From “Leash”
by Peter Maloney

Characters: Cassie Jessup
Place: Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq
Time: October 2003

An open area between rows of cells in a prison in Iraq. Industrial lights hang from the ceiling. Electrical wires hang down. In a corner of the space,  file boxes broken open, files spilling onto the floor. Old metal office furniture scattered about, a desk on which sits a computer monitor and keyboard. A swivel chair. An armless desk chair, upturned on the floor. STAGE RIGHT, two metal buckets full of water.

In the dark, SOUND of iron doors slamming shut. Echo of men shouting in Arabic. SOUND of dogs barking somewhere in the distance. In very dim light, a figure is pulled to CENTER STAGE from UP RIGHT by a strap stretching off DOWN LEFT at floor level.

CASSIE:  MOTHERFUCKER! Hey! Get back here, you!

SLAM. LIGHTS UP on CASSIE JESSUP, holding with one hand what we now realize is the end of a long nylon leash. In her other hand she holds a baseball. She jerks the leash, the pulling stops. She looks at us.

'Scuse my french.

Cassie is in her twenties. Southern. Cute, in a kind of dirty way. Sweating. Hair cut short, like a boy's. She wears US Army fatigue pants in a camouflage pattern and an olive-drab tee-shirt. Combat boots. Cassie smiles and there is a bright flash, as if someone has just taken her picture.

First thing is, you gotta show ’em who's boss. With a dog like this one… An’ he's a big dog… Aren't you? Yes you are, you're my big boy. With a dog big as this one, you got to let him know you're in control. At all times. He may be bigger'n me, but he knows who's in charge. Don't you boy? Hey, hey, HEY!

The leash tightens and she is pulled off balance. With both hands she pulls the leash until she is once again CENTER.

That's why it's important you got the right leash. Thisn's nylon web. Tie-down strap I found on Tier 2. Leather makes a good leash. It's got some give to it. Canvas is good. You can throw canvas in the washer when it gets all slobbery and disgustin'. Now, some folks like a chain, but a chain is heavy. Big dog, pullin' you this way an' that, you gotta ask do you want to add to the weight by using a heavy chain as a leash?

Then there's your collar. Before you choose your collar, you gotta think about what you're tryin' to do. The purpose of the collar is to what? To guide your dog. And when you got to, to check your dog.

She jerks on the leash.

Like that. That's called abstention training. Make your dog stop doin' somethin' he wants to do but you don't want him to. Like a bitch snaps at her nursin' pup, he bites down on her teat too hard.

She jerks on the leash.

That's a check. Hey! Fetch!

She tosses the baseball once into the air, catches it, then pitches it OFFSTAGE in the direction of her captive. Waits.

You don't wanta fetch?

I had this dog one time? Clyde? He was a mutt. All my dogs're mutts. Pure-breds're too high-strung. Clyde only had three legs. He was cool, though. Only thing is, he didn't like blacks.

I had this one friend. Jewel? Well, Jewel couldn't come into my yard at all without Clyde goin' ballistic. Barkin', snarlin', just about pullin' the back porch off the house. We kept him chained to that wrought-iron trellis deal Tommy made for Mama. 'Course Mama wouldn't let Jewel come in the house. An' Daddy didn't want me goin' to Jewel's house. So I didn't see too much of Jewel. Hey, what're you doin'? Fucker!

She grabs the leash with both hands, pulls hard.

Gotta nip that kind of behavior right in the bud.

Lot of folks say you gotta be friends with your dog, that  punishment'll backfire on you. But I've had lots of dogs and in my experience it don't hurt for him to be a little bit afraid of you. I mean, come on, who's the boss, you or him? Listen, discipline is not cruelty. That's my opinion.

There's a place and a time for everything. Isn't there, Abdul? And this is not the place for you to do your business. Place stinks to high heaven already from all you dogs. What the heck would it be like if we let you make a mess wherever you wanted? Right? That's right!

See, animals respond to routine, and one of the first things you gotta do is let your dog know where's the right place and where's the wrong place for him to do his business.

An' we take you to the latrine, and what do you do? You refuse to go. An' then what? We take you back to your crate and you make a mess and then we have to clean it up and we get upset, don't we? Or we don't clean it up, and you get upset. Either way, one of us gets upset, and we don't want that, now do we?

The leash has gone limp. She turns to shout over her shoulder.

 Orin! He's smoked! He's tuckered out! And so am I! I think he’s gone asleep! Or else he's dead.

She looks OFF LEFT.

Ontario Review #66