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Breadcrumbs and Table LegsOne-act play

byWm. Anthony Connolly

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SCENE: A FARM KITCHEN. POTS

BOILING, DISHES ABOUT, A LARGE

DINING ROOM TABLE AT CENTRE

STAGE. THE SEASON IS FALL.

Brin

Okay, Nathan, Nathan! Nathan look after your little brother. He doesn't know the farm

that well. Look out for copperheads and armadillos, yeah. And stay out of the trees.

Alice

(To audience) You'd think by now she'd ease up on them. (Pause) Hi luv, want some tea?

Where's Joe?

BrinWhich question should I answer first? Hey, how about this first: Hello. (Tone change)

Joseph had to work a bit of overtime, don't worry he'll be here in time mom. Dad at

church?

Alice

You want some tea?

Brin

Sure.

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Alice

Dad's at church, I didn't feel up to it myself this morning. So how are my boys doing?

How's Nathan's marks in school?

Brin

Was that a mouse? Just there?

AliceYou know we don’t have mice.

Brin

You always have had mice, and you always say we don’t have any because you know

that to me a mouse is nothing more than a scurrying, disease-carrying, insect with hair.

(Sigh) And you have termites. One day, you’ll see. Termites and mice will be taking you

to the cleaners. Nathan’s marks in school are fine. You know I grill them every night at

home. No television, no mindless reality shows. Not until your homework is done. That’s

the reality in our house.

Alice

You're too strict, you know.

Brin

(Irritated) Mother.

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Alice

I know, I know. Mind my own bee’s wax. (Mumbled somewhat) God knows I've only

been a parent for over 35 years.

Brin

What was that last part mumbled under your tea breath?

Alice

Nothing. Come on give us a kiss now would ya.

Brin

So, how's Mrs. Cleaver doing these days?

Alice

Oh, not too bad, I'm not complaining.

Brin

No, you never do.

Alice

Brin, let's not argue about that of all things.

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Brin

Why not?

Alice

It's only since you starting working again and, and that group, what's it called womb or

something.

Brin

Wow, mother. It's called Wow: Women of Work.

Alice

Well, anyway, you never seemed to care what I did for a living until you joined womb, I

mean Wow.

Brin

A living — you call this, this isn't living mother. It hasn't been for decades. It's a

sentence. Mother you could go to school, you could... It’s a short drive to the city.

Alice

You could, you could keep that trap shut young lady, I'm still your mother. I'm not some

young impressionable schoolgirl you're talking to in a high school classroom. Last time I

checked I didn’t have a tattoo on my butt and a bit of metal pierced through my nostril.

Brin

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…it’s a beautiful tattoo. It’s Celtic. And you know it's more than just a group. For years I

stayed at home while Joseph worked, I raised the children, I went to law school, and I gotthe job when Nathan and little Joe went off to school. I'm out now and I know the

difference.

Alice

Pre-school. Little Joe's in pre-school not school. And you, the lawyer.

Brin

Whatever, you know what I mean.

Alice

Didn't Joe get a promotion lately?

Brin

You're changing the subject, Alice. But yes, he's district manager now. He's out here once

and awhile you know.

Alice

You see everything’s right as rain. You’re a lawyer, Joe’s a district manager and you’re

children are growing up right before my eyes. The doting grandmother.

Brin

(Picking up mail from the kitchen table, reading) Well, at least I'm my own person; I'm

not Mrs. Frank Doyle.

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AliceThat's right, you're not because I married your father. And you think getting your Oprah

magazine under your own name makes you your own person does it?

Brin

MS, I get MS, not Oprah. You married a patriarchal system than dates back to the slash

and burn era.

Alice

Should I be taking notes? Will there be a test afterwards? This… (motions around her)

dates back to the lean years, the hardship in Ireland, not any slash and hash.

Brin

Slash and burn mother, but you know what I'm talking about.

Alice

Garbage and turkey guts.

BrinOpen your eyes, I'm talking about us. Having your own bank account, a driver's license, a

career, a hobby, Christ, anything that you can point to and say, That's me.

