SCENE THREE - CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN
The lights come up and Johnnie is alone in the room, sitting in his arm chair and he is playing the trumpet. The door is closed. The lights are dim still, but there are some warmer lights around the floor to give a smoky lounge effect. Johnnie plays a long jazz/blues number on the trumpet. After he is done, he sets the trumpet on the table and picks up the bottle of whiskey and pours a glass. He takes a drink and lights a cigarette. He sits way back in the chair and smokes long slow tokes on the cigarette and reflects. He cries quietly for several long moments as he smokes. There is a loud knocking at the door. He ignores it. The knocking becomes more rapid and louder. He stamps out the cigarette in the ashtray and pounds the glass of whiskey.
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JOHNNIE
What the hell do you want!? (He walks to the door and opens it. There is a man standing there. He is an elder man with grey to white long hair and a long beard and mustache and he is wearing a fisherman’s hat. He is a quite attractive man, looks a lot like a Sean Connery type in his Russia House days) Hello?
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CAPTAIN WALT
Hello? Johnnie boy? (He steps in the room past Johnnie.)
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JOHNNIE
Cappie? Is that Captain Walt? (He closes the door and follows Captain into the room.)
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CAPTAIN WALT
Well, yes my boy, yes it is. Although, you aren’t a boy anymore, are you? You are all grown up into practically middle aged! Look at you, my good looking man! You are quite the looker boy! (He slaps him on the back. Johnnie stares in shock.) It’s okay Johnnie. Come, sit with me? (Captain sits down in the armchair and pours whiskey into the two dirty glasses on the table next to the trumpet.) You been playing much? I always told your ma, I said Victoria, Your kid is a genius on the horn. Almost as good as Dizzy! She never got it, but she was always proud of you, son.
Johnnie walks over to the table and picks up a glass of whiskey and throws it against the back wall. They stare at each other for a bit and the captain goes the a cabinet and pulls out another glass and pours another glass of whiskey for Johnnie.
CAPTAIN WALT
I am sorry.
JOHNNIE
What are you doing here?
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CAPTAIN WALT
I loved her.
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JOHNNIE
You used her.
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CAPTAIN WALT
We used each other. She was my best friend.
JOHNNIE
I know that. I know she was. I remember everything But, I also remember all those nights of crying and loneliness. She loved you. She waited for you.
CAPTAIN WALT
That was a long time ago. Things changed. You remember old times, when you were a boy.
JOHNNIE
I remember my mother crying all night in her room and not acknowledging me for a week. I remember my mother taking me from my bed in the middle of the night so she could spy from the car into your partially drawn curtains and crying at every movement through your window, as two people appeared to be snuggling on the couch. She cried for a week! It was pathetic! You lied to her! You led her on you ass! What the fuck are you doing here?
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CAPTAIN WALT
That was decades ago. Yes, when we began our relationship, I was married and I lied. But I have long been divorced, well from that woman, and we have long moved on from that type of neediness. We became best friends, colleagues. We helped each other get prestigious fellowships....
JOHNNIE
She got those on her own. My mother never needed help from any man! You...fucker!
CAPTAIN WALT
I wish she could see you now!
JOHNNIE
You know nothing!
CAPTAIN WALT
I know she would be proud of you, son.
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JOHNNIE
You know nothing!
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CAPTAIN WALT
She would be proud that you are here. That you are playing the godfather. That you are listening to all of her friends. That you are such a success! She was proud, yes, she was, at least of that.
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JOHNNIE
How dare you! How dare you sir! Captain, not my fucking captain! How dare you come here now and push for presence on me! You better stay away from Sarah and Aunt Carlene!
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CAPTAIN WALT
(He pours them both a drink.) Please come sit with me.
JOHNNIE
No!
CAPTAIN WALT
Come. Please, sit for ten minutes. Then you never have to see me again. Well, after the burial tomorrow. I promise.
JOHNNIE
Of course you would like that. Then you never have to face any of us.
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CAPTAIN WALT
I am facing you now,
JOHNNIE
Now that she is dead.
CAPTAIN WALT
I am sorry it took me so long.
JOHNNIE
Who the hell are you?
CAPTAIN WALT
I am just a professor who loves literature and who always loved your mother and who always knew you. I am sorry I was not there for you.
JOHNNIE
What are you saying!?
CAPTAIN WALT
I loved her.
JOHNNIE
Who are you to me?
