The Magic Tower and Other One-Act Plays Read Online Free PDF Page A

hat-brim
.] That will keep me warm and dry!
    LINDA : I’ll think of you, too.
    LINDA : Aren’t you forgetting something?
    JIM [
turning back
]: Oh, I haven’t kissed you!
    LINDA [
laughing
]: I meant your pictures!
    JIM [
snapping fingers
]: Of course. My pictures. [
Dashes around room selecting canvases
.] Which ones shall I take? I know! The ones of you! I’ll take them to bring me good luck!
    LINDA : I’ve brought you nothing but bad luck, Jim.
    JIM [
gaily
]: Don’t be silly. You’re my lucky star.
    LINDA : Your evil star!
    JIM [
selecting pictures
]: This one and this one . . . ah! This one of you in your dancing costume!
    [
Humming to herself, Linda goes to the portable
.
She puts a Strauss waltz
on
— “The Artist’s Life.”]
    JIM : What are you doing, Linda? This is no time for music.
    LINDA : It’s always time for music. See! He doesn’t deny it. I am his evil star. . . . Dance with me, darling, before you go.
    JIM [
taking her in his arms
]: Linda! You’re so indifferent!
    LINDA : Indifferent? Oh, if you only knew! How excited I am!
    JIM : Worried?
    LINDA : Not a bit! Why should I be? There’s not a doubt in my mind, I’m so sure of you, Jim!
    JIM [
beaming with pride
]: Are you really?
    [
Pause. Linda takes it up. They dance gaily around the room
.]
    LINDA : Remember to ask him for an advance payment, Jim. We’re five weeks behind on the rent!
    JIM : Five weeks? Ho, ho! That’s nothing!
    LINDA : And guess what we’re having for supper tonight?
    JIM : Nightingale tongues! We’ll have nightingale tongues!
    LINDA [
shouting
]: Half a loaf of stale bread!
    JIM [
breaking away and clasping his ears
]: Well, half a loaf is better than none!
    LINDA [
burying her head on his shoulder and hugging him
]: But it’s such stale bread, darling. So dreadfully stale. It would ruin your dental work!
    JIM : Remember the Bishop of Bingen? While everyone else was stricken with famine he locked himself up in a tower filled with good grain. Alas, poor fellow! The rats ate him up.
    LINDA [
laughing
]: What’s the moral, please?
    JIM : We’ll never be eaten by rats! [
Picking up canvases
.] The filthy little rats of greed will never get into this magic tower of ours, will they, Linda?
    LINDA [
smiling
]: Of course they won’t!
    JIM : There
is
something magical about it,
isn’t
there?
    LINDA : This little room of ours?
    JIM : Yes. Our magic tower. With stairs so long and steep that nobody but you and I can ever reach it! [
Goes to door smiling raptly
.] It’s like living in a state of enchantment, isn’t it, Linda? [
Opening the door
.] Don’t you feel that way about it sometimes, Linda?
    LINDA [
softly
]: Of course I do. I feel it so strongly sometimes that I’m frightened!
    JIM : Why frightened?
    LINDA : I wonder where it will end.
    JIM [
laughing
]: Then you aren’t really enchanted. In a state of enchantment people are never concerned about endings. They just go on and on and on. Nothing ever happens. Nothing, I mean, that really matters.
    LINDA : How thrilling that sounds! I wonder if it’s true?
    JIM : I’ll prove it to you, Linda!
    LINDA [
gently
]: I’m sure that you will. [
She kisses him and he goes out the door
.]
    JIM [
going down stairs
]: And nightingale tongues for supper! Remember that. Walking in wet weather gives me such an appetite! So long. . . .
    LINDA [
standing in doorway
]: I wish you weren’t going.
    JIM [
from the stairs
]: Why?
    LINDA : When you’re gone the magic tower isn’t safe. I have such awful thoughts!
    JIM : About me?
    LINDA : No. About me. I think what a bother I am. How happy you’d be without me. Just think, if it wasn’t for me you’d still be a gay young student without a care in the world!
    JIM : You lovely fool! I’d be the world’s most miserable man! So long. . . .
    LINDA : Goodbye, Jim. Good luck! [
She stands in the opened doorwayuntil he is out of sight. Then she closes the door. She leans against it a moment with a faint, brooding smile.