THESHARK
BY JAMILA WOODS
CHARACTER LIST
ZARI: black, female, sometimes she’s more seven, sometimes she’s more seventeen
STEVE: black, male, about thirty, Zari’s Uncle
JOANNE: black, female, about thirty, Steve’s girlfriend
SHARK/ELF: huh?
SETTING
We are in a small house on the South Side of Chicago, distilled into its most integral parts. In the middle, an abnormally large kitchen sink with an abnormally large faucet and handles. Above the sink, a single light bulb with a pull chain. On the counter beside the sink, a towering stack of dirty dishes. The cabinet below the sink is hanging crooked off its hinges. Something lives in there. In another place, a wooden desk with an old school sewing machine and a wooden chair. Beside the desk there is a tall, slender, vintage looking lamp. In another place, a regular sized bed with a puffy white comforter and large soft pillows. Beside the bed, a window where sunlight sometimes streams in.
SUMMARY
A nighttime fairyghost tale of mourning and the memories left behind. An excuse for dirty dishes left piled beside the kitchen counter. A road map of an under-the-sink labyrinth and the spiritcreature who lives there. In other words, Uncle Steve tells Zari a story, and it becomes hers.
Darkness. The sound of water running.
STEVE:
You want to know where I got this scar little one? Well, I’ll tell you…
STEVE pulls a chain and a light bulb comes on above the kitchen sink, where he stands washing dishes. Meanwhile, ZARI lies in bed sleeping.
Once upon a chore-time upon a kitchen counter
there lived a pile of dirty plates stacked
like skyscrapers beside the lake
I, a prince charming in my own right
could have used the dishwasher but
was raised to use the hands God gave me so
I dipped each dish into bubble water
and scrubbed them clean til the water turned murky
When I was finished, I reached down to pull the plug
and felt a curious sucking sensation tugging at my fingertips
I heard the water belch and smelled the metal banging
so I reached down further to see if a fork was stuck
when all of the sudden—a shark arose from that water
opened his jaws and sunk his teeth straight through my arm!
Suddenly the SHARK rises from the water, grabs STEVE and sinks his teeth into his forearm. They struggle.
That’s right, he bit straight through my arm!
Must have gotten lost on its way to Lake Michigan, silly old thing.
Strangely enough, the scar never healed, a trench in the sand.
Anyhow, be careful washing dishes child...
Don’t let the water get too soapy or else
you’ll never see him coming!
STEVE turns off the sink light and disappears. SHARK retreats back into the sink, waiting. The sun comes up. ZARI awakes mid-dream.
ZARI:
I dreamt about him again! This time he was flying above the Tribune tower with wings sewn from African cloth. He landed in the square where his band was playing. Just in time for the bridge, his solo.
SHARK:
Ha!
ZARI turns toward the SHARK, confused. She can’t see him. SHARK smiles naughtily from within the cabinet. ZARI gets out of bed, goes to the desk and opens its drawers, searching for something. As she leaves the bed, STEVE slips in underneath the covers and falls asleep.
ZARI:
I saw a picture of him and his band once. He wore a cowboy hat and a purple spandex jumpsuit. His locks were flying everywhere like fireworks.
She finds a lock of his hair tied with yellow ribbon and stops searching.
I remember when I watched him lose his hair...
The sink light comes on with a buzz. SHARK jumps out of the sink and turns into ELF as time goes backwards. Maybe he takes off his fins and puts on elf ears and an elf hat. Maybe he uses more imagination than that. Whatever it is, he does it deliberately in an oddly choreographed manner. Meanwhile, ZARI hides the lock of STEVE’s hair in one of the drawers so ELF won’t see. ELF creeps over to where STEVE lies sleeping, pulls out a pair of scissors, and begins to chop off STEVE’s dreadlocks one by one, chuckling feverishly as he does so. Seven-year-old ZARI watches horrified.
ZARI:
What do you think you’re doing?
She reaches for STEVE’s hair but the ELF snatches them out of her reach.
