III. Daddy Norton

INT -- ENTRY HALL -- DADDY NORTON’S HOUSE --DAY

Daddy Norton had fallen and broken his leg. He lay on the floor of the entry hall, the rug bunched under his back, a crubbed jag of bone tearing his trousers at the knee.
Mama on her way toward the old telephone, Aurel and
Theron on their way to daddy’s side, When...

DADDY NORTON
I have seen all in vision...

Mama flinching away from the phone

DADDY NORTON (cont’d)
(grunting against the pain)
...God has foreseen how we must proceed.

Silence. Mama, Theron and Aurel stopping, looking blow-shy

DADDY NORTON (cont’d)
Come on then, come on. Gather round,
come hear the word.

The boys, very slowly moving toward him, reluctant, as if being sucked in.

MAMA
But I was going to, the ambulance, we
should -

DADDY NORTON
Who’s running your affairs? God or
Satan?

MAMA
But your leg -

THERON
You count us to move you, Daddy? Me
and Aurel carry you on over to the
couch?

DADDY NORTON
Satan you say to me? Satan, Mama?

MAMA
(chastened)God.

DADDY NORTON
(softer) Well. then. Gather round.

They all surround him, in the hall

DADDY NORTON (cont’d)
(with authority but eaten away by
pain) The word of the Lord came to
Daddy Norton, beloved, and said unto
him, “Daddy, beloved, the Lord God
having looked down and seen you in the
midst of your plight sayeth unto you:
Be of good cheer. God has glimpsed you
affliction and will send you a
messenger -

THERON
A messenger?

DADDY NORTON
A messenger! He will come and lift you
up, only you must have faith and
attend.

Silence

MAMA
(tentatively) But Daddy, shouldn’t we
call an ambulance?

DADDY NORTON
No ambulance. This is between me and
God.

MAMA
But the boys. I could send Theron or
Aurel out for help.

Theron nodding, Aurel just watching, afraid.

DADDY NORTON
Can’t you see, woman, that help’s
already on it’s way? And not by means
of any earthly source neither but lo
verily direct from God? He will come
and lift me up.

MAMA
But Daddy -

DADDY NORTON
Everlasting fire unto ye who do not
heed. And upon you as well, dear boys,
if ye depart the house. Thus saith
daddy Norton, thus saith the Lord.
(stops and pants, long silence.)
My life is God’s affair alone.

They Mill about the hall, a series of tentative movements, time passing, always difficult, fear of Daddy Norton.

FADE OUT.

INT -- ENTRYWAY

He remains untouched on the floor into the evening and well through the night, allowing Mama near dawn to touch his face with a damp cloth and to slit back his trouser leg with a butcher knife. Aurel and Theron sleep fitfully, leaning against the front door, touching shoulders.
Aurel awoke and leaned forward; Watching Daddy Norton’s swelled leg, fascinated. Realizes that it’s thick with movement. He Suddenly realizes that Daddy Norton’s eyes are open, regarding him.

DADDY NORTON (cont’d)
What do you see aurel?

AUREL
(startled) I was just... your leg,
it’s covered in flies.

DADDY NORTON
Flies, Aurel? You’re just using your
eyes. What good are eyes?

AUREL
I -

DADDY NORTON
If the right eye offend thee, pluck it
out. If thy left eye offend thee,
pluck it out. (pause) What should you
do, Aurel?

AUREL
But I -

DADDY NORTON
Now I, I see with a pure spiritual
eye. (pause) Do you know what I see?

AUREL
What, Daddy?

DADDY NORTON
I see celestial messengers, cleansing
my wounds with God’s holy love. What
do you see, Aurel?

AUREL
(quietly) Flies.

DADDY NORTON
Still flies, Aurel? Seems to me you’re
the sort that can’t see with his
spiritual eye as long as he’s still in
possession of his physical eyes. Pluck
them out, Aurel.

AUREL
But -

DADDY NORTON
Pluck them out, son. Don’t you have
the courage to follow God?

AUREL
But they’re my eyes.

DADDY NORTON
We all have to make sacrifices, child. Christ Jesus did give up his life. What’s eyes next to that?

THERON
(waking) What’re we all talking over?

DADDY NORTON
sacrifice.

