Joyce's Women by Edna O'Brien

Author:Edna O'Brien
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2022-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Scene Seven

Brigitte’s kitchen.

From the street a woman’s voice is heard singing the Marlene song.

Woman (off)

‘Falling in love again

Never wanted to

What am I to do?

I can’t help it …’

Nora (shocked) It’s Lucia … She must have died.

Brigitte goes to answer the door.

Lucia enters, wearing a man’s overcoat, carrying a rough stick, her long hair tangled with stray ribs of hay and straw. She is proud of herself for having found them. Her voice carries in pitch as she recounts her story (be it true, or invented). She skeeters from the rational to the more bizarre, at times resorting to Joycean words.

Lucia Hello, Mother … Hello, lady …

This is a very nice house … it has no elevator …

Nora Lucia … How did you get here?

Lucia (proudly) Hermes … God of Angels and Messengers …

I upped my shillelagh and walked.

Nora France swarming with military …

Lucia No supervision … Everybody fleeing for their lives …

Doctors, nurses, warders all trying to get to the Spanish border … Not mucher Vichy, Vichy afraid of Gestapo.

(Complete change of voice.) I have restored my father’s good name to the people of Ireland.

They were not au courant with his works.

I wrote to the papers and got good responses.

My father is going to be crowned the last King of Ireland.

There has been no king since Roderick O’Connor,

who was fond of his drop.

And one night…

Nora Shut up, Lucia.

Lucia (reverting to the perils of her journey) I walked at night … In near the ditches …

Trees all dewed up. Fields of the dead.

A man hanging from a tree, his beard shook with icicles.

They would have to be cut out of him.

Brigitte All by yourself?

Lucia I took up pipe smoking to keep warm.

Nora No one stopped you.

Lucia Yes they did. A German convoy at a border crossing.

They were off duty, drunk.

They threw questions at me.

I answered in German

Mein Vater hat sein Buch der Nacht verloren.

I said it a few times and they spoke it in English and laughed –

My father has lost his Book of the Night.

They spoke to each other and laughed,

then one said she is verrückt

and they drove off.

Brigitte (sympathetic) Verrückt. Crazy.

Lucia I took a train to the nearest town.

Nora On what?

Lucia A train ticket from the dead man’s pocket …

Later that night I came to a town and there were army vehicles outside a house. The house had a red light.

I rang the bell.

A girl with a sequined bolero stole answered the door.

Nora (fuming) A whorehouse.

Lucia Madam needed someone to clean the rooms

and serve the officers drinks.

(Emphatic.) I did not engage in sin business

or walk in the darkle.

I served drinks and played Marlene on the phonograph – Germans on one side of the hall and Vichy on the other.

One man took a liking to me.

(Flirtatious.) ‘Elsker du mig Kaere? – Do you love me, my dearest?’

I trimmed his sideburns … I told him my father was very famous but very ill …

He felt sorry for me …

And said he would smuggle me out.

Nora (cutting in) From La Baule to Zurich, you got here without any questioning.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.