Scene Two

Dawn light leaks through a small opening in the drawn drapes of the darkened bedroom. MORGAN is on the bed splayed out as if he's fallen asleep with the phone on his lap. He is dressed in a green shirt with a leafy design, good pants that are not done up and dress shoes.

Birds are heard singing outside… a car horn blasts up from the street below.

The sound of a door opening and closing can be heard followed by the sounds of someone moving about… then, after a moment, LILLY enters—dishevelled—her fur coat open. When she sees MORGAN, she is overcome.

LILLY

Oh my God in heaven… Morgan…

She shakes him, gently at first… then not so gently.

Morgan. Morgan… MORGAN!

After a moment, he moves.

Oh God, I thought you were dead.

MORGAN

…Lilly…?

LILLY

Are you having a heart attack?

MORGAN

No.

LILLY

Did you call 911?

MORGAN

I was trying to call Donny to say—

LILLY

Don't move—

MORGAN

…say I'd be a bit late.

LILLY

Don't move, don't talk. I'll begin emergency-scene management.

MORGAN

But, Lilly—

LILLY

Shush! I've memorized the whole procedure. Do you have pains in your chest?

MORGAN

No.

LILLY

Can you show me where it hurts?

MORGAN

It doesn't hurt.

LILLY

Is your skin pale—are you afraid?

MORGAN

I'm fine.

LILLY

Are you denying anything is wrong?

MORGAN

Lilly, I'm not having another heart attack—

LILLY

Did you take your medication?

MORGAN

Yes.

LILLY

When?

MORGAN

Last night.

LILLY

Why are you lying on the bed?

MORGAN

I'm tired.

LILLY

Any nausea? Vomiting?

MORGAN

No.

LILLY

Did you vomit?

MORGAN

No, I told you—

LILLY

Did you vomit and wipe it up like you did the first time?

MORGAN

I didn't vomit—

LILLY

Any shortness of breath?

MORGAN

No.

LILLY

Fatigue?

MORGAN

No.

LILLY

Shock, unconsciousness—were you unconscious?

MORGAN

The worst thing about having a heart attack is that every time I burp you think I'm having another heart—

LILLY

There—you just admitted having a heart—

MORGAN

I meant having had one two months ago—

LILLY

Let's get you into a semi-sitting position.

MORGAN

I'm in a semi-sitting position.

LILLY

Let's get you into a better semi-sitting position.

MORGAN

Getting dressed tired me out, that's all.

LILLY

Did you have pains in your arm or neck?

MORGAN

Lilly, please—

LILLY

A heart attack can feel like angina except the pain doesn't go away.

MORGAN

I'm not having a heart attack!

LILLY

Don't shout at me!

MORGAN

Sorry… but I'm tired. If anything I probably had a mental heart attack brought on by stress and thoughts of… thoughts.

LILLY

Try to calm down.

MORGAN

I'm calm. (takes deep breaths) I'm calm.

LILLY

(taking off her fur coat) Do you want something, water? Tea?

MORGAN

No.

LILLY

Coffee? I'll make some coffee.

MORGAN

What were you doing on the roof for five hours?

LILLY

…we weren't on the roof.

MORGAN

Where were you?

LILLY

We went up to the roof but Tommy was there. He must have received a call from someone who'd seen Parker come in, or had seen him trying to pull out the trees earlier. Anyway, Tommy didn't see us so I whisked Parker down the elevator and out through the garage… then we went for a walk in the ravine.

MORGAN

For five hours?

LILLY

Well… yes. He was anxious to prove to me that he is who he said he is.

MORGAN

And… who is he?

LILLY

A lonely man who's had a lousy life so he turned to something he considers profound, namely that the preservation of the world lies in nature.

MORGAN

Did he show you where he lived?

LILLY

…we didn't get to the actual spot.

MORGAN

Where did you get to?

LILLY

Just wandered around the ravine and… talked.

MORGAN

Talked? About what?

LILLY notices the plant on the floor beneath the window and picks it up.

LILLY

…what happened to the plant?

MORGAN

It accidentally fell over.

LILLY

…you know, MORGAN, I've been thinking… (absently fondles one of the paintings on the wall) Let's not drag these things to our grave.

MORGAN

Pardon?

LILLY

I never look at them from one day to the next.

MORGAN

We didn't get them to look at, Lilly.

LILLY

Let's give them away.

MORGAN

They're expensive capital to prop us up in our old age.

