Tea and Sympathy
Page 14
LAURA
But you wouldn't let me, Bill. You wouldn't let me.
BILL (Grabbing her by the shoulders)
What do you mean I wouldn't let you?
LAURA (Quietly, almost afraid to say it)
Did it ever occur to you that you persecute in Tom, that boy up there, you persecute in him the thing you fear in yourself?
(BILL looks at her for a long moment of hatred. She has hit close to the truth he has never let himself be conscious of. There is a moment when he might hurt her, but then he draws away, still staring at her. He backs away, slowly, and then turns to the door)
Bill!
BILL (Not looking at her)
I hope you will be gone when I come back from dinner.
LAURA (Quietly)
I will be . . .
(Going towards him)
Oh, Bill, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that . . . it was cruel.
(She reaches for him as he goes out the door)
This was the weakness you cried out for me to save you from, wasn't it . . . And I have tried.
(He is gone)
I have tried.
(Slowly she turns back into the room and looks at it)
I did try.
(For a few minutes she stands stunned and tired from her outburst. Then she moves slowly to TOM'S raincoat, picks it up and turns and goes out of the room and to the stair-landing. She goes to the boy's study door and knocks)
Tom.
(She opens it and goes in out of sight. At TOM's door, she calls again)
Tom.
(TOM turns his head slightly and listens. LAURA opens TOM'S door and comes in)
Oh, I'm sorry. May I come in?
(She sees she's not going to get an answer from him, so she goes in)
I brought back your raincoat. You left it last night.
(She puts it on chair. She looks at him)
This is a nice room . . . I've never seen it before . . . As a matter of fact I've never been up here in this part of the house.
(Still getting no response, she goes on. TOM slowly turns and looks at her back, while she is examining something on the walls. She turns, speaking)
It's very cozy. It's really quite . . .
(She stops when she sees he has turned around looking at her)
Hello.
TOM (Barely audible)
Hello.
LAURA
Do you mind my being here?
TOM
You're not supposed to be.
LAURA
I know. But everyone's out, and will be for some time . . . I wanted to return your raincoat.
TOM
Thank you.
(After a pause he sits up on the bed, his back to her)
I didn't think you'd ever want to see me again.
LAURA
Why not?
TOM
After last night. I'm sorry about what happened downstairs.
LAURA (She looks at him a while, then)
I'm not.
TOM (Looks at her. Can't quite make it out)
You've heard everything, I suppose.
LAURA
Yes.
TOM
Everything?
LAURA
Everything.
TOM
I knew your husband would be anxious to give you the details.
LAURA
He did.
(She stands there quietly looking down at the boy.)
TOM
So now you know too.
LAURA
What?
TOM
That everything they said about me is true.
LAURA
Tom!
TOM
Well, it is, isn't it?
LAURA.
Tom?
TOM
I'm no man. Ellie knows it. Everybody knows it. It seems everybody knew it, except me. And now I know it.
LAURA (Moves towards him)
Tom . . . Tom . . . dear.
(TOM turns away from her)
You don't think that just because . . .
TOM
What else am I to think?
LAURA (Very gently)
Tom, that didn't work because you didn't believe in it . . . in such a test.
TOM (With the greatest difficulty)
I touched her, and there was nothing.
LAURA
You aren't in love with Ellie.
TOM
That's not supposed to matter.
LAURA
But it does.
TOM
I wish they'd let me kill myself.
LAURA
Tom, look at me.
(TOM shakes his head)
Tom, last night you kissed me.
TOM
Jesus!
LAURA
Why did you kiss me?
TOM (Turns suddenly)
And it made you sick, didn't it? Didn't it?
(Turns away from her again.)
LAURA
How can you think such a thing?
TOM
You sent me away . . . you . . . Anyway, when you heard this morning it must have made you sick.
LAURA (Sits on edge of bed)
Tom, I'm going to tell you something.
(TOM won't turn)
Tom?
(He still won't turn)
It was the nicest kiss I've ever had . . . from anybody.
(TOM slowly turns and looks at her)
Tom, I came up to say good-bye.
(TOM shakes his head, looking at her)
I'm going away . . . I'll probably never see you again. I'm leaving Bill.
(TOM knits his brows questioning)
For a lot of reasons . . . one of them, what he's done to you. But before I left, I wanted you to know, for your own comfort, you're more of a man now than he ever was or will be. And one day you'll meet a girl, and it will be right.
(TOM turns away in disbelief)
Tom, believe me.
TOM
I wish I could. But a person knows . . . knows inside. Jesus, do you think after last night I'd ever . . .
(He stops. After a moment, he smiles at her)
But thanks . . . thanks a lot.
(He closes his eyes. LAURA looks at him a long time. Her face shows the great compassion and tenderness she feels for this miserable boy. After some time, she gets up and goes out the door. A moment later she appears in the hall door. She pauses for a moment, then reaches out and closes it, and stays inside.
TOM, when he hears the door close, his eyes open. He sees she has left his bedroom. Then in complete misery, he lies down on the bed, like a wounded animal, his head at the foot of the bed.
LAURA in a few moments appears in the bedroom doorway. She stands there, and then comes in, always looking at the slender figure of the boy on the bed. She closes the bedroom door.
TOM hears the sound and looks around. When he sees she has come back, he turns around slowly, wonderingly, and lies on his back, watching her.
LAURA, seeing a bolt on the door, slides it to. Then she stands looking at TOM, her hand at her neck. With a slight and delicate movement, she unbuttons the top button of her blouse, and moves towards TOM. When she gets alongside the bed, she reaches out her hand, still keeping one hand at her blouse. TOM makes no move. Just watches her.
LAURA makes a little move with the outstretched hand, asking for his hand. TOM slowly moves his hand to hers.)
LAURA
(Stands there holding his hand and smiling gently at him. Then she sits and looks down at the boy, and after a moment, barely audible)
And now . . . nothing?
(TOM's other hand comes up and with both his hands he brings her hand to his lips.)
LAURA (Smiles tenderly at this gesture, and after a moment)
Years from now . . . when you talk about this . . . and you will . . . be kind.
(Gently she brings the boy's hands toward her opened blouse, as the lights
slowly dim out . . . and . . .
THE CURTAIN FALLS
THE END
Robert Anderson, born in New York in 1917, was graduated from Phillips
Exeter and from Harvard, where he earned his M.A. in 1940. During the
war, while serving as an officer in the Navy, he wrote his first play,
Come Marching Home. Another of his plays, Love Revisited, was put on
at the Westport (Conn.) summer theatre in 1950 and All Summer Long was
done successfully at the Arena Theatre in Washington, D.C., in 1953. On
the day that his Broadway hit, Tea and Sympathy, opened in New Haven,
he was made a member of the Playwrights' Company.
Mr. Anderson has also taught playwriting courses at the American Theatre
Wing. He and his wife Phyllis live in a Basement apartment in Greenwich
Village, where -- in addition to writing plays -- he does adaptations
for radio and television.
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