2009
A short play

Earl - A Spider Crab
Percy - A Second Spider Crab

Setting:
Decaying carcass of a sperm whale on the bottom of a depthless ocean.

Darkness. Spotlight on PERCY entering a landscape of decay. He pecks at
the carcass selectively, examining before eating. Percy begins to feel the
rhythm of his pecking and chewing. He begins a beat that turns into a dance
until he freezes in a disruptive silence. Percy waltzes.

PERCY (singing to the tune of "Wild is the Wind")
As a cater -pillar weaves through a tree, so -my darling -weave through me-

Percy stops. He doesn't know the words.

PERCY (singing again)
As a cater weaves through a tree -so my darling weave through me.

Percy stops again, EARL enters but Percy doesn't notice.

PERCY (singing)
As a pillar weaves through a tree - so my darling weave through me.

Percy stops again.

EARL
The words are wrong.

Percy screams in surprise

PERCY
What have you seen?

EARL
It's too dark to see anything, stupid.

PERCY
What have you heard?

EARL
I don't know... something that I've heard before.

PERCY
That's impossible, I was composing.

EARL
You mean transcribing?

PERCY
No, this was all me.

EARL (circling around Percy)
...

PERCY
...

EARL
Well, you've still got the words all wrong. 

PERCY
Well, what are they then?

EARL
I know because I've definitely heard this before.

PERCY
Then fucking tell me something about it!

EARL
About what?

PERCY
What are the right words then? Where did you hear it? Or where, in this
goddamn abyss, did you encounter any such trace of music.

EARL
...

PERCY
Say something!

EARL
Jesus, I don't know what song's called... and I can't remember what the
actual words were. But I remember the shapes of its sounds.

PERCY
The what?

EARL
The contours of the music... I don't know what exactly the right words are,
but I can tell you that you got the words wrong.

PERCY
You mean the "contours" were wrong?

EARL
Yea, and-

PERCY
Has it ever occurred to you that maybe the "contours" sounded different
because it's my own damn composition.

EARL
Well... maybe you think that. You've probably heard it around when I heard
it and the melody lingered in your brain, hiding in the wood works like a
sleeping ghost. And now you're trying to call it back but you can't remember
its name.

PERCY
Fuck you, I can sort my own thoughts.

EARL
I'm just saying... I know that I've taken memories as if I've invented
them.

PERCY
...

Earl begins pecking at the carcass

PERCY
Tell me where I could have heard it then?

EARL
Well... here.

PERCY
In this hole?

EARL
Sure. Right here.

PERCY
When, then? ... When?!

EARL (shrugging)
In the past... say about a couple of months ago.

PERCY
Months ago?

EARL
Say, four months ago?

PERCY
Four months ago is now. It's the same. The same blackness, the same rotting
aftertaste, the same air of over-fermentation... I'm asking "Where is the
wine?" I feel drunk, but my friends are all cherubs, too deaf even to
condemn. But I've been roaming this wasteland, this revolving nothingness
since I can remember. Whenever I run into someone, it's like being beached
on a bare island, only there's more of a sense of thrusting. It's such a
moment of shock, such an obscure moment... Really it's only during these
moments that you can ramble about memories and time, because otherwise it's
all seems much the same... So I've decided to make music -to compose.

EARL
Things aren't the same when you're composing, are they?

PERCY
Sure they are. But I compose so that I can sing for you and play for you if
I ever run into you... To numb the shock.

EARL
Of the running into? What if I like my shocks raw?

PERCY
Then you won't remember a damn thing, much less any stray melodies... and
that's why I'm singing, so that you'll remember this song and this moment
and maybe even this here composer... 

Pause, Percy is very pleased with his words. Earl remains silent.

PERCY
It seems like you... are mistaking your "nows" for past memories.

EARL
That's exactly what I admitted to you earlier.

PERCY
So am I wrong?

EARL
Yes.

PERCY
You piece of shit.

EARL
Say what you want about the darkness and pressure, these hills here were
kicking four months ago.

PERCY
Kicking?

