DAISY FOOTE  |  From Bhutan

Scene One

Tremont, New Hampshire

One half of the stage is the prison visiting room. The other half is the kitchen of the Conroy House.

At the beginning of the play the lights are full up in the prison visiting room and half up in the kitchen.

NOTE: The action of the play serves two time frames: present day, nine and twelve months earlier.

We begin with present action.

MARY CONROY (39) (Frances and Warren’s Mother) is in the kitchen doing dishes. She is dressed in the uniform for her job at the grocery store.

FRANCES CONROY (16) enters the prison visiting room. She sits down in a chair. Waits a few moments. She hears the sound of a loud buzzer. She turns and sees her brother, WARREN, (soon to be 19) walk into the room. He is in shadow, but she can see someone (a GUARD) unlocking his handcuffs and a chain secured to his waist.

(He places his hands on the table.)

WARREN
Gotta keep them on the table.
They don’t want you passing me drugs.

FRANCES
You don’t do drugs.

WARREN
They don’t know that. There are all kinds of rules, Lady. You just need to get used to them.

FRANCES
I brought cigarettes, but I had to leave them out front.

WARREN
Tell Ma to pack more in the box this week.

FRANCES
She’ll be here on Saturday.

WARREN
Yes she will, Lady. She comes once a week and Aunt every other.

(Awkward silence.)

FRANCES
When did you start smoking?

WARREN
I don’t smoke much. I mostly use them for trading stuff.

FRANCES
What stuff?

(MARY from the kitchen:)

MARY
Don’t ask him a lot of questions, Frances. There are things we just don’t need to know about, and he really doesn’t want to tell us.

WARREN
So how are you, Lady?

FRANCES
Good.

WARREN
You seen Matt, little Tom?

MARY
Don’t talk about his friends. He doesn’t need to know that little Tom left for Ft. Bragg last week or that Matt and Doreen are getting married. And not a word about her . . . Frances . . . not one word.

FRANCES
I don’t really see anyone much.

WARREN
You’re not hiding, are you Lady? I won’t have you hiding because of me.

(FRANCES glances over at MARY and then back to WARREN)

FRANCES
So next week for your birthday—is there anything you need?

(Silence.)

FRANCES
Warren—

WARREN
Ben and Jerry’s—Cherry Garcia. I think about it all the time. The ice cream in here, it really sucks. Like plastic. When it melts—see that’s the thing, it doesn’t really melt, it can’t because of all the chemicals.

(Lights come down on the visiting room.)

(FULL UP ON THE CONROY KITCHEN—TWELVE MONTHS EARLIER.)

(FRANCES moves to the kitchen table and sits. She starts to read a book.

Her aunt, SARA BEACHUM, wearing her vet technician’s uniform, enters the room. SARA goes to the refrigerator and gets a beer.)

SARA
What are you getting your brother for his birthday?

FRANCES
I was thinking about a fleece. But if Anna doesn’t like it, he won’t wear it.

SARA
Jesus—I never thought I’d see the day. My nephew with a big old ring in his nose.

FRANCES
Anna’s not like that.

SARA
I don’t really know the girl. They’re always up to her house. Not that I can blame your brother. If I had a choice between hanging out here or in her castle with the swimming pool and the flat screen TV. (a beat) You coming to the big birthday bash this weekend?

FRANCES
Do I have a choice?

SARA
How about a sweet sixteen for you in November?

FRANCES
No thanks.

SARA
Why not?

FRANCES
You know I don’t like parties, Aunt. Warren’s the one for the parties, he’s the one with all the friends.

SARA
Oh poor little Lady . . . all alone with no one to invite to her parties.

FRANCES
I don’t care.

(FRANCES picks her book up and starts reading again.)

SARA
What are you reading?

FRANCES
Jude the Obscure.

SARA
Is it dirty?

FRANCES
No. It’s a classic.

SARA
A classic, well excuse me. Another one of Nora Letemkin’s books I bet.

(FRANCES just reads. SARA sits down at the table.)

SARA
Your mother called me at work. Told me about their little discussion this morning. Telling Mary who she can and cannot sell her land to—where does she get off?

FRANCES
That’s not what she said, Aunt. I was there. Nora just said that if Ma ever thought about selling the farm or any of the land . . . she should tell her first. She doesn’t want Mary selling it to some developer. She hates what’s happening to Daryl Rush’s farm . . . all those houses going in.

