ACT II
Scene 1:
(Int. Edith’s hospital room. Edith reads a magazine in the bed. Charlotte enters holding a brown paper bag.)
Charlotte: They told me you were up. Now I won’t feel like an invader.
(Pause.)
Charlotte: Let me look at you. Yes, you look like shit.
Edith: Well that’s a nice introduction.
Charlotte: Cest la vie. I’m Charlotte and I’ll be the bluebird of happiness.
Edith: The bluebird of happiness flew out of my life. I’m now visited by the rooster of despair. Where’s my husband?
Charlotte: We’re going to fix you up a bit. So you’ll be ready for your close up when Mr. DeMille arrives.
(Charlotte pulls a blue wig out of the bag.)
Charlotte: Tres chic, mon ami. This is the new hot look out of Prague because they missed the 1970s and are starting there.
Edith: Where’s Brad?
(Pause.)
Edith: Gone?
Charlotte: He’ll be back. I know the type. Once the sting wears off, they come back like a puppy, tail between the legs.
(Pause.)
Charlotte: But what’s this? Electric wig not enough? How about (she removes a tube of lipstick) some whore red to put the fear of God in men?
Edith: How long have I been here?
Charlotte: You can’t remember?
Edith (suddenly emotional): Where’s Brad? I want my husband! I’m dying, I’m dying and I want my husband!
(Charlotte cradles her head until she’s calm.)
Charlotte: Don’t do that, dear. Don’t start thinking you’re dead until you see that tag on your toe.
Edith: But where’s my husband?
Charlotte: He said he’s sorry. I know that’s the worst thing to hear because he’s not sorry, he only thinks he is. It’s the same story told a thousand times: Make a mess and walk away, the person that stays has to deal with the fall out.
Edith: Fall out? What fall out? I’m dying.
Charlotte: What did I say? You’re not dying.
(Pause.)
Charlotte: There is a man on this floor that has AIDS and he is dying slowly in front of me and there’s nothing I can do except try to make his last days comfortable. I’m gonna level with you: That man will die years before you do. You’ve got the Interferon and the chemo, you’ve got the best care that money can buy. This guy…he’s got everything and he’s still going to go. So please, for his sake, don’t claim death when we’re all watching you recover.
Edith: I feel chastised. Have I been chastised?
(They just look at each other.)
Edith: At least I know he’s somewhere suffering. I used to love to watch him suffer. Unbelievable abilities in that arena. Took it to new levels. But my mother warned me.
Charlotte: You find a strong man, he never makes a sound. You find the vessel of anguish, he’s gonna cut and run when something comes along.
Edith: And things always come along.
Charlotte: You know what happened to mine?
Edith: Ran out on you?
Charlotte: Decided the best anniversary present was to just not come home.
Edith: Guess there’s a lot of this going around.
Charlotte: You get miles and miles of mountains, one day you ask for the sea.
Edith: Look at me here. I’m falling apart.
Charlotte: Put the wig on. Good vibes in change of appearance. This is documented medical evidence.
Edith: Married too young. The first guy I…
Charlotte: There’s no good word for it so just be vulgar.
Edith: And then I was pregnant and so we got married and it was all a way out. My father was dying.
Charlotte: I’m sorry to hear that.
Edith: Don’t be sorry for me. He’s been dying for over twenty years. Just doesn’t want to give up.
Charlotte: And here you are claiming death after one little black out. You’re from good stock.
Edith: Was yours worth holding onto?
Charlotte: I don’t know anymore. I don’t know if we were building a structure or tearing down each other’s walls. But definitely there was some construction underway.
(Pause.)
Charlotte: Isn’t that always the way? You never realize you built a house until they’ve left you and now it’s yours.
(Pause.)
Charlotte: He’ll come back. He’ll break his own heart walking out on you. It’s what comes after the doing that’s hard. And you can rarely live with it.
(Blackout)
Scene 2:
(Int. Brad and Edith’s suburban home. Edith sits on couch, writing in a journal. Brad enters quietly. Edith looks up and sees him.)
Brad: Look, I know there’s no way to explain-
Edith: You fucking bastard. Leaving me while I’m flat out, how low. I can’t believe you’ve got the nerve to show your face around here again.
Brad: Don’t waste time beating up on me, okay? I’ve done enough of that. It’s like I swallowed my heart and-
Edith: Heart? Heart?! You have no heart, Brad. You never did.
Brad: I have a heart it’s just-
Edith: I’m dying here! I’m dying and you walked out on me. If I had the energy, I’d slap you.
