SCENE TWO
(A street. The same summer morning. CHARLIE and MAX enter. About two months ago MAX found CHARLIE crying in a pub and took him back to his unfurnished flat. They share a flat, an addiction to gambling and continuous cash-flow problems. It’s early morning and this may affect their voice-levels)
CHARLIE: This is her.
MAX: Where?
CHARLIE: There.
MAX: Which one?
CHARLIE: That one — I had a premonition of this. Walking down the road? Maybe no this. I’d a premonition of something. Walking down the road? I thought, either this is déjà vu or it’s already happened, one of the two. — Have I done this before?
MAX: What?
CHARLIE: Have I came here to ask the former person I made my vows to to lend us some dinero?
MAX: Yeah.
CHARLIE: Yeah?
MAX: That’s my recollection.
CHARLIE: What did I say to her?
MAX: You said we were skint some reason.
CHARLIE: I know we were skint, ya toxin. What reason did I say?
MAX: All I remember is you cried and she gave you some dosh.
CHARLIE: Because we don’t want to repeat the same reason do we.
(CHARLIE gets a fag-packet out, lights a fag, puts the fag-packet back in his pocket)
CHARLIE: Right. It’s time she was up anyway. On you go, shout her up.
MAX: Give us a fag will ye.
CHARLIE: Naw.
MAX: Give us a fag till I wake up chrissake.
CHARLIE: I don’t have any fags! We’re skint, remember?
(Beat)
MAX: I might be more in tune with myself in the mornings if you’d stop talking in your sleep.
CHARLIE: How, what do I say?
MAX: If you slept in another room.
CHARLIE: It’s the floorboards.
MAX: What about them?
CHARLIE: I don’t like them do I. They hurt my back.
MAX: That’s good for it fuckssake. I sleep on the exact same floorboards you do, you don’t hear me yelling for mercy. Get your thoughts in order before you go to sleep like I do and you’ll sleep like a mummy. — Give us a fag will ye.
CHARLIE: How many generations do I have to listen to this!
MAX: I cannae wake up a near-stranger at half past seven on a Saturday morning unless I get some sustenance, can I? I’m doing you a favour here!
CHARLIE: Eh?
MAX: You blew my giro.
CHARLIE: I blew your giro?
MAX: Correct.
CHARLIE: You’re steeped, Max.
MAX: Am I. You blew my giro on the dogs.
CHARLIE: I blew half your giro on the dogs. Which, you owed me from last week when you blew half my giro on the dogs.
MAX: I don’t mind carrying ye, Charlie. I’ve been carrying ye ever since the night I met you bawling your eyes out in that pub and carried ye back to my flat. I’m no looking for plaudits. What I will say, it’s no been easy. Now you want to borrow some dinero from your wife and you want me to shout her up at half past seven on a Saturday morning for the reason that if yir father-in-law saw you he’d chase ye with a hammer and tongs: I call that a favour, what do you call it? — She’s your wife.
CHARLIE: Yes she’s my wife, exactly she’s my wife. Therefore it’s my wife and therefore it’s me that’s to stand here and tell her a lot of lies, all so’s we don’t have to mug some seven-year-old for his fags that shouldnae be smoking in the first place so he’s entitled to a good kicking and you’re doing me a favour. Get honest with yourself.
(Slight pause)
MAX: I don’t know what I’m saying do I, I haven’t had a fag yet. — So I just shout her name, get her to come out?
CHARLIE: Yeah.
MAX: What’s her name again — Veronica?
CHARLIE: Margaret Mary.
MAX: I knew it was something papish. So I just shout her name, wake her up?
CHARLIE: And don’t wake her da.
(CHARLIE stands aside. MAX stands under the window)
MAX: Margaret Mary. — Margaret Mary. — Margaret Mary. — Nothing.
CHARLIE: Nothing?
MAX: The dozy pape’s went and died in her sleep.
CHARLIE: Try it again.
MAX: You try. (Fuckn Romeo.)
CHARLIE: Try it a bit louder.
MAX: I don’t want a whole nest of papes falling on top of my napper do I.
CHARLIE: Try it no too loud and no too quiet.
(CHARLIE stands aside again)
MAX: Margaret Mary. — Margaret Mary.
CHARLIE: Nothing?
MAX: Dead.
CHARLIE: It’s got to be getting on for — what? —
MAX: – half seven, eight. The day’s half gone, put it that way…
CHARLIE: Unreal.
MAX: … history.
CHARLIE: When is this country going to wake up? — Come on we’ll go, I’ll cry if I stay here.
(As they start to go, MARGARET MARY enters below in a nightie and dressing-gown)
MARGARET MARY: Charlie.
CHARLIE: Margaret Mary. It’s me.
MARGARET MARY: You’d better go. You’ve woke my da. What is it?
CHARLIE: I need to talk to you.
MARGARET MARY: I don’t have any.
CHARLIE: It’s no that.
MARGARET MARY: Last time I gave you money my da belted my ma in the jaw.
