My Sister's Hand in Mine

by Jane Bowles

  GERTRUDE (Standing up and flicking rice from her shoulders) Stop it! Please! Stop it! I can’t stand this racket … Really. (She is genuinely upset. They subside gradually. Bewildered, she looks out over the land toward the road) Something is coming down the road … It must be my boarder … No … She would be coming in an automobile. (Pause) Gracious! It certainly is no boarder, but what is it?

  MRS. LOPEZ Friend come and see you?

  GERTRUDE (Bewildered, staring hard) No, it’s not a friend. It’s … (She stares harder) It’s some sort of king—and others.

  MRS. LOPEZ (To her brother) ¿Qué?

  MR. SOLARES (Absently absorbed in his food) King. Un rey y otros más …

  MRS. LOPEZ (Nodding) Un rey y otros más.

  (Enter LIONEL, bearing a cardboard figure larger than himself, representing Neptune, with flowing beard, crown and sceptre, etc. He is followed by two or more other figure bearers, carrying representations of a channel swimmer and a mermaid. LIONEL stops at the gate and dangles into the garden a toy lobster which he has tied to the line of a real fishing rod. The music dies down.)

  LIONEL Advertisement.

  (He bobs the lobster up and down.)

  GERTRUDE For what?

  LIONEL For the Lobster Bowl … It’s opening next week. (Pointing) That figure there represents a mermaid and the other one is Neptune, the sea god. This is a lobster … (He shakes the rod) Everything connected with the sea in some capacity. Can we have a glass of water?

  GERTRUDE Yes. (Calling) Molly! Molly!

  MOLLY (From inside the house) What is it?

  GERTRUDE Come out here immediately. (To LIONEL) Excuse me but I think your figures are really awful. I don’t like advertising schemes anyway.

  LIONEL I have nothing to do with them. I just have to carry them around a few more days and then after that I’ll be working at the Bowl. I’m sorry you don’t like them.

  GERTRUDE I’ve always hated everything that was larger than life size.

  (LIONEL opens the gate and enters the garden, followed by the other figure bearers. The garden by now has a very cluttered appearance. The servants, MRS. LOPEZ and FREDERICA have been gaping at the figures in silence since their arrival.)

  MRS. LOPEZ (Finding her tongue) ¡Una maravilla!

  FREDERICA Ay, sí.

  (She is nearly swooning with delight. Enter MOLLY. She stops short when she sees the figures.)

  MOLLY Oh … What are those?

  LIONEL Advertisements. This is Neptune, the old god.

  (MOLLY approaches the figures slowly and touches Neptune.)

  MOLLY It’s beautiful …

  LIONEL Here’s a little lobster.

  (He dangles it into MOLLY’S open palm.)

  MOLLY It looks like a real lobster. It even has those long threads sticking out over its eyes.

  GERTRUDE Antennae.

  MOLLY Antennae.

  LIONEL (Pulling another little lobster from his pocket and handing it to MOLLY) Here. Take this one. I have a few to give away.

  MOLLY Oh, thank you very much.

  (There followed a heated argument between FREDERICA and MRS. LOPEZ, who is trying to force FREDERICA to ask for a lobster too. They almost come to blows and finally MRS. LOPEZ gives FREDERICA a terrific shove which sends her stumbling over toward LIONEL and MOLLY.)

  MRS. LOPEZ (Calling out to LIONEL) Give my girl a little fish please!

  (LIONEL digs reluctantly into his pocket and hands FREDERICA a little lobster. She takes it and returns to her mother, stubbing her toe in her confusion.)

  GERTRUDE (Craning her neck and looking out over the lane toward the road) There’s a car stopping. This really must be my boarder. (She looks down into the garden with an expression of consternation on her face) The garden is a wreck. Mr. Solares, can’t your servants organize this mess? Quickly, for heaven’s sake. (She looks with disgust at MR. SOLARES, who is still eating, but holds her tongue. Enter VIVIAN, a young girl of fifteen with wild reddish gold hair. She is painfully thin and her eyes appear to pop out of her head with excitement. She is dressed in bright colors and wears high heels. She is followed by a chauffeur carrying luggage) And get those figures out of sight!

  VIVIAN (Stopping in the road and staring at the house intently for a moment) The house is heavenly!

  (MOLLY exits rapidly.)

  GERTRUDE Welcome, Vivian Constable. I’m Gertrude Eastman Cuevas. How was your trip?

