just want to enjoy these moments.

JOSEPH: I didn’t ask for this!

HELENE: Then, please, let it go.

JOSEPH: They searched me! They probed my body, but they also probed my mind! They didn't find anything. I don't know anything they would want. I heard a voice asking me who I know, asking me who I loved, who would it cause me pain to hurt, but the voice was my voice, my voice in my head, but controlled by them.

HELENE: So, you say.

(JOSEPH ducks down, whispers.)

JOSEPH: Shh. They're listening to our conversation.

HELENE: Who is?

(JOSEPH whispers, pulls HELENE down with him.)

JOSEPH: The government.

HELENE: Joseph.

(JOSEPH whispers, gestures towards the window.)

JOSEPH: Van.

HELENE: Please.

JOSEPH: They're never going to shut me up about this.

HELENE: I wish you would.

JOSEPH: I know what I saw. I know. I saw the aliens.

HELENE: Do you remember the doctor? Joseph, do you remember what he said?

JOSEPH: I still see them in my dreams.

HELENE: You can't keep on like this. You don't have long.

(JOSEPH stands.)

JOSEPH: Eyes, eyes, covered in eyes! And with no mouth to speak!

(HELENE stands, follows his movements.)

HELENE: I am not doubting you.

JOSEPH: Observing, always, observing, probing!

HELENE: I know it's hard.

JOSEPH: It's like they took pleasure in just watching us humans screw this Earth up.

HELENE: Let's just go about our business as though the van was not on the street, and maybe, it'll go away. Let's talk of happier things.

JOSEPH: I can't pretend that it didn't happen. That those creatures don't exist.

HELENE: So, I got a call from my sister yesterday.

JOSEPH: They don't care about this, about any of us, you, me.

HELENE: She's doing well, exercising, trying her best to stay healthy.

JOSEPH: We are nothing at all.

HELENE: She was saying that Gerald has had some decline.

JOSEPH: It's all just a game to them.

HELENE: I said, "It happens to all of us."

JOSEPH: They did. Oh, how they got such glee at my pain, waiving their skinny fingers in the air wildly. They probed, prodded, pointed, stabbed, and when I screamed, when the blood came, they became even more excited.

HELENE: Just stop! It hurts to hear this. After what the doctor said—

JOSEPH: Even with no mouth, I could tell they were smiling.

HELENE: This is hurting me.

JOSEPH: But it happened!

HELENE: Please, Joe, let's talk about something else. People think you're crazy.

JOSEPH: That's what the government wants everyone to think. They want people to see me as insane.

HELENE: Maybe, they're just trying to protect others.

JOSEPH: From what? The truth?

HELENE: Protect yourself.

JOSEPH: I'm going to keep telling.

HELENE: What if they're trying to end you? Think of me.

JOSEPH: They can try. They can try, but the truth shall be my shield against all the fiery arrows of the enemy.

HELENE: What about me? After Sally, Joe, I, I, I just can't. It hurts too much.

JOSEPH: I know.

HELENE: And the grandkids.

JOSEPH: Would you rather them have a grandfather who is a coward?

HELENE: I would rather have one who is here, who is present, at least for these next moments.

JOSEPH: I won't be able to live with myself if I'm just that.

HELENE: Just live, Joe. That's all I ask, to live right now. Live right now with me.

JOSEPH: I saw what I saw. I felt what I felt.

(Beat.)

HELENE: Okay. Think. If the aliens love chaos. If they have all these eyes simply to observe the pain and suffering of mankind, aren't you just giving them one hell of a show?

JOSEPH: What?

HELENE: If they silence you. Maybe, they kill you. Maybe, they put you in a coma. Maybe, they send you away to be tortured. Isn't that what will give the aliens tremendous joy? They revealed themselves to the world, and his own people hurt him for telling. Won't they love that?

JOSEPH: If I back down now, how will I be remembered? What will my legacy be?

HELENE: Who gives a damn about your legacy!

JOSEPH: I do!

HELENE: Your legacy is what it is. You tried your best.

(JOSEPH, unable to take this news, sits down.)

JOSEPH; Helene, you know I love you so much. I sacrificed everything I could for you and Sally.

(HELENE sits.)

HELENE
I know, Joe. I'm sorry. I...

JOSEPH
It's just when those aliens covered me with their hands, eyes searching every part of my body, I heard something. "You have been found wanting. You are unworthy." A voice, like a robot on a loudspeaker, and like a flush of a toilet, I was sent straight back to Earth, my clothes missing, covered in yellow, slimy gunk and cold. There I was alone in the grass, empty and shivering.

