by Alan Cliff
to know some truths. But do not be forgetting the start of my story, the way I picked you up from near death and brought you back to life.
AIDAN. (Weakly) Of that, I am thankful, Mary.
Mary shoots him a look, she wants him to say 'mother' instead of 'Mary'.
AIDAN. Ye cannot want me to say it after what you've just told me about my own mother.
MARY. I have been your mother since you arrived and deserve the title.
AIDAN. I am thankful…mother.
MARY. (Approaching him, touching his shoulder, being affectionate) Ye can stay in my dormitory with me tonight. Like you did when you were younger.
AIDAN. I would like to remain here and pray for my mother.
MARY. (Clutching his chin) It was not an invitation, my boy. Come, stay with me tonight.
They walk off together.
Lights fade.
ACT TWO
SCENE TWO
Mary is in the mortuary, examining Deirdre's body.
Paddy enters, with a child's body.
He places the body on the infant slab and makes a pathetic sign of the cross.
MARY. She has been resting here for over a day, Patrick. And the leak is still not repaired.
PADDY. Can ye not see I have been busy? Me next job is to take her.
MARY. Peter Doyle, is it?
PADDY. It is. Poor little scamp.
Paddy takes a handful of buttons out of his own coat.
He takes Mary's hand and drops the buttons into her palm.
PADDY. I found the button thief for ya missus. Ye can take these to the seamstresses.
MARY. Ye have finally completed a task laid out for ye.
PADDY. Show me the pouch.
Mary takes the pouch from her apron and shows it to him, he is satisfied and she replaces the pouch.
PADDY. I have not seen nor heard the lad since we last spoke.
MARY. A few more days should satisfy our deal.
PADDY. Don't ye be spending any of it. I know how much is there.
MARY. Would ye like to offer this old lady a drink, for the good job she has done looking after your pouch?
Paddy reluctantly gives her his bottle.
She drinks heavily.
And finishes the bottle.
She hands it back to him.
PADDY. (Examining the empty bottle) You have made this a long day for me now, missus.
MARY. I am in quite a cheery mood. Why don't ye tell me a few jokes?
PADDY. Jokes, missus?
MARY. Ye are a jester, are ye not? Go on, tell me a little story.
PADDY. A child has died in the night and I do not wish to be disrespectful of that.
MARY. 'Tis hardly disrespect. He was a little scamp! He was a trickster and prankster, not unlike yourself!
PADDY. Not today. Today is a sad day.
MARY. Ye and my boy always have fun.
PADDY. It is not appropriate today. I must take the nurse now. Ye need to sleep off the drink.
MARY. I must find more! Maybe I can use the pouch money to get meself a horse and carriage and head into the city for…
PADDY. We made a promise missus!
MARY. Then tell me a joke, make me laugh.
PADDY. Not today, ye twisted missus. We must be silent and respect the dead.
MARY. Tell me something else so. How'd ye get your cards back? I had them in my dormitory hidden away.
PADDY. Later today, because of the drink ye have taken, ye will collapse in a heap on your bed, arms and legs all over the place. When ye are like that anyone can take anything from ye. The day Nurse Deirdre arrived ye took a bottle full of the rum from me and when ye were sleepin' I raided your apron and took what belonged to me.
MARY. Them cards belong to Guardian Power.
PADDY. Wrong. Possessions are not allowed in this house but them cards, they are special to me, a gift from someone. They are definitely mine.
MARY. (Sniggers) Who would be giving you a gift?
PADDY. Leave it alone, missus.
MARY. (Approaching him) Didn’t like that, so? Didn't like me questioning who gave ye a gift? A special person was it? Was it your dead wife, Patrick?
Paddy goes to strike her and stops himself.
MARY. A lucky woman, in my opinion. Any woman would be better off dead than married to you.
PADDY. Ye deserve a beatin' for sayin' that. But I know better. I have seen men beatin' on women and if there is one thing in the world that must never happen, 'tis a man hitting a woman. And only barely, barely now, do I count ye as a woman.
MARY. I am tired now, take the nurse.
PADDY. Are ye sure? Are ye sure ye don’t want her to remain so ye can continue to take pride in your deeds?
Pause.
MARY. Explain yourself.
PADDY. Ye know precisely what it is I'm saying.
MARY. If ye have something to say, Patrick, ye must feel free to do so!
PADDY. I seen burn marks around the nurse’s neck.
MARY. Guardian Power must be informed if there is a killer amongst us.
PADDY. What use would that do? He wants less of us.
MARY. An evil exists within you, Patrick.
PADDY. And a rope exists inside your apron, missus.
