A few hours later
Allie sits in the near dark. It is snowing. He stares out at the falling snow. The radio is on, a fuzzy Voice of America broadcast. Strange wailing music warbles out, and ends.
HARRY (On the radio): And that was “Awaken the Day” sung by the Black River Mountain Appalachian shaped-note singers, who will be in Reykjavik on January 2nd, 4th and 18th. This is Harry Burgess. Stay tuned for our New Year’s Eve celebration of Negro spiritual music from the Civil War and beyond. But first, news headlines from VOA’s news service.
ANNOUNCER (Over fuzz and static and an excited crowd): This is the Voice of America, and it’s going to be a clear night in Manhattan, with temperatures in the low twenties, people already coming together for the annual ritual of watching the descent of the ball in Times Square, as the new year arrives. In Washington, President Carter is spending the last hours of 1980 awaiting word on terms for the freeing of the fifty-two American hostages, while President-Elect Reagan, emerging from church this morning in Bel Air, dubbed the Iranian kidnappers “barbarians.”
GIL (Entering; over the above): I can’t seem to rustle up a cab. It’s too close to midnight. The New Year’s Eve thing. All the cab drivers must be off.
(Gil turns the radio off. He looks at his frozen brother)
Come on Allie. We’ve got to start moving. Carly is at the corner, trying to get a cab.
ALLIE (Looking out the window): Gil. Can you skate on that pond?
(Gil studies his motionless brother for a moment.)
GIL: It’s too small. You’d just have to stand there.
(Beat.) Allie. I’ve packed, I just don’t know if I got everything I need. What do I need?
ALLIE: A coat.
GIL: A coat?
ALLIE: A sweater. A T-shirt. Some jeans. Something to read. that’s it. Always bring a book. Does she know?
GIL: Yeah. I told her. Through her door. She wouldn’t open it. But she heard. She didn’t say anything. I don’t think she’s going to come out. I don’t think she’s even going to say good-bye.
ALLIE: You know, Gil. I’ve been thinking about luck. There’s never enough luck in a family, to go around. Maybe you got it all. I hope so.
GIL: What do you mean? You can’t think that way.
(He goes to Allie to help him get up) Come on. We’ve got to go.
CARLY (Entering, snow covers her overcoat): I have a cab. I had to lie to him—he doesn’t want to take us to the airport or anything like that. But maybe he can be like coaxed or something.
(Beat. A small grin) He takes credit cards so I can give him my dad’s. He lets me keep it for like emergencies and stuff. I buy presents and he never notices.
ALLIE: I really wanted to skate on a canal.
GIL: I don’t think there’s time.
CARLY: Come on, Allie. Just get up and follow us. You don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to think. You just have to move. If you don’t want to go back to New York, we’ll go somewhere else.
GIL: What did you have in mind?
CARLY: Anywhere. Spain. A beach. It’s warm there. We’ll thaw you out.
ALLIE: Thaw me out . . . (He laughs)
CARLY (Helping him to his feet): Come on, Pal.
ALLIE (To Carly): I think I lost my passport somewhere along the way, Carly. Today. I don’t know where. (He grins)
CARLY: I have it. See? We’ll be fine.
(Harry enters. Carly, seeing him, tries to lead the frozen Allie out.)
Come on Allie, let’s go.
HARRY: Gil. Can you talk to your mother? She’s locked herself in. She won’t come out.
GIL: I tried. It’s no use.
CARLY: Come on Allie—let’s go . . . The cab is . . . he won’t wait.
HARRY (Crosses to Allie, pleading): I was told we were offering help to people who would need it in the future.
ALLIE: Harry.
HARRY: In the future. I was told that new doors were being opened and that it was—
(Beat.)
ALLIE (A small sad smile): Harry. Don’t you know? Look at me. You’ve killed me. Don’t you understand that? Don’t you want to say good-bye?
HARRY: I am not one of those men!
ALLIE: Clearly. They, Harry, are much better at it than you. If you had been one of “those men,” I would have never found out.
(Pause. Softly laughing) I was so careful never to take anything from you. No money for college, nothing to make me feel guilty. Why? Why did I bother?
HARRY (Pleading): Allie, please. For God’s sakes . . .
PATRICE (Entering): Harry. They should go now! Let them. Just let them go. It is better that way.
ALLIE (He looks at Patrice and Harry): Good-bye . . . Mom.
(Pause. She does nothing.)
It needn’t have been, you know. There are so many other ways to live.
(He turns to Gil) Let’s go.
GIL (Indicating Harry and Patrice): I just have to . . . I need to . . .
ALLIE: Go ahead.
(Allie and Carly wait by the door.)
GIL: Dad?
HARRY: I see how scared you are, but you will find moments where you have to take action. And who knows all the consequences. To examine every action. That would drive you mad. You cannot dwell.
(Beat) Gil. It’s random and unknowable. But you still have to keep . . .
GIL (Interrupts): Your coat.
HARRY: What?
GIL: Your coat. I know it’s expensive but I need to take it, you see, mine is at the cleaners, I wasn’t expecting to need it, and I can’t get it back now that we’re . . . so I promise I’ll send it back to you. I need a coat.
HARRY: No. It’s fine. That’s all right. You could keep that coat. I have another.
GIL: I’ll send it back. I just need something to keep warm. I don’t know where we’re going—
HARRY: There’s a scarf and gloves in the pocket.
GIL: Thanks.
HARRY: I understand why you might be inclined towards loathing me.
GIL: If only I had loathed you. That, at least, would have been a feeling. It would have been something.
(Turns to Patrice) Mother?
(She doesn’t respond.)
I know how important the idea of service is to you, Mom. But I can’t do it anymore.
PATRICE (After a moment): Well, I hope, I really hope, that wherever it is that you’re going, they have a sympathetic tenants committee. ’Cause we won’t be there to bail you out.
(Gil, Allie and Carly exit.
Long pause.)
HARRY: They’ll be all right. They’ll take care of each other.
(Patrice listens to the sound of the descending elevator for a moment.)
PATRICE (Listening, stricken): Listen. I often sit here, you know, Harry, wondering when you’re going to be home, and wait for that noise. And it made me so happy, to know you’d come back again, which I never expected—“Oh boy, he didn’t fly the coop.” That noise—I never imagined it could suddenly mean something so horrible, Harry . . . (She is quietly crying)
HARRY (Quiet, absent): I want . . . the first little house we lived in back then. That we rented for a year when I was teaching—that’s where I want to live. A very small space. No mail. One of those mailboxes at the end of the road, perhaps, but I wouldn’t walk to it, I wouldn’t check it . . .
PATRICE (Very quiet): What’s going to happen to you, Harry?
HARRY: We should have stayed home. In the first place. All of us. To have imagined that we could do anything decent with the world . . .
PATRICE (She goes to him): Let me put you to bed, Harry.
HARRY: Why? Do you still love me, Patrice?
(Beat. She says nothing.)
Maybe I’ll just stay here for a bit. I’m not tired yet.
(Harry walks over to the radio and turns it on. It’s a Voice of America announcer.)
ANNOUNCER: The Carter-Reagan transition team still in a closed door session. There’s no further word from Tehran. This has been a Voice of America news brief. (Music)
HARRY (Remote): Poor Carter. Nothing he ever did worked. He could never do the right thing. And he just kept trying and trying and trying.
ANNOUNCER: It is six P.M. in New York, six hours until the end of the year. This is the Voice of America.
(Over the pond, over The Hague, there is a sudden flash of fireworks. The sky turns red.
Harry and Patrice look out.)
HARRY: Happy New Year! Patrice!