Balancing Act at the Equinox
Act II

Scenes

Act 1

Act 2 Scene 1 Grace and Joan's kitchen, the following Sunday evening

Scene 2 The sidewalk before the university administration
building, the following Tuesday, 11:00 A.M.

Scene 3 Radio news room, Wednesday evening 10:00 P.M.

Scene 4 Grace's hospital room, two days later, evening

Scene 5 Simultaneously: Joan and Grace's kitchen and Doris and
Leah's apartment, supper time, a few days later

---

Act 2
Scene 1 Grace and Joan's kitchen, the following Sunday evening.

Spotlight on the kitchen, stage right. Juanita, Leah, Susan, Doris, Grace, and Joan are crowded around the table drinking tea after supper. Someone has brought four folding chairs.

SUSAN
So he has a temp worker to replace you, Grace, and she's kind of intimidated when ten of us come into the reception area at a quarter to five. So she doesn't stop us when we march into Randall's office and announce ourselves. "What can I do for you, Ladies?" he says.

JUANITA
All fake smile and embarrassment. Obviously very apprehensive!

SUSAN
Juanita presents him the petitions, makes an impressive little speech about the solidarity of the women and men in this community who care about justice and tolerance . . .

DORIS
Really laid it on thick.

JUANITA
And Susan points out where Randall's own son signed the petition!

SUSAN
Tod Randall was in an economics class with me when we were sophomores. I'd called him up and persuaded him to sign. Reagan's not the only president who has trouble keeping his kids in the fold!

JUANITA
Peter Randall starts giving us this bull about having fired Grace because she couldn't handle the responsibility any more.
Monosyllabic expression of disgust from everyone.
I asked him--as your attorney, Grace--for the evidence of responsibilities you had failed to discharge satisfactorily.

SUSAN
Laughing.
You should have seen him!

GRACE
It blew his cool, I bet.

SUSAN
He began to stutter. Went from calling us "ladies" to calling us "girls."

JUANITA
He was desperately looking for something to call us that would make us play the role he's comfortable with..

JUANITA
He wanted us to play "little girls" or "ladies' auxiliary." Anyone he could feel condescending toward.

SUSAN
I even had a flicker of pity for the old goat . . . . Pardon, me, Joan. No offense to your friends out there in your barn.

JUANITA
We need to invent a whole new vocabulary of insults. I'm going to make a project of it someday, if I ever have any leisure.

LEAH
Quietly.
You're welcome to some of my leisure.

JOAN
But how did it come out? Did you make him back down? Where do we stand?

SUSAN
We backed him half way off the cliff, but either he isn't smart enough to know when to give up or he's more afraid of James' trouble-making than he is of ours.

GRACE
You mean we've lost?

SUSAN
Lost round one. Or rather, we haven't floored him yet. But we had him on the ropes!

JUANITA
Listen to this macho imagery! I think we'd better give the whole language an overhaul.

SUSAN
The whole culture is a sewer pipe that needs reaming out.

GRACE
What happens in round two?

JUANITA
You and I take a legal step. We file suit against the university for damages.

GRACE
There's no chance that we can win it!

JUANITA
Probably not. But I'm working without compensation on this, and their lawyer certainly won't be, so we can make it expensive, troublesome, and very public. They're going to hate the publicity and the campus unrest.

SUSAN
They're already worried about the militant anti-military movement on campus. Which is threatening to clash with the patriots on and off campus.

LEAH
But what about you, Juanita? Can they keep you from graduating in May if you go after the university like that?

JUANITA
Not without public scandal. I've worked my tail off to keep close to the top of my class.

SUSAN
Meantime, we're going to hit the streets carrying signs. We're meeting at the Unitarian Church for a training session on passive resistance tomorrow evening, and then we'll sign up to have someone start picketing the administrative offices Tuesday morning and keep it going during business hours every day.

DORIS
Are you expecting violence?

JUANITA
Could happen. People have become very polarized. We'll try to defuse it, if we can.

LEAH
Then we'll all need to get that passive resistance training?

DORIS
Well, we six will certainly have to be the mainstays of the whole effort. But can you fill me in on what you learn tomorrow night, Leah? I have to work.

JOAN
Aunt Leah, you don't have to demonstrate, if you'd rather not.

LEAH
I imagine all of us would rather not. But we have to do it. To make them believe in our strength. I surely have to do it. I caused the whole thing.

GRACE
Leah, you're not responsible for a society that rejects whole segments of its people.

