Frozen by Bryony Lavery

Author:Bryony Lavery
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466894013
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Act Two

TWENTY: A PHONE CALL HOME

Agnetha, drink in one hand, cigarette in the other, circling a telephone. She is thinking about phoning … sometimes the decision is ‘no’, sometimes it is nearly ‘yes’… then, finally, it is, ‘fuck it, yes’…

Agnetha

Hi …

Is that …

Mary?

… you sound like you’re in a … bathosphere or

something!…

Do I?…

No … I’m just in London … (English pronunciation)

yeah … (grand) ‘The Brit Lecture’!

yeah … the one David and I were gonna …

it’s … well … kinda weird …

but … hey …

Listen … how you doing?…

She listens.

Well, you would … you will …

ah, Mary … I know … I know …

but …

She listens.

Mary … you just hafta be kind to yourself …

and … give yourself treats … and …

keep warm …

and … make everybody else look after you …

Even The Kids!

How are the…?

Give ’em a kiss from me, okay?

Hell … give em two!

She takes a deep breath and …

Listen, Mary …

I’ve done a dumb thing …

I got drunk and …

I know I don’t … I don’t smoke either … that’s

the peculiar thing …

but okay, I got … major pie-eyed and I …

sent an e-mail to David

and I’m frightened you got it.

Oh

you …

listen … I’m really sor …

you must have …

I have to …

Whaddya mean it made you laugh? …

Mary!!!!!

Another woman sends your dead husband a

piece of hate mail and

you laugh?????

What kinda woman are you?

(Beat.) So it didn’t make you …

You didn’t get …

Listens really hard …

It’s just …

Mary … I really miss him.

I played some footage of him

and … oh

yeah … with The Vicious Haircut …

Mary … you know I love you …

She listens.

Do you…?

She shakes her head …

Thank you …

that’s …

Agnetha, away from the phone, bends over in agony. Straightens, deep breath, and then …

I …

no, never mind …

listen …

I’ll come see you when I get …

No … I haven’t met anyone …

apart from serial killers …

This Brit Killer made me an offer I could refuse …

but hey, he’s not dating at the present moment …

(Listens.) … Sure he’s crazy …

Anything else happening with me…?

Mary …

Mary …

She lifts up her hand. The fingers are crossed.

Someone’s just come in the room.

I gotta go …

okay!…

yeah!

Right!

Take care!

Phone replaced. Pause. She watches as Nancy walks into a room somewhere.

Take care.

Agnetha, leaving her personal detritus, assuming an authoritative demeanour, walks into the same room as Nancy …

TWENTY-ONE: TWO CARING WOMEN MEET

Nancy

I want to meet him.

I have to now

to …

Her hand makes the sign of ‘go straight forward’.

He

She has to do this.

took her

she was going to Grandma’s for me …

and he forced her into the van

and

she’s ten

and

and he …

then he wrapped her in polythene sheeting

she was unconscious

but she wasn’t dead then

he took her to a shed near

and

we think he sexually assaulted her

before he held the polythene on her face

and suffocated her.

She is short of breath.

Agnetha

Breathe.

Both inhale and exhale, hands on breasts, Nancy sort of following Agnetha …

Nancy

I’m accepting it.

I’m accepting she’s dead.

But

Pause.

Somehow an awful admission of guilt.

I’m not

and I need to

The same hand gesture of moving forward …

so

he’s the next step.

I want to know why.

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