GEMMA: You know we’ve hardly talked about the service.
ALICE: Alfred and I were talking about it on our walk. He was saying he thought Paul wanted—to sing something.
GEMMA: Paul said that?
ALFRED: He hinted to me, when we were—
ELIZABETH: What does he want to sing?
(Beat.)
GEMMA: Father hated Paul’s singing. It offended him.
ALICE: Perhaps that is why Paul wants to sing. Maybe each of us—something. Before we throw the ashes into the garden. I was going to read a poem.
TOM: Maybe it’s none of my business, but what I would suggest is that you make a list. Put what you’re going to do in the order you plan to do it in. You can always change, of course, but . . . It’s a good thing to have written down. That’s been my experience. In front of people. (Looks at each one of them) I can be secretary if you’d like. If that’d make it easier. Is there a piece of paper?
(Everyone ignores him. Short pause.)
ALFRED (Sitting and leaning over, he takes Alice’s hand): I wasn’t lying. He told me that he loved you.
ALICE: I know he did.
(Beat.)
ALFRED (To everyone): I noticed a pile of jigsaws in the closet. Anyone else like to do jigsaws? I’ll choose one. (Goes)
(No one has anything to say. Elizabeth turns on the radio for a moment—pop music—she turns it right off again. Alfred enters with a puzzle.)
(Holding up the front of the box) The Grand Canyon!
(Elizabeth suddenly grabs stomach in pain, she cries out.)
GEMMA: Elizabeth!
(Gemma and Alice go to her, as she doubles over and nearly collapses to the floor.)
ALICE: Oh my God!
ELIZABETH: I’ll be fine. Give me some water. I’m fine.
(Alice gives her some water. Elizabeth sits back in her chair, breathing heavily now. She wipes the sweat from her brow.)
(Faintly) Do the jigsaw. I like jigsaws.
(Alfred opens the box and pours out the pieces onto the table. Paul storms into the kitchen from upstairs. He is very upset.)
PAUL: I’ll pay for the goddamn call!!! What do you want—a check?! Cash?!!! Whatever you want!! Just get off my back!! She’s trying to talk to her daughter!! Is that so bad?! Can’t you leave her alone?!!! She’s up there crying now. She thinks you hate her! I can’t stand it anymore!! Grow up!!!
(He suddenly becomes aware that Sophie is behind him. She has been crying.)
SOPHIE: Paul, your sisters meant well. You shouldn’t talk to them like that. (Beat) Apologize. (Beat) You heard me. Apologize.
(Beat.)
PAUL: I’m sorry.
(Sophie tries to smile.)
SOPHIE: I’m going to bed now—everyone. Goodnight.
(Everyone except Paul says—“Goodnight,” “Goodnight, Sophie.” Sophie turns to go, then turns back.)
Paul, stay up as late as you want. And visit. (Leaves)
ALFRED (Over the puzzle): Anyone else ever been to the Grand Canyon? I know you have, Gemma. Elizabeth?
(She nods. He looks at the others, and one by one they nod as well.)
Everyone?
GEMMA (To Elizabeth): You should go to bed. I’ll take you up. Come on. (Helps Elizabeth up) Goodnight. Say goodnight.
ELIZABETH (To the others): Goodnight.
(The others say, “Goodnight.”)
ALICE: Sleep well.
GEMMA: I’ll come back down and help.
(They go.)
PAUL: I’ll finish the dishes.
TOM: Why can’t I—
PAUL: I’m used to it. It’s my job at home. (Goes to the sink)
(Tom now sits between Alfred and Alice. Alfred continues to work on the puzzle, turning over pieces, occasionally matching two. He continues this throughout the rest of the scene. Tom begins to feel a little uncomfortable between these two.)
ALICE: About a year ago, Alfred— (Ignores Tom) Harry started going on and on about this new student of his. A young woman. Said she was— Amazing. I ran into the two of them one afternoon in the parking lot of the college, chatting. She’s beautiful. (Beat) You may see her here tomorrow. I think she’s invited herself. (Beat) After seeing her, I said to Harry, what the hell did he take me for? I didn’t want any of that. My last husband— (Turns to Tom and pats his hand) Tom’s brother. (Turns back to Alfred) I’d had it with that. I can live alone. I don’t mind. (Beat) He smiled—the way he smiled. The way you smile. He was a handsome man.