JUANITA
But you're welcome to join our resistance. We need you. An older woman in the picket line will have an impact college students alone couldn't have. The wider our swath of society, the better.

LEAH
Almost to herself.
It's so strange. It's hard for me to believe I'm here with all of you. A year ago tonight I was alone in my room with a bottle of whiskey.
She is embarrassed to notice that everyone is silent, listening to her intently. She laughs a little.
I wonder which was more dangerous!
The others smile or chuckle with her.

JOAN
How do you feel about yourself now as compared to then?

LEAH
Well, I hardly existed then. I was trying not to exist. Being aware was too painful.

JOAN
But I guess existence is still painful, with so little security.

LEAH
Yes. But I'm not lonely now. For the first time since I was a child, I'm not lonely.
She smiles around the table as she speaks the last words.

Scene 2 Sidewalk before the administration building on campus, the next Tuesday, 11:00 AM.

Spotlights on the entire width of the down stage area. Anna, Doris, Tonja, Helen, and a dozen or so others, various races and nationalities, men, women, and children. Some carry signs which say such things as "Discrimination against one threatens all," "Stay out of our bedrooms!," "Keep private lives private," "What has sexual orientation to do with typing?" "The personal is political; the political is personal," "Support lesbian rights," "Randall falls from Grace," and "Ostler firing unjust; fight back now or it will be your turn next." Joan enters from the right carrying a two-gallon thermos jug and a sack that has cookies and paper cups in it. She stops to greet Tonja and Helen, then joins Anna and Doris.

DORIS
Hi, Joan.

JOAN
Hi, Doris.

DORIS
Anna, this is Joan Archer. Joan, Anna Singingtrees.

JOAN
Glad to meet you, Anna.

ANNA
Good to meet you, Joan. If that's coffee you have there, I sure am ready for some.

JOAN
I stopped by the Women's Center and they had it ready. There are cups in here. And some cookies someone made.

DORIS
We'll help pass things out. I think everyone's ready for a break.

JOAN
I'll bet, after two hours on the picket line.
Joan holds the jug, Doris holds the cups and operates the spout. Anna hands out cookies and filled cups. Picketers lay down their signs, pick up coffee and cookies and go off in clusters to "talk" (miming) while eating and drinking. The four women talk as they work:
How's it going?

DORIS
It's been quiet. Students go by, mostly just between classes. They read the signs. A few have asked questions.

ANNA
One kid said he would join us this afternoon if we would help him when his group plans to demonstrate against the draft.

DORIS
Most of us said we would, and he signed our petition, and we signed his.

HELEN
She is the last person to be served.
I'm going back to the Women's Center now, Joan. Shall I take the jug back?

JOAN
Oh thanks, Helen. Please do. May I have your sign? You and Tonja are coming over this evening, aren't you?
She has traded the jug for the sign.

HELEN
Oh, are we? Tonja forgot to tell me. Sure, I'd love to. We haven't had a good talk with you and Grace for weeks.

JOAN
Doris and Anna have been standing nearby as Helen and Joan talked, eating their cookies and sipping coffee and chatting with each other in mime.
Oh, I forgot to introduce you to Doris Yager and Anna Singingtrees. Doris, Anna, this is Helen Kirschbaum.

ANNA
We introduced ourselves earlier. Helen and I have been working out plans to remake the world. This time with a bigger dose of sanity.

HELEN
And a much smaller dose of religion. At least of what passes for religion these days.

JOAN
Helen is a Unitarian. They're mostly escaped Christians who are obsessed with undoing whatever they were indoctrinated with as kids. Helen's also director of the Women's Center.

HELEN
Which reminds me, I've got to get back there. The Network is brown-bagging this noon. Come on over, if your replacements get here in time, OK?
Waves and exits as Tonja, Joan, Doris, and Anna say goodbye to her. Others have finished their coffee, put their cups back in the bag, picked up their signs and gone back to walking the sidewalk by this time. Tonja joins Joan; Anna and Doris walk behind them. They talk in a foursome as they slowly walk back and forth across the stage with their signs.

JOAN
Have you all met? This is my friend, Tonja Dubinsky, Helen's partner. Tonja teaches part time at the university in women's studies.

DORIS
Hello, Tonja. This is Anna Singingtrees, realtor, and I'm Doris Yager. I don't have any identity that I'd want to claim right now.

ANNA
Doris was defending the strategy of our trying to balance force against force. James Nelson puts pressure on President Randall with his threat to stir up the rednecks and we try to match his pressure by demonstrating public support for gay rights.

