(Interior of a sparse, modest apartment. Bookshelves and boxes. TRISH packs books into boxes. BILL watches. She lifts a book and stops.)
TRISH
This.
BILL
Huh?
TRISH
This dictionary.
BILL
What about it?
TRISH
It’s not mine.
BILL
Yes it is.
TRISH
Bill, it’s not.
BILL
Whose is it?
TRISH
I don’t know, but this one isn’t mine.
BILL
It’s a dictionary. It’s yours.
TRISH
I want to know what happened to mine.
BILL
Nothing. That’s it.
TRISH
Mine was older, and there was masking tape on it.
BILL
That’s your dictionary.
TRISH
I had words underlined.
BILL
Why?
TRISH
It doesn’t matter why. I did it. They’re there.
BILL
Silly. They’re in alphabetical order.
TRISH
They’re my words. Words I looked up, in my dictionary.
BILL
Well…
TRISH
I want them back.
BILL
There it is.
TRISH
I’ve had my dictionary at least five years. The cover fell off. I taped it with masking tape. This one doesn’t have tape.
BILL
It’s the same thing.
TRISH
It’s not the same edition.
BILL
It looks the same to me. It’s a Webster’s Paperback.
TRISH
This isn’t my copy.
BILL
The words are the same.
TRISH
How do you know?
BILL
I read parts of it.
TRISH
My words were marked.
BILL
This is the same.
TRISH
I don’t think it is.
BILL
It is. I know.
TRISH
Admit it. This isn’t my copy. You know it isn’t.
BILL
Okay, I admit it’s a different copy. But it’s the same book. Same cover, page numbers, everything.
TRISH
What happened to mine?
BILL
I borrowed it, and I lost it.
TRISH
No you didn’t.
BILL
You don’t believe me.
TRISH
No!
BILL
The important thing is that you’ve got a dictionary.
TRISH
I need to know what you did with mine.
BILL
Suppose that’s something you’ll never know.
TRISH
You don’t use dictionaries.
BILL
Apparently I do.
TRISH
You knew it was important. That’s why you did something to it.
BILL
And…I got you that one. I cared about it.
TRISH
That one’s not the important one. Mine is important.
BILL
There’s no difference.
TRISH
I looked up a lot of words in my dictionary. That was my…I took pride in…it was getting worn out. I was using it up, you fucker. What happened to my dictionary!
(pause)
BILL
What’s the time frame on this departure?
TRISH
A day.
BILL
How about if I just come back tomorrow?
TRISH
You need to stay here to answer questions about my stuff.
BILL
All your stuff is here.
TRISH
You might have stolen other stuff.
BILL
I didn’t steal anything.
TRISH
I want you around for the rest of the surprises. In case there’s other stuff gone.
BILL
Have I ever stolen anything?
TRISH
Just now.
BILL
There aren’t any surprises.
TRISH
I don’t know that.
BILL
And what if there are?
TRISH
If there are, you need to be here.
BILL
If there are surprises, they will…you know…as soon as you find out about them…they won’t be surprises anymore.
TRISH
That’s a mirror for your life, right there. You throw these things out, but they don’t matter to you — because to you — they aren’t surprises.
BILL
A mirror for my life. Stuff like that…making so much of things like this, the dictionary…mirrors — that’s a mirror for yours.
(pause)
TRISH
Mine?
BILL
Yeah.
TRISH
Making…more of things.
BILL
Yeah.
TRISH
Imagining things?
BILL
Yeah.
TRISH
Like the dictionary.
BILL
Uh huh.
TRISH
I’m just now learning how far you’re willing to go.
BILL
See? It’s what you do. Little things get way, way off. Like you throw buckets of paint on things – make them your own color. This will be good for me.
TRISH
I don’t think so.
BILL
You don’t.
TRISH
I’ve got a hole in my heart…it’s like…this big…
(She displays the dictionary.)
– or bigger. You put it there. I’ll go ahead and break the news to you right now, Bill: when you do it to the next person…make another hole like this…it won’t be good for her either, or you…anybody.
BILL
Imagination – just like I said.
TRISH
I could show you something that you would not like to see. And it would have nothing to do with imagination.
BILL
You could.
TRISH
Sure could, and will.
BILL
You’ll show me something.
TRISH
Yourself.
(sarcastic)
BILL
Frightening.