Complete Works, Volume IV (4 page)

ANNA
Yes, she could be so . . . animated.

DEELEY
Animated is no word for it. When she smiled . . . how can I describe it?

ANNA
Her eyes lit up.

DEELEY
I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Deeley stands, goes to cigarette box, picks it up, smiles at Kate. Kate looks at him, watches him light a cigarette, takes the box from him, crosses to Anna, offers her a cigarette. Anna takes one.

ANNA
You weren’t dead. Ever. In any way.

KATE
I said you talk about me as if I
am
dead. Now.

ANNA
How can you say that? How can you say that, when I’m looking at you now, seeing you so shyly poised over me, looking down at me—

DEELEY
Stop that!

Pause

Kate sits.

Deeley pours a drink.

DEELEY
Myself I was a student then, juggling with my future, wondering should I bejasus saddle myself with a slip of a girl not long out of her swaddling clothes whose only claim to virtue was silence but who lacked any sense of fixedness, any sense of decisiveness, but was compliant only to the shifting winds, with which she went, but not
the
winds, and certainly not my winds, such as they are, but I suppose winds that only she understood, and that of course with no understanding whatsoever, at least as I understand the word, at least that’s the way I figured it. A classic female figure, I said to myself, or is it a classic female posture, one way or the other long outworn.

Pause

That’s the position as I saw it then. I mean, that is my categorical pronouncement on the position as I saw it then. Twenty years ago.

Silence

ANNA
When I heard that Katey was married my heart leapt with joy.

DEELEY
How did the news reach you?

ANNA
From a friend.

Pause

Yes, it leapt with joy. Because you see I knew she never did things loosely or carelessly, recklessly. Some people throw a stone into
a river to see if the water’s too cold for jumping, others, a few others, will always wait for the ripples before they will jump.

DEELEY
Some people do
what?
(
To Kate.
) What did she say?

ANNA
And I knew that Katey would always wait not just for the first emergence of ripple but for the ripples to pervade and pervade the surface, for of course as you know ripples on the surface indicate a shimmering in depth down through every particle of water down to the river bed, but even when she felt that happen, when she was assured it was happening, she still might not jump. But in this case she did jump and I knew therefore she had fallen in love truly and was glad. And I deduced it must also have happened to you.

DEELEY
You mean the ripples?

ANNA
If you like.

DEELEY
Do men ripple too?

ANNA
Some, I would say.

DEELEY
I see.

Pause

ANNA
And later when I found out the kind of man you were I was doubly delighted because I knew Katey had always been interested in the arts.

KATE
I was interested once in the arts, but I can’t remember now which ones they were.

ANNA
Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten our days at the Tate? and how we explored London and all the old churches and all the old buildings, I mean those that were left from the bombing, in the City and south of the river in Lambeth and Greenwich? Oh my goodness. Oh yes. And the Sunday papers! I could never get her away from the review pages. She ravished them, and then insisted we visit that gallery, or this theatre, or that chamber concert, but
of course there was so much, so much to see and to hear, in lovely London then, that sometimes we missed things, or had no more money, and so missed some things. For example, I remember one Sunday she said to me, looking up from the paper, come quick, quick, come with me quickly, and we seized our handbags and went, on a bus, to some totally obscure, some totally unfamiliar district and, almost alone, saw a wonderful film called Odd Man Out.

Silence

DEELEY
Yes, I do quite a bit of travelling in my job.

ANNA
Do you enjoy it?

DEELEY
Enormously. Enormously.

ANNA
Do you go far?

DEELEY
I travel the globe in my job.

ANNA
And poor Katey when you’re away? What does she do?

Anna looks at Kate.

KATE
Oh, I continue.

ANNA
Is he away for long periods?

KATE
I think, sometimes. Are you?

ANNA
You leave your wife for such long periods? How can you?

DEELEY
I have to do a lot of travelling in my job.

ANNA
(
To Kate.
) I think I must come and keep you company when he’s away.

DEELEY
Won’t your husband miss you?

ANNA
Of course. But he would understand.

DEELEY
Does he understand now?

ANNA
Of course.

DEELEY
We had a vegetarian dish prepared for him.

ANNA
He’s not a vegetarian. In fact he’s something of a gourmet. We live in a rather fine villa and have done so for many years. It’s very high up, on the cliffs.

DEELEY
You eat well up there, eh?

ANNA
I would say so, yes.

DEELEY
Yes, I know Sicily slightly. Just slightly. Taormina. Do you live in Taormina?

ANNA
Just outside.

DEELEY
Just outside, yes. Very high up. Yes, I’ve probably caught a glimpse of your villa.

Pause

My work took me to Sicily. My work concerns itself with life all over, you see, in every part of the globe. With people all over the globe. I use the word globe because the word world possesses emotional political sociological and psychological pretensions and resonances which I prefer as a matter of choice to do without, or shall I say to steer clear of, or if you like to reject. How’s the yacht?

