People Live Here

by George F. Walker

  CATHY: No, you probably don’t. Then there are mood disorders, which “involve persistent feelings of sadness fluctuating with periods of extreme and/or manic happiness.”

  VIOLET: (cheerily) I could have that.

  CATHY: Yes. You could.

  VIOLET: But then again, so could you.

  CATHY: Yeah, I know.

  VIOLET: You do?

  CATHY: Well, on my bad days I think I might be a little … But then I just tell myself, so fucking what, and I carry on. (smiling) But then there are psychotic disorders. And they involve “distorted awareness and thinking. That is, hallucinations and delusions.”

  VIOLET: You think that’s the one, don’t you?

  CATHY: You killed your husband because you believed he was a serial murderer. You tried to kill your brother-in-law because you thought he was his accomplice.

  VIOLET: So the hallucinations were …?

  CATHY: Seeing your husband shoot an elderly couple in that bakery …

  VIOLET: Which I did.

  CATHY: Which you hallucinated. Keith was not anywhere near the bakery when that happened.

  VIOLET: If you say so.

  CATHY: You heard evidence in court that corroborated that.

  VIOLET: If you say so.

  CATHY: I say so because it’s the truth.

  VIOLET: If you say so.

  CATHY: Violet. Listen to me –

  VIOLET: In a minute. First tell me something. That couple was shot by someone, right?

  CATHY: Yes.

  VIOLET: And I saw that?

  CATHY: Yes. You were there. In the back of the store when a masked man came in, robbed them, shot them, and ran out to a waiting car.

  VIOLET: So that’s not a hallucination.

  CATHY: No, it’s not. But Keith doing the killing and Leo waiting in the getaway car: that’s a delusion.

  VIOLET: So a delusion can be caused by something that’s not a hallucination.

  CATHY: Yes. No. Maybe. Knock it off, okay. You know that’s not what I’m –

  VIOLET: Here’s what I think. I think it’s delusional not to think it was Keith. I think the people who say they saw Keith in the tavern where he usually sat, just saw someone who looked like Keith. I think you should consider my theory.

  CATHY: Violet. We’re trying to maintain a connection to reality here. If we can’t do that we have to re-evaluate the efficacy of both your medication and your therapy.

  VIOLET: Truth is, it was just someone who looked like Keith sitting where Keith always sat. I think you should consider my theory.

  CATHY: Why?

  VIOLET: Why not?

  CATHY: Because several doctors, a judge, and a prosecutor have all said repeatedly that your “theory” is just a response to your mental illness. You had a psychotic break. You wanted an excuse to kill your abusive husband, and you manufactured it. Come on, Vi. Can’t you try to just admit that possibility for me? I could tell the doctors you did at least that, and then maybe we could pull back on your medication.

  VIOLET: That’s some incentive. Or is it a bribe?

  CATHY: It’s probably both. Does it matter? We need to show them that you’re making progress.

  VIOLET: Even when you think I’m not?

  CATHY: I believe the restrictions on you should be … relaxed. I think you need to get yourself back into the world to some degree. So if you’d just give over to admitting that it … probably wasn’t your husband who killed that couple …

  VIOLET: Sorry. Not that I don’t appreciate the offer. But I’m seriously invested in holding on to my version.

  CATHY: What’s that mean?

  VIOLET: It means I still believe in telling the truth. Even when people think I’m just a paranoid psycho.

  CATHY: (checking her watch) I have to go. (standing) I’ll be back tomorrow.

  VIOLET: What time?

  CATHY: I’m not sure.

  VIOLET: Just roughly. Morning. Afternoon. When the sun sets?

  CATHY: Probably afternoon.

  VIOLET: Early or late afternoon?

  CATHY: Probably late.

  VIOLET: Three or four?

  CATHY: Closer to four.

  VIOLET: Okay. So let’s say three forty-five probably.

  CATHY: Approximately.

  VIOLET: And probably.

  CATHY: Okay. Yes. Probably.

  VIOLET: Good. (standing) Are you okay?

  CATHY: I’m fine. Are you?

  VIOLET: Couldn’t be better. (off her look) Just kidding. Of course I can be better. I know that. And I’m working hard on doing that. Not hard enough. But don’t lose faith.

  CATHY: I won’t.

