← Scripts

Congregation

Callico Yarn Woman Jack Boy Marleybone Preacher Man Grandpappy Pa The Shadows Spindleshank Larksbreath Sculbucket Eyesocket Wizina Ginger Miz McQuire Lum Lou Anne Molly Oscar Jenny Clem Manzy Alberta (22)

EMBED MSWordArt.2 \s (An Appalachian Mountain tale for Readers Theatre)

The sound of a lonesome guitar is heard softly as the cast sits with backs to audience. Then they begin to sing “Amazing Grace.”

CONGREGATION: Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found ‘Twas blind, but now I see. (and they continue to hum)

CALLICO: (over the music) It weren’t but yesterday, but it seem like… YARN WOMAN: It seem like yesterday…. CALLICO: When that Jack Boy he fought that awfulest fight. YARN WOMAN: That awfulest fight in the Scoagie Swamps. CALLICO: Like no other fight you ever seen in the hills of old Appalache! YARN WOMAN: In them weird an’ mystifical hills! CALLICO: ‘Tweren’t nothin’ but a tale so some folks said! YARN WOMAN: Not so! ‘Twas the gospel! True I say! You listen to me! CALLICO: I be listenin’, Yarn Woman. I be listenin’ good… Now you tell it true! YARN WOMAN: Like I won’t! Huh! That Jack Boy, he be a handsome lad. JACK: I be that! YARN WOMAN: He be brave! JACK: I be that too! YARN WOMAN: But he be not too smart! JACK: Huh? I got me a brain! YARN WOMAN: Then how come you not use it, Jack Boy? How come you let Old Marleybone pert near tie yer butt up in circles? Huh? JACK: He… he tried to… I was just…. I wasn’t my… (sighs) Maybe I just settle for handsome and brave. YARN WOMAN: Yea, maybe you just do that, Jack Boy. It was dark and smoky that night when Jack Boy, he try to cross them Scoagie Swamps all by his lonesome self. (swamp noises) JACK: This is ain’t no good place. This ain’t no good place a’tall! There’s somethin’ here and I can feel it! My daddy, he told me to neva neva go in these old Scoagie Swamps. He tell me there be spirits here that even the Great God Almighty couldn’t whip! PREACHER MAN: That not be true! JACK: Preacher Man! PREACHER MAN: That be hog-wash and you know it, Jack Boy! There ain’t nothin’ that the Great God Almighty’s a-feared of and you know it! JACK: I guess I do. But sometimes when I get skeered, I guess I don’t. PREACHER MAN: Whether you do or whether you don’t, don’t make a tinker’s damn of dif’rence to the Great God Almighty, Boy! JACK: But Preacher Man, what if ole Marleybone, he get me? He get me like he got my pa and my grandpappy?! PREACHER MAN: They was weak, Jack Boy. They wasn’t strong like you. They didn’t have your gift! CALLICO: That Jack Boy, he had this gift. He could hear folks talkin’ even tho they was dead. YARN WOMAN: He had himself ears that’d reach right into a grave. JACK: And it skered me sometimes. CALLICO: And it skeered him sometimes. YARN WOMAN: Skeered himself so bad he went and made water! JACK: Did not! YARN WOMAN & CALLICO: Did too! JACK: Did too. YARN WOMAN: And that night…. CALLICO: That night he was mighty near as skeered as he ever had been before. JACK: I’m skeered! PREACHER MAN: Your granddaddy, he had that soft spot and Marleybone, he found it out! JACK: What that, Preacher Man? PREACHER: He liked his likker! The Great God Almighty, he don’ like that likker! ALL: Amen! PREACHER MAN: And your daddy… Ole Marleybone, he found his soft spot, too! JACK: What that, Preacher Man? PREACHER MAN: His pride! Ole Marleybone, he found out! The Great God Almighty, he don’ like a prideful preacher man! ALL: Amen! PREACHER MAN: Amen! And you best watch yer scrawny little butt, Jack Boy. Or Ole Marleybone, he gonna get you, too! ALL: Amen! JACK: Amen! YARN WOMAN: But it were all young Jack could think about just to find his nose in front of his legs that night. ‘Cause there was somethin’ wrong. CALLICO: Mighty, mighty wrong! YARN WOMAN: There was somethin’ powerful wrong in them swamps that night. And them voices … them voices runnin’ ‘round his brain! GRANDPAPPY: Jack Boy! JACK: Grandpappy! You be dead! GRANDPAPPY: You think I don’t know that? You listen to me, boy. That Marleybone, he want chu! He want chu somethin’ powerful bad! He want chu so bad he do anything