SNOWSCAPES

by Pam Gems

Copyright © Pam Gems
Pam Gems is hereby identified as author of this work in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The author has asserted her moral rights. 

All rights whatsoever in this play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before rehearsal to Rose Cobbe, United Agents, 12-26 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LE, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 20 3214 0800.
http://unitedagents.co.uk/agents/rose-cobbe/. Assistant: Dan Usztan. Email: dusztan@unitedagents.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 20 3214 0873. No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained.

SNOWSCAPES

ACT ONE.  SCENE ONE.

THE LIVING ROOM OF A MODERN FLAT.  The furniture, well-designed, is spare, and the room has an impersonal air.  Its owner, ALINE MADISON, is a comely woman.  She stands, gazing out of the window, apart from her visitor, who is seated.  This is MILES DURHAM.  He is a somewhat strange man, awkward and absent of movement.  At times he seems even threatening, although his voice is pleasant and reassuring.  The music of JIMMY YANCEY fades.

MILES watches ALINE, who has her back to him.

			MILES
		Can't you tell me?

ALINE shrugs, moves further away.

			MILES
		Were you helped?

			ALINE
		(Irritable)  Helped?

			MILES
		I mean, given counselling.

			ALINE
		(Unseen, flicks him a careful look)  It was offered.  I was - there was a lot to do!

			MILES
		You mean you stayed on?

			ALINE
		Of course!  They...gave us advice -

			MILES
		`Us'?

			ALINE
		(Another careful look)  My colleagues.  At the... Institute.

A silence.  He clears his throat, leans forward.

			MILES
		I know this is painful, Mrs ah...but we do need ...we shall require full information, as it were.  In view of your age and the fact that...physically ...you appear to be in good health.  (She makes no response.)  Can you not talk about it?  (Pause)  I'm afraid we shall need to know.  If you could just give us some indication.  Of what took place.

She stands for a long moment, looking out of the window.  Then she starts to speak, not looking at him.

			ALINE
		I was in the storeroom.  Picking up a...a reel, for a phonetics lesson.  One of my colleagues came in, for some books.

			MILES
		(Gently)  And then?  (No reply)  What happened?

			ALINE
		I don't know.  (She seems to have lost interest.)

			MILES
		You don't know?

			ALINE
		It was dark!  (She moves away, straightens books which have tilted.)

			MILES
		You mean you were buried?

She shakes her head, grunting a negative.

			MILES
		Then?

			ALINE
		The walls fell down!

He nods, makes a note.

			MILES
		I see.  (He leans forward)  How long were you...can you describe what it was -

			ALINE
		What it was like?  You've seen dead animals.  When people are squashed they turn into jam. (He lifts a hand in apology)  I can't see the point of all this.

			MILES
		Please.  Try to understand.  We have to be very clear about our actions.  Any - intervention... you must see we can't go blundering in with offers of help without the most precise enquiries - for your sakes and our own.

She nods.

			MILES
		We have to be sure.

			ALINE
		Naturally.
She looks at him vaguely as he waits, expectant.

			ALINE
		We worked for days and nights.  There were no services...no doctors, no equipment...just people digging.

			MILES
		Did you lose many - from the Institute?

			ALINE
		What?  I don't know.

		I was happy of course.

			MILES
		To be alive, you mean?

			ALINE
		No, I......naturally I was relieved for my family.

			MILES
		Your family?

Surprised, he has a quick look at his notes.

			ALINE
		Yes.  My - Peter, my husband, had gone with the children.  To the coast.

			MILES
		Children?  Your children?

She nods majestically.  Puzzled, he glances at his notes.

			ALINE
		Richard, Sonya - and little Daniel.

Silence.

			MILES
		And they were quite - they were...?

			ALINE
		Oh, they were dead.  Dead as dodos.  I'd asked them to come back a day early.  So that my husband...Peter...could take me to a gala.

A long pause.

			MILES
		I see.

Shocked, he bends to his notes, makes a note.  She flicks a look at his bent head.  He looks up.

			MILES
		You blame yourself?

			ALINE
		Wouldn't you?

			MILES
		Yes.  It doesn't mean that it's true.  Do you have other family...brothers, sisters?

			ALINE
		I had a brother.  He was killed in an aircrash.  Burnt.  My parents are dead.

			MILES
		No other living relatives?

She shakes her head.  She looks down at him.  Their mutual gaze is prolonged.  He gazes up at her, as if mesmerised.

			MILES
		(Dreamily)  Mrs Madison...why do you want to kill yourself?
			ALINE
		(After a pause)  Isn't that obvious?

			MILES
		You feel responsible for the death of your husband and children?

She does not reply.

			MILES
		Is that why you came to us?

She favours him with a sneering smile.

			ALINE
		(Snarls)  For God's sakes!

			MILES
		(Quietly)  It's been some while since the earthquake...several years...

			ALINE
		One doesn't come to these decisions lightly.

			MILES
		How did you hear of us?

			ALINE
		Through an article in the press.  It gave your telephone number.

			MILES
		(Nods and makes a note)  It's useful to know how people find us.  We...understandably we suffer a good deal of opposition.  As you know, there are many who regard the taking of one's own life as unacceptable.  As a sin.

			ALINE
		I am not a Catholic.

			MILES
		Oh, not only orthodox Catholics.  Many people, people of all sorts of beliefs - with no beliefs at all.  If you think about it, Mrs ah -

			ALINE
		Madison.

			MILES
		- Mrs Madison, it is murder.

			ALINE
		I suppose it is.

			MILES
		There are arguments that no-one has the right to kill, not even himself.

			ALINE
		Or herself.

			MILES
		Exactly.

			ALINE
		How do you counter those arguments?

			MILES
		We don't.  We don't...ah...seek to proselytise.

			ALINE
		No touting for clients?

			MILES
		As far as that is concerned, we would have no need.

			ALINE
		Plenty of them, are there?

MILES nods with a brief smile.

			ALINE
		An expanding business.

He waves a non-committal hand.

			MILES
		We don't accept everyone who contacts us.

			ALINE
		Oh?  What are your criteria?
			MILES
		It's difficult to generalise.

			ALINE
		I would like an idea.

			MILES
		In the main we try to work with people who are...balanced...(she lifts her head, makes a small, scoffing sound)...people who have weighed the odds.  After all, you can't very well change your mind once -

			ALINE
		Once you've topped yourself - no!

She barks with laughter.  He smiles.

			MILES
		So, we have to be very sure that our clients have thought deeply about their situation.  Often, alas, their predicament is all too obvious.

			ALINE
		Illness, you mean?

			MILES
		Terminal illness...pain...suffering that extends to other members of the family, adding to the agony of the patient.  We are only too glad to help in those situations...indeed, such dilemmas and misery led to the birth of our society.

			ALINE
		The right to choose?

			MILES
		Yes.  We believe so.  With...as I say...with balance.  With courage...and with dignity.

Her manner changes suddenly.  She leans forward and her voice is soft and genuine for the first time.

			ALINE
		I think that what you do is very brave.

He is startled.

			ALINE
		Very brave and very loving.

			MILES
		Thank you.

			ALINE
		Am I likely to be acceptable?  As a candidate?

The music of JIMMY YANCEY.

SCENE TWO.

ALINE and MILES.  She is dressed less formally in sweater and skirt and is sitting in an armchair.  He is standing and is also less formally dressed, his hat and coat on a chair.

			MILES
		How long have you wanted to die?

			ALINE
		For some time.

			MILES
		Months...years?

			ALINE
		For a number of years.

			MILES
		Since you lost your family?

Behind his back she gives him a careful glance.

			ALINE
		Yes.

He turns to face her, his hands in his pockets.

			MILES
		And you're not a Christian?  You don't have faith?

			ALINE
		That, as you may imagine, presents difficulties.

			MILES
		You feel that God has deserted you?

			ALINE
		Nothing so comforting.  That I could understand.

			MILES
		A vengeful God better than none at all?

			ALINE
		Recognisably in our image.

He flinches slightly at her wolfish smile.

			ALINE
		(Softer)  At least there's warmth in it.

			MILES
		(Sits, hitching up his trousers over his knees)  You think there's nobody there?  You don't believe in a deity, benevolent or otherwise?

She shrugs, turning away from him.
			ALINE
		What does it matter?  The enquiry is fruitless... why waste time?

			MILES
		Life's too short, you mean?

Startled by the dryness of his tone she turns to regard him.  He looks up at her and grins and, despite herself, she smiles.

			ALINE
		Not, alas, short enough.

He bends to write a note.  She sidles behind him, craning over his shoulder for a look.

			MILES
		(Reads aloud for her as he writes)  Religion - no - assistance.

			ALINE
		I did see my mother's vicar.  He sent me to an elderly canon.  Who suggested a retreat.

			MILES
		Did you take his advice?

			ALINE
		Oh yes.

			MILES
		But with no benefit?  (He leans forward, displaying a slight urgency)  Did it help?

			ALINE
		What?  Yes, very good.  (He looks up at her, his face expressionless)  Daily ritual from three in the morning...matins...vespers...all on our knees, gently drowning in love of the Nazarene.  Impossible not to stay for the rest of your life.

			MILES
		(Again the slightly urgent tone)  But you didn't.

			ALINE
		No.  (She looks at him thoughtfully.)

			MILES
		Why not?

			ALINE
		I took to the Mother Superior.  She was a...an agile sort of woman.  Intelligent.  She seemed to stand for - I don't know - some sort of...rigour.  I started to admire her.  I was impressed.

		Until one day, in the cloisters, she pulled me to one side.  And told me that I should be grateful.  That I was specially blessed.

			MILES
		Why?

			ALINE
		Because I suffered.

			MILES
		What did you say to that?

			ALINE
		I kept it simple.  I punched her in the face.  (Starts to laugh)  That did it - (she can't stop laughing, then sees him look at his watch) - oh...do you have to leave?

			MILES
		I'm sorry.  I'm late for my next appointment.

			ALINE
		You're going to another client?  I forget I'm not the only one.  How mean.

			MILES
		She's elderly.  Very frail, and very alone.  (He puts on his coat.)

			ALINE
		Surely you have enough now - to put before your colleagues?  I would be very obliged if you could give me a decision.

			MILES
		We'll try not to keep you waiting.

He edges towards the door.  She pursues him.

			ALINE
		I need to know, one way or the other -

			MILES
		I realise that.

			ALINE
		I wonder if you do.

			MILES
		Oh yes.  You have my word -

			ALINE
		That's what you said -

			MILES
		Try to be - goodnight.
He takes her hand in both of his and holds it for a moment and then goes.  Alone, she trembles with rage.

The music of JIMMY YANCEY.

SCENE THREE.

ALINE and MILES.  She is wearing a dark dress, he still has his coat, a different coat, on.

			ALINE
		And that's it?

			MILES
		I'm afraid so, yes.  I'm very sorry.

She mouths the word `sorry', lifting her head skywards, her face grimacing with fury.

			ALINE
		You've never had any intention of helping me, have you?

			MILES
		Every case is assessed - (He gets up.)

			ALINE
		On its merit?

She barks with laughter.  He stands, his looming stillness giving him a slightly sinister aspect.

			ALINE
		Sit down.  Any more rejects to visit tonight, or are the rest of them...?

		Please!  Sit down!

He remains on his feet for a second, and then sits, leaning forward, his knees apart.

			MILES
		Yours is not a usual case.

			ALINE
		Why?  What difference does it make?  You say you believe in free choice - live or die...what you mean is, only those YOU choose...just another vicious bureaucracy, one more set of predators, thank you So much -

He gets up, moves, and turns on her with unusual vitality.

			MILES
		How can you even think of killing yourself?  You're so full of life, you're full of rage - if I had half your energy - !

			ALINE
		And what do you all suggest I do?  Make a new life?  After what's happened to me?  Learn to enjoy myself?  Let time heal?

			MILES
		You are not ready to die.

			ALINE
		Why not?!

			MILES
		Because you are not fit to die.

			ALINE
		Oh very religious.  Are you afraid I'll lose my soul?  End up in purgatory?  In hell?  I didn't know you were so orthodox.

			MILES
		It isn't that.

			ALINE
		What is it, then?

			MILES
		You are not in a state of mind to make a good death.  (She does not answer)  You are not reconciled.

A long pause.  Then she turns, scraping her chair and making a noise, to face him.

			ALINE
		Perhaps if I tell you the truth.  (A pause.)

			MILES
		It may not make a difference.  (A pause.)

			ALINE
		You mean you know?

			MILES
		I looked up the records at the Foreign Office.  As a matter of...it was necessary.  There were several deaths of British passport holders but none of the names you mention.  And no children.

			ALINE
		That's right.  No children.

			MILES
		Were you there?

			ALINE
		You know very well that I wasn't.

She doodles on the blotter with a pencil.

			MILES
		Why do you want to kill yourself?

			ALINE
		(Dreamily)  Because I'm dangerous.

