Death Bed

Photographer - Tobi Brun

At the opening, there is a small crowd in the bedroom. They observe the deceased ROSE with their hands crossed over their fronts, their heads bowed. Eventually, the people begin to stir and they walk quietly out of the bedroom. Some of them will touch or hug or whisper words of
encouragement to LARRY. The crowd walks through the kitchen and slowly, one by one, they exit the stage byway of the “house’s” front door. When they’re all gone, the lights over the kitchen fade out.

In the bedroom, faintly lit, is LARRY, sitting on a wooden chair besides a bed. Laid upon the bed is ROSE, with a white sheet over her body and face. She is still.

LARRY
I didn’t deserve you ... I was a terrible husband, a horrible man. I still am. I don’t know why. I don’t know anything – not why I’m living, not why you were the one who –

ROSE
[Quietly] I wish I weren’t dead.

LARRY
[Stirring] Rose? Rose – what did you say?

ROSE
I wish I wasn’t dead, Larry, so I could tell you how much I loved you. I loved you more than you know. And I know you love me too. We love each other and now we can’t say it to each other – I will say it now, at least one final time.

LARRY
Rose? ... Rose – is that really you speaking to me!

ROSE
It’s me, Larry. Do you know? Do you know how much I love you, and how lovely I feel, up here in heaven, that you love me too. We didn’t get a chance to say it so much, didn’t we?

LARRY
We did, Rose, we did all the time. Don’t you know it?

ROSE
No, we didn’t. [ROSE pulls away part of her blanket and looks at him] I want to tell you how sorry I am. I never got the chance to tell you how much you mean to me. I never told you when I was alive ... now I must do it when I’m dead ... one final time.

LARRY
What do you mean, Rose? ... To apologize? Rose, what do you mean?

ROSE

My coldness, Larry – I was a harsh, timid woman my whole life. [Sitting up] If people didn’t
think of me as being a little beautiful, I would never have gotten anywhere.

LARRY
That’s not true, Rose, don’t say that.

ROSE
I was scared my whole life and I ... I hated people, for how I thought they treated me – and I never treated people myself well. That’s what makes me so sick, Larry – I’m glad I’m dead.

LARRY
Don’t say that. Don’t believe such a thing!

ROSE
Thankfully people have thought I was beautiful –

LARRY
You are! You are!

ROSE
They cut me some slack. But I was a rotten person, intelligent and still too smart for my own
good, unfriendly, unloving – you hadn’t any reason to marry me or –

LARRY
Rose! That’s not true.

ROSE
What is the point of lying to me now?

LARRY
Rose! [Taking her hand] I couldn’t have asked for a better wife. The children loved you so much and –

ROSE
The children. [Becoming weepy] Are they well? Where are they?

LARRY
I took them to my parents, Rose. They will stay with my parents until the funeral, maybe longer as we – [Loses words]

ROSE
To push on ... You’re a good father to them, Larry. My parents are terrible cold, and I’m glad that they didn’t intrude.

LARRY

Everyone has been gentle and lovely during this period. You don’t have anything to worry over, Rose. I swear so.

ROSE
I know you swear. [Hiccoughing, crying] My parents aren’t kind, good people, and I’m glad the kids aren’t with them. [Her sobs relieve] They were raised wrong by their parents and I was raised wrong my them and I – [Sobs again] – if I stayed alive –

LARRY
Your parents have been wonderful during this time.

ROSE
My children would’ve turned out like me and –

LARRY
[Desperately] Rose!

ROSE
[Faintly smiling] You don’t have to make up a story for me.

LARRY
No, I’m serious. It’s only that the kids need somewhere to rest.

ROSE
Hopefully they won’t remember any of this.

LARRY
They’ll remember you!

ROSE
They’re too young ... They won’t remember me at all.

LARRY
They’ll remember everything about you. They’ll have pictures and stories – I’ll tell them all our
old romantic stories, Rose – I mean so!

ROSE
That’s sweet of you, Larry ... You’ll tell them nice things about me too, I guess. You were always kindly like that –

LARRY
You were my best friend ever since the day I met you, Rose, and I’m not just saying that to make you feel better ... Don’t you remember when we met? [Sighing, he sits back] It’s nice to talk with you like this, Rose. I know you’re dead and this is all in my head. But it feels good to say a little something to you ... [Pause, as he rests. Suddenly, he slaps his knee and laughs] We had eight wonderful years together, Rose ... Don’t you remember the night we met at Jenn’s house and how were so embarrassed because you spilled the glass of wine down your front and you –

ROSE
[Finishing for him, laughing] I sure was embarrassed. I guess now it’s a funny story.

