(Seven-thirty the next morning; same set. TOBIAS alone, in a chair, wearing pajamas and a robe, slippers. Awake. AGNES enters, wearing a dressing gown which could pass for a hostess gown. Her movements are not assertive, and her tone is gentle)
AGNES (Seeing him)
Ah; there you are.
TOBIAS
(Not looking at her, but at his watch; there is very little emotion in his voice)
Seven-thirty A.M., and all’s well … I guess.
AGNES
So odd.
TOBIAS
Hm?
AGNES
There was a stranger in my room last night.
TOBIAS
Who?
AGNES
You.
TOBIAS
Ah.
AGNES
It was nice to have you there.
TOBIAS (Slight smile)
Hm.
AGNES
Le temps perdu. I’ve never understood that; perdu means lost, not merely … past, but it was nice to have you there, though I remember, when it was a constancy, how easily I would fall asleep, pace my breathing to your breathing, and if we were touching! ah, what a splendid cocoon that was. But last night—what a shame, what sadness—you were a stranger, and I stayed awake.
TOBIAS
I’m sorry.
AGNES
Were you asleep at all?
TOBIAS
No.
AGNES
I would go half, then wake—your unfamiliar presence, sir. I could get used to it again.
TOBIAS
Yes?
AGNES
I think.
TOBIAS
You didn’t have your talk with Julia—your all-night lulling.
AGNES
No; she wouldn’t let me stay. “Look to your own house,” is what she said. You stay down long?
TOBIAS
When?
AGNES
After … before you came to bed.
TOBIAS
Some.
(Laughs softly, ruefully)
I almost went into my room … by habit … by mistake, rather, but then I realized that your room is my room because my room is Julia’s because Julia’s room is …
AGNES
… yes.
(Goes to him, strokes his temple)
And I was awake when you left my room again.
TOBIAS (Gentle reproach)
You could have said.
AGNES (Curious at the truth)
I felt shy.
TOBIAS (Pleased surprise)
Hm!
AGNES
Did you go to Claire?
TOBIAS
I never go to Claire.
AGNES
Did you go to Claire to talk?
TOBIAS
I never go to Claire.
AGNES
We must always envy someone we should not, be jealous of those who have so much less. You and Claire make so much sense together, talk so well.
TOBIAS
I never go to Claire at night, or talk with her alone—save publicly.
AGNES (Small smile)
In public rooms … like this.
TOBIAS
Yes.
AGNES
Have never.
TOBIAS
Please?
AGNES
Do we dislike happiness? We manufacture such a portion of our own despair … such busy folk.
TOBIAS
We are a highly moral land: we assume we have done great wrong. We find the things.
AGNES
I shall start missing you again—when you move from my room … if you do. I had stopped, I believe.
TOBIAS (Grudging little chuckle)
Oh, you’re an honest woman.
AGNES
Well, we need one … in every house.
TOBIAS
It’s very strange … to be downstairs, in a room where everyone has been, and is gone … very late, after the heat has gone—the furnace and the bodies: the hour or two before the sun comes up, the furnace starts again. And tonight especially: the cigarettes still in the ashtrays—odd, metallic smell. The odors of a room don’t mix, late, when there’s no one there, and I think the silence helps it … and the lack of bodies. Each … thing stands out in its place.
AGNES
What did you decide?
TOBIAS
And when you do come down … if you do, at three, or four, and you’ve left a light or two—in case someone should come in late, I suppose, but who is there left? The inn is full—it’s rather … Godlike, if I may presume: to look at it all, reconstruct, with such … detachment, see yourself you, Julia … Look at it all … play it out again, watch.
AGNES
Judge?
TOBIAS
No; that’s being in it. Watch. And if you have a drink or two …
AGNES (Mild surprise)
Did you?
TOBIAS (Nods)
And if you have a drink or two, very late, in the quiet, tired, the mind … lets loose.
AGNES
Yes?
TOBIAS
And you watch it as it reasons, all with a kind of … grateful delight, at the same time sadly, ’cause you know that when the daylight comes the pressures will be on, and all the insight won’t be worth a damn.
AGNES
What did you decide?
TOBIAS
You can sit and watch. You can have … so clear a picture, see everybody moving through his own jungle … an insight into all the reasons, all the needs.
AGNES
Good. And what did you decide?
TOBIAS (No complaint)
Why is the room so dirty? Can’t we have better servants, some help who … help?
AGNES
They keep far better hours than we, that’s all. They are a comment on our habits, a reminder that we are out of step—that is why we pay them … so very, very much. Neither a servant nor a master be. Remember?
TOBIAS
I remember when …
AGNES (Picking it right up)
… you were very young and lived at home, and the servants were awake whenever you were: six A.M. for your breakfast when you wanted it, or five in the morning when you came home drunk and seventeen, washing the vomit from the car, and you, telling no one; stealing just enough each month, by arrangement with the stores, to keep them in a decent wage; generations of them: the laundress, blind and always dying, and the cook, who did a better dinner drunk than sober. Those servants? Those days? When you were young, and lived at home?
TOBIAS (Memory)
Hmmm.
