As We Pick the Dominoes Up

As we pick the Dominoes Up:
BURNING DOMINOES OF THE SOUL

(STAGE TO BLACK: GUNSHOTS AND SCREAMING SOUNDS,BOMB SOUND EFFECT. VOICE-OVER OF HARRY TRUMAN: “I DESERVE NO SURVIVAL, UNTIL THE END, THE WORLD AND I, ARE NO MORE THAN RIVALS”. LIGHTS UP, Stage lit FLUORESCENT. Harry Truman, David Truman, Elizabeth Truman, Arnold Stephens and Natalie Truman LAY ON THE STAGE. SEVERAL DOMINOES ARE SCATTERED. Harry Truman is muttering in his sleep.)

HARRY
No!! No David… please… I deserve…

(David wakes up, looking around at first confused. He pats his arms and body as if surprised that he still has them. He feels his chest, there is a heartbeat. He is astonished when he sees his father, mother and wife.)

DAVID (SHAKING HARRY AWAKE)
DAD!

HARRY (WAKING UP WITH JOLT)
DAVID? YOU’RE-YOU’RE ALIVE?

DAVID (LOOKING AROUND THE STAGE)
I… I think…?

(David rushes to wake Natalie up, who’s muttering as well. Harry wakes up Elizabeth.)

NATALIE (MUTTERING)
Harry… Harry

DAVID
Natalie! Wake up, it’s me! David!

(Natalie wakes up startled. Her eyes widen at the sight of David above her.)

NATALIE
David? wha-What happened to us? Didn’t I…

(Elizabeth wakes up mesmerized by the sight of Harry.)

ELIZABETH
HARRY? How--what--(looking around) what happened? Where are we?

HARRY (RUBBING SCALP)
Uhh… I dropped the bomb on Japan and the nuclear blast went out of control… it was spreading everywhere… (uneasy tone) how are we…

(They all notice the dominoes scattered over the stage. Harry reaches down and picks one up but YELLS DROPPING it.)

DAVID
What the hell was that about?

HARRY (CONFUSED)
The domino is burning hot!

(David reaches down and slightly touches another.)

DAVID (PULLING BACK HAND)
Ahhh!! Why is it burning hot like a damn fire?

ELIZABETH
Where are we?

(They all think for a moment.)

DAVID
Well… the last thing I remember is a loud bang… and then there was darkness…

NATALIE
I remember the same thing.

ELIZABETH
Me too.

DAVID
But that’s not possible, I mean… if we killed ourselves we would be dead.

NATALIE
Maybe it was all… just a dream?

DAVID
None of it ever happened? You mean there was no bomb? We were never having a baby…? (DISAPPOINTED)

HARRY
As much as I’d love to say that you’re right, it was all real. People don’t remember dreams as lucidly, and even if they did there’s no way we could’ve ALL had the same exact dream.

DAVID
Maybe we’re in an alternate reality… ? A place where we’ve been given the chance to start over. This could be the opportunity a greater force is giving us to correct the mistakes we’ve made during our past lives.

ELIZABETH
David, we KILLED ourselves. There’s no starting over, we’ve all done what we’ve done.

DAVID
Yeah, but we don’t know what happens after death. Maybe THIS is it.

(Harry notices the holes in their heads from the gunshots. He looks HORRIFIED.)

HARRY (HORRIFIED)
Your heads… (pointing)

(David feels the hole and yells. His eyes widen in shock. They all shriek feeling the holes in their heads.)

DAVID (as if realizing for the first time)
I… I shot myself…

NATALIE
We all shot ourselves…

ELIZABETH
And with the same gun…

HARRY (COLDLY)
You both did it right in front of me. It wasn’t really the blast that killed me. It was seeing you both give up on living. I remember the very last thing you said to me Elizabeth. (TURNING TO ELIZABETH) You said that you were wrong about me. Even if you were right, I thought I could always count on you.

ELIZABETH
HOW DARE YOU HARRY! I WATCHED YOU SUFFER FOR WHAT FELT LIKE MONTHS AND SUPPORTED YOU ALL THE WAY THROUGH. I WATCHED YOUR SOUL DETERIORATE EVERY NIGHT AS YOU WOKE UP SCREAMING FROM ANOTHER NIGHTMARE. I WATCHED THE MOMENT WHEN YOU TRULY DIED, WHEN YOU BOMBED JAPAN. BUT JAPAN WASN’T THE ONLY THING YOU BOMBED. YOU DROPPED A NUCLEAR BOMB ON YOUR SOUL. YES, AT THE END I LOST IT BECAUSE DEATH WAS NEAR. I’M SORRY THAT I DIDN’T TELL YOU IT WOULD BE OKAY TILL MY LAST BREATHING SECOND, I WASN’T GOING TO SPIT A LIE IN YOUR FACE. SO INSTEAD I SPIT THE TRUTH. BUT DON’T YOU DARE SCOLD ME LIKE THAT HARRY TRUMAN. DON’T YOU DARE.

DAVID
Moms absolutely right, there was nothing left to live for. That wave was coming and we were all going to die anyway. We both just wanted to go out OUR way and completely painless… (pause) except it wasn’t painless! I had to watch my wife kill herself RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME… AND I COULDN’T DO A THING TO PREVENT IT! (pause) the gunshot was the most painless passage out. Leading me to… (looking around) whatever THIS is.

ELIZABETH
And I couldn’t bare to live on for another SECOND when I knew that I wasn’t going to have my baby.

HARRY
Natalie… I’m so--

NATALIE
I don’t want to hear your heartfelt apologies Harry. You said it killed you to watch David die? Your ONLY son. Your PRECIOUS baby. Well I found out that my baby was as good as the aftermath ashes of a BOMB. How the HELL do you think I felt? I COULDN’T GO ON!