			MILES
		In what way?

			ALINE
		I don't feel in control.

Silence.

			MILES
		You're suffering from depression.

			ALINE
		Oh yes.  I've been taking the tablets.

			MILES
		And you want to commit suicide because you're afraid that you might damage - that you might hurt someone?

			ALINE
		It's the children I worry about!  (He is puzzled.)

She rises and stands still and rigid, and suddenly breaks into anguished sobbing.  For a moment he seems shocked.  He gets a glass of water from the drinks tray but puts it down again, crosses and holds her as she shudders and moans.  Eventually she subsides and he steers her to a seat.

			ALINE
		When I see them on the street I want to kill them.  Or else pick them up -

			MILES
		And run away with them?

She turns away.

			MILES
		You have no children.

She shakes her head.

			MILES
		But you have been married?

			ALINE
		How do -

			MILES
		Your ring finger...it's wasted.

He indicates with his own hand.

			MILES
		You were married.  (She nods)  Not now?

			ALINE
		No.

			MILES
		How long have you -

			ALINE
		Two years and three months.

			MILES
		You've been alone since -

			ALINE
		It took a year before that for the divorce.  Waiting.  It was uncontested.

A long pause.  She lies back among the cushions, looks at the ceiling.

			ALINE
		We met at university.  I was a first, he was a top second.  PPE.

He leans forward.  She continues.

			ALINE
		Graham.  Graham Lee.  Madison is my maiden name.

			MILES
		Yes, I -

			ALINE
		You found that out too?

			MILES
		How long were you married?

			ALINE
		Until three years ago.  We were partners.  In everything.  When we left University we went to Bali...then Australia.  We worked in a commune selling multiples...it was going to be Art for the People, only this time we were going to get it right, unlike the Bauhaus.  We had our own print shop...silk screens...(shrugs)

			MILES
		Didn't it work?

			ALINE
		Oh, it worked all right.  Too bloody well.

			MILES
		(Flat)  You got ripped off.

ALINE looks at him, surprised at his perception.

			ALINE
		Of course.  Naturellement.  And...we-ell...the sun can get very tiring, every day another idyll.  We came home.  (She goes silent.)

			MILES
		And then?

			ALINE
		The sun went in.  Committed?  Dirty word.  I've never seen fashion move so fast.  Before we knew it we'd junked the flares and become suits.

			MILES
		Greed is good?

			ALINE
		In one.  Get it and flaunt it - in inverted commas, of course, post-modernism rules, OK?  The new kick - out with the boat hook - crush the hands on the lifeboat but hey, no sweat, it's just rock 'n' roll.

			MILES
		Were you - were You turned?

			ALINE
		Of course not.  But it fitted.  With what I wanted.  `We'll work our bollocks off for five years, cash in, walk away, do our own thing.'

			MILES
		(Harsh)  And what was that?  BMWs?  Country houses?  Italian villas?

			ALINE
		(Looks at him in surprise)  No.

			MILES
		Sorry.  My sister is married to a coming man.  (He pulls a silly face, making her laugh.)

			ALINE
		Hah!  No, none of that.  Just...an apple tree to sit under...dogs...children......I've always wanted children, ever since I was small.  Boys ...and girls.  Either.  Both.

She goes silent.

			MILES
		What about your husband?  Did he want a family?

			ALINE
		I thought so.  I presumed so.

She sits up.

			ALINE
		Anyway, none of this is going to make you change your minds.

			MILES
		Tell me.

Something flat in his tone makes her look at him unobserved.  She peruses his averted head.

			ALINE
		We began in a small office.  With one electric typewriter.  (Despite herself she begins to shine at the memory)  In five years we were in the City!  With a staff of - oh, I don't know!  And an office in Brussels, and New York.  Now he has a whole block in Docklands, though he's burnt his fingers since we split - well, times have changed.

She pauses.

			ALINE
		Two years after we married I got pregnant - I can't think how.

She sighs.

			ALINE
		I didn't tell him at first, I don't know why.  Not that I thought he'd mind.

			MILES
		Did he?  Mind?

			ALINE
		Oh yes.  Very much.  It wasn't part of the plan.

			MILES
		So you - ?

			ALINE
		Yes.  I aborted the child.  And the one after that.

			MILES
		You did it - ?

			ALINE
		The third time I didn't even tell him, he was in New York.  The fourth time...the fourth time it wasn't his.  That time was terrible...oh, you won't believe the need I had to keep that child.

			MILES
		Then why -

			ALINE
		I couldn't.  The father was a ginger twit I'd met in Stuttgart.  Even so.

		Why didn't I......why?!

		In the end I gave an ultimatum.  I said I'd still be available for projects - I had fax, computers at home.  I told Graham that if he loved me, he'd agree.

			MILES
		Did he?

			ALINE
		Agree?

			MILES
		Love you?

			ALINE
		(Considers)  He loved intimacy.  But everything was separate.  In the boardroom his gaze could freeze at fifty feet if I took his ground.  We were great rivals.  (She goes silent.)

			MILES
		(Gently)  And then?

			ALINE
		I couldn't get pregnant.  When I wanted to - nothing.  You can't imagine the pain.

		We were both tested and I saw a psychologist.  He said relax.

			MILES
		No success?  (She shakes her head.)

			ALINE
		There had been post-intervention infections.  From the abortions.  My tubes, they now tell me, are useless.

		We tried in-vitro...oh, there are ingenious schemes for the infertile, if you have the money and you aren't too......however, in the end it died down.  We went in for fitness instead... skiing, aerobics - Graham was relieved.

			MILES
		And you?

			ALINE
		I decided that work was the best, was my - I wanted to go back into the business, full-time.

			MILES
		And?

			ALINE
		We discussed it.  He said that what he now wanted was for me to - to take my place was how he put it.

		My place.

		So we bought a house in Holland Park.  With an orangery.

		For entertaining the Japanese.

			MILES
		He wanted you as a housewife?

			ALINE
		I doubt if such a dirty word passed our lips.

		(Dreamily)  Ohh, we were making so much money......

		Agonizing!  (Laughs)  Shall it be the stained Renaissance drawing?  Or the Scottish colourist - for the second guest bedroom wall.  The search - finding the right basket chair, with the right sag...I loved it...prowling the auction rooms, raiding the emporia - the whole world to choose from!  To create - for Graham - a background of subtlety and reticence...neither were his strong points - but with the right judders of stimulus - I was good.  It's an art, the petits soins the French call it...the little matters.  Mixing guests, taking risks - oh, and food!  To create a meal to bemuse, to induce sweet and loving compliance...(She laughs.)

		The only thing was, I couldn't stop spending.  Some of the clothes I bought are still unwrapped, I should need three lives to wear them.

			MILES
		Did your husband - ?

			ALINE
		Oh, Graham never complained.  Not once.  Whatever the bill, whatever the price - he paid.

		I should have smelt it then.

Silence.

			MILES
		Smelt what?

			ALINE
		It's odd, isn't it?..the things that turn you.  Turn your life.  Suddenly the peel rips off and there it is.  Something you've always known...and not known.

		It was nothing.

		Nothing sinister.

		Just...

		One morning - I was tired, we'd been entertaining all week, big parties and people staying in the house...

		I was sitting on the bottom stair, counting ballroom chairs as they went through the front door...you have to do these things yourself.  The man said `That's it...cheerio!'...and went out, and everything was quiet and I thought, how nice, I've got my house to myself.

		And then I thought.  It's not my house.  It's his.

		Everything we owned - apart from my St Laurents and Jasper Conrans, the Gucci shoes... everything was his.  The business.  The companies.  The house.  In bed - we had a big bed, he's tall, taller than you - he slept in the middle.  I slept on the edge, sometimes I had to hang on not to fall out.  Occasionally I'd ask him to move over and he would.  But not for long.  It was his bed, you see.  He'd paid for it.  the cheques were in his name.

			MILES
		And the house?

			ALINE
		Yes.  In Pimlico we'd been joint owners.  But, somehow...it was all to do with the company.  It was a place to do business.

She goes silent.  He watches her, his face sad.

			ALINE
		I got ill.  Little things.  Then bigger things.  instead of the money going on clothes it was doctors - oh, they can hoover the wallet!

He laughs and she laughs too.

			ALINE
		Tests, x-rays, diagnoses...some of those were quite imaginative.

		And the prescriptions!  Salt baths...adventurous sex...colonics, of course.

			MILES
		No help?

			ALINE
		My dear Miles, we're talking about private medicine.  Those guys have expenses, one of them had four sons at Eton.

		There was one man.

			MILES
		A doctor?
			ALINE
		No, no.  A healer.  I went to a seminar, I'd read about him.  It was a training course for healing - I didn't realise.  He said stay anyway, so, as he was good looking I did.

		It was weird.  He kept giving us instructions - balancing the two halves of the brain... visualising.  The oddest thing was that I kept starting the exercises before he spoke.  Before he told us what to do.  He said that often happened.

			ALINE  (Cont'd)
		There was a woman with a grotesque scar on her leg.  It was barely healed, really sickening to look at.  She said a pillar had fallen on it, in her garden.  He just looked at it and went on talking.  Then the woman started to cry.  I couldn't believe it.  We all saw!  The scar was gone!  There was just a little sort of diffuse redness - hardly anything.

			MILES
		And he helped you?

			ALINE
		No.

			MILES
		But you -

			ALINE
		He said he couldn't.

			MILES
		Why not?

			ALINE
		Because I didn't want it.  He said he had too much to do.  He couldn't waste energy when I wasn't prepared to work.

			MILES
		Weren't you?  What did he - ?

			ALINE
		Oh I knew what he meant.  He was all truth.  Jesus Christ must have been like that.  I sheered off.

A pause.

			MILES
		So your marriage came to an end?

			ALINE
		We'd been to the Opera.  Lucia.  With a group of Canadian investors.  Nicolette was there, Graham's personal assistant.  Quiet, thin girl - `good' background.  When we got home he came into the bathroom with a toothbrush in his mouth and told me that Nicolette was pregnant ...by him...and that he needed a quick divorce in order to marry her.  She had been married before and had two boys.  One of the things he said was that they needed a father.

MILES groans.

			ALINE
		Yes.

		All the original ideas for the business were mine.  And all the forward projects - at arms' length but he was still plundering my mind as his own.  He even...he even suggested that I should continue.  As a colleague.  He said I could keep the house - it was on a short lease.  he said that Nicolette wanted a place in Warwickshire, or Gloucestershire.  For the children.

Silence.

			MILES
		I can understand that you would feel anger.  Even want revenge.  What sort of revenge is it to kill yourself?

			ALINE
		Come on!  You know better than that.  Aren't there two sorts of suicide?  Self-hatred and look-what-you-made-me-do?

			MILES
		It has been said.

			ALINE
		Which am I?

			MILES
		Both I'd say.

			ALINE
		Would you?  Aren't they mutually exclusive?

			MILES
		By no means, and there are many other reasons, both noble, heart-breaking, and bloody vile.  Aline.  Look at me.  If your husband was capable of the sort of cruelty you have described - is he worth Dying for?

			ALINE
		He did it in.  Our life.  He was my creation... when I met him he had no idea at all...he was waiting for life to happen to him.

		Everything...everything that was built...on my loss...on the loss of my children -

			MILES
		No.  You took those decisions.  You chose to lose them -

			ALINE
		I know -

			MILES
		I don't say that he wasn't culpable, equally responsible -

			ALINE
		I accept that.  To some extent it was a misunderstanding - not realising the risks... believing that we could control nature...God knows we're all learning that now.

			MILES
		I think -

			ALINE
		Here it comes.

			MILES
		What?

			ALINE
		The look on your face.  (He frowns, opens his mouth.)

		The smug, cheesy look.  (She picks up his coat)  I should hop it.  Clear off.  Scarper, vamoose, as they say.  You don't have to cope with this.

			MILES
		I can't go.

			ALINE
		Why not?

			MILES
		I can't leave you like this.

			ALINE
		Why, are you afraid I'll do myself in?

The music of JIMMY YANCEY.

SCENE FOUR.

He arrives.  She takes his coat.

			ALINE
		You're taller than I remember.  You know what they say?  About men.  That you can judge the size of the penis by the size of the hand.  The thumb in particular.  Your thumbs are enormous.

			MILES
		Has something happened?

			ALINE
		(Snarls, giving him a drink)  Yes.

			MILES
		I thought so.

			ALINE
		(Claps her hands)  Bravo!  I said something out of turn so, ergo, I must be `in a state'!  (She pours a drink for herself.)  A friend died.  The son of a friend.

			MILES
		I'm sorry.

			ALINE
		I've known him since he was born.

			MILES
		Were you - ?

			ALINE
		Yes.  Very close.  He died of AIDS.  Yes, he was homosexual.

			MILES
		I see.

			ALINE
		No you don't.  Why shouldn't he live the way he wanted?

			MILES
		Even if it killed him?

