MARY
:
I’m fairly busy.
COLLECTOR
:
Don’t worry about that. We’ll find time. We’ll make time. You won’t believe this now, but soon, and it will be very soon, you’re going to want me to teach you everything. Well, you better get some sleep. Sleep is very important. I want to say thank you. All the Obese want to say thank you.
MARY
:
Nothing. Goodnight.
COLLECTOR
:
Just beginning for us.
(
Exit the
COLLECTOR
.
MARY
,
dazed and exhausted
stands at the door for some time. She moves toward stage centre, attempts a few elementary exercises, collapses into the chair and stares dumbly at the audience. The sound of a key in the lock. Door opens. Enter
DIANE
alone, crying.
)
DIANE
:
I didn’t want him to see me home.
(
MARY
is unable to cope with anyone else’s problem at this point.
)
MARY
:
What’s the matter with you?
DIANE
:
It’s impossible.
MARY
:
What’s impossible?
DIANE
:
What happened.
MARY
:
What happened?
DIANE
:
He doesn’t want to see me any more.
MARY
:
Harry?
DIANE
:
Harry.
MARY
:
Your Harry?
DIANE
:
You know damn well which Harry.
MARY
:
Doesn’t want to see you any more?
DIANE
:
No.
MARY
:
I thought he loved you.
DIANE
:
So did I.
MARY
:
I thought he really loved you.
DIANE
:
So did I.
MARY
:
You told me he said he loved you.
DIANE
:
He did.
MARY
:
But now he doesn’t?
DIANE
:
No.
MARY
:
Oh.
DIANE
:
It’s terrible.
MARY
:
It must be.
DIANE
:
It came so suddenly.
MARY
:
It must have.
DIANE
:
I thought he loved me.
MARY
:
So did I.
DIANE
:
He doesn’t!
MARY
:
Don’t cry.
DIANE
:
He’s getting married.
MARY
:
He isn’t!
DIANE
:
Yes.
MARY
:
He isn’t!
DIANE
:
This Sunday.
MARY
:
This Sunday?
DIANE
:
Yes.
MARY
:
So soon?
DIANE
:
Yes.
MARY
:
He told you that?
DIANE
:
Tonight.
MARY
:
What did he say?
DIANE
:
He said he’s getting married this Sunday.
MARY
:
He’s a bastard.
DIANE
:
Don’t say that.
MARY
:
I say he’s a bastard.
DIANE
:
Don’t talk that way.
MARY
:
Why not?
DIANE
:
Don’t.
MARY
:
After what he’s done?
DIANE
:
It’s not his fault.
MARY
:
Not his fault?
DIANE
:
He fell in love.
(
The word has its magic effect.
)
MARY
:
Fell in
love
?
DIANE
:
Yes.
MARY
:
With someone else?
DIANE
:
Yes.
MARY
:
He fell out of love with you?
DIANE
:
I suppose so.
MARY
:
That’s terrible.
DIANE
:
He said he couldn’t help it.
MARY
:
Not if it’s love.
DIANE
:
He said it was.
MARY
:
Then he couldn’t help it.
(
DIANE
begins to remove her make-up and undress, reversing exactly every step of her toilet.
MARY
,
still bewildered, but out of habit, assists her.
)
MARY
:
And you’re so beautiful.
DIANE
:
No.
MARY
:
Your hair.
DIANE
:
No.
MARY
:
Your shoulders.
DIANE
:
No.
MARY
:
Everything.
(
Pause.
)
MARY
:
What did he say?
DIANE
:
He told me everything.
MARY
:
Such as what?
DIANE
:
Harry’s a gentleman.
MARY
:
I always thought so.
DIANE
:
He wanted me to know everything.
MARY
:
It’s only fair.
DIANE
:
He told me about her.
MARY
:
What did he say?
DIANE
:
He said he loves her.
MARY
:
Then he had no choice.
DIANE
:
He said she’s beautiful.
