Brian Friel Plays 1 (27 page)

TINA
:
When I finish this.

(
HELEN
places
the
flowers
on
the
seat
and
picks
up
the
broken
ones.
TINA
exits
to
the
kitchen
.)

SIR
:
‘The eldest of the family – Helen. Twenty-seven and divorced. When she was nineteen and impetuous and strong-willed, she married Private Gerry Kelly, her father’s batman, despite her mother’s bitter and vicious opposition. The marriage lasted a few months. Private Kelly deserted and vanished. And Helen went to London. This is only her second time home since then. The last time was for her mother’s funeral.’

(
HELEN
stands
still
.)

HELEN
:
When I got off the bus and walked in there this
morning the room was still stifling with her invalid’s smell. Strange, wasn’t it? And small things I thought I’d forgotten: her tiny, perfect, white teeth; the skin smooth and shiny over the arthritic knuckles; her walking-stick hooked on the back of the wicker chair. And that glass ornament on the mantelpiece that trembled when she screamed at me – (
Calmly
,
flatly
) ‘You can’t marry him, you little vixen!
Noblesse
oblige
! D’you hear –
noblesse
oblige
!’

SIR
:
She never spoke to you again?

HELEN
:
No.

SIR
:
Nor to him?

HELEN
:
Never to him.

SIR
:
Do you still feel anger?

HELEN
:
No, not a bit, I think. Not a bit.

SIR
:
And him – how real is he?

HELEN
:
Gerry? That’s over.

SIR
:
Altogether?

HELEN
:
I’m wary. I’m controlled. I discipline myself.

SIR
:
Then this homecoming was a risk?

HELEN
:
In a way.

SIR
:
A test? A deliberate test?

HELEN
:
Perhaps.

SIR
:
And you’re surviving it?

HELEN
:
I’m surviving it.

SIR
:
All right, Helen, you’ve tested yourself and you’ve paid your respects to your father. You could leave now.

HELEN
:
No. I’ll see it through.

SIR
:
Your discipline may not hold.

HELEN
:
How can I be sure that I want it to?

SIR
:
Only you can answer that.

(
She
suddenly
busies
herself
with
the
flowers.
MIRIAM
comes
briskly
through
the
front
door,
the
hall,
into
the
living-room
.)

MIRIAM
:
O my God – that heat!

(
Once
in
the
living-room
MIRIAM
gets
three
plates
from
the
sideboard
and
begins
dividing
the
carton
of
ice
cream
she
has
brought
home
.)

SIR
:
‘Miriam – he middle daughter. Married to Charlie Donnelly, clerk of the district court. She has three children.
She is thinking of them.’

MIRIAM
:
They should be arriving home from school just about now. I hope they don’t feel altogether abandoned.

SIR
:
She hasn’t seen them for three hours.

MIRIAM
:
I gave them soup and sandwiches and a bar of chocolate each for lunch; and Mrs Moyne’ll have a hot meal ready for them when they get back. And she’ll stay with them until Charlie gets home from the court in Glenties. Then he’ll leave her home and come back and make them liver and bacon for their tea. And then he’ll go and collect her again and she’ll get them porridge and bread and jam for supper and put them to bed.

SIR
:
They are not neglected children.

MIRIAM
:
Then he’ll come and collect me and we should be home soon after midnight. He doesn’t like hanging about here – no more than I do myself.

SIR
:
‘Before she married, Miriam was a nurse.’

MIRIAM
:
All the same it’s a big day for Papa and I’m glad I came. God, wouldn’t the kids love some of this ice cream!

(
SIR
looks at the audience and spreads his hands
.)

MIRIAM
:
(
Calling
) Who’s for ice cream? Anyone for ice cream?

TINA
:
(
From kitchen
) Me!

(
MIRIAM
carries
the
tray
of
dishes
out
to
the
garden.
)

MIRIAM
:
Ice cream, Helen?

HELEN
:
Lovely.

MIRIAM
:
Did you ever see the likes of that crowd milling about the gates?

HELEN
:
I came up the back way.

MIRIAM
:
TV cameras and reporters and what-not. And Sergeant Burke trying to control the traffic and looking as if he was going to cry. And that mad wife of his with her hair dyed a bright orange, beside herself with excitement and blowing kisses into all the nobs’ cars as they pass through the gate. Sweet God – bedlam! And all the buckos from the village – the Morans and the Sharkeys and all that gang – all squinting and gleeking and not missing a bar. Oh, but there’ll be tales to be told for years to come.

(
TINA
has
joined
them
.)

TINA
:
(
To
MIRIAM
) Did you get the May flowers?

MIRIAM
:
Not me – her ladyship here.