THERON
(nodding) What was that about eyes?

DADDY NORTON
Look closer, Aurel. Give it another
look. (Aurel bends in) There, now.
What do you see now, boy?

AUREL
(squinting, hesitating long) I see
God’s holy love.

DADDY NORTON
That’s right, Aurel. That’s Daddy’s
good boy.

INT -- HALL --DAWN

Dawn breaks and the sun rears suddenly up the side of the house and floods the marbled glass at the peak of the door, creeping across the floor until it mottles the broken leg.

DADDY NORTON (cont’d)
(looking at the light on his leg,
mumbling) And behold, one of them his
faith was so great that He showed
Himself to him face to face.

Theron nudges Aurel.

AUREL
(whispering) What is it?

THERON
He’s talking to his leg.

AUREL
His leg.

THERON
He doesn’t know it’s part of him
anymore. He’s forgotten it. He thinks
it’s God.

AUREL
(long hesitation, a little frightened)
Maybe it is God.

THERON
It’s a goddam leg and not much of one at that.

DADDY NORTON
(to light on leg, unaware of anything
else) I can see how. Come on out, I
know you when I see you, even when
it’s just a glimps. I know you Lord
like my own hand. (silence) Why dost
thou persecute me? Haven’t I done all
you have asked of me. Haven’t I waited
and attended to all signs and tokens and been faithful even in my pain?

THERON
Daddy?

DADDY NORTON
Why hast thou forsaken me?

THERON
Daddy?

AUREL
He can’t hear you.

DADDY NORTON
(becoming transfigured in the face but the pain making it seem as if his face is coming asunder) And unto the elect are given understanding. You see me in my suffering. Thou hast not forsaken
me, nor shalt thou ever.

Theron standing and blocking the light coming through the marbled glass, so that his shadow covers Daddy’s leg. When the light falls off the leg, Daddy Norton lies silent and panting

THERON
I’m hungry, Mama.

MAMA
(standing) I’ll put together some breakfast.

DADDY NORTON
(raising his hand) We shall indeed
satisfy our hunger but with the feast
of the spirit, not the body. No
breakfast.

MAMA
Daddy - the boys they need to eat.

DADDY NORTON
He that trusteth in the Lord is
nourished by his word alone. Now Mama,
bring us rather the Holy Word... Bring
us the true book of God’s awful
comfort. We shall feast therein.

THERON
(declaring loudly) I love God’s Holy
Word as well as any of God’s anointed,
but I want some breakfast.

Daddy Norton feigns not to hear, neglecting Theron until Mama returns armed with the Holy Word. She spreads it before him, beside his face, tilting the book so her husband could read from it prone.
Daddy Norton looks down, tightens his eyes.

DADDY NORTON
Jesus have mercy, I can’t find the pages.

Mama brings the book closer, kept bringing it forward until the pages are pressed against Daddy Norton’s face.

DADDY NORTON (cont’d)
Closer! Closer!

Until his head rolls to one side and he stops altogether.

THERON
Make me some breakfast, Mama,

MAMA
You heard what Daddy Norton said,

THERON
I’m starved, Mama,

She takes up the Holy Word and begins to read, though without the lilt and fall of voice which Daddy Norton usually afflict on the words. Aurel can not feel the nourishment in Mama’s voice, sounding as it did as mere words rattling forth without the spirit spurring them.

MAMA
We’ll feed on this, boys. Just as
Daddy Norton has prophesied.

Opening the book, reads haltingly

MAMA (cont’d)
Those of you who have ears, let them
hear, and those of you eyes, see.
Daddy Norton, I have set you apart
from the world and placed upon thy
form a raiment of fine linen and say
unto you go forth and -

THERON
(interrupting) You’re not reading it
right, Mama.

MAMA
What do you mean not reading it right?
It’s the words, isn’t it?

THERON
You got to read it like Daddy. You got
to make the words sing. You’re making
them gasp.

MAMA
(reading, trying harder) - go forth
and spread my word. It has been said
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth but I say unto you a mouth for
an ear. It has been said the sparrows of the field
neither do they toil nor sow, but I say -

THERON
(interrupting) You’re not doing it
right. It don’t feed me none. I’m
hungry, Mama.

