Skeletons in Her Closet [Part II]
Wilder: Listen. Whether you want to believe me or not, I actually care about you. I have cared about you since I met you, and I know I haven’t known you for long, but that doesn’t matter. It has nothing to do with pity or any disorder you mig
have, all right?
Julia: Why?
Wilder: Why, what?
Julia: Why do you like me?
Wilder: Why do I like you?
Julia: Yes.
Wilder: Why do I like you...
Julia: That’s what I want to know.
Wilder: I don’t know.
Julia: You don’t have an answer.
Wilder: No.
Julia: See? You’re just confusing pity and attraction.
Wilder: It isn’t pity! Look, I don’t know why the sky is blue, either! That doesn’t mean it isn’t blue!
Julia: This is a great time to start showing off, Wilder.
Wilder: I’m not trying to--
Julia: You can make comparisons and similes and whatever else all you want, but nothing is going to change. This is life, Wilder. This is the way things are.
Wilder: It doesn’t have to be that way.
Julia: You’re a big boy, Wilder. You can drive, you can see R movies, you can almost vote. Maybe it’s time you popped the bubble you’ve been living in and see the world. It’s cruel, and it’s cold, but it is reality.
Wilder: You can see a doctor, talk to somebody... you can get better--
Julia: Get better! You don’t get better from this! It isn’t chicken pox or a cold! I am always going to be a bulimic, no matter how long I go without throwing up. I am a bulimic from the first time I decided that maybe I would feel bet
r if I just threw up to the day I die. I can’t ever get better.
Wilder: That isn’t right.
Julia: Of course it isn’t right.
Wilder: It isn’t... natural.
Julia: No, it isn’t natural. Smoking and drinking aren’t natural either, but people still do those.
Wilder: But those are different.
Julia: Yeah? How?
Wilder: Well... I can’t explain it.
Julia: There isn’t any difference.
Wilder: The reasons you start are different. You started because you didn’t like how you looked.
Julia: I never planned it like this! I didn’t decide that I would make myself lose ten pounds by throwing up.
Wilder: But you did it because you wanted to change something about yourself.
Julia: That’s why people start smoking and drinking. They want to look cooler, older, impress someone else.
Wilder: But they’re an addiction.
Julia: So is bulimia. It starts out just once or twice. But then you start doing it two, three times a day, and then every time you eat. And you can’t stop yourself.
Wilder (becoming increasingly confused and flustered): It isn’t the same.
Julia: Okay. Maybe I judged you wrong. Maybe you’re one of those guys who thinks it’s fun to go to three different parties on a Friday night and get a little drunker at each one.
Wilder: I don’t need you to preach to me.
Julia: You don’t need me to preach to you? Why? Because I have problems? Because I might actually know what I’m talking about?
Wilder: I didn’t mean it that way.
Julia: No, just listen to me. I am so sick of being judged. If you are one of those party-drinkers, so be it. It isn’t my problem. So I think that if I don’t judge you, you have absolutely no right to judge me.
Wilder: You can’t justify bulimia by comparing it to drinking.
Julia: Oh, but you can justify your drinking by comparing it to bulimia?
Wilder: I don’t drink.
Julia: Wilder, I don’t care what you do. If it doesn’t concern me, I don’t want to hear about it.
Wilder: But I don’t.
Julia: Then that’s great for you, okay?
Wilder: You are a bulimic. You can’t justify or explain it away. You’re stuck with it.
Julia: I know.
Wilder: You keep trying to make me feel bad about it, like it’s my fault. Well, listen. I am very sorry that you have this problem, but it has nothing to do with me! I don’t even know you. I don’t know how old you are. I don’t know your favor
e color. I don’t know what size shoes you wear.
(A long silence.)
Julia: Sixteen. I’m sixteen. My favorite color is red. And I wear a size eight and a half.
Wilder: That’s not my point.
Julia: I know it isn’t your point. But I’m trying to fix this.
Wilder: Fix what?
Julia: This. Give me a break... we haven’t even known each other for an hour. Why are we fighting like this? Why are we screaming at each other?
Wilder: I don’t know.
Julia: Neither do I.
Wilder: I wish we could start today over.
Julia: Why don’t we?
Wilder: What do you mean?
Julia: Get up and go over there. When you come back, we’ll pretend like none of this ever happened.
(Wilder stands and walks off. Julia picks up a magazine. Wilder re-enters moments later, and sits next to Julia.)
Wilder: Hello. I’m Wilder.
Julia: I’m Julia. Nice to meet you.
(Wilder picks up a magazine. They read silently for a moment, then Julia sets hers down.)
Julia: This isn’t going to work.
Wilder: No.
Julia: Whether you like it or not, you are involved.
Wilder: Are you kidding? I have no responsibility for your actions.
Julia: You’re the only one who knows.
Wilder: No, I’m not. You said that David--
Julia: I don’t think he understands. All he knows is he found me throwing up and I don’t want Mom and Dad to know.
Wilder: This isn’t fair to me, Julia.
Julia: I’m sorry. I still don’t know why I told you.
Wilder: My girlfriend says that I’m easy to talk to.
(Julia is momentarily startled, but she hides it quickly.)
Julia: Oh. That’s... interesting.
