Harold Pinter: Plays 4 (eBook)

JERRY

Well …

EMMA

How are you?

JERRY

All right.

EMMA

You look well.

JERRY

Well, I’m not all that well, really.

EMMA

Why? What’s the matter?

JERRY

Hangover.

He raises his glass.

Cheers.

He drinks.

How are you?

EMMA

I’m fine.

She looks round the bar, back at him.

Just like old times.

JERRY

Mmm. It’s been a long time.

EMMA

Yes.

Pause.

I thought of you the other day.

JERRY

Good God. Why?

She laughs.

JERRY

Why?

EMMA

Well, it’s nice, sometimes, to think back. Isn’t it?

JERRY

Absolutely.

Pause.

How’s everything?

EMMA

Oh, not too bad.

Pause.

Do you know how long it is since we met?

JERRY

Well I came to that private view, when was it –?

EMMA

No, I don’t mean that.

JERRY

Oh you mean alone?

EMMA

Yes.

JERRY

Uuh …

EMMA

Two years.

JERRY

Yes, I thought it must be. Mmnn.

Pause.

EMMA

Long time.

JERRY

Yes. It is.

Pause.

How’s it going? The Gallery?

EMMA

How do you think it’s going?

JERRY

Well. Very well, I would say.

EMMA

I’m glad you think so. Well, it is actually. I enjoy it.

JERRY

Funny lot, painters, aren’t they?

EMMA

They’re not at all funny.

JERRY

Aren’t they? What a pity.

Pause.

How’s Robert?

EMMA

When did you last see him?

JERRY

I haven’t seen him for months. Don’t know why. Why?

EMMA

Why what?

JERRY

Why did you ask when I last saw him?

EMMA

I just wondered. How’s Sam?

JERRY

You mean Judith.

EMMA

Do I?

JERRY

You remember the form. I ask about your husband, you ask about my wife.

EMMA

Yes, of course. How is your wife?

JERRY

All right.

Pause.

EMMA

Sam must be … tall.

JERRY

He is tall. Quite tall. Does a lot of running. He’s a long distance runner. He wants to be a zoologist.

EMMA

No, really? Good. And Sarah?

JERRY

She’s ten.

EMMA

God. I suppose she must be.

JERRY

Yes, she must be.

Pause.

Ned’s five, isn’t he?

EMMA

You remember.

JERRY

Well, I would remember that.

Pause.

EMMA

Yes.

Pause.

You’re all right, though?

JERRY

Oh … yes, sure.

Pause.

EMMA

Ever think of me?

JERRY

I don’t need to think of you.

EMMA

Oh?

JERRY

I don’t need to think of you.

Pause.

Anyway I’m all right. How are you?

EMMA

Fine, really. All right.

JERRY

You’re looking very pretty.

EMMA

Really? Thank you. I’m glad to see yo

JERRY

So am I. I mean to see you.

EMMA

You think of me sometimes?

JERRY

I think of you sometimes.

Pause.

I saw Charlotte the other day.

EMMA

No? Where? She didn’t mention it.

JERRY

She didn’t see me. In the street.

EMMA

But you haven’t seen her for years.

JERRY

I recognised her.

EMMA

How could you? How could you know?

JERRY

I did.

EMMA

What did she look like?

JERRY

You.

EMMA

No, what did you think of her, really?

JERRY

I thought she was lovely.

EMMA

Yes. She’s very … She’s smashing. She’s thirteen.

Pause.

Do you remember that time … oh God it was … when you picked her up and threw her up and caught her?

JERRY

She was very light.

EMMA

She remembers that, you know.

JERRY

Really?

EMMA

Mmnn. Being thrown up.

JERRY

What a memory.

Pause.

She doesn’t know … about us, does she?

EMMA

Of course not. She just remembers you, as an old friend.

JERRY

That’s right.

Pause.

Yes, everyone was there that day, standing around, your husband, my wife, all the kids, I remember.

EMMA

What day?

JERRY

When I threw her up. It was in your kitchen.

EMMA

It was in your kitchen.

Silence.

JERRY

Darling.

EMMA

Don’t say that.

Pause.

It all …

JERRY

Seems such a long time ago.

EMMA

Does it?

JERRY

Same again?

He takes the glasses, goes to the bar. She sits still. He returns, with the drinks, sits.

EMMA

I thought of you the other day.

Pause.

I was driving through Kilburn. Suddenly I saw where I was. I just stopped, and then I turned down Kinsale Drive and drove into Wessex Grove. I drove past the house and then stopped about fifty yards further on, like we used to do, do you remember?

JERRY

Yes.

EMMA

People were coming out of the house. They walked up the road.

JERRY

What sort of people?

EMMA

Oh … young people. Then I got out of the car and went up the steps. I looked at the bells, you know, the names on the bells. I looked for our name.

Pause.

JERRY

Green.

Pause.

Couldn’t see it, eh?

EMMA

No.

JERRY

That’s because we’re not there any more. We haven’t been there for years.

EMMA

No we haven’t.

Pause.

JERRY

I hear you’re seeing a bit of Casey.

EMMA

What?

JERRY

Casey. I just heard you were … seeing a bit of him.

EMMA

Where did you hear that?

JERRY

Oh … people … talking.

EMMA

Christ.

JERRY

The funny thing was that the only thing I really felt was irritation, I mean irritation...