EARL
Are you kidding me? Do you know where we're standing? We're on body of a
once soaring sperm whale.  A fucking sperm whale. Can you believe it?
What an enterprise! Do you know what can stop a sperm whale, bring it to its
knees?

PERCY
Hunger.

EARL
Don't be crass. Nothing can stop a sperm whale, they are beyond collapse
(though you'd be inclined to think otherwise)... Sperm whales move according
to their own liking, they cease when they want to. Only a deus ex
machina can stop one.

Pause. Earl is pleased by her words. Percy scoffs.

EARL
The point is... this is the sunken Babylon of corpses. These are immortal
ruins we plunder. They once fed peoples of all kinds. I remember never
seeing so many different faces, the air never felt so warm. The voices of
each and all rang like an infinite symphony. I wish I could pick each staff,
all of them ripe and new like virgin masks... Oh, I could tell you stories.

PERCY
Stories?

EARL
Any kind of story you want. Funny, up-lifting... dirty... I even got
a few songs with exact words and meter. You tell me what you want to hear.

PERCY
Just tell me the first thing that comes to mind.

EARL
Aren't you accommodating? ...I remember being among a group of vampirefish,
the harmless kind... and if you know vampirefish, you'll know that they are
only harmless when they get too caught up with their own image... So we were
all hanging out and the vampirefish wouldn't shut up about how great times
were. They were making a killing (you'd see chunks of flesh float around
like hot-air balloons, this was a fatty land)... And they would talk about
how happy they were and how cute and well fed they looked-

PERCY
Cute?

EARL
What-?

PERCY
You said "cute".

EARL
Yeah, that's what the vampirefish were saying. I wouldn't said anything like
that myself.

PERCY
Oh?

EARL
But these vampirefish were the harmless kind, and you can tell because they
are too caught up in themselves.

PERCY
You've already said that.

EARL
What? No-

PERCY
You've got your lines wrong.

EARL
What?

PERCY
You botched your lines.

EARL
I did not. I'm doing fine.

PERCY
Yes you did. You got the words wrong.

EARL
You're just desperate for a little get-back aren't you? It sure shows, you
should have your zingers wait for a moment that makes some sort of
sense.

PERCY
But it does make sense, it was quite a simple chain of actions. First you
said the wrong words, then, aware of your mistake, you try to compensate,
which leads you to repeat a previous line completely out of context.

EARL
And how do you know they were the wrong words? Did someone sing you the
right ones?

PERCY
It's in the script.

Percy takes out the play's script and hands it to Earl. She flips to the
right page and reads it. Percy paces behind her.

PERCY
You were just saying how the vampirefish spoke of "how happy they were and
how cute and well fed they looked". In the play, that phrase should have
read "how happy they were and how sexy they looked" (Percy points it out
to Earl). You said the wrong words... and you can see that you fucked up
the lines following that too. You're lucky I only started correcting you
now.

EARL
What? (She begins searching the beginning of the play, as she skims
furiously, Percy leaves unnoticed. Her body language suggests that she
realizes where she made mistakes and their magnitude. After a bit she looks
away from the script) ... You know what? Who fucking cares? What are you
trying to prove? 

Earl turns around and sees no one. She looks at the end of the play.

EARL
So that's it? That's how...? 

Pause. She crumbles the play and throws it down.

Well, I'm sure as hell not done... I've got stories. Real stories... Like
that one about the vampirefish, those fucking parasites. You can say what
you want about us spider crabs. We're scavangers, sure. But we know the end
when we see it. Seeing ends is probably the only damned thing we see in this
hole...

Pause

But that counts for something doesn't it? Not even a sperm whale can say
that about itself. To see an end is to accept it. Sperm whales accept
nothing... Whether they're soaring of sinking... Shit, even after they have
sunk... that's the real "kingdom comes", that's what we're living off of.
Sucking the remnants dry...

Pause. She pecks and examines the morsel

Even this here fortress will be stripped bare... Down to the polished bones
for these senseless currents to gather and smooth out...

She eats the morsel

This abyss will run out one day. I can almost see it.

END