ACT TWO
Scene Six
Itâs ten weeks later. In the raw cold of an early November evening, two MILITARY POLICEMEN are too busy trying to keep their circulation going to have much to say to each other. One or two PASSERS-BY enter and are questioned by the MILITARY POLICEMEN.
Inside, ELIZABETH sits at a sewing machine; sewing. Sheâs wearing a coat. Up the tenement stair comes AIDAN QUINN, dirty, cap down low over his face, out of breath and frightened. He stops outside the door of his house, considers knocking but doesnât. He continues up the stair to the landing and disappears through the door to the lonely void.
Outside, MAURA enters and is questioned by the MILITARY POLICEMEN. After she goes, we lose the exterior sounds; the MILITARY POLICE exit and now we are concentrating on ELIZABETH. MAURA enters and heads for the range to get a heat; she doesnât take her coat off and wonât for the duration of the scene.
ELIZABETH. Cold? I try not to let it bother me. Work work work, keep busy and keep warm.
ELIZABETH picks up a big pair of scissors in one hand and her wedding dress in the other.
MAURA. What are you doing?
ELIZABETH. Iâm going to cut up my wedding dress. I was looking through some old things Iâve kept and decided it was time to get rid of some rubbish.
MAURA. No. Please. Whenever I see that wedding picture of you, standing beside your husband as though he is an archangel at least, and you scared but keen as mustard, my heart goes out to that fifteen-year-old bride and her mad, innocent heart.
ELIZABETH (cutting the dress). Be practical, Maura. I was thinking about the Belgian refugees and how they must be freezing, the poor souls, and then I saw my wedding dress and thought: well, rather than see it sit and rot in a box on top of a wardrobe. I decided to make them some gloves.
MAURA. Do you miss him?
ELIZABETH. Do I miss whom?
MAURA doesnât answer. She goes to find a tin and a jotter she keeps in the press.
MAURA. Iâm scared in this house now.
ELIZABETH. O. Why?
MAURA. I donât know. I keep waiting for something to happen; then I realise it already has.
MAURA finds somewhere to do her accounts. She has to keep a record of who has given her rent.
ELIZABETH. Where have you been till this time anyway?
MAURA. I had to go and see one or two that were late with their rent.
ELIZABETH. Yes; sheâs the rent man now.
MAURA. Weâre withholding rent, weâre not defaulters. Someone has to collect the rent and keep a record.
ELIZABETH. You count the money so often, anyone would think it was yours.
MAURA. Iâm the treasurer for the tenement.
ELIZABETH. You count it twice a day.
MAURA. I canât afford to be out a penny.
ELIZABETH. You count it so much, the coins are sweaty. Do you pretend the moneyâs yours? Look, sheâs blushing. You look like a miser counting her hoard.
MAURA (furious). You wonât make me feel any more ridiculous than I already do. Yes Iâm ridiculous: Iâve no money. So I work. I make money. The more money I have, the less ridiculous Iâll look. (Sheâs shaking with anger, in this cold.Suddenly she feels the futility of it.) You make everything ridiculous. You really do. I work all day then I shop, come home and cook, go out again to picket a tenement till all hours of the morning. And after all that, I come home to this. I donât know why I bother.
ELIZABETH. You must enjoy their company. Youâre never in.
MAURA. I look at the others and think, âYouâve got homes. Youâve got men, children, youâve got a reason to do this.â
ELIZABETH. You want your own home? (No answer.) You look at me and what Iâve made of my home and you want to emulate my success. (Slight pause.) That was a joke.
MAURA puts the rent money away.
MAURA. Iâll heat you up some stew.
MRS CUNNINGHAM enters.
Iâll be right with you, Mrs Cunningham.
ELIZABETH. Where are you going now? Youâre only just in.
MAURA. The family of scabs across the street has moved out; we have to stop the factor moving another family in.
MRS CUNNINGHAM. Thereâs news, Maura.
ELIZABETH. Mrs Cunninghamâs probably wondering why we gave you such an Irish name, Maura. We called her after an aunt of hers that worked in the fur department of Pettigrewâs. We had high hopes.
MAURA. What kind of news?
MRS CUNNINGHAM. The factorâs taking eighteen of us to the Small Debts Court. If the court agrees that the rent owed should be regarded as debt, the court will get powers to arrest our wages.
MAURA. Go into our pay packets and help themselves to our money?
MRS CUNNINGHAM. Thereâs twenty-five thousand of us on strike now. Look at it from their point of view.
MAURA. Take money out of our pay packets?
MRS CUNNINGHAM. They have to do something.
MAURA. You never said this could happen.
MRS CUNNINGHAM. I suppose they took legal advice. Used the best minds money can buy.
MAURA. Weâre going to lose?
MRS CUNNINGHAM. We have a few days before the case comes up...