Stompers

By Ammon Christopher C.

This is the story of Jackson A. Douglas, the last of the stompers. 

Scene 1

(We follow a stranger as he steps off the curb and begins to cross the street. The streets are covered in snow. The sidewalks are freshly cleared by shovel. As the stranger takes his first steps off the curb and with each one further, we hear the sound of shovel after shovel scraping the concrete. The stranger stops. He looks at the sidewalk ahead of him, freshly cleared, then turns and looks at the sidewalk from where he came. The scraping catches his mind and he turns to look up the street he is crossing. With every house there is a driveway, a sidewalk or walkway being shoveled by their perspective owners.)

Stranger

Well, I’ll be. . .

(He begins up the street.  He passes by the first few folks in amazement then finally catches his thoughts to greet a man- the one man not shoveling his walks- the one man without a smile on his face; he is lacing up a pair of boots with extra wide, flat soles. The stranger greets him from the street- as the mans entire lawn- sidewalk and all- is covered in snow.)

Stranger

Hey there. Seems a lot of work about? 

(the man looks up the road, then down again to his works at hand)

Man

Yep. Sure seems that way dun’it?

Stranger

Yeah, I was just happening by when I saw the. . .uh. . .(loss for words)

Man

The shovels?!

Stranger

Shovels? Yeah. Well that’s somethin’ in’it.

( another man with a shovel comes up on the stranger in the street as he is shoveling the snow from the road- he stops as his shovel comes up on the strangers feet)

Man 2

Oh, excuse me.

Stranger

Excuse me. Seems I’m in your way.

Man 2

Does it? Oh, it can wait. (smiles) Name’s Dover, John Dover.

Stranger

Calvin, (they shake hands) Calvin Mann. You can call me Cal.

Dover

Cal huh?

Cal

Yeah. . .(smiles) gee, that’s some bit of work you’ve got there.

Dover

Oh, I don’t do the whole road- we all kinda get a little here and there. Mostly out front our own- that’s mine right next-door there.

Cal

Oh! Well that’s fair I suppose.

Dover

Yup. All’s fair around here. (he hides his face from the man at the house in front of them) unless you ask certain individuals, who shall remain nameless. (he unhides himself and raises his voice) John C. Douglas!

Man on porch- (John C. Douglas)

What’s that! 

Dover

Nothing- go back to your shoes!

Douglas

What’s that you weasel?! You weasel you. . . You’ve got no idea do ya? Do you even know what that is in your hand?

Dover

Here he goes. I’ve gone and woken the beast.

Douglas

Beast! Get the hell away from my walk will ya!

Dover

Oh, you sure you don’t want me to clear it a little bit? (he gestures with his shovel)

Douglas

You get that abomination away from my snow! You hear?! My granddaddy’s turnin’ in his grave just at the mention shovel!

Dover

Now John, Cal here aint interested in your family history. And neither am I for that matter. Been hearing the same story for years now. . .time to let it be.

Douglas

I’ll let it be all right- when every one of those abominations is reduced to kindlin’ 

Dover

Just cause the Snow Scooper 1000 Shovel here put your granddaddy out of business all them many years ago doesn’t mean it’s an abomination John. 

Douglas

Ehh!! (he throws his hands down at Dover and goes inside the house)

Dover

See he’s just holding a grudge cause his granddaddy got put out of business all due to this baby right here. (he holds his shovel proudly)

Cal

All that?

Dover

Yep. He still refuses to shovel the snow from his walks after all these years. I mean, a good idea’s a good idea right?

Cal

Well I guess so. . .

Dover

Yup. Well. . . I better be heading home about it. -gonna be in town long are ya?

Cal

Well, really I was just passing by when the scrapping caught my ear. . .

Dover

Well before you head out, it’d be a good idea to head on down the road here to Sketcher’s General- and pick one up. It might come in handy on your travels.

Cal

I’ll do that. It was nice to meet you - John, Dover?

Dover

Yup. The feeling’s mutual Mr. Calvin- Cal Mann.

(Cal smiles and watches Dover head on to his home next-door- Dover sets his shovel by the door as he enters then turns to look back at Cal, smiles- then takes the shovel up again and goes inside. Cal then turns to Douglas’s house for a moment, looking at the snow and then boots on the porch.)

Cal

Well. . .I’ll be. . .

(he begins to walk away)

Douglas

You’ll be what?!

Cal 

(stopping) what’s that?

Douglas 

(exiting his house) You’ll be a what? Son. 

Cal

Oh. It’s just. . . Well, I’ve never seen anything like it before that’s all.

Douglas

So you’ll be.

Cal

I suppose.

Douglas

Be what now?

Cal

(laughs at the exchange) Well sir, I suppose I’ll be a monkey’s uncle that’s all.

Douglas

A monkeys uncle eh? That’s funny.

Cal

It’s a saying

Douglas

I suppose it is.

Cal

Do you want something from me?

Douglas

No. what would I want from you?

Cal

I don’t know. I’ll be on my way then.

Douglas

You goin’ over to Sketcher’s then? To get one of them abominations, them shovels.

