Fool for Love

Fool for Love Summary | Detailed Summary

Fool for Love is a one-act play that focuses on two characters, Eddie and May, and their periodic attempts at a relationship. As the play opens, May sits despairingly on the edge of a bed in a rundown desert motel, while Eddie tries to convince her that he will not leave her this time. May's disbelief stems from Eddie's recent affair with a wealthy woman, whose scent still lingers on him. May wants Eddie to leave, yet is in anguish when he does.

May tells Eddie that she plans to kill him, along with the woman with whom he had an affair. The fact that Eddie has driven over two thousand miles to see May does not alter her disbelief in his sincerity about staying with her this time. Eddie says that his plan is to take May with him to live in his trailer in Wyoming, but she is not swayed, telling him that she has a job as a cook where she is and doesn't want to interrupt her life again just because he has shown up.

Having made the decision to take some revenge, May lures Eddie into a kiss and then knees him in the groin so that he drops to the floor in pain. May shuts herself in the bathroom, and for the first time, an old man is revealed on the stage; he asks Eddie whether or not he believes himself to be a fantasist, telling him that being a dreamer is a way of allowing anything to come true. Eddie agrees.

At this point, May emerges from the bathroom dressed to go out and reveals that she has a date coming for her at any time; her announcement enrages Eddie, and they fight once more. This argument is a scene that is all too familiar to the pair, and Eddie exits to get his clothes from his truck. While he is out of the room, May hurriedly shoves some of her clothes in a suitcase and puts it back under the bed before Eddie comes back in.

Returning with a bottle of tequila and a shotgun, Eddie interrogates May about the man she is interested in and resolves to stay put to meet him. Then jealousy overtakes Eddie; he calls May a traitor and storms out. May dissolves in grief and claws the walls, eventually sinking to her knees.

From the corner of the stage, the old man resurfaces and relates a story as if he is speaking to May; she cannot hear him, though. He tells of driving with May and her mother through Utah one night when May was a baby. May was crying and wouldn't be comforted by her mother. Finally, the old man had stopped the car and walked with May out into the dark night, until they realized they had wandered into the middle of a herd of cattle. According to the old man, May was silent in the car for the balance of that trip.

Suddenly, May hears Eddie, and she composes herself so that he won't be able to tell that she's been crying. Eddie taunts May for having a drink, and May can't understand what Eddie is doing by lassoing the bedposts with his rodeo ropes. Eddie admits that he's still trying to impress her and that this should prove that the spark between them hasn't died. Eddie's real intention is to pass the time until May's date shows up, and he can challenge him to fight over May.

As the two of them continue their argument, the light from two headlights shines in the front window. Assuming that it is her date, May opens the door and is surprised to see a woman sitting in the car staring back at her. When May tells Eddie that it's not her date, but a woman driving a Mercedes sedan, he knows right away that his ex-lover has tracked him down.

Fortunately, Eddie is able to push May out of the doorway and down to the floor just as gun shots ring out. Finally, the car leaves, and Eddie looks out to find that the windshield of his truck has been shot out. Swearing that the woman means nothing to him anymore, Eddie tries again to convince May to leave with him and forget about everyone else.

Lights come up on the old man again as Eddie and May stand looking at each other, suspended in time. The old man says he thinks neither of them looks like him, and that there's really no guarantee that they are his children. The circumstances of their conceptions are long lost facts for him. The light fades on the old man and he is silent once more.

Trying to convince May of his sincerity is quite a task, as Eddie's promises have now run on for fifteen years with no result. More headlights appear in the window, and thinking that they signal the return of the woman, May threatens harm as she grabs Eddie's shotgun.

The door crashes open, and in jumps Martin, May's date. The commotion has led him to believe that May is in trouble, and May stops him just before he punches Eddie in the face. May is able to calm both men and introduces Eddie as her cousin. Immediately, Eddie begins to challenge Martin on his intentions toward May, and the two men spar verbally until May intervenes.

Retreating to the bathroom to freshen up, May takes the chance of leaving them together again; Eddie takes the bait, trying to humiliate Martin about his job and his suitability for May. Finally, Eddie reveals that he and May are not cousins; Martin understands his meaning immediately and tries to leave. Eddie is not finished toying with Martin yet though, and blocks his exit, forcing him to sit and have a drink.

