ORACLE ROCK

a play in two acts

by
Roger Rueff

Contact: Roger Rueff

roger@[Link]
Oracle Rock

CAST OF CHARACTERS

CHANCE: Male, late 40s. A theoretical

climatologist, temporarily waylaid
by fate while on a cross-country
motorcycle trek.

GRACE: Female, roughly the same age as

CHANCE. Owner of the Oracle Rock
Inn. A believer in practical
mysticism.

HOPE: Female, 16. A high-functioning

autistic savant. She seldom makes
eye contact, and on the few
occasions that she speaks French,
it is with a perfect accent.

DAN'L: Male, late-20s. A part-time

handyman, guided very strongly by
his Christian convictions.

SCENE

The courtyard of the Oracle Rock Inn in eastern Utah.

TIME

The present, early October.

Oracle Rock 1-1-1

ACT I

SCENE 1

SETTING: The courtyard of the Oracle Rock

Inn, a rustic, well-kept retreat in
eastern Utah, not far from Moab.
The architecture is of an ancient
pueblo style updated only slightly
since its construction in the 1920s
to accommodate a few minor
conveniences of modern life. It
seems to have grown up naturally
out of the surrounding landscape.

Upstage center stands the facade of

the main lodge, a one-and-a-half
story structure with three small
windows in its attic space. The
front of the lodge sports a broad
wooden porch covered by a light
canvas awning through which the
daylight casts a warm glow. A few
small tables are set up on the
porch, on one of which sits a chess
set. Nearby is a cooler filled
with iced beverages. The door to
the lodge is wide open.

Upstage right, near the corner of

the lodge, stands the thick trunk
of a tall cottonwood tree whose
high, leafy canopy shades much of
the courtyard. A few lower
branches overhang the porch canopy,
suggesting the great size of the
tree. An artful sign nailed to its
trunk reads "CABINS," with an arrow
pointing upstage, past the lodge.

Downstage right stands a small

stucco gateway that serves as the
entrance to a path that leads to a
gravel parking lot, very far
offstage right.
Oracle Rock 1-1-2

SETTING (CONT.): Stage left stands the front of

GRACE's workshop, a one-story
building the architecture of which
matches that of the main lodge,
including a similar canopied porch.
In the downstage corner of the
porch stands a workbench upon which
lie a few kachina dolls in various
stages of manufacture. The door to
the workshop is also wide open.

In the gap between the studio and

the main lodge lies an alley
leading to a hiking trail far
offstage left. A sign mounted on
the wall of the main lodge points
in the direction of the trail and
reads simply: "VORTEX".

In the center of the courtyard

stands a small, dry fountain
adorned with cacti and various
desert flowers. The fountain is
surrounded by a well-worn oval path
that looks to have resulted from a
months-long single-file parade.

AT RISE: Mid-morning, in early October. The

courtyard is quiet and peaceful.
We hear footsteps approaching on
the gravel path from the parking
lot.

After a moment, CHANCE and DAN'L

enter through the gateway. CHANCE
is dressed in dirty jeans,
motorcycle boots, and a long-
sleeved t-shirt and carries a
motorcycle helmet and a large sissy
bar bag that looks like it has seen
its share of hard-riding miles.
DAN'L wears the casual attire of a
part-time handyman interrupted in
his work.

DAN'L
(summarily)
And here you go. Oracle Rock in her glory.

CHANCE
"Oracle Rock." That's funny.
Oracle Rock 1-1-3

DAN'L
Why?

CHANCE
It just is.

DAN'L
That there's the main lodge, with the office, kitchen and
whatnot. The cabins are all within walkin' distance. None
of 'em big, but clean and sturdy.

CHANCE
The way this day started, I'm just grateful for a place to
lay my head.

DAN'L
I'll bet you are.

CHANCE
And thanks for the lift, by the way.

DAN'L
Don't mention it. I was already headed up here. Figured to
do my Uncle Luther a favor while he gets your bike back in
order.

CHANCE
Did he say when that might be?

DAN'L
Depends on the parts. There's no predicting, but maybe as
soon as tomorrow. Knock on whatever.

CHANCE
(unburdening himself of his bag)
Well, that's fine.

DAN'L
Talk about your freaks of nature. Lightnin', you say.

CHANCE
Out of nowhere.

DAN'L
It would have to be that. There hasn't been a cloud around
here for days.

CHANCE
Not here, maybe, but somewhere close by. I know it can
happen, but... wow.

DAN'L
You're aware of that kinda thing?
Oracle Rock 1-1-4

CHANCE
I read it in a journal. Weather is my line of work. I'm a
forecaster.

DAN'L
Like on TV?

CHANCE
Like in a lab. A computer lab, actually. I develop
mathematical models.

DAN'L
And this journal of yours. It talked about things like
that?

CHANCE
"A bolt from the blue," they call it. Lightning has been
known to strike up to 25 miles from its source.
(indicating a far-off mountain range)
That range over there, I'm guessing, is the culprit. Or
somewhere just beyond.

DAN'L
Well, at least it hit the bike and not the rider.

CHANCE
I'm a lucky man. No doubt about that.

DAN'L
"Blessed" is more like it. Someone up above was watching
out.

CHANCE
Or needs to improve his aim.

DAN'L
(sizing him up a little)
Are you a man of faith, Mr. ...?

CHANCE
Chance. I know; it's funny, given what I do. And no, I am
not. I'm a naturalist, actually. Of the metaphysical bent.

DAN'L
I guess I never heard of that.

CHANCE
It means I think that nature follows laws. And those laws
can be discovered. That's the gist.

DAN'L
And what does that have to with believin' in God?
Oracle Rock 1-1-5

CHANCE
If everything in the universe is subject to natural law,
then nothing can exist outside it.

DAN'L
Outside the universe?

CHANCE
Outside the law. Everything is all just cause and effect.
If and then. And there are no exceptions, including God.

DAN'L
(politely)
I see.

CHANCE
I hope you're not offended.

DAN'L
It'd take a lot more than that to shake my faith. I've seen
the hand of God in people's lives. Bringin' hope to the
hopeless and joy to the sad. I've seen it rescue men from
the Devil himself. The power of God, to me, is the best
kind of given. And as far as your philosophizin' goes, I
will quote the Apostle Paul. In his letter to the
Colossians, Chapter 2, Verse 8, where he wrote: "Beware lest
any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit." No
offense.

CHANCE
None taken. My belief is as unshakable as yours.

DAN'L
Maybe so. But you can't really know that 'till it's tested.
(calling inside the main lodge)
Grace?
(No answer.)

DAN'L (Continued)
(surveying the landscape)
I wonder where she got off to.

CHANCE
(indicating the parking area)
Is that her car in the lot?

DAN'L
Yeah, but that don't mean nothin'. It's been sittin' there
a while. I ain't never seen so fickle a machine. She keeps
askin' me to fix it, like I would know how.
(looking into the workshop)
Grace?
Oracle Rock 1-1-6

CHANCE
Can you reach her by cell phone?

DAN'L
Not in these parts. You know those maps you see on the
commercials? This here is one of the blank spots.
(calling to the compound at large)
Grace?!

(We hear a faint echo in the distance but

no answer.)

DAN'L (Continued)
I'll take a look around.
(indicating the cooler)
In the meantime, you can help yourself to a soda. If I were
you, I would stay away from the tea.

(DAN'L exits through the alley toward the

vortex. CHANCE opens his bag and
rummages through. He removes a small
porcelain urn and looks it over to
ensure that it is intact. After a
moment, HOPE appears at one of the attic
windows. She studies him a moment
before speaking.)

HOPE
Time is incorrectly formulated.

(He looks around in search of the voice.)

CHANCE
(seeing HOPE up above)
Oh. Hello there.

HOPE
Time is incorrectly formulated.

CHANCE
I'm sorry?

HOPE
Isabelle told me to tell you that.

CHANCE
Who is Isabelle?

HOPE
Isabelle is my friend. She saw you drive up.

CHANCE
And who are you?
Oracle Rock 1-1-7

HOPE
My name is Hope.

CHANCE
Hello there, Hope. My name is Chance.

HOPE
Hello.

CHANCE
Do you live here?

HOPE
I live in a cabin. This place here is the lodge.

CHANCE
Is Grace your mother?

HOPE
Grace is my aunt.

CHANCE
Do you know where she is?

(She shakes her head, no.)

CHANCE (Continued)
Do you have any idea when she might be back?

HOPE
That question is silly.

CHANCE
Why?

HOPE
She might be back anytime. Maybe tomorrow, or even ten
seconds from now.

CHANCE
Let me restate it, then. Do you know when she will be back?

HOPE
How could I know that? I can't see into the future.

CHANCE
All right, how about this, then. Do you know when she said
she would be back?

HOPE
She didn't say. I didn't even know she was gone.
Oracle Rock 1-1-8

CHANCE
Well, I'll tell you what, then. I'll just wait here by the
fountain.

HOPE
Isabelle says there's something you need to know. And that
you need to know it "desperately."

CHANCE
What is it?

HOPE
That time is incorrectly formulated.

CHANCE
You said that already.

HOPE
I know. It bore repeating.

CHANCE
And what does it mean, exactly?

HOPE
I don't know what it means. I'm only the messenger.

CHANCE
Is Isabelle here?

HOPE
Of course.

CHANCE
Well, maybe she can tell me when I meet her.

HOPE
(smiling, as if he said something absurd)
You can't meet Isabelle.

CHANCE
And why not.

HOPE
Because nobody does.

CHANCE
Well, someone must. You, for example.

HOPE
Isabelle is my friend.

CHANCE
Yes, you said that.
Oracle Rock 1-1-9

HOPE
Which is why you can't meet her.

CHANCE
(puzzled)
I'm sorry?

HOPE
You're supposed to say thank you.

CHANCE
For what?

HOPE
She says that what I told you is a gift. And you should say
thank you when someone gives you a gift.

CHANCE
She told you that, did she.

HOPE
(nodding)
She says it's polite.

CHANCE
Okay, then. Thank you.

HOPE
You're welcome.

(We hear DAN'L approaching from the

alley. HOPE retreats quickly into the
attic.)

DAN'L
She ain't in her garden. Or back of the workshop. Might be
up in her cave.

CHANCE
She has a cave?

DAN'L
Claims to. A "dream cave" she calls it. Says she met a
shaman there who healed her. Lord knows what really goes on
up there. The Devil's work, most probably.
(helping himself to the cooler)
Would you like a bottle of water, Mr. Chance?

CHANCE
Chance is my first name. And yes, I don't mind if I do.

(DAN'L hands CHANCE a bottle of water and

toasts.)
Oracle Rock 1-1-10

DAN'L
Bottoms up.

CHANCE
(taking in his surroundings)
What is this place, exactly?

DAN'L
What is it or what does it claim to be.

CHANCE
Pick one.

DAN'L
What it claims to be is some kinda spiritual retreat. A
place to get your chakras all lined up, or some such
nonsense. Folks come up here, foreigners mostly, lookin'
for who knows what. Rumor is it's some kinda hot spot, with
vortexes and such. I do know the Indians camped here.
There's carvings if you look real close up thataway. Word
is they came here to prophesy. Get guidance from the Spirit
in the Sky.

CHANCE
I take it you're not a believer.

DAN'L
Oh, I'm a believer, all right, just not in that stuff. I
put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross
for my sins. This hoodoo here is the Devil's work.

CHANCE
Forgive me. I got the impression you work here.

DAN'L
And so I do. For one week every spring and every autumn,
when the place is shut down to catch its breath. What Grace
calls her "fallow time." She brings me on to repair this
and that. Get it ready for the season.

CHANCE
And that doesn't bother you? Helping out the work of the
Devil?

DAN'L
As long as the check clears, not so much. And as far as
that goes, I'm here on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ, my
Commander in Chief. Doin' recon and such...
(slyly)
Not to mention a little sabotage on the side.
Oracle Rock 1-1-11

CHANCE
(a little surprised)
Sabotage.

DAN'L
Of a spiritual nature. A mark here and there in the shape
of a cross. Or somethin' that's been blessed by the Lord
and tucked away where you can't see it? That's all I'm
talkin' about. Things that might get under the Devil's
skin.

CHANCE
Does Grace know you do this?

DAN'L
No, she does not.
(suddenly concerned)
You gonna tell her?

CHANCE
That's not my place.

DAN'L
Roger that, but I'm glad to hear you say it.
(sizing him up again)
I know you're not a man of God. You believe in this hooey
up here?

CHANCE
No, I do not.

DAN'L
So what do you believe in, if you don't mind my askin'?

CHANCE
I believe in the power of Reason.

DAN'L
(unimpressed)
You don't say.

CHANCE
I do.

DAN'L
You believe in a manner of thinking, then.

CHANCE
I believe in a logical method of finding the truth.

DAN'L
You pray to that logical method, do ya?
Oracle Rock 1-1-12

CHANCE
Not literally, no.

DAN'L
Does it comfort you in times of distress? Or bless you with
joy beyond measure?

CHANCE
It satisfies me. I'll say that.

DAN'L
Well, sir. I feel sorry for ya.

CHANCE
There's no need for that. I'm just fine.

DAN'L
You think you're fine, I'll grant you that. But the truth
is you've been hornswaggled. If you read the Bible--

CHANCE
I have read the Bible.

DAN'L
Then you ought to read it again. That passage I cited,
Paul's letter to the Colossians. "Beware lest any man spoil
you--"

CHANCE
"Through philosophy and vain deceit," I know.

DAN'L
You may know the words, but not what they mean. Because, in
my opinion, you've been spoilt. And maybe you didn't know
better. But now you do. The question is: What will you do
with that knowledge.

GRACE (O.S.)
(from afar)
Dan'l!

(The call echoes faintly, bouncing from

distant rock formations.)

DAN'L
That'll be the lady herself.
(calling)
Yes, ma'am!

GRACE (O.S.)
Where in the holy hell are you!
Oracle Rock 1-1-13

(More echoes.)

DAN'L
She's got a mouth on her, too.
(calling)
Comin'!
(after his own echo fades)
I'll never get used to the echoes in this place.
(to CHANCE)
But duty calls.
(warily)
And my secret is safe. Can I hold you to that?

CHANCE
You mean about the sabotage? As long as it's harmless, I
promise. Not a word.

DAN'L
It's harmless to people. The Devil, not so much.

(DAN'L hurries off past the tree trunk.

CHANCE opens his bag again and rummages
through. HOPE appears at the workshop
doorway. She studies him with deep
curiosity until he senses himself being
watched and looks up to see her.)

CHANCE
You again.

(She smiles sweetly and nods.)

CHANCE (Continued)
Back with a message from Isabelle?

(She nods again.)

CHANCE (Continued)
Let me guess. That time is formulated incorrectly.

(Another nod.)

CHANCE (Continued)
Did she mention what that means this time?

(She shakes her head, no.)

CHANCE (Continued)
Well, thank her then, but let her know it doesn't do me much
good.
Oracle Rock 1-1-14

HOPE
She says you have a notebook, and it's filled with pretty
lies.

CHANCE
(a little taken aback)
Isabelle said that?

(She nods.)

CHANCE (Continued)
I'd say she's a pretty good guesser then.
(pulling out a well-worn spiral-bound
notebook)
I do have a notebook. See?

