(To the others): And she teaches second graders?!
(Barbara enters with Benjamin behind.)
BARBARA: I leave for one second. We could hear you on the porch.
If I want to hear stupid arguing I can watch television.
Not here.
(Short pause.)
RICHARD (Under his breath): “Them” . . .
JANE (To Benjamin): How was the voting? Did you color in the right bubbles?
BENJAMIN (In a sudden panic): The “right” ones?
JANE: I mean the correct ones.
RICHARD: Did you vote Democrat, Uncle?
BENJAMIN: I don’t know . . .
(He sits, looks at Barbara for help.)
BARBARA: I wasn’t there.
(Short pause.)
RICHARD (To Barbara): How’s Toby?
BENJAMIN: Who’s Toby?
BARBARA (Stops): I think we closed the kitchen door.
RICHARD: I better check . . .
TIM (To no one): I can check!
(As Richard heads off:)
RICHARD: Don’t people close doors in the country?
(He is gone.
Short pause.)
BARBARA (Calls): I’m sure we closed it!
(They look at each other. Then:)
MARIAN (To say something): It was very crowded earlier. The town hall. A lot of old people . . .
JANE: So you said . . .
MARIAN: At least we have Benjamin’s vote.
(Then, as they watch Benjamin eat:)
Maybe.
(The lights fade.)
Clearing the Table
A short time later. Richard has not returned. All except Benjamin have finished eating; their plates rest on their laps or on the floor or one of the tables.
JANE (To Benjamin): Do you remember playing Gaev? In The Cherry Orchard?
BENJAMIN (Eating): No. I don’t remember that production at all, unfortunately. I have a poster of it.
BARBARA: I put it up in his room.
JANE: That was a good idea.
BARBARA: Might help him—
JANE: Yes.
BENJAMIN: I’ve met people who remember seeing it.
(The siblings look at each other.)
MARIAN: You have? And you remember them?
BENJAMIN (Without answering the question): But I don’t remember being in it, saying any of the lines. I’m immensely proud of the play. I couldn’t tell you any of the lines. Probably if my memory were not affected by my illness I could remember more. Perhaps not.
(Short pause.)
JANE: I thought you were wonderful in it.
BENJAMIN: I would love to do it again. Someone has to ask me I suppose. Actors have to be asked, don’t they?
JANE: Tim’s an actor, Uncle.
TIM: Can I ask you something? (To the others) Jane and I were talking about this in the car on the way here . . . (To Benjamin) Is there a point where your memory stops? Do you remember some things, and then it just . . .?
BENJAMIN: I think the only trouble I have remembering—I don’t remember the heart attack, and everything after that. But I can remember . . . I did a reading.
TIM: I saw that. I was there.
BENJAMIN (To Barbara): Of Oscar Wilde?
BARBARA (Smiling): That’s right.
BENJAMIN: And I remember on the back of the program were all the parts I’d played. And I can certainly remember some of them.
TIM: Which ones?
(Pause.)
MARIAN: Sometimes, Uncle, I think you tell us what you think we want to hear. And then we probe . . .
(She looks at her siblings.)
JANE: Do you remember playing the piano?
BENJAMIN: I do remember playing the piano. I don’t play it very much now.
MARIAN: Then sometimes you do play now?
(She looks to Barbara, who shakes her head.)
Barbara has a piano.
BENJAMIN (Ignoring her comment): I was a good pianist. I was an amateur. If I was playing something I knew and understood well, I was really good. And people would take pleasure in it. I was lucky because I started the piano very young.
JANE: You also liked to sing.
BENJAMIN: I did.
JANE: You used to sing to us when we were kids. Do you remember doing that?
BENJAMIN: Of course.
BARBARA: Do you remember what you’d sing?
(They wait.)
MARIAN (To Tim): He was around a lot. He helped raise us. Especially me and Jane.
BARBARA: Especially them.
JANE (Smiling): I remember you singing “Surrey with the Fringe on Top.” (To Tim) This was even before Dad left. And tell us stories. He has wonderful stories.
BARBARA: I remember— (Softly sings:)
Sweetly she sleeps, my—Barbara—fair . . .