AGNES (Sweet; sad)
Well, my darling, you are not young now, and you do not live at home.
TOBIAS (Sad question)
Where do I live?
AGNES (An answer of sorts)
The dark sadness. Yes?
TOBIAS (Quiet, rhetorical)
What are we going to do?
AGNES
What did you decide?
TOBIAS (Pause; they smile)
Nothing.
AGNES
Well, you must. Your house is not in order, sir. It’s full to bursting.
TOBIAS
Yes. You’ve got to help me here.
AGNES
No. I don’t think so.
TOBIAS (Some surprise)
No?
AGNES
No. I thought a little last night, too: while you were seeing everything so clearly here. I lay in the dark, and I … revisited—our life, the years and years. There are many things a woman does: she bears the children—if there is that blessing. Blessing? Yes, I suppose, even with the sadness. She runs the house, for what that’s worth: makes sure there’s food, and not just anything, and decent linen; looks well; assumes whatever duties are demanded—if she is in love, or loves; and plans.
TOBIAS
(Mumbled; a little embarrassed)
I know, I know. …
AGNES
And plans. Right to the end of it; expects to be alone one day, abandoned by a heart attack or the cancer, prepares for that. And prepares earlier, for the children to become adult strangers instead of growing ones, for that loss, and for the body chemistry, the end of what the Bible tells us is our usefulness. The reins we hold! It’s a team of twenty horses, and we sit there, and we watch the road and check the leather … if our … man is so disposed. But there are things we do not do.
TOBIAS (Slightly edgy challenge)
Yes?
AGNES
Yes.
(Harder)
We don’t decide the route.
TOBIAS
You’re copping out … as they say.
AGNES
No, indeed.
TOBIAS (Quiet anger)
Yes, you are!
AGNES (Quiet warning)
Don’t you yell at me.
TOBIAS
You’re copping out!
AGNES
(Quiet, calm, and almost smug)
We follow. We let our … men decide the moral issues.
TOBIAS (Quite angry)
Never! You’ve never done that in your life!
AGNES
Always, my darling. Whatever you decide … I’ll make it work; I’ll run it for you so you’ll never know there’s been a change in anything.
TOBIAS
(Almost laughing; shaking his head)
No. No.
AGNES (To end the discussion)
So, let me know.
TOBIAS (Still almost laughing)
I know I’m tired. I know I’ve hardly slept at all: I know I’ve sat down here, and thought …
AGNES
And made your decisions.
TOBIAS
But I have not judged. I told you that.
AGNES (Almost a stranger)
Well, when you have … you let me know.
TOBIAS (Frustration and anger)
NO!
AGNES (Cool)
You’ll wake the house.
TOBIAS (Angry)
I’ll wake the house!
AGNES
This is not the time for you to lose control.
TOBIAS
I’LL LOSE CONTROL! I have sat here … in the cold, in the empty cold, I have sat here alone, and …
(Anger has shifted to puzzlement, complaint)
I’ve looked at everything, all of it. I thought of you, and Julia, and Claire. …
AGNES (Still cool)
And Edna? And Harry?
TOBIAS (Tiny pause; then anger)
Well, of course! What do you think!
AGNES (Tiny smile)
I don’t know. I’m listening.
(JULIA appears in the archway; wears a dressing gown; subdued, sleepy)
JULIA
Good morning. I don’t suppose there’s … shall I make some coffee?
AGNES (Chin high)
Why don’t you do that, darling.
TOBIAS (A little embarrassed)
Good morning, Julie.
JULIA (Hating it)
I’m sorry about last night, Daddy.
TOBIAS
Oh, well, now …
JULIA (Bite to it)
I mean I’m sorry for having embarrassed you.
(Starts toward the hallway)
AGNES
Coffee.
JULIA
(Pausing at the archway; to TOBIAS)
Aren’t you sorry for embarrassing me, too?
(Waits a moment, smiles, exits. Pause)
AGNES
Well, isn’t that nice that Julia’s making coffee? No? If the help aren’t up, isn’t it nice to have a daughter who can put a pot to boil?
TOBIAS
(Under his breath, disgusted)
“Aren’t you sorry for embarrassing me, too.”
AGNES
You have a problem there with Julia.
TOBIAS
I? I have a problem!
AGNES
Yes.
(Gentle irony)
But at least you have your women with you—crowded ’round, firm arm, support. That must be a comfort to you. Most explorers go alone, don’t have their families with them—pitching tents, tending the fire, shooing off the … the antelopes or the bears or whatever.
TOBIAS (Wanting to talk about it)
“Aren’t you sorry for embarrassing me, too.”
AGNES
Are you quoting?
TOBIAS
Yes.
AGNES
Next we’ll have my sister with us—another porter for the dreadful trip.
(Irony)
Claire has never missed a chance to participate in watching. She’ll be here. We’ll have us all.
TOBIAS
And you’ll all sit down and watch me carefully; smoke your pipes and stir the cauldron; watch.
AGNES (Dreamy; pleased)
Yes.
TOBIAS
You, who make all the decisions, really rule the game …
AGNES (So patient)
That is an illusion you have.
