My Sister's Hand in Mine (36 page)

LIONEL
  I was walking along the beach thinking about something. Molly, listen. I got a wire this morning!

MOLLY
  A wire?

LIONEL
  Yes, from my brother.

MOLLY
  The one in St. Louis? The one who wants us to come …

LIONEL
  Yes, Molly. He has a place for me in his business now. He sells barbecue equipment to people.

MOLLY
  To people?

LIONEL
  Yes, to people. For their back yards, and he wants my help.

MOLLY
  But … but you're going to be a religious leader.

LIONEL
  I didn't say I wouldn't be, or I may end up religious without leading anybody at all. But wherever I end up, I'm getting out of here. I've made up my mind. This place is a fake.

MOLLY
  These oyster shells are real and so is the turtle. He just hasn't got his own head and feet. They're wooden.

LIONEL
  To me this place is a fake. I chose it for protection, and it doesn't work out.

MOLLY
  It doesn't work out?

LIONEL
  Molly, you know that. I've been saying it to you in a thousand different ways. You know it's not easy for me to leave. Places that don't work out are ten times tougher to leave than any other places in the world.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  My sisters used to have cherry contests. They stuffed themselves with cherries all week long and counted up the pits on Saturday. It made them feel exuberant.

MOLLY
  I can't eat cherries.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  I couldn't either. I'd eat a few and I'd feel sick. But that never stopped me. I never missed a single contest. I despised cherry contests, but I couldn't stand being left out. Never. Every week I'd sneak off to the woods with bags full of cherries. I'd sit on a log and pit each cherry with a knife. Then I'd bury the fruit in a deep hole and fill it up with dirt. I cheated so hard to be in them, and I didn't even like them. I was so scared to be left out.

LIONEL
  They are harder to leave, Molly, places that don't work out. I know it sounds crazy, but they are. Like it's three times harder for me to leave now than when I first came here, and in those days I liked the decorations. Molly, don't look so funny. I can explain it all some other way. (
Indicates oyster-shell door
) Suppose I kept on closing that door against the ocean every night because the ocean made me sad and then one night I went to open it and I couldn't even find the door. Suppose I couldn't tell it apart from the wall any more. Then it would be too late and we'd be shut in here forever once and for all. It's not going to happen, Molly. I won't let it happen. We're going away—you and me. We're getting out of here. We're not playing cards in this oyster cocktail bar until we're old.

MOLLY
  (
Turns and looks up the stairs and then back to
LIONEL
) If we had a bigger light bulb we could play in the bedroom upstairs.

LIONEL
  (
Walking away
) You're right Molly, dead right. We could do just that. We could play cards up there in that God-forsaken bedroom upstairs.

(
Exits.
)

MRS. CONSTABLE
  (
Gets up and goes to
MOLLY
) Molly, call him back.

MOLLY
  No, I'm going upstairs.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  It's time … Go … go with Lionel.

MOLLY
  My mother's coming. I'm going to her birthday supper.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  Don't go there …

MOLLY
  I'm late. I must change my dress.

(
She exits up the stairs.
)

MRS. CONSTABLE
  (
Stumbling about and crossing to the bar
) You're hanging on just like me. If she brought you her love you wouldn't know her. You wouldn't know who she was. (
MRS. CONSTABLE
sinks into a chair below the bar.
GERTRUDE
enters. She is pale, distraught. She does not see
MRS. CONSTABLE
) Hello, Gertrude Eastman Cuevas.

GERTRUDE
(
Trying to conceal the strain she is under
) Hello, Mrs. Constable. How are you?

MRS. CONSTABLE
  How are you making out?

GERTRUDE
Molly wrote me you were still here. Where is she?

MRS. CONSTABLE
  You look tired.

GERTRUDE
Where is Molly? (
LIONEL
enters
) Lionel! How nice to see you! Where's Molly?

LIONEL
  I … I didn't know you were coming.

GERTRUDE
Didn't you?

LIONEL
  I didn't expect to see you. How are you, Mrs. Eastman Cuevas? How was your trip? When did you arrive?

GERTRUDE
Well, around two … But I
had
to wait … They were driving me here … Didn't you
know
I was coming?

LIONEL
  No, I didn't.

GERTRUDE
(
Uneasily
) But I wrote Molly. I told her I was coming. I wanted to get here for my birthday. I wrote Molly that. Didn't she tell you about it? I sent her a letter. The paper was very sweet. I was sure that she would show it to you. There's a picture of a little Spanish dancer on the paper with a real lace mantilla pasted round her head. Didn't she show it to you?

LIONEL
  (
Brooding
) No.

GERTRUDE
That's strange. I thought she would. I have others for her too. A toreador with peach satin breeches and a macaw with real feathers.

LIONEL
  (
Unheeding
) She never said anything about it. She never showed me any letter.

GERTRUDE
That's strange. I thought … I thought … (
She hesitates, feeling the barrier between them. Tentative
) Macaws are called guacamayos down there.

LIONEL
  Are they?

GERTRUDE
Yes, they are. Guacamayos …

LIONEL
  What's the difference between them and parrots?

GERTRUDE
They're bigger! Much bigger.

LIONEL
  Do they talk?

GERTRUDE
Yes, they do, but parrots have a better vocabulary. Lionel, my birthday supper's tonight. I suppose you can't come. You work late at night, don't you?

LIONEL
  I work at night, but not for long …

GERTRUDE
You'll work in the day then?

LIONEL
  No.

GERTRUDE
Then when will you work?