SARA
He needs the money.

FRANCES
Mrs. Letemkin says he has other options.

SARA
Not for that kind of money.

FRANCES
How much money does he need?

SARA
Is that what Nora Letemkin says? A woman who paid over seven hundred thousand dollars for Millard Dodge’s broken down farm?

(SARA goes to the window and looks out.)

SARA
How long is she going to keep those signs on her lawn?

FRANCES
As long as she wants.

SARA
“When Clinton lied . . . no one died.” “No blood for oil.”

FRANCES
It’s how she feels.

SARA
See that’s the problem . . . your Mrs. Letemkin is so busy telling people how she feels. But maybe people don’t want to hear about it. Maybe people don’t care. Like this morning, stopping Mary at her car. Making her late for work.

(FRANCES goes to the refrigerator and takes out a soda and a yogurt.)

FRANCES
Mrs. Letemkin wasn’t the one being rude today. That was all Mary. Yelling at
her . . . “Why would I ever sell my land? And if I did, it’s my goddamn right to sell it to whoever I want to sell it to.”

SARA
It is her goddamn right.

FRANCES
That’s not what Mrs. Letemkin was talking about.

SARA
Mrs. Letemkin. Mrs. Letemkin. You sound like a parrot.

(FRANCES eats her yogurt and drinks her soda as she continues to read her book.

SARA goes to the refrigerator and gets another beer. More silence, and then:)

SARA
Aren’t you going to ask me about my day?

FRANCES
How was your day?

SARA
Very long. Our first appointment was at seven thirty and they kept on coming. I had two cats scratch me and three dogs pee on me. And then there was the ferret Maggie Todd brought it in. Have you ever seen a ferret?

FRANCES
Maybe . . . in a picture . . . I’m not sure.

SARA
Well they’re nasty.

(FRANCES resumes reading. SARA grabs a newspaper and starts to leaf through it. A few beats and FRANCES looks up at SARA:)

FRANCES
Mrs. Letemkin is having a slide show at the library next week. She’s showing her pictures of Bhutan. You should come.

SARA
No thanks.

FRANCES
Why not?

SARA
Not interested.

FRANCES
You don’t think photos of a country on the other side of the world; a country completely different than ours is interesting?

SARA
Not really.

FRANCES
So if you had a chance to go to Bhutan, if someone said they’d pay all your expenses, you wouldn’t go?

SARA
Why would I go?

FRANCES
Because it’s Bhutan and it’s so different.

SARA
And on the other side of the world, in the mountains and filled with lots of people who don’t speak English.

FRANCES
That’s just crazy.

SARA
Don’t call me crazy, Lady. I’m the sanest person you’ll ever know.

FRANCES
You’ve never thought about leaving Tremont?

SARA
And going where?

FRANCES
After you graduated . . . you never ever thought about living somewhere else?

SARA
I got my vet assistant’s job with Dr. Hodges, and I was with Carl.

FRANCES
But he married someone else last week.

SARA
Go to Bhutan, Frances, knock yourself out, I’ll help you pack.

(Voices of MARY and WARREN Conroy offstage:)

WARREN
Did you tell Jimmy that?

(MARY Conroy and WARREN Conroy enter the room carrying bags of groceries. MARY is dressed in a suit as she still has her job at the bank.)

WARREN
Did you tell him it was about goddamn time?

(SARA gets two more beers out of the refrigerator. Hands them out to MARY and WARREN.)

MARY (laughing)
No, I did not.

(WARREN puts his arm around MARY.)

WARREN
Ma’s been promoted to new accounts.

SARA
About goddamn time. How’s the money?

MARY
It’s not great, but it’s still better than I’m doing now. I’m just glad it’s something different, after all these years of making deposits and cashing checks.

SARA
So who did you have to sleep with?

MARY
Who didn’t I have to sleep with?

(MARY and SARA clink cans.

They all laugh except FRANCES who has been noticeably quiet since her mother and brother’s arrival.

WARREN pulls a pint of Ben and Jerry’s out of a bag.)

WARREN
Sweet . . . Ben and Jerry’s.

(MARY grabs it out of his hand.)

MARY
That’s our dessert, mister.

(She takes steaks out of the grocery bags.)

MARY
I have nice thick steaks for dinner. I thought we deserved something special.