HOPE
Isabelle never guesses. She "draws conclusions."

CHANCE
Does she, now. Well in this case, she's only half right.
It's not filled with lies, just equations.

HOPE
Isabelle says equations are deceiving.

CHANCE
They can be, I guess, if you don't handle them correctly.

HOPE
She says they make you think that they're real when all they
are is pictures. She says it's like a map that thinks it's
a landscape.

CHANCE
I take it that Isabelle is not fond of math.

HOPE
Isabelle loves math. Almost as much, she says, as she loved
the marquis.

CHANCE
The "marquis"?

(She runs to him suddenly and throws her

arms around him, taking him completely
by surprise. He throws up his arms as
if to surrender or call a time out.)

CHANCE (Continued)
Whoa there, little one! What are you doing!
Oracle Rock 1-1-15

(She presses her ear to his chest and

closes her eyes, listening to his heart.)

HOPE
Isabelle wants to listen to your heartbeat.

CHANCE
Why?

HOPE
I don't know. She just does.
(after a moment)
She says it's like his.

GRACE (O.S.)
(from inside the main lodge)
Hope, sweetie? You in here?

HOPE
She says we should keep it a secret.

CHANCE
Keep what a secret?

HOPE
That we have a secret.

(She frees him from her embrace and runs

off toward the cabins. GRACE appears at
the door of the main lodge just as DAN'L
enters from the alley.)

GRACE
(to DAN'L)
There you are. Where the hell've you been? I called.

DAN'L
It's the echoes. I told you. I couldn't tell where you
were.

(GRACE takes sudden notice of CHANCE.)

GRACE
And you are?

CHANCE
My name is Chance.

GRACE
And?

CHANCE
I'm sorry. I thought you'd been informed.
Oracle Rock 1-1-16

GRACE
Informed about what? Dan'l, what is this gentleman talkin'
about?

DAN'L
Didn't Luther call you?

GRACE
He mighta tried. The phone's out again.

DAN'L
He had a freak occurrence on the highway. A bolt of
lightnin' zapped into his motorbike out of the blue.

GRACE
(impressed)
You don't say.

DAN'L
I told him. Hasn't been a cloud around here for days.

CHANCE
It's been known to happen.

DAN'L
Luther said an inch or two, it woulda hit the gas tank.
They be pickin' up his pieces from the roadway.

CHANCE
I got off lucky, I know.

DAN'L
Or blessed.

CHANCE
However you want to look at it.

DAN'L
Luther needs a day or two with the bike to get it workin'.
Thought you wouldn't mind puttin' him up.

GRACE
What's wrong with the Sleep Easy. They always got rooms.

DAN'L
The ticks are back. They're fumigatin'.

GRACE
It's my fallow time. Luther knows that.

DAN'L
Yes, ma'am. He just figured what with the lightnin' and
all, you might make an exception.
Oracle Rock 1-1-17

GRACE
(looking CHANCE over)
Oh he did, did he.

DAN'L
If you ask me, it's a sign from God.

GRACE
Well, nobody asked you, did they. But all right.
(to CHANCE)
I don't mean to be ungracious. It's my fallow time.

CHANCE
I'm not sure what that means, but okay.

GRACE
(to DAN'L)
A day or two. You're sure that's all.

DAN'L
That's what he said.

GRACE
Well, I guess that won't be the end of the world.
(to CHANCE)
Welcome to Oracle Rock, Mr.-- what was it again?

CHANCE
Chance.

GRACE
First name or last?

CHANCE
First. But I answer to "mister," too.

GRACE
Welcome to Oracle Rock, Mr. Chance. We'll get you settled
in in a bit. Meantime, I'm looking for my niece.
(to DAN'L)
Have you seen her?

DAN'L
No, ma'am. I've been out chasin' echoes.

CHANCE
I saw her. A little bit ago.

GRACE
Where?
Oracle Rock 1-1-18

CHANCE
Up in that window. Then a few minutes later on that porch.
She gave me a message from "Isabelle."

GRACE
(stunned)
You heard from Isabelle?

CHANCE
She passed on the message is all.

GRACE
And what was the message?

CHANCE
That "time is incorrectly formulated."

GRACE
That sounds like Isabelle, all right. Some kinda puzzle.
Any idea what it means?

CHANCE
Not a clue.

GRACE
Well, it's nothin' to fret about, I'm sure. Isabelle likes
to tease now and then, but she's really pretty harmless in
the end.
(to DAN'L)
And as for you, did you look at my car?

DAN'L
I told you, Grace. My uncle is the mechanic.

GRACE
You're a man, aren't ya.

DAN'L
That don't mean anything. I ain't trained.

GRACE
I just asked you to give it a look.

DAN'L
I gave it a look; it seems fine.

GRACE
It's not fine. Hell, it barely starts a third of the time.

DAN'L
Then get on the horn to Luther and tow it in.
Oracle Rock 1-1-19

GRACE
Luther's got no loaners at the moment. And I can't afford
to be without transportation.

DAN'L
You are without transportation if it don't start.

GRACE
It starts sometimes. If I yell loud enough.

DAN'L
Then pray you don't lose your voice, 'cause I'm at a loss.

GRACE
You're a smart one, you are.

DAN'L
Smart enough to know when I'm not welcome. I'm goin' to
Cabin 9 and work on the plumbing.

(He exits into the alley.)

GRACE
(calling after)
Its name is Crow Mother!

DAN'L (O.S.)
(already distant)
It's Number 9!

(GRACE takes a moment to get her

bearings.)

GRACE
Well. That's that, for the time being. Can I get you a
bite to eat, Mr. Chance? We got muffins and coffee.

CHANCE
A cup of coffee, please. If it's no trouble.

GRACE
No trouble at all.
(offering a table on the porch)
You sit yourself down on the porch here. I'll be back.

(She exits into the lodge. As CHANCE

settles in on the porch, HOPE appears in
the gateway to the parking lot.)

CHANCE
So there you are. Your aunt has been looking for you.

(She smiles meekly.)

Oracle Rock 1-1-20

CHANCE (Continued)
Are you hiding from her?

(She shakes her head, no.)

CHANCE (Continued)
Are you hungry?

(She shrugs.)

CHANCE (Continued)
Well, I am. I've had quite a morning. Your aunt is in
there fixing me something to eat.

GRACE (O.S.)
(from the kitchen, deep within)
You take cream and sugar, Mr. Chance?

CHANCE
(calling back)
Yes, please!
(to HOPE)
She seems like a nice lady.

(HOPE nods in agreement.)

CHANCE (Continued)
Any word from Isabelle? Aside from the thing about time?

HOPE
(simply, a serious question)
Do you think it's okay to touch yourself?

CHANCE
(startled)
I'm sorry?

HOPE
Do you touch yourself? Between the legs?

CHANCE
Um--

HOPE
Isabelle says it's okay if you do. She says the world would
be a lot calmer if people would touch themselves. They
wouldn't feel tense and start wars.

CHANCE
This Isabelle's got an interesting outlook on life.

HOPE
Do you touch yourself?
Oracle Rock 1-1-21

CHANCE
That's not something I want to discuss.

HOPE
With me, you mean?

CHANCE
Or anyone. It's a private affair.

HOPE
Do you think I'm pretty?

CHANCE
What?

HOPE
Do you think I'm pretty?

(She adopts an awkward pose that she

supposes might be taken for pretty.)

CHANCE
I think you're very pretty, yes.

HOPE
(timidly)
I'm supposed to say "thank you."

CHANCE
Supposed to?

HOPE
Isabelle says it's expected.

CHANCE
You don't have to--

HOPE
Thank you.

CHANCE
Okay.

HOPE
And then you say, "You're welcome."

(She waits for the proper response.)

CHANCE
Okay, why not. You're welcome.

(She smiles.)
Oracle Rock 1-1-22

HOPE
Do you enjoy talking?

CHANCE
Talking?

HOPE
Do you like conversations?
CHANCE
Sometimes I do, yes.

HOPE
I don't. They confuse me. I'd rather stay in my room and
play with a doll I found by the river, but she won't let me.

CHANCE
Who, Grace?

HOPE
(as if it should be obvious)
No, Isabelle! Grace doesn't care. Isabelle says I need to
learn to be witty. She says witty girls get made love to.
And pretty things bought for them. Unless they're too
witty, in which case they get ignored. Do you think I'm too
witty?

CHANCE
No.

HOPE
Do you want to buy me things?

CHANCE
Listen--

HOPE
Or make love to me?

CHANCE
Okay, hold the phone.

HOPE
Do you?

CHANCE
You know what? You're way too young.

HOPE
Isabelle says in her time--

GRACE (O.S.)
Hope? You out there, Sweetie?
Oracle Rock 1-1-23

HOPE
The was hardly such a thing as "way too young."
(to GRACE)
Yes, ma'am!
(to CHANCE)
I think you're pretty, too.

(She waits expectantly for a reply.)

CHANCE
(the expected response occurs to him)
Thank you.

HOPE
(brightly, pleased with the small victory)
You're welcome.

(GRACE comes out of the lodge with a

breakfast tray of muffins and coffee.)

GRACE
(to HOPE)
There you are. I've been looking for you. Did you finish
your chores?

HOPE
No, ma'am.

GRACE
And why not?

HOPE
I've been talking to Mr. Chance.

GRACE
There'll be plenty of time for that later. The chores are
more important.

HOPE
But Isabelle said--

GRACE
I don't care what Isabelle said; there's chores to be done.
You understand?

HOPE
(chastened)
Yes, ma'am.

GRACE
Okay, then scoot. And make Isabelle mind her business for a
while.
Oracle Rock 1-1-24

(HOPE goes to the tree.)

HOPE
(to CHANCE)
Isabelle thinks you're pretty, too. You don't even have to
say thank you; she just does.

(She scampers away toward the cabins.)

GRACE
I won't ask what that was about. It's not hard to guess.

CHANCE
She's delightful.

GRACE
My sister's girl, out of wedlock. She never would say who
the father was. Claimed it was a virgin birth. You don't
hear whoppers like that every day. Believe you me, that
girl was no kinda virgin.

CHANCE
And where is she now?

GRACE
My sister? Not with us, I'm afraid. A long story. And one
you're likely to hear it if you stick around long enough.

CHANCE
And who is this Isabelle?

GRACE
Isabelle, well. That's somethin', actually -- that you'd be
introduced. It's gotta be some kinda record. The subject
doesn't come up unless she knows you pretty well, or thinks
she does. It's a matter of trust.
CHANCE
So who is she?

(She considers how to answer.)

GRACE
How do I put this. She's sort of an imaginary friend.

CHANCE
Oh, I see.

GRACE
Sort of. I stress that. There are times I wonder myself.

CHANCE
She seems a little old for that, doesn't she?
Oracle Rock 1-1-25

GRACE
Hope's a great deal younger than she appears. She only
recently started her change of life.

CHANCE
Forgive me for asking straight out, but is she autistic?

GRACE
She is. And a savant -- of the high-functioning variety,
which only means she doesn't have to be watched every moment
of the day.

CHANCE
And does she have a gift?

GRACE
A gift?

CHANCE
I've heard that most savants have a gift. Like with music
or numbers.

GRACE
Oh, that. Yes, she does, have many gifts. The main one
bein' she remembers every cotton-pickin' thing that crosses
her path. Everything she's ever read or seen; it's all in
there somewhere. When she was a girl, her mother'd take her
to work -- at the college where she taught; she was a
physicist. And Hope there would go wanderin' through the
library. Pickin' up every book she could reach and pullin'
out a ladder for the others. And then at night she'd give a
report -- or as much as her mom would allow. My sister used
to use her as a way of takin' notes. As true as a recorder,
she would say, and much more fun.
(indicating HOPE)
God knows what all she's got up there. Philosophy, science,
you name it. Then shortly after I took her in, this
Isabelle showed up. Now, what comes out of her mouth
sometimes, it'll make your jaw drop.

CHANCE
Remarkable.

GRACE
It is that. And a blessing, truly. Her and that friend of
hers. It's like the spirits reached down and handed me
twins. You take cream in your coffee?

CHANCE
Please.

GRACE
And where do you hail from Mr. Chance?
Oracle Rock 1-1-26

CHANCE
Chicago, Illinois. Near the lake.

GRACE
You're a long way from home, then.

CHANCE
Yes, ma'am, I am.

GRACE
Here on vacation?

CHANCE
Not really. Just taking a little time off. I was burning
the candle at both ends, and my boss was beginning to worry.
So he sent me away to breathe a little fresh air.

GRACE
And what is it you do?

CHANCE
I'm a theoretical climatologist.

GRACE
Well, now that's a mouthful.

CHANCE
Indeed it is. Sometimes when I tell people that, I wish I'd
studied dentistry, instead.

GRACE
And what does it mean, that you're a "theoretical
climatologist"? You might be a climatologist but you're not
sure?

CHANCE
It means I build mathematical models to try to predict the
weather. Not just in one place but across the world.

GRACE
(amused)
So you're a modern-day prophet, then.

CHANCE
Not really, no. Prophets work from special revelation. I
work from Reason. And why is that funny?

GRACE
I'm thinking of how you got here, with the lightning. For a
man who predicts things, you were taken by surprise.

CHANCE
Even that could have been predicted with the right tools.
Oracle Rock 1-1-27

GRACE
Well, however you came to be here, I believe you have found
the right place. The energy's very strong in these parts.
You can feel it if you pay enough attention. Especially
that vortex over yonder. The Earth is spoutin' energy over
there that'll change your life.

CHANCE
(wryly)
Darn, and I forgot my ruby slippers.

GRACE
Your slippers?

CHANCE
(backtracking)
I just mean... Never mind.

GRACE
(bristling a little)
Oh, I see. You're amused by the thought of the vortex. And
by me.

CHANCE
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to mock you.

GRACE
Oh yes, you did. You didn't mean to get caught doing it is
all. That's okay; I've been mocked before and lived to tell
the tale. You think I'm a charlatan, don't ya. Hawkin' my
own brand of snake oil. Well, there's plenty of snakes
around here, but I ain't one of 'em. If I thought I was
selling a lie, or even false hope, I would close up shop and
sell this place in heartbeat. Whatever you may think of me,
I do not cheat people. Period.

CHANCE
I'm not doubting your honesty -- only the truth of your
claims. They seem to me sketchy at best.

GRACE
Well, sketchy or not, I've seen a few powerful things go on
in this place. So if I were you, I'd be a little careful
with my jokin'. This land has a habit of bending beliefs.
No matter how strong they seem, it finds a way.

CHANCE
(confidently)
I like a good challenge, actually.

GRACE
Don't we all.
Oracle Rock 1-1-28

(DAN'L enters from the alley carrying a

plumbing fixture.)

DAN'L
Grace? I gotta head into town for a fitting. I'll be back.

GRACE
You gonna have that plumbing done by nightfall, like you
promised?

DAN'L
Yes, ma'am, I will. If the Lord don't take me first.

GRACE
Well, keep your eyes on the road, and don't force his hand.

(DAN'L heads off to the parking lot.)

GRACE (Continued)
That boy and the Lord; you'd think they were datin'. I
mean, when you look at that truck. The crosses of Calvary?
Jesus with his hair combed back? He paid a good bit for it,
too.

