Country Girls Read online

  Mr Gentleman You can have it.

  Mr Gentleman takes out a silver cigarette case, snaps it open and offers Martha a cigarette, which she accepts.

  Martha Do you still have your houseboat, Gabriel – Shannon Girl?

  Mr Gentleman Oh yes. It’s my passion.

  Martha (flirtatious) Why so?

  Mr Gentleman Nothing can compare with it, the peace, the quiet, the freedom, the breeze, the vastness, I don’t even wear a watch. (Smiling.) I banish time.

  Martha Would you describe yourself as a loner?

  Pause.

  Mr Gentleman Absolutely.

  Martha And how does Mildred cope?

  Mr Gentleman She loves her garden.

  Martha Men!

  Movie house lights dim, the whir of the projector. Murnau’s Nosferatu with it’s tremulous underscoring.

  Suddenly, into the pitch darkness is the beam of a flashlight, Mr Brennan walking towards them.

  Baba (whisper) Jesus, it’s my aul fella.

  Mr Brennan whispers to Mr Gentleman and he and Martha go out. Kate is watching the screen earnestly, identifying with the heroine, her mouth half open in terror.

  Mr Brennan takes Kate out downstage.

  There are two Women and a Simpleton with a hen in his pocket. The Women bless themselves repeatedly as Kate approaches.

  Kate What’s up?

  She goes from face to face but none answer.

  What is it?

  Mr Brennan Let’s go across to the hotel, Caithleen.

  Thady Tell the girl … ’tis better to tell her.

  Kate Tell me what?

  Mr Brennan Your mother got on Tim Haran’s boat to go across to the island to her mother’s and they haven’t been seen since.

  Thady I always said that boat was rotten.

  Kate Where are they?

  Mr Gentleman No one knows …

  Mr Brennan A squall came up …

  Kate Where are they?

  Mr Gentleman Maybe they’re in some cove … sheltering.

  Woman 1 Lord have mercy.

  Woman 2 Christ have mercy.

  Simpleton Hairy eggs and bacon hairy eggs and ham hairy eggs and bacon.

  Martha Will someone shut that hooligan up.

  Simpleton brings the hen close to their faces to frighten them.

  Simpleton Chook chook chook.

  (Singing.) Give the woman in the bed more porter, More porter for the woman in the bed.

  He is pushed away.

  Thady (to Kate) I would have given your dear mother the money for the rates … as God is my judge. She had only to ask.

  Kate How long are they missing?

  Mr Brennan We don’t know. The sergeant has gone to Mount Shannon … he should be back any minute now and we’ll know more then.

  Kate runs to go to her mother. Mr Gentleman follows and pulls her back by the sleeve of her cardigan.

  Mr Gentleman Caithleen … we just have to wait … and hope. Two fishermen and a gillie have gone searching and if anyone can find them, they will.

  Kate (high-pitched) Take me to them … take me.

  Mr Gentleman Child, child.

  Kate Bring me there.

  Mr Gentleman We will, we will.

  Woman 1 puts a black mantilla over Kate.

  Kate If she’s dead, I want to die too.

  Mr Gentleman Don’t talk like that.

  Kate We have only each other … my mother and me.

  Mr Gentleman You have everybody here … you have me.

  He puts his arm around her and leads her away.

  Dawn. Cock crow.

  Baba and Kate are huddled together on the floor covered by a single eiderdown.

  Baba You’re my best friend … my best-best friend.

  Kate Will they find her?

  Baba I’m scared.

  Kate I’d know if she was dead … she’d appear to me.

  Baba She’s out there on the landing … I can hear her walking, pacing … her footsteps.

  Kate Call someone. Call Molly. Call your father.

  Baba I can’t … I’d have to pass her … She’s coming into the room … Jesus Jesus, duck down, before she gets us.

  The two of them duck down under the covers.

  Mr Brennan in his shirtsleeves enters carrying a mug of tea for Kate.

  Mr Brennan Caithleen … I wish … Look, it’s like this … they’ve …

  Kate Given up.

  Mr Brennan shakes his head again and again and turns away to hide his emotion.

