"Lunar Son Tarot" is a nonfiction play by Mark Gordon Russell chronicling his perceptions in life and those of his mother on the evening of a Tarot card reading in 1986. The play is based on a tape-recorded interview with my mother at that time. This play has never been produced.
Note: Information about the origin of this play is provided in the 2017 blog article "Accessing an Omnipresent Unlimited Information Source through Tarot Cards". This noncommercial play is available to everyone to read or even perform if there are two people who would be willing to memorize all those lines. As I mentioned in a journal entry last week — The selection of this post [for publication now with this blog] is another suggestion of M and I can't imagine not accepting one of M's suggestions.
INTRODUCTION
It is spring 1986.
The two-character play takes place in a dining room of a two-bedroom rented stucco condominium in Pasadena, California at East Orange Grove Boulevard. The cards that will be seen are those that were found during an actual Tarot card reading that was tape-recorded by the author.
The furniture is vaguely affluent. The oddity is a curio cabinet with a collection of porcelain Siamese cat figurines. A noticeable picture on the wall measuring 46" x 36" could be a colorful Marianne Hornbuckle lithograph of a plateau (if verisimilitude is desired).
The view seen by the audience is the dining room in front and the living room in back. There is a small patio with a view of the San Gabriel Valley and Los Angeles to the south. At the back left is a door leading to a bedroom. At the front left is a hall leading to another bedroom. The entire kitchen and entrance way are not in view. The diningroom table has no tablecloth.
A portion of the stage should be blank to allow projected images of Tarot cards to be seen, showing the individual cards when each is revealed or discussed.
The characters are a fifty-four-year-old woman and her twenty-nine-year-old SON. MOTHER is slightly inebriated and becomes giddy and morose in intervals as this is a tumultuous time in her life. She is not college-educated yet has made a success of herself by passing the national test to become an Accredited Record Technician. She is a hospital medical records department head.
The SON is introverted and obsessed with the unexplained. If one of the two is feminine, it is the SON. He is only a little overweight despite the conversation to follow. When reading brief passages of books about the Tarot, he has an emphatic delivery. He wears pajamas and a lovely silk robe that is a gift someone gave him. It is night and the MOTHER's cotton robe is disheveled. Her hair is dyed brown. This night she is desperate most of the time while the SON has a usual introvert serenity.
The SON's reference books that he carries with him are the paperbacks The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite, A Complete Guide to the Tarot by Eden Gray; and the hardbound books The Encyclopedia of Tarot by Stuart R. Kaplan and The Magic Zoo by Peter Costello.
There is one intermission.
As the audience enters, the stage is in darkness yet the lighting suggests the cosmos throughout the theatre. Radio songs of the period play as the audience takes their seats (and later during the intermission). Here is the suggested sequence of songs.
(preceding the first act)
"Tusk" Fleetwood Mac
"Material Girl" Madonna
"Mickey" Toni Basil
"Dirty Laundry" Don Henley
"Abracadabra" Steve Miller Band
(intermission preceding the second act)
"Mad World" Tears for Fears
"Money for Nothing" Dire Straits
"Walk Like An Egyptian" Bangles
"Magic" Olivia Newton John
"Hold Me Now" Thompson Twins
A few moments before the MOTHER enters from the hall, there should be the sound of a Television program circa 1986 until the TV set is turned off.
The time is 10:40 p.m.
ACT I
The MOTHER enters from the hall stage left. She walks with a noticeable limp. Her reading glasses are of the drugstore variety. She is talking silently to herself as she goes to the door of her SON's room. She carries with her a small glass of beer. She knocks three times quickly.
MOTHER: Are you ready? You promised.
(There is no response.)
MOTHER: Honey?
(She knocks again.)
MOTHER: I can't wait all night.
(There is no response.)
MOTHER: What are you doing?
SON: (OFFSTAGE) I'm reading.
MOTHER: What are you reading?
SON (OFFSTAGE): It's about legendary animals like mermaids and dragons. (an afterthought) But it isn't very good.
MOTHER: Then why don't you stop reading it?
(Scowling, she knocks again even more loudly.)
SON: (OFFSTAGE) Let me finish this chapter about the Phoenix.
MOTHER: I don't want to miss "The Eleven O'Clock News."
(pause)
MOTHER: Did you hear me?
SON: (OFFSTAGE) Just a moment.
(Satisfied with this response, MOTHER goes to the diningroom table and sits down. She removes a pack of playing cards from a pocket in her housecoat, removes the rubber band and begins a game of Solitaire. She occasionally sips from her glass of beer.)
SON: (OFFSTAGE frantically calling out) Ohhh!
MOTHER: What?
(She goes back to the door to his room, hesitant to ever open it without permission.)
MOTHER: Are you all right?
(The door opens and the SON seems startled.)
SON: It was a spider. A big one. I opened the patio door and was trying to get it to climb onto my book so I could put it outside and it suddenly jumped.
MOTHER: Spiders don't jump.
SON: This one did.
MOTHER: What kind of spider was it?
SON: It was a big spider. I don't know what kind it was.
(He closes the door.)
(MOTHER returns to the table and resumes her game of Solitaire.)
SON: (OFFSTAGE) Where did it go?
(It is silent for an interim and then the door opens and SON joins his MOTHER at the table. He has put on a Japanese satin jacket and is holding a box with the Tarot cards. He also has several books, including two paperbacks and a hardbound book about the supernatural. He places the books on the table beside him.)
(She continues playing solitaire.)
MOTHER: This is a good hand.
SON: Are you kidding? Put them away.
MOTHER: I didn't know how long you'd take. You can wait a few minutes now.
SON: You can play solitaire anytime.
(She keeps playing.)
SON: Well then I'm not going to have time tonight.
MOTHER: Oh all right.
(Heeding him, she stacks the cards and takes off her glasses.)
MOTHER: You know what? I got the electric bill today. I'll figure out how much you owe.
SON: I never turn on the central air. That's what makes the spiders crawl out of the air ducts.
MOTHER: The only ones you have to worry about are the ones with a red hourglass on their belly or the ones shaped like a violin. Did you get a good look at it?
SON: It looked like it would hurt if it bit me. Next time I'll just kill it.
MOTHER: They're not going to bite you. They're afraid of people. I admire spiders. It's not their fault they're ugly. They have to kill to survive like all animals. That's nature. Spiders are unusual because they have an art form. There aren't very many animals with a craft. They make beautiful webs.
SON: I don't need any 'weaver of illusion' in my room.
MOTHER: What?
SON: In India the spider has symbolized the eternal weaver of the web of illusion.
MOTHER: This isn't India.
(pause)
MOTHER: If you don't give me ten dollars for the electric bill this month every spider I see I'm putting in your room.
(SON takes out the Tarot cards and begins separating them into groups using a technique of his own.)
MOTHER: I don't know why I let you tell my fortune with those spooky cards.
SON: There is nothing spooky, as you say, about them.
MOTHER: Not with all those weird pictures and characters?
SON: Who's doing who the favor? How many times have you begged for me to give you another Tarot card reading? I remember what you said after the first Tarot reading a few months ago. You said you were bored. As I explained then, Tarot cards present a symbolic procession of human existence. When somebody reads from the Tarot they try to draw upon the vast perceptions of their subconscious mind to interpret the life before them. Our lives show certain patterns of behavior. Tarot cards can help us to see where that pattern may take you.
MOTHER: Where does God come into it?
SON: 'God' is a word that people rarely stop to think about. If they did, they would realize that the word has no coherent meaning. Other words that people accept and use without understanding that they have no idea what it is they're talking about include fate . . . destiny . . . chance . . . luck. 'God' is just one of many slang words for the unknown. An understanding of the workings of both God and chance is impossible for us in our current stage of knowledge.
MOTHER: Just because you don't believe in Him doesn't mean I don't. Or Her.
SON: The name is inadequate but I believe in some of the things that are meant to be conveyed by the word 'God.' It's just that I don't know what 'God' is. I'm Agnostic. I believe there is some kind of 'God' but the knowledge of that Being is something beyond what is possible for us to understand. Most of the things that happen to us seem random and haphazard. But philosophers as ancient as Hippocrates have distinguished a pattern of hidden affinities in life. Jung called it 'synchronicity.'
MOTHER: It's too hard to try and figure it out.
SON: Of course, we have to make a living, "make ends meet." Figuring out how to do that is a challenge that most people have in common, which reminds me.
(pause)
SON: The nuns. How are they?
MOTHER: Didn't I tell you? The sisters all left.
SON: (stunned) Where did they go?
MOTHER: The week before the takeover they came and took everything away. They left and everything else went with them. They had some nice mosaics on the wall. They tore it all out.
SON: Why?
MOTHER: The Catholics didn't want to leave anything . . . any trace. They wanted anything that would remind anybody that it was previously a Catholic hospital erased. But like, on the fifth floor there was a big wall – bigger than that. It had a big picture of, you know, a Virgin Mary.
(She holds up her hands in a suggestive pose.)
MOTHER: Like this. It was all in mosaic.
SON: What was the Virgin Mary doing in the picture?
MOTHER: She was just sitting like this. Just like this.
(She makes a cradling gesture.)
MOTHER: Holding a little baby. It was all handmade.
SON: That was the Christ child.
MOTHER: They wanted it out!
SON: A Madonna and child.
MOTHER: Of course.
SON: (joking) That's almost sacrilegious.
MOTHER: When the employees came in, they were so upset. At first, everyone thought some vandals had broken in.
SON: Was it the sisters or the new corporate owners of the hospital who were responsible?
MOTHER: The sisters.
SON: Where did the sisters go?
(He continues separating and organizing the Tarot cards into five piles: one for the Major Arcana, one for Swords, one for Wands, one for Cups and one for Pentacles.)
MOTHER: They went back to the Mother House in Orange. You mean the sisters who came to the hospital to move the other ones out? A whole bunch of sisters came from the Mother House, which is like their main headquarters.
SON: (joking) I thought the Vatican was their main headquarters.
MOTHER: They told the engineering staff to help them, you know, dig that stuff out.
SON: I guess they'll take that huge lit-up ceramic cross off the roof of the hospital too.
MOTHER: That's gone already.
SON: I can't believe it. It was like a beacon of hope in the night. I mean, seeing that big cross filled me with hope that maybe there was something supernatural about Jesus and that his story isn't just a glorified myth. Are they going to take the 'Saint' away from the name of the hospital as well?
MOTHER: I don't think so. I guess the nuns aren't going to make them change that. Maybe they forgot about that.
SON: Help me get the cards in the right numerical order. In the technique I use, the cards should always be in order at the start before shuffling.
(He gives her the stack of cards with Swords.)
SON: Why did the nuns sell the hospital?
MOTHER: Nobody ever really figured that out for sure. I guess because they were losing money. It was only the second or third time in the history of the United States that a Catholic hospital was sold to a for-profit organization. You see, they have lots of hospitals.
SON: I wonder how many centuries nuns go back. Yesterday I saw one at the bookstore and said to myself how good it was to see a nun again. They're a link to the past. Like Tarot cards. Nuns are kind of icons onto themselves. They've been very controversial with all those lesbian nuns breaking silence all over the place. There's a book about it on the bestseller list. I read a little of it and it's all these different nuns telling about how they found out about themselves. Some of them left the convents and others are gay and are still living there. A lot of Catholics are upset about it but it has probably always been going on.
MOTHER: Is there a card with a nun?
SON: No.
(He glances through his paperback.)
SON: Looking for a card that might be representative of a nun, one might select the High Priestess card. Or the Hierophant. Maybe the Temperance card.
MOTHER: What's the hero – heiro –
SON: Heirophant?
(He turns to the correct page in the Waite paperback.)
SON: (reading from the book) "He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but they are not those of the Temple which is guarded by the High Priestess. In his left hand he holds a sceptre terminating in the triple cross, and with his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign which is called that of esotericism, distinguishing between the manifest and the concealed part of doctrine." Wait, this might be too vague for you.
(He skims down the page.)
SON: "He has been usually called the Pope."
(He turns the page.)
SON: " . . . he is the channel of grace . . . He is the order and the head of the recognized hierarchy, which is the reflection of another and greater hierarchic order . . . this his symbolic state . . ."
(He puts the book down and turns to the appropriate page of the Gray paperback.)
SON: This book will probably say it in a more clear way. That other one was written in 1910.
MOTHER: I don't know why you need more than one book. That's a weird one.
SON: The one I just read from was written by Edward Waite, who was a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn. Authors don't all have the same interpretation. These are just to give you an idea. I haven't yet been able to read a book about the Order of the Golden Dawn.
MOTHER: It sounds like a cult.