Brad: But can I just explain?
(Pause.)
Brad: The mortgage payments will be taken care of. You’re still on the health plan. It’ll be like we’re separated. You’ll still get all the benefits. So-
Edith: You think that’s what I care about? I’m dying, you shithead! I don’t need a health plan, I need a husband.
Brad: Look, I…I managed to delete half the database at work the other day. My boss is talking about a review board. And I tripped over a street musician and-
Edith: Street musician? So you’re living in the city?
Brad: I try to crush my heart into a little ball. To strangle it and just feel numb. To stop existing as a person and be a machine. It’s the only way I’m getting through this and-
Edith: Oh, I see now. You actually believe that you’re not already a heartless monster.
Brad: This isn’t a crime. Relationships fall apart under duress. People just can’t-
Edith: People or you?
Brad: My whole life has led to this point and I can’t hate my whole life. I can’t fight it completely because it’s what I’m involved in, it’s my way of being. And it’s not like anything matters in the long term. If I met Rose before you or after you, ten years from now, or-
Edith: Rose, is it?
(Pause.)
Edith: Oh, I get it now. Now it makes sense. Three bedroom house is big enough for Edith and Brad and Rose but not Edith’s cancer? So you didn’t walk out, you mentally eloped.
Brad: Rose isn’t- She’s…companionship.
Edith: Companionship. So glad to know that I wasn’t able to fill that role with my horrible moles. (Begins shouting) It’s pathetic. Pathetic! You are pathetic!
Brad: You can love someone and let them down. You can love someone and not be good enough. You can be so completely in love that the thought of losing the other person-
Edith: Oh, who cares? You’re gone. You walked out on me.
Brad: Can we at least not be hostile? Shouldn’t I get any credit for coming back and trying to work it out? I want to make it better. I want you to forgive me. I know I did a bad thing and you probably can’t forgive me and-
Edith: I can’t.
Brad: But maybe this was your fault too.
Edith: You don’t know which button to push, do you?
Brad: You never let me in. You kept this whole thing from me like I was a child. You tried to go through it alone and when it was too much for me I thought maybe you were better off alone. And maybe that doesn’t excuse my actions but-
Edith: It doesn’t.
Brad: But it wasn’t all my fault. And that’s even if this is anyone’s fault. Because I don’t think-
Edith: Or feel.
Brad: Look, this is hard for me too.
Edith: So, what? You want to come back, why? Absolution? Companionship?
(Pause.)
Brad: I didn’t say I wanted to come back.
(Pause.)
Edith: I guess you didn’t. You’re happy with Rose. She’s not dying yet so everything’s hunky dory for you.
Brad: Rose is not the issue. Rose should not be involved in this. She’s just a…
Edith: Well let her know that when things go bad, you cut and run. At least give her the option of seeing who you really are before you pull the rug out from under her.
Brad: But I do love you. I don’t love her. She’s just there.
Edith: Sure, the frictionless coating that will make your abandonment easier. And why is there a cut on your head?
Brad: Like I was saying, I tripped over a street musician and-
Edith: Let me have a look at that. If we’re lucky, it’s infected.
Brad: That’s cold.
Edith: Oh yes, I’m the bad guy. I keep forgetting that.
(Pause.)
Edith: Well wouldn’t you? If I walked out on you while you were dying? I needed you and you left.
Brad: You can love someone and let them down. You can love someone and fail them.
Edith: No, Brad. You can. You can because you don’t know what love is. You’re only concerned about the feeling and not the actual physics of the thing. You don’t walk out on someone you love, no matter what.
Brad: People have limits. There are some things that people just can’t do, can’t handle anymore. And that is why I left.
Edith: Limits? Limits?! Tell it to my t-cells! Tell it to my fucking moles! Tell it to the cancer cells in my body that are multiplying.
(Pause.)
Edith: Now I’d like it if you would escape back into whatever new life you’ve started for yourself. I’ve reached my limits and I can’t stand to look at you anymore.
(Brad opens his wallet and takes out a credit card and puts it on the end table then exits.)
(Blackout)
Scene 3:
(Int. Jacob’s bedroom. Jacob appears to be sleeping and Marla talks as though he’s awake.)
Marla: She’s dying. My older sister is dying. It’s like sometimes I can see a shadow in the back of a morgue that’s just waiting to take souls. And for some reason that ghost has an affection for this family. It took our aunts and uncles, it took mom, then there’s you, and now Edith is dying. I don’t even want to think of Erica because the last straight answer we got out of her was that she was a waitress at Hooters. That was the least grandiose claim she’s ever made so it can only be true.
