Geoffrey Philp

Ogun's Last Stand

Characters

James Lawrence Whitcomb/ Ogun
Ogun's dream is to build an African cultural village in Thyme Bottom. He is seventy years old. His wife, Claire, died three years ago.

Seymour Arnold Peeples
MP for Thyme Bottom and Minister of Housing. Ogun's childhood friend. Same age as Ogun.

Angela Campbell
Ogun's helper. Claire was her art teacher. She is in her mid-thirties.

Charles Bailey
Ogun's biographer. He teaches at a community college in Miami, Florida. He is in his late thirties.

Henchman
One of Seymour's tough guys from Thyme Bottom.

Time and Place
Thyme Bottom. Present.

Set
Slave barracks/shed. A bottle tree. A bench overlooking the bay. A concrete slab. A sapling. A pile of wood.

Playwright's Note
Seymour Peeples is leading the fight to evict Ogun from his land in Thyme Bottom. Seymour, for a variety of reasons (envy, greed, and payback), has given Ogun forty-eight hours to leave his home.

The play should run without any interruption/intermission.

ACT 1.SCENE 1

Early morning. A cock crows. Dogs begin to bark. The light begins to rise on a shed. Slave barracks. A rake, pick axe, hoe, and a hammer are leaning against the wall. Shredded palm fronds hang over the door. A rusty anvil sits next to a pile of wood under a bottle tree.

In the foreground, a concrete slab has been covered with fresh cut flowers.

The sound of a machete swishing through the air, cutting grass. The song of a man singing,” One bright morning when my work is over, I will fly away home. Fly away home. Fly away home.

The light rises on Ogun, shirtless, barefoot, and sweating. He is seventy years old and he is visibly scarred down the middle of his chest from open heart surgery. He is wearing blue jeans and a light green shirt is wrapped around his waist. He has just finished planting a sapling as is proudly admiring his handiwork.

ANGELA

Ogun E'

OGUN

O yin Olurun. Morning, Angela. How you feeling?

ANGELA

Coughing. She is wearing a yellow dress with gold trimmings, and is carrying a cup of tea (honey and lime juice) in her hand.

Ogun, what are you doing up so early in the morning? Still worrying about Seymour?

OGUN

I don't worry. I work. See this Julie mango that I've planted?

ANGELA

And when the mighty tree going bear fruit?

She coughs.

OGUN

You don't worry about that. Are you taking care of that cough?

ANGELA

Yes. Honey and lime juice. You want some?

She hands him the cup for him to taste, but he refuses.

OGUN

I'd prefer a little wine.

ANGELA

It's too early in the morning for that.

OGUN

Never too early in the morning for a little wine or any other delight.

ANGELA

Ogun, you are an old man, you know! How old are you?

OGUN

I may be seventy, but I feel like fifty. I still have a little Anancy in me!

ANGELA

Too much if you ask me. But wine, this early in the morning, won't help that heart of yours.

She points to the scar on his chest. Concerned.

You want them to cut you open like they did the last time?

OGUN

Let them cut me open! I don't care.

He points to the scar on his chest

It's better to die in the hospital than to watch them, my so-called friends, tear down everything that I've tried to build with my own two hands. Look, look at what they've done here since yesterday.

They look around in horror at all of the destruction that the bulldozers have caused.

Last night my lawyer told me they were meeting in the parliament building, discussing me behind closed doors.

ANGELA

I can't believe that they would do this.

OGUN

All night these trucks have been trundling and booming through the last line of dunks trees. Dragging and hauling them. Did you hear them?

ANGELA

Yes, Ogun.

OGUN

A noise like bombing and a great cloud of dust—shock and awe in the valley. Now there's nothing left between ourselves and the airport. All that noise. First Thyme Bottom. The slave well next, the bearded fig trees next. I feel so lost, Angela. So lost. So alone. Like is me one fighting against the one big machine, this monster called the government that instead of defending us, is selling us out every day.

ANGELA

You're not alone, Ogun.

OGUN

Sometimes it feels that way, Angela. Sometimes, I feel I should just end it here and now, and let all the people, like Seymour, come and have their last laugh.

ANGELA

Things will work out, Ogun. And you know I get worried when you start talking like that.

OGUN

I know. I know. But they are getting to me. Look, all the mangroves are gone. The egrets and the pigeons, dwarf cactus, cordia and crotons; the cows and the black belly sheep, all gone. I cyaan take it no more, Angela. No more. Sometimes I feel like just set myself on fire around Claire's ashes—

He points to the concrete slab.

-- before I let them kill me.

ANGELA

Is all right, Ogun. Don't talk like that. You may feel that way, but don't talk like that.

She coughs.

Is all right.

She coughs again.

OGUN

Now you are coughing. This is bad. What's worse is that with all the trees gone we can't even sleep and rest when we're sick, not with all this noise from the airport, from the trucks and bulldozers. It's not right! It's not right!

ANGELA

Don't work yourself up so. You are going give yourself another heart attack.

OGUN

I want to give them a heart attack! I want to give the Honourable Seymour Arnold Peeples, our esteemed Minister of Housing, a fatal heart attack for what he's doing to me. And for what? This fight has taken me away from making all the changes I want to make around here.

ANGELA

It's too bad, eh. Someone you grow up with, went to school with, who was the best man at your wedding should be doing this to you?

OGUN

Who knows, as my Sunday school teacher used to say, what wickedness lies in the hearts of men?

ANGELA

Only God himself knows. But don't forget that there is always love, Ogun. I know you forget it sometimes, but there is always love.

OGUN

I know.

ANGELA

Knowing and living are two different things.

She moves close to comfort him.

OGUN

Are you preaching to me, Angela?

He laughs.

You sure you shouldn't be preaching to Charles inside the house?

Angela backs away.

I think he likes you. Since last week he's hasn't been playing with those gadgets of his—have you seen them?

ANGELA

Don't start playing with his gadgets. We have to concentrate on saving the land and finishing the book.

OGUN

The way he's been going for the past week, it seems as if we never will. He's been getting up late and going to bed early, stretching out the time we have to finish the book.

ANGELA

How far are you with it?

OGUN

We're on the last leg now. We covering the last time I came back to the island.

ANGELA

This time.

OGUN

This time.

ANGELA

You really think he likes me?

OGUN

His eyes have been following you around the yard like magnet to a piece of iron and I know where the iron is.

I told you if I wasn't seventy.

ANGELA

But you just told me you feel like fifty.

OGUN

Feeling and knowing are two different things.

He smiles with her.

But straighten up yourself, here he comes.

Charles opens the door, yawns and walks down to meet them,

CHARLES

Morning, Ogun. Morning, Angela.

He is wearing a red and T-shirt and black jeans.

OGUN

Morning.

ANGELA

Morning. Did you sleep well?

CHARLES

Who can sleep with all the racket here? Has it gotten worse in the last few days?

He pulls out a pack of cigarettes and lights one.

ANGELA

I think so. I don't know what they're planning, but it can't be anything good. And your coughing kept us all awake, and that smoking isn't helping you either!

CHARLES

It's my only vice, so I might as well indulge it.

ANGELA

Well, indulge it somewhere else. I am going to start breakfast.

Angela storms off towards the house.

CHARLES

What's with her?

His eyes follow her back to the shed. She turns at the door to see if he's watching her and their eyes meet. She closes the door behind her.

OGUN

I will tell you later. But it looks like we have company, and it looks like Seymour. Must be really important because the last time I saw him was at Claire's memorial, and that he's coming here, this Saturday morning. It can't be good news.

They begin to cough and cover their faces fanning away the dust that Seymour's jeep is causing on the dirt road that leads up to Ogun's house. The sound of a radio call in show. A car door slams and the radio goes off. Seymour's henchman appears on stage first, way ahead of Seymour. They wait and wait until SEYMOUR, dressed in a bush jacket, makes his way up the road. Seymour finally appears.

