(A therapist’s office. Two chairs. A globe. A phone. An interview. TRISH speaks with a weird accent.)
GIMPLE
Captain Clopper sent you here.
TRISH
Yes.
GIMPLE
Amnesia.
TRISH
Yes.
GIMPLE
What’s the problem?
TRISH
I don’t know who I am.
GIMPLE
Clopper says you were hit in the head with a…telephone.
TRISH
There were witnesses, but they aren’t sure. They think it was a phone. The perpetrator is at large.
GIMPLE
We know it was a phone. He dropped it. This is it.
(GIMPLE shows her a phone.)
TRISH
Nokia.
GIMPLE
Not a great phone.
TRISH
A little big.
GIMPLE
He got you in the front of the head.
TRISH
Yes. There’s a knot.
GIMPLE
Let me have a look at that.
(He goes to her and holds the phone to her head, studying the angle at which it must have delivered the blow. He touches her head.)
TRISH
Ouch.
GIMPLE
It’s an egg all right. You must have seen him coming.
TRISH
No.
GIMPLE
No idea who did this?
TRISH
I don’t remember a thing.
GIMPLE
Your accent is…somewhere different. Do you know where you’re from?
TRISH
We can’t seem to pin it down.
GIMPLE
I’m guessing you’ve traveled.
TRISH
That would explain my manners and speech.
GIMPLE
It could.
TRISH
I’m sophisticated, you think?
GIMPLE
You appear to be. You sound it. This is good information.
TRISH
I’m mysterious.
GIMPLE
Very. Captain Clopper says this happened in front of the theatre.
TRISH
In the lobby, after the opera. So I’m told.
GIMPLE
That’s a clue.
(frustrated)
TRISH
But it’s so vague.
GIMPLE
You like opera?
TRISH
Perhaps.
GIMPLE
You’re not sure.
TRISH
No.
GIMPLE
Can you think of an opera’s you’ve seen?
TRISH
Il Rigoletto, I think – but I couldn’t tell you a thing about it.
GIMPLE
Can you remember anything about yourself?
TRISH
I think I’m an executive, maybe in the fashion industry. I’m pretty sure I’m rich. I just have that feeling. I spend time in Rome, Paris, places like that, I think – but I don’t know where I live.
GIMPLE
Well, we know you speak English, anyway. But that accent. Curious.
TRISH
It’s nice, isn’t it?
GIMPLE
Well, yeah – but where could you be from? Not America.
TRISH
I don’t think so either. I also speak French and Italian. I’m comfortable with Japanese, and not too bad with Russian.
GIMPLE
You know those languages, and remember them?
TRISH
Yes I do, thank God.
(GIMPLE produces a globe of the world.)
GIMPLE
Does this trigger anything?
(She takes a look.)
TRISH
Nothing.
GIMPLE
Any childhood memories?
TRISH
At one point, I studied abroad, but I don’t know where.
GIMPLE
What do you remember about that?
TRISH
A boy. That’s all.
GIMPLE
Nothing but the boy.
TRISH
That’s it.
GIMPLE
What language did he speak?
TRISH
I don’t remember the things he said.
GIMPLE
If you don’t remember anything about something, how do you know it’s real?
TRISH
It’s there, in my head. Just that. Study abroad. Boy abroad. It’s a concept internalized, but I don’t see it.
GIMPLE
No clue as to what you studied?
TRISH
Wasn’t art. Wasn’t history. I believe it was art history
GIMPLE
Then you went to college.
TRISH
Pretty sure.
GIMPLE
Major?
TRISH
Liberal arts of some kind. Don’t know what.
GIMPLE
Perhaps languages?
TRISH
Could be.
GIMPLE
Any other memories, from childhood.
TRISH
I’m almost certain I’ve lived in a two story house with a finished basement.
GIMPLE
Visualize that house. What do you see?
TRISH
There’s a kitchen. A stairway, obviously. My bedroom is there. Some living spaces. A dog, I think. Perhaps a cat. Maybe both.
GIMPLE
More specific.
TRISH
Little dog, I think. About the size of that phone.
GIMPLE
That’s a little dog.
TRISH
Big phone.
(thinking)
That’s all I’m getting.
GIMPLE
Any thoughts about your name?
TRISH
No idea and no ID.
GIMPLE
Your purse was snatched.
TRISH
So they say.
GIMPLE
Do you think you could be married?
(She shrugs.)
TRISH
I don’t seem to have a ring.
GIMPLE
That would be a strong association. Even if you had been married in the past. You could have a sense of something like that. Any hunch?
TRISH
Not the faintest.
GIMPLE
Sex? That’s a strong memory.
TRISH
I’m in favor of it, just like everybody else.
.
GIMPLE
Specifically?
TRISH
It’s a blank.
GIMPLE
Any partners?
TRISH
Men.
GIMPLE
Specific ones?
TRISH
No.
GIMPLE
Let’s back up a second. Are you sure you work in the fashion industry?
TRISH
Yes.
GIMPLE
As an executive.
TRISH
Something very, very…well, even if it’s not the fashion industry…there are lots of people who work for me. I’m the owner, I feel sure. The key is that I’m rich. I’m almost positive of that.
GIMPLE
If that’s the case, then somebody will want to find you and we’ll have you identified in no time. Until then, do any people, individuals, come to mind?
TRISH
No.
GIMPLE
Any distinctive traits of anyone in your life? Anything?
TRISH
A few faces, vague… you know how faces are. Very, very vague. Nothing uncommon. No names.
GIMPLE
Do you find this frustrating?
TRISH
No, because this is new. I haven’t been working to remember. You’re doing the work. I’m just letting it flood back.
GIMPLE
That’s a sensible approach. What kinds of things have flooded in?
TRISH
It happened mostly when I first woke up. It’s more of a trickle, now. If I could get home, I think the flooding would begin again.
GIMPLE
Are you a Democrat or a Republican?
TRISH
Neither, but I feel sure I’m in the center, in terms of world politics. On the American scale I’m far to the left.
GIMPLE
Phone number?
TRISH
Not a clue.
GIMPLE
Shoe size?
TRISH
Seven and a half B.
GIMPLE
Parents?
TRISH
Two.
GIMPLE
Any memories of them?
TRISH
Vague memory of the womb, my birth, seeing my mother just afterwards. She looked like she was crying.
GIMPLE
Extraordinary. What was it like?
TRISH
Like being in the shower, soapy all over, and suddenly running out of hot water.