by Sarah Wooley
‘Hey, what are you
what where are you going with?’
but then she turned
and Patrick turned
and for a minute…it was just me.
Big green space
Smell of pine
I felt…light
I stayed like that for, I don’t know, ten minutes maybe twenty
I couldn’t move
Pause.
I wanted to stay light
EILEEN Oh Ray, he was our boy
RAY I didn’t like him Leeny
And we were stuck with him
EILEEN Was I such a bad mother?
RAY No no
But you never talked you
I know you found it hard
Because he was no better for you than he was for me
But you never admitted never said
And every time you bit your lip, held your tongue
Something was growing inside me
Dirty little grey spores
Pause.
Maybe, maybe if you’d been there
If it had been you
EILEEN No Ray, I wouldn’t
Doorbell rings.
Silence.
Doorbell rings again.
CLAY Who’s that?
Pause; they all listen.
EILEEN The TV people
Pause.
Doorbell rings again.
And again / maybe someone thumps on the door.
CLAY What you gonna do?
Pause.
Doorbell again or knocking.
Doorbell rings without stopping.
SCENE SIX
A week later. Same place.
EILEEN She was a widow
The woman who lived in this house before us
She was eighty-six
She was doing fine on her own
She was happy
But her daughter she wanted her to move
Go with her, live with her
Thought she’d get into grief I suppose have a fall
She wasn’t too enthusiastic about going
In fact, after I’d met her I said
I said she’ll be dead within a year that woman
She doesn’t want to leave this house.
Six months later the man from next door got a call from the daughter
She passed away two weeks after leaving
CLAY That’s sad
EILEEN This had been her home for sixty years
It was too late for her to go changing.
Pause.
CLAY Are you nervous?
EILEEN No
Pause.
Are you?
CLAY Yes
EILEEN You shouldn’t be
Long pause.
CLAY You know
I am
I am
sorry
EILEEN Don’t keep saying that
CLAY I know but
I keep thinking
If I upset you with my my story my
EILEEN lies
CLAY Yes
Lies
I am / sorry
EILEEN You were very convincing
You were good on the detail
CLAY Detail?
EILEEN Yes
The bit about
cutting your hair and
what he…Robert Mydel
All that, it felt very real very
CLAY Yes, sorry.
Pause.
EILEEN Where did you get it from?
CLAY What, the bit about the man and
EILEEN Yes
CLAY From the TV…mostly
There was a two part true to life movie about this kid who got kidnapped…
got most of it from that
EILEEN I see.
Pause.
CLAY You know, none of that happened to Patrick, you know that
EILEEN Yes, you said.
Pause.
CLAY I wish
If I’d gotten his number or
But I had no idea where I was going and
EILEEN How long had he been there?
Can you remember?
CLAY About three months I think
EILEEN and he wasn’t with you for long?
That’s what you said
CLAY No
They moved him to another block
But we talked a lot.
I really liked him
We were…similar
Pause.
EILEEN Tell me, again
Please
What he said about us?
CLAY Which bit?
EILEEN The bit about, knowing
CLAY Just that bit?
EILEEN Yes
CLAY Are you sure?
EILEEN Yes
CLAY You won’t find it too painful or
EILEEN No
Please
CLAY Ok, well…he said that erm that he felt
EILEEN Yes?
CLAY Well, he remembered that things were difficult between you and Ray. And that…even though he was very young he felt that he was somehow the cause, of that difficulty. And when…when he went to live with…with her, the… other, he was…happier, sorry but he thought that you were all…probably…happier. Better off.
EILEEN But he sometimes thought about us, as he was growing up
remembered us, from time to time?
That’s what he meant surely
CLAY Yes
EILEEN Because he remembered what this house looked like
He remembered our friends
The car Ray used to drive
He remembered that I used to work in the pub didn’t he?
And he remembered the birthday cake with the yellow icing
CLAY I thought it was blue
EILEEN No, it was yellow
CLAY Oh, so he got that wrong
EILEEN No you did?
CLAY Sorry?
EILEEN You got it wrong
CLAY Oh
Yeah
I see what you mean yeah.
Pause.
EILEEN Do you think he was ‘better off’?
CLAY I don’t know
I mean
I only knew him for a short time so
But from what he said his…she…
She was kind to him, if that’s
Beat.
That doesn’t mean that you weren’t
That you
I mean I think
EILEEN That I was a good mother?
CLAY Yes
Yes
You lived in this nice house, you provided for him you didn’t neglect or hurt him it was Ray who
EILEEN Yes but together we…
Pause.
I wonder…what Patrick might have done with his life
Where might he go, after?
To live, I mean
CLAY I don’t know
I really don’t know
Pause.
He loved the city
I remember that
I’m a country boy could never live in the city but he loved it
Never stopped talking about the lights, the noise, the people
EILEEN Did he?
CLAY Yeah
So perhaps he went there
EILEEN Which one?
CLAY What?
EILEEN Which city?
CLAY Oh.
Well I don’t…he didn’t say
Pause.
How long have we got?
EILEEN Not long
I told them to get here for nine
CLAY They’re late
EILEEN We still have plenty of time
You need to learn to be patient
Pause.
CLAY You sure you’ve got everything
EILEEN Yes
Just have to get a present
A toy for Bailey
What do you think he’d like?
CLAY Bailey?
EILEEN Yes, I want to make a good impression.
CLAY Then, I guess…so
mething big
Maybe a teddy bear
EILEEN A big teddy bear?
CLAY Yes
Don’t think he has a teddy bear
EILEEN He must have
All children have teddy bears
CLAY I didn’t
EILEEN Didn’t you?
CLAY No.
Beat.
Never
Pause.
EILEEN Maybe I’ll get something at the airport
I’m sure they’ll have something
CLAY And you get the tax off
EILEEN Yes.
I hadn’t thought of that
Beat.
I can’t wait to meet him.
Pause.
CLAY You know, no one ever looked out for me
My whole life til I went to jail was a different town, another trailer park
Even when I was real small I was playing chicken on the rail tracks in the fog
Hanging outside bars waiting for…
I don’t want that for my son
The thought of him callin’ some other guy Dad it’s
Not being with Bailey
It kills me.
EILEEN That’s how it ought to be
Pause.
CLAY Shall I call the lawyer?
Get him to meet us after we get to the hotel?
EILEEN No, I want to get a new one
Someone better
CLAY Ok
EILEEN Someone tough
Pause.
CLAY I never
When I came here
I didn’t expect, I mean…us
you
I didn’t expect that
EILEEN I think
I’d like Bailey to call me Nanny
If that’s alright with you?
Granny sounds old and Nan…well it’s a bit common
But Nanny, I can just imagine him saying that
Can’t you?
Pause.
CLAY It’s nice here
This village this house
Sure you won’t miss it?
EILEEN No
Pause.
Well…I’ll miss the garden and the fields at the back
CLAY It’s a cool garden
EILEEN Maybe not the garden just that big oak tree
CLAY They have oak trees in North Carolina
EILEEN I love the oak tree
That one is two hundred years old
Ray used to like the roses but I always preferred the oak tree
Not in summer it’s too imposing then too leafy too bold
I prefer it in winter when it’s bare, just a skeleton
It’s at its best in November.
End.