SON: I guess so, but I think these people were pretty harmless. The word 'cult' brings to mind the Manson Family or those people who drank the poisoned Kool-Aid. Any religious group can be called a 'cult.'
(He flips through the other paperback.)
SON: I think this book will clarify for you what the Hierophant card stands for.
(He finds the passage.)
SON: "The Hierophant represents traditional, orthodox teaching considered suitable to the masses. He is the ruling power of external religion, whereas the High Priestess teaches only in secret and to initiates." The 'Divinatory Meaning' is "Preference for the outer forms of religion, the ritual, the creed, the ceremony. The importance of social approval; the need to conform to society." That's just this author's opinion. Eden Gray.
(pause)
SON: A precise interpretation of the significance of the card depends on what cards show up before and after it. It's all a matter of timing and sequence.
MOTHER: That reminds me. I had a phone call a month ago about a hospital looking for a director but, dumb me, I told him I wasn't interested even though I knew the way things were coming down. I think I kept his name. I'm going to try to call him.
SON: I guess you couldn't see the writing on the wall despite that worrisome Tarot card reading.
MOTHER: What am I supposed to do with these cards?
SON: Put them in the right order right side up facing the same way – one two three four and so on through Page Jack Queen King.
MOTHER: How can you tell which is which?
SON: There's little numbers at the bottom. Or you can count the number of Swords. I gave you all the Swords.
MOTHER: God, I can barely see those little numbers.
(She takes off her glasses, dabs her tongue against each lens and then rubs her robe against them to clean the lenses.)
SON: Ewww, what are you doing?
MOTHER: I'm cleaning my glasses.
SON: You don't have to lick them.
MOTHER: Oh yes I do.
SON: Gross.
MOTHER: What's VII?
SON: Seven.
MOTHER: No, it's eight.
SON: You don't know how to read Roman numerals, do you?
MOTHER: Yes.
SON: Then maybe you don't know how to count.
MOTHER: This one doesn't have a number on it. This is trying. I'm not a Tarotoe expert like you.
SON: Tarot. Although that word you said is close to the original pronunciation of the name for the cards. In Italy in the early Sixteenth Century they were called Tarocchi or the singular Tarocco.
(She drops some and gasps.)
SON: Poor Mother. You get so carried away.
(She picks them up.)
MOTHER: What do I do with this one? It doesn't have a number.
SON: Give them to me.
(He checks them.)
SON: Two, four, three, this is one.
MOTHER: Where does it say one?
(He holds it up.)
SON: There's just one Sword, isn't there?
MOTHER: Piss!
SON: Don't say that. That's disgusting.
(He places the cards in the proper sequence.)
SON: Tell me more about the new company that's taken over the hospital.
(She takes off her glasses.)
MOTHER: They don't care that Medical Records has always been the most efficient department at the hospital. They're pressuring me and all of the other department heads to quit. How is it our fault that the hospital was mismanaged at the highest level?
SON: How many department heads are left?
MOTHER: Well . . . there's Frida left. And Jan in P.R. And Barbara, and poor Ed – well, you know, he's probably forty-nine. He's the one –
SON: Younger than you!
MOTHER: He's got this horrible disease.
SON: What disease? Hodgkin's disease?
MOTHER: And a family to support. Yeah, he's so worried. No, not Hodgkin's – malignant melanoma. That's just incidental to them. Just another reason why they want to get rid of him.
SON: And I remember what happened to that janitor you told me about.
MOTHER: I feel sorry for him too. The sisters had been good to him. You see, he's mentally retarded. The sisters told him that as long as they were there he'd always have a job. Well you know what happened. The new company heads want to promote all the secondaries and pay them less money.
(He flips through the other paperback.)
SON: I think this book will clarify for you what the Hierophant card stands for.
(He finds the passage.)
SON: "The Hierophant represents traditional, orthodox teaching considered suitable to the masses. He is the ruling power of external religion, whereas the High Priestess teaches only in secret and to initiates." The 'Divinatory Meaning' is "Preference for the outer forms of religion, the ritual, the creed, the ceremony. The importance of social approval; the need to conform to society." That's just this author's opinion. Eden Gray.
(pause)
SON: A precise interpretation of the significance of the card depends on what cards show up before and after it. It's all a matter of timing and sequence.
MOTHER: That reminds me. I had a phone call a month ago about a hospital looking for a director but, dumb me, I told him I wasn't interested even though I knew the way things were coming down. I think I kept his name. I'm going to try to call him.
SON: I guess you couldn't see the writing on the wall despite that worrisome Tarot card reading.
MOTHER: What am I supposed to do with these cards?
SON: Put them in the right order right side up facing the same way – one two three four and so on through Page Jack Queen King.
MOTHER: How can you tell which is which?
SON: There's little numbers at the bottom. Or you can count the number of Swords. I gave you all the Swords.
MOTHER: God, I can barely see those little numbers.
(She takes off her glasses, dabs her tongue against each lens and then rubs her robe against them to clean the lenses.)
SON: Ewww, what are you doing?
MOTHER: I'm cleaning my glasses.
SON: You don't have to lick them.
MOTHER: Oh yes I do.
SON: Gross.
MOTHER: What's VII?
SON: Seven.
MOTHER: No, it's eight.
SON: You don't know how to read Roman numerals, do you?
MOTHER: Yes.
SON: Then maybe you don't know how to count.
MOTHER: This one doesn't have a number on it. This is trying. I'm not a Tarotoe expert like you.
SON: Tarot. Although that word you said is close to the original pronunciation of the name for the cards. In Italy in the early Sixteenth Century they were called Tarocchi or the singular Tarocco.
(She drops some and gasps.)
SON: Poor Mother. You get so carried away.
(She picks them up.)
MOTHER: What do I do with this one? It doesn't have a number.
SON: Give them to me.
(He checks them.)
SON: Two, four, three, this is one.
MOTHER: Where does it say one?
(He holds it up.)
SON: There's just one Sword, isn't there?
MOTHER: Piss!
SON: Don't say that. That's disgusting.
(He places the cards in the proper sequence.)
SON: Tell me more about the new company that's taken over the hospital.
(She takes off her glasses.)
MOTHER: They don't care that Medical Records has always been the most efficient department at the hospital. They're pressuring me and all of the other department heads to quit. How is it our fault that the hospital was mismanaged at the highest level?
SON: How many department heads are left?
MOTHER: Well . . . there's Frida left. And Jan in P.R. And Barbara, and poor Ed – well, you know, he's probably forty-nine. He's the one –
SON: Younger than you!
MOTHER: He's got this horrible disease.
SON: What disease? Hodgkin's disease?
MOTHER: And a family to support. Yeah, he's so worried. No, not Hodgkin's – malignant melanoma. That's just incidental to them. Just another reason why they want to get rid of him.
SON: And I remember what happened to that janitor you told me about.
MOTHER: I feel sorry for him too. The sisters had been good to him. You see, he's mentally retarded. The sisters told him that as long as they were there he'd always have a job. Well you know what happened. The new company heads want to promote all the secondaries and pay them less money.
SON: Tell me again what happened last week when that woman came in and started accusing you of things. Michelle. Mitch, I think you call her.
MOTHER: The first day she came in was over a week ago and even then she turned on me. I was down having a meeting with a new company officer and she comes walking in and I was answering questions. It was my first meeting with this man, and she jumps in and says why don't you do this? Why didn't you do that? And then he comes back later and he says that what I'm doing is obsolete and why don't you do it this way. This is the system we want. And I told him that wasn't what I had been told –
SON: By your previous bosses.
MOTHER: (a scream) Yes!
(He separates the Queen of Swords from the rest. After finishing with the Swords, he begins placing each of the other suits of cards in the correct order.)
SON: So what did Mitch say after that?
MOTHER: What could she say? She's there for a reason. We all know why she's there. Her job is to try to drive the department heads that are left to quit so the company won't have to pay them full severance pay.
(MOTHER pauses as she gets up with her empty glass and then heads for the refrigerator. She walks with an obvious limp.)
MOTHER: I've had to fight with Mitch constantly. Tooth and nail. We've only been on this new system a week and a half. One time she found out that the bills weren't being dropped. We don't print them. All we do is put the information into the computer. It wasn't our fault that the bills weren't being dropped. Accounting was supposed to come and drop the bills.
(She opens the refrigerator, fills her glass and then closes the refrigerator.)
SON: Did you tell her that?
MOTHER: She loved having an excuse to barge into my office again and begin screaming at me, saying "I hear you haven't been doing your job."
(She sits down again.)
MOTHER: I was so mad that I just started to cry. I didn't know what to say. I mean it was so unfair. I had been busting my buns to make the changeover go smoothly. I wanted to tell her to drop dead but I was too mad to talk to her. I just ran for the ladies room. It was so humiliating.
(She is becoming more distressed.)
MOTHER: It was a whole new system for all of us and we were given no instructions. Nobody knew a thing. Anyway, she knew how difficult it was all and, still, it was a well-run department. That was the first thing we always did. Get our bills out. Even with the nuns. And then, to have her come in there and start screaming like that. I was going to leave when she did that. But then Joan made me come out of the ladies room and told me not to leave. She said I wouldn't qualify for unemployment insurance if I did that.
SON: Did this ladies room episode happen the Friday you came home early?
MOTHER: No, that was the day before. Then on Friday I told the new Controller that I had to leave at noon on personal business. He didn't say right away that I couldn't go. Why didn't he say right away that I couldn't go? I imagine after our talk he discussed it with Mitch because that's the way they operate. The next thing I know Pat's in my office bringing the message that if I left at noon I should be prepared to suffer the consequences.
SON: Personal business? So why did you leave early?
MOTHER: Because if they're going to fire me, they might as well go and do it now and get it over with, so I can get on with my life.
(pause)
MOTHER: Don't you worry.
SON: I'm not worried.
MOTHER: I know I can get another job. I want money. Money money money. I'll never be like your father. I could never sit home all day watching TV. My brain needs more stimulation than that. I am a woman of action. I was one of the first of the new breed of career women. I didn't have any choice. I had to work because your father refused to.
SON: If you're fired, what about the other people in the department? What will they do without you?
MOTHER: I'm sure they'll get somebody in there who does just as well as I did.
SON: They won't get paid as much either.
MOTHER: True. They will have somebody in there, one of those smart asses just out of school who don't know their dingalings from their ding-dongs.
(a beat)
At least after they fire me maybe I'll be able to get a good night's sleep again.
SON: You can't sleep?
MOTHER: I go to sleep early and then I wake up around midnight and from then on all I can do is think of what I can do. Things drift through my mind.
SON: What I try to do in life is not to always be caught up in my exterior reality and not lose sight of my internal reality. I try not to worry about everything. You've always reacted emotionally to things first instead of intellectually.
MOTHER: So much has happened so quickly at the hospital that it makes my head spin.
SON: I still don't understand why you left early on Friday.
MOTHER: I told you. I told him I was leaving early because I wanted him to threaten me with being fired. I wanted to see if they expected me to be a slave who always says yes master, yes master, yes master.
SON: Well you found out.
MOTHER: If I have to do that, I'll do that for somebody. Only I won't do it for this corporation. Certainly not for that Mitch. Do you know what we call her? Mitch the bitch. I think it will be on Monday that I get my pink slip. They would have done it last Friday, I think, if I hadn't left early. They'll have to give me all the vacation pay I have coming.
SON: How much vacation pay do you have coming?
MOTHER: Five months.
SON: Great.
MOTHER: And two weeks severance pay.
SON: That's a lot of money.
MOTHER: It is not.
SON: How long would that last you if you're unemployed?
MOTHER: A while but I would never touch my money in the bank. My IRA's already netted me three hundred and forty-five dollars and thirty-two cents. I will not touch my savings. Even if I have to go to Bullocks and get a job down there, which I know I won't have to do. There are plenty of hospitals around. I think older women are more reliable than kids straight out of college. Young girls meet men, have babies, want to improve their circumstances constantly.
SON: Why didn't you do those things?
MOTHER: Are you kidding? You mean again? After the divorce? It wasn't that I gave up on men. I just didn't want to go through it all over again. I had enough to worry about just taking care of you kids.
SON: Well shall we begin?
(He keeps the stack of the Major Arcana separate from the other cards, placing each suit of Minor Arcana cards on top of one another without any shuffling.
He removes one of the cards and sets it at the edge of the table.)
MOTHER: I guess I can forget about watching the news and you can forget about "The Honeymooners."
SON: It's not on Sunday, anyway. I don't know why you watch the news all the time.
MOTHER: You never know when there's going to be another meltdown or something and I was hoping they would rerun the story about the angry squirrel.
SON: Did you say squirrel?