TOBIAS
You’ll all sit here—too early for … anything on this … stupid Sunday—all of you and … and dare me?—when it’s just as much your choice as mine?
AGNES
Each time that Julia comes, each clockwork time … do you send her back? Do you tell her, “Julia, go home to your husband, try it again”? Do you? No, you let it … slip. It’s your decision, sir.
TOBIAS
It is not! I …
AGNES
… and I must live with it, resign myself one marriage more, and wait, and hope that Julia’s motherhood will come … one day, one marriage.
(Tiny laugh)
I am almost too old to be a grandmother as I’d hoped … too young to be one. Oh, I had wanted that: the youngest older woman in the block. Julia is almost too old to have a child properly, will be if she ever does … if she marries again. You could have pushed her back … if you’d wanted to.
TOBIAS (Bewildered incredulity)
It’s very early yet: that must be it. I’ve never heard such …
AGNES
Or Teddy! No? No stammering here? You’ll let this pass?
TOBIAS (Quiet embarrassment)
Please.
AGNES (Remorseless)
When Teddy died?
(Pause)
We could have had another son; we could have tried. But no … those months—or was it a year—?
TOBIAS
No more of this!
AGNES
… I think it was a year, when you spilled yourself on my belly, sir? “Please? Please, Tobias?” No, you wouldn’t even say it out: I don’t want another child, another loss. “Please? Please, Tobias?” And guiding you, trying to hold you in?
TOBIAS (Tortured)
Oh, Agnes! Please!
AGNES
“Don’t leave me then, like that. Not again, Tobias. Please? I can take care of it: we won’t have another child, but please don’t … leave me like that.” Such … silent … sad, disgusted … love.
TOBIAS (Mumbled, inaudible)
I didn’t want you to have to.
AGNES
Sir?
TOBIAS (Numb)
I didn’t want you to have to … you know.
AGNES (Laughs in spite of herself)
Oh, that was thoughtful of you! Like a pair of adolescents in a rented room, or in the family car. Doubtless you hated it as much as I.
TOBIAS (Softly)
Yes.
AGNES
But wouldn’t let me help you.
TOBIAS (Ibid.)
No.
AGNES (Irony)
Which is why you took to your own sweet room instead.
TOBIAS (Ibid.)
Yes.
AGNES
The theory being pat: that a half a loaf is worse than none. That you are racked with guilt—stupidly!—and I must suffer for it.
TOBIAS (Ibid.)
Yes?
AGNES (Quietly; sadly)
Well, it was your decision, was it not?
TOBIAS (Ibid.)
Yes.
AGNES
And I have made the best of it. Have lived with it. Have I not?
TOBIAS (Pause; a plea)
What are we going to do? About everything?
AGNES (Quietly; sadly; cruelly)
Whatever you like. Naturally.
(Silence. CLAIRE enters, she, too, in a dressing gown)
CLAIRE
(Judges the situation for a moment)
Morning, kids.
AGNES
(To TOBIAS, in reference to CLAIRE)
All I can do, my dear, is run it for you … and forecast.
TOBIAS (Glum)
Good morning, Claire.
AGNES
Julia is in the kitchen making coffee, Claire.
CLAIRE
Which means, I guess, I go watch Julia grind the beans and drip the water, hunh?
(Exiting)
I tell ya, she’s a real pioneer, that girl: coffee pot in one hand, pistol in t’other.
(Exits)
AGNES (Small smile)
Claire is a comfort in the early hours … I have been told.
TOBIAS (A dare)
Yes?
AGNES
(Pretending not to notice his tone)
That is what I have been told.
TOBIAS (Blurts it out)
Shall I ask them to leave?
AGNES (Tiny pause)
Who?
TOBIAS (Defiant)
Harry and Edna?
AGNES (Tiny laugh)
Oh. For a moment I thought you meant Julia and Claire.
TOBIAS (Glum)
No. Harry and Edna. Shall I throw them out?
AGNES (Restatement of a fact)
Harry is your very best friend in the whole …
TOBIAS (Impatient)
Yes, and Edna is yours. Well?
AGNES
You’ll have to live with it either way: do or don’t.
TOBIAS (Anger rising)
Yes? Well, then, why don’t I throw Julia and Claire out instead? Or better yet, why don’t I throw the whole bunch out!?
AGNES
Or get rid of me! That would be easier: rid yourself of the harridan. Then you can run your mission and take out sainthood papers.
TOBIAS (Clenched teeth)
I think you’re stating an opinion, a preference.
AGNES
But if you do get rid of me … you’ll no longer have your life the way you want it.
TOBIAS (Puzzled)
But that’s not my … that’s not all the choice I’ve got, is it?
AGNES
I don’t care very much what choice you’ve got, my darling, but I am concerned with what choice you make.
(JULIA and CLAIRE enter; JULIA carries a tray with coffee pot, cups, sugar, cream; CLAIRE carries a tray with four glasses of orange juice)
Ah, here are the helpmeets, what would we do without them.
JULIA (Brisk, efficient)
The coffee is instant, I’m afraid; I couldn’t find a bean: Those folk must lock them up before they go to bed.