AUREL
Let her alone, Theron.

THERON
But -

AUREL
Let her be.

MAMA
Thank you, Aurel. Now where was it?
(reading) the sparrows of the field
neither do they toil...

Aurel at first listens but in a few words pays heed only to Daddy Norton’s leg. Crawling closer, he looks at it, watches God’s love seethe.

THERON
(standing) Goddamn if I don’t make my own breakfast,

MAMA
Theron...

Marking the verse with her thumb. Her breath is starting to worsen, become ragged.

MAMA
...be Mama’s good boy and sit

Theron ventures a step. Mama heaves her bulk up and stands filling the hallway, the Holy Word lifted over her head.

MAMA (cont’d)
Damned if I won’t brain you,

THERON
Now,Mama,...It’s your Theron you’re talking to. You don’t want to hurt your own sweet child.

INT -- ENTRY HALL --MIDDAY

In his dreams Daddy Norton gives utterance to some language devoid of distinction, spilling out a continual and incomprehensible word. He lifted his head, his eyes furzing about the sockets, his tongue thrust hard between his teeth. He tries to pull himself up, the bone thrusting up through the flesh and the blood welling forth anew.

MAMA
Listen to what he’s saying, Theron, He’s talking to you.

Theron listens, carefully sat down.

Daddy Norton continues to speak liquids, his mouth flecking with blood. Aurel and Theron stay against the outer door, silent, watching the light slide across the floor and vanish up over the house. Aurel’s mouth is so dry he couldn’t swallow. He keeps clearing his throat and trying to swallow for hours, until the sun streams in the window at the other end of the hall and begins its descent.

THERON
Tell Daddy to ask God what time lunch is served, Mama,

Mama glares at him. She opened the Holy Word of God as revealed to Daddy Norton, Beloved, and read aloud from the revelations of the suffering of the wicked.

MAMA
(reading, voice ragged, Daddy Norton’s voice interrupting sometimes) And I say unto you, I part the curtain and again reveal unto you my truth. These are the sufferings of the wicked: flaying alive, and all manner of rending of flesh; burnings of all varieties: by fire, by ice, by spirit; disjointings and unhingings of the integuments of body and soul...

As she reads, Daddy Norton’s voice grows softer then seems to stop altogether, though the lips never stop moving. The light makes its way toward them until they can see, through the glass at the end of the hall, the sun flatten into the sill and collapse.

INT -- HALLWAY-- EVENING

Mama clutches the Holy Word to her chest and rocks back and forth, her eyes shut, trying to catch her breath. Theron nudges Aurel, then rises and edges past Daddy Norton. He skirts Mama, his boots creaking, without her eyes opening. He strides down the hall and into the kitchen, the door banging shut behind him.

Mama jumps, opening her eyes.

MAMA
Where’s Theron?

Aurel points to the kitchen door.

MAMA (cont’d)
That boy is godless, and you Aurel, hardly better. A pair of sorry sinners, the goddamn both of you.

INT – KITCHEN

Theron looks around finally settling on some bread and a jar of whiskey.

INT -- ENTRY HALL -- NIGHT

She closes her eyes and rocks. In the dim, Aurel examines Daddy Norton. The man’s face has gone pale and floats in the coming darkness like a buoy. Theron returns, toting half a loaf of bread and a bell jar of whiskey. He edges around Mama and straddle-steps over Daddy Norton, seating himself against the door. He rips the loaf apart, giving a morsel to Aurel. Aurel takes it, tears off a mouthful. Mama watches them dully. They do not stop chewing. She closes her eyes, clinging tighter to the Holy Word.

THERON
Holy Word won’t save you now, Mama, you need bread.

AUREL
Shut up, leave her alone.

THERON
Won’t save Daddy either, Nor angels neither.

Aurel hiding his ears in his hands.

AUREL
Shut up!

Unscrewing the lid of the whiskey, Theron takes a swallow.

THERON
(holding the jar out) Drink Mama?

She will not so much as look at him. He offers the jar to Aurel, who removes his hands from his ears long enough to take it and drink.

THERON (cont’d)
Aurel knows, Mama, he don’t like it, but he knows.