			ALINE
		Well, you're into death, aren't you?  That's your thing.  His was orgies.  That's what he liked, that's what made him happy.

			MILES
		I'm sorry.  Just the same -

			ALINE
		What?  Just the same, what?
			MILES
		One does try to sympathise.

			ALINE
		But you don't believe in debauchery, corruption, decadence...aren't those the words you -

			MILES
		Certainly not.  (He shakes his head vigorously)  Thank you.  (He takes her proffered drink)  Was he public school?

She bursts out laughing, spilling drink on herself.

			MILES
		Yes, well, I come from Basingstoke.

			ALINE
		He was.  At a minor public school.  Yes, he was flogged.  And yes...he was a sadist.  He enjoyed inflicting pain.

			MILES
		He told you that?

			ALINE
		I asked him!  Curiosity.  I was baffled by anyone wanting to push his fist up somebody's bottom.  I mean, it doesn't seem the sort of thing you could be bothered to do twice.  Gay men are different from heterosexuals.  (At his ironic glance)  I mean, more different than I'd supposed.  (She laughs)  If you could see your face!  You're going to tell me it's a perversion.

			MILES
		It can be irresponsible.  My cousin Martin is gay.

			ALINE
		Well then.  So?

			MILES
		No family worries.  All the time in the world to `get ahead'.  Nothing but exclusivity and bloody holidays, it seems to me - (as she makes to speak) - I'm sorry, but I so often see men who have walked away, not only from their own maturity, but are actually subversive to a mature world.  Believe me, I know what I'm talking about, I've counselled many -

			ALINE
		Then you know that people don't choose what they are -

			MILES
		You can choose how you deal with -

			ALINE
		Oh, stay celibate, you mean?  In Africa AIDS is a heterosexual -

			MILES
		Through promiscuity -

			ALINE
		Yes.  And that troubles you, doesn't it?  That some people don't choose monogamy.  That they regard sex as something to enjoy...not simply for breeding or even for breeding at all.  That should suit you because in the end only the breeding sort will perpetuate themselves.  The others will all go extinct.

			MILES
		I'm sorry.  You're upset.

			ALINE
		And not in a mood for moralistic crap.

			MILES
		I do assure you, I'm not in the least -

			ALINE
		You're oozing with it.  Self-satisfied, I'm all right, Jack, smug, sneering, heterosexual -

			MILES
		All right, if you want to take it out on -

			ALINE
		That's it!  I've got your number...you're a masochist, he's a masochist, he wants me to beat him up!

		Why don't you push off!  Get your kicks somewhere else.  I should have seen you coming.

		Get out, for God's sake.

Silence.

			MILES
		How can I?

			ALINE
		Why not?  If you're worried that I might top myself - a la carte, as it were - you can reassure yourself.  I am not in the mood.  (She chokes slightly, recovers herself)  At the moment all I can feel is extreme rage.  To tell you the truth it's somewhat life-giving so I shall Not be needing your bag of tricks this week, or next.  Certainly not until well after the funeral.

MILES stands for a moment observing her sombrely.  Then he bends, to pick up his cap.

			ALINE
		But then you can stop the fucking around, you and your lot.  The next time you show your face at that door, I want the little black bag...there.  So let me know...phone, letter or fax will do... in fact, why the devil don't I just hire a car, drive out to the country and stick a tube on the exhaust, nothing simpler.  I should have done it weeks ago.

			MILES
		No.

			ALINE
		Why not?  Nothing to do with you, you're off the hook.

			MILES
		Your friend who died - does he have parents?

			ALINE
		A mother.

			MILES
		She'll need help.

			ALINE
		She's a cold-hearted cow.

			MILES
		Then she will need help.

			ALINE
		Oh, very clever.  What are you doing, co-opting me?  Into your little band of necrophiliacs?

But she cries.  He puts an arm around her.  She pulls herself together, blows her nose noisily on her skirt, looks up at him.

			ALINE
		Why not?  I'm dead, why observe the niceties.  (To his proffered handkerchief)  Put it away.  (She sniggers at the unintended innuendo.) 

After a moment he removes his arm awkwardly.  They sit side by side in silence.

			ALINE
		All right, I was rude.

			MILES
		Not at all.

			ALINE
		Personal.

			MILES
		As I say -

			ALINE
		Are you turning the other cheek, or do you think I was being flattering?  About the size -

			MILES
		Let's just forget it.

			ALINE
		Why, are you embarrassed?

			MILES
		No.

			ALINE
		Happens all the time, does it?  Well, you'll be used to humouring the distressed, the decrepit and disturbed.  Did anyone ever try to clobber you - give you a kick in the -

			MILES
		No -

			ALINE
		pants -

			MILES
		Why should they?

			ALINE
		To shut your mealy mouth up!  You sit there, like a fucking social worker.  All wisdom and balance.  You're a mess.

		You're like the rest of them.

		It makes me sick.

			ALINE  (Cont'd)
		You come here, I see no-one, no-one but you - and in you come - looming, not one ounce of wit, one iota of solace, no capacity to divert, even the way you look...look at you.  What's happened to men?  Ever since the industrial revolution you've all been in mourning for yourselves.  Dressed as mutes...undertakers!  We have to show off our tits and asses but you -you're all covered up!  Trousers, jackets, shirts, ties...oh, the thrill of it, we can see the back of your neck!

		What's happened to you all?

		Why blame us?  Oh, you do.

		You want to do us in.

		Well it's not our fault.  Why don't you look at yourselves?  You believe that you're the philosophers, the thinkers...you're not!  In order to think, you have to feel.  You can't feel.

			MILES
		(Hostile)  Rubbish.

He rises.  There is something threatening in him that makes her move away.

			ALINE
		It makes you murderous, doesn't it?  (He looks for his coat)  Yes, I should push off.

		(Mutters)  I don't thank you for it.

			MILES
		What?  I'm sorry?  (His face, heavily frowning, still has a frightening aspect.)

			ALINE
		You're the last human being I shall see, probably.  I shall go to my death...no doubt without the benevolent assistance of you and your lot...despising you.  You reduce me to meanness, and you can take my word, I don't thank you for it.

			MILES
		I am trying to help you.

			ALINE
		You can't give me what I want.  You don't even know what that is.

			MILES
		(Quietly)  What do you want?

			ALINE
		(Slight pause)  I want to go with love.

He looks at her for a long moment, turns away, then approaches, takes her hands in his.  He clasps them, his gaze intent.

			ALINE
		Please?  (She gazes up at him.  He looms over her, both protective and menacing.)

SCENE FIVE.

ALINE'S BEDROOM AND BATHROOM.

On the bed, her things are laid out.  Underclothes, her dress, stockings, her jewellery box, open.  Her shoes, several pairs, are ranged nearby.  The music of JIMMY YANCEY plays softly in the background.  ALINE climbs out of the bath.  She prowls, looking at herself.  She sprays herself with scent, then turns to the bed and dresses slowly and carefully, putting on the beautiful underwear, and the stockings, and then the dress.

			ALINE
		My lovely frock.

She looks at herself in the glass.  She puts on a pair of shoes, looks at herself, exchanges them for a pair with higher heels.  These please her.  She does her hair, tries a comb, throws it down behind her on the bed, lets her hair loose.  She leans over the box on the bed, tries a necklace, and another.  Discards them for ear-rings.  She looks at herself in the glass again, turning.  Then stands before the mirror for a long moment.

			ALINE
		Hullo.

		Goodbye.

She makes up swiftly, putting on lipstick.  Stands up straight.

			ALINE
		Now for the asp.

She barks with sudden laughter and throws herself back on the bed, licking off her shoes.

			ALINE
		No more of it!

		No tomorrow.  No next week.

She sits up.

			ALINE
		I can't believe it.

		I can do what I want!

She looks round the room, rises, sweeps the dressing table clear, knocks over the chair, automatically makes to right it, hits herself on the forehead.

			ALINE
		(Snarls)  Stay down, damn you!

		Well, this is good!

But the mood evaporates.

			ALINE
		No it isn't.

She picks everything up.  Surveys the scene.  Then she sits on the side of the bed and waits.

She waits.  Then rises to straighten a vase.  Then rises again, straightens the bed, folds back the cover, then decides to replace the cover.  She sits on the chair and waits.

At last a knock.

			ALINE
		(Calls)  I'm in here.

There is a pause.

MILES enters, wet with rain, in a mackintosh and trilby.  He is carrying a small black case.

			ALINE
		Oh, it's raining outside!

He looks at her, puts down the case.

			ALINE
		It's a long time since I saw rain.

			MILES
		It still goes on.

			ALINE
		That's new, isn't it?  (As he takes off his mackintosh.)  I wouldn't have recognised you, with the hat too.

She takes the coat from him and gives it a good shake.

			ALINE
		Is it a Burberry?  (She looks at the label.)  Well, well.

He takes the coat from her and holds it with his hat, uncertain where to put them.

			ALINE
		Leave them near the radiator.  They'll dry.

She moves the bucket chair near the radiator for him to drape the coat.  She notices the case.

			ALINE
		Is that the case?  Of course, it must be.  I've opened the wine.  It's on a tray in the kitchen.  It's a red wine, Italian, I've drunk it before, expensive but with a good, earthy taste.  (She giggles.)

		Shall I fetch it, or will you?

He stands awkwardly, looking at her.

			ALINE
		Is there...are there any more formalities to be gone through...surely not?

She stands, shining and expectant, like a bride.

			ALINE
		What's the matter?

But he seems unable to speak.

			ALINE
		Do I look all right?  There's nothing the matter?  I've done everything you - I've even put a plastic sheet on the bed as I'll probably wet myself...I don't want Mrs Lewis to have to...

		If we could get on.

		I imagine you want to.  After all, you have to make your way back to Richmond, and the weather is ghastly from the look of you, you look like someone who's never forgiven his mother for not breast-feeding him.

		Denied the tit.

		As they say.

		Well, never mind.  All under the bridge and out to sea.  Do you like the dress?  I've never worn it.  Bought for an occasion that never...

		Would you mind saying something?

		Anything will do.  Don't you have something prepared?  A brief encomium...gentle farewells, goodbye and bugger you...read the laundry list if you like, but say something, please.

Silence.  He makes to speak but stops.  She waves an encouraging hand.

			MILES
		Will you marry me?

			ALINE
		WHAT!?!  WHAT did you say?

			MILES
		I said, will you marry me?

She looks at him, unable to speak.

			MILES
		Think about it.  Please.

			ALINE
		What's this?

		Ohhh!

		No.

		Oh no!

		Who was it said he didn't want to go to heaven if he knew that hell existed?

		Oh, it exists.

		I've already made my will!

		I have no intention of being more generous to you lot than I've been already.

Silence.  He gazes at her.

			ALINE
		There's five hundred in twenty pound notes in that drawer.  You can have that.  Not the jewellery, it's all listed, you won't get away with it.  There's another fifty in my purse.

			MILES
		I don't want your money.

			ALINE
		What is it, then?  You might as well tell me, you've already...smeared it all up, what's the difference, it's better this way - yes, better!

			MILES
		I want to take care of you.

She spits in his face.  As he recoils she crosses the room and throws a heavy bottle at him.

			ALINE
		Get on with it...get on with it!  Is this how you treat your clients?  What's the matter with you?!

		You sentimental - you cruel bastard.  You're killers, the lot of you...so why don't you get on with it!

			ALINE  (Cont'd)
		We've been through all this...how could you, how could  you...I had everything, everything was as I wanted it......with dignity.  You said so yourself.  You said it!  On my terms.  At my command.  When I decided.  MY life.  Mine.

		How could you.

She makes a lurching leap to the opened wine bottle, spilling it over her dress.

			ALINE
		Oh no......do you know how much this dress cost?  Enough to keep an African village alive for a year.  More.  Oh my God...

She starts to cry and then her weeping turns to anger.

			ALINE
		You fraud.  You howling, weak-gutted, useless liar.  Get out of my sight before I kill you...

She starts to attack him.  Her sudden spring causes him to lose his balance and they both fall to the ground.  They roll over twice, and suddenly the fight is a sexual tussle.  He pulls at her dress, and it comes off.  She makes to rise and evade him but he dives, and brings her down.  They roll over, grappling in a prolonged struggle.  It ends with her straddling him, triumphant.

			ALINE
		All right!...all right, all right!  Why don't you get it out and let's see what you've got!

SCENE SIX.

THE SITTING ROOM.  ALINE is in a kimono, MILES is lying on the sofa, chest and feet bare.  She feeds him chocolate cake, pushing it into his mouth and crossing to cut another slice.

			ALINE
		It's sachertorte.  One of my neighbours is called Ilse...Eeeeelsaaah...

He takes the second piece and wolfs it down with concentrated enjoyment.  This pleases her and she sits, cross-legged, watching him eat.

			ALINE
		What made you say that?

			MILES
		(His mouth full)  Say what?

			ALINE
		You know.