(WARREN takes back the ice cream and washing it down with his
beer . . .)

WARREN
I promised Anna I’d eat up at her house. I got a paper due tomorrow, something about the Supreme Court, and I’m clueless.

MARY
We’re celebrating, do your paper over here.

WARREN
We need her computer.

MARY
You have a computer—

WARREN
Not as fast as Anna’s. And her dad, he just hooked her up to Road Runner. You can cook me a steak later, I know I’ll be hungry. Anna’s mother is always making some shit I can’t eat. Last time it was fish, tuna, they’d done it on the barbecue, only it was raw in the middle. (to his sister) So Lady last time I checked, you still were part of this family. Congratulate your mother.

MARY
Don’t bother, Warren. She’s still mad about this morning.

WARREN
What about it?

MARY
Nora Letemkin sticking her nose in where it doesn’t belong.

FRANCES
She was just asking a question.

MARY
She wants my property.

FRANCES
She does not . . .

(WARREN stands between them.)

WARREN
All right knock it off.

(FRANCES turns and heads for the stairs.)

FRANCES (to MARY)
Don’t bother cooking me a steak . . . I’m not hungry.

MARY
Suit yourself . . .

(WARREN grabs her and pulls her back.)

WARREN
Lady . . .

FRANCES
What?

WARREN
Congratulate your mother.

(FRANCES stiffens.)

FRANCES
Congratulations, Mary.

MARY
Thank you.

(WARREN puts an arm around her.)

WARREN
Little Tom was asking about you today.
He just signed up with the army last week.

FRANCES
So?

WARREN
So take pity on the guy.

FRANCE
I can’t help it if he was stupid enough to join the army. I mean he’s going to Iraq. He does realize that, doesn’t he?

WARREN
Yeah he realizes it. And not another goddamn word . . .

(She exits through the stairs.)

SARA
I’ve always wondered if Lady wasn’t a lesbian.

WARREN
Knock it off.

SARA
It’s biological, Warren. A person can’t help it if that’s what they are. She’s going to be sixteen years old, and I don’t think she’s even kissed a guy, never mind anything else. That’s not normal.

MARY
She’s not a lesbian. She just thinks she’s better than everyone. And that
woman . . . Nora Letemkin encourages her . . . fills her head with all kinds of crap.

SARA
Oh Jesus—

MARY
I’ve worked hard at keeping that attitude of hers in check and then she comes along. Telling her that she’s special. Well there are no special people in this world. We all require food, water and air to survive. (to WARREN) Will you be able to get to the roof this weekend, see how bad it is?

WARREN
It’s bad, Ma. I’ll make some calls, see who can give us the best deal.

MARY
It’s going to be so expensive.

WARREN
I’ll help you pay for it.

MARY
When do you start your job with Joe?

WARREN
Monday after school.

MARY
He was in the bank today. He wouldn’t stop talking about you. He’s never gotten over your father dying and leaving him alone with the business. But now, now he’ll have you for a partner.

WARREN
Not his partner, Mary . . . apprentice.

MARY
Apprentices don’t install new showers.

WARREN
Jesus Mary—you didn’t tell him . . .

SARA
She’s told the whole town about that shower.

MARY
Call Anna, tell her to come have steaks with us.

WARREN
She doesn’t eat red meat.

MARY
Then what am I supposed to feed her at your party on Saturday? I suppose I could buy some turkey burgers—does she eat turkey?

WARREN
That’s something I wanted to talk about, Mary. See Anna’s planned this whole deal for this weekend. Wander around Boston on Saturday, then dinner in the North End with her sister and brother in law that night. We can still do my birthday here. We’ll just have to do it the next day. Keep it quiet, just the family.

MARY
You hate Boston.

WARREN
I know, but Anna planned the whole thing. I couldn’t say no.

(He tosses the now empty carton of Ben and Jerry’s into the garbage.)

WARREN
We need more Cherry Garcia.

(He exits.

MARY starts to pull pots and pans out of the cupboards banging things as she goes.)

MARY
Anna’s mother was in the bank yesterday going on and on about Warren meeting her oldest daughter and son in law this weekend. I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. But then this is a woman who came into the bank last September and asked if we could get her some South African currency for their family Safari. Like we just had it piled up in the back. I should have said no to him. I should have said you’re too young to spend a weekend shacked up with your girl friend in Boston.

