Mary Jane Scene 1 Lines

MJ: And you know when the train stops underground, and you’re like waiting, like okay, train traffic ahead or whatever, but there’s no announcement and after a while the engine cuts out and the lights dim and there’s this collective groan of: “Ohhhhhh no—”

Ruthie: Mm-hm.

MJ: And we had these kids in our car, these break-dancers— you know: “Showtime! What time is it? Showtime!” And they had already done their little— well not little- these guys were actually- I notice some people don’t watch, on principle, they bury their heads in their books or their phones, but I always feel like they’re kids, and I’m sorry, I can’t stand on my hands while the subway car is moving, so I admit it, I’m impressed-

Ruthie: Right.

MJ: So the train is stopped, and they had already done their— and I was the only person who had given them anything- sixty cents, or what was in my pocket, so they’re sort of seething, and the doors to the next cars are locked so they’re stuck, and they’re mad at us, they’re so mad—

Ruthie: Uh-huh

MJ: One of them says, really loudly, he says, “I’d be better off dancing in a forest!” Which I thought was so funny. “In a forest.” But we were stopped more than twenty minutes due to a sick passenger they said.

Ruthie: That happened to me last week.

MJ: Uh-huh?

Ruthie: We were stopped, thirty, forty minutes?

MJ: Yeah?

Ruthie: He said it was someone under the train.

MJ: What?

Ruthie: Yeah, he finally came on, he said we’re delayed due to, uh, due to someone under the train.

MJ: It’s been draining slowly for a while…

Ruthie: Yup.

MJ: I guess I should’ve called you earlier.

Ruthie: It’s usually the bathroom sink.

MJ: Hm?

Ruthie: That gets clogged.

MJ: Right, because of the…

Ruthie: Hair. Yup. Dead skin. (pause) I might have to call the plumber.

MJ: Sorry, Ruthie.

Ruthie: Not your fault. Old pipes.

MJ: You want a Coke?

Ruthie: Yeah. (open cans) You alone here tonight?

MJ: Ronda called out sick.

Ruthie: Which one’s Ronda?

MJ: Um. Short hair?

Ruthie: Nose ring?

MJ: Nose ring?

Ruthie: Yeah.

MJ: Oh no— Luisa. She moved to Florida.

Ruthie: I don’t think I met Ronda.

MJ: You want to meet her?

Ruthie: Yeah, she’s gonna be coming in and out of the building.

MJ: I’ll introduce you. (Pause)

Ruthie: Florida.

MJ: You always lived here, Ruthie?

Ruthie: I was born up in Troy. You know Troy? (MJ shakes head) It’s, uh— never mind. I’ve lived here since I was a teenager. Ran away from home.

MJ: Yeah?

Ruthie: Yeah. (Laughs)

MJ: Why?

Ruthie: The usual reasons.

MJ: Do you have kids?

Ruthie: Uh-huh. (Doesn’t elaborate, pause while MJ checks monitor). You seem to be… You seem to be someone who’s carrying a lot of tension in her body.

MJ: Really?

Ruthie: I’m partly inferring and partly it’s what I see in your body.

MJ: Okay.

Ruthie: You’re very nice, very pleasant, you’re very pleasant and dealing with what you’re dealing with I wonder if you have an outlet for expression or if you’re absorbing that all in your body. It’s just a thought. It might not be a useful thought.

MJ: No it’s / really-

Ruthie: Because that’s how my sister got cancer.

MJ: Oh.

Ruthie: Not to scare you. It was Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which is the good kind you don’t want non-Hodgkin’s. You don’t want non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

MJ: Right.

Ruthie: She’s doing well. She’s NED, that means no evidence of disease.

MJ: Great.

Ruthie: They don’t say cancer-free, that’s not the right, the right thing to say, because actually no one is cancer-free, you have cancers in your body right now, springing up all the time, then your body shuts them down. They say NED, no evidence of disease. She’s doing well.

MJ: I’m so glad.

