Second Floor [Chloe Lyle] Lines

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Chloe: And that’s another thing, cancel my two o’clock, move my three o’clock to ten o’clock tomorrow and my ten o’clock tomorrow to three o’ clock today. I want to know the progress.

Wnedy: Of course Mrs. Lyle.

Chloe: What time is it?

Wendy: Noon.

Chloe: I need to speak to the board.

Wendy: I believe the board will be breaking for lunch.

Chloe: Lunch can wait. I’ve made this company a substantial amount in the past twelve months. I’ve practically paid for their caviar.

Wendy: (smiling) Yes, very good Mrs Lyle.

Chloe: That wasn’t a joke.

Wendy: Of course not Mrs Lyle.

Chloe: I think it’s best you wait here while I speak with them. Impressions are everything. I don’t want you looking like a lost puppy behind me.

Wendy: Here’s a thought, I could assist you with the board. I don’t mind assuming you if you wish for me to…

Chloe: Wendy, how long have you been my assistant?

Wendy: Three months.

Chloe: Do you know why I fired your predecessor?

Wendy: No, Mrs Lyle.

Chloe: Because I like my assistants to do what they are told, not to think. Go!

Wendy: I see Mrs Lyle, I’m sorry. (Pause) Before you go, what did I have to do with your two o’clock appointment?

Chloe: Cancel it, you really are useless aren’t you? Wait here! I’ll explain when I get back.

Wendy: But I thought you wanted me to go.

Chloe: Just go and sit on the bench outside, I’ll be five minutes.

Wendy: Yes Mrs Lyle.

(Wendy exits. Chloe goes into the elevator with Stephen. Elevator breaks)

Chloe: What’s going on? (Pause) No, this can’t be happening. Why aren’t we moving?

Stephen: You can always ask for help.

Chloe: Which button do I use to say we’re trapped in here?

Stephen: How would I know?

Chloe: This is all I need.

Stephen: Those doors will open soon enough you’ll see.

Chloe: I haven’t got time for this.

Stephen: Only because you don’t allow yourself time. Time is a complex thing.

Chloe: What does that even mean? (Looking around her surroundings.) I can’t find the right button.

Stephen: Never mind.

Chloe: Never mind?

Stephen: They’ll have computer or something to pick this up.

Chloe: I thought you didn’t like elevators?

Stephen: What can I say, times change.

Chloe: Is this your doing? Have you done this? Why can’t you just leave me alone?

Stephen: And it’s nice to see you too!

Chloe: Stay away from me.

Stephen: That’s quite a challenge when we’re both stuck in here Chloe. Why do you think I’d do this?

Chloe: It’s the kind of thing you’d do.

Stephen: That sounds very paranoid, are you always this paranoid?

Chloe: I’m not going to dignify that with an answer. (Pause) Where are we?

Stephen: Judging by the panel somewhere near the second floor.

Chloe: You’ve made your point Stephen. Now let me go.

Stephen: Let you go where? Like it or not you’re stuck with me right now.

Chloe: I could always prise the doors open.

Stephen: Prise the doors, you? I’d like to see you try. (Pause) It’s nice to see you’re no longer ignoring me at least.

Chloe: (Ignoring his comment.) Wendy, she might have seen the elevator and alerted someone.

Stephen: You’ve been very persistent ignoring me.

Chloe: (Still ignoring Stephen.) Mind you, I sent her outside and the wretched woman wouldn’t recognise a broken elevator if one fell on her. Where is the bloody button? There must be someone I can talk to.

Stephen: You can talk to me. I never thought I’d say that again. At least you’re now acknowledging me. We may be trapped in here for that to happen, but still it just goes to show every cloud has a silver lining.

Chloe: (She stops.) Don’t you dare say that.

Stephen: Say what?

Chloe: (Angrily) Every cloud has a silver lining, is that what you think? Do you honestly think after the eighteen months I’ve had this could ever be described as a silver lining? (Opens her handbag, takes out a bottle of vodka.) I need a drink.

Stephen: You need to calm down.

Chloe: (Angrily) I’m desperately trying to build a future for myself and to live a happy and successful like and just as I think I’m finally over you, you show up. Why can’t you leave me alone? I hate you Stephen, I really do! I hate you! (Drinks)

Stephen: How long have you been keeping hidden bottles of vodka in your bag?

Chloe: Don’t act like you care.

Stephen: Of course I care Chloe, you’re my wife. You’re still using Lyle as your last name. I heard your assistant. ‘Yes Mrs Lyle, no Mrs Lyle. Three bags full Mrs Lyle’

Chloe: What does that prove?