			MILES
		Mmmm?

			ALINE
		What you said.

He licks his thumb, eyeing her warily.

			MILES
		What did I say?

			ALINE
		You said - `Will you marry me?'

He looks across at her, his face expressionless.

			ALINE
		Why?  You knew I'd go to bed with you, you've known that for weeks.

He lifts his head back, finishing his coffee, and she hands him her cup, which he drinks as well.

			ALINE
		I thought you were after my money.

			MILES
		(Belches benignly)  I don't want your money.  Any more?  (As she hands him the platter with the rest of the cake)  Thanks.  I don't care for food as a rule.

			ALINE
		What do you mean?  You can't not like food.

			MILES
		Well, obviously one has to...in order to...ah... (he waves a hand as he bolts down the rest of the cake.)

			ALINE
		Keep body and soul alive?

She watches him speculatively as he scoops up the crumbs.  Her eyes light on the black case.  She strolls, picks it up.

			ALINE
		Then there's this.

He looks up at her, and at the case.

			ALINE
		The `Society'.  Why do you do it?

			MILES
		(Puts down the plate)  Why not?

			ALINE
		Because it's there, you mean?  You said you got involved by accident.  You didn't have to stay.  There's Amnesty, the Samaritans.  Save the Whale.  This is for older people.

			MILES
		(As she puts down the case)  Not necessarily.

			ALINE
		No.

Silence.

			ALINE
		Ever tried it yourself?

			MILES
		What?

			ALINE
		Suicide!

He shakes his head.

			ALINE
		Why not?

		Lack of nerve?

			MILES
		What makes you think I might?

			ALINE
		I've slept with divorced men before.  Usually they need help...there's a lack of confidence...the ring of failure.  Not you.

			MILES
		You're a beautiful woman.

			ALINE
		I can be.  When I want.  What you want is the dark.  And never to come out.  Why?

He shakes his head, seemingly mystified.

			MILES
		You're being fanciful.  Are you?  Going to marry me?

			ALINE
		Does the offer still stand?

			MILES
		Yes.

			ALINE
		It depends.

			MILES
		On what?  I'll do it.

			ALINE
		I'm not sure that's a recommendation.  Three questions.  First...why the Records Office?

			MILES
		It suits me.

			ALINE
		Answer inadequate.

			MILES
		If you want me to change my job I'll change ie.

			ALINE
		Second...straight answer required...why do you spend your seemingly limited free time...your Leezure hours...helping people to snuff it.  Come on, you've had my body!...

			MILES
		And now you want my mind.

			ALINE
		(Holding her crutch)  If you want this again, tell.  Listen buddy, who do you think you are?

			MILES
		(Easily)  I know who you are.

			ALINE
		Oh?  Who am I?

			MILES
		A lady who talks too much.

He reaches with sudden litheness, and grabs her, making her scream.  She laughs, low, and strokes his hair, then kisses him on the mouth briefly.

			ALINE
		There.  I've kissed you awake.

			MILES
		I'm not asleep.

			ALINE
		No?  I think you've been asleep for a long time.  Ages.

			MILES
		On the contrary -

			ALINE
		You think you see things clearly.

			MILES
		My eyes are open.

			ALINE
		They're full of shit.

		Why don't you let me......?

She sits up.

			ALINE
		I wonder.

She jumps to her feet.

			MILES
		What?

			ALINE
		Very well, I'll consider it - consider it!  On one condition.

			MILES
		And what is that?

			ALINE
		That you promise not to hate me.

			MILES
		Hate you?  I promise.  Does that mean you agree?  That you'll -

			ALINE
		No.

			MILES
		Why not?

			ALINE
		There's one more question.

		Question number three.

		Take your time.

			MILES
		Fire away.

She winces at his phraseology.  Slight pause.

			ALINE
		Can you sell?

			MILES
		What?

			ALINE
		Are you any good at selling...selling!

			MILES
		No.

			ALINE
		Fuck.

She makes noises through her teeth.

			MILES
		Is that it?  Finished?

			ALINE
		I suppose you haven't got any money?  No, who has.

			MILES
		Half a million.

			ALINE
		What?

			MILES
		I've got about five...six hundred thousand.  If that's any good.

			ALINE
		Ah!  (But a thought strikes)  In property?

			MILES
		Equities.  Portfolio of...

			ALINE
		You can realise it?  Find cash?

			MILES
		Yes.

			ALINE
		I see.  I see.  Well in that case...do you want to do it again?

			MILES
		What now?

			ALINE
		Yes now.

			MILES
		Now?  I'm not sure.

She embraces him on the sofa, begins to caress him.

			ALINE
		What if I - ?  (She whispers in his ear, kisses him.)  Are you sure now?

			MILES
		Yes...no...

He takes her in his arms and they embrace.

ACT TWO.  SCENE ONE.

ALINE and MILES.  The room has changed.  It is less formal and there are books, plants, and some beautiful cushions.

			ALINE
		Well?  (She takes his plate, gives him coffee)  What do you think?  (She hands him a brandy...he raises an eyebrow at the brandy glass)  That's a bribe.  (She picks up a bulky file)  So what do you think?

			MILES
		My dear, how should I know?

			ALINE
		Miles.  Come on.

He reaches out, touches her face briefly.

			MILES
		I wish I had half, a tenth of your -

			ALINE
		Drink!

He sips obediently, puts down the glass.

			ALINE
		I see.  It's `If you want to know the secrets of me, you must first find the real me'.

			MILES
		I'm sorry?

			ALINE
		A play I saw, years ago.  Weird.  But wonderful.  This woman kept saying it.  If only I could.

			MILES
		Mmm?

He takes another drink, relaxing.  She comes, sits close, gazing at his face.

			ALINE
		Find it.  Your secret. Unlock the door...through the labyrinth...down the tunnel...into the cave of winds...until...

She pushes her forefinger, quite hard, against his forehead between his eyes, making him wince.

			MILES
		Ow!

			ALINE
		Bravo!

			MILES
		What?

			ALINE
		Some feeling.

			MILES
		(He looks up at her expressionlessly, bites her arm.)  That better?

			ALINE
		Fine.  We supply each other very well.

			MILES
		What's the matter?

			ALINE
		If we're going to do this thing together...if you're going to back me...I've told you everything.

			MILES
		Yes.  (He strokes her hair from her face.)

			ALINE
		You tell me nothing.

			MILES
		Nothing to tell.  It worries me that you think there's more, that I'm...holding back.	

			ALINE
		Aren't you?

			MILES
		(Slightest pause, shakes his head)  No.  What you see is what you get.

She rises and prowls round him.  He watches her, enjoying her.

			ALINE
		Two possibilities.  Either you believe what you've just said, in which case you need a shrink - pronto.  Or, much more likely, thinks Aline...he's holding out on me.  Sub-section.  Why would he do that?  Aline puts all her cards, face up, on the green baize, Miles has his velcroed to his pectorals.  Answer a)...because he doesn't trust Aline...b)...because he's a crook, con-man...c)...because he's a chauvinist, can't let the little woman into the inner sanctum and long live the Garrick Club...or...d)... because Miles is, as he maintains, a dull old pen-pushing, nine-to-five, pension paying, blazer wearing Telegraph reader.  So.  One.  My fiancé doesn't trust me.

		(She surveys him)  Mmm...possible.  Subsidiary query - why?  Is it me he doesn't trust or women as a category?  Never, come to think of it, mentions Mummy.  Mentioned Dad once.
		Chauvinist?  Always possible.  But, from personal - and intimate - experience...no, lacks chauvinist credentials, apart from a shameful addiction to certain Premier League hard men.

		A crook?  (Shakes her head)  Doesn't have the energy.  Being a villain means pissing round the manor, you have to work at it, you can't fall back on systems, not when you're abseiling through them.  If a crook then a very sinister one...murderous probably.  Dark intentions.  Very, very sick.  I'd rather believe not.

		So?  Mr Ordinary?  Evidence, Mrs M.  The job.  The way he just agrees.  The way he opens doors, carries the bags, sees to the car - mends it.

		But he doesn't watch snooker, wear pyjamas or go to health clubs.  He reads a lot.  Gets weird magazines about maths and algebraic formulae through the post.  No letters.  Who are his friends?

		Who is he?

		Where has he come from?

			ALINE  (Cont'd)
		Prison?

		The loony bin?

		No, no, no, no, no.  This can't be right.

		One...the Euthanasia Society.  They must have vetted him.

		Two.  I'm not that stupid.  Am I?

		A desperate woman?

		Anything for a length?

		Oh, what the hell!

		Whatever you are, dearest one, you are not boring.  A rare species of Englishman.

		So give!

		Or not.  As you choose.

MILES puts down his glass, takes her hand.

			MILES
		If -

		If -

		If -

			ALINE
		If?

			MILES
		If I...if I don't say a lot -

			ALINE
		It's because I don't give you half a breath to squeeze a sentence in -

			MILES
		We-ell.

		I love to hear you talk.  It's like...cold spring water on a Welsh mountainside.  I can't get enough of it, enough of you.  We'll die down a bit, settle, I know that.  But while it lasts...while there is this...fizz in the air... catalytic conversion of everything into wildness ...into idiocy and life...I'd like it to go on forever.  Forgive me.  It is so marvellous, just to live in the now, to look at you...I love watching you - I know you don't always like it.

			ALINE
		No I don't.

			MILES
		I'll try and do it when you're not looking.

			ALINE
		Oh will you?

			MILES
		Just for a change.

		I've never known a woman who was so much alive.

			ALINE
		Have you known many...women?

		All right.  No need to put your face on.

		Apart from your wife, I meant?

			MILES
		(He pulls a face, frowning)  The usual.  Nothing excessive.

			ALINE
		You're very highly sexed.

			MILES
		No, no, I was too busy.

			ALINE
		At what?

			MILES
		(Shrugs)  Work.

			ALINE
		Come off it.  I'm sorry.  You do a perfectly useful, sensible job.  But listen, now, come on, what do you think?  (Brandishes her papers)  Did you read this?

			MILES
		Yes.

			ALINE
		(Hands him a bulky file)  I've done all the detailed projections.  And I've been burning the telephone.  It's very gratifying.  You go away, and you think no-one will remember you, but you know something?  Times is hard.  Talk about shake out, guess who's had his balls roasted, no silver cups for the answer... Graham's on his ear.  Clinging on with a very shagged paddle.  I was the brains - people know that now.  It's being said.  Sweet is the backlash of adversity.  He can't cut it.

			MILES
		You want to...you want revenge?

			ALINE
		No.  No.  Not at all.  It just acts as a bit of fuel...competition!...it's...where would heroic capitalism be without it?  You need spurs, otherwise, why leave the veggy garden?

			MILES
		The thing for its own sake?

			ALINE
		Too rarefied for me.  You'll be talking of communism withering away the need for the state next.

		Are you coming in?  Will you think about it?

			MILES
		Aline, I'm not a business man.

			ALINE
		No, but I am.

			MILES
		I'm not a money-maker.  I'd be no help.

			ALINE
		It's not about money...well, not directly.  It's about putting things together.  Making things work.  With you as back-stop - look...(she fishes around in the folder, takes out a sheaf of paper)...the Harpers Group!

			MILES
		Sorry?

			ALINE
		The Harpers Group!  Big - big!  We'll be top of the A list from the off - exclusive.  We can go for quality.

			MILES
		Doing what?  I'm sorry, I know I haven't...I don't...

			ALINE
		Business consultancy!  Lifeboats Inc!  Shake-out...reshape - pulling people out of the sedge, hauling dear olde Englishe firmys into ye twentieth century before the moss takes over and the Tiger economy sells it off for seed corn.  Listen, rickety, tottering structures are my deviation - they're my dolls' houses.  I can put things together again, Miles.  New shapes.  I love it.

			MILES
		Why do you need me?

			ALINE
		I need your money.

			MILES
		Take it.  (As she looks at him, shaking her head)  Why not, what's wrong?

			ALINE
		What's wrong?  You'd give me all your money ...half a million...just like that?  Without proper investigation of my background, my business history, my credentials.  Are you mad?

			MILES
		No.  I'm in love.

			ALINE
		That doesn't mean -

			MILES
		I don't want to talk money.  I don't want to talk business.  I want to talk sex.

			ALINE
		Sure, but -

			MILES
		(Kisses her)  Give me time.  (They kiss.)

			ALINE
		(Relaxed, in his arms)  What about the other idea?

			MILES
		Mmm?

			ALINE
		Shall I go ahead?

			MILES
		Now?

			ALINE
		You think it's too soon?

			MILES
		I don't know.

			ALINE
		Miles, its bound to take ages to arrange.  By the time we're likely to be offered - look, there's everything to be gone into - nationality, that means dealing with foreigners, language difficulties, laws, state of national play, stability or otherwise, which can make things harder...or maybe not...bribes, local influence...then whether to go for some damaged little object or a really tough child who's been driven out of his mind...problem twins...an orphan...I can't wait to get started.