  CATHY leaves. VIOLET rushes into the bedroom and almost immediately returns pushing a gagged and tied LEO on a chair with wheels.

  VIOLET: I bet you thought she’d never leave.

  She removes his gag.

  LEO: I have to take a piss.

  VIOLET: Well, I’m not going to untie you. Do you want me to insert a catheter?

  LEO: No, I don’t want you to insert a fucking catheter.

  VIOLET: Good. I’d have to make one from scratch, and who knows how well that would turn out? I guess you’ll just have to wet yourself.

  LEO: Untie me. Let me go.

  VIOLET: Why would I do that?

  LEO: Because there’s no point in keeping me here like this, for God’s sake.

  VIOLET: Of course there is. I’ve got a world of people who won’t believe me about what you and your brother were up to. So I need you to tell them the truth.

  LEO: Which is what I’ve done for the last three years. Every time you’ve had another “piece of evidence” or you think you’ve remembered something I did or said, I’ve had to tell some cop the truth, so they could check it out. I’ve been questioned, checked out, and checked out some more. I’m innocent of the things you say I’ve done.

  VIOLET: Oh you are, are you?

  LEO: Yes, I fucking am! And you’re nuts!! You were nuts when they threw you outta that school you worked at, you were nuts when you tricked Keith into marrying you, and you were nuts when you fucking killed him.

  VIOLET: Okay, first off, I did not trick him into marrying me. He lied about that just to get a cheap laugh from his idiot pals.

  LEO: (a quick thought) Yeah. That might be true. I’ll give you that.

  VIOLET: The truth is he tricked me by pretending to be a normal human being!

  LEO: Okay, but some of the things I said about you are true, too. You could have turned Keith into the cops, instead of murdering him, for Chrissake.

  VIOLET: I tried. They just ignored me!

  LEO: Because you were a nutcase! And you still are. Look what you’ve done to me, Violet. You spiked the fucking butter so you could get me tied to this chair. Why would a sane person do something like that?!

  VIOLET: Because I need to hear the truth.

  LEO: About what?

  VIOLET: About you! It’s not like I don’t have reasons to doubt myself, you know. I have strange thoughts and all kinds of impulses that make me do or say or think things. So I have a lot to overcome to hold on to my version of events. (patting his head) Please, Leo. I’m just asking for a little help here. Can you find it in yourself to help a poor soul like me?

  LEO starts to cry.

  VIOLET: Why are you crying?

  LEO: I think it’s stress. I’m pretty stressed right now.

  VIOLET wipes away one of his tears.

  VIOLET: Well, crying won’t help. It never helped me, and I’ve cried a lot.

  Blackout.

  SCENE 6

  VIOLET is curled up on the couch. LEO is asleep in the chair. Still tied up. And gagged again.

  A key in the door. MADDY comes in. She sees them and stops. She looks closely at LEO.

  MADDY: Ah, Jesus … (shaking VIOLET) Mum … Mum!

  VIOLET stirs, opens her eyes.

  VIOLET: Oh hi, honey.

  MADDY: (checking out LEO) What have you done to him?
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  VIOLET: Are you scared, darling? If you’re scared you can just leave.

  MADDY: No. I can’t just leave. I tried leaving a while ago, and that didn’t work out. It just made me sadder and more confused than I already was.

  VIOLET: I have no idea what you’re talking about, dear.

  MADDY: Yeah, well, maybe that doesn’t really matter anymore.

  VIOLET: You could be right. I still love you, though.

  MADDY: That’s good.

  VIOLET: Do you still love me?

  MADDY: Absolutely. And there’s nothing I can do about it. (looking at LEO) He looks drugged. Did you give him something?

  VIOLET: A bit of something, yes …

  MADDY: And … what were you hoping to accomplish by doing that?

  VIOLET: Well, I needed his full attention. Or do you mean: why have I done it in this particular way? Well, things get out of control for me sometimes. I have an idea, then I have an idea how to realize that idea. But then before you know it, something happens that doesn’t necessarily relate to what I intended to do in the first place. But this isn’t like that. This is basically what I intended. So I think I might be getting better.

  MADDY: I think we should try to wake him up.

  VIOLET: Be my guest.

  MADDY: (shaking him) Leo … Uncle Leo!

  MADDY takes the gag out of his mouth.