(Finds no place to put her tray down)
Come on, Pop; let’s clear away a little of the debris, hunh?
TOBIAS
P-Pop?
AGNES (Begins clearing)
It’s true: we cannot drink our coffee amidst a sea of last night’s glasses. Tobias, do be a help.
(TOBIAS rises, takes glasses to the sideboard, as AGNES moves some to another table)
CLAIRE (Cheerful)
And I didn’t have to do a thing; thank God for pre-squeezed orange juice.
JULIA (Setting the tray down)
There; now that’s much better, isn’t it?
TOBIAS (In a fog)
Whatever you say, Julie.
(JULIA pours, knows what people put in)
CLAIRE
Now, I’ll play waiter. Sis?
AGNES
Thank you, Claire.
CLAIRE
Little Julie?
JULIA
Just put it down beside me, Claire. I’m pouring, you can see.
CLAIRE
(Looks at her a moment, does not, offers a glass to TOBIAS)
Pop?
TOBIAS (Bewildered, apprehensive)
Thank you, Claire.
CLAIRE
(Puts JULIA’s glass on the mantel)
Yours is here, daughter, when you’ve done with playing early-morning hostess.
JULIA
(Intently pouring; does not rise to the bait)
Thank you, Claire.
CLAIRE
Now; one for little Claire.
JULIA (Still pouring; no expression)
Why don’t you have some vodka in it, Claire? To start the Sunday off?
AGNES (Pleased chuckle)
Julia!
TOBIAS (Reproving)
Please, Julie!
JULIA (Looks up at him; cold)
Did I say something wrong, Father?
CLAIRE
Vodka? Sunday? Ten to eight? Why not!
TOBIAS
(Quietly, as she moves to the sideboard)
You don’t have to, Claire.
JULIA (Dropping sugar in a cup)
Let her do what she wants.
CLAIRE (Pouring vodka into her glass)
Yes I do, Tobias; the rules of the guestbook—be polite. We have our friends and guests for patterns, don’t we?—known quantities. The drunks stay drunk; the Catholics go to Mass, the bounders bound. We can’t have changes—throws the balance off.
JULIA (Ibid.)
Besides; you like to drink.
CLAIRE
Besides, I like to drink. Just think, Tobias, what would happen if the patterns changed: you wouldn’t know where you stood, and the world would be full of strangers; that would never do.
JULIA (Not very friendly)
Bring me my orange juice, will you please.
CLAIRE (Getting it for her)
Oooh, Julia’s back for a spell, I think—settling in.
JULIA (Handing TOBIAS his coffee)
Father?
TOBIAS (Embarrassed)
Thank you, Julia.
JULIA
Mother?
AGNES (Comfortable)
Thank you, darling.
JULIA
Yours is here, Claire; on the tray.
CLAIRE
(Considers a moment, looks at JULIA’s orange juice, still in one of her hands, calmly pours it on the rug)
Your juice is here, Julia, when you want it.
AGNES (Furious)
CLAIRE!
TOBIAS (Mild reproach)
For God’s sake, Claire.
JULIA
(Looks at the mess on the rug; shrugs)
Well, why not. Nothing changes.
CLAIRE
Besides, our friends upstairs don’t like the room; they’ll want some alterations.
(CLAIRE sits down)
TOBIAS
(Lurches to his feet; stands, legs apart)
Now! All of you! Sit down! Shut up. I want to talk to you.
JULIA
Did I give you sugar, Mother?
TOBIAS
BE QUIET, JULIA!
AGNES
Shhh, my darling, yes, you did.
TOBIAS
I want to talk to you.
(Silence)
CLAIRE
(Slightly mocking encouragement)
Well, go on, Tobias.
TOBIAS (A plea)
You, too, Claire? Please.
(Silence. The women stir their coffee or look at him, or at the floor. They seem like children about to be lectured, unwilling, and dangerous, but, for the moment, behaved)
Now.
(Pause)
Now, something happened here last night, and I don’t mean Julia’s hysterics with the gun—be quiet, Julia!— though I do mean that, in part. I mean …
(Deep sigh)
… Harry and Edna … coming here …
(JULIA snorts)
Yes? Did you want to say something, Julia? No? I came down here and I sat, all night—hours—and I did something rather rare for this family: I thought about something. …
AGNES (Mild)
I’m sorry, Tobias, but that’s not fair.
TOBIAS (Riding over)
I thought. I sat down here and I thought about all of us … and everything. Now, Harry and Edna have come to us and … asked for help.
JULIA
That is not true.
TOBIAS
Be quiet!
JULIA
That is not true! They have not asked for anything!
AGNES
… please, Julia …
JULIA
They have told! They have come in here and ordered!
CLAIRE (Toasts)
Just like the family.
TOBIAS
Asked! If you’re begging and you’ve got your pride …
JULIA
If you’re begging, then you may not have your pride!
AGNES (Quiet contradiction)
I don’t think that’s true, Julia.
CLAIRE
Julia wouldn’t know. Ask me.
JULIA (Adamant)
Those people have no right!