  VIVIAN Stinky. (Gazing with admiration into the garden packed with people) And your garden is heavenly too.

  GERTRUDE The garden is a wreck at the moment.

  VIVIAN Oh, no! It’s fascinating.

  GERTRUDE You can’t possibly tell yet.

  VIVIAN Oh, but I can. I decide everything the first minute. It’s a fascinating garden.

  (She smiles at everyone. MR. SOLARES spits chicken skin out of his mouth onto the grass.)

  MRS. LOPEZ Do you want some spaghetti?

  VIVIAN Not yet, thank you. I’m too excited.

  GERTRUDE (To MR. SOLARES) Will you show Miss Constable and the chauffeur into the house, Mr. Solares? I’ll meet you at the top of the stairs.

  (She exits hurriedly into the house, but MR. SOLARES continues gnawing on his bone not having paid the slightest attention to GERTRUDE’S request. Enter MRS. CONSTABLE, VIVIAN’S mother. She is wearing a distinguished city print, gloves, hat and veil. She is frail like her daughter but her coloring is dull.)

  VIVIAN (Spying her mother. Her expression immediately hardens) Why did you get out of the taxi? You promised at the hotel that you wouldn’t get out if I allowed you to ride over with me. You promised me once in the room and then again on the porch. Now you’ve gotten out. You’re dying to spoil the magic. Go back … Don’t stand there looking at the house. (MRS. CONSTABLE puts her fingers to her lips entreating silence, shakes her head at VIVIAN and scurries off stage after nodding distractedly to the people on the lawn) She can’t keep a promise.

  GERTRUDE (Coming out onto the balcony again and spotting MR. SOLARES, still eating on the grass) What is the matter with you, Mr. Solares? I asked you to show Miss Constable and the chauffeur into the house and you haven’t budged an inch. I’ve been waiting at the top of the stairs like an idiot.

  (MR. SOLARES scrambles to his feet and goes into the house followed by VIVIAN and the chauffeur. Enter MRS. CONSTABLE again.)

  MRS. CONSTABLE (Coming up to the hedge and leaning over. To MRS. LOPEZ) Forgive me but I would like you to tell Mrs. Eastman Cuevas that I am at the Herons Hotel. (MRS. LOPEZ nods absently. MRS. CONSTABLE continues in a scarcely audible voice) You see, Mrs. Eastman Cuevas comes from the same town that I come from and through mutual friends I heard that she took in boarders these days, so I wrote her that Vivian my daughter was coming.

  MRS. LOPEZ Thank you very much.

  MRS. CONSTABLE My daughter likes her freedom, so we have a little system worked out when we go on vacations. I stay somewhere nearby but not in the same place. Even so, I am the nervous type and I would like Mrs. Eastman Cuevas to know that I’m at the Herons … You see my daughter is unusually high spirited. She feels everything so strongly that she’s apt to tire herself out. I want to be available just in case she collapses.

  MRS. LOPEZ (Ruffling FREDERICA’S hair) Frederica get very tired too.

  MRS. CONSTABLE Yes, I know. I suppose all the young girls do. Will you tell Mrs. Eastman Cuevas that I’m at the Herons?

  MRS. LOPEZ O.K.

  MRS. CONSTABLE Thank you a thousand times. I’ll run along now or Vivian will see me and she’ll think that I’m interfering with her freedom … You’ll notice right away what fun she gets out of life. Good-bye.

  MRS. LOPEZ Good-bye, Mrs. Vamos; despiértense. Esperanza. (MRS. CONSTABLE exits hurriedly. To MR. SOLARES) Now we go home.

  MR. SOLARES (Sullenly) All right. (Spanish group leaves) Esperanza! Esperanza! Frederica!

  (Enter from the house VIVIAN, GERTRUDE and the chauffeur, who leaves the garden and exits down the lane
.)

  VIVIAN (To GERTRUDE, continuing a conversation) I’m going to be sky high by dinner time. Then I won’t sleep all night. I know myself.

  GERTRUDE Don’t you use controls?

  VIVIAN No, I never do. When I feel myself going up I just go on up until I hit the ceiling. I’m like that. The world is ten times more exciting for me than it is for others.

  GERTRUDE Still I believe in using controls. It’s a part of the law of civilization. Otherwise we would be like wild beasts. (She sighs) We’re bad enough as it is, controls and all.

