Requiem for a Nun

REQUIEM FOR A NUN. 221

TEMPLE

All right.

(approaches table)

If I would just stop struggling: how much time we would save. I came

all the way back from California, but I still cant seem to quit. Do

you believe in coincidence?

STEVENS

(turns) Not unless I have to.

TEMPLE

(at table, takes up a folded yellow telegraph form, opens

it, reads)

Dated Jefferson, March sixth. 'You have a week yet until the

thirteenth. But where will you go thenT signed Gavin.

She folds the paper back into its old creases, folds it still again.

Stevens watches her.

STEVENS

Well? This is the eleventh. Is that the coincidence?

TEMPLE

No. This is.

(she drops, tosses the folded paper onto the table, turns)

It was that afternoon-the sixth. We were on the beach, Bucky and 1.

1 was reading, and he was-oh, talking mostly, you know-'Is California

far from Jefferson, mammaT and I say 'Yes, darling'-you know: still

reading or trying to, and he says, 'How long will we stay in

California, mammaT and I say, 'Until we get tired of it' and he says,

'Will we stay here until they hang Nancy, mamma?' and it's already too

late then; I should have seen it coming but it's too late now; I say,

'Yes, darling' and then he drops it right in my lap, right out of the

mouths of-how is W-babes and sucklings. 'Where will we go then,

marnmaT And then we come back to the hotel, and there you are too.

Well?

STEVENS

Well what?