The CTR Anthology

by Alan Filewod

  Jennie: Ma, don’t start again.

  Edna: Mrs Bailey, they cut her open, and she died.

  Jennie: You keep talkin’ cuttin’.

  Edna: Riddled right through!

  Jennie: Mrs Bailey had cancer, Ma.

  Edna: Holy Mary, Mother of God, don’t send my Jennie to no doctor.

  Harry: Mother, they’re not going to cut …

  Jennie: She keeps talkin’ cuttin’, why does she keep talkin’ cuttin’?

  Harry: Mother, would I let anybody hurt our Jen?

  Jennie: It’s the same doctor saved my life! You signed the paper.

  (Edna slaps Jennie’s face. Jennie is astounded.)

  Harry: Here now, you’ll be spankin’ my woman next. Way you two carry on, a person’d think you was Black Irish. Mother? (goes up to Edna, puts his arm around her) Mother? Now, the doctor’s ony goingta look at Jennie, see why she don’t start up. Now, don’t blush. Mother, a woman with seven children and you kin still blush. I swear, I think a woman gets a virgin every mornin’ a her life.

  (Harry has misread Edna. She is hopeless now. Jennie will know what her mother did that spring)

  Edna: Oh Harry.

  Harry: Now, you want a nice baby to nag and scold and bully, don’t you? ’N you know no doctor can do anythin’ without I sign a paper.

  (Edna blows her nose. She tries to pull herself back into some reasonable world, a world in which she never signed a paper.)

  Edna: It’s a wonder ya don’t try fixin’ her up yerself, Harry McGrane, you and yer electricity!

  Harry: (laughs) Mother Delevault! Ah, now that’s somethin’ not even a Black Irish can fix! Soo now, soo. (Harry is still holding Edna, and she allows herself to be comforted.) Now, Mother, soo. Would I do something to hurt our Jen? (Edna shakes her head against his chest.) Then trust to God, Mother Delevault. And if you can’t trust to God, trust to me. (laughs)

  Edna: (pushes Harry away) Well, go on then, but don’t expect me ta touch them lights. It’s kerosene fer me ’til the day you git back, Jennie.

  Harry: (picks up Jennie’s luggage) Mmmm … mmm … you wait’n see what Jen has fer you she comes home. I’ll convert you ta electricity yet!

  Edna: What? What infernity’re you plannin’ now, Harry?

  Harry: (moves to porch) … You wait’n see.

  Edna: (moves toward Jennie) Now don’t you go throwin’ away Harry’s money.

  Jennie: (forgives her – this is the mother she recognizes) Oh, Ma.

  Harry: Don’t say nothin’, Jen. Let her be surprised. Give her somethin’ to chew on stead a Molly Dorval, poor girl. (laughs)

  (Harry and Jennie move out onto the porch.)

  Jennie: ’Bye, Ma. God bless.

  Edna: God bless, Jennie.

  (Harry and Jennie exit)

  Molly: (off) ’Bye, Miz McGrane, ’bye, Mister McGrane! ’Bye! (Edna stands very still for a moment. She closes her eyes, and crosses herself. Molly comes onto the porch with neatly folded laundry in the wicker basket. She comes into the kitchen, sets the basket down, and goes to the pantry door.) Iron in here?

  Edna: Yes. In pantry. Where else should it be? (Molly starts to go into the pantry.) No. Wait. No, it’s on back a stove. I put it there myself. I’ll lose my head next. It’s ready, back a stove, hot. Ironin’ board’s in pantry. (Molly goes into the pantry, comes out with the ironing board, sees the light bulb, and then the switch.)

  Molly: Gee! Mister McGrane’s got electricity! Gee. (goes to light switch)

  Edna: Here, you leave that be.

  Molly: (switches lights on, off, on, off) Gee! Look at that!

  Edna: (not said with the usual asperity) That’s enough a that, you want to wear it out? (eyes Molly closely) You call that folded? I don’t call them sheets folded.

  (Edna rips out a sheet and Molly gets on the other end, and they perform the age-old ballet of women folding sheets. Molly is expected to dry iron the sheets once they are folded properly. Over the next they work through sheets, table cloths. Edna refolds tea towels, pillow cases, napkins.)

  Molly: Mmm. I love the smell a fresh sheets. Like sunshine. Gee, this is a nice kitchen. Some day I’m goingta have a kitchen just like this, (pause) Now they got electric irons even. You just plug them in. We’ll, anyways, it won’t be hard to dry iron these sheets.

