Sentences and Words

SENTENCES AND WORDS

by Cynthia L. Cooper

Characters:

KARLA -- a lawyer, mid-thirties

MAGGIE -- a teen's mother

Time and Place:

Time: Now

Place: A small community in a "death" state.

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SENTENCES AND WORDS

by Cynthia L. Cooper

(A woman stands on the porch of a house that crosses between ramshackley and neat. The setting is small southern Ohio town, which is more southern than northern, and more rural than populated. The woman on the porch, KARLA JACKSON, wears a suit, glasses, blouse and heels. SHE carries a purse and a little file folder.

(KARLA walks up to the door. SHE bangs loudly on the door several times.)

KARLA

Mrs. Denton! Mrs. Denton, I know you're in there.

(There is no answer.)(KARLA looks at herself and quickly takes off her shoes and exchanges them for beat-up loafers that she is carrying in her purse. She takes off her jacket and stuffs it away in the same purse. SHE knocks again.)

Mrs. Denton. I'll stay here all night if I have to.

(KARLA bangs again, profusely. Now, she becomes conscious of her hair and ruffles it. SHE takes off her glasses and puts them away. She bangs again!)

MRS. DENTON!

(The door opens. A furious MAGGIE DENTON stands at the doorway. SHE is dressed in a very unfancy skirt with a shirt over it. The shirt is hangs outside the skirt. SHE seems a bit disheveled, although SHE has attempted to be neat.)

MAGGIE

Get away from here. Get AWAY!

(MAGGIE quickly slams the door.)(KARLA, undeterred, pulls her shirt out from her skirt.)

KARLA

I've got to have a word with you Mrs. Denton. Tomorrow's the hearing date. For the sentencing. And I've got to talk to you before then.

(MAGGIE opens the door one more time. KARLA puts her foot into the door opening to prevent MAGGIE from slamming it shut again.)

MAGGIE

You get away or I'm gonna tell my husband to chase you away. You saw what he did last time.

KARLA

He's gone, Mrs. Denton. I saw him drive away. This is just something for you and me.

MAGGIE

We don't have nothing between us, Lady. Nothing.

(MAGGIE tries to slam the door, and to push it shut. KARLA's foot does an admirable, if painful, job of preventing the door from closing entirely. KARLA speaks through the slight opening in the door.)

KARLA

This is a death state, Mrs. Denton. You know what that means, don't you?

MAGGIE

I know what you did in court. I heard what you said about my Tommy. And that was plenty enough for me. Standing up for that dirty old FILTHY OLD SCUZZY OLD SLIMY ROTTEN NASTY DISGUSTING Franklin Miller. I seen plenty.

KARLA

Don't stop, please. Tell me. More. I want to hear.

MAGGIE

You're a whore.

KARLA

You can call me Karla.

MAGGIE

I ain't calling you nothing.

KARLA

May I call you Maggie?

MAGGIE

I'm gonna call the sheriff, you don't get off my porch.

KARLA

I don't think so.

MAGGIE

You don't think what?

KARLA

I don't think you like the sheriff any more than I do.

MAGGIE

You think you know so much. All that education you got.

KARLA

Look ... Maggie. My foot's about to break. You know that defending Mr. Miller was my job. It's my job tomorrow at the sentencing. I'm not pretending anything different. All I want is one minute of your time.

MAGGIE

He never give Tommy one minute. One minute my Tommy's pitching stones into the field and the next minute he's stabbed behind the shed.

KARLA

You don't have to talk. We can sit. I just need to sit with you before I go back into that courtroom tomorrow. Is that too much to ask? Please?

(Emotionally.)

MAGGIE

My husband wouldn't allow nobody like you in the house.

KARLA

On the porch then?

I'm begging you, Maggie. I know your husband won't speak to me. But, one day, in the courtroom, one day you were sitting in the back, and I turned around, and you looked me straight in the eye and we started to say something that day, just you and me, something silent, something that hasn't been said, and I just have to finish that off.

MAGGIE

I don't recall none of it. If there was any such thing, I probably was making a prayer for you, lady.

KARLA

Will you do it again, then? I know you're a real kind-hearted woman. Maggie?

MAGGIE

One minute.

(MAGGIE reluctantly steps out on to the porch.)

KARLA

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you very much.

(THEY sit on a soggy couch and moldy chair set out on the porch. There is silence.)

