CLAUDIA AND HER MOTHER
CLAUDIA AND HER MOTHER
Rolando Tinio The Characters:
Nora - about thirty, a sophisticated career woman.
The Mother - about sixty-two years old, a woman of the previous generation.
Ed Pasion- about thirty, a journalist and man-about town.
Time: The early sixties.
The scene is a room on the ground floor of an old house in a no-longer-fashionable district such as San Juan or Paco. Down right is a narrow entrance with a flight of steps connecting the room to the rest of the house. Above it is an old-style steel bed set against the wall and running across the stage. The bed is dressed with crocheted lacy curtains and a bedspread. On the up-staged wall, extreme right, there is a hanging altar of the Sacred Heart with votive candles and silver paper flowers. To its left is a door leading to the bathroom hung with a lacy curtain, also crocheted. At center is a large brown aparador with suitcases piled on top. To its left is another curtained door which opens to the kitchenette. Against the wall upstage left is an old straight piano with a brown cover and a crocheted runner on top. There are pictures on the wall above as well as on top of the piano: a girl in a white dress with a light blue sash, obviously a devotee of Lourdes; a girl seated before a grand piano, wearing a terno with a pañuelo and surrounded by caskets of flowers, obviously a graduated recitalist; a family picture; a close-up of the girl in long braids; diplomas. From upstage left downward are windows with capiz shells hung with lazy curtains, also crocheted. At down left is a small door leading outside by four steps. Below the piano is a round table with a crocheted cover and some bric-a-brac, as well as a vase with withering gardenias. There are two straight-backed Vienna chairs with crocheted coverlet. There is a large shaded lamp hanging from the ceiling above the main table.
Downstage center, facing stage left, is a Vienna rocking chair that squeaks. Behind it, to its left, is a floor lamp. To its right are small round table with the telephone, a rack for magazines and a wicker basket for crocheting materials. The room looked very much lived in.
A stormy evening: strong winds and heavy rain. The room is dark when the curtain rises. A few moments later, loud knocking is heard at the door down left.
Also a woman's voice calling out "Claud," The knocking and the voice are heard three or four more times before the door opens and the woman enters, barely visible. She remains near the door. Afraid to move about, she calls out softly
"Claud ... Claud. It's me Claud ... " Shortly afterwards, a perfunctory knocking at the same door and a man's voice: "Nora, are you in there?" The woman opens the door for him and he enters. ED: No lights?
NORA [peeved]: Can't you see?
ED: I'm all wet.
NORA [produces a lighter from her handbag]: Here find the switch.
ED (flicks the lighter): Isn't Claud around? [bumps into a chair]
NORA (silently): Careful.
(Ed whistles as he moves across the room, the light goes out. Ed screams.)
NORA [screeching]: What happened?
ED flicks the switch; and the Sacred Heart lights up]: Good Evening, Mrs.
Henderson.
NORA [fuming]: Very funny. [Turns on another switch. The lamp above the table lights up.] ED [approaches her]: Help you with your coat? NORA [undoes her bandanna]: Drop dead.
[Ed undoes his shirt.]
NORA [taking off her raincoat]: What do you think you're doing? [Hangs it on a chair with the bandanna]
ED [bangs his shirt on a chair]: I'm soaking wet, do you mind?
NORA [sternly]: I wouldn't do that if I were you.
ED [gazing at the room] Man, oh man. [Giggles.] Man, oh man. [Smells the withered gardenias and snorts.] Look at that bed. [Crosses and fingers the curtains.] God, I'd go nuts. You sure we're in the right place? [scanning the pictures on top of the piano See these?
NORA [peeved]: Stop it, darling.
[Ed gives another horselaugh.] NORA [sharply]: I said, stop it.
[The rain stops.] NORA [very cross]: Where are the boxes? [Ed is still at the pictures.]
NORA: Where did you park? ED: Outside. You said, outside. So, outside.
NORA: Please get the boxes.
ED [unding a note on top of the piano]: Hey, Hey!
NORA [snapping]: Stop poking around.
ED: It's for you.
Nora grabs the note and reads, and throws it on the table exasperatedly] ED: Talk to Mama about what?
NORA: Do get the boxes, darling.
ED: That's what the note says, dear. "Talk to Mama." Where's Claud? Where's NORA: Guess. ED: I don't know. NORA: Join the club.
ED: I thought Claud rang you up? Nobody's around. NORA: Tremendous insight.
ED: But the note-
NoR Loreaming: For the last time, darting. Are you or aren't you going to get ED [smiling]: Sure. But do you have to snap?
NoR (riel I broke a dinner engagement with my sponsor. Do you realize ED [stiffly]: Mrs.
Henderson. I have an article to finish tonight and I could get fired tomorrow if I don't deliver. And I don't even know your lady friend. [Nora walks slowly to the bed and sits.]
(Ed opens the piano and plays with the keys with one finger.)
[Pause. The rain potters lightly.]
NORA quietly): Sorry, Ed. I think you're right. I need to get away for a while.
ED (seriously]: Don't you like your work?
NORA: That's just it, I do. But it's all those people who just stand around at the studio, and I have to sit on everyone to get anything done for the shows.
of it. God, I'm sick and tired.
Day in and day out, it's the same stupid routine. I'm getting sick and tired.
ED [inds another note on the table]: Hey, another one. No, it looks like a laundry NORA [very tired]: Don't mess with it.
D reading aloud]: "Gold chiffon dress, yellow shoes, yellow gloves, emerald necklace-" Do you send necklaces to the laundry mOM: Danie, plane one he honor ande This iant Blomington
ED [brightly]: Hey, wasn't that the dress she wore in what's the revue where she got dunked in a swimming pool?
NORA [suddenly concerned]: Let me see that.
ED [crosses to her with the note]: I have those things in the boxes. [finds another note on the bed Want to hear this one? NORA [worried]: I wonder what's up?
ED [read aloud]: "Hello. Be around." NORA [Thinking hard]: Be around?
