“Upon a Time … Ever After”

“Upon a Time…” was inspired by the 1979 Manhattan kidnapping of Etan Patz – his story never left me. It was the second act in a full-length play titled THE 14th FLOOR that was a 1996 contest winner in Canada and published there [out of print, of course]. Recently, I revised the 4 scene 2nd act, and that became “Upon a Time…Ever After.” Set on the day after Thanksgiving in 1995, DYLAN has just returned home after 24 years as a [kidnapped] boy prostitute. In his scientist father’s NYC apartment, DYLAN meets his younger sister, JILL, her husband JACOB, his grandmother PRISCILLA, and learning-disabled AUNT LUCY whose favorite fairytale is The Snow Queen, which threads through the play. JILL and JACOB have lived a mostly agoraphobic life that DYLAN upsets, but that’s just part of how, for all the characters, darkness moves toward light. “Upon a Time … Ever After”

Scene i

Late afternoon, the day after Thanksgiving, sunset, 1995. The living room of apartment 14E. The play is about what has been lost and found on a floor labeled 14; no NYC high-rise admits to a 13th floor. Entrance and door to three bedrooms stage right wall: door to terrace/kitchen, pass-through to kitchen, kitchen door, stage left wall. Backstage wall is window with shelves/ bookcases at either side. (Details of set are subject to budget; these are optimum requests that can be minimized to a few significant objects.) In 14E, the upstage corner is empty; center downstage presents the parts of a harpsichord kit in disarray, tented by paper directions. The apartment is a great mess. A floor lamp creates a circle of light onto the upstage right corner of the couch, where 95-year-old Grandma PRISCILLA and her great-granddaughter JILL, 26, are reading – mostly reciting from memory – the Andersen fairytale THE SNOW QUEEN. JILL knows the story just as well as AUNT LUCY, 45, to whom it is being retold. AUNT LUCY is intellectually disabled; she has twelve fingers and toes. Sounds in the kitchen come from JILL’s husband, JACOB, 35. THE SNOW QUEEN has seven parts which have been read/retold over the past few days. They are at the beginning of AUNT LUCY’s favorite part, The Fifth Story, subtitled The Little Robber Girl. As they read, JACOB sets and brings food to a dining table.

PRISCILLA

(reading)

“They drove on through a dark wood, where the chariot lighted the way and blinded some robbers by its glare. It was more than they could bear.”

LUCY

‘It is gold! It is gold!’

PRISCILLA

“they cried, and darting forward they seized the horses and killed the postilions, the coachman, and footman. Then they dragged little Gerda out of the carriage.”

LUCY

‘She is fat and she is pretty! She has been fattened on nuts!’

PRISCILLA

“said the old robber woman, who had a long beard, and eyebrows that hung down over her eyes.”

LUCY

‘She is as good as a fat lamb, and how nice she will taste!’

PRISCILLA

“She drew out her sharp knife as she said this. It glittered horribly. ‘Oh,’ screamed the old woman at the same moment –

JILL

for or her little daughter had come up behind her and was biting her ear.

PRISCILLA

She hung on her back, as wild and as savage a little animal as you could wish to find. ‘You bad, wicked child!’ said the mother, but she was prevented from killing Gerda on this occasion.

LUCY

‘She shall play with me,’ said the little robber girl. ‘She shall give me her –

JILL

muff –

LUCY

muff – and her pretty dress, and she shall sleep in my bed.’

PRISCILLA

Then she bit her mother again and made her dance. All the robbers laughed and said, ‘Look at her dancing with her cub!’

LUCY

(racing ahead in the story)

‘They shan’t kill you as long as I don’t get angry with you. You must surely be a princess! Then shan’t kill you even if I am angry with you. I will do it myself.’”

JILL

Aunt Lucy, you’re jumping ahead!

JACOB

(at table)

And they say there’s too much violence on TV for kids today.

(Door opens. Professor Richard REYNOLDS, 60, enters with DYLAN, 30.)

REYNOLDS

(answering question unasked by PRISCILLA and JILL)

Well. Yes.

DYLAN

I am who I said I am.

JILL

(jumping up and embracing DYLAN)

We never doubted you1 You look like all the pictures. Mom was right: you were the pretty one. We’ll frame the DNA test. Do you have it? It’s like a birth certificate.

(Aunt LUCY is frustrated by the story interruption.)

LUCY

“‘You shall sleep with me and all my pets tonight.’”

DYLAN

What?

JILL

Oh, it’s THE SNOW QUEEN.

LUCY

The Little Robber Girl.

PRISCILLA

The fifth story. It’s time for dinner, Lucy.