CHARLIE: Is that, is money the only thing we’ve got in common? I need — time.
MARGARET MARY: I’ve gave you years, Charlie. I don’t understand you; one minute you’re saying we’re finished and you never want to see my ugly face again and the next you’re back at my door crying your eyes out. — I can hear my da starting, I’d better go back in.
(MARGARET MARY starts to go back inside)
CHARLIE: Margarita darlin! It’s my mother. This is all so wrong but you asked me so I’m telling you. She’s lying across at the Southern. She got taken very bad again through the night and — I didnae want to say this — apparently this is it.
MARGARET MARY: I don’t know what to say to you, Charlie.
CHARLIE: Shock. — I said, I said: ‘all I wanted was some time’. I got rushed into it. Nobody knows for sure when it actually happened but she got rushed to the Southern three or four in the morning.
MARGARET MARY: Ο god.
CHARLIE: So …
MARGARET MARY: Oh god.
CHARLIE: I’ve been up since five which explains what time it is. Time? Y’know?
MARGARET MARY: So how did you hear?
CHARLIE: My brother Vincent came round earlier on. He was very good, y’know? This is all wrong Margaret, I know that. My life’s all wrong. At least I can say that now. At least I can see it. Whether I can retrieve the situation, that’s another thing I don’t know. Something like this happens you think about your cliché life. Y’know? What have I ever gave. Y’know? What have I ever gave. — So I came, just, thought you’d want to know. The day I married you my mammie was so proud of me. Then when we split up and I walked out on ye she told me I was rotten to the core and if she never saw me again it would be too soon. Which: she relented (thankfully). — She thought the world of you. — So. We’re just going to jump a bus across to the Southern. (Dying, so we can see her any time.)
MARGARET MARY: Wait here, OK? I’ll be back in a minute.
(MARGARET MARY goes inside. Long silence. Both CHARLIE and MAX are in tears)
MAX: You OK?
CHARLIE: Eh?
MAX: OK?
CHARLIE: Yeah. I’m OK.
MAX: D’you think she believed you?
CHARLIE: I think so.
(CHARLIE gets his fag-packet out, lights a fag)
CHARLIE: She’s gone for her purse.
(CHARLIE takes a draw on his fag. Then he holds the fag out to MAX)
Here.
(MAX stays where he is)
MAX: Y’re some man, you.
(MAX crosses to CHARLIE, to accept the fag)
MAX: Y’re some man.
CHARLIE: I’m anointed.
(Self-congratulation, yes, but he’s disgusted with himself too. MARGARET MARY comes out with her purse)
CHARLIE: Listen Margaret Mary pet, don’t —
MARGARET MARY: Here. Here’s a tenner.
CHARLIE: Right. What for?
MARGARET MARY: Just take it. You’ll need something for taxis or something.
CHARLIE: Right. Don’t if you haven’t got it.
MARGARET MARY: Take it.
CHARLIE: Listen, thanks. Because I’m skint the now. So this is… can’t think of the word … good.
MARGARET MARY: I better go in, Charlie. I’m in my dressing-gown. — The wee man misses ye. He keeps asking where his daddy is.
CHARLIE: How is the wee man?
MARGARET MARY: He misses ye. It’s no so bad for me but he’s no even three yet, it’s hard for him to understand why you’ve gone. So I told him you were in the jail, I thought that would be the easiest. You should hear him. I say to him, ‘Where’s your daddy, John Paul?’ And he goes, ‘He’s in the pokey!’ Anyway. I better let you get on.
CHARLIE: I’ll come round later, let you know how she is etcetera.
MARGARET MARY: Or even just phone me.
CHARLIE: Or phone. I’ll phone you, phone you, phone will be better, for the both of us.
MARGARET MARY: I have to go.
(CHARLIE watches her go)
CHARLIE: Margaret Mary.
(MARGARET MARY stops)
CHARLIE: You know the worst of it? The worst thing is (stop me if it gets too painful) the worst is I feel OK. Deep down it’s like — quiet. Earlier on, that was different again. Walking down the road etcetera? No idea what I’m going to say to you or (worst comes to worst) what my reactions will be. Jumps, head, routines, somersaults. But now I’m standing here talking to you, I feel good again. It’s happened (my mammie I’m talking about) or its goannae happen or it might have even happened. Maybe it’s because of my Aunt Netty. She used to make up people that had died in Canada or some place nobody was going to check up on her so she could tell people the bad news.
MARGARET MARY: Charlie, you don’t have to.
CHARLIE: I don’t have to …?
MARGARET MARY: You don’t have to … explain.
CHARLIE: The point being (I know I don’t have to) the point being (I know I don’t have to I want to) the point being (I’ve lost my place). The point is my mammy’s dying and so painfulness or sad or whatever it is I’m feeling, anything I say makes sense for once because I’ve got feelings again. like, when you’re in love. And there’s no more Time. Or death. Or Time. — That’s how I said Aunt Netty. Death made her feel good too. — You go in, darlin’. You look cold.
