Baby Crib
The Complex and I Ski Maybell
by
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The Complex: Mickey - Mama Ann, I'm so happy to be home. Everyone's looking so good. Y'all look terrific! Ann - Son, you don't know how I worried. You should have called or at least sent a card. You know that you are special and I worry extra about you. Mickey - Oh Mom I was having too much fun, living in the woods, looking at rhododendrons in bloom, smelling honeysuckle and Mamma, oh Mamma, I was drawing. (Mickey goes to backpack and takes out sketch books and pads.) Look, Mamma at my drawings. There's a campsite I laid out and built with my own hands. The amphitheatre area of the Folk Life Center of the Smokies that I creosoted all the logs! (Enter Papa John in background) - Tearfully and full of emotion - Mamma, please look at my drawings of sycamore leaves and dogwood trees! I Ski Maybell: Paul M: Good morning! You’re in here awfully early for a Monday morning. Paul J: Well hello, Paul. Yes, I like to get here before the phones start ringing and plan my day. Paul M: You’ve made a real adjustment to working at Daydreams. I hear very nice things about your professional habits. Paul J: Why thank you! I’ve always had a strong instinct to work hard. Paul M: Have you met anyone outside of Daydreams or in Richmond? Paul J: I’m still learning my way around town. I’m finally getting comfortable in my apartment. Still trying to furnish it. All I have is my bedroom together and two chairs in the living room. Paul M: I know a lot of decorators and interior designers. Paul J: I bought my bedroom set at Lowenstein’s when I got a credit card. And I haggled the two chairs from someone at a yard sale on Poplar Avenue for twenty dollars apiece. Paul M: Such a deal! Better than wholesale. Paul J: I’m still living out of boxes but I did bring my dishes and pots and pans from Memphis. Paul M; I wish I could live so simple and unencumbered. Carter and I have six complete sets of china between us. That’s not even counting the everyday service. I remember when we just had paper plates and an empty house too! Paul J: I’m in no rush to fill up my life again. Paul M: I don’t think that anyone “tries”. It just happens over time. You just have to stick around long enough for it to happen. When I left my wife thirteen years ago, Carter took me in and I’ve never looked back. Paul J: My life used to be so complex back in Memphis. I’m kind of glad that I live in a nearly empty apartment. I can choose the objects that I want around me and I’m in no rush to over crowd my life with things again. Paul M: What do you mean? Paul J: At one time in my life, I allowed other people to fill me up with their lives because I felt that I couldn’t stand on my own two feet. Paul M: And now? Paul J: I’m a man now and I can go where I want and do what I want. Paul M: Oh! Paul J: And I can buy what I want and eat where I want. Paul M: And you couldn’t before? Paul J: I was involved with someone who called all the shots. That is in the past and I don’t want to talk about it now. Let’s change the subject. I don’t see anything being accomplished by rehashing the past. It’s best to ignore it! Paul M: Did you have a fun weekend? Paul J: Why thank you for asking. Yes, I went up to DC for the weekend. How about you and Carter? Paul M: Oh, a very subdued weekend before we have four days off this week for Thanksgiving. We did go out Saturday night to the usual place to have a few cocktails and see a few friends. Did you go out in DC? Paul J: I did the museums in the Smithsonian during the day. And I went out to eat. Paul M: Is that all? Paul J: I did go to the Freer Gallery of Art. Paul M: I heard about a more “colorful” weekend. Paul J: I spent my time in the art galleries. Paul M: Is that all! My story sounds a little more interesting. But I have never been the subject of gossip around this town. To put it mildly, I heard that you were spotted at the DC Follies hanging out with the Washington royalty. Who am I to repeat these stories! You know it is the most notorious gay bar where government bigwigs go to pick up hustlers. It’s also a hangout for the old rich wrinkled crowd looking for protégées. Paul J: (Shocked) Who has been talking about me! Paul M: Paul, don’t be so surprised. Washington DC is the biggest little town in America. Everybody from Richmond goes up there for the weekends.
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About the Book
It was a time when personal exploration was a way of life—a time when it was still okay to hitchhike, grow your hair long, and be carefree. But during the 1970s and early 1980s, it still was not okay to be gay.
In Complex, the first of the two plays presented in Baby Crib, author Michael J.-P. Williams introduces Mickey, a man haunted by guilt—and a dark secret. Just as a new consciousness is lighting the way for those who wish to escape the closet, artist wannabe Mickey is battling internal demons. Ashamed that he is homosexual and even more ashamed that he is still alive after his twin brother dies from cancer, Mickey must struggle to accept himself and his desires. In the second play, I Ski Maybell, Paul West is on the road to success. With a newly acquired MBA in hand and a good job in a new city, Paul’s fresh start in life suddenly goes awry when he allies himself with Nova McWorth. Unfortunately, she is his boss. Williams interweaves multifaceted characters within poignant storylines that prove that perhaps life really is too short to worry about what we cannot control.About the Author
Michael JP Williams loved a great American writer, Thomas Lanier Williams of Key West, Florida. His influences include the works of Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, as well as many other American playwrights; these are his first published plays. He currently lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.