They Have Oak Trees in North Carolina

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.