27
The STEPFATHER enters and gets in to bed and lies on his side,
facing away from the MOTHER. We do not see his features in
the near darkness and even as they lie there talking, only the
MOTHER is lit by the booklight, the STEPFATHER remains
obscured by the darkness.
STEPFATHER: Are you gonna read for much longer?
MOTHER: Probably not. Why?
STEPFATHER: (pause) Doesn't matter. (pause) So, tell me,
apart from tonight, why was today so terrible?
MOTHER: It wasn't that bad I suppose. I just got a bit of
a shock when I got called to the school to pick
Cynthia up -
STEPFATHER: What happened?
MOTHER: She fainted. One of her teachers, Mr Benson, was
a bit worried that she mightn't be quite up to
school and that she'd be better off going home.
STEPFATHER: What made her faint?
MOTHER: (closing her book and putting it to one side) I'm
not sure. I thought I might be to blame, you see
we had an argument yesterday and I slapped her and
she collapsed - out cold. I took her to the
doctor today and she said her head was okay and
everything and that it was probably 'cause she's
not eating well. I got some multi vitamins for
her which is what Dr Jenning suggested...I'm
still not sure that it's got nothing to do with what
happened yesterday though. I mean that's the
first time she's ever fainted. I swear I didn't
hit her hard though.
STEPFATHER: Don't worry about it. It's probably just like
Dr Jenning said. A few of those vitamins and
she'll probably be as right as rain.
MOTHER: I hope you're right. I'd die if I'd hurt her in
some way. I mean it was only a little slap...You
know if I'd listened to her this morning none of
it would have happened.
STEPFATHER: What do you mean?
MOTHER: She told me this morning that she didn't feel well
and didn't want to go to school. I made her
go. That reminds me, something funny happened
this morning...