TOBIAS
No right? All these years? We’ve known them since … for God’s sake, Julia, those people are our friends!
JULIA (Hard)
THEN TAKE THEM IN!
(Silence)
Take these … intruders in.
CLAIRE (To JULIA: hard)
Look, baby; didn’t you get the message on rights last night? Didn’t you learn about intrusion, what the score is, who belongs?
JULIA (To TOBIAS)
You bring these people in here, Father, and I’m leaving!
TOBIAS (Almost daring her)
Yes?
JULIA
I don’t mean coming and going, Father; I mean as family!
TOBIAS (Frustration and rage)
HARRY AND EDNA ARE OUR FRIENDS!!
JULIA (Equal)
THEY ARE INTRUDERS!!
(Silence)
CLAIRE (To TOBIAS, laughing)
Crisis sure brings out the best in us, don’t it, Tobe? The family circle? Julia standing there … asserting; perpetual brat, and maybe ready to pull a Claire. And poor Claire! Not much help there either, is there? And lookit Agnes, talky Agnes, ruler of the roost, and maître d’, and licensed wife—silent. All cozy, coffee, thinking of the menu for the week, planning. Poor Tobe.
AGNES (Calm, assured)
Thank you, Claire; I was merely waiting—until I’d heard, and thought a little, listened to the rest of you. I thought someone should sit back. Especially me: ruler of the roost, licensed wife, midnight … nurse. And I’ve been thinking about Harry and Edna; about disease.
TOBIAS (After a pause)
About what?
CLAIRE (After a swig)
About disease.
JULIA
Oh, for God’s sake …
AGNES
About disease—or, if you like, the terror.
CLAIRE (Chuckles softly)
Unh, hunh.
JULIA (Furious)
TERROR!?
AGNES (Unperturbed)
Yes: the terror. Or the plague—they’re both the same. Edna and Harry have come to us—dear friends, our very best, though there’s a judgment to be made about that, I think—have come to us and brought the plague. Now, poor Tobias has sat up all night and wrestled with the moral problem.
TOBIAS (Frustration; anger)
I’ve not been … wrestling with some … abstract problem! These are people! Harry and Edna! These are our friends, God damn it!
AGNES
Yes, but they’ve brought the plague with them, and that’s another matter. Let me tell you something about disease … mortal illness; you either are immune to it … or you fight it. If you are immune, you wade right in, you treat the patient until he either lives, or dies of it. But if you are not immune, you risk infection. Ten centuries ago—and even less—the treatment was quite simple … burn them. Burn their bodies, burn their houses, burn their clothes—and move to another town, if you were enlightened. But now, with modern medicine, we merely isolate; we quarantine, we ostracize—if we are not immune ourselves, or unless we are saints. So, your night-long vigil, darling, your reasoning in the cold, pure hours, has been over the patient, and not the illness. It is not Edna and Harry who have come to us—our friends—it is a disease.
TOBIAS
(Quiet anguish, mixed with impatience)
Oh, for God’s sake, Agnes! It is our friends! What am I supposed to do? Say: “Look, you can’t stay here, you two, you’ve got trouble. You’re friends, and all, but you come in here clean.” Well, I can’t do that. No. Agnes, for God’s sake, if … if that’s all Harry and Edna mean to us, then … then what about us? When we talk to each other … what have we meant? Anything? When we touch, when we promise, and say … yes, or please… with ourselves? … have we meant, yes, but only if … if there’s any condition, Agnes! Then it’s … all been empty.
AGNES (Noncommittal)
Perhaps. But blood binds us. Blood holds us together when we’ve no more … deep affection for ourselves than others. I am not asking you to choose between your family and … our friends. …
TOBIAS
Yes you are!
AGNES (Eyes closed)
I am merely saying that there is disease here! And I ask you: who in this family is immune?
CLAIRE (Weary statement of fact)
I am. I’ve had it. I’m still alive, I think.
AGNES
Claire is the strongest of us all: the walking wounded often are, the least susceptible; but think about the rest of us. Are we immune to it? The plague, my darling, the terror sitting in the room upstairs? Well, if we are, then … on with it! And, if we’re not …
(Shrugs)
well, why not be infected, why not die of it? We’re bound to die of something … soon, or in a while. Or shall we burn them out, rid ourselves of it all … and wait for the next invasion. You decide, my darling.
(Silence. TOBIAS rises, walks to the window; the others sit. HARRY and EDNA appear in the archway, dressed for the day, but not with coats)
EDNA (No emotion)
Good morning.
AGNES (Brief pause)
Ah, you’re up.
CLAIRE
Good morning, Edna, Harry.
(JULIA does not look at them; TOBIAS does, but says nothing)
EDNA
(A deep breath, rather a recitation)
Harry wants to talk to Tobias. I think that they should be alone. Perhaps …
AGNES
Of course.
(The three seated women rise, as at a signal, begin to gather the coffee things)
Why don’t we all go in the kitchen, make a proper breakfast.
HARRY
Well, now, no; you don’t have to …
AGNES
Yes, yes, we want to leave you to your talk. Tobias?
