SCENE FOUR
Lights up on BEC. She is not chubby. She is in fact strong and beautiful and hale, though she is also somewhat strung out. She may wear a puffy vest over a sweater. She may wear hiking boots. She may have a Nalgene bottle.
She stands uncomfortably for a long time. VERA enters, walking slowly with a cup of tea. She sees BEC is still standing.
VERA: Take a load off.
BEC sits. VERA very gingerly, shakily, places the tea in front of her. She thinks of something.
You take sugar?
BEC: (She does.) Ohânoâ
VERA sees through this and frowningly exits for sugar. BEC drops her head in her hands. Silence. VERA returns, slowly, with a sugar bowl and a few packets of Sweet and Low.
VERA: My neighbor across the hall is a diabetic, so I keep this stuff around. In case you watch that sort of thing.
BEC: Thank you.
BEC helps herself to two heaping spoonfuls of sugar while VERA watches disapprovingly.
You donât have toâif you have something else you need to doâ
VERA: You want me to leave you alone, is that it?
BEC: No, just, I donât want you to feel you have to, likeâ
VERA: What?
BEC: I donât want to be in your way!
VERA: Well, youâre not. Particularly.
VERA sits as well. They donât know what to say to each other.
So youâre having second thoughts, is that it?
BEC: What?
No, IâŠno.
Another silence.
VERA: When I was first married. Not to Joe, to my first husband, Arthur. It was a week or two we had been married and a woman showed up at our apartment with luggage. Arthur said to me, âOh I forgot to tell you, before we were married I promised I would take her away for the weekend and I didnât want to fink on a promise.â (BEC horrified, VERA laughing.) So I said all right, and they went away, and I left my key on the piano and went home to my parents.
BEC: And you divorced him?
VERA: Oh no. He came to my parents at the end of the weekend begging and pleading and I thought it was funny that he had been so stupid so I went home with him. It wasnât the last time he cheated.
BEC: Of course not!
VERA: When we had been married six months he went out to Hollywood with a womanâŠoh God, what was her name. She was rich, and neurotic. Muriel. He and Muriel went out there to write a screenplay and her father bankrolled them and Arthur never sent me a penny. And I guess they were having an affair because when he tried to end it she threatened to kill herself, and that was a terrible mess. One time we were all at CafĂ© SocietyâŠ
I guess they were back from California�
And she followed me into a cab and said, âCanât we be friends? It eats away at me that youâre angry at me,â and so forth. And I said, âListen, Muriel, there are people you like and people you donât, and I donât like you, and I want you out of this cab.â And she cried and carried on, this woman who had been sleeping with my husband for two yearsâŠ
Long pause. BEC drinks her tea.
Then there was the waitress he met in Arkansas. And he came home and confessed he was in love with her, and I said, âListen, sheâs a hick, you have nothing in common, Iâm sure the sex is terrific and whatnot but why donât you go back there and spend a few weeks with her and see if thereâs really enough there for you to leave our marriage.â And he did. And sure enough he came back and said âYouâre right, we ran out of things to talk about.â And that was that.
He was a cheater and a drunk, but I liked him till the day he died.
BEC: (Blurting it out.) Iâm not sure what youâre trying to tell me.
VERA: What?
BEC: I donât know what you want me toâwhy are you telling me this?
VERA: I was just making conversation. I wasnât getting much help from you.
BEC: But youâre going on and on about theseâlike, parables of tolerance and forgivenessâyou should have left him!
VERA: I did, eventually.
BEC: But you put up with likeâand you tell these stories like youâre proud of them.
VERA: (Seeing that BEC is truly upset.) Okay, listenâ
BEC: This woman, who you tried to push out of a cab, you should have pushed him out of a cab, she was coming to you / for understandingâ
VERA: I see Iâve struck a / nerve.
BEC: Iâm not going to forgive him!
VERA: All right. All right.
BEC struggling to get control, VERA totally unsure what to do.
BEC: Iâm sorry, Iâve been reallyâŠ
And I canât believe heâs fucking late, I canât believeâŠ
VERA: Listen, I wasnât trying to say forgive him or donât forgive him. I donât know what you should do, thatâs your affair.
I was trying to sayâŠmen sometimes do things that can be veryâŠbut you have to remember that itâs more out of stupidity than anything else. Itâs not, whaddayacallit. Malicious. Itâs just stupid and childish.
BEC: I guess, um⊠(Searching for the inoffensive way to say this.) I donât make those kinds of allowances, based on gender? I wouldnât want anyone ...