Characters and indices:
Main characters
The Doctor: –Dr. He tried
The Nurse: –Rosario
The roommate: –Oliver Reams
The Promised: –Eva Fremont
The patient/husband: –Lee Walters
Secondary characters
*Mother [Eva’s parent]:–Holly
*The father [Eva’s parent]:-Bruce
*Elsie [Lee Walters Mother]
various characters
glen and harry [Friends of the family at the trailer park]
The gate keeper at the trailer park
The waiter
The gay from the bar
Music: Composition and lyrics by DL Siluk [see annex at end of book]
Music: “It was always you” With Feeling
“The Dancer” Brite 4
“Death [departure] easy waltz
Talk “The end of the day”
“How Love Goes”
Chapters/or Minutes:
Act I In the hospital
Act II In the trailer park
Act III Back at the hospital
Act IV In the apartment [three poetic-musical lyrics read]
Act V In front of the bar/Outside the apartment
Act VI The Jam Bar/The Tragedy
The Annex: Poetics-Music/Letters [composition in Annex]
Additional poetry: “2nd Ave”
Exhibit:
Songs in lyrics:
five sheet music songs [available]
Notes: Fragments of Life
[About the story]
A note on construction: The first Law was written on 3/2003, the second and third Laws were written on 4/2003; Act five written on 5/2003. The work has been written to be read, similar to a play, one could say. The first week of July 2003, the work was republished and slightly modified, in preparation for its publication. Revised for online publication 2/2006.
the fruit cake
Act I
At the hospital
[l993]
This is Lee Walters’ “hospital” room. The room [and, by observation the ward] It’s big, and let me add loud -. I can’t say much about the hospital apparatus. Some of the equipment looks like tubes hanging everywhere, not sure where it goes and could be neglected. A copy of the book, “Never-where”, is on the desk next to her bed. Lee is waiting to go home after surviving a stroke and heart attack; he had some complications with his surgery, but everything seems fine now; the doctor explained to him that in reality he had a second heart attack, the first two weeks before the second, and he didn’t know it, minor he assured him, compared to this most recent one, the major that is, in which he arrived at the hospital on time .
He’s been in the hospital for three weeks, having bypass surgery, and had a stroke on the operating table, but again I stress that he passed all of these tests. You got it: –she’s getting bored, –now, for recovery, she has her own little miracles planted throughout the week. We’ll get to that in a moment. He wants the doctors to release him this morning. But only for a minute, against the better judgment of the doctor, that is.
You now see when the curtain goes up, Lee Walters trying to get comfortable on his bed, stumbling into the pillows behind his back and head a bit. and miss fremont [let’s just refer to her as “Eva” make life easy] -standing in the doorway, shaking his head [thinking, what a dumb clucks, Lee is; we’ll get to Lee also in a moment] “Some kind of bug in your bed, Lee?” She says. He leans back against the back of the bed, boredom on his face, a sound comes out of his mouth, more like a hiss, I don’t think he liked the comment, but then he’s getting used to them, or he should be. now. This situation does not seem to amuse anyone, that is, her comments and her positioning; she sinks deeper into her bed –
No response
Eve. Leeward!
no answer yet
Lee, please relax, it’s not good for you to try so hard [remarks Eva again]
However, there is still Lee’s silence.
OK –(annoyed)–it’s your show, I don’t care [says Eva].
Lee is a thirty-five year old man. He is a Postman making $35,000 a year. He doesn’t have whiskers but he keeps rubbing his face like he’s having an impulsive nervous reaction. He is a hyperactive person by nature. His mouth is slightly open, ready to say something, or he can’t seem to breathe properly through his nose. [one or the other]. In any case, his already annoying state of being in the hospital for so long, twenty-one days, doesn’t help. He has finally made himself comfortable and raises his head to eye level with his fiancée. [a light pause], focusing his attention on her face now. She seems a bit flabbergasted now that she has her attention: –lost for words one might say.
