Lucifer's Library

PAIGE

So what happened?

VERONICA

Tony asked me to marry him. I asked him how would he support me. He said it wasn’t a problem. He told me he cleaned septic tanks for a living. It was his father’s business. He’d take over managing it in a few years but until then he had to learn the business from the bottom up. I was devastated. How in the world would I tell people…? I was disgusted and broke things off. Then found out I was pregnant. I went to Tony and told him about Chad. Tony wanted to kill him. But he found a doctor for me. The doctor made a bad job of it I got sick and my parents found out. They said I should buck up and keep my mouth shut. Maybe I hadn’t ruined things. Chad was still not engaged. I should have told them all to fuck off an gone with Tony but I didn’t have the guts. So I slit my wrists.

PAIGE

Eeewwe. That’s awful. Ya know, our stories are kind of similar.

VERONICA

Really?

PAIGE

Yeah. My name’s Paige. I’m…er, was, a lawyer. I grew up on Long Island. My parents were depression children.

MILLIE

What’s that?

PAIGE

I’ll explain later. I got to get this out. My father was incredibly talented. He could do anything. He was a carpenter, a plumber, an electrician…. Anyway, right before he married my mother he landed a very stable job. Both of my parents were looking at age thirty with no mate and no kids. They married in a hurry and didn’t know anything about each other. They came to despise each other. My father was always terrified he’d loose his job and we’d be out on the streets. My mother hated everything except beer, cigarettes and the kids. Every weekend my mother would start drinking beer and taunting my father. They’d yell and scream at each other, throw things and always ended up beating each other up. But the violence never spilled over onto us kids. So, when I was a kid I was told over and over that education was everything. Career, career, career was all I heard. But in the background my mom whispered get a good career you’ll catch a good man – not like your father. Then you’ll be happy.

Well, I was miserable. I was scared of my mother and desperate to please my father. My dad left for work every day at 7:45 and got home at 5:00 sharp in time for dinner. Day after day, year after year. Drudgery. Finally, I got to college. It was great.. My brother was working on his PhD in math and my sister got her nursing degree which came with a Mrs. Degree. She caught a doctor on the way up and never looked back. I decided to go to law school. Everyone was thrilled. I hated it but I thought it just went with the territory. I thought work had to be grueling for it to mean anything. I got good grades and passed the Bar first time. But the market for lawyers was glutted and I couldn’t find a job for love or money. And all through this I was sure a white knight was going to charge in and life would be a fairy tale. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon. I opened my own practice. Lived on a shoestring. Thing of it was, I was very shy. I started taking court appointments – defense cases in juvenile delinquency and child neglect. I was terrified of doing “real law.” I figured I couldn’t mess up in kiddie court. I was scared of trials, prosecutors, judges. The pay was horrible. Taxes and student loan payments broke my back. Finally I landed a job in a ‘real’ law firm. I did dull, dull, dull, probate work. So I started getting loaded every night after work. A fifth of vodka a day. I managed to hide it. Then I made a huge mistake. I started sleeping with one of the partners. In all honesty, I didn’t want to work. I wanted to drink and take on as little responsibility as possible. Where was my white night? The affair went sour. On the seventh anniversary of my being hired my lover called me into his office. He told me I wasn’t partner material. I was a looser and a drunk. It was time for me to move on. Move on to what?

I commuted to work by subway. I spent the afternoon in my office swilling vodka. On the way home I waited for the train and jumped.

MILLIE

Jesus.

LESLIE

Man. That was a statement. Good for you!!

PAIGE

Good for me? No. That’s what got me here.

LESLIE

You should have shot the bastard. That’s what you should have done.

VERONICA

Huh uhn. Then she’d have been toast.

MILLIE

But she would have paid him back.

PAIGE

Yeah. Then God would have put me and slime ball in the same room for eternity.

LESLIE

Okay. It’s my turn. I’m Leslie. I was a hippie. Free love, peace, sex and rock and roll. Well. Sex and rock and roll first then love and peace. I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and my life was changed. I worshiped them. Still do. I came from an average family. Life in the ‘burbs was so borrrring. I had to move. I knew if ever got to meet Paul McCartney he’d fall in love with me. Well. That was my fantasy. I got caught up in the drug culture. I dropped out of school and started following the bands. I met some…. Okay. I was a groupie. I thought I was Lucy in the Sky. You know. I tripped a lot. I was used a lot. But I went to Woodstock and met this incredible guy. Michael. He was naked and covered in mud when I first saw him.

MILLIE

Yuck. That’s almost as bad as the cess….