ELF:
Mine mine! Not not yours. Say your grace period is up! This is a breach of the hairpeace. What what do you want them for anywayway?
ZARI:
He’s my uncle! His memories are in there. Smells and dust from every place he’s ever been. You can’t take them! Who are you?
ELF:
Nunya. King of the Funions. High fructose corn syrup. The fertilizer. Ha!
ZARI:
I know who you are. You who bit him.
ELF:
Me?? Bite?? You must have me mistaken Miss Bacon.
ZARI:
You gave him the scar, right here [she points to her forearm]
ELF:
What scar?
ELF scurries back into the sink. ZARI runs after him, but he disappears into the cabinet. She makes her way back to the bed and sits down, seventeen.
ZARI:
Elves. Can you believe that? It’s a miracle he survived. After that there were no more purple jumpsuits, or bedtime stories, or sing-alongs at Sunday dinner. I remember one time, I saw him lying underneath a white sheet on the hospital bed, deep sleeping. He looked like a snake, his body was so thin. Jo stood over him all night: a lighthouse, counting his breaths and watching the sheet move ever so slightly up and down, down and up, a sail on a ship going nowhere.
Sink light and desk light go out, sun up on the bed where STEVE lies sleeping. ZARI kneels on the floor beside the bed. JOANNE enters. She cannot see ZARI.
JOANNE:
Morning, Babe.
I just spoke with the nurse.
They need to take some more blood.
STEVE:
It’s the same blood as yesterday, Jo.
There’s no need.
JOANNE:
I’ve been doing some research, okay?
It’s a genus of crab.
Crabs have tough shells you know.
They are strong creatures.
Yours fought Hercules once, remember that?
Grabbed his toe with his claws.
STEVE:
Strong little guy wasn’t he?
He died though, in the end.
Crushed under Herc’s heel
like a little crab cake, ha ha ha!
Can’t forget that part, can we Jo?
JOANNE:
You are not a legend yet.
You’re still breathing.
How can you laugh at unhappy endings?
STEVE:
The same way you cry at happy ones.
JOANNE:
Stop acting like a fable!
STEVE:
Thank you falettinme be mice elf agin!
JOANNE:
You are not a legend yet!
STEVE:
You know, I used to sing in a rock band…
JOANNE:
You fought it once. You can do it again.
Same war different field…you have a tough shell!
STEVE:
I was the lead singer…
I’m not a fighter, Jo.
I wash dishes.
I eat bean curd instead of turkey.
I can make you a dress to wear in the summertime.
I can sleep through murder.
I have nice dreams.
JOANNE: [choking up]
Well you have to wake up.
Your mother will cry Steve.
You can’t give up now. What would she think?
STEVE does not answer. He gets up from the bed and goes to the sink. He begins to wash dishes. JOANNE watches him for a moment, distraught, and then leaves. ZARI pulls the sheet from the bed, bundles it up, takes it over to the desk and sits down. She turns on the sewing machine and begins to sew the sheet fabric. The machine whirs softly beneath the following.
STEVE:
You want to know where I got this scar little one? Well, I’ll tell you…
STEVE pulls a chain and a light bulb comes on above the kitchen sink, where he stands washing dishes. Meanwhile, ZARI lies in bed sleeping.
Once upon a chore-time upon a kitchen counter
there lived a pile of dirty plates stacked
like skyscrapers beside the lake
I, a prince charming in my own right
could have used the dishwasher but
was raised to use the hands God gave me so
I dipped each dish into bubble water
and scrubbed them clean til the water turned murky
When I was finished, I reached down to pull the plug
and felt a curious sucking sensation tugging at my fingertips
I heard the water belch and smelled the metal banging
so I reached down further to see if a fork was stuck
when all of the sudden—a shark arose from that water
opened his jaws and sunk his teeth straight through my arm!
Suddenly the SHARK rises from the water, grabs STEVE and sinks his teeth into his forearm. They struggle.