LILLY

But why own them when we can go into the woods among real trees and lakes?

MORGAN

What did you do out there—fall on your head?

LILLY

Parker says all art is useless.

MORGAN

What does he know—he eats out of garbage cans.

LILLY

…he'll be here in about ten minutes.

MORGAN

Here?

LILLY

Yes. Here.

MORGAN

…good. I'm glad he's coming back.

LILLY

That's progressive, Morgan. I thought you'd be angry.

MORGAN

Nah, I'm glad he's coming back—now I can call the police.

LILLY

No you are not going to call the—

MORGAN

Yes I am, and two big fat policemen will plant themselves behind our door and when Mr. All Art Is Useless walks in the men in blue will arrest him.

LILLY

They can't arrest him—he did nothing wrong.

MORGAN

Trespassing, bleeding on our duvet, hypnotizing you with his bad smells and promises of Emersonian delights—trying to pass himself off as a human being—

LILLY

He is a human being.

MORGAN

What were you two doing in the ravine?

LILLY

Nothing. Walking around.

MORGAN

Walking around where?

LILLY

Through the field beside the expressway—it's not really a field but a bit of grass flanked on one side by the woods and on the other by a thousand flickering headlights whizzing by. It's actually quite magical… and he did something to me, Morgan.

MORGAN

What? Did he hurt you?

LILLY

No.

MORGAN

Did he touch you, Lilly?

LILLY

…yes… in a manner of speaking.

MORGAN

Did he hurt you?

Silence.

Did he hurt you?!

LILLY

He made love to me.

MORGAN

…he… what?

LILLY

Made love to me.

MORGAN

He made love to you?

LILLY

Yes.

MORGAN

…my God—how?

LILLY

What do you mean how?

MORGAN

How?

LILLY

How we usually make love.

MORGAN

We—as in you and me?

LILLY

I mean how the act is usually… accomplished.

MORGAN

Refresh my memory.

LILLY

Please, Morgan—

MORGAN

Did he do you missionary style, or perhaps doggie style was more suited to the environs, or did he unbutton his dirty pants so you could—

LILLY

We can't have an adult conversation if you're going to start going crazy.

MORGAN

It's disgusting, Lilly, disgusting!

LILLY

Yes… I guess it is. My back was pressed into bits of rock and there was something animal about being so brutally connected to the forces of the earth—it was a smelly, messy exchange, but I felt cleansed, as if a layer of rust was stripped off of me.

MORGAN

Did the universe shift? Did you call him all the names you used to call me?

LILLY

This was altogether different and not comparable to our… our experience.

MORGAN

What do you think Dr. Sturgess would say about you carrying on with a homeless bum?

LILLY

He'd say, "Mrs. Beaumont, you're suffering from Misplaced Love." He's been at me about Misplaced Love for twenty years—well, tonight he can take his Misplaced Love and shove it.

MORGAN

Where is he now?

LILLY

Who—Sturgess?

MORGAN

Parker!

LILLY

He's gone to the Good Shepherd to get coffee.

MORGAN

Lock the door.

LILLY

He'll be here in a few minutes—

MORGAN

Lock that fucking door right now, Lilly!

LILLY

Don't start swearing—

MORGAN

You go out and screw a low-life but I mustn't let loose the F-word—who's crazy now, eh?

LILLY leaves the room.

Put the deadbolt across! And lock the balcony door! Bolt it!!

LILLY

(off) There's no bolt on the bal—

MORGAN

I don't care, bolt it anyway—bolt it in your imagination!!

After a moment LILLY re-enters the bedroom.

That creep is not getting in here again!

LILLY

When he knocks on the door, I will answer it.

MORGAN

No you will not because he will not get past Security this time!

LILLY

Everyone gets past Security these days. Security is just a word.

MORGAN

Security is more than just a word, Lilly—it's a very hopeful noun and this condo is going be locked up tighter than a nun's cunt.

LILLY

Must you be so coarse?

MORGAN

Yes, I must—particularly now that you have a cunt again—something you've been lacking for what, a hundred years. Or maybe it was sleeping.

LILLY

Coarseness does not suit you, Morgan.

MORGAN

Coarseness suits me just fine and now it suits you.

LILLY

Coarseness has nothing to do with this—

MORGAN

The only reason he made love to you is because you're not a dead squirrel, or his hand—you're a change for him, you're his revolution.

LILLY

He's smitten with me.