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Alice

Well, I'd point to you and say that's me, but for now I'm not sure where or from whomyou came. In your absence, then, and forever more, your father and his work here, well,

missy, let me refresh your memory, but ifing I, ifing mothers hadn't stayed at home and

raised the children, well, you wouldn't be who you are.

Brin

Oh, the poor immigrant song, such a sad and tragic ballad. Mother than sort of thing

happens only in songs by the Irish Tenors during PBS Pledge Week. It's maudlin history,

it happened before I was born, don't you think it's time to do something for yourself.

Alice

Some people are placed on this earth to help others. God bless them. Others are here to be

looked after and to have the time to complain to others that others aren't getting what they

deserve. You follow?

Brin

What a load of...

Alice

Watch that mouth. You're in my...Brin, why do we always have to have this conversation.

Can't we just get together and talk about our children and our husbands like other women.

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What's gotten into you? Oh, I cherish the day that we just sit on the porch with a cup of

iced tea and yak away the clouds and welcome home the moon.

Brin

But I don't drink iced tea. Makes me pee too much.

Alice

You're missing the point.

Brin

Mother, it's just that my eyes were opened. For years I had to stay at home because I was

told I had to. Now, our lives being opened up because we're aware of the alternatives, the

choices, the work that can be accomplished.

Alice

I'd say your eyes have been pried open with Susan B. Anthony dollars.

Brin

Huh? I just want you to know of the options, Mother. You know, read Germaine Greer.

Alice

She wishes she had that baby.

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Brin

Before that, read the stuff before that.

Alice

Oh, okay. Why?

Brin

It's before they got to her. There were choices. You can stop things now. Life —

Alice

They—Who?

Brin

Old Boys Network. Skull and Crossbones, nudge, nudge crowd. Beltway Masons.

Rotarians from the oil companies. Dicky Boy Cheney, Kenneth Lay, Wolfowitz…Paul

Anka.

Alice

Paul Anka?

Brin

(Singing) …Havin’ my baby, what a wonderful way of showing how much ya love me…

we want choices, not the old boys chorus. But they turned that tune around on us. Now,

sure we can make a choice or two, but the consequences, I mean in the end we end up

eating each other…

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Brin

The navy.

Alice

The navy. Willy made him quit. No daughter o' mine is marrying no sailor. Port to port

you waterbabies go looking for the nipple. No either you quit the sea Frankie or I'll see

you're buried at sea, my father said.

Brin

I remember Papa too, from the picture; he was a big man.

Alice

(Raises her hand above her head). Towering. So, I thought that once we got married he'd

forget about the sea, but sure enough a month into being man and wife, he starting in the

the coughing and suddenly he's bed-ridden. Doctor Ambrose, you remember me talking

about him, the doctor on the bike, anyway, he says Frank needs a lot of rest and quiet.

He's stressed out and heartbroken.

Brin

Mother, no one...

Alice

(Irritated) Please. So, he's in bed and we're making due on money we've gotten from my

dowry and then I find this envelope. It’s stuffed with money — and Frank says it's from

his mates. Well, I'm livid. No sailor's are going to keep Mrs. Doyle in frocks and fish. I'm

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going to work, we have to, we need the money, and I'm not using this, I told Frank with

the envelope in my hand. He protested, but I won out. I gave the money to SisterBrownwyn just at the school down the lane, on the condition that twice a day a schoolgirl

came and fixed Frank a spot of tea in the morning and a wee shot of whisky and a pint of

Guinness in the afternoon. I was going to work.

Brin

Work? Mother, you never...

Alice

Shush! Are you following me?

Brin

Wow. Of course.

Alice

Well, there are things in life dear that are best, well… So, I go see the widow Siobhan

Somers. She'd been a widow for about half a year and had been running the furniture

repair store all herself, so I thought that maybe she could use a hand. Mine. I went to talk

to her and she said no, right away.

Brin

No?

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Alice

Want a muffin before lunch? Imagine that, no, right away. I left the store disheartened,dejected and confused. I went for a spot of tea at a shop across the way. Well, no sooner

into my brew and in walks Siobhan Somers. She explains that after her husband died of

polio, she's determined to keep the place afloat. Tea too? (Gets up, makes tea)

Brin

Uh, sure, thanks. I'll butter the muffins, if you like.

Alice

Right.

