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True Love Lies

Page 8

by Brad Fraser


  CAROLYN

  Good.

  DAVID

  You’re not here to pick her up?

  CAROLYN

  What happened in Montreal?

  DAVID

  Montreal?

  CAROLYN

  Kane never mentioned running into you.

  DAVID

  Nothing important happened.

  CAROLYN

  I don’t believe you.

  DAVID

  I don’t care.

  CAROLYN

  You gave Madison a job so you can stay connected to Kane.

  DAVID

  I did it to piss you off Carolyn. Because you don’t know anything about what Kane and I had and you have no right to qualify it.

  CAROLYN

  He didn’t have an identity with you.

  DAVID

  And he does with you?

  CAROLYN

  Marriage takes work.

  DAVID

  So does denial.

  CAROLYN

  I know you fucked my husband in Montreal.

  DAVID

  You didn’t think twice about fucking him when he was with me.

  CAROLYN

  I didn’t know.

  DAVID

  You knew.

  CAROLYN

  Not for the first while. He never mentioned you and neither did anyone else. By the time he told me everything it was too late. I loved him. Trust me—I’ve felt guilty about it ever since.

  DAVID

  Good.

  CAROLYN

  So I’m sorry. If I took him away from you and broke your heart or ruined your life or whatever I’m sorry.

  DAVID

  You didn’t take him away from me. It was already over. I knew how uncomfortable Kane was in our relationship. Never—completely there. I tried telling myself we could make it work but it took so much effort. Eventually I wanted out. I wanted to go away. I wanted to be gay. Really gay not pretend straight. I was always secretly grateful that you were there to make it easier for him.

  CAROLYN

  Oh please.

  DAVID

  Believe what you want.

  Pause.

  CAROLYN

  When you were with him. Did he ever go away sometimes? In his head. Like he was dreaming about being somewhere else—with someone else?

  DAVID

  He does that with you too?

  CAROLYN

  Yes. I always assumed he was thinking about you.

  DAVID

  I assumed he was thinking about women.

  CAROLYN

  You didn’t fuck him in Montreal?

  DAVID

  No.

  CAROLYN

  Truly?

  DAVID

  Whatever happened all those years ago—it doesn’t matter now. I have no designs on your husband so why don’t you quit pissing around and deal with whatever the real problem is.

  CAROLYN

  Excuse me?

  DAVID

  You started this whole thing.

  CAROLYN

  I did not. Madison.

  DAVID

  It was you who invited me to dinner Carolyn. It was you who made those ignorant gay comments that were bound to piss me off. It’s you who keeps digging up the past. You.

  CAROLYN

  People were talking.

  DAVID

  If you’d just left well enough alone it would have died down when nothing happened.

  CAROLYN

  What are you suggesting?

  DAVID

  That you’re using me to create drama to cover up some other inadequacy in your marriage.

  CAROLYN

  Oh for God’s sake.

  DAVID’s cellphone rings.

  DAVID

  Maybe you’re trying to use me as an excuse for something you’re afraid to do yourself.

  The cellphone rings again.

  CAROLYN

  Like what?

  The cellphone rings again.

  DAVID

  I’m sorry your hour is up. Please pay the receptionist on your way out.

  CAROLYN

  Goodbye.

  DAVID

  Bye.

  CAROLYN exits. DAVID answers his phone.

  Hi. Of course you’re all right. Still I worry. Is it chaos? No doubt. Has anyone claimed responsibility? Terrorists are the only ones who do anymore.

  Lights rise on the kitchen. KANE, ROYCE and MADISON are at the table drinking coffee and looking very tired.

  MADISON

  It’s two nineteen.

  KANE

  I’m starting to get really worried.

  ROYCE

  Where would she go?

  KANE

  Maybe we should call the cops.

  MADISON

  She hasn’t been gone long enough to call the cops.

  ROYCE

  Maybe she’s skipped town.

  MADISON

  She’s been strange lately.

  ROYCE

  Lately?

  KANE

  Your mother deals with a lot of different pressures. You have to give her a break once in a while.

  MADISON

  You’re right.

  CAROLYN enters.

  Where the fuck have you been?

  CAROLYN

  Out. Driving. Thinking about a new car. I went by the old neighbourhood. Did you know the Safeway’s gone?

  KANE

  You couldn’t call?

  CAROLYN

  No.

  KANE

  Was your cell dead?

  CAROLYN

  No.

  KANE

  What’s wrong?

  CAROLYN

  I needed some. Time. Alone.

  ROYCE

  Alone?

  CAROLYN

  To think.

  Pause.

  KANE

  Did you go anywhere else?

  CAROLYN

  Yes.

  KANE

  Where?

