Scene 9: Circus Animals
Indiana. 1982.
 

A gun report.
 

Dale and Gene warm their hands over a fire. While they work for
the circus, they are not wearing circus clothes, but simple
clothing. Khakis, open collared shirt for Gene, a simple dress for
Mother and Dale.
 

Mother is holding a pistol, and hands it to Gene.
 

MOTHER
You take it. It’s yours.

GENE
He’s out of his suffering.

MOTHER
I know that.

GENE
He wouldn’t have made it to . . . (to Dale) Elkhart?

DALE
Kokomo. Elkhart is the week after next.

GENE
Kokomo. No hope for a decent vet there, anyway. And he’d
done the same thing.

MOTHER
I know.

GENE
And Mort, he said we’d just skip the Hippodrome act, and
you’d do only the voltige pass. On Pansy.

MOTHER
We already talked about this. Already decided this.

GENE
We’ll just wait for the roustabouts to finish.

DALE
Maybe I should go back to the car and get us a couple of
drinks.

GENE
Good idea. Oh, here (hands the pistol to Dale).

DALE
I’ll be back in a jiff.

Dale exits, with pistol.

GENE
Dale’s aces. (pause.) You okay?

MOTHER
Yeah. It’s not the first time.

GENE
Not the last.

MOTHER
That’s for sure.

GENE
Still, awful business.

MOTHER
Jesus. I’m ’bout done in with it.

GENE
Yeah?

MOTHER
Yeah.

GENE
(pause. looking off in the distance)
Corn, right?

MOTHER
It’s Indiana, Gene. It’s all we’ve seen for days.

GENE
How does it go? Knee-high by the Fourth of July?

MOTHER
Seriously, I’m okay. I loved Peppermint, but he couldn’t go
on for a minute more. (beat.) Not the first goddamned time
we had to put a horse down.

GENE
Right.

MOTHER
Comet. And Mr. Sticks.

GENE
Sticks-boy! I remember him. Chestnut.

MOTHER
Great American horse.

GENE
I was just a kid then.

MOTHER
Me, too. We were kids then. The real circus in those days.
The Flying Concellos. Mabel Stark.

GENE
Oh yeah, Mabel!

MOTHER
I miss how raunchy it was. You know, how Mabel with her
tiger act would fake getting mauled (laughing).

GENE
Rahj the tiger! (laughing) Yeah!

MOTHER
And he’d be on top of her, humping away. The poor lonely
guy. He just wanted a little love (laughing).

GENE
She’d be screaming, kicking!

MOTHER
And then he’d relieve himself . . . ROAR! (she pantomines
Rahj orgasming here with the roar).

GENE
That’s why she wore white, you know!

MOTHER
Ewwwwww!

Both laughing. Dale enters with a
flask of whiskey, three paper cups.
She immediately distributes the
cups and pours healthy shots in
each.

GENE
It’s all that I could find.

MOTHER
(Still laughing.)
It’ll do.

DALE
What’s so funny?

MOTHER
Old times.

GENE
Old times.

DALE
Well, to old times, then. To Peppermint!
("clink" the cups)

MOTHER
To Peppermint! Who kept to his own kind!

GENE
To Peppermint! Who kept to his own species!

They drink. And an immediate refill
by Dale.

MOTHER
My god, he was a sweet thing. Stout. Understood every
direction. Knew what I was going to do even before I
signaled.

GENE
Best man ever between your legs.

MOTHER
Only man ever. ROAR! (They laugh, except for Dale.)

DALE
I don’t get it.

MOTHER
It’s okay, Dale. But you know, years, years ago, we almost
put Peppermint down, when he was a pony. Mort kept me from
doing it, then. We thought he had the sleeping sickness,
maybe he did. Weak. Restless. He bit me, too. But Mort said
to give it a day. Bathed in sweat. Peppermint’s eyes
wide--I’m sure he was seeing things. God knows what. Wolves,
maybe. Something terrible. Something ancient. The fever
broke. It almost never happens. A week later, Peppermint’s
back in the ring, and I’m riding him high, goddamn sky high!

(Pause.)
Funny, how we dodge bullets. (laughs)

(Pause.)
Everyday, a gift, the sweetest gift, you guys. Salut!

They toast.