(MARGARET MARY exits. Silence. CHARLIE puts the tenner in his pocket)
CHARLIE: Whereabouts round here do we get a paper? (I don’t even know what’s got a card today.)
MAX: (Newmarket.)
CHARLIE: (Newmarket.) Eh?
MAX: Eh?
CHARLIE: Paper?
MAX: Might as well.
CHARLIE: I know that. I’m saying, where?
MAX: Did we pass a shop?
CHARLIE: Did we?
MAX: I think so. Yeah. Yeah I think we did.
CHARLIE: Right. Let’s get away from here.
(VINCENT enters. He’s a lot older than CHARLIE. He’s wearing a suit. He’s done well for himself in life)
VINCENT: Charlie?
CHARLIE: Vincent? How’s my big brother? I just came round earlydoors to see if MM wanted a hand with the wee man. But she chased me, which, I can see her point of view too.
VINCENT: (disordered but not particularly fast) No address so no way to contact you. So then yesterday, y’know? She got taken very bad again, rushed to hospital. She’s had a bad night, Father Frank Saint Alphonsus got out of his bed to give her the Last Sacraments. She’s doing good, the women are all saying she’s done it before and come out the other end, but the doctor more or less gave me the nod that this was it.
CHARLIE: Slow down, Vincent. OK? Slow down. Who are we talking about here?
VINCENT: Yir mother.
CHARLIE: Right. Fine. You never said that.
CHARLIE: Naw, Vincent. Naw. Don’t get me wrong.
VINCENT: I’m going back there anyway.
CHARLIE: Vincent. Don’t. OK? Don’t.
VINCENT: I’m going back there anyway.
CHARLIE: Don’t make me say something I’ll regret. I hear a day after everyone else?
VINCENT: I explained.
CHARLIE: OK, forget it. It’s done now. I need to go home (go to the hospital like this, are ye daft?). Change, get my thoughts (somersaults here) get my thoughts in order. OK?
VINCENT: She’s Ward 22.
CHARLIE: Right. What hospital?
VINCENT: Sorry: brain, wrong, car, gears… She’s across at the Vicky.
CHARLIE: Right. The Vicky did you say, or the Southern?
VINCENT: The Vicky.
CHARLIE: Right, I’ll see you later, Vincent. I’ll see you later on, eh? Whenever.
VINCENT: She’s been asking for ye. You were her favourite, Charlie. You were her wee baby boy.
(VINCENT exits)
CHARLIE: What’s happening?
MAX: What’s going on?
CHARLIE: That was a disgrace, that was.
MAX: What?
CHARLIE: Did ye see the suit he had.
MAX: That was a disgrace, that was. I’m sorry, Charlie, I know he’s your brother but people like him get to me. People like him, it’s all on the outside.
CHARLIE: That was an utter disgrace, that was. I hear a day after everyone else?
MAX: I don’t even want to think about him, Charlie! — One thing anyway, you knew before he told you.
CHARLIE: Eh?
MAX: Yir mother, OK, you can call it coincidence —
CHARLIE: She’s no been well has she.
MAX: So OK, in that sense (I’ll retreat). But come on, CHARLIE: you get honest, you get honest. You didnae need Vincent to tell ye — you knew. Because she’s your mother, that’s how, because you’re closer to her than your own skin. Likes of (when you were saying it to Margaret Mary?) … You were in tears, Charlie. You were in tears.
MAX: We were all in fuckn tears.
CHARLIE: Right. I’ll need to get myself a suit.
MAX: You want a suit?
CHARLIE: I cannae go and see my mammie like this, can I. I want her to see me the way I looked on my wedding-day. Y’know?
MAX: Listen, Charlie, don’t say nothing more, OK? (y’ll offend me.) The suit’s — understood. Understand?
CHARLIE: I want her to be proud of me, y’know.
MAX: Correct. — How much money have we got?
CHARLIE: I’ve got a tenner. How much you got?
MAX: I’m penniless (as y’know). — Right. So!
CHARLIE: A tenner’s a tenner.
MAX: We’ve got a tenner.
CHARLIE: We could go to The Barras.
MAX: We’ll go to The Barras then.
CHARLIE: Pick up something cheap.
MAX: Correct.
CHARLIE: We better get you some fags, eh son? — Right then. Fags suit and we’ll be brand new. OK, Max?
MAX: OK, Charlie
CHARLIE: OK, son? Then we can go across to the Southern Vicky wi a bit of dignity and a bunch of flowers and see her proud.
MAX: You’re going to be fine, Charlie son, I’ll watch out for ye, son. So long as you exercise a wee bit caution, you’ll be fine. A day like today: these are the kinna days ye have to watch. These are the days that can tempt ye. I’ve come across these kinna days before, you have to watch and no get carried away with your emotions.
(CHARLIE nods and goes)
It’s hard, I know that.
(CHARLIE’s gone)
But ye cannae get carried away with a tenner.
(MAX goes)