  MADDY: This smells like butter.

  VIOLET: Yes. He loves the stuff. It was an act of kindness on my part.

  LEO: (waking up) It’s … got … something in it … that knocks you out. And keeps you that way. Hi, Maddy. I told you she was capable of some really scary shit.

  VIOLET: Told her? Told her when?

  LEO: When she visited me inside.

  VIOLET: (to MADDY) You went to see him while he was in prison?

  MADDY: He’s my uncle.

  VIOLET: So what? Most criminals have relatives of some kind. Doesn’t mean they should feel obliged to visit them in prison. Did you take him things? Cookies and candy and whatever? You did, didn’t you?

  MADDY: Jujubes.

  VIOLET: His favourite. I knew it! Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you’re big-hearted, but show some judgment, for God’s sake!

  LEO: I don’t feel so good.

  MADDY: What was it you gave him, Mum?

  VIOLET: It’s a very strong sedative. They gave it to me when they thought I was just hysterical. I took a few. Then put the rest aside.

  MADDY: Because?

  VIOLET: Because I knew they’d come in handy one day. (off LEO) And here we are.

  MADDY: Jesus … (pointing at something on the couch) What’s that?

  VIOLET: My meat cleaver. Just in case he got loose.

  LEO: (still trying to focus) That’s bull. She threatened to cut off my nuts with it.

  VIOLET: (to MADDY) The way he talks. “Cut off my nuts.” How did I get mixed up with that family? I’ve got three degrees, for God’s sake.

  LEO: So what? I was a stationary engineer.

  VIOLET: (to MADDY) Means he was a janitor.

  LEO: I took care of the boiler.

  VIOLET: Janitor. You were a school janitor. (to MADDY) Which would have been fine if he was a good one. Good ones can make a difference in a school in terms of safety and cleanliness. He wasn’t a good one.

  LEO: Screw you. You know what you are. I mean, besides a lunatic. You’re a snob! (to MADDY) Okay, kiddo. Untie me.

  VIOLET: (to MADDY) No. Don’t do that. He knows I’m on to him, and he’ll try to silence us.

  LEO: (to MADDY) Okay. We can sit here forever and listen to the crap coming out of her mouth, or you can untie me and we can all go about our business.

  VIOLET: Which for him means killing us both.

  LEO: Maddy. Just untie me, okay. Whatever she gave me is making me wanna puke.

  VIOLET: Go ahead. “Puke.” Who cares. (off the stain on his pants) He already wet himself.

  MADDY: (looking) Ah, man …

  LEO: She wouldn’t let me go to the toilet.

  VIOLET: I offered to push the chair up close and aim his penis for him, but he didn’t like that idea. (to LEO) Go ahead. Vomit. Mess yourself. You’re not going anywhere until you confess to your crimes.

  MADDY: Mum. We can’t keep him here against his will.

  VIOLET: You might change your mind when I show you the evidence.

  VIOLET heads for the bedroom.

  LEO: What evidence? There is no goddamn evidence! (to MADDY) Look. Untie me. And I’ll forget this ever happened.

  VIOLET: (offstage) Don’t do it, honey!

  LEO: Maddy! Please. I’m getting kinda stressed out here. I had my heart checked out in prison, and the results weren’t that good.

  MADDY: Let’s just see what she has. If we humour her for a while it’ll be easier for all of us.

  VIOLET returns with a large box, turns it over, and lets the contents spill out onto the floor.

  LEO: What the fuck’s all that?

  VIOLET: Your mother’s diaries. I forgot I had them, and then one day there they were under my bed. She kept her eyes on you and your brother until the day she died. And when she knew that day was close at hand she gave them to me for safekeeping. I figure it was to provide whatever proof I needed against you.

  LEO: She kept diaries? You actually want me to believe that woman kept diaries?

  VIOLET: (off the box) Well there’s the proof. Right in that box.

  LEO: Yeah? And what language are they in?

  VIOLET: What’s it matter?

  LEO: Because she couldn’t write more than ten words in English.

  VIOLET: I had them translated.

  MADDY: Who by?

  VIOLET: I have friends who speak many different languages.

  LEO: Right. And all of them are in your goddamn head. I’m asking who you know in the real world who speaks what’s-it-called …

  MADDY: She was Lithuanian.