to get chu! JACK: Tell me what I do, Grandpap! Please tell me what I do! PA: Jack Boy! JACK: Papa! PA: You do what your Grandpap tole you, boy! JACK: But he ain’t tole me …. GRANDPAPPY: Listen! PA: You listen good! GRANDPAPPY: That Marleybone, he gonna look for your soft spot, boy. Like he did mine! PA: And mine! I was proud, boy! Too proud! Marleybone, he find that out! And he suckered me out to that old Scoagie Swamp one night! JACK: Where you say, pappy? PA: Scoagie Swamp! You stay outta that…. JACK: Pappy! PA: What, boy!? GRANDPAPPY: What is it, boy!? JACK: Grandpappy! I gotta tell you that…. YARN WOMAN: But just then……!!!! SHADOWS: (the Shadows, a gaggle of phantom-type creatures turn with a ghostly shriek and cackling) JACK: No!!!!!! SHADOWS: (another explosion of cackles) JACK: You leave me be! SPINDLESHANK: (as their words overlap one another) Lookee here! LARKSBREATH: Jack Boy WIZINIA: Our little Jack Boy! SCULBUCKET: Is he skeered of us? EYESOCKET: Why you cryin’, Jack Boy? JACK: No! SPINDLESHANK: (overlapping) What chu mean, “No!”? LARKBREATH: What chu screamin’ for Jack Boy? WIZINIA: Don’t chu like the shadows, Jack Boy? SCULBUCKET: Look at that boy scream, sisters! EYESOCKET: Oh Jack Boy! Jack Boy! Jack Boy! SHADOWS: Jack Boy! (a short silence, then the evil cackle) JACK: I ain’t got no truck with you! You fly on back to where you come from! YARN WOMAN: But then Jack Boy, he heard him a new sound! CALLICO: Somethin’ worse than what he’d heard before! YARN WOMAN: A sound that made his blood run cold! MARLEYBONE: (begins as a low, evil, chuckle which continues to grow in intensity) JACK: What that? What that noise! I neva heard that noise but I know it! I know it down in my bones! SPINDLESHANK: Come touch me, boy! LARKSBREATH: Come here and let me touch you! WIZINIA: Just come a little closer, Jack Boy! SCULBUCKET: Close enough I can feel your arms! EYESOCKET: Jack Boy! Jack Boy! Jack Boy! MARLEYBONE: (chuckle continues to grow) PA: What that noise, boy? GRANDPAPPY: What that noise! JACK: Daddy! PA: Get outta there, Jack Boy! GRANDPAPPY: Get out now! JACK: Yessir! MARLEYBONE: (lets out with a roaring laugh) YARN WOMAN: And he was off! CALLICO: Like a snake on ice! YARN WOMAN: Fire lickin’ at his heels! CALLICO: Paddlin’ his muddy feet through that Scoagie Swamp! JACK: (a scream) Mama! YARN WOMAN: Runnin’ so fast that he passed hisself twice! JACK: Mama! CALLICO: Runnin’ like the devil hisself was on his tail! JACK: Mama! (sobs as he collapses) MAMA: Jack Boy! JACK: (sobbing) Hold me, Mama. Hold me tight, Mama. I’m so skeered. I’m so awful, awful skeered! MAMA: Calm down, boy! What for you cryin’, child? What’s skeered you so bad? Talk to me, Jack Boy. JACK: I don’ know, Mama. I don’ know what it was. PREACHER MAN: What’s the commotion, Miz Allen? MAMA: Don’t know what’s come over him, Preacher Man. Somethin’ powerful, though. PREACHER MAN: Comes from missin’ church! The Great God Almighty don’ like folks missin’ church! CONGREGATION: Amen! MAMA: Amen! But you know we got to work to do, Preacher Man. Got no man around here now ‘cept Jack Boy. PREACHER MAN: That excuse be mighty piddlin’! CONGREGATION: Amen! MAMA: The good book, it say you got an ox in a ditch on the Sabbath, you can fetch him out! PREACHER MAN: That ox gettin’ plumb habitual, you ask me! MAMA: I reckon that be between me and the ox. JACK: Mama, I gotta talk. PREACHER MAN: It be Marleybone, ain’t it? JACK: I ‘fraid it is. MAMA: You see ‘im? JACK: Not quite. PREACHER MAN: You touch ‘im? JACK: Not hardly. MAMA: You smell ‘im? JACK: Not likely. MAMA: You hear ‘im? JACK: (silent, afraid to speak) MAMA: You hear ‘im, boy? PREACHER MAN: You answer yer mama, boy! You hear that Marleybone? JACK: I reckon I did! Oh, mama! I was so skeered. So awful, awful skeered! PREACHER MAN: Then you been cursed boy! Anybody hears Ole Marleybone’s laugh is cursed! JACK: I ain’t! I ain’t cursed no such thing! MAMA: What chu sayin’, Preacher Man? PREACHER MAN: The boy is marked. Just like your husband and his daddy was. MAMA: No! PREACHER MAN: He not be dead yet, but he got the mark upon him. JACK: Mama!