JOAN
So far it hasn't had much effect. By the way, I'm a redneck. A farmer.

ANNA
Sorry; no offense intended. But the times are wrong for balance of power tactics. The balance has shifted too far, don't you think? This is a backlash decade. I hope it's no more than a decade! When we organize our forces, it just pushes them to organize theirs. Show of force on both sides tends to escalate. Factions get farther and farther apart and more isolated from each other. I'm coming to believe in a different kind of balance.

TONJA
Oh? What?

ANNA
The balance of our own weight over our own feet.

TONJA
What do you mean?

ANNA
Self-sufficiency. Getting outside the commercial system where money buys everything. Not wanting what big business has to offer.

JOAN
That's what Grace and I are working toward. But it didn't keep Grace from being fired.

ANNA
It's a long-term strategy mainly. That's why I'm on the picket line with you. But meanwhile we need to be pulling our weight off their system. So that Grace isn't dependent on their good will for a job, for instance.

TONJA
But that's exactly what Joan and Grace are in the process of doing! Last year they were both at the university; Joan was a T.A. and a graduate student. Then Joan decided to abandon her teaching career and take the first step toward self-sufficiency. They used their savings to make a down payment on their place and they were depending on Grace's salary to pay the bills until they can make enough by market gardening to get by.

JOAN
Grace was planning to quit, too, as soon as we could pay off the mortgage. But we sure aren't ready to lose her salary yet.

ANNA
How many acres do you have, Joan?

JOAN
About ten and a half.

ANNA
And just the two of you live on it?

JOAN
Yes, why?

ANNA
How do you farm it?

JOAN
I can't cultivate the whole thing yet. I only have hand tools. No tractor. I graze my two milking goats on the part where I've built a strong fence. Most of the acres are overgrown with weeds.

ANNA
Have you heard of French intensive gardening?

JOAN
No, what is it?

ANNA
New techniques for increasing productivity organically. You could eventually feed at least ten people on that ten acres and still raise some cash crops.

TONJA
I think I saw something about intensive gardening in a garden magazine recently. I'll look it up and send for the book they were advertising.

ANNA
Are you and Helen thinking of raising your own food, too, Tonja?

TONJA
We'd love to. But the house we bought is on a tiny lot and the neighbor's house shades what space there is. Housing is terribly expensive in a university town. We couldn't get much for our money.

ANNA
Joan, have you thought about starting a cooperative housing project? Maybe your friends Tonja and Helen would be the first to join you. My husband and I are hoping to start a project like that on our reservation if we can get the tribal council to approve it and organize some people to do the building.

DORIS
Anna showed me her plans; got me so excited I've been drawing house plans on napkins at work ever since! Anna has planned a whole village of separate apartments stair-stepped into a hill! Each one earth-sheltered on three sides with glass on the south. None of them blocking any other's access to sunlight.

TONJA
Sounds like the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde. Are you Pueblo, Anna?

ANNA
No, and I'm not French, either. Not much, anyway. I'm mostly Winnebago. But I'm free to use anybody's good ideas and reject anybody's bad ones.

TONJA
Good for you. I'm all for citizens of the world.

ANNA
Me, too. You could start a marvelous little village on your land, Joan. If you get several other families to buy into it, you can pay off your mortgage right now. You'll still need to have someone with a paycheck for property taxes and miscellaneous expenses. But you won't be so precariously balanced on Grace's income alone.

JOAN
I don't know. We'll talk it over. We really treasure our independence.

ANNA
Laughs.
I see you've bought the old Euro-American religion of "rugged individualism"! But don't you see? It cuts you off from the only real power available--the power of community. I'm luckier that way. I was born to a tribal tradition that my people had managed to preserve even through a century of being a conquered nation.

DORIS
Do think about it, Joan! I think it's a wonderful idea! I get a high every time I think of something to add to my cocktail napkin village plans.

Scene 3 Radio news room, Wednesday evening, 10:00 PM.

Spotlight on Betty Watana, seated at the news desk, before a microphone. Betty is about 20, a mass communications student at the university; she has a pleasingly low voice.

BETTY
Good evening. I'm Betty Watana with the local news on station WIOA, your public radio station. The headline story tonight concerns an attack on picketers in front of the University Administration Building, shortly before five o'clock this evening.

The sidewalk of State Street suddenly became the scene of bloody violence after two days of peaceful protest against the firing of Grace Ostler, secretary to University President Peter Randall.