SEYMOUR

Jimmy, how are you? Just dropped by to see you and to hand deliver this. We worked out the details last night.

Ogun is ignoring him. He has turned his back and has resumed cutting the grass with his machete.

CHARLES

Let me see that!

SEYMOUR

Not so fast!

Seymour holds back on the papers. The henchman blocks Charles and glowers at him. Charles sizes him up and backs off.

And who are you?

CHARLES

Charles Bailey.

SEYMOUR

Am I supposed to be impressed?

CHARLES

I don't know.

SEYMOUR

Well, if you don't know, what are you doing here?

CHARLES

I'm here with Ogun, writing his biography.

Seymour stares at him.

I mean, Dr. Whitmore.

Ogun stares at him.

I mean, Ogun.

The henchman snickers. Charles stares at him.

SEYMOUR

You mean to tell me that you're wasting good paper and good time on a man like him? Really?

Scoffs. The henchman nods.

Don't you have anything better to do with your life other than following around a man who is little more than an educated Rasta?

CHARLES

Sir, begging your pardon, but for many of us, Ogun is a hero.

SEYMOUR

A hero? Since when? Do you know that this man, a man who is supposed to be progressive, yet he is so opposed to progress he wouldn't let a factory to be built down in the valley.

OGUN

I'm not opposed to progress, Seymour. I'm opposed to your idea of progress which means killing and destroying the land—our land. When what I'm trying to build is something that shows the culture of the island, and not limbo, jump up and baby, come watch me jive. I could even see, if you were promoting eco-tourism. This is an illegal and unnecessary road that doesn't have to be built here, to cut through this land, almost like a spite.

SEYMOUR

You keep taking this personally, but it's not. But I guess, you're really taking this poetry business seriously and think you have to be hypersensitive to nature and all that nonsense. Believe what you want to believe. Anyway, since when were you elected Minister of Anything to be telling me what to do?

The henchman nods approvingly.

OGUN

I don't have to be a minister to follow my conscience.

SEYMOUR

Following your conscience cost the people of Thyme Bottom five hundred jobs. You think they love you down there? Do you listen to the radio or is that too much technology in this African village of yours. Up to this morning on the City Radio's call-in, a man from Thyme Bottom, was asking the radio announcer, “Who does Dr. Whitcomb,”—see even he, a real man of the people, didn't call you Ogun. He said, “Who does this man think he is telling the government what they can or cannot do?”

OGUN

Some people still want to give away all their power to the government.

SEYMOUR

So, now you are an anarchist? You want to overthrow the government? You should tell the people on City Radio that too!

OGUN

I didn't say that. What I am saying is that it's not only the government who should decide how the land should be used. We have power too. We should have a say in the things that are going to overturn our lives. You should at least ask us or tell us the truth about your real plans. Give us a chance, Seymour.

SEYMOUR

A chance? When did you ever give me a chance? But this is not between me and you anymore. This is bigger than us. If I followed your plan, nothing would ever happen.

OGUN

I'm not saying in everything. I'm saying on the big things like this, we should we involved.

SEYMOUR

Who is this “we” you talking about?

OGUN

Precisely.

SEYMOUR

Look, I wasn't the one who harassed the owners of that factory into the courts, bombarded the radio stations…

OGUN

Just following your lead…

SEYMOUR

until they finally backed away from the deal. You betrayed the very people who you claim to represent, and nobody has ever voted for you in their life!

OGUN

The factory owners were going to dump waste in the harbor, Seymour.

SEYMOUR

Never mind. It's the principle.

OGUN

You have no principles!

SEYMOUR

You have the nerve to lecture me on principles? Unless your moral authority is based on being barefoot?

Turns to Charles.

Do you really know who this man is? This man who you claim is a hero lived off his wife and worked her to death while she neglected her own art. And now he lives off her life insurance. This is a man who has never done a hard day's work, but who has slaved off the sweat of others. This man is a known drunk, a whoremonger and adulterer. You think I didn't know, eh? Everybody knows. This man who has wasted the last fifty years of his life writing books that nobody wants to read, researching topics nobody wants to know about, lecturing about things he hasn't got the slightest idea about. Calling himself a writer? He failed his senior Cambridge literature exams. Twice! He talks about staying behind in the islands when everyone know he was a failure-still is a failure. If he was so famous, if he was so respected by his peers, where are they? Not one of his famous friends has stepped forward to help him. And you know why, because he's wrong. Dead wrong. The only reason anyone even thinks he's good is because he got that Guggenheim. But if he hadn't gotten that Guggenheim—because of that other woman he slept with—broke Claire's heart, he would be in some alms house in Bridgetown.

OGUN

Don't ever say Claire's name again or I swear, government minister or no government minister, I will chop you!

Charles holds him back. The henchman steps between them. Angela has walked down to see what is happening.

ANGELA

What's going on here?

SEYMOUR

So, you've added her to your harem now, eh, Jimmy? Were you screwing her behind Claire's back, too?

ANGELA

Take you raas out of here, Mr. Peeples.

The henchman is surprised.

HENCHMAN

Who you think you talking to? This is the Honourable Minister…

ANGELA

Of fucking Thyme Bottom. I know.

HENCHMAN

Oh, you know who he is.

ANGELA

Everybody knows who he is. He's a sonafabitch.

HENCHMAN

Do, boss.

The henchman advances on Angela, and Charles moves closer to her. Seymour nods his head and the henchman steps back.

SEYMOUR

Always having women to fight your battles for you, eh, Jimmy? You haven't changed. Look the great writer, speechless. Great writer. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Pause. Turns to Charles.

So let me ask you something Mr. Biographer, who is going to publish this book?

CHARLES

We don't have a publisher yet.

SEYMOUR

And you what, you never will. You're wasting your time, and his time. Although his time really doesn't count.

Angela is about to charge at him, but Ogun stares her down.

OGUN

No, child. Is all right. I will deal with him.

The henchman begins to pound his fists into his palm. Frightened, Angela steps back Charles does not understand why she I so frightened.

SEYMOUR

Your parents must have a lot of money after putting you through school for you to be doing this?

CHARLES

Actually, I put myself through community college and then state university.

SEYMOUR

And where do you work now?

CHARLES

Biscayne Community College.

SEYMOUR

Biscayne Community College. Oh, this is rich, Jimmy. This is rich. You couldn't even get someone from UWI? Is this what you've sunk to Jimmy, or should I say, Ogun? Having your biography written by a fifth rate student from a tenth rate community college writing a biography about a failed writer for an unnamed publisher with no publication date in sight. If only Claire could see this.

OGUN

I've warned you.

Angela and Charles block him. The henchman wants a fight.

SEYMOUR

C'mon, let him hit me. Let him hit me.

Seymour motions to his henchman as if to say, step out of the way.

We would just arrest him on the spot and clear up everything so when the bulldozers come on Monday at least we won't have so see those ugly little gray hairs coming out of that hideous gash in his chest.

Seymour throws the papers on the ground. Charles picks up the papers and begins reading them while Angela goes over to Ogun's side.

All I can say is that you've been served with these papers requiring you, I hope that's not too big a word for you to understand Mr. Community College biographer, to clear off this land in forty –eight hours. We will be coming back with the police, if necessary.

Seymour takes two steps toward his car and then turns back. His henchman is momentarily bewildered.

In forty eight hours, you and your African village, you and your little Luddite dream that stands in the way of true progress will all be gone. All I can say to you, Mr. Community College Biographer, is to pack your bags and find another failure to write about.

Seymour faces Angela. The henchman glowers at her. Charles is upset, but Ogun stares at him as if it's not worth the fight. Ogun is worried about Charles getting beat up.

And you, Miss Nasty Mouth, the pride of Thyme Bottom, go back to whatever hole you crawl out of down there.

