Read Remembrance and Pantomime for Free Online Page B

Terrible!
    ( Stops )
         Turn it off. Please. Please turn it off.
    JORDAN
         It’s beautiful …
    PILGRIM
         It was a wonderful experience. One that an old man will always cherish. I saw Pavlova once in London
    ( ANNA ransacks the record rack, selecting, then holds up record )
    ANNA
         Whose is this?
    JORDAN
         My son’s. Junior’s or Frederick’s.
    ANNA
         Well, this is more my speed. If I’m going to earn my keep.
    ( She puts on a heavy rock number. Moves wildly, as a disco dancer )
          Sit back, gentlemen, and enjoy the ride!
    JORDAN
         Stop it! No! Better her dead than this. Better her dead than this! What have they done to you, Esther? You didn’t have to punish yourself.
    ANNA
         I didn’t want you to get the wrong impression. I’m no saint, Mr. Jordan.
    PILGRIM
         Nobody is, kid.
    JORDAN
         “Nobody is, kid!” Stop trying to talk Yankee, Pilgrim. And isn’t it time you went down to work?
    PILGRIM
         I saw Pavlova once, in London. She moved like a young birch tree in moonlight. For a second there …
    ANNA
         Thank you, but I’m not Pavlova, Mr. Pilgrim.
    ( They shake hands )
    PILGRIM
         Bless you, Anna. Watch out for him. He’s dangerous. He sits there like an old spider in a chair, spinning remembrance. So long, Al.
    ( He exits )
    ANNA
         He’s a nice man. You have nice friends. Boy, am I rusty. Uh!
    JORDAN
         Do you feel used?
    ANNA
         Used. Oh, no, not at all. There was a shaky second there when it felt a little … you know. You start …
    ( Pause )
         Forget it. Let me just be thankful for some peace. You’ve never asked me who I was.
    JORDAN
         I knew who you were.
    ANNA
         Yeah? You know more than me, then. You don’t care? Pretty insulting. I didn’t know it showed. I’m not tough, I just talk tough. Jesus, I never slept so long … You know, you start bright and confident, star of some small-town company, then you get the first shock, you’re one of five thousand, and then you start to take revenge on your ambition, and soon there’s a baby with the father gone. And there’s an ad saying “Dancer Wanted,” and there you are, Pavlova from Rhode Island doing the Funky Chicken at ten in the morning with two stars on your tits under the red lights of an empty bar in Jersey, but what the hell, you’re dancing.
    JORDAN
         All artists make compromises, love. Don’t cry like that. Make a sound.
    ANNA
         I came out of that bar in Jersey in freezing sunshine feeling so soiled, so ashamed of degrading myself, that I borrowed all the money I could and went to a ticket office and said: South! The farther the better, and this is the farthest the ticket went! I should shower. I’m ready to move again. I’m going to leave very soon, Mr. Jordan, soon as I get that money wired to me. But in the meantime, I am very grateful. Very. You’re like a saint or something, you know that?
    JORDAN
         I’m not.
    ANNA
         You’ve never asked who I am.
    JORDAN
         I thought I’d let you tell me in your own good time. If you wanted to. And you don’t have to tell me now.
    ANNA
         Next to you, I’m a coarse person.
    JORDAN
         You’ll be a great woman. You’ll be a great dancer. One day you’ll be famous, and at least I can say, “Anna Herschel danced in this house.”
    ANNA
         I don’t believe in that any more. Fame and all that. I mean, I think it’s okay if you’re famous inside yourself. You know? You don’t have to get reviewed.
    JORDAN
         I know.
    ( ANNA rises, paces )
    ANNA
         Don’t say I know. ’Cause you don’t. Sorry. But you don’t know shit. I’m sorry. But it’s so easy to let it all slide and not give a fucking shrug when you hit bottom. When you asked me to dance I thought, Yeah, yeah, sure, like seeing yourself in a dirty mirror. It was Eighth