That’s right, he bit straight through my arm!
Must have gotten lost on its way to Lake Michigan, silly old thing.
Strangely enough, the scar never healed, a trench in the sand.
Anyhow, be careful washing dishes child...
Don’t let the water get too soapy or else
you’ll never see him coming!
STEVE turns off the sink light and disappears. SHARK retreats back into the sink, waiting. The sun comes up. ZARI awakes mid-dream.
ZARI:
I dreamt about him again! This time he was flying above the Tribune tower with wings sewn from African cloth. He landed in the square where his band was playing. Just in time for the bridge, his solo.
SHARK:
Ha!
ZARI turns toward the SHARK, confused. She can’t see him. SHARK smiles naughtily from within the cabinet. ZARI gets out of bed, goes to the desk and opens its drawers, searching for something. As she leaves the bed, STEVE slips in underneath the covers and falls asleep.
ZARI:
I saw a picture of him and his band once. He wore a cowboy hat and a purple spandex jumpsuit. His locks were flying everywhere like fireworks.
She finds a lock of his hair tied with yellow ribbon and stops searching.
I remember when I watched him lose his hair...
The sink light comes on with a buzz. SHARK jumps out of the sink and turns into ELF as time goes backwards. Maybe he takes off his fins and puts on elf ears and an elf hat. Maybe he uses more imagination than that. Whatever it is, he does it deliberately in an oddly choreographed manner. Meanwhile, ZARI hides the lock of STEVE’s hair in one of the drawers so ELF won’t see. ELF creeps over to where STEVE lies sleeping, pulls out a pair of scissors, and begins to chop off STEVE’s dreadlocks one by one, chuckling feverishly as he does so. Seven-year-old ZARI watches horrified.
ZARI:
What do you think you’re doing?
She reaches for STEVE’s hair but the ELF snatches them out of her reach.
ELF:
Mine mine! Not not yours. Say your grace period is up! This is a breach of the hairpeace. What what do you want them for anywayway?
ZARI:
He’s my uncle! His memories are in there. Smells and dust from every place he’s ever been. You can’t take them! Who are you?
ELF:
Nunya. King of the Funions. High fructose corn syrup. The fertilizer. Ha!
ZARI:
I know who you are. You who bit him.
ELF:
Me?? Bite?? You must have me mistaken Miss Bacon.
ZARI:
You gave him the scar, right here [she points to her forearm]
ELF:
What scar?
ELF scurries back into the sink. ZARI runs after him, but he disappears into the cabinet. She makes her way back to the bed and sits down, seventeen.
ZARI:
Elves. Can you believe that? It’s a miracle he survived. After that there were no more purple jumpsuits, or bedtime stories, or sing-alongs at Sunday dinner. I remember one time, I saw him lying underneath a white sheet on the hospital bed, deep sleeping. He looked like a snake, his body was so thin. Jo stood over him all night: a lighthouse, counting his breaths and watching the sheet move ever so slightly up and down, down and up, a sail on a ship going nowhere.
Sink light and desk light go out, sun up on the bed where STEVE lies sleeping. ZARI kneels on the floor beside the bed. JOANNE enters. She cannot see ZARI.
JOANNE:
Morning, Babe.
I just spoke with the nurse.
They need to take some more blood.
STEVE:
It’s the same blood as yesterday, Jo.
There’s no need.
JOANNE:
I’ve been doing some research, okay?
It’s a genus of crab.
Crabs have tough shells you know.
They are strong creatures.
Yours fought Hercules once, remember that?
Grabbed his toe with his claws.
STEVE:
Strong little guy wasn’t he?
He died though, in the end.
Crushed under Herc’s heel
like a little crab cake, ha ha ha!
Can’t forget that part, can we Jo?
JOANNE:
You are not a legend yet.
You’re still breathing.
How can you laugh at unhappy endings?
STEVE:
The same way you cry at happy ones.
JOANNE:
Stop acting like a fable!
STEVE:
Thank you falettinme be mice elf agin!
