Youth Is a Sickness

* A Play in Three Acts *

CHARACTERS

MARIE DESIREE IRENE FREDER PETRELL ALT LUCY

The girls are all very young, the men somewhat older.

ACT I

[As in the other two acts, MARIE's room in a boardinghouse.]

SCENE 1

MARIE [at the door to the hallway]: You're going to make me late, Lucy.

LUCY [offstage]: Coming.

MARIE: Bring hot water.

[LUCY enters with a bucket.]

MARIE: You may go.

LUCY: You scrubbing floors?

MARIE [scrubs the floor; laughing]: Friday is my bachelorette party.

LUCY: A bachelorette party without a wedding.

MARIE [laughs]: Graduation is a kind of wedding.

[Bell rings.]

LUCY: Number 4 is calling for his breakfast.

[LUCY exits.]

MARIE [works; after a while]: Daisy. You still in bed?

DESIREE [from her room]: I'm washing.

MARIE [again at the door to the hallway]: Clean water for the windows. And a washrag.

LUCY [from the hallway]: Right away.

SCENE 2

[DESIREE comes out of the adjoining room.]

MARIE: Up so early?

DESIREE: Help me review. Here're the crib notes.

MARIE: What time do you go on?

DESIREE: 10:00.

MARIE [carries on scrubbing]: Read.

DESIREE: Lungs. [She yawns, then stretches.] Why get up so early?

MARIE: You have stage fright?

DESIREE: At the moment I don't feel a thing. Fine. [Reads from notes.] Advanced cavernous tuberculosis. In principle, cavernous tuberculosis does not differ from ordinary progressive tuberculosis, the formation of caverns being only a secondary effect of caseation. [Sets down notes; laughs; puts her legs on the table.] That kid Irene wants to bet me she'll be a doctor first, even though she's two semesters behind me.

MARIE [still busy]: Where do caverns form?

DESIREE [reading again from notes]: In the areas of the primary infection, the upper bronchials, and specifically in the subapical zones. [Sets down notes.] A nasty sort.

MARIE: She's ambitious, but pretty.

DESIREE: A red-haired fish. She'll go far.

MARIE: The smaller caverns ...

DESIREE [reading again from notes]: The smaller caverns occur in relatively minor infections. [Sets down notes.] Freder's doing the maid.

MARIE [aghast]: Lucy?

DESIREE: I caught him slipping out of her room.

MARIE: The swine.

[DESIREE laughs.]

MARIE: That's why the girl's been depressed the last few days.

DESIREE [laughs]: And she limps.

MARIE: Lucy limps?

DESIREE: Whenever a woman gives in to a man who's her superior, she walks in a different way.

MARIE: You're kidding.

DESIREE: Out of fear. Pressure.

MARIE [cautiously]: What about you?

DESIREE: Oh, me. I've been over him a long time now.

MARIE: But you used to be mad about one another.

DESIREE [laughs]: Once upon a time ... He was the first to prove to me that a man can be good for something. Down to the fingertips. Have to do him justice: he's not only strong, he's a virtuoso. [Sighs.] But you can get fed up even with a virtuoso.

MARIE [simply]: You have to be in love, or else you always get fed up.

DESIREE: Love? You call that love, with your bland Boysie?

MARIE [laughs]: Not as bland as all that!

DESIREE [astonished]: No? I can't imagine he has any idea of what a woman needs.

MARIE [smiles]: What does a woman need?

DESIREE [approaches her]: Only women know what women need. [Affectionately] Marion! I call you Marion, my sister's name. Those were the holiest moments in my life: when the governess said good-night, put out the light and left. I would quickly creep into Marion's bed, we would lie there, pressed together, kissing, feeling the warmth of one another's body and knew what it was. It was the warmth of life. Not since I was a child have I ever felt it again.

MARIE [pulls loose]: Listen, I'm not Marion.

DESIREE [smiles]: Why not stay a child all one's life? [Embraces MARIE again.] Then you wouldn't be Marie, but my adorable little Marion.

MARIE: You miss your childhood?

DESIREE: The gentleness, the warmth, even the padded quilt we slept under.

MARIE [pulling loose]: Not me. The present is enough for me. [Goes back to work.]

DESIREE: Why are you drudging away like this?

MARIE: I want to celebrate my graduation in a really spotless room. You get your doctor's degree only once in your life. Student life is over — now things get serious.

DESIREE: Words. Don't kid yourself.

MARIE: If you live by them, they're more than just words.

SCENE 3

[LUCY enters.]

LUCY: I can help you now.

MARIE: Clean water for the windows and the mirror, please.

[LUCY exits with the bucket.]

DESIREE [laughs]: Exchange of glances with the rival.

MARIE: Give me a break.

DESIREE: Did you see the way she looked at me?

[LUCY returns with the bucket.]

LUCY: Here's the clean water.

MARIE: Thank you, my dear.

DESIREE: Is Herr Freder coming today?

[LUCY looks at her in fear and is silent.]

DESIREE: I'm just asking.

MARIE: The room will be spic-and-span, right?

LUCY [dully]: Yes.

DESIREE: You're a pretty girl.

[LUCY stares.]

MARIE: Make sure, Lucy, that everything sparkles today.

DESIREE: I'm serious, you have very pretty eyes.

MARIE: The only thing missing is music.

DESIREE: Somebody might fall in love with you, Fräulein Lucy.

MARIE: A bachelorette party absolutely has to have music.

LUCY [hurriedly]: The gentleman in number 9 is away. He has a gramophone. I'll go and get it.

MARIE: You're an angel.

[LUCY exits rapidly.]

DESIREE [shouting after her]: Be brave, Lucy. I'm your friend. — Poor dumb animal.

MARIE [washing the mirror]: Go on. What happens to the larger caverns?

DESIREE [reading again from notes]: The larger caverns complicate the diagnosis because they may be a reservoir of pus. [Sets down notes.] Did you see her limp?

MARIE: Symptoms?

DESIREE [reading again from notes]: The symptoms of caverns, which almost never occur at the same time, are (a) percussion, (1) tympanatic ring, (2) metallic sound.

MARIE: Metallic sound when?

DESIREE: Only when the wall of the cavern is smooth and taut.

MARIE: Top marks.

[DESIREE yawns.]

MARIE: Too much talent is a disease. You should cram a little for the fun of it.

DESIREE: If I could run away from the classroom as simply as I ran away from home at seventeen, it wouldn't be so hard to take. If there were in the classroom a strict papa waiting to horsewhip me. And a kind, sad, helpless mama, who bursts into tears when I disobey and then puts on a pearl...