Complete Works, Volume IV Read Free Page A

it was.
    Pause
    DEELEY Anyway, none of this matters.
    Anna turns from the window, speaking, and moves down to them, eventually sitting on the second sofa.
    ANNA Queuing all night, the rain, do you remember? my goodness, the Albert Hall, Covent Garden, what did we eat? to look back, half the night, to do things we loved, we were young then of course, but what stamina, and to work in the morning, and to a concert, or the opera, or the ballet, that night, you haven’t forgotten? and then riding on top of the bus down Kensington High Street, and the bus conductors, and then dashing for the matches for the gasfire and then I suppose scrambled eggs, or did we? who cooked? both giggling and chattering, both huddling to the heat, then bed and sleeping, and all the hustle and bustle in the morning, rushing for the bus again for work, lunchtimes in Green Park, exchanging all our news, with our very own sandwiches, innocent girls, innocent secretaries, and then the night to come, and goodness knows what excitement in store, I mean the sheer expectation of it all, the looking-forwardness of it all, and so poor, but to be poor and young, and a girl, in London then . . . and the cafés we found, almost private ones, weren’t they? where artists and writers and sometimes actors collected, and others with dancers, we sat hardly breathing with our coffee, heads bent, so as not to be seen, so as not to disturb, so as not to distract, and listened and listened to all those words, all those cafés and all those people, creative undoubtedly, and does it still exist I wonder? do you know? can you tell me?
    Slight pause
    DEELEY We rarely get to London.
    Kate stands, goes to a small table and pours coffee from a pot.
    KATE Yes, I remember.
    She adds milk and sugar to one cup and takes it to Anna. She takes a black coffee to Deeley and then sits with her own.
    DEELEY ( to Anna. ) Do you drink brandy?
    ANNA I would love some brandy.
    Deeley pours brandy for all and hands the glasses. He remains standing with his own.
    ANNA Listen. What silence. Is it always as silent?
    DEELEY It’s quite silent here, yes. Normally.
    Pause
    You can hear the sea sometimes if you listen very carefully.
    ANNA How wise you were to choose this part of the world, and how sensible and courageous of you both to stay permanently in such a silence.
    DEELEY My work takes me away quite often, of course. But Kate stays here.
    ANNA No one who lived here would want to go far. I would not want to go far, I would be afraid of going far, lest when I returned the house would be gone.
    DEELEY Lest?
    ANNA What?
    DEELEY The word lest. Haven’t heard it for a long time.
    Pause
    KATE Sometimes I walk to the sea. There aren’t many people. It’s a long beach.
    Pause
    ANNA But I would miss London, nevertheless. But of course I was a girl in London. We were girls together.
    DEELEY I wish I had known you both then.
    ANNA Do you?
    DEELEY Yes.
    Deeley pours more brandy for himself.
    ANNA You have a wonderful casserole.
    DEELEY What?
    ANNA I mean wife. So sorry. A wonderful wife.
    DEELEY Ah.
    ANNA I was referring to the casserole. I was referring to your wife’s cooking.
    DEELEY You’re not a vegetarian, then?
    ANNA No. Oh no.
    DEELEY Yes, you need good food in the country, substantial food, to keep you going, all the air . . . you know.
    Pause
    KATE Yes, I quite like those kind of things, doing it.
    ANNA What kind of things?
    KATE Oh, you know, that sort of thing.
    Pause
    DEELEY Do you mean cooking?
    KATE All that thing.
    ANNA We weren’t terribly elaborate in cooking, didn’t have the time, but every so often dished up an incredibly enormous stew, guzzled the lot, and then more often than not sat up half the night reading Yeats.
    Pause
    ( To herself .) Yes. Every so often. More often than not.
    Anna stands, walks to the window.
    And the sky is so still.
    Pause
    Can you see that tiny ribbon of light? Is that the sea? Is that the horizon?
    DEELEY You live on a very different coast.
    ANNA