  But they’re down there in the lake … they are there.

  Mr Brennan I know … but they can’t find them … They’ve dragged with nets all night all night all morning.

  Kate They’re drowning, and they’re gasping for us to help them.

  Mr Brennan They’re not drowning, Caithleen – they’re dead … we have to pray for the repose of their souls.

  Kate jumps up screaming. Baba follows and clings to her.

  The two girls turn their backs to the audience as Martha and Molly come on and dress them slowly and ceremoniously in navy gaberdine coats, black shoes and navy caps.

  The girls then turn round to face the audience.

  Thady hands Kate a book.

  Thady Dubliners by James Joyce, first published in 1914.

  Molly (crying) I’ll miss ye.

  Martha Chin up … You won’t feel it till Christmas.

  Martha and Molly go.

  Kate and Baba walk towards the convent area, where there are sconces of lit candles.

  From a tall plinth, Sister Immaculata, the Head Nun, is reciting a litany.

  Sister Immaculata

  Blessed be God

  Blessed be His Holy name

  Blessed be Jesus Christ through God and through Man

  Blessed be the name of Jesus

  Blessed be His most sacred heart

  Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy sacrament of the Altar

  Blessed be the great mother of God, Mary most Holy.

  Kate and Baba are kneeling as another girl, Cynthia, hurries in and kneels next to them.

  Sacred music offstage.

  Baba I won’t stick it a week.

  Cynthia Where’re you from?

  Baba Ballenfeckin …

  Cynthia There’s no such place.

  Baba There is so … in County Leitrim … named after St Feckin. We’ll get housemaid’s knee.

  Cynthia What’s that?

  Baba Nuns get it from kneeling … that and scabies.

  Kate is trying to control her tears.

  Cynthia What’s wrong?

  Baba She’s an eejit. She’s homesick.

  Sister Mary enters with a fourth girl carrying white quilts and chairs, which will serve as sleeping beds. Sister Mary walks towards Kate.

  Sister Mary (whispers) What’s your name?

  Kate Kate.

  Sister Mary That’s a lovely name.

  Kate My mother drowned … she was on her way to her own mother’s, on Islandmore.

  Sister Mary Oh, you poor soul.

  Kate She and Tim Haran … He had four children.

  Sister Mary (praying) Hail Holy Queen Mother of Mercy, Hail our life, our sweetness and our hope. To Thee do we cry poor banished children of Eve, to Thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.

  Bedtime.

  The Girls settle into the chairs with white quilts pulled up over them. Sister Immaculata gives her homily.

  Sister Immaculata St Enda’s has always been proud of its modesty. One imperative of modesty is the way a girl dresses and undresses. She should do it with decorum. Girls should face south as they might surprise each other if they face the side of their beds. Silence at all times to be observed in the dormitory. Shoes to be left outside the door. No food to be kept in the presses on any account and sleep is advised within three minutes after retiring.

  The lights go out. Sister Immaculata goes.

  Baba ’Tis like slee
ping on nails.

  Cynthia The nuns sleep in hair shirts and get up three or four times a night to say their Office.

  Baba Feck them … let’s have a hooley.

  Baba jumps up and the others follow.

  Kate takes from a toiletry bag a hunk of cake and a photograph of her mother in a frame.

  I could eat a young child.

  Kate I’ve no knife to cut it.

  Baba breaks the cake into lumps and hands bits around.

  Cynthia It’s gorgeous.

  Baba Let’s boogie-woogie.

  The light changes to a beguiling ballroom purple. Dance music offstage.

  Baba and Cynthia jive and exchange dialogue as between boy and girl. Kate looks on, admiringly.

  Do you come here often?

  Cynthia Not very.

  Baba A bit on the stuffy side.

  Cynthia It’s fab.

  Baba The Crystal is the ‘in’ place.

  Cynthia I’ll say.

  Fourth Girl Show bands.

  Cynthia Spiffing.

  Baba The Druids are my faves … Fancy a stroll?

  Cynthia No ta.

  Baba Care for a mineral?

  Cynthia Getting fresh, boyo?

