Act Two
Good Blood And High Standards
By G. L. Horton
copyright © 1990,
2004
Geralyn Horton
ACT II SCENE 1
(LIZ is sprawled across the wicker chair, her feet propped
up on the desk, reading in her childhood diary, an album-like
book. She rips out the page she has just finished, crumples it,
adds it to a crumpled pile. When she hears ISABELLA's approach,
LIZ shoves the book and papers into the open desk drawer, quickly
shuts and locks it; puts the key, which is on a chain, around
her neck.)
ISABELLA
Where are they?
LIZ
Still upstairs. What are you going to do?
ISABELLA (pouring herself some sherry)
Do? Now? Guests are arriving. I must greet them, do my proper
duty.
LIZ
To the guests, or to the ghosts?
ISABELLA
I've always been able to feel them here. Watching me, judging
us.
LIZ
Who? The great They? Or a particular ancestor, like Great-grandmother
Sarah?
ISABELLA
My father, in particular. His parents and grandparents, yes, all
the way back to the Wells who were founders of this country--.
LIZ
That's such a fraud. The Almighty Ancestors. Ours had money and
status, some of them. But tell me one notable deed, one work of
art or invention, that was actually ours. Done personally by a
Wells or a Grantham or a Coumbs or a Durham? All they did was
buy and hire. Donate and patronize.
ISABELLA
Our family's not about invention! The discharge of duty, the upholding
of standards--! What would you do if I were to turn this over
to you?
LIZ
You mean this house?
ISABELLA
Say I resent being manipulated.
LIZ
I'd have to think about Kim. What's best for her.
ISABELLA
You wouldn't give it to an ashram or something?
LIZ
No. But I'd have to think, hard. It was terrible for us alone
here, you know. Worse for John than for me. But a house is just
a house.
ISABELLA
Indeed. Why condemn a house, when you can blame your mother?
LIZ
I don't want to blame you! I get so pissed with myself, when I
open my mouth to you and out comes a smart alec brat. I'm not
so far from old, myself, now. I wish to God I could attain a little
serenity.
ISABELLA
This house could be your job. You wouldn't have to type in an
office.
LIZ
I can't type. Remember?
ISABELLA
The East rooms and the library could be my apartment. I'd get
to know Kim.
LIZ
Giving up on John-John?
ISABELLA
I suppose you think this is no more than I deserve.
LIZ
You must admit a certain irony. You always seemed to think of
kids as a kind of conveyer belt, rolling the almighty family from
here to posterity.
ISABELLA
You really felt like that?
LIZ
John, too. Groomed to be future custodian of all the artifacts
that were worthy of your love. That's when we were noticed at
all. I resented Brigman because you smiled at him, envied the
Chippendale because you touched it. But then, after I began doing
my crafts, I had a revelation!. I was wrong to be jealous of the
chairs.
ISABELLA
Is that an apology?
LIZ
You're not a materialist; not the sort to fondle fabric or wood.
ISABELLA
If I gave to these objects the attention you feel should have
been yours-
LIZ
I wish you had: hugged every stick and finial. But beauty doesn't
stop you in your tracks. I don't think that there's a single thing
here in this house that's precious to you for its own sake. Is
there?
ISABELLA
They are precious because they represent a way of life--
LIZ
You learned their value by rote, because Family Authority said
so.
ISABELLA
I haven't time for this.
LIZ
Abstract value, like abstract love, is useless. Worse: it kills.
ISABELLA
What are you talking about?
LIZ
Materialism. When the Bible says "the love of money is the
root of all evil"--
ISABELLA
I memorized that in Sunday School. Is the Bible politically correct
again, then?
LIZ
I'm making a point. It's not materialism that's condemned, but
abstraction. Loving money is loving a concept rather than the
real thing.
ISABELLA
Really, Elizabeth.
LIZ
It's all right to treasure possessions, if it's from the heart.
My sculptures, Kim's woodworking. Old valentines. Odd bits of
shell---
ISABELLA
Junk.
LIZ
A gold frame says look! All this money: what's inside must be
beautiful. But maybe framing it turns it ugly. A way of saying
"conform, adapt, repress, be silent--"
ISABELLA
You were hardly silent.
LIZ
I might as well have been, for all the difference it made.
ISABELLA
That whine again! There's no defense against your whining. I don't
even understand what you mean by it.
LIZ
That's what I told my therapists.
ISABELLA
I suppose now I ought to rejoice because John's getting "love"
from Torrie. "My special TLC"! Well, goody for him!