JOANNE:
You are not a legend yet!
STEVE:
You know, I used to sing in a rock band…
JOANNE:
You fought it once. You can do it again.
Same war different field…you have a tough shell!
STEVE:
I was the lead singer…
I’m not a fighter, Jo.
I wash dishes.
I eat bean curd instead of turkey.
I can make you a dress to wear in the summertime.
I can sleep through murder.
I have nice dreams.
JOANNE: [choking up]
Well you have to wake up.
Your mother will cry Steve.
You can’t give up now. What would she think?
STEVE does not answer. He gets up from the bed and goes to the sink. He begins to wash dishes. JOANNE watches him for a moment, distraught, and then leaves. ZARI pulls the sheet from the bed, bundles it up, takes it over to the desk and sits down. She turns on the sewing machine and begins to sew the sheet fabric. The machine whirs softly beneath the following.
|
ZARI:
Cloth can speak if you let it. That dress he made for me, for my baby sister’s naming ceremony, that dress had something to say. White and pink and gold trim. You said it was a special dress, a big sister dress, a blank white page with pink trim, for me to tell my story. Uncle Steve! |
STEVE:
Cloth can speak if you let it That dress I made you, for my baby niece’s naming ceremony, that dress had something to say. Pink and gold on white fabric. You were barely tall as a yardstick, but it fit you. It said, I’m not a baby anymore, I am a teller of stories. Here’s the beginning: |
STEVE:
Yes Zari!
ZARI:
It’s time for bed!
STEVE:
It certainly is!
STEVE turns off the water and goes to the bed to sit beside seven year old ZARI. She hands him the book and he reads:
Once upon a time
there was a lion.
The lion ate antelope for breakfast.
But sometimes, the lion craved people.
One day, a hunter met the lion in the woods,
The lion attacked the hunter,
but the hunter was strong
and tore the lion to shreds with his bare hands,
and left the body alone in the woods.
He came across the lion he had slain, and to his surprise
he found a beehive growing in his belly
and inside the beehive, a honeycomb.
And the honeycomb was full of honey.
The hunter kneeled down beside his new bounty and exclaimed:
STEVE AND ZARI:
Out of the eater,
something to eat;
out of the strong,
something sweet!
ZARI:
Thank you.
STEVE:
You’re welcome sweet pea. Time for bed?
ZARI:
Yes.
STEVE lies down and closes his eyes. ZARI gets out of bed, tucks him in, and kneels beside the bed. She’s seventeen.
ZARI:
I used to think, maybe when you spend so much time in bed, it makes it hard for you to stop dreaming. Gravity just keeps pullin your brains down and all the sillyness floats to the surface, the things you only say when you’re half sleeping. And then the stories start falling out of your lips like drool, and nobody understands why. They wipe your mouth with napkins like a baby, and say you’re sick, say you’re losing it. And then they fold the napkin over and wipe their snot and tears with the other side.
Lights go down. JOANNE enters and slips into bed with STEVE. The sun comes up on the two in bed.
JOANNE:
I love you.
STEVE:
Your mouth moves beautifully
when you say that.
Your lips could be dancing.
JOANNE: [smiles]
Don’t change the subject.
STEVE:
You are the foot to my pajamas.
JOANNE:
Oh, come on.
STEVE:
The plastic caucasian nose
to my furry eyebrowed glasses.
JOANNE:
I’m not joking.
STEVE:
The perfectly salivated tongue
to my unsealed envelope.
JOANNE:
Could you please just be serious for one minute--
STEVE:
The Wonder to my Stevie.
Get it?
JOANNE: [sighs and turns away from him, frustrated]
STEVE:
If you were on my dinner plate I would save you for last so
I could savor your taste on my mouth
and always remember what it feels like
to wait for you.
He reaches for JOANNE’s hand and she lets him take it. He holds it and kisses her fingertips one by one. She slowly smiles.
JOANNE:
So I’m food now, huh?