CONGREGATION: In the sweet Bye and Bye, We shall meet on that beautiful shore! In the sweet bye and bye We shall meet on the beautiful shore! MAMA: What chu mean, Preacher Man!? PREACHER MAN: Sunday mornin’, Miz Allen! JACK: What he mean, Ma? PREACHER MAN: It be the Sabbath! The Lord calls us to Worship! JACK: Mama! CONGREGATION: (sung) Amen! CALLICO: Miz Allen, she brought her Jack Boy to the Sunday meetin’. YARN WOMAN: They’d not been for some time but the urge was upon ‘em on this Sunday mornin’. PREACHER MAN: Let us come into the house of the Lord! CONGREGATION: Amen! PREACHER MAN: There are those among us, Amen, who have been flirtin’ with the devil hisself! CONGREGATION: (gasps) PREACHER MAN: There are those among us, Amen, who have caused the evil eye to come upon ‘em! CONGREGATION: (more gasping) JACK: He mean me, Mama? MAMA: Sound like it to me, Jack Boy! PREACHER MAN: There be one among us, Amen, who has dangled a toe onto the fiery path of destruction! CONGREGATION: (gasps) (a short pause then the following confession come tumbling out in tearful unison) GINGER: It was me, Preacher Man! John Greenseed tricked me! I didn’t want to do it! I swear, the temptation got too strong! I’m a fallen woman! MIZ McQUIRE: It’s than demon likker, Preacher Man! I just can’t help myself when I smell that moonshine sittin’ on the kitchen table there’s somethin’ that just comes over me! LUM: I feel the evil eye, Preacher Man! Oh, Lord help me! I took that hog right outa Jake Henson’s barn and that little sucker was bacon before I could help myself!

GINGER, MIZ McQUIRE & LUM: Lord have mercy on my soul! PREACHER MAN: Uh… Amen. CONGREGATION: Uh… Amen. PREACHER MAN: Could there… uh… could there be another in this den of sinners, who has dabbled in the deadly depths of deprivation? (a silence… all eyes searching) PREACHER MAN: I said, “Could there be another who has recently escaped the Tempter’s Snare? Who has heard the voice of evil and has not confessed it? (shouting) The Lord is startin’ to get riled! (the congregation makes audible squirms) He is gettin’ mighty, mighty riled! The sinner is in our midst! LOU ANNE: Confess it! MOLLY: Yield not to temptation, sinner! OSCAR: The hour of repentance is at hand! CONGREGATION: (singing) Onward Christian Soldiers Marching as to War With the cross of Jesus Marching as before. (then they continue to hum) JACK: Mama! Whatta I do? MAMA: You ain’t sinned, boy. All you did was hear the sound! JACK: I know, Mama. But the Preacher Man, he be talkin’ straight to me. I gotta go, Mama. I gotta get outta this place! MAMA: Don’t run, Jack Boy. That just prove your guilt. Don’t run! JACK: I gotta! I can’t bear this any more, Mama! CALLICO: And off he took! YARN WOMAN: Faster than a strip-ed hound! Faster than a buck in rut! CALLICO: Jack Boy, he tore out through that church house door and lickety-split he was down the road, like spit in the wind! YARN WOMAN: Straight to the one soul who could give him comfort. (singing stops) JENNY: Jack Boy! JACK: Jenny. Jenny, I’m so scared. CALLICO: His sweetheart, Jenny, she be waitin’ for him. JACK: Jenny, I be confused. I thought I heard the voice of Ole Marlelybone in Scoagie Swamp and now the Preacher Man, he say I got the curse upon me. The same curse that killed my daddy and my grandpap! Jenny, you got to help me! JENNY: That be hogwash, Jack Boy! Ain’t no hearin’ nothin’ that curses a body! That be plumb silly! JACK: But the Preacher Man…..! JENNY: Be wrong, that’s all. The Preacher Man be wrong. It ain’t the hearin’ of a thing that curses you… It’s the believin’ it! It’s the doin’! CALLICO: But all over Culpepper County, there be strange things startin’ to happen. CLEM: It was my best bull! A bolt of lightnin’ run down that oak tree and Buford just exploded! MANZY: Six years straight that old hen laid two eggs a day! Now nothin’! ALBERTA: I swear to God! Old man Hopper just fell off that bridge! Drunker’n a hoot owl! Nearly killed his horse, too! And the horse was worth