LARRY
Of course, it’s funny. It’s a hilarious meet cute.

ROSE
I was too serious my whole life – I could never loosen up.

LARRY
I love listening to your laugh, Rose.

ROSE
I wished I laughed more.

LARRY
You laughed plenty. You laughed more than anyone I’ve known!

ROSE
[Grimacing] I could barely laugh my whole life and you know it good as I. [Shaking her head] That was a funny night, I guess. I didn’t think so at the time – too uptight!

LARRY
Don’t worry on that now. Just remember the good times.

ROSE
Good times? I didn’t have those ... I was a heartless, meanspirited girl my whole life and everyone knew so. You’re a nice man for making up stories to me. You’ll be a good father – I guess the kids will even think of me as an alright person –

LARRY
Because you were – you were more than that, Rose!

ROSE
No, everyone hated me. All my friends, even poor little Jenn who didn’t ever hurt a hair on anyone’s head, who didn’t even whine when I told her that you’d asked me out and –

LARRY
[Solemnly] Yes, I understand ... It must’ve been tough on her.

ROSE
She loved you very much ... was a good sport about it.

LARRY
Jenn is a nice alright, but –

ROSE
Jenn loved you more than anyone has ever loved anyone.

LARRY
[Quietly] She was a good sport about it. I mean, I had my eye on her until I met you and then – what was I supposed to do? [They both sigh and laugh a little] I hope she doesn’t resent me much. Nobody can control who they fall in love with and –

ROSE
That’s what I told her ... We had to talk about it once, so we did. There was too much gunk between us.

LARRY
I imagine so. I can’t believe you stayed friends.

ROSE
Jenn isn’t resentful. I just had to go and tell her ... that was hard. She probably thought you liked her –

LARRY
I did ... I mean, Jenn is an alright woman.

ROSE
Very beautiful.

LARRY
[Nodding] She was. Beautiful – not like you, but –

ROSE
She’s too pleasant for her own good. And too forgiving. I sat with her for over an hour in some bar I don’t even remember the name of. I was a little too conceited that night ... so proud that I had you and nobody else and – she was terribly sad, poor Jenn.

LARRY
Poor Jenn.

ROSE
She was crying like it was her last day on earth ... No, I again am being nasty. She was only crying a little – and not at all, for I didn’t really notice – it was only that her eyes were a little damp, and she sniffled.

LARRY
It’s a difficult thing to experience.

ROSE
I tried my best ... I’m not a warm person, Larry, and you know so.

LARRY
You were warm, Rose, I swear you were.

ROSE
[Pause. She sucks in her breath] I remember now how cruel I was. I tried to be there as a friend – but did I care?

LARRY
You cared so much for Jenn – and Jenn for you!

ROSE
Maybe ... I tried the best I could. I don’t have a warm bone in my body – my blood is colder than a milkshake. [Tries to laugh. Inhales] I remember that we sat there at some bar and ... I didn’t even remember to go gentle with her. I just started in talking and suddenly she was ... you know, crying a little. [Cries herself] I held her hand, I tried to make her feel better –

LARRY
I’m sure you did all you can do ... When it comes to emotions –

ROSE
She loved you very much, Larry. She told me that she imagined that you two were to be together– she told me that she hadn’t any idea that I was interested in you, and you in me and –

LARRY
It must’ve been horrible, Rose. I know how hard that can be. But there wasn’t anything that you– [Smiling, straightening] Jenn is a nice and pretty girl who can take care of herself ... I don’t like hearing you speak so poorly about yourself, Rose ... I don’t know if I was a very good
husband to you. I have been thinking of such things, the times when I took you for granted, when I didn’t say, ‘I love you,’ when I should.

ROSE
[Nodding] It was hard towards the end, wasn’t it?

LARRY
[Nodding] We didn’t say we loved each other.

ROSE
Not until I got sick.

LARRY
Then I started to say it ... It felt like too little too late.

ROSE
It wasn’t, Larry! I know so. This whole time the last few months, me lying here, barely being able to move or talk, I felt you with me – not you physically – your soul!

LARRY
My soul?

ROSE
I felt your soul with me, your heart in my hand.

LARRY
[With wonder] That’s rather beautiful, Rose ... That’s poetic! I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a thing before.

ROSE
It’s true. I felt your heart in my hand and I felt that my heart was in yours. And we were each holding each other’s hearts.