HELENE
What does that mean? "You have been found wanting?"

JOSEPH: My life was for you, yes, but I sacrificed it all for our girl, and for what? Huh? Tell me, for what?

HELENE: Joe.

JOSEPH: I get it. Unworthy, Helene. Unworthy. I'll, I'll be...damned if that didn't cut to me like a knife. Unworthy.

HELENE: You don't know what they were—

JOSEPH: They were seeing me.

HELENE: Don't say that!

JOSEPH: Tell me I'm wrong.

HELENE: You are a great man, Joe. You sacrificed so much for your wife and daughter. That's a noble thing.

JOSEPH: And did what with my life?

HELENE: You took care of me and Sally.

JOSEPH: And what did I get? What was the reward for my troubles? Huh? Where's Sally? Where is she?

HELENE: Joe. Don't.

JOSEPH: Pain. That's all I have.

HELENE: Me too.

JOSEPH" I have a chance to do something. I know only a small part of this world will believe me, but I have to Helene. I must do something before my life is over.

HELENE: There is no need to end it sooner.

JOSEPH : I'm retired. Got a wife and a home with two bedrooms upstairs, one I still can't bring myself to go in.

HELENE: Stop for me, then.

JOSEPH: Helene, I love you, but—

HELENE: I love you, Joe. I can't lose you just yet.

(The sound of Joe's home heart monitor can be heard. It grows in steadily in speed and volume over the rest of the scene.)

JOSEPH: Unworthy, wanting, you already have, don't you see?

HELENE: No.

(JOSEPH stands, moves to the window.)

JOSEPH: It's already over.

HELENE: Get away from the window.

JOSEPH: Don't you see, Helene? I can't believe it's just hitting me now.

HELENE: Joe, please, just sit down.  

JOSEPH: God, angels, the afterlife.

HELENE: Stop it, Joe!

JOSEPH: Their entire bodies, including their backs, their hands and their wings, were completely full of eyes.

HELENE: I need to talk about something else!

JOSEPH: Ezekiel talking about the angels he saw.

(A red dot appears on JOSEPH's chest. HELENE stands, rushes toward him.)

HELENE: No!

JOSEPH: It's the bible, Helene. I think the fact that these aliens had eyes all over them like the angels—

HELENE (pleading): Joseph!

JOSEPH: Helene, I must not quit! I must be counted worthy!

HELENE: Oh, God, no. Please, Joseph.

JOSEPH: Before my life is over!

HELENE (Pleading): Tell me about our sweet girl.

JOSEPH: What are you talking about?

HELENE: Please. Just sit down and tell me about Sally. They might spare you if they know what a good dad you were.

JOSEPH: That did not make me worthy.

HELENE: Please. Just tell me about our daughter. Tell me what you remember.  

JOSEPH: You really want me to?

HELENE: Nothing would make me happier. Please. Just this, and then, I'll listen to what you want to say.

(They sit.)

JOSEPH: So, Sally's real nervous. She was such a good-natured kid, but she hated being away from her mommy and daddy. It just broke my heart because she had this worried look on her face, and she asked, "Will they be nice to me?" And I kept telling her, "Yes, I am going to leave you, but don't worry, princess, your teachers will be so nice to you." She'd ask me this periodically throughout the ride, and I always just responded the same way. Then, she paused, looked down, and asked in a soft voice, "What if they're not nice to me?"

(Beat. JOSEPH is clearly in the memory.)

JOSEPH: And I leaned right into her face, my nose touching her nose, eyes blinking at each other's, and I whispered, "Screw em." And she giggled. I knew she would. I laughed too. "Screw em because if they aren't nice to you, if they don't like you, well then, they're the biggest fools I ever heard of. Because you're great, girlie. You stand for you truth. You be your awesome self. Don't change for nobody. You live who you are, and if they don't like it, screw em. At least you stood for your truth.”

(Beat. JOSEPH stands, looks out the window.)

HELENE: See, Joe?

JOSEPH: Said the same thing to her when she went off to high school, "What do you say to the people who don't like you?"

HELENE: Screw em.

JOSEPH: Last words I ever said to her.

HELENE: Joseph.

JOSEPH: God, I miss that girl.

JOSEPH falls. HELENE screams.

Black out.

End of play.

---

 

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