			MILES
		I know.

			ALINE
		Thanks.  I was afraid it would be hard for you to understand.  The thing is, being a woman, it can take you over completely.  You start to think of nothing else.

			MILES
		I realise that.

			ALINE
		What really frightens me, the thing I'm really frightened of is that it might stop.

			MILES
		How do you mean?

			ALINE
		I'm afraid of it wearing off.  The need.  I'm afraid of my hormone levels dropping, I suppose.  Being past it.

			MILES
		I doubt if that's likely.

			ALINE
		Ah but you see, when we get the business going - it's so all embracing...exciting, exhausting... honestly, we'll have such fun together.  If we're not careful we'll turn round and five years will have passed and we'll think, oh, what the hell, who needs sleepless nights and potty training... I've seen it happen, Miles, to friends.

			MILES
		I should tell you.  I did have a child.

Silence.

			ALINE
		You've never said. (He does not speak.)  Male or female?

			MILES
		A daughter.

			ALINE
		Alive?

			MILES
		Yes.

			ALINE
		What's her name?

			MILES
		Stephanie.

			ALINE
		How old?

			MILES
		She must be twelve, thirteen by now.

			ALINE
		Don't you know?

			MILES
		I don't see her.

			ALINE
		Why not?

			MILES
		She lives in Canada with her mother.

Silence.

			ALINE
		Well I find that very strange.

		You don't like children.

			MILES
		No, not at all, not necessarily.

			ALINE
		What do you mean, do you like them or not?

			MILES
		It's not an appropriate idea, children as a category.  They're people, you might as well say do you like people?

			ALINE
		And do you?  Like people?  I'd have thought not.  (He gazes at her, his face closed.)

ACT TWO.  SCENE TWO.

MILES is sitting.  ALINE paces, restless.  The telephone rings.  MILES rises but ALINE gets there first, answers, and walks about, talking with the hand phone.

			ALINE
		Hullo - Robin!  (Laughs seductively)  How are you?  Good.  Good...no, fine, I understand.  That's wonderful.  Mmm...fine - now we can mess with the small print...Robin that, if I may say so, is very naughty, it must be the French sunshine.  And so am I.  Absolutely.  We're delighted to be looking after you...yes...yes... well, you know my feelings.  Yah, rock and a hard place.  Shake out there is going to have to be because without that, where is the expansion - precisely.  Oh, more than that, something in the region of three hundred per cent in the design area - yes, variety and styling.  Look, I've been talking to a potential client in Strasbourg...yup...very interested...as you know we are able to increase their profitability - oh, quite.  (Laughs)  Thank you...I bet you say that to...really?  Robin, that is splendid.  I'll put some ideas on paper for you...expect to be beaten up the moment you hit these shores, that's a threat.  (She laughs)  Ciao.  Ciao, Robin.  And to Clarissa.

She puts down the telephone, turns, open-armed, to MILES.

			MILES
		Yes?

			ALINE
		Got it.  Wow.  Hungry?

			MILES
		(Looks at his watch)  Perhaps.
			ALINE
		Good, we'll celebrate.  What do you say to an impossibly expensive bowl of caviare on ice - oh forgot, you don't care for it.  Cod and chips?

He rises.  She lifts her face for a kiss.

			ALINE
		(As he gives her a little peck)  Come on, kiss me properly.  (He kisses her)  I shall now eat everything in Alfredo's, and then you.

She makes to break away.  He pulls her by the arm, they fall on the ground and he starts to pull off her clothes.  BLACKOUT.

ALINE and MILES, lying together on the sofa.  She gets up, without her clothes, goes out.  He sits up, without his shirt, lights a cigarette.  She comes back and forwards, dressing.

			ALINE
		That's a sad little face.

He looks up, smiles.

			ALINE
		Better.  No regrets?  No nostalgic yearnings for the little black bag, the Euthanasia Society?

			MILES
		`As I bind me tight, With thine golden hair, And die, as I lived, With thee...'

			ALINE
		Sorry?

			MILES
		Shelley.

			ALINE
		Poetry?  You didn't tell me you were a romantic.

		You do know everything I do is for us?

She throws his shirt at him.  He takes it and goes.

			ALINE
		(Calls)  You OK?

			MILES
		(Off)  What?

			ALINE
		Nothing.

MILES, dressing, looks in the door.

			ALINE
		It's just that I'm getting waves of...I don't know...

He looks in again, tying his tie.

			MILES
		I'm probably hungry.  (He goes with a smile.)

He enters, putting on his jacket.  She straightens his shirt collar, picks up a hat and they go.

The music of JIMMY YANCEY.

			ALINE
		(Off)  And then he said...oh no, I didn't mean that, I meant my wife's legs...honestly!

She enters, laughing.

			ALINE
		I must pee!

MILES enters.  He looks round vaguely.  The music stops.  ALINE returns.

			ALINE
		What were you going to tell me in the restaurant?  When the waiter brought the champagne.  You said you had something to say.

			MILES
		It wasn't the right moment.

			ALINE
		Not bad news?

			MILES
		No, no.

			ALINE
		Nothing unpleasant?

			MILES
		(Looking out of the window)  No, I don't think so.  Are those bats out there?

			ALINE
		In West eleven?  Could be.

			MILES
		I think, if it's agreeable to you, I'll stand down.  From the ah -

			ALINE
		From the company?

			MILES
		It might be wiser.

Silence.  ALINE makes to rise, sits again.

			ALINE
		Aren't you happy?

		You're not happy.

		Oh.  How disappointing.

Silence.  He rises, crosses, lights a cigarette.

			ALINE
		I thought you'd given up.

He gestures vaguely, draws on the cigarette, takes his stance by the window, gazing out.

			MILES
		No.

			ALINE
		What?

			MILES
		Not bats.  Starlings.

			ALINE
		Is it because you're subordinate to me?

			MILES
		No, of course not.

			ALINE
		The hell it is!

			MILES
		No.

			ALINE
		But you enjoy it!  You said so.

			MILES
		I enjoy your enjoyment.

Silence.

			MILES
		I accept that the world runs on trade...barter, exchange of skills.  It's a peaceable notion.

			ALINE
		But you inhabit a higher plane.

He frowns at her.

			MILES
		No.

			ALINE
		Don't you?  While the rest of us grub for it?  Oh, the people I meet who want the blossom without the dung heap - and don't tell me you can have the one without the other!  (Silence)  What do you intend to do?

			MILES
		I haven't thought about it.

			ALINE
		Well, no hurry.  You may change your mind.

			MILES
		No.  I -

		You don't mind?

			ALINE
		Of course I mind!  What the hell's going on - I thought we were partners!  Everything I do you know about, I share every minute...worries, ideas, everything.  Not that I haven't felt you lagging.

			MILES
		It's a different world.  My work for the Institute is mostly routine.

			ALINE
		And you prefer that?

			MILES
		Someone has to do -

			ALINE
		The quiet life.

			MILES
		Why not?  For some of us.

			ALINE
		(Looks at him sharply)  You talk like an old man.  You can't truly want nothing out of life.

			MILES
		What is there to want?

			ALINE
		Miles!

		Are you all right?

			MILES
		I'm fine.  It's just a matter of preference.  There are satisfactions in keeping things running.

			ALINE
		That's what you want to do.  Keep things running.

			MILES
		Yes, if I want to sleep at night.

			ALINE
		Aren't you sleeping?  (He shrugs, non-committal)  I hadn't noticed, I go out like a light.

			MILES
		(Smiles)  I know.

			ALINE
		Why, do I snore?

			MILES
		Sometimes.  (He turns to her as she pulls a face, his hands in his pockets)  I'm sorry.  I'm just not a merchant adventurer.  The money's fine.  I'll be a sleeping partner.

Silence.
			ALINE
		(Low)  What about our plans?

			MILES
		What plans?

			ALINE
		For the children...the adoptions?

			MILES
		It doesn't affect anything.

She rises, moves restlessly, makes to pour herself a drink, then puts down the bottle.

			ALINE
		It's me, isn't it?  (As he shakes his head)  Of course it's me.  A man work for his wife?  Eemposseebeelay!  Do you think I haven't noticed?

			MILES
		Of course it's not.  When have you heard me -

			ALINE
		It's not what you say it's what you do.  You don't back me up...you're not There!  I need you there for me, that's all I need.  Then I can do it.  I must have your approval.

			MILES
		You have it.

			ALINE
		No.  I have your distaste.  Lately, your malice -oh, how  you've wanted me to fall on my face.

			MILES
		Aline, I have never, ever felt malice towards you.

			ALINE
		Oh no, of course.  You couldn't have bad feelings.  You're the goodie.  Somewhere, in there, the victim - no doubt from a dysfunctional family.  Abused, and in denial.

Despite himself, he barks with laughter.  She grins.

			ALINE
		No, well.  But you are resentful, even if you don't know it, and it's a dead weight.  I've told myself I'd deal with it as soon as we got the business on a decent footing.

			MILES
		If I can just be in the background -

			ALINE
		Christ we made all the plans together, in the boathouse down by the river with your prick in my mouth.  You didn't disagree.  We'd work hard for five years and then pull out - the moors or the Welsh marches with the children, but not too far from decent day schools.  I've heard from their embassy by the way.  We have to fly out next week - well, that was the plan.

			MILES
		None of that's affected.  Nothing's changed.

			ALINE
		Hasn't it?

		I offered you everything...what I have, what I do.  It's who I am.

			MILES
		I respect that.

			ALINE
		Then why aren't you proud of me?  Why am I not allowed to enjoy it?

			MILES
		Aline, it's simply that I want a quiet life.

			ALINE
		Don't keep saying that!  Can't you see?  Look at you!  A big, white, Western, educated, physically, seemingly mentally fit male.  A WASP!  What right have you to want to retire?  At your age!  It's still paying in time.  It's the least that's expected - God knows there are enough who need to take out, some of us must put in!

			MILES
		I didn't say I wasn't prepared to work.

			ALINE
		But you want to lie low, take no risks, stay at home.  Is that what you want - to take on all the propping-up?  You want to be the house husband, is that it?  (As he looks up sharply)  No I thought not.  I'm the one who remembered your daughter's birthday -

			MILES
		We share things evenly enough -

			ALINE
		Yes.  You see to the car and mend the fuses.  Which I can do perfectly well.

			MILES
		I don't want this to become an argument.

			ALINE
		Why not?  Why not?

			MILES
		Because...because...because......

He has an epileptic fit.  ALINE stands, shocked, then rushes to his assistance.  She lies him on his side, puts a folded coat under his head, checks his tongue.  The fit is slight and not prolonged.  She kneels by him, then rises, fetches a car rug, covers him, crosses to telephone.  LIGHTS DOWN.

MILES is lying on the sofa.

			ALINE
		(Offstage)  Thank you, doctor.  Good-night.  (She enters, sits on the sofa, cradles MILES in her arms.)

		It's my fault.

			MILES
		No, no.

			ALINE
		It's the stress.  You should have told me!  How d'you -

			MILES
		I'm feeling fine.  Honestly.

			ALINE
		Does it happen often?

			MILES
		No, no.  Only in the past few years.  One bad one, now fewer and fewer.

			ALINE
		Should we have mentioned it?

			MILES
		I'm sorry?
			ALINE
		Will it make any difference?  About the children.

			MILES
		What?  Oh, no I shouldn't think so.

			ALINE
		We'd better not mention it.

			MILES
		I wonder.  Perhaps not.

			ALINE
		You've never been keen.  You don't even see your own daughter!

			MILES
		Only because Alison makes it impossible.

			ALINE
		If it were MY child!

Silence.

			ALINE
		Listen, Miles.  About the partnership.  Don't make a decision now.  These last few weeks have been tense, I know, putting it all together.  We'll talk again.

		(She hugs him)  Is it really so unbearable, our working together?  Of course if it's your health...

			MILES
		No.  It's not my health.

			ALINE
		What then?

He gives her a sombre look.  Despite herself, she shudders.

ACT TWO.  SCENE THREE.

THE FLAT.  It is tidier now, and back to the more austere look.  New paintings, a bronze sculpture.  Music, low.

ALINE enters in an elegant black dress, moves a chair, adjusts books and ornaments.  Looks at herself in the glass, goes out, returns in a pale linen suit with a black polo-necked sweater, brushing her hair.  Looks at herself, goes out, returns in the sweater with black trousers.  Pushes up sleeves, pulls them down again.  Doorbell rings.  She takes a last look, removes her ear-rings and exits.  She returns followed by MILES.  He wears a mac and cap, carries an umbrella.  She takes the umbrella, opens it and puts it on the floor.

			ALINE
		If you don't dry them properly you get rib marks.  (She makes to take his coat but he moves away, hangs it up.  She gestures the drinks tray.)

			MILES
		I won't thanks.  (He sits at her gesture, takes out his cigarettes.)  You don't mind?