ED [shrugging his shoulders]: Be around.
NORA [visibly frightened] Any more notes around?
[Ed looks high and low, obviously having fun]
NORA [sighing in exasperation]: I give up. She told me to go right in through the back door. Of course, that was yesterday. I had work last night, I told her. I thought she'd be expecting me tonight. [angrily] What I can't understand is why she came back before she got her degree. She had only a couple of months to go. It's so stupid.
ED: Well you know Claud. She's always being goddamn mysterious. She thinks it's simply so dramatic. Remember that weekend when she took off for Chicago with a classmate without warning any of us? Just before I left IU, there was this musical where she was second lead and she didn't come in opening night until a few minutes before curtains. She was having you know what, she said. And she made it a point to collapse after the curtain
NORA: Yeah, she wrote me about that.
ED [seriously]: You know, Nora ... I mean frankly speaking. I wonder is she isn't NORA [amused]: Oh, come on, Ed.
ED [with grave concern]: I don't think she knows whether she's coming or going.
NORA [more amused]: Don't be silly.
ED [laughing]: Of course, you must admit it, whether she is coming or going she leaves a trail of notes behind her. The last Christmas I was there ... after you left.] got to the apartment while she was still in church, and there were cards all over the place saying where the sandwiches were and what to do if the radiator started making a racket. Except I couldn't find the screwdriver that was supposed to be on top of the bureau. You know where it was? In the freezer. I was looking for the beer ... which was in the crisper, naturally. [pause] Do you think there's some beer stashed away somewhere.
NORA: Ed, please.
ED [starts to giggle]: The piano. That's where she used to keep the beer. One time, there were a few of us from the fiction workshop, and she couldn't find the beer until we asked to play Polonaise Militaire. There it was right on the first chord. [Pause, the rain stops.]
NORA [scared]: This place, sort of gets to you. [Paces around seriously] ED [discovers the wisckerbasket near the waste basket Look ... home economics NORA [looking at the wall above the piano; whispering] Ed, look here. ED: Another one? NORA: Intercom, I think. ED: How cozy.
NORA: No buttons.
ED: You mean it's on all the time?
NORA [getting agitated]: I don't know.
ED [lightly]: You mean they are spying on us all the time?
NORA: Don't be silly!
ED [putting his mouth against the speaker]: Hello there!
NORA: Are you crazy? ED [giddily]: Advance to be recognized! NORA: Stop it, Ed.
ED: I think it's dead. [tries again] Merry Christmas!
NORA: You're making me nervous.
ED: Happy New Year! NORA [trying hard not to shout]: Ed, be charming and get the boxes so we can go.
ED: We haven't seen Claud. NORA: Some other time. ED: Look, why don't we try upstairs. NORA: She'll kill us.
ED: How do you know she isn't up watching TV?
NORA: We'll leave the boxes and go. ED: "Talk to mama"-that's what the note said.
NORA: I don't want to talk to Mama.
ED: The notes.
NORA [losing her temper]: Ed, please get the boxes. I don't want to talk to anybody. Get the boxes. I'll leave a note and we can go. [Gently.] Do you have a pen? ED: No. NORA: Help me find one. ED: Sure [Looks around].
NORA: No, get the boxes. I'll find a pen.
[Ed exits. Nora looks for a pen in vain. Finally, she searches in her handbag. She shrugs her shoulders. She picks up a cigarette, looks for her lighter and finds it on the table. She sits there, getting nervous by the moment. She mutters to herself, probably something like "Crazy kid,
crazy." In a moment, an old woman's voice is heard through the intercom. Nora steels herself. The rain pours heavily.] VOICE [gently]: Claudia ... Claudia. Hija. Your uncle kept waiting for you, hija.
What happened to you? Did you lose your way? Claudia, please talk to me, Hija. I will not disturb you if you tell me what happened. We were so worried about you. Your uncle especially, you know how he is. Claudia, can I come down to your room? Hija ...
NORA: Mrs. Cruz. VOICE: Who are you? Where is Claudia? NORA: Good evening, Mrs. Cruz. VOICE [sharply]: Who are you? What do you want? NORA: I'm Nora, Mrs. Cruz.
VOICE: Nora?
NORA: I'm a friend of your daughter. VOICE: Nora ... yes ... NORA: We were in college together. VOICE: Yes.
NORA: Don't you remember? VOICE: Yes.
NORA: Claud called up yesterday. I couldn't make it last night because of work.
I assumed she'd be here. I have some packages for her. Ed is getting them now. Ed was also with us in Bloomington. Shall I leave the packages here or do you want them upstairs? They're not very large. There's some dresses ... costumes actually ... and some personal stuff ... Claud was mailing them to me, I think, so you wouldn't have to go to all the trouble at the post office. I have a cousin who works there ..
THE MOTHER [at the foot of the stairs]: Do you need anything from me? NORA [rising, very much startled! Oh, good evening ma'am.
THE MOTHER: What do you want? NORA: I came to see Claud. THE MOTHER [with clear though quiet hostility]: My daughter is not here. NORA: Yes, I know. She left notes-
THE MOTHER: She went to America in nineteen sixty-two. NORA: Of course.
THE MOTHER: I'm not sure when she will finish her studies. NORA: How's that again? THE MOTHER: Probably at the end of the year. NORA: That's what I thought.
THE MOTHER: Your house is probably far from here. I am sorry for the trouble-NORA: Mrs. Cruz. It'll just wait for Claud, I mean, don't let me get in your way. THE MOTHER: Claudia went to America- NORA: Mrs. Cruz, she called me up yesterday morning. THE MOTHER: Our telephone is out of order. NORA: She asked me to come over last night. THE MOTHER [Exasperated.]: Claudia is not here, Nora. NORA: But, Mrs. Cruz-
THE MOTHER [almost shouting]: I don't know where she went. NORA: Oh ... I'm afraid I misunderstood you. [Silence. The rain gradually subsides.]
