The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore

188 THE MILK TRAIN DOESN'T STOP HERE ANYMORE

  comparatively: but now much more so. No more pretences at all___

  chris: It's wonderful.

  mrs goforth: What?

  chris: That you and I have happened to meet at just this time because I have reached the same point in my life as you say you have come to in yours.

  mrs goforth [suspiciously]: What? Which? Point?

  chris: The point you mentioned, the point of no more pretences.

  mrs goforth: You say you've reached that point, too?

  [chris nods, smiling warmly.] Hmrnmm.

  [The sound is sceptical and so is the look she gives him.]

  chris: It's true, I have, Mrs Goforth.

  mrs goforth: I don't mean to call you a liar or even a fantasist, but I don't see how you could afford to arrive at the point of no more pretences, Chris.

  chris: I probably couldn't afford to arrive at this point any more than I could afford to travel this summer.

  mrs goforth: Hmmm. I see. But you travelled?

  chris: Yes, mostly on foot, Mrs Goforth - since - Genoa.

  MRS goforth [rises and crosses near balustrade]: One of the reasons I took this place here is because it's supposed to be inaccessible except from the sea. Between here and the highway, there's just a goat-path, hardly possible to get down, and I thought impossible to get up. Hmmm. Yes. Well. But you got yourself up.

  chris [pours last of the coffee]: I had to. I had to get up it.

  mrs goforth [crossing back to him and sitting]: Let's play the truth game: do you know the truth game?

  chris: Yes, but I don't like it. I've always made excuses to get out of it when it's played at parties because I think the truth is too delicate and, well, dangerous a thing to be played with at parties, Mrs Goforth. It's nitro-glycerine, it has to be handled with the - the carefulest care, or somebody hurts somebody and gets hurt back and the party turns to a -devastating explosion, people crying, people screaming,

  SCENE FIVE 189

  people even fighting and throwing things at each other. I've seen it happen, and there's no truth in it - that's true.

  MRS goforth: But you say you've reached the same point that I have this summer, the point of no more pretences, so why can't we play the truth game together, huh, Chris ?

  chris: - Why don't we put it off till - say, after - supper?

  MRS goforth: You play it better on a full stomach, do you?

  chris: Yes, you have to be physically fortified for it as well as - morally fortified for it.

  mrs goforth: And you like to stay for supper? You don't have any other engagement for supper?

  CHRIS: I have no engagements of any kind now, Mrs Goforth.

  MRS goforth: Well, I don't know about supper. Sometimes I don't want any.

  chris: How about after - ?

  mrs goforth: - What?

  chris: After lunch?

  mrs goforth: Oh, sometimes I don't have lunch, either.

  chris: You're not on a healthful regime. You know, the spirit has to live in the body and so you have to keep the body in a state of repair because it's the home of the -spirit....

  mrs goforth: - Hmmm. Are you talking about your spirit and body or mine?

  chris: Yours.

  mrs goforth: One long ago meeting between us, and you expect me to believe you care more about my spirit and body than your own? Mr Flanders ?

  chris: Mrs Goforth, some people, some people, most of them, get panicky when they're not cared for by somebody, but I get panicky when I have no one to care for.

  Mrs goforth: Oh, you seem to be setting yourself up as a -as a saint of some kind....

  Chris: All I said is I need somebody to care for. I don't say that - [He has finished his coffee and crosses to the warmer for more.] I'm playing the truth game with you. Caring for somebody gives me the sense of being - sheltered, protected___

  Mrs goforth: 'Sheltered, protected' from what?

  I90 THE MILK TRAIN DOESN'T STOP HERE ANYMORE

  Chris [standing above her]: - Unreality! - lostness? - Have you ever seen how two little animals sleep together, a pair of kittens or puppies? All day they seem so secure in the house of their master, but at night, when they sleep, they don't seem sure of their owner's true care for them: then they draw close together: they curl up against each other, and now and then, if you watch them, you notice they nudge each other a little with their heads or their paws, exchange little signals between them. The signals mean: we're not in danger ... sleep: we're close: - it's safe here. - Their owner's house is never a sure protection, a reliable shelter. - Everything going on in it is mysterious to them, and no matter how hard they try to please, how do they know if they please? -They hear so many sounds, voices, and see so many things they can't comprehend I - Oh, it's ever so much better than the pet shop window but what's become of their mother? - who warmed them and sheltered them and fed them until they were snatched away from her, for no reason they know. We're all of us living in a house we're not used to - too.... A house full of- voices, noises, objects, strange shadows, light that's even stranger - we can't understand. We bark and jump around and try to - be - pleasingly playful in this big mysterious house but ? in our hearts we're all very frightened of it: don't you think so? - Then it gets to be dark. - We're left alone with each other: we have to creep close to each other and give those gentle little nudges with our paws and our muzzles before we can slip into -sleep and - rest for the next day's - playtime ... and the next day's mysteries. [He lights a cigarette for her as thE witch enters dramatically still on terrace. ]

  The witch: The next day's mysteries. Ecco, sono qui.