  VIVIAN (Hugging GERTRUDE impulsively) You’ve got the prettiest hair I’ve ever seen, and I’m going to love it here. (GERTRUDE backs away a little, embarrassed. VIVIAN spots the summer house) What a darling little house! It’s like the home of a bird or a poet. (She approaches the summer house and enters it. MRS. LOPEZ motions to the hags to start cleaning up. They hobble around one behind the other gathering things and scraping plates very ineffectually. More often than not the hag behind scrapes more garbage onto the plate just cleaned by the hag in front of her. They continue this until the curtain falls. Music begins. Calling to GERTRUDE) I can imagine all sorts of things in here, Miss Eastman Cuevas. I could make plans for hours on end in here. It’s so darling and little.

  GERTRUDE (Coldly) Molly usually sits in there. But I can’t say that she plans much. Just dozes or reads trash. Comic strips. It will do no harm if someone else sits in there for a change.

  VIVIAN Who is Molly?

  GERTRUDE Molly is my daughter.

  VIVIAN How wonderful! I want to meet her right away … Where is she?

  (The boys start righting the cardboard figures.)

  LIONEL Do you think we could have our water?

  GERTRUDE I’m sorry. Yes, of course. (Calling) Molly! (Silence) Molly! (More loudly) Molly! (Silence)

  LIONEL I think we’ll go along to the next place. Don’t bother your daughter. I’ll come back if I may. I’d like to see you all again … and your daughter. She disappeared so quickly.

  GERTRUDE You stay right where you are. I’ll get her out here in a minute. (Screaming) Molly! Come out here immediately! Molly!

  VIVIAN (In a trilling voice) Molly! Come on out!… I’m in your little house … Molly!

  GERTRUDE (Furious) Molly!

  (All the players look expectantly at the doorway. MOLLY does not appear and the curtain comes down in silence.)

  Scene ii

  One month later.

  A beach and a beautiful backdrop of the water. The SOLARES family is again spread out among dirty plates as though the scenery had changed around them while they themselves had not stirred since the first act. GERTRUDE is kneeling and rearranging her hair near the SOLARES family, VIVIAN at her feet. MOLLY and LIONEL a little apart from the other people, MOLLY watching VIVIAN. The two old hags are wearing white slips for swimming.

  The music is sad and disturbing, implying a more serious mood.

  MRS. LOPEZ (Poking her daughter who is lying next to her) A ver si tú y Esperanza nos cantan algo …

  FREDERICA (From under handkerchief which covers her face) Ay, mamá.

  MRS. LOPEZ (Calling to ESPERANZA) Esperanza, a ver si nos cantan algo, tú y Frederica.

  (She gives her daughter a few pokes. They argue a bit and FREDERICA gets up and drags herself wearily over to the hags. They consult and sing a little song. The hags join in at the chorus.)

  ESPERANZA Bueno—sí …

  GERTRUDE (When they have finished) That was nice. I like sad songs.

  VIVIAN (Still at her feet and looking up at her with adoration) So do I … (MOLLY is watching VIVIAN, a beam of hate in her eye. VIVIAN takes GERTRUDE’S wrist and plays with her hand just for a moment. GERTRUDE pulls it away, instinctively afraid of MOLLY’S reaction. To GERTRUDE) I wish Molly would come swimming with me. I thought maybe she would. (Then to MOLLY, for GERTRUDE’S benefit) Molly, won’t you come in, just this once. You’ll love it once you do. Everyone loves the water, everyone in the world.

  GERTRUDE (Springing to her feet, and addressing the Spanish people) I thought we were going for a stroll up the beach after lunch. (There is apprehension behind her words) You’ll never digest lying on your backs, and besides you’re sure to fall asleep if you don’t get up right away.

  (She regains her inner composure as she gives her commands.)

  MRS. LOPEZ (Groaning) ¡Ay! ¡Caray! Why don’t you sleep, Miss Eastman Cuevas?

  GERTRUDE It’s very bad for you, really. Come on. Come on, everybody! Get up! You too, Alta Gracia and Quintina, get up! Come on, everybody up! (There is a good deal of protesting while the servants and the SOLARES family struggle to their feet) I promise you you’ll feel much better later on if we take just a little walk along the beach.

  VIVIAN (Leaping to GERTRUDE’S side in one bound) I love to walk on the beach!

  (MOLLY too has come forward to be with her mother.)

  GERTRUDE (Pause. Again stifling her apprehension with a command) You children stay here. Or take a walk along the cliffs if you’d like to. But be careful!

  FREDERICA I want to be with my mother.