MORGAN

He's smitten? Smitten? That's my word—that's—you used to say, "Morgan, hon, you're smitten?" Do you remember that?

LILLY

…sort of.

MORGAN

I'd recite a poem to you and you'd say, "Morgan, hon, you're smitten." Do you remember the one I used to recite over and over?

LILLY

No.

MORGAN

What was the name of it?

LILLY

Please don't make this more painful than it already is.

MORGAN

"Wild nights, wild nights"… something something.

LILLY

…I don't remember.

MORGAN

Sure you do. What comes next?

LILLY

I just told you, I don't remember.

MORGAN

How many times did I recite it? A hundred and fifty times—at least!

LILLY

I don't know how many—I didn't count.

MORGAN

A business major who could recite poetry. That was my secret ammunition and it worked every time. Didn't it? Didn't it, Lilly?

LILLY goes into the bathroom and shuts the door.

"Wild nights, wild nights"… something something. Emily Dickinson. "Wild nights, wild nights," something then… something…

LILLY comes out of the bathroom, drying her face.

LILLY

This would be much easier if you did bad things to me, beat me or something, but you're a good person and you used to be a lot of fun.

MORGAN

A barrel of laughs.

LILLY

You're not much fun anymore.

MORGAN

Neither are you, frankly.

LILLY

Sometimes I wonder why we got married. I was against marriage. I was against everything in those days.

MORGAN

We got married because you said you were pregnant.

LILLY

I was pregnant—two and a half months pregnant! It's not my fault it never amounted to anything… but I was terribly optimistic, weren't you?

MORGAN

…yes.

LILLY

So were the Aunties. They knit with a kind of desperate relish—stacks of baby sweaters, hats, mittens, booties.

MORGAN

We should have adopted—we had the wardrobe.

LILLY

Please—we've been over this too many times. It's ancient history.

MORGAN

I can't believe you let that guy touch you.

LILLY

Morgan, until a few hours ago I never cheated on you—not once—and there were times I wanted to. My fantasy life was rich and extremely crowded—young male students would often hang around after class and ask me questions just so they could glance up my skirt.

MORGAN

I don't care—I have my magazines. The girls in them are fifty years younger than you. They stay on the page, they don't walk out in the middle of the night so—that's your problem, Lilly, you were always forty-five—you were born forty-five years old. You started menopause at eleven—maybe that's why you could never have kids.

Silence.

I'm sorry.

LILLY

No you're not—you're not sorry at all. Reciting a silly love poem—you never even called the police!

MORGAN

Pardon?

LILLY

You said you were going to call them if I wasn't back here in half an hour. Why didn't you call them?

MORGAN

I knew you were on the roof.

LILLY

How did you know?

MORGAN

Because you told me you were going up there with him to liberate a tree and I believed you!

LILLY

Parker could have pushed me off the roof. I could have been hanging from the ledge, hanging on for dear life.

MORGAN

That never occurred to me, Lilly.

LILLY

Why not? Weren't you worried when I didn't return—didn't you wonder where I was?

MORGAN

Of course I was worried.

LILLY

Then why didn't you pick up the phone?

MORGAN

I was tired.

LILLY

How hard is it to press 911? I once read where a farmer who lost both his arms in a threshing machine managed to walk to his house and dial the phone with his nose.

MORGAN

I was too tired.

LILLY

Maybe you were sitting here hoping for the call.

MORGAN

What call?

LILLY

"Hello, Mr. Beaumont, this is the police. We found your wife's body in the ravine. She was covered with flowers and a squirrel was stuffed in her mouth—a sort of dry-land Francis Bacon version of The Lady of Shalott,' then you could collect the life insurance, marry a fertile young woman with big melons and have all the babies you want—that is if you can get it up, because for all the complaining about my sleeping you-know-what I sometimes think you're darn glad it doesn't wake up and challenge your manhood… what's left of it.

MORGAN

(a moment, then) I have to get ready for the breakfast meeting.

LILLY

Go ahead—run away, run away from the truth—

MORGAN

Donny and Harold are probably already at the restaurant—

LILLY

Did you ever cheat on me?

MORGAN

No.

He goes into the bathroom.

LILLY

Don't tell me you never once cheated on me, Morgan Beaumont.

MORGAN

(off) What did I say—what did i just say?!

LILLY

You're going to wake everyone up—

MORGAN

(off) They're already up—they're probably having breakfast right now because unlike you and the hungover McNamaras and the rambunctious rabbits next door, most people in this condo have jobs to go to this morning—which is what I'm trying to do.

