Short Plays

still in her hand. The girls look at each other, and Nora points to the bundle of bread. Cathleen After spinning for a moment. You didn’t give him his bit of bread? Maurya begins to keen softly, without turning round. Cathleen Did you see him riding down? Maurya goes on keening. Cathleen A little impatiently. God forgive you; isn’t it a better thing to raise your voice and tell what you seen, than to be making lamentation for a thing that’s done? Did you see Bartley, I’m saying to you? Maurya With a weak voice. My heart’s broken from this day. Cathleen As before. Did you see Bartley? Maurya I seen the fearfulest thing. Cathleen Leaves her wheel and looks out. God forgive you; he’s riding the mare now over the green head, and the grey pony behind him. Maurya Starts, so that her shawl falls back from her head and shows her white tossed hair. With a frightened voice. The grey pony behind him.⁠ ⁠… Cathleen Coming to the fire. What is it ails you at all? Maurya Speaking very slowly. I’ve seen the fearfulest thing any person has seen, since the day Bride Dara seen the dead man with the child in his arms. Cathleen and Nora Uah. They crouch down in front of the old woman at the fire. Nora Tell us what it is you seen. Maurya I went down to the spring well, and I stood there saying a prayer to myself. Then Bartley came along, and he riding on the red mare with the grey pony behind him. She puts up her hands, as if to hide something from her eyes. The Son of God spare us, Nora! Cathleen What is it you seen? Maurya I seen Michael himself. Cathleen Speaking softly. You did not, mother; it wasn’t Michael you seen, for his body is after being found in the far north, and he’s got a clean burial by the grace of God. Maurya A little defiantly. I’m after seeing him this day, and he riding and galloping. Bartley came first on the red mare; and I tried to say “God speed you,” but something choked the words in my throat. He went by quickly; and “the blessing of God on you,” says he, and I could say nothing. I looked up then, and I crying, at the grey pony, and there was Michael upon it⁠—with fine clothes on him, and new shoes on his feet. Cathleen Begins to keen. It’s destroyed we are from this day. It’s destroyed, surely. Nora Didn’t the young priest say the Almighty God wouldn’t leave her destitute with no son living? Maurya In a low voice, but clearly. It’s little the like of him knows of the sea.⁠ ⁠… Bartley will be lost now, and let you call in Eamon and make me a good coffin out of the white boards, for I won’t live after them. I’ve had a husband, and a husband’s father, and six sons in this house⁠—six fine men, though it was a hard birth I had with every one of them and they coming to the world⁠—and some of them were found and some of them were not found, but they’re gone now the lot of them⁠ ⁠… There were Stephen and Shawn were lost in the great wind, and found after in the Bay of Gregory of the Golden Mouth, and carried up the two of them on the one plank, and in by that door. She pauses for a moment, the girls start as if they heard something through the door that is half open behind them. Nora In a whisper. Did you hear that, Cathleen? Did you hear a noise in the northeast? Cathleen In a whisper. There’s someone after crying out by the seashore. Maurya Continues without hearing anything. There was Sheamus and his father, and his own father again, were lost in a dark night, and not a stick or sign was seen of them when the sun went up. There was Patch after was drowned out of a curagh that turned over. I was sitting here with Bartley, and he a baby, lying on my two knees, and I seen two women, and three women, and four women coming in, and they crossing themselves and not saying a word. I looked out then, and there were men coming after them, and they holding a thing in the half of a red sail, and water dripping out of it⁠—it was a dry day, Nora⁠—and leaving a track to the door. She pauses again with her hand stretched out towards the door. It opens softly and old women begin to come in, crossing themselves on the threshold, and kneeling down in front of the stage with red petticoats over their heads. Maurya Half in a dream, to Cathleen. Is it Patch, or Michael, or what is it at all? Cathleen Michael is after being found in the far north, and when he is found there how could he be here in this place? Maurya There does be a power of young men floating round in the sea, and what way would they know if it was Michael they had, or another man like him, for when a man is nine days in the sea, and the wind blowing, it’s hard set his own mother would be to say what man was in it. Cathleen It’s Michael, God spare him, for they’re after sending us a bit of his clothes from the far north. She reaches out and hands Maurya the clothes that belonged to Michael. Maurya stands up slowly, and takes them into her hands. Nora looks out. Nora They’re carrying a thing among them, and there’s water dripping out of it and leaving a track by the big stones. Cathleen In a whisper to the women who have come in. Is it Bartley it is? One of the Women It is, surely, God rest his soul. Two younger women come in and pull out the table.