No matter what she is, she's better than Cynthia. But accept my
children whatever they do, give them whatever they want, clutch
them to my bosom like stray pets?
LIZ (laughs)
I'm trying to imagine you with stray pets!
ISABELLA
I have no interest in pets! Animals aren't people. The regard
of one human being for another ought to be earned.
LIZ
Sorry.
ISABELLA
Who was there to love me? I was never coddled, or made into a
pet. My own mother died almost before I can remember. You don't
see me snuffling about for scraps of affection!
LIZ
My therapists point that out. It's not fair to blame you, for
not giving what you never had--
ISABELLA
What's wrong with self-reliance?
LIZ
I'll let you know after my first week on the job.
ISABELLA
You really need more than your trust? You got nothing from George?
LIZ
I didn't ask him. He's not rich, you know. A lot of his work is
charity.
ISABELLA
Blood or no blood, Kim is his responsibility. He could give up
his charities until Kim's grown.
LIZ
I gave up mine. With the best of intentions, I couldn't stop trying
to run people's lives. After all, my standards are so much higher!
And then I began to resent them, these objects of charity, because
they're so stupid and ugly and ungrateful, and yet somehow they
outsmart me all the time. Are you gloating yet, Mother? A lesson
in class. Social work doesn't suit me.
ISABELLA
At your age, you can't start a career. George should see that.
LIZ
Between his debts and his girlfriend's new baby, I didn't think
I ought to insist. I-- (TORRIE and JOHN at door.) Little
brother. Torrie.
ISABELLA
Well, come in. Come in.
JOHN
How's the weather in here?
LIZ
Clearing.
JOHN
Good. Sit down, Torrie. So I can. I'm going to be stiff.
ISABELLA (to John)
How was your golf?
JOHN
Not bad, not bad at all. I'm not up to my old handicap but I held
my own against Buddy. He's put on so much weight I'm surprised
he can see the tee.
TORRIE
John is fitter than he's been in years.
JOHN
I've been working out.
TORRIE
He watches what he eats, too, don't you, darling?
JOHN
Sure do. Fact is, I'd like to watch some right now!
ISABELLA
It's too early to think about dinner, John. We could have a cocktail.
Don't pretend to be shocked, Elizabeth, I'm still allowed one.
JOHN (going to the cart)
I'm not. What have you got here?
TORRIE (reinforcing him)
The lemonade's delicious.
JOHN
Any of those scones? Like Anna Macdougal used to make?
ISABELLA
Rita makes cakes. They're under the cover.
JOHN
These'll do. Until dinnertime.
ISABELLA
I'm expecting the Tildens.
JOHN
Tonight?
ISABELLA
Around six. It'd be a long drive for them, so I've asked them
to stay.
JOHN
Anybody else?
ISABELLA
Two couples are coming in from New York, but late, so they won't
expect to have dinner. We will eat, John. It's not necessary for
you to shovel in those cakes with both hands.
LIZ
Torrie tells us that you're doing photography.
JOHN
I sure am. Has Torrie shown you?
TORRIE
They've seen the ones of the house and the baby.
JOHN
What about the portraits? Did Torrie show you the portraits?
ISABELLA
No.
JOHN
Well, why don't you get them, honey? They're in the case on the
back seat of the car.
TORRIE
I don't think this is the time for...
JOHN
I'd really like to show them. They'll be interested. You go on,
now. (TORRIE goes)
ISABELLA
John. Your wife seems to feel that we shouldn't talk, but there
are some things we need to straighten out. I could have a heart
attack or a stroke any day-- Charlotte Steen did. With things
left unsettled--
JOHN
There'll be time. Aren't you expecting a houseful of people? You're
the hostess, you can't be embattled. These portraits of mine are
rather special. I did the first ones in the hospital: all the
patients on my floor.
LIZ
I came to see you, did you know? Four times, but they would never
let me in.
JOHN
I wasn't allowed visitors, not for a while.
ISABELLA
Not even your own mother?
JOHN
The doctors do what they think best, Mother. Now, I believe you're
going to like my portraits. In the halfway house we used to play
a quiz game with them. Try to match each face with its case history.
Hardly anybody guessed mine.
LIZ
I wouldn't dare. But I'd be glad if you'd tell me.
JOHN
My diagnosis?
LIZ
Not just that, but why. Heredity? Childhood trauma? Marriage?
ISABELLA
Elizabeth!
JOHN
I was carried away by pirates. Captain Morgan. Johnny Walker.
Jim Beam.