  (Molly sets up one sheet on the ironing board, and goes to get the iron from the back of the stove. There should be two irons on the stove, one to use when the first gets cold.)

  Edna: And tea towels.

  Molly: You dry iron tea towels too?

  Edna: This house, we do.

  Molly: (impressed) Gee, even my ma don’t dry iron tea towels.

  Edna: We don’t hold with sprinkle.

  Molly: No more does Ma.

  Edna: If you dry iron right off, fresh from the line, it’s not so bad.

  Molly: No.

  Edna: It’s lazy housewives hafta sprinkle, ’cause they let ironing pile up. Do a job right away, you don’t hafta sprinkle. (Molly tests the iron with spit, then irons the first sheet.) Do your work as it comes up, you won’t go wrong. (Molly continues ironing. Edna folds one last tea towel.) How far gone’re ya?

  Molly: (startled, and then, in a moment, knows it’s true) Oh.

  Edna: Careful. You’ll burn that sheet, (takes the iron from Molly, puts it back on iron rack on stove.) Better sit down. (Molly goes to the table, pulls out a chair, and sits down) Didn’t ya know? (Molly shakes her head, no.)

  Edna: I’ll make us a nice hot cup of tea. (puts kettle over the hot part of the range, waits for it to boil.) You never knew then.

  Molly: No. Not ’til you said it. Then I knew.

  Edna: You can fool yourself but you can’t fool me. I’d say you were about four months gone. (The kettle boils. During the following dialogue, Edna pours water into the teapot, rinses it out, pours it into the sink. She then puts a teaspoonful of tea into the pot, and pours hot water in. She brings some old mugs to the table, along with cream and sugar. Meanwhile, Molly bursts into tears.) Cryin’ won’t help. Will the boy marry you?

  Molly: He’s a Doukhobour!

  Edna: Oh Lord.

  Molly: Come to help with the seedin’. In spring.

  Edna: Then marriage is out. Doukhobours’s bad as Protestants.

  Molly: Da’ll kill me.

  Edna: You’ve been a fool, that’s certain. You want milk in first?

  Molly: You got any cream?

  Edna: We got heavy cream. (Molly starts to ladle sugar into her cup. Like Harry, she takes a lot.) You want a sugar baby? I’ll get the heavy cream. (goes to pantry)

  Molly: Oh boy, Da’ll kill me.

  Edna: (coming back with jug) There. A spoon’ll stand up in that. Help yourself. (Molly helps herself, again abundantly.) I don’t know how you kin drink it that way. (Edna sits down, pours her own tea, milk in first, one teaspoon of sugar.)

  Molly: How could you tell, Mrs Delevault?

  Edna: I kin tell.

  Molly: (drinks tea) Well, I guess I’ll hafta kill myself.

  Edna: (pause) Fine idea. Don’t be a stupid girl, suicide’s a sin, and you know it, yer a good Catholic. If you’re a bad girl, yer still a good Catholic. (pause) Let’s think it out. You leave it to me. God works in mysterious ways. There’s a way outa anything, if you don’t let go. (pause) How old’re you, Molly?

  Molly: ’N I only did it the once! (pause) Fifteen.

  Edna: Once is enough, (pause) All right, you have your tea then. Like a piece of pie? With heavy cream? Go good.

  Molly: Yes please.

  Edna: All right then, you have your tea. And maybe after, I’ll let you sprinkle.

  ACT ONE, SCENE THREE

  Bring up lights, dim, on bedroom upstairs. Molly is in bed. Edna is already asleep on the other side of the bed. Molly trying to keep quiet, but now and then she sobs. Harry stands at the door, switches on the overhead light.

  Harry: Well, now, what’s this, Miss Molly Dorval? Homesick
first night?

  Molly: Oh, you gotta light in here too!

  Harry: Sure I do. See? (turns it off, then on, off, then on. Molly laughs) So? I don’t want no measlin’ girls around this place.

  Molly: It’s not that.

  Harry: First night away from home.

  Molly: (shakes her head) Not that.

  Harry: Mother Delevault worked you too hard – you did fine job tonight, with supper. With washin’ up. Fine job. ’N you just see what Miz McGrane brings back with her from Calgary.

  Molly: What?

  Harry: Mmmm mmm. Spoil surprises, tell them.

  Molly: I’m not homesick. I like it better’n home. But I can’t tell.

  Harry: (crosses to her bed, sits on it) Well, you tell me a story then.

  Molly: Me tell you a story?

  Harry: Mmmm. I need a bedtime story. Tell me … best time you ever had, your whole life. (Molly laughs) I’m serious, Miss Molly. I want bedtime story, (leans back comfortably against foot of bed)

  Molly: Oh Mister McGrane! (shushes him with her finger, indicating Edna, who turns and mutters in her sleep.)

