THE SET-UP
This scene is the first in which Tyson appears, immediately following Anne’s speech that opens the play, and the scene with Anne, Nicholas and Seth which follows that – showing their process of writing coded letters to maintain contact, available here online under the titles:
Graveside Thoughts
Letters to the Battlefield
Seth is a young Marine serving during wartime. Nicholas is his civilian longtime companion who waits back home. In addition to the strain on their relationship caused by distance and absence, they must hide their love for one another behind code words and secret identities because of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy barring gays and lesbians from serving openly in the United States military. Seth’s mother Anne assists them by providing the cover of a woman’s handwriting for Nicholas’ daily letters, but Nicholas and Seth’s resolve is starting to weaken. Tyson, a former Army soldier who got fed up with “don’t ask, don’t tell” and didn’t reenlist, now works alongside Nicholas, providing temptation as well as a reality check.
“If I used what they taught me in the Army, I’d just demand the letter from you at gunpoint.”
Emphasis shifts as —
TYSON, a man, late 20s/early 30s, former Army, appears and walks over to NICHOLAS.
TYSON
I’ve been meaning to ask you. What’s all this stuff about dogs in your letters?
NICHOLAS
You read my letters.
TYSON
Just over your shoulder here at lunch.
NICHOLAS
They’re private. Do your crossword puzzle.
TYSON
I’m bored.
NICHOLAS
Read a book.
TYSON
We work in a library. I come out here for lunch to escape books.
NICHOLAS
So you read my letters instead.
TYSON
You won’t talk to me. You’re always writing and reading. So I thought I’d peek, just to pass the time.
NICHOLAS
That what they teach you in the Army?
TYSON
No, if I used what they taught me in the Army, I’d just demand the letter from you at gunpoint.
NICHOLAS
Guess I’m glad you resigned.
TYSON
Discharged. Honorable.
NICHOLAS
It’s not a dog, it’s a puppy.
TYSON
Big dog, little dog, whatever. You don’t have one, he doesn’t have one, I don’t even think his family has one. So why all the chatter about dogs?
NICHOLAS
It’s code.
TYSON
For?
NICHOLAS
Me.
TYSON
You’re the puppy.
NICHOLAS
It’s a nickname. He calls me Pup.
TYSON
Why? Is your nose cold and wet?
NICHOLAS
It’s short for Studpuppy.
TYSON
Oh dear. What’s your nickname for him?
NICHOLAS
Tyson. Please stop.
TYSON
If I don’t find out now, I’ll just find out later.
Pause.
NICHOLAS
Thumper.
TYSON
Oh my.
NICHOLAS
Pup needs to write to Thumper now. Do your crossword.
TYSON
You write him every day? Literally.
NICHOLAS
He’s in a war zone.
TYSON
Well now you’re just making me sound shallow.
NICHOLAS
Do your crossword.
TYSON
I know what a war zone’s like.
NICHOLAS
I know.
TYSON
That’s why I understand what you’re going through.
NICHOLAS
What he’s going through. I’m not going through anything.
TYSON
Bullshit. It’s no easier being a soldier’s wife.
NICHOLAS
I’m not being shot at.
TYSON
No. But he’s forcing you to live in the closet, too.
NICHOLAS
No one’s forcing me. I love him. He loves me.
TYSON
You just can’t say it out loud, either of you.
NICHOLAS
He writes me, too.
TYSON
Every day?
NICHOLAS
He’s in a war zone.
TYSON
Every other day?
NICHOLAS
As often as he can.
He doesn’t get regular lunch breaks.
TYSON
Why do you think none of my relationships ever worked out?
NICHOLAS
Because you’re an asshole?
TYSON
Aside from that.
NICHOLAS
Because you’re constantly interrupting people when they’re trying to do personal business on their personal time?
TYSON
I can keep coming back to this question until you answer it.
NICHOLAS
What do you want me to say? That I wish he wasn’t in the Marines? That he wasn’t in danger? That we didn’t have to hide? That I didn’t have to worry about stupid things like, oh, I don’t know, the fact that if he ever got captured, and they knew he was gay, they’d kill him faster than if he was just your run-of-the-mill average everyday straight American soldier?
