Our Few and Evil Days by Mark O’Rowe

Author:Mark O’Rowe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Scene Two

MARGARET sits alone at the kitchen table, drinking tea. It is evening of the following day. A knock on the front door. She goes out to the hall. We hear the door open. Beat.

MARGARET (offstage). Why are you knocking?

ADELE (offstage). What?

MARGARET (offstage). Why didn’t you just come in?

We hear the front door close.

ADELE (offstage). I dunno. It kinda didn’t seem right, given, you know…

MARGARET (offstage). Right.

ADELE (offstage).…me and Dad.

MARGARET (offstage). Come in. Come in.

As they enter:

ADELE. Is he here?

MARGARET. I told you he wouldn’t be. And that’s stupid.

ADELE. What is?

MARGARET. Not to use your key. As if you had to get permission to enter or something.

ADELE. Well…

MARGARET. He’s gone into town. It’s Richard Farrell’s birthday.

ADELE. Who?

MARGARET. A fellow he knows in work. Do you want a cup of tea?

ADELE. All right.

MARGARET. There’s a few of them gone in for a meal to celebrate.

She goes to get the tea while ADELE sits down. Pause.

So, how are you?

ADELE. How am I?

MARGARET. Yeah.

ADELE. I’m a mess.

MARGARET. Sure how else would you be, I suppose.

ADELE. I keep… Exactly.

MARGARET.…You know?

ADELE. I dunno, I find I keep getting upset at the most inconvenient moments.

MARGARET. Really?

ADELE. Yeah.

MARGARET. Like when?

ADELE. At the gym…

MARGARET. No.

ADELE. Yeah, on the treadmill, twice, I’ve burst into tears.

MARGARET. Oh, Adele.

ADELE. I know.

MARGARET (bringing the tea). Of course, it’s those times, when your mind is free to wander, isn’t it…

ADELE. What.

MARGARET.…that you get upset.

ADELE. I suppose. Everyone looking at me, ‘What the hell’s going on with her?’

MARGARET. Don’t mind them.

ADELE. I don’t.

MARGARET sits. Pause.

Fucking waste.

MARGARET. Huh?

ADELE. Belinda.

MARGARET. Oh.

ADELE. Fucking asshole.

MARGARET. Gary?

ADELE. You should have seen him, Mam. Sitting there, completely free of any, whatever… responsibility…

MARGARET. Right.

ADELE.…or guilt. ‘What was it, Adele…?’

MARGARET. This is him.

ADELE.…‘What the,’ yeah, ‘What the hell could have made her do what she did?’

MARGARET. As if he didn’t know.

ADELE. Well, exactly.

MARGARET. Right.

ADELE. You know what he said? You know what reason he gave in the end for why he treated her like…? Ah, to hell with it.

MARGARET. What?

ADELE. No, to hell with it, Mam. It’s not even worth repeating.

MARGARET. All right.

ADELE. He’s poison.

MARGARET. Uh-huh.

ADELE. He is. He’s worse than scum, and yet he’s the one still swanning around, you know? while she’s in a, fuck, a box…

MARGARET. Mm-hm.

ADELE.…in the ground. So fucking unfair!

MARGARET. I know.

ADELE. So unjust! What the hell is it with men?

MARGARET. I know. Well…

ADELE. Seriously.

MARGARET. Well, not all men are like that, Adele.

ADELE. Enough of them are.

MARGARET. Right.

ADELE. Fucking Dennis…?

MARGARET. Have you heard from him yet?

ADELE (pause). I went to see him yesterday.

MARGARET. No.

ADELE. Another asshole. Yeah, I called to the pub he works in and threatened to make a scene if he didn’t talk to me.

MARGARET. Okay.

ADELE. So…

MARGARET. Wow.

ADELE. I know. I actually couldn’t believe it myself.

MARGARET. And what did he say?

ADELE. Well, we’re not together any more.

MARGARET. Oh, no…!

ADELE. That’s finished.

MARGARET.…Adele!

ADELE. It’s all right. It’s fine.

MARGARET. And what did he say about never getting in touch?

ADELE (pause). He said he’d needed to spend some time alone…

MARGARET. Okay.

ADELE.…because… agh…!

MARGARET. What?

ADELE.…nothing. He had some bullshit excuse involving you.

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