Charles is visibly angry now.

You better go back because I will tell you a secret, he doesn't have any money.

CHARLES

Don't talk to her that way!

Charles moves to take on Seymour and his henchman.

OGUN

No, Charles. These are dangerous men.

CHARLES

I'm dangerous too.

The henchman laughs. Charles is angry.

OGUN

Not like these men, Charles. Not like these men.

Seymour steps between Charles and the henchman,

SEYMOUR

Two men fighting over you now? One too old and one too poor. What a pair, what a pair. But it won't really matter because all of you will have to leave on Monday.

OGUN

I will kill you before I let you desecrate Claire's grave site.

SEYMOUR

You were the one, Jimmy, who despite my warnings, chose to empty her ashes over there. I will have no regrets when this is all over. But listen to yourself, Jimmy. Listen to yourself. Is this what you've become? You used to be so articulate until you went to the bush in Africa and now you've come to the bush on the island. What is it about bush living that drives men like you insane?

OGUN

You should try it sometimes. It does wonders for the soul.

SEYMOUR

I pray for your soul, Jimmy. With all this African, Anancy business. You and I used to be acolytes in the Church. We lit the candles and ate the Eucharist together. And this is what you've come to? Look at this, look around you. Does this look like the house of a world class poet? What you still using the latrine behind the house? This is the change you want? Back to the past? You should be thanking me for ending your delusions and before you spread them any further or to the next generation. Dangerous ideas, Jimmy. What happened to you? Where did you go wrong? Not to worry though, the whole thing will soon be over.

Seymour walks off towards his car. The henchman waits until the car door slams. The henchman crushes the sapling under his heel and runs off. The car engine starts. The wheels spin. Ogun, Angela and Charles cover their faces from the dust. When the dust finally clears, Angela walks over to Charles.

ANGELA

Is it true?

CHARLES

Yes. We have forty-eight hours to vacate the property.

ANGELA

What are we going to do?

CHARLES

More than what we've done already?

OGUN

We have to find a way.

CHARLES

How? We've done just about all that we can.

OGUN

It will come. It will come. In the meantime, I have some bramble to cut, you have breakfast to finish, and you have some writing to revise. So we all have work to do. So go on. Go on now. Do your work and don't worry.

Ogun watches then go inside and picks up his machete. He stares at the papers and puts them in his back pocket. He picks up the sapling.

OGUN

Because of these little vandal, hooligan boys you never had a chance, eh? But don't worry. We will figure out a way, high or low we'll figure out a way. Even if you don't live, there will be another and another and another.

He places the sapling in the dirt almost like a small burial and continues chopping away at the weeds.

ACT 1. SCENE 2

Inside the house. The kitchen. Angela has prepared breakfast of yams, plantains—all of the food that Ogun loves. She serves Ogun first. The air is tense and no one is willing to say anything. The silence continues until Angela sits with the men at the table. She turns on the radio.

OGUN

Turn off that damn thing!

ANGELA

We have to do something!

CHARLES

What are we going to do? We've filed briefs with the court, with the Prime Minister, with the Ministry of Housing, sent letter to the press all over the world. I've sent pleas and petitions over the Internet, but nothing seems to work. And now he's controlling every thing being said on the radio or what's being printed in the newspapers to control what the people know. Short of suing the government, which will be too late, for according to those papers that Seymour brought up here, the government is claiming “Eminent Domain”.

ANGELA

What does that mean?

OGUN

It means that the bulldozers are coming on Monday and that there is nothing that we can do about it. They're doing the same thing all over the Caribbean, using the law against us. And what hurts more than anything else is that these are my brothers.

Charles and Angela face him.

ANGELA

You mean after all of what they done to you, you're still calling them your brothers?

OGUN

I mean it. We, me and Seymour and all those who went to England and those who stayed behind, were supposed to be the ones who would lead after our fathers won independence from the British. We were the one who should have created a space for the younger writers, like you to thrive, a place where you could know that there were generations before you and generations after you. Planting trees whose shade we will never sit under, fruit we will never eat. But what are we doing? Selling our brothers and sisters right back into slavery, into the hands of developers, World Banks, gunmen and vandal boys. All they know is to kill the youth, like no one should ever come after them.

Ogun tastes the food and then pushes it away from him.

I'm sorry Angela. I can't eat. I'm tasting the sand and the grit and my stomach is churning. Even this water has turned to limestone. I can't even drink. Give me a shot of rum and…

ANGELA

It's not good to drink on an empty stomach and especially so early in the morning.

OGUN

Just give me the damn drink, girl. You think you are my woman? You think you can boss me around? Pour me the drink, and pour it now!

Angela goes under the sink where she's hidden the bottle and pours him a drink. He gulps it down. He motions to her for more, and she pours him a second cup, which he also gulps down. He sticks out the cup for a third. Angela hesitates. Ogun glares at her and she pours the third cup. Ogun drinks it, gets ups from the table and goes through the back door. He leaves the cup on the table. An awkward silence passes between Angela and Charles

CHARLES

It's really getting to him, huh? He's close to a breakdown.

ANGELA

I hope not.

Pause. She thinks about what she has said.

It would get to you too if they did to you what they're doing to him. What life has done to him.

CHARLES

You sound like you pity him.

ANGELA

Pity is not the word.

CHARLES

Is that why you are here? Because you pity him?

ANGELA

I would never pity Ogun. And I hope you don't put any of Seymour's slander into your book.

CHARLES

I wouldn't do that. It's clear that most of what he said wasn't true.

ANGELA

Yes, but there are some things that are true, but they are not true.

CHARLES

What do you mean by that?

ANGELA

Promise me that whatever I tell you won't go into your book.

CHARLES

But what if…

ANGELA

Then I won't tell you.

CHARLES

Okay.

ANGELA

You promise.

CHARLES

Yes. I promise.

ANGELA

It's just. It's just that I get worried about him. Nobody but me and one other person knows this.

She looks around the room.

Ogun tried to kill himself after Claire died.

CHARLES

What? I have to…

ANGELA

You promised. And a promise is a promise.

CHARLES

Yes. When? How?

ANGELA

A few weeks after Claire died, he was up here alone and I came to visit him, to look him on him, Thank God, I came he had already swallowed a whole bottle of her pain medication. I had to get one of his students from the hospital to admit him, clean him up and nobody ever know but me and him. I threw away all of the medicines…

CHARLES

You think he'll do it again?

ANGELA

He promised me he wouldn't do it again and I promised I would help him out with things and that wouldn't tell anyone.

CHARLES

I'm sorry I promised you now.

ANGELA

Why?

CHARLES

Because something like that his readers would like to know.

ANGELA

Why would they want to know that?

CHARLES

It happened.

ANGELA

But that doesn't mean that it's the truth.

CHARLES

I don't follow you.

ANGELA

It happened, but it's not the truth about Ogun. The real Ogun, the Ogun that everybody loves would never do that. But he is a man. And he can fall down sometimes.

CHARLES

Is that what you mean by some things that are true are not true?

ANGELA

Yes. He did it, but that wasn't the real Ogun. The real story of Ogun is that he is a fighter for us, for me, for my family. That man, Ogun, is the only man that stood up for my people, my family that come from Thyme Bottom. The same way that they want to move us out, is the same way how they moved us from Thyme Bottom. That man, Ogun, brought books from abroad, set up schools in Thyme Bottom, taught us by his words and his deeds that we were people, people worthy of respect. When he wrote that play about the hurricane…

CHARLES

Marilyn's Wake .

ANGELA

And all the people in the play talked like how I talk and walked like how I walk.

CHARLES

Nice.

ANGELA

You're as bad as he is.

CHARLES

Anything wrong with that?

ANGELA

Not when I'm trying to think. All I'm saying is when the whole island was saying the only thing good that can come out of Thyme Bottom is shit, Ogun proved them wrong. For I am not shit. He did that for us. No one else did that for us, not even our great Seymour Peeples, did that much for us.