(Prof. REYNOLDS drops his coat on the couch. DYLAN picks it up with the other two coats/ jackets lying about and takes his own as well to the hallway door where presumably there is a closet. REYNOLDS sits at the head of the table, closest to the terrace door. JILL assists PRISCILLA to the table. LUCY takes her seat, and JACOB sits at the other end of the table with his back to the audience. DYLAN hesitates.)

REYNOLDS

Over here. (DYLAN sits where directed.)

PRISCILLA

Is it cold out?

REYNOLDS

No. (to JILL) We ran into your mother’s old lab partner, Dr. Cheng. I couldn’t remember her first name.

JILL

May Lee.

REYNOLDS

I was lucky to remember anything. (to PRISCILLA) I don’t have your memory. I think you make up half of it, anyway.

PRISCILLA

Only half.

JILL

(for DYLAN)

He remembers nothing of his childhood. If it weren’t for Grandma, there’d be no proof Daddy ever really had a childhood. He could’ve sprung, fully grown, out of Grandma’s head, like Athena out of Zeus. Richard out of Priscilla.

PRISCILLA

You’ve got the genders reversed.

JILL

I’m not the Greek scholar.

PRISCILLA

Well, what are you, dear?

LUCY

(innocent)

A slob.

JILL

(laughs)

That’s the truth.

JACOB

We’re as sloppy as the robber family.

LUCY

She bit her mother’s ear!

JILL

Dylan, you look – how are you?

DYLAN

Me? Oh, I’m not hungry. (to JACOB) It’s delicious, though. What is it?

JACOB

(affable)

Better not to ask.

DYLAN

Don’t ask, don’t tell.

JACOB

Something like that. Is there anything else you’d like –

DYLAN

No, I’m fine. Maybe –

JILL

You want to lie down?

DYLAN

Where?

JILL

You’ve got to stop asking. You’re home now. Where you’ve slept all week, in our room.

DYLAN

I feel bad, putting you out.

JILL

I sleep in Aunt Lucy’s and Grandma’s room whenever I can’t stand Jacob. He’s used to it.

DYLAN

He’s not used to me.

JACOB

You don’t take any getting used to, Dylan. Go lie down.

DYLAN

(hesitant)

You are all very kind.

JILL

You’re my older brother. Do I have to put you to bed?

DYLAN

No, okay, I’m going. (exits)

(pause. REYNOLDS rises, goes to terrace, stands outside, back to audience, hands on ledge.)

JILL

What’s the matter with Daddy?

LUCY

He’ll get cold out there.

JACOB

He said it wasn’t cold. It wasn’t that cold when we went out.

JILL

Was that yesterday?

JACOB

Yesterday was Thanksgiving.

JILL

It was? It was Thursday?

PRISCILLA

I believe so. Next year, we’ll celebrate. Thanksgiving. Too much for Dylan yesterday.

LUCY

Now Gerda and the little robber girl.

JACOB

Don’t you want dessert?

LUCY

What is it?

JACOB

Life is full of mystery.

JILL

It’s full of something. Did they act like they got good news? So when was the last time we went outside?

JACOB

You, I’m not sure. Me? Monday. Sunday, maybe. Remember, they didn’t deliver the paper and I went out – You think he’s disappointed?

JILL

Which one? When did Dylan arrive?

PRISCILLA

You two worry me.

JILL

But you love us. And you couldn’t find more constant caretakers.

PRISCILLA

Who’s taking care of whom?

LUCY

January.

JILL

Maybe Dylan doesn’t like us. What?

LUCY

He came January.

JILL

That’s a month, not a day of the week.

PRISCILLA

He came a week ago. Last Thursday.

JILL

How do you keep track of that?

PRISCILLA

It’s a gift.

JACOB

So. He really is your brother. The prodigal brother comes home, Maybe it’s finally hit your father. The life Dylan has led. When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.

JILL

What do you think, Grandma?

JACOB

He sleeps on the very edge of the bed. If he sleeps. I wondered if he was breathing. (goes to kitchen, returns with dessert)

LUCY

He could sleep in Richard’s bedroom. In the corner.

JILL

Like the little robber girl?

PRISCILLA

I hope he will stay. For all our sakes.

JILL

Just because Jacob and I never leave the apartment doesn’t mean Dylan is like that. He’s been all around the world. He’s used to earning a living. Not like us.

JACOB

Envy no one. (to LUCY) Cookies. It’s all I could find.

REYNOLDS

(returning, sad)

He can’t stay here.

JILL

(immediate, defensive)

Who?

REYNOLDS

(about JACOB)

If your mother were alive, he wouldn’t be living here.

JILL

Who can’t stay? Who’d take care of Grandma and Aunt Lucy for you?

REYNOLDS

I could hire help that would cost less than you two. And would clean up.

JILL

I’ve seen your bank statements. Your awards are well-invested. I think Science should pay for Art. How could people bear to live with the ugliness that you uncover without Art?