Lights hit the old man again, although he is visible only to Eddie; he extends his Styrofoam cup. Eddie looks at him for a long moment, and then fills the glass, and the three men drink. Emboldened by the liquor, Eddie shares the family secret with Martin; Eddie and May are half brother and sister. Unfortunately, the two had not been aware of the fact until after they had become intimate.

In a state of shock, Martin is hesitant to proceed, so Eddie fills in the missing information for him. Quite simply, they have the same father, who just happened to fall in love twice. Their father was a rambler and would split his time between Eddie and his mother and May and her mother. Neither woman ever knew what was going on or that the other woman and child even existed. All Eddie remembers is his mother's grief whenever his father was gone and how he and his mother would run outside to meet him when they heard his old Studebaker coming toward the house.

For years, the man would just appear and disappear in Eddie's life, until one day he stopped leaving. He was restless, though, and would walk the fields all day and all night, with Eddie watching him from his bedroom window. The old man interjects that he was making a decision at that time.

To finish the story, Eddie brings Martin to his feet, and they walk the hotel room side by side. One night, his father had taken Eddie on one of these nocturnal journeys. Keeping up with his father's strides as best as he could, Eddie walked for miles beside the man. Father and son continued walking past all the darkened stores in town, until finally they reached a little white house with a red awning glowing from the porch light.

Not expecting that they were going visiting, Eddie was shocked when his father walked boldly up to the door and rang the bell. At the sight of the man, a beautiful red-haired woman fell into his arms, and they both wept at their reunion. Eddie had looked past the woman to see a girl looking back at him and knew at that moment that he and this girl would always be in love.

May has heard Eddie's story and chastises him for telling such a ridiculous tale to Martin. Anxious to leave, May tries to get Martin out the door; Eddie won't allow it though, because he wants to finish the story. May asserts her rights at this point and demands that they listen to the truth now.

May says that it's true that her mother, the beautiful red-haired woman, had been in love with Eddie's father. Obsessed with him, her mother tracked him from town to town on little scraps of information left in his trail. Apparently, Eddie's father lived in fear that the two women in his life would eventually find out about each other, so he never stayed in one place very long. May remembers the day when she and her mother came to the town where the man was living, found his house, and got close enough to see the dinner on the plates in the kitchen.

Soon after the man realized that May and her mother were in town, he disappeared, never to be seen again. The grief that overtook May's mother didn't phase May, however; she herself was madly in love with Eddie at the time and could only see her mother's grief as pathetic. Eddie and May were obsessed with one another, to the point that May got sick enough to be taken to the doctor. May's mother knew what the problem was, though, and begged her daughter and Eddie to stop seeing each other. They wouldn't be dissuaded. Finally, May's mother approached Eddie's mother-a meeting that resulted in Eddie's mother's suicide.

Light hits the old man again, and he is standing now, protesting this version of the story; no one had ever told him that Eddie's mother had killed herself. To Eddie, who cannot hear him, he demands some defense for the male point of view on the event. Instead of speaking to the others, Eddie faces the old man and tells him that the gun had been the old man's duck hunting rifle and that that had been the first time his mother had ever held a gun. The old man is shocked that no one had ever informed him, but Eddie reminds the man that his disappearance made any form of contact impossible.

The old man now moves toward May, who cannot see him, and he tries to tell her that her mother drew him, even though he had told her he could never be in her life formally. It was impossible to resist the love that she offered him, though, because he felt complete when he was with her.

Eddie and May continue to stare at each other as the old man continues, this time speaking to Eddie. The old man implores Eddie to get May to understand the situation in a different light. As Eddie and May move closer to each other, the old man pleads for Eddie to stay away from her. If Eddie leaves, the old man has nothing, he says.

Eddie and May embrace and kiss as headlights again bounce into the room, and there is suddenly the sound of collision, breaking glass, and horses neighing wildly. Breaking briefly from the embrace, Eddie looks out to see that his ex-lover has torched his truck and that all the horses it had contained are running loose.

May begins to pack the rest of her things, and Martin offers her a ride if she needs one, although he knows she will probably be leaving with Eddie. May tells Martin that Eddie is gone, and she leaves the room with Martin staring after her.

After May is gone, the old man rises and points to an imaginary picture of Barbara Mandrell hanging on the wall. The play ends with him saying that she is the woman of his dreams and is all his.