MARY
:
He didn’t!
DIANE
:
What can you expect?
MARY
:
I suppose so.
DIANE
:
He loves her, after all.
MARY
:
Then I guess he thinks she’s beautiful.
(
Pause.
)
MARY
:
What else did he say?
DIANE
:
He told me everything.
MARY
:
How did he meet her?
DIANE
:
She came to his house.
MARY
:
What for?
DIANE
:
She was collecting money.
MARY
:
Money! (
Alarm.
)
DIANE
:
For a charity.
MARY
:
Charity!
DIANE
:
Invalids of some kind.
MARY
:
Invalids!
DIANE
:
That’s the worst part.
MARY
:
What part?
DIANE
:
She’s that way herself.
MARY
:
What way?
DIANE
:
You know.
MARY
:
What way, what way?
DIANE
:
You know.
MARY
:
Say it!
DIANE
:
She’s an invalid.
MARY
:
Harry’s marrying an invalid?
DIANE
:
This Sunday.
MARY
:
You said he said she was beautiful.
DIANE
:
He did.
MARY
:
Harry is going to marry an invalid.
DIANE
:
What should I do?
MARY
:
Harry who said he loved you. (
Not a question.
)
DIANE
:
I’m miserable.
(
MARY
is like a woman moving through a fog toward a light.
)
MARY
:
Harry is going to marry an invalid. He thinks she’s beautiful.
(
MARY
switches on the record-player.
) She came to his door. Harry who told you he loved you. You who told me I had my points.
(“
The Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairies” begins.
MARY
dances but she does not use the steps she learned at the
YWCA
.
She dances in conscious imitation of the
COLLECTOR
.)
DIANE
:
What are you doing? (
Horrified.
)
(
MARY
smiles at her.
)
DIANE
:
Stop it! Stop it this instant!
MARY
:
Don’t tell me what to do. Don’t you dare. Don’t ever tell me what to do. Don’t ever.
(
The dance continues
,
DIANE
,
dressed in bra and panties as at the beginning, backs away.
)
CURTAIN
THE PAPER
My fingers trembled
like eyelashes assailed by lust
I signed a paper preventing
the Market from loving me
My childhood friends lined up
to say goodbye
I mistook their gesture
for a firedrill
and out of habit of hatred
for the make-believe
I underlined my signature
Goodbye girls and boys
I call today in a riper voice
In the cold mirror of opium
I saw all our lives
connected and precise
as pieces in a clock
and the shining ladder
I teetered on was nothing
but the pendulum
NURSERY RHYME
A beautiful woman dignified
the cocktail lounge
suddenly we were drinking
for a reason
We were all Absolutists
with a rose carved in our minds
by a 5-year-old brain surgeon
Gentlemen
somewhere a shabby wife waits for us
with some decent news about chickenpox
But let me speak for myself
I believe in God
I have seen angels pulsing
through the veined atmosphere
I am alone with a window
full of bones and wrinkles
O terrible eyes
O perfect mouth
my fantasy shipwrecked
on the metal of your hair
Your beauty rides a wet flower
like a sail above a deep old hull
I need to touch you
with my fleshy calipers
Desire is the last church
and the ashtrays
are singing with hunger
Even if you are the Golden Calf
you are better than money
or government
and I have bent my knee
Roses are roses
blue is blue
History Greece Art Measure Face Tree Sphere Blossom Terror Rose
remind me remind me remind me
OLD DIALOGUE
- Has this new life deepened your perceptions?
- I suppose so.
- Then you are being trained correctly.
- For what?
- If you knew we could not train you.
WINTER BULLETIN
Toronto has been good to me
I relaxed on TV
I attacked several dead horses
I spread rumours about myself
I reported a Talmudic quarrel
with the Montreal Jewish Community
I forged a death certificate
in case I had to disappear
I listened to a huckster
welcome me to the world
I slept behind my new sunglasses
I abandoned