ACT ONE — SCENE ONE
ANN enters as if she’s come home from being out all night. She’s in her early forties.
ANN: Mandy! Are you up yet? — Mandy! It’s six o’clock in the morning! You’ve had plenty sleep (you’ve been asleep for nine year).
(She starts hunting out some candles. The candles have been used already and are stuck in saucers and a variety of household crockery. She lights the candles and marks out a space. Then she exits into the — presumed — interior of the house. There’s a silence. Then a strange yelp of fright, something which sounds almost not human. Then, more subdued, voices. ANN re-enters with Tarot cards and waits inside the ring of candles. MANDY enters, wearing a white dressing-gown over pyjamas. This is ANN’s twenty-year-old daughter)
MANDY: How’s the bride?
ANN: Oh, y’know …
MANDY: What time is it?
ANN: (furious) Oh for chrissake Mandy, what kinna question’s that?
MANDY: What?
ANN: Just don’t start me, OK? This is my wedding-day supposed to be, I’ve got enough terrors in my life without you and Time ganging up on me. It’s about six.
MANDY: Aw mammy.
ANN: Yes aw mammy! Six o’clock already and I still haven’t decided the least wee detail. And on top of everything else I’m alive.
(Beat)
MANDY: I thought you were going to sleep here last night.
ANN: So I did! Then I got fed up and went round to Billy’s.
MANDY: Which Billy’s?
(Beat)
ANN: Two’s wrong. I should have learned that from my numerology. Three’s harmony, two’s confusion. Things get torn in two, two is how things start. Coming home from Billy’s I thought, I’ve got two men in my life, I’ve got to choose. I’ve got to make a decision.
MANDY: And did you?
ANN: Yes.
MANDY: What decision did you make?
ANN: I decided to trust my woman’s instincts.
ANN: Should I?
MANDY: No.
ANN: No?
MANDY: It was your instincts that got you into this mess.
ANN: Ο god. — Please, Mandy, read my cards before it’s too late: I’m in a situation that’s goannae engulf me before I can do a thing about it.
MANDY: I can’t
ANN: What do ye mean you can’t?
MANDY: I don’t believe in the cards any more. I’m a Christian.
ANN: (You’re the only one that’s dark enough to read me.) You’re a what?
MANDY: I’m a Christian.
ANN: You’re cute as hell, I’ll say that much. Give the cards a good shuffle, I don’t want the same bad cards I always get.
MANDY: You have to shuffle. You’re the seeker.
ANN: I’ll jinx them.
MANDY: Shuffle the cards and ask them your question. (ANN kneels beside the candles, shuffles, lays the cards down on the floor. Then MANDY joins her, lays out the first card)
MANDY: The Two of Swords. There’s two men in your life.
ANN: I know that! What have I to do?
MANDY: The woman is blindfold and holds a sword in each hand. You’ve a choice. But you don’t trust yourself. Why should you, you’re a mess — and if you can’t trust yourself who can you trust.
(MANDY lays down the second card, across the first) The Moon.
The Moon is Diana. The Moon is unfaithfulness.
There’s two men in your life and you’re cheating on both of them. That’s on one level. On another level it’s worse than that. Everything in this world is a resemblance. Everything under the moon could be something else…
(She lays down four cards one after another, each one as bad as the next)
ANN: Oh god. — Oh hell. — Oh my god. — Bloody hell.
(The cards are so bad, ANN can hardly look at them. She’s shielding her eyes with her fingers. MANDY wants to get her to look at them)
MANDY: The cards are neither good or bad. The cards are a reflection. To understand the cards what you have to do is look for the pattern. What’s the pattern? Look. Are you looking? What do you see? Can you see a pattern?
ANN: Let me look.
ANN: I’m no sure …
MANDY: There’s none. You asked me to blind you and I’m blinding you. The cards are a reflection. The cards are saying your past and your future, your future and your past are going round in circles. You’re uncreated, like when space was nothing but a dark wind and Time hadn’t begun yet. You’re a mess, without either —
ANN: Mandy!
MANDY: What?
ANN: Stop it! I’m. I’ve got Billy. Then I’ve got Billy. I’m. Mess? I’m Mess? I’m. Twiced! I’ve said to Billy he can move in with me today…
MANDY: Which Billy?
ANN:… I had to tell him something, to explain why I’m getting married to Billy!
MANDY: I see.
ANN: (quietly) I’m guilty as hell.
MANDY: You keep making it worse.
ANN: I know that.
MANDY: You keep making it worse!
ANN: So do ye see my problem! — I know pills arenae the answer, Mandy, and the nurses have far nicer emergencies than me to clean up after (the wee angels) — but I mean it, Mandy (I feel like shite-and-abortion as it is) so tell me something good’s going to happen or I’ll go up to that wardrobe in the boys’ bedroom with my pills and never come out again.
(MANDY lays out three more cards)
MANDY: Let’s look for the good then. I ignore the Devil: you’re in chains to the flesh but you know that already. And in looking for the good what you’ve to remember is the cards are neither good or bad. They’re ambiguous.
ANN: Ambiguous?
MANDY: Two-faced. Like a lie. To make you look more deeply beyond just what you can see. Look at all the twos you’ve got. On one level you’re being told you’ve got two chances. On a higher level you’re being told that the two must become one. You’ve two men in your life and you only need one. — So. Are you calmer now? You’ve too much dualism in your life. Will we see what the outcome is?
ANN: Will it be good?
MANDY: The cards only reflect.
ANN: OK. Let’s see.
(MANDY turns over the last card. They stare at it. It’s The Hanged Man. To ANN it’s an image of despair)
MANDY: The Hanged Man. — There’s two ways to look at this card. This is a card you have to look at twice.
(MANDY doesn’t have the heart to go on. ANN gets up)
MANDY: I’ll put out the candles.
(ANN exits. MANDY puts out the candles)