somethin’! LOU-ANN: There’s somethin’s got into these kids. My little Tubby ain’t et for two days! LUM: Damn. Ever sow I got is constipated! And there ain’t nothin’ meaner than a constipated sow! PREACHER MAN: There’s somethin’ wrong. There’s somethin’ powerful wrong around here. YARN WOMAN: Jack Boy, he got skeered again. ‘Cause all them eyes… them eyes started lookin’ right at him! MAMA: Where you goin’, Jack Boy? JACK: I gotta get away from here, Mama. Them folks are lookin’ at me like I had the evil eye! MAMA: That be silly. Just silly, Jack Boy. JACK: I gotta find out, Mama. MAMA: You ain’t goin’ to them Scoagie Swamps, Jack Boy! JACK: Got to, Mama. I kept myself clean, I swear I have. And the Lord God Almighty says even the devil hisself can’t touch me if’n I keep myself clean of temptation! MAMA: But Marleybone, he got ways, boy. He got ways to get at chu. JACK: I reckon there ain’t nothin’ for me here. If there be a curse on me, then I reckon I gotta get rid of it! MAMA: You can’t rid your self o’ no curse lest you kill Marlelybone! CALLICO: But Jack Boy, he was mad! JACK: I be mad! YARN WOMAN: Jack Boy, he be determined! JACK: I be determined! CALLICO: And Jack Boy, he be mighty, mighty skeered. JACK: Am not! CALLICO & YARN WOMAN: Am too! JACK: Am too. JENNY: I be goin’ with you, Jack Boy! JACK: Tawsh! You be just a girl! This be between me and Ole Marleybone. CALLICO: But there wasn’t no tellin’ Jenny no. YARN WOMAN: Jenny’s drunken pappy had drowned hisself in Mongrel Creek when she was just baby and her Mama was a half-wit. That girl’d been growed since she was walkin’ and there wasn’t no tellin’ her nothin’! (Swamp noises begin) JACK: I told ju to stay home, girl. JENNY: And I told ju I’s comin’. JACK: I guess it does make me feel some better. This is one scary swamp when yer by yerself. JENNY: This be one scary swamp when you got company. Just ‘cause I’s a girl, don’t think I don’t get skeered. MARLEYBONE: (begins his low chuckle) JACK: You hear that? JENNY: No. JACK: You don’t? JENNY: Yea. I’s lyin’. I just wisht I didn’t. What it be? MARLEYBONE: (again, the growling laugh) JACK: Ain’t nothin’ human! JENNY: Ain’t nothin’ o’ this earth! JACK: You wanna go home? JENNY: Do you? JACK: You say first. JENNY: I spect I do. JACK: Then that make two of us! YARN WOMAN: But the choice weren’t theirs. CALLICO: ‘Cause before they could run, spit or fly, them Shadows came on ‘em! (they cackle, then) SPINDLESHANK: (overlapping) There be our Jack Boy! LARKSBREATH: ‘Evenin’, Jack Boy! Who’s zat chu got with you? WIZINIA: It’s his perty girl! It be his perty little Jenny girl! SCULBUCKET: You miss me, Jack Boy? You miss me so bad you come back? EYESOCKET: Come’ere, Jack Boy! Jack Boy! Jack Boy! Jack Boy! JENNY: What that? (a short silence then they Phantom’s cackle again) SPINDLESHANK: (overlapping, mimicking her) “What That? What That? What That?” LARKSBREATH: “What That? What That? What That?” WIZINIA: “What That? What That? What That?” SCULBUCKET: “What That? What That? What That?” EYESOCKET: “What That? What That? What That?” (and they laugh again) JACK: Don’t chu touch her! Don’t chu even get close! SPINDLESHANK: Mighty big talk for a boy’s about to pee his britches! JACK: Am not! ALL SHADOWS: Am too! JACK: Am too. MARLEYBONE: (not turning, roaring with laughter) Who’s that noise I hear in my woods, With a scrawny little gal, thinks he’s so good? JACK: It’s him! JENNY: I’m skeered, Jack Boy! SHADOWS: (cackle) “I’m skeered, Jack Boy!” MARLEYBONE: (slowly turning) Who’s that boy come ‘round my place With the shaky knees and the ghost-white face? Why lookee here at what we got! Little panty-waist kid not worth his snot! Could dat be Jack Boy standin’ there with his spindly legs and his curly hair? JACK: I… I… I be Jack Boy! Who…who… be you? SHADOWS: (cackle) MARLEYBONE: Why, don’t chu know, you silly ass, ‘bout Marleybone? I’m s’prised you asked! I ruled this land ‘fore you were born, I raised myself on the rotten corn! Back ‘fore your family stumbled