KARLA

I do have one thing to say.

MAGGIE

You said we didn't have to say nothing. I'm not much for talking with you, lady.

KARLA

Okay. If you could just listen. I'd like to talk.

MAGGIE

I'm just going to pray like I agreed to. That's all. You can say whatever you like, but I'm just going to pray.

KARLA

I'll make it real short. The judge set tomorrow for the sentence. Now, you know, this is a death penalty state. And the judge could sentence Mr. Miller to die. Or he could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

MAGGIE

I'm praying.

KARLA

And as Mr. Miller's attorney, I'm asking that he be sentenced to prison, Maggie.

MAGGIE

I don't have no use for that man. I don't care what they do with him. I don't ever want to hear his name again.

KARLA

And the judge said ... ahh ... he said that he would leave it to the family about the death penalty. He said if someone from Tommy's family came forward at the hearing and said that Mr. Miller should not get the ...

MAGGIE

I said I didn't ever want to hear his name again.

KARLA

You've known Franklin Miller a long time.

MAGGIE

Too long.

KARLA

Thirty years, I think. I remember something from the file.

I thought you might have some feeling of sympathy toward him.

MAGGIE

Towards him! I don't have no feeling of nothing towards him. Let him rot in a pit with birds pecking at his bones, for all I care.

KARLA

You don't care if he's executed?

MAGGIE

NO. NO. I DON'T CARE. AFTER WHAT HE DONE! You want me to care about THAT! I DON'T CARE. ALL I WANT IS MY TOMMY BACK. THAT'S ALL.

KARLA

Alright, Maggie. Okay. See, that's it, then. It's okay. I felt I had a duty to ask. Since that was the condition the judge set ... I had to try. I hope you understand.

MAGGIE

I don't understand nothing, lady. NOTHING.

KARLA

Karla. I'm Karla.

MAGGIE

You want to know what was I thinking that day, lady?

I was thinking I was glad I didn't have some big time education so that I didn't have to stand up there like you and defend a dirty vile rotten old man that killed my thirteen year old boy. That's what I was thinking.

KARLA

I see.

Sometimes it's not so easy. Especially ... I know this doesn't make much sense ... but Mr. Miller -- I mean I don't say that there was anything right about what happened -- but now I've gotten to know him. He's a friend ... in a way. Maybe I just

hate to see people die. Especially clients. Kind of makes me feel like a failure. Like that big time education isn't worth a tire track in the mud.

MAGGIE

Comes with the territory, I imagine.

KARLA

I've never had it happen before. You know, that a client was sentenced to death. Can't make sense out of it.

MAGGIE

There's no sense in this world, lady. If there was any sense in this world, Tommy would be hollering out back right now.

KARLA

(Preparing to leave.)

Yes.

(Standing.)

And one thing, Mrs. Denton ...

MAGGIE

I've had enough.

KARLA

I did want to say -- while I'm here, and all -- I want to say, I'm very sorry. About Tommy.

MAGGIE

You're a liar!

(Turns as if to spit.)

KARLA

What? This is too much. I AM SORRY ABOUT YOUR SON. Good evening, then.

MAGGIE

(Grabbing her.)

Why you telling me that now, lady?

KARLA

What do you mean?

MAGGIE

No body said that. (Emotionally) Not no body.

KARLA

Said what?

MAGGIE

'Sorry.' I can't hardly believe it myself. Sure, he wasn't no saint. But nobody said they was sorry. Not the funeral man. Not the sheriff. Not the judge. Nobody sitting down there at the county. And nobody 'cept one church lady come knocking out here neither to say their sorries.

(KARLA reaches out to MAGGIE.)

KARLA

Maggie ... I am sorry. And other people -- were. People ... just plain act ... stupid ... sometimes.

MAGGIE

He had a little trouble. So'd his daddy, once or twice. We don't belong to no country clubs or nothing. But they don't have to treat us like we're some trash and it don't mean nothing to us ... do they?

KARLA

Listen to me: You didn't deserve to be treated that way.

MAGGIE

I just want to die, lady. I didn't tell no one this. Not even my husband. I just want to die as soon as have all those cold hearted people talking about my baby and asking questions and have Tommy gone like this.

KARLA

Please. I am so sorry. Oh God.

I know ... how it hurts. It's going to hurt. Like a big ball in the middle of your stomach. But, it'll start getting smaller. Over time. Things will get better. Slowly. Believe me.

