Excerpt from “Daily
Sounds”
SCENE 4
(Same room. Shawn is in the same chair, looking at his Blackberry. May walks in. She looks at Shawn for a few seconds, and takes off her coat and hangs it in her closet. She walks slowly towards her chair.)
MAY
The nurse at the doctor’s office didn’t put the right code for the test. The clinic’s computer didn’t accept it. We waited for half an hour at the Imaging Laboratory while a lab technician tried to call the doctor’s office. He could only get a voice recording, and the tape hung up before giving a complete message. (Pause) God, how I hate these people… Nobody does their job right anymore… My sister didn’t want to leave the lab without getting tested. We called the doctor at his house and got a cleaning lady who said he was out playing golf. She gave his beeper number and we finally reached him. He spoke to the technician and they took June to the room where they did bone-scanning… I could see June was a little scared. “Come with me, May”, she said. So I sat in the little room with her while another technician switched on the machine – he was from Korea or China or some place like that, he mixed up his ‘r’s and ‘l’s – and told us that “the breu rights show marignancy.” (Pause) There were blue lights lighting up everywhere, as the scanner swept over her body, and I tried to hold back my tears. June couldn’t see the blue lights, but she knew from my face that things weren’t right. She said, “It’s all over for me, May, isn’t it?” I didn’t say anything, I didn’t have to say anything. She knew… We walked out of the doctor’s office, with June clinging to my arm… She wanted to take the subway to her home, but I insisted on taking a cab… And when we reached her home, she collapsed on her sofa… I sat there with her for half an hour, cradling her head in my lap… And then she looked at me and said, “Leave me now May, I want to be alone.” I hesitated, but she said that her nurse would be coming in a while… So I got up and walked over to the subway…
(Sound of fire engines from the street. Shawn covers his ears.)
MAY
It is only a fire engine, darling.
(Silence.)
MAY
I brought you a sandwich from the corner deli…They didn’t have the pastrami, or corned beef that you like… I bought a turkey and Swiss cheese on rye…
(She takes out the sandwich from its paper bag and brings it over to Shawn.)
MAY (mincingly, looking at Shawn)
Thank you May, thank you.
(Sound of a cars, horns beeping. Shawn unwraps the sandwich, takes a bite, makes a face and puts it down on the floor. May goes to her own chair and sits down.)
MAY
I feel June’s pain… You have to be a twin to know how the other one is feeling … No amount of painkillers can mask physical suffering…
(Shawn gives her a blank stare.)
MAY
The cure is worse than the condition… It is the second time she had her bone marrow pumped out, radiated, and put back.
(Silence.)
MAY
How can I help her, Shawn? If she were a cat, I would know what to do… I would take her to the vet … to be put to sleep…
(Silence. Shawn gets up and throws the uneaten sandwich into a waste paper basket. May is about to say something, but decides against it and sets her mouth in a grim line. Drone of a helicopter. Shawn gets up and wanders unsteadily in the room, mumbling to himself.)
(Lights dim.)