PRISCILLA

That isn’t Art. That’s slipcovering. Art is a language. Science is another. Reality is, at the very least, bilingual.

REYNOLDS

I don’t see you two producing any art. You can’t go out of the apartment.

JILL

Whose fault is that?

REYNOLDS

I’m not God, Jill.

JILL

I know you’re not God. How about just acting like a father? Who can’t stay?

REYNOLDS

(about DYLAN)

Him.

JILL

What? (threatening) Jacob?

REYNOLDS

Him. He says he can’t stay here.

JILL

Oh, Dylan. You can’t say his name? I see. After 24 years of it being holier than holy. Dylan, Dylan, DYLAN –!

REYNOLDS

(at couch, collapsing, soft)

Dylan – (torn outcry – stage dark)

Scene ii

It is about midnight. There is one light left on in the living room. It is empty until DYLAN enters from the terrace wearing a borrowed bathrobe that is too big for his slender build. He goes to the kitchen and returns with a mug of cocoa. He sits on the couch, turns on the standing light overhead, and picks up the Andersen fairytale book, reads silently. PRISCILLA enters from the bedroom hall. Immediately, DYLAN goes to her to help.

PRISCILLA

No, no, I’m fine. I’m slow, but I get there.

DYLAN

I’ve having cocoa. You want some? Tea?

PRISCILLA

Nothing, no. You’re a very solicitous boy. (sits at dining room table) I like a hardback chair.

DYLAN

(re harpsichord)

What’s all this?

PRISCILLA

One of Jacob’s projects.

DYLAN

What is it?

PRISCILLA

Your mother kept herself busy. When she wasn’t at work, she gave herself projects to do at home. Richard’s hours – well, experiments take the time they take. And he gets absorbed and doesn’t have any sense of time then anyway. She started building the harpsichord before her – death. Then it was put away. Jacob discovered it in a closet just before you returned.

DYLAN

Was she musical? My mother?

PRISCILLA

No. Jill is, though. She went to school for it, but then she quit. That’s where she met Jacob. Are you? Musical?

DYLAN

Me? I don’t know. No, I mean it. I like old people best.

PRISCILLA

Well, I’m about as old as people get. I was 95 on January 1st.

DYLAN

You’re kidding.

PRISCILLA

I know I don’t look a day over 94. No woman jokes about her age. Truly, I’m still quite vain. About my hair, for example. I don’t have to dye it. You don’t believe me.

DYLAN

January 1, 1900. You’re seen it all.

PRISCILLA

We both know that’s not half true.

DYLAN

What was the best and the worst of it? (DYLAN sits on floor and starts to examine the harpsichord parts and plans. He works on building as they talk.)

PRISCILLA

When she began working with that kit, your mother said, “A taut string can be vibrated in other three different ways. It can be plucked, stroked, or struck.” I just heard her voice in my head.

DYLAN

Is that how she talked?

PRISCILLA

She read that. We’re a real family of readers here. I’m blessed I haven’t lost my sight. Don’t you remember your mother at all? You were six –

DYLAN

I don’t remember anything about that day. Or anything else. My father said I was on my way to school. He walked me from this building to the school and back yesterday. I wish he’d done it twenty-four years ago.

PRISCILLA

So does he. Do you know who St. Sebastian was?

DYLAN

Yes.

PRISCILLA

Every day you were gone was another arrow in your father.

DYLAN

St. Sebastian became the patron saint of archers. What I know about the kidnapping I read in the newspaper. Actually, on microfilm in a library on one of those machines with pickup reels and a monitor. For a diem, I printed out a page with the longest story about it. The pictures copied badly. Blurry.

PRISCILLA

Did you recognize your father when you first saw him in the newspaper?

DYLAN

No. Do I look anything like him to you?

PRISCILLA

You look more like your mother. I was surprised – relieved – Richard could find a girl like her in a lab. But of course, she was biology and he was physics. What do you think has been the best and the worst?

DYLAN

Did she every find anything? I mean, in her research.

PRISCILLA

I suppose she must have. She never talked to me about her work. She would ask about mine. Twenty-four years ago, I was still teaching at my alma mater here in the City. Greek and Latin. I wasn’t living here then. I often think of myself as a different person now. The girl I was, the wife, the professor, I remember them the way one remembers other people, associated with an object, described by an often-repeated anecdote. It’s difficult to feel them from the inside.

DYLAN

That’s a nice thought.

PRISCILLA

I agree.

DYLAN

What do you suppose a unison string is? I need two of them.

PRISCILLA

Your father won all the awards.

DYLAN

Jill said. What for?

PRISCILLA

Haven’t you asked him?

DYLAN

He doesn’t like to speak to me. Or look at me. And people usually do.