LIZ (to Isabella)
They sound like old friends. How much did Dad drink, Mother?
ISABELLA
Your father didn't "drink"!
LIZ
Everybody drank! Cocktails, liqueurs, sherry!
ISABELLA
Socially.
JOHN
Most a little more.
LIZ
I thought I'd never seen Dad drunk. But then after he died, I
thought some more, and I began to wonder if I'd ever seen him
sober.
JOHN (laughs)
That's funny, Liz. You know, I'd never thought of that!
ISABELLA
Your father's death is not amusing.
LIZ
His liver. What kills the liver? Besides alcohol, what?
JOHN
Hepatitis.
LIZ
How many of our friends have died of drink? Adams, Buswell, two
of the Grainger boys, Wally Wallace--
ISABELLA
He was killed in a collision.
LIZ
Drunk driving. How many others?
JOHN
That's a pretty tall order, Liz.
LIZ
But you've thought about it? When you were drinking? Or in the
hospital. You've added them up?
JOHN
I've thought about it.
LIZ
Did you do the Twelve Steps? "Give me the power to change--"
ISABELLA
Elizabeth! John's entitled to some privacy. As are our family
and friends. This ghastly urge your generation has to "let
it all hang out!" We know John was ill, we know he's better
now, what's the point?
LIZ
I don't know anything!
ISABELLA
We have what Torrie's told us, we have her letters.
LIZ
Nobody wrote to me.
JOHN (getting up)
'Scuse me a minute, Sis. (calling) Torrie!
TORRIE (right outside and coming in)
Here, darling.
JOHN (taking the portfolio)
The first section of this album is portraits, and the back half's
architecture.
TORRIE
He did a lot of those when we were looking for a house.
JOHN (showing Isabella)
Here's a house right outside Philly that's the twin sister of
this one.
TORRIE
There's no grounds though, they've built right up to it. There's
a clinic next door, with a beauty parlor at street level.
JOHN
It's an old folks home.
ISABELLA
An old folks home!
LIZ
All those rooms to heat, it makes sense to have people in them.
TORRIE
There's people in them, all right: two, three, and even four to
a room. Wheelchair ramps slashed across the verandah.
JOHN
The original floor plan was just like this one, though.
TORRIE
Except they used local stone.
JOHN
A different treatment on the windows. Still, I bet it's the same
architect.
TORRIE
See this carved door? And will you look at the roof, see where
they've opened it up with a skylight. You ought to do that here,
its so dark up there on the third floor.
LIZ
Nothing up there but servants and children: why should they need
light? (the doorbell chimes)
ISABELLA
That must be the Tildens.
JOHN
Hooray! We eat.
ISABELLA
We eat when I let Rita know we're ready, John. Show some restraint.
(ISABELLA goes toward the door to greet her guests)
LIZ
May I look at the house? (JOHN goes to LIZ with pictures)
TORRIE
The Tildens will be wanting to get acquainted with me and see
the baby, John. Lizzy can look for herself, can't she?
(JOHN grins and exits with TORRIE. LIZ looks after them, then
takes the key on a chain from around her neck. She opens the "secrets"
drawer in the desk, takes out the diary and some odd objects which
we can't see clearly; looks through them.)
ACT TWO, SCENE TWO
Late that night. John enters the conservatory. He checks to
make sure that no one is there, and that he hasn't been followed,
and then he takes a long drink from a cordial bottle concealed
under his jacket.
TORRIE (at door)
John? (pause) Darling? Are you in here?
JOHN (hides the bottle beneath his coat.)
I'm in here.
TORRIE
What are you doing?
JOHN
Getting out from under the axe.
TORRIE
But you've been perfect, Sweetheart! And I haven't done too badly,
have I? Your mother's decided not to attack, so there's no reason
to hide.
JOHN
You think so? She's watching. Keeping score. We won't escape punishment.
TORRIE
For what? What's wrong?
JOHN
Talking, laughing, scratching my ear: everything we do is wrong.
TORRIE
Everything I do?
JOHN
Not you, now. For now, Liz and me.
TORRIE
That's silly. You're behaving just like your mother does.
JOHN
Oh, no. She knows I'm a fake. She's never believed in any of my
performances-- School, work, friends? -- all cheek, a poor imitation.
You just can't see it, Torrie. So don't try to copy her, all right?
The harder you try, the cheaper you look.
TORRIE
John!
JOHN
You asked for it. You insisted. Believe me, Torrie, her standards
are not my standards. But the minute I set foot in her house,
that's it. No peasants need apply.