VERONICA

Hey. Tony was clean. Every time I smell Ivory soap I think of him. Just because he cleaned…..

MILLIE

Sorry.

LESLIE

It was love at first sight. He played guitar and had a band. I traveled with him for years. Took a lot of acid but never hard drugs. I never shot up. I just bounced around with the gang. Michael loved me, too. He did. But the guys passed groupies around. That’s just what they did. Then one night there was this outdoor concert. There was a thunder storm was brewing. I watched the lightening. What a trip. The storm got really bad. The Roadies wanted to pull the plug on the concert but it was the best gig they’d had in a long time. So they kept playing. The stage was hit by lightening. Michael was electrocuted. Oh God. He just lit up like a sparkler. I was in the first row, not on stage. I thought it was the most beautiful thing…. I didn’t know…. I didn’t know.

When I came down Kevin, the drummer, told me Michael was dead. I freaked out. They had to tie me down to move on to the next show. Kevin was a nut case. He was on meth. His teeth were rotted out and he weighed about 140 pounds. But I’d been with him once or twice – when he asked Michael. Mike said it would be good for the band. Help keep Kevin grounded. When I came out of it Kevin said he’d inherited me. I was so mad. I was sick. God. I was so sick. So I asked the roadie, who was our pusher - he got us whatever drugs we wanted – to get me some smack.

VERONICA

Smack?

LESLIE

Heroin.

VERONICA

Oh.

LESLIE

I knew how to shoot a line. No big deal. I cooked up the whole mess and put myself out of my misery.

MILLIE

Why didn’t you go home?

VERONICA

Why didn’t you kill Kevin? He deserved it.

LESLIE

No. He was just a dip shit. Not worth killing. My family didn’t want anything to do with me. You didn’t go to your dad.

MILLIE

That’s different. I was a disgrace.

LESLIE

So was I.

PAIGE

I see why Lucifer’s interested in us. We have a lot in common.

ALL OF THEM
.
Yeah.

MILLIE

So what now?

PAIGE

We read the books.

MILLIE

Who gets what?

VERONICA

I don’t think it matters. Here, I’ll take this.

MILLIE

What about me, I can’t read.

LESLIE

Just take one. Open it. See what you can see. Lucifer wouldn’t have brought you here if you couldn’t be part of this.

MILLIE

Okay.

Millie grabs a book, opens it. I can’t do this. I can’t. Da’ said women weren’t meant to read.

LESLIE

That’s crap. Do you know your letters?

MILLIE

Yes. ABCDEFGHIJK….

MILLIE

Oh. So what’s the deal about letters?

LESLIE

Look at your book. You see a bunch of letters grouped together?

MILLIE

Yeah. I’m not stupid. I know milk. It’s MILK. And I know Millie. MILLIE. EARL. DAD. Wait a minute. I think I CAN read!! This is pictures of a fairy. That word there. FAIRY. Right? Am I right?

LESLIE

Yeah. Go on.

MILLIE

Miss E.. Eliza…, Elizabeth and the Fairy…

LESLIE

King. You must have gotten some education when you died. It’s a fairy tale. It has a lot of pictures. It must be yours.

MILLIE

This is exciting.

She pulls her chair closer to the fire.

MILLIE

I’m going to enjoy this.

LESLIE

Alright, I’ll take this one.

Paige and Leslie each grab a book. They all settle before the fire and read.

SCENE TWO

VERONICA

I’m done

PAIGE

Me too

MILLIE

I was done hours ago.

LESLIE

Who wants to go first?

MILLIE

I will. Miss Elizabeth is a young lady. She lives in a cottage with her dad. He tells her time and time again not to go into the hills. He says the fairy people will get her if she does and that they may look pretty but they’re a plague to humans. So of course, Elizabeth is curious about the fairies. Scared, but curious. It had been raining for a week. Elizabeth is bored. So around tea time this day the sun comes out. Elizabeth decides to take a walk. It’s so pretty out she wanders farther than she should. She sees it’s getting dark and starts to hurry back. But she trips and falls. She tumbles down a hill and is stunned. She lands in a beautiful glen. She tries to get up but her ankle is broken. Night’s falling and she’s terrified. She knows the fairies are going to get her. So she tries to crawl up the hill. She hears gentle laughter behind her.

Voice from the other side of door 1.

“Stay where you are, little one. You’ll hurt yourself more if you don’t stop.”

MILLIE

She stops, trembling. A dashing youth flies up the hill. He lands next to her.

“You’re a fairy. Please. Don’t hurt me.”

“Why would I hurt you? You’ve done enough damage yourself.”