MOTHER: Yeah, on the six o'clock news they told you about this insane squirrel over in the Hollywood Hills. The squirrel ran up the back of a woman's dress and bit her on the neck. "I'm still sore," she said, "and I'm not the only one who's been bitten."”
(pause)
MOTHER: This squirrel has been terrorizing their neighborhood. The woman told the reporter that she had called the police and animal control but the authorities were downplaying the problem.
SON: They always do.
MOTHER: People living on the woman's block ran away whenever they saw the squirrel.
SON: So what happened?
MOTHER: Somebody from Animal Control shot it out of a tree with some chloroform.
(SON reacts with surprise.)
MOTHER: He took the squirrel away. Either it died in the fall or is under observation. The TV reporter also interviewed the man from animal control and he said he wanted to point out that the squirrel didn't have rabies. He said that it would be far more likely for a meteor to fall on our heads right now than for the squirrel to have had rabies.
SON: Really?
MOTHER: Who knows? He also explained that this is the time of the year when squirrels are protecting their young. Apparently, there have been other reports of squirrel attacks over the years and they all happened in the spring.
SON: If that story comes on again, let me know. Do they show footage of the squirrel?
MOTHER: You don't really get to see it. They flash on these black and white front and profile shots like the kind they take of somebody in jail. They're very grainy. It looks just like an ordinary squirrel.
SON: It's just as well. I don't like watching the news. There are so many terrible things that happen in the world. I always get depressed when I watch the news. They never show good things.
MOTHER: I know what you mean. I had to turn the TV off last week when they were reporting about what happened to that little girl who was missing.
SON: Was she dead?
MOTHER: Of course! And she had been molested, they said, which means she had been raped. And tortured.
SON: Spare me the details.
MOTHER: Can you believe it? I mean this was a five or six-year-old little girl.
SON: Are we going to get started or not?
MOTHER: I'm ready when you are.
SON: Once again you can put aside all the sadness, horror and pettiness that eats away at your day-to-day life and catch a glimpse of the larger scheme of things.
MOTHER: Amen. But I hope there won't be any . . . errors.
SON: There can be an interpretation that is incorrect.
MOTHER: There's a card reader who also reads palms over on Lake Avenue. I bet she doesn't make mistakes. She's within walking distance.
SON: Not with your gout.
MOTHER: Slap! Don't start in. Stop jawwing at me.
SON: You never listen to anything I say, anyway.
(MOTHER notices the card separated from the others that is face-up on the table.)
MOTHER: What does this card mean?
(She holds it up to get a better look at it.)
SON: That's you. I selected a card that represents you as the Questioner. The Queen of Swords.
(He takes the card from her and places it at the center of the space between them on the table.)
MOTHER: I don't think that's fair. I think I should be able to choose my own card. Maybe I want to be King.
SON: All women over the age of thirty are Queens. Don't you want to be a queen?
MOTHER: I thought all men under thirty were Queens.
SON: Stop it. Only you would make a joke like that.
MOTHER: Well I don't understand why I have to be the Queen of Swords. I would like to know why you as the Preceptor – why did you pick this card for me instead of another Queen?
SON: Because it is the appropriate card. For example, the Queen of Wands is a dark countrywoman. You're not a dark countrywoman. I'll read you what the Queen of Swords represents.
(He flips through pages of the Gray paperback.)
SON: Here she is.
(reading from the book)
SON: "Queen of Swords. On a high throne, looking into a clouded sky, sits a queen with a raised sword in her left hand. This suggests, 'Let those who approach who dare!' Her crown and the base of her throne are decorated with the butterflies of the soul, and just under the arm of the throne we find a sylph, the elemental of the air. The queen's face is chastened through suffering.
"Choose this card for a brown-haired, brown-eyed woman.
"Divinatory meaning: A subtle, keen, and quick-witted woman who may represent a widow or one who is unable to bear children. Perhaps she is mourning for those she loves who are far away from her.
"This card may mean widowhood, mourning, privation. Kindness but also firmness. Keen observation. Gracefulness; fondness for dancing."
MOTHER: What about the other queens.
SON: This part of it isn't that big of deal.
MOTHER: Bullshit. I'll pick my own.
SON: You should trust me. By the way, the Tarot card reader can be called the Diviner.
MOTHER: Pfffffffff!
SON: Okay, listen to this.
(He chooses the Waite paperback with a shorter description.)
SON: (reading) "Pentacles. Queen. The face suggests that of a dark woman whose qualities might be summed up in the idea of greatness of soul; she has also the serious cast of intelligence; she contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein. Divinatory meanings: Opulence, generosity, magnificence, security, liberty.”
(studying her reaction)
SON: This card definitely doesn't relate to you.
MOTHER: Okay, so what's the next one?
SON: Then there's the Queen of Wands. The dark countrywoman.
(He turns to the right page and skims the definition.)
SON: (reading) "Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality corresponds to that of the King but –"
MOTHER: I don't need any King. Forget that one.
SON: The only other Queen is that of . . . let's see now. Wands, Pentacles and of course Swords. The last Queen is that of Cups.
(He turns to the page.)
MOTHER: You mean there are only four queens?
SON: Just like with regular playing cards. Here she is.
(reading after turning to the right page)
"Beautiful, fair, dreamy — as one who sees visions in a cup. This is, however, only one of her aspects; she sees, but she also acts, and her activity feeds her dream. Divinatory meanings: Good, fair woman; honest, devoted woman, who will do service to the Querent; loving intelligence, and hence the gift of vision; success, happiness, pleasure; also wisdom, virtue; a perfect spouse and a good mother."
MOTHER: Hey, that's me.
SON: "Beautiful, fair, dreamy?"
MOTHER: Yes!
SON: "As one who sees visions in a cup?"
MOTHER: Definitely. Of course.
SON: What do you see in a cup? You only see beer in a cup.
MOTHER: Put it down.
SON: The Diviner decides what card is appropriate.
MOTHER: I should choose a card for you.
SON: That isn't necessary for the Diviner. Just the Questioner.
(He places the Queen of Swords card back into its place in the deck and removes the Queen of Cups card and puts it on the table.)
SON: I'll let the Queen of Cups represent you this time but you're just being silly and not being cooperative.
(pause)
Now you're supposed to begin concentrating on the questions you want answered. You can close your eyes if it will help.
MOTHER: You know what I want to learn. What will happen on Monday.
SON: You seem to have indicated that you already know that. I don't think you should have left on Friday. Especially when they told you not to.
MOTHER: I don't care. I wasn't going to let them get away with those Gestapo tactics. I won't be treated that way.
SON: When you work for a profit-making company, you can't have much of an ego. Forget about the way things used to be when the nuns were there.
MOTHER: My department is still the best-run department in the hospital.
SON: Consider it from the point of view of the new administrators. They think about things like how often you're sick and how obstinate a staff member can be.
(MOTHER purses her lip. She doesn't want to think about the new administration.)
SON: This has been a bad year for you. I remember how active you used to be. You went bowling. You would go to the beauty parlor, have lunch with the girls, go to movies with the girls but now that your gout is so bad what you mostly do is watch television when you're home. Game shows and the prime time soap operas.
MOTHER: All you do is stay in your room and read so I don't know why you should be complaining that I don't go out enough. Working at that hellhole, I don't have energy for anything else. I didn't come here to argue.
SON: I'm not trying to argue. Now concentrate as you shuffle the cards.
(He begins to hand them to her but then has an idea and takes them away before she can grasp them.)
SON: I've been thinking. Tonight I'll do a reading from just the Allegory cards, the Major Arcana, to place the whole of your life in perspective instead of just what will happen next week. The word Arcana comes from the Latin word meaning secret.
(He separates the Major Arcana cards from the rest and holds them up.)
SON: Sometimes the Major Arcana cards are also referred to as 'Enigmas.'
MOTHER: What are the number cards called?
SON: They're called the Minor Arcana.
MOTHER: Where do the Queens fit in?
SON: Into the Minor Arcana with the number cards along with the Kings and Pages and Knights but all of these aren't as significant as the Allegory cards. Tonight we'll just use the Major Arcana cards and see what the Tarot . . . knows about you.
MOTHER: I'm afraid of the Death card turning up. It must increase the chances of the Death card appearing.
SON: The Death card doesn't necessarily signify Death.
(He puts the Minor Arcana cards into the box and places the Major Arcana cards on the table in front of her.)
MOTHER: I hope you know what you're doing.
SON: I've been researching Tarot cards for a while.
MOTHER: You always bring out those two cheap paperbacks.
SON: Just for convenience. I haven't memorized the meanings of all the cards and like life the meanings change along with man's knowledge, perceptions and civilization. It is the sequence that can make a meaning become evident. The Major Arcana are the most significant cards of the Tarot. They show the ever-changing physical and spiritual forces influencing man. They're like a catalog of life's major events and possibilities. The Reader can elect to use only the Major Arcana cards in a reading if he wants to.
MOTHER: That's what I am?
SON: Of course not. You're the Questioner, remember. The Reader is another name for the Diviner, which is the word I prefer. Another name for you, the Questioner, is the Querent.
(a beat)
SON: Now concentrate hard as you shuffle the cards and say to yourself that you want to see the secrets of your life revealed.
MOTHER: I don't know if I want to.
(pause)
MOTHER: Should I say it out loud?
SON: If that will help you. It might make it easier for you to concentrate. Especially after drinking too much beer again.
MOTHER: Shusssh.
(She shuffles the cards slowly.)
MOTHER: Show me my future. I want to find out what's going to happen to me.
SON: Close your eyes and concentrate about the cards showing you important aspects of your life, past present and future.
MOTHER: All I care about is the future.
SON: That's ridiculous. The future is built upon the past and the present.
(Her eyes closed, MOTHER almost drops some cards while she shuffles. This causing her to open her eyes again.)
MOTHER: Oops.
SON: Be careful. Some people think if cards get turned upside down, it reverses their meaning and can get very complicated —
MOTHER: Christ!
SON: — although I personally don't see it that way. I consider the different meanings as polarities.
(pause)
SON: It's also a good idea to ask that only the highest forces should surround us.
MOTHER: What does that mean?
SON: It's something I remember reading in one of the books.
MOTHER: Well you just said it so I guess I don't have to.
(Finished shuffling, she puts down the small stack of Major Arcana cards.)
MOTHER: There. I'm ready.
(She takes a sip from her glass.)
SON: Remember that the cards never lie.
MOTHER: No, but it seems they can be misinterpreted. Where did they come from?
SON: Nobody knows for sure. It's a mystery.
MOTHER: If nobody knows where they come from, how do they know they're really magic?
SON: They've been popular for centuries. They were prominent in Europe as far back as the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Century. An Eighteenth Century French writer claimed the Tarot cards could be the lost Egyptian Book of Thoth. It seems that we have generations of Gypsy fortune tellers to thank for preserving the meanings of the cards or perhaps some other initiates were involved. Thoth was the Egyptian god of wisdom and the occult.
MOTHER: I've always loved anything having to do with Egypt. Remember when we saw the King Tut exhibit at the museum?
SON: The only thing that can be said for certain about the cards is that there must be some kind of what you call magic about them to still be around after so many centuries.
MOTHER: People really do take them seriously?
SON: Not everyone but many do.
MOTHER: (mystified) How could the cards work?
SON: Have you ever heard the expression "Collective Unconscious"? When you were shuffling the cards, it was your subconscious mind that was leading you. The cards are fatalistic. It's all according to the realization that everything in nature is interrelated and nothing is insignificant.
MOTHER: Like when we go to a Chinese restaurant and get a fortune inside the cookie?
SON: In some way.
MOTHER: I don't remember what my last fortune cookie said.
SON: (irked) I remember mine. It said "Someone you've been hoping to meet you never will." These types of experiences are perhaps signs to us of our place in the cosmos and a revelation of how the pattern of one's life connects with all the other patterns of people's lives.
MOTHER: But do Tarot cards and fortune cookies reveal the future or just one of many different possible futures?
SON: What a dumb question. You remind me of Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol."
MOTHER: What's so dumb about it?
SON: The Tarot suggests that the future is already known.
(a beat)
SON: By the 'Collective Unconscious' and from that perspective there are no variables.
MOTHER: Why not. What about the past? I've seen TV shows where people go back in time to change things.
SON: You're talking about commercial popular diversion for the masses.
MOTHER: But it makes you think?
SON: I don't believe in time being variable. You certainly can't travel through it. Perhaps these cards could help one to change his or her own future. By heeding a warning, one might change one's behavior in relation to the knowledge that is being sought. Look at time also as a philosophical chronology. In terms of human existence there is only and always a 'right now.'
MOTHER: Even when it sounds like you're being practical, I don't know if you are. Are the cards or are they not supernatural?