Picketers were preparing to leave for the day when one of them--a woman with three children--saw four or five men armed with clubs and bottles get out of a late-model car and start toward the group. The woman, Juanita Paz Nava, said she shouted a warning and then hurried her children into the building where she called police.

But by the time a squad car arrived a few minutes later, all eleven of the remaining picketers had been struck down and the assailants had fled. Ambulances carried the injured to the university hospital where three were treated for severe cuts and abrasions and released.

One of these was Tod Randall, President Randall's son, a senior at the university. Young Randall was hit in the face with a bottle, knocking out two of his teeth and narrowly missing his right eye. The gash on his cheek required thirty-four stitches.

Eight persons remain in the hospital tonight. Seven are listed in good condition, including two senior citizens. The Reverend Leonard Dugan, 70, pastor of First AME Church here, was knocked down and kicked, but apparently escaped serious injury. He's being kept overnight in the hospital for observation.

Leah Wright, 67, suffered a broken clavical and several cracked ribs. She was also treated for shock and will be hospitalized for several days according to the hospital spokesperson.

The most serious injuries were sustained by Grace Ostler. Ostler had been interviewed on channel 15's late news last night concerning her claim that she was fired for her homosexuality. Police speculate that she may have been recognized and singled out for the heaviest assault.

Another picketer, Jorge Nava, told police he saw two men attacking Ostler. One hit her in the head with a bottle and the other struck her hands with a steel pipe as she fell to the pavement. Nava jumped the second man and was struggling to get possession of the pipe when he also was struck in the head from behind. He was unconscious when police arrived.

Nava is among those listed in good condition tonight, but Ostler remains in serious condition with a concussion and multiple fractures in both hands.

President Peter Randall was unavailable for comment.

In other news, the State Board of Regents met in emergency session at the Governor's request today to cut funding for all state universities by another 5%. In an effort to avoid a third across-the-board cut, they are attempting to find which programs can best be reduced or eliminated.

Scene 4 Grace's hospital room, two days later, evening.

Grace is in the bed, her head bandaged, both hands bandaged. Joan is seated on a folding chair beside her. Leah enters, walking stiffly as if in a body cast, wearing a hospital gown under her robe.

JOAN
Aunt Leah! How are you? Should you be walking around? I was about to come down to your room to see if you'd improved since yesterday.
Joan rises, seats Leah in the chair, then sits on the edge of Grace's bed.

LEAH
Oh yes, I have, thank you. I expect to be released tomorrow. I'll be in this cast for some weeks, of course. How are you, Grace? Has the pain eased any?

GRACE
She appears to be on drugs, speaking as if groggy and weak throughout this scene.
No, but they give me pain killers real often. I hope I don't come out of here addicted to anything.

JOAN
There is some good news. The doctor says her concussion was slight. There doesn't seem to be any permanent brain damage as far as they can tell now.

LEAH
Oh, I'm glad! But your hands, Grace. Will they be all right?

GRACE
The bones will eventually heal.

JOAN
But they told us not to expect her to have the same dexterity. And she's likely to have lifelong trouble with arthritis in her hands with so many injuries.

LEAH
That's dreadful! They made it so you could never hold that job again, no matter what!

GRACE
So much for matching force against force.

LEAH
At least they've arrested all of them. If that's any comfort. But to let them all out on bond! Isn't that something!?

JOAN
Yeh. Even that insane businessman who paid the kids to do the dirty work. And drove the car for them.

LEAH
I guess they don't consider them dangerous . . .

JOAN
Cutting in.
. . . . to anyone who matters to them in this town.

LEAH
I can't understand why that man hated us so much that he hired those young thugs to attack us. They might have killed us!

GRACE
Or ruined our lives. Which is worse?

LEAH
They're rotten people! Ugly monsters!

GRACE
That's what they think about homosexuals. That kind of thinking lets people attack those they decide are sub-human.

JOAN
Speaking of ugly people, Aunt Leah, Grace was telling me that two unpleasant men were here with you earlier today.

LEAH
I thought you were asleep, Grace! That was James and my son, Jimmy. They came to see me early this afternoon. Brought me a dozen long-stemmed roses. When they know I don't have grocery money of my own! And when they're scheming together to keep me from getting anything after forty years of working for them!

JOAN
Did they ask to meet Grace?

LEAH
Certainly not! I insisted they come down here to meet her, so they could see exactly what they'd set in motion. But you seemed to be asleep, Grace.

GRACE
I was. But your voices woke me. I saw you with the two men and decided to play 'possum and stay out of the skirmish.