			ALINE
		(Smiles)  No.

			MILES
		It's getting very difficult.  Smoking.  A woman accused me of threatening her child's life.  It was my sister actually.

			ALINE
		(Laughs)  Jessica?  How is she?

			MILES
		Very well.  Clive's Lord of the Manor now.

			ALINE
		Bravo.

			MILES
		Hah!

			ALINE
		He tickled me on the bum once.

			MILES
		Oh did he!

Silence.

			ALINE
		I'm sorry about the telephone call.  I was in a bad mood.  The adoption papers hadn't arrived.

			MILES
		They have now?

			ALINE
		Oh yes.

			MILES
		Good, that's wonderful.

			ALINE
		Don't.

			MILES
		I mean it.  It's what you want.

			ALINE
		No.  It isn't what I want.

		(Pause.)  I know what it's like not to have a father, I've Never forgiven him for leaving, how could he do it?

			MILES
		(Slight pause.)  Arrangements going all right?

			ALINE
		I don't know, I've been in Boston.  Yes, everything's done.

			MILES
		Splendid.  (He tries to take her hand.  She edges away.)

			ALINE
		She's handicapped.  Katrina.  She's lame.  From polio.  That's how I got her.  Nobody else wanted her.  She isn't pretty.

			MILES
		That doesn't matter.

			ALINE
		Oh, doesn't it!  She's ugly.  Hideous.  (Pause.)

		It's not a question of whether Dad was a good father, he might have been a monster, one of those, it doesn't alter the fact.  We missed him!  A hole, right in the middle.  People are created from two human beings, not one.  You have the right to your mother and your father.

			MILES
		I'm not sure.

			ALINE
		Well, we know what you feel, about women anyway, you hate them.  (She leans forward to him)  Hasn't it ever occurred to you - women are frightened of women too.  Work it out!

			MILES
		I only hated Ma.

			ALINE
		Pre-cisely.

			MILES
		Ye-es, well.  (Sugary falsetto)  `Into the study, Miles...homework!  Use the reading lamp.'  For reading.  (She laughs.)

			ALINE
		What do you expect?  The poor cow wasn't allowed a wider remit.

			MILES
		My mother the oppressed female?  (He throws back his head, barks with laughter.)

		My father got out of bed every morning at five o'clock.  He left the house at six forty-five... you might ask why it took him an hour and three quarters to wash and shave and eat his breakfast but ah...you have forgotten the chores on the kitchen blackboard.  At seven fifty of an evening he came through the side door like a relic from a home for the bewildered to a new list.

			ALINE
		More jobs?

			MILES
		In order of priority.  Number one, new washer to be fitted to scullery tap, two, lawn mower to be cleaned and oiled, three, back bedroom mattress to be turned...she preferred not to life, the district nurse said it was bad for women.  A good hour's work before he was allowed to eat, and sometimes that amounted to the sandwiches he hadn't been able to stomach for his lunch - Christ, the food!

			ALINE
		Yeah.  Grey joint, squashy sprouts, gunge and custard.

			MILES
		Mmm, compared with Ma, the Ritz!  (They laugh.)

			ALINE
		Why didn't he wallop her?  Serves you right, the pair of you, must have driven her insane.

		Miles, why didn't you say?  I wouldn't have started any of it, I could have taken a PA job...(he lifts his head in soundless laughter)... no, you're right.

			MILES
		Six months, you'd be running it.

			ALINE
		That bad?  Well why not?  If I can I should!  `From each according to - '.  For what we want!  A beautiful house with a field for a horse, an orchard and a stream, near a centre of excellence for the children...

		I thought I was pleasing you.

		Instead.

			MILES
		You know I'll move back tomorrow if you want.

			ALINE
		Don't!  Please, I don't want you obedient!  How is that going to work?  Me giving the orders, beating you up.  Is that what you want?  Aline as the bad detective, you getting all the sympathy, lolling in the goodies with a patient sigh - a thrill every time I slosh you across the kisser.  You think I don't know you want to dissolve in me?  Disappear without trace?  Just be a good, obedient boy...and hate me for it?

		Why don't you just shove off?

Silence.  Then he rises slowly and awkwardly.

			ALINE
		(Irritable)  What's the matter?  (She remembers)  You OK?  (He nods.)

		I'll ring you a cab.

			MILES
		No don't, I'll walk.  (He gets his coat.)

			ALINE
		Have you seen the lawyer?

			MILES
		Not yet.

			ALINE
		Do it.  (He turns, finding her harsh tone a turn-on.)  No Miles, I'm not going to open my legs for you.  And I'll try and stop talking dirty.  (She watches him struggle into his coat.)  At least when Graham left it was for lust.

			MILES
		You can do better than me.

			ALINE
		Don't.

		You do it all the time, pick on yourself...I could maim you for it if you weren't doing such a good job already, you don't even recognise your own resentment - oh leave it!  (As he moves awkwardly round the umbrella.  She picks it up, collapses it, gives it a shake, hands it to him.)

			MILES
		You're wrong, Aline.  Believe me.  Since I have no ambition in this world I neither mourn nor resent a lack of preferment.  Believe me.

		I don't regret us.  Our being together.  I hope you don't.  Good things have happened - the consultancy - no, please.  If you lose every penny it doesn't matter.  You'll have the little girl, it'll be wonderful.  There'll be bad days, anxieties...oh, but worth it.  You'll have a child.  It's...messy, untidy...but miraculous.  If it weren't for children we'd have exterminated ourselves by now.  They make you tender.

			ALINE
		Tender?

She frowns, then turns away, playing with something on the table.  She turns back to him and the expression on her face has altered.  It is strange, almost malignant.

			MILES
		What is it?

			ALINE
		I gave her up.  Katrina.  To the other couple.

			MILES
		What?

			ALINE
		They came to see me.  Naturally the authorities prefer a husband and wife.

			MILES
		But we agreed - we weren't going to say that we might not be together.

			ALINE
		How could we ever think of it?  (Silence.)

			MILES
		I'm so sorry.  You're right, of course.  (Behind his back she makes a vicious face at him.)  But you have the business.

			ALINE
		Yes.  (She hands him his cap)  I hope you find what you want.  Perhaps you had it when I met you.

			MILES
		I'm sorry?

			ALINE
		The Euthanasia Society?

			MILES
		Please.

He goes to the door.

			MILES
		I - ah...I'll be in touch.

			ALINE
		No, leave it to the lawyers.  I think this is where one says...`all the best'...

			MILES
		Goodbye, Aline.  (He turns away, then turns back and tries to take her in his arms.)

			ALINE
		(Evading him)  Oh Miles!

She stands, implacable.  He makes towards her then, with a slight inclination of his head in formal farewell, turns and goes.

ALINE stands, immobile.  Lights down slowly.  Music.

ACT TWO.  SCENE FOUR.

ALINE'S SITTING ROOM.  It is now messy, with books in heaps, clothes on chairs and the floor, newspapers, piles of letters, cups and saucers and plates everywhere.

			ALINE
		(Off)  Thanks, that's fine.  I can manage, thanks.

			MAN
		(Off)  Oh, thanks very much.  Have a nice day.

ALINE enters in an elegant suit, high-heeled shoes.  She is laden with glamorous shopping bags and packages and a large carrier of food.  She kicks off her shoes, throws off her jacket, she is wearing nothing underneath, takes food to kitchen.  Pause.  She returns wearing a shirt, puts Mama Yancey's `Trouble in Mind' on the record player.  Now she leaps on the new clothes, foraging voraciously.  She pulls out dresses and suits, turning before the glass, murmuring to herself.  Wriggles into a green, shiny dress, contemplates herself thoughtfully, but suddenly pulls off the dress, throws it on the sofa, puts on the shirt, leaving off her skirt now.  She scoops up all the clothes and tissue paper, throws them behind the sofa, kicking the rest out of the way.  She stands, pleased with herself, goes out and returns with a large china mug.  She helps herself to a generous whisky, sits, almost formally.  After two sips she puts the mug down.  Mama Yancey Blues end.  ALINE sits for a moment, then switches on the television.  She switches channels, switches off.  She leans back, turns on radio behind her.  It is the news.  She listens, sips, then switches off abruptly.

Now she just sits.

A long silence, broken by the ring of the telephone.  She turns her head to it slowly, leans over, picks it up.

			ALINE
		Yes?  (Listens)  You've got the wrong number.

She puts down the phone.  After a moment she exits quickly, returns eating a loaf, tearing at the edge and chewing noisily.  The doorbell rings.  She seems not to hear it, it rings again.  She seems surprised, throws down the bread and goes out, returning with MILES.  Lights to black and up.

MILES reclines on the sofa, hands behind his head.
ALINE across the room, leans against a table.

			ALINE
		Did I tell you - I met Graham.  My ex.  (MILES sits up)  With his new lady.

			MILES
		The quiet PA with the ready-made family?

			ALINE
		No, that was Nicolette.

			MILES
		Oh, I thought -

			ALINE
		It didn't last.

			MILES
		Divorce?

			ALINE
		(Shakes her head)  They never married.  She got an abortion, went to Melbourne with a computer man.  Sonia's the one he's got now.

			MILES
		(Leans forward)  So he didn't wed...ah...

			ALINE
		Nicolette.

			MILES
		Nicolette with the ready-made family?

			ALINE
		Nope.  He's married to Sonia.  Who, it seems, can't conceive.  When she does it's ectopic... outside the womb.  Their babies are not, as he puts it, viable.

			MILES
		They haven't any children?

			ALINE
		Didn't ask him, he took me to a wine bar and told me!  At length.  He said we needn't have split, as he put it, after all.  He said it was a deep regret to him.  And the firm.  Which is now defunct.  He was only on spritzers, but there was a lot of stuff about `Memory' being his favourite song, and carrying a torch - huh!  He even gave me what he'd call `the once-over'...told me I was `looking good'.  With not so vague implications that the sad and obviously dispensable Sonia wasn't.  Sonia - is `for the chop'.

			MILES
		He said that?
			ALINE
		Not as such.  More `sorrow than anger'.  He kept talking about (she sings) `Yesterday...' and `the way the cookie crumbles'.

		I must have been off my head.

			MILES
		How was he looking?

			ALINE
		Older...stoopder - more stooped.  He's not as pretty as he was.  (She looks at MILES speculatively.)

			MILES
		How do I compare?  (He smiles as ALINE tips her head back, laughing, his face transformed with happiness.)  Oh, to hear you laugh!

			ALINE
		What an indictment.  God, I'm such a prick.  I'm shit.  Well, look at us.  Quel duo.

			MILES
		Don't.  (He fidgets, uneasy, she frowns at him irritably.)

		(After a pause)  I met this woman.  (ALINE'S head turns)  No, nothing like that.  It was when I...I was having treatment at a hospital.  She had this silly walk.  Both hips had gone, her bones were crumbling, I don't know.  We used to meet, I'd pass her in the corridor.  One day she was queuing in the canteen and dropped her bar of chocolate and couldn't pick it up.  We started talking.

			ALINE
		Was she pretty.

			MILES
		No, she was old.  Shrivelled.  Viennese.  Her husband was a physicist.  They'd had three children.

			ALINE
		Jewish.

			MILES
		Yes.

			ALINE
		Were they - ?

			MILES
		All of them.  Parents, children, all her living relations, friends, neighbours.

			ALINE
		In the death camps?

Silence.

			MILES
		All she had left was a cap badge, from her husband's university.  He got someone to send it to her, to tell her that he was all right.  He was, in fact, dead by the time she received it, the guards had it delivered as a joke.

		She'd had about thirty operations, the Nazis had used chemicals on her, it withered her limbs.  Before the war she'd been a champion skier.  She lived in a rented room near the hospital.  Bloody awful basement, nothing there, just a bed and a couple of library books.

Silence.

			MILES
		I never heard her complain.  Not once.  (Walks to the window.)

			ALINE
		And I can't even raise a smile.  (He murmurs)  Another drink?  (He shakes his head)  Sure?  (He turns from the window)  So, how are you, what have you been doing?

			MILES
		Not a lot.  I wish I could bring you tales from Araby - oh, I did take up golf.

			ALINE
		(Barks with laughter)  Any good?

			MILES
		(Shakes his head)  An exceedingly tense game which would appear to defeat its own purpose.  Well, perhaps if I'd been any good at it.

			ALINE
		Try fishing.

			MILES
		Have a heart.  (There is a companionable silence.  He sneaks a look across at her.)  What about you?

			ALINE
		Me?  Oh...I had an affair with a man who came to sell us a new security system for the flats.

			MILES
		Nice?

			ALINE
		Very nice.

			MILES
		But not any more?

			ALINE
		Too young.

			MILES
		(Slight pause)  And how is the business?

			ALINE
		Didn't you know?

			MILES
		Know what?

			ALINE
		I sold it.

			MILES
		Sold it?

			ALINE
		Very well.  Off the top, as they say.  I thought you knew.