MILLIE

He touches her face. They both feel a great spark. A lightening bolt, Elizabeth thinks. But no. He felt it too.

“What is this? [He asks himself.] She’s a girl. I can’t have anything to with her. But I can’t just leave her here.”

MILLIE

He pulls her up. Sets her on her feet. They kiss. It’s like the world stopped. It’s magic.

“What’s you name? Where do you live?”

“I’m Elizabeth Treefellow.. I live with my da’ in a cottage…..

”Treffel!ow!” [he curses silently]. “That’s the rotter who’s killing the forest. How could such a nice, pretty girl be a spawn of that home wrecker.”

MILLIE

He stiffens. He heals her foot and flies her home, silently, angrily. The flight was the most exciting, exhilarating thing that ever happened to her. But she feels his anger.

“What did I do wrong?”

When they get to the cottage the fairy sets her on her feet, bows. He’s about to take off.

“What did I do? I didn’t do anything wrong. I love you. I don’t even know you name. Will you please, at least tell me your name?”

“I’m King Ravensilk. That’s my forest you dad’s destroying, Treefellow.”

“No. Never.”

MILLIE

She morns for him and he can’t get her out of his mind. She follows her father and watches him fell tree after tree. She goes out to the forest every evening looking for Ravensilk. Then her father’s killed by a huge old oak. Elizabeth goes to the Earl and asks him to put a stop to the tree felling. He agrees, but only if she becomes his mistress. Ravensilk’s so happy that the tree-felling was at an end but he curses Elizabeth for being a whore. He didn’t know that her virginity was the cost. Elizabeth waits every night at the window hoping to see her fairy king. Her health fails. Ravensilk learns she’s dying and goes to her. He overhears someone say what she did for the fairies. He flies away with her. They have a beautiful wedding and she starts having babies.”

LESLIE

That’s beautiful

PAIGE

Romantic crap.

VERONICA

What?

PAIGE

There is no fairy King and there’s no happy ending. Except in my book….

LESLIE

Go ahead. What’s your book about?.

VERONICA

Okay. It starts out with Miranda, a little Tom boy, living with her mother in the guest house of a great mansion. Miranda’s mother Sally is a single mother. She was destitute when her car broke down in at the gates of the estate. The Windsor family takes her and Miranda in. They give Sally a job in the estate’s nursery. Sally carries a grudge against the family because she thought they thought she was common. She warns Miranda about the family. Miranda doesn’t care. She’s never going to get married. The family really loves Miranda. Except for Sam. He’s eight years older than her and teases her about being such a Tom boy. But she fall in love with him. He goes away to school. She doesn’t see him for four years. When he come back she’s all grown up. She’s beautiful. Sam sees her in at a party and asked her to dance. He doesn’t recognize her. When they step out on the dance floor and he took her in his arms they felt this shimmer. It’s electrifying. Sam thinks she’s the most wonderful girl in the world. Miranda’s coy. After the dance they step out onto the balcony. They kiss. It’s like a nuclear fusion. Miranda know they were meant to be together. She starts to tell him who she is and how she waited for him. But as she started to speak, Anna, a lovely, cold, blond walks up.

VOICE from door number 2.

“There you are. Sam. I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Look. The ring is just beautiful. I can’t wait until we….”

Miranda’s face turns bright red.

“Who’s this?” purrs the blond.

VERONICA

Miranda turns and runs.

VOICE from the door

“Well. That was interesting. What did you do to her?”

“Shut up, Anna. I don’t like it when you purr. You sound like a God damn house cat.”

“Well. I never.”

VERONICA

Anna stalks off. Sam gets drunk. He runs off the road on the way back to Anna’s place. Anna’s okay. But Sam’s head hits the windshield. He’s in a coma for four months. Miranda’s been slipping into the hospital every night. She talks to him for hours. She tells him everything. She makes up stories. She gets there early one day. Anna’s leaving the hospital room.

VOICE from the door

“They should pull the plug. He’s never going to wake up and if he does, well, he’ll be a vegetable.”

VERONICA

Anna leaves. Miranda goes into the room. She cries and cries. She takes his hand.

VOICE from the door.

“I’ll never let you go.”

VERONICA

Same squeezes her hand.

VOICE

“I felt that. Sam. I felt that. Do it again.”

VERONICA

He squeezes her hand again. He wakes up. Sees her.

VOICE

“I remember you. How do I know you? Who are you?”

VERONICA

Miranda calls for the doctor. It’s a miracle. They have hot and heavy sex in the hospital that night. The next day Anna comes to visit. Miranda overhears Anna saying

VOICE

“I told mums to start planning the wedding. I think a June wedding. What do you think dear?”