(Alfred looks up.)
And he kissed me on the lips or tried to. And he said, I don’t believe what I’m hearing, Alice. That girl is probably the best violin student I’ve ever had in America. Her potential is limitless. Finally I feel my talents as a teacher can be fulfilled. You can’t know how lucky I feel. Though of course I’m trying to convince her to transfer to Julliard. (Beat) I felt like shit. (Looks at Tom, then back at Alfred) He spent a lot of time with her. He loved teaching. (Short pause) Then one day, I happened by his office door. It was opened a crack. There’s also a little window. And there she was with him. She had her violin. I saw her put it under her chin. Raise her bow. And I don’t know what I was prepared for, Alfred, but—she was the worst violinist I have ever heard. (Smiles without looking up) I mean it was painful. (Beat) He screwed around all the time. Though after hearing the girl play I realized that there was some suffering on his part as well. It wasn’t all . . . (Shrugs) Maybe even more suffering than pleasure. (Smiles) We can hope. (Short pause. Reaches over and takes a sip of Alfred’s drink) So—a few months ago Harry was in England? At his—wife’s funeral? What did she die of? Do we know?
(Beat.)
ALFRED: Her liver. She was a drinker.
(Alice takes another sip of Alfred’s drink.)
ALICE: It was a nice walk. Harry never wanted to take a walk with me after supper. Except—when we were courting. For that one week—he would.
(She looks at Alfred. He looks up. They look into each other’s eyes. Tom turns away and tries to be invisible.)
SCENE 6
The kitchen. One o’clock in the morning.
Tom and Paul sit at the table, working on the puzzle—the frame is now completed. From above, there is a banging/pounding sound.
Beat.
PAUL (Looking up, after listening for a moment): Unbelievable. Don’t you find it—? (Stops himself) What were we talking about?
TOM (Without looking up from the puzzle; American accent): “What you don’t understand . . .”
PAUL (Remembering where he was; American): “What you don’t understand about America is . . .” Fill in the blank. I don’t know how many times I have been told that. “You don’t understand”—that there was—“all these different races.” That America is— “soooo big.” That “we actually vote for our leaders.”
(More banging from above interrupts him. He stops. Gemma enters from the sink and stove area; she has just made herself a cup of tea. She wears a nightgown and a robe.)
GEMMA (Listening to the noise above): I hope to God I have Uncle Alfred’s genes.
PAUL: It’s been going on for like an hour now. (Beat) Am I the only one offended by this? By our—recently deceased father’s girlfriend and our recently deceased father’s brother screwing like a couple of bloody rabbits up there in his own goddamn bedroom?!!
(He looks at Gemma, who sips her tea.)
No one else is even a little troubled by this turn of events? No? Fine. Then it must be me. (Turns to Tom) What were we talking about? I keep forgetting.
TOM: I heard this once (American) “I love England. It’s my favorite of those countries.” (Beat) I should have said—by “those countries” do you happen to mean Europe? Europe the home for the past three millennia to what we humbly call—Western Civilization?!! (Smiles and shakes his head)
GEMMA: Don’t you two get tired of complaining?
(More banging upstairs. Gemma sits down at the table and picks up a puzzle piece.)
PAUL (Pushing her hand away from his pieces): I’m doing the sky. (Turns to Tom) Alfred once was telling— This must have been at my wedding. I’m not sure. He’s teaching a class. (Turns to Gemma) What’s his field again?
GEMMA: The Romantics.
PAUL: So—say he was teaching—Shelley? Whatever. And a student stands up in the class and says (American) “What the hell does any of this have to do with my life? Why do I even have to listen to you? You worthless Englishman!! Don’t you know you are nothing now? That you count for nothing in this world! This is our world! Get it?! So why don’t you just shut up and listen!!” (Laughs to himself)
TOM: He really—?
PAUL: Something like that. I don’t remember the exact words.
TOM: What did Alfred do?
(Paul looks to Gemma who ignores him and continues to look over the puzzle.)
PAUL: He didn’t do anything. The students here grade their teachers, so Alfred says—you just have to take it.
(The banging seems to have reached its climax upstairs. They listen, then it stops. Pause.)
(Looking up at the ceiling) Silence. Dare we hope. (Standing, arms outstretched) Thank you, God! Maybe someone’s finally come!!