TORRIE
Running away is like running right out of your own life.
JOHN
Then that's what I've got to do! Can I be in your life, please?
Or Liz's? Or even Buddy Crowther's!
TORRIE
You're being childish.
JOHN
That's what I'm telling you! Right now I've got the responses
of an eight year old, while my body feels eighty! Wouldn't you
hide?
TORRIE
I did. Till I learned that the only way to be free was to confront
them.
JOHN
All right. I'll confront her. But without the damn house guests.
TORRIE
I know how hard it is.
JOHN
With Mother there was always an audience. We kids, we were always
putting on a show for them. Never a moment--- God, I'm tired.
TORRIE (smoothing his hair)
Shall we go to bed?
JOHN
Just being in that damn room with her. Seeing her carry it on
as if it's still the 1950's.
TORRIE
Or the 1550's, in a well-run kingdom-
JOHN
--Queendom....I wanted to jump up on the table, kick over the
goblets, swing from the chandelier... the peasants revolt!
TORRIE (puts her arms around him)
Time for a soothing massage.
JOHN (he shrugs away)
Forget it, I'm fine now. I don't need a ministering angel.
TORRIE
You don't look fine.
(ISABELLA can be heard faintly, talking in the hall outside.
JOHN motions for TORRIE to be quiet as ISABELLA nears the door.)
ISABELLA
Tell them I'll be back in a minute, Alice. I just want to check
the conservatory -- the children gravitate there, heaven knows
why. (at the door) Elizabeth?
TORRIE
Lizzy's not here.
ISABELLA (to TORRIE)
I thought you'd gone to bed. It's Elizabeth and John I'm looking
for.
JOHN
I don't know where Lizzy's gone. But Torrie was about to go up
and check on the baby. Do you want her to check to see if Lizzy
is in her room and send her down?
ISABELLA
You'll do. The party's breaking up, and at least one of my children
should be at my side to bid them goodbye.
JOHN
Demonstrating that I'm neither falling down drunk nor totally
insane?
ISABELLA
Demonstrating that we haven't entirely forgotten our manners.
TORRIE
We can do that, John.
JOHN
You needn't, dear. One polite symbol is sufficient, new mothers
are excused. Torrie should go upstairs in case John-john wakes
for his midnight feeding, Mother. But you know about that, don't
you?
ISABELLA
I rather assumed--
JOHN
Assumed, rather than remembered? Because babies don't sleep through
the night till nearly a year-- any mother knows that.
ISABELLA
There's a great deal I don't know, at least about this particular
baby.
JOHN
About babies generally. You do know the old saying, "It's
a wise child that knows its own father?" Well, nowadays there
are statistics. What's the percentage, Torrie? Of newborns who
can't possibly be related to the husband on the birth certificate?
TORRIE
Some hospital tests found one in five, others one in seven.
ISABELLA
I'm not interested in babies generally. I'm interested in this
family.
JOHN
And those statistics don't count near misses, where it could be
the husband or his brother or his dad---
ISABELLA
These-- deceits-- have nothing to do with a family like ours.
Our line--
JOHN
You can't be sure, Mother. It's a matter of faith. I dare you!
Dig up old Captain Coumbs, and test his DNA. The Captain was mostly
at sea in the 1840's, and I'd bet you the Durham farm to a pocket
hankie that your grandfather Chester came as a surprise to him.
ISABELLA
That's a lie! You're making up lies!
JOHN
Am I? How do you know?
ISABELLA
Our kind don't do such things.
JOHN
Oh, yes they do. They just don't talk about them. The Queen of
England is almost certainly not--
ISABELLA
The Queen of England! Is that your excuse? For foisting--?
JOHN
I don't need an excuse! My wife has borne a beautiful child, and
she tells me that by a medical miracle he's mine. I choose to
believe her, just as I believed her when she said that I could
reclaim my life and be happy. Why can't you bend a little, take
some things on faith?
ISABELLA
Endorse a fraud? Are you trying to kill me?
TORRIE
John! She's awfully pale! Do you feel all right, Mother Grantham?
ISABELLA (waving them away)
I'm fine. I'm not some feeble invalid you can manipulate
TORRIE (to JOHN)
Maybe we should call 911?
ISABELLA
No! I'm perfectly fine¹. I'm up past my bedtime, is all.
If he had done his duty as a host, as I asked--
TORRIE
At least sit down and rest a moment.