SARA
They’ve been doing it all year, Mary. You’re going to take a stand now.

MARY
Why this girl? He’s been with girls before but this one . . . he’s obsessed with her.

SARA
He’s in love.

MARY
How do you know that? Has he told you that?

SARA
It was bound to happen some time. I think it’s a sign.

MARY
What sign?

SARA
For you to find someone of your own.

MARY
Shut up . . .

SARA
Charlie’s been dead all these years . . . and you’ve had sex . . . how many
times . . . let’s see . . . oh right . . . never. The nuns are having it more than you are.

MARY
Why don’t you worry about your own life? Your boy friend of nearly fifteen years turned around and married a perfect stranger. I don’t see you running out and dipping in the pool. You’re here every night having dinner with me and the kids.

(SARA moves to the window.)

SARA
Nora Letemkin is having a party.

(MARY joins her.)

MARY
Probably one of her meetings. Friends of the library or that environmental committee she started. I was this close to punching her this morning. I said, “I’m never going to sell my farm or any of my land. But if I did, it’s my goddamn right to sell it to whoever I want to sell it to, developer or zoo keeper, it’s my goddamn right.”

(SARA goes to the refrigerator and gets two more, hands one to her sister.)

MARY (Cont’d)
Does she not understand that our great great grandparents built this house? That I’ll still be living in this house when she’s off to some fancy retirement village in Arizona—that I’ll die in this house.

SARA
Maggie Todd brought her ferret into the office today. She kept calling it her puppy. She takes it out of this carrying case. “Say hello to puppy,” she says to me. I nearly had a heart attack before I realized what it was. You ever seen a ferret before? You think they’re kinda cute at first. But then you realize, they’re nothing more than long rats with really sharp teeth.

(WARREN and FRANCES walk back into the prison waiting room. They take their seats at the table.)

MARY
A day in Boston and dinner in the North End—he’s going to hate it, he’s going to hate every single minute of it.

(Lights go down in the kitchen.

Lights full up on the prison visiting room. FRANCES and WARREN. Still the first visit.

Lights are half up in the kitchen.)

FRANCES
What about if I brought you some Cherry Garcia, I could pack it in dry ice.

WARREN
Won’t allow it—

FRANCES
Why not?

WARREN
You might have put something in it—buried pills in the ice cream. But the next time you and Ma put together a box for me, pack some of those super duper bags of M&Ms in it, I can’t get them in the store here.

FRANCES
What about drugs in the M & Ms?

WARREN
I’m not saying the rules make sense. But they make them, we follow them, end of story. I don’t want to do anything that might keep me from being paroled once I’ve served my minimum.

FRANCES
They could do that?

(MARY comes into the kitchen. She is now dressed in her grocery store uniform and carries a bag of groceries. She starts to put groceries away.)

WARREN
If I step out of line. They write it all down, and then when you come up for parole—they bring it out at the hearing, not just once but over and over again. So I follow the rules, Lady, I follow them and I stay invisible. Tell me about Mary’s new job.

MARY
I told him I liked it, Frances, that they might ask me to manage the meat department.

FRANCES
She likes it. They might ask her to manage the meat department.

WARREN
The best thing that could have ever happened to her. Tell me something I don’t know.

(FRANCES shrugs.)

WARREN
What about Aunt? Why did she leave Dr. Hodges?

FRANCES
She was tired of it and wanted to try something new. She’s signed up with this temp agency for now.

(WARREN just stares at FRANCES. She isn’t sure where to look.)

WARREN
Mary says Carl’s wife is pregnant.

FRANCES
I guess.

WARREN
She says Aunt’s just fine with it, she could care less.

(Silence.)

WARREN
Is she fine with it?

MARY
Don’t tell him she’s crying all the time, there’s not a thing he can do about it.

FRANCES
She doesn’t really talk about it much.

(Silence. And then:)

WARREN
So why did it take you so long, Lady? After two months of not coming.

MARY
He’ll want to know why it took you so long. He kept asking me. How’s Frances? And I wouldn’t know what to say. I’d make up some stupid excuse. He’s always been there for you. Always watched over you, like a father, the only father you’ve ever known.

(FRANCES turns to her mother.)

FRANCES
That’s not true. Charlie was my father.

MARY
You were four years old when he died.