HELEN
:
Aren’t they pretty?

TINA
:
Remember – we used to gather great armfuls of them and put them up on the May altar on the landing.

MIRIAM
:
In jam jars. (
Passes plate
.) Here.

TINA
:
And bundles of bluebells that would go limp overnight and hang over the sides.

HELEN
:
The smell of them through the house – a sickly smell, wasn’t it?

TINA
:
And us kneeling on the lino for the prayers and easing up one knee and then the other with the pain. Do you remember, Helen? 

(
Very brief pause
.)

HELEN
:
That meadow beyond the school’s full of flowers.

MIRIAM
:
What meadow’s that?

TINA
:
Phil the Butcher’s field.

HELEN
:
Phil Boyle and Mary! I saw him watching me from behind the byre, but I couldn’t remember his name.

MIRIAM
:
Baldy Phil and Hairy Mary – I never could enjoy meat from that place.

TINA
:
Did you not speak to him?

HELEN
:
No, he wouldn’t remember me now.

TINA
:
’Course he would.

MIRIAM
:
God, they must be ancient, that pair.

TINA
:
D’you remember – Mammy used to send us for eggs every Saturday morning –

MIRIAM
:
‘You’re to say: “A dozen eggs for
Commandant
Butler, please”’– hoping to get them cheap!

TINA
:
And if Ben came with us, Mary’d always give him a huge kiss.

MIRIAM
:
A rub of her beard!

TINA
:
And he always cried and then she’d give him a duck egg for himself and Daddy used to say he cried just to get the duck egg – d’you remember?

MIRIAM
:
Oh, sweet God!

TINA
:
D’you remember, Helen?

(
As
HELEN
passes her she hugs her briefly. Pause
.)

HELEN
:
Yes. Yes, I remember.

MIRIAM
:
God bless Mammy and make her healthy again. God bless Daddy and have him transferred to Dublin.

TINA
:
We all had that bit.

MIRIAM
:
God bless Uncle Tom and make him a good priest. God bless Helen, Ben and Tina. And God bless me and give me bigger thighs than Josie McGrenra. And I got them.

TINA
:
What’s this my rhyme was? God bless Mammy, Daddy, Uncle Tom, Helen, Miriam, Ben and Stinky Bum Blue.

MIRIAM
:
Who?

TINA
:
A rag doll. Still have her. God bless the Irish army and make it strong and brave.

(
MIRIAM
and
HELEN
laugh
.)

HELEN
:
Tina!

TINA
:
That’s true. And look at Daddy! And God bless me and take me up to heaven before my tenth birthday.

MIRIAM
:
Weren’t you lucky you were ignored!

(
HELEN
and
TINA
speak
together
.)

TINA
:
Sorry – go ahead.

HELEN
:
I was just going to ask you, do you see Ben often?

TINA
:
You know Ben.

MIRIAM
:
Yes!

TINA
:
Whenever he takes the notion. When Daddy was out in the Middle East he called in maybe a couple of times a week. But now that he’s back –

MIRIAM
:
Did you know that Charlie got him a job driving the mobile library? Surely to God that wasn’t too taxing on him. And he stuck it for how long? Four days. Walked out without as much as a by your leave. Left the bloody library van sitting out in the bogs beyond Loughcrillan. Oh, that fella!

HELEN
:
Do they speak at all?

TINA
:
Daddy and him? When they meet. If they have to.

HELEN
:
I thought I might have run into him when I was down at the shore. Where has he got his caravan?

TINA
:
God knows where you’d find him. Sometimes he works
on the boats. Or does odd days labouring. And then he disappears for weeks – I don’t know where he goes – Scotland – Dublin. But he always comes back. Always,

MIRIAM
:
Like malaria.

TINA
:
But if he’s around and hears you’re here he’ll be sure to call.

HELEN
:
I hope so.

MIRIAM
:
Listen to me – let there be no romantic aul’ chat about brother Ben. He’s a wastrel – a spoiled mother’s boy. And if he turns up today to ruin the biggest event in Father’s life I’ll soon send him packing. So. (
Lights
a
cigarette
.)
Sure you’re not smoking?

HELEN
:
Positive.

TINA
:
Three years off – isn’t she great?

MIRIAM
:
Magnificent. Tell us about London.

HELEN
:
It’s all right. The same office job, the same landlady since I went there.

MIRIAM
:
Digs or a flat?

HELEN
:
Digs.

TINA
:
Mrs Zimmermann from Zürich.

HELEN
:
If she thinks I need cheering up she says: ‘Come and have a cup of coffee with me, Mrs Kelly. I have a most funny joke to impart to you.’