Spring 2011 - The Heschel School

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Jack (unbelieving): Well, I don’t know where you’re from, but here in Evanston – a man and a woman together is a crime worthy of execution. And if anyone ever, ever, ever finds out about Martha and me, I’ll be dead faster than you can say “Jiminy Cricket”. Eddie (disbelieving): You can’t be serious! Jack: This country here is run by efficient people. They want the world to run smoothly. They want a world full of little children. And if you dare do anything to prevent children, you are considered treasonous and must be executed. But, you boys aren’t from around here, are you? (beat) You don’t seem like it… Eddie (looks to George with a knowing glance): I guess you could say that… Jack: And you don’t think what Martha and I have going on is wrong? Scene VI: The Basement The boys pay the bill and follow Jack out of the malt shop, down the street to a plain, ordinary looking building. They enter the alleyway next to it, and enter a door in the back. They head down a dimly-lit staircase, and when they enter the basement, they see men and women provocatively dancing together to the beat of an unrecognizable song. It’s truly a jumping joint. Jack leads them to a girl sitting with a couple of boys – flirting. Jack (to girl): Martha, these are my friends George and Eddie. They’re normies, but they’re all right. They won’t rat us out. Martha is flirty and petite, with bouncy, bright red curls and hazel eyes. An abundance of freckles dot her face, most of them due to the sun. Her face itself is plain; it is her coy, coquettish demeanor that makes her appealing. She holds out her hand limply and waits for either boy to shake it. She speaks with a Southern drawl. George: Of course not. Jack, trust us. We know what it’s like to be on the other side. Jack: Well, ‘bye George! I gotta take you to meet Martha. You’ll love her. Prettiest girl in all the world. Martha (flirtily): Pleasure to meet you, boys. Eddie (flirtily, as well despite his sexual orientation. Martha has the tendency to bring out that side of people. He answers back in an imitation Southern drawl.): Well, howdy there, little miss. Now I’m sure certain that accent doesn’t come from anywhere around here. (He winks.) Tamar Rosen, watercolor Martha: Well, hun, I hail from Georgia. My ma kicked me out once she found out I was a hetero – sayin’ she couldn’t be harborin’ a felon in her respectable household. I headed up North, hearin’ ‘at folks up here took more kindly to us heteros, but turns out I was turribly wrong. The normies hate us just as much up here. George (sympathetic): Now, that’s terrible. Oh, you poor dear! Martha (tearing up): And now with these new execution laws… I’m scared outta my mind! They say I ain’t normal and if I ain’t normal that I don’t deserve to be alive! What kinda life is that. Having to hide who I am and having to hide how much I love this dear man right here (she turns to Jack and gives him a full kiss). It just ain’t right! Pages 36 – 37
George (angered): No, it’s not! This is ridiculous! Eddie and I, we know what it’s like to be on the other side. We know how hard it is to be different and to have people tell you you’re not normal! Well, where we come from you are normal and Eddie and I – we’re the weird ones! It makes no sense! We’ve got to stop this! (to himself) I’ve got to stop this! Before the others can protest, a raging and irrational George runs up the stairs and out of the building. High-speed music comes on as the camera follows George to the Town Hall. Music continues as we see him shouting and flailing his arms at a couple of policemen. We see the men turn from confused to angry. George then walks towards the door to leave and motions for the policemen to follow them. Increasingly upset, they follow George as he, in his infuriated and irrational state, leads the two police officers to the building where his friends are in the basement. As the policemen head down the stairs, the music slowly fades and stops altogether when the two police officers see Martha and Jack – dangerously close. George: …Can’t you see they’re in love? - that they are supposed to be together! Why can’t you let them be! Why can’t you stop — Policeman #2 (in possession of Martha – who is struggling): To the chair! What they have done is disgusting. George: Ch-ch-chair? (in horror) I didn’t mean it! I didn’t mean it. (crying) Don’t take them away please. They’re normal! They’re fine! What are you doing? Don’t kill them. They are okay! THEY’E NORMAL! I was just trying to show you they are normal! Narrator: Jack Jameson and Martha Grady – they loved each other without legal permission to do so. They were taken away and electrocuted. The last words either of them heard were “They are normal.” And they are, aren’t they? In the world we live in, they are. And what Eddie and George had? What Eddie and George have is not, by any means, normal. So, my questions to you – as you sit at home on your comfortable couches with your cigarettes – are “What’s normal? Who has the ability to decide?” Those are questions Eddie and George have learned to ask. Sophie Greenspan Michaela Hearst, watercolor While George is speaking to them, the police look around the room and understand what’s going on. One by one, the heads of the kids in the club turn and they grow increasingly more frightened. They make a motion to run for it, but the police are blocking the staircase – the only exit. Policeman #1:What’s going on here? (to Jack and Martha – seeing their closeness) Jack and Martha are stunned silent with fright and can only mumble incoherent responses as Policeman #2 begins to arrest them. Soon frenzy breaks out as members of the club try and make a run for it. The two policemen are outnumbered by the kids in the party and manage to capture only Jack and Martha. By now everyone else has gone, and six people are left in the basement – Jack, Martha, George, Eddie, and the two policemen. The policemen begin dragging Martha and Jack (now in handcuffs) up the stairs. Both are crying hysterically. Jack (yelling to George): I TRUSTED YOU! WE TRUSTED YOU! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS! Eddie (to policeman): Wait, wait! Where are you taking them? Pages 38 – 39
Page 2 and 3: 20 West End Avenue New York, New Yo
Page 4 and 5: Book Covers/Opening Pages Dedicatio
Page 6 and 7: Waiting We are all always waiting A
Page 8 and 9: So How Are You Holding Up? Did your
Page 10 and 11: Suggestions ^From Your Resident K l
Page 12 and 13: Contrasts My life stinks: I failed
Page 14 and 15: Childhood “ I want to be like Pet
Page 16 and 17: An Apology This puzzle is all one c
Page 18 and 19: Bob: Two plates of two eggs sunny-s
Page 22 and 23: The Internet Is But a Vacuum The In
Page 24 and 25: 6-wo rd stories Hidden passageways
Page 26 and 27: strength to stand up to the guns po
Page 28 and 29: Empty Bottles He gins and whiskeys
Page 30 and 31: My Brother Died a Martyr Four years
Page 32 and 33: The buried comes up Beat Beat Beati
Page 34 and 35: Exile No More Exile is safer than r
Page 36 and 37: Snow Day Quandariness Sheets of fro
Page 38 and 39: Colors of Family He was purple with
Page 40 and 41: Falling violently Frequently, and c
Page 42 and 43: Harris Mizrahi, photograph The Frag
Page 44 and 45: The L o v E l e s s “What does th
Page 46 and 47: The last thing she would ever remem
Page 48 and 49: Unearthing Weeds It was one of thos
Page 50 and 51: “I’ll take a strawberry cone. C
Page 52 and 53: Growing Pains Barbie is just as bea
Page 54 and 55: Essay Number One Passion is a thing
Page 56 and 57: “Five years in this miserable gre
Page 58 and 59: I wasn’t always so scared. But I
Page 60 and 61: would have made me scared. I didn
Page 63: Who are we? e-pit’-o-me is our op

Spring 2011 - The Heschel School

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