			MILES
		I've been in Amsterdam.

			ALINE
		Ah, that's why I -

			MILES
		Not permanently, just for...

			ALINE
		Did you like it?  Amsterdam?  Ompshtairdohm?

			MILES
		Very much.  I felt at home.  (She pulls a face.  This time he catches her.)  And no, it wasn't boring!

			ALINE
		(Laughs)  What did you do, apart from...

			MILES
		Oh there was plenty of time off, it was a government thing.  I looked at pictures.  I've always liked looking at pictures.

			ALINE
		I never knew that.

			MILES
		The thing about Van Gogh is - of course he was concerned...with colour, I mean.  No.  The work is so intellectual.  There are two pictures of...oh, nothing really...one is just steps and a wall, the other has about half a dozen colliding perspectives, an underpass...just nowhere, who would think of painting just a piece of street... so many perspectives...impossible to get them all right, the eye's not able to...he does of course.  Only...ah...

			ALINE
		What?

			MILES
		They're snowscapes.  So he can't read the lines, the signs...just discern them...just - indicate, with the paint.  Look at them, you feel - I don't know - a kind of rapture.

He sits there, looking banal, his feet at right angles, head down.  A pause.  She looks at him.

			ALINE
		I hear the women are very good.

			MILES
		(Looks up)  Oh, yes.

			ALINE
		Did you - ?

			MILES
		Once or twice.  You worry about disease of course.

			ALINE
		Be careful.

			MILES
		I know.  I got in a panic.  Had a test.  I'm all right.

			ALINE
		(Grins at him behind his back)  And you're fancy free?  That won't last for long.  The world's full of women looking for relationships.

			MILES
		D'you think so?

			ALINE
		Triumph of hope over experience.  People get lonely.

			MILES
		Oh, you adjust.

			ALINE
		(Sharp)  Do that and you've had it.

			MILES
		I don't know.  We arrive alone, leave alone...

			ALINE
		But does it go for the bit in between?  (Sings)  `You'd be so nice to come home to...' 
		... question five: rate solitude on a scale of one to ten...one, highly desirable, the perfect human condition, ten, majestic fucking misery.  (Silence)

			MILES
		Why did you sell the business?

			ALINE
		I had an amazing offer.

			MILES
		You must have been part of the deal, surely?

			ALINE
		Oh yes, it was a condition.

			MILES
		Then - ?

			ALINE
		(Short laugh)  I reneged.

			MILES
		You're not working?

			ALINE
		No.

			MILES
		How did you manage to - ?

			ALINE
		Got ill.

			MILES
		How...what with?

			ALINE
		Oh, everything under the sun.  I'm better now.

			MILES
		But not working.

			ALINE
		No.

			MILES
		Mmm.  How do you spend your time?

			ALINE
		Shopping.  Taking the dog for a walk.  (MILES looks round for the dog)  No, no, Mrs Aubrey's dog from upstairs.  She has arthritis, I shop for her - thimbles and things.

			MILES
		What else?

			ALINE
		Crosswords?  (Silence)  What about you?

			MILES
		(Cheerful)  I've been made redundant.

			ALINE
		Miles!  You?

			MILES
		Why not me?  I'm expendable.

			ALINE
		Not vital?

			MILES
		No, not vital.

			ALINE
		What will you do?

			MILES
		(Shrugs)  Nothing, I daresay.  Well, I shall try nothing.

			ALINE
		And if nothing doesn't work?

			MILES
		Well...after nothing...

He looks up at her.  They both start to laugh.  ALINE draws a finger across her throat, making a kkkkk sound.

			ALINE
		Why not?  (He barks with renewed laughter)  The whole world starves and here we sit...how can we...?  (She sobers slightly)  It's outrageous.

			MILES
		We-ell...perhaps we're just...

			ALINE
		Expendable?  What is it...if you're not the solution, you're the problem, have I got that right?

			MILES
		(Flat)  I daresay.  I'm sorry.

			ALINE
		What for?

			MILES
		For making it worse.  (As she makes to speak)  When we were together you were a success.  In your right place.  Where you belonged.

She gives him a long look.

			ALINE
		I hated it.  I always hated it.  Not the beginnings, setting things up, having the ideas.

		It's the greed.  Hanging out of them like colostomy bags.  Makes you contemptuous, and that, my dear, is bad for the soul.  Oh, and you know me, I have this vile habit of egging people on with my breathless smile, and the worse they are the more I glisten.

		It's just that...

		I can put up with the bores - the pompous bastards, the bullies - the ones who brush up close, can't keep their hands -

		It's not just the stupidity!  What I can't...what I cannot...what I will not, cannot tolerate is this vicious, evil laziness.  Unbearable.  Millions of people, who want you to do it for them.  Make them rich.  Open the doors to a sensuous, shining life where they can move about the surface of the earth polluting like maggots.  And you sweat it out for them.  For the fees.  And that's all right, that's tolerable - that's the best part of it, the work.  But then - oh God, the meetings - the Meetings!  Bobbing up and down breathing aftershave and chivalry at you, then sitting on their faeces - ooh no, you can't have that, that's for my whore's face down the road.  They are low, they are nothing - they have nothing.  Except this evil desire to win, and to own.  And not to bloody share.  It does you in, I tell you.  You want to defraud, embezzle - con the lot of them!

			MILES
		I thought you loved it.

			ALINE
		Oh Miles!  Do you think anyone - truly - wants to spend his...her whole wonderful life on this precious unique planet selling heat pumps?  Commodities?  Well, that's better than currency fluctuation.  Capitalism's final solution - the buying and selling of money.  No wonder people dream of re-incarnation.  If it didn't exist we'd have to invent it.

He looks at her in astonishment, then drops to his knees, kisses the hem of her skirt.  She draws away firmly.

			ALINE
		No, Miles.  Still the same ball-breaker in here.  I'd have taken an Armalite to break out of the Home Counties.  It used to worry me.  My own room...driven to ballet lessons in the Vauxhall by Mum...what was there to complain about?

			MILES
		Everything.

She kisses him on the cheek.  Still on one knee, he gazes up at her.

			MILES
		What did you want, what did you dream of?

			ALINE
		A thrilling life.  (As he rises and goes to the window)  What about you?  (He gazes out of the window.)

			MILES
		My sister fell for it.

			ALINE
		Jessica?  I thought she wanted to be gentry.

			MILES
		Exactly.  Poor old Roger, went to his guts.  He's been on the health kick for years trying to get his bowels back.

			ALINE
		I know the feeling.

			MILES
		(Turns from the window)  You met Luky, Roger's son?

			ALINE
		The brain-damaged boy...(smiles)...yes.

			MILES
		I was at their sports day.  He was apologetic, Roger...said it would be a bit of a joke but he'd promised to help.  (Short laugh, remembering, lifting his head)  We watched the egg and spoon race.  The only thing was - whenever a kid dropped an egg, the others would stop and help him pick it up.  Mentally handicapped, you see.  (She smiles.)

			ALINE
		You didn't drop out.  You joined.

			MILES
		That there was an alternative just never occurred.  Stretching the imagination was not on the curriculum.  (Slight pause)  I'm glad you're out of it.

			ALINE
		I thought you would be.  I said to myself, Miles will be pleased.  (He pulls a silly face)  Oh you look just like your daughter...in the little photo.

			MILES
		I thought you knew.  That she wasn't mine.

			ALINE
		(For the first time we see her totally out of face)  Oh, Miles.  I'm so sorry.  (Slight pause)  Does she know?

			MILES
		No.  She may now.  Probably not.  Alison won't have said unless there was profit in it.

			ALINE
		Was she pregnant when you - ?

			MILES
		It's not important.  I only married her for her breasts.  They were miraculous.  Like a Bellini painting.

			ALINE
		Is that it?

		Is that what broke your heart?  And wrapped it up in separate bits of tissue?

			MILES
		What are you talking about?

			ALINE
		You, Miles.  Only, of course, that's not allowed.  We talk about me, my pain, my capacity for damage.  You're the rock, the stable one...strong old gentle Miles.  Well, a fatwa on you and all your - oh don't!

			MILES
		What?

			ALINE
		Give me that patient look from the heights of Mount Rushmore.  You imperialist bastard.  You'll dabble in my sick, comb it out of my hair for me - but you!...back, Rover!  Except just then, the tiniest trickle from the stone.  Ok, so she did you down.  A pair of horns - n wonder you don't want to see the poor little devil.  Done well for her, haven't you, the pair of you?  For God's sakes, Miles.  (Silence.)

			MILES
		(Quietly)  I've nothing at all against Alison.  She was the lab assistant...there were four of us in the team.  I was her fourth choice.

			ALINE
		Team?  What team?

			MILES
		Where I was employed.

			ALINE
		In Records?

			MILES
		No.  (Slight pause)  At that time I was working in a laboratory.

			ALINE
		You never told me.  Doing what?

			MILES
		Genetic biology.

			ALINE
		For how long?

			MILES
		Nine years.

			ALINE
		(Puzzled)  What was your job?

			MILES
		Research.

			ALINE
		Re search?  (She frowns)  Applied or pure?

			MILES
		Pure.  If there is such a thing nowadays.

			ALINE
		Where?

			MILES
		Cambridge.

			ALINE
		Cambridge?

			MILES
		I took my degrees there...and Cal Tech.

			ALINE
		America?  You're saying you're a scientist.

			MILES
		I was.

			ALINE
		But not now.  Why?  (He shrugs)  Disagreements?  Lack of money?  Just bored?

			MILES
		Bored?  God no.  There wasn't a day without the deepest fascination.  You may not be aware of it, Mrs Madison, but the Second Law of Thermo-Dynamics is as important to human culture as Mozart.

			ALINE
		If you say so.

			MILES
		Exactly.  Here you are, a supposedly educated woman, yet totally deprived of an idea of the greatest significance to the world.  An idea as beautiful - and as remorseless...as Kali.

			ALINE
		Remorseless?

			MILES
		The Law of Destruction.  (He sends a heap of books flying, making her squawk and jump at the sudden violent movement.)

		As you see.  What's done is done, and cannot be undone.  The Second Law tells us that events go forward, and with a tendency to collapse and decay.  That the universe has an irreversible trend towards chaos...that it will all end in heat death and oblivion.

			ALINE
		Why are you so angry?  (He looks at her, his face black, bends to pick up the books.)  Who is Kali?

			MILES
		The goddess of death.

Silence.

			ALINE
		What are you then - her acolyte with a little black bag?

There is a dreadful silence.  She stands, brave, not sure that we won't attack or kill her.  He twists his hands together.  She steps up to him, puts her hands on his shoulders, forces him to his knees.

			ALINE
		Kiss me.
Blackout.

ACT TWO.  SCENE FIVE.

THE SITTING ROOM.  Later.  ALINE and MILES, relaxed.

			ALINE
		What were you working on?

			MILES
		Gerontology - aging.  Changes in gene structure.  I did take two years off, we did some work on an AIDS vaccine.

			ALINE
		What on earth made you give it up?  How could you drop work that you obviously...work of - to sit in an office dealing decks of paper?  Why?!

		I don't know you at all, do I?

		Why, Miles?

MILES shakes his head.

			MILES
		You have no idea.  Even my father.  `Don't let us down, son'.  We were to do it for them.  Assuage the nothingness, make their lives worth it.

			ALINE
		Well...poor sods.  Losing their own fathers in the first bloodbath, Depression, six years of war and the dreary Fifties and missing all the fun by one generation.

			MILES
		Perhaps.  (Laughs briefly)  Jessica, Roger and Miles.  The Goodies.

		Home was run like the Tory party.  Carrot and stick.  It never occurred to us to - they make it contingent, d'you see?

			ALINE
		Make what contingent?

			MILES
		Love.

		Roger could be a cheeky devil.  We'd get up to - oh, just small things...getting our own back.  Once he brought home some frogs from the school lab, took the steak and kidney out of the oven, lifted the piecrust and shoved them in.

			ALINE
		Did you get away with it?

			MILES
		No.  (Pause)  He changed, at the grammar school.  Bullied at home, beaten up at school.  One day he said `I don't know what's up with me, I keep getting the bloody runs'.

			ALINE
		What did you say?

			MILES
		Told him to go to the doctor.  Poor old Rog.  Gave me some advice once.  `Just do what they say, then you're bound to be liked.'

			ALINE
		Did you?  Do what they said?

			MILES
		I was lucky.  I took to science.  There's nothing sinister, threatening about knowledge.  Just beauty.  At least, that's what I thought then.

			ALINE
		Not now?

He stands, rocking, jingling the change in his pocket.

			MILES
		The money I advanced for the business -

			ALINE
		You're getting a good return.

			MILES
		No, no, no.  The reason I had it...it was a payoff.

			ALINE
		For what?