  MRS goforth: My Lord, are you still here? [With unconcealed displeasure, chris turns.]

  the witch [as if amazed]: Christopher! Flanders!

  chris: How do you do, Mrs - Oh, I started to say Mrs Ridge-way but that isn't it, now, is it?

  the witch: What a back number you are! [He draws back from her and crosses away.]

  Chris: Yes.

  SCENE FIVE

  191

  MRS goforth: How'd you miss your return trip to Capri last night, I thought you'd gone back there last night? I had the boatman waiting up for you last night.

  the witch: Oh, last night! What confusion! [She puts down her hat and follows chris.] When was the last time I saw you ?

  MRS goforth: If you don't know why should he?

  the witch: Oh, at the wedding banquet those Texas oil people gave me in Portofino, oh, yes, you were staying with them, and so depressed over the loss of-

  CHRIS [cutting in]: Yes. [He moves again toward the balustrade.]

  the witch: You'd taken such beautiful care of that poor old ridiculous woman but couldn't save her, and, oh, the old Duke of Parma did such a wicked thing to you, poured champagne on your head and - called you - what did he call you?

  mrs goforth: Let him forget it, Connie.

  [the witch gives her a glance and moves to chris.]

  the witch: Something else awful happened and you were involved in some way but I can't remember the details.

  chris: Yes, it's better forgotten, Mrs Goforth is right, some of the details are much better forgotten if you'll let me -forget them.... [mrs goforth rises and starts upstaged]

  the witch: Are you leaving us, Sissy?

  mrs goforth: I'm going to phone the boat-house t'make sure there's a boat ready for your trip back to Capri, because I know you want back there soon as possible, Connie. [She crosses into the library and out the door.]

  thewitch [crossing now to the table]: Chris, you're not intending to stay here!?

  chris: Yes, if I'm invited: I would like to.

  The witch: Don't you know, can't you tell? Poor Sissy's going, she's gone. The shock I got last night when I - I had to drink myself blind! - when I saw her condition! [She crosses closer.] You don't want to be stuck with a person in her appalling condition. You're young, have fun. Oh, Chris, you've been foolish too l
ong, the years you devoted to that old Ferguson bitch, and what did you get?

  Chris [lighting a cigarette]: Get?

  192 THE MILK TRAIN DOESN T STOP HERE ANYMORE

  the witch: Yes, get? She had you, you were had! - left you? Nothing! ? I bet, or why would you be here?

  Chris: Please don't make me be rude: we don't understand each other, which is natural, but don't make me say things to you that I don't want to say.

  the witch: What can you say to me that I haven't heard said?

  Chris: Have you heard this said to your face about you, that you're the heart of a world that has no heart, the heartless world you live in, has anyone said that to you, Mrs Ridge-way?

  the witch: Condotti, Marquessa Ridgeway-Condotti, Mr Death Angel Flanders.

  Chris: Yes, we both have new titles.

  the witch [throwing back her head]: Sally 1 Laurie! Sissy I It's time for death, old girls, beddy-bye! [Less shrilly] Beddy-bye, old girls, the Death Angel's coming, no dreams.... [Meanwhile in the library area: MRS goforth enters, followed by blackie with a notebook.]

  mrs goforth: Ah, God___What in Hell's going on here?

  blackie: I wish I knew, Mrs Goforth.

  mrs goforth [circling the desk]: I call, I buzz, no one answers !

  blackie: I was in the kitchen when you -

  mrs goforth: Why in the kitchen?

  blackie: The new kitchen staff had arrived and I was explaining the kitchen equipment to them.

  MRS goforth [cutting in]: Never mind that, let that go, just call the boat-house and have them have a boat ready to take the Capri Witch back to Capri. [blackie moves to phone. ]

  She's still here, spent the night here. Why didn't you get ha away when - Look! Look!

  [the witch has crossed toward chris, who turns.]

