A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur Read Online Free PDF Page B

tablets!
    DOROTHEA: My sherry to wash it down with—
    BODEY: Dotty, take out the
two extra tablets
, Dotty!
    HELENA: Sherry? Did she say sherry? Where is it?
    DOROTHEA: There, there.
    BODEY: Dotty, open your mouth, I got to take out those extras!
    HELENA: No glass, you must drink from the bottle.
    BODEY: NO! NOOOO!
    HELENA: STOP CLUTCHING AT ME!
    [
Miss Gluck utters a terrified wail. Dorothea drinks from the bottle and falls back onto the pillows with a gasp
.]
    BODEY [
so angry she speaks half in German
]: You
Schwein
, you bitch!
Alte böse Katze
. [
She then goes on in English
.] You washed three tablets down Dotty!
    DOROTHEA: Now will you BOTH get out so I can breathe!
    HELENA: The door’s obstructed by Gluck.
    BODEY: Sophie, go out, Sophie, go out of here with me for coffee and crullers!
    [
Sobbing, Sophie retreats. Bodey grabs a strong hold of Helena’s wrist
.]
    HELENA: Let go of my wrist. Oh, my God, you have broken. . . . I heard a bone snap in my—!
    BODEY: WALK! OUT! MOVE IT! . . .
    HELENA [
turning quickly about and retreating behind the sofa
]: Miss Bodenheifer, you are a one-woman demonstration of the aptness of the term “Huns” for Germans. . . . And, incidentally, what you broke was not my wrist but my Cartier wristwatch, a birthday present from my Cousin Dee-Dee ; you shattered the crystal, and you’ve broken the minute hand and bent the two others. I am afraid the repair bill will cost you considerably more than keeping Dorothea in Golden Glow Shampoo.
    BODEY: It’s all right, Sophie, set down right here and I’ll. . . . Coffee’s still hot for you. Have a coupla crullers. Blow your nose on this napkin and—
    [
Helena laughs tonelessly
.]
    What’s funny, is something funny? You never been depressed, no sorrows in your life ever, yeh, and you call yourself a human.
    HELENA: Really, this is fantastic as the—color scheme of this room or the—view through the windows.
    [
In the bedroom, Dorothea has staggered from the bed and stumbled to the floor
.]
    DOROTHEA: Bodey.
    HELENA: Dorothea.
    BODEY [
calling through
]: Dotty.
    HELENA: You really must let me check on her condition.
    DOROTHEA [
in the bedroom
]: Don’t forget . . . phone call.
    BODEY: No, Dotty.
    DOROTHEA [
faintly, clinging to something
]: Tell Miss Brookmire I’ve retired for the day.
    HELENA:
What?
    BODEY: She’s not coming out. She’s not coming out till you leave here—
    [
Bodey bolts the bedroom door
.]
    HELENA: I beg to differ. She
will
and I’ll sit here till she does!
    [
Miss Gluck has taken a bite of a cruller, dunked in coffee, and begins to blubber, the coffee-soaked cruller dribbling down her chin
.]
    BODEY: Look, you upset Sophie!
    MISS GLUCK:
Eine—Woche vor
—
Sonntag
—
meine Mutter
—
    BODEY [
comfortingly
]:
Ich weiss
, Sophie,
ich weiss
.
    MISS GLUCK:
Gestorben!
    BODEY: But she went
sudden
, huh, Sophie? [
She crouches besideMiss Gluck, removing the dribblings of cruller and coffee from her mouth and chin
.]
    HELENA: I don’t understand the language, and the scene appears to be private.
    BODEY: Yeh, keep out of it. [
She turns to Miss Gluck
.] —Your mother, she didn’t hang on like the doctor thought she would, Sophie. Now, face it, it was better sudden, no big hospital bill, just went and is waiting for you in Heaven.
    HELENA: With open arms, I presume, and with coffee and crullers.
    BODEY: So, Sophie, just be grateful that she went quick with no pain.
    MISS GLUCK [
grotesquely tragic
]:
Nein, nein, sie hat geschrien!
I woke up runnin’!
    BODEY: To her bed, you reached it and she was dead. Just one scream, it was over—wasn’t that a mercy?
    [
Helena laughs
.]
    Sophie, honey, this woman here’s not sympathetic. She laughs at sorrow; so maybe you better take the coffee, the cruller—here’s another—upstairs , Sophie, and when we get back from the Creve Coeur picnic, I will bring you beautiful flowers,
schöne Blume
. Then I’ll come up and sing to you in German—I will sing