LEAH
Both of them stood here in the room and began to deny any responsibility!

GRACE
Leah said, "Shut up, you idiots!" And they shut up.

LEAH
I'm so sorry we woke you. I herded them out as fast as I could.

JOAN
Sounds as if you were calling the shots.

LEAH
I was furious. First the roses. Then their arrogance in thinking I'd "learned my lesson" and would be willing to come home now. Pretending that they weren't to blame for what happened to Grace was the last straw.

JOAN
I've never seen you so angry, Aunt Leah. Even now, just telling about it.

LEAH
I feel like a dam has burst. As if years and years of stopped-up anger is flooding over. What started it was the contrast between James and Jimmy and the ten people who were injured with me . . . in a sense, for me. And over a hundred people who'd spent time on the picket line taking the same risk. All kinds of people, all colors, . . . foreign students, even, . . . men, women, and children I didn't even know before. And here were these two men who'd been closer to me than anyone, supposedly. And they were on the side of the horrible people who attacked us. They don't know anything about being with a person. All they know is how to control people by keeping them helpless.

JOAN
Did you tell them any of this?

LEAH
I tried, when we got back to my room. But I couldn't be rational and calm. What I was feeling was too strong. I think I actually hated them right then. Even my own son! I've never been able to face up to my feelings of hatred before. I never should have had a child. I really did fail in raising him. Look how he turned out!

GRACE
They give us credit for having more influence than we have.

JOAN
I'd like to have seen you lay into Uncle James and Jim like that.

LEAH
It didn't last long. James walked out in a huff before I even got warmed up. So I gave poor Jimmy the full load. To think of his helping his father make his mother desperately poor! Well, to make it short, Jimmy finally agreed to "sell" me half of the stocks James had put in his name. For a dollar.

JOAN
This was his idea?

LEAH
Of course not. I convinced him it was the only decent way to make amends for being a . . . whatever. And he may have needed a way to make himself feel better about his plans not to sign the stocks back to his father when James tells him to. What animal can I call them without being unfair to the animal?

JOAN
Laughs.
None! Humans are at the bottom of the scale in treachery.

GRACE
Maybe you had some influence, after all. At least he had a conscience to touch. Which James apparently doesn't have.

JOAN
But do you think he'll go through with it?

LEAH
He's done it! I called Juanita and we got it all taken care of this afternoon in my room. Except for the actual transfer of stock certificates. And he's bound by legal contract to get those in the mail to me tomorrow.
Joan laughs; even Grace laughs a little. Leah can't laugh without hurting her ribs.
That's what I really came here to talk about. That stock will be worth between eighteen and nineteen thousand dollars. I called a broker to be sure of their value right after I called Juanita.

JOAN
I didn't know you were such a sharp businesswoman, Aunt Leah!

LEAH
Neither did I. Who knows what I might have been if I hadn't been railroaded into the kitchen?

JOAN
Teasing lightly.
You mean you might have been another James?

LEAH
Suddenly thoughtful.
I wonder. . . . Maybe he was railroaded into becoming a successful businessman.

JOAN
Really, Aunt Leah. You've changed so much in the few months you've been here, I'm having trouble believing you're the same woman.

LEAH
Most of the time I'm the same woman, all right. Especially at night I have a hard time keeping my spirits up. Then if it weren't for Doris, I would just want to drink away the pain and fear. But in the daytime, I'm trying to learn how to take care of my own affairs. It's terribly important to me now. Juanita has taught me a lot.

JOAN
And working at the co-op that many hours must help, too, doesn't it? Since you're there more than most, you would be in on ordering and billing, aren't you?

LEAH
That's true. I really like tending the store. I think maybe I am a natural in business. And I've asked the manager to groom me for his position when he graduates in May. He said he would. He gets paid a small salary in addition to the discount on food. So maybe I'll have a little cash for my efforts by summer. If the board agrees to hire me.

JOAN
That would be great! Your nest egg from the stocks will be gone in a matter of months if you have to live on it.

LEAH
I'm not going to live on it. I want to pay you back, Grace, for all you've given me, and then put most of the rest of it into real estate.

JOAN
As a down payment, you mean? But how can you make mortgage payments? And where could you get financing?

LEAH
No, not as a down payment. As a share in a housing co-op. That's all Doris has talked of since she met Anna Singingtrees.

JOAN
Oh yes, I remember Anna. She was talking housing co-ops to me, too, on the picket line.

LEAH
Doris is studying for her realtor's license. Then she's going to work for the Singingtree Real Estate Agency and save her money to buy some land to start a housing co-op.