  Chris: I'm sorry you forced me to say what I feel about you.

  the witch: Oh, that. My heart pumps blood that isn't my own blood, it's the blood of anonymous blood donors, and as for the world I live in, you know it as well as I know it. -Come to Capri, it's a mountain, too.

  SCENE FIVE 193

  CHRis [again moving away]: You're not afraid of the nickname I've been given?

  the witch: No, I think it's a joke that you take seriously, Chris. You've gotten too solemn. [She follows him.] Let me take that curse off you. Come to Capri, and I'll give you a party, decorated with your mobiles, and ?

  mrs goforth [to blackie]: See? She's out there putting the make on -

  [blackie exits as mrs goforth crosses out of the library.]

  the witch [cutting into flora's speech]: You're pale, you look anaemic, you look famished, you need someone to put you back in the picture, the social swim. Capri? [mrs goforth has come back out on the terrace: she advances behind chris and the witch.]

  mrs goforth: What picture? What swim? Capri?

  the witch: It's marvellous there this season.

  mrs goforth: The sea is full of Medusas. Didn't you tell me the sea is full of Medusas and a giant one got you?

  the witch [crossing to her]: Oh, they'll wash out, they'll be washed out by tomorrow.

  mrs goforth: When are you going to wash out? I thought you'd washed out last night - I've ordered a boat to take you back to Capri.

  the witch: I can't go back to Capri in a dinner gown before sundown. [She sits at the table and stares at chris.]

  mrs goforth: Well, try my hot sulphur baths or just look the place over, it's worth it. It's worth looking over. Me, I'm about to start work so I can't talk to you right now. [She gets the witch's hat and brings it to her.] I'm right on the edge of breaking through here today, I'm on a strict discipline, Connie, as I explained last night to you, and - [She coughs: falls into her chair.]

  the witch: Sissy, I don't like that cough.

  MRS goforth: Hell, do you think I like it? Neuralgia, nerves, overwork, but I'm going to beat it, it isn't going to beat me or it'll be the first thing that ever did beat me!

  the witch [rising and crossing to her]: Be brave, Sissy -'Snothing more necessary.

  goforth: Leave me alone, go, Connie, it'll do you in,

  194 THE MILK TRAIN DOESN'T STOP HERE ANYMORE

  too. [She crosses away for a tissue, the witch looks, wide-eyed, at CHRIS and crosses to him.]

  the witch: Watch out for each other 1 - Chris, give her the Swami's book you translated. Ciao! [She throws him a kiss and moves off, calling back.] Qu'este veramente una meraviglia ... - Ciao, arrivedeei ... Amici! [the witch goes out of the lighted area down the goat-path, chris crosses to table and sits, looking about.]

  mrs goforth: What are you looking for now? Chris: I was just looking for the cream and sugar. mrs goforth: Never touch it, y'want a saccharine tablet? Chris: Oh, no, thanks, I - don't like the chemical taste. mrs goforth [crossing down to table]: Well, it's black coffee or

  else, I'm afraid, Mr what ? - Chris I chris: You have three villas here?

  mrs goforth: One villa and two villinos. Villino means a small villa. I also have a little grass hut, very Polynesian -[Crossing a little below the table.] down on my private beach too. I have a special use for it, and a funny name for it, too. chris: Oh? mrs goforth: Yes, I call it 'The Oubliette'. Ever heard of

  the Oubliette?

  chris: A place where people are put to be forgotten? mrs goforth: That's right, Chris. You've had some education along that line. [She crosses above the table, closer to him.]

  chris: Yes, quite a lot, Mrs Goforth, especially lately. mrs goforth: As for the use of it, well, I've been plagued by imposters lately, the last few summers, the continent has been overrun by imposters of celebrities, writers, actors, and so forth. I mean they arrive and say, like I am Truman Capote. Well, they look a bit like him so you are taken in by the announcement, I am Truman Capote and you receive him cordially only to find out later it isn't the true Truman Capote it's the false Truman Capote. Last summer I had the false Truman Capote and the year before that I had the false Mary McCarthy. That's before I took to checking the passports of sudden visitors. Well, - [She crosses to the other chair and sits opposite him.] - as far as I know they're still

  SCENE FIVE 195

  down there in that little grass hut on the beach where undesirables are transferred to when the villas are overcrowded. The oubliette. A medieval institution that I think personally was discarded too soon. It was a dungeon, where people were put for keeps to be forgotten. You say you know about it?

  [chris stares straight at her, not answering by word or gesture: his look is gentle, troubled.]

