The Collected Shorter Plays Read Free Page B

sun will shine an instant, then sink, behind the hills. [
She realizes Mr. Barrell has gone
.] Mr. Barrell! Mr. Barrell! [
Silence
.] I estrange them all. They come towards me, uninvited, bygones bygones, full of kindness, anxious to help . . . [
the voice breaks
] . . . genuinely pleased . . . to see me again . . . looking so well. . . . [
Handkerchief
.] A few simple words . . . from my heart . . . and I am all alone . . . once more. . . . [
Handkerchief. Vehemently
.] I should not be out at all! I should never leave the grounds! [
Pause
.] Oh there is that Fitt woman, I wonder will she bow to me. [
Sound
of
Miss Fitt approaching, humming a hymn. She starts climbing the steps
.] Miss Fitt! [
Miss Fitt halts, stops humming
.] Am I then invisible, Miss Fitt? Is this cretonne so becoming to me that I merge into the masonry? [
Miss Fitt descends a step
.] That is right,Miss Fitt, look closely and you will finally distinguish a once female shape.
MISS FITT
Mrs. Rooney! I saw you, but I did not know you.
MRS. ROONEY
Last Sunday we worshipped together. We knelt side by side at the same altar. We drank from the same chalice. Have I so changed since then?
MISS FITT
[
shocked
] Oh but in church, Mrs. Rooney, in church I am alone with my Maker. Are not you? [
Pause
.] Why even the sexton himself, you know, when he takes up the collection, knows it is useless to pause before me. I simply do not see the plate, or bag, whatever it is they use, how could I? [
Pause
.] Why even when all is over and I go out into the sweet fresh air, why even then for the first furlong or so I stumble in a kind of daze as you might say, oblivious to my co-religionists. And they are very kind I must admit—the vast majority—very kind and understanding. They know me now and take no umbrage. There she goes, they say, there goes the dark Miss Fitt, alone with her Maker, take no notice of her. And they step down off the path to avoid my running into them. [
Pause
.] Ah yes, I am distray, very distray, even on week-days. Ask Mother, if you do not believe me. Hetty, she says, when I start eating my doily instead of the thin bread and butter, Hetty, how can you be so distray? [
Sighs
.] I suppose the truth is I am not there, Mrs. Rooney, just not really there at all. I see, hear, smell, and so on, I go through the usual motions, but my heart is not in it, Mrs. Rooney, my heart is in none of it. Left to myself, with no one to check me, I would soon be flown . . . home. [
Pause
.] So if you think I cut you just now, Mrs. Rooney, you do me an injustice. All I saw was a big pale blur, just another big pale blur. [
Pause
.] Is anything amiss, Mrs. Rooney, you do not look normal somehow. So bowed and bent.
MRS. ROONEY
[
ruefully
] Maddy Rooney, née Dunne, the big pale blur. [
Pause
.] You have piercing sight, Miss Fitt, if you only knew it, literally piercing. [
Pause
.]
MISS FITT
Well . . . is there anything I can do, now that I am here?
MRS. ROONEY
If you would help me up the face of this cliff, Miss Fitt, I have little doubt your Maker would requite you, if no one else.
MISS FITT
Now, now, Mrs. Rooney, don’t put your teeth in me. Requite! I make these sacrifices for nothing—or not at all. [
Pause. Sound of her descending steps
.] I take it you want to lean on me, Mrs. Rooney.
MRS. ROONEY
I asked Mr. Barrell to give me his arm, just give me his arm. [
Pause
.] He turned on his heel and strode away.
MISS FITT
Is it my arm you want then? [
Pause. Impatiently
.] Is it my arm you want, Mrs. Rooney, or what is it?
MRS. ROONEY
[
exploding
] Your arm! Any arm! A helping hand! For five seconds! Christ what a planet!
MISS FITT
Really. . . . Do you know what it is, Mrs. Rooney, I do not think it is wise of you to be going about at all.
MRS. ROONEY
[
violently
] Come down here, Miss Fitt, and give me your arm, before I scream down the parish! [
Pause. Wind. Sound of Miss Fitt descending last steps
.]
MISS FITT
[
resignedly
] Well, I suppose it is the Protestant thing to