The Mousetrap and Other Plays (107 page)

LESTER
. (
rising and moving up
RC
;
to
KARL
) I'll go, too, if you're sure there's nothing I can do for you, sir.

KARL
. As a matter of fact there is.

LESTER
looks delighted.

Lisa has been making up some parcels of clothes and things like that—she is sending them to the East London Mission. If you would help her to carry them to the post office . . .

LESTER
. Of course I will.

LESTER
exits down
R
.

DOCTOR
. Good-bye, Karl.

The
DOCTOR
exits up
C
.
LESTER
enters down
R
.
He carries a large box wrapped in brown paper, which he takes to the desk and fastens with sellotape.
LISA
enters down
R
.
She carries a brown paper parcel and a small drawer containing papers, letters, etc., and a small trinket box.

LISA
. (
moving below the sofa
) If you would look through these, Karl. (
She puts the drawer on the sofa
) Sit down here and go through these, quietly and alone. It has to be done and the sooner the better.

KARL
. How wise you are, Lisa. One puts these things off and dreads them—dreads the hurt. As you say, it's better to do it and finish.

LISA
. I shan't be long. Come along, Lester.

LISA
and
LESTER
exit up
C
, closing the doors behind them.
KARL
collects the wastepaper basket from the desk, sits on the sofa, puts the drawer on his knee and starts to go through the letters.

KARL
. (
reading a letter
) So long ago, so long ago.

The front door bell rings.

Oh, go away whoever you are.

MRS
.
ROPER
. (
off
) Would you come inside, please.

MRS
.
ROPER
enters up
C
from
R
and stands to one side.

It's Miss Rollander, sir.

HELEN
enters up
C
from
R
and moves down
C
.
KARL
rises and puts the drawer on the table
RC
.
MRS
.
ROPER
exits up
C
to
L
, leaving the door open.

HELEN
. I do hope I'm not being a nuisance. I went to the inquest, you see, and afterwards I thought I must come on here and speak to you. But if you'd rather I went away . . .

KARL
. No, no, it was kind of you.

MRS
.
ROPER
enters up
C
from
L
, putting on her coat.

MRS
.
ROPER
. I'll just pop out and get another quarter of tea before he closes. We're right out again.

KARL
. (
fingering the letters in the drawer; far away
) Yes, of course, Mrs. Roper.

MRS
.
ROPER
. Oh, I see what you're doing, sir. And a sad business it always is. My sister now, she's a widder. Kep' all her husband's letters, she did, what he wrote her from the Middle East. And she'll take them out and cry over them, like as not.

HELEN
, rather impatient about
MRS
.
ROPER
's chatter, moves above the armchair.

The heart doesn't forget, sir, that's what I say. The heart doesn't forget.

KARL
. (
crossing below the sofa to
R
of it
) As you say, Mrs. Roper.

MRS
.
ROPER
. Must have been a terrible shock to you, sir, wasn't it? Or did you expect it?

KARL
. No, I did not expect it.

MRS
.
ROPER
. Can't imagine how she came to do such a thing. (
She stares, fascinated, at the place where
ANYA
's chair used to be
) It don't seem right, sir, not right at all.

KARL
. (
sadly exasperated
) Did you say you were going to get some tea, Mrs. Roper?

MRS
.
ROPER
. (
still staring at the wheelchair's place
) That's right, sir, and I must hurry, sir—(
She backs slowly up
C
) because that grocer there, he shuts at half past twelve.

MRS
.
ROPER
exits up
C
, closing the door behind her.

HELEN
. (
moving
C
) I was so sorry to hear . . .

KARL
. (
moving down
R
) Thank you.

HELEN
. Of course she'd been ill a long time, hadn't she? She must have got terribly depressed.

KARL
. Did she say anything to you before you left her that day?

HELEN
. (
nervously moving above the armchair and round to
L
of it
) No, I—I don't think so. Nothing particular.

KARL
. (
moving below the sofa
) But she was depressed—in low spirits?

HELEN
. (
rather grasping at a straw
) Yes. (
She moves below the armchair
) Yes, she was.

KARL
. (
a shade accusingly
) You went away and left her—alone—before Lisa returned.

HELEN
. (
sitting in the armchair; quickly
) I'm sorry about that. I'm afraid it didn't occur to me.

KARL
moves up
C
.

I mean she said she was perfectly all right and she urged me not to stay, and—well as a matter of fact, I—I thought she really wanted me to go—and so I did. Of course, now . . .

KARL
. (
moving down
R
) No, no. I understand. I can see that if my poor Anya had this in her mind she might have urged you to go.

HELEN
. And in a way, really, it's the best thing that could have happened, isn't it?