PRISCILLA

Your beauty is why you were stolen. It pains him.

DYLAN

Did he say?

PRISCILLA

No.

DYLAN

You don’t have to be his mother to see I make him sick.

PRISCILLA

How are you feeling? Is it what you expected? Coming home?

DYLAN

I don’t think I know what home means. (finding) The jacks. Jutting quills, the soundboard. This shouldn’t be impossible. I’d like to see a finished one, though. If I saw one, I could do this faster. I can do that. If I can see something, I can copy it pretty well. Especially if I can get my hands on it.

PRISCILLA

Three-dimensional things. It’s a crime.

DYLAN

Is it? (becoming more and more interested in building)

PRISCILLA

That you were robbed of an education. Perhaps you could have become a sculptor.

DYLAN

I just learned different things.

PRISCILLA

Who knows what you might have become?

DYLAN

(mild)

Yes, like my sister.

PRISCILLA

Two clever by halves, you are.

DYLAN

I’m a genius. So. What did he do? Your son. My father.

PRISCILLA

Found a way to see an atom. Do you know who created the hydrogen bomb? Edward Teller. He made up a rhyme. ‘A is for atom. It is so small/ No one has ever seen it at all.’ Richard wanted to see one. He built a scanning tunneling microscope.

DYLAN

(looking inside his building)

Scanning and tunneling?

(PRISCILLA goes to wall and takes off a small framed photo, intending to bring it to DYLAN, who jumps up and goes to her.)

PRISCILLA

This is a real photograph of gold atoms.

DYLAN

It looks like an egg carton, one of the smooth Styrofoam ones. You think they really landed on the Moon, or that was all done in a movie studio? This is what he won the Nobel Prize for?

PRISCILLA

In 1986. How he’s moving atoms around one at a time. He named a positron for me. It’s called Priscilla.

DYLAN

What’s a positron?

PRISCILLA

I’m told it’s a kind of electron.

DYLAN

1986. I turned 21. In Amsterdam. (some harpsichord piece doesn’t fit) Damn. Why would you want to move one atom at a time?

PRISCILLA

I suppose it’s what we’ve always wanted to do, to get to the very bottom of things. It’s the only way to understand why things happen, one atom at a time. It we could move things, atom by atom…

DYLAN

Maybe we could move them back? (PRISCILLA yawns.) I don’t think so. It’s late.

PRISCILLA

Oh, no, I’m not tired. I have the sleeping habits of a cat now. I could nod right off and sleep through a siren – I have! – when the fire alarm went off in the kitchen, Jacob left milk boiling on the stove and it burned away – or, I’m completely awake. Every time I awake, it’s a gift. What woke you?

DYLAN

Jacob misses Jill.

PRISCILLA

You should have your own bed.

DYLAN

I’m a light sleeper.

PRISCILLA

It’s a strange bed.

(On the next line, a half-asleep JILL stands in the doorway, wearing sweatshirt and sweatpants. This is not the social, cordial JILL; she’s awakened from a nightmare.)

DYLAN

Strange beds are familiar to me.

JILL

What are you doing? Why are you all up?

DYLAN

(re harpsichord)

I hope you don’t mind.

JILL

I don’t. Jacob may.

DYLAN

I could use another pair of hands.

JILL

I don’t think so.

PRISCILLA

Was Lucy noisy?

JILL

(to DYLAN, nasty)

She’s got twelve toes and fingers, have you noticed?

DYLAN

I haven’t seen her toes.

JILL

Ugh. You don’t want to. She’s your aunt, too, you know. Mom’s little sister. Just like me.

DYLAN

(JILL is barefoot.)

You have ten nice toes.

JILL

I meant I’m your little sister. Don’t look at my feet. I don’t know where your eyes have been.

DYLAN

But you’d like to.

PRISCILLA

Jill, I feel so sleepy.

(JILL goes to PRISCILLA and helps her to the doorway route to the bedroom; exit line:)

JILL

(to DYLAN)

Don’t break anything.

Scene iii

An hour or so later. DYLAN has made progress on the harpsichord, but it doesn’t have legs yet. It sounds incomplete, awful. LUCY enters, wearing slippers.

DYLAN

Oh, I’m sorry.

LUCY

Why?

DYLAN

The harpsichord. It woke you.

LUCY

No. Jill was talking.

DYLAN

With Priscilla?

LUCY

No, Jill’s asleep. Priscilla is in the bathroom.

DYLAN

Jill’s talking in her sleep?

LUCY

She does it all the time. I like it better when she sleeps with Jacob.

DYLAN

So does Jacob.

LUCY

What’re you doing?

DYLAN

Getting nowhere fast.

LUCY

Please read to me.