  So that's what I call my little grass shack on the beach, I call it the oubliette from the French verb 'oublier' which means to forget, to forget, to put away and -

  chris: - forget...

  MRS goforth: And I do really forget 'em. Maybe you think I'm joking but it's the truth. Can't stand to be made a Patsy. Understand what I mean? [He nods.]

  This is nothing personal. You came with your book - [She picks up his book of poetry.] - with a photograph of you on it which still looks like you just, well, ten years younger, but still unmistakably you. You're not the false Chris Flanders, I'm sure about that.

  chris: Thank you. I try not to be.

  mrs goforth: However, I don't keep up with the new personalities in the world of art like I used to. Too much a waste of vital energy, Chris. Of course you're not exactly a new personality in it: would you say so? [chris smiles: shakes his head slightly.]

  You're almost a veteran in it. I said a veteran, I didn't say a 'has been' - [She sneezes violently.] I'm allergic to something around here. I haven't found out just what, but when I do, oh, brother, watch it go!

  chris [who has risen and brought her a clean tissue]: I hope it isn't the bougainvillaea vines.

  MRsGOFORTH:No,it isn't the bougainvillaea, but I'm having an allergy specialist flown down here from Rome to check me with every goddam plant and animal on the place, and whatever it is has
to go.

  Chris: Have you tried breathing sea water?

  Mrs goforth: Oh, you want to drown me?

  196 THE MILK TRAIN DOESN'T STOP HERE ANYMORE

  chris [crossing back to bis chair and sitting]: Ha ha, no, I meant have you tried snuffing it up your nostrils to irrigate your nasal passages, Mrs Goforth, it's sometimes a very effective treatment for -

  mrs goforth: Aside from this allergy and a little neuralgia, sometimes more than a little, I'm a healthy woman. Know how I've kept in shape, my body the way it still is ?

  Chris: - Exercise?

  mrs goforth: Yes! In bed! Plenty of it, still going on!... but there's this worship of youth in the States, this Whistler's Mother complex, you know what I mean, this idea that at a certain age a woman ought to resign herself to being a sweet old thing in a rocker. Well, last week-end, a man, a young man, came in my bedroom and it wasn't too easy to get him out of it. I had to be very firm about it. [blackie appears on the terrace with a plate of food for

  CHRIS - MRS GOFORTH rises.]

  - What've you got there, Blackie?

  blackie: Mr Flanders' breakfast, I'm sure he would like some.

  mrs goforth: Aw, now, isn't that thoughtful. Put it down there.

  [As blackie starts to put it down on the table, mrs go-forth indicates the serving table.]

  I said down there, and get me my menthol inhaler and

  Kleenex. I have run out.

  [blackie sets the plate on the serving table and retires from the lighted area.] Simonetta!

  [mrs goforth rings and bands the tray to simonetta

  who has entered.] Take this away. I can't stand the smell of food now.

  [simonetta exits.]

  chris [who has moved toward the serving table, stands stunned]: Mrs Goforth, I feel that I have, I must have disturbed you, annoyed you - disturbed you because I - [He crosses back to the table.]

  mrs goforth: Don't reach for a cigarette till I offer you one. Chris: May I have one, Mrs Goforth?

  scene five 197

  mrs goforth: Take one. Be my Trojan Horse Guest. Wait.

  [She moves down beside him.] Kiss me for it. [chris doesn't move.]

  Kiss me for it, I told you. chris [putting the cigarette away]: Mrs Goforth, there are

  moments for kisses and moments not for kisses. mrs goforth: This is a 'not for kiss' moment? [He turns away and she follows and takes his arm.]

  I've shocked you by my ferocity, have I? Sometimes I

  shock myself by it. [They move together towards the balustrade.]

  Look: a coin has two sides. On one side is an eagle but on

  the other side is - something else.... chris: Yes, something else: usually some elderly potentate's

  profile.

  [She laughs appreciatively at his riposte... touches his shoulder: he moves a step away from her.] mrs goforth: Why didn't you grab the plate and run off

  with it?

  chris: Like a dog grabs a bone? mrs goforth: Sure! Why not? It might've pleased me to

  see you show some fight. Chris: I can fight if I have to, but the fighting style of dogs is

  not my style. mrs goforth: Grab, fight, or go hungry! ? nothing else

  works. chris: How is it possible for a woman of your reputation as

  a patron of arts and artists, to live up here, with all this

  beauty about you, and yet be -mrs goforth: A bitch, a swamp-bitch, a devil? Oh, I see it,