CHARLES

You would think your own MP would…

ANGELA

We call him Blindmore People . The hypocrite! Every year he gets on the radio on the television, and says he's against casino gambling, but every Sunday he's playing cards with his friends down at the country club. He says he's against women getting abortions because as a catholic, he must support life, but his daughter went to Miami to get one. They tell us one thing, but want a different thing for their children. And who is Seymour to judge anyone? That man is a two faced liar and you can put that in your book!

CHARLES

I'll put it in the book because the only way to defeat a hypocrite is to turn the light on them.

ANGELA

How?

CHARLES

I don't know. But you still haven't answered my question. Is that the only reason why you're here, to help him out with things?

ANGELA

What do you mean by that?

CHARLES

There seems to be more than you helping him to cook. The way he talks to you.

ANGELA

Ogun is an old charmer and that's why so many women love him. You know, he once told me he'd never met an ugly woman in his life.

CHARLES

And you believed him? No wonder Seymour called him those names.

ANGELA

You agree with Seymour?

CHARLES

No, it's just that when men talk like that they want more than just a boiled egg.

ANGELA

Well, with me, it will only be hard eggs for them. But I know what Ogun means. Everyone wakes up every morning and looks in the mirror. If we believed we were ugly, we would never leave the house. Ogun looks beyond all of that. He sees the person under the fat or under the hair or no hair. He sees the person and that's why fat women, skinny women, women with long hair, women with bald heads, women with big breasts, women with no breasts, love him.

CHARLES

Including you?

ANGELA

Yes, but not like how you're thinking. I could never repay Ogun for what he did for me. He helped me through a rough time. That's why I stay to help him with the cooking and the filing. Ogun put me through art school and Claire gave me private lessons. And then I met this boy, my first boyfriend, who I thought it was going to be love forever, and things got bad. He started to beat me. When my boyfriend was saying,”Who tell you, you can paint, eh? That old man and woman filling your head with nonsense?” Biff.

She pounds her fist into her palm.

When my boyfriend was saying, “You mean to tell me, that instead of fixing my dinner, you were painting?” Biff! Biff!

She pounds her fist into her palm. Again

When he was saying, “You want something to paint, paint your face! Better still, paint my black ass?” Biff! Biff! Biff!

She pounds her fist into her palm. Again and again

Biff! Biff! Biff! Biff! So, Ogun went down and had a talk with him. When that didn't work, Ogun turned the police and the courts on him. When that didn't work, he had the Rasta boys, the ones who live down by the beach, the same ones who promise Ogun to light his pyre after he is dead and to scatter his ashes with Claire's around the concrete slab out there. After the Rasta boys talked with him, he never came back.

CHARLES

What happened?

ANGELA

I don't know and I never asked.

CHARLES

Is he dead?

ANGELA

No, no not anything like that. I see him every now and then when I go into town. But when he sees me, he runs like he's heard news.

Pause.

CHARLES

You should show me your paintings one day.

ANGELA

You'll have to come down to Thyme Bottom to see it.

CHARLES

I'd make the trip right now.

Angela is surprised. She moves to pick up Ogun's cup.

ANGELA

Well, that's my story. That's why I am here with Ogun. What's yours? What made you leave Miami, to come down here to Thyme Bottom? A single man like you?

CHARLES

I wasn't always single.

ANGELA

You mean you're married?

CHARLES

Used to be.

Shows where his wedding band used to be.

Divorce was final a year ago.

ANGELA

So what happened?

She's relieved.

CHARLES

We both got married right out of college, but her parents disapproved of our marriage.

ANGELA

Was she white?

CHARLES

Dominican.

ANGELA

So, she thought she was white.

Giggles.

CHARLES

Something like that.

Chuckles.

Anyway, we got married and I was working in three English departments in three different schools in Miami teaching seven different classes every semester just to make ends meet, but she wanted more.

ANGELA

More?

CHARLES

She wanted more of the life that she'd grown up with and I couldn't give it to her. I mean, who wants to marry a poor writer?

ANGELA

Claire did.

CHARLES

And that's what fascinates me. Both of them—their relationship.

ANGELA

Just their relationship?

CHARLES

Not just their relationship. I'm intrigued by how Dr. James Lawrence Whitcomb could be transformed into Ogun.

ANGELA

What's so big about that? Why are people upset about that? We're all black people, right? Some how or the other we all came from Africa, right?

CHARLES

Yeah, but when he did that, he reminded these guys, who were so willing to forget the past, who were so willing to do the fashionable European or American things, that we have a right to dress, and speak how we want to speak. As long as he is alive, he reminds them that Africa is in the Caribbean. That's why, I think, he changed his name and wrote his plays the way he did.

ANGELA

Seymour didn't like that either.

CHARLES

Really?

ANGELA

Oh, that's another big fight that he and Seymour got into on City Radio when Ogun said that we should teach patois in the schools…

CHARLES

Ogun just loves to stick it to him, huh?

ANGELA

This is not a new fight. They've been doing this for a long time. Seymour was going to sue him for incitement to violence when he had a politician named Radio Whore was killed at the end of Marilyn's Wake …

CHARLES

Seymour thought it was him.

ANGELA

Of course. And it was him. That man lives to hear himself on the radio. Ogun shut him up though when he said we should be proud of how we talk, just as how the English are because English started off as a patois.

CHARLES

What did Seymour say to that?

ANGELA

I don't know. I turned off the radio when they brought in one of these experts from the Ministry of Education. All these people from the university do is get on the radio and talk, talk, talk and lie, lie, lie. All I know is that all these government boys, when they want something, your vote, your money, a little something on the side, they can talk worse than a market woman.

CHARLES

That's why I can't understand why no one has rallied to his aid. Ogun has done so much for this place, so much for me.

ANGELA

How?

CHARLES

I used to think that a poem should look like this you know on the page. Static. Fixed.

He motions with his hands.

But Ogun freed my mind from those limitations. He taught me that a poem isn't something that's bound in a book, that it can be free to live, out there even in cyberspace. And now he's in this fight with a man who thinks he owns the future of Thyme Bottom. It's a long story and my life has been for the better since my wife left. I have a steady job now, so I took some time off from the college to write Ogun's story. I want to get to the bottom of it before he dies.

The door creaks open. Ogun steps inside.

OGUN

Well, that won't be happening for a very long time.

ANGELA

That's good to hear, Ogun.

OGUN

Give thanks, daughter. I'm sorry about what I said. It was wrong.

ANGELA

It's all right, Ogun.

OGUN

No, it's not all right, but give thanks. But that's not why I came here. Look!

Ogun spills a handful of berries on the table. Charles is fascinated with them.

In all our worries, the dunks trees kept on growing, kept on bearing, kept on changing. I need to learn from them.

Pause.

ANGELA

Try them, Charles.

Angela gives him a few. Charles looks at them again. He smells them.

Go on, try it. I wouldn't give you something bad.

She laughs. Charles pops one in his mouth and to his surprise, they are sweet.

CHARLES

They are sweet. These are like nothing I've ever tasted before. Where did you get them, Ogun?

OGUN

Out back. Come with me. Angela, come let's show him.

ANGELA

No, you show him. I'm staying to clean up here.

Ogun and Charles leave through the back door. Angela turns on the radio. They come around to the front of the stage to the bench. The sound of the radio fades with the closing of the door.

OGUN

Sit here. Sit right here and look down there. You see them? Claire and I used to sit here and look out at the blues and greens of the ocean and the trees. She used to say, “Beyond the tops of those trees is Africa.”

Charles sits down on the bench.