DYLAN

(always accommodating)

Okay. (They go to the couch. She gives him the Andersen fairytale book.) Where?

LUCY

You know.

DYLAN

(He sees she doesn’t.)

Yes. It’s … THE SNOW – ?

LUCY

THE SNOW QUEEN.

DYLAN

(looking in Contents, finding)

Right. Oh, THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES is in here.

LUCY

He’s naked, (She giggles.)

DYLAN

Yes, he is. (finding story) Why do you like this one so much?

LUCY

Geda finds Kay and brings him home. That’s his name, Kay. It’s a boy’s name. It’s very hard to find him. Gerda meets the robber girl. The Snow Queen put glass in Kay’s eye. That’s why he didn’t come home. But Gerda finds him and takes the glass out of his eye.

DYLAN

(reading)

“‘You shall sleep with me and all my little pets?’”

LUCY

Yes!

DYLAN

“‘You shall sleep with me and all my little pets tonight,’ said the robber girl. They went along to one corner which was spread with straw and rugs. There were nearly a hundred pigeons roosting overhead on the rafters and beams. They seemed to be asleep, but they fluttered when the children came in.

LUCY

‘They are all mine. Kiss it!’

DYLAN

(compensating for LUCY’s leaving things out)

The little robber girl seized one of the nearest pigeons and held it by the legs and shook it until it flapped its wings. She dashed the pigeon in Gerda’s face.

LUCY

‘Kiss it!

DYLAN

(growing interest in the story)

Those are the woods pigeons,’ the little robber girl added, pointing to some laths – (no help from LUCY) – laths fixed across a big hole high up on the walls. ‘They would fly away directly if they were not locked in. And here is my old sweetheart, Be!’ Here she dragged forward a reindeer by the horn. It was tied up, and it had a bright copper ring around its neck. ‘We have to keep him close, too, or he would run off.

LUCY

Every single night I tickle his neck with my bright knife. He is so frightened of it!’

DYLAN

(growing agitation)

The little robber girl produced a long knife out of a hole in the wall and drew it across the reindeer’s neck. The poor animal kicked, and the robber girl laughed and pulled Gerda down into her bed.” (DYLAN gets up and throws the book down behind the couch. He goes to the terrace.)

(LUCY gets up and goes around the couch and retrieves the book. JILL enters.)

JILL

I’m sorry I woke you. Go back to bed. I can’t sleep tonight. I give up.

LUCY

(afraid)

He threw the book.

JILL

Who?

LUCY

Him.

JILL

His name is Dylan, it’s not God.

LUCY

Dylan threw it.

JILL

He doesn’t know any better. He was raised by wolves. You go to bed now.

(LUCY exits. JILL looks at developing harpsichord. DYLAN enters, speaking)

DYLAN

I’m sorry, I – oh, Jill.

JILL

Yes, (emphasizes) Dylan.

DYLAN

Where’s your aunt? –

JILL

She’s your aunt, too. You scared her.

DYLAN

I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. You said she had no feelings about your mother’s death.

JILL

Our mother. Yes, Aunt Lucy’s hard to figure. A tornado doesn’t ruffle her hair, but she can get pneumonia from a draft. And then, not. You scare me.

DYLAN

Do I?

JILL

Didn’t you ever like it? All those years. Not even once?

DYLAN

(From this point on, DYLAN is aware of JILL professionally. He’s been here before. He can’t help but be wary and adaptively seductive.)

How did you your mother die?

JILL

Our mother. The terrace.

DYLAN

The terrace? That terrace?

JILL

We couldn’t move, could we? If you were ever going to find your way home, home had to be here, didn’t it? And Mom was dead everywhere. We never actually said these things out loud. They wouldn’t hold up as soundwaves in actual air. Trying to explain suicide. Or you.

DYLAN

Me? Twenty-four years ago or now?

JILL

You know what I like about you? You never flinch.

DYLAN

I don’t remember her at all. Or you.

JILL

When I was three, we went to Nova Scotia. It was the year after you were gone. Vey early in the morning, before Mom and Daddy woke up, I must’ve gone outside our cabin, and there were woods and a lake. The woods scared me. Someone came and pulled me up into the air and then crushed me against them; it hurt. It must have been Mom. Her perfume – the way she always smelled – I guess it was Fear.

DYLAN

(returns to working on harpsichord)

Whenever I had a dream of a woman who was gentle, I hoped I was dreaming of my mother.

JILL

Did you ever enjoy it?

DYLAN

(practiced)

Do you want a yes or a no?

JILL

I guess I want a yes.

DYLAN

What about your life? Do you ever enjoy it?

JILL

It’s not the same. Yes.

DYLAN

Everyone’s got the same questions. You wake up one day in a life you don’t remember choosing and wonder who you were before. You look around and can see some people have better lives than yours and some far worse. Why did she commit suicide three years ago?