TOBIAS (Quiet)
Uh … yes.
AGNES (To TOBIAS; comfortingly)
We’ll be nearby.
(The women start out)
Did you sleep well, Edna? Did you sleep at all? I’ve never had that bed, but I know that when …
(The women have exited)
HARRY
(Watching them go; laughs ruefully)
Boy, look at ’em go. They got outa here quick enough. You’d think there was a …
(Trails off sees TOBIAS is ill at ease; says, gently)
Morning, Tobias.
TOBIAS (Grateful)
Morning, Harry.
(Both men stay standing)
HARRY (Rubs his hands together)
You, ah … you know what I’d like to do? Something I’ve never done in my life, except once, when I was about twenty-four?
TOBIAS (Not trying to guess)
No? What?
HARRY
Have a drink before breakfast? Is, is that all right?
TOBIAS
(Smiles wanly, moves slowly toward the sideboard)
Sure.
HARRY (Shy)
Will you join me?
TOBIAS (Very young)
I guess so, yes. There isn’t any ice.
HARRY
Well, just some whiskey, then; neat.
TOBIAS
Brandy?
HARRY
No, oh, God, no.
TOBIAS
Whiskey, then.
HARRY
Yes. Thank you.
TOBIAS (Somewhat glum)
Well, here’s to youth again.
HARRY
Yes.
(Drinks)
Doesn’t taste too bad in the morning, does it?
TOBIAS
No, but I had some … before.
HARRY
When?
TOBIAS
Earlier … oh, three, four, while you all were … asleep, or whatever you were doing.
HARRY (Seemingly casual)
Oh, you were … awake, hunh?
TOBIAS
Yes.
HARRY
I slept a little.
(Glum laugh)
God.
TOBIAS
What?
HARRY
You know what I did last night?
TOBIAS
No?
HARRY
I got out of bed and I … crawled in with Edna?
TOBIAS
Yes?
HARRY
She held me. She let me stay awhile, then I could see she wanted to, and I didn’t … so I went back. But it was funny.
TOBIAS (Nods)
Yeah.
HARRY
Do you … do you, uh, like Edna … Tobias?
TOBIAS (Embarrassed)
Well, sure I like her, Harry.
HARRY (Pause)
Now, Tobias, about last night, and yesterday, and our coming here, now …
HARRY |
TOBIAS |
I was talking about it to Edna, last night, and I said, “Look, Edna, what do we think we’re doing.” |
I sat up all night and I thought about it, Harry, and I talked to Agnes this morning, before you all came down. |
HARRY
I’m sorry.
TOBIAS
I said, I sat up all night and I thought about it, Harry, and I talked to Agnes, too, before you all came down, and … By God, it isn’t easy, Harry … but we can make it… if you want us to. … I can, I mean, I think I can.
HARRY
No … we’re … we’re going, Tobias.
TOBIAS
I don’t know what help … I don’t know how …
HARRY
I said: we’re going.
TOBIAS
Yes, but … you’re going?
HARRY (Nice, shy smile)
Sure.
TOBIAS
But, but you can try it here … or we can, God, I don’t know, Harry. You can’t go back there; you’ve got to …
HARRY
Got to what? Sell the house? Buy another? Move to the club?
TOBIAS
You came here!
HARRY (Sad)
Do you want us here, Tobias?
TOBIAS
You came here.
HARRY
Do you want us here?
TOBIAS
You came! Here!
HARRY (Too clearly enunciated)
Do you want us here?
(Subdued, almost apologetic)
Edna and I … there’s… so much … over the dam, so many … disappointments, evasions, I guess, lies maybe … so much we remember we wanted, once … so little that we’ve … settled for … we talk, sometimes, but mostly … no. We don’t … “like.” Oh, sure, we like … but I’ve always been a little shy— gruff, you know, and … shy. And Edna isn’t … happy—I suppose that’s it. We … we like you and … and Agnes, and … well Claire, and Julia, too, I guess I mean … I like you, and you like me, I think, and … you’re our best friends, but … I told Edna upstairs, I said: Edna, what if they’d come to us? And she didn’t say anything. And I said: Edna, if they’d come to us like this, and even though we don’t have … Julia, and all of that, I … Edna, I wouldn’t take them in.
(Brief silence)
I wouldn’t take them in, Edna; they don’t … they don’t have any right. And she said: yes, I know; they wouldn’t have the right.
(Brief silence)
Toby, I wouldn’t let you stay.
(Shy, embarrassed)
You … you don’t want us, do you, Toby? You don’t want us here.
TOBIAS
(This next is an aria. It must have in its performance all the horror and exuberance of a man who has kept his emotions under control too long. TOBIAS will be carried to the edge of hysteria, and he will find himself laughing sometimes, while he cries from sheer release. All in all, it is genuine and bravura at the same time, one prolonging the other. I shall try to notate it somewhat)
(Softly, and as if the word were unfamiliar)
Want?
(Same)
What? Do I what?
(Abrupt laugh; joyous)
DO I WANT?
(More laughter; also a sob)
DO I WANT YOU HERE!
