THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT and MS. ODDI sit on reclining patio chairs, after their swim, in towels. Perhaps MS. ODDI is without a top on.
MS. ODDI: When my number comes up, I’m not going to miss it stuck with my family who doesn’t appreciate me for anything. I gave my daughter a lot: discipline, self-respect, a sense of correctness.
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: Would you like a cigarette?
MS. ODDI: Yes. I haven’t smoked since I was nineteen.
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: I’m sure you were very attractive when you were nineteen.
MS. ODDI: I whored myself around.
(She takes a cigarette from him. He lights it.)
MS. ODDI: Jenny is different. She is very prudish, very polite. Of course, she’s barely thirteen. She has life in her, but… who knows?
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: It is so tedious to have a family.
(MRS. SING enters.)
MRS. SING: I thought I would find you here.
MS. ODDI: Have you eaten your dinner, Mrs. Sing?
MRS. SING: I ate my dinner, then I lay down.
MS. ODDI: Offer her a cigarette.
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: Would you like a cigarette?
MRS. SING: If I may.
(He hands her one. She puts it in her mouth. He goes to light it. She turns her face away.)
MRS. SING: No.
(She goes on “smoking” it.)
MRS. SING: I love the nightlife.
MS. ODDI: Mrs. Sing has come all the way from Cedervale. She is desperate to be my friend, and this is why you have been seeing her so often.
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: Why does she like you so much?
MS. ODDI: Because I am a woman.
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: Why do you like her so much?
MRS. SING: Please don’t ask me any questions.
MS. ODDI: She has it in her mind that we could be friends. That we would tell each other everything; that we have so much in common.
MRS. SING: I’m not ashamed of it.
MS. ODDI: I have listened to this all day long. I listened to it while I was in Paris, too!
(THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT leans over and starts squeezing MS. ODDI’s breasts. She lets him, but doesn’t respond.)
MS. ODDI: Back in Paris, I had so much on my mind. It’s incredible what happens to you when travelling. And then all of a sudden you stop, and you don’t know where you are. It’s terrifying to the death!
MRS. SING: You are absolutely right.
MS. ODDI: (to THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT) Come. If you are so eager we should go inside.
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: There is nobody here.
MS. ODDI: My back aches.
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: We’ll go into the water.
MS. ODDI: We were just in the water! If I go in again I’ll cramp up! Come along, we’ll go back to my room. Or to your apartment. It’s not so far.
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: (upset) It is not so far but it is full of people.
MS. ODDI: Then up to my room.
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: (grumbling) It is always full of miserable, freeloading people.
(They go.)