THE MOTHER [turns on the floor lamp, sits on the rocking chair, picks up her crocheting materials and works on them, sweetly]: My eyes are very good, you know .. have grown older in many ways, but my eyes are still the way they were when I was a little girl.
NORA: Do you have an ashtray?
THE MOTHER [without looking at her]: No, no. We do not smoke in the house.
NORA: I'm sorry, ma'am. THE MOTHER: It's all right for you.
NORA [throws the cigarette butt out off the door and remains there looking for Ed! THE MOTHER [as if amused]: You came in through that door. What did you do with the padlock?
NORA [amused Padlock?
THE MOTHER [smiling]: There are so many burglars in the district. That door was for my tenants. But when Claudia came back-
NORA: Why did she come back?
THE MOTHER [very sweetly]: What did she tell you on the telephone?
NORA: I'm sorry ma'am?
THE MOTHER [pleasantly excited, almost gossipy]: What did my daughter tell you on the telephone?
NORA: Nothing much. Why did she come back before the end of the term? THE MOTHER: Did you ask her?
NORA: Yes, but-
THE MOTHER: What did she say?
NORA: Actually, I don't remember. The line was bad-
THE MOTHER [confiding]: She was unhappy.
NORA: She was almost through. She finished her comps last summer, and she was almost finished with her thesis.
THE MOTHER [as if revealing a secret: Oh, Nora, I don't understand about those things.
NORA: Well, it's such a pity. THE MOTHER (lightly): She was unhappy. NORA: Claud? THE MOTHER: [amused as by a joke]: You call her Claud. NORA: I don't understand.
THE MOTHER [bubbling]: Every time she wrote to me, she said the same thing over and over again in her letters. She did not like the food, she did not like the weather ... even her classmates ... She said they were very shocking.
Would you like to see her letters? I have them in a scrapbook. Would you NORA [quite embarrassed]: Oh no, it's ok.
THE MOTHER: You remember Claudia, I think. Even in school here, she was not very fond of going around at night and going out with people whom she did not know very well. She has not changed, you know.
[Pause. A momentary patter of rain, then silence]
NORA [carefully]: Didn't she tell you I was with her in Bloomington?
[The mother looks up at her for a while, apparently disturbed, then goes back to her crocheting.]
NORA [nervously loud]: I was there from fifty-nine. We shared an apartment for a whole year, my last year there. After that, I went to Columbia ... in New York ... for my Ph.D., which I didn't bother to finish. I had the bright idea of getting married. I came back last year. [Very gently]. Didn't Claud tell you we shared apartment for a year?
THE MOTHER [frantically crocheting; she speaks in spurts, stammering progressively] I think ... I think she told me ... I don't remember very well. It's so long ago.
I have so many things to worry about, you see. My husband left me with the farms in the province. I have to go there all the time. It's very difficult for me. I'm sixty-two, you know. What do I know about farms? My father trained me to be a singer. I wonder if you have heard of my father. He conducted the most popular orchestra ... symphony orchestra ... in Manila during the thirty s [Pause and deep thought. You know, European opera companies would not come here unless their contract said it was my father who would conduct for them. I was a singer too. I studied in Italy for years and I sang all over
NORA [brusquely]: Were you any good?
THE MOTHER: I sang in Milan and Budapest.
NORA: I said, were you any good?
THE MOTHER [blustering]: Of course, I gave up my career when I got married in nineteen thirty-nine. My husband was a real gentleman of the old school. He did not want to permit his wife to be watched by paying customers. I'm very modern compared to him. [Long pause.] But Claudia took after her father. [Long pause.] She wants to be a piano teacher so she can stay at home all the time. My family loved to travel. My grandmother was half-Russian. But Claudia ... you know ... [Long pause.] I have to take care of her all the time.
Her father spoiled her too much. And I'm not like many mothers nowadays.
She's like a little girl when she is in a bad mood. [long pause]. She sits down by the window and she is very still. She isn't crying ... no ... But she is very quiet. [Long pause] It's very funny ...
[Looks away, in a deep thought]
[Long silence]
NORA [carefully]: Was there any special reason why she came home?
THE MOTHER [snapping]: I have told you.
NORA: It doesn't make sense to me-THE MOTHER [faring up]: What sense?
NORA: Well, I mean-
THE MOTHER [treatening]: What do you know about my daughter?
NORA: I'm sorry if-
THE MOTHER [seething with anger]: What are you trying to do?
NORA [firmly but kindly]: Mrs. Cruz, you forget that I lived with Claud for a whole year. I saw how talented she is. People at IU thought so, too. Most people there thought that she was the most promising material they had that year. She's so wonderful, I mean her personality. I'm sure she'd have no difficulty setting up a show here. I thought that was the reason she asked me to come last night.
THE MOTHER [visibly stung]: What show are you talking about?
NORA [eagerly]: There are great opportunities for Claud in TV. THE MOTHER [almost screeching]: Television? Claudia? NORA: Yes, of course.
THE MOTHER [derisively: Madre mia, what can she do in television?
NORA: But Mrs. Cruz [stops short, realizing the situation] Didn't Claud ... Breaks off deliberately.
THE MOTHER [slowly in sharp pontifical tone]: She is going to Milan. She will stay there for a few months while I make arrangements about my farms. And then we are both going to Europe. She would be a concert singer, not a piano teacher in a neighborhood like ours.
NORA cried and very loud. Mr. Cruz, Claudia left the conservatory afier THE MOTHER (rising, controlling her agitation: You are wrong.
NORA: [smiling] I was there.
THE MOTHER: I don't believe you.
NORA [still smiling]: But I was there.
THE MOTHER [with great fire]: Why should Claudia leave the conservatory? Tell me. She studied music all her life here. She wanted to study music some more. She wants to be a piano teacher. Even when my husband was still
NORA: People change their minds.
THE MOTHER [with awesome finality]: Not when they are left alone!
[Nora smiles meaningfully.]
(Silence. Quiet rain.]
THE MOTHER [with calculated sweetness]: You work in television. Didn't you say you work in the television?