  Harry: I’m waitin’. Stay here ’til sunup hafta.

  Molly: (laughs) Well. You won’t think it’s best time.

  Harry: You might be surprised.

  Molly: Well. Up at my uncle’s place, Charlie Fabrizeau’s? Porcupine Hills? They got a hot spring. My Uncle Charlie, he’s got it all wired off so’s us kids won’t get at it. But we do anyways. It’s lovely and hot and it smells like old eggs the hen hid and then forgot where she put ’em. (Harry smiles, his eyes closed. Molly is encouraged) My Uncle Charlie, he says that’s the smell a the fiery pit, that’s the smell a fire ’n brimstone and the Devil’s goingta drag us down by our heels, but that’s just ta scare us off.

  Harry: But you aren’t scared off.

  Molly: Naw! See, it’s ony an underground river feeds that spring, deep under ground, down near the centre a the world, and it’s boiling away down there and it comes up all bubbly and hot and steamy. My cousins ’n me, we used to sneak up early mornings … (snuggled down now; sleepily) One time, one time we was there fer first snow, and we snuck up then too, and it was really somethin’. The snow comin’ down and there we was, naked, with icicles hangin’ from our hair ’n our eyelashes, and Jack’s nose had this long icicle! (small laugh) An’ all around us, the snow was fallin’ and everythin’ was so quiet an’ still and we was warm. Naked ’n warm. … I think my Uncle Charlie? He knew. I jest think he never really wanted to catch us. I think he’d done it too, he was young … (drowsy, dropping off) Snow fallin’ down and everythin’ so quiet and still and us, all warm and naked.

  (Harry waits a moment. He gets up, goes to her and looks at her. He covers her with the quilt. He bends down, and kisses her forehead. In that moment, he knows he feels more than fatherly interest for Molly. Slight reaction, then he laughs at himself.)

  Harry: God bless, Molly.

  He goes out and shuts off the light.

  ACT ONE, SCENE FOUR

  The day of Jennie’s return. Molly comes into the kitchen with fresh flowers – Tiger Lilies, Brown-eyed Susans. She puts them on the side of the sink, and pumps water into a jam jar. Edna is on her knees with a waxing brick, giving a last polish to the linoleum.

  Edna: Wasting good well water?

  Molly: Ony a bit. Fer th’ flowers, (puts jar of flowers on the kitchen table) There, that looks nice. She’ll like them flowers. I went all the way up to th’Indian rings for them Tiger Lilies, (pause) I’ll put the kettle on.

  Edna: They won’t be here for ages yet.

  Molly: On no, truck just come over bridge.

  Edna: (on her heels) You heard truck come over bridge?

  Molly: Just now. (moves kettle to hot part of range)

  Edna: Bridge’s a good piece away.

  Molly: Oh I got good ears. My Da says I can hear grass grow.

  Edna: (speaks as if Jennie were dead) My Jennie used to hear things. I better get away this waxing brick then, (gets up stiffly) Yes, my Jennie was like that. My Jennie could allus hear things, (pause) Well, at least th’ floor’s done.

  Molly: Everythin’s done! My goodness, Miz McGrane’s goingta drop dead, everythin’ done and eighteen threshers fed mornin’ noon ’n night. I never worked so hard my whole entire life, an’ nothin’ dirty to start with!

  (Edna gives her a look to quell.)

  Molly: But it looks real nice, Miz Delevault. She’ll like it.

  Edna: It needed reddin’ out.

  Molly: I think everything looks real nice. There, that’s them comin’ down the coulee now.

  Edna: I still don’t hear nothin’.

  Molly: I’ll get the tea things.

  Edna: Not them old things. Jennie says use best for Harry.

  Molly: Them ones in th’ china cabinet?

  Edna: Yes.

  Molly: Fer ever’day?

  Edna: It’s her house. She’s got her own way a doin’ things.

  Molly: Oh, I like them dishes. (goes into pantry)

  Edna: (alone, crosses herself) Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee, Blessed art Thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus Christ. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen, (crosses self again)

  Molly: (comes back with tray and good dishes) Gee, they’re just so pretty. I want a pattern just like this, I get married, (pause) Mrs Delevault? You all right? (sets tray on table)

  Edna: Put on table cloth, girl!

  Molly: Oh!

  (Molly goes back into the pantry, brings back a starched, embroidered, laceedged table cloth, and places it on the table. She then sets out the tea things.)