TYSON
Ah, ah, ah, careful now.
NICHOLAS
God! OK. Marine, not soldier. Always Marine.
TYSON
Even I know that. They never let you forget that.
NICHOLAS
Marines are Marines. Army men and women are “just soldiers.”
TYSON
Hilarious.
NICHOLAS
He’s going to hate you.
TYSON
Of course he is. I’m here.
NICHOLAS
You quit.
TYSON
I woke up.
NICHOLAS
Somebody has to fight.
TYSON
That’s a different argument. But the minute they acknowledge me as a full human being, I’ll be more than happy to pick up a gun and a knife and start fighting again. Until then, they can find someone else to go do their killing for them.
You coming to the protest with me?
NICHOLAS
You know the answer to that.
TYSON
Yeah, I just kinda wanna hear you admit it.
NICHOLAS
Admit what?
TYSON
That you can’t go to a demonstration against the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy because…?
NICHOLAS
— because my husband is an active-duty Marine, and if I draw attention to myself, I draw attention to him.
TYSON
So while he’s off fighting to keep this country safe, you have no freedom of speech, no freedom of assembly, no freedom to call upon the government for redress of grievances.
NICHOLAS
Sleeping with that lawyer from the ACLU again?
TYSON
Who says I stopped? And he’s with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. And only when he’s in town.
NICHOLAS
Finish your crossword.
TYSON
Your poor mother-in-law’s hands must be about ready to fall off.
NICHOLAS
If it keeps her son alive and sane, she’s happy to do it.
TYSON
She writes him every day. You write him every day. Then she copies your letter over again in a woman’s handwriting. Don’t they get that it’s the same person writing both sets of letters?
NICHOLAS
She uses different paper, different envelopes. She only handwrites the address and return address on her own letters. Mine she has printed labels I make for her. Her letters are in cursive. Mine, she prints. Every now and again, one or the other or both of us will type it up on a computer instead and print it out. She still does the signatures, though.
TYSON
Damn. That’s quite an elaborate set of checks and balances you’ve got for yourself there, Skippy.
NICHOLAS
I won’t pick up a gun. But I can pick up a pen. So can she.
TYSON
What’s your girl name?
NICHOLAS
My…?
TYSON
You don’t sign your letters Nicholas. Or rather, his mom doesn’t.
NICHOLAS
Nikki.
TYSON
Clever.
NICHOLAS
The simpler the lie, the better.
TYSON
He teach you that?
NICHOLAS
Why are you busting my balls today?
TYSON
N-I-C-K-Y?
NICHOLAS
N-I-K-K-I.
TYSON
Oh Lord, that’s priceless.
NICHOLAS
I’m thrilled our response to crippling prejudice in the military can provide you with your chuckles for the day.
TYSON
Nikki is a lovely name. Really. You sound like you should be mounting a stripper pole.
NICHOLAS
I think we need to work on getting you transferred to another department.
TYSON
Stripper girlfriend. Very butch. Perfect camouflage.
NICHOLAS
There’s only one pole I’m gonna be mounting, smartass. And we both know who it belongs to.
TYSON
I’ve been there. Where he is.
I’m your little Marine surrogate.
NICHOLAS
Do not say things like that when he gets home.
TYSON
If he gets home.
NICHOLAS
Do not say things like that. Ever.
TYSON
OK. I’ll just let you think them.
NICHOLAS
The world is the way it is. Me worrying all the time but doing nothing isn’t going to change anything one way or the other. It certainly isn’t going to make things better. So I write, and I try to stay positive. No sense in me throwing extra shadows. Someone has to hold up a candle somewhere.
TYSON
Even candles throw shadows.
NICHOLAS
Finish your crossword.
(photo: (left to right) Tim Schmidt as Nicholas and Bennett Smith as Tyson in the 2008 production of “Leave” by AfterDark Theatre Company at University of Minnesota-Morris and the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater in Minneapolis, MN; photography by Alex Clark)
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