STEVE:
Sugar.
JOANNE:
You are too much.
STEVE:
I’m wasting away.
JOANNE:
Stop that.
STEVE:
I don’t make promises I can’t keep, Jo.
JOANNE:
I’m not asking you too. I said I love you.
STEVE:
You should save that.
Give it to someone who can give it back.
Don’t fritter away your smiles on a ghost.
JOANNE:
You think you know everything don’t you?
I don’t need you to protect me, Steve.
I already know you love me.
I just need to hear you say it.
STEVE:
Why?
JOANNE:
Because if you say it, it means you’re not afraid.
SHARK/ELF giggles from inside the sink, JOANNE is startled, STEVE glares at the sink.
STEVE:
I’m not afraid, Jo.
I love you. I’ll never stop loving you.
Just don’t take it to heart.
You can’t take a love like mine to heart.
It won’t keep.
Sun down on the bed. ZARI pulls on the sink light and peers down into the sink.
ZARI:
Um, hello? Hello down there! Hello?
…Is anybody there--
SHARK:
Oh would you please quit quit that yelling!
Your big sloppy voice voice is soo annoying me,
Cochlear lima bean beans, ick, so grossy wossy!
It annoys me very much much!
ZARI:
Oh. Well sorry. …Are you gonna come outta there or what?
SHARK suddenly rises from the sink. ZARI jumps backwards, startled.
SHARK:
What what do you want?
ZARI:
I—I came to see if you were still here.
I wanted to ask you about what you did to my Uncle Steve.
SHARK:
Me?? Do??
What did I do? Me didn’t do do nothing.
Nothing nothing nothing. Nope.
ZARI:
Don’t lie to me you dumb fish!
I saw the place where you bit him. Why did you do that?
SHARK’s eyes grow wide at her insult. He pauses, scowling, then finds it hilarious. He throws his fins back and laughs hysterically.
ZARI:
Please, just tell me what you did to him.
It doesn’t look like a regular scar…
What can I do to make it heal?
SHARK:
Heh heh heh
You wanna wanna know the secret?
Huh huh huh?
You wanna wanna know know?
ZARI:
Yes! Yes just tell me already.
I don’t have a lot of time…
He’s leaving soon.
SHARK:
Soon soon soon. Yes yes. My body bag is almost packed.
Beside the sink dishes be stacked. But well well well,
if you wanna know the secret, I will tell tell tell.
We hear the sound of water running, loud. Unbearably bright blue and yellow Light comes up on the stage. ZARI and SHARK stand in the center, illuminated.
SHARK: [voice avalanching from a sneer to a yell]
The secret is, you don’t even really wanna wanna know the secret.
You know the secret. The secret is you don’t really wanna know.
ZARI:
I don’t believe it. You’re lying! Look…your hands are shaking.
SHARK: [getting hysterical]
The secret is, you don’t even really wanna wanna know the secret.
You know the secret. The secret is you don’t really wanna know.
Hide your face, close your eyes. We take bites of him when you’re not looking
And everytime you see him he seems slightly smaller. Shrinking in his sleep.
ZARI:
Stop! Don’t say that! Please, stop…
SHARK:
The secret is he can’t heal. I threw a match. There ain’t nothin you can do to stop the burn baby burn. Where the body is, the sharks will be gathered.
And the elves too.
ZARI runs to the sink and turns the faucet on, letting water run into the sink. The sound of rushing water, louder. The sink fills with bubbles. ZARI peers up at the huge stack of dirty dishes. She becomes seventeen, growing as the SHARK shrinks. She tells him a story.
ZARI:
Once upon a time a girl is peering down the sink
wondering where her uncle went. She remembers
dropping flowers on a casket but could have sworn
she saw his body snatched by a shark, dragged into
the dishwater and down the silver kitchen drain.
She remembers pressing her finger to a scar on his arm
where a tumor once lived, asking: what happened here?
He grinned and said the shiny gold divots were bites
made by sharks' teeth, wild fish swimming in the kitchen sink.