LARRY
We did, Rose. We held each other’s hearts. Not too tightly, not too gently. It was a beautiful thing, Rose, when the days were very long and there wasn’t even anything to hope for and all I had was you lying here so desperate and –

ROSE
I wasn’t in pain, Larry. I was only sitting here, remembering my life, and wanting – If I could’ve spoken, I would’ve told you every moment of the day how much I loved you. I wanted to bellow it in your ears. I couldn’t.

LARRY
I know you couldn’t, Rose. The doctors –

ROSE
I would’ve told you so. That I loved you and the children and that I was so sorry for all the hurt I caused you and –

LARRY
It goes both ways, Rose. We both hurt each other – but that’s what people do and it doesn’t really matter now ... There’s no point in thinking on the bad. There are too many good memories of you – there’s so much of you in our children’s faces – their eyes. They have such beautiful
eyes and –

ROSE
[Innocently] They have my eyes, Larry? [Crying]

LARRY
Of course, they do. Your eyes and your ears and your –

ROSE
But they don’t have me, Larry, they don’t have me.

LARRY
They’ll know you better than I will with all the stories I tell them! [Trying to cheer] They’ll know everything – you’ll be like a goddess to them! I swear so, Rose!

ROSE
They won’t have a mother. [Both quiet. Pause] My children will need a mother, Larry. You can’t do it by yourself.

LARRY
I know so.

ROSE
Children need their mother more than their father.

LARRY
I know so.

ROSE
It’s just natural that way, Larry – Children need their mothers more than their fathers. For support and – what are you to do, Larry? I can’t have it, you trying alone to –

LARRY
I don’t know what I am to do.

ROSE
I want you to move on, Larry, I want you to move on soon as you can, to find a wife, better than me, a mother better than me.

LARRY
I can’t do such a thing, Rose ... Not yet.

ROSE
The children need a mother and you need a wife. You’re too good a man to be alone for one moment. I know so!

LARRY
I don’t know what I am to do. I don’t know.

ROSE
You need a woman to take care of you. You need a woman who you can make love to like you did to me and – I must say such a thing, Larry. I must say it. Because that’s what you need. It’s what every man needs, the good and the bad ones. [Kitchen lights turn on, as one of the mourners from prior enters and leads in a doctor and two EMT’s carrying a stretcher. They move courteously, and quickly] Jenn loves you more than anyone, Larry, and you know so better than I. She will be there for you, for the children.

LARRY
I don’t know, Rose, I don’t know.

ROSE
I love you, Larry. I only want what’s best for you and –

[As the doctor and EMT’s enter, ROSE quiets and lies back, dead, as before. LARRY rises and tucks in her blanket. The doctor and others move around her and LARRY stands in the corner watching them with a grimace on his face. LARRY nods and enters the kitchen. He paces about the kitchen, sometimes going back to the door of the bedroom. ROSE is being gently put onto the stretcher. Once ROSE is loaded into the stretcher, and the EMT’s are moving her out of the house, LARRY is less nervy ... When he’s alone, he stands tall and seems rested. He takes out his iPhone and makes a call. As he speaks, he will walk casually about kitchen]

LARRY
Jenn ... It’s good to hear from you ... Yes, yes, she passed peacefully and without pain ... That’s what the doctor said ... Family ... some cousins and – mostly extended family, I guess, I don’t really know them ... No ... No, they’re not here. I brought them to my parents ... They will be there at least through the funeral, probably until they finish school and we can decide what to do... What you and I will do ... That’s right ... My parents understand ... They’re not expecting me back tonight. I told them I was going to stay at the house until the coroners came, and that I
would be away tomorrow morning at the funeral house ... They don’t know anything ... They won’t care. They never much like Rose, I don’t think ... No, they didn’t say anything, but you know ... No, they don’t know anything. But they remember you from – maybe from the wedding – I don’t remember ... Yes, soon.

[LARRY looks himself over in a mirror tacked onto the wall. He smiles, frowns, glares, and smiles again]

... I’m leaving right now, and will be over soon ... It’s alright, I don’t much care ... Do you? ... I know you don’t. It is what it is, as they say. [Laughs] It’ll be good to see you for real tonight … The first real time ... No, the red one ... The red one that I bought you last winter ... Yeah, that
one ... Want me to pick up anything? ... Merlot – Rose always hated Merlot ... No, I think it’s alright ... [Laughing] I’m serious, I’ll be right over and we’ll have a nice night together ... It’s been a long time coming. No more lying. She passed peacefully and it’s over ... I know ... I know ... I love you too.

[LARRY ends the call and checks himself over once more in the mirror. He’s chuckling to himself as he turns off all the lights in the house and exits]

Hunter Prichard is a writer residing in Portland, Maine. Follow him on twitter at @huntermprichard.