JANE: Because he can’t remember what he was angry about?
BARBARA: Maybe.
(Short pause.)
TIM (To Barbara): How long ago exactly was the heart attack?
(Barbara lets Jane answer.)
JANE: Couple of years.
BARBARA: He wasn’t happy for a while. That took some time—
JANE: I know that.
(Then:)
BARBARA (Looking at Benjamin’s plate, to Marian): He likes your bean salad. He’s eating it. I’ll give him some more . . .
(She begins to serve him some more beans.)
TIM: Jane told me, he was in a “home” for a while.
(This stops the sisters.)
MARIAN (“Smiling”): I wouldn’t call that—a home.
(Short pause.)
Our uncle had to be protected from himself, Tim. He did a lot of bad things. When he came out of the coma—he was upset. And so we had him committed. We all got together . . . We all decided. In fact, we sat right here at this table.
BARBARA: The worst day of my life.
MARIAN: Then we went to see the place. There’s Uncle Benjamin . . .
(Marian tries not to cry, looks to Barbara.)
BARBARA: Right away you know, this is wrong. Didn’t we? He’s got a brain injury, not a mental illness. He shouldn’t be tied up. (To Jane) Did I tell you this, Jane? (Barbara turns to Tim) One day, Tim, I arrive and Uncle Benjamin is kicking in his door. He said—someone had stolen—something. A checkbook.
JANE: You’ve never told me this.
BARBARA: He couldn’t understand why he was forgetting and losing things and what was happening to his mind. “Oh let me not be mad.” (She looks to Tim and smiles) You know where that’s from. (Continues) So, first, Tim, he constructs a world out of his imagination, where he’s being—the victim. Then—next, it all became a play to him. The other patients—he criticized their acting, remember?
JANE (Smiling): He did. I remember that.
BARBARA: Then drugs kicked in, and after a while—it seemed forever—
MARIAN: Seven months . . .
BARBARA: He could remember he’d had a heart attack. He could remember that he had no checkbook . . . At least, he’d accept this if we told him.
JANE (To Tim): And then he came here.
(Short pause.)
BARBARA (To her sisters): When I sit with him, sometimes it’s as if he’s trying to put the pieces endlessly back together. Endlessly doing this puzzle in his head. I ask him about this. And he says, “I’m just counting.”
MARIAN (To Jane): Sometimes he sits outside and you hear him just saying: “yes, yes, yes.”
BARBARA (Smiles): Or—“oopsie doopsie doo.” (Shrugs) “Oopsie doopsie doo.”
JANE (Repeats): “Oopsie doopsie doo.”
(Richard appears in the doorway, his shirt soaking wet.)
RICHARD: I hosed him off outside, but now he smells of tomato juice.
TIM: Richard, I really am sorry.
JANE: For Christ sake, Tim, you let a dog out to pee! You did nothing to apologize for! (To Richard) I’m learning things about Benjamin I didn’t know . . .
BARBARA (To Tim): He was playing Gaev when it happened.
TIM: Really?
MARIAN: Not actually during—
TIM: I understand.
(Richard sits.)
RICHARD: Our sister, Barbara, is a saint, Tim.
BARBARA: Not true. His investments more than pay for this. I’m now a kept woman. (Smiles) It’s good for me to have him here. It’s good to have all of you here. Jane’s been avoiding us.
JANE: That’s not true.
BARBARA (To change the subject): And how are you doing, Richard? Your sisters are worried about you, too.
(No response. He looks to Jane.)
JANE (To Richard): I didn’t say anything.
BARBARA: When do you start this new job?
RICHARD (At the table): Are we done? Should we have dessert?
BARBARA: Marian made dessert. Pumpkin pie and vanilla ice cream.
JANE: Did you make the ice cream? Do you still do that?
MARIAN: No.
RICHARD: Maybe we should take some of this back into the kitchen . . .
MARIAN (To Richard): You’re not going to tell us about your new job?
RICHARD: So what are you worried about? It’s not about giving up, Marian. I can do a lot of good there.
(She smiles.)
Don’t smile like that. I always hated that smile. I’ll be doing pro bono. That’s in my deal. I was recruited. Mr. Cox himself. It’s exciting. As I’ve told Jane—I’m being groomed. At my age. (Smiles)
MARIAN: And I never liked that smile.
BARBARA: What do you mean? Who’s Cox?
RICHARD (Ignoring her): Groomed for exactly what, I’m not sure. But—if you can believe it, State Attorney General has even been mentioned. I’ve told them I am no politician. Just ask my sisters. (Smiles) But it’s flattering. This is not a big thing, Marian. I’m changing jobs. I need a change. I really do.
(Then:)
Mr. Cox is a senior partner in Patterson, Belknap—
MARIAN: Is that the “Richard Nixon–son-in-law” Cox?
RICHARD: Yes.
MARIAN (To Barbara): Who runs the state Republicans? . . .
JANE: Richard’s being groomed to be a Republican.
(Pause.)
That’s what I think. That’s what I’ve told him.
RICHARD: I’m being hired to be a lawyer. I’m a good lawyer.
MARIAN: A Republican, Richard?
RICHARD: For Christ sake, I’m changing jobs—And what if I was? (Shrugs) Javits was a Republican. Mayor Lindsay—
MARIAN: Paladino.
RICHARD: You know I don’t mean—There’s a fine tradition—
MARIAN: Who? Bloomberg?
RICHARD: I’m not talking about—
MARIAN (To Tim): We don’t have elections anymore, Tim—we just have money contests.
RICHARD: Why are you saying this to Tim?
TIM: I don’t mind.
MARIAN: Fucking Bloomberg. I liked him too. Once. A man with so much money—they seem incorruptible. That was the argument that got me. The problem is—we’re corruptible by a man with lots of money. So a Republican like Bloomberg.
RICHARD: No.
BARBARA: We don’t