MRS. SING, MS. ODDI, and THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT at breakfast. THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT and MS. ODDI wear terry-cloth robes, while MRS. SING is more properly dressed. It’s a continental breakfast. MS. ODDI is in a good mood; MRS. SING is not.
MRS. SING: I didn’t sleep a wink last night.
MS. ODDI: (with a faint smile) Perhaps you were enjoying yourself at last, Mrs. Sing.
MRS. SING: I am not an idiot and I know when I’m being made fun of.
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: Your friend didn’t sleep a wink last night either. I was poking her all night.
MRS. SING: (grumpy) She is not my friend.
MS. ODDI: (cheery) Oh, Mrs. Sing. Don’t say that. Of course you’re my friend! Look at us here at breakfast.
MRS. SING: You told me I was not allowed to sit with you.
MS. ODDI: But here you are!
MRS. SING: That’s right. I sat down anyway. There was no other table at which I could have felt more comfortable. But you put a little pot of jam on my seat while I was gone to get more coffee!
MRS. SING: If I’m mad I have a right to be! You have not treated me at all well since I arrived, not at all like a guest!
MS. ODDI: You’re not a guest, you’re an intruder! Where do you get off following me, simply because our children go to school together? You knew very well when I left Paris that I intended to be alone!
MRS. SING: I could tell you were in an irresponsible frame of mind.
MS. ODDI: That’s a lie.
MRS. SING: If it’s a lie it’s a lie!
MS. ODDI: What a ludicrous thing to say. (not mimicking, but explaining rather hysterically) If it’s a lie it’s a lie and that was my point: it’s a lie!
MRS. SING: If it’s a lie, well, then, it’s a lie!
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: You two are going in circles. Just going in circles.
(MS. ODDI stands up in a huff.)
MS. ODDI: (sputtering) I’m going back to my room. I did not leave Paris to carry on a routine!
(She exits.)
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: You are a terrible friend.
MRS. SING: It would look very different if she would pay some attention to me.
(MS. ODDI returns.)
MS. ODDI: There is so little one can do in life without someone looking over your shoulder, a person from the past! If there’s anything to be learned from life, it’s that a person looking over your shoulder all the time makes a woman too emotional! Too emotional! How are we supposed to not be emotional when someone’s always waiting to see how we’ll react! (to THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT) You’re different of course, slightly, but if I knew you better, you’d be the same.
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: Moi?
MRS. SING: You’re not a failure.
MS. ODDI: I’m not talking about failure!
(MS. ODDI begins to cry.)
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: Women always cry for themselves. You can be sure of one thing: when a woman is crying—it is for herself!
MS. ODDI: A man takes your body once and he thinks he owns you!
MRS. SING: That is right, Ms. Oddi, so you might as well go right back to your husband—to the man who in fact owns you. There’s never an escape into other men.
MS. ODDI: (red eyes) Is that all you have to say?
MRS. SING: No… I would like to know if you would like to go swimming with me this afternoon.
MS. ODDI: This afternoon I shall be practicing my flute.
MRS. SING: And this evening?
MS. ODDI: This evening I will also practice my flute! Now I know that I did a true injustice to myself when I gave up the flute. That is where my talent lies, that is where my true worth always did lie, but I was too caught up in the world to know it!
MRS. SING: No one’s true worth lies in a flute.
MS. ODDI: (bitter, like a snake) What do you know about the flute?
MRS. SING: Oh, please have tea with me, Ms. Oddi… there is so much we have to say to each other!
MS. ODDI: I will not! I cannot respond to every person in the world! People ask too much. It is impossible to find one’s way in life when there’s someone at every corner trying to manipulate your heart. How can I move forward in life if I am being tugged this way and that by everyone I meet? At a certain point a person must say Stop! No! I will live my life from now on. I will think my thoughts. I will dream my dreams. (hysterical) Why should I feel guilty about it? I have spent my entire life feeling what everyone else feels! And do you know what makes a woman lose her youth? Sympathy! Too much sympathy! Certainly there are feelings everywhere; must we respond to each one of them?
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: See how she talks? She goes on and on, like a little toy.
(Delighted by her presumption, he starts to fondle her.)
MRS. SING: And yet Ms. Oddi—your sympathy would make me feel so much better.
MS. ODDI: My first boyfriend—oh, he smoked a very big pipe—he always said: Men make the world, and women decorate it. Well, it turns out he was right! That is all I have done—decorated! Decorated my family with my presence…
(She begins to cry again.)
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: (slaps her) Stop that.
(She stops crying.)
MRS. SING: Well, Ms. Oddi. There is certainly no other woman like you in the world!
MS. ODDI: Yes, I have often been told.
(MRS. SING starts to cry.)
MS. ODDI: (scornful) Now what are you crying for?
MRS. SING: (crying) But what about love, Ms. Oddi? The heart is our only guide. If you turn off your heart, you will be absolutely spinning in circles!
MS. ODDI: You are wrong, Mrs. Sing. It is the heart which makes us spin in circles! The heart!
THE MAN IN THE BEAR SUIT: Come along—no more talking. You give me a headache with all your little words!
(He drags MS. ODDI off by the arm.)
MRS. SING: (calling) What about the ocean?
MS. ODDI: (calling back) What do you take me for? A submarine? I don’t want the ocean. I am an airplane, Mrs. Sing! (finger pointed at the sky, arm raised) I spend my time in the air!