FRANCES
He’d come home from work, I’d sit on his knees—I could smell plaster—that sweet smell, from all the different bathrooms he was working on in the new houses.

MARY
And that makes him more of a father to you than Warren? Warren, who never let anyone pick on you, Warren who taught you to swim and took you camping—who kept this house from falling down around our ears—

FRANCES
Just don’t tell me—

MARY
Fine, he smelled like plaster.

(FRANCES turns back to WARREN.)

FRANCES
Last week, I walked into the kitchen and I saw Dad—I saw Dad sitting at the table.

WARREN
You saw our dead Father, he was sitting at the table.

FRANCES
He was sitting at the table and he was drinking a beer. And when he saw me, he said, “Go see your brother, Frances. Go see your brother.”

(Lights come down on the prison.

Lights full up on the Conroy kitchen.

Twelve months earlier. Saturday night, the evening of WARREN’s birthday.

MARY and SARA, quite drunk, stumble into the house. They are giggling and carry the signs from Mrs. Letemkin’s lawn.)

MARY
What the hell are we going to do with these?

SARA
Burn them.

MARY
Now?

(SARA grabs the sign MARY holds and sets it aside.)

SARA
Tomorrow. Over to my house.

(She opens a closet and throws them aside. She turns back to Mary. They both get hysterical laughing again.

MARY plops in a chair.)

MARY
Shit—I’m wasted.

(SARA gets two beers out of the refrigerator, tosses one to her sister. She then lights a joint, they pass it back and forth.)

MARY
So what did you say to Carl?

SARA
How’s work? Your truck holding up okay? How about them Red Sox?

(MARY and SARA collapse into giggles.)

MARY
He couldn’t take his eyes off you.

SARA
Shut up.

MARY
He was staring at your boobs . . .

(She does an imitation of Carl staring at SARA’s breasts. This gets them to start laughing again.)

SARA
He said he missed me.

(MARY laughs.)

SARA
And I said . . . too fucking bad . . . tell it to your wife.

(More drunken laughter.

The laughter quiets down. They drink their beers for a few beats and pass the joint back and forth. And then:)

MARY
I wonder what Warren’s doing right now?

SARA
Probably having sex with Anna. Happy Birthday.

MARY
If Charlie were here, it wouldn’t be like this. Charlie would talk to Warren. He would have told him, that girl isn’t right for you. Stay away from her. You’ll never be happy with a girl like that.

SARA
What kind of girl would he be happy with?

MARY
I don’t know, but Charlie would have known. A boy is lost without his father.

SARA
Warren doesn’t seem lost to me.

MARY
What the hell do you know about it? You’re not his mother. I’m his mother and believe me, he’s lost.

(MARY gets another beer.)

SARA
Don’t I get one of those?

MARY
Get one yourself.

(SARA goes to the refrigerator for a beer.

MARY plops in her chair and drinks her beer. She starts to cry.)

MARY
I was a terrible wife.

SARA
You were not.

MARY
I was always yelling at Charlie, telling him he needed to do more, telling him I wasn’t happy.

SARA
Sometimes you weren’t happy.

MARY
What the hell does that mean?

SARA
I mean the guy wasn’t perfect.

MARY
He was good in the sack.

SARA
Oh Jesus . . .

MARY
You tell me I should go out and have sex with other guys.

SARA
Well you should. You’re thirty eight years old, you could have another kid if you wanted to . . .

MARY
Joe White . . .

SARA
What?

MARY
A few days after Charlie died, I never told you. Joe White came up to the house. You’d taken the kids to McDonalds. And Joe . . . Joe came over. He was shit faced. Crying and crying about Charlie. His best friend. His partner. His brother. “What are we going to do without Charlie, Mary?” Over and over he kept asking me. And the next thing I know. He was kissing me.

SARA
Jesus.

MARY
He had his hands all over me. And his tongue in my mouth. And for a minute, you know, for a minute I was letting him do it. But then he lets out this burp. I guess it was all the beer. And when he did that, I could taste all the onions he’d been eating earlier. Then I just wanted him off of me. I wanted him out of the house and the kids home and sleeping in their beds. I kicked him, I kicked him in the balls.

SARA
What the hell did he do?

MARY
He threw up. And he ran out of the house. He never mentioned it again. I never mentioned it again. Two months later he was married to Doreen.

SARA
It wouldn’t be like that with another guy.

MARY
How do you know that?

