January 2 Play: UNDER THE SAND

#2: UNDER THE SAND - by Ed Valentine
© January 2,2010 * ed@edvalentine.com

LIGHTS UP: A desert. A cactus. Under a moon. A MAN scrabbles through the sand. A COYOTE watches.


MAN: It was here, I know it was here.

COYOTE: You sure it was here, amigo?

MAN: By the cactus. Yes!

COYOTE: It’s a big desert. There’s a lot of cactus.

MAN: Still.

(MAN digs. COYOTE watches.)

COYOTE: How do you know I didn’t eat it? Dig it up, eat it up, swallow it whole?

MAN: You didn’t.

COYOTE: I could’ve.

MAN: But you didn’t.

COYOTE: How do you know.

MAN: You still look hungry.

COYOTE: Don’t go by that, pal! A coyote’s always hungry.
(MAN keeps digging.)
When you find it, I’ll snatch it from your hand.

MAN: Oh will you?

COYOTE: I will, I’ll snatch it in my teeth, clamp down, and run across the desert. I’ll run across the desert with that thing in my mouth, spouting gouts of blood until I’m far away from you.

MAN: Maybe, maybe not.

COYOTE: Then I’ll eat it. Then I’ll howl. Like this:
(Howls.)
And you’ll be there. Bereft.

MAN: I’m gonna find it anyway.

COYOTE: Maybe, maybe not. You close?

MAN: Mm?

COYOTE: Are. You. Close?

MAN: Closer and closer and… ah.
(He digs out a wet bleeding pumping human heart.)
I knew it! I knew it was here! So.

(Regards COYOTE. COYOTE regards him. MAN takes out a knife. Very serious, low, mean:)

COYOTE: I admire your tenacity. But I’ll take that now, compadre.

MAN: I’ll fight you for it.

COYOTE: To the death?

MAN: To one of our deaths.

COYOTE: Well then, be as it may.
(Standoff. A long one.)
GO!

(They lunge. Lights out.)


END OF PLAY.