Scene the 2nd
The curtain rises
on the same scenery, however it is now daylight, the stage is empty of cast.
Jack Patch enters stage right, and crosses to the middle of the
stage—he looks toward the window, now unlighted, and then towards the trees,
and back to the building. He looks
towards the audience, then again at the window.
As he stands there Decker Powell enters stage left looking quite happy he
is carrying a newspaper and a bottle of pop with him as well as a small brown
paper bag containing Moon Pies.
DECKER: Hi there Jack,
if I’m not being to impolite?
JACK PATCH: Decker?
No, of course not…where the hell have you been?
DECKER: Been?
I went down to the corner for a paper.
But what brings you over here?
JACK PATCH:
Decker, Rhiannon and the sisters have been looking all over for you.
DECKER: Rhiannon?
She’s right inside, probably still sleeping.
I didn’t want to wake her…what do you mean looking for me?
JACK PATCH:
Decker, Rhiannon came back to the club earlier this morning, she said
you’d vanished.
DECKER: That’s not
possible. She’s in there, I’ve
only been gone about an hour.
JACK PATCH: looks
at his watch, An hour? The
time’s just about right—but I wonder? O
well, look Decker, do me a favor, just check and make sure Rhiannon’s okay?
We’re old friends.
DECKER: I didn’t
know that, but it doesn’t surprise me. Sure
I’ll wave from the window or something. Decker crosses to the door to the
building and enters. He emerges a
few moments later with a stunned look on his face.
JACK PATCH: Something
wrong?
DECKER: Everything’s
wrong. She’s not there, the
furniture’s not there, there’s nothing there.
The whole apartment is empty, like no one lives there, not now, not ever.
JACK PATCH:
What? He runs over to the building, then back out.
Are you sure it’s the right..o, of course you are.
He looks at Decker who is standing head bowed, arms sagging, he is
lightly sobbing.
DECKER:
Rhiannon? O, my dear god,
Rhiannon? Jack?
Where is she? What did I do? What do I do? What
happened? Did she just leave—was
she real? I love you Rhiannon,
where are you?
JACK PATCH:
Crosses to Decker, puts an arm around his shoulder and starts slowly
to walk him away while talking to him assuringly.
Decker, she’s very real, and she loves you very much.
I don’t know what happened here, but I think we need some help and
quickly. Come with me, back to the
club, we’ll try and sort this out.
DECKER: looking
back to the apartment, Rhiannon? It’s
all my fault isn’t it? I
shouldn’t have touched her. I’m
too old, I’m to ugly, I’m too….
JACK PATCH: Decker,
what ever happened here wasn’t anything you did.
Rhiannon’s a woman not a girl, she loves you very dearly.
What ever’s going on is not something she has anything to do with—at
least not voluntarily. They walk off stage Jack still keeping an arm on Decker to
support him. Decker keeps looking
back at the apartment house.
The curtain drops
and goes up at once to reveal the inside of the Devil’s Brew.
Decker, Host, and Jack are seated at a table drinking coffee
JACK PATCH:
Decker, lets go over this in detail.
I want you to tell me everything you remember.
Then I’m going to tell you what happened here.
DECKER:
I’ll try. He has to
fight his emotions as he talks. Every now and then he stops and a sob escapes.
I remember leaving here with Rhiannon, we were in her car, that candy
apple red corvette convertible, had the top down.
She looked so lovely with the light coming through the windshield just
showing her the area around her eyes. I
told her I could write a poem about those eyes of hers.
She smiled and said I’d have plenty of time for pause, sobbing
lightly, and now there’s no
time…O dear God what did you do to my Rhiannon?
I’m sorry…swallows hard to try and keep control of his emotions, anyway
we got back to her apartment, and well. It
was wonderful, there’s never been a woman like her, ever pause, then anger,
Jack I’ll do
anything to get her back. Pause,
then slower, if she wants to come back that is.
JACK PATCH: Decker,
I’m telling you, she loves you, she adores you. Who ever’s created this mess it wasn’t Rhiannon.
Trust me, Decker, I’ve known her almost since she was a child.
I’ve never seen her as happy as she is with you.
Aside to Host
She did a good job of
altered memories on him too, I’ve never seen such care taken with a mortal’s
mind. She left nothing to frighten
him at all. He believes they went
off in her car.
HOST: aside to Jack
Patch, She’s had how many thousands of years to master the art?
But, yeah, she must really love this guy, for some reason.
DECKER:
We made love, I swear it seemed like forever, then she said we needed
some sleep. I know I slept pretty
good, except for one nightmare about drinking again, but then the vodka turned
out to be pink lemonade. So I guess
it wasn’t too bad a dream. Anyway,
we woke up a couple of times and well, it was just wonderful to be there and
hold her next to me. It was my most
wonderful dream made perfect and a thousand times more perfect.
God, Jack? What am I going
to do?
JACK PATCH:
Keep going, Decker, tell me everything up to the point where I met you.
DECKER: Okay, the rest
isn’t too bad, I guess. I woke
up, it was daylight. She was still
sleeping. O, Rhiannon, you look as
lovely asleep, no make up or anything, as lovely, lovelier, than any woman that
ever lived, or ever will live. How
I love you Rhiannon. I got up
carefully, I didn’t want to waken her, and suddenly had an urge for an RC and
some Moon Pies, so –I guess maybe it was stupid—I got up and went down to
the store. It’s only about a
twenty minute walk. Is that why she
left me, Jack? Because I didn’t
tell her that…
JACK PATCH:
Decker, listen very carefully. Rhiannon
did not leave you. A few minutes
after you remember walking to the store she came in here demanding to know if we
had seen you. I was talking to
Eillaine, Laural, and Host here when she came in.
She was terribly upset. Speaking
of the sisters, Host have they been back?
HOST: Jack, they never
returned either.
JACK PATCH:
the three of them left here to try to find you, Decker.
They never returned. I got a
little concerned and walked over to your place to see what the heaven was going
on.
DECKER:
I don’t understand?
JACK PATCH:
Decker, about an hour and a half before I met you—yes, by the way you
had to have been gone at least two hours considering when Rhiannon arrived
here—Rhiannon, Eillaine, and Laural left for her apartment to try and track
down what happened to you. That’s
the last I saw of any of them. If
it weren’t for that cursed empty apartment I’d think they were all still
looking for you.
DECKER:
The Rhiannon doesn’t hate me? She
really loves me? This isn’t her
doing?
JACK PATCH: That’s what
I’ve been trying to tell you.
DECKER: But what now?
JACK PATCH: For once, in all
my existence, I don’t have an answer.
