31 Plays in 31 Days: #4 - "Colors in the Sky in Rain"

Today's piece uses characters from The Stand. It's spoiler-free for the game, so it's all right to read if you haven't played yet. It tells a bit of the backstory of two of the characters in the game, Negahse'wey the Yurok woman and a certain former US Marshall who once called himself Kenneth Dillon. I'm pretty good at writing the voice of a cowboy from the 1840s, but I struggled more with figuring out how a Yurok Native American who didn't know perfect English would talk. I tried to give it some verisimilitude without descending into stereotypes.

And hey, this one's not dark! In fact, it was playing these characters that and Adam were legally married while in my larp. I'm still tickled by that. :-D

Day #4 - "Colors in the Sky in Rain"

(A white man, KENNETH DILLON, dressed in flannel and denim lies asleep on a pallet. A Native American woman, NEGAHSE’WEY, sits a ways off mixing herbs and mud in a bowl.)

(After a moment, KENNETH stirs, moaning softly. He claps his hand to his forehead in pain, then pushes himself up to rest on one elbow.)

KENNETH: Jesus Christ, Buck… feel like a bull run me over… Buck? You there?

(He looks around and is surprised by his surroundings.)

KENNETH: What…? Where am I?

(He looks at NEGASE’WEY in shock. She looks back at him, considering.)

KENNETH: God damn! Who in the hell are you?

(He scrambles awkwardly back a bit.)

KENNETH: Jesus… one of them Yuroks, ain’t she. Gonna be lucky to get out of here with my scalp still on. Oh, Jesus. What in the hell does she want?

NEGAHSE’WEY: I know your talk some.

KENNETH: Oh! Oh. Uh, sorry, there, miss. Ma’am.

(As an afterthought he goes to take off his hat, and realizes he isn’t wearing it.)

KENNETH: Uh, where’s my…

(She reaches for it and hands it to him. He holds it to his chest.)

KENNETH: Thank you, miss. Feel naked without my…

(He clutches his hair again.)

KENNETH: You ain’t cut off my scalp.

(NEGAHSE’WEY looks at him as if he’s an idiot. KENNETH suddenly feels a fool.)

KENNETH: I guess… I reckon you had plenty of chance if you was going to do that. Sorry, ma’am. Can you… can you tell me where I am?

NEGAHSE’WEY: Yurok village. The old plank house where nobody goes.

KENNETH: Yurok village? How’d I get here?

NEGAHSE’WEY: Found you half-dead. Washed up in the river.

KENNETH: The… the river…

NEGAHSE’WEY: Very stupid, swimming with hide and wood and iron on your feet.

KENNETH: We got no choice! We was on the trail, after some varmint! Me and Buck… Oh, Jesus… Buck! He must think I’m a dead man.

(He struggles to stand, but collapses back onto the pallet.)

NEGAHSE’WEY: Buck?

(She comes over with her bowl of herbs and tries to quiet him. She examines him, checking his pulse and looking into the whites of his eyes.)

KENNETH: My brother, my partner in the marshalls… he was with me. Going after the varmint. We chased him to the river, but the storm was picking up. Water was running wild, made it hard to cross, but we couldn’t just let him get away. Had to go in after him. But… the rain, and the current…

NEGAHSE’WEY: River swept you away.

KENNETH: Yeah… yeah, it did. Hit me like a freight train. That’s the last thing I recollect.

(She begins dabbing at his cuts with the contents of her bowl.)

NEGAHSE’WEY: Found you after. In the mud after storm. Only a little breath, much blood. Though you dead, but… I saw your breath.

KENNETH: No wonder my head’s pounding like a stampede. So I been here since last night?

NEGAHSE’WEY: Three nights.

KENNETH: Three nights!?

NEGAHSE’WEY: You sleep. I wonder if you never wake.

KENNETH: Oh, Jesus. Gone all that time… I gotta get back, gotta tell Buck I ain’t dead…

(NEGAHSE’WEY tries to keep him still, but KENNETH staggers to his feet. He goes to leave but sways helplessly.)

NEGAHSE’WEY: Not good to go out there.

KENNETH: Why?

NEGAHSE’WEY: People out there. Yurok.

KENNETH: Yurok?

NEGAHSE’WEY: Want you not here. Rather you die.

KENNETH: Oh. Oh, Lord.

(He sways. NEGAHSE’WEY helps him back to the pallet.)

NEGAHSE’WEY: I think you not go far.

KENNETH: Might… might be right, ma’am. Oof… like I was drunk of a week, I’m so dizzy. Reckon I’m stuck here until I can defend myself on the way out.

(He allows NEGAHSE’WEY to continue ministering to him silently for a moment, then looks to her.)

KENNETH: Wait a breath… if nobody wants me here… how in thunder did I get here?

NEGAHSE’WEY: Me.

KENNETH: You? Just you?

NEGAHSE’WEY: And my spotted pony. Lay you on his back, bring you here.

KENNETH: But… you said they don’t want me here.

NEGAHSE’WEY: Yes. They say, no white man here. Should leave you where you lay, leave you die. I say no. I say, carry you back here, lay you in the old plank house, tend your wounds. Much anger at me.

KENNETH: Why’d you do it, then?

NEGAHSE’WEY: Sad for you. Lying there, blood and hurt, with no one. Sad.

(KENNETH takes off his hat again.)

KENNETH: That was… that was right kind of you, miss. And… sounds like brave too. Thank you.

(Pause.)

KENNETH: Ah… the name’s Dillon, by the way. US Marshall Kenneth Dillon.

(She stares.)

KENNETH: Just… call me Kenneth. If you please.

(Awkwardly he extends his hand for a handshake. He is a little thrown when she touches it palm to palm.)

KENNETH: What’s your name?

NEGAHSE’WEY: (Considering) You say… Colors in the Sky in Rain.

KENNETH: “Colors in...?” Your name’s Rainbow?

(She stares.)

KENNETH: Uh… what do you say? In your tongue?

NEGASEH’WEY: Negahse’wey.

KENNETH: Negah— Negahse’wey.

(She laughs at his pronunciation.)

NEGAHSE’WEY: I have your tongue. You have no Yurok.

KENNETH: Well… I could! I think… I think I might be here for a little while. I could learn.

(She laughs again.)

KENNETH: (Trying hard.) Negahse’wey! See there! I know one word already! Might be… might be you could teach me more.

(NEGAHSE’WEY walks over to the pallet, tipping her head back and forth.)

NEGAHSE’WEY: Might be. Might be not. So stupid you swim with your boots.

(KENNETH stares a minute, then, realizing she’s made a joke, bursts out laughing. Negahse’wey smiles.)