ANNA
Oh, very well.

DEELEY
Captain steer a straight course?

ANNA
As straight as we wish, when we wish it.

DEELEY
Don’t you find England damp, returning?

ANNA
Rather beguilingly so.

DEELEY
Rather beguilingly so?
(
To himself.
) What the hell does she mean by that?

Pause

Well, any time your husband finds himself in this direction my little wife will be only too glad to put the old pot on the old gas stove and dish him up something luscious if not voluptuous. No trouble.

Pause

I suppose his business interests kept him from making the trip. What’s his name? Gian Carlo or Per Paulo?

KATE
(
To Anna.
) Do you have marble floors?

ANNA
Yes.

KATE
Do you walk in bare feet on them?

ANNA
Yes. But I wear sandals on the terrace, because it can be rather severe on the soles.

KATE
The sun, you mean? The heat.

ANNA
Yes.

DEELEY
I had a great crew in Sicily. A marvellous cameraman. Irving Shultz. Best in the business. We took a pretty austere look at the women in black. The little old women in black. I wrote the film and directed it. My name is Orson Welles.

KATE
(
To Anna.
) Do you drink orange juice on your terrace in the morning, and bullshots at sunset, and look down at the sea?

ANNA
Sometimes, yes.

DEELEY
As a matter of fact I am at the top of my profession, as a matter of fact, and I have indeed been associated with substantial numbers of articulate and sensitive people, mainly prostitutes of all kinds.

KATE
(
To Anna.
) And do you like the Sicilian people?

DEELEY
I’ve been there. There’s nothing more to see, there’s nothing more to investigate, nothing. There’s nothing more in Sicily to investigate.

KATE
(
To Anna.
) Do you like the Sicilian people?

Anna stares at her.

Silence

ANNA
(
Quietly.
) Don’t let’s go out tonight, don’t let’s go anywhere tonight, let’s stay in. I’ll cook something, you can wash your hair, you can relax, we’ll put on some records.

KATE
Oh, I don’t know. We could go out

ANNA
Why do you want to go out?

KATE
We could walk across the park.

ANNA
The park is dirty at night, all sorts of horrible people, men hiding behind trees and women with terrible voices, they scream at you as you go past, and people come out suddenly from behind trees and bushes and there are shadows everywhere and there are policemen, and you’ll have a horrible walk, and you’ll see all the traffic and the noise of the traffic and you’ll see all the hotels, and you know you hate looking through all those swing doors, you hate it, to see all that, all those people in the lights in the lobbies all talking and moving and all the chandeliers . . .

Pause

You’ll only want to come home if you go out. You’ll want to run home . . . and into your room . . .

Pause

KATE
What shall we do then?

ANNA
Stay in. Shall I read to you? Would you like that?

KATE
I don’t know.

Pause

ANNA
Are you hungry?

KATE
No.

DEELEY
Hungry? After that casserole?

Pause

KATE
What shall I wear tomorrow? I can’t make up my mind.

ANNA
Wear your green.

KATE
I haven’t got the right top.

ANNA
You have. You have your turquoise blouse.

KATE
Do they go?

ANNA
Yes, they do go. Of course they go.

KATE
I’ll try it.

Pause

ANNA
Would you like me to ask someone over?

KATE
Who?

ANNA
Charley . . . or Jake?

KATE
I don’t like Jake.

ANNA
Well, Charley . . . or . . .

KATE
Who?

ANNA
McCabe.

Pause

KATE
I’ll think about it in the bath.

ANNA
Shall I run your bath for you?

KATE
(
Standing
.) No. I’ll run it myself tonight.

Kate slowly walks to the bedroom door, goes out, closes it.

Deeley stands looking at Anna.

Anna turns her head towards him.

They look at each other.

FADE

ACT TWO

The bedroom.

A long window up centre. Door to bathroom up left. Door to sitting-room up right.

Two divans. An armchair.

The divans and armchair are disposed in precisely the same relation to each other as the furniture in the first act, but in reversed positions.

Lights dim. Anna discerned sitting on divan. Faint glow from glass panel in bathroom door.

Silence.

Lights up. The other door opens. Deeley comes in with tray.

Deeley comes into the room, places the tray on a table.

DEELEY
Here we are. Good and hot. Good and strong and hot. You prefer it white with sugar, I believe?

ANNA
Please.

DEELEY
(
Pouring.
) Good and strong and hot with white and sugar.

He hands her the cup.

Like the room?

ANNA
Yes.

DEELEY
We sleep here. These are beds. The great thing about these beds is that they are susceptible to any amount of permutation. They can be separated as they are now. Or placed at right angles,
or one can bisect the other, or you can sleep feet to feet, or head to head, or side by side. It’s the castors that make all this possible.