SARA
There are no guarantees. But it could be really great. You could have great sex.

MARY
No . . . no one could be better than Charlie.

SARA
What if they were better?

(MARY is suddenly screaming at her.)

MARY
He was my husband, you don’t talk like that about him in this house . . . his house.

(FRANCES, in pajamas and half asleep, wanders into the room, she waves pot smoke out of the way.)

SARA
This isn’t Charlie’s house. It was Dad’s house . . . and his father’s house and his father’s father’s house. And the only reason you got it was because you were older and had kids.

(MARY starts to cry again.)

MARY
A lightening bolt, a goddamn lightening bolt shoots out of the sky and kills my husband. All because some flatlander can’t live without his Jacuzzi and his view of the mountains.

SARA
Shower—it was a shower. One of those triple headed deals.

MARY
Don’t tell me what my husband was or wasn’t installing when he was struck down by lightning—

SARA
Big enough for three people, he was sitting on the bench, fiddling with the pipe, when the lightning traveled—

MARY
It was a jacuzzi and he was underneath the deck. I was so mad at him.

(As if just noticing FRANCES . . .)

MARY
Do you know why I was so mad at him?

FRANCES
He hadn’t fixed the dryer.

MARY
He’d been promising for weeks. I was at the bakery down town, getting the birthday cake for your brother’s party, and I’d left the clothes out on the line, I knew they’d all be soaked by the time I got home.

(SARA rolls her eyes at FRANCES. MARY doesn’t notice.)

MARY
I’ll fix it, Mares, I’ll fix it this weekend. Oh, can’t do that, I’m going over to Ronnie’s to watch the Red Sox. I’ll fix it tomorrow, after work. Oh, can’t do that, I’ve had a couple of beers, and I’m too tired. And now the goddamn clothes were getting soaked on the line and I wouldn’t have any clean underwear the next day. I was going to yell at him when he came home that night, I was going to have his goddamn head on a platter. (a beat) I had no idea how hard it would be without him. I thought he’d always be around. And then he wasn’t. I’m twenty-six years old and all alone with two kids to raise. I have to find a job. Then I find one and I see how little money I’ll be making. Wondering if I’d ever be able to manage. I’d lie awake night after night. I could hear you and your brother breathing in your rooms. And I’d be thinking I’m responsible for that. I gave them life, and now I’m keeping them alive. I kept you alive, Lady. Me. I did that. I don’t want you going over to Nora Letemkin’s anymore . . . I absolutely forbid it.

(FRANCES pulls away. She’s clearly had enough.)

FRANCES
You are so wasted . . .

(MARY pulls her back again.)

MARY
I hope this whole goddamn town turns into a strip mall. Tract homes and strip malls. And your Mrs. Letemkin, your Mrs. Letemkin won’t be able to do a goddamn thing about it.

(FRANCES pulls away again.)

FRANCES
I’m going to bed.

(She starts for the stairs.

MARY pulls her back again.)

MARY
You think you’re too good for us? Too good for the conversation with your mother and your aunt? Is that what she tells you, that we’re not smart enough for you?

SARA
India—Lady wants to go to India just like Mrs. Letemkin.

FRANCES
Not India—Bhutan—a totally different country.

SARA
Oh excuse me—

MARY
What the hell is Bhutan?

FRANCES
Never mind—

SARA
It’s where Frances wants to live, in the mountains on the other side of the world.

(MARY squeezes her tight.)

MARY
Not my daughter . . . my daughter stays right here. I’m the one who made you so smart, not your Mrs. Letemkin. It’s my brain you have in there. You may look like your father, but you have my brains.

SARA
I looked up your Bhutan on the Internet. You know how much it costs to travel there? Three hundred dollars a day. It doesn’t matter what you do or where you stay . . . it’s all three hundred dollars a day paid to one of the tour operators in the country. And then throw in your air fare which looks to be about two thousand dollars round trip. That’s about five thousand dollars for just one week of travel. How long did Mrs. Letemkin go for?

FRANCES
Three weeks.

SARA
So at two thousand for the air fare and about what . . . two thousand a week . . .

MARY
Twenty one hundred . . .

SARA
A week . . . not including gifts and extra stuff. For three weeks that’s . . .

MARY
Eighty three hundred.