SON: What does the expression 'supernatural' mean? It combines 'super' with 'nature.' That means 'beyond nature.' Surpassing it. Yet everything is part of nature beyond our ability to understand. There are phenomena beyond our understanding. Like ESP and ghosts and UFOs and prophecy. There are strange accounts of unusual people who have access to knowledge of the future. Have you ever heard of Nostradamus, Mother Shipton or Edgar Cayce?
MOTHER: Nostradamus I have.
SON: The Tarot cards help the Diviner to intuitively interpret the cards. Human beings are supposed to be smarter than the other animals but when it comes to important stuff like life after death, we don't know a thing. There is a vast esoteric horde of esoteric literature that goes ignored because — because why?
MOTHER: Sometimes people get lucky when they make predictions. You can predict just about anything and in this crazy world it will happen sooner or later. I heard about a man who predicted an airplane crash by simply making a chart of the timespans in-between disasters.
SON: What about hunches? Premonitions. You hear those kinds of stories all the time? Haven't you ever had a feeling that something bad was going to happen?
MOTHER: You know that I have! It was that time when you boys wanted to see that horror movie "Tales From The Crypt" and dragged me to the theatre to see it with you. While watching the movie I had the oddest feeling. And that was the night that the father of your best friend when you were in elementary school died. That was a premonition!
(pause)
MOTHER: Sometimes when people predict things it's just a matter of guessing right. They get lucky. Just like when you gamble.
SON: How ironic that so many people spend their time playing Poker and Blackjack instead of thinking about Tarot cards.
MOTHER: What about crystal balls? Do you think crystal balls can show somebody the future?
SON: Looking into a crystal ball stimulates the mind. Similarly a Tarot card reader is stimulated by thinking about the meanings and symbols of the cards. We can even enter into a light trance state and delve into that strange abyss that we call the subconscious mind. But I must admit when I've looked into a crystal ball I couldn't see anything unusual.
MOTHER: The first day she came in was over a week ago and even then she turned on me. I was down having a meeting with a new company officer and she comes walking in and I was answering questions. It was my first meeting with this man, and she jumps in and says why don't you do this? Why didn't you do that? And then he comes back later and he says that what I'm doing is obsolete and why don't you do it this way. This is the system we want. And I told him that wasn't what I had been told –
SON: By your previous bosses.
MOTHER: (a scream) Yes!
(He separates the Queen of Swords from the rest. After finishing with the Swords, he begins placing each of the other suits of cards in the correct order.)
SON: So what did Mitch say after that?
MOTHER: What could she say? She's there for a reason. We all know why she's there. Her job is to try to drive the department heads that are left to quit so the company won't have to pay them full severance pay.
(MOTHER pauses as she gets up with her empty glass and then heads for the refrigerator. She walks with an obvious limp.)
MOTHER: I've had to fight with Mitch constantly. Tooth and nail. We've only been on this new system a week and a half. One time she found out that the bills weren't being dropped. We don't print them. All we do is put the information into the computer. It wasn't our fault that the bills weren't being dropped. Accounting was supposed to come and drop the bills.
(She opens the refrigerator, fills her glass and then closes the refrigerator.)
SON: Did you tell her that?
MOTHER: She loved having an excuse to barge into my office again and begin screaming at me, saying "I hear you haven't been doing your job."
(She sits down again.)
MOTHER: I was so mad that I just started to cry. I didn't know what to say. I mean it was so unfair. I had been busting my buns to make the changeover go smoothly. I wanted to tell her to drop dead but I was too mad to talk to her. I just ran for the ladies room. It was so humiliating.
(She is becoming more distressed.)
MOTHER: It was a whole new system for all of us and we were given no instructions. Nobody knew a thing. Anyway, she knew how difficult it was all and, still, it was a well-run department. That was the first thing we always did. Get our bills out. Even with the nuns. And then, to have her come in there and start screaming like that. I was going to leave when she did that. But then Joan made me come out of the ladies room and told me not to leave. She said I wouldn't qualify for unemployment insurance if I did that.
SON: Did this ladies room episode happen the Friday you came home early?
MOTHER: No, that was the day before. Then on Friday I told the new Controller that I had to leave at noon on personal business. He didn't say right away that I couldn't go. Why didn't he say right away that I couldn't go? I imagine after our talk he discussed it with Mitch because that's the way they operate. The next thing I know Pat's in my office bringing the message that if I left at noon I should be prepared to suffer the consequences.
SON: Personal business? So why did you leave early?
MOTHER: Because if they're going to fire me, they might as well go and do it now and get it over with, so I can get on with my life.
(pause)
MOTHER: Don't you worry.
SON: I'm not worried.
MOTHER: I know I can get another job. I want money. Money money money. I'll never be like your father. I could never sit home all day watching TV. My brain needs more stimulation than that. I am a woman of action. I was one of the first of the new breed of career women. I didn't have any choice. I had to work because your father refused to.
SON: If you're fired, what about the other people in the department? What will they do without you?
MOTHER: I'm sure they'll get somebody in there who does just as well as I did.
SON: They won't get paid as much either.
MOTHER: True. They will have somebody in there, one of those smart asses just out of school who don't know their dingalings from their ding-dongs.
(a beat)
At least after they fire me maybe I'll be able to get a good night's sleep again.
SON: You can't sleep?
MOTHER: I go to sleep early and then I wake up around midnight and from then on all I can do is think of what I can do. Things drift through my mind.
SON: What I try to do in life is not to always be caught up in my exterior reality and not lose sight of my internal reality. I try not to worry about everything. You've always reacted emotionally to things first instead of intellectually.
MOTHER: So much has happened so quickly at the hospital that it makes my head spin.
SON: I still don't understand why you left early on Friday.
MOTHER: I told you. I told him I was leaving early because I wanted him to threaten me with being fired. I wanted to see if they expected me to be a slave who always says yes master, yes master, yes master.
SON: Well you found out.
MOTHER: If I have to do that, I'll do that for somebody. Only I won't do it for this corporation. Certainly not for that Mitch. Do you know what we call her? Mitch the bitch. I think it will be on Monday that I get my pink slip. They would have done it last Friday, I think, if I hadn't left early. They'll have to give me all the vacation pay I have coming.
SON: How much vacation pay do you have coming?
MOTHER: Five months.
SON: Great.
MOTHER: And two weeks severance pay.
SON: That's a lot of money.
MOTHER: It is not.
SON: How long would that last you if you're unemployed?
MOTHER: A while but I would never touch my money in the bank. My IRA's already netted me three hundred and forty-five dollars and thirty-two cents. I will not touch my savings. Even if I have to go to Bullocks and get a job down there, which I know I won't have to do. There are plenty of hospitals around. I think older women are more reliable than kids straight out of college. Young girls meet men, have babies, want to improve their circumstances constantly.
SON: Why didn't you do those things?
MOTHER: Are you kidding? You mean again? After the divorce? It wasn't that I gave up on men. I just didn't want to go through it all over again. I had enough to worry about just taking care of you kids.
SON: Well shall we begin?
(He keeps the stack of the Major Arcana separate from the other cards, placing each suit of Minor Arcana cards on top of one another without any shuffling.
He removes one of the cards and sets it at the edge of the table.)
MOTHER: I guess I can forget about watching the news and you can forget about "The Honeymooners."
SON: It's not on Sunday, anyway. I don't know why you watch the news all the time.
MOTHER: You never know when there's going to be another meltdown or something and I was hoping they would rerun the story about the angry squirrel.
SON: Did you say squirrel?
MOTHER: Yeah, on the six o'clock news they told you about this insane squirrel over in the Hollywood Hills. The squirrel ran up the back of a woman's dress and bit her on the neck. "I'm still sore," she said, "and I'm not the only one who's been bitten."”
(pause)
MOTHER: This squirrel has been terrorizing their neighborhood. The woman told the reporter that she had called the police and animal control but the authorities were downplaying the problem.
SON: They always do.
MOTHER: People living on the woman's block ran away whenever they saw the squirrel.
SON: So what happened?
MOTHER: Somebody from Animal Control shot it out of a tree with some chloroform.
(SON reacts with surprise.)
MOTHER: He took the squirrel away. Either it died in the fall or is under observation. The TV reporter also interviewed the man from animal control and he said he wanted to point out that the squirrel didn't have rabies. He said that it would be far more likely for a meteor to fall on our heads right now than for the squirrel to have had rabies.
SON: Really?
MOTHER: Who knows? He also explained that this is the time of the year when squirrels are protecting their young. Apparently, there have been other reports of squirrel attacks over the years and they all happened in the spring.
SON: If that story comes on again, let me know. Do they show footage of the squirrel?
MOTHER: You don't really get to see it. They flash on these black and white front and profile shots like the kind they take of somebody in jail. They're very grainy. It looks just like an ordinary squirrel.
SON: It's just as well. I don't like watching the news. There are so many terrible things that happen in the world. I always get depressed when I watch the news. They never show good things.
MOTHER: I know what you mean. I had to turn the TV off last week when they were reporting about what happened to that little girl who was missing.
SON: Was she dead?
MOTHER: Of course! And she had been molested, they said, which means she had been raped. And tortured.
SON: Spare me the details.
MOTHER: Can you believe it? I mean this was a five or six-year-old little girl.
SON: Are we going to get started or not?
MOTHER: I'm ready when you are.
SON: Once again you can put aside all the sadness, horror and pettiness that eats away at your day-to-day life and catch a glimpse of the larger scheme of things.
MOTHER: Amen. But I hope there won't be any . . . errors.
SON: There can be an interpretation that is incorrect.
MOTHER: There's a card reader who also reads palms over on Lake Avenue. I bet she doesn't make mistakes. She's within walking distance.
SON: Not with your gout.
MOTHER: Slap! Don't start in. Stop jawwing at me.
SON: You never listen to anything I say, anyway.
(MOTHER notices the card separated from the others that is face-up on the table.)
MOTHER: What does this card mean?
(She holds it up to get a better look at it.)
SON: That's you. I selected a card that represents you as the Questioner. The Queen of Swords.
(He takes the card from her and places it at the center of the space between them on the table.)
MOTHER: I don't think that's fair. I think I should be able to choose my own card. Maybe I want to be King.
SON: All women over the age of thirty are Queens. Don't you want to be a queen?
MOTHER: I thought all men under thirty were Queens.
SON: Stop it. Only you would make a joke like that.
MOTHER: Well I don't understand why I have to be the Queen of Swords. I would like to know why you as the Preceptor – why did you pick this card for me instead of another Queen?
SON: Because it is the appropriate card. For example, the Queen of Wands is a dark countrywoman. You're not a dark countrywoman. I'll read you what the Queen of Swords represents.
(He flips through pages of the Gray paperback.)
SON: Here she is.
(reading from the book)
SON: "Queen of Swords. On a high throne, looking into a clouded sky, sits a queen with a raised sword in her left hand. This suggests, 'Let those who approach who dare!' Her crown and the base of her throne are decorated with the butterflies of the soul, and just under the arm of the throne we find a sylph, the elemental of the air. The queen's face is chastened through suffering.
"Choose this card for a brown-haired, brown-eyed woman.
"Divinatory meaning: A subtle, keen, and quick-witted woman who may represent a widow or one who is unable to bear children. Perhaps she is mourning for those she loves who are far away from her.
"This card may mean widowhood, mourning, privation. Kindness but also firmness. Keen observation. Gracefulness; fondness for dancing."
MOTHER: What about the other queens.
SON: This part of it isn't that big of deal.
MOTHER: Bullshit. I'll pick my own.
SON: You should trust me. By the way, the Tarot card reader can be called the Diviner.
MOTHER: Pfffffffff!
SON: Okay, listen to this.
(He chooses the Waite paperback with a shorter description.)
SON: (reading) "Pentacles. Queen. The face suggests that of a dark woman whose qualities might be summed up in the idea of greatness of soul; she has also the serious cast of intelligence; she contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein. Divinatory meanings: Opulence, generosity, magnificence, security, liberty.”
(studying her reaction)
SON: This card definitely doesn't relate to you.
MOTHER: Okay, so what's the next one?
SON: Then there's the Queen of Wands. The dark countrywoman.
(He turns to the right page and skims the definition.)
SON: (reading) "Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality corresponds to that of the King but –"
MOTHER: I don't need any King. Forget that one.
SON: The only other Queen is that of . . . let's see now. Wands, Pentacles and of course Swords. The last Queen is that of Cups.
(He turns to the page.)
MOTHER: You mean there are only four queens?
SON: Just like with regular playing cards. Here she is.
