TEXT B

The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street (Act II)

Scene One

From the various houses we can see candlelight but no electricity. There's a quiet that blankets the whole area, disturbed only by the almost whispered of the people as they stand around. CHARLIE stares across at GOODMAN's house.
Sally (a little timid): It doesn't seem right, though, keeping watch on them. Why, he was right when he said he was one of our neighbors. Why, I've known Ethel Goodman ever since they moved in. We've been good friends—
Charlie: That doesn't prove a thing. Any guy who'd spend his time looking up at the sky early in the morning—well, there's something wrong with that person. Maybe under normal circumstances we could let it go by, but these aren't normal circumstances.
(STEVE, from several yards away, walks down the steps of his porch, and down the street over to LES GOODMAN's house. He stops at the foot of the steps. GOODMAN stands there. MRS. GOODMAN stands behind him, very frightened.)
Goodman: Just stay right where you are, Steve. We don't want any trouble, but this time if anybody sets foot on my porch—that's what they're going to get—trouble!
Steve: Look, Les—
Goodman: I've already explained to you people. I don't sleep very well at night sometimes. I get up and I take a walk and I look up at the sky. I look at the stars! Mrs. Goodman: That's exactly what he does. Why, this whole thing, it's... it's madness.
Steve (nods): That's exactly what it is—some kind of madness.
Charlie's voice (shril1, from across the street): You'd better watch who you're seen with, Steve! Until we get this all straightened out, you aren't exactly above suspicion yourself.
Steve (whirling around toward him): Or you, Charlie. Or any of us. From age eight and up!
Woman: What I'd like to know is—what are we going todo? Just stand around here all night?
Charlie: There's nothin' else we can do!
Steve (raising his voice): There's something you can do, Charlie. You could go
home and keep your mouth shut. You could quit walking around like a self-appointed hanging judge and just climb into bed and forget it.
Charlie: You sound real anxious to have that happen, Steve. I think we'd better keep our eye on you, too!
Don: I think everything might as well come out now. (He turns toward STEVE.)
Your wife's done plenty of talking, Steve, about how odd you are!
Charlie (picking this up, his eyes widening): Go ahead, tell us what she's said.
(STEVE walks toward them from across the street.)
Steve: Go ahead, what's my wife said? Let's get it all out. Let's pick out every unusual habit of every single man, woman, and child on the street. And then we might as well set up some kind of a kangaroo court. How about a firing squad at dawn, Charlie, so we can get rid of all the suspects?
Don: There's no need getting so upset, Steve. It's just that... well... Myra's talked about how there's been plenty of nights you spent hours down in your basement workin' on some kind of radio.
(By this time STEVE has reached the group. He stands there defiantly close to them.)
Charlie: Go ahead, Steve. What kind of "radio set" are you workin'on? Who do you talk to on the radio set? And who talks to you?
Steve: I'm surprised at you, Charlie. How come you're so dense all of a sudden? (a pause) Who do I talk to? I talk to monsters from outer space. I talk to three—headed green men who fly over here in what look like meteors.
(MRS. BRAND steps down from the porch, bites her lip, calls out.)
Mrs. Brand: Steve! Steve, please. (Then looking around frightened, she walks to ward the group.) It's just a ham radio set. A lot of people have them. I can show it to you. It's right down in the basement.
Steve (whirls around toward her): Show them nothing! If they want to look inside our house—let them get a search warrant.
Charlie: Look, man, you can't afford to—
Steve (interrupting): Don't start telling me who's dangerous and who isn't, and who's safe and who's a menace. (He turns to the group and shouts.) And you're with him, too—all of you! You're standing here all set to find a scapegoat—all desperate to point a finger at a neighbor! Well now, look, friends, the only thing that's going to happen is that we'll eat each other up alive—
(He stops abruptly as CHARLIE suddenly grabs his arm.)
Charlie (in a hushed voice): That's not the only thing that can happen to us. (A figure suddenly materializes in the darkness. In the silence we can hear the slow, measured footsteps on concrete as the figure walks slowly toward them. One of the women lets out a stifled cry.)
Tommy (shouting, frightened): It's the monster! It's the monster!
(The people fall back in a group, staring toward the darkness and the approaching figure. DON MARTIN joins them, carrying a shotgun. He holds it up.)
Don: We may need this.
Steve: A shotgun? (He pulls it out of DON 's hand.) Will you people wise up? What good would a shotgun do against—
(CHARLIE pulls the gun from STEVE's hand.)