JOAN
And you'll buy a share in it?

LEAH
Well, what I really want to do is talk you two into making your place a co-op and I could buy a share of yours. Doris would, too, I bet. It's a way to get your mortgage paid off, so you won't lose the land. And we'd build a house for ourselves. With our own four hands, Doris says. She's been reading how-to books from the library.

GRACE
Is this a conspiracy? Our best friends, Helen and Tonja were here yesterday with the same idea.

JOAN
They want to put their house up for sale and use their equity to buy into the co-op they want us to make of our ten acres. They met Anna on the picket line, too. Anna must be a one-woman movement.

LEAH
She makes so much sense, don't you think? With all of us together, we'd have a much better chance of making it. I don't want to push you into anything you feel uncomfortable with. But I do want to ask you to think very seriously about it. Will you do that?

JOAN
Yes, we have been thinking about it. We'll let you know, say, in about a week?

LEAH
Good. I'll be so glad to go home tomorrow. Thank heaven James is still legally responsible for my medical bills. The university insurance still covers yours, doesn't it, Grace?

GRACE
Yes, we're covered through next month. I'm trying to persuade the doctor to let me go home, too. This hospital depresses me horribly.

JOAN
You'd be better off at home with me to take care of you, Sweetheart.

GRACE
I can get around okay now, so maybe I wouldn't be too much of a burden.

JOAN
Leans over to give Grace a kiss on the forehead.
You could never be a burden, Darling. You can't imagine how lonely it is at home without you.

LEAH
Rises, as if to go.
Thank you, Grace, for all that you did for me. I would never have come to Joan for help if I'd known what misery I would bring to you.

GRACE
This could have happened at any time, Leah. They've attacked people coming out of a gay bar.

JOAN
A lot of people support the thugs. There's a fund-raising effort being made to pay for their defense. Maybe the jury will decide we were the menace to society and give them all medals.

GRACE
The times are dangerous. There's an ugly mood in the country.

JOAN
During the good years, many of us "came out." Now here we are in the open-an easy target.

LEAH
But James focused attention on you and deliberately made it happen.

GRACE
Yes, he did. He turned out to be a monster, after all. However he got that way. But our own resistance tactics may not have been a good idea. We've underestimated the enemy.

LEAH
I do think Anna's strategy may be better. And there was a Quaker counselor at the treatment center who said it's a mistake to think of anyone as an enemy. That way of thinking blocks finding a solution that works for everyone.

JOAN
We'll give Anna's idea of a housing co-op some careful thought. And thanks, Aunt Leah.

 

Scene 5 Grace and Joan's kitchen and Doris and Leah's apartment simultaneously, supper time, a few days later.

Spotlight on stage right. Grace is seated at an end of the table, Joan on a side next to her. The bandage is gone from Grace's head, but her hands are still bandaged, so Joan is spoon-feeding her. Grace has a big mug of tea which she can hold with both hands. Joan gives her the last bite on her plate.

JOAN
Would you like some more, Honey?

GRACE
No thanks. But I would like another small piece of your oatmeal bread with my second cup of tea.
Joan cuts a slice.
Oh, never mind. It's more bother than it's worth to have to be fed like a baby.

JOAN
Forget it. Here.
Has buttered the slice and offers it for Grace to take a bite of.
When you get the casts off, we can begin a program of therapy.

Spotlight off stage right and on stage left. Doris and Leah are seated at the table with its drop leaves up, eating supper.

DORIS
That millet loaf is all right, Leah. But frankly, I'd rather be face to face with a big red lobster. Or staring into the eyes of a baked potato. With sour cream. And a crisp salad smothered in salty Roquefort. And for dessert, let's see. Pecan pie. Or maybe cheese cake on a chocolate crust.

LEAH
I haven't missed that kind of food. I've been so afraid I couldn't buy any groceries at all that every meal seems like a wonderful thing. And I do think I feel better eating this way.

DORIS
Sure, but that's just because we're actually eating now. And not just filling up on booze. Do you realize we've been sober now for almost four months? I think I'm doing my bit in cutting out the alcohol. I'm not ready to quit cold turkey on food, too. Real food. Cold turkey, even. With dressing. And pumpkin pie with real whipped cream.

Spotlight off stage left, on stage right.

GRACE
What if I don't ever regain the use of my hands? I don't mean for typing. I mean even to do things around here like milk the goats or use a hammer or a pitch fork?

