SCENE 1.
HELP ON THE HIGHWAY OF DEATH OR
MEETING MOTHER

STAGE MANAGER: This is “The Highway of Death”, Cholame. CA. It’s sundown, chilly. September 30, 1955. And we’re on the shoulder along the road, in the mind of James Dean during his last moments on earth. Will tell the story without props, set, lights or sound. I will play the small roles and walk-ons. Why? Because I’m god and even the afterlife has financial constraints. Oh goodness Jimmy has just burst on the scene from an unsuspected place. He’s terribly battered. His red jacket is torn, his jeans ripped. There’s this thrum of exhaust of passing cars.

JIMMY (Horrified, to self): It’s got to be here.

STAGE MANAGER: Whizz of passing truck.
 
JIMMY How can you lose a Porsche?

STAGE MANAGER: Flash of headlights.

JIMMY (Angry, frustrated): Didn’t that guy see me?

STAGE MANAGER: Sound of clanking chains.

SOULS IN TORMENT (Whisper nastily): Leave this compound body of flesh and blood.

STAGE MANAGER: Jimmy takes out a switchblade.

SOULS IN TORMENT: Let go grasping, yearning, attachment.

STAGE MANAGER: Marching Sounds

SOULS IN TORMENT: (Hyena-like): We’re beings you know perhaps a deceased spouse or parent.

JIMMY: No closer.

SOULS IN TORMENT: Come. Leave all the unfinished business, don't die in great anguish.

STAGE MANAGER: Marching sounds.

SOULS IN TORMENT: Impermanence is the TRUTH of life.

STAGE MANAGER:  Metal door closing.

SOULS IN TORMENT: Resolve relationships. Say good-bye.

STAGE MANAGER: Loud drumming.

JIMMY (To figures, agitated): If you're here to escort me out, it won't work. I know I'm not alone. I ride in on the shoulders of all you dead pilots.

STAGE MANAGER: The tormented ones form a shield.

JIMMY: (Breathing heavily, sad) This must be a dream. I’ll do an acting exercise, an overall sensation-like being in the shower-something that makes me feel good.

STAGE MANAGER: Eerie music like Vivaldi, “Nisi Dominus.”

LUCIA (Entering, Slyly): "Welcome to the life review.” (Extending her hand) Lucia. Princess of Darkness.

JIMMY: I thought the devil was a man.

GABRIEL (Rushing in): No that was the guy who ate the apple. (Pause) I’m Gabriel. (Pause) The Archangel?
(Pulling him to side and nodding to Lucia. (Pause) Be careful.

LUCIA (Leaving, to Gabriel): You have 2 minutes. Then I want you out of here.

JIMMY (Fearful. Points overhead): Where did she go?

GABRIEL: To get the Tibetan Scroll of Dying.

JIMMY: The what? Where?

GABRIEL (Quickly): Gurus keep a chart of dying souls to be purified. She doesn’t like it but she has to use it.

JIMMY: I’m not a Buddhist--I was briefly a Quaker.

STAGE MANAGER: Horrid cries.

JIMMY (Scared): I can’t DIE. I’m a-- superstar, a public commodity. People want to consume me. (Taking paper from pocket) I have Marlon Brando’s number.

STAGE MANAGER: Clanking chains.

JIMMY (Exasperated, imitates Brando): “Stel-la. Stel-la. Do you know who Brando is? Julie Harris? Liz Taylor? Monty Clift?  I’m about to have a fourth movie.

STAGE MANAGER: A bell gongs.

LUCIA (Calling heinous off stage): "A mindful bell will mark time till you're pronounced d-e-a-d."

GABRIEL (Entering, fearfully): It feels like an hour earth time but it's the blink of an eye.

JIMMY (Freaked out): Where am I?

GABRIEL? Oh and (Horrified) you must apologize to the seven.

JIMMY: Seven who, what?

GABRIEL (Whispers aghast): Apparitions. Take them in a tiny bit at a time so- so your nervous system can stay in place. 

STAGE MANAGER: Light zings by with great speed.