LILLY

Can you honestly say that through the thousands of business meetings out of town with Donny and Harold and Paul and—can you tell me you never cheated? Not even once?

MORGAN comes out of the bathroom combing his hair.

MORGAN

Lilly, please—

LILLY

"Lilly, please…" You mew worse than Tippy does—a long sigh like a too large fart squeezing through a too small hole. Tippy… where is she?

MORGAN

She probably ran away from home.

LILLY

(calls) Tippy… Tippy?

MORGAN

Would it mean anything now if I told you that twenty years ago I screwed a lonely secretary in a Howard Johnson's in Niagara Falls and I was so drunk that she had to help me back to my room after, and as she was struggling to get my key into my door I threw up all over her hand? I was consumed with shame and gratitude and guilt.

Silence.

LILLY

Parker touched something in me, Morgan. He touched my soul.

MORGAN

Oh boy.

LILLY

I'm moving into the ravine with him.

LILLY goes into the closet then comes out dragging a suitcase.

MORGAN

Look, if you crave adventure so badly go back to teaching part-time. I'm sure a high school would be happy to have an old crock pulling up her skirt in the front of the class and yowling about history and touching souls.

LILLY

Get out. Goodbye.

MORGAN

You're the one who's leaving—you go. Get the hell out!

LILLY

He'll look after me, Morgan.

MORGAN

Oh yeah, sure, for a few days, maybe—for a few days then when you're sleeping he'll steal your coat and your rings. He might even kill you.

LILLY

Nothing will hurt me out there because I'll become part of the natural world. I'll blend into the green things—the raccoons and birds won't care if I wander about.

MORGAN

I'll care.

LILLY

Pardon?

MORGAN

Although you think I'm a fucking shrivelled-up invalid, I care for—

LILLY

Stop swearing—just stop right now! My Aunties swore at each other and swore at the help, my students swore all the time—I cannot stand it!

Silence.

What were you saying about… care?

MORGAN

I care… about you. Even when we separated that time, I never stopped caring about you.

LILLY

What time?

MORGAN

The time you kicked me out.

LILLY

I didn't kick you out—you left of your own accord.

MORGAN

I was unhappy.

LILLY

Are you happier now?

MORGAN

Yes. Happy enough—happy to have my health back, read, watch TV, happy to see my friends, happy to start back to work and help the company turn a profit. In a year or so I'll be happy to retire, stay home, plant a few plants—just, you know, little house plants.

LILLY

Well, I'm not happy enough.

MORGAN

Clearly.

LILLY

I don't know why—all I know is that I don't need this or this or this…

She pulls restlessly at household things—pillows, things on her bureau, bits of life that are scattered around.

…or these paintings. Art used to be a solace, now my only solace is nature. We all return to nature.

LILLY begins taking a painting off the wall.

MORGAN

Don't take that down.

LILLY

I'll donate it to the art gallery.

He roughly takes the painting from her.

MORGAN

No you won't—you absolutely will not touch these.

LILLY

Don't grab!

She pushes him away.

Keep it—I don't care.

MORGAN hangs onto the painting… not sure what to do with it now.

I won't need paintings or beds or sheets. I'll sleep in the forest, walk down to the lake to bathe.

MORGAN

Who are you kidding, Lilly? Maybe you're kidding yourself and Parker Parker but you're not kidding me. You're hurting me.

LILLY

I'm sorry.

MORGAN

All our married life you've only ever thought about yourself.

LILLY

That's not true.

MORGAN

If we had adopted some children we would not be alone today—alone in a condo the size of a coffin, colliding with each other at every turn.

LILLY

Number one—we chose a small condo because we're planning to travel around the world, number two—it's not small it's just that you are used to a big house and number three—we are not alone.

MORGAN

We're alone, Lilly.

LILLY

No. We have each other.

MORGAN

We are alone and we are lonely.

LILLY

Everyone's lonely.

MORGAN

I'm not so lonely that I'd let a homeless creep stick his wee-wee in my ear because I felt sorry for—

LILLY

I didn't feel sorry for him—I felt him.

MORGAN

Big difference.

LILLY

Yes—huge. I felt him because he feels and I can feel that he feels… just because he's dirty or sick doesn't mean he does not feel—cold is cold, hunger is hunger, pain is pain, love is love.