  Baba Scram.

  As they are dancing Sister Immaculata returns and they make a dive for the floor.

  She takes a small torch from her pocket and shines it on each girl’s face, in order to remember to whom to mete out for punishment.

  She stands above Kate and shines the torch on the photograph.

  Sister Immaculata What is the meaning of this?

  Kate I’m lonely, Sister.

  Sister Immaculata You are not alone in your loneliness.

  Sister Immaculata takes the photograph, putting it in the apron of her habit.

  Kate Don’t take it … it’s my mother … Please don’t take her.

  Sister Immaculata goes.

  Kate starts to cry.

  Cynthia (singing)

  I called, I called a thousand times

  None answered my call

  Save the sheep on the mountainside.

  Dawn light.

  Chapel bell and the lighter, more perfunctory ring of refectory bell intermingle.

  Each girl carries a plate with a metal lid and walks into refectory area.

  They lift the lids and smell.

  Baba It’s gone off.

  Cynthia It stinks.

  Kate What is it?

  Baba Horsemeat.

  Cynthia Let’s dump it.

  Baba How?

  Cynthia You just put it inside your gym frock and when we’re out for walkies we dump it in the lake.

  Kate It’ll ruin my new uniform … the gravy will.

  Baba Put it in your hankie.

  They start to wrap the meat in their handkerchiefs except Kate, who is staring at hers.

  Baba holds a saucer of tapioca, upside down.

  Oh Lady divine, will you pass me the wine

  Oh Lady supreme, will you pass me the cream

  You bald-headed scutter

  Will you pass me the butter.

  Cynthia Baba Brennan, you’re crude.

  Sister Immaculata comes in and sees that Kate hasn’t touched her dinner.

  Sister Immaculata Caithleen Brady, eat your cabbage.

  Kate There’s a slug in it, Sister.

  The others get up quietly and go off, sniggering.

  Sister Immaculata Eat your cabbage.

  Sister Immaculata goes.

  Kate eats a little of it and retches, handkerchief to her mouth as she crosses the stage.

  She begins to read from Dubliners.

  Sister Mary comes on from the opposite side and stands to listen, unobserved at first by Kate.

  Kate (reading) ‘Snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves.’

  Sister Mary That’s … poetry.

  Kate That’s James Joyce.

  Sister Mary Oh my God, where did you get it? He’s anti-Christ.

  Kate Thady gave it to me … he was in love with my mother.

  Sister Mary You can’t have it here … you’d get killed. It’s blasphemous … it reeks of sin.

  Kate But there’s nothing sinful in it. It’s only about snow and the mutinous Shannon waves.

  Sister Mary You’d be expelled if Sister Immaculata found it. You’d be corrupting young minds.

  Kate Do you think that?

  Sister Mary No, but I’m young … I have years before my final vows.

  Kate How many years?

  Sister Mary Four.

  Kate That’s a lifetime.

  Sister Mary Tell you what … we’ll bury it. (From her pocket she takes a little trowel.) We’ll put it with my roses and my sweet peas and my dahlias and my evening scented stock and now and then you can come out and have a peep at it.

  They kneel and Sister Mary digs vigorously with the trowel.

  Kate You’ll dirty your hands.

  Sister Mary It’s good for them. I was always one for the out of doors … digging potatoes, milking cows, tramming hay.

  Kate Do you like being a nun, Sister?

  Sister Mary Sometimes. Sometimes one has doubts.

  Kate Like that nun that escaped over the big high wall.

  Sister Mary When I’m tempted I kneel down and ask my Good Shepherd to protect me and he does.

  Kate Did he give you the vocation?

  Sister Mary No. My mother was sick … they gave her six months to live … she was riddled with cancer … they opened her and they closed her … we all prayed, we watched her get thinner and thinner and whiter and whiter and one day I was out in the field, driving cattle and I made this vow that if she got better I’d be a nun.

  Kate And she did?

  Sister Mary She did.

  Kate Oh, poor you.

  Sister Mary I am the bride of Christ … (Ecstatic.) Christ is the eternal bridegroom.

