Scene One

Time:  Thursday morning (around 8:15 A.M. May, 1997)

(Oren is standing at the window at L and  looking out impatiently.)

Oren: (glancing at his wrist watch) Where is he? Doesn't he know its after eight o'clock?    With all the wet weather we've been having, you'd think he'd been out there at the crack of dawn.

Fay: (voice comes from offstage R) Oren, are you talking to yourself again?

Oren: (ignoring her and propping himself against the wall so that he can see in a southerly
direction) And I don't see his tractor on the road either. What can he be thinking? Doesn't he know that May's nearly over? Doesn't he know how short the growing season will be this year? Doesn't he --

Fay: (enters from R carrying a mug of coffee and crosses over to Oren) Oren, will you   
come away from that window for just a minute? Sit down with me and have a cup of  
coffee.

(Oren continues to ignore her.)

Fay:  (taking him by the hand  and leading him across to the table at R) And quit worrying  
about Gary Cummings. Don't you think he knows a little bit about farming too?

(Oren makes a disgusted noise and sits down heavily in the chair.)

Fay: (putting her hands on her hips) Well, if he doesn't know anything about farming, then
why did you sell him your land?

(Oren makes a motion up to his left ear.)

Fay: (slapping his hand away) And don't you go turning down your hearing aid on me      when I'm asking you a question. Why did you sell Gary three quarters of land last fall
if you don't think he can farm them?

(Oren opens his mouth to answer , but Fay jumps in before he can reply.)

Fay: I'll tell you why, Oren. Because Gary has been a good neighbour to us all these years,
hasn't he? Helped us out in harvest many a time,  lent you his machinery -- Oren, am I right?

(Oren nods reluctantly.)

Fay: In fact, Gary is a pretty fine human being. And -- he gave you a heck of a price, too,
for the whole farm -- lock, stock and barrel. No auction for us. He gave us enough money to fix up this old farmhouse --

Oren: (unable to contain himself any longer)  Of course he's got money! Doesn't he have
36 oil wells on his land? He's the gentleman farmer, remember?  Gary can afford to be generous, can't he? He's rich as --   as rich as -- (scratches his head) those Greening brothers way over by Lampman.

Fay: Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that, but anyway, Oren, what have you got against Gary Cummings? or is it just that you wish you hadn't gotten out of farming? Maybe turning this old place into a bed and breakfast wasn't such a good idea after all. (opens drawer on the sideboard and pulls out a number of travel brochures)
         
Oren: Oh, I don't have anything against Gary personally. It's just that he wants to change
everything. All this talk about zero-tillage --  and all those names of chemicals he uses -- like  Achieve, Target,   Touchdown, Avenger, Rival,  Ally, Muster, Pursuit . When I listen to him , I'm not  sure if  he's talking about farming or an action-adventure movie.(gets up and walks to the window again.) Maybe I shouldn't worry about the land anymore. After all, I don't own it. Why should I care if Gary doesn't get  his crop in? But Fay -- old habits die hard I guess.  Maybe if it wasn't such a wet spring, I wouldn't care so much.

Fay: (seizing the opportunity) You know, Oren, I think we should get away for a while. Maybe we could even leave the country since we don't have anything to tie us down anymore.  (dreamily) You know -- go see some of those far-off places I've always  dreamed about - like Athens or Paris. Oren, can't you just see us floating down the canals of Venice in a gondola -- or picking wildflowers in the foothills of the Swiss Alps. It says in this travel magazine that --

Oren: (turns to look at her in surprise) Whoa, whoa.How can you say that we're not tied down? We've got  our first guests coming tomorrow. Wasn't it your idea to make this place into a bed and breakfast?

Fay: (looking sheepish) Well -- yes -- it was, but I never figured that it would tie us down so much that we couldn't do some travelling -- at least in the winter. My goodness, Oren, who would book a bed and breakfast in southeast Saskatchewan in December or January? You'd have to be crazy to do that!

Oren: Fay, I don't know if this has ever occurred to you, but we spent a considerable amount of money fixing this place up -- building on the addition behind the kitchen, installing the hardwood floors, putting in new windows, fixing the roof, and buying those dangly things --

Fay: They're Venetian blinds, Oren.

Oren:   And besides that we have to set aside some money to pay for our basic living expenses -- now that we don't have the farm income anymore.  In any case,  there's certainly no money for doing any travelling -- well, maybe we could afford a supper or two in Crosby -- but, this bed and breakfast thing is a big financial commitment. We have to wait and see how it does before we start throwing money away on anything else.

(Fay just stares at him.)

Oren:  You're not trying to tell me in a roundabout way that the only reason you came up
with the bed and breakfast  idea was to find a way to get some renovations done on the house, are you?

(Fay takes the travel magazines, tosses them back into the drawer, and closes it with
a loud bang. . . .

Copyright by Maureen Ulrich