Read Play to the End for Free Online

needed to. "As an investment."

    "You shouldn't use them, in that case."

    "Don't worry. It was a very poor investment."

    I sipped some tea. "What's this all about, Mr. Oswin?"

    "Call me Derek. Please."

    "OK. Derek. Why are you bothering my wife?" It seemed pointless now to pretend Jenny hadn't put me onto him. It seemed indeed that "Derek'
    had foreseen everything that had happened.

    "Are you two still married, then? I thought, with her living in Mr.
    Colborn's house .. ."

    "Our divorce hasn't been finalized yet," I said through gritted teeth.

    "Oh, I see." Derek eyed me over the rim of his mug. "That's interesting." He pronounced 'interesting' as four distinct syllables.
    He was, I realized, a strange mixture of maladroitness and precision, insecurity and perceptiveness.

    "Interesting in what sense, Derek?"

    "I'm sorry about the ... charade .. . earlier. I suppose I ... enjoyed stringing you along. Besides, I thought we could .. . speak more freely here."

    "So, speak."

    "I didn't mean to worry' he smiled "Mrs. Flood."

    "She seems to feel you've gone out of your way to worry her."

    "I can see how she might think that. But it isn't true. I just couldn't come up with any other way of engineering a meeting with you."

    "You've been harassing her in the hope that I'd come and ask you to lay off?"

    "Yes." He grimaced sheepishly. "I suppose I have. Sorry."

    I should have felt angrier than I did. But Oswin's meek air of vulnerability somehow drained all hostility out of me. Besides, I was perversely grateful to him for another meeting he'd engineered, albeit indirectly. "That wasn't a very clever thing to do, Derek."

    "Not very nice, I admit. I really am sorry if I've worried Mrs. Flood.
    But clever? Well, I think it was that, as a matter of fact. Because it worked, didn't it? As soon as the Theatre Royal announced you were coming, I knew I'd have to try and meet you. But how could I be sure you'd agree to meet me? That was the problem."

    "Your solution seems to have been pretty hit and miss to me."

    "True. But I have time on my hands, Mr. Flood. Lots of it. So it was worth trying."

    "How did you know my wife owns Brimmers?"

    "She gave an interview to the Argus when the shop opened. There was only one tiny reference to you. But I spotted it."

    I bet he did. Derek Oswin was some kind of nutter, that was clear.
    Eccentric, if you wanted to be generous. Obsessive and possibly manic, if you didn't. But was he dangerous? I sensed not. Still, the acid test was yet to come. "Why were you so anxious to meet me, Derek?"

    "Because I've always wanted to. Ever since you played Hereward. You're my hero, Mr. Flood. I've seen everything you've ever done. Even Lodger in the Throat. I travelled up to Guildford for a matinee in its opening week."

    "What did you think of it?"

    "Marvellous. Absolutely marvelous."

    "That's not been the general reaction, I'm afraid."

    "No, well, it wouldn't be, would it? Most people are too stupid to get the point. The plot's wasted on them. They just laugh at the jokes."

    "If only they did."

    "Orton pretended to be crude and cruel, but actually he was sensitive and soft-hearted. I've been reading his Diaries and that's what I've come to understand. Look at the way he couldn't bring himself to abandon Halliwell, even when Halliwell started to become violent. He paid for that with his life."

    "I'm glad you enjoyed the play, Derek."

    "Oh, I did, Mr. Flood, I did. You know, the set reminded me of ...
    well, of this house."

    Glancing around, I saw what he meant. The set for Lodger in the Throat is the shabby sitting room of a small and neglected lower-middle-class family dwelling in an unnamed Midlands town. When the play opens, the three Elliott siblings, along with the wife of one of them, have gathered there following their mother's funeral. I play James Elliott, the oldest of the three. Jocasta Haysman is my wife, Fiona. Martin Donohue plays Tom, my resentful younger brother. And Elsa