Jefferson Navicky
A Road That Happened to Be Broken
Cast of Characters
Racine: Reggie’s wife
Reggie: The birthday boy
Gogol: Reggie’s friend
Scene
Reggie and Racine’s apartment
Time
present
REGGIE
You gonna get a piece from him?
RACINE
Naw I’m gonna switch it out, and get one from Bernard
King.
REGGIE
You going to Bernard? You going to the King?
RACINE
Why not? If you going to get a piece, you might as well
go to the King, right?
REGGIE
Yeah, but man, it’s Bernard King you talking about.
RACINE
Woman. "Yeah, woman." I ain’t your man.
REGGIE
You certainly ain’t. Wo-man.
RACINE
It’s your birthday, Reggie. Your birthday. You want
yourself a nice, fine piece, right?
REGGIE
I nice, fine piece. That would be nice.
RACINE
Wouldn’t it now?
REGGIE
A thing of power. A finely-made machine. Precision
craftsmanship.
RACINE
And that’s why I’m going to Bernard King.
REGGIE
The Bernard King. Damn, the King. You’d do that for me.
You love me like that?
RACINE
Yeah, yeah I suppose I do.
REGGIE
Well, shit. Welllll, shit. Who’da thunk it?
RACINE
Don’t you go on about it. I’m getting’ your piece for
you and that’s that. Now you just lie back here and
relax. Go ahead, lay on down.
REGGIE lies down.
REGGIE
Like this?
RACINE
Right like that. You just relax and wait. Shit you
could even fall asleep and when you wake up, there’s a
good chance I’ll be back with that piece. BEAT. Now you
just relax them little dogs.
RACINE shakes REGGIE’S feet.
RACINE
And you relax those big ol’ hamhocks, those lovely
poom-pooms.
RACINE shakes and jiggles his thighs.
RACINE
And those monster hips of yours. Yeah you just leave’em
be.
RACINE shakes his hips.
RACINE
And by the time I’m back I’ll wake up your whole body.
REGGIE
You will?
RACINE
Don’t you worry about it.
REGGIE
You tell Mr. King I said hello?
RACINE
Sure will, sure will. Goodbye, Reggie.
REGGIE
I love you, Racine.
RACINE EXITS.
RACINE (off stage)
I know you do. Happy Birthday, Regg.
REGGIE fidgets on the floor.
Pause.
GOGOL (off stage, knocking)
Reggie? Reggie, you in there? I saw your light on from
the street and I thought you’d be in there.
REGGIE
I’ma here. Come on in.
ENTER GOGOL.
GOGOL
There you are.
REGGIE
Oh yeah. I’m here alright.
GOGOL
Yep, there you are on the floor.
REGGIE
Sure am.
GOGOL
Happy birthday, by the way.
REGGIE
Thank you.
GOGOL
Thought I’d come by to say that to you.
REGGIE
Thanks.
GOGOL
I don’t have any gifts for you or nothing, but I just
wanted to stop by.
REGGIE
Beers in the ’fridge.
GOGOL
Ta. Ta very much. Don’t mind if I do.
GOGOL gets a beer.
GOGOL
I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why you down there
on the floor, looking all funny like that?
REGGIE
I look funny?
GOGOL
A bit.
REGGIE
I’m relaxing.
GOGOL
Ah.
REGGIE
And I’m waiting for Racine to get back.
GOGOL
Now I was wondering where she’d got off to. You two
always so soldiered together at the hip, it’s almost
like she’s still here. Like I can feel her.
REGGIE
Well she ain’t.
GOGOL
Like a phantom limb. You can feel her presence.
REGGIE
Be nice.
GOGOL
You know me. BEAT. Where’d Racine get off to anyhow?
REGGIE
She went over to Bernard King’s to get me a piece, a
piece for my birthday.
GOGOL
You don’t say. That’s mighty nice of her. And damn, Mr.
Bernard King, eh?
REGGIE
The one.
GOGOL
The one and only. I sure heard about him.
REGGIE
Ain’t we all.
GOGOL
But I never met him.
REGGIE
Me neither.
GOGOL
And you ain’t nervous, your Racine going to see Bernard
King all by herself?
REGGIE
Nervous, why should I be nervous?
GOGOL
Bernard King, shit man, he’s a legend. The man can
score. It’s a thing of beauty.
REGGIE
Hell we all know he’s got skills. Otherwise he wouldn’t
be Bernard King.
GOGOL
He’s got moves. The man expends no extra energy.
He’s Old School. Before you know it, he’s done it,
scored again, and ain’t nothing you can do about it.
REGGIE
What are you saying, Gogol?
GOGOL
I’m just saying. Ber. Nard. King, man.
REGGIE
I ain’t worried. I trust Racine. Of course I trust
Racine.
GOGOL
Sure.