here ‘twas me that ruled the mornin’ air! Marleybone! They called me Lord! ‘Fore your Grandpap talked ‘bout God! I ruled the land, I ruled this sea, I ruled ‘bout far as you can see! ‘Til your old Grandpap started preachin’, it ‘twas me that ruled with all my legions! JACK: What chu want with me, Marleybone? I ain’t done nothin’ to you! MARLEYBONE: (laughs) Not now you ain’t, but soon you’ll try, like all your kin to make me die! You’re last in line o’ those with gifts to hear the voice of God, I guess! I got your Grandad with the likker, just one drop, his fire just flickered. One little drop of demon rum, and Old Grandpap, he done be done! Your daddy, he was tougher stock, of likker, he’d not touch a drop, But when I found about his his pride, ‘twas on that day your daddy died! JACK: But… but I ain’t got no truck with you! MARLEYBONE: Like all your kin, o’ course, you do! It’s in your blood, it’s in your bones, it’s deep in places you don’t know! Before too long you’ll get the need to leave your Ma and come get me. I’ve knowed you, Jack, back ‘fore you’s born. I’ve watched you grow like locust thorn! JACK: That be crazy! I’m the worst! The Preacher Man says I be cursed! MARLEYBONE: There’s lots o’ things that man can’t see… JACK: But all the folks …. MARLEYBONE: …Don’t disagree when Marleybone, he say it’s true! There’s nothin’ you can ever do to keep you from what’s in your heart. That’s why I’ll kill you ‘fore you start. (as the swamp noises come in under) YARN WOMAN: Just then the Harvest Moon went dark, The air was split with fire and sparks And that ole wicked Marleybone with eyes that made your blood run cold, He sucked up one big wicked breath and breathed a fire like scalded death! CALLICO: And Jack, he fell onto his knees, his hair was singed, his belly freezed! JACK: Oh Jenny gal, come hold me close! I think I’m dyin’! SHADOWS: (cackle as Marleybone laughs) JENNY: Get up, Jack Boy! JACK: I can’t!!! My legs can’t hear what my brain’s a yellin’! JENNY: You gotta get up! He ain’t done nothin’ but skeered you! JACK: That be plenty! I can’t move! PA: Get to your feet, Jack Boy! JACK: Papa! Help me, Papa! PA: That mighty hard, bein’ dead and all. Get yerself up! GRANDPAPPPY: Up boy! Now! Before old Mandeybone get chu too! JACK: (crying out) I can’t, Grandpappy! I can’t! I can’t! CALLICO: Then Jenny girl, she reached down and grabbed a hank o’ Jack Boy’s curly hair! YARN WOMAN: She pulled like his very life depended on it! CALLICO: ‘Cause it did! JACK: ‘Cause it did! CALLICO: And Jack flew into the air like a goosed chicken and he was off! PA: Run, Jack Boy! GRANDPAPPY: Run, Jack Boy! YARN WOMAN: Run! Run! Run! SPINDLESHANK: (overlapping) Where you goin’, Jack Boy? LARKSBREATH: Come back to me, Jack Boy! WIZINIA: We gonna miss you, Jack Boy! SCULBUCKET: Gonna be sorry you left us! EYESOCKET: Jack Boy! Jack Boy! Jack Boy! CALLICO: (a long, silent beat, then) It was near three miles ‘fore Jack dared even open his eyes, and when he did… YARN WOMAN: When he did, he found his self face down …… JACK: Aw, shoot. YARN WOMAN: .. in the God-awfulest stinkin’ hog lot in Culpepper County. GROUP: (hog sounds) JACK: (slowly raising his head up out of the muck and spitting) Bleahyeack! MAMA: Welcome home, son. LUM: Who in hell’s skeerin’ my hogs? JACK: Sorry, Mr. Phillard. JENNY: There you are! Pooo-Weee but don’t chu stink now! LUM: Damn. Even the hogs are gettin’ sick! JENNY: Derned if’n I’ll go to the dance with anybody smells like that! JACK: . Guess I am a tad rank. LUM: Smell like hog bowels, boy. Get cher self up outa my hog lot. JACK: Jenny, I can’t go to the dance! JENNY: ‘Course you can! You can’t let them folks think you’s afraid! JACK: But I am afraid! JENNY: You wanna be a curse? JACK: No! JENNY: Then get yer scrawny butt up outa that hog poop and prove it! (clapping begins) YARN WOMAN: It was Saturday night and all over the county, folks was comin’ down to Kurfman’s store for the hoe down! CALLERS: (as the clapping comes up under) Chicken