| DEIRDRE and POLLY. | |
| DEIRDRE | I’m going to hospital on Monday. |
| POLLY | Nothing serious? |
| DEIRDRE | No not at all but I’ve got to swallow a tube. |
| POLLY | I could go with you if you like. |
| DEIRDRE | No, it’s nothing, I’ve done it before. You can do it with drugs or without. |
| POLLY | With. |
| DEIRDRE | I did do with the first time, I wasn’t given a choice, but last time they said it only takes a couple of minutes do you want to try without. I said how often do people do that and they said about fifty fifty and I said and what do they say about it afterwards and they said oh they’re fine about it, honestly, but of course if you haven’t anything to do this afternoon and don’t mind being drugged up – so put like that of course it was a challenge. |
| POLLY | And was it horrible? |
| DEIRDRE | The worst bit’s when it goes over the throat. You have to keep breathing deeply, like being in labour except not. But everything taking second place to your body. And when it’s over you feel terrific. I walked home because I’d got a whole extra afternoon but that was stupid because I got exhausted because I hadn’t eaten or drunk anything since half past seven. And of course at the time I thought it was good not putting poison in my body but afterwards I thought they were just trying to save money. |
| POLLY | Of course they were. Didn’t you realise that? |
| DEIRDRE | So maybe on Monday I’ll have the drugs. |
| POLLY | I’d definitely have the drugs. |
| DEIRDRE | I probably will. Yes I think I’ll definitely go for the drugs. |
Hong Kong