Cal

Like the man says “a good idea’s a good idea, right.”

Douglas

Wrong! Boy you have no idea do you?

Cal

No I suppose I don’t

Douglas

(moving to a bench on the porch- he sits down and removes his slippers showing his bare, frostbitten feet. He begins putting on socks and then the boots with the wide soles.) 

Well you go on then. You go on and buy your shovel. Just forget about the old ways- the right ways. Used to be a man could earn a decent wage stompin’ - now every kid on the block has one of them abominations. It’s against God that’s what it is. It’s unnatural. 

Cal

(noticing Douglas’s feet.) Your feet sir! 

Douglas

Eh? What about ‘em?

Cal 

They look awful. They’re frostbitten.

Douglas

That!? That aint frostbite. I’ve seen worse frostbite in those magazines of pictures of people in the desert!

(Douglas finishes up his laces and steps down off the porch into the virgin snow- he is frail but begins to stomp the snow all flat- we do not see his feet- nor what he is doing)

Now my daddy had some frostbite. He lost six of his toes.

Cal

That’s awful.

Douglas

Yep. Daddy lost six toes to this act. Six toes and one finger too. Oh, not to frostbite mind you- not the finger- that was somethin’ else entirely.  Granddaddy got the frostbit. He got it worse than I’d ever seen- and worse than I’ve ever seen since too. He lost all his toes. . .one after the other after the other. Just kept cutting’ ’em off. He kept on stompin’ though. Kept on right up till he couldn’t no more. He was eighty-two when he lost his second foot, and seventy-nine when he lost the first. Almost three years he was out here, in that there road, right where you stand- just stompin’ away- with one foot. Course it’s best to go one foot at a time anyway- you know that don’t ya. Everybody knows that- so he wasn’t at much a disadvantage  now was he? If it weren’t for those damn shovels. . . He might have kept on for years. Feet or none, he’d find a way.

Cal 

He sounds like quite a man.

Douglas

He was! No questioning that. He was quite a man! They named the town after him. Oh, renamed I should say. It used to be Littleton till my granddaddy came along.

Cal

I thought the sign said Sketcher on it?

Douglas

It does! Now it says Sketcher on it!

Cal

Is that the same Sketcher as Sketcher’s General down the road?

Douglas

That it  is son. That it is. Your catching on now aren’t you?

Cal

So they changed the name again? Why, because of a shovel?

Douglas

The Snow Scooper 1000 Shovel. Bill Sketcher’s own pride and joy. The way he brought that thing into town, you’d think he was carrying God on his back. Like it was his own personal Jesus. Then he starts the store there and starts selling ‘em. Before you know it everybody has their own personal Jesus in hand just scooping away like they were shedding off their sins with every thrust. Meanwhile putting good honest, hard working men like my daddy and granddaddy out of employment. It’s disgraceful how they put off tried and tested traditions for the first soothsaying silvered tongued witch doctor with a shinny new toy that comes into town! (agitated he slips and falls in the snow)

Cal

(rushing to help him) Are you alright? 

Douglas

I’m alright.

Cal 

Let me help you up.

Douglas

(in pain) Oh!

Cal

You didn’t break somethin’ did you?

Douglas

Oh, my hip. . . It’s fussy Help me to the porch. I’ll be fine, I just need to sit a spell. . .

Cal

(lifting him up) Alright, up you go.

Douglas

Oh. Damn! It does this now and again.

Cal

When you fall?

Douglas

Dammit! You think I just fall all time?! I mean in general! It does this in general!

Cal

Here, sit down. This Sketcher fella sounds like an interesting character as well.

Douglas

As interesting as a weasel!

Cal

That may be- but interesting none the less.  Any of his kin still around today?

Douglas

What do you care? 

Cal 

I like a good story is all.

Douglas

Well he never had kin ‘round here. None that I know of anyway. Just Bill and Jesus.

Cal

Any friends at all? Who runs Sketcher’s General then?

Douglas

Oh he gave that to the city when he died, the bastard. And everybody is Bill’s friend- was Bill’s friend. Well, come to think of it, that’s not so. Bill had no friends, not that I recall anyway. But, his abomination. . . Well,  everybody loves Jesus.

Cal

Is that something he called it, or just you?

Douglas

What?

Cal

Jesus.

Douglas

Oh, that. That’s just me I suppose. I never liked saying The Snow Scooper 1000 Shovel. Most folks just call it shovel I guess. But I figure if you’re gonna treat it like a God. . . .

Cal

Mr. Douglas, you have me intrigued. I’ve got to get down there and get one of these things my self. (he begins to walk away) Will you be alright? 

Douglas

Now hold on there! Before you run off in haste like everybody else in this little town and purchase your own personal deity! . . Before you ride off into the sunset with the new generation; I have a proposal  to make you?  Let me this one chance to set the record strait- you’ve got young ears eager to listen- and they aint been tainted by some silver tongued misfit either. 

Cal

What sort of proposal?

Douglas

You said, you like to hear a good story? Well Mr. Mann? Would you like to hear a story?

(End Scene - Cut)