stones from three houses by dave malloy

BECKETT
a couple weeks in
i got a phone call from my sister
telling me our grandparents had died.

i had lost touch with my grandparents.
they were this mad old hermit couple that lived in ireland.
county cork.

(grandfather appears, drinking brandy and humming.)

gramps had been a stonemason.
their backyard was this insane rock sanctuary,
giant boulders and cairns set up in arcane formations.
sacred geometry.

GRANDFATHER
listen to the stone,
lay your hands upon the stone.
for the stone stands watch for a thousand thousand years.

listen to the stone,
see the sparkle on the stone.
for the stone will never die.

BECKETT
in the center he had built a clochán,
one of those beehive-shaped stone huts
that celtic monks and old lukę skywalker lived in.

i visited them once on a backpacking trip, after my dad died.
gramps and i spent a whole night in the hut,
sucking down plum brandy,
singing old irish ditties
while we grieved.

BECKETT & GRANDFATHER
listen to the stone,
lay your hands upon the stone.
for the stone stands watch for a thousand thousand years.

listen to the stone,
see the sparkle on the stone.
for the stone will never die.

SHELOB
how sweetly he used to hum.
your grandfather’s brandy recitals
are legendary amongst us spiders.

BECKETT
i suppose i should also mention here
that my new local liquor store
had the exact brand of plum brandy my gramps used to drink;
and they delivered.
eight bottles in a case.
it became a nightly ritual.

SHELOB
yes beckett,
enjoy yourself.
you deserve it.

(grandmother appears beside grandfather.)

BECKETT
gran had been mystical too—
her thing was crystals.
quartz, amethyst, malachite, tiger’s eye.
tuning her spirit to their energies.

a couple weeks after they passed,
i got a package;
gran’s pendulum.

a piece of deep blue lapis lazuli
strung on a silver chain.
swinging back and forth
and round and round.

BECKETT & SHELOB
swinging back and forth
and round and round.

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