Read Broken Glass for Free Online Page B

challenged: No!-It’s all right.
    Â 
HYMAN: ... Are you afraid right now?
    Â 
SYLVIA: No, not... Yes.
    Â 
Picks up the book beside her.
    Â 
Have you read Anthony Adverse?
    Â 
HYMAN: No, but I hear it’s sold a million copies.
    Â 
SYLVIA: It’s wonderful. I rent it from Womraths.
    Â 
HYMAN : Was Phillip your first boyfriend?
    Â 
SYLVIA: The first serious.
    Â 
HYMAN: He’s a fine man.
    Â 
SYLVIA: Yes, he is.
    Â 
HYMAN: Is he interesting to be with?
    Â 
SYLVIA: Interesting?
    HYMAN: Do you have things to talk about?
    Â 
SYLVIA: Well... business, mostly. I was head bookkeeper for Empire Steel in Long Island City ... years ago, when we met, I mean.
    Â 
HYMAN: He didn’t want you to work?
    Â 
SYLVIA: No.
    Â 
 
HYMAN: I imagine you were a good businesswoman.
    Â 
SYLVIA: Oh, I loved it! I’ve always enjoyed ... you know, people depending on me.
    Â 
HYMAN : Yes. -Do I frighten you, talking like this?
    Â 
SYLVIA: A little. -But I want you to.
    Â 
HYMAN: Why?
    Â 
SYLVIA: I don’t know. You make me feel ... hopeful.
    Â 
HYMAN : You mean of getting better?
    Â 
SYLVIA: -Of myself. Of getting ... Breaks off.
    Â 
HYMAN: Getting what?
    Â 
She shakes her head, refnsing to go on.
    ... Free?
    Â 
 
She suddenly kisses the palm of his hand. He wipes her hair away from her eyes. He stands up and walks a few steps away.
    Â 
HYMAN: I want you to raise your knees.
    Â 
She doesn’t move.
    Â 
 
Come, bring up your knees.
    Â 
SYLVIA, she tries: I can’t!
    Â 
HYMAN: You can. I want you to send your thoughts into your hips. Tense your hips. Think of the bones in your hips. Come on now. The strongest muscles in your body are right there, you still have tremendous power there. Tense your hips.
    Â 
She is tensing.
    Â 
Now tense your thighs. Those are long dense muscles with tremendous power. Do it, draw up your knees. Come on, raise your knees. Keep it up. Concentrate. Raise it. Do it for me.
    Â 
 
With an exhaled gasp she gives up. Remaining yards away ...
    Your body strength must be marvelous. The depth of your flesh must be wonderful. Why are you cut off from yourself? You should be dancing, you should be stretching out in the sun.... Sylvia, I know you know more than you’re saying, why can’t you open up to me? Speak to me. Sylvia? Say anything.
    Â 
She looks at him in silence.
    Â 
I promise I won’t tell a soul. What is in your mind right now?
    Â 
 
A pause.
    Â 
SYLVIA: Tell me about Germany.
    Â 
HYMAN, surprised: Germany. Why Germany?
    Â 
SYLVIA: Why did you go there to study?
    Â 
HYMAN: The American medical schools have quotas on Jews, I would have had to wait for years and maybe never get in.
    Â 
SYLVIA: But they hate Jews there, don’t they?
    Â 
HYMAN: These Nazis can’t possibly last—Why are you so preoccupied with them?
    Â 
SYLVIA : I don’t know. But when I saw that picture in the Times —with those two old men on their knees in the street ... Presses her ears. I swear, I almost heard that crowd laughing, and ridiculing them. But nobody really wants to talk about it. I mean Phillip never even wants to talk about being Jewish, except—you know-to joke about it the way people do ...
    Â 
HYMAN: What would you like to say to Phillip about it?
    Â 
SYLVIA, with an empty laugh, a head shake: I don’t even know! Just to talk about it ... it’s almost like there’s something in me that ... it’s silly ...
    Â 
HYMAN: No, it’s interesting. What do you mean, something in you?
    Â 
SYLVIA: I have no word for it, I don’t know what I’m saying, it’s like ... She presses her chest.— something alive, like a child almost, except it’s a very dark thing ... and it frightens me!
    Â 
Hyman moves his hand to calm her and she grabs it.
    Â 
HYMAN: That was hard to say, wasn’t it. Sylvia nods. You have a lot of courage.—We’ll talk