JILL

Why didn’t she wait? She waited every day to hear anything, that you were dead would have been a relief. She expected, I always thought, for you to appear at that door, still six years old, in the arms of a big policeman who had just found you. When you do waltz back through that very same door, she’s the one who is dead.

DYLAN

You think I’m waltzing?

JILL

Couldn’t you ever have run away? Come home before?

DYLAN

I didn’t know my name. I didn’t know what city I was in. What country. I only knew when the languages changed. And only the languages changed.

JILL

I want to know about it. Everything.

DYLAN

Your husband should do that for you for nothing.

JILL

What?

DYLAN

Satisfy your fantasies. It’s a costly business.

JILL

I want to know if I suffered enough. Do you know?

DYLAN

I have plumbed the depths of my ignorance. It is much like anyone else’s. They say we are all made in the image of God.

JILL

You speak awfully well for a whore.

DYLAN

How many whores do you know?

JILL

You sound like Daddy.

DYLAN

(laughs, then)

I’m a chameleon. (memory – this is a surprise to him) I had one when I was young. It was a hot and sweaty place. There were huge ceiling fans. Colored paper. Someone put the chameleon on different pieces of the colored paper. (waking) I also take on the coloration of my environment. And, I was very expensive. (seeing her confusion) Rich men generally speak well. Not always. But generally. Often, it amused them to educate me.

JILL

You want to know something?

DYLAN

All right.

JILL

Every day, I imagined awful things being done to you. Mom was always quiet, and Daddy hid out among the atoms, squeezed so small he couldn’t even see the ugly giants anymore. I wasn’t allowed out alone. EVER, EVER, EVER – I knew they could NEVER love me as much as you. I could NEVER replace you. I was NEVER their firstborn son. I fantasized I’d find you and bring you home to Mom, and I’d be the hero. I wouldn’t be a girl anymore that kidnappers didn’t want. I’d travel to all cities where they had boy brothels. I listened when the detectives talked. I’d imagine the things being done to you. I wanted terrible things done to me. It was sexy.

DYLAN

(reading from the harpsichord plans)

“The jack is a small shaft of flat wood held upright at the felted far extremity of the key. It passes through a wooden mortice which keeps it vertical, and emerges from a hole in the soundboard beneath the string it is intended to pluck. The upper part of the jack is furnished with a hinged tongue which can move backwards and forwards. From this tongue a crow quill juts out. A felt damper is fixed to the rigid upper part of the jack.” Crow quill?

JILL

You should let Jacob show you. He’s brilliant about putting things into other things.

DYLAN

What?

JILL

He said you were willing.

DYLAN

Oh. I always am.

JILL

But not tonight. (DYLAN doesn’t answer.) What about women?

DYLAN

I was kept by a lovely older woman on Park Avenue for two years. She admitted she’d recognized me right away and finally showed me how to find out who I was.

JILL

She didn’t tell you for two years.

DYLAN

But then she did. She cried when I left last week. She gave me a great deal of money.

JILL

You thought I was propositioning you? Your own sister?

DYLAN

I never flinch. ‘Propositioning’ is a nice word.

JILL

You’re always on the defensive.

DYLAN

I learned to play chess in an emir’s boy harem. No, really. He kept us out of his country, of course, and he never drank alcohol. Have you read the Qur-an?

JILL

No.

DYLAN

I have. In translation after I had to memorize passages in Arabic. The emir found it erotic for us to recite the holiest suras – verses. Catholic priests are similar, especially about part of the Book of Jeremiah and Paul’s remarks on chastity. I’m never defensive. I survive by dying.

JILL

So Jacob didn’t surprise you.

DYLAN

What about you?

JILL

You can’t sleep any better tonight than I can. What do you like?

DYLAN

(reading)

“The nomenclature of the instrument is as obscure as it is confused, the terms harpsichord, spinet, and virginal being freely used, often to denote the same kind of instrument, whereas in fact it took on several distinct forms…(perfect foreign accents): the name of the harpsichord in German is kielflugel; in French, clavecin, and in Italian, cembalo.”

JILL

You like to read. I do, too. My favorite book is THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK. That’s why I married Jacob. His grandparents on both sides were Holocaust survivors. (mimicking:) No, really. Both his parents committed suicide. So he’s one parent up on me. Life trapped in a small space, hostile forces outside… yes, my kind of book.

DYLAN

In Bombay – just renamed Mumbai! – girls born to prostitute mothers live in cages. The poorest untouchables buy them.

JILL

With what?

DYLAN

They’re very cheap.

JILL

But you were a boy. And very expensive.

DYLAN

(about harpsichord)

Jesus, I’m tired.

JILL

Sleep here on the couch.

