Veronique St. Pierre “passes by” with her adopted daughter Zhaboonigan Peterson.
ENTERING DL, SLOWING DOWN WHEN PASSING MARIE-ADELE’S HOUSE ATTEMPTING TO HIDE HER INTENTION TO TALK TO MARIE-ADELE.IT IS OBVIOUS TO THE AUDIENCE SHE IS WALKING BY TO TALK TO MARIE-ADELE. VERONIQUE ST. PIERRE GLANCNING AT MARIE-ADELE.
WHILE PASSING BY, BUT STOPPING IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE AT END OF COMMENT WITH ZHABOONIGAN.
VERONIQUE: (Said in a snooty manner, looking down on Marie-Adele)
Talking to the birds again, Marie-Adele Starblanket?
DL IN FRONT OF HOUSE. MARIE-ADELE UR IN HER FRONT YARD HOLDING A LAUNDRY BASKET UNDER HER RIGHT ARM.
SLOWLY WALKING DIAGONALLY TOWARDS VERONIQUE DL, STOPPING AT DC.
MARIE-ADELE:(Said with slight sarcasm)
Aha. Veronique St. Pierre. How are you today?
WALKING WITH PURPOSE INTO MARIE-ADELES YARD TO JOIN HER DC. ZHABOONIGAN FOLLOWING, THEN TRAILING OFF TO EXPLORE THE YARD AND WATCH THE BIRDS.
VERONIQUE:(Eager to share this news, Veronique shares this with Marie-Adele as gossip, displaying Veronique St. Pierre’s love of gossiping)
Black Lady Halked’s sister-in-law Fire Minklater, Fire Minklater’s husband, just bought Fire Minklater a car in Sudbury.
(Through the following back and forth between Veronique and Marie-Adele, a sense of each character is portrayed, as Veronique is a gossiping busy body and Marie-Adele is a laid back individual that finds gossip unimportant)
MARIE-ADELE:
New?
VERONIQUE:
Used. They say he bought it from some Frenchman, some garage. Cray-on.
MARIE-ADELE:
Raymond.
MARIE-ADELE TURNING TO TEND TO A LAUNDRY LINE (UR) HUNG ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF SET FROM THE HOUSE TO THE FRONT OF THE STAGE, WHILE VERONIQUE QUICKLY FOLLOWS. VERONIQUE TALKS AS MARIE ADELE TAKES DOWN AND FOLDS THE LAUNDRY, PLACING IT IN THE BASKET AND MOVING DOWN THE LINE TOWARDS DR
VERONIQUE:
(Still just as eager to share the latest gossip, parts of the following being said as Veronique thinking out loud, Veronique moving from thought to thought very quickly)
There Frenchmen are forever selling us their used cars and I’m sure that’s why Black Lady Halked has been baring those big yellow teeth of hers, smiling all over the reserve recently. She looks like a hound about to pounce on a mouse, she smiles so hard when she smiles. I’d like to see her smile after plastic surgery. Anyway. At the bingo last night she was hinting that it wouldn’t be too long before she could go to the bingo in Espanola more frequently. Unfortunately, a new game started and you know how Black Lady Halked has to concentrate when she plays bingo – her forehead looks like corduroy she concentrates so hard – so I didn’t get a chance to ask her what she meant. So. Fire Minklater has a used car. Imagine! Maybe I could make friends with her again. NO! I wouldn’t be caught dead inside her car. Not even if she had a brand-new Cadillac. How are your children? All 14 of them.
MARIE-ADELE:
Okay, I guess.
VERONIQUE:
Imagine. And all from one father. Anyway. Who will take care of them after you
(Catching herself, pausing and not sure what to say for the first time in this conversation)
... ahem ... I mean ... when you go to the hospital?
MARIDE-ADELE: (Said matter-of-factly)
Eugene.
ZHABOONIGAN RETURNS TO THE CONVERSATION, WHICH IS NOW DR WITH MARIE-ADELE AND VERONIQUE.
ZHABOONIGAN:
Is he gentle?
STOPPING FOLDING TO TALK TO ZHABOONIGAN
MARIE-ADELE: (Said kindly, as she cares about Zhaboonigan)
Baby-cakes. How are you?
ZHABOONIGAN: (Speaking very childish and innocently throughout the following conversation)
Fine.
Giggles.
VERONIQUE: (Protective of Zhaboonigan)
She’s fine. She went berry-picking yesterday with the children.
