The Pillars

A crowded street. Night. Miners, women, children bustle about, getting home or going for a drink. Amongst them appears George Belcher. He is strong, persistent, menacing. People avoid his gaze as they pass, giving him a wide breech. Opposite him is Louis Tikas. He is tall, proud but soft. Then….a gunshot. For an instant we see a soft look, one of surprise, of fear, of tragedy.

Freeze. Through the crowd comes a child who pulls on Tikas’s hand. Tikas sits with the boy on his lap.

TIKAS: So then,
royal son of Laertes, Odysseus, man of exploits,
still eager to leave at once and hurry back
to your own home, your beloved native land?
Good luck to you, even so. Farewell!
But if you only knew, down deep, what pains
are fated to fill your cup before you reach that shore,
you’d stay right here, preside in our house with me
and be immortal. Much as you long to see your wife,
the one you pine for all your days . . .

Freeze. A woman pushes through the crowd to Belcher.

WIFE: Under the wide and starry skies, they dug the grave wherein he lies. But long he lives in our hearts who dies as he, in doing his duty well. Do you have to go?

BELCHER: I’ll be back before you know it.

WIFE: What about me? What about your family?

BELCHER: Country first, honey. You know that. These men are breaking down the system, behaving like animals.

WIFE: My sister, in Denver, she says that winter is coming and they cannot keep warm. The strike has lost them all of the coal. She cannot keep her children warm.

BELCHER: And that is why I am going. To restore order.

Freeze. Tikas recites.

TIKAS: Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,
fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.
But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove—
the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all,
the blind fools, they devoured the cattle of the Sun
and the Sungod blotted out the day of their return.

Freeze. A voice from the crowd, deep and demanding.

AGENT: You work for Baldwin-Felts now, son. You’ve got a job to do.

BELCHER: Yes sir.

AGENT: These men are animals, wild. They will shoot you and everyone you love just to get some pay. You have to put these men down, Belcher. Like fucking animals.

BELCHER: Yes sir, I know my duty sir.

Another voice cascades down.

FATHER: Listen to me son, are you listening?

BELCHER: Yes, pa.

FATHER: There ain’t nothin’ more important in this world than your country, ya hear? She is your love, your life, your home.

TIKAS: Of all that breathes and crawls across the earth,
our mother earth breeds nothing feebler than a man.

BELCHER: Pa?

FATHER: They’ll come. You’ll see, from all over they’ll come – looking for opportunities. But they’ll destroy her, son.

TIKAS: So long as the gods grant him power, spring in his knees,
he thinks he will never suffer affliction down the years.

BELCHER: Sure Pa.

FATHER: Don’t you ever let someone sully your home. Promise me, now.

TIKAS: But then, when the happy gods bring on the long hard times,
bear them he must, against his will, and steel his heart.

Pause

Our lives, our mood and mind as we pass across the earth,
turn as the days turn . . .

BELCHER: I promise, Pa.

Belcher and Tikas freeze. The bustling of the street continues.

BOY: Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.

WIFE: Under the wide and starry skies, they dug the grave wherein he lies.

BOY: Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
start from where you will—

WIFE: sing for our time too.

Gunshot. For an instant we see a soft look, one of surprise, of fear, of tragedy.

The pillars fall.