MEG: I’m not. I’m only tired.

SCENE THREE

ROY and CORAL.

ROY: Two things!

CORAL: Two. Yes?

ROY: Listen to me.

CORAL: The whole world is listening to you.

ROY: Just two things.

CORAL: Why don’t you help me choose an evening dress to take?

ROY: I’m getting sick of this act.

CORAL: This one?

ROY: Two things. One. My position at school. I can’t go on turning up at school functions with you if you’re going to behave like a ghost. You wander around with that smile, staring into the distance, not seeing anyone, ignoring people.

CORAL: I don’t ignore anyone.

ROY: Just let me speak. You ignore people—

CORAL: I don’t.

ROY: You stare at them like there’s something wrong with them, just stare and smile and say nothing.

CORAL: But I’m not ignoring them. I can’t think of anything to say. I would never ignore anyone.

ROY: Don’t split hairs, Coral. I don’t care how you justify it, you behave in a way that’s too…weird for my liking. I can feel people watching us walk away thinking, how much longer before he has to lock the poor ratbag wife up?

CORAL: People don’t think like that.

ROY: Well, you’re even weirder than I thought if you think like that. It has to stop. I can’t keep moving school to stop you going right over the edge. There’s only so much compassionate ground the Department can keep on giving me. You’ll have to take stock, come back to reality.

CORAL: I mightn’t like it there.

ROY: Try it for a week, for Christ’s sake. Two. Second thing. I miss the boy too. I feel it. I suffer for it. Will you allow me that? Could you let me in on the sadness just a little? Because, Christ, I feel it.

CORAL: It’s everywhere, isn’t it? In the air we breathe.

ROY: But. But. We are not the only ones. We are not the first people in the history of the world to lose a son in war. There is a time for being grief stricken, there’s a time for weeping and wailing and carrying on and beating your breast, but it comes to an end. It has to. Otherwise the whole world would simply stop. Jesus, Coral, in the last war practically every family lost someone or knew someone who died. They managed. They picked themselves up and went on. That’s what history is, people picking themselves up, pulling themselves together and going on. We can’t stop.

CORAL: Do you still think I look like Kim Novak?

ROY: Jesus Christ.

CORAL: You did once.

ROY: There’s no point packing clothes. We won’t go.

CORAL: We need a break. We need a change.