(We hear the truck roar to life and head

down the road.)

CHANCE
I'm guessing he holds his beliefs as strongly as you do.

GRACE
And you, too, it sounds like. Which makes us a kind of
trinity, holy or not. Speaking of which, I'm puttin' you in
the Three Warriors.

CHANCE
Come again?

GRACE
The cabins here are all named after kachinas -- the Native
American spirits that guard the land. Yours is from the
Eagle Warrior, the Hototo Warrior, and the Buffalo Warrior.

CHANCE
Should I be concerned that a fight will break out?

GRACE
You should feel honored is what you should feel. They're
all very sacred. It's also got an excellent view of the
bluff.

CHANCE
Then I will do my best to show deference.
Oracle Rock 1-1-29

GRACE
(getting up)
That's fine. I'll get you the key.

(She goes to the door of the lodge.)

GRACE (Continued)
(considering him, as if he represents a
great mystery)
Why are you here, I wonder.

CHANCE
What do you mean?

GRACE
I mean what's your purpose in bein' here.

CHANCE
I don't have a purpose. I got here by accident.

GRACE
Maybe in your way of thinkin', not mine. I believe things
happen for a reason.

CHANCE
You'll get no argument here about that. But I think we
disagree on what it means.

GRACE
I think so, too. In which case, we might wanna keep our
meanings in check, so they don't come to blows.

(She exits into the lodge.)

CHANCE
(amused, to the world at large)
We might, indeed.

(Blackout.)

END OF SCENE
Oracle Rock 1-2-30

ACT I

SCENE 2

SETTING: The same.

AT RISE: Early afternoon. CHANCE reclines

on the porch with his feet up
studying the spiral bound notebook,
which rests in his lap. HOPE walks
a methodical circle around the
fountain, tracing the well-worn
path, with her head down, in
something of a private mental zone.

After a moment, we hear an attempt

to start a car in the parking lot.
The attempt fails, as does another
shortly thereafter.

DAN'L (O.S.)
(in the distance)
You miserable--!

(The exclamation echoes across the hills,

rousing CHANCE from his thoughts. He
takes note of HOPE and looks on amused
as she traces a circuit around the
fountain.)

CHANCE
What're you doing there?

HOPE
(simply)
Walking.

CHANCE
I see that. I just wondered if there was a reason.

HOPE
I'm counting the steps.

CHANCE
How many are you up to?

HOPE
I'm not keeping track. I'm just counting.

(GRACE enters from the workshop with a

few unfinished kachina dolls, which she
sets on the work table.)
Oracle Rock 1-2-31

GRACE
Hope, honey? Did you start that sun tea like I told you?

HOPE
(uninterrupted)
No, ma'am.

GRACE
And why not?

HOPE
I'm walking.

GRACE
I see that you're walking. I told you to start that tea.

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

(HOPE continues her trek around the

fountain. GRACE takes note that she has
not been obeyed.)

GRACE
Okay, let's take this in stages, then. I'm gonna tell you
to stop, and you stop. Okay?

HOPE
(uninterrupted)
Yes, ma'am.

GRACE
Okay now, stop.

(HOPE halts abruptly but does not look up

from the path.)

GRACE (Continued)
Now, go make that tea.

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

(HOPE runs off into the lodge.)

GRACE
I hope you don't mind the alone time, Mr. Chance. If I
don't look after things, they go to pot.

CHANCE
Don't mind me. I'm just fine.
Oracle Rock 1-2-32

(She exits into the workshop. After a

moment, DAN'L appears at the gate,
displeased by a recent defeat.)

DAN'L
That contraption of hers, I tell ya.

CHANCE
No luck?

DAN'L
Cars these days. You got all those computers.

CHANCE
(indicating the lodge)
There's sun tea coming.

DAN'L
Not for me. I believe I will content myself with a soda.

(He helps himself to the cooler.)

DAN'L (Continued)
What's that you're workin' on?

CHANCE
Equations.

DAN'L
That part of your job?

CHANCE
It is, but this is for fun -- if you can call it that. It's
an idea I've been working on for a new way of modeling
weather. Which if I could get it to work would really
change the game. You'd reduce the CPU time by factor of
more than ten. The problem is that every time I think I've
got it covered, some new thing pops up that I have to
account for. To the point where now I'm looking at over a
hundred equations and unknowns. Nearly half of which are
third-order partial differentials involving time. And a few
really nasty double integrals. And what's odd is, I can't
shake the feeling that somewhere in this rat's nest hides a
key. By which I mean transform that reduces it all to a
well-ordered linear set. And if I could find it, I'd have
myself the kind of thing they hand out prizes for. Not that
I'm looking for that. I'd just like to strike a blow for
critical thinking, which to me is under siege on every side.

DAN'L
I understood maybe ten words of what you just said.
Oracle Rock 1-2-33

CHANCE
Sorry. I get carried away sometimes.

DAN'L
You're not alone there.
(indicating the chess board)
You play?

CHANCE
Used to. It's been a while.

DAN'L
Care for a game? Might take your mind off.

CHANCE
It seems to have been a while since anyone touched it.

DAN'L
(setting up the board)
I'm thinkin' they don't play much, with all the meditatin'
and whatnot. Communin' with their "inner selves" or
whatever it is they do.

CHANCE
Well, why not.

(As CHANCE joins DAN'L at the chess

board, HOPE bursts out of the lodge.
She spots CHANCE and smiles; then sees
that he is sitting with DAN'L.)

HOPE
Oh!

(She runs back inside.)

DAN'L
(beginning the game)
A strange one, that is. Don't talk a whole lot, and when
she does it's Katie bar the door.

CHANCE
I think she's cute.

DAN'L
(knowingly)
Seems more than a little fearful of me, you know why?

CHANCE
Why.

DAN'L
There's a demon inside her that sees the power of God.
Oracle Rock 1-2-34

CHANCE
I don't know about that.

DAN'L
Well, I do. The way she looks down? Afraid to make eye
contact?

CHANCE
That's common, actually, of people in her condition.

DAN'L
Possessed, you mean.

CHANCE
I mean autistic. I talked to her Aunt Grace.

DAN'L
Well, she's got her opinion; I got mine.

CHANCE
The difference being hers is based on science.

DAN'L
You don't put any stock in faith, I'm guessin'.

CHANCE
Not when it comes to knowledge, I don't.
(correcting himself)
I don't at all, actually. I was just being polite.

DAN'L
Well, that's a shame. I could mince words and say it's your
right, which it is. But that doesn't make it not a shame.

CHANCE
We'll both live, I think.

DAN'L
Until Judgment Day. And then we'll be headed entirely
different directions. Me to the glory of God, and you to
the fire.

CHANCE
I promise to wave goodbye as I head down.

(HOPE emerges from the lodge again, this

time on a serious fact-finding mission.)

HOPE
(to CHANCE)
When are you going?
Oracle Rock 1-2-35

CHANCE
I'm sorry?

HOPE
When are you going away?

CHANCE
(at a loss)
When my bike is ready to ride, I guess. Why do you ask?

HOPE
Isabelle wants to know how much time she has.

CHANCE
For what?

HOPE
I don't know. She won't say.

(He shrugs. She snorts in frustration

and hastens back into the lodge.)

DAN'L
(knowingly)
Autism, huh.

CHANCE
Or something like it.

DAN'L
I'll tell ya what's "like it": possession. Go ahead and
make fun, but that one she talks about, Isabelle? Whaddya
suppose that is.

CHANCE
A figment of her imagination?

DAN'L
In your way of thinkin', maybe. Not in mine. You ask me,
it's a demon. French, she says. And a prostitute; what
does that tell you.

CHANCE
What should it tell me?

DAN'L
It should tell you to keep your eyes open. You're not a man
of faith, I know. But you stick around here long enough,
you'll be surprised at what you believe.
Oracle Rock 1-2-36

(GRACE emerges from the workshop with

more detritus from her cleaning. She
drops it onto the porch and goes back
inside.)

DAN'L (Continued)
And that one doesn't help at all. Her and her mystic
whatchamacallit. Them voodoo dolls she's got scattered all
over the place. Just look at 'em there.

CHANCE
They're kachina dolls, and they're only wood and paint.

DAN'L
No, sir, they're not. She calls 'em "power objects," and
that's what they are. The trouble is she is blind to the
source of that power. It ain't from up above; I'll tell you
that.

CHANCE
(amused but sincere)
I admire your dedication, my friend.

DAN'L
You mean to the Lord?

CHANCE
I mean to your notion of how the universe works. It's
completely wrongheaded and something I have to fight it at
every turn, but I can't help but appreciate your conviction.
And there's nothing I like more than a worthy foe.

DAN'L
(uncertainly)
Well, thank you. I guess.

CHANCE
Have you been a believer all your life?

DAN'L
Me? Hell, no. I was saved.

CHANCE
(lightly)
From a life of debauchery?

DAN'L
(a serious memory)
From my father. A man who coulda run for "Meanest Drunk in
the World" and won. And who told me I would never amount to
spit. And he was right, I wouldn't've, if the Lord hadn't
turned me around.
(MORE)
Oracle Rock 1-2-37

DAN'L (Continued)
I ain't perfect, by any means, but I grow a little closer
every day. The important thing is, my life's not a waste.
I got purpose.
(pensively, studying the chess board)
Believin' is a complex thing. It ain't just how the world's
put together; it's how you behave. You know what I'm
sayin'?

CHANCE
(sincerely)
I think so.

DAN'L
That's why when you say there's no God, I don't get it.
There's too much at stake.

CHANCE
I agree with you there.

DAN'L
And it's why I want to preach the Word to the masses. Which
you would think, here in Utah, might not be that hard. But
you'd be wrong. And you know why?

CHANCE
Why.

DAN'L
Because the appearance of truth is not the same as truth.
And that's what we got here by the truckload. The Mormons,
it's a damned cult, forgive my language. With all kinds of
crazy hoop-de-do. Magic underpants. A second holy book.
You think it's hard convertin' the un-churched, try this
lot. Just like Daniel the prophet, who I was named after.
The one in the lion's den? The people he talked to, they
had false gods, like these folks. A well-intentioned lot
but wrong all the same.

(We hear HOPE's laughter from the kitchen

at the back of the lodge.)

DAN'L (Continued)
There she goes again with that cacklin'.

CHANCE
She's just laughing.

DAN'L
At what, that's my point.

CHANCE
Something she finds funny, I suppose.
Oracle Rock 1-2-38

DAN'L
(privately)
Y'know what she asked me, one time? Did I touch myself,
down there between my legs.

CHANCE
And what did you tell her?

DAN'L
(bristling)
What do you think I told her.

CHANCE
The truth?

DAN'L
You're darn right. That it was none of her business.

CHANCE
She was just being friendly.

DAN'L
That kinda friendly's gonna get her in trouble one day.

CHANCE
(moving a piece)
You're in check, by the way.

DAN'L
(countering)
Y'know what'd do my heart good? Is to beat the Devil at his
own game. To free that girl from her bondage and then go on
to clean out this whole place. Turn it into a Bible camp.
Build a chapel right over there. Place the cross of Christ
in this barren soil just like they did in Israel.

CHANCE
The Israelis are Jewish, not Christian.

DAN'L
I'm talkin' about the old days, when they entered the Land
of Canaan with God at their side. And carried the word to
the Canannites. There's a new god in town, and he's the
real one. Not one of those shiny idols you bow down to.
(grander)
Yessir, that's my vision. To claim this world in the name
of the Lord, one sufferin' soul at a time.

CHANCE
It sounds like a big undertaking.
Oracle Rock 1-2-39

DAN'L
No doubt about it, but what is a man without dreams. You
can't spend your life bakin' cupcakes and expect to land on
the moon. You know what I'm saying?

CHANCE
(curiously)
Oddly, I feel like I do.

DAN'L
A man without vision ain't nothin'. You can quote me. And
mine is for a land where Jesus reigns. And it'll happen,
right here in the desert. You mark my words.

CHANCE
If so, I hope I'm gone before it does.

(GRACE appears on the porch again. She

spies the game in progress and is not
pleased.)

GRACE
Dan'l, remind me again what I pay you for.

DAN'L
My good looks?

GRACE
No, that ain't it by a long shot. Try again.

CHANCE
(to DAN'L)
That sounds like a hint.

GRACE
You ain't the only handyman in these parts.

DAN'L
No, ma'am. Just the one with the biggest love in his heart
for the Lord.

GRACE
Well, get your Lord-lovin' carcass in gear. There's work to
be done at the cabins.

DAN'L
Yes, ma'am.

(GRACE exits back into the workshop.

DAN'L makes one last move on the
chessboard.)
Oracle Rock 1-2-40

DAN'L (Continued)
Checkmate in two, by the way.

CHANCE
(surprised)
Where?

DAN'L
Knight to king-bishop three. I got you trapped.

CHANCE
(impressed)
And so you do.

DAN'L
You pegged me for a rube, I know. Because I believe in
Jesus. I ain't a rube, my friend, by any stretch. I'm a
man who was rescued by God and gives him the glory. Be
careful of what you assume to be true; it might jump up and
bite you in the ass. You have a good day.
(preparing to depart)
And for the record, lemme just say: I see the hand of God in
you bein' here. As far as I'm concerned, it's part of His
plan.

CHANCE
Me being part of God's plan. Well, that's a first.

DAN'L
The only first is somebody lettin' you know it. We're all
part of his plan for somebody else.

CHANCE
You know I don't believe in God.

DAN'L
That doesn't mean he can't use you. Look at your history.
Cyrus the Great, Nebudchanezzer, the Pharaoh Ramses. All
great men who are burnin' in Hell but still were used by the
Lord.

CHANCE
So you're saying he considered them disposable?

DAN'L
I'm sayin' they had a choice, like everyone else. And chose
their gods over him, and he still used 'em. Pretty clever,
if you ask me.

CHANCE
Or cruel.
Oracle Rock 1-2-41

DAN'L
Call it what you will, to me it's a blessing. Even how you
got here, with that bolt comin' outta the blue. What are
the chances of that, now, tell me. Pretty darned remote.
And you and I are made of the same sorta stuff, it seems to
me. Which is to say, we don't back away from a scrap about
what we believe.
(indicating GRACE)
Which means, if I had to guess, you two'll cross swords. No
blood'll be shed, but you'll get your knocks in. Which
further means you'll be plantin' the seed of doubt in that
mind of hers. And where that seed grows, a crack will form,
and maybe the light'll shine in. She'll turn to Christ and
away from this magical thinkin'.
(reveling in a sweeping vision)
The Devil will lose his grip on this place, and the glory of
God will shine forth. This land'll be purged, and that
Bible camp? It'll happen. You wait and see.
(delighted, on his way to the cabin trail)
You're doin' the work of the Lord and don't even know it.
How's that make you feel.

CHANCE
The concept sets my teeth on edge, frankly.

DAN'L
(summarily, at the head of the cabin path)
Be that as it may, you stand your ground. You'll be doin'
the Lord a favor by makin' her doubt.

(He heads off toward the cabins. Moments

later, GRACE emerges from the workshop,
brushing off the dust from some feverish
cleaning.)

