Medea by Rachel Cusk

Author:Rachel Cusk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: OBERON BOOKS Ltd

SCENE 10

The sitting room. The pile of boxes is now enormous.

AEGEUS

You’ve changed.

MEDEA

Have I?

AEGEUS

‘Thinner you grow, less knowable, finer.’ That’s Celan, incidentally. He’s so good on the dark patches.

Pause.

No kids?

MEDEA

They go to school.

AEGEUS

Oh of course. I forgot people still do that. Is this moving in, or moving out?

MEDEA

Out.

AEGEUS

But moving up at least, I hope.

MEDEA shakes her head slowly.

MEDEA

He got a court order. We have to go.

AEGEUS

What’s wrong with your lawyer? You’re the mother, for heaven’s sake.

MEDEA

I think I’m the wrong kind.

Pause.

He says he needs the money.

AEGEUS

From what I hear, his needs are about to be assuaged. This will be quite a career move, you know, if he can pull it off. It’s huge, actually – it puts him in a whole different league.

MEDEA puts her head in her hands. AEGEUS tries to comfort her.

I know, it doesn’t seem right. Can’t you let him go? Can’t you just – despise him for it?

MEDEA shakes her head.

Maybe you thought too highly of him. Maybe he just can’t help himself.

MEDEA

Oh, he can.

AEGEUS

When I think back to the old days – I mean, I make no secret of the fact that I’ve sold out, but the two of you always had so much integrity. Everything you did was – art. I admit it, I’m surprised. You were the last people – really, the last people – I expected this to happen to. And to happen in such a sordid way – I know it must sound naive, but I honestly saw you as soulmates. You were such a – such a match. I remember, years ago, watching you play each other at chess and thinking, Christ, can this really be possible, that these two people get to have sex with each other too? To have, you know, all of it? You were the example I gave to all my doubting friends. You even made having kids look interesting.

Pause.

On the flight over I was sitting right across the aisle from this woman and her baby. You know Jorge wants to do this whole surrogacy thing? So now I’m looking at babies, you know, the way you suddenly start looking at cars when you’re thinking of buying one. Though to be honest I’m not really a believer yet. I’ve been in sort of a silent tailspin over this kids thing. It’s like, my God, Invasion of the Body Snatchers – the whole world’s been taken over by aliens, and only me and Jorge are left. And then suddenly I look at Jorge ogling babies and I realise he’s been taken over by aliens too, and now there’s only me! Anyhow, this baby on the flight was like a little owl, all silent and staring. And the mother was positively iconic. She was the madonna – she had this amazing bone structure, and her eyes were this translucent, almost empty blue, and she was so sort of devotional and set apart. She kept getting up to tend to the baby, very calm and unhurried, and every time she

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