Home is the Hunter (14 page)

AMARYLLIS

(Runs to the door, and then halts as she sees
HOMER
)

I’m going to gather some figs. Like to help me? You could watch the path to the mountain just as well, out there.

HOMER

I don’t need to watch the path any longer. They’ve started climbing up through the trees. They
actually
mean to hunt a deer! I take that as a sign. A deer means a banquet, a banquet means a contest. They’ve accepted Penelope’s plan.

CLIA

(Carrying the basin of water to the door)

Is that good or bad?

(
AMARYLLIS
departs hurriedly.)

HOMER

(Moving back into the Hall, as
CLIA
empties the basin)

It will be good for the next two or three hours, anyway.

(He looks round the silent Hall.)

Peace... This is the way a house should live. I think I’ll try to catch some sleep. Nothing very much can happen until those barbarians get back. Call me then. Penelope will need me.

(He has walked over to the steps, and is about to ascend them to the dais. He yawns.)

Yes, sleep’s the thing. Sleep... Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care.

CLIA

(Replacing the basin on its peg)

That’s the wrong way! The men sleep through there!

(She points to the door of the men’s quarters.)

HOMER

(Retracing his steps, and now headed in the right direction)

Stupid of me! I must be getting as absent-minded as my pupils say. Yet, what is absent-mindedness? A mere forgetting of unimportant things like doors. And what’s amusing you, Noman?

ULYSSES

It’s a useful kind of forgetting when it leads you into the women’s quarters.

HOMER

We aren’t all hunters, my friend. Besides, with all this newfangled nonsense of bedrooms, why shouldn’t I forget? This is the only house I know which is built this way. Just show me a ridge of mountains, black-pointed against a sunset, or a rosy-fingered dawn caressing a laughing sea, and I’ll remember
them.
A door is a door is a door.

(He pauses at the correct door.)

Waken me if any trouble starts.

(He goes out.)

ULYSSES

I believe the old boy would flail around with a sword if he had to... You know, Clia, that’s the kind of courage I really admire.

(
CLIA
has come over to him. She falls on her knees and kisses his sleeve.)

No, no!

(He raises her, gives her a hug, and wipes her eyes with his hand.)

Besides, don’t
you
start forgetting. I’m a beggar. That’s how I’ve come home.

(He stands erect, suddenly, and throws back his cloak. His hand closes over the dagger at his belt as he looks at the threshold.)

A beggar, lying hidden in a filthy hut with the smell of pigs around me, plodding through dry hot dust under a full sun, grovelling in front of my own door, being shoved aside and swallowing each insult with a cringing smile... watching my wife’s smiles for two men who—

(He curses them under his breath.)

CLIA

(Moving toward the steps, at the mention of
PENELOPE
)

I’ll tell her you’ve come back. Let me break the news gently. The shock would be too great if you suddenly walked into her room.

ULYSSES

(Bitterly)

Yes, let’s spare her all unpleasant surprises.

CLIA

Ulysses!

ULYSSES

(Gesturing silence)

Sh!

CLIA

(Dropping her voice obediently, but still shocked)

Have you come back as a beggar to spy on your wife? Then shame on
you
! She has waited
so
long... She has wept and watched—

ULYSSES

(Grimly)

As she did today?

(He takes
CLIA
by the wrist and pulls her back from the steps.)

CLIA

Let me go! I must tell her. Why, she’ll never recognise you like this. I was your nurse, I brought you up, and if it hadn’t been for that scar on your leg, I’d never have known you.

ULYSSES

I wish you had known me, as I stood there at the door. Then there could have been an excuse for Penelope and what she did. For a moment, I almost thought she did recognise me...

CLIA

But who would expect you to arrive here as a
beggar
?

ULYSSES

Did you expect me to walk in here and face eleven men with only a dagger at my waist?

CLIA

(Shakes her head, bewildered by everything)

We’ve talked so often about your home-coming, but never did I imagine anything like this.

ULYSSES

Careful! My home is far away—in Thessaly. Got that? And my name is Noman. My luck ran out in Sparta, and I’m heading home to my own mountains where I hunted as a boy. And I’ll live with my daughter, who’s married to a drunkard with thirteen children. That’s in Thessaly, remember?

CLIA

My, I was getting all ready to weep for you, crowded into a hut with thirteen children. Go on!

(She nudges him playfully.)

You’re the same old Ulyss—

(She clamps her own hand this time across her lips.)

ULYSSES

See how easy it is to let the wrong word slip? So, keep quiet. And trust me.

CLIA

But what are you going to do?

ULYSSES

(Laughing as he gives her shoulder an encouraging pat)

First, we reconnoitre. Next, we estimate the situation. And then—we take appropriate action.

CLIA

My! You learned a lot in the army.

