Anna's lines: Blood Harmony. Scene 2

Remebering lines by stating line before.

Stage Directions: Anna appears at the hatch.

Anna: What on earth are you doing here?

Chloe: Do you need me to come down?

Anna: That was the last of them, I thought they were never going to leave.

Stage Directions: Chloe glares at Maia.

Anna: Urgh, flights were a nightmare. Cancellations, delays. They bumped me up in the end but it was like pulling teeth. Let’s not talk about it, here now.

Beat.

Anna: It was a good turnout. Didn’t think she knew so many people. She’d have been pleased.

Beat.

Anna: The ceremony was… interesting.

Maia: interesting how?

Anna: not quite what I envisaged. Not very traditional.

Maia: When was Mum ever traditional?

Anna: Some of her friends found it a little unorthodox.

Maia: Wasn’t for them, it was for her.

Anna: I know that Maia, I’m just saying. They were surprised none of us spoke.

Chloe: Humanist.

Anna: What?

Chloe: It was a humanist ceremony.

Anna: right, well some of it was a bit out there.

Maia: was it?

Anna: Y-

Chloe: Maia.

Anna: and the priest, well he was a bit-

Maia: a bit what

Anna: I mean, was he even a real priest?

Chloe: celebrant he was a / celebrant.

Anna: see, he wasn’t even a real priest, he had one of those tasselly things around his neck, he looked like a cowboy.

Maia: I liked him, I liked what he said, the way he said it.

Anna: It was vague, platitudes, he could’ve been talking about anyone.

Maia: He was talking about her.

Anna: I had to field more than a few questions about it downstairs.

Chloe: The funeral director had it all on file, she’d put money aside with the solicitor, and I’ve spent the last week going through the list, checking things off, making sure it was all perfectly-

Anna: so… what… this was all written in her will?

Maia: Urgh, can we not, please, talk about that, right now.

Anna: I’m just asking a question, Maia.

Chloe: We should probably talk that through, I think that might be a good idea ‘cause I’ve been worrying quite a bit about that actually-

Anne: Why?

Beat.

Anna: She didn’t write one?

Chloe: well, there’s one-

Anna: which is it?

Chloe: she wrote one, we just, don’t know where it is.

Anna: The solicitor will have it.

Chloe: yeah, no, they don’t.

Anna: Call them.

Chloe: I’ve called them.

Anna: let me speak to them.

Maia: and you speaking to them isn’t going to change that.

Anna: They must’ve made a mistake, sometimes these people just need a good dressing down, how can she have not left a will?

Chloe: She wrote one, ages ago, the solicitor had it, then she took it back, she must’ve wanted to change it, so she took it away and she-

Anna: so, what, she binned it/ and never got around to-

Chloe: You’re not listening to me.

Anna: I’m listening Chloe, but you’re not being very clear.

Chloe: I know she wrote one because I heard how she talked about it.

Anna: Okay I’m just putting it out there but is it possible she wasn’t speaking entirely lucidly, her medication?

Maia: she’d had a couple of strokes, she hadn’t lost her marbles!

Anna: I’m asking a question.

Chloe: Before I knew the solicitor had the funeral arrangements I turned the whole place upside down trying to find it and nothing, the only place I didn’t look was up here.

Anna: Why would she keep it up / here? How would she -

Chloe: I’m not saying she did, I don’t know, I’m just saying I literally looked everywhere else.

Anna: Then maybe we should look up here.

Maia: I don’t want to sound like a stuck record but now, do we really have to talk about this / right now.

Anna: Maia, don’t be prickly, it’s not helpful, I’m not saying right now, of course I’m not, I’m trying to make a plan, being practical. Even if we don’t find it, this stuff’s going to need sorting, some of it’s going to need throwing out.

Chloe: I / don’t-

Anna: None of us wants this to drag on any longer than it needs to. Sooner we find it, sooner we can get on with things. I suppose I could push my flight back.

Chloe: When’s your flight?

Anna: Monday.

Maia: This Monday?

Anna: Yes this Monday and I’m saying I can stay a little longer.

Maia: So then stay.

Anna: That’s what I’m suggesting.

Maia: So then do that.

Anna: I will.

Maia: How long’s ‘a little longer’ exactly?

Anna: A few days.

Maia: wow.

Anna: My life is there now, Maia, I know you’ve never quite got your head around that, I am offering to stay a few more days, I want to stay, to be here, I would like that.

Chloe: I’d like that too.

Anna: Fine, settled, now I don’t know about you but I want to get out of these things. Chloe, be a doll and bring my case up, will you?

Chloe: you’re staying?

Anna: of course I’m staying!

Chloe: I assumed, I don’t know, a hotel.

Anna: I’m not getting a hotel, I want to be here, with you!

Chloe: or come in with me but it’ll be a squeeze.

Anna: Wait-

Maia: She can sleep on the sofa.

Anna: I’m not sleeping on the sofa-

Maia: Until we sort things out she’ll be fine on the sofa-

Anna: I need my own space, I don’t understand, what’s wrong with my room?

Beat.

Anna: What do you mean my room isn’t - I just walked right by the door.

Chloe: there’s not even a bed.

Anna: But it’s my room.

Chloe: since you were here last.

Anna: I was here last year.

Chloe: Maia!

Anna: Year before then.

Maia: I’m talking here in this house, not the last time you were in the country Anna, I’m not talking one of the times Mum schlepped into London so you could squeeze in a coffee and a toastie between buisness meetings, I’m talking about here, right here.

Anna: Two years /, two or three.

Maia: Six, it’s six.

Anna: it’s three at the most, I should know.

Maia: since before your wedding.

Anna: it can’t be, that was-

No one dares move, then Chloe goes to console her.

Anna: don’t! I’m fine!

Chloe: This is my fault, I didn’t think things through, I should’ve checked your plans-

Anna: it’s fine-

Chloe: I should’ve sorted something-

Anna: Honestly, it’s-

Chloe: cleared that room out or-

Anna: It’s okay, I’ll take your room.

Chloe: O… kay-

Anna: I’ll take your room and we can, we can talk about this in the morning, can’t we, and you’ll sort something out, won’t you?

Chloe: Yeah…

Anna: I’ll get my bag, then I need to sleep. Everything’s just hit me all at once. The flight, today, everything.