Somewhere a girl is holding onto her grandmother's hand,
the string of a glamorous kite floating up the church stairs.
Her grandmother wears a pink ribbon on her Sunday best.
The girl hopes her breasts will grow to be more
like grandmother’s dunes than mother’s sandcastles.
Later, when she gets the sandcastles, doctors will warn of wet
clumps of rock stuck in the halls. Tell her not to eat chocolate
or fatty foods. Teach her to stick her fingers in the sand and
search for stones.
Meanwhile, grandfather’s whale spirit will go to war again.
He'll become bone sculptures under bed sheets and it will hurt to smile
He’ll shed his salt and pepper Frederick Douglas mane and sigh
as his soul swims away.
On the arm of the body where he used to live,
the girl will discover a scar the same size and shape as her Uncle’s.
From then on she will comb the sand and fear the water.
Eat penance spinach and guilty chocolate.
She will count her days like water drops from a leaky faucet
Her dirty dishes will pile up beside the sink.
Swiftly and purposefully, ZARI grabs the dishes, one and two at a time, and plops them into the sink water, now overflowing. As she moves the SHARK watches, awed and horrified, and he begins to shake violently. He tries to speak but his mouth seems broken.
SHARK:
You don’t. Really really. You wanna go know. You really wanna secret no no. Your eyes hide from the know know, he go bo peep on the couch tho…bite marks on his elbow. No one knows. No Know. No. No. No. No. No. Oh!
With that the SHARK gasps and collapses into a trembling heap on the kitchen floor. ZARI drops the last dish into the sink, shuts off the water, and everything gets quiet. She turns to stare at the fallen SHARK. Lights out.
Sun comes up on ZARI, seven, sitting on the bed. STEVE wakes and sits up beside her.
ZARI: [touching his scar]
I will remember how your skin, there,
feels like a meteor sunk in yellow sand.
STEVE: [puts his arm around ZARI]
I will be a skeleton for Halloween.
Or a ghost.
Don’t fret when you can see my bones through the sheet.
ZARI:
But you will keep your costume on til June.
I’ll be confused… I will see my father cry--
And grandmother too.
STEVE:
The elves live underground.
Whole cities made from columns of stolen hair, and little men living in the parts.
I will go down and get my strength back.
Don’t miss me, child.
I won’t be gone.
Lights out.
END of play.
Yes Zari!
ZARI:
It’s time for bed!
STEVE:
It certainly is!
STEVE turns off the water and goes to the bed to sit beside seven year old ZARI. She hands him the book and he reads:
Once upon a time
there was a lion.
The lion ate antelope for breakfast.
But sometimes, the lion craved people.
One day, a hunter met the lion in the woods,
The lion attacked the hunter,
but the hunter was strong
and tore the lion to shreds with his bare hands,
and left the body alone in the woods.
He came across the lion he had slain, and to his surprise
he found a beehive growing in his belly
and inside the beehive, a honeycomb.
And the honeycomb was full of honey.
The hunter kneeled down beside his new bounty and exclaimed:
STEVE AND ZARI:
Out of the eater,
something to eat;
out of the strong,
something sweet!
ZARI:
Thank you.
STEVE:
You’re welcome sweet pea. Time for bed?
ZARI:
Yes.
STEVE lies down and closes his eyes. ZARI gets out of bed, tucks him in, and kneels beside the bed. She’s seventeen.
ZARI:
I used to think, maybe when you spend so much time in bed, it makes it hard for you to stop dreaming. Gravity just keeps pullin your brains down and all the sillyness floats to the surface, the things you only say when you’re half sleeping. And then the stories start falling out of your lips like drool, and nobody understands why. They wipe your mouth with napkins like a baby, and say you’re sick, say you’re losing it. And then they fold the napkin over and wipe their snot and tears with the other side.
Lights go down. JOANNE enters and slips into bed with STEVE. The sun comes up on the two in bed.
JOANNE:
I love you.