Leeward. Eve! Do you have something worth saying?
Unanswered
Eve!
no answer yet
Eve!
Eve [with a tired attitude]. Monkey sees, monkey does, isn’t it in our world?
Leeward [shaking his head, indignant]. so you say [he sucks in a breath of air] Have you come here to point out my faults, or what?
Eve. You can find out for yourself, smart boy, for yourself.
Leeward. Of course I can [smugly]!
Eve. I was trying to find out how you were feeling and got your old snotty comments as usual; you’re snotty, snotty, shit.
Leeward. Gee, I thought you were worried if I had a bug in my ass, I mean my bed. Really concerned about my well-being, how about you admit that you are part of my boredom? I’m so used to your smart comments.
Eve. For once you’re half right, I forgot about the ‘error’ comment. Ok, you win, now let’s start–let’s start, again, you know, from scratch, okay?
Leeward. Oh boy, what does that mean? What’s in store for me, another round of trying to fix my pillow so I don’t get mad at you again?
The patient in the other bed is filling one ear.
Eve [somberly]. I can’t help but bother each other. We are so used to making fun of everything that we have forgotten how to be serious. But I was crying when I heard you had a stroke on the operating table, along with your heart surgery, I really was, ask your brother. You know you were gone for three days; –his left side of him was paralyzed–out [a slight pause]; It was like having… I don’t want to talk about it. You also had fits for twelve hours; man or man, how lucky you are…!
Leeward. Yes, I know you were crying, I remember some of that. Dr. Bash, Bush or Bean Head, I don’t know his name [a pause, he tries to get his breath]ok Dr. Bash came by last night and said I’m doing great since I made it out of this alive. But he added, and I hate to repeat it, but I will, for a while there, I was a “Fruitcake,” I mean, for a while, I mean, a few days. Can you imagine someone calling you ‘…fruitcake?’ after you had a stroke?
Eve [looking straight ahead, thinking]. All right [pause]now that you mention it, you were kind of, I mean, you really were kind of ‘fruitcake’ [Lee looking annoyed at Eva]. I can’t do much about it, right? But I guess it would bother me a bit, I think. On one hand you were a fruitcake, or off of that, you were having these seizures, you know, or how do you call those things, you know, it makes the body jump… all over the place, whatever it was, it was It wasn’t good. We all thought you wouldn’t recover, they [the doctors] They were going to put you in a coma because you had 12 hours of these tantrums; her brother was here, and–and he had a hard time just like her mother, she was here every day, I mean every day, I think she would have died if you had; –I have seen some tears in the eyes of your brothers, but you fooled everyone and recovered in three days. Everyone says that you are the miracle of the room. And maybe you were a fruitcake, for a while, but on the other hand, you’re not anymore.
Leeward [his crabbiness showing]. Look, you never take my side, even when I’m sick. All right [pause; a moment to think], …and if I have another stroke, and I’m still a fruitcake forever, are you going to take care of this fruitcake or are you going to throw it away? maybe even let the fruitcake dry to nothing!
Eve. It really pains me that you ask that question, or is it a statement [?]
Leeward. All right?
Eve. Can you hear me!
Lee isn’t sure what to say, and taking his time, he looks down. He is starting to realize that he had asked the wrong question and possibly the right one. And he supposed the answer would be: ‘Yes, I’ll let you.’ Both Eva and Lee are silent; she shakes her head ‘yes’. Enter Rosario the nurse. She looks around her, then closes the curtain around her and leaves Eva standing alone in the doorway.
Eve. Can I be of help, Mrs. Nurse? [Lee shakes his head no to indicated to the nurse he does not want her there.]
Rosary nurse. No thanks, Miss Fremont, I just have a few things to do. [She is taking his pulse and listening to his heart. He eyes her shape up. She has a nice well-formed figure, and her skin looks a bright-olive, she is all of twenty-nine years old. She is about five feet two inches tall, and she speaks slow, but confident.]