  Pause.

  To his restaurant?

  CAROLYN

  Yes.

  MADISON

  You saw David?

  CAROLYN

  Yes.

  MADISON

  Why?

  CAROLYN

  To talk.

  MADISON

  About what?

  Pause.

  KANE

  He told you didn’t he?

  Pause.

  Did he tell you?

  Pause.

  He fucking told you. That prick.

  MADISON

  What did he tell you?

  Pause.

  KANE

  Everything. He told you everything didn’t he?

  Pause.

  Okay we had sex. At his hotel. We did.

  MADISON

  I knew it.

  ROYCE

  Duh.

  Pause.

  KANE

  But the other thing. It was—it wasn’t real. I was just—nervous. Scared. I thought I could go back.

  MADISON

  Back?

  KANE

  There’s no way I would’ve gone through with it. I was relieved when he said no.

  ROYCE

  You wanted him to take you back?

  KANE

  I was get
ting married. Going to be a father. Carolyn I was so fucking scared. I never would have went back to him for real. Never.

  Long pause.

  CAROLYN

  He told me nothing happened. He looked me right in the eye and I bought it.

  Longer pause.

  KANE

  Fuck.

  CAROLYN

  I think we should—re-evaluate our living situation.

  MADISON

  What does that mean?

  CAROLYN

  I’d like to live elsewhere for a while.

  ROYCE

  You can’t leave. You’re the mom.

  CAROLYN

  The mom can leave. If the kids are grown up.

  ROYCE

  I’m not fucking grown up.

  ROYCE exits.

  MADISON

  Wow.

  KANE

  It’s the past.

  CAROLYN

  I should’ve just trusted my feelings.

  KANE

  It doesn’t matter anymore.

  CAROLYN

  You’re right. Good night.

  KANE

  Where are you sleeping?

  CAROLYN

  Guess.

  CAROLYN exits.

  KANE

  I just—I can’t explain it.

  Pause.

  MADISON

  I understand.

  MADISON exits. Lights rise on DAVID opening a bag of clean linens and sorting them into piles. He hums to himself as he works. ROYCE enters holding a rifle aimed directly at DAVID’s head.

  DAVID

  You don’t want to do this.

  ROYCE

  Wanna bet.

  DAVID

  It’ll make everything worse.

  ROYCE

  Won’t matter if I’m dead.

  DAVID

  It’ll matter to your parents and sister. A lot.

  ROYCE

  I’m gonna kill you and then I’m going to go to the school to kill a few people there.

  DAVID

  It’s three a.m.

  ROYCE

  I mean in the morning. Right after classes start. Then we’ll see who’s fucking laughing.

  DAVID

  You have a single-shot twenty-two dude. Someone’ll bring you down before you reload.

  ROYCE

  I’ll have all night to practise on your dead body.

  DAVID

  Someone’s gonna hear the shot and call the cops.

  ROYCE

  I can deal with it.

  DAVID

  Think about your future Royce.

  ROYCE

  I don’t have a fucking future.

  DAVID

  Yes you do and it’ll be better.

  ROYCE

  Like standing up for myself was supposed to be better?

  DAVID

  Sure.

  ROYCE pulls his shirt up with one hand, revealing dark, painful bruises.

  ROYCE

  This is what standing up for myself got me.

  DAVID

  Jesus.

  ROYCE

  There were six of them. They wouldn’t stop kicking me when I was down. This teacher finally broke it up but I could tell from the way he looked at me he didn’t want to. Like I deserved it for being ugly or something.

  DAVID

  Put the gun down so we can talk properly.

  ROYCE

  No.

  DAVID

  Royce.

  ROYCE

  I’ll shoot you. I mean it.

  Pause.

  DAVID

  I can give you a job.

  ROYCE

  Too late.

  DAVID

  Do you want me to fuck you?

  ROYCE

  Sex is gross.

  DAVID

  Everyone has sexual feelings.

  ROYCE

  I don’t. I’ve been looking at porn since I was eight years old and it’s the most repulsive thing I’ve ever seen.

  DAVID

  Then why are you looking at it?

  ROYCE

  Hoping something’ll kick in. Everyone’s fucking hooked on it. Guys at school have hardcore porn on their iPods—their cellphones. I know girls in the tenth grade who run fuck sites out of their bedrooms. Sigfreid’s got this sick shit you wouldn’t believe. I had to threaten to tell his parents about it to get the gun.

  DAVID

  Real sex isn’t like porn.

  ROYCE

  I know. That weird fucking sound my dad makes. And her. You’d never hear that in a movie.

  DAVID

  Sex makes people do stupid things.

  ROYCE

  Y’think?