JOAN
We'll just have to find out which jobs you can do without pain and divide the labor accordingly. But Honey, let's get this co-op thing talked out. We really must decide how we're going to manage before the six weeks pay runs out. We're half way through it now.

GRACE
All right. Let's consider the options: One, we can organize the co-op. Two, you can try to get a job that pays about the same as the one I lost. And three, we can sell the place and buy something smaller and more run-down with the equity. But that would mean higher interest rates and closing costs again. And you would still have to get whatever crummy-pay job is available to pay taxes and living expenses. . . . . . Has it ever occurred to you how much of our conversation is about money? With each other, with our friends. It's as if money were at the center of our heads!

JOAN
Yeh. And we moved here to free ourselves from a life style that depends on money.

GRACE
Did we take a wrong turn? Is there a better way?

JOAN
I don't know. I don't think so. The economic system the country has developed is stumbling so badly, it's likely to be unable to feed the people before long. I think it's important for as many people to get back to growing their own food as possible. And right away.

GRACE
Maybe it's because we're still in transition from that system that money has to be so important to us.

JOAN
Yeh, it's as if we have to buy our way out. We have to have enough money to have our land completely paid for before it's free land to grow our food on.

GRACE
And then we'll always have to pay property tax on it or they'll take it away from us. And when we don't have good jobs in their system, even minimal cash takes too many hours to earn.

JOAN
But of the alternatives you mentioned, which seems best to you?

GRACE
They all depress me. A housing co-op is not anything like our dream for this place. We wanted it to be all our own. If we sell shares of it in a co-op, we'll be subjecting ourselves to group decisions.

JOAN
Well, what we have in it makes up just over half of its cost. We can legally incorporate with Juanita's help, and set limits to each unit's control. If we want to be capitalistic about it, we can give them the percentage of control that their investment represents.

GRACE
With irony.
As the major stockholders, we probably are going to be capitalistic about it. But how would it work? How would we safeguard ourselves?

JOAN
Against what?

GRACE
All right. I'll be blunt. Helen and Tonja are one thing. We've been close to them for years. If it were just a matter of two lesbian couples sharing the project, I'd say OK. I don't have serious misgivings about their buying in. I wish we'd thought of it last year when we bought it ourselves. We could have saved some interest. But with Doris and Leah and god knows who else! It just doesn't sound much like "Lesbian Nation" to me!

Spotlight off stage right, on stage left.

LEAH
Not to change the subject, but I talked to Joan on the phone today.

DORIS
She called?

LEAH
No, I called. I couldn't wait a week to find out what was happening about the co-op. She said they were still working things out in their minds.

DORIS
I know you want to help your niece and Grace out . . . after all they did for you. But are you sure this is a good idea?

LEAH
The co-op? I thought you were sold on it!

DORIS
The concept of a housing co-op is great. It's the most exciting idea that ever obsessed me. But a mixed co-op with lesbian and straight! I don't know about that. I think it could be uncomfortable for everyone.

LEAH
But how else will Grace and Joan manage? I doubt very much if Joan can get back into teaching now, even if she had finished her thesis, which she didn't. People with Ph.Ds are thick as flies these days; the competition in teaching is fierce. If Joan wants to keep their farm, she'd have to find work within commuting distance. And there just isn't much to find that would give her enough for the mortgage payment each month, plus other expenses.

DORIS
But Grace and Joan don't seem to be very enthusiastic about the plan themselves.

Spotlight off stage left, on stage right.

JOAN
I do want to keep the place, Darling! We like Leah and Doris. They're not hard to be with anymore.

GRACE
They're not as homophobic as they were. But they still come up with some boners. Leah came in to see me one last time before she checked out of the hospital. She told me that she thought you and I had a better "marriage" than she and James. What a comparison!

JOAN
With a little laugh.
Poor Aunt Leah! She was trying to be kind.

GRACE
I know. I actually made myself thank her. But imagine all the awkwardness of daily association!

JOAN
Don't you think it would become a non-issue after awhile? I had a black roommate during my freshman year at college. At first I was so proud of myself for my enlightened liberalism, I dragged her everywhere with me so we could be seen together. It makes me cringe to remember the dumb "white liberal" things I said to her. I named myself her "blue-eyed soul sister." But she was patient with me.

GRACE
Smiling.
I feel for her.

JOAN
But after a few weeks I stopped thinking of her as a victimized black person and thought of her as someone who liked chemistry and detested Walt Whitman. I chewed her out for hanging her wet nylons on the towel rack when I slipped in the puddle they made. Her skin color stopped being a big deal and became just one of her attributes. I hardly noticed it any more.

