Goodbye George

(LIZA stands next to DELIA at the cemetery.)

DELIA:  I knew you’d be here.

LIZA:  Well.  Where else would I be?

DELIA:  With your children perhaps?  With Al?

LIZA:  Al and the kids and the grandkids are all packing up.  We’re getting on a train tomorrow to Baton Rouge.  I guess there’s a green zone down there somewhere.

DELIA:  I’ve heard about those.  Although I don’t what good high fences and sandbags are going to do if the entire planet gets thrown off course.

LIZA:  Well, you have to do something.

DELIA:  Yes, you do.

                (A moment.)

LIZA:  Anyway, I told Al that I needed to say good-bye to George.

DELIA:  How did he feel about that?

LIZA:  How was he supposed to feel?  He didn’t feel anything.  Not that I’d care if he did.  He never knew George.  I don’t think he thinks of him as an actual person.  Just some tombstone I visit a few times a year.

DELIA:  I couldn’t tell Bill where I was going.  I’d never hear the end of it.

LIZA:  Well, Bill remembers George.  They worked together, didn’t they?  Isn’t that how you met?

DELIA:  It was so long ago, I don’t even—

LIZA:  You remember, Delia.  Don’t say you don’t.

DELIA:  I don’t remember how I know anybody.  Lately, I just look around and say ‘Who ARE all these people?’  I wouldn’t even know you except for George.  The first wife who wouldn’t go away.  I was so happy when you got married I considered sending you a blender.

LIZA:  I would have gladly disappeared if George had asked me to, Delia.  He was the one who kept finding excuses to keep me in his life.

DELIA:  ‘George, something’s on the top shelf and I can’t find a chair.  Can you swing by after work?’  You were still using him to unscrew your pickle jars until Al came along.

LIZA:  It’s difficult being a woman living on her own.  You wouldn’t know that, of course, you always had a man in your bed.

DELIA:  George and Bill.  Two men.  Don’t try making me out to be some kind of floozy.

LIZA:  I had George, and then he left me for you.  If it hadn’t been for that, we’d still be married.

DELIA:  No, you wouldn’t be, Liza, because he’d still be dead.

LIZA:  Well, after eating your cooking for all those years—

DELIA:  Liza—

LIZA:  I hope Bill is up to date on his doctor visits.

DELIA:  You’re always the first one to get nasty.

LIZA:  I don’t recall you pulling any punches either.

DELIA:  Just because I bring up the fact that you only marry men who fall into a certain tax bracket—

LIZA:  I knew you’d do this.

DELIA:  Tell me, Liza, did you run a credit check on Al before you let him put the ring on your finger?

LIZA:  You forget that when I met George, he was penniless.  We lived in that fleabag motel downtown for the first six months of our marriage—night to night--while he worked his way up at the factory.  So don’t go calling me a gold-digger, Delia.

DELIA:  I didn’t say you married George for money.  I said you married Al for money.

LIZA:  Well, of course I married Al for money.  Have you met Al?  What else would you marry him for?  His impressive forehead?  I was scared.  I wasn’t getting any younger.  I was divorced.  I was terrible at managing my own house.  So Al came along and I married him.  I never said I loved him and he didn’t care if I did.  What we have is a lovely arrangement.

DELIA:  But George was love?

LIZA:  You’re damn right it was.  Until you came along.

DELIA:  I didn’t even know he was married when I met him.

LIZA:  Oh, please.  The cute little secretary—

DELIA:  He didn’t bring it up until our third date.  And by then, it was too late.  I was already crazy about him.  Say what you want, but that’s the truth.

                (A beat.)

LIZA:  It just hit me--This might be my last time visiting him.

DELIA:  Same here.  But I was planning on moving out to San Diego anyway.  My daughter lives out there now.

LIZA:  How is Kristen?

DELIA:  She’s good.  Still has that awful haircut.

LIZA:  It’s the style nowadays.

DELIA:  Well, I hate it.

LIZA:  So do I, but it’s the style.

                (A moment.)

DELIA:  I felt so guilty when he died.  About, you know, getting remarried.

LIZA:  I felt guilty too.  Isn’t that strange?  He left me and I felt guilty.

DELIA:  George had that effect on people.  You could never really get him out of your system.

LIZA:  Don’t I know it.

DELIA:  Why did he start seeing me?  Did he ever tell you?

LIZA:  I figured he told you.

DELIA:  We didn’t talk about it.

            (A moment.)

DELIA:  But, to be truthful, he did tell me once that you were his best friend.

LIZA:  He did?

DELIA:  Yes, he did.  He said, ‘Delia, I love you and you know that.  But Liza will always be my best friend.’  When you married Al and stopped calling, I think it hurt him.

LIZA:  Then why didn’t he call me?

DELIA:  He was too proud for that.  And he felt bad about leaving you and he wanted you to move on with your life.  But he never really had anybody to talk to.  I couldn’t talk to him.  I loved him, but there was a disconnect there.  I can’t describe it.  I never understood how two people could love each other so much with so little holding them together.

LIZA:  Do you want to know what he’d talk about?  To me, I mean.

DELIA:  Is it going to make me want to sock you in the jaw?

LIZA:  When he’d come over, to fix something or help out, he’d talk about the kind of life he wanted to give you.  All the things he thought you deserved and how sometimes he felt like he wasn’t living up to your expectations of him.

DELIA:  I never had any—I could strangle him.

LIZA:  He wasn’t perfect.  He was a man.  What do you expect?

DELIA:  I wish…

LIZA:  We should say our peace and go.  It’s not like he’s going to pop out and explain everything to us.

DELIA:  It’s too bad Kristen doesn’t live closer.  I would have had her come with me.  George would have liked her.  She may be Bill’s daughter, but—she sort of looks like George.

LIZA:  Delia—

DELIA:  Well, she does.  It’s the truth.

LIZA:  I sort of think Charles does too.  I think if you love somebody long enough, it starts to present itself in different ways.

DELIA:  I would have liked to have had a child with him, you know?

LIZA:  I would have had six.

                  (DELIA laughs.  Then LIZA laughs.)

LIZA:  I feel bad leaving him here.  Is that crazy?

DELIA:  Yes.  But I know what you mean.

LIZA:  I guess this is the last time you and I will be seeing each other too.

DELIA:  Probably.

LIZA:  I’m glad we ran into each other.

DELIA:  Ha.  Are you really?

LIZA:  I am.  Whether we like it or not, Delia, we share a history.  And I respect you—if nothing else--as a fellow survivor.

DELIA:  Thank you for that, Liza.  And good luck in the green zone.

LIZA:  At least I’ll be with family.  That’s what’s most important.  Tell Kristen I said ‘Hello.’

DELIA:  My best to Al and the kids.

LIZA:  We probably all won’t survive what comes next, will we?

DELIA:  Probably not.

LIZA:  Well—it was a hell of a time.  (She looks down in front of her.)  Good-bye George.  Thanks for all the pickle jars.  And I, uh…you know.

(She takes one last look at DELIA, and then exits.  DELIA waits until she’s gone to say her good-bye.)

DELIA:  You never let me down, George.  Not once.

(She puts her hand on her heart.)

Good-bye.

(She exits.)