Короткие пьесы - [66]
MIKE (sleepily): There…I…was… once in Littleton…
ANNA: (shaking Mike by the shoulders) What did you do there? How come you were in Littleton?
MIKE: Let me sleep… in three hours I have to be at work…(snores).
ANNA: Why were you in Littleton? I won’t let you sleep! Why were you there?
MIKE (eyes closed): Ah you… know? It’s the same… just… Oh, think what ever you want…
(Mike falls asleep. Anna covers Mike with a blanket, and picks up his jacket from the floor. A cell phone falls from the jacket pocket. Anna picks up the cell phone. She neatly lays the jacket on the sofa beside Mike. She then falls asleep, beside Mike with the phone in her hand… Pause, lights change… the phone rings. Anna awakens opens the phone and listens. Ellen’s voice is heard on the cell speakerphone.)
ELLEN: Mike, Mike, hello.
ANNA (into the phone): Hello…
ELLEN (non-paused): Who? Who is this?
(Pause)
ANNA(not very confidently): Police…The Police…
ELLEN (shocked): Who?
ANNA: Police! We have just come to an accident… This phone was lying on the ground.
ELLEN: Accident? (Crest fallen) What happened?
ANNA: Toyota…red…hit a tree.
ELLEN (worried): Driver… The driver? How’s the driver?
ANNA: A man… slumped… window’s open…We’ll soon find out.
ELLEN (crying): He left me an hour ago. He promised to call when he got home. He had a couple of beers.
ANNA (gloating): He can’t call. He is motionless…
ELLEN: I’m really sort of to blame. He didn’t want to come. I really…
ANNA (very interested): Where didn’t he want to go?
ELLEN: To Littleton. Where is the accident?
ANNA: Half way between Acton and Littleton.
ELLEN (muttering to herself): Why did I make him come? I wanted a decision! (Suddenly stops crying). I’m getting in my car. I’ll be there in a minute.
ANNA (insistently): What decision?
ELLEN (suspects she is talking to MIKE ‘s wife. She suspiciously and slowly says): Divorce.
ANNA (changed tone of voice): What divorce?
ELLEN: I’ve been driving. I’m between Acton and Littleton. So far there is no accident.
ANNA: I ask you, what divorce?
ELLEN (she wants to keep Anna talking. Now a much more confidant tone): Listen! He has thought about a divorce for a long time. He hasn’t been able to decide, and then this evening he said, “Many can’t divorce their grandmothers, but I’ll try to night”. What do you say about that?
ANNA: What grandmother?
ELLEN: That’s what he calls… y… his wife…grandmother…
ANNA: Why?
ELLEN: She is older than him…
ANNA: You think so?
ELLEN: I know. He told me. She has terrible medical problems. She hurts and complains all the time. He is so funny when he mimics her, “Here I hurt… there I hurt.” She doesn’t have one organ that’s not in pain. She is so pathetic…
ANNA: OK! Why’s he talking to you about a divorce?
ELLEN (confidently trying to keep the conversation going): And not just this… There is no car accident on the whole road, none!
ANNA: What more did he tell you?
ELLEN: Lots…I don’t remember all… (Pause)… Hello, are you still there? Ah
… she doesn’t give him any slack. Every night she meets him at the door he has to report details of the whole day, where he was, what he did…he comes to me, discouraged…and has to lie down.
ANNA: What else does he say?
ELLEN: Oh, I remember… (Laughs). She has one leg shorter than the other… He showed me how she walks like, a lame duck. I die laughing…
ANNA (stifling tears): Why are you so…
ELLEN: I’m almost to your house, “Mrs. Mike”. I kept you talking so my new police GPS could show me the way.
ANNA: The door is locked!
ELLEN: Garage entrance…
(A young woman enters the room thru the same entrance MIKE did. She stands at the doorway looking at Anna. Anna shocked studies the sexy young woman.)
ELLEN: And… here I am! I knew it was you when you heard me say “decision”. So this is how you look! Completely different! I’m Ellen.
ANNA (confused): You look just as I thought…blond (or black hair), petite… Just the kind of woman he likes. I’m Anna…
(Ellen looks at the sleeping MIKE).
ELLEN: I see he is OK. Why did you lie to me?
ANNA: I was so shocked when his phone rang. I just said the first thing I thought of.
ELLEN: Accident! I was completely beside myself.
ANNA: Me too. You should have heard how he lied to me when he came home. He talked about a tornado causing a flood in Littleton.
ELLEN: He didn’t say anything about a divorce?
ANNA: Not a word. Just tornado and flood rubbish.
(Pause)
ELLEN: Funny…
(Pause)
ANNA: Ellen, I’m sorry for you!
ELLEN: Why?
ANNA: You are so young, so naive; you don’t understand men. You should understand the man who you might to spend your life with. You are condemning yourself to a very hard life… I’d like to warn you about your fate. You are not yet married and already you are loosing sleep because of him. Now he loves you but on some new moon he will change as he became changed to me. He will talk to another of his loves about your short leg.
ELLEN: No way, I don’t limp.
ANNA: Neither do I! He promised to talk to me about a divorce?
ELLEN: Promised…
ANNA (shrugs): He said nothing…you can’t count on him.
ELLEN: I will change him!
ANNA: I tried, but no use. And now I see that you also can’t.