Triptych and Iphigenia by Edna O’Brien Read Free Book Online

look well … rested.
    MISTRESS    I don’t feel rested.
    WIFE    Do you sleep on your face or on your back?
    MISTRESS    It depends.
    WIFE    I sleep on my face and I waken all swollen and pudgy.
    Over her last speech, Wife has brought a tiny plate of truffles and toothpicks.
    They both sit. Wife takes one. Mistress hesitates.
    WIFE    (
cont.
) Come on … dig in … no need to stand on ceremony here.
    Wife picks up a cookbook.
    WIFE    (
cont.
) The truffle appears to be one of the original secrets of the universe. How does it get into the ground? Why should such diverse creatures as pregnant pigs and psychic dogs be the exclusive hounds for finding them?(
more seductive
) The fragrance of truffles is impossible to explain—a truffle smells like … a truffle. But beyond its perfume the truffle has a visual quality which adds to its mystique. Black … flat … deep. The black punctuation of the truffle making a statement. (
consults cookbook
) The pig has a most keen sense of smell, without which it would never be able to find the treasure deep within the ground under the snows. Der Teufel—which means devil, Clarissa. (
pause
) Did Henry insist that you not have his child?
    MISTRESS    (
terse
) Yes.
    WIFE    You should have cheated … it would be a little person now … in its crib, gurgling away.
    Mistress flinches—Wife holds a truffle to the Mistress’s lips.
    Mistress reluctantly takes it.
    Mistress chews truffle, nervously.
    WIFE    You’d think they were poison.
    MISTRESS    Whereas, in fact, they are only little devils. (
looking around
) Have you sent Henry out, for this fest?
    WIFE    Didn’t have to … he’s gone.
    MISTRESS    (
thrown
) Gone?
    WIFE    To Ireland …
    MISTRESS    (
shocked
) No.
    WIFE    Across the ocean … (
half singing
) Oh little was my notion as I sailed across the ocean … (
speaking
) We went there, to Connemara, as you know, at Christmas, which was also our anniversary. We walked all day across flat, stone, misted country …
    MISTRESS    (
cutting in
) Yes, he described it in his letters, the rain, the mist, the light, the people.
    WIFE    (
cutting in
) At night we went to the local pub. There was a beautiful young girl, long auburn hair, shy, mysterious. On the last night she struck. Outside the window we could hear singing … quite ethereal … haunting … gave us goose pimples. Henry opened the window, it was the auburn girl, her hair all wet, like a fairy queen, and he just took her arm and brought her in. I knew that she had gone out there and sang for that very purpose, for Henry to open the window and bring her in. Quite a coup … They have corresponded. She sent him the words of songs … those fucking heartbreaking songs that got to him; she beckoned … and he went.
    MISTRESS    You mean, you let him go … you didn’t try to stop him? (
sharp
) Didn’t slit your wrists?
    WIFE    On the contrary, I helped him pack … put his warm sweaters in and his shoe trees—he’s very fussy about his shoe trees …
    MISTRESS    Why so considerate?
    WIFE    She provides a new name, a new face, a new bed, sad songs … breaking the spell of you.
    MISTRESS    Monster.
    WIFE    Yes, you have made me so … but, as things stand …
    MISTRESS    (
cutting in sharp
) As things stand …
    Over the next speeches is the sound of the sea starting low then rising, louder louder, intercut with the singing of the
AUBURN GIRL.
    AUBURN GIRL    (
offstage
) My young love said to me
    My father won’t mind
    And my mother won’t slight you
    For your lack of kind.
    WIFE    (
exalting
) It couldn’t be better … Back to his roots … The old stories that his father taught him as a child, the legends,