(reading after turning to the right page)
"Beautiful, fair, dreamy — as one who sees visions in a cup. This is, however, only one of her aspects; she sees, but she also acts, and her activity feeds her dream. Divinatory meanings: Good, fair woman; honest, devoted woman, who will do service to the Querent; loving intelligence, and hence the gift of vision; success, happiness, pleasure; also wisdom, virtue; a perfect spouse and a good mother."
MOTHER: Hey, that's me.
SON: "Beautiful, fair, dreamy?"
MOTHER: Yes!
SON: "As one who sees visions in a cup?"
MOTHER: Definitely. Of course.
SON: What do you see in a cup? You only see beer in a cup.
MOTHER: Put it down.
SON: The Diviner decides what card is appropriate.
MOTHER: I should choose a card for you.
SON: That isn't necessary for the Diviner. Just the Questioner.
(He places the Queen of Swords card back into its place in the deck and removes the Queen of Cups card and puts it on the table.)
SON: I'll let the Queen of Cups represent you this time but you're just being silly and not being cooperative.
(pause)
Now you're supposed to begin concentrating on the questions you want answered. You can close your eyes if it will help.
MOTHER: You know what I want to learn. What will happen on Monday.
SON: You seem to have indicated that you already know that. I don't think you should have left on Friday. Especially when they told you not to.
MOTHER: I don't care. I wasn't going to let them get away with those Gestapo tactics. I won't be treated that way.
SON: When you work for a profit-making company, you can't have much of an ego. Forget about the way things used to be when the nuns were there.
MOTHER: My department is still the best-run department in the hospital.
SON: Consider it from the point of view of the new administrators. They think about things like how often you're sick and how obstinate a staff member can be.
(MOTHER purses her lip. She doesn't want to think about the new administration.)
SON: This has been a bad year for you. I remember how active you used to be. You went bowling. You would go to the beauty parlor, have lunch with the girls, go to movies with the girls but now that your gout is so bad what you mostly do is watch television when you're home. Game shows and the prime time soap operas.
MOTHER: All you do is stay in your room and read so I don't know why you should be complaining that I don't go out enough. Working at that hellhole, I don't have energy for anything else. I didn't come here to argue.
SON: I'm not trying to argue. Now concentrate as you shuffle the cards.
(He begins to hand them to her but then has an idea and takes them away before she can grasp them.)
SON: I've been thinking. Tonight I'll do a reading from just the Allegory cards, the Major Arcana, to place the whole of your life in perspective instead of just what will happen next week. The word Arcana comes from the Latin word meaning secret.
(He separates the Major Arcana cards from the rest and holds them up.)
SON: Sometimes the Major Arcana cards are also referred to as 'Enigmas.'
MOTHER: What are the number cards called?
SON: They're called the Minor Arcana.
MOTHER: Where do the Queens fit in?
SON: Into the Minor Arcana with the number cards along with the Kings and Pages and Knights but all of these aren't as significant as the Allegory cards. Tonight we'll just use the Major Arcana cards and see what the Tarot . . . knows about you.
MOTHER: I'm afraid of the Death card turning up. It must increase the chances of the Death card appearing.
SON: The Death card doesn't necessarily signify Death.
(He puts the Minor Arcana cards into the box and places the Major Arcana cards on the table in front of her.)
MOTHER: I hope you know what you're doing.
SON: I've been researching Tarot cards for a while.
MOTHER: You always bring out those two cheap paperbacks.
SON: Just for convenience. I haven't memorized the meanings of all the cards and like life the meanings change along with man's knowledge, perceptions and civilization. It is the sequence that can make a meaning become evident. The Major Arcana are the most significant cards of the Tarot. They show the ever-changing physical and spiritual forces influencing man. They're like a catalog of life's major events and possibilities. The Reader can elect to use only the Major Arcana cards in a reading if he wants to.
MOTHER: That's what I am?
SON: Of course not. You're the Questioner, remember. The Reader is another name for the Diviner, which is the word I prefer. Another name for you, the Questioner, is the Querent.
(a beat)
SON: Now concentrate hard as you shuffle the cards and say to yourself that you want to see the secrets of your life revealed.
MOTHER: I don't know if I want to.
(pause)
MOTHER: Should I say it out loud?
SON: If that will help you. It might make it easier for you to concentrate. Especially after drinking too much beer again.
MOTHER: Shusssh.
(She shuffles the cards slowly.)
MOTHER: Show me my future. I want to find out what's going to happen to me.
SON: Close your eyes and concentrate about the cards showing you important aspects of your life, past present and future.
MOTHER: All I care about is the future.
SON: That's ridiculous. The future is built upon the past and the present.
(Her eyes closed, MOTHER almost drops some cards while she shuffles. This causing her to open her eyes again.)
MOTHER: Oops.
SON: Be careful. Some people think if cards get turned upside down, it reverses their meaning and can get very complicated —
MOTHER: Christ!
SON: — although I personally don't see it that way. I consider the different meanings as polarities.
(pause)
SON: It's also a good idea to ask that only the highest forces should surround us.
MOTHER: What does that mean?
SON: It's something I remember reading in one of the books.
MOTHER: Well you just said it so I guess I don't have to.
(Finished shuffling, she puts down the small stack of Major Arcana cards.)
MOTHER: There. I'm ready.
(She takes a sip from her glass.)
SON: Remember that the cards never lie.
MOTHER: No, but it seems they can be misinterpreted. Where did they come from?
SON: Nobody knows for sure. It's a mystery.
MOTHER: If nobody knows where they come from, how do they know they're really magic?
SON: They've been popular for centuries. They were prominent in Europe as far back as the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Century. An Eighteenth Century French writer claimed the Tarot cards could be the lost Egyptian Book of Thoth. It seems that we have generations of Gypsy fortune tellers to thank for preserving the meanings of the cards or perhaps some other initiates were involved. Thoth was the Egyptian god of wisdom and the occult.
MOTHER: I've always loved anything having to do with Egypt. Remember when we saw the King Tut exhibit at the museum?
SON: The only thing that can be said for certain about the cards is that there must be some kind of what you call magic about them to still be around after so many centuries.
MOTHER: People really do take them seriously?
SON: Not everyone but many do.
MOTHER: (mystified) How could the cards work?
SON: Have you ever heard the expression "Collective Unconscious"? When you were shuffling the cards, it was your subconscious mind that was leading you. The cards are fatalistic. It's all according to the realization that everything in nature is interrelated and nothing is insignificant.
MOTHER: Like when we go to a Chinese restaurant and get a fortune inside the cookie?
SON: In some way.
MOTHER: I don't remember what my last fortune cookie said.
SON: (irked) I remember mine. It said "Someone you've been hoping to meet you never will." These types of experiences are perhaps signs to us of our place in the cosmos and a revelation of how the pattern of one's life connects with all the other patterns of people's lives.
MOTHER: But do Tarot cards and fortune cookies reveal the future or just one of many different possible futures?
SON: What a dumb question. You remind me of Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol."
MOTHER: What's so dumb about it?
SON: The Tarot suggests that the future is already known.
(a beat)
SON: By the 'Collective Unconscious' and from that perspective there are no variables.
MOTHER: Why not. What about the past? I've seen TV shows where people go back in time to change things.
SON: You're talking about commercial popular diversion for the masses.
MOTHER: But it makes you think?
SON: I don't believe in time being variable. You certainly can't travel through it. Perhaps these cards could help one to change his or her own future. By heeding a warning, one might change one's behavior in relation to the knowledge that is being sought. Look at time also as a philosophical chronology. In terms of human existence there is only and always a 'right now.'
MOTHER: Even when it sounds like you're being practical, I don't know if you are. Are the cards or are they not supernatural?
SON: What does the expression 'supernatural' mean? It combines 'super' with 'nature.' That means 'beyond nature.' Surpassing it. Yet everything is part of nature beyond our ability to understand. There are phenomena beyond our understanding. Like ESP and ghosts and UFOs and prophecy. There are strange accounts of unusual people who have access to knowledge of the future. Have you ever heard of Nostradamus, Mother Shipton or Edgar Cayce?
MOTHER: Nostradamus I have.
SON: The Tarot cards help the Diviner to intuitively interpret the cards. Human beings are supposed to be smarter than the other animals but when it comes to important stuff like life after death, we don't know a thing. There is a vast esoteric horde of esoteric literature that goes ignored because — because why?
MOTHER: Sometimes people get lucky when they make predictions. You can predict just about anything and in this crazy world it will happen sooner or later. I heard about a man who predicted an airplane crash by simply making a chart of the timespans in-between disasters.
SON: What about hunches? Premonitions. You hear those kinds of stories all the time? Haven't you ever had a feeling that something bad was going to happen?
MOTHER: You know that I have! It was that time when you boys wanted to see that horror movie "Tales From The Crypt" and dragged me to the theatre to see it with you. While watching the movie I had the oddest feeling. And that was the night that the father of your best friend when you were in elementary school died. That was a premonition!
(pause)
MOTHER: Sometimes when people predict things it's just a matter of guessing right. They get lucky. Just like when you gamble.
SON: How ironic that so many people spend their time playing Poker and Blackjack instead of thinking about Tarot cards.
MOTHER: What about crystal balls? Do you think crystal balls can show somebody the future?
SON: Looking into a crystal ball stimulates the mind. Similarly a Tarot card reader is stimulated by thinking about the meanings and symbols of the cards. We can even enter into a light trance state and delve into that strange abyss that we call the subconscious mind. But I must admit when I've looked into a crystal ball I couldn't see anything unusual.
(pause)
MOTHER: Tarot cards might be a good hobby if you could start finding some paying customers.
SON: I wouldn't want to be a professional Tarot Card Reader. That would be too scary when you consider karma.
(MOTHER takes another sip.)
MOTHER: Do you want some Cherry Coke?
SON: Not this late. The caffeine would keep me up too late and I'm working tomorrow morning.
MOTHER: Screw tomorrow. I'm getting you some Cherry Coke.
SON: I don't want any Cherry Coke. I've already brushed and flossed my teeth. I don't want to have to do it again.
MOTHER: Okay, okay.
SON: (vaguely) That's another subject it never does any good to go into.
MOTHER: (emphatically) I'm ready.
SON: Close your eyes and concentrate.
MOTHER: I already did.
SON: Just do it. As I interpret the cards, you should interpret my interpretation because you know more about your own life than I do.
MOTHER: All right. (speaking with her eyes closed) I'll never forget that time when you were just thirteen or fourteen and tried to hold a seance with your brother.
SON: That was the first — and last — time I actually attempted to communicate with spirits.
(She opens her eyes — widely — and continues to talk.)
MOTHER: You've always been interested in the occult. I wonder why.
SON: The earliest thing I can remember is that time when we living in the apartment on Woodlyn Road. I woke up and heard someone calling my name. You and my brother were still asleep. I went through all the rooms but couldn't find anyone. At first I thought a friend from school was somehow playing a joke on me. But it wasn't that.
MOTHER: You and your brother always loved horror movies, comic books and monster magazines.
SON: They were cathartic for me somehow.
MOTHER: One thing led to another I guess.
SON: I mean they're so disproportionately violent and gorier than in real life.
MOTHER: I don't know. Bad things can happen.
SON: It's all an escape from reality. Like gambling during those trips to Vegas.
(pause)
SON: That seance really made me curious about life as well.
MOTHER: What happened then was just a coincidence.
SON: That's what they always say.
(a beat)
SON: That was the only time I've attempted to communicate with spirits. I'd been planning the seance for a while. That night, I took my brother into your bedroom because there was more room on the floor there than in our room. I turned off the lights. I remember lighting the candle. I had a Ouija Board and that glow-in-the-dark skull from Disneyland. All I said was "I call upon the spirits of the dead" and then suddenly all those pebbles struck the window and my brother and I ran out of the room.
MOTHER: They said it was a rare weather condition. A miniature tornado. It ripped the roof off the apartment complex next door.
SON: It wasn't even a windy night. They say that children at the age of puberty have a great deal more psychic energy than usual.
MOTHER: You're still going through puberty.
(He scowls at her.
She laughs and then says — )
MOTHER: The tornado was just a fluke.
SON: But that wasn't my only psychic experience, was it?
MOTHER: (mimicking him) So! You! Say!
SON: I don't think I've ever told you this but once I awoke in the early morning with a feeling — more than a feeling, actually — an awareness of someone or something in the room with me.
MOTHER: It's just your imagination. It has to be. You were having a nightmare.
SON: It wasn't a dream.
MOTHER: Then who was it? A ghost?
SON: I don't know. I tried to turn and face the presence but for some reason I was unable to move at all.
MOTHER: You were too afraid to look?
SON: No, I wanted to see.
MOTHER: Let me know if you start hearing voices.
(realizing)
MOTHER: Doing more than calling your name.
