by Beth Graham
IRIS
She didn’t phone to double-check. That was a necessary lie. She knew I was good for it. I think she called me to say—
BERNICE
Love you.
IRIS
And to hear the expected response.
Love you too.
Because that’s how we said it over / the phone.
The alarm sounds on the timer, overlapping IRIS’s line. She sets down the phone and removes the tea towel from the timer and turns the alarm off. She removes the towel from the clock.
The time has come.
I am full circle. At the completion of the orbit. Right here, in my kitchen. A little later in time. As long as it took to tell it like it is. Not to imagine it, but to remember. The end of the end. La fin de la fin.
It’s time.
She takes out the salt and pepper shakers.
The final ingredient. Salt and pepper.
She adds salt and pepper and holds the shakers.
I had the mind to trundle over to her house earlier to try and stop her, but, knowing my mother, she would have anticipated that and got the plan underway ahead of time.
IRIS puts the salt and pepper shakers away. She picks up the bowl of ingredients and empties it into a slow cooker as she speaks.
Now, I put all this in the slow cooker, put a lid on it, set the alarm again for four hours, put that alarm in my bag, and drive over to my mom’s house. When the alarm sounds it’ll give me an escape. I’ll have something I need to get back to—the Everything That Is Bad For You Casserole. When that casserole is ready, I will know that I’ve made it through another four hours. And the rest of the hours, for the rest of my life? I’ll have to try to keep busy.
When I find my mother, she will be lying on her back on her side of the bed. Poised. Looking as dignified as a person can with a garbage bag over their head. I wonder if she’ll be wearing lipstick? A red tone. I don’t think I’ll check. Her hands won’t be crossed over her chest. That would be cheesy. No, they will rest simply at her side. No more fidgety digits. Les mains de ma mère. The hands of my mother.
She looks down at her hands. She crosses her fingers.
I hope everything went according to plan and that she drifted off in her sleep. I hope it wasn’t too scary, and I hope it didn’t hurt. Hopehopehope. Wishwishwish.
She uncrosses her fingers.
I can’t imagine her in heaven because I don’t know what that is. For me, Heaven is just a really bad name for a little girl.
I guess I will imagine her as one of those particles in the enormous expanse of the universe. Particles spinning around more particles spinning around even more particles in an endless, complicated dance held in gravity’s loving embrace. I don’t know how to say gravity in French, but what I do know is that gravity is a good hugger—it keeps you from flying off the earth and hurtling through space. It holds you for a brief, impermanent moment and then pats you on the back and let’s you go. And that is that. . .
Acknowledgements
The playwright acknowledges the assistance of the 2012 Banff Playwrights Colony—a partnership between the Canada Council for the Arts, The Banff Centre, and Alberta Theatre Projects.
The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble received significant development support from the Citadel Theatre’s Play Development Program, which is generously supported by BMO Financial Group.
Obsidian Theatre and Beth Graham acknowledge the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s generous support of the premiere production.
Colleen Murphy, Brian Dooley, Wayne Paquette, Kevin Sutley, Philip Akin, Bradley Moss, Collin Doyle, Cat Walsh, Belinda Cornish, Jon Lachan Stewart, Andy Garland, Clarice Eckford, Jason Chinn, Holly Turner, Sharla Matkin, Karen Robinson, Alexis Gordon, Lucinda Davis, Peyson Rock, Jenny McKillop, Nadien Chu, Marilyn Ryan, Cole Humeny, Maev Beatty, Sasa Brown, Lesley Ewen, Stafford Perry, The Citadel Theatre, Obsidian Theatre, Factory Theatre, The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Theatre Network, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Edmonton Arts Council, Lydia and Jim Graham, Daniela Vlaskalic, and Patrick Fraser.
Beth Graham was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and raised in Cochrane, Alberta. She is an actor and playwright who graduated from the University of Alberta’s BFA acting program in 1998. She is one of the co-creators of The Drowning Girls, a play that toured across Canada and continues to be produced nationally and internationally. The Drowning Girls was nominated for the Carol Bolt Award and received the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama. Beth lives in Edmonton with her husband Patrick and their twelve-pound Pomeranian cross, Oscar.
Also by Beth Graham
The Drowning Girls & Comrades (with Charlie Tomlinson and Daniela Vlaskalic)
The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble © 2015 by Beth Graham
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Cover art and design by Sabrina Smelko
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Graham, Beth, author
The gravitational pull of Bernice Trimble / Beth Graham.
A play.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77091-330-1 (pbk.).--ISBN 978-1-77091-331-8 (pdf).--
ISBN 978-1-77091-332-5 (epub)
I. Title.
PS8613.R343G73 2015 C812’.6 C2014-908387-4
C2014-908388-2
We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.