Brin

(Looking out the window) Summer's over, and winter's started already—feel that drop in

humidity? When we weren't looking.

Alice

She's pregnant.

BrinWhat! I mean, who? Who's pregnant?

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Alice

Siobhan Somers. She's pregnant with a child and the father down the Crow's Road —dead...

Brin

Oh mom.

Alice

I'm aghast to say the least. She lifts up her baggy sweater and shows me her tummy.

Again, I'm aghast. A pregnant lady refurbishing chairs and stuffing sofas — and with

child. What a thought. But, Siobhan said, its been real tough, the community has been

shunning her. Women don't work, remember this is Ireland in the late 40s. So, for two,

maybe three months she's starving herself. Here's your tea love. Sister Brownwyn

brought her food. God bless her soul. She's about to sell the store and give up, she knows

a woman wouldn't get much for the store, but she's willing to live as

frugally as she can with a baby coming — her only child. Then... Late one night she hears

a knock at her store's backdoor. In the dark, she scrambles out of bed and carried a

hammer with her to the door. Peering through a window she sees not a person, no one.

But there in the shadows is a chair. When she opens the door (Alice motions as if opening

a door) there an old ratty chair on the landing with a note attached to it. The note asks her

to fix the chair and that in two nights' time payment will be at the same backdoor. Shefixes the chair without any instructions. She cleans up the wood, and restuffs the seat and

the back. She uses fresh staples and applies a coat of varnish to shine the chair up. She

places the chair back outside...

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Brin

(Eagerly) And someone steals it, right?

Alice

Ah, no. The next night an envelope is pinned to her backdoor and inside is the money.

Too much money in fact.

Brin

Sounds like a fairy tale the kind I put Little Joe to sleep with.

Alice

There was something else there too that night: Two more chairs. And that's how she

planned on keeping the shop. Furniture repairs at night.

Brin

Probably from women in the community, Sister Brownwyn.

Alice

No, I've saved the best part from you because I knew that's what you'd think.

Brin

Oh, you're so smart mother.

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night we stayed up and talked. He really wished I could continue to work, oh Brin, we

were so poor in those days.

Brin

Mom?

Alice

Gee, I remember that flat. The lousy plumbing, the wiring. My ma, Peg, always coming

around barking orders at Frank. The wiring was crappy too. Turn on a light too quickly

and the wire went phoof! But the furniture was always in good shape. (Pausing) But his

rugby club told him that members couldn't be kept men. They bugged him senseless.

Brin

How'd father react?

Alice

Well, missy, his connections at the club would really help him in the transit authority. So

he politely asked me to consider leaving the furniture repair shop.

Brin

And?

Alice

How could I not Brin? Siobhan was paying me, sure, but it was pittance in what your

father could making driving his James Street route. Siobhan gave birth to a son and was

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recuperating at Sister Brownwyn's insistence. The store would be closed for a month or

two at that time. So, I stayed at home making suppers, making arm covers for our chairsand I really worked at the table legs of our dining room table.

Brin

(Unsure) Table legs? Why worry about table legs? (Brin wipes her mouth with a napkin

and balled it in her fist) . Why? Table legs?

Alice

We had guests quite often, you know from your father's work and well, the table was the

only place where we all could sit around and talk — and drink. The table really had to be

the best. Most of the time I draped a tablecloth over it to cover the chewed-up legs, but as

time wore on I was able to get the legs up to a presentable look and left the tablecloth in

the closet.

Brin

What happened when you immigrated to New York? Didn't you know things would be

different here?

Alice

(Alice thinks about this for a moment) It was a combination of things really. We cameover after your father had saved for five years. We scrimped. We were told there was lots

of work here. We didn't know any better when we got here, we assumed it was just like

Ireland. (Laughing) Ireland with cowboy hats and Big Hair. (Tone change) I made a pact

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with God, Brin. (Reaching out) . Brin, I made a pact with God that this had to be my

work.

Brin

(Spreading her arms out) This?

Alice

Yes, Brin, you and your father...a pact. You see I took the wind out of his sails, took the

sailor away from the sea. Have you ever heard the saying: Weather the storms you cannot

avoid, and avoid the storms you cannot weather. I was doing some weathering, I guess.