(Hardly able to speak from the laughter)
You come in here, you come in here with your … wife, and with your … terror! And you ask me if I want you here!
(Great breathing sounds)
YES! OF COURSE! I WANT YOU HERE! THIS IS MY HOUSE! I WANT YOU IN IT! I WANT YOUR PLAGUE! YOU’VE GOT SOME TERROR WITH YOU? BRING IT IN!
(Pause, then, even louder)
BRING IT IN!! YOU’VE GOT THE ENTREE, BUDDY, YOU DON’T NEED A KEY! YOU’VE GOT THE ENTREE, BUDDY! FORTY YEARS!
(Soft, now; soft and fast, almost a monotone)
You don’t need to ask me, Harry, you don’t need to ask a thing; you’re our friends, our very best friends in the world, and you don’t have to ask.
(A shout)
WANT? ASK?
(Soft, as before)
You come for dinner don’t you come for cocktails see us at the club on Saturdays and talk and lie and laugh with us and pat old Agnes on the hand and say you don’t know what old Toby’d do without her and we’ve known you all these years and we love each other don’t we?
(Shout)
DON’T WE?! DON’T WE LOVE EACH OTHER?
(Soft again, laughter and tears in it)
Doesn’t friendship grow to that? To love? Doesn’t forty years amount to anything? We’ve cast our lot together, boy, we’re friends, we’ve been through lots of thick OR thin together. Which is it, boy?
(Shout)
WHICH IS IT, BOY?! THICK?! THIN?! WELL, WHATEVER IT IS, WE’VE BEEN THROUGH IT, BOY!
(Soft)
And you don’t have to ask. I like you, Harry, yes, I really do, I don’t like Edna, but that’s not half the point, I like you fine; I find my liking you has limits. …
(Loud)
BUT THOSE ARE MY LIMITS! NOT YOURS!
(Soft)
The fact I like you well enough, but not enough … that best friend in the world should be something else—more—well, that’s my poverty. So, bring your wife, and bring your terror, bring your plague.
(Loud)
BRING YOUR PLAGUE!
(The four women appear in the archway, coffee cups in hand, stand, watch)
I DON’T WANT YOU HERE!
YOU ASKED?!
NO! I DON’T
(Loud)
BUT BY CHRIST YOU’RE GOING TO STAY HERE! YOU’VE GOT THE RIGHT! THE RIGHT! DO YOU KNOW THE WORD? THE RIGHT!
(Soft)
You’ve put nearly forty years in it, baby; so have I, and if it’s nothing, I don’t give a damn, you’ve got the right to be here, you’ve earned it
(Loud)
AND BY GOD YOU’RE GOING TO TAKE IT! DO YOU HEAR ME?! YOU BRING YOUR TERROR AND YOU COME IN HERE AND YOU LIVE WITH US! YOU BRING YOUR PLAGUE! YOU STAY WITH US! I DON’T WANT YOU HERE! I DON’T LOVE YOU! BUT BY GOD … YOU STAY!!
(Pause)
STAY!
(Softer)
Stay!
(Soft, tears)
Stay. Please? Stay?
(Pause)
Stay? Please? Stay?
(A silence in the room. HARRY, numb, rises; the women come into the room, slowly, stand. The play is quiet and subdued from now until the end)
EDNA (Calm)
Harry, will you bring our bags down? Maybe Tobias will help you. Will you ask him?
HARRY (Gentle)
Sure.
(Goes to TOBIAS, who is quietly wiping tears from his face, takes him gently by the shoulder)
Tobias? Will you help me? Get the bags upstairs? (TOBIAS nods, puts his arm around HARRY. The two men exit. Silence)
EDNA
(Stirring her coffee; slightly strained, but conversational)
Poor Harry; he’s not a … callous man, for all his bluff.
(Relaxing a little, almost a contentment)
He … he came to my bed last night, got in with me, I … let him stay, and talk. I let him think I … wanted to make love; he … it pleases him, I think—to know he would be wanted, if he … He said to me … He … he lay there in the dark with me—this man—and he said to me, very softly, and like a little boy, rather: “Do they love us? Do they love us, Edna?” Oh, I let a silence go by. “Well … as much as we love them … I should think.”
(Pause)
The hair on his chest is very gray … and soft. “Would … would we let them stay, Edna?” Almost a whisper. Then still again.
(Kindly)
Well, I hope he told Tobias something simple, something to help. We mustn’t press our luck, must we: test.
(Pause. Slight smile)
It’s sad to come to the end of it, isn’t it, nearly the end; so much more of it gone by … than left, and still not know—still not have learned … the boundaries, what we may not do … not ask, for fear of looking in a mirror. We shouldn’t have come.
AGNES (A bit by rote)
Now, Edna …
EDNA
For our own sake; our own … lack. It’s sad to know you’ve gone through it all, or most of it, without … that the one body you’ve wrapped your arms around … the only skin you’ve ever known … is your own—and that it’s dry … and not warm.
(Pause. Back to slightly strained conversational tone)
What will you do, Julia? Will you be seeing Douglas?
JULIA (Looking at her coffee)
I haven’t thought about it; I don’t know; I doubt it.