  Over their speech is the boisterous sound of girls laughing, Baba’s voice loudest.

  Baba

  No more Latin, no more French

  No more sitting on a hard old bench

  Kick up tables, kick up chairs

  Kick Immaculata down the stairs.

  Baba and Cynthia enter, skipping, with autograph books. Kate joins. Baba snatches Cynthia’s autograph book and reads aloud.

  (Reading.)

  ‘My body is but a cabbage

  The leaves I give to others

  But the heart I give to you.’

  (Flinging it.) Slop … Did Kate write that?

  Kate She did not.

  Baba and Kate go. Molly takes the feather tree out of its folder and shakes it as she would an umbrella. She starts to dress it with baubles. A carol (‘Twelve Days of Christmas’) is sung. Molly hangs a few Christmas decorations. Baba and Kate are in the Brennans’ sitting room with Martha, Mr Brennan, Molly and Kate’s Father. Kate has a statue of the Infant of Prague, which she has won for the end-of-term exams.

  Martha The girls, the girls. (Looking at the statue.) What’s this?

  Kate I won it.

  Father You’ll be someone yet and you’ll bring your father with you.

  Kate Lovely fire.

  Father I provide it … I keep them in turf and timber … Did you miss your father? Since your mother died I have no one … no one … You only wrote once.

  Kate (abruptly) The nuns said that we are to remit for the extras this week without fail.

  Father What extras?

  Kate I get a cup of hot milk at night.

  Father (snappy) Money … always blasted money … Not a kind word to your father … not how are you … how are you managing … only grab grab.

  Kate I’m sorry … I don’t mean to … grab.

  Martha hands Kate a shoebox with a ribbon round it.

  Martha It’s f
rom Hugo and me. Go on, open it.

  Kate opens the box, gasps as she takes out red suede high-heeled shoes.

  Put them on.

  Kate Can I?

  Kate puts on the shoes and walks around unsteadily.

  Father, throwing down his cigarette, goes to tackle her to show his displeasure.

  Father You’re too young for them. You’re to wear flat shoes.

  Martha She’s on her holidays, Johnnie …

  Mr Brennan Plus she has been studying very hard … The nuns say she’s a bookworm.

  Molly peeps through the niche that serves as a window.

  Molly (excited) Holy Jesus. It’s Mr Gentleman, Mam … He’s come to see the girls … Cripes … what a night!

  Mr Gentleman with a light fall of snow on his black overcoat and on his hair. He pats Baba on the head, kisses Martha on the cheek and simply stares at Kate.

  Mr Gentleman I was just passing and saw all the lights on.

  Martha We’re delighted …

  Mr Gentleman (to Kate) You’ve got tall.

  Kate It’s the shoes … Martha gave them to me.

  Martha We’ve been baking and basting all day … Hugo was given a brace of pheasants, so you will be able to take one home for Mrs G … how is she?

  Mr Gentleman Much better. (To Baba.) Convent life suits you.

  Baba (arch) It doesn’t. The food is disgusting.

  Mr Gentleman You both look like young ladies.

  Mr Brennan puts a record on the gramophone. John Count McCormack is heard singing ‘Silent Night’.

  As they sit listening, awed, Molly passes round the hot mince pies and they each bite into one.

  Mr Brennan Hot.

  Martha Hot.

  Mr Gentleman Hot.

  Baba Hot.

  Father Very hot.

  Molly (offstage) Yer dinner is on the table.

  They all leave except for Kate and Mr Gentleman.

  Mr Gentleman (softly) So how are you … how is it?

  Kate It’s not great … but it’s better than being at home.

  Mr Gentleman You know that if ever you wanted anything … you have only to ask.

  Kate (shyly) I have my new red shoes.

  Mr Gentleman I’d like to give you a present. What about a little bookcase in walnut or rosewood, with all your favourite books, and then year after year we can add to it?

  Kate A library.

  Mr Gentleman Yes.

  Molly sticks her head in.

  Molly (to Mr Gentleman) The missus says you have to say grace.

  Mr Gentleman (as he goes) Are you coming?

  He goes. She does not follow.