Читать книгу The Supine Cobbler - Jill Connell - Страница 9

Clinic door shuts. Clinic lights up on clinic chairs. Clinic eighties music: filtered, one world in remove. The Cobbler and Kid stand arrived. The Kid has the Cobbler’s bag slung over her shoulder.

Punctuated by silences:

KID: Is this the place?

COBBLER: Yeah. What time is it?

The Kid carries the Cobbler’s smashed iPhone. She checks it.

KID: 7:15. What time’s our appointment?

COBBLER: Noon.

KID: Maybe we’re early.

COBBLER: We’re supposed to come early.

KID: Who’s that person?

COBBLER: Doctor.

KID: You know her?

COBBLER: No.

DOCTOR: You can have a seat.

They go to sit.

Hang your coat and hats.

They do.

Sit. It’s a waiting room.

They sit. They wait.

The Doctor removes her duster. Underneath she wears underwear and a soccer jersey that says GIRLS or MARADONA on the back. She transforms over the course of the play toward her role in the procedure.

Crickets. Waiting.

The Doctor puts a wolf pelt on the clothesline and travels it over to the waiting room. The Cobbler and Kid watch the wolf. The Doctor sits at her vanity smoking a water-vapour cigarette.

Punctuated by silences:

KID: This is a lot of waiting.

COBBLER: It’s been about two minutes.

KID: You think we’ll have to live here forever?

COBBLER: No, it’s just a checkup.

KID: You think she’ll know what you have?

COBBLER: Yeah.

KID: I don’t want to live here forever.

COBBLER: We’ll leave today.

KID: At least it’s not raining. At least we’re not starving. At least we don’t live in a palace. Did I say palace? I meant a townhouse. At least we don’t live in a townhouse beside a Walmart. Prison’s going to be bad. It’s going to be like prison. But at least we’ll have a place to live. What do you think you have?

COBBLER: Nothing, really. I bet it’s really common.

KID: Do you think I have it too?

COBBLER: No.

KID: It feels like I have it.

COBBLER: You don’t have it.

KID: I hope you don’t have something that costs a lot of money to fix. I hope you don’t have something that once you have it everyone hates you. I hope you have something so common there’s no name for it, something so common we don’t have to fix it because everyone has it.

COBBLER: Yes.

KID: Things could be worse. Still, things feel pretty bad. Which means they can only get better. Until we have to go to prison.

COBBLER: We’re not going to go to prison.

KID: I’m going to prison. I’m going to prison like five times.

COBBLER: I’ll tell your parents.

KID: I’ll tell my parents. Things are going to get so bad for me.

The Cobbler looks at the Kid.

I think this is a wolf. / Skin. Pelt.

COBBLER: / I think so.

KID: I want to put it on.

COBBLER: I think it’s art.

KID: Shit, she’s coming over.

The Doctor enters.

DOCTOR: Let’s see your ID.

The Cobbler gets her wallet from the Kid.

Two pieces.

The Cobbler gives the Doctor two cards. The Doctor returns a card.

This is expired. Health card.

The Cobbler gives the Doctor her health card.

You must be the shoemaker.

COBBLER: I’m his daughter.

DOCTOR: You’re not the shoemaker?

COBBLER: Yes. My dad was the original shoemaker, like a true maker of shoes. That’s what he did. There’s some confusion. I am also a shoemaker.

DOCTOR: Yeah, well, you are what you do.

COBBLER: Or don’t do.

DOCTOR: No. You are not what you don’t do.

COBBLER: Well, I mostly make boots.

DOCTOR: Cordovan, what’s that / Spanish?

COBBLER: / Spanish. Extraction. It is. However, my first given name is after a quality my parents hoped I would embody and my middle given name is after my father, who was named after my grandmother’s lover, who was a film actor in the Westerns. The Italian Westerns.

DOCTOR: I prefer the originals.

COBBLER: Some people do.

DOCTOR: Kurosawa.

COBBLER: Some people don’t consider those the originals.

DOCTOR: You speak Spanish?

COBBLER: It comes to me when I need it.

DOCTOR: Yo chingué a tu madre. I fucked your mother. That’s all I know how to say.

COBBLER: My mother was from New Brunswick.

DOCTOR: I grew up in New Brunswick.

An improvisation where the Cobbler and Doctor continue about New Brunswick until a commonality is found. Perhaps a common thing they don’t know – the Cobbler has never been.

I’d like to go back but I’m afraid of getting shot. I wear a bullet-proof vest – rabbit and Kevlar. I’ll show you later. I’m going to need you to fill out these forms. I’m going to call in your health card and eat a power bar.

Who’s this?

COBBLER: This is Everett the Kid.

KID: How do you do.

DOCTOR: I don’t want any trouble around here.

COBBLER: She’s very reliable.

DOCTOR: Good for you.

The Doctor goes.

COBBLER: (to Kid) It’s okay.