AGNES
Time.
(Pause. They look at her)
Time happens, I suppose.
(Pause. They still look)
To people. Everything becomes … too late, finally. You know it’s going on … up on the hill; you can see the dust, and hear the cries, and the steel … but you wait; and time happens. When you do go, sword, shield … finally … there’s nothing there … save rust; bones; and the wind.
(Pause)
I’m sorry about the coffee, Edna. The help must hide the beans, or take them with them when they go to bed.
EDNA
Oooh. Coffee and wine: they’re much the same with me—I can’t tell good from bad.
CLAIRE
Would anyone … besides Claire … care to have a drink?
AGNES (Muttered)
Oh, really, Claire.
CLAIRE
Edna?
EDNA (Little deprecating laugh)
Oh, good heavens, thank you, Claire. No.
CLAIRE
Julia?
JULIA
(Looks up at her; steadily; slowly)
All right; thank you. I will.
EDNA
(As AGNES is about to speak; rising)
I think I hear the men.
(TOBIAS and HARRY appear in the archway, with bags)
TOBIAS
We’ll just take them to the car, now.
(They do so)
EDNA
(Pleasant, but a little strained)
Thank you, Agnes, you’ve been … well, just thank you. We’ll be seeing you.
AGNES
(Rises, too; some worry on her face)
Yes; well, don’t be strangers.
EDNA (Laughs)
Oh, good Lord, how could we be? Our lives are … the same.
(Pause)
Julia … think a little.
JULIA (A trifle defiant)
Oh, I will, Edna. I’m fond of marriage.
EDNA
Claire, my darling, do be good.
CLAIRE
(Two drinks in her hands; bravura)
Well, I’ll try to be quiet.
EDNA
I’m going into town on Thursday, Agnes. Would you like to come?
(A longer pause than necessary, CLAIRE and JULIA look at AGNES)
AGNES (Just a trifle awkward)
Well … no, I don’t think so, Edna; I’ve … I’ve so much to do.
EDNA (Cooler; sad)
Oh. Well … perhaps another week.
AGNES
Oh, yes; we’ll do it.
(The men reappear)
TOBIAS
(Somewhat formal, reserved)
All done.
HARRY (Slight sigh)
All set.
AGNES
(Going to HARRY, embracing him)
Harry, my darling; take good care.
HARRY
(Kisses her, awkwardly, on the cheek)
Th-thank you, Agnes; you, too, Julia? You … you be good.
JULIA
Goodbye, Harry.
CLAIRE (Handing JULIA her drink)
’Bye, Harry: see you ’round.
HARRY (Smiles, a little ruefully)
Sure thing, Claire.
EDNA (Embraces TOBIAS)
Goodbye, Tobias … thank you.
TOBIAS (Mumbled)
Goodbye, Edna.
(Tiny silence)
HARRY
(Puts his hand out, grabs TOBIAS’, shakes it hard)
Thanks, old man.
TOBIAS (Softly; sadly)
Please? Stay?
(Pause)
HARRY (Nods)
See you at the club. Well? Edna?
(They start out)
AGNES (After them)
Drive carefully, now. It’s Sunday.
EDNA’S AND HARRY’S VOICES
All right. Goodbye. Thank you.
(The four in the room together. JULIA and CLAIRE have sat down; AGNES moves to TOBIAS, puts her arm around him)
AGNES (Sigh)
Well. Here we all are. You all right, my darling?
TOBIAS (Clears his throat)
Sure.
AGNES
(Still with her arm around him)
Your daughter has taken to drinking in the morning, I hope you’ll notice.
TOBIAS (Unconcerned)
Oh?
(Moves away from her)
I had one here … somewhere, one with Harry. Oh, there it is.
AGNES
Well, I would seem to have three early-morning drinkers now. I hope it won’t become a club. We’d have to get a license, would we not?
TOBIAS
Just think of it as very late at night.
AGNES
All right, I will.
(Silence)
TOBIAS
I tried.
(Pause)
I was honest.
(Silence)
Didn’t I?
(Pause)
Wasn’t I?
JULIA (Pause)
You were very honest, Father. And you tried.
TOBIAS
Didn’t I try, Claire? Wasn’t I honest?
CLAIRE (Comfort; rue)
Sure you were. You tried.
TOBIAS
I’m sorry. I apologize.
AGNES (To fill a silence)
What I find most astonishing—aside from my belief that I will, one day … lose my mind—but when? Never, I begin to think, as the years go by, or that I’ll not know if it happens, or maybe even has—what I find most astonishing, I think, is the wonder of daylight, of the sun. All the centuries, millenniums—all the history—I wonder if that’s why we sleep at night, because the darkness still … frightens us? They say we sleep to let the demons out—to let the mind go raving mad, our dreams and nightmares all our logic gone awry, the dark side of our reason. And when the daylight comes again … comes order with it.
(Sad chuckle)
Poor Edna and Harry.
(Sigh)
Well, they’re safely gone … and we’ll all forget … quite soon.
(Pause)
Come now; we can begin the day.
CURTAIN