Stephen: (Pause) I’ve never been your enemy Chloe. I’m not even really sure why you think I am. I still love you, do you know that?

Chloe: I’ve got to get out of here.

Stephen: Why, are you honestly telling me you’ve not wanted a moment like this again? I think about us all the time; the fun we had, the good days out. This is what this is all about isn’t it? The anger and hatred you have at the world. It’s not the world you’re angry at, it’s me.

Chloe: I really have no idea what you’re talking about.

Stephen: Yes you do, you might fool everyone else, but not me. This new high-powered job, the endless hours of work, the nights where you drink yourself to sleep, it’s because of us, it’s because of what I did.

Chloe: Don’t flatter yourself Stephen.

Stephen: Am I wrong?

Chloe: The hours I put in are because I enjoy what I do, I make a difference.

Stephen: And the drink?

Chloe: I have a few to help with the stress, it’s not a problem.

Stephen: And am I meant to believe that? Then of course there’s this new direct way you talk to people. You’re so… angry, you were never angry when we were together.

Chloe: A lot has changed since those days.

Stephen: I can see that.

Chloe: I had to change.

Stephen: You could always change back.

Chloe: No, no I can’t, that’s down to you. (Shouts out.) Can somebody help me! I’m trapped in the elevator! Help, please help me!

Stephen: It’s lunch time, most people will be out. The board won’t hear you from down here, they’re on the tenth, eight floors between us.

Chloe: You’ve planned this perfectly.

Stephen: Don’t be scared, everything is going to be alright.

Chloe: Everything will never be alright. Don’t come anywhere near me, I swear…

Stephen: What are you doing to do, hmm?

(Chloe sits on the floor. There is a pause.)

Stephen: Do you remember when we first met, just a couple of teenagers at high school? I fancied you the moment I saw you, never thought you’d feel the same. We would awkwardly smile as we passed each other in the hallway. Occasionally our eyes would meet from across the class. I thought of a hundred different ways to ask you out. It took me months, maybe a year just to ask if you wanted to meet and study. I was so nervous back then, so were you if I remember correctly. We met up one lunchtime to study, we hardly got anything done. Do you remember? We just talked.

Chloe: I remember those days.

Stephen: Do you ever wish you could go back to those days?

Chloe: This isn’t fair, you know I would.

Stephen: We talked and talked, but both of us were too scared to do anything about it.

Chloe: I’m hardly in the mood to reminisce.

Stephen: Why not? Memories are what makes us, everything we are is down to memories. It shapes us, moulds us, changes us into who we’ll be in the future. I still think back to how nervous I was around you. I remember thinking ‘perhaps she likes me, perhaps she doesn’t’. Of course I now know that it’s exactly what you thought too.

Chloe: I thought maybe you just needed a little help with your homework and I was reading way too much into this.

Stephen: And finally I kissed you, under the old oak tree. That tree was at least two hundred, maybe three hundred years old. It had watched the sun rise and set a thousand times. We engraved our names.

Chloe: We promised we’d always be together. (Solemnly) The lies we promised.

Stephen: They weren’t lies, it was naivety.

Chloe: It was stupidity.

Stephen: If only we could sit under that tree one more time and be the way we once were, young and in love.

Chloe: That tree isn’t there anymore, the whole area is being turned into a shopping centre.

Stephen: Oh, that’s a shame, why would someone cut it down?

Chloe: It’s my name on the development, I personally chose the site.

Stephen: Is that what you do now> Instead of studying history, you wipe it off the face of the earth?

Chloe: It’s called progress.

Stephen: But that was our tree, we had our first kiss there.

Chloe: I’m well aware of that.

Stephen: (Pause) I proposed under that tree.

Chloe: Forget about the bloody tree.

Stephen: (Smiles) The most nervous day of my life.

Chloe: You weren’t nervous.

Stephen: I was, I swear; I hid it very well.

Chloe: But you must have known I’d have said yes.

Stephen: I’d hoped, I was fairly sure, but I had this image in my head of you rejecting me.

Chloe: Rejection, you were my world back then, I’d have done anything for you. It wasn't me who… (Stops herself.) I can hardly look at you, you know that.

Stephen: I know, Am I still your world?

Chloe: Listen to that ego.

Stephen: It was only a question.

Chloe: You want the truth? I barely think of you now.

Stephen: Barely?

Chloe: Yes.

Stephen: So you think of me sometimes?

Chloe: You’re impossible.

Stephen: Tell me something I don’t know.