Turning away from them, she lies down on the floor. Aurel swallows his bread and lies down as well. Theron takes the remainder of the whiskey. He leans back against the door, whispering softly to himself, and watches the others sleep.

INT -- ENTRYWAY -- EARLY MORNING

In the early light, Aurel awakens. Daddy Norton, he sees, has risen and is leaning against the wall on his whole leg.
In one hand he holds a butcher knife awkwardly, trying to hack off his other leg just above the broken joint, crying out with each blow (The noise of this, coming at first as if underwater, is what has woken him up).
He stops long enough to regard Aurel with burning, red-rimmed eyes, the knife poised, his gaze drifting slowly upward. Shaking his head, he continues to gash the leg, the dull knife making poor progress, at last turning skew against the bone and clattering from his fingers.
Bending his good leg, he tries to pick the blood-smeared knife up off the floor. He can not reach it. He casts his gaze about until it sticks onto Aurel.

DADDY NORTON
Aurel...

His voice greding with pain.

DADDY NORTON (cont’d)
Be a good boy and give Daddy the knife.

Aurel does not move. They look at one another, Aurel unable to break Daddy Norton’s gaze. He began to move slowly backward across the floor, pulling himself until he strikes against the door.

AUREL
Aurel, God tells you to pick up the knife.

Aurel swallows, stays pressed to the door.

DADDY NORTON
You’re a sorry sinner.

Daddy Norton extends an arm, pointing one finger at Aurel, his other hand raised open-palmed to support the heavens. Stepping onto the injured leg, he lists toward the boy and falls. His leg folds, turning under him so as to look like he iss attempting to couple with it. He lies on the floor slick-faced with sweat, his eyes misfocussed.

DADDY NORTON (cont’d)
Give me the knife, Aurel,

He begins to pull himself around by his fingers, twisting his body around until it becomes wedged between the hall walls. Grunting, he rolls over, twisting the broken leg, and faints.
Aurel shakes Theron. Theron blinks his eyes and mumbles, his voice still thick with liquor. Aurel motions to Daddy Norton, who just then comes conscious again and stares them through with God’s awful hate.

THERON
Stop staring at me.

Daddy Norton neither stops nor moves. There is a smell coming up from him, from his leg too. Theron stands, holding his nose, and steps over him, taking up the butcher knife. Daddy Norton’s eyes follow him almost in reflex, as if he is only nominally present in his body.

THERON (cont’d)
Stop staring. He pushes the blade in.

Aurel closes his eyes. For a long time there is the damp sound of Theron working the knife in and out, and then the noise finally stops.

He opens his eyes to see Theron leaning over Daddy Norton, holding the remains of the man’s eyelids closed with his fingertips, though when he releases them they creep up to reveal the emptied sockets. Theron twisted the man’s neck and rolled the head, directing the eyeholes toward the floor. He wipes the knife on Daddy Norton’s shirt. Putting the knife into Daddy Norton’s hand, he steps back. The fingers straighten and the knife slips out. He folds the fingers around the haft, watches them straighten again.

AUREL
Theron?

THERON
Not now, Aurel.

AUREL
What about Mama?

Theron seems to consider it, then stands and takes the knife in his own hands and approaches Mama.

AUREL (cont’d)
Don’t kill her. Theron, Not Mama.

THERON
Be quite about it,

He prods her head with his boot.

THERON (cont’d)
Wake up, Mama,

She does not move, Theron pushes her head again.

THERON (cont’d)
Daddy needs you, Mama,

AUREL
I can’t bear to have you do it,

THERON
You don’t know at all what you can bear, brother.

Kneeling down beside her, he takes the Holy Word out of her hands and drops it aside. He places the knife into her hand, carefully, so as not to awaken her. The knife fits, holds.

THERON (cont’d)
You can have only one of us, Aurel, Me or Mama?

AUREL
Mama

THERON
It’s me you want, you aren’t thinking straight. I got to think for you.

He picks up Mama under the shoulders and drags her closer to Daddy Norton. He takes her wrists and pushes her hands into Daddy Norton’s body until they come away stained, the knife gory too.

THERON (cont’d)
Besides, you don’t have a choice. Mama gone and died while we were jawing. You got only me.

FADE OUT.