An Excerpt from
HOUSE, DIVIDED
by Larry Loebell
Time: HOUSE, DIVDED is set in late 2005 to late 2006, and 1972
Place: HOUSE, DIVIDED takes place in Philadelphia, PA, and West Bank, Israel
OREN, PAUL, and DOUG in the living room
DOUG
Why didn’t you tell me? We could have talked about this before your father got here.
OREN
I was waiting.
DOUG
What for?
OREN
To feel what it would be like here. I didn’t think he would come so soon.
PAUL
Where is he?
DOUG
Best Western. He’s angry, Oren. At you. At me. At having to be here.
PAUL
What’s he angry at you for?
DOUG
For what he thinks I’m going to say. For things that happened before you were born. Because he’s an angry guy.
OREN
He is not an “angry guy.” When he becomes angry, he just recites parables, or prays.
DOUG
I bring anger out in him.
PAUL
You want me to call him?
DOUG
If Oren’s ready to talk to him.
OREN
You will help me explain?
DOUG
You have to explain to me first.
OREN
I don’t want to do what they ask me in the army. They say we are, but we are not being a force for defense, not being a force for peace.
DOUG
Have you told him what you feel?
OREN
When I tell him what I have seen or done, it’s all for the good to him. He doesn’t hear me.
DOUG
You’re going to have to get him to hear.
PAUL
Come on, Oren. I’ve talked to him. He’s more reasonable than –
OREN
About coming here he won’t be. He has very set ideas about what my part in defending the nation is.
DOUG
What do you want to do?
OREN
Tell me what I can do.
PAUL
Leaving Israel was pretty dramatic.
OREN
My father will say I am just running away. Should I be making something bigger out of it?
PAUL
Something public, you mean? A protest?
OREN
(To Doug:) Isn’t that what you did?
DOUG
I can’t tell you what to do. And given what’s between your father and me, it would be harder if he thought I was advising –
LOU enters. He knocks on the outside door.
OREN
Is that him?
DOUG
I’m betting.
OREN
I am trying to think of the best thing. Coming here was the only thing that was clear to me. Can I stay with you? There is no one else I can ask.
PAUL
Should I…I’m going to…
PAUL opens the door. LOU stands for an awkward moment.
PAUL
Uncle Lou. I was surprised to hear you were – I didn’t expect, you know…Come in.
LOU
Hello, Paul.
OREN
Dad.
LOU
Oren.
DOUG
(Signaling they should leave) Paul.
PAUL
Okay. Well. We’ll be…
DOUG and PAUL exit. LOU and OREN stand awkwardly for a moment, then LOU launches.
LOU
You want to explain to me what you think you’re doing?
OREN
You’re already not listening.
LOU
How could you do a thing like this, Oren?
OREN
What’s the point of talking? I already know what you’re going to say.
LOU
The point? The point is making me understand. You take a two day leave and the next thing I know your commander is calling me asking where you are.
OREN
What did you tell him?
LOU
That I had no idea, which was the truth. And I told him I had no idea what was going on with you, which is also the truth. But he had an idea.
OREN
I’m sure he did.
LOU
His idea was that you are having some kind of breakdown.
OREN
Of course it was.
LOU
What does that mean? He said you challenged direct orders.
OREN
That it is impossible for anyone in our esteemed military to see resistance as anything except a mental deficiency.
LOU
Resistance?
OREN
That would be unpatriotic. Unthinkable.
LOU
What are you resisting?
OREN
The actions of our military.
LOU
Disobeying orders is not resistance. Running away is not resistance.
OREN
Therefore I am crazy.
LOU
You’ve been on three routine deployments. How could you possibly decide –
OREN
And what were they? First I was harassing Arabs at checkpoints, people who want to go to work or shopping or to see their relatives.
LOU
Harassing Arabs, as you call it, is what keeps your family and friends from dying at the hands of suicide bombers.
OREN
Does anyone actually think suicide bombers are going to enter through armed checkpoints? (In his official “voice”) ‘Hello. Reason for entering Israel?’ (As a Palestinian grandmother) ‘I want to blow up Jews with this suicide belt.’ (In his own voice) But I’m supposed to ask every grandmother if she’s a terrorist?
LOU
If that’s that you’re ordered to do. And you know as well as I that bombers have come through checkpoints and security has stopped them.
OREN
Next my unit was ordered to carry out collective punishments. We knocked down houses and power lines and a medical building. How does this help defend us?
LOU
If your officers thought it was necessary –
OREN
And then there is being expected to look away when a mistake is made, or a soldier crosses the line.
LOU
If you see those things, you report them.
OREN
You have no idea how things really work.
LOU
I was in the army, too, remember. I know how things work.
OREN
This month our job was kicking Jewish settlers out of their houses in places we can’t defend, a policy I agree with except that last year they were sending people to settle those places, and we were protecting them. This year, so sorry. Pack up and go. What were they thinking?
LOU
Who is this ‘they’ you are talking about?
OREN
The government. The military. All of them.
LOU
So you know better. (Oren does not answer.) Well here’s what it comes down to, Mr. I know better. You have three days to get home and back to your unit.
OREN
Three days?
LOU
I persuaded your commander to extend your leave.
OREN
Why did you do that? No one asked you to –
LOU
If you do not come back now, you will never again be allowed into Israel. You will never be able to come home.
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