SON: Our conscience is like a voice, isn't it?
MOTHER: There's 'psychic' and then there's 'psychotic.'
SON: We are more than flesh and blood yet we don't understand our own nature. I guess we find out when we die.
MOTHER: I think we just cease to exist. Like going to sleep and never waking up.
SON: The Tarot cards reveal that there is something more happening than the common man has any knowledge of.
(pause)
SON: Ask the cards again what you want to learn.
MOTHER: Tarot cards — wherever you come from — reveal to me my fate. Even if dust be my destiny.
SON: Say — 'And clarify for me my past and the present.'
MOTHER: And clarify for me my past and present.
SON: 'Let me find myself.'
MOTHER: I want to find myself.
SON: 'Who I am beyond the daily trivia. Help me see beyond the fears and regrets, the expectations, hopes and dreams.'
MOTHER: Yes.
(pause)
MOTHER: 'Never victorious, never defeated.' That's what I am. That was the title of a Taylor Caldwell book I read.
SON: Now the Tarot card reading begins.
MOTHER: (jumping up) Just a minute. I have to go to the bathroom first.
SON: (exasperated) There goes my concentration.
MOTHER: You can start concentrating again when I get back.
SON: You were supposed to be concentrating too.
(She goes to her room but pauses.)
MOTHER: Just wait a few minutes.
(SON stands up.)
SON: I guess I'll go to the bathroom too.
(They head for their rooms.
He pauses and goes and picks up the book The Magic Zoo to take with him.
As he goes into his room and closes the door, MOTHER peeks out from the hallway leading to her room. She then hurries, still limping, back to the table.
She peeks at the top card to make certain it isn't the Death card, smiles with a happy satisfaction, and then limps quickly back to her room and adjoining bathroom.)
SON: Now the Tarot card reading begins.
MOTHER: (jumping up) Just a minute. I have to go to the bathroom first.
SON: (exasperated) There goes my concentration.
MOTHER: You can start concentrating again when I get back.
SON: You were supposed to be concentrating too.
(She goes to her room but pauses.)
MOTHER: Just wait a few minutes.
(SON stands up.)
SON: I guess I'll go to the bathroom too.
(They head for their rooms.
He pauses and goes and picks up the book The Magic Zoo to take with him.
As he goes into his room and closes the door, MOTHER peeks out from the hallway leading to her room. She then hurries, still limping, back to the table.
She peeks at the top card to make certain it isn't the Death card, smiles with a happy satisfaction, and then limps quickly back to her room and adjoining bathroom.)
END OF ACT ONE.
(Intermission songs begin with the Tears for Fears song beginning as the house lights come on.
At the conclusion of the Intermission, the lights dim out again.)
ACT II
The dining room is the way it was left. The MOTHER emerges from her room and leans against the wall to take a deep breath.
She whimpers as she steps forward, keeping the weight off the foot with the gout. She breaks into sobbing as she takes another step toward the table.
Her pace is slow, pausing between each step.
The SON enters from his room, not recognizing the MOTHER's distress at first.
He gets a glass of water from the kitchen.
When he is seated, he sees that something is wrong. She is still several steps away from the table.
SON: What's wrong?
MOTHER: I bumped my foot against the bathroom door.
SON: The foot with the gout?
MOTHER: (indignantly) Yes!
(She continues to hobble to the table.
Upon sitting down, she bursts into tears.)
MOTHER: Hand me the tissues.
(The SON gets a box of tissues from the kitchen counter and places it on the table for her.)
SON: Isn't there anything that can be done to help you with that?
MOTHER: Shut up!
SON: Maybe if you stop drinking the beer. It's an alcoholism-related disease.
MOTHER: It is not. Leave me alone.
SON: The swelling is getting worse.
MOTHER: I don't want to talk about it.
SON: Lois at the bookstore says that her husband has gout. Remember — I told you the name of the medicine he takes.
MOTHER: I'm not going to see any doctor.
SON: How can you just let yourself suffer. You work at a hospital.
MOTHER: And I know what happens when those doctors and nurses get a hold of you.
SON: That's the fear talking.
MOTHER: Leave me alone.
SON: You have all the health coverage yet you need glasses and you won't see an optometrist. You've never been to a dentist in your life and now —
MOTHER: Shut up!
SON: You can't just ignore a problem like gout.
MOTHER: Just like you ignore your weight!
[Or acne or whatever — fill in the blank.]
SON: (accustomed to her defense mechanisms) Mother.
MOTHER: You're a fine one to talk.
SON: It isn't the same.
MOTHER: You're right. It isn't the same. I can't help my problem but you can easily help yours.
SON: When you go to the store you never get what I ask for. Like the soda. You know I like the diet soda.
MOTHER: It was on sale.
SON: There are diet ones on sale too. You're always getting the wrong things.
MOTHER: And do I also force you to eat too much? DON'T EAT!
SON: When I talk to you about seeing a doctor, I'm trying to help you.
MOTHER: I don't want your help.
SON: It's upsetting to see you suffer like this. You can't do that to me.
MOTHER: No, you can't do this to me. I'm sick and tired of listening to you. Either you accept the way I am or get out. This is my apartment!
SON: I pay my fair share.
MOTHER: That doesn't even pay for half the groceries and the utility bills. You work at minimum wage. I should throw you out and make you stand on your own. You couldn't survive. You're a leach just like your father was!
SON: Why can't you understand I want to see you get better?
MOTHER: It just takes time.
SON: How can you say that? Remember when you couldn't walk for three weeks? I had to give you the bucket to urinate in. It will happen again.
(He thinks of a new tactic.)
SON: If I move out, you'll have to take care of yourself.
MOTHER: On your salary? Get real.
SON: I'll find a roommate.
MOTHER: Good luck. I'll give you until the end of the month.
(He picks up the Tarot cards and books as he gets up from the chair.)
MOTHER: Where are you going?
SON: I will move.
MOTHER: I don't know why we fight like this. I'm not your wife. It's just that you keep jawwing at me.
SON: I would stop if you would listen to me just once.
MOTHER: Sit down!
(He puts down his things and sits back down.)
MOTHER: I don't want you to move out. Our life is convenient for me. And for you. Don't jaw at me about my gout. There are many Christian Scientists.
SON: You don't know anything about Christian Science.
MOTHER: I don't have to explain myself.
SON: People who practice Christian Science go to the dentist and to the optometrist. You have dental insurance –
MOTHER: These drugstore glasses are fine. You're the only one who badgers me.
SON: I'm the only one who cares.
MOTHER: I know, honey. I'm sorry. I know I have problems. We both have problems.
(pause)
MOTHER: You have to accept me for what I am, just as I accept you for what you are. If you move out things wouldn't be as convenient for you as they are now. You won't be able to afford to buy so many books, for one thing.
SON: I was going to move out when I found the right person. Looking for the right person is one thing. Finding the right person is another. But first — I have short-term goals and long-term ones. I know that I have to lose some weight. That's my short-term goal.
MOTHER: No, you can't plan for a relationship that you're not ready to begin in the first place.
(She decides to take a different approach.)
MOTHER: If you should meet the right girl and marry, that would make me happier than anything. I don't even remember the last time you even went out with a girl. I want you to save your money so when the right time comes you'll be ready. I'm not young. But I'll manage somehow. I'm not going to touch my savings for five more years even if I have to work at Bullock's.
SON: If Bullock's will hire you.
MOTHER: I've always been able to manage. Your father never could keep a job. After you and your brother were born, he was supposed to be the one working and then one afternoon I had a call from a friend who told me he'd come by her place and asked if he could take a nap on the sofa. When he got home and I confronted him, he told me he'd quit his job.
SON: You sure know how to choose 'em.
MOTHER: I knew then that I could never depend on him. I hated leaving you with him when I got the job at Good Sam but I had no choice. There were two babies to support. I survived the divorce. I'll find another job.
SON: But how long will you keep it if your gout gets worse? (excitedly) I know. Tomorrow, call in sick. Go see a doctor. What's the worst thing that can happen? In any case, the gout will be documented. You can go on disability.
MOTHER: I have my pride.
SON: But you need to recuperate. Think how great it will feel to be well again —
MOTHER: (with finality) No, we're not going to discuss this again.
SON: Do you need me to help you back to your bedroom?
MOTHER: I can manage. Later.
SON: You don't still want a reading.
(MOTHER closes her fist and strikes it against the table as an insistent response.)
SON: After all the fussing? I don't think I can. I'm worn out.
MOTHER: You promised.
(He retrieves the Eden Gray ['the new'] paperback and begins turning pages until he finds what he wants.)
SON: It says here on page one-forty-eight — ". . . if you are blue and discouraged, be sure to check how much your mood is affecting your reading."
(He puts the book back down.)
MOTHER: I don't care. You'll read me my fortune like before. And YOU WILL respect me for as long as we continue living together.
SON: All right, just calm down. Living together? We each live alone. With each other.
(MOTHER searches the cards and then holds up the one she was looking for. It is the Queen of Cups.)
MOTHER: Here I am. The Queen of Cups. Here's where I go.
(She places it facing her at the center of the table.
As each card is uncovered, the image of it is projected on the blank part of the stage.)
MOTHER: Show me the other cards. Tell me what they are. Put them in their right places. I'm sorry. Please. How many cards do you turn over when it's just the story cards. Is it the same?
SON: Yes. Ten more to be displayed in the Ancient Keltic Method. The first will reveal the atmosphere in which you live and work and the influences that effect you.
MOTHER: Yes. Reveal.
(He shows her the card before putting it down on top of the Queen of Cups card, covering it.
It is The Empress card.)
SON: This card covers you. Its meaning —
MOTHER: Happiness!
SON: I haven't told you what it means. You hope that's what it means.
MOTHER: (rolling her eyes) God, this is trying.
(He looks up the meaning in the Waite book to remind himself of the card's ramifications.)
MOTHER: It's a good card. The Empress!
SON: Fruitfulness. Action. Initiative. Length of days.
MOTHER: Mother Nature!
SON: The unknown. Clandestine.
MOTHER: She's lovely and powerful.
SON: Difficulty. Doubt. Ignorance.
MOTHER: No!
SON: All these qualities relate to you in some way. I see it. Sure.
MOTHER: Well, whoopie!
SON: There are polarities.
MOTHER: I know what that card means. Not what you said.
SON: Then what?
MOTHER: Something that I have to live with. Something about you. Your potential. Why we're still together and you never married.
SON: Now you're going to taunt me by saying that I'm a homosexual. Speaking of promises, you promised not to do that again.
MOTHER: I never called you a homosexual. I only said that you showed latent homosexual tendencies.
SON: Anybody can be a latent anything.
MOTHER: I wasn't going to accuse you. You just now accused yourself.
SON: I know how your mind works. I don't know why you torment yourself worrying about my sex life when I don't even have a sex life.
MOTHER: It's partially my fault. I know that. Men who grow up without a father in the household are more likely to be homosexual.
SON: Yes, Dr. Ruth.
MOTHER: Don't ever stop repressing it.
SON: How do you know about me?
MOTHER: There was an AIDS patient at the hospital last week. A doctor said he had never felt so disgusted. Every venereal disease imaginable.
SON: He should have used a rubber.
MOTHER: And then they want to join Gay Liberation!
SON: You mean if I changed from a latent homosexual into a blatant homosexual?
MOTHER: Don't joke about it.
SON: That's what you're doing.
MOTHER: I just couldn't face the girls.
SON: Do you really think they would care?
(she shudders)
MOTHER: Oh, they would care.
SON: Why do people care what other people do? It has nothing to do with them. It makes no difference in their lives.
MOTHER: It's shameful.
SON: That's ridiculous. And you're not even Catholic. Or one of those Christian Fundamentalists. We each make our own truth — we each should only worry about our own truth.
MOTHER: Other people find out.
SON: So what? The only ones who get upset about it are probably repressing it in themselves.
MOTHER: I'd kill myself.
SON: I'd hand you the razor blade.
MOTHER: All I can say is thank God for the fear of AIDS!
SON: What an awful thing to say. You must have polished off an entire six-pack to say something that mean.
MOTHER: (She gives the ultimate, undeniable fact.) It's a sin!
SON: (He uses her own logic on her.) The good book says not to judge others.
MOTHER: Life is nothing but judgement!
SON: Just worry about yourself.
MOTHER: I didn't thank God for the plague. I thanked God for the threat of it!
SON: I didn't hear him say "You're welcome."
(He reflects a moment.)
SON: If I choose a male roommate, it could be just a friendly relationship. I think I would have more in common with another male. I don't like going to the mall. I don't want to have children. Girls have their minds on babies, status symbols and going to the mall.