GRACE
(indicating the chess game)
If I were a bettin' gal, I'd say he won.

CHANCE
It's been a long time since I played.

GRACE
It wouldn'ta mattered. The boy's good at strategizin'. And
fair with a hammer. That's why I use him. Trouble is, he
uses that hammer-like thinkin' to look at the world.

(HOPE emerges from the lodge, carrying a

large glass jar filled with water and
loose tea.)

GRACE (Continued)
Well, it's about time, young lady.
Oracle Rock 1-2-42

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

GRACE
Too late, if I had to guess. We'll have ourselves some
"moon tea" is more like it.

HOPE
(setting down the jar)
The critter is back.

GRACE
What critter.

HOPE
The one you had the book out to identify. It's where it was
the other night, just staring out.

GRACE
(annoyed)
Goddamn that thing.
(to CHANCE)
Excuse me.

CHANCE
By all means.

(GRACE marches into the lodge, steeled

for battle. HOPE helps herself to a
seat on the porch, next to CHANCE.)

HOPE
(cheerily)
Hello.

CHANCE
(amused by her boldness)
Hello there.

HOPE
Did you miss me?

CHANCE
Did I "miss" you?

HOPE
(indicating his notebook)
Are these your equations?

CHANCE
Yes, they are.
Oracle Rock 1-2-43

HOPE
Are you a mathematician?

CHANCE
I'm a scientist who does a lot of math.

HOPE
Isabelle has a problem with science.

CHANCE
I thought you said she liked math.

HOPE
She does like math. It's science that's the problem.

CHANCE
And what is Isabelle's problem with science?

HOPE
She says it's too full of itself. And that you can't swing
a dead cat in a lab without hitting a bloated ego.

CHANCE
I'm not going to argue with her there.

HOPE
She told me that her lover was a "serious case in point."

CHANCE
And who was her lover?

HOPE
His name was Laplace. And he was a marquis.

CHANCE
(perking up at the mention of Laplace)
A marquis?

(She nods.)

CHANCE (Continued)
And his name was Laplace.

HOPE
That's right.

CHANCE
Pierre-Simon de Laplace?

HOPE
Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace. Born on March 23, 1749 in
Beaumont-en-Auge in France. That was a Sunday. Died in
Paris on March 5, 1827, which was a Monday.
Oracle Rock 1-2-44

CHANCE
(intrigued)
Well, that's very interesting. And where did you learn
about Laplace?

HOPE
Isabelle was his lover.

CHANCE
So Isabelle is a ghost of some kind?

HOPE
Isabelle is my friend.

CHANCE
I know that. I'm asking--

HOPE
She lived a long time ago, in France. As a harlot at first,
and then she became a courtesan. That's how she got invited
to fancy parties. And she was his lover.

CHANCE
You have quite an imagination, you know that?

HOPE
I don't have an imagination at all. Isabelle's the one who
does the imagining.
(quickly)
You think I'm peculiar, don't you.

CHANCE
Not really.

HOPE
It's okay, you can say it. Isabelle told me. Just please
don't hate me, okay?

CHANCE
Why would I hate you?

HOPE
For being peculiar. Isabelle says when you act strange, it
makes people hate you. I don't want to be hated. The songs
say it's much nicer to be loved.

CHANCE
And how did you come to know Isabelle in the first place?

HOPE
Beats me. She just appeared one day. She told me she was
next up in the queue.
Oracle Rock 1-2-45

CHANCE
There's a queue?

HOPE
Apparently.

CHANCE
Can you make her go away if you want to?

HOPE
(suddenly concerned)
Why would I want her to go away?

CHANCE
I don't know. I just wondered--

HOPE
My life before Isabelle was awful. Before she came, people
said I was strange. Isabelle tells me how to behave and be
normal.

CHANCE
I'm sorry I put the question that way.

HOPE
(a troubling thought)
She told me that one day she won't be around, anymore. And
when she leaves, I'm going to cry and cry. But that will be
all right, she says; I have to learn how to cry. All I can
do right now is feel like crying. But when she goes, "the
tears will come gushing forth." She talks like that
sometimes.

CHANCE
I know people who'd dedicate years to studying you.

HOPE
Are they nice people?

CHANCE
Some of them are. Others, not so much.

HOPE
I only want to study with the nice ones.

CHANCE
I wouldn't have it any other way.

HOPE
Isabelle wants me to love someone. She told me that it's
part of growing up.
Oracle Rock 1-2-46

CHANCE
You love someone already, don't you? Your Aunt Grace?

HOPE
Not according to Isabelle. She says I don't feel it inside
me. I've read lots of books, and I'm good at pretending,
but I don't really know how to love.

CHANCE
I have to meet this Isabelle, someday.

HOPE
(a sudden non sequitur)
Why are your jeans so dirty?

CHANCE
I've come a long way on my motorcycle.

HOPE
Are you running away?

CHANCE
No, not at all. I'm on a kind of vacation.

HOPE
(brightening)
Me, too.

CHANCE
Oh, yeah?

HOPE
(a matter-of-fact report)
My mom killed herself, so Aunt Grace came and got me. She
says it's a kind of vacation.

CHANCE
(stunned by the revelation)
I'm so sorry.

HOPE
It's okay. I'm learning a lot.

CHANCE
I mean about your mother.

HOPE
She wasn't well; that's what Isabelle says. Aunt Grace
agrees. Even though Isabelle didn't know her.

GRACE (O.S.)
(from the kitchen, deep within)
Hope, darlin'? Are you botherin' Mr. Chance?
Oracle Rock 1-2-47

(HOPE looks to CHANCE. He shakes his

head, no.)

HOPE
No, ma'am!

GRACE (O.S.)
You sure about that?

(He nods.)

HOPE
Yes, ma'am! He's nodding!

GRACE (O.S.)
Well, all right.

HOPE
(confidently)
Isabelle knows the answer, by the way.

CHANCE
The answer to what?

HOPE
The thing you need to find out.

CHANCE
And what do I need to find out.

HOPE
I don't know. She won't tell me.

CHANCE
She won't tell you the answer?

(She shakes her head, no.)

CHANCE (Continued)
Then how do you know she's not lying?

HOPE
Isabelle never lies. She says it defeats the purpose of
searching for truth.

CHANCE
I'm with her on that one, actually.

HOPE
(brightly)
And I knew you'd show up here. You wanna know why? Because
I prayed for you.
Oracle Rock 1-2-48

CHANCE
You prayed for me?

HOPE
(nodding)
Isabelle and I did. We got down on my knees and muttered
incoherently, and voila.

CHANCE
So Isabelle believes in God?

HOPE
Oh, no. Not at all.

CHANCE
Then who did you pray to?

HOPE
The Great Eternal Wheel of Cause and Effect.

CHANCE
You prayed to a concept?

HOPE
It wouldn't be the first time someone did.

CHANCE
That's true, I suppose. And what did you pray for?

HOPE
Salvation.

CHANCE
From?

HOPE
Whatever there is to be saved from.

CHANCE
I'm not here to save you.

HOPE
I know that. I prayed for someone to come here who needs to
be saved. And there you are. Uncanny, huh?

CHANCE
I'm not sure I need to be saved.

HOPE
The Great Eternal Wheel is sure. And Isabelle says it's
hardly ever wrong.
Oracle Rock 1-2-49

GRACE (O.S.)
Hope, darlin', are you done with your chores?

HOPE
No, ma'am!

GRACE (O.S.)
Then get to 'em!

HOPE
I have to go and "attend to my duties." But first, do you
like my pendant?

(She shows him her pendant, a small

polished stone in the shape of a badger.)

CHANCE
It's very pretty. What is it?

HOPE
It's a piece of rock that's carved in the shape of a badger.
It protects me.

CHANCE
And what does it protect you from?

HOPE
Danger, I guess. It has power. Objects can have power;
Aunt Grace says so.

CHANCE
And does Isabelle agree?

HOPE
Isabelle is silent on the matter.

CHANCE
I see.

HOPE
(eagerly)
Shall I find you an object of power?

CHANCE
You don't have to.

HOPE
(pleading)
Please? It would be like a treasure hunt!

CHANCE
Okay, why not.
Oracle Rock 1-2-50

HOPE
(triumphantly)
Yes!

(She races to the cabin trail head.)

HOPE (Continued)
Don't you go away. I'll be right back!

(She exits quickly up the cabin path.

Moments later, GRACE appears with a tray
of snacks and iced tea.)

GRACE
Hope!

CHANCE
She just ran off to find me an "object of power."

GRACE
Anything to get out of doin' a chore. Can I interest you in
some tea? It's yesterday's batch.

CHANCE
Don't mind if I do.

GRACE
I hope she didn't sit here and talk your ear off. I don't
know what's got into her. She's not usually like this. You
must have an aura.

CHANCE
How long have you been looking after her?

GRACE
Ever since her mother passed on, a few years now. I didn't
know at first if I should take her, since I've never been
married and so on. The answer is I needed to, very much.

CHANCE
She seems like a sweetheart.

GRACE
And what about you, Mr. Chance? You got family?

CHANCE
I did at one time; not anymore. Had a wife, we divorced.
And a son -- he died three months ago, at ten. In an
accident that took his mother with him.

GRACE
I'm so sorry to hear that.
Oracle Rock 1-2-51

CHANCE
It's okay, it's not like it could be avoided. And the best
we can do is to roll with the punches of life. That's why I
came out here, actually. We used to drive this way on
summer road trips, him and me. Best times of my life, the
two of us racing down the open road. And we told each other
if anything happened, we'd want our ashes spread to the wind
from the edge of a canyon out west. I'm keeping that
promise.

(HOPE appears at the gateway with a few

small rocks in her hand.)

HOPE
(to CHANCE)
Do you like variscite?

CHANCE
Do I like what?

HOPE
Variscite. It's a hydrated aluminum phosphate formed by
deposition from phosphate-bearing water that reacts with
aluminum-rich rocks in a near-surface environment. It was
first described in 1837 and named for Variscia, the
historical name of the Vogtland, Germany, where it was
found.

CHANCE
I can't say that I've heard of it before.

HOPE
What about turquoise?

CHANCE
I do like turquoise very much.
HOPE
Okay!

(She runs back toward the parking lot.)

GRACE
See what I told ya? A whole encyclopedia in sneakers.

CHANCE
And what's her prognosis?

GRACE
What do you mean?

CHANCE
What do her doctors say?
Oracle Rock 1-2-52

GRACE
There aren't any doctors.

CHANCE
Okay, "doctor," then. Surely, she's being treated for her
condition.

GRACE
You mean contentment?

CHANCE
I mean the autism.

GRACE
She doesn't need treatment for that.

CHANCE
(slightly flabbergasted)
You mean she's not seeing a doctor?

GRACE
She is not.

CHANCE
But... why?

GRACE
I don't see the need. This land around here is filled with
the spirit of healing. It's doin' its job.

CHANCE
You're not serious.

GRACE
It cured me.

CHANCE
Of?

GRACE
Cancer. Of the brain, and that's the truth. Before I
landed in these parts, I'd been diagnosed with a tumor the
size of a lima bean. Gettin' headaches all the time. It's
not what brought me, but once I showed up, right away I saw
an improvement. Then one afternoon, I came upon a cave
where I had me a vision.

CHANCE
Your "dream cave"?
Oracle Rock 1-2-53

GRACE
My dream cave, that's right. Over there by the river. I
saw this spirit rise up and touch me right here on the side
of the head. There was a flash of light, and just like that
he was gone, and so was the pain. Next mornin', when it
didn't come back, I figured I had found me somethin'
special. So I sold what I had and bought the place; I'd
found my pearl of great price. That was three years ago
now, and here I am.

CHANCE
(skeptically)
And is the tumor gone?

GRACE
That I couldn't tell ya. Haven't been to a doctor in years.

CHANCE
So you don't know for sure.

GRACE
I know how I feel, and that's enough. Seein' it on a
monitor's not gonna help.

CHANCE
I'm sorry, I can't buy the idea that magic is somehow
involved. And to tell you the truth, that kind of thing
pisses me off. This thumbing your nose at science to make
yourself feel good.

GRACE
I'm living proof.

CHANCE
But of what. A genuine healing? Or the power of delusion.
And what bothers me more is that little girl. What choice
does she have. You're her guardian, right?

GRACE
I am.

CHANCE
Then you owe her the chance to decide.

GRACE
Between?

CHANCE
Your superstitious nonsense, pardon my French, and the power
of science to give her a fighting chance at a normal life.

GRACE
As opposed to her exceptional one.
Oracle Rock 1-2-54

CHANCE
As opposed to the one you impose on her. The only one, I'm
guessing, she's ever known.

GRACE
I don't think she'd tell you it's been all bad.

(HOPE enters from the alley with

something trapped in her hands.)

GRACE (Continued)
There you are, darlin'. What's that in your hands?

HOPE
It's a cricket. For Isabelle.

GRACE
Isabelle asked you for a cricket?

HOPE
(nodding)
It's what the marquis called her, because she talked so
much. But she preferred to call herself his demon.

CHANCE
(perking up at the mention)
His "demon"?

HOPE
That's right.

CHANCE
Oh, that's priceless.

HOPE
Why?

CHANCE
Do you know what Laplace's Demon is?

HOPE
("Of course!")
It's Isabelle.

CHANCE
I mean as a concept.

HOPE
(puzzled)
I don't know what you mean.
Oracle Rock 1-2-55

GRACE
(to CHANCE, chiding)
Be careful, here.

CHANCE
It's the idea that nothing happens by chance. And that
everything has to follow physical laws. So if you knew the
state of the universe at any one moment in time, you could
predict its future state with perfect accuracy.

HOPE
That was his demon?

CHANCE
It's what somebody called his "demon" later on, when they
were writing a book about him. The demon is the thing that
knows the entire state of the universe.

HOPE
And does it exist?

CHANCE
No, but it could exist, and that's the point. The future is
knowable, we just don't know enough to know it. And nothing
happens that isn't caused by something that happened before.

HOPE
What about our thoughts?

CHANCE
Even those can be predicted. Our brains are made up of
atoms, and those atoms interact by physical laws.

HOPE
(puzzled)
But that would mean...

(She ponders the implications.)

CHANCE
Yes?

HOPE
That nobody has free will. Every thought we have is based
on physics, and all we do is follow physical laws.

CHANCE
(impressed)
You're very smart, you know that?

HOPE
I'm not smart. It's Isabelle.
Oracle Rock 1-2-56

CHANCE
Okay. If you prefer.

GRACE
(greatly displeased)
That a bit heavy for someone her age, don'tcha think?

CHANCE
She seems to get it.

GRACE
She can get it. That doesn't mean she should.

CHANCE
I'm sorry, I thought we were having a chat.
(to HOPE)
Do you mind that I told you that? About the universe?

HOPE
No.

CHANCE
(to GRACE)
You see?

(HOPE opens her hands to release the

cricket and is puzzled to find nothing
there.)

GRACE
Hope, darlin', I will bet my life that you got chores to
finish. Run up and get 'em done. And be back here in time
for supper. We're havin' ribs.

HOPE
(lost in thought)
Yes, ma'am.

(She goes to the cabin trail head, where

she is struck with a curious thought.)