ISABELLA
I prefer to stand. (JOHN suddenly sits. TORRIE, all her attention
on ISABELLA, puts her arm around her to prop her up.) In a
moment, I will be going to my rest. But first I must return to
the foyer, where Alice and the others are waiting to say goodbye
to me.
JOHN
Goodbye?
ISABELLA (seeing John sitting, dismisses him & goes toward
the door)
Good night, I mean. You needn't bother to accompany me.
TORRIE
John, give us a hand.
JOHN
I-- I can't. My legs seem to have given out.
ISABELLA (shaking her off)
I don't need any assistance. I'm quite myself, now.
TORRIE (turns to JOHN)
I'll be back for you as soon as I've put her to bed.
JOHN
No, you go on up. If I sit here for a minute--
(ISABELLA has made her way through the door, TORRIE scurries
off to help her. JOHN takes the cordial bottle out again, drains
it, and drops the empty in the plant next to his chair. He goes
to the desk, tests the drawer. It's locked. LIZ enters, comes
up behind JOHN, and puts her hands over his eyes. She is wearing
a bizarre low-cut floor-length gown, spangled black, with snakelike
trim and zodiacal signs on it.)
LIZ
Guess who!
JOHN
Lizzy! What a scare you gave me.
LIZ
Guilty conscience?
JOHN
What could I have to feel guilty about?
LIZ (points at desk drawer)
A little burglary?
JOHN (tries drawer)
There can't be anything left in here.
LIZ
Why not? I never gave up the key. (shows it)
JOHN
What are you up to..?
LIZ
The same thing you are, I imagine. Isn't amazing we're so alike?
JOHN
Frightening.
LIZ
I saw your bodyguard leave. Is the coast clear, or did she just
dash out for a pee?
JOHN
She's deserted. I'm a trial. To all who love me.
LIZ (putting her arms round him.)
Surely not. A sweet boy like you. What's the matter?
JOHN
You smell like moth balls.
LIZ
How do you know? How'd you manage to get their little legs apart?
JOHN
Get what?
LIZ
The moth's little legs. Apart to smell his balls.
JOHN (laughing helplessly)
Aaarrggg! Remember the one about the rattlesnake?
LIZ (laughing, patting John's back)
How does an elephant pack his trunk? You smell pretty funny yourself.
What're you drinking?
JOHN
Guava liqueur, I think. It's gone, I can't offer you.
LIZ
Got some. Primed for burglary. (LIZ holds up her glass.)
JOHN
Offer me?
LIZ
Sure! (LIZ hands him her glass)
JOHN
Naughty, naughty.
LIZ (takes back glass, drains it)
Oh, right. It's bad for you. Don't want to do what's bad for you.
JOHN
Bad manners, not share. Set an example.
LIZ
Bad example. (they giggle)
JOHN
Not really stealing. The stuff's family.
LIZ
I stole. Raided the attic.
JOHN (indicates LIZ's dress)
For That?
LIZ (twirls about)
Recognize it?
JOHN (nods)
Third Witch.
LIZ
Maman's.
JOHN
From the Scottish Play. Which witch you were wont to wear.
LIZ
When the coast was clear.
JOHN
Doesn't fit you the way it fit when you were ten.
LIZ
I took out the pins. Tres chic.
JOHN
When was this raid? Made?
LIZ
Right after you fled, Johnny-O. Immediately subsequent to Mother's
touching recitation of the Wells' genealogy and morals.
JOHN
Sorry I missed that. What'd she say when she saw the costume?
LIZ
Not a thing. Mother looked right through me, just like she used
to, just as if I were still wearing my good little blue silk suit.
But I think she got the message.
JOHN
Which is-- witch?
LIZ
That I can't come home and be her good little blue silk girl.
JOHN
You're starting to look like her. Have you noticed?
LIZ
God, no. Really?
JOHN (holding up empty glass)
Mamma witch and baby witch. Is there any more where you got this?
LIZ (checking the cart)
It's all cleared up but the brandy.
JOHN (hands LIZ his glass)
Fine. Brandy.
LIZ (hands the glass back to JOHN)
Pour it yourself if you insist. I want to be able to look your
little wifey in the eye and swear that I wasn't an Enabler. (JOHN
pours) Do you really want to live here, Johnny? Take over
this house?
JOHN
God, no! Torrie does.
LIZ
It's what Mother wants. Or at least, she wants one of us to want
it.
JOHN
When did what she wants matter all that much?
LIZ
Oh, it always mattered. It mattered so much we had to do anything
but. Hell of a way to build a life.
JOHN
How long did it take you to figure that out?
LIZ
About a quarter of a century. Still working on it.
