some damaged thing.
BARBARA: You might have told us.
IVY: You weren’t going to tell us about you and Bill.
BARBARA: That’s different.
IVY: Why? Because it’s you, and not me?
BARBARA: No, because divorce is an embarrassing public admission of defeat. Cancer’s fucking cancer, you can’t help that. We’re your sisters. We might’ve given you some comfort.
IVY: I just don’t feel that connection very keenly.
KAREN: I feel very connected, to both of you.
IVY (Amused) : We never see you, you’re never around, you haven’t been around for—
KAREN: But I still feel that connection!
IVY: You think if you tether yourself to this place in mind only, you don’t need to actually appear.
KAREN: You know me that well.
IVY: No, and that’s my point. I can’t perpetuate these myths of family or sisterhood anymore. We’re all just people, some of us accidentally connected by genetics, a random selection of cells. Nothing more.
BARBARA: When did you get so cynical?
IVY: That’s funny coming from you.
BARBARA: Bitter, sure, but “random selection of cells”?
IVY: Maybe my cynicism flowered with the realization that the obligation of caring for our parents was mine alone.
BARBARA: Don’t give me that. I participated in every goddamn—
IVY: Until you had enough and got out, you and Karen.
BARBARA: I had my own family to think about.
IVY: That’s a cheap excuse. As if by having a child you were alleviated of all responsibility.
BARBARA: So now I’m being criticized for procreating.
IVY: I’m not criticizing. Do what you want. You did, Karen did.
BARBARA: And if you didn’t, that’s not my fault.
IVY: That’s right, so don’t lay this sister thing on me now, all right? I don’t buy it. I haven’t bought it for a long time. When I leave here and leave for good I won’t feel any more guilty than you two did.
KAREN: Who says we don’t?
BARBARA: Are you leaving here?
IVY: Charles and I are going to New York.
(Barbara bursts out laughing.)
BARBARA: What the hell are you going to do in New York?
IVY: We have plans.
BARBARA: Like what?
IVY: None of your business.
BARBARA: You can’t just go to New York.
IVY: This isn’t whimsy. This isn’t fleeting. This is unlike anything I’ve ever felt, for anybody. Charles and I have something rare, and extraordinary, something very few people ever have.
KAREN: Which is what?
IVY: Understanding.
BARBARA: What about Mom?
IVY: What about her?
BARBARA: You feel comfortable leaving Mom here?
IVY: Do you?
(No response.)
You think she was difficult while Dad was alive? Think about what it’s going to be like now. You can’t imagine the cumulative effect, after a month, after a year, after many years. You can’t imagine. And even if you could, you can only imagine for yourself, for yourself, the favorite.
BARBARA: Christ, Mom pulled that on me the other day about Dad, that I was his favorite.
IVY: Well . . . that’s not true. You weren’t his favorite. I was. You’re Mom’s favorite.
BARBARA: What?
KAREN: Thanks, Ivy.
IVY: You don’t think so? Good God, Barb, I’ve lived my life by that standard.
BARBARA: She said Dad was heartbroken when we moved to Boulder—
IVY: Mom was heartbroken, not Dad. She was convinced you left to get away from her.
KAREN: If you were Daddy’s favorite, you must take his suicide kind of personally.
IVY: Daddy killed himself for his own reasons.
BARBARA: And what were those reasons?
IVY: I won’t presume.
BARBARA: Aren’t you angry with him?
IVY: No. He’s accountable to no one but himself. If he’s better off now, and I don’t doubt he is, who are we to begrudge him that?
BARBARA: His daughters.
KAREN: Yeah—
BARBARA: And I’m fucking furious. The
BARBARA: You might have told us.
IVY: You weren’t going to tell us about you and Bill.
BARBARA: That’s different.
IVY: Why? Because it’s you, and not me?
BARBARA: No, because divorce is an embarrassing public admission of defeat. Cancer’s fucking cancer, you can’t help that. We’re your sisters. We might’ve given you some comfort.
IVY: I just don’t feel that connection very keenly.
KAREN: I feel very connected, to both of you.
IVY (Amused) : We never see you, you’re never around, you haven’t been around for—
KAREN: But I still feel that connection!
IVY: You think if you tether yourself to this place in mind only, you don’t need to actually appear.
KAREN: You know me that well.
IVY: No, and that’s my point. I can’t perpetuate these myths of family or sisterhood anymore. We’re all just people, some of us accidentally connected by genetics, a random selection of cells. Nothing more.
BARBARA: When did you get so cynical?
IVY: That’s funny coming from you.
BARBARA: Bitter, sure, but “random selection of cells”?
IVY: Maybe my cynicism flowered with the realization that the obligation of caring for our parents was mine alone.
BARBARA: Don’t give me that. I participated in every goddamn—
IVY: Until you had enough and got out, you and Karen.
BARBARA: I had my own family to think about.
IVY: That’s a cheap excuse. As if by having a child you were alleviated of all responsibility.
BARBARA: So now I’m being criticized for procreating.
IVY: I’m not criticizing. Do what you want. You did, Karen did.
BARBARA: And if you didn’t, that’s not my fault.
IVY: That’s right, so don’t lay this sister thing on me now, all right? I don’t buy it. I haven’t bought it for a long time. When I leave here and leave for good I won’t feel any more guilty than you two did.
KAREN: Who says we don’t?
BARBARA: Are you leaving here?
IVY: Charles and I are going to New York.
(Barbara bursts out laughing.)
BARBARA: What the hell are you going to do in New York?
IVY: We have plans.
BARBARA: Like what?
IVY: None of your business.
BARBARA: You can’t just go to New York.
IVY: This isn’t whimsy. This isn’t fleeting. This is unlike anything I’ve ever felt, for anybody. Charles and I have something rare, and extraordinary, something very few people ever have.
KAREN: Which is what?
IVY: Understanding.
BARBARA: What about Mom?
IVY: What about her?
BARBARA: You feel comfortable leaving Mom here?
IVY: Do you?
(No response.)
You think she was difficult while Dad was alive? Think about what it’s going to be like now. You can’t imagine the cumulative effect, after a month, after a year, after many years. You can’t imagine. And even if you could, you can only imagine for yourself, for yourself, the favorite.
BARBARA: Christ, Mom pulled that on me the other day about Dad, that I was his favorite.
IVY: Well . . . that’s not true. You weren’t his favorite. I was. You’re Mom’s favorite.
BARBARA: What?
KAREN: Thanks, Ivy.
IVY: You don’t think so? Good God, Barb, I’ve lived my life by that standard.
BARBARA: She said Dad was heartbroken when we moved to Boulder—
IVY: Mom was heartbroken, not Dad. She was convinced you left to get away from her.
KAREN: If you were Daddy’s favorite, you must take his suicide kind of personally.
IVY: Daddy killed himself for his own reasons.
BARBARA: And what were those reasons?
IVY: I won’t presume.
BARBARA: Aren’t you angry with him?
IVY: No. He’s accountable to no one but himself. If he’s better off now, and I don’t doubt he is, who are we to begrudge him that?
BARBARA: His daughters.
KAREN: Yeah—
BARBARA: And I’m fucking furious. The
Similar Books
