Buried Child

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Book: Read Buried Child for Free Online
Authors: Sam Shepard
carrots)
    VINCE:
(To
SHELLY.) Why are you doing this? Are you trying to make fun of me? This is my family, you know!
    SHELLY : You coulda fooled me! I'd just as soon not be here myself. I'd just as soon be a thousand miles from here. I'd rather be anywhere but here. You're the one who wants to stay. So I'll stay. I'll stay and I'll cut the carrots. And I'll cook the carrots. And I'll do whatever I have to do to survive. Just to make it through this thing.
    VINCE: Put the carrots down, Shelly. The carrots aren't going to help. The carrots have nothing to do with the situation here, (TILDEN
enters from left with the pail, the milking stool, and a knife. He sets the stool and pail center for
SHELLY, SHELLY
looks at
VINCE,
then sits down on the stool, sets the carrots on the floor, and takes the knife from
TILDEN.
She looks at Vince again, then picks up a carrot, cuts the ends off, scrapes it, and drops it in the pail. She repeats this,
VINCE
glares at her. She smiles.)
    DODGE: She could get me a bottle. She's the type a girl that could get me a bottle. Easy. She'd go down there. Slink up to the counter. They'd probably give her two bottles for the price of one. She could do that. She has that air about her. (SHELLY
laughs. Keeps cutting carrots,
VINCE
crosses up to
DODGE,
looks at him.
TILDEN
watches
SHELLY
‘s
HANDS. LONG PAUSE.)
    VINCE:
(To
DODGE.) I haven't changed that much. I mean physically. Physically I'm just about the same. Same size. Same weight. Everything's the same, (DODGE
keeps staring at
SHELLY
while
VINCE
talks to him.)
    DODGE: She's a beautiful girl. Exceptional, (VINCE
moves in front of DODGE to block his view of
SHELLY, DODGE keeps eraninghis head around to see her as VINCE
demonstrates tricks from his past)
    VINCE: Look. Look at this. Do you remember this? I used to bend my thumb behind my knuckles. You remember? I used to do it at the dinner table. Way back when. You told me, one day it would get stuck like this and I'd never be able to throw a baseball, (VINCE
bends a thumb behind his knuckles for
DODGE
and holds it out to him.
DODGE
takes a short glance, then looks back at
SHELLY, VINCE
shifts position and shows him something else.)
What about this? (VINCE
curls his lips back and starts drumming on his teeth with his fingernails, making little tapping sounds,
DODGE
watches a while,
TILDEN
turns toward the sound,
VINCE
keeps it up. He sees
TILDEN
taking notice and crosses to
TILDEN
as he drums on his teeth.
DODGE
turns the TV on and watches it.)
You remember this, Dad? Rooty-tooty? “St. James Infirmary”? “When the Saints Go Marching In”? (VINCE
keeps on drumming for
TILDEN, TILDEN
watches a while, fascinated, then turns back to
SHELLY, VINCE
keeps up the drumming on his teeth, crosses back to
DODGE
doing it.
SHELLY
keeps working on the carrots, talking
    tO
TILDEN.)
    SHELLY:
(To
TILDEN.) He drives me crazy with that sometimes.
    VINCE:
(To
DODGE.) I know! Here's one you'll remember. You used to kick me out of the house for this one. (VINCE
pulls his shirt out of his belt and holds it tucked under his chin with his stomach exposed. He grabs the flesh on either side of his belly button and pushes it in and out to make it look like a mouth
    talking. He watches his belly button and makes a deep-sounding cartoon voice to synchronize with the movement. He demonstrates it to
DODGE,
then crosses down to
TILDEN
doing it. Both
DODGE
and
TILDEN
take short, uninterested glances, then ignore him. Deep cartoon voice.)
“Hello. How are you? I'm fine. Thank you very much. It's so good to see you looking well this fine Sunday morning.” It's the same old me. Same old dependable me. Never change. Never alter one iota. (VINCE
stops. Tucks his shirt back in.)
    SHELLY: Vince, don't be pathetic, will ya! They're not gonna play. Can't you see that? (SHELLY
keeps cutting carrots,
VINCE
slowly moves toward
TILDEN, TILDEN
keeps watching
SHELLY.)
    VINCE:
(To
SHELLY.) I don't get it.

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