Tea and Sympathy Page 4
Yeah. Keep it down to a shout, will you?
RALPH
Oh, yes, sir. Sorry, I didn't know I was disturbing you, Mr. Reynolds.
BILL (Comes back and talks with PHIL at the bend in the stairway)
Phil, you come on up to the lodge around . . . Let's see . . . We'll open the lodge around July first, so you plan to come up say, July third, and stay for two weeks. Okay?
PHIL
That'll be swell, sir.
BILL
Frank Hocktor's coming then. You get along with Frank, don't you? He's a regular guy.
PHIL
Oh, sure.
BILL
The float's all gone to pieces. We can make that your project to fix it up. Okay?
PHIL
Thanks a lot, Mr. Reynolds. (He goes on up the stairs.)
BILL
See you.
(He comes in and crosses to phone and starts to call.)
LAURA (Off stage)
Tom?
(BILL looks around in the direction of the voice, but says nothing.)
LAURA (Comes on)
Oh, Bill. Tom was down trying on his costume. I thought . . . You're early.
BILL
Yes. I want to catch the Dean before he leaves his office.
(LAURA goes up to him to be kissed, but he's too intent on the phone, and she compromises by kissing his cheek)
Hello, this is Mr. Reynolds. Is the Dean still in his office?
LAURA
What's the matter, Bill?
BILL
Nothing very pretty. Oh? How long ago? All right. Thanks. I'll give him a couple of minutes, then I'll call him home.
(Hangs up)
Well, they finally caught up with Harris.
(He goes into the next room to take off his iacket.)
LAURA
What do you mean, "caught up" with him?
BILL (Off stage)
You're going to hear it anyhow . . . so . . . last Saturday they caught him down in the dunes, naked.
LAURA (Crosses to close door to hall)
What's wrong with that?
BILL (Enters and crosses to fireplace and starts to go through letters propped there. He has taken off his jacket)
He wasn't alone.
LAURA
Oh.
BILL
He was lying there naked in the dunes, and one of the students was lying there naked too. Just to talk about it is disgusting.
LAURA
I see.
BILL
I guess you'll admit that's something.
LAURA
I can't see that it's necessarily conclusive.
BILL
With a man like Harris, it's conclusive enough.
(Then casually)
The student with him was --
LAURA (Interrupting)
I'm not sure I care to know.
BILL
I'm afraid you're going to have to know sooner or later, Laura. It was Tom Lee.
(TOM rises from bed, grabs a towel and goes out up the stairs. LAURA just looks at BILL and frowns.)
BILL
Some of the boys down on the Varsity Club outing came on them . . . or at least saw them . . . And Fin Hadley saw them too, and he apparently used his brains for once and spoke to the Dean.
LAURA
And?
BILL
He's had Harris on the carpet this aftemoon. I guess he'll be fired. I certainly hope so. Maybe Tom too, I don't know.
LAURA
They put two and two together?
BILL
Yes, Laura.
LAURA
I suppose this is all over school by now.
BILL
I'm afraid so.
LAURA
And most of the boys know.
BILL
Yes.
LAURA
So what's going to happen to Tom?
BILL (Takes pipe from mantelpiece and cleans it)
I know you won't like this, Laura, but I think he should be kicked out. I think you've got to let people know the school doesn't stand for even a hint of this sort of thing. He should be booted.
LAURA
For what?
BILL
Look, a boy's caught coming out of Ellie Martin's rooms across the river. That's enough evidence. Nobody asks particulars. They don't go to Ellie's rooms to play Canasta. It's the same here.
LAURA (Hardly daring to suggest it)
But, Bill . . . you don't think . . . I mean, you don't think Tom is . . .
(She stops. BILL looks at her a moment, his answer is in his silence)
Oh, Bill!
BILL
And I'm ashamed and sorry as hell for his father. Herb Lee was always damned good to me . . . came down from college when I was playing football here . . . helped me get into college . . . looked after me when I was in college and he was in law school . . . And I know he put the boy in my house hoping I could do something with him.
(He dials number.)
LAURA
And you feel you've failed.
BILL
Yes.
(He pauses)
With your help, I might say.
(Busy signal. He hangs up.)
LAURA
How?
BILL
Because, Laura, the boy would rather sit around here and talk with you and listen to music and strum his guitar.
LAURA
Bill, I'm not to blame for everything. Everything's not my fault.
BILL (Disregarding this)
What a lousy thing for Herb.
(He looks at a small picture of a team on his desk)
That's Herb. He was Graduate Manager of the team when I was a sophomore in college. He was always the manager of the teams, and he really wanted his son to be there in the center of the picture.
LAURA
Why are you calling the Dean?
BILL
I'm going to find out what's being done.
LAURA
I've never seen you like this before.