Ruthie: But chemo was…

MJ: Sure.

Ruthie: It’s poison. They dump poison in your veins. My sister said she could taste it in her mouth, it tasted like metal. Now she does a lot of different things, she’s changed her life around, she meditates, she does tai chi. It’s very inspiring, it’s inspiring to me, because she didn’t have to take such a positive—she could’ve just—. A lot of people do.

MJ: Mm-hm.

Ruthie: I thought maybe I don’t have to get cancer first, I can learn from her. It’s something I wanted to share with you. It might not be useful. It’s an offering. It’s just an offering.

MJ: Thank you.

Ruthie: You’re welcome.

MJ: So you—-

Ruthie: I do yoga, I swim at the Y, I get deep-tissue massage. But that’s just me. There are all different ways to…

MJ: Right.

Ruthie: But it’s the body. That’s what I’ve learned. Your trauma’s written in the cells of your body.

MJ: I feel…I feel…

Ruthie: Uh-huh?

MJ: I feel pretty okay most of the time. I’m tired?

Ruthie: Sure.

MJ: But I think, I think sometimes when other people look at me —ha! People who know what’s going on in / my—

Ruthie: Uh-huh

MJ: They’re like whoa, but actually, being inside it? I don’t know it’s not so…I think they’d be surprised.

Ruthie: As I said, it was an offering.

MJ: Thank you.

Ruthie: You’re welcome. (Pause, monitor) What about the closet door, is that—?

MJ: Perfect. No problem since you fixed / the—

Ruthie: Good.

MJ: I am very tired.

Ruthie: Well / yeah because you—!

MJ: I used to be someone who treasured sleep, I cherished it. Before, if you had asked if there’s one thing I couldn’t do without, I would have said sleep. But…

Ruthie: But you adjust.

MJ: It’s amazing.

Ruthie: it is amazing. It is / amazing.

MJ: Yeah! The things that become just—

Ruthie: What they are.

MJ: When Alex was born, a friend of mine, she’s since moved to San Diego, her father was— anyway she had been through a lot of stuff, and when Alex was born, she said to me, “Mary Jane, you’ll still have good days and bad days.” And at the time I was like what kind of thing is that to say, I couldn’t understand it at all.

Ruthie: Your brain / was—

MJ: I mean it wasn’t a bad thing to say, it just wasn’t…

Ruthie: Great

MJ: No, it wasn’t…

Ruthie: Timely.

MJ: No, uh… But anyway, now I think, what my friend said… now I think that was the best thing, maybe, that anybody said to me at that time, or the truest.

Ruthie. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

MJ: What?

Ruthie: You don’t, uh. You don’t have the window guards up.

MJ: I…oh. Sorry, Ruthie. I took them down. I’m sorry..

Ruthie: Just in here, or in the bedroom too?

MJ: It’s just that he loves looking out the windows, especially when he’s sick and I can’t take him outside? And it seems like such a small thing but the bars actually do bother him.

Ruthie: I understand. it’s just— it’s the law.

MJ: I know.

Ruthie: even if he can’t climb up, I know that.

MJ: I know you know.

Ruthie: But I checked, I did check, and there are no exceptions for…for kids like alice.

MJ: I just thought—you did your job, you installed them, you’re in the clear, it was me who took them down, and if anything happens— I can’t imagine how anything could, but I’ll take responsibility.

Ruthie: But now I saw it. I saw that they’re not in there.

MJ: Right, but… Right. I understand.

Ruthie: I mean I guess— I guess it’s possible I wouldn’t have noticed.

MJ: Yes! You were in here ten minutes / before—

Ruthie: Let’s not talk about it. Let’s not talk about it anymore.

MJ: Okay. (Ruthie moves to not see out the window) Can I just say that I admire your seriousness when it comes to your job. You’re an excellent superintendent. You’re easily the best superintendent I have ever had.

Ruthie: Thank you. (Finishes Coke, goes to sink, plunges). Okay.