MARIAN: You have? And you remember them?
BENJAMIN (Without answering the question): But I don’t remember being in it, saying any of the lines. I’m immensely proud of the play. I couldn’t tell you any of the lines. Probably if my memory were not affected by my illness I could remember more. Perhaps not.
(Short pause.)
JANE: I thought you were wonderful in it.
BENJAMIN: I would love to do it again. Someone has to ask me I suppose. Actors have to be asked, don’t they?
JANE: Tim’s an actor, Uncle.
TIM: Can I ask you something? (To the others) Jane and I were talking about this in the car on the way here . . . (To Benjamin) Is there a point where your memory stops? Do you remember some things, and then it just . . .?
BENJAMIN: I think the only trouble I have remembering—I don’t remember the heart attack, and everything after that. But I can remember . . . I did a reading.
TIM: I saw that. I was there.
BENJAMIN (To Barbara): Of Oscar Wilde?
BARBARA (Smiling): That’s right.
BENJAMIN: And I remember on the back of the program were all the parts I’d played. And I can certainly remember some of them.
TIM: Which ones?
(Pause.)
MARIAN: Sometimes, Uncle, I think you tell us what you think we want to hear. And then we probe . . .
(She looks at her siblings.)
JANE: Do you remember playing the piano?
BENJAMIN: I do remember playing the piano. I don’t play it very much now.
MARIAN: Then sometimes you do play now?
(She looks to Barbara, who shakes her head.)
Barbara has a piano.
BENJAMIN (Ignoring her comment): I was a good pianist. I was an amateur. If I was playing something I knew and understood well, I was really good. And people would take pleasure in it. I was lucky because I started the piano very young.
JANE: You also liked to sing.
BENJAMIN: I did.
JANE: You used to sing to us when we were kids. Do you remember doing that?
BENJAMIN: Of course.
BARBARA: Do you remember what you’d sing?
(They wait.)
MARIAN (To Tim): He was around a lot. He helped raise us. Especially me and Jane.
BARBARA: Especially them.
JANE (Smiling): I remember you singing “Surrey with the Fringe on Top.” (To Tim) This was even before Dad left. And tell us stories. He has wonderful stories.
BARBARA: I remember— (Softly sings:)
Sweetly she sleeps, my—Barbara—fair . . .
(Explaining) He’d change the name—
JANE AND THE OTHERS:
Her cheek on the pillow pressed . . .
Sweetly she sleeps while her flaxen hair,
Like sunlight streams o’er her breast.
MARIAN (Over this, singing): “All Through the Night.” I remember you singing that. I remember falling asleep to that.
MARIAN AND THE OTHERS (Singing):
Sleep my child and peace attend thee,
All through the night,
Guardian angels God will send thee,
All through the night.
BARBARA AND THE OTHERS (Singing):
Sweetly she sleeps my Janey fair,
Her cheek like the first May rose,
Sweetly she sleeps and all her care
Is forgotten in soft repose.
JANE: Do you want to sing something to us now, Uncle?
(Richard returns.
No response.)
(To Tim) And Mother said whenever he could, he’d come.
(To her sisters) I remember seeing him more than Dad. (To
Benjamin) And I always loved it when we visited you . . .
(Short pause as the sisters notice Richard.)
What have you been doing out there, Richard? We missed you.
RICHARD: I stepped outside to get some air.
I got to watching these young couples walking down the street. Well, younger than me. And I suddenly realized they must be on their way to vote.
BARBARA: We vote just around the corner.
MARIAN (Looking at her watch): The polls are still open.
RICHARD (Smiles): They seemed—young.
BARBARA (To Marian): That’s good, isn’t it? That they’re young?
TIM: How’s the dog?
RICHARD: Asleep. I left him some water. He’s had a very busy day.
JANE: Richard, we’ve been trying to get Uncle to sing for us, like he used to.
RICHARD: I’d like that too, Uncle. What do you remember singing to us?
I think I was this big— (Very small) —and Uncle was the only one who could get me to calm down. And get me to sleep. By singing . . . What are you going to sing?
(No response. They look at Benjamin.)
JANE (To Tim): When Dad left us, Uncle Benjamin became our father.
MARIAN: Not exactly.
TIM (To Jane): You told me.
JANE (To her sisters): I hardly remember Dad.
RICHARD (To Benjamin): Do you remember when we visited you over Thanksgiving?
JANE (To Tim): He was in a show. In New York. I was like five?
RICHARD: And Mom drove all the way from Chicago with us?
(To sisters) Did we sleep somewhere on the way?
BARBARA: I don’t know. I don’t think so.
MARIAN: Where was Dad?
JANE (Over this): Do you remember any of that, Uncle Benjamin?
(He nods.)
What do you remember?
(No response.)
You don’t want to tell us? He has secrets.
(Short pause.)
BARBARA: How are we doing? Anyone want any more? Tim?
TIM: I’m fine, thank you.
JANE (To Tim): There’s more chicken. (Looks at Benjamin) He looks like pictures of our father. Barbara’s lucky, she gets to have him here all the time.
BARBARA: Yes, I do.
JANE: I didn’t mean—
BARBARA: He does suddenly remember things sometimes. I don’t know where they come from. A couple of weeks ago he suddenly— (To Marian) I told you this— (To Jane and Richard) —suddenly