  DAVID

  Look at your parents. At me. But you don’t have this stupid weakness. You won’t make those same mistakes. You’re actually lucky.

  ROYCE

  Don’t try getting all confidential with me like you understand Mr. Perfect Teeth Mr. Wonderful Hair.

  DAVID

  It’s a weave.

  ROYCE

  What?

  DAVID

  Everything above my ears is a careful fake attached to my own thinning hair by invisible microfibres.

  ROYCE

  Get out.

  DAVID

  Check for yourself.

  ROYCE

  You’ll just try to grab the gun.

  DAVID

  No look. I’ll put my hands behind my back. Just feel.

  ROYCE touches the top of DAVID’s head.

  See.

  ROYCE

  Weird. Like Astroturf.

  DAVID

  My smile?

  ROYCE

  Yeah.

  DAVID

  Forty thousand dollars.

  ROYCE

  Shut up.

  DAVID

  Not a single filling. Who do you know that doesn’t have a single filling? And this waistline.

  ROYCE

  Yeah?

  DAVID

  Three inches removed with liposuction. Five grand.

  ROYCE

  No way.

  DAVID

  If you look just at the bottom of my eyebrows you can see very faint scars from the eye lift. Seven large. I also spend four days a week at the gym working out for at least two hours. I eat plain chicken breast raw vegetables and rice cakes for most of the week and I just fucking hate it.

  ROYCE

  Then why do you do it?

  DAVID

  Because I don’t want to be discarded. I don’t want to be not sexy. Not viable. Not yet. See. It makes us all do crazy things and you’re blessed if you seriously aren’t interested.

  ROYCE

  Quit talking.

  DAVID

  Am I making too much sense?

  ROYCE

  You’re pissing me off.

  DAVID

  Royce if you were going to shoot me you would have done it by now.

  Pause.

  Put the gun down. We can talk.

  Pause.

  ROYCE

  Are you going to call the cops?

  DAVID

  Not if you give me the rifle.

  ROYCE

  You can’t tell my parents.

  DAVID

  We’ll work something out.

  ROYCE

  Work something out?
<
br />   DAVID

  Give me the gun.

  ROYCE hands DAVID the rifle.

  ROYCE

  Mom’s leaving.

  DAVID

  Why?

  ROYCE

  Because of Montreal. I don’t.

  DAVID suddenly hits ROYCE with the butt of the gun, very hard on the bruised area. ROYCE screams in pain.

  Ow! Fuck! What did you do that for?

  DAVID

  That’s the first bullet hitting a Mormon girl you don’t even know.

  ROYCE

  What?! Shit.

  DAVID hits ROYCE again in the bruised area. ROYCE screams.

  DAVID

  That’s the second bullet hitting a Chinese kid from your English class.

  ROYCE

  Okay! I get it!

  DAVID

  This isn’t a fucking game. People get hurt. Really hurt. And it’s never the bullies who get it.

  DAVID hits ROYCE.

  ROYCE

  Don’t hurt me anymore!

  DAVID

  Get up.

  ROYCE

  Don’t hurt me. Please don’t hurt me anymore. Please don’t. Please.

  DAVID sets the rifle on the table and kneels down to help ROYCE up. ROYCE throws his arms around DAVID and sobs. DAVID holds ROYCE and soothes him. Lights rise on CAROLYN passing through the kitchen with extra linen. KANE is opening a beer.

  KANE

  Marriages go through phases.

  CAROLYN

  This isn’t a phase.

  KANE

  It is. It’s part of marriage. Right now we don’t like each other very much.

  CAROLYN

  You don’t like me?

  KANE

  Of course I do. I love you. But when you’re acting like this. Look we knew when we decided to commit that there were going to be bad times. But we swore we weren’t going to be like other parents and throw in the towel or establish a bloodless partnership for the sake of appearances. Sure there have been occasional times when I’ve hated you or was repulsed by the thought of touching you—and I know you’ve felt the same way about me. But we’re a team Carolyn. We built this house as a team we run our business as a team we raised our kids as a team.

  CAROLYN

  I know.

  KANE

  That’s a pretty big accomplishment to toss away.

  CAROLYN

  I’m not tossing it away. I’m just—thinking about moving on to some other accomplishment.

  KANE

  Please don’t say that.

  CAROLYN

  What if David had said yes? Taken you back.

  KANE

  He didn’t.

  CAROLYN

  You’d be living with him and I’d be raising Madison on my own.

  KANE moves to CAROLYN and puts his arms around her.

  KANE

  I get drunk on the way you smell. My dick gets chubby at the sound of your voice. I can’t imagine sleeping without your body next to mine. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you.

  CAROLYN has gotten turned on. She tries to get away from him.

 

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