MOTHER: It was Adam and Eve. Not Adam and Steve.
SON: You have a point. Maybe some people aren't meant to have an intimate relationship with another person until they're ready.
MOTHER: Show me the next card!
(He doesn't obey while staring thoughtfully at the cards.)
MOTHER: What's the matter?
SON: I was just thinking about the cards and how nothing has really changed.
MOTHER: What do you mean?
SON: These cards were around during The Black Death. And now there's a new plague. If there's a reason for it, we can't imagine what it would be. Tarot cards can reveal many things to those with esoteric knowledge. To others, the cards are a curious oddity yet not something they want to learn more about. Yet even for the knowledgeable you can't get answers to questions you can't fathom even to ask. Most people ask worldly questions. What else is there? The world, the sun and the moon are each a Tarot card.
MOTHER: (intrigued again) Let's go on.
(She uncovers the next card herself and shows it to him.)
MOTHER: The Chariot! What does this card mean?
SON: In this position, the card reveals what is to cross you, what obstacles you are to face, the sphere of influences ahead.
(He puts it across the two other cards in relation to his mother.)
MOTHER: Is that good or bad?
(SON checks the divinatory meanings on page 284 of the Waite paperback.)
SON: It signifies assistance, providence, also war, triumph, presumption, vengeance, trouble. The next card should make things more clear.
(He places it below the three other cards in relation to his mother.)
SON: The next card will crown you, show you your goal, the best that can happen considering your circumstances.
(As he shows her the card, it is seen projected on the stage. It is the Justice card.)
MOTHER: Justice!
SON: Equity. Rightness.
MOTHER: Rightness!
SON: 'Executive.' Triumph of the deserving side of the law.
(MOTHER gives an exaggerated expression of irate perplexity.)
SON: The piper must be paid. You will get what you deserve.
MOTHER: What is that?
SON: There will be a harmony, a balance.
MOTHER: How wonderful. I will have justice! Is that right?
SON: We need to contemplate . . . not reach a quick conclusion. Your future, your goal. It's what's going to happen to you before you die.
MOTHER: Then that's you too. We all die.
SON: And some of us take preventive measures.
(He places it above the other cards in relation to MOTHER who makes another one of her exasperated face droops.)
SON: Now the fourth card to find what is beneath you. It reveals the influences and events of your past, that which is the foundation upon which your life is built.
(He holds up the next card from the top of the stack.
The Hanged Man card is seen projected.
MOTHER gasps.)
MOTHER: The Hanged Man!
(The SON glances still at the Waite paperback to check the definition.)
MOTHER: Is it a good card or a bad card?
SON: Not necessarily one or the other. It suggests your having been caught up in circumstances beyond your control. Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials, sacrifice.
MOTHER: I sacrificed a lot for you kids!
SON: Remember it's your distant past.
MOTHER: I was a child during the Great Depression. My family was so poor that once when I asked my mother for something to drink, she told me to go out and eat the snow. All that I know is that my father went away to the workhouse for forgery. My mama would line up my brothers and sisters in the front yard if someone was interested in adopting one of 'em. I was the youngest so Mama kept me back. But then a woman who was a friend of the family arranged to take me. At first I was thrilled. It was so exciting to have new clothes, which was something I'd never had before. At Christmas when there were presents under the tree I didn't know what they were.
SON: Also . . . intuition, divination. Prophecy.
MOTHER: I was beautiful. That was why my new mother wanted me in the first place. They weren't rich but they weren't dirt-poor. I was happy to be moving up in the world although I always thought things would get better than they really ever did.
SON: Lack of progress.
MOTHER: I remember what happened when I was dropped off at the movies to see "Gone With The Wind." I didn't leave when it was over. I stayed to see it again. I saw Mama hunting for me when the movie was over but she didn't see me. I knew I would get spanked but I didn't care.
SON: Did they spank you a lot?
MOTHER: I deserved it. I often deserved it.
SON: Do you consider it abuse?
(He places the card in a position below the others.)
MOTHER: No! Once I threw my friend's doll on the roof.
MOTHER: Hand me the photo album from the desk.
SON: Not now.
MOTHER: (insistent) It will just take a moment. Give it to me.
(Knowing it useless to argue, SON gets up and goes to the coffee table where the photo album is kept.
He brings the photo album to her.
She turns to the page she wants. She holds up the page with her childhood pictures.)
MOTHER: I was the prettiest girl in school and one of the most popular too.
SON: Yes, I remember. You always drag out the little girl with the curls. A lot of difference it makes now.
MOTHER: I know I wasn't smart like some. I just didn't like to study. When I wanted to take chemistry, after a few days the teacher asked me if I really was sure about what I was doing and I took the hint.
(She puts the photo album down.)
SON: I remember what happened. Your mother left your father and after high school you went to work.
MOTHER: The Sylvania television factory.
SON: How ironic, considering you watch so much of it now. And then you couldn't stand your mother's new boyfriend so you came to L.A.
MOTHER: It was because of the movie magazines and the weather. When I was young I just assumed things would happen for me but nothing ever worked out like I hoped. I married your father despite a previous wife. It was because he was such a good tennis player. And I thought an older man would have more assets. I was such a fool. Such a fool. He was a car salesman at the time and drove a brand new Ford convertible. Well after the honeymoon, he got fired for borrowing the car without authorization. He could talk just about anybody into hiring him but he always became dissatisfied when he wasn't quickly put in charge. I kept telling him to find a good job where he could gradually work his way up but he never listened. Marrying him was my biggest mistake.
SON: Well it was intuitive of you to know you had to be the breadwinner.
MOTHER: That was obvious!
SON: All right already. The next card shows what is behind you. What has just passed or is passing in your life.
MOTHER: Look how easy you have it. When I was your age I had so much responsibility.
SON: We all have choices. I chose not to have the responsibility of marriage or children. You chose to have those responsibilities.
MOTHER: I did not.
SON: You did. Maybe not consciously. Perhaps even you chose not to choose.
(a pause)
SON: You could have chosen to have an abortion.
MOTHER: I could never have done that.
SON: Then you chose to have babies. Everything's a choice. I can understand two men choosing to be together.
MOTHER: Why haven't you made any choices?
SON: Of course I've made them.
MOTHER: If I had the advantages you do, I'd have been a millionaire at thirty.
SON: Really?
(pause)
SON: We have what we have.
MOTHER: I had to make a fresh start at the age of thirty.
(The SON thinks 'Well maybe I need to make a new start too' yet says nothing as he doesn't want to argue. He continues with the cards to distract her from her self-pity.)
SON: The next card shows you the recent influences or those now passing. This is just behind you or still going down.
(The card he reveals is the Wheel of Fortune.)
SON: The Wheel of Fortune.
MOTHER: (vaguely recalling a song and singing it aloud) The-ha whee-hel o-of fortune —
SON: What is that song?
MOTHER: (singing) The wheel of fortune goes spinning around.
SON: Is that from some old movie?
MOTHER: I don't know. It's just an old song. (singing) Um um um hum don't dum dum dum dum dum the-ha wheel of fortune.
SON: Well where did you first hear it?
MOTHER: It's an old fifties song.
SON: Why do you remember it?
MOTHER: (singing) Will this be my day?
(a beat)
MOTHER: That's what it's called.
SON: What?
MOTHER: The song!
SON: I know.
MOTHER: You must have heard it. It's very famous.
SON: I've heard of that TV gameshow called that but never about any old song with that title.
MOTHER: It's gotta be another good card. A lucky card.
(She becomes thoughtful.
She exhales through her mouth with a puff.)
SON: It's a destiny card: fortune, success, elevation, luck, felicity, which means happiness.
MOTHER: I've been thinking about having a cat again.
SON: It may signify a change, depending on the other cards.
MOTHER: What will the next card tell — reveal?!
(He places the Wheel of Fortune card to the right of the cards in the central position.)
SON: The next card will show you what is before you. It reveals the sphere of influence that is coming into view and will affect you in the near future.
MOTHER: (singing) Don't passss me by.
(pause)
MOTHER: (explaining) I forget the words because it's so old.
SON: Okay, okay.
MOTHER: I hope the next one is another good card.
(He shows her the next card and realizes the irony of her last statement.
An image of the Tower card [struck by lightning] appears on the wall.)
MOTHER: I don't believe it. You put that there when I wasn't looking. You want to scare me.
SON: It isn't the worst card. It isn't the Devil or the Death card, is it?
MOTHER: It's a bad card.
SON: It stands for misery, distress, indigence —
MOTHER: I knew it.
SON: — adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, ruin. But not complete or final ruination.
MOTHER: I'm going to be fired tomorrow? But that's something I want. Something good for me.
SON: It might foreshadow that. An abandonment of past relationships.
(He places it to the left of the cards in the central position.)
MOTHER: What!?
SON: (deciding to quickly move along) The next card is you.
MOTHER: Me?
SON: Remember? The seventh card is the one that signifies you. It shows your position or attitude in your present circumstances. This is a card that helps you place things in perspective. That is something we all need to do continuously throughout life. Instead of merely reacting to things. One should carefully reflect about their desires, needs and feelings, goals, karma, all of it.
MOTHER: (reflecting) Karma.
(She wonders if that is something Christian and her SON as if reading her mind gives her an emphatic no-nonsense expression.
He shows her the new card.
The card of Judgement is illuminated.)
MOTHER: Judgement?
(She looks at the other cards.)
MOTHER: For a moment I thought we already had that card down, but that's Justice, which you said was in my future. Does that card direct this, my present, or is it the other way around?
SON: Neither card 'directs' the other. They're not even close.
MOTHER: So what does Judgement mean?
SON: (with only a glance inside the Waite paperback) The card depicts the Last Judgement so it's a card suggesting change, also outcomes such as justice but also renewal, outcome. (adding a word to be encouraging) Opportunity. Think of the Judgement Day myth. Some will be called to atone and repent. Some will be forgiven, depending on the life each has led. Some will be reborn. Do you interpret the Bible literally?
(He puts the book down.)
SON: Do you believe that there will be a Judgement Day? I don't. If you think about it, most of the motivations for sin are based on circumstance, or fate, whether we determine our own or not. Fate isn't the right word. The outcomes of our decisions. It all revolves around one's state of consciousness. Paradise might be just a state of mind. Maybe it's like the pessimist and the optimist. Two different people in the same place could judge it totally differently. I have in mind two of the cashiers at the bookstore. One thinks the job is a bummer, is always complaining and talks very little; while the other loves to chat with customers and always seems to be in a good mood. Who can say that our afterlife won't be open to the same kind of interpretation. The Tarot cards are just symbolic metaphors. The card Judgement could only be interpreted as a 'bad' card by someone currently unhappy or pessimistic.
MOTHER: What about the Tower?
SON: The card is supposed to reflect your attitudes, remember? It might signify a new job or your determination to find one. What are you thinking right now?
MOTHER: Everything was going fine.
SON: Was it? What you seem to ignore is what are the causes for your problems. It comes back to escape from reality or facing reality and making sensible decisions.
(She gives him a flustered, defeated expression, letting out her breath through the mouth.)
MOTHER: Maybe I was born "star-crossed."
SON: Maybe like in those romance novels you read? Now that's getting into astrology. If you think Tarot cards are complicated, wait until you learn about horoscopes. There is a 'Horoscope method' for reading the Tarot.
(He finds the right chapter in the new paperback.)
SON: It's for people who know about astrology. The twelve solar houses each have specific divinatory meanings with this method but all the methods are ruled by each person's subconscious. This relates to one's individual conscious mind and personal development. Your experiences have made you 'you' considering how you have responded to them.
MOTHER: I have no idea what you're talking about.
(a beat)
MOTHER: What does the next card show?
(He places the card in the lower right position of the cross formed by the other cards.)
SON: Your environment. Your position in life. The character of your relationships.
MOTHER: I hope it's the Pope.
SON: You mean the Hierophant? We're about to find out. It is . . .
(He pauses to tantalize her.
He flashes her the top card.
Behind them, the Magician is illuminated.)
MOTHER: Magic?
(He places the Magician card in a position above the previous card.
He scans the appropriate page of the new paperback.)
SON: Will, mastery, organizational skills, creative talents.
(he adds a hopeful meaning)
SON: Being diplomatic is a skill.
MOTHER: Do you mean me?
SON: The author mentions if reversed, the card could mean indecision, weak will, ineptitude, the use of power for destructive ends — I consider these the negative potential aspects indicated by this symbol. This card reveals your environment.
MOTHER: My environment, then not me.
SON: And you. How you might influence others. Remember the cards may not reflect your own perspective of things or how you see yourself.
MOTHER: You're not telling me what it means. You're just telling me what you read from the book. It's too general.