(Pause.)
Marla: I don’t hate anyone, despite what people must think. You know, lonely spinster acting as nurse to the dying father, must hate everyone for having it better than me. Well I don’t hate anyone. I’m satisfied with my life. Her husband’s left her, did I tell you that? Even him I don’t hate. He’s that kind of man.
(Pause.)
Marla: I’m not who I’ve become but what you made me into. And that’s something, isn’t it? That’s something you can be proud of? A well-adjusted woman with an infinite capacity for love. And maybe it’s my lot to gather at each person’s grave and say goodbye. That’s not the worst thing that can happen. Everyone needs someone to say goodbye. But sometimes it seems like my life is a bad play that somebody wrote and I have to take the role of the ruined woman. I gave up college for you and I gave up romances for you and I gave up everything in the end. So I was left with nothing except who I am. And maybe trying to find a peace with yourself, just learning to be content with what you’ve been given, maybe that’s what this whole thing is about.
(Pause.)
Marla: Last night I dreamed that we were on a plane. I dreamed that the air was recycled and this was a risk for TB, which was an automatic reflex from caring for you all these years. Everything that can go wrong will so you’ve always gotta be aware and guessing which direction the danger will come from next. It’s a pointless exercise because the danger comes from the least obvious place. But there I was leaving on some plane, flying 35,000 feet in the air but then the plane just kept going and we broke through the troposphere and went straight into space. There were no angels in sight and the earth got smaller and smaller as we continued flying into outer space. There is no natural light, only the light from stars, and each of these stars may have dozens of planets like ours. And maybe that tells us that Earth isn’t so special. But I know looking back at that planet, seeing the world I knew and was leaving behind, I had to be there. I couldn’t face living without it. All I wanted was to go home. And we were weightless and it was beautiful to take such an overview of the planet. I saw other planets. Venus a shimmering red and Mars a magnificent red, Jupiter with it’s angry spot.
(Pause.)
Marla: And I saw the most amazing thing. We broke our climb and pointed back down and we were getting closer to the Earth and I saw souls rising up from the ground into the atmosphere. I saw your spirit and there was not a spot of infection in you. Your soul was clean, you had purged everything that held you back. You died on your own terms. I know now that there was not a bit of your past you concealed in the end. You made your apologies and tried to pass things on to me, life lessons. And I love you for that most of all.
(Pause.)
Marla: Nothing is impermanent in this world. We are constantly growing and adapting and changing because that is what we do. But if you can learn from your mistakes and teach others the right path to follow, then no life is a waste. And as I returned to the earth on this plane, I saw graveyards stretching the horizon. And I saw babies in their cribs. And they lifted their hands high to touch me, the returning spacegirl. And I felt so happy for the life I’ve been given and thought about everything you taught me. These babies were all beautiful vessels of the heavens. And they’ll learn more than I’ll ever know and live longer than we can even imagine right now. And I wanted to see each of them grow and make mistakes they could learn from and not repeat. Because life doesn’t come with an instruction book. So you make of life what you will. But seeing those souls of the departed and the optimism, the unlimited potential of these babies, I know that this world will only improve. No matter how bad we are about anything, it’s all the right course. It’s all exactly what we think it could never be, one long lesson. And the more mistakes we make, the more we’ll learn. And if we ruin this planet then the only thing left will be the people and they’ll realize that they have to be nice to each other because there’s nothing else for them. And if it comes to that, there’s space. There’s all those stars out there with their dozens of planets and one of those can be our new home. And we’ll start over, knowing motion is life. That we’re always improving. That love is not just a theory.
(Lights dim and curtains close.)
INTERMISSION (During intermission, play the song Free Ride by Embrace. Contact me if you need a copy of this song.)
Scene 4:
(Int. Marla’s home. Marla and Edith sit on couch.)
Marla: It was the weirdest thing. I saw him slip away. He died while I was dreaming but I saw his soul. And it was pure. It was uninfected. Just like you. Deep inside, there’s a part of you that’s not infected.
Edith: Have you called Erica?
Marla: Didn’t have to. Financial blood’s in the water, she’ll show up soon enough.
Edith: Why do you hate Erica?
Marla: I don’t hate her. I just hold my pocketbook closer when she’s in the area.
Edith: I know you didn’t call her. I called her.
Marla: Judas.
(Pause. Edith is uncomfortable.)
Edith: He was her father too.
Marla: You know what he said about her?
Edith: He loved her.