  Edna: You start tea then.

  Molly: (starts tea, kettle, etc., looks out door) They’re here then, (pause) Not gettin’ out. (pause) You want I should put away the waxin’ brick?

  Edna: Yes.

  (Molly picks up the waxing brick and can of wax, and takes them to the pantry. Just before she goes into the pantry, she pauses.)

  Molly: I think maybe you done too much, Mrs Delevault.

  (Edna stands stock still and waits. Harry and Jennie move onto porch. Harry is carrying Jennie’s luggage. They are moving rather slowly. Jennie seems a different person – frozen, preternaturally quiet. Harry scrapes his boots on the scraper and then opens the screen door for Jennie, who goes to the centre of the room)

  Harry: I’ll just put these upstairs then.

  Edna: You’re back then, (pause, then to Jennie) Wipe yer shoes, I taught you better’n that.

  Harry: (comes back in) Too dry fer dust, Mother. Don’t start minute she gets in door.

  Edna: (starts to arrange teacups, etc., on table) How’s Mrs Finlay?

  Harry: (after a second’s pause, when Jennie does not answer) Fine. Jennie says she’s fine.

  Edna: And the kids?

  Jennie: (her first words, and bitter) They’re grown now. They got kids a’ their own.

  Harry: You’ve been turnin’ things out.

  Molly: (comes back from pantry with ironed napkins; very proudly) Yes ’n we have too! Pantry ’n all! ’N upstairs too! ’N front room. Wait ’til you see, I never worked so hard my whole entire life.

  Jennie: Flowers is nice.

  Molly: I picked them. I went all the way up to th’Indian rings for them Tiger Lilies.

  (Everything is strained and silent.)

  Harry: (making conversation) They’re not Indian rings, Molly.

  Molly: Ever’body says so, for the teepees.

  Harry: You ever seen a teepee that big around? No, they’re old, them stones. Older’n Blackfoot or Peigan or Blood, older’n you, Miss Molly.

  Molly: Who made ’em then, fairies? (laughs)

  Harry: Old old people. You wouldn’t remember.

  Jennie: You told me they was Fire People, (pause, then to Molly) Ma shouldn’t ha worked you so hard, you was just for the threshers.

  Harr
y: ’N she didn’t fergit yer surprise, Mother. It’s out in th’ truck. I’ll get it. Just give me half a shake, (goes out to the porch and exits)

  Jennie: You bin doin’ too much, Ma. You shouldn’t ha.

  Edna: Have some tea. (pause) Jennie, sit down, have a cup of tea. (pours some milk in a cup, then pours tea) Look, I’ve poured it out for you, way you like it. I’ve put milk in first.

  (Harry comes back in with a wooden crate. He sets it down on the middle of the floor, goes out to the porch again, exits. Edna looks at Jennie, who doesn’t move.)

  Molly: Oooooh.

  Harry: (comes back with tire jack) Here we are! Now, Mother, it’ll be no use over ta yer sister Dora’s place, ’cause Bob’s so backwards lookin’, but this is fer you you come here. ’Course I don’t expect I’ll ever git a lick a work outa you again, you’ll be at this mornin’ noon an’ night.

  (Harry starts to pry out the nails, causing much screeching in the terrible silence of the room.)

  Molly: Oh what is it, Mister McGrane?

  Harry: Wait ’n see, wait ’n see, jeez, we got excitable women this house, a man can’t think. See, I thought maybe we’d put it right here in th’ kitchen, over there maybe, so’s everybody’s got a chance at it. (almost manic now, talks to fill the silence) I thought, see, right over there, over by that big chair, but it’s up to you, Mother it’s yer present. You say where.

  Edna: I poured you yer tea, Jennie! Sit down, sit down and drink yer tea!

  Harry: (last screech as last nail lifts out, and he takes a wooden radio from the crate.) There she is. (sets it down)

  Molly: (awed) A radio.

  Harry: All I gotta do is string out over there ’n put a plug in an’ ya kin hear London. Paris. San Francisco.

  Edna: Oh Harry, you got me a radio.

  (Jennie moves to the table but does not sit down.)

  Harry: It was on Jennie’s list, so she got it, and they shipped it out, same train she come on. Today. This mornin’. I’ll fix it up tonight, you kin hear … Why’n’t ya take off yer coat and hat, Jen?

  Jennie: I don’t want to. The whole house smells like a hospital.

  Harry: (pause) I guess I better get up to the north section, see how they’ve been slackin’ off without me. (pause) So I’ll just change my things. (goes out into hallway and up to the bedroom)