MORGAN

All I'm saying is that if we had adopted a child—

LILLY

WE HAVE A CAT!

Silence.

Here, Tippy… come, pussy wussy…

MORGAN

We could have given one child love and a good home—little children need good homes.

LILLY

What would I have said to him or her when they asked where they came from? "Your poor mother loved you so much she gave you away so she could have a better life—sorry, so that you could have a better life."

MORGAN

No, of course not.

LILLY

Nothing eases the burden of knowing that you were conceived in a back seat because a boy and a girl had too many drinks and one hunger led to the next and the next thing led to you. You were a mistake and your mother didn't spend weeks anguishing over whether or not to give you up—if she wasn't so squeamish she'd have put a clothes hanger through you—so be glad that even though you were not wanted you at least arrived in one piece.

MORGAN

You wouldn't have had to give them a graphic description like that. There are degrees of truth.

LILLY

No there are not—there is only what actually occurs and very little in between, and no matter how you dress it up or withhold it, it leaks out like battery acid.

MORGAN

I don't know, Lilly… the point is that everyone adopts now, it's normal. The children are loved and cherished, then when they grow up they meet their birth parents and are loved and cherished—well, maybe not always—but the potential exists.

LILLY

If you wanted children so badly you should have divorced me and married someone who could breed.

MORGAN

I loved you.

LILLY

…loved?

MORGAN

Love.

LILLY

I'm not staying in this condo.

MORGAN

Don't be crazy—we just finished signing the papers.

LILLY

So—sell it.

MORGAN

For what—a five-dollar profit? And live where—in the bush with you and that nutcase?

LILLY

Buy back the Aunties' mansion. Open it up to homeless people.

MORGAN

That place was condemned—that's why we sold it. Your aunts were out of control—by the time they moved out they were completely bonkers.

LILLY

They didn't move out, Morgan, they were dragged out. Auntie Zim was so upset about leaving her house that she shat herself. You probably didn't notice—you were too busy carting the furniture and paintings away.

MORGAN

Lilly, you insisted we take the art. You practically threw it at me. It was a good investment for our future. Don't you remember?

LILLY

What future?

MORGAN

Our future, our sunset years… trips to Morocco and parts east—you were yanking the brocades off the windows like a cat.

LILLY

…Morgan…

MORGAN

What?

Silence.

…what?

LILLY

When we were in the ravine Parker said he smelled cancer on me.

MORGAN

Whhoooaaa—stop right there. That's stupid. That kind of talk is the ravings of a man with very severe psychological problems.

LILLY

He says cancer seeps through the pores of the skin and can be detected on the breath.

MORGAN

He has no business frightening you like that.

LILLY

When I was little the Aunties and I would sit in the ballroom talking to each other in pig Latin. During electrical storms they'd turn off all the lights and we'd huddle together in the dark. A blast of lightning would light up their faces, making them instantly grotesque and beautiful, then Auntie Zim would turn to me and say in her three-pack-of-cigarettes-a-day voice, "Illy-lay, recious-pay, od-gay peaks-say rough-thay e-thay under-thay nd-ay e-hay ays-say e-way re-ay afe-say. Lilly, precious, God speaks through the thunder and he says we are safe." But we're not safe, are we, Morgan? You're only safe when someone fixes their full attention upon you. That is the only time you are completely and utterly safe.

She begins putting things into her open suitcase.

…I am going to be young again. I'll bloom… like a flower. Lilium longiflorum.

MORGAN

Moving into the bush with a bum won't make you young again.

LILLY

Yes, it will.

MORGAN

How will you survive? Who'll bring you tea in the morning so you can take a sip then close your eyes and enjoy the pleasant mind game of sleeping in?

LILLY

I don't need tea.

MORGAN

You'll shiver all the time, wipe yourself with leaves or snow, stumble around with plastic bags on your feet—what about your sleeping pills?

LILLY

I don't need them. (takes the vial of pills off her night table and opens the top) I don't want to sleep anymore—I want to stay awake.

She tosses the pills and they land like heavy snowflakes.

MORGAN

Lilly, stop—we can't be young again except in our memories, the memories we had together. I know I'm not the most virile guy on the planet anymore and you're not exactly Miss Universe—but we used to be, we used to be like the rabbits next door. Sure, you slept with guys before me and I slept with everyone I met, but that was forty years ago when everything was disappearing into peace signs and acid and the conviction that we would change the world, but we didn't.

LILLY

We changed the world a little bit.