Now, you see between the emerald bay and that Serengeti beauty where the cows used to ruminate and the egrets plodded through the mangroves, beyond the fig trees where our ancestors looked across to the barracks where we are now? That was where the slave ships landed. That was where our ancestors stood and looked back across the Atlantic and dreamt that one day, these fruits would give their children a little sweetness in their lives.

CHARLES

I see the trees. I see them. How come I never saw them before?

OGUN

We were too busy fighting. We are all too busy fighting. I've been fighting all my life. Had to fight to go to school, had to fight to stay in school. Had to fight to get my first book published, had to fight to get it reviewed. Had to fight to get a little recognition, had to fight to keep the recognition. Had to fight, fight, fight. I been fighting them from the day I was born.

CHARLES

But hasn't it been worth it?

OGUN

When you always fighting, you miss a lot of the beauties. Beauties like those dunks trees down there. You see when the wind blows over from the Sahara, the hot harmattan, these trees begin to blossom, and stirred by the African heat, the berries start to sweeten inside their flesh. And when the boughs are so laden with fruit that they can't take any more sweetness, the tree casts down its branches to the earth so that anyone, birds or children, can pick them up,. And after the burden of sweetness has been cast off, the tree raises it branches back up to the sky to catch the rain and the dew. All free, of course, without a fight. Can you imagine how our ancestors must have felt when they tasted these berries, the same berries that we are eating now, from the descendants of those trees, and knew that a sweetness lay in the future for their children. That's why they could survive that holocaust. They had faith.

CHARLES

I don't think I have that kind of faith.

OGUN

But you must. The same wind that tempered the berries, is the same wind that drove the slave ships. The same wind that blessed is the same wind that cursed. The same wind that scorched the desert, the same wind that feeds. The wind that soured the lives of so many, sweetens our lives today. We the children of those Africans, on this rock of an island, four hundred years later.

Pause. He eats a few berries.

It was Claire who first showed me these berries. Made me taste these berries. It was she who brought me back to this island, made me see through her painter's eyes the beauty of these islands and who made me come back here. And then she died. Her ashes are all over this island. She is here and that is why I have to fight again.

CHARLES

And that is why I came here to write about you, Ogun. You helped me to see the beauty of this island, of so many islands. Beauties that I don't think my parents or my grandparents saw.

OGUN

They never took the time. I'm a great believer in time. That's why I like to sit here and look down there—a sight that no development, no gazebos overlooking the harbour can give you—a feeling of peace.

CHARLES

It's not just time, Ogun. It's how you see things. It's so strange. People come from all over the world to experience Paradise in our islands, and we don't see it for ourselves.

OGUN

And we are determined to make a hell of it. We are determined to kill ourselves.

CHARLES

What do you mean?

OGUN

Can't you see this too?

Ogun begins to touch everything around him.

Can't you see that this, this, this, this, this, is you? Can't you see that we are the eyes, ears, nose mouth of these islands? This is our skin, this is our flesh. To destroy this, is to destroy ourselves?

Pause.

But we keep living in the same slave mentality that now even our first forebears had because they believed it would get better. We wouldn't be here it they didn't believe. But slowly we took on the Massa mentality and now we only see this place as a place to rob, rape and pillage. We don't love this place. We don't love ourselves!

CHARLES

What are we going to do?

OGUN

I don't know what you're going to do. I am going to do what I've always done. Fight and keep fighting without judging. It's like my old Sunday school teacher used to say quoting from the good book,”Judge not so that you may be judged likewise.” She used to say we all have to realize that we are splinters of God or as the Yoruba say, splinters of Olodumare. We can never fully incarnate all that is Olodumare, so all we can do is to learn from each other and go with the change.

CHARLES

You never cease to amaze me, Ogun. Every time I talk with you, you just blow my mind.

He reaches for a pack of cigarettes

OGUN

Put that away! Stop polluting the air with those cancer sticks. I've had enough of them.

CHARLES

It's only a cigarette.

OGUN

And it was only a few cigarettes a day that killed Claire.

CHARLES

Claire smoked?

OGUN

Yes. Nobody knew except me and Angela and now you, of course. She made me promise, and I got one of my ex-students in the hospital to say it was brain cancer—

He chuckles.

I have no problems with taking money back from British insurance companies that insured slave ships! I will trick them anyway I can to get what I want!

He chuckles again.

But it all started in her lungs from those cigarettes. But that's why Angela hates them so much. They killed her Aunt Claire.

CHARLES

Claire was her aunt?

OGUN

No, it's a term of endearment we use down here in Thyme Bottom. They were real close, and Angela was also one of Claire's best students. So, if I were you, I'd give up the cigarettes. No more pollution of mind, soul, body or land. Enough!

CHARLES

Done. No more. It was a bad habit anyway.

He crushes the box and puts it in his pocket.

So, why didn't you tell me all of this before?

OGUN

I just did.

CHARLES

And suppose I never asked?

OGUN

Well, you wouldn't have found out. You know, many warriors miss the prize because they are bound by decorum—the code of the warrior, the thou shalt nots of being a warrior. Don't let decorum blind you from seizing the prize. Sometimes you have to be a little Anancy.

CHARLES

I don't know what you mean. But what I have to ask you is, how can I be your biographer, if you don't tell me things?

OGUN

I never asked you to write my biography, you volunteered. I was perfectly willing to die out here in the bush after Claire died.

CHARLES

And never let the rest of us know the truth?

OGUN

About what?

CHARLES

About this, about everything that we've been talking about this morning. About how James Whitcomb became Ogun.

OGUN

For still a select few. You heard Seymour.

CHARLES

That's all envy, Ogun. There's more to that than meets the eye. There's more to your relationship with Seymour that you haven't been telling me.

OGUN

Is that a question?

CHARLES

Yes.

OGUN

Then, I will answer you.

CHARLES

Wait. Let me get my notes. I've missed so much already!

OGUN

Okay.

Charles runs toward the house and Ogun looks out at the bay. A great sadness shakes his body and his shoulder sag. He looks as if he is about to begin crying.

CHARLES

Ogun!

Charles realizes what was about to happen, so he gives Ogun time to compose himself. Ogun straightens up.

OGUN

Yes.

CHARLES

Okay, here it is.

Charles hands him a small wireless device. Ogun is amazed.

OGUN

What is this?

CHARLES

It's a new way that I devised this to take the notes from now on. I'm a terrible typist and this microphone will record via my cell phone to my computer. Live feed basically. We'll do the voice recognition later. Let's just get the recording for now.

OGUN

And you did this?

Ogun takes the microphone from him.

CHARLES

The results of my misspent youth. I picked up many things that I thought I would ever need. That's how I ended up in a community college. I needed a second chance.

OGUN

Some of us more than others. This is interesting. I wish I had had these thirty years ago. Claire did all of my typing.

CHARLES

Yes. I know. In certain circles, you are not going to look too good because you are seen as a man who made her sacrifice her career for yours and all the while…

OGUN

I was gallivanting.

Pause.

But as my good friend Jimmy Baldwin used to say, the details of anyone's sex life is nobody's business. And as my volunteered biographer, I hope you will bear that in mind.

CHARLES

But your readers will want to know the truth.

OGUN

What truth?

CHARLES

About…

OGUN

That I had sex with women other than my wife? That I was known as the terror of Mary Seacole at UWI. It never affected my work.

CHARLES

Never?

OGUN

Never. And what happened between my wife and me in or out of our bed is nobody's business. When we closed the door, it meant: Private. Keep Out! Whatever I did, deep down never really affected my relationship with Claire.

CHARLES

Or your relationship with anyone else?

OGUN

What are you getting at?

CHARLES

Could it be that the real reason that Seymour is after you like this is Claire left Seymour and married you?

OGUN

Oh, you heard about that, did you?

CHARLES

I've asked around.

OGUN

Well, you shouldn't have. It's more than that. Seymour and I went to school together, played marbles together. His parents were far wealthier than my parents, but he never achieved what they wanted him to be. No, he wants to be prime minister and I cost him that deal with the factory. He thinks I've been a thorn in his side, and he wants to pay me back before we both die.

