Requiem for a Nun

REQUIEM FOR A NUN 333

That one too, Nancy? Because you loved that baby, even at the very moment

when you raised your hand against it, knew that there was nothing left but

to raise your hand?

(Nancy dosen't answer nor stir) A heaven where that little

child will remember nothing of your hands but gentleness

because now this earth will have been nothing but a dream that

didn't matter? Is that it?

TEMPLE

Or maybe not that baby, not mine, because, since I destroyed mine myself

when I slipped out the back end of that train that day eight years ago,

I will need about all the forgiving and forgetting that one sixmonths-old

baby is capable of. But the other one: yours: that you told me about, that

you were carrying six months gone, and you went to the picnic or dance or

frolic or fight or whatever it was, and the man kicked you in the stomach

and you lost it? That one too?

STEVENS

(to Nancy)

What? Its father kicked you in the stomach while you were pregnant?

NANCY I dont know.

STEVENS You dont know who kicked you?

NANCY

I know that. I thought you meant its pa.

STEVENS

You mean, the man who kicked you wasn't even its

father?

NANCY

I dont know. Any of them might have been.

STEVENS

Any of them? You dont have any idea who its father

was?

NANCY

(looks at Stevens impatiently)

If you backed your behind into a buzz-saw, could you tell which tooth hit

you first?

(to Temple) What about that one?