DYLAN

That was some news today.

JILL

You weren’t sure? I was. I never doubted you were my brother. Neither did Daddy. All anyone has to do is look at your face. You’re prettier than Mom was.

DYLAN

(lying down on upstage arm of the couch L, facing audience – JILL uses clothes on couch to cover him, discovers a throw, puts that over him, supplies pillows under his head, etc. JILL turns off all lights – dimmest light from bedroom hallway illuminates the stage. She moves to leave but stops in doorway. DYLAN’s eyes are closed. He thinks she’s left.)

Oh, God. I wasn’t sure.

(JILL returns to couch and stands over DYLAN, looking down at him, then she kneels and strokes his hair. She kisses his forehead, then his cheek, then his mouth. DYLAN raises himself up on one elbow. She kisses him again. He lies back, and she pushes away the covers, lies atop him. They are quiet. The hallway light goes off; stage dark.)

Scene iv

There is no way to tell, but it is near dawn. The lights are abruptly turned on by JACOB who sees DYLAN and JILL still together on the couch.

JACOB

What the hell is this? (JILL is startled; DYLAN is calm.) Well?

(JILL jumps up, pulls whatever covered them like a coat over herself and flees to terrace. DYLAN is still lying down.)

DYLAN

More and less than you both wanted.

JACOB

What are you?

DYLAN

What are you? Disappointed not to find me alone or with your wife?

JACOB

Are you human?

DYLAN

That is not the question. The answer to the question you want to ask is no. No, we didn’t. Haven’t. Just like you and me.

JACOB

Because I stopped it?

DYLAN

(genuine laugh)

You? Stopped what? When? Both of you started with me. Adam blames Eve, and Eve blames the snake. It was the snake who got screwed. The snake is the only one who tells any kind of truth in that whole story. God got lost in His own garden, looking for the kids? Who’s the biggest liar? How could God be shocked? I’m not shocked.

JACOB

(sits, face in hands, then:)

I am.

DYLAN

Only when the lights are on, Jacob. In the dark, you wanted me in the worst way.

JACOB

Are you proud of yourself?

DYLAN

Are you?

JACOB

Do you even know what shame is? How can you live with yourself?

DYLAN

Go get Jill. The terrace isn’t a good spot for her. (JACOB goes to terrace, struggles to bring JILL inside; she cannot speak or look at either of them. DYLAN is relieved.) Jacob wants to know why I didn’t kill myself. All she wanted to know was why I didn’t try to run away. I saw boys do both.

JILL

(just able to speak)

Horrible.

DYLAN

Just like you.

JACOB

(goes to harpsichord)

What did you think you were doing?

DYLAN

Oh. That. Better than you, apparently. Listening to Priscilla. Do you know why the Earth supports life?

JACOB

Did Priscilla tell you?

DYLAN

No, it’s something I read. It’s not just the Sun, pouring in heat from outside. It’s also the heat inside, from the Earth’s molten core.

JACOB

It was you. This is not us.

DYLAN

Yes. I’m familiar with myself as the occasion for sin. You two ought to get out more. Go out dancing. Blame it on the bossa nova.

(Dawn is changing the light.)

JILL

How can you despise anybody?

DYLAN

Me? What do I despise? What do I refuse? How have I hurt you? Welcome home. (rises, goes to bedroom doorway, JACOB in his path)

JACOB

Where do you think you’re going?

DYLAN

Oh, Jacob, I’m tearing myself away from the bosom of my family. I wasn’t lost. Home is everywhere.

JILL

You can’t leave. He can’t leave. It’ll kill Daddy. I want to die.

DYLAN

You just want the cyanide taste of the apple core out of your mouth.

JILL

Why did you have to come home?

DYLAN

It was a mistake.

JACOB

(standing in DYLAN’s way)

You’re not going anywhere.

DYLAN

You did what you did, Jacob. You are what you eat. This won’t change anything.

JACOB

It has to.

(JACOB stands in DYLAN’s way to the door. DYLAN walks toward him. JACOB puts up his hand, and DYLAN slaps it away. JACOB lunges; they both fall to the floor. Rather than hitting, it becomes a wrestling match. The fight should break up the harpsichord construction and scatter it. JILL yells, cannot stop them, runs to bedrooms. DYLAN pins JACOB. JACOB flips DYLAN under him and lies on him, faces close. Then DYLAN laughs at JACOB’s fascination and easily twists into a new hold. This moment increases JACOB’s anger. Their fighting should become more violent, but as JACOB starts using his fists, DYLAN should more strenuously and successfully avoid the punches and throw none himself.)