HOPE (Continued)
(to CHANCE)
Have you ever heard this?
(perfect French)
"Nous devons envisager l'état présent de l'univers comme
l'effet de son état antérieur, et comme la cause de celui
qui va suivre."

CHANCE
(a little amazed)
I'm afraid I couldn't say. I don't speak French.
Oracle Rock 1-2-57

HOPE
It's the first line of something that was written by the
marquis. From "A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities,"
which he published in 1814. Which says: "We may regard the
present state of the universe as the effect of its past and
the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain
moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and
all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if
this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to
analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements
of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the
tiniest atom. For such an intellect nothing would be
uncertain, and the future just like the past would be
present before its eyes."

CHANCE
(astounded)
I do know that. It's exactly what I was just talking about.

HOPE
I know. Isabelle told me.
(after a moment, a final thought)
She says he was wrong.

(She crosses her hands in the small of

her back and walks off toward the cabins
like a philosopher pondering some great
question about life.)

CHANCE
(awed)
Amazing.

GRACE
(judgmentally)
So you're a determinist, are ya.
CHANCE
I take it you're familiar with the word?

GRACE
I wish I wasn't, but yes I am. It's what carried off my
sister to her grave.

CHANCE
(dismissively)
No one dies of determinism.

GRACE
Well, maybe "no one" does, but she did. Spelled it out in
the suicide note. "If I don't have free will, then what's
the point?" That was the gist. "I'm nothin' but a
complicated machine."
Oracle Rock 1-2-58

CHANCE
That's a little simplistic.

GRACE
Did she or did she not have free will. According to you,
that is.

CHANCE
She did not.

GRACE
Well, you see, that's what depressed her. The idea that her
future was set in stone. She wrestled with it the longest
time, 'till she just couldn't wrestle anymore. Rode her
motorbike right off the edge of one of those canyons you're
so fond of. That's what brought me up here from Houston. I
came to collect her remains.

CHANCE
Well, I'm sorry for your sister, but the logic can't be
denied.

GRACE
She said so, too. We fought about it more than once. She
was the smart one -- and I mean graduate-college-at-15
smart. And all her life, she tussled with the idea of a
soul. Somethin' that wasn't just neurons and whatnot actin'
according to laws. Feelin' she had one but claimin' that
science said otherwise.

CHANCE
And she was right. It's what Reason tells us. That Nature
is a great big dance of fundamental forces, and we're just
part of the mix. The sense of "self" is pieced together
from different parts of the brain. And the "neurons and
whatnot" work according to physics, which means you can
predict how they'll behave.

GRACE
And what about atoms?

CHANCE
What about them?

GRACE
I read that down where they abide, things ain't so certain
at all.
Oracle Rock 1-2-59

CHANCE
You're talking about "quantum uncertainty," and that's true,
but it doesn't apply. The effects are too small to
influence neural activity. It's chemistry and physics;
nothing more. And if you had the computational power, you
could, in fact, predict the thoughts -- and feelings and
behavior -- of every human being for all time.

GRACE
So we're not predestined by God, but we are predestined. Is
that what you're sayin'?

CHANCE
What I'm saying is that yes, we are predestined. By the
forces of Nature and everything that has happened up to now.
And that human beings are not allowed to skirt the laws of
physics. Or to think the rules don't apply to them -- they
do.

GRACE
And what if there is somethin' we don't know yet.

CHANCE
About what?

GRACE
The universe. Maybe there's some little thing to throw
everything over. Like Einstein. Before he came, the
physicists thought they knew all there was to be known.
Then he writes one equation and boom, all hell breaks loose.

CHANCE
I doubt there's anything like that to discover, anymore.

GRACE
But that's what they thought too, though, right?

CHANCE
Indeed, they did. But we have a much better grasp on what
we don't know. We're more informed.

GRACE
So how do you live, then. Thinkin' that your path is all
laid out.

CHANCE
I don't know the path, that's how. It might in fact be
fixed, but I don't know it. So every moment comes as a
surprise.

GRACE
And what if you could know.
Oracle Rock 1-2-60

CHANCE
What do you mean?

GRACE
What if you could know. Say this Demon of yours, or
computer or whatever, handed you a book and said, "Here you
go. Every moment of your life as it's gonna play out, right
up to your death bed." Would you read it?

CHANCE
Probably.

GRACE
Even though you couldn't change a thing, not one little bit.

CHANCE
I couldn't possibly take it all in, so most of it would
still be a surprise.

GRACE
But what if he put it all in your head. So you knew what
you would do before you did it. A whole lifetime set out.
Are you tellin' me you wouldn't feel kinda helpless? Like
an actor who's just playin' out a role? I don't think so.
I think you might begin to understand my sister, who had a
habit of takin' things to the end. You might not do what
she did, but the sense of it might not seem so very far off.

CHANCE
The question is moot, since there's no such thing as the
Demon.

GRACE
Oh, I beg to differ. The question ain't moot by a long
shot, and here's why. Because if that knowledge would knock
you out of your orbit, then your sense of well-being depends
on what you don't know. So for all your talk of lovin' the
truth, it's ignorance that gives your life purpose. Chew on
that.

CHANCE
None of which convinces me that there's anything to the
"soul."

GRACE
Y'know what I think; I think you don't want to be convinced.
I think you're afraid.

CHANCE
I'm not afraid.
Oracle Rock 1-2-61

GRACE
(confidently)
I think you are. I think you've been down on your knees to
Reason so long now, that if it was to crash and burn, you
wouldn't know which way to wiggle. And that's a scary
thought, I know, when you're cut loose from your moorings.
And here's what else I think. I think if you were to take a
trip to that vortex -- and open your mind to its power --
you might come back with a whole different outlook on life.

CHANCE
I'm not going to any vortex.

GRACE
Because you're afraid.

CHANCE
(adamantly)
Because there's nothing to it.

GRACE
(a challenge)
How do you know that. Is that how you do your experiments,
Mr. Scientist? Somebody tosses a theory your way, and you
don't bother to check and see if it's right?

CHANCE
You're lecturing me on how to perform an experiment?

GRACE
I'm doin' a good deal more than that; I'm layin' down a
gauntlet. I'm darin' you to head out there and tell me you
don't feel a thing. I'm bettin' if you do go that you might
come back a different kind of person. And maybe even
entertain the notion of a soul. But if you're afraid, I
understand. Havin' a soul is harder to do than only havin'
a mind.

(He considers the challenge.)

CHANCE
So you're daring me, huh.

GRACE
Yessir, I am.

CHANCE
And what's in it for me? Aside from the outlook on life.

GRACE
What do you mean?
Oracle Rock 1-2-62

CHANCE
I mean that there's always two sides to a bet. What if I go
out and nothing happens. What if I give it my very best
shot, which I would, and don't feel a thing. What are you
prepared to do then?

GRACE
(suspiciously)
What are you thinkin' I might hafta do?

CHANCE
I'm thinking you might have to take that girl to a doctor.
A real doctor, who's an expert in his field. I'm thinking
you might have to let down your guard and acknowledge the
power of science to get her some help.

GRACE
She might not be inclined to go.

CHANCE
Then you'll make her. That's the bet. I'll even get some
references and help you set up the appointment.

GRACE
And what proof do I have that you'll play by the rules, and
not come back changed and not tell me.

CHANCE
(with a Scout's Honor sign)
You have my word.

GRACE
Are you good for it?

CHANCE
Are you good for yours? I won't be around to check if you
are; I'll just have to trust you on that. But I'm willing
to take that risk, and you know why? For her sake. And
because I truly believe that you're not beyond saving. You
may be up to your eyeballs in hogwash, but you strike me as
a woman with a brain. And that gives me hope -- not that I
can persuade you, but that I can be "one the got away." The
man who walked into the lion's den and strolled out saying,
"Nice kitties." With nothing but Reason to keep him from
their fangs. That's the guy I want to be, and that's why
I'll take the bet.
(a challenge)
So now what about you? Are you still game? Or have the
stakes become a bit too high.

(GRACE considers the proposal. The

stakes do seem high.)
Oracle Rock 1-2-63

GRACE
You would tell me the truth.

CHANCE
Absolutely. The slightest tingle, and you win the bet,
guaranteed.

GRACE
And if you were to have a vision?

CHANCE
If I have a vision, sister, I will give you a full report.

(She considers it further.)

GRACE
(stiffly, though uncertain)
All right, it's a deal.

CHANCE
(confidently, offering a handshake)
Outstanding.

GRACE
But you best head out while you still got the light. And
take along a flashlight, in case you get lost.

CHANCE
(heading to the alley entrance)
I've got one on my cell phone, thanks. And I don't think
that this will take long.

GRACE
Well take all the time that you need to. We'll hold dinner.

CHANCE
The ribs sound great, but if I were you, I'd bake a nice big
piece of humble pie.

(He heads off merrily to the vortex.

GRACE stands for a moment, second-
guessing what she's done. She picks up
a kachina doll and clutches it to her
chest. Blackout.)

END OF ACT I
Oracle Rock 2-1-64

ACT II

SCENE 1

SETTING: The same.

AT RISE: That evening, after dusk. HOPE

sits on the rim of the fountain,
playing with a kachina doll. GRACE
stands on the lodge porch, nursing
a cup of tea and watching HOPE
play. She appears to be dealing
with a headache. After a moment,
DAN'L enters from the alley.

GRACE
Any sign?

DAN'L
(at a loss)
No, ma'am. It's like he's been taken up.

GRACE
I doubt that very seriously. Given his opinion of the Lord.

HOPE
(idly)
Maybe aliens got him.

DAN'L
Coulda been. Or coyotes.

GRACE
(irritated)
Aliens and coyotes got nothin' to do with this. The man is
out there, all right. He just needs to be found.

DAN'L
You all right, Grace?

GRACE
Me? Hell, yes. Just a little headache is all. Been
gettin' em lately. Must be the time of year.

DAN'L
You want a little somethin'? I got pills in the truck. And
I gotta head there anyway for a flashlight.

GRACE
I don't cotton to pills. You know that.
Oracle Rock 2-1-65

DAN'L
Well, I'll pray for you, then, while I'm scoutin'. That the
Lord will send along his healing power.

GRACE
I appreciate that. And while you're at it, see if he can
scare up Mr. Chance.

DAN'L
Yes, ma'am.

(DAN'L heads toward the parking lot.)

HOPE
Aunt Grace?

GRACE
Yes, darlin'?

HOPE
It's not the time of year.

GRACE
What do you mean?

HOPE
Isabelle says the time of year has nothing to do with your
headache.

GRACE
So Isabelle's taken up medical practice, has she?

HOPE
No, ma'am. She just sees the signs.

GRACE
Well, you tell Isabelle not to worry. I'm hurtin' a bit,
from a pain I thought I was done with. That's why I've been
spending time in my dream cave. I'm building a mandala.
You know what that is?

HOPE
Yes, ma'am. It's a geometric pattern that illustrates the
cosmos and/or its divine powers at work. It's found in the
three baskets that make up the Pali Tipitaka of Theravada
Buddhism and also in the Tibetan Vajrayana. Also in
Hinduism and in the Native American medicine wheel.

GRACE
Remind me never to ask you a question like that when my head
is hurtin'.
Oracle Rock 2-1-66

HOPE
Ma'am?

GRACE
That's all completely right, what you said. But to me it's
just a way of meetin' the spirits. And tryin' to keep my
health. But that's between you and me, understand? It's
not to go further.

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

(HOPE goes back to playing. DAN'L

returns from the parking lot with the
flashlight.)

DAN'L
(proudly, showing the flashlight)
I thought to put fresh batteries in before I come up here
this mornin'. I reckon the Lord knew I'd need 'em.

GRACE
He acts in mysterious ways.

DAN'L
Amen to that.

(He exits in direction of the cabins.

GRACE sips her tea and observes HOPE
thoughtfully for a time.)

GRACE
Sweetie, can I ask you something?

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

GRACE
Are you happy here? Livin' in the desert, I mean?

HOPE
(simply, without judgment)
No, ma'am.

GRACE
You're not happy?

(HOPE shakes her head, no.)

GRACE (Continued)
Would you rather be somewhere else?
Oracle Rock 2-1-67

HOPE
Not really.

GRACE
Then why aren't you happy?

(HOPE shrugs.)

GRACE (Continued)
Are you sad to be here?

HOPE
No, ma'am.

GRACE
So you ain't either happy or sad?

HOPE
No, ma'am. Except when Isabelle tells me.

GRACE
And what about Isabelle. Is she okay livin' here?

HOPE
Isabelle wants to leave.

GRACE
And go where?

HOPE
Wherever the winds of time take her, whatever that means.
She says she feels trapped.

GRACE
By what?

(HOPE stops playing. She seems reluctant

to answer.)

GRACE (Continued)
Sweetie, what does Isabelle feel trapped by?

HOPE
Me, she says.

GRACE
You?

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

GRACE
Well, that's curious.
Oracle Rock 2-1-68

HOPE
Isabelle knows his answer, by the way.

GRACE
Come again?

HOPE
Mr. Chance. There's something he needs to find out, and
Isabelle knows it. Except she won't tell me. I have to
give something up.

GRACE
And what does Isabelle want in return for the answer?

(HOPE's countenance drops.)

GRACE (Continued)
Honey? What is it you have to give up?

HOPE
(sadly)
I have to let her go.

GRACE
She wants you to let her go?

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

GRACE
I thought it was the other way around.

HOPE
No, ma'am. I invited her in. I have to invite her to
leave.

GRACE
Don't you want her to leave?

HOPE
No, ma'am. I don't know how to live without Isabelle. She
tells me how to act around people. And how to pretend that
I know how they feel. She says if I listen to her, I'll
make friends. I'd like to have friends.

GRACE
Sweetie, you'll have plenty of friends in due time.

HOPE
I don't have any now, though.

GRACE
You have me.
Oracle Rock 2-1-69

HOPE
Isabelle says that's not enough. She likes you, though.
She says you have the soul of a lady.

GRACE
(after a moment, carefully)
And do you think she's real?

HOPE
No, ma'am. And neither do you, she says. Or Mr. Chance.
But that's okay, because none of us are. We're all just
spirits, according to her. That's where she and the marquis
disagreed. She loved him but just thought he was really
wrong.

GRACE
If I could just write down what's in your head.

HOPE
What does that mean?

GRACE
It means you got a world in there that I wish I could climb
into. You got your facts side and your Isabelle side, and
the two of 'em just kinda dance.

HOPE
Isabelle loves to dance.

GRACE
I'm sure she does.

HOPE
She danced with the marquis at a wedding and people got mad.
That's why she was murdered, she says. She wanted to be
"out loud" with her love, and nobody wanted to hear it. He
cried over her body. She saw it.

GRACE
You're not making this up, are ya.

HOPE
I don't know how to make things up.

GRACE
Either that, or you know better than anyone else.

HOPE
Ma'am?

GRACE
Never mind. We'll just go with your answer. It paints a
better picture of the world.
Oracle Rock 2-1-70

HOPE
(happily, a sudden non sequitur)
She wants to become a cricket!

GRACE
A cricket?