STEVE:
Your mouth moves beautifully
when you say that.
Your lips could be dancing.
JOANNE: [smiles]
Don’t change the subject.
STEVE:
You are the foot to my pajamas.
JOANNE:
Oh, come on.
STEVE:
The plastic caucasian nose
to my furry eyebrowed glasses.
JOANNE:
I’m not joking.
STEVE:
The perfectly salivated tongue
to my unsealed envelope.
JOANNE:
Could you please just be serious for one minute--
STEVE:
The Wonder to my Stevie.
Get it?
JOANNE: [sighs and turns away from him, frustrated]
STEVE:
If you were on my dinner plate I would save you for last so
I could savor your taste on my mouth
and always remember what it feels like
to wait for you.
He reaches for JOANNE’s hand and she lets him take it. He holds it and kisses her fingertips one by one. She slowly smiles.
JOANNE:
So I’m food now, huh?
STEVE:
Sugar.
JOANNE:
You are too much.
STEVE:
I’m wasting away.
JOANNE:
Stop that.
STEVE:
I don’t make promises I can’t keep, Jo.
JOANNE:
I’m not asking you too. I said I love you.
STEVE:
You should save that.
Give it to someone who can give it back.
Don’t fritter away your smiles on a ghost.
JOANNE:
You think you know everything don’t you?
I don’t need you to protect me, Steve.
I already know you love me.
I just need to hear you say it.
STEVE:
Why?
JOANNE:
Because if you say it, it means you’re not afraid.
SHARK/ELF giggles from inside the sink, JOANNE is startled, STEVE glares at the sink.
STEVE:
I’m not afraid, Jo.
I love you. I’ll never stop loving you.
Just don’t take it to heart.
You can’t take a love like mine to heart.
It won’t keep.
Sun down on the bed. ZARI pulls on the sink light and peers down into the sink.
ZARI:
Um, hello? Hello down there! Hello?
…Is anybody there--
SHARK:
Oh would you please quit quit that yelling!
Your big sloppy voice voice is soo annoying me,
Cochlear lima bean beans, ick, so grossy wossy!
It annoys me very much much!
ZARI:
Oh. Well sorry. …Are you gonna come outta there or what?
SHARK suddenly rises from the sink. ZARI jumps backwards, startled.
SHARK:
What what do you want?
ZARI:
I—I came to see if you were still here.
I wanted to ask you about what you did to my Uncle Steve.
SHARK:
Me?? Do??
What did I do? Me didn’t do do nothing.
Nothing nothing nothing. Nope.
ZARI:
Don’t lie to me you dumb fish!
I saw the place where you bit him. Why did you do that?
SHARK’s eyes grow wide at her insult. He pauses, scowling, then finds it hilarious. He throws his fins back and laughs hysterically.
ZARI:
Please, just tell me what you did to him.
It doesn’t look like a regular scar…
What can I do to make it heal?
SHARK:
Heh heh heh
You wanna wanna know the secret?
Huh huh huh?
You wanna wanna know know?
ZARI:
Yes! Yes just tell me already.
I don’t have a lot of time…
He’s leaving soon.
SHARK:
Soon soon soon. Yes yes. My body bag is almost packed.
Beside the sink dishes be stacked. But well well well,
if you wanna know the secret, I will tell tell tell.
We hear the sound of water running, loud. Unbearably bright blue and yellow Light comes up on the stage. ZARI and SHARK stand in the center, illuminated.
SHARK: [voice avalanching from a sneer to a yell]
The secret is, you don’t even really wanna wanna know the secret.
You know the secret. The secret is you don’t really wanna know.
ZARI:
I don’t believe it. You’re lying! Look…your hands are shaking.
SHARK: [getting hysterical]
The secret is, you don’t even really wanna wanna know the secret.
You know the secret. The secret is you don’t really wanna know.
Hide your face, close your eyes. We take bites of him when you’re not looking
And everytime you see him he seems slightly smaller. Shrinking in his sleep.