GABRIEL: Careful you may want to duck if that reappears.  (Cringing): It’s trolls looking for corpses. Boys’ hearts are a favorite Raven delicacy.

STAGEMANAGER: Loud Scream.

GABRIEL (Exiting). There isn’t enough time left for me stay awake and don’t believe her.

LUCIA (returning): Be prepared to lose everything. Soon as it starts to get warm it’ll be your time to evacuate.

JIMMY: Why did Gabriel leave?

LUCIA: Her field is too porous; she absorbs too much of what is going on. I’ve grown accustomed to living in a superior environment. Now for the life review I’m not going to attack you or your lifestyle. We will just define what you did. You may not like it; it may upset you; you may make accusations about me.

JIMMY: Wha . .What’s that? Over there. Luminous and see through. It looks like .. . like my mother.

GABRIEL (Unnerved, rushing in squeaks): She was so desperate to meet you, she called the ghost assistance hotline to see when the most wind was available.

LUCIA: (TO GABRIEL) Out. Yes it’s your mother. She was a kind user.

JIMMY: So I’m starting over for the life review.

LUCIA: No. It’s change. It’s continuous. You can spend a lot of time not talking to her if you want. Just pass.

JIMMY: Why?

LUCIA: If she can agitate you she can get attention and sympathy but you don’t have to acknowledge her. In my world we don’t move for the extraneous person, the extraneous person moves for us. I will eavesdrop, recalling that eavesdroppers were originally courtiers who hung out on the eaves of the King’s bedroom listening in on conversation. Send her off whenever you like.  She believed too much in her ability to control you and ignored your part in the tryst.

STAGEMANAGER: Lucia snaps her fingers, an ugly clicking sound.
    
MA (gasping): Jimmy.
 
JIMMY (Flabbergasted) Mom, if it’s really you, what was . . .my age when you died?

STAGE MANAGER: 9 knocks.

JIMMY: Nine, right. Our secret book?

STAGE MANAGER: Lights on The Little Prince.

JIMMY: (Breaks down crying) Oh Ma. (Thrilled) It is you.

STAGE MANAGER: Music, Saint-Saens, “The Swan.” Ma’s ghost drifts about.

JIMMY (Desperate, scans area): Where did you go? It’s like you’re there and not there. (Calls) Help me. Like the pilot in The Little Prince, flying from Paris to Saigon faster than anyone- I’m marooned in a damaged vehicle. I set my course like radar and I need my car!

STAGE MANAGER: Lights blink.

MA (Terrified. Whispers with difficulty): Ghosts can’t say much. We just get a few whispers per visit. But we make sounds thru the trees, water, wind; and we can move things, flick lights, and time travel.

STAGE MANAGER: Vision of Craftsman-style bungalow,  
1422 23rd St, Santa Monica, Cal.

JIMMY (Sad): Our old house. I used to sit by your sickbed and read.

JIMMY as a LITTLE BOY and MA: "I lived my life alone, without anyone that I could really talk to, until I had an accident with my plane in the Desert. Something was broken in my engine. I set myself to attempt the difficult repairs all alone."

MA (With pained difficulty): Son, I'll be doomed-- If you die (gasping, searching) dishonored. You must…

JIMMY: If I repent for something, I don’t know in the hell what, can they revive me? Administer a native rehydration treatment like they did in Little Prince?

MA (Struggling to speak): But the outer body and elements are dissolving…. Never go beyond where …you ought to go.

JIMMY (Squints): Your lips move, but I can’t hear—.

MA (Anguished): I’ve got to rest between speeches to release stronger powers.  And…. (Fading) Rasping with great effort) APOLOGIZE for hurting me.

STAGE MANAGER: Sound of train screeching.

JIMMY: Are you sorry you banished me to my aunts, made me ride the train with your casket, telling me, while it looked like you died, you had not? That your body was too heavy to take with you to another planet. Then…in Salt Lake City, when they mistakenly moved the coffin to the station platform, I had to retrieve by screaming "Oh my mother. That's my mother."