JOHN
Me, too.
LIZ
Your bride seems eager --- considering the skeletons.
JOHN (rattles the drawer)
Are you going to open this?
LIZ (unlocks the drawer and takes out things.)
Eye of newt, and toe of frog.........(LIZ holds up scraps of
paper, feathers, powders, etc. and throws them into a wastebasket.)
JOHN
Was that our itching powder?
LIZ
And our rain charm, and our blood oath...
JOHN
I kept my oath, for too long. Why don't you let up on me?
LIZ (making magical gestures)
You're released, absolved. I absolve you.
JOHN
Thanks. And I release you.
LIZ
I appreciate that. But the clock ran out. Absolution, however--
JOHN
I can't, Sis.
LIZ
Can't?
JOHN
Sorry. Would if I could. (pause. LIZ begins ripping diary.)
JOHN
I've always wondered what all you put in there.
LIZ
You can read what I save, after I've censored it.
JOHN
Did we really believe in that mumbo jumbo? (chants) "Mumbo
jumbo will hoodoo you.."
LIZ
It worked, whether we believed in it or not. (pauses ripping
to read)
JOHN
Find what you're looking for?
LIZ (reading)
"Mother's selling Brown Beauty. She says I'm not responsible
enough to have a pony, because I rode him into the pond and ruined
my watch. But really she hates him because he loves me."
(LIZ crumples paper)
JOHN
Did you keep those crazy letters I wrote you? When I thought I
was frigging Byron!
LIZ
I burned the letters. I kept your poems, though. They're beautiful.
JOHN (holds out hand)
Give them to me.
LIZ
They're not here. I had them typed and bound.
JOHN
Bound? You mean like published?
LIZ
John, I sent you a copy.
JOHN
No you didn't!
LIZ
Yes, I did.
JOHN
Did not!
LIZ
John, I did. And you got it. You called and told me you got it.
JOHN
I didn't.
LIZ
I sent it to you in Los Angeles, that was.. when? The early eighties?
JOHN
God. Eighty-three, probably. That was a terrible year. Maybe I--
LIZ
Forgot?
JOHN
No! No, Lizzy. I would have had a reaction. I would remember.
LIZ
I did think it strange that you didn't react.
JOÎHN
What reaction would you expect? From anyone?
LIZ
I only show your poems to people I trust. Their reaction is positive.
JOHN
Jesus! How many?
LIZ
Maybe -- six. People who care for me.
JOHN
Like Kim? Have you shown them to Kim?
LIZ
Not yet, but when she's old enough.
JOHN
"When she's old enough"! When would that be?
LIZ
She's slower to develop--
JOHN
You really are shameless! Mother's right. The flaunting, the goofy
pride--
LIZ
John, don't. Your poems are beautiful. You're beautiful. Sure,
it's not "normal" to want to be Byron, it's not particularly
healthy to flirt with being "mad, bad, and dangerous to know"-
-
JOHN
"Flirt with"!
LIZ (gives one of the papers to JOHN)
Trying on an adolescent identity. That's all that this was.
JOHN (reads it, tears and crumples it)
Your diagnosis.
LIZ
I think I'm a fairly good person. But it wasn't easy. I look like
Mother? Do you think I'm turning?
JOHN
You could have helped me.
LIZ (showing a page in the diary)
I thought I was helping. Here's one: "Today John flunked
his arithmetic. He cried and I held him.."
JOHN (looks at page, reads the next line, accusingly)
"I'm not sorry, though, if it means he won't go away to school...."
Why did you save that stuff?
LIZ
I can show it to Kim someday, or Kim's children. If they wonder
why we had to live in Dorchester when Grandma was so rich.
JOHN
The pages with my name on: Tear them out.
LIZ
This part's harmless.
JOHN
Tear it out!
LIZ
O.K.! Here. Do it yourself.
JOHN (tearing and crumpling the pages)
We ought to burn this. What if somebody goes through the basket?
LIZ
Blackmail? Black magic? (JOHN snatches the papers out of the
basket, heaps them onto a metal tray on the cart, and tries rather
ineffectually get them to burn.)
Mother wants her past to go on forever, you want yours to leave
no trace. The past is just the past, Johnny. That's all.
JOHN
Damn paper must be damp.
LIZ
All the humidity in here. Needs a little mumbo jumbo. "Double,
double, toil and trouble, fire burn.."
JOHN (joining in)
...double, toil and trouble, fire burn.." Any brandy left?
(pours brandy on, the papers flare up)
Now look at it!