Chloe: (Stands furiously.) What do you want me to say? I know what you’re trying to do. You think if you can lock us both in here you can smooth talk your way out of what you did, but you can’t, you’ll never be able to. I nearly fell for it as well, bringing back those happy memories, well they aren’t all happy Stephen! If you don’t like who I am now, well that is down to you! There, I said it, happy now? Yes, I throw myself into my work! I drink myself to sleep, I find it better than crying myself to sleep any day! I find excuses to fire anyone who reminds me in the slightest that they’re in love, or that they are happy, and do you think I care? No, I don’t care that it’s not fair, because life isn’t fair. You took my heart and willingly threw it in the fire and for what? Where did it get you? Where did it get me? I have no-one in my life, no-one.

(Chloe sits, she angrily punches the board behind her.)

Stephen: You have friends.

Chloe: No I don’t, I have people who need me, people who look up to me, but people don’t like me. They laugh when I tell them to laugh, they bring me what I want, but at the end of the day when they go home to their families, they don’t care about me at home alone. They don’t think of me. Nobody calls me to ask how I am. They phone because they want or need something. They don’t have the decency to pretend that they contacted me for any other reason. I know a lot of people, but friends? Don’t make me laugh!

Stephen: Perhaps if you weren’t as negative…

(Chloe glares at Stephen. He stops himself from talking, he sits alongside Chloe.)

Stephen: What about your assistant? She could be your friend. (Pause.) Things can never be the same between us, I know that.

Chloe: Then why are you here?

Stephen: I told you.

Chloe: No you didn’t.

Stephen: I did, it was the first thing I said to you today.

Chloe: What did you say?

Stephen: You can always ask for help.

Chloe: I don’t want your help.

Stephen: Okay, I understand, it’s pride. You’re a self-made woman these days, you don’t need me wading in trying to fix your life.

Chloe: You always did feel like it was your job to look after me.

Stephen: No I didn’t.

Chloe: You did, you always had to be the hero. Look where it’s got you, I used to think you were fearless.

Stephen: Aren’t you listening to a word I’ve said? I was scared when we met, I was petrified when I proposed and I’m absolutely terrified right here and right now.

Chloe: Why?

Stephen: I’m scared of what you’re becoming. I promised you on our wedding day that I would always be there for you.

Chloe: It feels so long ago now.

Stephen: I meant those vows, I still mean them. Do you remember those vows?

Yes, I remember them, how could I forget? On our honeymoon you said you read your vows each morning, just so I would know how loved I was.

Stephen: Have you even been back to Greece?

Chloe: No. I don’t ever want to either.S

Stephen: (Intense) What about Flake’s field? Or is that another shopping development?

Chloe: No. That still remains the way it was.

Stephen: At least something is preserved.

Chloe: I try not to think about that place.

Stephen: You had a good time there. You said so yourself. The day the fairground came. I remember the sounds and sights so well. I can still picture it, smell the cold night air. We ate so much junk and my head was dizzy from all the rides, yet still we walked side by side, hand in hand. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard as I did in Flake’s field that evening.

Chloe: (Deep in thought.) You teased me when I laughed as a piece of ‘Digestive’ flew out of my mouth and landed on an old woman in front of me.

Stephen: It was a big piece as well.

Chloe: It wasn’t that big.

Stephen: It was about half.

Chloe: After that you won me a teddy bear on the coconut shy. I called it ‘Biscuit’, to remember the evening. I remember going on the big wheel and reaching the top and we could see the whole city from up there. You were fascinated with the sights and sounds, but all I did was look at you. You said you felt like a giant, I felt like a princess.

(Stephen holds Chloe’s hand. She continues to stare off, distant in her own memories, as she talks.)

Stephen: It’s okay, keep talking if you wish to.

Chloe: (Goes to speak, but stops, she tries again.) The perfect evening for a perfect couple. As I held on to that teddy I look at you and thought I was the luckiest woman alive. It was late and the taxi didn’t arrive, but it’s okay you said, it would be romantic if we walked home.

Stephen: If this is too painful to say…

Chloe: (Turning with anger to Stephen.) Oh but I must, I’ve been choking on these words for eighteen months. (Faces the audience.) We must have walked for twenty minutes or so, before we saw the orange glow from the street ahead. Some poor cow left her hair straighteners on. The house was engulfed. Smoke and fire, that’s all I could see, smoke and fire. Then I heard her “My child” she screamed, “My child...”.

Stephen: What else was I to do…?

Chloe: Without a thought, my hero raced in and saved that poor child from certain death, but you were convinced you heard a scream coming from upstairs…

Stephen: I wasn’t to know…

Chloe: It must have been your imagination, the lady even said that she was alone with her child…

Stephen: I had to be sure…

Chloe: I begged you both times you entered that house, to wait for the fire brigade…

Stephen: But I was so sure somebody was still in the house.