Charlie: No more talk, Steve. You're going to talk us into a grave! You'd let whatever's out there walk right over us, wouldn't you? Well, some of us won't!
(He swings the gun around to point it toward the sidewalk. The dark figure continues to walk toward them. CHARLIE slowly raises the gun. As the figure gets closer, he pulls the trigger. The sound explodes in the stillness. The figure lets out a small cry, falls forward first onto his knees, and then on his face. DON, CHARLIE, and STEVE run over to him. STEVE is there first and turns the man over. The crowd gathers around them.)
Steve (slowly looks up): It's Pete Van Horn.
Don (in a hushed voice): Pete Van Horn! He was just going to go over to the next block to see if the power was on.
Woman: You killed him, Charlie. You shot him dead!
Charlie (looks around at the circle of faces, his eyes frightened): But. . . but I didn't know who he was. I certainly didn't know who he was. He comes walkin' out of the darkness—how am I supposed to know who he was? (He grabs STEVE.) Steve—you know why I shot! How was I supposed to know he wasn't a monster or something? (He grabs DON.) We're all scared of the same thing. I was just tryin'to. . . tryin'to protect my home, that's all! (He looks down wildly at the body.) I didn't know it was somebody we knew! I didn't know...
(There 's a sudden hush in the group. Across the street all the lights go on in one of the houses.)
Woman (in a very hushed voice): Charlie... Charlie... the lights just went on in your house. Why did the lights go on?
Don: What about it, Charlie? How come you're the only one with lights now?
Goodman: That's what I'd like to know.
(There's a pause as they all stare toward CHARLIE.)
Goodman: You were so quick to kill, Charlie, and you were so quick to tell us who we had to be careful of. Well, maybe you had to kill. Maybe Pete there was trying to tell us something, to tell us who there was amongst us we should watch out for—
(CHARLIE backs away from the group, his eyes wide with fright.)
Charlie: No... no...it's nothing of the sort! I don't know why the lights are on. I swear I don't. Somebody's making a joke or something.
(He bumps against STEVE, who grabs him and furns him around.)
Steve: A joke? Charlie, there's a dead man on the sidewalk, and you killed him!
Does this thing look like a gag to you?
(CHARLIE breaks away and screams as he runs toward his house.)
(A man breaks away from the crowd to run after CHARLIE. The man tackles him and lands on top of him. The other people start to run toward them. CHARLIE gets up on his feet, breaks away from the other man's grasp and jumps up on his front porch. A rock thrown from the group smashes a window alongside of him. The broken glass flies past him. A couple of pieces cut him. He stands there, blood running down from a cut on his cheek. His wife breaks away from the group and throws herself into his arms. We can see the crowd moving in on the porch.)
First Voice: It must have been him.
Second Voice: He's the one.
Third Voice: We've got to get Charlie.
(Another rock lands on the porch. CHARLIE pushes his wife behind him and faces the group.)
Charlie: Look, look, I swear to you... it isn't me... but I do know who it is. I swear to you. I know who the monster is here.
Don: All right, Charlie, let's hear it!
Second Man (screaming): Go ahead, Charlie; tell us.
Charlie: It's...it's the kid. It's Tommy.
Sally: That's crazy. He's only a boy.
Woman: But he knew! He was the only one who knew! He told us all about it. Well, how could he have known?
(People in the crowd take this up and repeat the question aloud.)
First Voice: How could he know?
Second Voice: Who told him?
Third Voice: Make the kid answer.
(Sally grabs TOMMY and starts to run with him. The crowd starts to follow, at first walking fast, and then running after them. Suddenly CHARLIE's lights go off, and the lights in another house go on.)
Man (shouting): It isn't the kid...it's Bob Weaver's house.
Woman: No, it's Don Martin's place.
Charlie: I tell you it's the kid.
Don: It's Charlie. He's the one.
(Various people shout, accuse each other, scream. House lights go on and off.)

Scene Two

In a nearby field sits a space craft in darkness. An open door throws out a beam of light from the inside. Two figures appear.

First Figure: Understand the procedure now? Just stop a few of their machines and radios and telephones and lawn mowers... throw them into darkness for a few hours, and then just sit back and watch the effect.
Second Figure: And this effect is always the same?
First Figure: With little difference. They pick the most dangerous enemy they can find. . .and it's themselves.
Second Figure: Then I take it this place...this Maple Street...is not an exception.
First Figure: By no means. Their world is full of Maple Streets. And we 'll go from one to the other and let them destroy themselves. One to the other...one to the other...one to the other...