Pause.

Wait, is this thing on?

CHARLES

I'm afraid so. It's picked up everything you said

OGUN

Speaking into the microphone

Good. Seymour, you are not…

CHARLES

You don't have to speak into in. I've upped the volume and it's omni-directional.

OGUN

Repeat. You are not going to build your golf course, road or what ever you are planning to do. You will do this only over my dead body. Seymour, you hear me! Over my dead body!

Pause.

But let me tell you something that I don't care if you put it in your book. Claire was the only woman I ever loved. Ever. And it may surprise you to know this, but for the past twenty years, I was totally monogamous, and it had nothing to do with AIDS or anything like that. On my fiftieth birthday, her sister whispered in my ear, “If you're looking over the fence, whatever you looking for, it can't be in your own yard.” That woke me up. Since then, I haven't been with another woman. I may flirt,

Chuckles.

have to keep my hand in the pot,

Laughs now.

but no other. This all so strange. Strange and wonderful. From I've known myself, I've been coming to life out of fear, out of lack. If I have any regrets, it's that I didn't realize this earlier. Twenty years earlier.

ANGELA

Ogun! Charles!

Angela is coming from the house.

OGUN

I may have taught many things to many people, but this is the one lesson that I learned too late.

He drops the microphone.

ANGELA

What have the two of you been talking about?

CHARLES

Nothing. We were just talking about the dunks trees down there.

Charles picks up the microphone. Ogun is watching him.

OGUN

I'm going up back to the house. Angela, you tell him some more about the dunks trees.

ANGELA

Yeah, we used to pick them when we were younger.

Ogun walks back to the house.

All around here used to be a grove of dunks trees and fig trees that Ogun says the Indians used to worship. He even says that an African priestess, a daughter of Eshu, is buried around here. He's seen her.

CHARLES

Ogun sees many things that we don't see. But he's always been a little strange.

ANGELA

What will you think about me then?

CHARLES

Why?

ANGELA

You're going to say that I'm mad too. I've seen things. I've heard things.

CHARLES

Like what?

ANGELA

I'm not going to tell you.

CHARLES

I'll give you a berry.

He pulls a berry out of his pocket and hands it to her.

ANGELA

And what is this? One berry? I could walk down there and get a bushel for myself.

CHARLES

But I've saved you the walk. Besides this is the sweetest berry in the world.

ANGELA

This one berry?

CHARLES

Try it.

ANGELA

It won't be sour?

CHARLES

I promise.

ANGELA

How can you promise me when this is the first time that you've eaten them and you haven't tasted it yet?

CHARLES

It's coming from my hand. I wouldn't give you anything bad.

ANGELA

And everything that comes from your hand is good?

CHARLES

Everything that I give to you.

He gives her a berry and holds her hand. She holds on to his hand and with her other hand, she pops the berry in her mouth and begins to savor it

ANGELA

You're right; it is sweet.

CHARLES

And it will only get sweeter.

ANGELA

What do you mean by that?

CHARLES

First, you tell me your secret and I will tell you what I mean.

ANGELA

You're going to laugh at me. I don't like people laughing at me.

CHARLES

I promise I won't laugh.

ANGELA

You promising like mad today.

CHARLES

Maybe I'm getting a little crazy too. What's your secret?

ANGELA

You promise you won't laugh.

CHARLES

I promise.

ANGELA

Sometimes.

She pauses. She looks at him face to face.

Sometimes when it is dark and I am walking through the grove, down there and I am all alone, only me and the trees, sometimes, I swear, between the darkness and the dew, I think the trees are talking to me.

She laughs.

You're laughing.

CHARLES

No.

ANGELA

Now, you must think I'm strange like Ogun

CHARLES

No, he's strange in the nicest way. Are you?

He holds her hand.

What do the trees say?

He is genuinely interested.

ANGELA

They say, “Be still. Be still” That's all.

She laughs and pulls away. Charles moves closer and holds her hand again.

CHARLES

That's a lot. Many people will never hear that much in three lifetimes.

ANGELA

That's sad.

CHARLES

So when, so when do you hear them?

ANGELA

You just want to make fun of me.

She pulls away.

CHARLES

I would never do that.

He holds her hand and motions for her to sit on the bench. They sit down together.

ANGELA

It's when I'm down there, and I feel like painting the groves, the way Claire wanted to paint them, to catch the twilight under the darkness of the leaves.

CHARLES

You must take me there.

He moves closer. She moves closer.

ANGELA

Maybe I will. But now, I've told you my secret. What's yours?

CHARLES

What will you give me for it?

ANGELA

I don't know what do you have in mind? I don't have any berries.

Charles holds her hand.

CHARLES

But you must have something sweet.

Angela blushes and holds down her head. Charles comes close to her and caresses her forearm.

Tell me you don't have something sweet.

ANGELA

Charles, you rude, eh. I never know…

They are about to kiss each other.

OGUN

Angela! Charles! Come here. Come here now!

Charles and Angela rush back to the house. Ogun staggers through the front door and sprawls out on the dirt. He is clutching his heart. Angela rushes over to him and cradles his head.

Charles runs back into the house and brings a cup of water. Ogun tastes it and boxes it away. He won't drink it. Ogun tries to speak, but can't.

ANGELA

It's all right Ogun. It's all right.

He's cold. Don't say anything, Ogun. Don't say anything.

CHARLES

Let's take him into town to see a doctor.

Ogun shakes his head.

ANGELA

He doesn't want that. It's all right Ogun. We'll stay with you.

CHARLES

We'll stay with you Ogun. We will.

Ogun tries to say something.

What's he saying?

ANGELA

I don't know. I can barely make out what he's saying. His heart is beating so fast. It could be another heart attack.

Pause.

He says we have to fight.

Pause.

Take it easy, Ogun. We will fight another day.

CHARLES

Just rest, Ogun. Just rest.

ANGELA

He says he knows what he has to do now.

CHARLES

Just rest, Ogun. Just rest.

The light fades with both of them holding Ogun and repeating, “Just rest, Ogun. Just rest.”

ACT 1. SCENE 3

Misty morning. The cock crows. The cock crows again. The sound of the cock being strangled or stopped in mid-crow. The dogs start barking, yelping. Commotion in the yard.

Angela coughs as she walks out into the yard to see what's going on. She looks around the yard casually, and then the light comes up on Ogun, groomed and dressed in white, (the visual opposite of Ogun in Act 1. Scene1) sitting on top of the pile of wood that has been assembled on top of the concrete slab—his pyre. His clothes are wet. He is chanting a prayer to Olodumare that he continues throughout the scene as appropriate.

OGUN

Mojuba Olofín, Mojuba Olorún, Mojuba Olodumare
Olorún Alabosudayé, Alabosunifé
Olorún Alayé, Olorún Elemí

ANGELA

Ogun, Ogun, lord, Ogun, what you going do? What's the smell?

She sniffs the air.

Ogun, is wet you wet up yourself with gasoline?

OGUN

Stop interrupting my prayer. If you want to help, call your government boy. Call your vandal boys. Call your radio station and let them know what he has done to me. Call him and his vandal boys who only know how to kill, but cyaan grow a seed. Call him now!

ANGELA

Charles! Charles! Come here quick! Charles!

Charles runs out of the house wearing nothing but his jeans.

CHARLES

What's wrong, Angela?

ANGELA

Look what they do to Ogun!

CHARLES

Ogun, Ogun, what are you doing?

OGUN

What does it look like? Do you know me as a man who speaks idly? Do you really think I was going to sit here and watch them destroy my life without taking them down with me? Seymour will never get another vote in Thyme Bottom. My blood will be on his hands.