NORA [disarmed]: Oh yes. I produce shows, I direct occasionally. It's all very exciting.
THE MOTHER: You studied that in America?
NORA [eagerly]: Yes.
THE MOTHER: Do you know that Claudia was going to Milan right after college?
NORA: Yes?
THE MOTHER [with growing sarcasm]: She said she didn't want to study Italian, and what was the use of going to all the trouble when she could go to America?
Did she know you were in America before she left the Philippines? NORA: I suppose so. We wrote each other regularly.
THE MOTHER [disarmingly]: Did you help her get that scholarship?
NORA: Oh, not much. I was there and I knew her. I suppose that helped a little. THE MOTHER: You lived together for a year, you said.
NORA [dodging the point THE MOTHER is making: Will ...
THE MOTHER (with quiet but very clear contempt): Why do you do these things? NORA [rising making no attempt to conceal anger]: Mrs. Cruz, I had nothing to do-
THE MOTHER [very sharply]: After one semester, my daughter-
NORA (very slowly and very sharply): After one semester, Claud was advised to lose the scholarship, she was asked to quit. That was all there was to it. She was asked to quit.
THE MOTHER: That's not true. NORA: Why don't you ask her? THE MOTHER: She would have told me. NORA: Well ...
THE MOTHER: She tells me everything. NORA [smiling]: Apparently ...
[Pause.]
THE MOTHER [quietly predatory]: Will you forgive me for saying this, Nora? I want to be very honest with you.
NORA [steeling herself: Good.
THE MOTHER [smiling]: You know why Claudia never asked you to come here?
NORA [hitting back with a patronizing air]: Oh, it doesn't matter. I understand. She came to our place many times ... and I suppose she was kind of embarrassed about this place. I understand perfectly.
THE MOTHER: I prohibited her from going around with you.
NORA [refusing to be flustered]: Oh? May I know why?
THE MOTHER [jeeringly]: I know a lot of things about you.
NORA: Really?
THE MOTHER [almost lightly]: The boy who killed himself ... his mother is a friend of mine.
NORA [annoyed]: He was crazy. I didn't have anything to do with him.
THE MOTHER [very much amused]: Oh, I know all about you and what you did to him.
NORA [shouting]: I had nothing to do with him.
THE MOTHER [still smiling]: He killed himself.
NORA [seething, talking between her teeth]: Look Mrs. Cruz. You can think anything you like, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm sorry I have bothered you. I came here to see Claud. I'll see her some other time. You can think whatever you like. Please excuse me.
THE MOTHER [bolding Nora's arm to stop her from going]: Claud will be here soon.
NORA [almost gasping]: You have no right ... you have no right ...
THE MOTHER (sincerely): I am very sorry, Nora. Please believe me.
NORA [still angry]: I have some packages that belong to Claud. Ed is getting them from the car. I'll leave them with you.
THE MOTHER [desperately]: Did she tell you where she was going tonight?
NORA opening the door and seeing the heavy rain: What's keeping that stupid
THE MOTHER (more desperately): The water is coming in. Why don't you close the door? Can I get you some wine?
NORA [screaming]: For heaven's sake, Mrs. Cruz! THE MOTHER: Did you say Ed? Did you say Ed!
NORA: You don't know him.
THE MOTHER: What's his last name?
NORA [screaming]: That idiot!
THE MOTHER [with authority: You're getting wet, Nora. Close the door.
[Nora closes the door.] THE MOTHER [tenderly]: What's his last name? NORA [sighing in exasperation]: Pasion. THE MOTHER [smiling]: His father was a judge? NORA [perfunctorily: Was he?
THE MOTHER [on the verge of pleasant discovery: He died a year ago? NORA [brushing her off: Sure. Sure. [Opens the door again and calls out.] Ed! Ed! [Ed enters, very wet, the two boxes looking very soggy. He stands near the door for a while. Neither of the women makes any move to help him.]
ED [mousily]: Help.
THE MOTHER [with great tenderness: Put them down on the chair. Ed. No. on the floor.
ED [unloading his arms]: The back windows were open. I had to dry up. I couldn't get out of the car because of the downpour.
THE MOTHER: Ed you want some wine? ED [as if to his own mother]: Coffee, ma'am, if you don't mind.
THE OUR elean any dare get ingend che public chol. He ED very much pleased: I didn't know.
THE MOTHER: Are you married?
ED: No ...
THE MOTHER: But why? ED: I will be ... soon. THE MOTHER: I probably know the girl.
ED: Of course.
THE MOTHER: Oh?
[Ed looks uncomfortably with Nora]
NORA [sharply]: It's me, Mrs. Cruz.
THE MOTHER [taken aback]: I thought you said ...
NORA [sharply]: Yes? What did I say?
THE MOTHER [provoked]: Didn't you say ...
ED [tossing it off]: Oh, she has gotten a divorce from Frank. She's working on her annulment papers.
THE MOTHER [sincerely concerned: Ed ... you don't know what- [Breaks off] NORA: Go ahead and say it, Mrs. Cruz.
ED [with forced lightness]: I think we had better dry those things. They must be soaked through. What's inside them, Nora?
NORA: Open them.
THE MOTHER: Yes, Ed. Please open them. I cannot bend down. It's my arthritis. I am more than sixty, you know.
NORA: Let me do it. We must hang them out one by one. [Opens a box.] I'll do it myself.
THE MOTHER [sincerely disturbed]: Madre de Dios!
NORA [picks up a black chiffon peignoir]: Where do we hang it? Where do we hang [THE MOTHER looks at her coldly.]
ED: Here, let me help- NORA [sharply]: I'm okay, Ed. Sit down and drink your coffee.
ED [sitting down]: May I have some coffee, Mrs. Cruz? I feel cold.
[THE MOTHER does not react.]