She opens the apron for him to look inside.
PADDY. (Trying to grab the pouch) Me pouch!
She quickly closes the apron.
MARY. That performance has added at least another three days to our deal.
PADDY. (Beat) So, ye don’t have the rope. Doesn’t mean anything.
MARY. Ye honestly believe an old and feeble woman like me could have strangled a young lively nurse? Thou shalt not kill, commandment number six.
PADDY. Ye are capable of many things, missus.
MARY. Ye are losing your senses, Patrick. I am not having fun anymore. The fever took the nurse. Now you must remove her body, leave this place.
PADDY. I shall not say anything to anyone if ye hand over the pouch to me now.
MARY. Ye cannot affirm this claim. Who would believe ye anyway?
PADDY. You'll be found out. Ye hated that nurse. Ye saw what she was doing to your son.
MARY. The nurse knew about your pouch.
PADDY. Did she now?
MARY. Ye wouldn’t show her your chest when she was nursin' ye. (Beat) Ye have as much a reason to kill as I. When any misdeed happens the first people suspected are the workhouse inmates. Ye would be suspected well ahead of me.
Pause.
PADDY. I need more rum.
MARY. You need to take her, first.
PADDY. The boy might not want me to. He might want to sit with her one last time. Say farewell to the woman he loved.
MARY. (Disgusted) My child only loves me.
PADDY. Ha! This is torture for you isn’t it missus? Ye cannot stand the thought of your son loving another! Well, he did. Sure, ye didn’t know everything that was happenin’ under your roof! I saw them here, the mornin’ before she died. A right loving pair, wrapped up together on this slab here. Ye didn’t completely destroy the lad’s mind. I’ll leave her here a while. Ye give me the pouch and I’ll get rid of the nurse.
Pause – Mary doesn’t know how to respond.
He laughs and exits.
Switch to:- Chapel.
Aidan is here, praying.
Deirdre enters as a ghost, she is forlorn.
She approaches him, he becomes close to tears and she exits.
Long Pause.
Paddy enters.
He watches Aidan and considers whether or not to approach him.
Then coughs, to get his attention.
He takes out a new bottle of rum and waves it in front of him.
Aidan nods.
PADDY. I shouldn’t be speakin' to ye. Your mother told me so.
AIDAN. She isn’t me mother. How are me shoes?
PADDY. They do be a comfortable pair of shoes. Ye want to get them back?
AIDAN. I’ve lost everything.
PADDY. (Giving him the rum) Ye need to sleep lad.
AIDAN. Did ye move her?
Aidan drinks.
PADDY. Not yet.
AIDAN. I don’t want to see her go.
PADDY. Ye have to make peace with this.
Pause.
Aidan drinks, heavily.
PADDY. Drink up, lad. Ye need it more than anyone.
AIDAN. I keep seeing her. She comes to me.
PADDY. She is dead, Aidan, and not coming back.
AIDAN. As clear as day I seen her.
PADDY. We know ye are sick, boy, the delusions.
AIDAN. I have a cold is all.
PADDY. I’m no doctor but ye are showin' the early signs of the fever.
AIDAN. (Ignoring this) How is it finding the button thief?
PADDY. Found! 'Twas Peter Doyle.
AIDAN. I heard about what happened. If Deirdre had been here… Wonder what he wanted with the buttons?
PADDY. Sure, he wanted everyone in the nip.
Aidan laughs quietly.
PADDY. (Putting an arm around him) If it had been known her life and yours would have been in ruins. Beaten, flung to the streets, homeless, hungry.
AIDAN. Would have been worth it.
PADDY. Nothing is worth losing your life for.
AIDAN. She was worth it.
PADDY. Ye fell for the wrong woman, Aidan, it happens regular.
AIDAN. Ye were married were ye not? What happened?
PADDY. I'd say the missus was after tellin' ya. (Beat) I was, Aidan, a happily married man. But the devil came and took me and in turn, took her. I was a gambler outside of here, making promises I couldn’t keep. She became angry with me because I lost the rent in a game and I reacted to her anger by strikin’ her. I begged for her forgiveness and she gave it to me. But we were never the same. I awoke one morning to find she was gone. I searched high and low through the town but nobody had seen her. (Beat) She was discovered hanging from a bridge. A bit of rope, a tiny piece of rope was all that was needed. (Long Pause) She was the right woman for me and I was such a fool. Her leavin’ left me with nothing and I ended up here. (Beat) She gave me the cards as a gift when we first met. Funny, in a way. I keep them with me because I sometimes believe that one day I might play cards with God and I will win her back.
Pause.
AIDAN. What was all the talk about your