His love for me was so great that he would delegate the ships to the seas only in his head,

rather than place foot on one again. His dreams died, but he persevered with me and we

started a family. There's nothing wrong with that; there's nothing dishonorable about

being a mother, or a housewife. All women are working women, not just lawyers with

PDAs in Reeboks.

Brin

Nice shot mother.

Alice

This is dignity. Bringing up a family and helping one another through life. I want to be

happy, I'm happy, really I am. You know what? Behind closed doors men can be fair.

Mine is.

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Brin

Joe is too, I guess. (They hold each other in their sights for a brief moment).

Alice

And that furniture repairman a long, long time ago. But why all this blather, all this worry

for such a pretty and educated lass. (Touches Brin on the knee) Why worry about me,

about this cross women have to bear?

Brin

Well, I just want us to have what we want.

Alice

(Alice winces) . Oh dear, you know what?

Brin

What?

Alice

A pleasant dinner, with everyone around the table. Nathan, Joe, Jr., Joe, Frank, Brin and

me. That's all I want. That's all; it's always fulfilling to see your work complete.

Brin

(Deadpans). Well, not quite complete.

Alice

What do you mean Brin, not quite complete?

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BrinI'm pregnant.

A silence falls between them.

Alice

I'll get the good china out and we'll put a linen tablecloth on...

Brin

(Sighing) Yes, and can we talk, all of us, about everything at the table. All out on the

table.

Alice

Is there any other place? Sure missy, such good news, and you know what?

Brin

What mother, what?

Alice

We'll even let the table legs show. Sometimes you have to show people what they've got

to know what they really need. Like study table legs. You follow?

Lights down.

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SCENE TWO: SAME LOCATION. THE

KITCHEN FLOOR IS PARTIALLY COVERED IN

LANES OF CARDBOARD. THE

ENTRANCEWAY TO THE LIVING ROOM IS

BARRED. IT IS SUMMER

Alice

You all right in this heat? Sheesh a wee bit of the Mexico blowing through today. Nice

for drinking ice tea on the porch, eh Brin?

Brin

(Cranky and tired) Oh yeah mother it's a blast.

Alice

Cranky.

Brin

Crazy witch.

Alice

Fatso. (going to the cupboards) .

Brin

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Ever read James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, mom?

Alice

(Taking glasses out of the cupboard) . Is that the book nobody can figure out, takes years

and years of study?

Brin

That's the one, Alex Trebek. I'm reading it while I'm pregnant, figure it'll give it some

brains by osmosis. ( Glancing down at her protruding belly)

Alice

So, how are you feeling?

Brin

(Irritated) . Mom, listen, I'm pregnant, I'm not a child. Geeze, would ya let up with the

motherly smothering already? Christ, it's so hot in here, geeze; and the smell of that floor

wax is going to make me puke. And I really think that old piled up carpet in the living

room is riddled with little tweensy-weensy termite turds. (Hand on her sweaty forehead

and closing her eyes). I peed in a field just twenty, oh my Lord, twenty years ago I was a

longhaired hippie carrying a bible and a knapsack through Four Corners. Now, I'm this

bloated Zeppelin having its third child. OHOHOH! Yes, let's have some ice tea mom and

a cold cloth if you don't mind. Have I told you about Finnegan's Wake?

Alice

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AliceBefore we sally forth once more into the frothy prose of Finnegan's Wake, slow down.

Take deep breath and relax. Go have a bowel movement. Something. Just relax. Chill, as

they say.

Brin

Slow down?

Alice

We're not going anywhere, you're not due for...( Goes to a calendar hanging by the

refrigerator carefully walking on the thin pieces of cardboard) ...Oh, in a week.

Brin

(Absentmindedly echoing her mom.) A week. She's my replacement.

Alice

Who?

Brin

Finn--uh, Caroline, that articling nightmare lawyer from Harvard or something?

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Alice

Why don't we just sit at the table awhile and get some relief from the heat. The sun's ableeding bowling ball today and we're the puny pins. You follow?

Brin

Remember, mom, remember we talked, you know last fall, about having this baby.

Alice

It was a stressful for you I know that now...