MORGAN

No, we didn't.

LILLY

I went on peace marches, "Ban the Bomb," "Stop the War"—I was all for world peace.

MORGAN

You and I didn't change the world—we abandoned it for good jobs and wall-to-wall carpets and large vehicles and safety. We abandoned it for the freedom of not having to care about other people.

LILLY

I care—now I care, Morgan. It's not too late, is it?

MORGAN

Don't you understand? You and I are spent. All we have left is a little time. I only have a finite number of beats left in my heart.

LILLY

(a moment, then) Parker's not coming.

MORGAN

…he's not?

LILLY

After we came down from the roof, I took him through the parking garage. He was all excited and wanted me to walk through the ravine with him. It was dark, I couldn't see all the things he was pointing out to me—bits of bark, different kinds of trees and insects with special insect camouflage… I thought we were heading towards his refuge but we were circling back and ended up at the graveyard. He said all his family were buried there—mother, father, foster parents… so we lay down on his parents' graves. He showed me a dove carved on top of his mother's tombstone—the dove of peace. It was too dark to read names, and I was frightened, but I also felt fresh, alive—even quite beautiful, almost beatific… he talked about the life we would have together… it was the same kind of life he was going to have with Larissa—dogs, cats, cows, turkeys, budgies, kids. He touched my breasts and cried—that man has a terrible habit of bursting into tears—then he laid his head on my stomach, looked up at the sky and quoted Emerson, "Every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile." It's the most beautiful sentence I have ever heard uttered… then he fell asleep. (a moment) We didn't make love. I only imagined we did. I stared up at the stars then dozed off. He woke me up to watch the sunrise. It was a wide, orange sunrise with a strong line slashed across the sky so it looked like night was being peeled back. I was happy… I glistened with dew and happiness. He said he was going to get coffee from the Good Shepherd and asked me to go get my things… that he'd meet me back here in twenty minutes… but he won't come back. He's too afraid of people. Something shattered him.

Silence.

MORGAN

Guess you never saw his lean-to and his spaghetti strainer.

LILLY

No.

MORGAN

Believe it or not, I'm sorry, Lilly. Sorry your feelings are hurt.

LILLY

I don't need him now. You and I can go together.

MORGAN

No.

LILLY

There'll be no more fighting over which side of the bed to put the alarm clock. Out there we won't even need a clock—we'll wake up with the sun and the rush of oxygen that living outdoors will bring.

She pulls open the drapes and looks out… early morning sun pours blindingly in through the window.

Look how bright the ravine looks from up here… even the graveyard is luminous.

MORGAN

I can't see anything without my glasses—everything's a blur.

LILLY

Even as Parker and I were lying on the graves I knew they didn't belong to his parents or foster parents or anyone else he was related to… he just wanted to believe that there was someone under the earth who had once loved him… and I doubt Parkeris his real name. This morning when I woke up I noticed the name P. Parker on a nearby gravestone. (begins to unpack) Remember all the times we got stoned and said we'd never die? We were invincible.

MORGAN

What are you doing?

LILLY

You're right, I'll never be young again… and I'm not brave enough to live out there.

MORGAN

Bullshit—you're brave.

LILLY

Snakes and worms freak me out. Spiders, ladybugs, ants… last night I nearly passed out when my hand touched a bit of wet moss.

MORGAN

Remember how brave you were when that kid pulled out the gun?

LILLY

Oh, Morgan, that was years and years ago.

MORGAN

These days that kind of commotion happens every week but back then it was unheard of—there were no lockdown procedures or armies or police to surround a school. The city gave you a plaque because you probably saved a whole classroom of students. Those are your real children, Lilly.

A knock on the front door of their apartment is heard.

LILLY

Oh my God…

MORGAN

Don't answer.

More knocking on their apartment door is heard.

LILLY

(calls) Coming…

MORGAN

Don't leave me, Lilly.

LILLY

I have to let him in.

MORGAN

Early this morning, while I was lying here wondering where you were, all I could think about was how I didn't want my whole life with you to have been a waste. I didn't want to die alone in our bed knowing that all our years together, all the tiny, treasured, oddball moments between us, had been rendered meaningless.

LILLY

What do you mean die—I thought you said you didn't have any pains…

MORGAN

Just little tiny ones—

LILLY

How bad?

MORGAN

Miniscule. Infinitesimal.

LILLY

Oh God, Morgan… what do I do?

The knocking continues—more insistent.

