Remembrance and Pantomime (11 page)

     Patamba!

(
Rattles beach chair
)

     
Backaraka! Backaraka!

(
Holds up cup, points with other hand
)

     
Banda!

(
Drops cup
)

     
Banda karan!

(
Puts his arm around
HARRY
;
points at him
)

     
Subu!

(
Faster, pointing
)

     
Masz!

(
Stamping the floor
)

     Zohgooooor!

(
Rests his snoring head on his closed palms
)

     
Oma! Omaaaa!

(
Kneels, looking skyward. Pauses; eyes closed
)

     
Booora! Booora!

(
Meaning the world. Silence. He rises
)

     
Cut!

     And dat is what it was like, before you come here with your table this and cup that.

HARRY

     All right. Good audition. You get twenty dollars a day without dialogue.

JACKSON

     But why?

HARRY

     You never called anything by the same name twice. What’s a table?

JACKSON

     I forget.

HARRY

     I remember: patamba!

JACKSON

     Patamba?

HARRY

     Right. You fake.

JACKSON

     That’s a breakfast table.
Ogushi.
That’s a dressing table.
Amanga ogushi.
I remember now.

HARRY

     I’ll tell you one thing, friend. If you want me to learn your language, you’d better have a gun.

JACKSON

     You best play Crusoe, chief. I surrender. All you win.

(
Points wearily
)

     Table. Chair. Cup. Man. Jesus. I accept. I accept. All you win. Long time.

(
Smiles
)

HARRY

     All right, then. Improvise, then. Sing us a song. In your new language, mate. In English. Go ahead. I challenge you.

JACKSON

     You what?

(
Rises, takes up parasol, handling it like a guitar, and strolls around the front row of the audience
)

(
Sings
)

     
I want to tell you ’bout Robinson Crusoe.

     
He tell Friday, when I do so, do so.

     
Whatever I do, you must do like me.

     
He make Friday a Good Friday Bohbolee;
1

     
That was the first example of slavery,

     
’Cause I am still Friday and you ain’t me.

     
Now Crusoe he was this Christian and all,

     
And Friday, his slave, was a cannibal,

     
But one day things bound to go in reverse,

     
With Crusoe the slave and Friday the boss.

HARRY

     Then comes this part where Crusoe sings to the goat. Little hint of animal husbandry:

(
Kneels, embraces an imaginary goat, to the melody of “Swanee”
)

(
Sings
)

     
Nanny, how I love you,

     
How I love you,

     
My dear old nanny …

JACKSON

     Is a li’l obscene.

HARRY

(
Music-hall style
)

     Me wife thought so. Know what I used to tell her? Obscene? Well, better to be obscene than not heard. How’s that? Harry Trewe, I’m telling you again, the music hall’s loss is calypso’s gain.

(
Stops
)

(
JACKSON
pauses. Stares upward, muttering to himself.
HARRY
turns.
JACKSON
is signaling in the air with a self-congratulatory smile
)

HARRY

     What is it? What’ve we stopped for?

(
JACKSON
hisses for silence from
HARRY
,
then returns to his reverie. Miming
)

     Are you feeling all right, Jackson?

(
JACKSON
walks some distance away from
HARRY.
An imaginary guitar suddenly appears in his hand.
HARRY
circles him. Lifts one eyelid, listens to his heartbeat.
JACKSON
revolves,
HARRY
revolves with him.
JACKSON
’s
whole body is now silently rocking in rhythm. He is laughing to himself. We hear, very loud, a calypso rhythm
)

     Two can play this game, Jackson.

(
He strides around in imaginary straw hat, twirling a cane. We hear, very loud, music hall. It stops.
HARRY
peers at
JACKSON
)

JACKSON

     You see what you start?

(
Sings
)

     
Well, a Limey name Trewe came to Tobago.

     
He was in show business but he had no show,

     
so in desperation he turn to me

     
and said: “Mister Phillip” is the two o’ we,

     
one classical actor, and one Creole …

HARRY

     Wait! Hold it, hold it, man! Don’t waste that. Try and remember it. I’ll be right back.

JACKSON

     Where you going?

HARRY

     Tape. Repeat it, and try and keep it. That’s what I meant, you see?

JACKSON

     You start to exploit me already?

HARRY

     That’s right. Memorize it.

(
Exits quickly.
JACKSON
removes his shirt and jacket, rolls up his pants above the knee, clears the breakfast tray to one side of the floor, overturns the table, and sits in it, as if it were a boat, as
HARRY
returns with the machine
)

     What’s all this? I’m ready to tape. What’re you up to?

(
JACKSON
sits in the upturned table, rowing calmly, and from time to time surveying the horizon. He looks up toward the sky, shielding his face from the glare with one hand; then he gestures to
HARRY
)

     What?

(
JACKSON
flaps his arms around leisurely, like a large sea bird, indicating that
HARRY
should do the same
)

     What? What about the song? You’ll forget the bloody song. It was a fluke.

JACKSON

(
Steps out from the table, crosses to
HARRY
,
irritated
)

     If I suppose to help you with this stupidness, we will have to cool it and collaborate a little bit. Now, I was in that boat, rowing, and I was looking up to the sky to see a storm gathering, and I wanted a big white sea bird beating inland from a storm. So what’s the trouble, Mr. Trewe?