LIONEL
  I'm quitting.

GERTRUDE
What?

LIONEL
  I'm quitting this job. I'm getting out.

GERTRUDE
Getting out. What will you do? Where will you work?

LIONEL
  I'm quitting. I'm going.

(
He exits.
)

GERTRUDE
Lionel … Wait … Where are you going?

MRS. CONSTABLE
  Come on over here and talk to me … You need a drink.

GERTRUDE
Where is she? Where's Molly?

MRS. CONSTABLE
  She's gone down on the rocks, hunting for mussels.

GERTRUDE
Hunting for mussels? But she knew I was coming. Why isn't she here? I don't understand. Didn't she get my letter?

MRS. CONSTABLE
  (
Dragging
GERTRUDE
rather roughly to a table
) Sit down … You look sick.

GERTRUDE
I'm not sick … I'm just tired, exhausted, that's all. They've worn me out in a thousand different ways. Even today … I wanted to see Molly the second we arrived, but I had to wait. I tried to rest. I had a bad dream. It's hanging over me still. But I'll be all right in a little bit. I'll be fine as soon as I see Molly. I'm just tired, that's all.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  I'm glad you're well. How is Mrs. Lopez? If I were a man, I'd marry Mrs. Lopez. She'd be my type. We should both have been men. Two Spanish men, married to Mrs. Lopez.

GERTRUDE
She was part of the whole thing! The confusion … the racket … the pandemonium.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  I like Mrs. Lopez, and I'm glad she's fat.

GERTRUDE
There were twelve of us at table every meal.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  When?

GERTRUDE
All these months down in Mexico. Twelve of us at least. Old ladies, babies, men, little girls, everyone jabbering, the noise, the screeching never stopped … The cooks, the maids, even the birds …

MRS. CONSTABLE
  Birds?

GERTRUDE
Dirty noisy parrots, trailing around loose. There was a big one called Pepe, with a frightening beak.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  (
Rather delighted
) Pepe?

GERTRUDE
Their pet, their favorite … Crazy undisciplined bird, always climbing up the table leg and plowing through the food.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  (
Ingenuous
) Didn't you like Pepe?

GERTRUDE
(
Dejected, as if in answer to a sad question, not irritated
) No, I didn't like Pepe. I didn't like anything. Where's Molly?

(
Going to oyster-shell door.
)

MRS. CONSTABLE
  When are you going back?

GERTRUDE
Back? I'm never going back. I've made up my mind. From now on I'm staying in the house up here. It was a terrible mistake. I told him that. I told him that when he had to be there he could go by himself. We had a terrible fight … It was disgusting. When he stood there saying that men should never have given us the vote, I slapped him.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  I never voted. I would vote all right if I could only register.

GERTRUDE
He's a barbarian. A subnormal human being. But it doesn't matter. He can stay down there as long as he likes. I'll be up here, where I belong, near Molly. (
Face clouding over
) What was he saying before? What did he mean?

MRS. CONSTABLE
  Who?

GERTRUDE
Lionel. He said he was quitting. He said he was leaving, getting out of here.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  Lionel's sick of the Lobster Bowl. I'm not. Molly likes it too, more than Lionel.

GERTRUDE
Molly. She couldn't like it here, not after our life in the ocean house.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  Tell me more, Gertrude Eastman Cuevas. Did you enjoy the scenery?

GERTRUDE
What?

MRS. CONSTABLE
  Down in Mexico.

GERTRUDE
I didn't enjoy anything. How could I, the way they lived? It wasn't even civilized.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  (
Merrily
) Great big lunches every day.

GERTRUDE
There were three or four beds in every single room.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  Who was in them?

GERTRUDE
Relatives, endless visiting relatives, snapping at each other, jabbering half the night. No wonder I look sick. (
Sadly to herself
) But I'll be fine soon. I know it. I will … as soon as I see Molly. If only she'd come back … (
To
MRS. CONSTABLE
) Which way did she go? Do you think I could find her?

MRS. CONSTABLE
  She always goes a different way.

GERTRUDE
She couldn't like it in this ugly place. It's not true!

MRS. CONSTABLE
  They take long walks down the beach or go digging for clams. They're very polite. They invite me along. But I never accept. I know they'd rather go off together, all by themselves.

GERTRUDE
(
Alarmed
) All by themselves!

MRS. CONSTABLE
  When they play cards at night, I like to watch them. Sometimes I'm asleep on that bench, but either way I'm around. Inez doesn't know about it. She goes to bed early. She thinks I leave here at a reasonable hour. She's never found out. I take off my shoes and I wade home at dawn.

GERTRUDE
I don't know what's happening to the people in this world.

(
Leaves
MRS. CONSTABLE.
)

MRS. CONSTABLE
  Why don't you go back to Mexico, Gertrude Eastman Cuevas, go back to Pepe? (
GERTRUDE
looks in disgust at
MRS. CONSTABLE.
More gently
) Then have a drink.

GERTRUDE
(
Fighting back a desire to cry
) I don't like to drink.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  Then what do you like? What's your favorite pleasure?

GERTRUDE
I don't know. I don't know. I don't like pleasures. I … I like idealism and backbone and ambition. I take after my father. We were both very proud. We had the same standards, the same ideals. We both loved grit and fight.

MRS. CONSTABLE
  You loved grit and fight.

GERTRUDE
We were exactly alike. I was his favorite. He loved me more than anyone in the world!

MRS. CONSTABLE
  (
Faintly echoing
) More than anyone in the world …