MORGAN

Pretend we're not here. Pretend we've gone to Siberia.

LILLY goes out the bedroom door.

Lilly…

Like a statue, MORGAN listens… the sound of a door being opened and the murmur of a male voice can be heard… then the sound of a door being closed.

After a moment, LILLY enters carrying a small bundle wrapped in newspaper.

LILLY

That was Bobby.

MORGAN

Bobby?

LILLY

The guy who does the day shift—the bald one. He found Tippy when he started his rounds just a few minutes ago.

MORGAN

…Tippy…

LILLY

She was lying on the grass near the hedge—almost directly under our balcony. Thank goodness her name was on her collar or he'd have called the Humane Society and had her taken away.

MORGAN

…Tippy.

LILLY hugs the bundle.

LILLY

Dear Tippy.

MORGAN

That son of a you-know-what probably threw her off the balcony.

LILLY

No, Parker wouldn't do a thing like that. He loves animals.

MORGAN

Well, something startled her.

LILLY

Maybe she jumped. Maybe she jumped because something out there compelled her to take a long, hard sniff of the possibilities down below. She had courage.

MORGAN

That's not real courage, Lilly, and you know it.

LILLY suddenly sits on the bed, defeated, clutching the dead cat.

LILLY

She's all we had left, Morgan. All we ever really had were cats…

MORGAN sits down beside her.

MORGAN

Shhh… don't cry.

LILLY

Remember our wedding?

MORGAN

Of course.

LILLY

To please my Aunties I wore that prickly white gown.

MORGAN

You looked beautiful.

LILLY

No, I looked like I'd been in a head-on collision with a bolt of chiffon—but when we stood at the altar I concentrated on your face. In it I saw our future—four children, a Ph.D. specializing in twentieth-century history—I saw that we'd contribute something, inspire great deeds… but you're right. We're just flapping around in a new condo with a dead cat, no children, a B.A., your heart condition, my cancer, your acid flashbacks and—

MORGAN

You don't have cancer just because he—

LILLY

What I have, Morgan, what I have on a molecular level, is a sense of time being wasted so, yes, I think Parker—or whoever he is—is right. It's time to revolt. Get your shoes on.

MORGAN

Revolt… how?

LILLY

We are going to bury Tippy in the ravine then you and I are going up to the roof to bash the pots off those trees.

MORGAN

Oh boy…

LILLY

Every day we'll bash off a pot and sneak a tree down the elevator then out through the parking garage and plant it so Tippy can have shade. I'll find a little box to put her in—and you'd better put a sweater on, it's getting chilly outside.

LILLY goes into the closet…

MORGAN

Revolutions don't work, Lilly. Look at Lenin and his pals.

…and she comes out with a shoebox that she puts on the bed.

LILLY

Sakharov once said that there are situations in which revolution is the only way out of an impasse.

She gently hands him the dead cat…

Hold her… I'll see if I can find some pretty material to line the box.

Exit LILLY carrying the shoebox.

MORGAN

(to Tippy) A long time ago, when the world was young… you were young and frisky, too.

Wearily, he sits back down on the bed.

After a moment, LILLY comes back into the room. She has outfitted the shoebox with something pretty. She notices MORGAN and goes to him.

LILLY

Are you all right? Are you having chest pains?

MORGAN

No, I'm just… I'm just sad.

LILLY

Don't cry. We'll get another cat, maybe two. They can keep each other company.

LILLY takes the bundle from him and gently lays it in the shoebox.

MORGAN

What time is it?

LILLY

Quarter past eight.

MORGAN

Donny and Harold are waiting for me.

LILLY

Let them wait—we've more important things to do.

MORGAN

I need to go, Lilly. I need to prove to them that I'm still a tough old bugger… even though I'm not.

LILLY

You're tough in other ways—important ways.

MORGAN

I don't want to be "let go," Lilly. I'm not ready.

LILLY

We don't need the money—

MORGAN

The trip to Siberia will cost a fortune.

LILLY

I don't want to go to Siberia anymore.

MORGAN

Where do you want to go now? Antarctica?

LILLY

Up to the roof.

MORGAN

Lilly, please. Rescuing a couple of lousy trees isn't going to change the world.

LILLY

I know that.

MORGAN

Then why bother—it's too late.