VOICE

“Anna, my love. You really were there for me. I heard you talking to me when I was asleep.”

VOICE

“You did? Oh, of course you did.”

VERONICA

Anna sees Miranda who’s hiding in a corner waiting for Anna to leave. She goes out and confronts Miranda.

VOICE

“Who are you?”

VOICE

“I’m Miranda, you witch. You just want him for the money.”

VERONICA

Anna bars the door so Miranda can’t get in.

VOICE

Go away. If I see you here again. …”

Anna leaves. Sam’s tired and wants to sleep.

VOICE

Tell me a story, Anna. You voice is so soothing.

VOICE

“I have to go. Wedding plans. See you tomorrow. Sam turns his face to the wall.

VOICE

“You’re not her. I don’t know who you are. Who was she?”

VOICE

“She no one. A nobody.”

VOICE

“Go away, Sam says. Just, leave. I never want to see or hear from you again.

VOICE

“It’s not over, you’re going to marry me whether you like it or not.

VOICE

“I’d rather die.

VERONICA

Sam turns his back to the wall, goes to sleep. The next morning he won’t wake up. Two days later Miranda hears that Sam’s fallen back into a coma. She rushes to the hospital. She grabs his hand.

VOICE

Wake up God damn it. If you don’t wake up I’ll join you. I will.

Who are you?

I’m the little Tom boy. Remember me? I’m Miranda. I’ve loved you for so long. I’ll never let you sleep again.

I love you too

VERONICA

They have gentle healing, sex. They get married the next June. Miranda starts having babies.

PAIGE

What is this? It’ the same damn story. Over and over and over. These are nothing but romance novels. Fuck this. Fuck this.

LESLIE

Wait. You haven’t heard mine!

VERONICA

It’s the same thing though, isn’t it?

LESLIE

No. Not really. Kinda. But the girl’s six months pregnant when the story begins. She’s a colored girl.

MILLIE

A what?

PAIGE

African American. A black girl. Well. That’s a twist. Go on.

LESLIE

It’s 1995. Her name’s Jacqueline. She lives in Harlem. She’s a very smart, pretty 16 year old. She has a lot of musical talent. Her momma’s boyfriend, Butch, starts to fiddle around with her when she’s 12. She tells her momma. Her momma slaps her and says she’s a lying, scheming slut.

VOICE

“We got to have bread on our table, girl. Don’t go ‘round telling stories. You want him to leave? Then what we gonna do?

You could go back to whorin’ Or sellin’drugs. Give me a stake. I’ll bring more in than that horny, old… fool….

You little bitch.

LESLIE

Her momma pulls out the extension cord and whips her butt. So Jackie keeps her mouth shut and her eyes open. She stays at school as much as possible. Sleeps at friends houses. Sometimes she sleeps on the street. She meets a young blues player when she’s sixteen, Solo. He’s white. He plays the sax and has a voice that’s pure magic. He was gay….

MILLIE

What’s gay?

PAIGE

Shuss.

LESLIE

So she felt safe around him. And they really sing well together. She joins the band. She’s hardly ever home. Solo sees her to the subway after every gig. But one night Butch is waiting at the stop. He sees her with Solo and goes crazy. He beats Solo up and drags Jackie into his Cadillac.

VOICE

You’re nothing but a ‘ho. Just like your mamma. And her momma before her.

LESLIE

Butch beats Jacqueline up and rapes her. Then he takes her home.

VOICE

See what a nice little girl you have? He sneers. I caught her kissing a white boy uptown..

LESLIE

Her mamma’s enraged.

VOICE

Yeah, you’re pretty. But you’re worthless. High yella. Who do you think you are fuckin’ white boys? What you gonna get but a big belly and a broken heart? You stay where you belong, girl, or I’ll whip you so….

LESLIE

Butch stands in the doorway laughing. Jackie grabs a knife and stabs Butch. She runs out of the house. She’s caught by the police. But the cop who got her was pure magic. Black as night. Tall. Lean. His name’s David. When he touches her she knows he’s the one for her. He feels it too. But she’s scared.. They struggle. The struggle turns into an embrace. They kiss. It was the best thing that ever happened to Jackie.

MILLIE

The kiss.

PAIGE

Yup. Saw that coming a mile away.

PAIGE

Shut up. This is good stuff. What happens?

Jackie gets put in a girl’s jail. But David does some investigating. He finds Solo who tells him everything.

VOICE

Are you sure you don’t like men? You sure are sumpthin.”