ZHABOONIGAN:
Where’s Nicky?
MARIE-ADELE:
Nicky’s down at the beach.
ZHABOONIGAN:
Why?
MARIE-ADELE:
Taking care of Rose-Marie.
ZHABOONIGAN:
Oh.
MARIE-ADELE:
Yup.
ZHABOONIGAN:
Me and Nicky, ever lots of blueberries!
MARIE-ADELE: (Correcting Zhaboonigan in a friendly manner)
Me and Nicky picked lots of blueberries.
ZHABOONIGAN:
I didn’t see you there.
MARIE-ADELE:
Where?
ZHABOONIGAN:
Before today.
MARIE-ADELE:
How come Nicky didn’t come home with any?
ZHABOONIGAN:
Why?
Marie-Adele shrugs. Zhaboonigan imitates this, and then pretends she is stuffing her mouth with berries.
MARIE-ADELE:
Aw, yous went and made pigs of yourselves.
ZHABOONIGAN: (Giggling innocently)
Nicky’s the pig.
MARIE-ADELE:
Neee.
ZHABOONIGAN:
Are you going away far?
MARIE-ADELE: (Understanding that Zhaboonigan is referring to Marie-Adele’s cancer)
I’m not going far.
ZHABOONIGAN:
Oh. Are you pretty?
Marie-Adele, embarrassed for a moment, smiles and Zhaboonigan smiles, too.
MARIE-ADELE:
You’re pretty too.
Zhaboonigan tugs at Marie-Adele’s shoelaces.
RECOILING A COUPLE STEPS WHILE GIGGLING
Oh, Zhaboonigan. Now you have to tie it up. I can’t bend too far cuz I get tired.
ZHABOONIGAN RETURNING TO MARIE-ADELE
Zhaboonigan tries to tie the shoelaces with great difficulty. When she finds she can’t she throws her arms up and screams.
RUNNING TO THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE YARD DL
ZHABOONIGAN:
Dirty trick! Dirty trick!
She bites her hand and hurts herself.
MARIE-ADELE: (Trying to deal with the situation calmly)
Now, don’t get mad.
VERONIQUE:
Stop it. Stop it right now.
ZHABOONIGAN:
No! No!
MARIE-ADELE: (Remaining calm)
Zha. Zha. Listen. Listen.
ZHABOONIGAN: (Yelling at Zhaboonigan)
Stop it! Stop it right now!
TAKING A STEP TOWARDS ZHABOONIGAN AND MOTIONING FOR HER TO JOIN MARIE-ADELE ON HER SIDE OF THE YARD
MARIE-ADELE:
Come on Zha. You and I can name the koo-koos-suk (the little pigs). All 14 of them.
ZHABOONIGAN RETURNS TO DR
ZHABOOHNIAN:
Okay. Here we go.
Marie-Adele leads Zhaboonigan over to the picket fence and Veronique follows them.
WALKING TOWARDS THE PICKET FENCE AT THE FRONT OF THE STAGE ON THE RIGHT
ZHABOONIGAN:
To Veronique.
FORCEFULLY MOTIONING WITH HER HAND FOR VERONIQUE TO STOP
No.
Veronique retreats, obviously hurt.
MARIE-ADELE:
Taking Zhaboonigan’s hand and counting on the 14 posts of her white picket fence.
Simon, Andrew, Matthew, Janie, Nicky, Ricky, Ben, Mark, Ron, Don, John, Tom, Pete and Rose-Marie. There.
Underneath Marie-Adele’s voice, Zhaboonigan has been counting.
ZHABOONIGAN:
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.
Giggles.
MARIE-ADELE:
Ever good counter you, Zhaboonigan.
ZHABOONIGAN: (Said proudly, pleased with herself)
Yup.
MARIE-ADELE AND ZHABOONIGAN RETURNING TO DR WHERE VERONIQUE IS STANDING
VERONIQUE: (Feeling bad for herself, self-pity)
This reserve, sometimes I get so sick of it. They laugh at me behind my back, I just know it. They laugh at me and Pierre St. Pierre because we don’t have any children of our own. “Imagine, they say, she’s on her second husband already and she still can’t have children!” They laugh at Zhaboonigan Peterson because she’s crazy, that’s what they call her. They can’t even take care of their own people, they’d rather laugh at them. I’m the only person who would take Zhaboonigan after her parents died in that horrible car crash near Manitowaning on Saturday November 12 1964 may they rest in peace She makes a quick sign of the cross without skipping a beat. I’m the only one around here who is kind enough. And they laugh at me. Oh, I wish I had a new stove, Marie-Adele. My stove is so old and broken down, only two elements work anymore and my oven is starting to talk back at me.