Brin

Well, it wasn't that I didn't want the baby...we make...choices...it's just that it's sort of like

that game we used to play on rainy days — Snakes and Ladders.

Alice

Aye, I remember. Snakes and Ladders.

Brin

Well, getting pregnant again after all that ladder climbing was like stepping on a snake.

Slip, OOPS, down you go.

Alice

It's not like that at all. It's not a disadvantage missy.

Brin

No, no, I realize that — OH MOM!

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Alice

Brin?

Brin

Oooo. Just a wee drop kick from the kid. Either that or the Krispy Kreme isn't

biodegradable.

Alice

Krispy…?

Brin

Hey, I'm drinking iced tea, aren' — OHOHOH,GEEZ,OH, FINNEGAN'S WAKE IS

NOTHING BUT UTTER GIBBERISH, I CAN'T EVEN UNDERSTAND IT WHEN I'M

STONED OUT OF MY GOURD. OH THAT LOUSY BITCH IS GOING TO TAKE

MY JOB!

Alice

(Nervously) Brin, you're going into labor, aren't you.

Brin

Hysterics (pause) OH.

Alice

I'll call Joe at work, hey on his cell. Just, just ah, rest. ( Goes to the phone) .

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Brin

REST! REST!

Alice

(Dialing) Don't move.

Brin

I ca-ca-ca-...

Alice

Can't.

Brin

(Nods)

Alice

What's your doctor's name, Brin?

Brin

Joyce, no I mean, James. Dr. James Olivera at Memorial. And Joe's — WHOA! — Joe's

my husband, father of this child.

Alice

Breathe; breathe missy, like you showed me on the porch outside. Breathe in and out

godammit! (Talks on the phone)

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Brin

I never did like you really, I just — OHOHOHOH.

Alice

Righty-o. Joe's on his way, he'll be here real soon. In the area he is, in the area.

Brin

MOTHER! (Begins to walk on polished floor. Goes to living room entranceway, stops)

Alice

Ah. Up here missy, up here. (Motions to the kitchen table) .

Brin

I'm not a dog!

Alice

Up here, missy! ( Taps the table, leaves kitchen)

Brin

(On table) I CAN'T HOLD IT ANY LONGER. OHOHOHOH IT'S COMING, THE

LITTLE BUGGER'S COMING...

Alice

(Returns with a quilt )

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Brin

OHOHOH, SWEET MERCY ABOVE.... I’m scared I'm going to disappear, I'll justvanish, behind my children...

Alice

Have I vanished?

Brin

(Dreamily) Snakes and ladders.

Alice

What? (Hears a car) Joe. So do you know? Is this a snake or a ladder?

Brin

(Calmly) It's definitely a roll of the dice, isn't it? (Pause) OHOHOH

Alice

But it's no a game, missy.

Brin

Maybe that's wh — WOW — what I need to learn over again that getting wha — EWE

— you want isn't always a game and whether — OH — here comes my Joe. The thing is

— OUCHGEEZE!!!!

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Alice

(Wipes Brin's forehead with her apron). What's the thing? Quick, before the man comesin. What?

Brin

It's not whether ( labored breathing) you win or lose, it's whether — EWEGEEZE —

you're around or not — ( silent wince )— to have the game, I mean it's all — (another

wince endured ) — about big people helping little people to become big people, but I

always...I always thought I'd make a difference.

Alice

I know.

Brin

You follow? It's like Finnegan's Wake.

Alice

Yes, it is. It takes years and years of study. I hear it's worth it.

BrinAnd — WHOA — what happens if, if, I get lost... (Joe hurries in)

Alice

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We'll find ya missy, don't worry. Bring up your children like little pieces of yourself.

Instill in them all your hope, justice and equality. Use them as your own personalbreadcrumbs out of the forest, and for the love of Saints Andrew and Patrick, continue to

be yourself. Just because you're a mother doesn't mean you're no longer a woman Brin.

Don't let yourself get lost.

Brin

Breadcrumbs, mother, AHHH, Joe put the pedal to the medal now.

Alice

You can always follow the breadcrumbs home...They always bring you back. Just like if

you kiss the four walls of your home on departure you’re assured a safe return. (To the

kitchen, as she closes the door) You follow?

A mouse scurries across.

Lights down.

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