in the bread pan, pickin’ out dough! One more girl and on you go! Don’t be fast and don’t be slow! Chicken in the bread pan, pickin’ out dough! (eight beats of add-lib shouting, then) Fare thee well, my blue-eyed gal! Fare thee well, my lady! Fare thee well, my blue-eyed gal! You almost drive me crazy! Chicken in the bread pan, pickin’ out dough! One more girl and on you go! Don’t be fast and don’t be slow! Chicken in the bread pan, pickin’ out dough! (as Jack and Jenny turn to “enter” the area, the clapping stops, person by person, as they notice the two youngsters in their midst) GINGER: What’s he doin’ here? LOU-ANNE: Figures he’d bring her with ‘im. OSCAR: I reckon my chickens’ll be dead by mornin’. The jinx just walked in the door. JENNY: We come to dance! OSCAR: With who? Yerselves? (they laugh) JACK: I reckon I got as much right as…. MIZ McQUIRE: You ain’t got no right to nothin’, you little Jonah! Bringin’ such misery on this county all account of yer temptin’ Ole Marleybone! Get away from him, Jenny! JENNY: Ain’t doin’ no such thing! MIZ McQUIRE: You get away from that boy or you’ll find a new bed tonight! JENNY: Then that be just find with me, Mama! (they gasp) JACK: (tearing up) Let’s go, Jenny. JENNY: Yer all a bunch of Pharisees is what you are! A stinkin’ bunch o’ hypocrites! JACK: Jenny, don’t! JENNY: There’s always hogs that die and chickens that don’t lay! You just be lookin’ for scapegoat fer yer own bad luck! (they gasp) GINGER: (as the lines overlap) Traitor! Yer a traitor, boy! LUM: Jonah! He’s nothin’ but a stinkin’ Jonah! MIZ McQUIRE: He’s put the curse on her, too! Look at her! Look at her! MOLLY: Git outa here! Git! Git! Git! LOU-ANNE: He’s a jinx! Throw ‘im out! Jinx! Jinx! Jinx! CALLICO: And Jack Boy took outa that dance like a striped-tailed coon! With Jenny right behind him! YARN WOMAN: ….down the back roads to Jack’s house just as fast as… JENNY: Jack! JACK: (out of breath) What? JENNY: Look ahead through the brush! Yer cabin! There’s folks there, Jack . .. and listen to ‘em. JACK: They be lookin’ for me. They be wantin’ to put an end to the curse. JENNY: Don’t chu be sayin’ that! JACK: But it be true, Jenny! Just look what’s happened! Everbody’s got slammed with bad luck and it’s all because o’ me! JENNY: I ain’t gonna abide this! You hush that talk! You got a soft spot? JACK: Huh? JENNY: Marleybone, he can’t get chu lessen you got yourself a soft spot! It’s time you tole me what it was! JACK: I be pure, Jenny! Leastwise, pure as God can make me! There ain’t no soft spot in me that I can tell! JENNY: Then what chu be skeered of? JACK: (scared) Nothin’, I reckon. JENNY: Then talk like it! Then act like it! PA: Be brave, boy! JACK: I’m tryin’, pappy, but it be hard. It be God-awful hard! GRANDPAPPY: You be God-awful stupid if you let ‘im git you! JACK: Hey! That be plumb insultin’! GRANDPAPPY: Then git yerself dead like me and you can say what you please! JACK: I can’t help it, Grandpap! Marleybone, he know somethin’ I don’t. GRANDPAPPY: That Marleybone, he be a liar, boy! He be the king o’ liars! He make you think things is that ain’t. You hear me? You listen to you and nobody else! OSCAR: There he be! LUM: There’s Jack Boy! JENNY: They’re comin’, Jack Boy! MA: Run, Jack! JACK: Ma! MA: I can’t stop ‘em! They seen you! Run, Jack Boy! Run! CALLICO: And run he did! JACK: (shouting over the group’s chanting) I’m runnin’! JENNY: Hurry up, Jack Boy! Hurry! YARN WOMAN: Nothin’ could catch Jack Boy that night! JENNY: Hurry, Jack Boy! CALLICO: Passed ever hound in the county! JACK: Jenny! YARN WOMAN: Like a sow in heat! That boy could run! JENNY: They’re still comin’, Jack! JACK: Jenny! CALLICO: But Jack was gettin’ tired! That boy’d run near all day long! YARN WOMAN: And jist when they was closin’ in! CALLICO: Jist when they was closin’ in! GROUP: (with a whole new meaning) Chicken in the bread pan, pickin’ out dough! One more girl and on you go! Don’t be fast and don’t be slow! Chicken in the bread pan, pickin’ out dough!