NORA [bangs up the peignoir on the rocking chair]: Now let me give you a running account of the whole thing. This exquisite piece here was used in a racy musical revue called "Bloomington Belles." That was a little before you came, Ed. You wouldn't remember. [Looking into the box]. It was worn with something under it, of course. Let me see ... Picks up a colored lace corset ... here and ... Picks up a bright pink strapless swimsuit.] She didn't go swimming, no ... That was the winter show, "My Heart Belongs to Santy" That you saw, Ed. [Picks up the gold chiffon evening dress.] Here's the dear thing. At the end of the show, they were all dunked in a swimming pool remember? Fantastic, considering the staging limitations at IU. Hang this
[Ed gets the dress and lays it over part of the round table.]
NORA [puts the corset and swimsuit against her]: Lovely .. [leaves them on one of the straight-backed chairs]. Now, let me see ... [Picks up a multicolored leotards and tights.] For rehearsals only. [Dumps them on the floor] Where's that ... [Picks up a strapless sheath in sapphire blue crepe.] Here ... crepe de chine for the all time cling ... from "The Jordan River Revue." [Goes towards the bed to lay it
THE MOTHER [almost screaming]; I've just changed the bedsheet!
NORA: Sorry. [bangs it on the metal railing at the foot of the bed.] I think there's another precious item there. Picks up a net-like negligee with spangles all over] The last show I saw her in ... I can't remember what went with it Where are the gloves?
[Ed opens another box.]
NORA: Oh, there they are. Very lovely.
ED: She spent for all of these?
NORA: I don't know. Oh, here are the pictures. [Takes out a large brown envelope]
Take a look at these. [Gives the envelope to Ed.]
[Ed pulls out the pictures, lays them out on the floor and whistles once or twice.]
NORA: Isn't that something?
ED: Man, oh, man. [Almost sneezes.] I think I'll have some tea instead of coffee.
Do you have some tea, Mrs. Cruz?
THE MOTHER: What?
ED: May I have some tea? I'm catching a cold.
THE MOTHER: Yes, I'll get some. Excuse me. I'll get some tea.
[The mother exits by the stairs. Nora follows after, full of concern, then stops. She bites at her fingernails worriedly. Ed succeeds in sneezing. Nora sits at the piano and starts to improvise a bluesy tune. She is very sad.]
ED: Can I have a cigarette?
NORA: No smoking, darling ED: Silly. NORA: And it's bad for your cold.
ED: I haven't got it yet. Haven't you got any more cigarettes? NORA: Try my bag.
[Ed opens Nora's bag and picks up a cigarette]: Want one? [Lights his cigarette.]
NORA: Later, darling.
ED [sits at the table, fingering the wet dress, now and then glancing at the pictures on the floor.] She's a very nice old woman. NORA [tenderly]: Yeah. ED: She must be kind of lovely. NORA: Yeah.
ED: Remember what you used to say?
NORA: True enough.
ED: But there's an unmistakable air of authority about her, did you notice? NORA [almost tearfully]: Was that all you noticed?
ED: Yeah, what else?
NORA: You didn't notice anything else?
ED: No.
NORA [her voice actually quivering]; Aren't you supposed to be a writer? ED: What's that supposed to mean?
NORA [stops playing the piano, turns to Ed]: Nothing. [Verging on tears] I'm just sorry. I'm really, really, sorry.
ED: About what?
NORA [forcing a smile]: Oh, nothing. [Resumes playing.]
ED [pulls up a chair so he can put up his feet, gaily thinking aloud.] I was just thinking ... just out of the blue, I had a brilliant idea. Why not a novel?
About exiles. I don't mean exiles, I mean, people who go abroad and come back and they become kind of exiles. Like me. Probably I can do it as a series of letters. Dear Mama ... Dear son ... you know? I mean, when I got back, my father kept saying he made a mistake sending me abroad, imagine that? You really get disoriented, you know what? The curse of knowing too much. Hey! [Beaming gloriously] Hey, hey! Like Eden probably. One of these days ... I'm sure, what happened in Eden was really an acute case of cultural disorientation. Come to think of it, I can have three levels going on
. the same time ... the biblical ... the cultural ... the psychological ... Isn't terrific? I'm getting all excited just thinking about it [Sneezes violently.
I've got it.
[Nora chuckles aloud.] ED: What are you laughing at? NORA: The only thing you've got is a cold, darling.
ED: A-aaa! You're laughing at me, darling.
NORA: Oh, come on.
ED [teasing]: Suppose ... after you get your papers. I just plain scoot? NORA [seriously warning him to stop]: Hey, hey. ED [farcically]: After all, Mrs. Henderson, there aren't too many perfectly eligible bachelors like me who would risk ...
[Nora slams her hands on the keyboard and turns angrily to Ed.] ED [Chuckling]: Oh, I mean ...
NORA [breathily vociferating beyond control]: You think you're so clever. That's what I like about you. You think you're the cleverest person in the world and you haven't a damned thing to show for your cleverness. All these big plans ... big novels ... big prizes ... Big deal! You've got to find out what you can do, and then do it! You don't ... you don't-
ED [with bumor]: Hold it, hold it, darling.
NORA: Just go around talking your head off about the great things you're going to do when you damned well ... at least everybody else knows damned well you haven't got what it takes to do it. [Pause.] There, I've finally said it. I've been waiting for a chance to say it and I've said it.
ED (still with humor: Okay, okay. I don't see why you have to be all heated up about it, that's all.
NORA [subsiding]: I've been wanting to say it. I finally did.
ED: Okay, you did.
NORA [chuckling nervously]: Do you have to be nice about it?
ED: - That's me, doll. I may not be the most talented writer this side of journalism, but I'm certainly the nicest potboiler in the market. That's my specialty ... being incredibly nice. [Noticing the box on the floor.] Are those letters I see before me?
NORA [moving towards the box]: Claud's.
ED: From Mama?
NORA: From Kenneth, the Trombone Player.
ED: Kenneth?
NORA [teasing]: You don't know him?
ED: No. [makes for the letters.]
NORA [grabs the letters]: A-aaa!
ED: Who's Kenneth? There wasn't any Kenneth when we were around.
