Scene
Two: Bus Station.
DRAKE:
I wonder if every one knows some thing I don’t.
JACKSON:
That I can guarantee you.
DRAKE:
Growing up I had such keen perception. All of my teachers noticed it. I was the
pet.
JACKSON:
The guinea pig.
DRAKE:
The beast of burden.
JACKSON:
The sheep.
DRAKE:
And scapegoat.
JACKSON:
Capricorn… [muses.]
DRAKE:
Any way: even at the age of five I was reading on a third-grade level. And it
only grew exponentially. I knew all there was to know about contemporary
physics and sexuality by seventh grade.
JACKSON:
Did you read Asimov?
DRAKE:
In passing.
JACKSON:
Okay because I have to say. If you took sex ed lessons from old Isaac…
DRAKE:
Oh no. Not that bad.
JACKSON:
Okay. So you’re what I would call a mascara nerd.
DRAKE:
[skeptically.] Sure.
JACKSON:
On the lipstick end of the spectrum I mean.
DRAKE:
Whatever. I’ll just continue talking.
JACKSON:
[suddenly.] Yeah you’d better; I forgot what I was talking about.
DRAKE:
Any way: I all ways had these brilliant associations.
JACKSON:
Like friends?
DRAKE:
No. But like I associated thoughts very quickly. And my conversations would be
blooming with elaboration. So they grew one-sided. People could not handle
them. My peers would tell me to stop thinking so much, or they’d say I was too
smart for them, or not smart enough, or smart but that it didn’t matter. And my
elders just pretended like they understood.
JACKSON:
I get you.
DRAKE:
You don’t. But it’s okay.
JACKSON:
Hm. Probably.
DRAKE:
So I began repressing these thoughts. And as I grew older the repression grew
more severe, not less so.
JACKSON:
Couldn’t you use your intellect to stop the repression?
DRAKE:
No. Because that would have been repressive.
JACKSON:
I see.
DRAKE:
I would all ways read so much into every thing. Like it mattered. And if it
didn’t matter people would accuse me of acting like it did. But that was just
how my mind worked.
JACKSON:
Ha! I did it.
DRAKE:
Huh?
JACKSON:
Figured you out.
DRAKE:
Elaborate.
JACKSON:
I all ways wondered: Drake. That guy. Why does he all ways want things to make
sense?
DRAKE:
Okay…
JACKSON:
And now you just told me:
DRAKE:
Yes?
JACKSON:
You expect things to have meaning. Because that’s what people all ways told
you. They said that you thought too much because they thought that you’d found
meaning in your thoughts. But that’s just how you were. Just naturally.
DRAKE:
You might be onto some thing there…
JACKSON:
So now it’s like your mind seeks meaning because you think it’s EXPECTED of
you. Like it justifies your random thoughts. A lot of which are true. But
largely meaningless.
[Drake
sighs, looking down. He looks up.]
DRAKE:
SYLVESTER!
SYLVESTER:
Hey!
JACKSON:
An other friend?
DRAKE:
Sylvester! How you BEEN man?
SYLVESTER:
GOOD.
DRAKE:
You got out?
SYLVESTER:
Yeah man. I just moved downtown a few weeks ago. Getting situated there now.
DRAKE:
RIGHT on. Well hey. Good for you. J.J. told me about what happened at
Out-N-About.
SYLVESTER:
Yeah it sucks.
DRAKE:
You know he got arrested again?
SYLVESTER:
Yeah I HEARD, man.
DRAKE:
Oh hey. This is my friend. Jackson Jacobson.
SYLVESTER:
Hey.
JACKSON:
Hello there.
DRAKE:
He is J.J. too.
SYLVESTER:
Oh no way. What a trip. [dismissively.]
DRAKE:
YEAH man. Jackson. Guess Sylvester’s sign.
JACKSON:
I want to say… Aries?
SYLVESTER:
Naww.
JACKSON:
Oh. Leo??
SYLVESTER:
Yup.
DRAKE:
You can see it now can’t you?
JACKSON:
Yeah the moment I said it I knew it.
DRAKE:
Yeah I heard it in your tone.
SYLVESTER:
Well I gotta head out. Here’s my bus.
DRAKE:
Oh yeah hey by the way. If you see Zane, remind him that he owes me two, okay?
SYLVESTER:
All right I’ll tell him.
DRAKE:
And I care about him! You know that he’s clean now?
SYLVESTER:
Yeah.
DRAKE:
His North Node is in Scorpio. He is getting more and more so every day.
SYLVESTER:
Right on. Well I’ll catch you guys later!
DRAKE:
All right PEACE, Sylvester!
DRAKE:
That guy is so cool.
JACKSON:
He was pretty chill.
DRAKE:
And I’m proud of Zane. Every thing else notwithstanding. At least he paid me
back three dollars that he owed me last time. He gave it to me in change. He
weighed it by hand and guessed it near-exactly.
JACKSON:
Very Scorpio.
DRAKE:
Yeah.
JACKSON:
How much you have on you now?
DRAKE:
Two.
JACKSON:
That’s not a lot.
DRAKE:
For me it is. Any way, you just reminded me of some thing that happened the
last time that I went down-town.
JACKSON:
You saw Sylvester?
DRAKE:
No. I met this group of kids who worked at an amusement park.
JACKSON:
Okay…
DRAKE:
And they were not bad people. Just perpetual adolescents.
JACKSON:
I can picture them even as you speak.
DRAKE:
And this one girl spent this one guy’s money. Twenty dollars on shots.
JACKSON:
WOW.
DRAKE:
He acted like it was the worst thing she could have done to him. You know, as a
joke.
JACKSON:
Was she joking?
DRAKE:
Huh? No. I mean HE was joking.
JACKSON:
What was his sign.
DRAKE:
Pisces.
JACKSON:
Interesting…
DRAKE:
And I confronted her about it. And she put on this face and was like: “Oh NO.
What kind of person blows off TWENTY DOLLARS? I must be SO AWFUL.”
JACKSON:
Was she?
DRAKE:
Apparently she’d bought them all dinner that night. She was loaded.
JACKSON:
What was her sign?
DRAKE:
Capricorn.
JACKSON:
The horny goat. [he muses.]
DRAKE:
You see, that’s the side of Capricorns I hate. But I can say that only since I
have three Caps in my chart, not counting House Placements, and as far as those
go I have one of the most challenging ones: Capricorn in my Fourth House.
Meaning my childhood sucked and now all I want to do is fuck around and help
people.
JACKSON:
That’s what she said.
DRAKE:
Too bad I’m broke.
JACKSON:
A Capricorn without money is like Dora without Boots.
DRAKE:
Who needs shoes when you’re a hobbit?
DRAKE:
You know: I just realized some thing.
JACKSON:
Not the first time today.
DRAKE:
People who distrust the kindness of strangers have never had to depend upon it.
JACKSON:
Church. [Pause.] But what about that Cap girl?
DRAKE:
Oh. She was a bitch.
JACKSON:
I didn’t mean that she distrusted you. Or that she never had to rely on any
one.
DRAKE:
She probably did not. Except for early on. If her parents had been hard on her,
she would have seen herself mirrored in me.
JACKSON:
But I meant: YOU distrusted her.
DRAKE:
And I maintain: she was a bitch.
JACKSON:
Even in spite of my argument? Didn’t you call that manipulation?
DRAKE:
Your argument was literally just a semantic elaboration.
JACKSON:
Fine, fine. I’ll take your word for it.
DRAKE:
THANK you.
JACKSON:
Fuck that cunt, nigha.
Dm.A.A.
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