HOPE
Yes, ma'am. It's what he called her. Because she chirped
so much. Everyone bowed to him like he was a genius. But
Isabelle wasn't afraid to point out his flaws. "La traité
de mécanique céleste" she says was partly her doing. He got
the credit, but she didn't mind. She knew that she would
never be known for her thinking. She did it so the science
would be right. Which it was, thanks to her. But nobody
knows.

GRACE
(awed)
You're a wonder, you know that?

HOPE
I don't know what you mean.

GRACE
You do know I love you, though, right?

HOPE
I know that you say you do, yes.

GRACE
Don't you believe me?

HOPE
I have no reason not to, so I guess so.

GRACE
And do you love me?

HOPE
Not according to Isabelle. She says I can't love, because
something is wrong with my brain. But if I could love, I'd
love you more than anyone else, she says. She likes you a
lot.
(an afterthought)
Mr. Chance, too. He reminds her of the marquis.

GRACE
You mean because he's a very smart man?

HOPE
No. It's because of his flaws.
Oracle Rock 2-1-71

(GRACE downs the last of the tea.)

GRACE
Well, if you ever do want to leave here, darlin', I want you
to tell me, okay? I'll sell this place at the drop of a hat
and go with you. And someday, if you want to be on your
own, we'll work that out. You mean the world to me, and
that's the truth.

(HOPE goes blank for a moment.)

GRACE (Continued)
Sweetie? What is it?

HOPE
Isabelle says I should smile.

(She does. It's not natural but doesn't

seem false.)

GRACE
You tell Isabelle I think she's okay.

HOPE
She knows.

(CHANCE staggers in from the alley, with

the look of a man possessed, having just
returned from a mystical sojourn in the
desert. His clothes are sopping wet.)

GRACE
Well, if it isn't the devil himself. Where the hell have
you been?

CHANCE
(completely distracted)
Been? Right,... of course.... I don't know.

GRACE
(sensing that something is wrong)
What do you mean, you don't know.

CHANCE
(at a loss for words)
I couldn't... I was... and then...

(His attention is drawn to the sky.)

CHANCE (Continued)
(in awe)
My god, will you look the stars.
Oracle Rock 2-1-72

GRACE
And how in heaven's name did you get wet?

CHANCE
(considering his clothes, mystified)
I can't tell you. I don't know, myself.

GRACE
(to HOPE)
Hope, run get this man a towel from outta my workshop.

(HOPE races into the workshop and returns

moments later with a towel. He stares
at it, as if it represents a wonder of
Nature, then dons it like a cape.)

HOPE
Is he all right?

GRACE
Hush now, and let him explain himself.

CHANCE
Explain?... Of course. I should. I will... What I can.

(Pause)

CHANCE (Continued)
I fell asleep.

GRACE
Where?

CHANCE
(haltingly)
On the bench. In that... vortex of yours. I must have.
And when I woke up, it was dark -- not dark like this, but
"dark." I found myself in a river...
(pointing toward the distance)
Out there somewhere... I don't know. In some kind of
canyon. And up on the wall was a doorway... and figures.
I'm not even sure how I got back. I followed the sound.

GRACE
What sound?

CHANCE
There was a sound. Like someone was striking a gong. I
walked to where it got louder, and found myself... here!

HOPE
(puzzled)
Aunt Grace, do we have a gong?
Oracle Rock 2-1-73

GRACE
(chiding)
Hush.

CHANCE
(debilitating elation)
The thing is,... I saw it. When I opened my eyes in the
water, there it was. Not there, but I knew that I had seen
it. In the dream.

GRACE
Seen what, exactly?

CHANCE
(astounded)
My transform. The thing I've been looking for. It...
talked to me. How is that possible? It's not, but I swear
that it did. It "smoked" me; I don't even know what that
means.

GRACE
Are you sayin' you had a vision?

CHANCE
I'm saying I found the key to my set of equations! Maybe...
I don't know. The key, that's all he would give me --
the... Smoke Thing. It's almost trivial. I only have the
details to work out.

GRACE
(genuinely)
Well, I'll be damned.

CHANCE
(a sudden and surprising revelation)
I feel like Kekulé must have felt.

GRACE
Who is Kekulé?

CHANCE
August... Kekulé... It doesn't matter.
(as if everything hangs on the answer)
Is there paper?

GRACE
Where?

CHANCE
I need paper. Lots of it. And pens. At least two -- no,
make it three!
Oracle Rock 2-1-74

GRACE
Hope, honey, run into the office and grab me some pens. And
bring those pads of paper from offa my desk.

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

(HOPE runs off into the lodge.)

CHANCE
And dinner -- leave it outside the door. And don't even
knock. I can't be disturbed. My brain... it's on fire. I
feel like I'm going to explode!

GRACE
Are you sure you're all right?

CHANCE
(madly ecstatic)
No, I am not all right! Not in any way am I all right! But
that's okay, see? I've been infected by an idea I can't
even talk about. It might be nothing or... good god; it
might be key. I have to find out.
(delighted)
It's exactly like Kekulé! Exactly!

(HOPE bursts out of the lodge with the

paper and pens. CHANCE snatches them
from her, like a starving man clutching
at food.)

CHANCE (Continued)
Thank you so much!

(He strokes her head, like a saint

administering a blessing.)
CHANCE (Continued)
(to GRACE, indicating the vortex)
If this works out, I will build you a temple there!

(He runs off toward the cabins.)

HOPE
(after a moment, a simple observation)
He's really quite odd, isn't he.

GRACE
Not odd, dear. Just... special.

HOPE
(happily)
Like me!
Oracle Rock 2-1-75

GRACE
Yes, but in his own way.

HOPE
Lucky him.

GRACE
And who is August Kekulé? Sweetie, do you happen to know?

(HOPE thinks for a moment.)

HOPE
Friedrich August Kekulé. Born September 7th, 1829, a
Monday, in Darmstadt, Germany. Died July 13th, 1896, also a
Monday, in Bonn. An organic chemist known for his work in
discovering the structure of benzene.

GRACE
Well, thank you, dear. But that helps not at all.

HOPE
There's more.
(after a moment)
Isabelle says there's more.

GRACE
Which is?

HOPE
It's not just what he discovered, it's how. Because he--
(a sudden burst of delighted laughter)
Oh, boy!

GRACE
What is it?

HOPE
He had a dream.

GRACE
A dream?

HOPE
Of Ouroboros. The snake that bites its own tail.

GRACE
I know what Ouroboros is. What's that got to do with
benzene?
Oracle Rock 2-1-76

HOPE
Nobody knew what it looked like. Only the formula, C-6-H-6.
But they couldn't figure out how it was arranged. They were
looking for something with branches. But the formula
wouldn't fit that kind of mold. Then Kekulé dreamed.

GRACE
Of Ouroboros.

HOPE
Yes, ma'am. The snake that bites its own tail and forms a
circle. And when he woke up, he knew benzene was a ring.
With alternating single and double bonds and a hydrogen atom
fixed at every vertex. It introduced the concept of
aromaticity, which is how a conjugated ring of unsaturated
bonds, lone pairs, and empty orbitals produces a stronger
stabilization than would be expected by the conjugation
alone--

GRACE
(interrupting)
Okay, darlin', I got it. You can stop.

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

GRACE
(greatly amused)
So Mr. Rationality had a dream.

HOPE
I think he's a doctor.

GRACE
Dr. Rationality, then. If that don't beat all.

HOPE
(concerned)
Will he be all right?

GRACE
I suspect he'll be just fine, darlin'. More than fine,
even. Better than he has been in years. Ask Isabelle.
She'll tell ya.

(GRACE exits into the lodge. HOPE stands

for a moment, lost in thought. Then a
flashlight beam appears in the alley.)

DAN'L (O.S.)
Grace, I'm thinkin' we need to call in the sheriff on this
one.
Oracle Rock 2-1-77

(DAN'L enters and notices that the

courtyard is empty except for HOPE.)

DAN'L (Continued)
Hello there.

HOPE
(warily)
Hello.

DAN'L
Any idea where your aunt got off to?

HOPE
She's inside.

DAN'L
Well, run in and get her, would ya? I can't find nary a
trace of Mr. Chance.

HOPE
He came back.

DAN'L
He did? When?

HOPE
A few minutes ago. He asked for paper and pens.

DAN'L
And why's that?

HOPE
He needed them, I guess.

DAN'L
Well, thank the Lord he's safe, at least. And returned to
us all in one piece.

(HOPE breaks into a wide grin and can

barely keep herself from giggling.)

DAN'L (Continued)
What's funny?

HOPE
Isabelle says "Amen".

(HOPE skips off into the lodge. DAN'L

turns off the flashlight.)
Oracle Rock 2-1-78

DAN'L
(to the heavens)
Thank you, Lord, for bringin' back the stranger safe and
sound.
(considering HOPE)
But that one'll need to be dealt with, I'm afraid.

(Blackout.)

END OF SCENE
Oracle Rock 2-2-79

ACT II

SCENE 2

SETTING: The same.

AT RISE: Mid-morning, the next day. HOPE

walks her methodical circuit around
the fountain, this time in the
opposite direction.

From the parking lot, we hear the

clanking of chains and the closing
of a gate on a motorcycle trailer.
HOPE stops briefly at the sound but
does not look up, then continues
the walking.

After a moment, DAN'L appears at

the pathway gate. He studies her a
moment before speaking.

DAN'L (Continued)
Mornin'.

(No answer. She continues walking.)

DAN'L (Continued)
Cat got your tongue?

(She stops and gazes at him, puzzled.)

DAN'L (Continued)
It's an expression.

(She resumes walking.)

DAN'L (Continued)
Your Aunt Grace around?

(She shakes her head, no.)

DAN'L (Continued)
You know where she is?

(She nods.)

DAN'L (Continued)
Care to tell me?

HOPE
She told me she was going to her cave.
Oracle Rock 2-2-80

DAN'L
(a judgment)
The cave again, huh.

(She nods.)

DAN'L (Continued)
And what about Mr. Chance?
(indicating the parking lot)
His bike's out there. It's good as new.

HOPE
He's in his cabin with the door locked.

DAN'L
Sleepin' late, is he?

HOPE
He had a vision.

DAN'L
Come again?

HOPE
He's working on a problem.

DAN'L
(sizing up the situation)
So you're alone, then?

HOPE
I have Isabelle.

DAN'L
I mean aside from Isabelle. You're alone?

(She shrugs.)

DAN'L (Continued)
(pleased to be presented with a
fortuitous situation)
Well, that's just dandy. Praise the Lord.

HOPE
"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to
lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still
waters; he restoreth my soul."

DAN'L
(amazed)
That's marvelous, sugar. Where'd you learn that?
Oracle Rock 2-2-81

HOPE
In The Bible. Designed to Be Read as Living Literature: The
Old and the New Testaments in the King James Version.
Arranged and edited by Ernest Sutherland Bates. With
Updated Scholarship and a New Introduction by Lodowick
Allison. Copyright 1993, by Simon & Schuster. ISBN Number
0-671-87959-6.

DAN'L
So you've read the Bible?

HOPE
Yes.

DAN'L
All of it?

HOPE
Yes.

DAN'L
And do you believe it?

(She shrugs.)

DAN'L (Continued)
You don't believe in the Bible?

HOPE
I don't believe in anything.

DAN'L
(astounded)
Not even the Bible?

HOPE
I'm not very good at believing.

DAN'L
I don't doubt that, to tell the truth. What with your aunt
and this weird upbringing of yours.

HOPE
Grace loves me.

DAN'L
I'm sure she does, darlin'.

HOPE
She said so.
Oracle Rock 2-2-82

DAN'L
And I bet she was telling the truth. But sometimes, even
people who love you don't always do the right thing. They
may think they do, but they don't.

HOPE
Grace feeds me.

DAN'L
I know that.

HOPE
And gives me a place to stay.

DAN'L
And those are good things, no doubt. The problem is, she is
not taking care of your soul.

(HOPE studies him as she continues the

circuit.)

DAN'L (Continued)
What's wrong?

HOPE
Isabelle doesn't like you.

DAN'L
Oh, yeah? Well, that's okay with me, because I have a
problem with Isabelle. Not like some people I know, who
think she don't exist. I know she exists, just as sure as
I'm standing here. The problem is, I know where she came
from.

HOPE
Isabelle came from Paris, France.
DAN'L
She came from somewhere a good deal hotter than Paris,
France, my darlin'. Isabelle boiled up from the fires of
Hell.

HOPE
Isabelle doesn't believe in Hell.

DAN'L
She'd tell you that, of course.

HOPE
Isabelle doesn't lie to me.

DAN'L
Then her master is lying through her.
Oracle Rock 2-2-83

HOPE
(simply)
If you say so.

(He watches her walk the circuit a few

times, frustrated that he is unable to
get through.)

DAN'L
Can I get you to stop for a second?

(She shakes her head no.)

DAN'L (Continued)
I bought you something.

(She halts abruptly.)

HOPE
Is it pretty?

DAN'L
I think it is. Here, look.

(He digs from his pocket a small, gold-

plated pendant in the shape of a cross.
She looks up.)

DAN'L (Continued)
(holding it out as he approaches)
See how it shines?

HOPE
It's a cross.

DAN'L
Yes, it is. A golden cross. And it's for you. I bought it
for you special. As protection.

HOPE
(showing her pendant)
I have my badger pendant for protection.

DAN'L
This is better. It's the cross of the Lord, who died for
our sins, not some little animal.

HOPE
(studying him)
Do you sin?
Oracle Rock 2-2-84

DAN'L
What do you mean, do I sin. Of course, I do. And so do
you. That's why the both of us need the Lord. So we don't
go to Hell.

HOPE
Hell seems like a bad place, the way it's described.

DAN'L
That's right. And Satan lives there. But he operates here,
which is why you need the cross.
(offering to put it on her)
May I?

(She looks at him, puzzled.)

DAN'L (Continued)
Put it on ya?

(She studies the cross, fascinated by the

way it reflects the sunlight.)

HOPE
(simply)
Okay.

(He sidles behind her and fastens the

pendant around her neck -- unfastening
the badger pendant in the process. Then
he faces her and admires the cross.)

DAN'L
That's just fine.

HOPE
(a bit anxiously, feeling for the other
pendant)
Where's my badger?

DAN'L
(showing it in his palm)
It's right here, darlin'. I just didn't want it to clash.
(laying it on the fountain rim)
We'll just set it right here, okay? In case you want it.

(She sits down beside it, feeling a bit

off balance and exposed. He sits on its
opposite side.)

DAN'L (Continued)
Can I ask you a question?
Oracle Rock 2-2-85

HOPE
Of course you can. You have a mouth.

DAN'L
I mean to say, may I. Do you mind?

HOPE
I guess not.

DAN'L
Do you ever wanna do without Isabelle?

HOPE
Do without her?

DAN'L
Live your life unshackled. Y'know.

HOPE
I am without Isabelle, sometimes. When she leaves me.

DAN'L
And where does she go when she leaves you?

HOPE
I don't know. She doesn't say.

DAN'L
And how does it make you feel when she leaves?

HOPE
I don't know what to call it. Just that it hurts.

DAN'L
(carefully)
You know what she is, dontcha.

HOPE
What do you mean?

DAN'L
What I mean is, you got an evil spirit, little girl.

