Only Our Own by Anne Henning Jocelyn

Author:Anne Henning Jocelyn [Jocelyn, Anne Henning]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783190508
Publisher: OBERON BOOKS Ltd
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

SCENE 3A

LIGHTS UP on the dining-room: on the table a carry-cot with a sleeping baby. The room is full of baby and toddler paraphernalia. MEG, in tears, is busy packing all the children’s things into suitcases.

Enter ANDREW, looks at MEG.

ANDREW: (Tenderly.) Oh darling, not so glum!

Today we have every reason to be happy.

MEG: Of course.

I am pleased for Titania.

Really I am.

Delighted.

Relieved.

I if anyone knows what she’s been through.

ANDREW: I’ll give you a hand.

He helps her with the packing.

MEG: (Struggling against tears.) And yet…and yet…

Our life took on a new meaning that day when Gerry appeared on the doorstep… in the pouring rain, drenched…

Aoife in her buggy, encased in a plastic bubble;

Cathal in a sling under his anorak…

ANDREW: At least he was man enough to come to us.

Not too proud to admit that it was more than any man could manage to be both father and mother to a toddler and a newborn, whilst also having the farm and his stock to tend.

MEG: Poor Gerry, at his wits’ end.

Not knowing what had hit him.

ANDREW: Well I had never heard of post-natal depression until I was confronted with it.

It’s a devil of a thing to live with.

MEG: My case was different!

I had a valid reason.

Her eyes fall on the baby in the cot.

MEG: Andrew…have you noticed that Cathal looks just like our little boy?

ANDREW: (Looking at the baby.) Yes… I think you’re right.

MEG: When Gerry left him here, he was exactly the age our baby was when he was taken from us.

It was almost as if…

as if someone had brought him back.

She picks up the baby.

MEG: I’ve never known such a good baby.

Hardly ever cries, feeds well, sleeps through the night…

ANDREW: They are both great kids.

MEG: Aoife certainly has you wrapped around her little finger: larking about, playing the fool.

I never thought you had it in you.

ANDREW: It’s been good having the children here.

A bit like the life we once aspired to – but never quite achieved.

MEG: Well it wasn’t easy to play happy families after we buried our baby boy.

And Titania was such a difficult child: cross, wilful, demanding, insisting on always having her way.

ANDREW: What she needed was a firm hand – right from the start.

MEG: I know I was too lenient.

But being ill for so long…

And then I felt bad for having neglected her…

Pause.

Oh Andrew – what’s to become of her?

Of the children?

ANDREW: Don’t worry, Meg.

She’s being discharged, she’s had all the right treatment.

From now on, things will be different.

MEG: Let’s hope so.

I am pleased for her.

Really I am.

Delighted.

(Clutching the baby, struggling against tears.) And yet… and yet…

The thought of these little ones going back

to the squalor of Gerry’s cottage…

She looks despairingly at ANDREW.

ANDREW: I know, dear.

I know.

BLACK OUT.

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