Fare thee well, my blue-eyed gal! Fare thee well, my lady! Fare thee well, my blue-eyed gal! You almost drive me crazy! Chicken in the bread pan, pickin’ out dough! One more girl and on you go! Don’t be fast and don’t be slow! Chicken in the bread pan, pickin’ out dough! JENNY: Jack! JACK: (breathless) What? JENNY: Listen! You hear that? JACK: I can’t hear nothin’……. my heart be goin’ too fast! JENNY: Listen! They stopped! JACK: What for? JENNY: Don’t know. Somethin’ stopped ‘em. JACK: That be mighty strange. There only be one place ‘round here that folks won’t go and that’s… GROUP: (swamp noises begin) JACK: Oh, shoot! YARN WOMAN: They was in the old Scoagie Swamp. JACK: Wish to heck I’d look where I was goin’! GROUP: (the swamp noises get louder) JENNY: What we gonna do, Jack? JACK: I got the devil up ahead and my neighbors on my butt. Reckon I might well just sit down here and die. YARN WOMAN: That be stupid! JACK: Is not! CALLICO: That be plumb idiotic! JACK: Is not! JENNY: You be a fool, Jack. JACK: Reckon you got me there. YARN WOMAN: So on they slogged through the Scoagie Swamp, gettin’ deeper and deeper with each step. CALLICO: When somethin’ hit ‘em like a dark and lonely mist. JENNY: What is it, Jack? JACK: What chu mean? JENNY: Don’t chu lie to me, Jack Boy! You can feel it as well as me! There be somethin’ in that mist. I ain’t neva felt this before, Jack Boy! Hold me, Jack Boy! SPINDLESHANK: (overlapping) Hold me, Jack Boy! LARKSBREATH: Hold me, Jack Boy! WIZINIA: Hold me, Jack Boy! SCULBUCKET: Hold me, Jack Boy! EYESOCKET: Jack Boy! Jack Boy! Jack Boy! JENNY: (terrifed) Jack! JACK: You get away! MARLEYBONE: (an explosion of laughter) Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! JACK: Sweet Jesus! MA: Dear God! Listen to that! What is it, Preacher Man? PREACHER MAN: Don’t ask, Miz Allen. It ain’t nothin’ natural. MA: We gotta help ‘im! We gotta help my Jack Boy! PREACHER MAN: Man be crazy to go in there. ‘Sides… my guess is yer son’s gettin’ what’s his due! MA: How can you say that? And you call yerself a man o’ God! PREACHER MAN: Mind yer tongue, woman! MA: I will not! I’ll not stand here and ‘low my son to be sacrificed to that demon! PREACHER MAN: Can’t see as you got much choice in the matter. MA: I can pray for ‘im! We can all pray for ‘im! LUM: Fat chance! MA: You listen to me, you puffed-up bag o’ scripture-spoutin’ chicken snot! CONGREGATION: (gasps) PREACHER MAN: Now see here…….!!!! MARLEYBONE: (laughs and the congregation quakes) MA: You know dern well that ole Marleybone only goes after the strong! He only goes after them that can do him harm! Jack Boy’s grandpap preached the word ‘o God and Marleybone came after ‘im! Jack Boy’s daddy was the boldest man o’ God in these hills and Marleybone got him too! You deny it? You deny it??!!! PREACHER MAN: I…well, I don’t reckon I do. MA: So how come he ain’t come after you, Preacher Man? How come he ain’t come after any o’ you? (screaming it) Somebody talk to me!!!!!!!! MARLEYBONE: (laughs) PREACHER MAN: I think we should pray. GINGER: But …. PREACHER MAN: I mean now! YARN WOMAN: And right there, on the stroke o’ midnight on the edge o’ Skoagie Swamp, they knelt themselves down in the mud and they commenced amen-in’ to hell wouldn’t have it! SPINDLESHANK: Listen to ‘em, Jack Boy! Listen to them puny humans prayin’! LARKSBREATH: Think that gonna save you, boy? WIZINIA: Ain’t nothin’ can save you, boy! Even God hisself done turned tail! SCULBUCKET: God hisself done turned his back on you! EYESOCKET: You got the soft spot boy! And Marleybone, he know it! JACK: What? You tell me what it is! SPINDLESHANK: You know what it is. You already know. JENNY: What they talkin’ about, Jack Boy? You got somethin’, you gotta confess it, now! (sees something) Jack!!!! JACK: What’s happenin’ to me, Jenny? CALLICO: And that Jack Boy, he commenced to goin’ stiff. JACK: I can’t move! Jenny, I can’t move! MARLEYBONE: (laughing as he turns and the Shadows laugh with him) Well look who now with shaky tongue has now into my kingdom come! JENNY: Jack! MARLEYBONE: Your grandpap, he nigh nearly knew about the truth but how ‘bout you? JACK: Jenny! MARLEYBONE: Your daddy, son, was plumb man-grown but t’weren’t no match for Marleybone! I know your soft spot, know it well, know it like the map of hell And there ain’t nothin’ you can do to stop me, and