GRACE
And you think Leah and Doris will eventually think of our lesbianism as one of our minor attributes hardly worth noticing?

JOAN
Reaches over and gives Grace a playful hug.
No, I think you'll eventually think of Leah and Doris' heterosexuality as one of their minor attributes hardly worth noticing!
Both women laugh.

Spotlight off stage right and on stage left.

LEAH
I think Joan would like to work it out. But Grace is stand-offish. I do wish she'd just give it a chance. But will you give it a chance, too, Doris? Would you consider putting your money into Joan and Grace's place?

DORIS
My money is a thing of the future. You're the only investor at present.

LEAH
But if it all works out well, you might decide to put your money there, too, when you have some, mightn't you?

DORIS
By the time I save enough, there'll probably be no stock left in Joan and Grace's. But I might be able to pick up some land near their place, you know. We could have neighboring co-ops. We could call them "Gay Corners" and "Straight Haven." We could build rip-gut fences
Illustrates with fingers of both hands interlocked, forming a row of Vs.
around the perimeters of the two together to keep the hostile outside world out. And then we could make two heaps of fist-sized rocks on the border between the two, just in case of inter-cooperative tension.
Doris is having a delightful time with this fantasy.

LEAH
Come on, Doris. Be serious. Every time I try to get this talked out, you lead me off track with your joking.

DORIS
All right. I'm serious. Go on.

LEAH
If Joan and Grace will let me buy into their place, I want to do it. But I can't wait for us to build me a house. So I'll use part of my nest egg to buy a used mobile home and move it on the land. Will you live there with me at least until you begin your own co-op? I'll get one with two bedrooms. It'll be small, but not as small as this apartment.

DORIS
I promise.
Holds up right hand.
I will go where your money leads--until I have money of my own. But only on condition you let me berm the trailer up to the level of the windows and build a super-insulated roof over it.
Leah nods assent.
But I'm not so sure we'll be doing them a big favor. They don't want to live with us.

LEAH
But they won't be living with us; we'll have our own separate home. What could be more private?

DORIS
Well, anyway, it doesn't have to be forever if it doesn't work out. You could sell your share later to a lesbian couple and buy a share in "Straight Haven."

Spotlight off stage left and on stage right.

GRACE
But you know, Joan, Leah's stock money (minus the price of the used trailer she told you she wants to buy) and Helen and Tonja's equity money together won't quite pay off our mortgage. We'd still have the same payments to make.

JOAN
There's another family who'd like to join us.

GRACE
Oh, god, who?

JOAN
Juanita Paz and Jorge Nava. And their three children. Jorge has the little restaurant out on "plastic strip." I ate there once this week, remember, I told you? After visiting you in the hospital. I just had a taco. Pure fire! But he's doing all right. It's the only Mexican-food café in town that doesn't just sell frozen fast food. He's like me, by the way. Hates to see food wasted. He wants to scrape all the plates into a bucket and bring it home to feed chickens.

GRACE
Bursts out laughing.
A new hit! Hot pepper eggs right in the shell!

JOAN
Laughs with Grace.
Anyway, with his café, the co-op will have a source of cash and also a ready market for our surplus produce. The Navas have been very frugal for years, trying to save enough to buy a little land. Even while they were both in school. But this is the only way they can make their dream come true right away.

GRACE
Won't Juanita be out of law school soon? Lawyers can earn good money.

JOAN
Not practicing law for the poor. And she's planning to continue that kind of practice.

GRACE
But won't Jorge feel kind of out of place as the only man in a co-op that's half lesbian?

JOAN
I doubt it. He was an anthropology major before he got disgusted with academe. Anthros love living with exotics.

GRACE
Sighs.
Well, I guess it won't be the end of everything if we try it. If it doesn't work out, maybe Leah and the Navas can sell their shares to others we may find later and they can start a co-op of their own. Maybe Anna is right that the real answer is in banding together, not going it alone.

JOAN
Shall I give Aunt Leah the green light, then?

GRACE
All right. We'll risk it. At least we won't lose the whole place. And the whole dream.
She turns away from the phone as Joan dials, staring at her broken hands.
Spotlights on both right and left stage at once. Leah has gone to the phone to answer it; Doris is still seated at the table, watching her.

JOAN
Aunt Leah? We've decided to give it a try if you're still interested.
Leah smiles and turns to nod at Doris, who smiles back and gives her the A-OK sign with thumb and middle finger.