Wilder: Well, ex-girlfriend. Technically.
Julia: Is she or isn’t she?
Wilder: Look, I stay out of your personal life, you stay out of mine.
Julia: You didn’t stay out of my personal life. And I think you owe me an explanation.
Wilder: Why?
Julia: Because you just gave me a speech about how you liked me, and all of a sudden you have a girlfriend.
Wilder: Okay, fine. Her name is Emily. She was new to Willow Union last March. We started dating in early August. Things were fine for about two months, and then I found out that she was, well, very good friends with some guy from Berk
ire.
Julia: Maybe I know him. What was his name?
Wilder: I can’t remember... it started with a ‘D’, I think.
Julia: So you mean she was cheating on you? How do you mean?
Wilder: Do I have to draw you a diagram? Let’s just say that they were doing more than kissing.
Julia: You’re kidding!
Wilder: Then I found out that Emily wasn’t who I thought she was at all. I found out her reputation from her old school. And I realized that I didn’t like the person she really was.
Julia (incredulously): So, what? You dumped her because you found out she had a bad reputation at her old school? How do you know it was true? Maybe that was why she moved.
Wilder: Before you decide I’m a heartless jerk, maybe you should hear the rest.
Julia: Fine.
Wilder: I told her that I didn’t want to go out with her anymore. At first she got really upset, but then she calmed down a little bit. Right before I left, she said, “Wilder, you can’t break up with me” and I said, “Well, I just did.” Then s
followed me out to my car, and just as I was starting it up, she said, “I’m pregnant.”
Julia: Pregnant!
Wilder: She said I was the father. She said that I had to stay with her for the sake of the baby.
Julia: Is it yours?
Wilder: No!
Julia: How do you know?
Wilder: Because we never... you know...
Julia: Then how can she try to use it to make you stay?
Wilder: She said... she said that if I broke up with her, she would tell everyone it was mine. And then I would have to drop out of school and spend the rest of my life working to pay child support.
Julia: But how can she do that? Just tell everyone it isn’t yours!
Wilder: It isn’t that simple. No one knows she was ever with the Berkshire guy. And everyone thinks that we were sleeping together all along.
Julia: So what did you do?
Wilder: What could I do? I stayed with her.
Julia: That’s stupid.
Wilder: I didn’t have any other choice.
Julia: Of course you did. You should have just explained to everyone what she was planning to do before she got to it, and then everyone would have seen that she was lying.
Wilder: Julia, she had already told my best friend and all of her friends that she was pregnant. And she even told them that she was afraid I’d break up with her because of it.
Julia: Well, what about the Berkshire guy? Doesn’t he have any responsibility?
Wilder: I told you, nobody knows about him.
Julia: If he’s a half decent human being, he should at least step forward.
Wilder: If you could get away with something like that just by staying silent, wouldn’t you?
Julia: That isn’t fair.
Wilder: You’re damn right it isn’t fair, but what am I supposed to do about it?
(A long silence.)
Julia: Request a paternity test.
Wilder: Request a... a what?
Julia: A test to determine who the father is.
Wilder: For Pete’s sakes, Julia, I’m seventeen. I’m not going to request a paternity test.
Julia: It doesn’t matter how old you are. If you need the test, ask that she take it. If she refuses to take it, you’re off the hook.
Wilder: I don’t know.
Julia: They can tell if it’s you or the other guy. And if you know it isn’t you, you have nothing to worry about.
Wilder: Okay, listen. I don’t think the other guy knows she’s pregnant. I don’t think she told him.
Julia: Then he’s in for a surprise.
Wilder: Julia, I can’t do this.
Julia: You have to. Unless you want to drop out of school and work for a kid that isn’t yours.
Wilder: I’ll think about it.
Julia: Think hard about it, Wilder. You’ll regret it if you don’t.
(The telephone on the Nurse’s desk rings. She answers it.)
Nurse: Admittance desk, Beverly speaking. Just a moment. (to waiting room) Miss Slattery?
(Julia stands slowly.)
Julia: Yes?
Nurse: It’s your brother’s physician.
(Julia crosses to the phone.)
Julia: This is Julia Slattery. Yes. Oh. Really? That’s wonderful! Thank you. Thank you very much!
(She hangs up and returns to her seat.)
Wilder: What now?
Julia: They said someone’s coming down to get me. They’re going to let me in to see him.
Wilder: Is he better or worse?
Julia: They said he’s doing much better. They said he might even be out of here by tomorrow!
Wilder: That’s great.
Julia: I know.
(The Young Nurse enters, consulting her clipboard.)
Young Nurse: Julia? Julia Slattery?
Julia: That’s me.
Young Nurse: Right this way, please.
(Julia and the Young Nurse exit, passing Vince and Jack on their way. The two are pushing another man, Marty, in a wheelchair.)
Vince (to Marty): So then Sal says to Roy, “What do you mean, a cello?” And Roy says, “Well, his gun wouldn’t fit in the violin case-- he needed something bigger!”
(Vince and Marty laugh loudly. Jack looks puzzled.)
Jack: Why would he want to put a gun in a violin case in the first--
Vince: Shaddup, Jack, you’re gonna get us in trouble.
Marty: Man, it’s good to see you fellas again. Thought they’d never let me out.
-MWE