MARIE-ADELE: (Unsympathetic to Veronique’s spiel before mentioning the stove)
Get it fixed.
VERONIQUE:
You know that Pierre St. Pierre never has any money. He drinks it all up.
She sighs longingly.
Some day! Anyway. Zhaboonigan here wanted to go for a swim so I thought I’d walk her down – drop by and see how you and the children are doing – it will do my weak heart good, I was saying to myself.
MARIE-ADELE NOTICES A SEAGUL SITTING ON A ROCK IN HER YARD DL
MARIE-ADELE:
Awus!
As she throws a pebble at the seagull on the stone, Veronique, for a second, thinks it’s her Marie-Adele is shooing away. There is a bit of a brief silence broken after awhile by Zhaboonigan’s little giggle.
VERONIQUE: (Returning to her gossiping ways)
Anyway. I was walking down by that Big Joey’s shameless little shack just this morning when guess who pokes her nose out the window but Gazelle Nataways – the nerve of that woman. I couldn’t see inside but I'm sure she was only half dressed, her hairdo was all mixed up and she said to me “Did you know, Veronique St. Pierre, that Little Girl Manitowabi told me her daughter, June Bug McLeod, just got back from the hospital in Sudbury where she had her tunes tied and told her that THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD is coming to Toronto?”
MARIE-ADELE: (The bingo is the first thing Veronique has said that has sincerely caught Marie-Adele’s attention)
When?
VERONIQUE: (In her own world, disregarding Marie-Adele’s question)
I just about had a heart attack.
MARIE-ADELE: (Persistent to find out more information about this bingo)
When?
VERONIQUE: (Continuing to disregard Marie-Adele)
But I said to Gazelle anyway: Is there such a thing as a BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD? And she said: Yes. And she should know about these things because she spends all her waking and sleeping hours just banging about in bed with the biggest thing on Manitoulin Island, I almost said.
MARIE-ADELE: (Getting impatient due to Veronique’s disregard for her question)
This bingo. When?
VERONIQUE:
She didn’t know. And now that I think of it, I don’t know whether to believe her. After all, who should believe a woman who wrestles around with dirt like Big Joey all night long leaving her poor babies to starve to death in her empty kitchen?
(Getting excited at the thought of this bingo)
But if it’s true, Marie-Adele, if it’s true that THE BIGGEST BINGO IN THE WORLD is coming to Toronto, I'm going and I want you to come with me.
MARIE-ADELE: (Wanting to, but thinking rationally)
Well ...
VERONIQUE: (Her excitement growing, like a kid in a candy store)
I want you to come shopping with me and help me choose my new stove after I win.
MARIE-ADELE:
Hang-on ...
VERONIQUE: (Carried away in her own thoughts)
They have good stoves in Toronto.
MARIE-ADELE: (Being the voice of reason)
Let’s find out for sure. Then we start making plans.
(Both women desperately trying to think of a way to confirm the existence of the bingo)
VERONIQUE:
Maybe we should go back and ask that Gazelle Nataways about this. If she’s sure.
MARIE-ADELE:
Maybe we should go and ask June Bug McLeod herself.
VERONIQUE:
We can’t walk to Buzwah and I'm too old to hitch-hike.
MARIE-ADELE:
There’s Eugene’s van. He’ll be home by six.
VERONIQUE: (Very self-conscious, caring about what others might think of her)
I want to find out NOW. But what if people see us standing at Big Joeys door?
MARIE-ADELE: (Sure of herself, not caring what others think of her)
What do you mean? We just knock on the door, march right in, ask the bitch, and march right out again.
VERONIQUE:
Zhaboonigan dear, wait for me over there.
ZHABOONIGAN WALKING TO DL
She waits until Zhaboonigan is safely out of earshot and then leans over to Marie-Adele in a conspiratorial whisper.
Anyway. You must know, Marie-Adele, that there’s all kinds of women that come streaming out of that house at all hours of the day and night. I might be considered one of them. You know your youngest sister, Emily Dictionary, was seen staggering out of that house in the dead of night two nights ago?
MARIE-ADELE: (Scolding Veronique)
Veronique St. Pierre, what Emily Dictionary does is Emily’s business.
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