HARRY

     Sea bird? What sea bird? I’m not going to play a fekking sea bird.

JACKSON

     Mr. Trewe, I’m only asking you to play a white sea bird because I am supposed to play a black explorer.

HARRY

     Well, I don’t want to do it. Anyway, that’s the silliest acting I’ve seen in a long time. And Robinson Crusoe wasn’t
rowing
when he got shipwrecked; he was on a huge boat. I didn’t come here to play a sea bird, I came to tape the song.

JACKSON

     Well, then, is either the sea bird or the song. And I don’t see any reason why you have to call my acting silly. We suppose to improvise.

HARRY

     All right, Jackson, all right. After I do this part, I hope you can remember the song. Now you just tell me, before we keep stopping, what I am supposed to do, how many animals I’m supposed to play, and … you know, and so on, and so on, and then when we get all that part fixed up, we’ll tape the song, all right?

JACKSON

     That suits me. Now, the way I see it here: whether Robinson Crusoe was on a big boat or not, the idea is that he got …

(
Pause
)

     shipwrecked. So I … if I am supposed to play Robinson Crusoe my way, then I will choose the way in which I will get shipwrecked. Now, as Robinson Crusoe is rowing, he looks up and he sees this huge white sea bird, which is making loud sea-bird noises, because a storm is coming. And Robinson Crusoe looks up toward the sky and sees that there is this storm. Then, there is a large wave, and Robinson Crusoe finds himself on the beach.

HARRY

     Am I supposed to play the beach? Because that’s white …

JACKSON

     Hilarious! Mr. Trewe. Now look, you know, I am doing
you
a favor. On this beach, right? Then he sees a lot of goats. And, because he is naked and he needs clothes, he kills a goat, he takes off the skin, and he makes this parasol here and this hat, so he doesn’t go around naked for everybody to see. Now I
know
that there is nobody there, but there is an audience, so the sooner Robinson Crusoe puts on his clothes, then the better and happier we will all be. I am going to go back in the boat. I am going to look up toward the sky. You will,
please,
make the sea-bird noises. I will do the wave, I will crash onto the sand, you will come down like a goat, I will kill you, take off your skin, make a parasol
and
a hat, and after that, then I promise you that I will remember the song. And I will sing it to the best of my ability.

(
Pause
)

     However shitty that is.

HARRY

     I said “silly.” Now listen …

JACKSON

     Yes, Mr. Trewe?

HARRY

     Okay, if you’re a black explorer … Wait a minute … wait a minute. If you’re really a white explorer but you’re black, shouldn’t I play a black sea bird because I’m white?

JACKSON

     Are you … going to extend … the limits of prejudice to include … the flora and fauna of this island? I am entering the boat.

(
He is stepping into the upturned table or boat, as
HARRY
halfheartedly imitates a bird, waving his arms
)

HARRY

     Kekkkk, kekkkk,

     kekkk, kekkkk!

(
Stops
)

     What’s wrong?

JACKSON

     What’s wrong? Mr. Trewe, that is not a sea gull … that is some kind of … well, I don’t know what it is … some kind of
jumbie
bird or something.

(
Pause
)

     I am returning to the boat.

(
He carefully enters the boat, expecting an interrupting bird cry from
HARRY
,
but there is none, so he begins to row
)

HARRY

     Kekk! Kekkk.

(
He hangs his arms down. Pause
)

     Er, Jackson, wait a minute. Hold it a second. Come here a minute.

(
JACKSON
patiently gets out of the boat, elaborately pantomiming lowering his body into shallow water, releasing his hold on the boat, swimming a little distance toward shore, getting up from the shallows, shaking out his hair and hands, wiping his hands on his trousers, jumping up and down on one foot to unplug water from his clogged ear, seeing
HARRY
,
then walking wearily, like a man who has swum a tremendous distance, and collapsing at
HARRY
’S
feet
)

     Er, Jackson. This is too humiliating. Now, let’s just forget it and please don’t continue, or you’re fired.

(
JACKSON
leisurely wipes his face with his hands
)

JACKSON

     It don’t go so, Mr. Trewe. You know me to be a meticulous man. I didn’t want to do this job. I didn’t even want to work here. You convinced me to work here. I have worked as meticulously as I can, until I have been promoted. This morning I had no intention of doing what I am doing now; you have always admired the fact that whatever I begin, I finish. Now, I will accept my resignation, if you want me to,
after
we have finished this thing. But I am not leaving in the middle of a job, that has never been my policy. So you can sit down, as usual, and watch me work, but until I have finished this whole business of Robinson Crusoe being in the boat

(
He rises and repeats the pantomime
)

     looking at an imaginary sea bird, being shipwrecked, killing a goat, making this hat
and
this parasol, walking up the beach and finding a naked footprint, which should take me into about another ten or twelve minutes, at the most, I will pack my things and I will leave, and you can play
Robinson Crusoe
all by yourself. My plans were, after this, to take the table like this …

(
He goes to the table, puts it upright
)

     Let me show you: take the table, turn it all around, go under the table …

(
He goes under the table
)

     and this would now have become Robinson Crusoe’s hut.

(
Emerges from under the table and, without looking at
HARRY
,
continues to talk
)