( GIRL ENTERS: WITH SHOPPING BAG…MAKES COMMENTS ABOUT SHOPPING)(MUMBLES: Eggs, forgot the eggs, every time.)

 

Oh, it’s you.

Let me see, no appointment, I’m busy

(She sits and buries her head in a magazine.)

I’d ask how you are going but I honestly don’t give a stuff.

You don’t have any manners do you?

You think you can just turn up, whenever you want, yeah?

Ah but it’s your job isn’t it.

Others greater than you dictate who, when, where.

But for once I wish you’d show some compassion

Forget the address, mix up the names, sleep in, whatever you might do the put off the inevitable.

And that’s the central issue isn’t it – the inevitable.

Inevitable means there is no getting out of it, no respite,

At some point we all meet up with you and there’ll be no arguing.

It must be so satisfying having a foolproof… no returns policy.

I know you’re here,

I know because so often, you intrude on my life.

Not me directly, yet?

But those I love.

My uncle Ned?

You remember?

No? Didn’t think so.

Are they just numbers to you?

You let him suffer.

Do you get off on the pain and suffering of others?

Do you even know what bravery is?

Uncle Ned was the bravest man I ever knew; too stoic for his own good.

He fought you and fought you.

You must have admired his courage.

My cousin on the other hand you took without fanfare or warning.

You just snuffed him out.

Jake was my age, just a boy, on his way to work, what did he ever do to you?

Do you feel anything?

I didn’t understand.

Why him?

I hated you that day.

I hated you.

My uncle and aunt you left devastated, speechless, a catatonic emotional mess.

There are no words at a time like that, anything you mutter is just a meaningless cliché that you say because there is nothing to say. There’s no hope, all you have is the ripping pain in your chest that you fear is going to tear you apart.

I sat and I held my aunt’s hand.

I watched her despair and I had no answer to her question.

Over and over she said ‘ Why him?’

What do you say to that?

I spoke at his funeral. I was nervous, but when the time came, it was clear to me that I was doing something good, for my aunt and uncle and for me.

Does that irritate you?

That you physically take from us but you can never break the bonds that bind us as people, as family.

They are always with us you know, here! Always here.(Touches heart)

I was there the day when you came for my father.

I sat with him as he gave up this life.

Age had ravished his body, he was afraid, but he knew he couldn’t get out of it, unlike Uncle Ned he was ready to go, he had struggled for so long that I was happy when you came for him.

I had held his hand for the week before he died.

You taxed my patience, at times I felt the despair of one who wants the pain to stop.

As I felt his grip on my hand lessen, I knew at last that you had come.

You took his soul, all you left me was a shell.

There was nothing there anymore.

No substance. Nothing.

I want to believe that he has gone to a better place.

Surely the next life has to be better than this one.

No one’s ever come back to complain have they?

I want you to know I don’t fear you.

I know one day, one day you’ll come for me.

If it is now, bring it on.

Yes!

Don’t ever think you’ll surprise me.

(Takes out phone)

Look at that, a cancellation.