(Her hand goes to silence her lips again.)

ULYSSES

Stop thinking of me as Ulysses, will you? Now—

(He is suddenly serious.)

eleven men... The servants have left, they haven’t come back?

(
CLIA
shakes her head.)

As I wandered in here, I noted five men waiting at the stables, four men down by the stream. Was that accidental?

CLIA

Accidental?

ULYSSES

Do they usually split into two groups?

CLIA

Now that you mention it—I believe they do. Recently, anyway.

ULYSSES

Eryx—that’s the fellow with the red hair? He’s the leader of one group?

CLIA

Penelope never did like Eryx. He’s too crafty.

ULYSSES

She didn’t, did she? What about Melas?

CLIA

You’ve got it the wrong way round—he’s the one who likes her! You saw that, didn’t you?

ULYSSES

(Grimly)

Yes, I saw that. He’s the one who fancied the master’s chair.

CLIA

(Startled)

Who was to stop him? He’s the best fighter of them all!

ULYSSES

(Catching control of himself)

...Yes... who was to stop him?

(He speaks almost to himself. He strikes his left palm with his clenched right fist, and turns away from
CLIA
.)

Were they in the war?

CLIA

Too young for that. They said.

ULYSSES

No military training, then. Good. What about the weapons I left here? Have they been stolen?

CLIA

Philetius made Telemachus hide them. You remember Philetius?

ULYSSES

I’ve forgotten no one, Clia.

CLIA

It’s been
so
long...

ULYSSES

It’s been too long. I see that now.

(He begins to walk around the Hall, looking at it. He takes a deep breath, almost a sigh.)

You’ll laugh at me, Clia, but when I used to dream of getting back, I thought that all I had to do was to walk into this house, relax by that fire, and be master of my own home.

(He looks down at his cloak.)

I’m a clown, all right... Let Homer sing about that!

CLIA

If he lives to do any more singing! If any of us live through this night!... Tell me, where are your men? Are they waiting in the village, until they get a signal from you?

ULYSSES

No. None came back. Some found death in the sea, some stayed—

(
PENELOPE
opens the door onto the dais, and stands there.
ULYSSES
drops his cloak around him and slouches.)

CLIA

None? But that’s terrible—terrible!

PENELOPE

(Speaking as she comes down into the Hall and goes over to the doorway, as if enjoying the sunshine in the yard)

And what’s so terrible?... It’s a lovely day. Not a storm cloud to be seen over the mountains; and here, it is quiet. What’s so terrible?

CLIA

(Quickly, as she hurries over to the fireplace, and fills a bowl with soup)

He was telling me about his daughter—in Thessaly—a drunkard. I mean, she’s married to a drunkard. With thirteen children. Imagine that!

PENELOPE

(Still studying the view)

Then her husband never went off to any war.

CLIA

(Carrying the bowl of soup to the table, and setting it down in front of the master’s chair)

Over here!

(
ULYSSES
,
who has been watching
PENELOPE
as she stands at the door, comes to life and crosses over to the table.)

PENELOPE

(Turning round)

Why, Clia, haven’t you given our guest something to eat and drink? What’s wrong with you today? And see where you have set the bowl!

(To
ULYSSES
,
sharply, as he sits down in front of the bowl)

That is my husband’s chair.

ULYSSES

(Rising quickly, moving to a side bench)

... Sorry, ma’am. I didn’t know.

CLIA

(Angry)

Yes, that’s the master’s chair. That’s why Melas tries to sit there. And
he’s
allowed, often enough.

PENELOPE

(Amused)

Allowed?

(To
ULYSSES
)

He hasn’t your good manners. Yes, that’s our trouble. It’s easy to deal with someone who has standards like our own. But if he doesn’t believe in our standards? Then it’s little use saying to him: “Look, no honourable man behaves in this way.” He only answers—if he bothers to answer—“But
I
behave in this way!” And that’s that. So what can we do?

ULYSSES

(Eating the soup hungrily)

You can’t argue with men like that, ma’am. All you can do is outfight them. Or outwit them.

(He reaches for the loaf that
CLIA
sets beside him.)

PENELOPE

Then you agree I haven’t done so badly? I’ve managed to keep those men arguing for three years.

(
ULYSSES
pauses in pouring out some wine.
PENELOPE
now uses a little irony.)

I couldn’t fight them, of course; but why didn’t I think of trying to outwit them? How stupid of me! I might even have allowed Melas to sit in my husband’s chair so that the others would learn to hate him. Or I could always have used a special smile for Eryx, just to stir up suspicion and jealousy. Oh,
why
didn’t I think of such things?

(
ULYSSES
stops drinking, and sets the goblet down. But as
PENELOPE
comes slowly nearer to him, he begins eating again
—
hurriedly, with embarrassment.)