CAPTAIN WALT
Your mother never told you?
JOHNNIE
What do you mean? Who are you!
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CAPTAIN WALT
I don’t know what to say.
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JOHNNIE
Tell the truth!
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CAPTAIN WALT
I have always loved you.
JOHNNIE
You don’t know me!
CAPTAIN WALT
I know you are a talented axe man!
JOHNNIE
What the hell do you know? I play trumpet.
CAPTAIN WALT
Of course, I know you do. And you are a brilliant composer. You are a blues and jazz genius and you can sing. I saw you in New York last New Years. You were absolutely, breathtakingly, brilliant.
JOHNNIE
What the hell do you know? You came to New York?
CAPTAIN WALT
Yeah... I did...
JOHNNIE
Why? How did you...
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CAPTAIN WALT
I always followed what you were up to.
JOHNNIE
How, why?
CAPTAIN WALT
Mostly, because of Vicky.
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JOHNNIE
What? What do you mean? My mother never knew what I was doing.
CAPTAIN WALT
She followed you, always. She kept every clipping early on. Whatever town you lived in, she subscribed to the paper.
JOHNNIE
You are a liar.
CAPTAIN WALT
Then she began following you online. It was easier.
JOHNNIE
Stop lying! Get the fuck out of here!
CAPTAIN WALT
I can’t do that honey.
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JOHNNIE
What did you call me?
CAPTAIN WALT
Your mother and I have always been close.
JOHNNIE
I remember you making her cry a lot.
CAPTAIN WALT
Not intentionally. I was trying to figure out some things. I didn’t need a woman and a kid to tie me down.
JOHNNIE
What kid? Me?
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CAPTAIN WALT
Yeah, I knew you from the beginning.
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JOHNNIE
What do you mean by that?
CAPTAIN WALT
I was there with her. The whole time.
JOHNNIE
Whole time since what?
CAPTAIN WALT
What do you mean?
JOHNNIE
Did you knock my mother up!?
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CAPTAIN WALT
(Chokes, can’t seem to stop, but tries to talk through it.) What?
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JOHNNIE
I always knew you used her and screwed her up, put her soul in hell for my WHOLE life! I never knew you were my father!
CAPTAIN WALT
Who did you think it was? I was always there.
JOHNNIE
Screw you!
CAPTAIN WALT
I am sorry. I know I am a failure.
JOHNNIE
(Takes a long drink of whiskey from the bottle.) Are you kidding me, God, really? I never knew I had a father. Mom told me she had a one night stand with a fisherman at a bar at a writing conference in Missoula.
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CAPTAIN WALT
Well, she didn’t lie too much. That was the first time we slept together... I went with her to that conference. We stayed in that beautiful Montana, roughing it in a rented cabin for three months. We fished. We rode a motorcycle all over the mountains. We drank a lot. We read a lot and we both wrote a lot. We went wild. We knew we needed to get back, but the fresh air was all consuming. Then, well by then, we knew she was pregnant.
JOHNNIE
I am just... I don’t understand. She never said any of this. Did you know I used to chew up the meat and spit it out and hide it in my napkin under the table? I didn’t want to eat it. I didn’t want to eat them. When I was really little, I visited my grandmother’s farm in Woscom, Texas and there was this cow Daisy. And, well, there was also this bull named Bo, and he died cuz he knocked the fence down and ran right in front of this semi truck. He was laying there, screaming and suffering and they had to shoot him right in front of me. He screamed and twisted and moved all crazy and blood sprayed me right in my face. It destroyed me as a little dude. And my grandmother, her solution was to give me a bath and throw all the usually forbidden toys in and make a huge game of me being naked in bubbles and her insisting to wash me clean with a cloth. But she did gently wash my hair and hold my head carefully under the faucet and was extra careful not to get soap in my eyes. But then, she fed me a pimento cheese sandwich with a lemonade and it curdled in my stomach and it was disgusting and I couldn’t get the taste out of my head or the blood out of my eye socket. It was there in my tear duct for days. Speaking of days, I walked over to the field where they left Daisy, my Nanny’s milk cow. I walked over to her. She looked me in my eyes, so intensely, and she cried. Like freaking waterfalls; she let it all go, tears falling from her eyes. I looked straight into them and her tears splashed on me.. That beautiful girl cow cried on me. She felt that loss! Not only that, she felt how scared and sad I was. I would not eat a cow if they put a gun to my head and said “Eat or die!” Do you understand me? I have been a vegetarian my whole life! Where is your dedication to me? To my mother? Are you Sarah’s father, you twisted scab!?