LILLY

No, it's not. Even if you only have five hundred beats left in your heart or if I only have three months to live it's not too late to—

MORGAN

What did I tell you about that lunatic—

LILLY

Listen to me… maybe Parker's already crept into another building and jumped off the roof and is at this moment, at this very moment, impaled on someone else's barbecue… or maybe he's lying in pieces on the pavement or maybe not, Morgan, maybe not… maybe he's over at the Good Shepherd right now, sitting in the corner and falling helplessly and mutely in love with the new girl who serves coffee and oh, Morgan… I hope so… I hope he is falling in love… because in the end we're all falling or jumping or dying but that doesn't mean it's ever too late.

MORGAN

I'm too old for all this excitement.

LILLY

No you aren't—even if you only have five beats left in your heart or if I only have two days to live it's not too late to do something small and meaningful even if it's only
meaningful to a stupid tree… and I'm going to do that small and meaningful thing right now so you can either join me or go to your breakfast meeting.

Silence.

MORGAN

In what other ways do you think I'm tough?

LILLY

After each of the miscarriages you were extra attentive; always bringing home a few flowers, a magazine. When I had the blues and had to take a leave of absence you came home every night at six for nearly a year. You'd come home, make dinner, sit down, tell me the news of the day, stack the dishes then go back to the office.

MORGAN

I learned a thing or two about cooking and cleaning.

LILLY

Morgan?

MORGAN

What?

LILLY

You would have been a great father.

MORGAN

Do you really think so?

LILLY

Yes, I do.

MORGAN

That's nice to know.

Silence… then MORGAN picks up the phone and dials.

(into the phone) Donny… (manly) You guys go ahead and order. I'm not coming to breakfast this morning. No, no, I'm fine… but I have some important business to attend to. Yes, that's right. I'll see you at the office tomorrow at which time you will bring me up to date… bye.

MORGAN hangs up the phone.

LILLY

Thank you, Morgan.

MORGAN

Is my burgundy cardigan still around or did you give it away?

LILLY

In your bottom drawer on the right.

He goes over to the bureau, pulls out the sweater and puts it on.

MORGAN

I would have built swings in the backyard and had a swimming pool full of inflatable sea monsters and taken the kids bowling, skiing, to dance lessons, hiking, and we would have had a dog named Pepper running around and a cat named Winks and the kids would have grown up happy and yes you would've yelled at them for swearing and I'd be on their case about smoking pot but when the time came for them to leave we'd cry ourselves stupid but then we'd make love on the living room floor because with all the kids running around we could never do things like that but then they'd come back to visit and bring their boyfriends or girlfriends or they'd come home by themselves once in awhile just to say hello and we'd all go out to a movie and—

LILLY

Calm down—

MORGAN

We could have named the girl Jennifer and the boy Michael, or if we had two girls—Jennifer and Maureen, or two boys—Michael and Carson—I love the name Carson—

LILLY

You have to calm down, Morgan.

MORGAN

I'm calm. (deep breaths) I'm calm.

LILLY

Would you like to carry her or shall I?

MORGAN holds out his hands.

She gives the box to MORGAN. He takes it.

MORGAN

Bring the geranium.

LILLY

What for?

MORGAN

To plant on Tippy's grave.

LILLY

Good idea.

LILLY takes the geranium in her arms.

MORGAN

We'll bury her on the sunny side of the slope. I'll borrow a shovel from maintenance.

LILLY

I'll do the digging, Morgan.

MORGAN

I'm feeling pretty good now—a hundred percent. I'll do the digging.

LILLY

I'm perfectly capable of digging the hole for Tippy.

MORGAN

My heart feels fine, Lilly.

LILLY

If you're not feeling up to it we can put her in the freezer and do this tomorrow.

MORGAN

We're not putting Tippy in the—I'm fine, Lilly. There's no pain, nothing, just a little flutter.

LILLY

What kind of flutter?

MORGAN

A flutter flutter.

LILLY

What does that mean?

MORGAN

It means I'm still alive. Let's go.

LILLY

When we go up to the roof later, I'll lift the tree out of the pot.

MORGAN

No, I'll lift the tree out.

LILLY

The doctor said you're not to do anything strenuous.

MORGAN

You can't carry a tree all by yourself.

LILLY

Sure I can—I'll just drag it along behind me.

MORGAN

I don't want you to hurt yourself.

LILLY

It's a roof garden, Morgan, not the Black Forest!

MORGAN

Okay, okay… let's go.

They exit. The sounds of a bird singing and the squall of traffic can be heard drifting up from the street below.

Fin