SARA
And with any extras plus taxes . . . you’re looking at about ten thousand dollars for three weeks of travel. (to MARY) Ten thousand dollars. Your daughter wants to spend ten thousand dollars to see a bunch of mountains and monks.

MARY
She’s not going anywhere. She’s staying right here with her mother.

(She delivers a big wet kiss on FRANCES’ cheek.)

MARY
We’ll take our own trip. You, me, Aunt and Warren. We’ll go somewhere nice. The Fryburg fair. Let’s go to the Fryburg Fair.

SARA
No thank you.

MARY
Fine, don’t go. I’ll just go with Lady and Warren. Like we did right after Charlie died. (hugging her daughter) We had such a good time.

SARA
You were miserable the whole time.

MARY
I was not.

SARA
You said the drive was longer than you thought. The motel smelled like smoke and dogs. It rained all weekend and Lady and Warren were crying for Charlie.

MARY
You’re lying.

SARA
What did you just say?

MARY
You heard me.

(SARA stands up.

SARA starts for the door.)

SARA
I’m going home.

(FRANCES stops SARA.)

FRANCES
No you’ve had too much to drink.

SARA
Tell her to apologize.

FRANCES
Apologize, Mary.

MARY
She said we didn’t have a good time. We did have a good time.

(SARA starts for the door again. FRANCES pulls her back again.)

FRANCES
Let’s just all go to bed. (pulling SARA along) You’ll sleep with me, Aunt. (back to MARY) Come on, Ma.

MARY
Do you remember the families, Lady?

FRANCES
What?

MARY
All the families at the Fryburg fair.

FRANCES
Mary, I’m tired.

MARY
In the barns with the animals. All the families with different animals. Whatever animal it was they had raised on their farm and brought to show at the fair. And they’d all done it together. The kids with their mothers and fathers, even grandmothers and grandfathers. The generations together talking about their cows, pigs or horses. And I wanted that so much. I wanted it so much for you and me and Warren.

FRANCES
It’s time for bed, Mary. (she takes her mother’s arm) Aunt, help me.

(They lift her to her feet and make her move.)

MARY
This town used to be like that. This farm too. Families together, raising their animals.

(MARY stops walking and looking right at FRANCES . . .)

MARY
I don’t know what happened. All these strange people here now. All these people taking African safaris and trips to see mountains and monks. They wouldn’t understand the families in the barn . . . not in a million years.

FRANCES
Come on . . . Ma . . .

(And gets her to walk again.)

MARY
He’s never been away for his birthday. Even the day Charlie died, we still had presents and a cake for him. It wasn’t his fault his father died, it wasn’t his fault.

(Lights come down.

Lights full up on the prison visiting room.

Lights half up on the kitchen.

FRANCES enters the visiting room and takes a seat at the table. It is her second visit.

A buzzer goes off.

WARREN walks over to the table and sits. He places his hands on the table. He rubs his wrists.)

WARREN
Does it freak you out?

(MARY comes into the kitchen. She goes to the counter and starts to pack a box for WARREN.)

FRANCES
What?

WARREN
The cuffs. Does it freak you out seeing me wear them?

(FRANCES glances over at MARY. And then back to WARREN—she shrugs. Very long and awkward silence.)

WARREN
Thanks for my present.

FRANCES
I wasn’t sure . . .

WARREN
What’s it called again?

FRANCES
This Boy’s Life. Mrs. Letemkin thought you’d like it.

WARREN
I’ve never been much of a reader.

FRANCES
I know I just thought . . . I’m sorry . . . I’ll get you something else.

WARREN
No it’s fine. I’ll read it . . . it’s not like I’ve got anything else to do.

(Silence.)

FRANCES
Did you do anything special?

WARREN
Special?

FRANCES
For your birthday . . .

WARREN
You mean like cake and ice cream.

FRANCES
I don’t know . . .

WARREN
I lifted weights.

FRANCES
There’s a gym here?

WARREN
Actually each cell has its own personal spa—complete with a sauna and these ladies who come and give you massages.

MARY
How was your brother today?

(FRANCES turns to her mother.)

FRANCES
Okay.

MARY
What did you talk about?

FRANCES
Lifting weights. His job. He wants more m and ms.

MARY
How was his mood?

(FRANCES looks back at her brother who stares off into space.)

MARY
Frances?

FRANCES
I don’t. I guess he was the same. I don’t know.