CAPTAIN WALT
I remember that you hate pimento cheese. I didn’t know why.
JOHNNIE
How the hell would you know I hate pimento cheese?
CAPTAIN WALT
I went back stage once in Philadelphia after your showcase. I went into an empty dressing room. I sat down and drank a beer from the miniature ice box. There was this list of things for the band on the table. I read it. It said, absolutely no pimento cheese shall come into this room per request of Johnnie. It was in bold letters and all caps.
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JOHNNIE
You are a creeper, man! You were stalking me!
CAPTAIN WALT
No, I wasn’t. Truly. I was getting to know you.
JOHNNIE
Why didn’t you ever show up before when I was young and impressionable? Or stay after one of those shows and talk to me? Not wait ‘til I left and drink my free beer. Why couldn’t you talk to me??
CAPTAIN WALT
I couldn’t.
JOHNNIE
Why not?
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CAPTAIN WALT
I was afraid,
JOHNNIE
You are a bastard.
CAPTAIN WALT
I know.
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JOHNNIE
I went my whole life without a father. My mother, well she was so gracious to everyone else. She was beautiful and bold and brave. And brilliant, except, I wasn’t enough for her. I always felt like a burden and then she had my little sister when I was ten, and again, still no man around. A Freakin’ Immaculate Conception! And as soon as she was done breast feeding, she dropped Sarah in my lap to take care of. Dude, I was a ten year old boy; All I wanted to do was ride my mongoose, skate and listen to Coltrane. Are you Sarah’s father?
CAPTAIN WALT
I do not think I can say that I am?
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JOHNNIE
Why can’t you say? Do you not know?
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CAPTAIN WALT
Well, I am not sure.
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JOHNNIE
What the hell does that mean? Are you calling my mother a whore?
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CAPTAIN WALT
No! Of course not! It’s complicated.
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JOHNNIE
How complicated can it be? How many men was my mother sleeping with?
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CAPTAIN WALT
You are talking over a thirty year period of time?
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JOHNNIE
No, I am talking over a ten year period of time.
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CAPTAIN WALT
Well, we were never exclusive. The most time we spent together for an extended period of time was maybe nine months.
JOHNNIE
When was that?
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CAPTAIN WALT
When she was pregnant with you.
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JOHNNIE
Don’t lie!
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CAPTAIN WALT
I am not lying now!
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There is a long pause where the men stare at each other. Johnnie sits on the arm chair and pours two whiskeys. He holds one up in the air and Walt walks over and takes it. He sits on the sofa. They both drink. Johnnie lights a cigarette.
CAPTAIN WALT
You got another I can bum?
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JOHNNIE
Sure.... (Johnnie starts rolling him one instead of giving him one from his case.)
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CAPTAIN WALT
I don’t need a fresh one.
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JOHNNIE
Are you kidding me? Only the best for my dear old....(He finishes rolling and throws the cigarette at him. He lands on his hat and takes it in his hand and cooly puts it on his lips. Johnnie tosses him a zippo lighter.)
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CAPTAIN WALT
Thank you. Nice work.
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JOHNNIE
Whatever... Have you always smoked?
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CAPTAIN WALT
I quit in the nineties.
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JOHNNIE
Oh. I quit buying them packaged then.
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CAPTAIN WALT
How old were you when you had your first?
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JOHNNIE
Cigarette?
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CAPTAIN WALT
Yeah....
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JOHNNIE
I was fourteen. I was always cool.
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CAPTAIN WALT
Nice. Now, it’s not cool to smoke.
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JOHNNIE
Well, it’s okay if you roll your own and you are a musician...Or Johnny Depp.
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CAPTAIN WALT
Well, yeah, then, well then it’s kind of expected. That guy is a badass.
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JOHNNIE
He sure is. But, yeah, you, you are definitely not cool if you don’t roll your own smokes. I mean, if you are gonna kill yourself, you gotta do it with style. Plus, the chickies can’t resist the coolness.
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CAPTAIN WALT
Chickies?
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JOHNNIE
Yeah.
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CAPTAIN WALT
That’s you know, well...
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JOHNNIE
Really?? That’s rich coming from a cradle robbing professor!
