Scene 33
MARION
Clayton, wait! Just you wait! Someone else is on the way. It won’t be long at all.
ED
Marion, please, come with me. Come up to the deck. Let’s go.
MARION
No, you’ve got to get down there, Ed. Please! Go! Stop sitting here and go down there with him.
ED
Everyone is doing everything they can. Marion, please, just come up to the deck.
MARION
There’s still time, Ed.
ED
I know, so come on. We gotta go. Just let me get something... an extra tank. Go up and wait for me by Reef Diver.
MARION
Okay. Okay.
ED
Clayton, can you hear me?
CLAY
I couldn’t hear you.
ED
What are you doing here? How did you get back?
CLAY
I couldn’t hear you. We never spoke.
ED
This isn’t how it happened.
CLAY
None of this is. I didn’t hear a word you said on the radio.
ED
No, it was. I heard you talking. I heard your voice.
CLAY
No, Dad.
ED
I spoke to you. Your mother spoke to you.
CLAY
You didn’t. You couldn’t, there was no radio in the chamber, Dad. You couldn’t hear anyone but Jock.
ED
But I did hear you. I remember it. They had you on the intercom. It was faint. Everyone was weak. I don't know, it may have been too late for Al already. But I heard you talking.
LINK
You sent your son down there with nothing.
ED
You said, 'I remember the cabin, Dad.'
LINK
No suits, no extra air, down into the cold in a tiny aluminum box.
ED
'I remember the cabin, Dad.' I didn’t hear anything else.
LINK
What did you expect to happen?
ED
I didn’t know.
LINK
What about his wife? What about his son?
ED
I didn’t know... How could I know?
LINK
All those years playing around in the water like a child in the tub. That’s just like you, never a thought to the people around you. Had to see it all, didn’t you? Couldn’t let it rest. Got your mind wrapped up in all these wild fantasies, like you’re in one of those adventure movies. You told him it was okay to do these things, okay to put your life on the line, okay to put your family at stake... As long as there was a camera in your face.
CLAY
That’s what they were watching when they dreamed up religion.
ED
I’m sorry, Clayton.
CLAY
It’s not your fault.
ED
I should have never let you go.
LINK
You should have locked him in his room, slipped food under the door, keep him from ever knowing what kind of danger was outside. You should have protected him. He should have never been down in that sub.
ED
I never should have let you do any of it.
CLAY
I should have never collected pottery from Greek ports, never should have seen the bottom of the ocean. Never should have laid my hands on an anchor from the Santa Maria.
LINK
Never should have let him go. Where were you when he needed you most?
ED
Clayton, I didn’t know...
CLAY
I knew what could happen down there. I knew every risk, and we took every precaution against it. I knew what I was doing down there. You showed me.
LINK
You killed your own son.
ED
It wasn’t supposed to happen...
CLAY
But it did. You’re no more guilty than I am. What if you did this? What if you did that? We could spend eternity debating it. I wanted it just as bad. You showed me the things other kids only read about. None of those kids will ever listen to the bugs in the middle of the Canadian wilderness, or stand on the walls of a Crusader city. I didn’t learn about history, I helped you make it. You gave me that, Dad. You didn’t do anything wrong. Thank you. Happy Father’s Day.
LINK
Ed, come with me. I’ve got something to show you.
ED
What is it, Daddy?
LINK
We’re going on a train.
ED
A big one? Like in my book?
LINK
Just like in your book. Your mother is going to get you ready to go. Come on. Come down to the parlor.
ED
Where are we going, Daddy?
LINK
A little place in the woods. They want us to make pianos.
ED
Will we be near the Ocean?
LINK
Close enough, I suppose.
ED
Can we see the Ocean?
LINK
Oh, sure, I suppose we’ll see it every weekend
ED
Some day, I’m going to have a house on the bottom of the Ocean, where no one can find me, so I can just sit and watch the fish go by.
MAN-IN-SEA
Cast of Characters:
LINK
An inventor. Also, Ed’s father.
ED
As Link remembers himself.
MARION
Ed’s wife.
CLAY
Ed and Marion’s second son.
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