MAGGIE

What do you know? This sadness is so thick, I don't know where to put it. I never had nothing like this in my life.

KARLA

I ... had ... there was something ... just last year ... something like it.

MAGGIE

You had a child stabbed bloody?

KARLA

No. No, I didn't have that. It was something different.

MAGGIE

Then you couldn't know. Something different isn't the same.

KARLA

Of course it's not the same. I just know how the hurt feels. It's not the same. Was my little brother, Jack, actually, last year. It was different, of course, and well, he wasn't so little, but he was younger than me. And he got real sick, and they were talking about treatment and other help and ... there are things they can do for people ... you know, it's an epidemic and all, national ... and I don't know, well, he decided he didn't want to go through with it, he just gave up. He ahh ... he ahh ... went into the cellar and ... and ... and ... you ever seen anyone who's hung themselves? It's a hideous awful sight ... a ... horrible ...

MAGGIE

There, there. Stop now.

KARLA

... and he didn't have to go that way. Not saying goodbye or anything. And I miss him so much. If he were alive, right now, today, I'd be calling him on the phone, crying my eyes out to him. And this is very hard on me ... with Mr. ... with my client and all.

MAGGIE

No ... No... Karla. It won't be so bad. I didn't mean to set you off. Shhh. Shhh. Calm down.

KARLA

(Straightening up.)

Oh, this is so stupid. Here I am, supposed to be the big professional, and I'm sitting here blathering to you.

MAGGIE

That day ... that day ... when I looked at you. I saw you say you were sorry to me. I saw that in your eyes. You was the only one. And I was a-trying to say thank you.

KARLA

(Preparing to leave again.)

I appreciate that.

(Turns to exit.)

Well, I'd better be taking my leave before your husband returns. He practically threw the couch at me the last time I came by.

MAGGIE

He's not so bad a man. Everyone hurts.

KARLA

Sure. I understand.

(Starting to exit.)

MAGGIE

(Catches KARLA'S arm.)

When would they do it? ... to ... him.

KARLA

Mr. Miller? Oh, I don't know. I'll still argue, tomorrow, on his behalf. You know, they'll be some people there. His mother, other people. And then there's appeals and all.

MAGGIE

She must be old by now, his mother.

KARLA

Oh, gee. (Looks in the file.) Doesn't say exactly. Seventies' I imagine. She's coming from West Virginia ...

MAGGIE

I know where she's coming from.

KARLA

Sure -- that's your country, too. Well, you probably know more than me.

(Shakes MAGGIE'S hand.)

Well, thank you for coming out on the porch.

MAGGIE

I bet your brother Jack walks right along side you sometimes.

KARLA

He does, sometimes.

MAGGIE

I bet he'd be telling you to remember that part where they talk about an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

KARLA

Jack wasn't much for religion.

MAGGIE

Yep. I bet Jack'd tell you that's one of the stupidest parts he'd ever heard. I told the preacher that one time too. I think that's stupid I said. That don't accomplish nothing. Just blood on both hands. That's what Jack would say, I bet.

KARLA

He might.

MAGGIE

He'd a probably say what about that part that says thou shalt not kill. What about that? How come nobody talks about that in court?

KARLA

Well, it's a matter of law, you know ...

MAGGIE

And when they wrote that 'thou shalt not' there wasn't no 'ceptions in there for this or for that. I bet he would tell you to bring those things up tomorrow.

KARLA

Well, sure. I can try.

MAGGIE

Good.

KARLA

Right.

MAGGIE

I'd like to come by and hear that. I don't have any fancy court clothes or anything, but, I'd like to know what the judge says to that.

(KARLA turns to exit.)

KARLA

Yes, well ....

(KARLA stops, wheels back to MAGGIE, pulls her jacket out of her bag and, puts it on the porch.)

It's not new or ... but ...

MAGGIE

Oh, no. My husband might not approve any business like that. I'd have to ... well, I'd have to step out ...

KARLA

Well, I leave it to you.

Jack always liked this jacket. He thought the color was calming.

Maybe, I'll just put it here on the porch.

Alright then. Thank you.

(KARLA now exits hurriedly.)

MAGGIE

(Alone, MAGGIE stands, thinks, picks up jacket, tries it on.)

I'd like to know what that judge says to old Mrs. Miller. I'd like to know that.

-- THE END --

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