SON: You know more about yourself than I do — than anyone else does. Perhaps it's best if you interpret the meaning.
MOTHER: I'm supposed to be a magician?
SON: You're a director of a hospital department.
MOTHER: And they might consider me to be inept?
(He reflects a moment if making another comment might set her off again.)
SON: That might be an interpretation of the possible meanings.
MOTHER: Stop torturing me.
SON: You're being silly. I'll show you with the other book.
(He puts the new paperback down and turns to the pages about the Magician in the Waite paperback.)
SON: (reading emphatically) "A youthful figure in the robe of a magician, having the countenance of divine Apollo, with smile of confidence and shining eyes. Above his head is the mysterious sign of the Holy Spirit, the sign of life, like an endless cord, forming the figure 8 in a horizontal position."
(The son traces in the air an eternity sign [as shown in the book] with an outstretched finger while keeping his place in the book with his other hand.)
SON: "About his waist is a serpent-cinture, the serpent appearing to devour its own tail. This is familiar to most as a conventional symbol of eternity, but here it indicates more especially the eternity of attainment in the spirit. In the Magician's right hand is a wand raised towards heaven, while the left hand is pointing to the earth. This dual sign is known in very high grades of the Instituted Mysteries; it shews the descent of grace, virtue and light, drawn from things above and derived to —"
(He turns the page.)
SON: "things below. The suggestion throughout is therefore the possession and communication of the Powers and Gifts of the Spirit. On the table in front of the Magician are the symbols of the four Tarot suits, signifying the elements of natural life, which lie like counters before the adept, and he adapts them as he wills. Beneath are roses and lilies, the flos campi and lilim convallium, changed into garden flowers, to shew the culture of aspiration.”
(He reads silently the rest of the page.)
SON: Waite also makes some comments about unity and the number eight.
MOTHER: That's your lucky number — your birthday August eight.
SON: (reading) "The mystic number is termed Jerusalem above, the Land flowing with Milk and Honey, the Holy Spirit and the Land of the Lord."
(He puts the book down.)
MOTHER: But what does it all mean.
SON: In context with the other cards, what do you think it means?
MOTHER: About my environment?
SON: Maybe the next card will place it into perspective. Because the next card shows your inner emotions, your hopes and fears.
(He picks up the next card yet pauses before showing it to her.
The card illuminated is the Fool.)
MOTHER: (angrily) Stop it!
SON: The Fool.
MOTHER: You arranged the cards in the order you wanted.
SON: I did not. Why are you so angry?
MOTHER: I'm not a fool.
SON: It doesn't mean necessarily mean that.
MOTHER: It's another bad card.
SON: The cards aren't good or bad. They're enigmas.
MOTHER: The Tower was a bad card.
SON: The Tower is the symbol of adversity but not all adversity is detrimental when you look at the big picture of a life in the entirety. Don't get carried away.
(He places the Fool card in the position above the previous card.)
SON: (glancing at the Waite book) The Fool card appearing in the ninth position indicates folly, mania —
MOTHER: Mitch the bitch!
SON: — extravagance. (emphatically) Intoxication.
(a beat)
SON: Delirium, frenzy, bewrayment, which means betrayal. (reminding) You want to make the right choices in your life.
MOTHER: That's bad.
SON: Why?
MOTHER: The meaning is that I'm going to be let go tomorrow.
SON: Might it mean that you're afraid of being let go tomorrow? Understand?
MOTHER: Not really.
SON: On the other hand, another possible meaning of the card may be that you hope against moderation, which could indicate the intoxication or, um, your being an alcoholic —
MOTHER: (beyond indignant) Hey!
SON: I was just giving an example.
(She looks at him with an expression of suspicion.)
SON: Are you ready for the final card?
MOTHER: It will be the Death card.
SON: I said — are you ready for the final Tarot card? It will symbolize your destiny, the culmination of the influences shown by the other cards.
MOTHER: You have it all rigged. You think it's funny.
SON: You know better than that.
(He picks up the last card to be used in the reading.
He peeks to see what it is and avoids showing it to her.
The Hermit is illuminated.)
MOTHER: I told you so. It's Death.
SON: No, it isn't.
MOTHER: The Devil?
(He pretends to accidentally drop the card into his lap as he takes the next card from the deck with his other hand.)
MOTHER: What is it then?
(SON switches the cards.
The Hermit card vanishes from illumination and is replaced with the Star card.)
SON: Didn't you see it?
(He places the Hermit card back on the pile.)
MOTHER: What did you do? You are cheating.
(He shows her the Star card.)
SON: The Star.
MOTHER: What? Is that a good card?
SON: It reveals a possibility for hope and bright prospects, (repeating) the gifts of the spirit and great love.
MOTHER: It does?
SON: New horizons with the Unknown God being the link between past, present and future.
(He places the card in the top right corner, the position above the previous card.)
MOTHER: I thought there was only a 'right now.'
SON: What we consider time is a system of organization.
MOTHER: So what are the cards saying? I'm going to be fired tomorrow.
SON: Even if that happens, it won't be the end of the world. You have to start taking care of yourself. You can't go on drinking so much beer the way you have.
(MOTHER angrily reaches out and starts mixing up the Tarot cards.)
MOTHER: You don't believe in the Bible but you believe in those damn cards.
SON: That doesn't change anything.
(She begins picking up the Tarot cards and putting them into a stack.)
SON: What are you doing?
MOTHER: Now I'm going to give you a reading and see how you like it!
(He grabs them away from her.)
SON: You can't.
MOTHER: Why not?
SON: You don't know what the cards mean.
MOTHER: You can tell me, Mr. Know-It-All. Everyone hates a Mr. Know-It-All.
SON: It isn't so simple. For one thing, I have no need to know. No questions to ask at this time.
MOTHER: I'll make it up, then. Just like you did.
SON: You know what happened.
MOTHER: So where do the goddamn cards come from, anyway?
SON: Nobody really knows but the Major Arcana or, as they are also called, the 'Trumps Major,' are thought by some to have a different source from the numbered cards.
MOTHER: Trumps like in trump or trumpet?
SON: As in the trumpet shall sound — the musical instrument ending in a bell shape. The gypsies are probably involved. The fortune tellers but there is no known history before the Fourteenth Century.
MOTHER: It all makes you wonder.
SON: Everything makes you wonder. Life sometimes seems like nothing but mysteries. Coincidences. Taking chances. Will I win something? Will I win at bingo? Will I win the lottery? Will this job enable me to get ahead, get rich, get an ulcer? Will I have an accident today, will I get in some kind of trouble? What religion should I have? Will it get me to heaven? Why did that happen to him? Why to her? Why to me? One enigma after the next. Just like Tarot cards. Little mysteries. Like where do Tarot cards come from or why there are angry squirrels. Big mysteries. Like gravity or God. What happens after we die. What luck is.
MOTHER: I have a very morbid son. That's a big mystery. He says I'm going to get fired tomorrow because the Tarot cards predict it. He doesn't believe in time. He believes in Tarot cards and UFOs and ghosts.
SON: I asked you before about premonitions. We all have to contemplate the inexplicable. Once this lady came up to me in the bookstore and asked if there were any books about reincarnation. She was convinced she had been a virgin sacrifice in a previous life.
MOTHER: You're a kook and I'm a kook for listening to you.
(pause)
MOTHER: A premonition is just a fear that comes true.
SON: And then there's deja vu.
MOTHER: I guess.
(The SON glances at the box of tissues.)
SON: Look at this.
(He picks up the tissue box.)
SON: Did you see this? What an unusual design.
MOTHER: You mean the flowers?
SON: Not just flowers. Phrases too. Look what it says on top of the box.
MOTHER: (reading) "Friendship is a special gift." I didn't notice that when I selected it at the store. I just liked the flowers.
SON: And on the side it says "Love is sharing. Love is caring. No act of love however small is ever wasted."
MOTHER: And on my side it reads "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched but are felt in the heart."
SON: What unique messages for a tissue box. It's funny that we didn't notice it until now.
MOTHER: There are lots of different designs that you can choose from.
SON: I wonder why the tissue company decided to use this as one of their designs.
MOTHER: I think I know.
(a beat)
MOTHER: Maybe if people believe in these slogans and depend on them, they'll be disappointed and then they'll cry more and people crying more often will increase tissue sales.
(They are quiet for a few moments.)
SON: So what do you think about all these cards that you've seen?
MOTHER: You were talking about trying to know the future while I was trying to forget the past, same as always.
SON: You've always been so . . . upset. Especially when I and my brother were little, you were so angry all the time and worried about everything.
MOTHER: Do you think there was anyone to help me? For many years, I had to be careful planning how to make ends meet.
SON: When the telephone rang, you would become frantic.
MOTHER: I was afraid it was your father calling.
SON: Sometimes I find myself worrying about things and I wonder if it's something learned from you.
MOTHER: I'll find another job.
SON: You'll have to stay healthy for that.
MOTHER: Don't worry about me. You have your own problems. Do you think any woman in her right mind would be interested in you? Or even the fairies for that matter.
(an afterthought)
MOTHER: You know the kind I mean.
SON: Are you finished with this?
MOTHER: Why are we so mean to each other.
SON: You're nicer to people you casually meet in public than you are to me.
MOTHER: I have fears. I have a long time to go until retirement.
SON: I know I'm not like other people. I don't want to get married or have children. I'm more interested in books and researching. Sometimes I wonder if I'm afraid to face the reality of what I am not and what my life could be.
MOTHER: Just because you can't find a girlfriend doesn't mean —
SON: I would just rather work on my short stories and screenplays. I don't think about being in a relationship — well I think about it but it doesn't seem right. I want to love someone. How do you find the right person?
MOTHER: Don't ask me.
SON: But you're right. Who could love me? I want to be loved. I know love is important. So many books, movies, songs are about love.
MOTHER: You don't have to think about everything so much. Things will happen.
SON: It's not so much about choices. It's been hard for me to create opportunities for myself. My brother was lucky to get such a good job.
MOTHER: You can find someone if you want to. Go outside and look around. You see people together, good-looking, bad-looking, happy, sad. They're all able to find someone.
SON: They were looking for someone. I spend my time writing but it's been so hard to get anyone's interest.
MOTHER: I've always believed you will be successful in your writing. I was so proud when you won all those writing awards in high school.
SON: Things are so different when you're dealing with commercial realities. I know it isn't in me to write about things just to make money.
MOTHER: It's all who you know, anyway. You have to make the right connections.
SON: Some of the things I'm interested in, other people don't seem to care about, such as the case of Catherine Cadiere and Father Girard or Mother Shipton.
MOTHER: What are you trying to find out?
SON: Sometimes I think I'm a nun of a religion I can't understand.
(pause)
SON: I will change!
MOTHER: Maybe you're hiding from the world. Sometimes I wish I could hide from the world.
(pause)
MOTHER: I'll find another job!
(She goes to the refrigerator and refills her empty beer glass.
SON is horrified.)
MOTHER: I understand reality: working in an office in a city of a country on a country surrounded by the ocean. I too have made wishes before tossing pennies into fountains.
(She takes a long sip.
As she takes a step toward her room, she experiences sharp pain from her gouty foot. She pauses with a grimace.
She sits back down.
She starts to weep.)
MOTHER: (Speaking in a deep primordial tone of voice) WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO ME?!
SON: (somber and dreamily) Remember that there's a harmony, a synchronicity, a stream.
(pause)
SON: Created by God or Mother Nature, it is a beautiful stream. The people who gaze into the stream see themselves or maybe they find themselves pondering memories. A stream of lovely clear water but with murky patches. The dreams, hopes and desires are there both where the sun rays glint and in the stagnant pools where the water finds no outlet. In places, the water rushes quickly over smooth rocks, perhaps reminding us of joy. In some parts, the stream meanders slowly and we might recall some grief.
MOTHER: What is this stream?
SON: It's no stream and every stream. It's our stream. The stream of consciousness.
(She notices a Tarot card on the table and picks it up.
The Hierophant is illuminated.
She holds it out to SON.)
MOTHER: The Hierophant. I forgot what it means.
SON: He is the channel of grace.
(pause)
SON: He is the leader of salvation for humanity.
(pause)
SON: The word most people use is God.
MOTHER: Help me to go back.
(She holds on to him as she hobbles back to her bedroom.
As the two move offstage, the other cards appear that have not yet been illuminated for about seven seconds each in succession.
The High Priestess.
The Emperor.
The Lovers.
Strength.
Death.
Temperance.
The Devil.
The Moon.
The Sun.
The World.
As the stage lights go out and the audience leaves the theatre, the song that plays is "The Wheel of Fortune" sung by Kay Starr — a 1952 No. 1 hit).
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