Scene 1 Flashcards
Opening
Mother! Mother it’s time to go.
Bubby! I wrote you a letter to read at the hospital
I’ve got all your paperwork
Are you going to play spill and spell at the hospital?
I haven’t seen that game in years. I thought it was lost
It wasn’t lost in the mail. It came. The letter came. It wasn’t lost.
Mother. I’m packing your blue sweater. Your room might be chilly
I’ll miss you, Bubby
Is your grandfather ready?
How’s your stomach?
Mother, I’m packing your medicines. Just in case. They should have it on your chart, but just in case. I’ll be with you most of the time, anyway.
I’ll write you letters while I’m gone for the summer.
Would you rather have your brown sweater?
However long God wills me to be in the hospital, that’s how long I’ll be in the hospital.
Mother! Where’s my jacket?
I’ll play Spill and Spell with you when I come home from camp!
All set?
Go on. Your mother and I will be down in a minute.
Mother, the car’s waiting.
You should have these
What is it?
My letters from camp
Mother, we have to leave
Come here. Sit down. Open the box.
I don’t understand
These are my letters…I was in a labor camp
A labor camp?
During the war.
A concentration camp?
I’ll write to you.
Here’s your name
What?
This envelope has your name on it
Yes.
Gepperssdorf. Where’s Geppersdorf?
It was Geppersdorf. A camp
A concentration camp?
No. A labor camp. You don’t know anything.
How should I know about something you never, never mentioned? Not to me, not to the girls
You knew I was in the war
Yes, but this is different from any of the stories you’ve told us
So now I tell you.
There must be hundreds of pieces of paper here
I never counted.
Who wrote all these letters?
My sisters… Ala wrote me for a very long while.
Who was Ala?
A friend from the camps
Camps? More than one?
Three or four. I don’t remember.
You were in three or four different camps?
Maybe five?
Five?
It was a long time ago.
You were in five different labor camps
No. It was seven.
Seven!
Yes. Let’s go.
Wait. How did you save all these letters?
I hid them
I can’t wrap my mind around this. How did you get mail? You got letters? In a camp?
Yes.
And you saved them? How did you- (manage to hide all these letters)
They were important to me.
So important you never told me about them? Where are these people now?
Your Aunt Rose is in Brooklyn.
Yes of course. But what happened to the others?
Most of them didn’t survive the war. I’m tired now. Let’s go.
Okay. We’ll look at these later.
The letters are yours now.
We can talk about them later. After you come back home from the hospital. Do you have everything?
I don’t need much.
Mother!
What?
Stop worrying.
Who’s worried?
They do bypass surgery everyday. It’s a common procedure.P
Puh puh. Take care of the letters.
Mother.