			MILES
		(Jingling his change so that she has to crane to hear)  I had a breakthrough.  We were working as a team, but the ideas, the structures - of the experiments - were all mine.  I didn't mind...we were a team.  The Yanks were right behind us, I wanted to pool, go in together.  That was voted down.  We worked very hard.  You have to prove it, you see...the margin of error...oh, it's so great, we're all such pygmies.  At the end I went off my head a bit.  I worked for three days and nights...not to win, you understand...but being so close I had to know if I was right...four years work...you see, most of what you do fails.  You discard it.

		I had a fit.

			ALINE
		In the middle - ?

			MILES
		Oh no.  I'd finished.  The results were positive.  I couldn't believe it...or I wouldn't have, if there'd been any energy left to think with.  Then I fell down.  It was a bad seizure.  They thought I'd had it.

			ALINE
		What happened?

			MILES
		I was away for six months.  When I returned they'd - my colleagues - had published.  They scooped the pool and took out patents - on the substance we had been refining.  That's what all the hurry was about.

			ALINE
		Are you saying they didn't include you?  But surely...everyone must have known...

			MILES
		No.  I always wrote up the stuff from the team.  I insisted on the work coming from us all...they were doing all the legwork, I wasn't going to -

			ALINE
		But you were the creator?

			MILES
		Yes, well that's enough in a way, isn't it?

			ALINE
		You're a total idiot.  So, my dear.  You thought you'd escaped from the shitty world into your own pure stratosphere - give or take the odd heat death - instead, what do you find?  Same bunch of chisellers as the rest of us.

		Well, well.

		Ha...ha.

		La de da.

			MILES
		Exactly.  More fool me.

			ALINE
		At least you were trying to mutate the species.  (This makes him smile)  Well, can't be soon enough, can it?

		So you gave up.  Caved in.  Before or after the kid?

			MILES
		Steffie?  Oh, it was nothing to do with...the fact that I wasn't Stephanie's father was immaterial.  Matter of fact you're right, she was getting to look like me.  It happens.  (Slight pause)  I gave her a book of fairy tales for her third birthday.  I liked the illustrations, they were traditional, very subtle, I was worried they'd be too old for her.  She turned the pages for a long time and then she looked up and said `Daddy, this is a very delicate book'.

			ALINE
		Ohh...you love her.

		Ohh...

		And you gave her up.

		Why?!

			MILES
		I was ill.  Stephanie needed her mother - anyway, how could I work and take on a small child?

			ALINE
		Women do it all the time.

			MILES
		Yes.  Yes, I suppose they do.

			ALINE
		You let the patents go without a fight?  Why didn't you go to the law?

			MILES
		They were my friends.

			ALINE
		Who now hate you, of course.

			MILES
		Well, their sin, not mine.  (He rises)  I have to go back to the office, they've asked me to clear my desk.

			ALINE
		Now?  Don't.  Listen, when I was a student doing supply teaching I learned one stupendous thing - that the wormiest little kid will blaze, blaze with indignation if wrongly accused.  Justice first...justice before everything, charity ...compassion - everything.  It's wrong to let them take you, get away with it.

			MILES
		It doesn't matter.  I must go.  I'm free tomorrow if you -

			ALINE
		Oh, tomorrow!

He shuffles about, picking up his things.

			MILES
		Perhaps we could talk again.

			ALINE
		For God's sake, if you must go, go!  (She watches him sourly)  Your Titanic list must stretch from here to Moscow.  Is there anyone who doesn't disgust you?  Apart from yourself, of course, but then, what have you done of late except sift paper and kill people.  What did you do as a boy - collect marbles?  Or was it stamps?

			MILES
		Coins, actually.  (This makes her laugh briefly, and he turns, smiling as he puts on his scarf, looks for his gloves.)

			ALINE
		(Gives him half a bottle of wine)  You may as well take this, I shan't drink it.

She leans against the table, watching him put on his gloves.  He takes the bottle awkwardly, irritating her.  She goes out and returns at once with a carrier bag, takes the bottle from him and puts it in the bag, gives it to him.

			ALINE
		(Low)  There is something you could do for me.

			MILES
		Oh?  What?

			ALINE
		Do you still have your bag of tricks?

He looks down at her, his eyes widening.

			MILES
		But I'm no longer a member -

			ALINE
		I know that!  But do you still -

			MILES
		No.
			ALINE
		Don't you have -

			MILES
		No, of course I don't.

			ALINE
		But you still know how.  You know how.

			MILES
		I see.  (Pause)  Is that why you telephoned?

She does not reply.

			MILES
		I see.

			ALINE
		Miles -

			MILES
		I'm sorry.  I can't help you.

			ALINE
		I think you can.

He turns away abruptly to the door.

			ALINE
		You loved me!

He stops.

			ALINE
		You said you did.  If you loved me, you'd do it for me.  You said it was an act of love.

		You've done it for others.  Why not me?

		You didn't love them.  You said you loved me.

		That's what you said.

She crosses and holds him by the arms, hanging on, and looking up into his face.

			ALINE
		You've got the power...to do me in.

He tries to pull away.

			MILES
		I -

			ALINE
		You said just now that you didn't know what to do.  That's what you said.  But there is something you do know.  You know how to -

			MILES
		Kill people?  How to kill?

			ALINE
		We're two of a kind, aren't we?

A deadly silence.

			ALINE
		(Softly)  Leave the tent?  To be hit in the heel?  I put my face outside, and you were right, Miles.  The weather is lousy.  And getting worse.

		This time, Miles.

		Please.

They regard each other for a long moment.
Lights to black.  Music.

ACT TWO.  SCENE SIX.

THE SITTING ROOM.  Music, low.  A table is set with a white cloth, china, cutlery, flowers in a silver vase.  ALINE enters.  She wears a beautiful dress.  She attends briefly to the table, then sits and waits.  The bell rings.  She rises without hurry, goes out and returns followed by MILES, who wears a dinner jacket.  He has the black bag with him.  She takes it from him, puts it down.  She pours them both a drink.  They drink.  She gestures for him to sit.  He sits.  She hands him the wine from the cradle.  She goes out, and returns with two dishes, sets them down, sits opposite MILES, shakes out her napkin.  He tastes the wine.

			MILES
		Mmmm.

She smiles at his pleasure.

			ALINE
		Lobster for you, caviare for me.

They smile at each other, bend their heads to eat.

			ALINE
		Bread?  (He shakes his head.  They eat.  Then she rises, takes the plates, goes out, returns with another two plates.  MILES looks at his plate with approval.)

		Elegant?  That's venison...duck...and - you are hungry?

He nods.  She eats.  He tries to eat.
			ALINE
		I went out today.  Yes!  To shop.  Such a lovely day.  I'd forgotten.  Sun shining...of course the traffic was a bitch...and the pollution!  (She watches him eat)  I was looking at the trees...we were moving so slowly - the plane trees.  Supposed to be the perfect trees for London because they shed their bark, and throw off the grime.  Great, mutilated things.  They were all cankered, every one we passed.  One road was all right...we went off Westbourne Park Road to avoid the bumps...their trees were that new sort of silver birch with the very white trunks.  Lovely.  Do you like trees?

			MILES
		Yes.  Dad came from the New Forest.

			ALINE
		I was talking to the cab driver.  Len.  There should be a law.  All roads should have trees.  If cars, then trees, to breathe out oxygen.  And the right ones, not great forest trees butchered to buggery.  Delicate trees.  (He looks up briefly)  With elegant limbs and fine-cut leaves.  And flowers, and berries...not poisonous of course.

He lays down his fork.

			ALINE
		Nothing damaging.

		That's what I'd like to do.

		Trees.

He gazes at her.

			ALINE
		For towns and cities and villages and estates and great big horrible sprawling misery dumps.

		What do you think?

She rises, starts to walk about.

			ALINE
		Start with a campaign...urban, civic...the usual ...find celebrities...then a pilot scheme...put some grotty inner city blight-hole on the map... get the schools involved...

She sits, indicates for him to eat.  He picks up his spoon but does not eat.

			ALINE
		What are you waiting for?

		Perhaps we should get started.
She rises, crosses, gets the black bag, returns, puts it on the table.

			ALINE
		Thank you.

He is unable to answer.

			ALINE
		I asked you, and you...well...I've done all the rest - the food, the wine, the shopping, the cooking.  The inessentials.  Aren't you going to thank me?  For our celebration?

		Well go on.  Open it.  (She pushes the bag towards him.)

He gazes at her.  Opens his mouth to speak.

			ALINE
		Open it.

He opens the bag.  She nods for him to take out the pills.  he places them on the table.

			ALINE
		Are you ready?

			MILES
		(His voice thick)  If you are.

			ALINE
		Right.  Last course.

She gives him two small dishes.  He puts tablets in each, hands one dish back to her.  They sit with the dishes in front of them.

			ALINE
		Go on.

MILES, gazing at her, picks up some tablets, lifts his glass.  He gazes at her across the table, lifts the pills to his mouth.

			ALINE
		Oh, just one thing.

He pauses, his hand halfway to his mouth.

			ALINE
		Will you marry me?

Blackout.

MILES is sitting.  ALINE is standing.

			ALINE
		Would you have done it?

			MILES
		Yes.

			ALINE
		Did you want to?

			MILES
		If you did.

			ALINE
		And otherwise?

He shakes his head.

			ALINE
		(Raps)  Why not?

He shrugs.

			ALINE
		Good old English puritanism?  Stick it out, however vile the vale of tears?

			MILES
		Something like that.  Probably.  It...

			ALINE
		What?

			MILES
		I suppose it's habit forming.  Life.

		Did you plan this?

			ALINE
		(Frowns, thinking, shakes her head)  No.

		I don't know why I -

(Pause.)

			MILES
		Perhaps it was the trees.

			ALINE
		What?

			MILES
		The trees.  You were talking about trees.

			ALINE
		Oh. Yes.

		This is a worry.  We've missed the moment.  Do you think we'll get them back?

			MILES
		I'm sorry?

			ALINE
		Suicidal impulses.

			MILES
		Hard to say.

			ALINE
		No guarantee.  Especially together.  At the same time.

He looks up with a grin.

			ALINE
		Oh leave off!

		Coffee?

She crosses, pours, gives him a cup.  He drinks needfully and she refills his cup, sits and drinks her own coffee.

			ALINE
		Well.  Ha ha...la de da.

They look across at each other.

			ALINE
		Weird, isn't it?

			MILES
		I feel...(he stops.)

			ALINE
		Like you've been over Niagara in barrel?

He shakes his head.

			ALINE
		Wobbly?  Scared?  Numb?

He shakes his head, looks up at her.

			MILES
		That meal wasn't very filling.

			ALINE
		Shall I order a takeaway?

She goes to the telephone, dials, speaks.

			ALINE
		Balti chicken or lamb masala?

			MILES
		Could I have both?

She gives the order, comes and sits at the other end of the sofa.  They sit, side by side.

			ALINE
		I mean...where to begin?!

			MILES
		Oh God.

			ALINE
		(Alarmed)  What?

			MILES
		I'm going to have to go back to research.

			ALINE
		Will you be all right?

			MILES
		Yes.  Hard to get grants now.

			ALINE
		You'll manage it.  (Slight pause)  You're going to have to help me.

He takes her hand.  They look like two children, hand in hand.

			MILES
		When I'm working, I'm -

			ALINE
		I'll understand.  Easy for you.  For me...(she shakes her head)  Madonna Mia's out.  I've tried suits, they don't fit.  Commerce feeds one tenth of us, starves the rest.  Why?

			MILES
		Scientists can't say why, Aline.  I can only tell you how.  Minimally.

			ALINE
		Yeah...heat death and the collapse of the universe.

			MILES
		You didn't let me finish that conversation.

			ALINE
		No doubt.

			MILES
		What I was going to say...(He looks at her, and is entranced by the life of her face.  He touches her cheek.)  What I was going to say...on the subject of Kali...(takes her hand)...we do have the sun.

			ALINE
		The sun.

			MILES
		Thermo-dynamics does tell us that everything goes to the devil...(he shudders slightly)...but then...on the other hand...

			ALINE
		Miles, could you cut to the chase?
			MILES
		There is the sun.

			ALINE
		You said that.

			MILES
		The sun gives us light.  Because of the sun we have growth...people, life...trees.

			ALINE
		Back to Genesis, you mean?

			MILES
		Mmm?

			ALINE
		`Let there be Light'!

			MILES
		It would seem so.

			ALINE
		Rather atavistic, for a scientist.

			MILES
		Not nowadays.  The new physics is very transcendental.  It would even appear that there's some evidence for...

			ALINE
		For what?

			MILES
		Something...celestial?

			ALINE
		Progress not process?  Miles!

She stands up, then slides down on the floor, her back against the sofa.  Looks up at him.

			ALINE
		Commitment?!

He looks down at her.  The doorbell rings.  ALINE scrambles to her feet.

			ALINE
		Food.

			MILES
		(Together)  Food.

She returns at once with the food.  They sit with the cartons on their laps, eating greedily with their fingers.