CHARLES

He isn't worth it, Ogun. Don't let them have the last say on how your life ended. If you do this, then this is how your story ends. You ended your life as a coward. That's how everyone, even future generations, will remember you.

OGUN

Do you really think I care how people will remember me? I was struggling long before prizes or recognition, so whatever anybody wants to say about me, I don't care. I have no control over that, so why worry.

ANGELA

So, you don't care what we think?

OGUN

I didn't say that.

ANGELA

But we are here, right now, in this time. You don't care what we think now.

CHARLES

You are going to let Seymour win? You're just going to give up like this and let Seymour win?

OGUN

He's not winning a damn thing! But if I were you, Angela, I would go and call Seymour. He wouldn't want to miss this. Him and his vandal boys!

Angela goes inside the house and Charles stays with Ogun. Ogun continues chanting to Olodumare.

OGUN

Mojuba Ashedá, Mojuba Akodá
Mojuba ayaí odún, oní odún, odún olá
Mojuba babá, Mojuba yeyé

Pause.

Mojuba ará, Mojuba ilé
Mojuba gbogbowán olodó araorún, oluwó, iyalosha, babalosha, omó kolagbá Egún mbelése Olodumare
CHARLES

Don't defile the Moyuba with your sacrilege!

OGUN

Oh, so you know it. How?

CHARLES

I had to. It was in your first book. That book made me analyze everything that I thought I knew. But look at you now, Ogun. What was the value of those years I spent looking up glossaries, dictionaries and thesauruses, poring over the nuance of every word you wrote, every word every critic wrote about you, for it to come to this? Answer me, Ogun. What about all those words we spoke yesterday about ancestors and beauty, sweetness and courage, faith. Where is your faith now, Ogun?

OGUN

I've told you don't judge me, boy. You've never faced what I've faced. You've never done what I've done.

CHARLES

Maybe not. Maybe I'm not as famous as you are, not as world renown as you are, but I've been true to myself. I thought this is what you have been saying all your life.

OGUN

And I'm not being true?

CHARLES

Not if you're going to do this! Where's all the talk of fight? Or was it all just talk? Seymour was right, you've always had women to fight your battles and now that Claire isn't here.

OGUN

Don't let me tell you what I had to tell Seymour.

CHARLES

Or else what? You going chop me? Come and do it!

OGUN

Nice try.

Ogun begins chanting again.

CHARLES

I will come over there and drag you off myself, you know.

Ogun pulls out the matches.

OGUN

Not if you want my blood on your hands. Just wait, the barbeque will soon begin and everybody will be happy.

CHARLES

Stop the joking, Ogun. This is serious!

OGUN

And you think that I'm not serious? I'm as serious as that heart attack I had yesterday. Why do you think I'm doing this? You think I want to die defeated. This way, I die the warrior's way, by my own hand. For you see, I'm tired. For fifty years now, I've been writing. And for what? Now these Philistines going come and bulldoze me? Me? Me who been walking through Thyme Bottom and Bridgetown before one electric light went up? Me, who been climbing these hills before one water pipe was run through the village? I'm tired, Charles. For fifty years they been saying Ogun's writing not worth a shit. Not even worth the paper it write on. Now they're saying, Ogun your days are over. Well, I'm not waiting around for any more judgments. I'm going out in a blaze of fire, a blaze of fire so big, them Rasta boys down by the beach, those are the ones who will remember me, and remember me well. They will say, “Boy, that Ogun, eh. He show them. He show them that he was nobody's boy. That he wasn't prepared to and he wasn't going take shit from no one! He set himself on fire! Biggest blaze they have ever seen. Anyone who can do that is a real man, a real warrior.” That's what they will say.

Angela walks out of the house.

CHARLES

What about us, Ogun?

ANGELA.

Yes, what about us, Ogun?

OGUN

You have each other.

CHARLES

Desperate.

What about your promise to Angela?

OGUN

You told him?

ANGELA

You said…

CHARLES

I'm not going to put it in the book. But I can't just stand here and watch him kill himself.

OGUN

It's all right, Angela. He's trying to do the right thing. Don't hold that against him. And that you've told him, it means that you're as guilty as he is and that you've pledged yourself to him on a deeper level now. I don't hold any grudges. It's clear. The only thing is that the two of you need to stop thinking so much about each other and just screw your brains out. You know you love each other. Don't let fear hold you back. Don't let your past, your hurts hold you back. Love now. Don't let your mind get in the way of love. Just love.

The sound of a car engine. The door slams. They begin fanning away the dust from their eyes. The dogs start barking. The sound of footsteps. The henchman walks out first and then finally, Seymour comes on stage.

SEYMOUR

This is what you dragged me out of my house before church to come and see? What you going do now, Jimmy? They tell me you going set yourself on fire. I've brought the matches.

Seymour pulls out a box of matches.

OGUN

So, you think you're so smart, eh, Seymour. You think you win this one, eh?

SEYMOUR

I don't have to think anything, Jimmy. I know. So why don't you just come of the pile of woods or just set yourself on fire. One or the other, just make up your mind, man.

Charles goes at Seymour. Angela holds him. The bodyguard steps in front of Seymour.

OGUN

Control yourself, Charles.

CHARLES

I can't let him do this to you, Ogun.

OGUN

I can fight my own battles, Charles.

SEYMOUR

Well, that's a change. I will deal with you later, boy. Maybe after the nine night that I an sure you will have. Real African, right?

Seymour looks at his watch.

Are we doing this or what? Set yourself on fire and we'll all cry. I'll make the proclamation alter today that our world famous writer, Dr. James Lawrence Whitcomb, commonly known as Ogun, died under tragic circumstances. I'll play with death certificates the same way you did with Claire's. I'll say it was accidental. I'll say the government mourns the loss of one of the brightest stars in Caribbean literature and he died tragically short of being named the island's first poet laureate.

He begins to pace around, moving his hands excitedly.

We'll set up a scholarship at UWI in your name for anyone who wants to study writing poetry. I'll cry. We'll have a memorial service and to make sure that you are never forgotten, I will name the highway that we're building after you. We'll call it the Lawrence Whitcomb Memorial Highway, no Ogun this time, and have a bust installed by a local artist, all representational of course, none of the damn abstractions, so that anyone coming or going from the airport will remember the great contribution that you gave to the country. How does that sound to you, Jimmy?

ANGELA

I can lick him, Ogun?

The henchman is just spoiling for a fight.

OGUN

Easy, girl. Well, you have me figured out, Seymour. You're going to give me what I've always wanted, immortality.

SEYMOUR

So, let's get the show on the road. Well done or medium rare?

OGUN

The two of you leave. I don't want you to see this.

ANGELA

No, we want to stay.

CHARLES

I'm not leaving either.

OGUN

No, no. Go. There are some things that I have to say, man to man to Seymour. Just me and him.

Ogun stares at the henchman. Seymour motions to the henchman and he walks offstage.

And I don't want you or anyone else to hear this.

ANGELA

Please. I don't trust him.

OGUN

Please do this for me, daughter.

CHARLES

We understand. We'll go.

They walk back to the house.

SEYMOUR

So what is so special that you have to say to me? And I don't want any long speech. I have to make it back to Mass.

OGUN

You mean your card game.

Seymour is surprised.

I know things about you too. I know you need the money that the builders are going to kickback to you. You need the money to cover your gambling debts.

Seymour is surprised

I know about that too. You always were a gambler weren't you, Seymour?

SEYMOUR

But never an adulterer. I've been with the same woman now for forty years. Can't say the same for you, can I?

OGUN

So this is what is all about, eh? It hurt your pride when Claire married me. Stuck in your craw now for fifty years that she was with me, probably so much that you didn't even enjoy the forty years with the woman you claim you love, but who must be madly in love with you to stay with you all this time, and you've been ignoring her for another woman. And now that woman is dead, a memory. You should read your own Bible sometimes, lust in the heart.