MARY
I spoke to the new lawyer today. He thinks he can get Warren out of there. He says his confession will never hold up in court. Of course he won’t come cheap.

FRANCES
Mrs. Letemkin . . .

MARY
I’ve already spoken to her.

FRANCES
So she’ll buy the land?

MARY
You mean am I going to sell it to her? I will if she pays my price. And if she thinks she has me cornered and can low ball me . . . she can think again. I know three developers I can call who would be more than willing to pay my price. And I will call them . . . don’t think I won’t.

(FRANCES turns back to WARREN.)

FRANCES
You could do a correspondence course.

WARREN
For what?

FRANCES
You could get your college degree.

WARREN
I was never interested in doing something like that when I was free, why the hell would I be interested now?

FRANCES
I just thought . . . if you were looking for a way to spend your time.

WARREN
My time is spent, Lady. Our days have structure, I have a job.

FRANCES
I know that.

WARREN
You know what?

FRANCES
Mary told me you have a job.

(MARY pulls a large bag of M and Ms out of the cupboard. She places them in the box, then seals the box.)

WARREN
Did she tell you I get paid eight cents an hour packing furniture parts into boxes to send out to Yuppies who want to fill their houses with crap. Pine and particleboard thrown together with glue for furniture that will last maybe five years. But I told Mary I liked it that it makes the time just fly by.

(Long awkward silence.)

WARREN
So how’s Nora Letemkin?

FRANCES
Fine . . .

(MARY moves away from the counter and is heading for the stairs when she notices a pile of papers on the table. She starts to look them over. The more she reads the madder she gets.)

WARREN
I guess Mary is selling that fifteen acres to her.

FRANCES
She’s paying full price for it. Mary told her what she wanted, and she’ll pay for it.

WARREN
She’s a goddamn saint your Nora Letemkin, a goddamn saint. (a beat) She still giving you books to read?

FRANCES
Yes.

WARREN
What’s that word, Svengali—

FRANCES
It’s nothing like that.

WARREN
So what’s it like?

FRANCES
She’s nice to me, and I like spending time with her. She doesn’t have any kids of her own.

WARREN
So then you’re like a kid to her?

FRANCES
We’re friends—is this really what you wanted to talk about?

WARREN
What about college she still telling you to go to college?

(MARY grabs papers off the table and waves them at FRANCES.)

MARY
We can’t afford college.

(FRANCES turns to Mary.)

FRANCES
That’s what the forms are for, scholarships and loans, I got them from my guidance counselor.

(MARY throws the papers on the floor.)

MARY
What have you told her about us?

(FRANCES leaves her brother, goes into the kitchen and picks the forms up off the floor.)

FRANCES
I haven’t told her anything about you. I’ve told her about me. That I might like to go to college but I need to figure out how to pay for it.

MARY
I won’t have you talking to a stranger about our private personal problems. Just because they read about us in the papers, doesn’t mean they have a right to know everything. She doesn’t need to know that we’re broke.

FRANCES
There’s never been any money for college.

MARY
And what about your brother?

(FRANCES goes back to WARREN.

MARY exits through the stairs.)

FRANCES
She isn’t telling me to go to college, I ask her questions and she gives me advice.

WARREN
What kind of questions?

FRANCES
About different schools . . .

WARREN
Have you thought about how you’ll pay for it?

FRANCES
Scholarships . . . loans . . . I don’t know . . . I’ve just started to look into it.

WARREN
Maybe you could put it off for a couple of years.

FRANCES
Put it off?

WARREN
With this new lawyer Mary has hired, I’m looking at a year and a half maybe two years before my new trial. You could put off school . . . get a job. You’d be living at home so you could save your money. And when I get out . . . if everything goes well . . . then you could go to college.

(Silence.

A bell rings. FRANCES stands up.)

WARREN
Frances—

(The prison guard calls out: “Will the prisoner please stand.”

WARREN stands.

FRANCES goes to him, kisses him on the cheek.)

WARREN
Will you think about it, Frances?

FRANCES
Okay.

(She starts to walk away. And stops.)

FRANCES
Mary wanted you to know that she’s mailing you another box out tomorrow. She put more m and ms in it.

(The prison guard calls out: “Will the prisoner please walk.”

He walks away into the shadows.

Another loud buzz as the lights go down.)  

   Contributor’s notes
   Scene Two
   Scene Three