BILL
This is something that touches me very closely. The name of the school, its reputation, the reputation of all of us here. I went here and my father before me, and one day I hope our children will come here, when we have them. And, of course, one day I hope to be headmaster.
LAURA
Let's assume that you're right about Harris. It's a terrible thing to say on the evidence you've got, but let's assume you're right. Does it necessarily follow that Tom --
BILL
Tom was his friend. Everyone knew that.
LAURA
Harris encouraged him in his music.
BILL
Come on, Laura.
LAURA
What if Tom's roommate, Al, or some other great big athlete had been out with Harris?
BILL
He wouldn't have been.
LAURA
I'm saying what if he had been? Would you have jumped to the same conclusion?
BILL
It would have been different. Tom's always been an off-horse. And now it's quite obvious why. If he's kicked out, maybe it'll bring him to his senses. But he won't change if nothing's done about it.
(LAURA turns away. BILL starts to look over his mail again)
Anyway, why are you so-concerned over what happens to Tom Lee?
LAURA
I've come to know him. You even imply that I am somewhat responsible for his present reputation.
BILL
All right. I shouldn't have said that. But you watch, now that it's out in the open. Look at the way he walks, the way he sometimes stands.
LAURA
Oh, Bill!
BILL
All right, so a woman doesn't notice these things. But a man knows a queer when he sees one.
(He has opened a letter. Reads)
The bookstore now has the book you wanted . . . The Rose and The Thorn . What's that?
&n
bsp; LAURA
A book of poems. Do you know, Bill, I'll bet he doesn't even know the meaning of the word . . . queer.
BILL
What do you think he is?
LAURA
I think he's a nice sensitive kid who doesn't know the meaning of the word.
BILL
He's eighteen, or almost. I don't know.
LAURA
How much did you know at eighteen?
BILL
A lot.
(At the desk he now notices the Canada literature)
What are these?
LAURA
What?
BILL
These.
LAURA
Oh, nothing.
BILL (He throws them in wastebasket, then notices her look)
Well, they're obviously something.
(He takes them out of wastebasket.)
LAURA (The joy of it gone for her)
I was thinking we might take a motor trip up there this summer.
BILL (Dialing phone again)
I wish you'd said something about it earlier. I've already invited some of the scholarship boys up to the lodge. I can't disappoint them.
LAURA
Of course not.
BILL
If you'd said something earlier.
LAURA
It's my fault.
BILL
It's nobody's fault, it's just -- Hello, Fitz, Bill Reynolds -- I was wondering if you're going to be in tonight after supper . . . Oh . . . oh, I see . . . Supper? Well, sure I could talk about it at supper. . . . Well, no, I think I'd better drop over alone. . . . All right. I'll see you at the house then . . . Good-bye.
(LAURA looks at him, trying to understand him. BILL comes to her to speak softly to her. Seeing him come, she holds out her arms to be embraced, but he just takes her chin in his hand.)
BILL
Look, Laura, when I brought you here a year ago, I told you it was a tough place for a woman with a heart like yours. I told you you'd run across boys, big and little boys, full of problems, problems which for the moment seem gigantic and heartbreaking. And you promised me then you wouldn't get all taken up with them. Remember?
LAURA
Yes.
BILL
When I was a kid in school here, I had my problems too. There's a place up by the golf course where I used to go off alone Sunday afternoons and cry my eyes out. I used to lie on my bed just the way Tom does, listening to phonograph records hour after hour.
(LAURA, touched by this, kneels at his side)
But I got over it, Laura. I learned how to take it.
(LAURA looks at him. This touches her)
When the headmaster's wife gave you this teapot, she told you what she tells all the new masters' wives. You have to be an interested bystander.
LAURA
I know.
BILL
Just as she said, all you're supposed to do is every once in a while give the boys a little tea and sympathy. Do you remember?
LAURA
Yes, I remember. It's just that . . .
BILL
What?
LAURA
This age -- seventeen, eighteen -- it's so . . .
BILL
I know.
LAURA
John was this age when I married him.
BILL
Look, Laura . . .
LAURA
I know. You don't like me to talk about John, but . . .
BILL
It's not that. It's . . .
LAURA
He was just this age, eighteen or so, when I married him. We both were. And I know now how this age can suffer. It's a heartbreaking time . . . no longer a boy . . . not yet a man . . . Bill? Bill?
BILL (Looks at her awkwardly a moment, then starts to move off)
I'd better clean up if I'm going to get to the Dean's for supper. You don't mind, do you?
LAURA (Very quietly)
I got things in for dinner here. But they'll keep.
BILL (Awkwardly)
I'm sorry, Laura. But you understand, don't you? About this business?
(LAURA shakes her head, "No." BILL stands over her, a little put out that she has not understood his reasoning. He starts to say something several times, then stops. Finally he notices the Five-and-Dime engagement ring around her neck. He touches it)