HARRY
You think I felt differently Natalie? When David told me, I wanted to kill myself on the SPOT. I knew that my purpose in this world had finally truly fled and that every heartbeat till the last was a waste.

NATALIE
Then why didn’t you kill yourself with him?

HARRY
Because I didn’t deserve to die in my own manner. I’d taken that away from the entire world. Why should I have been an exception?

(SHORT PAUSE as David thinks about what they’ve all done in the past life. He comes to a realization and becomes uneasy.)

DAVID
We’re in hell.

HARRY
David don’t even go there! We aren’t the kind to end up there.

DAVID
Dad you dropped a BOMB and killed millions of people, along with the rest of the world. I’m sorry, but there is no way you would have ended up in heaven. I told you that you were doing the right thing JUST because I wanted to see my child born, WHICH NEVER EVEN HAPPENED! (COMING FORWARD HOSTILY)

ELIZABETH (PUTTING HAND ON HIM)
David calm down!

DAVID
You could’ve told him not to do it mom. You knew it was wrong all along, and YOU NEVER SAID ANYTHING. So by NOT speaking, you gave dad consent to end LIVES, to end ours. the pair of us did that. And THAT is why we’re here in HELL.

HARRY (SCREAMS)
DAVID DON’T SPEAK TO YOUR MOTHER IN THAT WAY! (pause,calming down)
You’re right though. I, out of all of us, deserves to be in hell. But you told me that I was your hero because I’ve always tried to do the right thing in a wrong situation and sometimes bad things occur. You said that it happens to the best of us. that’s what you told me, and you were right then too. The last words you said to me made me a proud father.

(LONG PAUSE. They all stand there looking at each other, lost for words.)
NATALIE
I forgive you.

HARRY
You do?

NATALIE
I was incredibly excited to be a mother. I had dreams about raising a beautiful baby with David. We would love and care for them… we would go for nice walks in the spring, admiring the beauty that the world had created for us. Exposing the baby to the euphoria of nature… and when Winter came we would make sure they were toasty warm and snuggled up. David and I were going to teach the baby how to be a genuinely amazing human being . The kind that gives it their all till their dying day. A person who cares desperately for the well being of others. But most importantly… a person who owns up to their faults and mistakes. That’s the kind of man you are Harry.

HARRY
Thank you so much for forgiving me Natalie.

(Harry gives Natalie and hug.)

ARNOLD
WHAT THE HELL?

(They all turn around to see Arnold Stephens waking up. He stands up stumbling.)

ARNOLD (CONT’D) (DAZED)
How did we all survive the blast?

HARRY
We didn’t. We’re all dead… maybe we really are in hell… since you of all people would not be in heaven after what you did!

ARNOLD
Excuse me? What I did? Did I drop a bomb on a nation which led to world destruction?

HARRY
Don’t act like you had nothing to do with that!

ARNOLD
I didn’t make the order to pull the trigger!

HARRY
That doesn’t matter, You said it was JUSTIFIED! You said that the killing of millions of people over political warfare was JUSTIFIED. How do you feel about that now?

(SHORT PAUSE)

ARNOLD
Things may have gone haywire, but at least I didn’t murder my grandchild.

HARRY
YOU PIECE OF--

(Harry goes to attack Arnold again but David holds him back.)

HARRY
(OVERLAPPING)
HOW DARE YOU! YOUR FIRST RESPONSE WAS TO USE THE ATOMIC BOMB! YOU DIDN’T CARE ABOUT ANYONE WHO GOT HURT!

ARNOLD
(OVERLAPPING)
THAT WAS THE ONLY WAY JAPAN WAS RELENTLESS! WHAT’D YOU EXPECT ME TO DO? LET YOU NEGOTIATE WITH A BRICK WALL?

HARRY (OVERLAPPING)
I COULD’VE PERSUADED HIM!

DAVID
(OVERLAPPING)
ENOUGH!!!!!!!!

(A BRIEF SILENCE falls over.)

DAVID (CONT’D)
Enough of this fighting. There’s no point, we’re all gone. We’re the aftermath ashes of a nuclear bomb. It’s not worth it, we’re all blaming each other for a world that was already broken. (looks at harry) Dad you didn’t knock down any dominoes, because they were already cementing themselves to the battlefield the world had been creating from the beginning. (pause, looking back and forth at Harry and Arnold)
Can’t we all just appreciate the fact that we’re together somehow? Wherever we are…

(Harry and Arnold continue to glare at each other for a moment. Then Harry steps forward and stretches his hand out to shake Arnold’s.)

HARRY
I’m sorry that I’ve been naming you scapegoat. It’s really… not anyone’s fault what happened.

ARNOLD
I didn’t intend on the world ending and all of us going out the way we did. I was honestly just doing my job. I had always kept the best interest of our nation in mind when making those decisions.

HARRY
I know that we had our differences… concerning justification and all that was at stake… but I have always respected you, Mr. Stephens.

ARNOLD
I’ve always respected you Mr. President.

HARRY
Look where we are, it’s not Mr. President anymore. I think it’s safe to say that I’ve been impeached by a greater force.

(Harry looks at all of them.)

HARRY (CONT’D)
The point of being president was to do good. I tried and… things didn’t pan out too well… but now I can do good. (pause)Perhaps I never knocked down any dominoes… and they’ve been burning all along… but I never helped pick them up. It’s time for me to redeem myself and start.

(Harry reaches down for a domino, which DOESN’T burn his hand. STAGE LIGHTS GO OUT.)

END OF PLAY