ZARI:
Stop! Don’t say that! Please, stop…
SHARK:
The secret is he can’t heal. I threw a match. There ain’t nothin you can do to stop the burn baby burn. Where the body is, the sharks will be gathered.
And the elves too.
ZARI runs to the sink and turns the faucet on, letting water run into the sink. The sound of rushing water, louder. The sink fills with bubbles. ZARI peers up at the huge stack of dirty dishes. She becomes seventeen, growing as the SHARK shrinks. She tells him a story.
ZARI:
Once upon a time a girl is peering down the sink
wondering where her uncle went. She remembers
dropping flowers on a casket but could have sworn
she saw his body snatched by a shark, dragged into
the dishwater and down the silver kitchen drain.
She remembers pressing her finger to a scar on his arm
where a tumor once lived, asking: what happened here?
He grinned and said the shiny gold divots were bites
made by sharks' teeth, wild fish swimming in the kitchen sink.
Somewhere a girl is holding onto her grandmother's hand,
the string of a glamorous kite floating up the church stairs.
Her grandmother wears a pink ribbon on her Sunday best.
The girl hopes her breasts will grow to be more
like grandmother’s dunes than mother’s sandcastles.
Later, when she gets the sandcastles, doctors will warn of wet
clumps of rock stuck in the halls. Tell her not to eat chocolate
or fatty foods. Teach her to stick her fingers in the sand and
search for stones.
Meanwhile, grandfather’s whale spirit will go to war again.
He'll become bone sculptures under bed sheets and it will hurt to smile
He’ll shed his salt and pepper Frederick Douglas mane and sigh
as his soul swims away.
On the arm of the body where he used to live,
the girl will discover a scar the same size and shape as her Uncle’s.
From then on she will comb the sand and fear the water.
Eat penance spinach and guilty chocolate.
She will count her days like water drops from a leaky faucet
Her dirty dishes will pile up beside the sink.
Swiftly and purposefully, ZARI grabs the dishes, one and two at a time, and plops them into the sink water, now overflowing. As she moves the SHARK watches, awed and horrified, and he begins to shake violently. He tries to speak but his mouth seems broken.
SHARK:
You don’t. Really really. You wanna go know. You really wanna secret no no. Your eyes hide from the know know, he go bo peep on the couch tho…bite marks on his elbow. No one knows. No Know. No. No. No. No. No. Oh!
With that the SHARK gasps and collapses into a trembling heap on the kitchen floor. ZARI drops the last dish into the sink, shuts off the water, and everything gets quiet. She turns to stare at the fallen SHARK. Lights out.
Sun comes up on ZARI, seven, sitting on the bed. STEVE wakes and sits up beside her.
ZARI: [touching his scar]
I will remember how your skin, there,
feels like a meteor sunk in yellow sand.
STEVE: [puts his arm around ZARI]
I will be a skeleton for Halloween.
Or a ghost.
Don’t fret when you can see my bones through the sheet.
ZARI:
But you will keep your costume on til June.
I’ll be confused… I will see my father cry--
And grandmother too.
STEVE:
The elves live underground.
Whole cities made from columns of stolen hair, and little men living in the parts.
I will go down and get my strength back.
Don’t miss me, child.
I won’t be gone.
Lights out.
END of play.
JAMILA WOODS is a poet, playwright and teaching artist who sings in elevators and talks to birds in public. Although relatively new to playwriting, she has been passionate about theatre from a young age and had the pleasure of seeing her first two plays produced this past Spring: the Shark at Victory Gardens Theater as a part of the 2012 Poets to Playwrights Conservatory, and All Who Have Sinned at Rites and Reason Theatre as a part of Brown University’s Black Lavender Festival in April 2012. Jamila is currently a member of Young Chicago Author’s Teaching Artist Corps, where she leads poetry writing workshops for youth from all corners of the city. Her first book of poems & poemplays, The Truth About Dolls, was recently released on New School Poetics Press.