NORA [teasing]: Your one other great talent, darling, aside from being nice, is you just love to poke into other people's business [Puts the letters in her handbag].
ED: They're wet. Why don't you dry them up?
NORA [chuckling coquettishly]: Never mind.
[The mother enters from the stairs carrying a silver-plated tray with a bottle of chianti and two glasses. She has a scrapbook under her arm.]
THE MOTHER [with infinite tenderness]: We don't have any more tea, Ed. I hope wine will do. It's very good chianti. [Lays out the tray in the table] You will have some, Nora. I will not join you because my stomach is a little bad. [Pours for Nora and bands the glass to her]
NORA [sweetly]: Thank you, ma'am.
ED [delighted]: Looks good.
THE MOTHER [pouring for Ed and giving him the glass]: Here, Ed. ED: Lovely. Thanks.
THE MOTHER [lightly]: Ed, could you please put those pictures back in the envelope? I can't bend down, you know.
ED: They're still wet, ma'am.
THE MOTHER: It's all right.
[Ed collects the pictures from the floor and puts them inside the envelope. He hands them to the mother while Nora watches with great concern. The mother exits through the kitchen door and switches on a light.]
NORA [darkening]: What's she doing with them?
ED [shrugging his shoulders]: Drying them up, I suppose.
NORA (opens the kitchen doors lightly and peeks, then closes it: Poor Claud.
ED: Poor Claud, why?
NORA (resigned]: Mama's burning them.
ED: The pictures? ED: Oh, come off it.
NORA: Go and look. [Ed doesn't move.]
NORA: Go and look.
ED: Oh, well.
NORA [disgusted with him]: Oh, well.
[The mother enters, beaming brightly, carrying a sooty-looking clay pot with a pot rest, which she sets on the table.]
THE MOTHER: Here's something you can use as an ashtray. I found it out there.
That used to be my tenant's kitchen. We use it only during brownouts. It is quite convenient. It is miraculous that the lights have not gone out, with this weather. But our telephone is dead.
NORA [gently]: Did you have to, Mrs. Cruz?
THE MOTHER: Nora, you are not drinking your chianti. Don't you like chianti?
NORA: I mean, the pictures.
THE MOTHER [in a very kind tone]: Look at this way, Nora. In America, it is all right. But here, people are different. If people saw those pictures, what do you think they will say? You and I, we understand. We have lived abroad they are not as modern as we are. They do not understand these things.
You know, when I married Claudia's father ... he was gentleman of the old school and I was a young girl who had toured all over Europe ... You know what that meant for me. But Celso was different. He would not hear any of my nonsense. And let's be practical, Nora. We live here, we have to be like our people. Otherwise, we will be out of place in our own homes. Don't you agree with me, Ed?
ED [dodging the issue]: Well .. I suppose so ...
NORA [sarcastically]: Do you, darling?
THE MOTHER: You are a novelist, you must think about these things very deeply. I would have liked to be a writer myself. If I had not become a singer, I would have become a writer.
NORA [sarcastically]: Oh, really.
THE MOTHER: Ed, this novel you are writing about ... about a mother and a son ...
I think it is very good.
[Nora and Ed looked at each other completely taken aback.]
THE MOTHER: Here is my scrapbook. I'll read you Claudia's letter. [Sits on the rocking chair.]
NORA [sarcastically]: More chianti, darling?
ED [meaningfully]: Yeah, I think so. [Nora pours.]
about it before I left you. Actually, I became very fond of it. I'm so afrai have become a writer too. That is one thing she got from my family, her THE MOTHER [at her scrapbook]: Claudia writes very well, you know. She c place, full of old buildings and trees. It is nice to walk under the maples when it is summer. But the winds are getting colder in the evenings. I am afraid of the cold, you know that, Mama. Even the people are cold, and I can no longer take walks in the afternoons when winter comes. I am wearing the sweater you made for me. I'm very sorry I made such a big fuss of the cold ... "
NORA [to Ed, making fun of the mother]: Did you know that, Ed?
[Ed makes a face at her]
THE MOTHER: Here's a very short letter she sent me before the end of last year.
NORA [with a sneer]: The end of the first semester.
THE MOTHER: "Last night, I dreamed that I had come home ... there was a party in our patio and Tito Ramon was there with his rondalla. It was my despedida party, I think. The moon was full and yellow. We were all looking very lovely. When I woke up, I felt so sad. Spring is a long way off and it is still very cold although there is no more snow."
ED: Lovely prose.
NORA [still very vicious]: Yeah.
THE MOTHER: "-I want-to be home before the snow comes down again."
Pause. The mother looks up, staring blankly. It is as if she were going to ory.
ED: Finished? NORA: Yeah.
ED [whispering]: Stop heckling, Nora. NORA: Am I, darling?
ED [teasing: just because you don't write as good-
NORA: Oh, shut up.
ED: What's next Mama?
THE MOTHER: I'm sorry.
ED: Let's hear more.
THE MOTHER [closing the scrapbook]: You read them.
[Ed gets the book from her and returns at the table to read.]
NORA: As long as we're reading the letters all evening-[Gets the letters she bas placed inside her bandbag] -I wonder if you'd be interested in these. [Hands them to the mother.] They're letters to Claud.
[The mother pores over the letters while Nora remains standing in front of her, eager to observe her reaction. The mother shows immediate signs of agitation, but she is obviously making a supreme effort to keep it to herself. The signs become more and more vivid as she goes on reading. Her face begins to twitch and show contortions. It is clear now that she is on the verge of crying.]
THE MOTHER [rising, letting the letter drop to the floor]: Excuse me. [Darts towards the bathroom door and stops somewhere near the bed, obviously steeling herself. NORA [to Ed]: Having fun?
ED [without looking at her]: Huh? NORA: It's disgusting. ED: I'll pass them to you in a while.
NORA [almost shouting]: No, Thank you.