REGGIE
I do.
GOGOL
Of course. I know.
REGGIE
Bernard King.
GOGOL
Gettin’ a piece from Bernard Muthafuckin’ King.
REGGIE
For my birthday.
GOGOL
Man, I’d be nervous if I was you. I would be, I can’t
lie ’bout it.
REGGIE
You would be, huh? He ain’t no god.
GOGOL
He’s a god to us.
REGGIE
A god to you.
GOGOL
To you too, now come on.
REGGIE
He ain’t no better.
GOGOL
You know, all my life I try to believe stuff like that.
Everybody equal. We’re all the same. But shit, man.
Look around you. You happy? You got enough money, man?
You living outside the Program?
REGGIE
I’m doing fine.
GOGOL
Fine. BEAT. People all my life tell me I ain’t gonna go
anywhere, and you know what? They damn near right so
far. I been busting my ass for thirty-nine years and
what I got to show for it? Goodwill. Subsidies. The
Program.
REGGIE
Now don’t go bringing down my birthday, Gogol. I know
all about that stuff. I’m right there with you, but I
don’t want to go having a pity party today. I want to
have a birthday party.
GOGOL
You’re right. Okay. Cheers, then, buddy. BEAT. Now a
piece, though, man, with a piece from Bernard King.
With a piece from Bernard King! Things could change.
REGGIE
A man can hope.
GOGOL
He sure as hell can. BEAT. Hey if you don’t mind, I’m
going climb on down to the floor with you.
REGGIE
Don’t mind at all. I’m just waiting for my Racine.
GOGOL
I’ll wait with you. You don’t mind, do you? Glad you
ain’t worried about all this.
REGGIE
Yeah.
GOGOL
You know, the waiting is the hardest part.
REGGIE
Yeah.
They wait.
Waiting.
ENTER RACINE, with a shiny metal case. Something
definitive has changed in her.
GOGOL and REGGIE get up.
REGGIE
There you are.
RACINE
Here I am. Hello, Gogol.
GOGOL
Ms. Racine. Nice to see you.
RACINE puts case down.
RACINE
There it is. I got you your birthday present.
GOGOL
Heard you was going to get a piece from Bernard King.
RACINE
And so I did.
REGGIE
What was it like?
RACINE
I don’t rightly know. He talks so little, his words
have a peculiar force.
GOGOL
Do they now? What he say?
RACINE
They weren’t worn dull by constant use.
REGGIE
No, I bet they weren’t.
GOGOL
Come on, now, what he say?
RACINE
Not much, really. But he took me with him. Out, way out
into the country. Me, Mr. King and a bunch of his men.
REGGIE
How many?
RACINE
About a dozen. He divided us up into three sleighs and
we all went out for a ride.
GOGOL
Sleighs? Like the big things everybody used to pile in
for hay rides?
RACINE
That’s right. Soon most of his men were drunk and
laughing and carrying on something awful, but that part
didn’t matter so much, we were so far out in the
country. Then all of a sudden, it got dark, like the
sky dropped a black veil on us. The wolves are bad out
there this winter -- we wouldn’t know it here in the
city, but out there everyone knows. Still when we heard
the first wolf-cry, the drivers weren’t alarmed. They
had too much good food and drink inside them. The first
howls were taken up and echoed with a quickening
repetition as the wolves came together. There was no
moon, but the starlight was clear on the snow. A black
drove came up over the hill behind us. The wolves ran
like streaks of shadow; they looked no bigger than
dogs, but it seemed like there were hundreds of them.
Something happened to the last sleigh; the driver was
very drunk and lost control. The sleigh caught on a
clump of trees and overturned. The fleetest of the
wolves sprang upon them. The shrieks that followed made
everybody sober.
I was up in the first sleigh with Mr. King, who was
driving, and two others. The last two drivers stood up
and lashed their horses. Then the second driver, he
lost control too. The screams of the horses were more
terrible to hear than the cries of men. The screams
drove the wolves harder. We were the last sleigh left.
It was then Mr. King turned to me and said, we have to
lighten or we won’t make it. The two other men in our
sleigh -- they were really just boys no more than
eighteen -- they were huddled in the back, cowering
under a blanket. They couldn’t look anywhere but
between their knees. It was much easier than I thought.
I knocked one boy easily over the side of the sleigh
and when the other stood up I threw him after the first
one. I don’t even remember exactly how I did it, or
what happened afterward. I don’t even know if Mr. King
saw what happened. The first thing that I really
noticed was a new sound that broke into the clear air,
louder than anything I’ve ever heard before: the bell
of the church at the outskirts of this here city. BEAT.
That was when Mr. King gave me this case. He said it
was mine now. I’d earned it.
RACINE opens the case.
Lights lower.
A warm red glow shines forth from the case.
Lights out.
END.