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CAPTAIN WALT
Never! They have all been over twenty. (He pours them both a drink and they drink it.)
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JOHNNIE
Amazing.
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CAPTAIN WALT
Well, thanks.
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JOHNNIE
You think I am talking about you? You are far from Amazing.
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CAPTAIN WALT
I know, but... can I tell you a story?
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JOHNNIE
You asking my permission?
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CAPTAIN WALT
No, I don’t want to intrude.
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JOHNNIE
Have a fucking drink. Surprisingly, I don’t mind.
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CAPTAIN WALT
I met Truman once.
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JOHNNIE
What?
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CAPTAIN WALT
President Truman.
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JOHNNIE
Yeah, who else? Just tell the story then.
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CAPTAIN WALT
I was at the Howard Johnson in Poughkeepsie.
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JOHNNIE
New York. What were you doing there?
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CAPTAIN WALT
It was a workshop at Vassar.
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JOHNNIE
And it all comes back around..
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CAPTAIN WALT
Anyways, it was late and I was at the bar at this Howard Johnson hotel in Poughkeepsie. I was trying to relax after a very long day of workshops. I ordered a dry straight martini, up. Then this young guy with a chauffeur costume comes into the bar. He asks the bartender for a bourbon branch to go. The bartender says what? Everything seems to pause for a moment with some serious anticipation. Then the chauffeur says, Branch ...Wa..ter. The bartender says, yeah, I know! We can’t serve alcohol to go, It’s illegal! Then the chauffeur says, Please...look...let me talk to your manager. Then the bartender says, I don’t have a manager. Well, then, there is a bit of heated discussion back and forth and then this old man, who I saw all steamy for awhile with a hot Marilyn, blonde at the end of the bar, walks over and interjects. He says, Hello son, I am George, what seems to be the problem? George gestures for the chauffeur to sit and explain, which he does. George then listens, very sweetly, closely, intently to every word the young kid says. I couldn’t make it all out but I was completely intrigued by their closeness and body language within all the drama and chaos. Finally George exclaimed, “TRUMAN?” The kid nodded, and said, Yes!
You see, I happened to be in Poughkeepsie at the time of Eleanor Roosevelt’s funeral. Truman was in the parking lot and wanted to have a bourbon and branch to go....Well, the owner George poured it himself in a paper cup made for summer take-out ice-cream shakes. He walked it out the doors with the chauffeur and I followed as well. George gave Truman the pretend milkshake and I watched in awe, from the shadows provided directly under the street lamps, as the two of them laughed at the entire situation. It was the most amazing moment in my life.
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JOHNNIE
Well that is impressive....If it’s true.
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CAPTAIN WALT
Why would I lie?
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JOHNNIE
Look, I don’t know you! Why wouldn’t you lie? You claim to be my DAD! You claim to have been around and followed my feats and dreams my whole life, but all I remember is you as “This professor asshole” who my mom seemed to care about a lot. I remember you coming in, telling us to call you Uncle Walt and I remember my mom always crying for a few days after you disappeared again. She always cried, and she always tried to hide it. She couldn’t. That’s when she was the most neglectful. You know.. As a scholar, I have a lot of respect for my mom. As an artist, I worship her. As a mother, well, I don’t know that side of her. I wish I could say she was a great mom. I wish I could. But now she is dead. I miss her.
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CAPTAIN WALT
She doted on you from day one. She loved you with her everything.
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JOHNNIE
Stop making things up to try and get in!
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CAPTAIN WALT
He approaches Johnnie face on and hold his face with the palm of his hand. Johnnie lets him. They stand and stare at each other for a few long seconds.
She loved you from day one of conception. She was so excited. She wanted to stop everything and be a mother. The best mother. I talked her out of it. I told her she had a duty to the literary world. I told her she had a duty to herself and to you. I didn’t realize she would take it so far.
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JOHNNIE
You are such a bastard. Just get out!
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CAPTAIN WALT
Please... I am sorry. Let’s have another drink, another smoke!
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JOHNNIE
Get Out!!!!!!!
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CAPTAIN WALT
Please, just one more, moment, smoke, drink, talk, please..
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JOHNNIE
Get out!!!!!!. (He throws a glass, there is a loud special effects crash sound)
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CAPTAIN WALT
(Definitely shaken and sad) Okay darlin. I am gone!
The Captain tries to hug Johnnie and he pushes him down.
BLACKOUT.
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