ED: Listen to this, "I don't care if I don't finish my course. I'm feeling too lost in this world to worry about degrees and careers. I'm tired of being always at the top of my class. I just want to go back where I feel I can belong." This was written just a month ago. You know, Nora, I have always suspected that of Claud ... I mean being soft inside. All that razzmatazz doesn't fool me, you know.
NORA [peered]: You don't know what you're talking about.
ED: What am I a writer for?
NORA: Take my word for it, darling, there's more than that meets the eye.
ED: Just was I was saying.
NORA: You don't understand, so why don't you just shut up? ED: I think you don't understand.
NORA blowing her top quietly]: Claud wrote to me every month, sometimes twice a month. She had plans. She knew where she was going, she knew how to get there. This summer, she was going to star in a musical Kenneth wrote for her. She said she might go to East to teach and perhaps try TV. And she wasn't just having grand illusions like some people I know. She's got what it takes, take my word for it. I'm not going to buy this sob story you're trying to make me buy. She doesn't make compromises and she has the kind of drive and honesty that separates successful people from total failures.
ED [joking]: Are you making accusations, darling?
NORA [sharply]: If you like.
THE MOTHER [quietly]: Ed, have you met my daughter?
NORA [seething]: There's nothing that burns me up more than talent that goes to waste because you're so happy just coming along any which way.
NORA: So I push, and you ought to thank your stars I have enough energy to do a lot of pushing because half of the world isn't going to budge an inch unless the other half does a lot of pushing.
THE MOTHER: Ed, did you know my Claudia?
ED [sincerely]: I thank you, Nora. I really do.
NORA [gently]: It gets pretty tiring sometimes. But if I don't do it, who will?
[Pause.] I had to do a lot of pushing myself. There wasn't anybody who would do it for me ... [with decided bitterness.] not my parents anyway.
They're so happy with their lumber concession in Butuan, you'd think it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. THE MOTHER: I asked you, Ed- ED: I'm sorry, Mama?
THE MOTHER: About Claudia. What do you know about her? ED: Nothing really Mama. I don't know her that well. NORA: Say that again? ED: I was in Bloomington for a while- THE MOTHER: In Bloomington?
ED: It was very short, the time I spent there.
NORA: Darling, you practically lived on us in IU, so what are you trying to say? THE MOTHER: Be honest with me, Ed. You know you can tell me anything.
ED: As I said, I was there only for a year. Even less- NORA: Because he got thrown out, Mama. ED: I quit.
NORA: Because he came to classes stone drunk most of the time and he hasn't snapped out of that.
ED: Nora, You know that isn't fair.
NORA: Because it has finally dawned on him he isn't as hot a writer as all his stupid cronies like to make him think, because they are all bunch of stupid people who like being a mutual admiration club. [to Ed] You know something, I don't think you can really stand objective criticism. That's why you thought IU was such a hell of a place. They dish it out to you if you haven't got it and you either take it sitting down or you get out. You know something, in many ways you're so like Frank. You're so cooped up in your dainty little world you can't see beyond your little nose.
ED [sharply]: That's enough!
NORA: I'm going to push if it kills me because I want to see you making sense.
You're no schoolboy anymore, Ed. You've got to stop depending on what people say about you and start taking a good look at yourself. At your age, it's just absolutely disgusting the way- ED: If it's absolutely disgusting- [Gently.] why do you hang on with me?
[Silence. Then the mother picks up the blue crepe dress hanging on the railing of the bed and sits on the rocking chair. She produces a razorblade from the wicker basket and slowly rips the dress at the seams. Nora watches her blankly.]
ED [softly, very much hurt]: Is it because ... is it because there aren't too many guys around here ... I mean real high-caliber guys ... who'd be brave enough to settle for ... for a hand-me-down?
[The mother stops worrying for a while and looks at Nora, who stares back coldly. Soon, the mother resumes her work.]
ED regretfully: Funny thing about life, darling. All your life you look for somebody who'd be good enough, really good enough, for you ... and then he finds out ... why, he finds out you're just not good enough for him.
[Nora walks slowly to the bed and sits down.]
THE MOTHER: Why did your husband leave you?
ED [rising]: Please, Mrs. Cruz, Don't!
THE MOTHER: Why did your husband leave you? What's his name, Ed? What's his name, hijo? ED [reluctantly]: Frank Henderson. [Sits down.]
THE MOTHER: Why did Frank leave you?
NORA: [with a distant look.] I left him.
THE MOTHER: Did you ?-
NORA [calmly]: I left him, Mama, if it's any of your business.
THE MOTHER: I want to help you, hija. I'm trying to help you. ED [agitated]: Mama, what time is Claud coming home?
THE MOTHER [tenderly]: I'll tell you something, hija. Do you remember what I told you? When I came to marry Claudia's father, I wanted to go on singing and he didn't want me to go on. What do you think I did? I fought him.
For about ten years there was no end to the fighting in the house. He was a farmer. He was wealthy, but he was a farmer. One Sunday afternoon, I remember, I still remember, I asked my friends to come here, four of them, so we could talk about operas and museums in Europe and the painters who did portraits of my family. Celso was having merienda with us, and he knew why I invited them, and every time my friends ask him to say something, he said the granary was the only important thing to him. You see, I married him because he was wealthy, and I tried very hard to get him to travel with me, and read books, and attend concerts. I didn't succeed. He was contented with the way he was and he was getting wealthier and wealthier every year. When Claudia was ... I think she was nine ... my husband died. Something happened to his liver and he died. And I realized that I have been unfair to him. It wasn't his fault that I married him. He was a very kind man and I realized all that after he died. [Forcing herself to chuckle.] Really, it was about nine years after I stopped singing when I finally gave up the idea. [with infinite regret.] And he was already dead.
[Nora buries her face in the pillow, her body shaken by sobs which remain inaudible.] ED [rising]: Mrs. Cruz, why did Claud come home before she finished her degree?
THE MOTHER [tenderly]: You cannot go around changing people, hija. You must also let them change you. Some people, they are better left the way they are. They have their own way of life and you make them unhappy if you change them. It may not be the best thing, the way they are, but what can you do? All my life, I have regretted one thing, I learned to accept the way my husband was, only after he died. His liver ... as if I didn't know.