(Elizabeth enters from the hallway in her robe.)
ELIZABETH (Entering): Have you been hearing what’s been going on upstairs? You can hear everything!
PAUL: They’ve stopped.
GEMMA (Under her breath): I wouldn’t bet on it.
TOM (To Elizabeth): How’s the . . . (Touches his stomach)
ELIZABETH: The medicine helped. Also the sleep, I think. I didn’t know how tired I was.
PAUL (Looking at his watch): You only slept for—
ELIZABETH (Interrupting, to Gemma): Is that tea?
GEMMA: The water’s still—
ELIZABETH (On her way to the stove): Anyone else? . . . (She is gone)
(Beat.)
GEMMA: Who can sleep?
PAUL (Over the puzzle): As long as Sophie can—
GEMMA: The light was on in your room. When I came down.
(Beat.)
PAUL (Without looking up from the puzzle): Then I better go. (Doesn’t move. Beat) I’ve got one (American) “The farther east you go—the more dead they are.” I swear I heard this. In California.
(Silence. They work on the puzzle. Suddenly both Tom and Gemma speak at the same time.)
TOM (To Paul): I hear that you—
GEMMA (Same time, to Tom): I wanted to ask—
(They stop themselves.)
TOM: Go ahead, what were you—
GEMMA (Over this): No, please. It was just— What were you going to say?
(Beat.)
TOM: Remember your thought. I was only going to say that I understand you’re going to sing tomorrow, Paul.
(Paul looks up.)
What are you going to sing?
PAUL: Who said that?
TOM: Alfred thought—
PAUL: I haven’t sung in front of people in years.
TOM: You were a professional singer—?
PAUL: I took classes. I wasn’t bad. But it was clear I was destined for the chorus, so . . . I hadn’t even thought of singing. (Beat. To Gemma) Think I should? What would father have thought—such a mediocre voice sending him off.
GEMMA: I think he’s already gone. Do what you want.
(Elizabeth enters with her tea and a cookie that she has found and now eats.)
ELIZABETH (Eating the cookie): I think it’s sick. Up there. How do they get the nerve? And do they think we’re deaf?
PAUL (Over the puzzle): So I’m not alone.
TOM (To Gemma): What were you going to say— Before—
GEMMA: Oh right. I wasn’t . . . I was going to ask— (Looks at her brother and sister) Don’t get angry with me. (To Tom) Since you were here—I’d like to know what happened yesterday.
ELIZABETH: Gemma, it’s one in the morning!—
PAUL: You don’t have to Tom, I apologize for my sister.
GEMMA (Over this): I mean—after. I understand what he did. (Beat) Were there police? I feel like I’d like to know. Should know. But if you don’t want to— It’s not that important. (Pause. Goes back to the puzzle)
TOM (Remembering): The police did come. An ambulance. An officer talked to me. To Alice. He was pretty nice. Younger than me.
(He smiles. No one is looking at him. They are doing the puzzle.)
Alice was able to say she wasn’t all that surprised, he’d been depressed, and so . . . That made things—quicker. (Beat. Trying to recall more) Some people from the ambulance cleaned up the study a little bit. I don’t know how much you want to know?
ELIZABETH (Sitting down now, to get closer to the puzzle; to Gemma): Move over a little.
PAUL (To Elizabeth): The sky is mine. Do all that pink rock. (Beat)
TOM: Before the police came, Alice and I just sat in the hall outside the study. I wouldn’t allow her to go back in. Once I’d seen . . . . . . (Beat) I helped her wash her face. She had some blood . . . She’d seen him do it—you knew that. So everything she does— I think we should remember that. (Beat) I came in and she was just sobbing. I pulled her into the hall. I called the police. They took out the body in a body bag; on a stretcher. I drove Alice in her car to the hospital behind the ambulance. I don’t even have my license with me. (Beat) A funeral director was called. We met him in a room of the hospital. Alice liked him right away. He’s about my age. Maybe a little younger. (Beat) I’m just trying to recall if there’s anything . . . . . . It was the funeral director who gave us the name of the woman who did most of the cleaning up. Alice—Elizabeth knows this—found a few places she’d missed. You couldn’t stop her. I couldn’t have done it. There was a stain on the floorboards she couldn’t get out or she didn’t have the stuff in the house to get out. So Elizabeth—
ELIZABETH (Doing the puzzle): I moved the carpet from one of the bedrooms. It’s in the study now.