Marla: Oh yes, she was always the favorite. We each took our own path, us three Gunderson daughters. It was my role to stay and be the caregiver of the family. You took the safe escape route and married into suburbia. Erica-
Edith: Which was a total mistake because I picked a rook instead of a king. He can only move forward and backwards.
Marla: And then Erica…the open road. Easy rider. Just vanished. That’s why he loved her. Because she left everyone behind just like he wanted to.
Edith: But she’s got a light to her. A joy.
Marla: Do you think she’s happy?
(Pause.)
Edith: I’m finding happiness to be a relative emotion.
(Pause.)
Marla: What he said about Erica, he said he loved her but he should have stopped after me. That was what he said. That he made a mistake by going one more. He loved her so much but he could see it was a mistake. He probably only told me that because he was dying.
(There is a knock at the front door. Marla stands and opens it. Erica enters.)
Erica: Oh, there’s the sisters! How are you, Edith? Shut up, I’ve got bags waiting. Marla, tell me how you’ve been? No, wait. I have something for you.
(Erica rummages in her large purse and pulls out a small silver mirror.)
Erica: Isn’t it great? Can you believe it? I know a guy that got it, don’t ask how.
Marla: It’s a mirror.
Erica: A mirror. A mirror- God! This was from the Titanic!
Marla: The Titanic?
Erica: You know, big ship, went down with the poor on board? Rich escaped in lifeboats? Biggest ship ever built and it made half a voyage?
Marla: I’m aware of the Titanic. I just don’t understand why you’re giving it to me.
(Erica looks troubled.)
Erica: Well the last time we talked you said that you really enjoyed the movie. And so did daddy.
Marla: That’s because you haven’t called since 1998.
Erica: I wrote!
Marla: Yes, you did. But not to me. Just to dad.
(The door opens again and a small child enters. Everyone stops and stares at her.)
Erica: Melissa. I told you to wait in the car.
Melissa: Mommy, it’s cold out there.
(Erica scoops her up and turns back to Marla.)
Erica: Melissa, these are your aunts.
(Pause.)
Melissa: Do they ruin picnics?
(Pause.)
Erica: Why don’t you go in the kitchen and get out your coloring book?
(She puts Melissa down and the child runs offstage.)
Erica: Okay, I know what you’re gonna say. A child at 22, what am I thinking, right? My career to think of and all. But you should have seen her father. I can’t even tell you what he did because it’s still classified. So one night he took her from me and disappeared. Well there was no way to find him so I gave up on her. Can you imagine doing that? Giving up on your own flesh and blood? Well I did it, I wrote her out of my life even though it killed me to think of it. So I just stopped thinking. And then one day he came back. He said, “I’ve got to fly to Peru tonight, can you take her off my hands?” Well the bastard didn’t even come back. So here we are, a big happy family of two.
(Uncomfortable pause.)
Erica: Well am I intruding? Should we stay at a hotel?
Marla: Of course not. You and your daughter are always welcome here, that’s how daddy would have wanted it.
Erica: Well the thing is, I had to take her in for some booster shots right before I got the news. I don’t have to tell you how expensive those doctors visits are, a well-child exam is like $250 and that’s when the child is healthy. So I’m a little behind on things. I’ve got several operations running out west but it’s kind of a cash and carry business. There are no sick days and I had to leave some very promising prospects to come back here. But I had to do it. For daddy.
Marla: Well I’m sure he appreciates your return.
Erica: When’s the reading of the will? I only ask because I have a friend that works in estate settlements and he may be a better legal representative in the disbursement of the funds. It’s someone we can trust at least, he’s been with me through a lot.
(Edith stands slowly, clearly weakened, and walks towards Erica.)
Edith: We’re just happy to have you here.
(She hugs Erica.)
Erica: Well I’ve been meaning to come back for a long time, it’s just there were business arrangements at play and then I had Melissa to worry about and I was scared of taking a child on a plane because of all the terrorists. Actually I can tell you that Robert, that’s Melissa’s father, he was involved in the war on terror at a very secret level. He performed valuable services for this country and we’re not even allowed to talk about them. It was actually him that insisted I not take a plane anywhere. And, you know, driving all the way across the country…
(Pause.)
Erica: Edith, would you be kind enough to help me with the bags?
Marla: I’ll get them. It’s my house, let me carry the bags.
(Erica seems surprised.)
Erica: Thanks, Marla. God! Marla! Edith! We’re all back together again!
Marla: For better or worse, until death no longer parts.
(Marla exits the front door, Erica and Edith walk toward the couch.)
(Blackout)
End ACT II
Next.