Read A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur for Free Online

you to sleep.
    [
Miss Gluck slowly rises with coffee and crullers. Bodey conducts her gently to the door
.]
    MISS GLUCK [
crying out
]:
Ich bin allein, allein! In der Welt, freundlos!
    BODEY: No, no, Sophie, that is negative thinking.
    MISS GLUCK:
Ich habe niemand in der Welt!
    BODEY: Sophie, God is with you, I’m with you. Your mother, all your relations are waiting for you in Heaven!
    [
Shepherding Miss Gluck into the hall, Bodey repeats this assurance in German
.]
    HELENA: Sometimes despair is just being realistic, the only logical thing for certain persons to
feel
. [
She addresses herself with a certain seriousness, now
.] Loss. Despair. I’ve faced them and actually they have—fortified and protected, not overcome me at all . . .
    BODEY [
in the hall with Miss Gluck
]: Okay?
Verstehst du
, Sophie?
    HELENA [
still ruminating privately
]: The weak. The strong. Only important division between living creatures. [
She nods birdlike affirmation
.]
    [
Miss Gluck remains visible in the hall, afraid to return upstairs
.]
    MISS GLUCK:
Allein, allein
.
    [
There is a change in the light. Helena moves a small chair downstage and delivers the following to herself
.]
    HELENA:
Allein, allein
means alone, alone. [
A frightened look appears in her eyes
.] Last week I dined alone, alone three nights in a row. There’s nothing lonelier than a woman dining alone, and although I loathe preparing food for myself, I cannot bear the humiliation of occupying a restaurant table for one. Dining
au solitaire!
But I would rather starve than reduce my socialstandards by accepting dinner invitations from that middle-aged gaggle of preposterously vulgar old maids that wants to suck me into their group despite my total abhorrence of all they stand for. Loneliness in the company of five intellectually destitute spinsters is simply loneliness multiplied by five . . .
    [
There is a crash in the hallway
.]
    DOROTHEA [
from the bedroom
]: Is it the phone?
    HELENA: Another visit so soon? Miss Bodenheifer, your bereaved friend from upstairs is favoring you with another visit.
    MISS GLUCK [
wildly
]:
Mein Zimmer is gespukt, gespukt!
    HELENA: “Spooked, spooked”?
    BODEY: Sophie, your apartment isn’t haunted.
    HELENA: Perhaps if you went up with her, it would despook the apartment.
    BODEY: Aw, no, I got to stay down and keep a sharp eye on
you
.
    HELENA: Which means that she will remain here?
    BODEY: Long as she pleases to. What’s it to you? She got nothin’ contagious. You can’t catch heartbreak if you have got no heart.
    HELENA: May I suggest that you put her in the back yard in the sun. I think that woman’s complexion could stand a touch of color.
    BODEY: I am puttin’ her nowhere she don’t want to be. Howabout you settin’ in the back yard? Some natural color would do your face good for a change.
    [
Sensing the hostile “vibes,” Miss Gluck moans, swaying a little
.]
    HELENA: Miss Bodenheifer, I will not dignify your insults with response or attention!
    [
Miss Gluck moans louder
.]
    Aren’t you able to see that this Miss Gluck is mental? Distressing to hear and to look at! . . . Be that as it may, I shall wait.
    BODEY: Sitting? Tight as a tombstone? Huh?
    HELENA: I can assure you that for me to remain in this place is at least as unpleasant to me as to you. [
She cries out to Dorothea who is still in the bedroom
.] Dorothea? Dorothea? Can you hear me?
    DOROTHEA [
clinging to something in the bedroom
]: See you—Blewett—t’morrow  . . .
    HELENA: No, no, at once, Dorothea, the situation out here is dreadful beyond endurance.
    [
Abruptly, Miss Gluck cries out, clutching her abdomen
.]
    BODEY: Sophie, what is it, Sophie?
    MISS GLUCK:
Heisser Kaffee gibt mir immer Krampf und Durchfall
.
    [
This episode in the play must be handled carefully to avoid excessive scatology but keep the humor
.]
    BODEY: You got the runs?
Zum Badezimmer?
Sophie’s got to go to the bathroom, Dotty.
    DOROTHEA: Hasn’t she got one