LIZ
Don't burn the house down!
JOHN
Why not? Or blow it up. "Boomlay boomlay boom!" (picks
up a small bag of powder)
LIZ
Now what?
JOHN
Don't you remember? Blasting powder. From down the quarry, blow
the place up.
LIZ
For God's sake, John! Be careful.
JOHN
Blast us all to hell.
LIZ
Don't be such a child--.
JOHN
Why not? You say that, all of you. "Don't be a child"
Why not? Wasn't that when you loved me? (LIZ laughs.) Don't
laugh at me, Lizzy!
LIZ (embracing him)
Johnny, Johnny, I'm not laughing at you. And I still love you.
I do.
JOHN (pulling away)
Jesus! You're almost old!
LIZ
So're you!
JOHN
I'm even older. How did that happen? When we were little, you
said that no matter how many birthdays I had you'd still be older
than me. But now I'm older.
LIZ (ruffling his hair)
You'll grow younger now, Johnny, with a pretty young wife.
JOHN
Are you trying to seduce me?
LIZ (backing off)
I don't think so. No.
JOHN (gripping LIZ's elbows)
Cause I'm seducible. You can ask Torrie. Not often, and not when
sober. But somewhere between high and comatose there's a brief
period like this where I'm susceptible. Mostly to underage chippies
who look a lot like you did at twelve.
LIZ
John-- I'm so sorry.
JOHN (letting LIZ go)
Rest of the time I'm not particularly sexy. You can ask Torrie
about that, too.
LIZ
But it was so long ago.
JOHN
We were right, you know, back then. We should've blown it all
up. Mom and the house and us, too. You let me plan it, but you
were the one who had follow through. It was your fantasies we
acted out, not mine. "Let's play magician". (JOHN
throws some powder onto the tray with a whoosh.) "Let's
play doctor. I'll be a famous movie star and you can be my sheik".
The only fantasy I had was to take Great Gramp's pistol out of
the gun room to shoot myself -- and I stole that idea from our
legendary Cousin Thaddeus, and never had the nerve-- (throws
more powder. There is a another flash of flame, and a fire alarm
horn goes off.) What the hell!
LIZ
Smoke alarm.
JOHN (tries to put out the fire)
Jesus. They'll all be in here in a minute. Son of a ..ouch!
LIZ (takes JOHN's hand)
Hurt?
JOHN (embraces LIZ roughly)
What're you going to do -- kiss it and make it all better?
TORRIE (is at the door)
John? (JOHN and LIZ step apart guiltily.)
JOHN (exits)
I'll see if I can turn that damn thing off.
TORRIE (to LIZ)
Why can't you leave him alone!
LIZ
You're the one who brought him here.
TORRIE
You won't give up until you've killed him. (the alarm is silenced.
Now the baby is crying)
LIZ
If you've got a good life going there in Philadelphia, stay there.
Don't worry about the inheritance. Mother will try to make us
all jump through hoops, but she'll probably leave enough for both
Kim and little John to be secure, anyway. Forget the house--
TORRIE
I wouldn't give you the satisfaction.
LIZ
If you talk her into it, I can sue.
TORRIE
You think you'll win?
LIZ
Probably not. But between my lawyers and your lawyers there won't
be much left.
TORRIE
Why would you do that?
LIZ
For your son's sake. If the kid grows up here, he'll always feel
like a pretender. Or a thief. You know the saying, "Behind
every fortune is a crime"? Well, the children of the rich
believe it. Ask John. My brother's the genuine genetic article,
and a son to boot. But he still never felt he was entitled.
(the baby has stopped crying)
TORRIE
He was entitled to grow up without being molested by his sister.
LIZ
Being what?
TORRIE
Molested. Sexually molested.
LIZ
My brother and I used to play doctor. So what? Even George played
doctor, and he IS a doctor!
TORRIE
When someone who's older and more powerful takes advantage--.
LIZ
One year! One year and two weeks I'm older!
TORRIE
More powerful, and stronger! If I hadn't walked in here just now
you'd 've had him down on the floor and been humping under the
love seat!
LIZ
You've an overactive imagination.
TORRIE
I don't need an imagination; I've seen plenty of filth first hand.
LIZ
Enough to see it when it isn't there? (JOHN and ISABELLA are
at the door, ISABELLA in her night dress, JOHN carrying the now
sleeping baby)
JOHN
Mother wouldn't believe me. She had to come see.
ISABELLA
I was dreaming of fire. The alarm was so loud, all over the state
people heard it and came running. A great multitude, watching
the roof fall.