Chloe: (Calm) So off you went, up to the second floor… (stares at Stephen) and you had to go and get yourself killed.

(Pause.)

Stephen: It’s not like I meant to die in that house. I made it once and saved the child; I thought I could do it again.

Chloe: (Shouting) But there was nobody in the house.

Stephen: (Standing and shouting) And I didn’t know that! (Pause) Don’t you think I wanted to be with you? It’s not like I had a choice, the stairs fell. I didn’t get to the second floor, I didn’t stand a chance.

Chloe: (Standing) So what are you anyway, are you stress, are you too much drink? Are you a ghost, or perhaps you’re my conscience? What are you Stephen Lyle, because you’re following me and trapping me in elevators and you’re dead!

Stephen: Does it matter what I am? I’m here to help you, that’s all that counts.

Chloe: When I first saw you last week, I thought you were just a lookalike. Then I thought I was crazy.

Stephen: I’m sorry, I don’t mean for you to get upset..

Chloe: (Laughs) Sorry, did you say you don’t wish to upset me? What did you think would happen? These eighteen months have been the hardest on my life. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy and trust me, I’ve made some enemies around here.

Stephen: That’s what I’m trying to say, you don’t need to have enemies.

Chloe: Why, what are you going to do, haunt them and sort them out for me, dangle your chains?

Stephen: Chains, what chains? This isn’t ‘A Christmas Carol‘!

Chloe: Is this funny to you? Is that what you do in the afterlife, talk with your mates about how funny this is? You destroyed my life! That was not your house and that was not your family, you didn’t need to get involved. If you’d just walked on by, or waited a little longer for that bloody taxi, we’d still have each other.

Stephen: Yes, I sacrificed myself. Listen to yourself for a moment Chloe, you talk about me destroying your life, but at least you still have one. Think who you are talking to. (Pause) Is that what you wanted me to do, leave that child to die? No, I don’t think that’s how you really feel. I understand you’re angry, but you wouldn’t have liked the alternative either, to have stood by and let others suffer, that’s not the man you married.

Chloe: Don't do this please.

Stephen: Do what?

Chloe: Don’t take away my anger! It’s all I have now.

Stephen: And that’s what I’m trying to tell you. You can’t keep living your life like this, the anger you have will destroy you.

Chloe: I don’t care.

Stephen: You should.

Chloe: (Frantic) Why? I told you, I didn’t want to talk about any of this, but you made me. You’re bringing all these emotions to the surface and I need you to stop, I need you to stop please. Why are you doing this?

Stephen: Because I love you, I still love you.

Chloe: That means nothing now, because you’re not here. You’re not here anymore.

(Chloe starts to cry. Stephen embraces her.)

Stephen: It’s okay, let it out Chloe, let it all out.

(There is a pause while Chloe cries onto Stephen’s shoulder, he gently rocks her. After the pause, she gently lets go and wipes her eyes.)

Chloe: I haven’t cried like that in a long time.

Stephen: Letting people see you’re struggling isn’t a negative thing.

Chloe: They all think I’m heartless out there.

Stephen: Yes I suppose they do. (Smiles)

Chloe: (Smiling as she continues to wipe the tears away.) You’re not supposed to agree with me.

Stephen: Sorry. (Pause) You can’t go on like this, you know that, don’t you?

Chloe: It’s easy for you to say, they expect me to go

Stephen: How do you mean?

Chloe: If I’d broken my leg, or I’d hurt my arm badly in some way, people would understand. They’d see me on crutches or a sling and they’d know something was wrong. Perhaps they’d open a door, or offer to carry my bag for me. But when the part of you that is bruised is emotional, they forget so easily. In the early days there were flowers and cards and everyone was so friendly. I think I was a fad, yes that’s it, a cause. They wanted to help, but slowly over time they moved on, they forgot what I was going through. The pain is still with me and nobody can see it. Everybody’s world continues the way it always has done. So I smile and I’m polite, but people forget, they don’t remember that I really need some help.

Stephen: Then remind them, there’s no shame in it. It is cruel that the world keeps turning, but there is nothing you can do about it. You weren’t a fad, they were sincere, I’m sure of it. They all wanted to help. It’s just the way of things Chloe, it’s not their fault they don’t know what is going on in your mind, all they see is the effect. People don’t tend to be that observant at finding the root to the problem. That girl Wendy you hired, what’s her favourite colour?

Chloe: How should I know?

Stephen: Does she have pets?

Chloe: What’s this got to do with anything?