The mother folds neatly the parts of the blue dress on her lap, returns the blade to the wicker basket, and rocks the chair slowly. She stares blankly, perhaps tearfully.
THE MOTHER: I nearly made another mistake. I wanted Claudia to go abroad like me. And she was unhappy. I had to ask her to come home. She would have stayed there as long as I wanted her to stay, even if she was unhappy. And that man was ruining her.
ED: Kenneth?
THE MOTHER: Yes. ED: You know about him?
THE MOTHER: Mrs. Carney-
ED: Mrs. Carney?
THE MOTHER: She married a grocer.
ED: In Indianapolis, I met Carneys on the way to Bloomington.
THE MOTHER (regretfully): She is a friend of mine. Your father knew her too, I think. She said she and her husband went to Bloomington last Christmas, and she asked about Claudia ... and she heard that Claudia was somewhere else ... Chicago, I think ... with this man, and this man has a wife in San Francisco. Did you know him, Ed?
ED: No, Mrs. Cruz.
THE MOTHER: You can tell me anything. ED: I don't know him.
THE MOTHER: I don't believe you.
ED: I left Bloomington after less than a year. I wonder what time Claud is coming back. The rain has stopped. You know, I'm kind of getting hungry.
THE MOTHER: I'll get something for you. Sandwiches, maybe. We were supposed to eat in my brother-in-law's house tonight, and I let the maid go to a movie. But I can make sandwiches. Do you like Spanish sardines?
ED: Oh yes, thank you.
[The mother exits through the stairs, Nora sits up. She repeats the name "Frank" almost inaudibly. Ed pours Chianti into Nora's glass and approaches her. A knock is heard at the door.] ED: Try this, darling.
NORA [hoarsely]: I'm okay.
ED: It will warm you up.
NORA [almost whispering]: Just leave me alone.
ED: Come on.
NORA [almost tearfully]: Please go away, Ed.
[Ed leaves the glass on the table and answers the door. A boy selling gardenias has come. Perhaps they speak in the dialect. When Ed enters again, he is carrying a bunch of gardenias wrapped in newspaper. He leaves them on the table and picks up the vase with the wilted flowers and decides to change the water. He exits through the kitchen door and comes out quite soon. He eyes the broom closet door and decides to go there. He opens the door, gropes for the switch, puts on the bathroom light and suddenly
ED [whispering]: Nora ...
NORA [quietly]: Please go away.
ED: No, look ...
[Nora does not react.] ED [desperate]: Nora!
[Nora gets up slowly, sees the light in the bathroom, enters and disappears from view for a while. When she comes out, the full horror of Claudia's suicide is registered on her face, but she is determined not to break down. She holds an empty bottle in one hand and a note on the other. She reads the note and almost begins to giggle, bitterly] ED [whispering]: What does it say?
[Nora looks at the bottle.] ED: What does it say?
NORA [drops the bottle on the floor]: "I'm always getting stuck in bathrooms. Hope you didn't mind." [Lets the note drop on the floor.]
ED: Aren't you going to call her mother?
[Nora does not react.] ED: Why don't you call her?
NORA [under her breath]: What for?
(Ed returns the vase to the table. He paces around briefly, then goes to the door.) ED (softly): I've got to go. Anyway, you're ... you're just tremendous. Do you mind?
NORA (fatly, but full of regret): No, go ahead. You've got to finish that article. We don't want you to get fired, do we? Goodbye.
[Ed exits agitatedly, slamming the door behind him]
NORA [almost tearfully]: Goodbye.
[Realizing she is alone, Nora pulls herself together and becomes machine-like in the calm with which she moves about. She opens the brown aparador. Inside the left door, there is a picture of the Virgin of Antipolo. Inside the other door, there are blue sashes and white chords hanging on a wire. There is a large rosary hanging from one of the nails. The dresses are mostly white or pale yellow and pale blue. Nora pulls out a drawer and gets a hairbrush and some curlers. She also picks up a bottle of perfume which she drops accidentally. The bottle breaks on the floor. She lays the hairbrush and the curlers on the bed and goes back to the aparador to fetch the undergarments.]
She picks up the gold chiffon dress, looks for yellow gloves on the box, which is still on the floor, and searches the aparador for a yellow pair of shoes and the emerald necklace.
She lays them out on the bed. She notices a rip in the chiffon dress, looks for a needle and thread in one of the drawers, and begins to mend the dress. She decides that she wants a cigarette, she gets her handbag, picks up a cigarette, and puts the clay pot on the floor near the bed before she resumes her work. The mother enters with a tray of sandwiches and two cups, presumably of coffee.]
THE MOTHER [putting down the tray on the table]: Where's Ed? [Silence.] How did you break the bottle? [Closes the aparador.] What's this? [Picks up the empty bottle of pills.]
[The mother sees the light from the bathroom and enters. When she comes out, she seems terribly exhausted. She leans on the wall, looking up at the Sacred Heart. There is pain on her face but, otherwise she merely looks tired. After a while, she looks at Nora darning the chiffon dress. With sudden energy, she lurches at the dress to grab it. ] NORA [clutching the dress and moving away, shrieking wildly, frighteningly]: Don't touch it!
[Nora freezes still clutching the dress. Now her eyes were blazing with fury. The mother looks at her and, at that moment, seems to accept her guilt. She seems to crumble as she gropes for the telephone. She collapses on her knees as she lifts the receiver and dials slowly. She makes about four attempts, her agitation mounting with each frustrated attempt. She looks up to see Nora towering above her, still clutching the dress, her eyes still a blaze with fury and contempt. The mother, now almost ready to break down, slowly drops the receiver on the cradle. The patter of the rain is heard, as if coming from a distance, slow and distinct at first, becoming faster and sharper while the lights begin to fade, and soon it is a deafening downpour and the stage is completely dark.]