you know it too! PA: He’s a liar, boy! JACK: Daddy! GRANDPAPPY: He’s a liar! MARLEYBONE: Your friends all know you got the curse, that you’re a Jonah, and what’s worse, You know it, too, you know it well! You’ll know it all the way to…. PA: Liar! JENNY: Don’t listen to ‘im Jack! JACK: But it’s true, Jenny! I brought nothin’ but trouble to nobody… and to you, too! PREACHER MAN: Lord, we beseech thee this terrible evenin’! CONGREGATION: We beseech thee! JACK: I gotta find it, Jenny. I gotta find that soft spot or I’m dead! MARLEYBONE: (laughs) You’ll never find it, never know, never ever ‘til you go The way your pap and grandpap tried. And now it’s time Jack Boy it’s time you died! CALLICO: A hot sulfur wind blew outa the swamp and choked Jack Boy ‘til he dropped! JACK: Jenny! GRANDPAPPY: Don’t believe him, son! PREACHER MAN: Lord, we beseech thee! CONGREGATION: Lord, we beseech thee! SHADOWS: (fill the air with their derisive laughter) JACK: (struggling for each breath) I can’t… Jenny, hold me. I can’t… PREACHER MAN: Lord, we beseech thee! CONGREGATION: Lord, we beseech thee! MARLEYBONE: (shouting) Spirits of the darkened world where pain first cried and trouble stirred! Come hither now and bid my will and all your prophecies fulfill! SHADOWS: (laugh) PREACHER MAN: As we bow before thee! CONGREGATION: As we bow before thee! MA: (crying) Don’t kill my Jack Boy! JACK: Mama! MA: Let ‘im go! Please let ‘im go! JENNY: You gotta find it, Jack! You gotta find that spot now! MARLEYBONE: (roars with laughter) JACK: I….I…….. PREACHER MAN: We call upon the name of the Lord! CONGREGATION: Upon the name of the Lord! PREACHER MAN: The name of the most high God! CONGREGATION: The most high God! JACK: (breathing hard) What… what’s He tryin’ to tell me? I gotta …I gotta know what He’s…. MARLEYBONE: Now! Die! Die! Die! SHADOWS: (taking up the chant) Die! Die! Die! JENNY: (screaming) Jack Boy! PREACHER MAN & CONGREGATION: (begin singing) Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me! MARLEYBONE: (laughs) MA: Jack Boy! PREACHER MAN & CONGREGATION: I once was lost, but now I’m found, ‘Twas blind, but now I see! (The Shadows begin to cackle during the following) JACK: It ain’t….. it ain’t…… MARLEYBONE: Shut up, boy! It is! It is! JACK: It ain’t me! You lied to me, Marleybone! I know it now! I can feel it! JENNY: What chu talkin’, Jack? JACK: It not be me at all! I been listenin’ to man! I been listenin’ to man! MARLEYBONE: (screaming now) Shut up! You shut up or I’ll kill you right now! JACK: I been listenin’ to man, and not God! MARLEYBONE: You hear me, Jack Boy! JACK: You hear me, you liar! You ole liar! You fooled my pap and grandpap but I got you, you ole….. you ole Nothin’! I find my soft spot! It be me! It be me too busy listenin’ to what folks think stead o’ what the Lord God Almighty says! MARLEYBONE: Jack Boy…..!!!! JACK: You almost did it! You almost fooled me into thinkin’ I was weak! That it was me had to beat you ‘stead o’ the Lord God Almighty! MARLEYBONE: No! No! (begins to choke, groaning which rises with the Shadows into a shriek, reaching a climax, then a deathly silence) JACK: (all is silent as Jack, too, fights for his breath, then, sobbing) Oh….Oh, Mama!

PREACHER MAN & CONGREGATION: Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come! ‘Twas grace that lead me here thus far And grace, ‘twill lead me home!

‘Twas grace, that taught my heart to fear, And grace by fears relieved; How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed!

When we’ve been there, ten thousand years Bright shining as the sun, We’ve no less days, to sing God’s grace Than when we first begun! YARN WOMAN: (after another short silence) There be such things. I know there be. CALLICO: There be such things. We know that now. CONGREGATION: (softly hums “Amazing Grace” under) YARN WOMAN: Things that lay beyond the swamps and shallows. CALLICO: There be such things. We know that now. YARN WOMAN: There be battles we don’t know, takes place flyin’ o’er our heads, Things that we folks down below never see or hear or dread. Jack Boy, he know, he know darned well about what saved his soul from hell. But Jack Boy, he don’t often tell, still he know.. he know darned well. CONGREGATION: (singing) We’ve no less days to sing God’s grace… Than when we first begun…………

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