  GERTRUDE Well, come along, but we’re only going for a short stroll. What a baby you are, Frederica Lopez.

  MR. SOLARES I’ll run the car up to my house and go and collect that horse I was telling you about. Then I’ll catch up with you on the way back.

  GERTRUDE You won’t get much of a walk.

  (FREDERICA throws her arms around her mother and gives her a big smacking kiss on the cheek. MRS. LOPEZ kisses FREDERICA. They all exit slowly, leaving VIVIAN, LIONEL, MOLLY and the dishes behind. MOLLY, sad that she can’t walk with her mother, crosses wistfully back to her former place next to LIONEL, but VIVIAN—eager to cut her out whenever she can—rushes to LIONEL’S side, and crouches on her heels exactly where MOLLY was sitting before. MOLLY notices this, and settles in a brooding way a little apart from them, her back to the pair.)

  VIVIAN Lionel, what were you saying before about policies?

  LIONEL When?

  VIVIAN Today, before lunch. You said, “What are your policies” or something crazy like that?

  LIONEL Oh, yes. It’s just … I’m mixed up about my own policies, so I like to know how other people’s are getting along.

  VIVIAN Well, I’m for freedom and a full exciting life! (Pointedly to MOLLY’S back) I’m a daredevil. It frightens my mother out of her wits, but I love excitement!

  LIONEL Do you always do what gives you pleasure?

  VIVIAN Whenever I can, I do.

  LIONEL What about conflicts?

  VIVIAN What do you mean?

  LIONEL Being pulled different ways and not knowing which to choose.

  VIVIAN I don’t have those. I always know exactly what I want to do. When I have a plan in my head I get so excited I can’t sleep.

  LIONEL Maybe it would be a stroke of luck to be like you. I have nothing but conflicts. For instance, one day I think I ought to give up the world and be a religious leader, and the next day I’ll turn right around and think I ought to throw myeslf deep into politics. (VIVIAN, bored, starts untying her beach shoes) There have been ecclesiastics in my family before. I come from a gloomy family. A lot of the men seem to have married crazy wives. Five brothers out of six and a first cousin did. My uncle’s first wife boiled a cat alive in the upstairs kitchen.

  VIVIAN What do you mean, the upstairs kitchen?

  LIONEL We had the top floor fitted out as an apartment and the kitchen upstairs was called the upstairs kitchen.

  VIVIAN (Hopping to her feet) Oh, well, let’s stop talking dull heavy stuff. I’m going to swim.

  LIONEL All right.

  VIVIAN (Archly) Good-bye, Molly.

  (She runs off stage in the direction of the cove. MOLLY sits on rock.)

  LIONEL (Goes over and sits next to her) Doesn’t the ocean make you feel gloomy when the sky is gray or when it starts getting dark out?

  MOLLY I don’t guess it does.

 
; LIONEL Well, in the daytime, if it’s sunny out and the ocean’s blue it puts you in a lighter mood, doesn’t it?

  MOLLY When it’s blue …

  LIONEL Yes, when it’s blue and dazzling. Don’t you feel happier when it’s like that?

  MOLLY I don’t guess I emphasize that kind of thing.

  LIONEL I see. (Thoughtfully) Well, how do you feel about the future? Are you afraid of the future in the back of your mind?

  MOLLY I don’t guess I emphasize that much either.

  LIONEL Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who looks forward to the future. Have you got some kind of ambition?

  MOLLY Not so far. Have you?

  LIONEL I’ve got two things I think I should do, like I told Vivian. But they’re not exactly ambitions. One’s being a religious leader, the other’s getting deep into politics. I don’t look forward to either one of them.

  MOLLY Then you’d better not do them.

  LIONEL I wish it was that simple. I’m not an easygoing type. I come from a gloomy family … I dread being a minister in a way because it brings you so close to death all the time. You would get too deep in to ever forget death and eternity again, as long as you lived—not even for an afternoon. I think that even when you were talking with your friends or eating or joking, it would be there in the back of your mind. Death, I mean … and eternity. At the same time I think I might have a message for a parish if I had one.

  MOLLY What would you tell them?

  LIONEL Well, that would only come through divine inspiration, after I made the sacrifice and joined up.

  MOLLY Oh.

  LIONEL I get a feeling of dread in my stomach about being a political leader too … That should cheer me up more, but it doesn’t. You’d think I really liked working at the Lobster Bowl.

  MOLLY Don’t you?