KARL
. (
moving towards her; angrily
) What do you mean—the best thing that could have happened? (
He moves up
C
)

HELEN
. (
rising
) For you, I mean. And for her, too. She wanted to get out of it all, well, now she has. So everything is all right, isn't it? (
She moves up
LC
, between the armchair and the desk
)

KARL
. (
moving up
RC
) It's difficult for me to believe that she did want to get out of it all.

HELEN
. She said so—after all, she couldn't have been happy, could she?

KARL
. (
thoughtfully
) Sometimes she was very happy.

HELEN
. (
circling the armchair
) She couldn't have been, knowing she was a burden on you.

KARL
. (
moving below the sofa; beginning to lose his temper
) She was never a burden to me.

HELEN
. Oh, why must you be so hypocritical about it all? I know you were kind to her and good to her, but let's face facts, to be tied to a querulous invalid is a drag on any man. Now, you're free. You can go ahead. You can do anything—anything. Aren't you ambitious?

KARL
. I don't think so.

HELEN
. But you are, of course you are. I've heard people talk about you, I've heard people say that that book of yours was the most brilliant of the century.

KARL
. (
sitting on the sofa at the left end
) Fine words, indeed.

HELEN
. And they were people who knew. You've had offers, too, to go to the United States, to all sorts of places. Haven't you? You turned them down because of your wife whom you couldn't leave and who couldn't travel. (
She kneels at the left end of the sofa
) You've been tied so long, you hardly know what it is to feel free. Wake up, Karl, wake up. Be yourself. You did the best you could for Anya. Well, now it's over. You can start to enjoy yourself, to live life as it really ought to be lived.

KARL
. Is this a sermon you're preaching me, Helen?

HELEN
. It's only the present and the future that matter.

KARL
. The present and the future are made up of the past.

HELEN
. (
rising and moving
LC
) You're free. Why should we go on pretending we don't love each other?

KARL
. (
rising and crossing to the armchair; firmly and almost harshly
) I don't love you, Helen, you must get that into your head. I don't love you. You're living in a fantasy of your own making.

HELEN
. I'm not.

KARL
. You are. I hate to be brutal, but I've got to tell you now I've no feelings for you of the kind you imagine. (
He sits in the armchair
)

HELEN
. You must have. You must have. (
She moves down
RC
) After what I've done for you. Some people wouldn't have had the courage, but I had. I loved you so much that I couldn't bear to see you tied to a useless querulous woman. You don't know what I'm talking about, do you? I killed her. Now, do you understand? I killed her.

KARL
. (
utterly stupefied
) You killed . . . I don't know what you're saying.

HELEN
. (
moving down
R
of
KARL
) I killed your wife. I'm not ashamed of it. People who are sick and worn out and useless should be removed so as to leave room for the ones who matter.

KARL
. (
rising and backing away down
L
) You killed Anya?

HELEN
. She asked for her medicine. I gave it to her. I gave her the whole bottleful.

KARL
. (
backing further away from her up
L
; aghast
) You—you . . .

HELEN
. (
moving
C
) Don't worry. Nobody will ever know. I thought of everything. (
She speaks rather like a confident, pleased child
) I wiped off all the fingerprints—(
She moves level with
KARL
) and put her own fingers first round the glass and then round the bottle. So that's all right, you see. (
She moves to
R
of him
) I never really meant to tell you, but I just suddenly felt that I couldn't bear there to be any secrets between us. (
She puts her hands on
KARL
)

KARL
. (
pushing her away
) You killed Anya.

HELEN
. If you once got used to the idea . . .

KARL
. You—killed—Anya. (
Every time he repeats the words, his consciousness of her act grows greater and his tone more menacing. He seizes her suddenly by the shoulders and shakes her like a rat, then forces her above the left end of the sofa
) You miserable immature child—what have you done? Prating so glibly of your courage and your resource. You killed my wife—my Anya. Do you realize what you've done? Talking about things you don't understand, without conscience, without pity. I could take you by the neck and strangle you here and now. (
He seizes her by the throat and starts to strangle her
)

HELEN
is forced backwards over the back of the sofa.
KARL
eventually flings her away and she falls face downwards over the left arm of the sofa, gasping for breath.

Get out of here. Get out before I do to you what you did to Anya.

HELEN
is still gasping for breath and sobbing.
KARL
staggers to the desk chair and leans on the back, near collapse.

HELEN
. (
broken and desperate
) Karl.

KARL
. Get out. (
He shouts
) Get out, I say.

HELEN
, still sobbing, rises, staggers to the armchair, collects her handbag and gloves, and as in a trance, exits up
C
to
R
.
KARL
sinks on to the desk chair and buries his head in his hands. There is a pause, then the front door is heard closing.
LISA
enters the hall from
R
.

LISA
. (
calling
) I'm back, Karl.

LISA
exits to her bedroom.
KARL
rises, crosses slowly to the sofa and almost collapses on to it.

KARL
. My poor Anya.