NOW
Scene: Doctor’s reception room in which there are a sofa, several upholstered chairs, a coffee table with magazines fanned over the top, a potted plastic palm, and on the wall a large print of “The Laughing Cavalier” by Franz Hals. Soft “muzak” plays in the background. A man sitting in the corner looks up from his copy of POPULAR MECHANICS when a nurse enters the room. The year is 1975.
Nurse: The doctor will see you now, Mr. Hampton. (The man goes toward the door and suddenly turns around to return the magazine to the area where he had been reading and then enters an examination room).
(Still in the waiting area are two middle-aged women, one wearing a feathered hat and the other woman a red silk scarf around her neck. The first lady is reading VOGUE, and the other is smiling at a photo she has taken from her open purse. She chuckles audibly).
Louise: (Looking up because Clara has laughed) Is that your son?
Clara: No. It’s my husband, but this is an old picture taken before we were married when he was beginning his plumbing apprenticeship. (She closes her eyes and looks meditative.) It’s funny how much faces change over the years, isn’t it? (Smiles again, looking down at the photo). My, but 1940 was a good year.
Louise: Yes, but my husband thinks he looks the way he looked thirty-five years ago. I don’t think men see themselves aging as we women see ourselves. Charles is laboring under the illusion that time has simply passed him by. He still exerts himself on the golf course as though he were twenty. I’m waiting for a stroke to surprise him in the middle of the 18th hole, and I don’t mean the stroke of a golf ball.
Clara (sobbing): I know what you mean. You can never tell when such a tragedy will strike. Len was perfectly healthy until (sobbing again)...the accident.
Louise: Accident?
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| mayonnaise |
Louise: I’m so sorry. Is there any chance that he’ll recover?
Clara: I’m afraid not. Once the cells are destroyed, that’s the end of them. Now he just sits in front of the TV drinking Ovaltine with a straw from a Mr. Spock space mug. He’s a vegetable.
Louise: How awful for you!
Clara: Well, I suppose it can’t be helped now, except to keep him as comfortable as I can. What does YOUR husband do?
Louise: Very little, I assure you. Golf seems to be the only activity in his life that stimulates him in any way. Because he’s in his "middle" years, you know, male menopause and all that, he’s trying to prove to everyone, including himself, that he’s Tarzan of the jungle.
Clara: And was he Tarzan once (laughing)?
Louise: Never. But I loved him. Tarzan never did the things George used to do.
Clara: Like what?
Louise: When he was in the Air Force during the war, he would send me stuffed toys. You know, Teddy bears, stuffed rabbits and dogs...those sorts of things. One Christmas he sent me some glass tree ornaments from England that were all broken when they arrived. I still have the pieces in an old cigar box and have always wondered what they must have looked like in 1942. The stuffed toys are long gone. You know how kids are. They destroyed everything before they were even old enough to go to school.
Clara: Then you have children?
Louise: Jason is 34, Barbara 29, and Ben 27.
Clara: Len and I never had children, unless you count a couple of miscarriages. Do your children live near you?
Louise: You might say so. In fact, Jason lives with us and on us. He’s very shiftless. He pretends to repair electric typewriters, but the same machine has been on his work bench in the basement since last April. Ben is in law school but will probably become an embezzler in the end, and Barbara is working on her second marriage somewhere in Kansas. We all live very separate lives and rarely see one another except for the occasional Christmas or funeral.
Clara: All the same, you do have a family.
Louise: If that’s what you call it. We’re not exactly the Waltons.
(The nurse enters.)
Nurse: The doctor will see you now, Mrs. Walker.
Clara: Thank you. (She turns toward Louise). I’m sorry. I don’t even know your name.
Louise: Louise Carter. And yours?
Clara: Clara Walker. It was good talking to you. (She goes into the next room as Mr. Hampton exits.)
Louise: (Alone now in the waiting room, she picks up a magazine and begins flipping through it and smiling slyly as she speaks aloud to herself)
Tuna salad with plenty of mayo in a warm room for about three hours. My, but 1976 is going to be a good year.
(The muzak gets louder as the lights fade except for one on the picture of the Laughing Cavalier)
