My life. Which you enjoy as a romance.
ANN : Of your life.
CATHY : Of loving women . . . of . . .
ANN : Of âviolenceâ?
CATHY : Yes, of course, of violence.
ANN : Of sex and violence?
CATHY : Absolutely.
ANN: Are they related? Or are they only linked in your sickness?
CATHY : And what sickness is that?
ANN : You . . .
CATHY : I have surpassed them.
ANN : Have you?
CATHY : Why do you care?
ANN : Because I represent the State.
CATHY : The âState.â
ANN : Yes. Without which who can make consequences equal? Who shall rebuke the evildoer, who comfort the luckless, except the State. Whose existence you decry.
CATHY : I . . .
ANN : First in your âMovement,â then in âChrist.â How are the two, then, not equal? Tell me that. (Pause) Every society has punished the murderer. If not, what meaning of âsocietyâ? But ours, you feel, should not. As you have âsuffered enough.â FOR WHOM? For yourself? Indeed, for who would embrace suffering? For the State? No. For the State confines you not to cause your suffering, but to ensure freedom to others.
CATHY : As I might kill again?
ANN : So that all will consider their acts and regard their consequence. And control themselves. Why do you plead to be excused? For the same reason you considered yourself free to kill. As you are âbetterââyou know better. You are entitled to âexploreâ the higher realms of behavior. To savor this or that thrill. And call it Theater of the Real. Theater of the Street. Violence as Cleansing . . . I read the pamphlets. I read that filth.
CATHY : They were the Folly of Youth.
ANN : They were not the Folly of Youth. They were evil, wicked heresy.
CATHY : What do you want of me?
ANN : Renounce them.
CATHY : I have renounced them. In my embrace of Christ.
ANN : I donât believe you.
CATHY : How could I make you believe me? Would you like me to beg.
ANN : You made the policeman beg. And then you shot him.
CATHY : Would you like me to beg.
ANN : I would like you to see.
CATHY : To see what ?
ANN : That you, systematically , deny . . . that throughout your life . . . your ârevelationsâ . . . (Pause) I would like you to accept your responsibility.
CATHY : Why?
ANN : Because I represent the State. And thatâs my duty.
CATHY : How would you know ? That I had accepted . . .
ANN : . . . I . . .
CATHY : No. What? What would signal my conversion to you if not my acts here?
ANN : I . . .
CATHY : Tell me what you want. What you want. Finally.
(Pause.)
ANN : I want to save you.
CATHY : Why?
ANN : Because you have a soul.
CATHY : How do you know?
ANN : Because I have a soul.
(Pause.)
CATHY : Those who have served. (Pause) A Life term. Those who have . . .
ANN : Killed.
CATHY : I have no problem with the word. And have served, a term, of thirty-five years . . .
ANN : Your sentence is indeterminate.
CATHY : . . . may be released.
ANN : Because?
CATHY : Through lack of opposition. By the State allowing the usual definitions of the Indeterminate Sentence. Through judicial lethargy, or sloth , indeed, through chance or mischance . . .
ANN : But . . .
CATHY : But finally , if that release seems to the State the path least likely to bring upon itself additional work, anxiety, or trauma.
ANN : Yes. Thatâs right. And my question to you is: How could it be otherwise? Unless you were âthe special caseâ; and why would that be.
CATHY : I thought . . .
ANN : Yes?
CATHY : I thought that this meeting would be different.
ANN : Why?
CATHY : Because it was the end.
ANN : You thought it was the end because?
CATHY : Because youâre leaving.
ANN : Well. Then it would be the end for me.
CATHY : Why are you toying with me? Your replacement, must endorse my parole. Based upon my behavior. Based upon Time Served . . . far . . .
ANN : But the Courts have denied . . .
CATHY : Far in excess, of that served for any similar crime.
ANN :