  LEO: Yeah, right.

  VIOLET: Lithuanian. French. Greek. What’s it matter. The woman maybe couldn’t write in English, but she spoke it well enough to let me know what she thought of you and that she highly suspected what you and Keith were up to. (to MADDY) Assassins. Killers. They were hired killers. They worked for anyone who could pay their fee.

  MADDY: And Nanna knew this?

  VIOLET: (pointing) It’s all in there.

  LEO: Bullshit. She had nothing to do with us. We saw her maybe twice a year, Maddy.

  VIOLET: She was a very intuitive woman. Plus there were rumours. They both had a well-known tendency to violence. People in the neighbourhood were afraid of them.

  LEO: And that meant we were killers for hire? (to MADDY) Look, Maddy. Get this into your head, okay? You have to let me go, or you’re in even more trouble than she is. I mean, you’re not a certified loon, so you can be held responsible.

  VIOLET: I’ve heard enough of him for now. Just the sound of his voice makes me want to harm him.

  VIOLET is wheeling him towards the bedroom.

  LEO: I mean it, Maddy. You’ll be in deep shit.

  VIOLET rolls him in and closes the door. We can hear LEO protest incoherently through the door.

  VIOLET: (returning) Okay. We better get started. We’re going to need a Lithuanian–English dictionary. Can you go get one?

  MADDY: You mean they haven’t actually been translated for you?

  VIOLET: Well, how the hell would I arrange that confined to a psych ward? I just suspect what they say very strongly.

  MADDY: Look, Mum … I’m trying not to upset you. I’ve even tried to believe what you’re saying. But Leo’s right. I could get in a lot of trouble if I let you keep him prisoner here.

  VIOLET: Okay. I hear all that. I’ve processed it. And I understand the core issue. But Leo’s the solution to a lot of things that have gone wrong for me. Yes, I had some problems from when I was dealing with all those kids in my school who were determined not to reach their full potential. That was deeply depressing
, and it made me feel like a failure. But your father and your uncle, what they were up to, sent me to a whole new level on the mental-health chart … And the fact that I wasn’t taken seriously about that … well, it made cracks in my brain.

  MADDY: Cracks.

  VIOLET: Yeah.

  MADDY: In your brain.

  VIOLET: Yeah. Do you want me to tell you what that felt like?

  MADDY: No, Mum. I never want to hear what that felt like. (crying) Promise that you’ll never tell me, okay?

  VIOLET: What’s wrong, honey?

  MADDY: Just promise.

  VIOLET: Okay. Sure. That’s a deal. Now go get me that dictionary. Bring it back here. And give me a fighting chance to get the truth out of that guy in there. Then you can just leave.

  MADDY: Leave. But with Leo still tied up.

  VIOLET: It’s a compromise solution.

  MADDY: No, it’s not. He’ll tell people I let you keep him captive.

  VIOLET: No one will believe anything he says. Look, I think I have proof in black and white that he’s a lying thug who, at the very least, was your father’s assistant in fifteen or so murders.

  MADDY: Mum.

  VIOLET: Please, honey. The dictionary. It’s crucial to my investigation.

  MADDY: Yeah … okay. But promise you won’t hurt him.

  VIOLET: Promises, promises. Of course I won’t hurt him. He has to answer to a jury of his peers!!

  MADDY: Okay. Good. Where do I get that? The dictionary.

  VIOLET: Bookstore. Library. Maybe online. Maybe google it. Use your basic intelligence. You’re not an idiot, are you?!

  MADDY: Calm down, Mum. I was just –

  VIOLET: Okay, right. I mean, even if you are a bit of an idiot, you’re my daughter and I should show you nothing but love.

  MADDY: Well, as long as it’s not too much effort.

  VIOLET: It’s just that sometimes when I look at you or I hear you ask questions like that, you remind me of your father. And I have to suppress an urge to hurt you a little. You understand that, don’t you?

  MADDY: Sure. He used to say that to me, too.

  VIOLET: That he wanted to hurt you?

  MADDY: That he thought I might be too much like you. He’d catch me daydreaming, and he’d snap his fingers in front of my face. “Careful girl. Whatever’s going on in your head right now, you should stop. When your mother gets that blank look on her face it’s because she’s barely hanging on to sanity.”