HOPE
Where?

DAN'L
Inside you.

(HOPE gazes down at her belly, puzzled.)

Oracle Rock 2-2-86

DAN'L (Continued)
I mean Isabelle. And I think you know that, don'tcha. I
think Isabelle makes you afraid that someday she might leave
you and never come back. And that's why you feel bad when
she's not around. She needs you to need her.

HOPE
Isabelle doesn't need me.

DAN'L
Don't kid yourself, girl. A spirit like that needs a human
soul for its livelihood. She's a parasite.

(HOPE references the word in her mind.

It doesn't make sense.)

HOPE
She's a person.

DAN'L
She's an "entity," girl. That's not the same thing. And
believe you me, she ain't got your interests in mind.

HOPE
Isabelle helps me to know things.

DAN'L
Does she help you know about God?

HOPE
Isabelle doesn't believe in God.

DAN'L
Well, there you go.

HOPE
She says it's a construct. A collection of vain hopes
formalized in a patriarchal system. I don't know what she
means.

DAN'L
I do, sure enough.

HOPE
What does she mean?

DAN'L
She means, little girl, that she's got you under her spell.
You're a tasty little soul to her -- a meal ticket. Has she
ever offered to free you of herself?

HOPE
No.
Oracle Rock 2-2-87

DAN'L
I didn't figure.

HOPE
There's a reason, she says.

DAN'L
I don't doubt that at all. But that reason might keep you
from seein' the Kingdom of God.

HOPE
Where is it?

DAN'L
Where is what?

HOPE
The Kingdom of God.

DAN'L
(astounded)
You're askin' me where is the Kingdom of God? It's in
Heaven, for mercy's sake.

(HOPE seems vexed by the answer.)

DAN'L (Continued)
What's the matter?

HOPE
"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom
of God should come, he answered them and said, 'The kingdom
of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say,
Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is
within you." That's from the Holy Bible, Gospel of Luke,
Chapter 17, Verse 21, King James Version published by
Zondervan, April 21, 1984 in English, ISBN number--

DAN'L
(annoyed)
All right! You don't have to go on!

HOPE
Are you saying I can't see the Kingdom of God, because it's
inside me? And I can't see inside me?

DAN'L
I meant the Kingdom of Heaven, darlin'. Forgive me; I
misspoke.

HOPE
Do you think there's a Heaven?
Oracle Rock 2-2-88

DAN'L
You bet your sweet life I do.

HOPE
How do you know?

DAN'L
It's not a matter of knowing. It's all about faith.

(HOPE searches her archives.)

HOPE
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen."

DAN'L
Precisely.

HOPE
From the Book of Hebrews, Chapter 11--

DAN'L
(quickly)
I don't need all that, thank you very much. I know where to
find it.

HOPE
But you said you know where the Kingdom of Heaven is.

DAN'L
I did, and by that I meant I believe very strongly. So
strongly, in fact, it's like knowledge. I mean, goodness
sakes, how do we know anything at all. We don't, really.
Just what comes to us through our eyes and ears. And what's
to say they're not lyin'. If this life teaches anything,
it's that we live in a world where even our very senses can
be fooled. That's why we need faith.

HOPE
I can't have faith.

DAN'L
Did Isabelle tell you that?

(She nods.)

DAN'L (Continued)
Do you know why she said that?

(She shakes her head, no.)

DAN'L (Continued)
It's because she's a demon.
Oracle Rock 2-2-89

HOPE
(amazed that he's exactly right)
How did you know!

DAN'L
Did she tell you she is?

(She nods.)

DAN'L (Continued)
Did she say what her name was?

HOPE
Isabelle.

DAN'L
That's just a whaddyacallit -- a stage name.

HOPE
A pseudonym?

DAN'L
Exactly. I'll bet you money she's got a name that's very
much older than that. A name that comes from the pit of
Hell and was given to her when she and Lucifer took up arms
against God.

HOPE
"Lucifer" means "the morning star."

DAN'L
That's right, and so he was until his vanity took over.

HOPE
The morning star is Venus. It's a planet.

DAN'L
(exasperated)
It's a metaphor, girl. For pity's sake.

HOPE
Did I say something wrong?

DAN'L
No, you did not say anything wrong. You're just makin'
things hard on yourself.

HOPE
What do you mean?
Oracle Rock 2-2-90

DAN'L
You got a disease, girl. It's called possession. This
thing inside you that goes by the name of Isabelle is
nothing less than a bona fide agent of Satan. She has got
you in her grip, and you can't see it.

HOPE
She doesn't grip me.

DAN'L
Oh, yes, she does. In the worst of ways. She's got her
dirty mitts on your very soul. And Satan, who she serves,
is all for it. Nothin' would delight him more than to see
you twist and turn in the fires of Hell. Cut off for all
eternity from the God who loves you so much. And who sent
his only son to die for your sins.

HOPE
But if I were in Hell, God would rescue me, right? I read
in the Bible, he was loving.

DAN'L
And so he is, but in order to be rescued, you gotta cry out
for help. And this spirit of yours -- this Isabelle -- has
you locked up in a fun house of her making. So all you can
see is you and her and not the outside world.

HOPE
It's not a fun house.

DAN'L
(getting straight to the point)
Do you want to go to Hell? Because that's where you're
goin'. Right now, when you die. You got a one-way ticket,
and Isabelle bought and paid for it. She even punched it
for ya. She wants you to climb aboard that train just as
sure as I'm standin' here.

HOPE
She never mentioned anything about that.

DAN'L
And never would. But here's the good news. I can save you.

HOPE
You can?

DAN'L
With the help of the Lord, yes I can. He and I can tear up
that ticket and get you a fabulous refund. We can put you
on the road to Heaven. But only if you really want to go.
Oracle Rock 2-2-91

HOPE
I don't know what I want. That's why I have Isabelle.

DAN'L
Well, I tell you what let's do, then. Let's you and I go to
your cabin. We'll close the door and spend some time in
prayer. I got me a Bible right there in the truck. I keep
it with me for guidance. And we'll pray together and ask
for God's mercy to free you from this thing that calls
itself Isabelle.

(HOPE seems puzzled and distraught.)

DAN'L (Continued)
What's wrong, girl.

HOPE
Isabelle. She has nothing to say. That's very strange.

DAN'L
I tell you what I think; she's afraid. She knows there's a
reckoning comin'. And that Jesus himself is about to put
her in the cross hairs. She might be, and I hesitate to say
this, loadin' up on reinforcements. Callin' in others of
her kind to back her up. Which is why we have to act with
due haste. While your spirit -- your true spirit, the
spirit of Hope -- is willin'. And before she comes back
with her double-talkin' friends.

(HOPE considers her predicament. Pause.)

HOPE
(innocently)
All right.

DAN'L
(mightily pleased and relieved)
Thatta girl. Now, you head on up to your cabin there, and
I'll be along in a jiffy. And whatever you do, don't call
out the name of Isabelle. Not 'till I get there. We got a
mountain of work ahead of us, but it's the Lord's work, and
with his help, we will prevail.

HOPE
Okay.

(She goes to the tree, takes one look

around the courtyard, as if it's her
last, then runs off toward her cabin.
DAN'L gets down on one knee by the
fountain and folds his hands in prayer.)
Oracle Rock 2-2-92

DAN'L
Lord, I thank you for this chance to prove my mettle in your
service. And we got us a live one here. This spirit has
had its way with this little girl. She needs you now as
never before, and both of us need your mercy. To gird our
loins against your very foe.

HOPE (O.S.)
(from afar)
Are you coming?

(Her voice echoes from the hills.)

DAN'L
In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

(As he stands, he notices the badger

pendant on the fountain rim. He picks
it up and studies it for a moment, then
pockets it and taps his pocket, as if he
has just bagged a trophy. Blackout.)

END OF SCENE
Oracle Rock 2-3-93

ACT II

SCENE 3

SETTING: The same.

AT RISE: Later that day. CHANCE sits alone

on the steps of the porch cradling
the urn and pondering the loss it
represents. His motorcycle helmet
and bag sit nearby, and beside him
lies a disordered stack of paper --
his night's work -- weighed down by
his notebook on top.

He removes the lid from the urn and

gazes inside, as if into a well --
then closes it and slumps a bit,
possessed by an unfamiliar gloom.

Moments later, GRACE marches in

from the alley, angered at what she
perceives to be a grand violation
of her domain.

GRACE
(an accusation)
Are you the one who fucked up my mandala?

CHANCE
What?

GRACE
Someone's gone and messed with my mandala. Was it you?

CHANCE
I don't know what you're talking about.

GRACE
I have a mandala. You know what that is?

CHANCE
Of course, I know.

GRACE
Well, I'm buildin' one in my dream cave, and I found it all
jiggered up. So I'm askin' straight out, was it you?

CHANCE
I don't even know where your "dream cave" is.
Oracle Rock 2-3-94

GRACE
The hell you don't. That's where you found yourself
yesterday when you woke up.

CHANCE
I woke up in a river.

GRACE
And up there on the canyon wall was--?

CHANCE
(a private revelation)
A cave. Of course.

GRACE
You're damn right, "of course." That's my dream cave. And
inside, by the mouth, is my mandala. What's left of it,
anyway.

CHANCE
Maybe animals got to it.

GRACE
It wasn't animals.

CHANCE
(sarcastically)
Then maybe it was the "god of the cave." Maybe he didn't
like the design and wants to start over from scratch.

GRACE
(frustrated, near tears)
I worked a good long time on that thing!

CHANCE
I know that feeling.

GRACE
And what did it get me.

CHANCE
I know that one, too.

(The reply confuses her, then its meaning

dawns.)

GRACE
Your vision.

CHANCE
My "vision." Exactly.
Oracle Rock 2-3-95

GRACE
So how'd it work out?

CHANCE
It didn't work out. That's how. Instead of what I wanted,
I got the truth. A big and ugly wake up call in the face.

GRACE
Meanin'?

CHANCE
Meaning the equation set is singular. Once you reduce it,
it has no solution. Or an infinite number of solutions,
depending on how you look at it. Either way, it's garbage.
Which means I've spent the last few weeks in search of what
it turns out is a ghost. The idea was doomed from the
start.

GRACE
Can you somehow un-doom it?

DAN'L
You don't "un-doom" equations like these; they describe
things. You're either right or wrong, and I'm wrong. And
brave enough to admit it; I'll give myself that.

GRACE
Maybe what you need is a trip to the vortex.

CHANCE
(with self-loathing)
I tried that, believe it or not. Last night, when it hit
me. All my derivations up in smoke. I thought -- I can't
believe I'm saying this -- that maybe, just maybe, there was
something to this idea of magical power. So I went there
alone in the moonlight. Scared shitless, pardon my French,
because of the wildlife. And stood there looking skyward
until I felt... silly. Not to mention disappointed in
myself.
(resolved)
And that's when I came home to what I believe. That science
is right; the universe follows laws. And because we're part
of the universe, we do, too. There's no such thing as magic
or souls or free will. Just because we evolved to believe
in those things doesn't mean that they're true. We do what
we do, and then we're gone. Forever. And nothing lives on.
(considering the urn)
No matter how much we might want it to, nothing lives on.
(after a moment, pointedly)
And if there's any lesson in this escapade, it's that no one
is immune to superstition, not even me. I thought I was
better than that; it turns out I'm not.
Oracle Rock 2-3-96

GRACE
There's other lessons here, I think.

CHANCE
For you, maybe. Not me. My belief system was tested, and I
failed. Completely. There was a moment yesterday
afternoon, standing in that vortex, when I actually thought
there might be some other way to get at the truth. It was a
small and innocent thought that sent me wandering. But now,
like the Prodigal Son, I have returned. Like everyone else,
when trouble comes I go back to my basic beliefs. The
difference is that mine can be defended. I strayed from the
path of Reason, and now I've come home. So fatten the calf.

(A cry of pain rings out from the cabins

and echoes across the hills, followed by
a loud and primal snarl.)

DAN'L (O.S.)
(from afar)
Goddammit, little girl! You get back here!

(Moments later, HOPE runs in from

direction of the cabins, clutching an
ancient kachina doll, which looks to be
weathered and moldy. She races to the
safety of the workshop porch, prepared
to stand her ground. Her countenance
glows with an intense, demonic fire.
Shortly thereafter, DAN'L staggers in
from the same direction, holding the
side of his head, which appears to be
bleeding.)

GRACE
(to DAN'L)
What in the name of Sam Houston happened to you!

DAN'L
That niece of yours happened! The little bitch bit my ear!

GRACE
(sternly)
You watch your language!

DAN'L
Well, pardon my sayin', but she did!

GRACE
Hope, darlin'? What happened?
Oracle Rock 2-3-97

HOPE
(fixing DAN'L with an intense, angry gaze)
Isabelle told me to bite him.

DAN'L
You see?

GRACE
And why on Earth did she tell you that?

HOPE
(showing the doll)
He was going to hurt my doll!

GRACE
(bristling)
Come again?

HOPE
He said he was going to burn it. To save me from Hell.

GRACE
(to DAN'L)
Why you self-righteous little--

DAN'L
She is goin' to Hell! And it's your fault! I was doin' her
a service!

GRACE
(seething)
If that service involved a little somethin' in your
trousers, it'll meet my Bowie knife, and soon enough.

DAN'L
You know it ain't like that, Grace! I was tryin' to free
her! There's a demon got ahold on her, can't you see it?
Are you blind?

GRACE
Oh, I'm not blind by any stretch. I can tell a fool when I
see one.

DAN'L
The only foolishness here is your hoodoo. It's the Devil's
own lie. First Timothy, Chapter 4, Verse 1: "In later times
some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to
deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons."
Oracle Rock 2-3-98

GRACE
(barely containing her anger)
Now Dan'l, I'm not really angry at you, because you're an
ignoramus and can hardly help yourself. But if you don't
make haste to that truck of yours, I'm gonna go fetch my
shotgun. And that detailin' job of yours'll go to waste.

DAN'L
I tried to help her!

GRACE
You tried to impose your own version of help on a girl who
doesn't need it! Hope is fine!

DAN'L
Hope is not fine!

GRACE
She is fine enough. And any gettin' finer'll come from the
inside.

DAN'L
From that demon, you mean.

GRACE
(having had enough)
That does it. I'm gettin' my gun.

(She storms into the office.)

CHANCE
I think she's serious, brother.

(We hear the cocking of a bolt-action

shotgun inside.)
CHANCE (Continued)
For the love of God, man. Run!

DAN'L
(calling to Grace)
I'm telling the law!

GRACE (O.S.)
(from inside)
If you live!

DAN'L
(anxious cordiality, to CHANCE)
The keys are in your bike there. It was nice meetin' ya.

CHANCE
Likewise! Now go!
Oracle Rock 2-3-99

(DAN'L runs off. Moments later, we hear

the truck start up and race into the
distance, dragging the trailer behind.
GRACE emerges from the lodge, shotgun in
hand.)

GRACE
Is he gone?

CHANCE
Just.

GRACE
Thank god for that. I'm all outta shells. That woulda
looked kinda silly.
(to HOPE, who stands ready for battle on
the porch)
Sweetie, come here and let me hold ya.

(HOPE stands firm for a moment, then runs

and throws her arms around GRACE.)