LIZ
It's nothing, scraps of paper.
ISABELLA
The destruction of our house.
JOHN
It's all right now. You're safe. Let's all go to bed.
ISABELLA
So hard, to admit that one has wicked children. Naughty, yes,
needful of discipline: but wicked....
LIZ
No one here is wicked, mother.
TORRIE
What could be wickeder than incest?
JOHN
Torrie, Lizzy loves me. She means well.
TORRIE
That's wrong! Her love is wrong.
JOHN
Lizzy loves me like a sister. If it's wrong, it's because of the
way I took it, not what she meant.
TORRIE
You don't see it! You let these women destroy you! (to ISABELLA)
If Cynthia hadn't died, John would never have escaped her. And
he only fell into Cynthia's clutches because he was running away
from Lizzy.
JOHN
Torrie, you don't know that. Even I don't know. I'm not sure,
any more, what I really did and what was just a nightmare. I would
get drunk, or take something -- do you realize I spent almost
as many years drunk as you've been alive, Torrie?-- and I'd have
these -- episodes-- where I'd be so frightened--
LIZ
Johnny--
JOHN (placing the baby in TORRIE's arms)
Torrie, look! It's going to be all right. Like Liz says, it doesn't
matter!
TORRIE
It matters! Your doctor said you've got to divorce her
ISABELLA (to TORRIE)
I won't have it! How dare you make these accusations, you with
your gutter mind? To even think such a thing, of a Grantham! My
son is weak, he does "fall into the clutches" -- you
must have spotted him as easy prey!
LIZ
Torrie loves John, Mother. She wants what's best for him--
ISABELLA
John had the best! You both did. In this house you had supervision,
example, standards. There were never such sick goings-on as---
as you-- I won't countenance it! I want you to leave here, young
woman. Not in the morning. This minute. I'll say the baby became
ill in the night, or you did. You were rushed to the hospital.
JOHN (ready to leave)
I'll get our things, Torrie. There's a motel not far from here.
(to exit)
TORRIE
It's not fair!
JOHN (exiting)
Mother doesn't believe in fair.
LIZ
She believes in entitlement.
ISABELLA
This is my house!
LIZ
And one of the rules here is, Mother only hears what she wants
to hear. Can you blame us as kids for fantasizing about explosives?
But even an explosion wouldn't be loud enough.
ISABELLA
All these wicked lies.
LIZ
But it doesn't have to matter, the story she tells. Unless you
want to live in it.
TORRIE
But it's John's. He's entitled.
LIZ
You're all better off, Torrie--- believe me. If I could help you
to the house without the poisonous "standards" that
go with it, I would.
ISABELLA
As if I'd let you. Any of you. Scheming against me.
JOHN (bringing a light coat to TORRIE, carrying purse, diaper
bag)
Let's go, Torrie.
TORRIE
But our things. The baby's--.
JOHN
Never mind. Things can be replaced. Let's leave.
TORRIE
Not like this!
JOHN
You promised. If I said "leave"--
TORRIE (beginning to cry)
She believes terrible lies about me! (JOHN embraces and comforts
Torrie)
ISABELLA
How dare you talk about lies?
LIZ
Don't worry, Torrie. Mother will make up a better story.
JOHN
More flattering. But even if she doesn't-- We can't control her.
LIZ
The best we can do is keep her from controlling us.
JOHN (to LIZ)
I wish we'd had more time to talk.
LIZ
I could meet you at the late night diner down at the Centre. You
know the one I mean, John? Chickie's? Before I drive back to Boston.
TORRIE
No, John! Please. Stay with me.
JOHN
I will. I don't have to see Liz. But -- I won't divorce her. She's
family.
LIZ
Let Mother leave it all to the DAR. The Isabella Wells Grantham
Memorial Closet. Complete with skeletons. (LIZ and JOHN giggle)
ISABELLA
I'm closing the door on all of you. Don't think I'll be lonely
enough to lower myself.
JOHN (returning to TORRIE, leading her towards the door)
We're not hiding, Torrie. Not afraid. (looks at LIZ)
LIZ (smiles, nods)
Not afraid.
JOHN
Bye, Mother. (they exit)
LIZ
It won't take me more than ten minutes to pack. (exits)
ISABELLA (calling after LIZ)
I'll sell the house and move away. I have friends, good friends.
I'll winter where it's warm. In the summer I can take a cottage,
or there's Alice's place in Bar Harbor. There's a few of our kind
left to stick together, a few with standards ......
THE END
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