DYLAN

(loud, powerful)

Let me go! (attempted punch by JACOB)

JACOB

Tell me it was you! (DYLAN shoves JACOB off him, stronger and familiar with dirty fighting. He gets JACOB in a hold that could snap JACOB’s leg. JACOB cries out in pain. DYLAN abruptly releases him, stands away, breathless.)

DYLAN

It was you. No more.

(Prof. REYNOLDS, followed by JILL, rush in.)

REYNOLDS

Dylan!

(Full morning should glare into the room.)

JILL

Dylan was going to leave. Jacob had to stop him.

REYNOLDS

(to DYLAN)

You can’t leave now.

DYLAN

No cuts. No blood. They’re okay.

REYNOLDS

They?

JILL

Blood?

(PRISCILLA and LUCY appear sleepily in the doorway.)

PRISCILLA

Richard?

REYNOLDS

(goes to PRISCILLA, helps her to couch. LUCY goes to the kitchen. To JILL:)

See what Lucy wants.

JILL

I will not.

DYLAN

I will. (He goes to kitchen.)

REYNOLDS

(at harpsichord parts)

Look at this mess.

JILL

Dylan will clean it up. It’s his mess.

REYNOLDS

(to PRISCILLA)

I found it.

JILL

I have to get out of here.

JACOB

He’s a liar. (He and JILL move together.)

REYNOLDS

What happened? Why did you fight?

JILL

We can’t live here anymore.

REYNOLDS

You don’t have to leave.

JILL

Dylan makes me sick.

PRISCILLA

Dylan is sick.

JILL

(to REYNOLDS)

What did you find? (DYLAN and LUCY return; he carries coffee mugs for her and PRISCILLA. LUCY sits at the table. DYLAN carries coffee to PRISCILLA. Acidly, to DYLAN:) How are you sick?

PRISCILLA

(taking DYLAN’s hand)

Your father told me.

DYLAN

(to JILL as he raises his shirt/sweater, revealing a few sarcoma spots)

How do you think? It’s not measles. Dr. Kaposi changed his name from Kohn.

JACOB

(pause, then -)

Jill. My sister’s in New Jersey. (He heads for bedroom, returns with coats, JILL’s purse. They are both desperate to escape DYLAN.)

JILL

(to REYNOLDS)

I’m sorry – (abruptly, they exit)

REYNOLDS

What happened?

DYLAN

They wouldn’t let me go.

REYNOLDS

How will they live?

PRISCILLA

They weren’t living here anymore. They were dying.

REYNOLDS

Now I’ve lost her.

PRISCILLA

No, Richard, nothing is lost. In the empty world of Achilles, he finally found tears for Priam.

(DYLAN, who had been cleaning up the harpsichord mess, suddenly sits on the floor.)

REYNOLDS

Dylan?

DYLAN

I lied.

PRISCILLA

You’re exhausted. Whatever you said – or did – that got them out of here for good was a good thing. You saved your sister’s life today.

LUCY

Dylan, you want some tea? He didn’t want coffee. I can make scrambled eggs by myself. And a hamburger.

DYLAN

No, thanks. Aunt Lucy.

REYNOLDS

(hands DYLAN a locket on a chain)

I found this last night.

DYLAN

It has … there’s blood on it. (He opens it.)

LUCY

It’s gold!

REYNOLDS

It was your mother’s.

DYLAN

A baby and a little boy. Me and Jill?

REYNOLDS

(looking)

They’re both pictures of you. (DYLAN starts to cry.) You’re crying. Don’t cry.

LUCY

It will wash the glass out of his eyes.

PRISCILLA

Lucy is right, it’s good to cry. What did you lie about, dear?

DYLAN

I wanted to hurt them. I enjoyed it. It was the best and the worst.

REYNOLDS

But you didn’t hurt them. You helped them.

DYLAN

(to REYNOLDS)

Look what I’m doing to you! Look at us! And I’m not sorry. I’m glad. I’m glad I’ve ruined your life! I want you to watch me die! It’s what I came home for, not this! (throws locket across room)

(LUCY bravely brings a box of tissues to DYLAN, wipes his face.)

REYNOLDS

(finds locket, goes to DYLAN)

That’s not what you came home for. (REYNOLDS helps DYLAN stand and leads him out.)

PRISCILLA

Lucy, come (pats couch beside her) read and then you’ll make us both some scrambled eggs. Can you do that?

LUCY

Dylan read some to me.

PRISCILLA

Oh, did he. (Finding the place. This should be read in descending sound as if we were moving slowly away; lights should not lower, however; the curtain, instead, could be slowly coming down.) “‘I always sleep with a knife,’ said the little robber girl. ‘You never know what will happen. But now tell me again what you told me before about the little boy the Snow Queen took away, and why you went out into the world to find him and bring him home.’ So Gerda told her all about it again, and the woods pigeons cooed up in their cage above them.” (Curtain.)

END