GRACE (Continued)
(comforting her)
It's all right, darlin'. He won't be back.

HOPE
I know.

(As they embrace, GRACE becomes conscious

of a noxious odor.)

GRACE
God in heaven, what is that smell?

CHANCE
What smell do you mean?

GRACE
You don't smell that?

(He sniffs the air and is suddenly

assaulted by the odor.)

CHANCE
(cringing)
Now, I do. It smells like mold.

GRACE
There's no mold around here; it's too dry, except by the
river.

(She follows the scent to the doll.)

Oracle Rock 2-3-100

GRACE (Continued)
It's comin' from this doll of hers. Hope, honey, where did
you get this?

HOPE
Isabelle told me not to say.

GRACE
(sternly)
Well, I'm tellin' you otherwise, young lady. I want to know
where you got this, right now, you understand?

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

GRACE
Out with it, then. I want the truth.

HOPE
Isabelle found a burial site by the river.

GRACE
A burial site?

HOPE
Yes, ma'am. By the river. She says it's very old. There's
artifacts there she said I had to put away for safekeeping.
Except for this one, which she said was a gift.

GRACE
(suspiciously)
And just where did you put all those artifacts, darlin'?

HOPE
(knowing she has transgressed)
In your cave.

GRACE
In my dream cave?

HOPE
Yes, ma'am. In the way back. Isabelle said they'd be safe
there, away from the water.

GRACE
Well, if that don't beat all.
(triumphant relief)
It's the mold!

CHANCE
What do you mean?
Oracle Rock 2-3-101

GRACE
(a happy declaration)
I'm allergic to mold! It gives me headaches!

CHANCE
And?

GRACE
It would take too long to explain.
(embracing HOPE)
Oh, sweetie, you don't know how happy you have made me. We
gotta clean this little guy up, though, before you can keep
him. Then he can sit right proud in your room, all right?

HOPE
(indicating CHANCE)
The doll's not for me, it's for him.

GRACE
For Mr. Chance?

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

GRACE
Why do you want to give it to Mr. Chance?

HOPE
Isabelle says he needs it. It can save him.

CHANCE
What?

HOPE
(to CHANCE, offering the doll)
Here. This is for you.

CHANCE
Oh,... no. I couldn't.

HOPE
Isabelle says you're hurting.

CHANCE
I'm not hurting.

HOPE
Isabelle says you are.

CHANCE
(gently, but with a hint of frustration)
Well, Isabelle is wrong, all right? It may not happen
often, but she's wrong.
Oracle Rock 2-3-102

HOPE
It's a gift.

CHANCE
I know that.

HOPE
It's for you.

CHANCE
(growing annoyed)
But I can't accept it, okay? Thank Isabelle for me, please,
but tell her no.

HOPE
The doll is not from Isabelle. It's from me.

CHANCE
That's all the more reason.

HOPE
It's a gift.

CHANCE
(firmly)
I know it's a gift. I can't accept it.

HOPE
It has power.

CHANCE
(frustrated)
It doesn't have any power; it's a doll.

HOPE
It's a gift.

CHANCE
For heavens sake!

GRACE
What harm will it do to accept it?

CHANCE
It belongs in a museum somewhere.

GRACE
The museum won't miss it. They don't even know it exists.

CHANCE
But I'll know. And feel like a criminal.
Oracle Rock 2-3-103

HOPE
It's a gift of power.

CHANCE
(barely containing his anger)
Will you stop it?! There's no such thing as a goddamned
gift of power! It's make believe! Do you get that?
Nothing more!

GRACE
(sternly)
Look here, now. There is no need to shout.

CHANCE
(vehemently)
No, there is, actually. There is every need to shout. Do
you know how frustrating it is to live in a world with all
this un-Reason? Where everyone's got their god or spirit or
some kind of crystal energy that's supposed to cure all
their ills? Of course, you don't know! Because you're part
of the problem! You and that goddamned vortex of yours!
You're no different than Dan'l, you know that? Both of you
live in this fantasy world where some kind of outside force
holds sway in your lives.

GRACE
(matching his vehemence)
If anyone here is like Dan'l, it's you. You and your my-way-
highway view of the world.

CHANCE
(to HOPE)
Look, I don't want offend you, okay? But I don't believe in
this stuff. It's nonsense, understand? There are no
spirits or gods or ghosts. It's all just neurons firing in
your brain!

HOPE
What about Isabelle?

CHANCE
There is no Isabelle! You are Isabelle! She is you! All
the things you claim she knows, you know them! You! Not
Isabelle! You!

HOPE
(simply, hurt)
You don't want it?

CHANCE
No! I don't!
Oracle Rock 2-3-104

HOPE
She said it would save you.

CHANCE
What could it possibly save me from?! I'm not sick, for
God's sake; I'm well! You're the one who needs saving!
You!
(indicating his head)
You're not right up here! You need help!

HOPE
But Isabelle says--

CHANCE
I don't give a good goddamn what Isabelle says! I don't
need saving!
(snatching up his papers from the porch)
Or here, y'know what? You want to save me? Okay. Solve
this if you can. Get Isabelle to take a look. After all,
she claims to have known the great Laplace; let's see if he
taught her anything. You show her these and get her to find
a mistake. Point out the error. Because I'll tell you
right now, there isn't one. But if Isabelle proves me
wrong, then I'll repent. I'll stay right here and build a
little shrine to the Gods of Un-Reason. I'll sit the whole
damned day in that frigging vortex. Or become a hermit and
live in that goddamned cave!

(She stares at him filled with hardened

pity, like an adult gazing in wonder at
a petulant child. After a moment, she
marches with resolve to the cabin path.)

HOPE
(to CHANCE, with a vehement fire)
Isabelle knows your answer, too. She even wrote it down.
Only now I'm not even sure I want you to have it. Part of
me wishes you'd just go away.

CHANCE
You'll get your wish. I'm nearly done with this place.

HOPE
(on the verge of angry tears)
I don't want you to go!

CHANCE
But you just said--

HOPE
I don't want to want you not to go away. But I do!
Oracle Rock 2-3-105

CHANCE
Well, now I'm confused.

HOPE
(knowingly bitter)
You have no idea how much.

(She runs off toward the cabins.)

GRACE
Are you proud of yourself?

CHANCE
No, I am certainly not.

GRACE
I wouldn't be, either. The way you behaved.

CHANCE
Maybe it wasn't my place to be blunt, but somebody had to.
It's not her fault to grow up in this fantasy land of yours.
She needed to be woken up.

GRACE
Is that what you did?

CHANCE
I hope so.

GRACE
And what did you wake her up to, exactly?

CHANCE
The reality of life.

GRACE
And you know what that is, do ya.

CHANCE
I know what it takes to see it. And magic crystal energy
doesn't help.

GRACE
Well, y'know what? Maybe you're right about science. And
Reason and all that other stuff. But even if you are right,
I don't care. I like a world that has some flavor to it,
where people have souls and free will. It pleases me to
live in a world that operates that way, and I ain't ashamed.
You tell me it's make-believe, fine. You may be right. And
y'know what I say? "So what." Is it gonna make me happier
to think the way you do? Will I be kinder? Or filled with
more joy?
(MORE)
Oracle Rock 2-3-106

GRACE (Continued)
Because I was built to seek out joy; we all were -- even
you. And comfort and happiness and so forth. And if you
can't give me that, then what's the point. You're not even
offering truth, when it comes down to it. You're selling a
way to get at the truth that happens to work for you. Which
puts you in the same boat as Dan'l.

CHANCE
(bitterly)
Don't kid yourself; you're in that boat, too. The three of
us are, all rowing in different directions.
(rousing, adamantly)
And by the way, you owe me a trip to the doctor.

GRACE
What?

CHANCE
You told me you would take her to the doctor if I failed.

GRACE
I said no such thing.

CHANCE
You'll go back on your word?

GRACE
My word was that you'd find some inspiration, which you did.
I said nothin' about it workin' out in the end. You wanna
blame that failure of yours on something, look to Reason.
It seems to me that she's the one who stabbed you in the
back.

CHANCE
(gathering his things)
That's it. I'm at my end. I have to leave.

GRACE
And go where?

CHANCE
(snidely)
Anywhere away from this madhouse of yours! You make me want
to ride off a cliff, like your sister!

GRACE
(stunned and hurt)
Come again?

CHANCE
(sincerely contrite)
I'm sorry. Forgive me, that was stupid. It's just...
Oracle Rock 2-3-107

(Pause)

CHANCE (Continued)
(a troubled confession)
I was told to take this week off. Ordered, actually, under
threat of losing my job. They said I'd begun to act
"strangely." And to do things that disturbed them, so they
claimed. But if anything disturbs them, it's my clarity of
mind.
(bitter mocking)
"You never mourned," they said, "about your son." "What
good would that do now," I said. "The whole thing was in
store from the beginning. I mean, what do we base our
livelihoods on if not the idea that the universe follows
laws! And all of you know what that means as well as I do!
That we, who are made up of atoms, must bow to those laws in
every respect, including our hearts and minds!" Nothing
happens that wasn't caused by something that happened
before. Not our actions, not our thoughts, not our...
feelings. It's all completely inevitable. And to sit here
and act like it's not is just a lie.
(offering the notebook as evidence)
It's not by chance that right after Jacob died, I had this
idea. It came from him but not because he gave it. His
death freed up a lot of RAM, and if I don't use it wisely,
what's the point. It's the only way I know to keep his
memory alive. And not in a jar of self-pity. But out there
in the land of what's remarkable and real. And no, this
wasn't it, but maybe next time...
(considering the urn)
I'll produce an effect that's worthy of its cause.
(after a moment)
In the meantime, all my energy is taken up defending my
right to do so.

(Pause. He seems exhausted, as if from a

long and difficult ongoing fight.)

CHANCE (Continued)
You have nothing to say?

GRACE
I do, but I don't think it's anything you wanna hear.

CHANCE
I should go then.

GRACE
I think that's right.

(He goes to the gateway.)

Oracle Rock 2-3-108

CHANCE
(a sincere final thought)
I appreciate your courtesy; I mean that. I know you didn't
have to take me in.

GRACE
I did, but why would be hard to explain. And you're
welcome. I wish you the best. And with your son.

CHANCE
These are just ashes.

GRACE
I know.

(CHANCE heads off to the parking lot. We

hear the motorcycle roar to life and
race off into the distance. As its
echoes diminish, HOPE races in, worried.)

HOPE
Grace?

GRACE
Yes, darlin'.

HOPE
What was that sound?

GRACE
That was Mr. Chance just takin' his leave.

HOPE
(anxiously)
He's gone?

GRACE
I'm afraid so.

HOPE
But he can't be! It's not time!

GRACE
It is for him, darlin'. I'm sorry.

HOPE
But Isabelle said... Oh, this is awful!

(HOPE buries her head in her hands,

displaying an unusual degree of emotion.)

GRACE
Sweetheart, what is it?
Oracle Rock 2-3-109

HOPE
He was hurting!

GRACE
Yes, he was.

HOPE
I felt it!

GRACE
You mean Isabelle felt it.

HOPE
No, ma'am. I did.

GRACE
(quietly startled)
You?

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

GRACE
(realizing the implication)
Oh, sweetheart!

HOPE
She gave me this to give to him, since he wouldn't accept
the doll.

(She presents a folded sheet of paper.)

GRACE
What is it?

HOPE
It's his answer.

GRACE
Sweetie, it turns out there is no answer. He told me.

HOPE
He was wrong.

(GRACE unfolds the paper. It is covered

with an ornate, flourishing script.)

GRACE
(puzzled)
This is not your handwriting.

HOPE
No, ma'am, it's not. It's Isabelle's.
Oracle Rock 2-3-110

GRACE
Isabelle wrote this?

(HOPE nods.)

GRACE (Continued)
Well, that's a first. May I read it?

(HOPE nods again.)

GRACE (Continued)
(reading)
"Time is formulated incorrectly." What does that mean?

HOPE
I don't know.

GRACE
"The sciences treat time like a dimension, which it is not.
Prigogine's work on dissipative structures demonstrates
that." Who is Prigogine?

HOPE
Ilya Romanovich Prigogine. Born January 25th, 1917, which
was a Thursday. Died on a Wednesday, the 28th of May, 2003.
He specialized in non-equilibrium thermodynamics. And won
the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977 for his work on
dissipative structures.

GRACE
You have any idea what those might be?

HOPE
(forlornly)
No, ma'am.

GRACE
Okay.
(returning to the note)
"Time is a property, not a dimension. Its arrow points only
one way. If you treat it correctly, quantum paradoxes
disappear. But more than that, the concept of
determinism... fails." Oh, my lord. "It's not that the
future is knowable and we don't know enough to know it.
It's that by its very nature it cannot be known. There is
no such thing as certainty, only likelihood. Or as
Prigogine wrote: 'The more we know about our universe, the
more difficult it becomes to believe in determinism.' The
soul is alive. We do have free will. Laplace's Demon is
dead, and Prigogine killed it. He stands at the mouth of
its cave with its head in his hands."
(amused)
I see she even added a couple of footnotes.
Oracle Rock 2-3-111

HOPE
That's just to be thorough, she said.

GRACE
Well, if that don't beat all. I don't claim to understand
it, but the Nobel Prize -- they don't just hand those out.
Could be this man was onto somethin' special.

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

GRACE
(handing back the paper)
And I know it's too late, but you tell Isabelle thank you
just the same.

HOPE
(sadly)
Isabelle isn't here, anymore. I had to let her go. It's
the only way she'd let me deliver the message.

GRACE
(deflated)
Oh, sweetheart.

HOPE
(looking toward the highway)
We have to tell him. We have to show him the note.

GRACE
Even if we could, darlin'. There's no guarantee he'd accept
it.

HOPE
We have to give him the chance.

GRACE
But sweetie, he's a long way off. And that car of mine, you
know how it is about starting.

HOPE
Sometimes it starts.

GRACE
Sometimes, I grant you. But not on command.

HOPE
(making direct eye contact)
We have to try.

(GRACE sees in HOPE's gaze a seriousness

that has not appeared before.)
Oracle Rock 2-3-112

GRACE
I suppose we do, don't we.

HOPE
Yes, ma'am.

GRACE
(resolved)
Then by god, we will. I'll get the key.

(GRACE runs into the lodge to retrieve

the car key. HOPE takes in her
surroundings with quiet wonder, as if
seeing them for the first time.)

GRACE (Continued)
(bursting out of the lodge)
Don't just stand there. He's got a head start.

HOPE
(stopping her)
Grace?

GRACE
Yes, sweetie?

HOPE
(after a moment, simply)
I love you.

GRACE
I love you, too, darlin'. You don't know how much. Now
let's go save us a scientist.

(They run off to the parking lot. We

hear a pair of car doors open and shut.
The engine cranks but does not start.
It cranks again with the same result.
It cranks a third time and still does
not start.)

GRACE (O.S.) (Continued)

Goddamn you, universe!

(The cry echoes across the hills. The

engine cranks once more and roars to
life. We hear the car whip around on
the gravel and race into the distance.
The courtyard is quiet for a time...
then a cricket chirps. Lights fade to
black.)

END OF PLAY