The Glory of Living by Rebecca Gilman A2S6 pgs. 78-83 Lisa lines

start of scene

LISA: Hey.

CARL: I see you have your piano.

LISA: Yeah.

CARL: Shall we? [He gestures toward the chair.] 

LISA: Okay. [She sits.] 

CARL: I filed for appeal. I don't have any real sense of what will happen, though, to be honest. The review usually takes quite a while. [Beat]

LISA: I’m sorry I made you so mad.

CARL: You didn’t make me mad.

LISA: I know I didn’t do good.

CARL: I don’t know why you say that.

LISA: Cuz I lost.

CARL: Well, I’m sorry not to have won for you. I think that some of my tactics may have … alienated the jury.

LISA: [laughs] You pissed ‘em off.

CARL: Yes. Well.

LISA: Half of them guys beat the shit out of their wives. And them wives, they say, “Shit, I git beat up, I don’t go killin’ nobody over it.”

CARL: You could be right.

LISA: It's okay. I wish you wouldn’t feel bad.

CARL: For Christ’s sake, Lisa! You’re going to the electric chair.

LISA: I still wish you wouldn’t feel bad. It ain’t your fault.

CARL: I just … let me feel bad, if I want to feel bad. [Pause] Are you getting everything you need in here?

LISA: I guess. I did like it better before I lost. I don’t get to see nobody else now. I gotta eat by myself.

CARL: You liked being around other prisoners

LISA: It wasn’t all bad.

CARL: Well, I'm sorry you had so much time to get to know them.

LISA: But this ain’t so bad. I got my own room. And they let me go outside every day.

CARL: That's good. [Hands her an envelope] These are the transcripts of your testimony. I want you to start by reading back what you said, and seeing if there's anything you left out, that you can remember now.

Lisa: How long before they kill me?

CARL: What?

LISA: How long?

CARL: But what about the appeal?

LISA: Yeah, but after that.

CARL: I’m hoping to reverse the judge’s decision.

LISA: Okay, but after that.

CARL: [sighs] Well, there’s only one other prisoner here on death row, and it's been 10 years since she was convicted.

LISA: [quietly pleased] Wow.

CARL: [shaking his head] I can’t even begin to understand you.

LISA: Yeah. But I appreciate that you try. [Long pause. Carl stares at her. He looks as if he might cry. He looks down at his notes. Beat. Lisa pushes the piano towards him.] Here.

CARL: What?

LISA: It’s all I got, an’ I want to give it to you.

CARL: I can’t take this.

LISA: [she pushes it in front of him] I wish it wasn’t busted.

CARL: This is too precious to you. I can’t.

LISA: [She plinks a couple of keys. Carl studies her.] Go on. Take it. [Pause. He stares at her.] Look, I want to give it to you. [Small beat. Conceding something, to get him to take it.] It's like you said. It's important to me. [Carl looks at her, then at the piano, then slowly, he taps out the opening to ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’, on it.] Hey! That's good! I couldn’t never play nothin’ on it. Daddy just gave it to me. He didn’t show me how it worked.

CARL: That's a shame. [standing] It is. Come around here. [she hesitates] Come on. I’ll show you.

LISA: Okay. I guess. [She gets up, comes around the table.]

CARL: Okay. Now, sit down. [She sits] Now, this is not a full keyboard, obviously. But here, you have your white keys, and black keys. Each key is a note, and each note has a name. Here. See this? This is the key to know. This is the middle C.

LISA: [Tapping it] Middle C.

CARL: [tapping] Up two to E.

LISA: [tapping slowly] C, D, E.

CARL: Good. Now watch. [Taps out the first notes of the song, just up to the point it skips to G, and stops.] Try that far.

LISA: [to herself, picking out the tune and naming the notes. Carl helps her out along the way.] E D C D, E E E, D D D, E. [looks up, smiling.] Hey!

CARL: [Points] Now G twice. [Lisa reaches out, taps G twice] Okay. Now, back to the beginning. E, D, C, D, E E E… [Lisa plays it. Carl reaches over her shoulder, finishes the song, playing and singing.] ‘Whose fleece was white as snow.’

LISA: [mimics him, playing and singing.] ‘Whose fleece was white as snow.’

CARL: Right, back to middle C.

LISA: [taps the middle C again, looks at piano, looks up] Teach me another one.