SEYMOUR

Quit the sermon. I have one to go to in a few minutes.

OGUN

No, I'm done. All I wanted to tell you was the reason why Claire came to me. You see her father was a gambler. No one knew but me. That's what lovers do; they share secrets that they wouldn't tell anyone else. It's not just sex. It's intimacy that makes people lovers. I was intimate with only one woman. Claire. But she knew you were a gambler and she feared what happened to her mother and her would happen again. So, she hooked up with a poor poet rather than a gambler. You could have had her, but you have the cold heart of a gambler who knows how to fold, fold, fold, sometimes bluff, hold and then bet. But it's that coldness that frightened her. You had a great hand when she was with you, but you blew it. I was the luckier, don't you think?

SEYMOUR

So that's the point of all this? I don't care. You'll soon be dead.

OGUN

That is the point, Seymour. You have the coldness of a gambler. You've never lived. I will die, but I have lived. And I have loved. Claire knew despite my indiscretions that I loved her, and I will always love her. There was no truer love in my life and there never will be. She knew that, Seymour. She knew that.

SEYMOUR

Okay, okay. We'll call it the Claire and James Whitcomb Memorial Highway. Hurry up, man, I have to make it back before the Kyrie Eleison

OGUN

You've also disappointed me, Seymour. I never thought I would have a friend as heartless as you. But I was wrong. So, I forgive myself and I feel sorry for you and your vandal boys who can make all the money in the world, but you cyan make a soul sing. I can do that.

SEYMOUR

You're done?

OGUN

Yes. Are you happy now?

SEYMOUR

Ecstatic!

OGUN

Charles! Angela! Come out here. I have something to tell you.

The door open cautiously and then they both come running out to the pyre. Charles is now wearing a shirt and Angela is dressed in her day clothes. The henchman walks back on stage.

I want you to be here when I say this to Seymour.

SEYMOUR

What, there's more?

OGUN

Get off my land!

Ogun steps off the pyre and pulls out his machete from under the pile of wood. The henchman comes running.

CHARLES

No, Ogun!

OGUN

It's only murder and I going kill myself anyway.

The henchman goes after Ogun, but Charles blocks him, and then knocks the henchman out cold. Angela bends over the prone body of the henchman.

OGUN

You never tell me you could fight?

CHARLES

Another bad habit of my misspent youth.

OGUN

How is he, Angela?

ANGELA

Out cold.

She looks terrified that he could do this.

CHARLES

Angela, don't look at me that way. I've never used my fists to attack anyone, only to defend myself and those I love.

ANGELA

Never?

CHARLES

Never.

He holds out his hand to Angela and she takes it.

OGUN

You should have told me earlier. It would have saved me a whole lot of trouble.

Ogun advances again on Seymour and Seymour pulls out the matches, lights one.

SEYMOUR

One step closer and I will light the match, Jimmy.

OGUN

You think this is gasoline? This is water, Seymour. The gas you smelling is coming from where you standing, so I'd be more careful with those matches you might light yourself and that hooligan boy on fire.

CHARLES

What?

Seymour blows out the match.

OGUN

I may have renamed myself, Ogun. But I have a little Anancy in me. Now get off my land before I chop you!

SEYMOUR

You heard him. You heard him threaten me. If he harms me, you will have to answer in court.

ANGELA

I didn't hear a thing. I was too busy having sex with my new boyfriend.

Charles looks at her in astonishment.

CHARLES

Yeah, yes.

ANGELA

Whatever happened out here was none of my business.

OGUN

That's nice of you to say that and I'm glad that you would lie for me, but all that is unnecessary.

Ogun walks over to the pyre and pulls out the microphone.

Live feed, Seymour. Live feed to the Internet, to London, Boston, New York, Kingston, the whole Caribbean including your precious City Radio. Go listen, you will soon here yourself on the radio. All done by a fifth rate student and a failed writer. Not bad if you ask me.

SEYMOUR

What? This is illegal!

OGUN

Depends on what you call illegal.

SEYMOUR

You can't tape record someone without their consent. It's wrong! It's immoral! It's…

OGUN

Sue me.

CHARLES

How? Ogun, you old devil!

OGUN

Easy. Is Sunday morning.

Seymour advances toward Ogun, and Ogun holds up his machete. Charles holds up his fists. Ogun Steps forward.

OGUN

Try me, I beg you. Try me, especially now that your vandal boy can't help you. Now I'm not going to tell you again, get off my land or I will be forced to hurt you for trespassing. And if I were you Seymour, I would start running. The dogs been sniffing the papers that you hand delivered yesterday and they ready to get a piece of you. Ready. Even more than the radio people. You live by the radio, you die by the radio.

SEYMOUR

You wouldn't.

OGUN

I wouldn't, but the dogs will. Angela, Charles go let them go now.

Charles and Angela run off stage. Seymour looks around. The dogs start howling.

OGUN

It's over Seymour. Pack your bags and head out. If I were you I would head for the bush in Guyana. It's the only place that you will find any peace away from all the stress of modern living and away from CNN, who I am sure will want to interview you. You will never be able to show your face in the Caribbean again. Go now before the dogs get you. And remember what I said about bush life. It does wonders for the soul.

SEYMOUR

When I come back here…

OGUN

I give you six months from now if you survive this.

SEYMOUR

I am coming with the police, police dogs, the army, tanks, guns everything.

OGUN

Come. Bring them. I only know that I win today. All I have to do is keeping on winning every day until you or I die. Whichever comes first. I know I'm not dying for now.

The dogs start barking again. Seymour looks round, and then runs off the stage frantically leaving his henchman behind.

OGUN

Charles! Angela! Come back here.

He waits until they come back.

ANGELA

What about the dogs?

OGUN

Seymour is gone. Let them be. Let them be.

CHARLES

You really had me fooled, Ogun. I really thought you were going to set yourself on fire.

OGUN

If this didn't work. I would have.

ANGELA

This was this all an act? Was the heart attack an act?

OGUN

No, child. It was real. That was what drove me to this. I couldn't see any way out and I wasn't going to let them kill me. But as I was lying in the dust, thinking I was going to die, it came to me that I had to try a new way that didn't involve spilling blood.

CHARLES

And you couldn't tell us.

OGUN

Seymour would have seen through it. He knows when people are bluffing and when they're telling the truth. He would have figured it out. I couldn't afford to fail.

ANGELA

Ogun, I never would have told.

CHARLES

I never would have guessed.

OGUN

Truly.

CHARLES

And Seymour thought that you were against technology?

OGUN

I am only against bad uses of technology. See my chest? If it wasn't for technology, I wouldn't be here. Quadruple bypass. I didn't name myself Ogun for nothing. I just hope what I rigged up on your computer worked. Or else I might have to get on top of that wood.

CHARLES

Me too.

OGUN

But enough of this, the two of you. I meant what I said. Go out there and have some fun. Time is too valuable for you to be spending your time with an old man. Go and have some fun.

Angela and Charles look at each other knowingly.

OGUN

I mean it. Go find yourselves a room in Bridgetown. I don't want any fornication happening on my land on this big, bright Sunday morning.

Angela and Charles walk off together. Ogun picks up a stick from off his pyre and pokes the henchman.

OGUN

Go on!

He follows Angela and Charles down to the house. Angela and Charles go inside the house. He goes behind the house and comes out with a new sapling cradled between his hands.

OGUN

Remember, no fornication in my house.

Thunderous laughter.

He pokes the henchman one more time, then picks up his machete and begins to cut the grass again.

He plants the sapling in the ground and steps back to admire his handiwork in the same Manner as Act 1 Scene 1.

Good. It is good.

He begins to cut the grass and to sing, “One bright morning when my work is over, I will fly away home. Fly away home. Fly away home. One bright morning when my work is over, I will fly away home.”

The lights begin to fade

END OF PLAY

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