MARIGOLD: I—Dad…Daddy, didn’t you tell anybody yet? I was downstairs, I came in, I—nobody said a word about it.

DAD: Your grandmother was the one the lawyer actually talked to. I get stuff secondhand. I get stuff secondhand, and then I turn it all over endlessly in my mind…

Pause.

I guess you’ll be at the wedding.

MARIGOLD: Gib and Suzanne? I think it’s just for the immediate family.

DAD: It seems to have a wider attraction.

MARIGOLD: Looks like you’ve got a full house.

DAD: It’s crowded. I’m not comfortable outside this room.

MARIGOLD: Cass has dibs on the couch. Maybe I’ll stay at the Lu Anne Motel.

DAD: But the Lu Anne Motel is gone, honey.

MARIGOLD: Oh…

DAD: It’s gone. I think they moved it to Dallas or someplace like that.

MARIGOLD: Oh…And the Starlight’s gone…

DAD: Why didn’t Grandma tell us you were coming?

MARIGOLD: Grandma didn’t know, Dad.

DAD: Grandma always knows. Doesn’t she?

MARIGOLD: Usually.

DAD: Does she know why you came home?

MARIGOLD: I’m on suspension.

DAD: Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad you came.

MARIGOLD: When they put you on suspension—you really feel suspended…yanked up by the suspenders…dangling…in suspense…in suspended animation.

DAD: I can see you’ve given the experience some thought.

MARIGOLD: And when I’m not suspended, I travel too much. I’ve got no pets, no houseplants. The only other living things in my life is the stuff in my refrigerator, and when I finally come home it’s always rotten.

Pause.

I mean…

DAD: I know. Oh well.

Pause.

MARIGOLD: Daddy, do you remember that peacock we had? Paco?

DAD: Yes. Pepe. Or Pancho.

MARIGOLD: Paco.

DAD: Paco. He was beautiful.

MARIGOLD: He was.

DAD: And he was psychopathic.

MARIGOLD: No! He was just—sort of a little—

DAD: I’ve never seen any winged creature behave that way. He’d put his head down and charge straight into the side of the coop. Ram the chicken coop like a bull. A psychopathic peacock.

MARIGOLD: I can still smell the stink of those hens. I loved collecting the eggs from the roosts. Every egg I found I couldn’t have been happier if it was gold…Daddy, was I the only one who felt that way?

DAD: About eggs?

MARIGOLD: About the eggs. About Paco, and the chickens: about the farm. That it was golden.

DAD: It wasn’t a farm. It was an acreage.

MARIGOLD: That it was golden.

DAD: An acreage of exactly one acre.

MARIGOLD: Was it golden for you too?

DAD: You were golden.

MARIGOLD: Daddy, we’ve still got Paco’s feathers in the bathroom. In that tall vase above the toilet. I used to collect them off the ground and put them in that vase.

DAD: It was in the parlor.

MARIGOLD: Grandma always called it the parlor.

DAD: On the pinewood table in the parlor. Now they’re in the toilet.

MARIGOLD: Above the toilet.

DAD: Are they really still there? I haven’t noticed them for years. How long do peacock feathers last do you suppose?