TOM: Where I’m supposed to sleep. (Laughs)
PAUL (Looking up): Tom shouldn’t have to—
GEMMA (At the same time): We can’t let him sleep—
TOM (Over this): I can’t sleep anyway, please! (Pats the puzzle) I’ll just stay up all night. I often do.
(More banging from upstairs.)
PAUL (Looking up): Now—the other one has to come! Jesus Christ . . .
(They all look back at the puzzle.)
TOM (To Gemma): Is that enough? Is there a specific thing . . .?
ELIZABETH (Changing the subject): Who is this Alice anyway?
GEMMA: I thought you knew her from publishing—
ELIZABETH: I’m asking Tom.
(Tom is surprised by this.)
He’s her relative.
GEMMA: I think we’ve imposed upon Tom enough for—
TOM: I don’t mind. Let’s see. Alice was married to my brother. I knew her then. I always thought she was one of the more alive people that I knew.
(More banging from upstairs.)
They seemed happy. My brother and— One of those couples who seem to get along. Then he found someone else. I thought he acted in a real shitty way. I told her so. Is this the sort of thing—?
ELIZABETH: It’ll do.
TOM: We hadn’t seen each other for a few years. We ran into each other a couple of weeks ago on Fifth Avenue, agreed to have lunch, had lunch. I’d just broken up with a girl.
GEMMA: Your wife?
TOM (Shaking his head): This was just a few weeks—
GEMMA: Right. American? The girl.
TOM: That’s right. Anyway Alice took pity on me, invited me up here for a weekend in the country. (Beat) So I could relax.
(The noise from above has stopped.)
She’s a good person. She’s gone through a lot.
PAUL: Sh-sh!
(Everyone listens.)
Dare we hope that this unpleasant experience is now behind us?
ELIZABETH: I’d only met Alice a few times. I think it’s the sa
me with all of us. I don’t know—there’s my father’s house. My father’s funeral service. Calling my father’s friends. She’s everywhere, isn’t she? That’s what I was thinking about upstairs. That I don’t know who she is. Or what she wants.
PAUL: What are you talking about?
ELIZABETH: Father has a lot of things in this house. That were his. Open your eyes, Paul. Just look at the situation we’re in: she decides about the cremation. She tells us where to sleep.
GEMMA: I thought you helped with that.
ELIZABETH: I did my best. Look, I don’t want to make a big deal about this. I don’t mean it to be a big deal. It’s just something I’ve been thinking about.
PAUL: What is? I don’t understand.
(Elizabeth holds her stomach.)
What’s wrong?
ELIZABETH: I’m sure it was the egg roll. That’s what I’ve been burping up. Forget it, Paul. Do your jigsaw. That’s what you’re interested in.
PAUL: I’m not interested in the jigsaw!
(Sophie now enters from the hall. She wears a thin, translucent nightgown.)
SOPHIE: Is no one going to sleep in this house? What night owls you Bakers are.
ELIZABETH: We got woken up by—
SOPHIE: Me, too. (Yawns) What was that noise? Sounded like a tree limb banging on the roof. Must have gotten windy all of a sudden. Is that tea?
ELIZABETH: There’s still water in the kettle.
SOPHIE (Yawning): I’m half asleep. (She puts her arms around Paul’s neck) How’s the puzzle coming? I love puzzles. They’re a complete waste of time. I like that. (Kisses him on the head) What are you going to do, make me sleep alone all night? Your sisters can’t be that interesting. (Laughs) Just joking. I’ll make myself some tea. Anyone else? (As she leaves for the stove) I’m upstairs thinking: what do I have to do to get my husband to go to bed? (Smiles, then as if another thought—she fans herself for a second with her nightgown) I put on a cooler nightgown. It was hot in the room. (Goes)
ELIZABETH: You’re not going to shut me up, Paul.
PAUL (Over this): Leave me alone. This is all I ask.
ELIZABETH (Over this): You never change!
GEMMA (Over this): I don’t want to talk about this! I don’t want to talk about this! I don’t want to talk about this!
(Alice has entered in a robe and bare feet. She stands, startled to see everyone. Short pause.)
Goodnight Children Everywhere and Other Plays Page 23