The Anarchist (6 page)

CATHY
: How is this diff . . .

ANN
: Or whom . . .

CATHY
: . . . how is this different from an inquisition?

ANN
: Or whom would you have judge? And on what basis? That people may kill, as they are moved or inspired, and then claim they've had a “Vision.” Of repentance? Of . . .

CATHY
: Yes, all right.

ANN
: Or simply claim “the biddability of childhood.”

CATHY
: I would like to go free.

ANN
: Then tell me where your partner is.

CATHY
: Is that the condition? Of my release?

ANN
: John and Jack. Renounced their crime. By indicting their associate.

CATHY
: Oh, yes, that's well put.

ANN
: Which differs, you must agree, from, a mere “profession of faith” or of “repentance.”

CATHY
: Yes, you are correct. It does.

ANN
: It was a quantifiable Act.

CATHY
: All right.

ANN
: Of which the Court took notice.

CATHY
: Fine.

ANN
: How else could it judge? By the ability of the claimants to awake “compassion”? Do you live in that sort of a world? Did you? You understand my problem.
(Pause)
You were lonely. After she left you.

CATHY
: Yes. Let's do that, too.

ANN
: You were lonely. When she “broke up with you.”

CATHY
: Yes.

ANN
: When she “abandoned” you.

Cathy
: If you will.

ANN
: No, that's your word. Yes? In the letter you had passed to her?

CATHY
: That was so long ago.

ANN
: That you, illegally, had passed to her.

CATHY
: I thought she had abandoned me.

ANN
: You were imprisoned.

CATHY
: Did you long for your children when you were apart from them? . . .
(Pause)
She ceased writing to me. And I pined for her.

ANN
: Where is she?

CATHY
: I don't know.

ANN
: You don't know, and yet you wrote, last month, to your attorney: “I would like, in Freedom, to . . .”

CATHY
: That letter was privileged.

ANN
: “Once again . . .”

CATHY
: That was a privileged communication.

ANN
: “Gaze upon the Morning Star.” And asked him . . .

CATHY
: No, your interception . . .

ANN
: To see if he could aid you in that.

CATHY
: Your interception of that letter to my attorney is a crime.

ANN
: Perhaps. If one believed in the State.

CATHY
: Irrespective of . . .

ANN
: “To gaze,” you wrote, “again upon the Morning Star.” What is the Morning Star?

(Pause.)

CATHY
: The Morning Star is Venus.

ANN
: In this context.

CATHY
: It was the star of Bethlehem and—as the Star of Evening—shone into the cave where Christ was born.

ANN
: In this context.

CATHY
: That's what it means.

ANN
: Yes. But the phrase also occurs here. In your Concordance Bible, in the Book of Esther. Where, in the margin, we find: “Esther, who is also Astarte and Ishtar. Whence our word star.” And a poem. “Written in sequestration. To Althea. I long . . .”

Cathy
: All right . . .

ANN
: “To gaze, once again. Upon you: on the Morning Star.” Where is Althea?

CATHY
: You, understandably, assume, that that which is . . .

ANN
: “Withheld”?

CATHY
: You assume. That everything that's said here, which is, of necessity,
opaque
. . .

ANN
: . . . why would it be “
opaque
”?

CATHY
: Must, of necessity, be criminal, or shameful. That it must be
sexual
, or . . .

ANN
: Is love between two women shameful?

CATHY
: It's
private
. Do you understand? As sex between any two people is private. The unhealthy may confuse the wish for privacy with shame. Do you want me to tell you my
fantasies
? To . . .

ANN
: Everything said here is said in confidence.

CATHY
: Oh, please. You inform the Board . . .

ANN
: All I forward to the Board are my
conclusions
.

CATHY
: How are they arrived at? If prurience . . .

ANN
: . . . am I prurient? . . .

CATHY
: . . . and curiosity are confused? If a desire for
privacy
is confused with . . .

ANN
: I . . .

CATHY
: One lies, wait, or, say one
withholds
. . .

ANN
: Everyone who sits there lies, I understand. I would.

CATHY
: You would . . .

ANN
: To go free, yes, of course.

CATHY
: And yet, and yet—
knowing
that, you indulge, in the name of, what? “Psychology,” your penchant for what, “observation”?

ANN
: Is love between women unnatural?

CATHY
: Everything in prison is unnatural. Would you like me to set you free?

ANN
: How would you set me free?

CATHY
: No. Would you
like
me. To set you free?

ANN
: How am I bound?

CATHY
: Will you answer me?

ANN
: You wrote: “The troubled cannot be freed by psychiatry.” That they do not
lack
psychiatry.

CATHY
: . . . that's right.

ANN
: “. . . they lack love.”
(Pause)
Do I lack love?

CATHY
: Of course you do.

ANN
: . . . I lack love . . .

CATHY
: That's why you're
frightened
.

ANN
: I'm frightened. Why?

CATHY
: Because you're leaving.

ANN
: Has my work here given me Love?

CATHY
: It's given you
structure
. Which is to say,
repression
. . .

ANN
:
Sexual
repression?

CATHY
: Of a deeper desire.

ANN
: For?

CATHY
: Submission.

ANN
: To?

CATHY
: To God.
(Pause)
Which is why you mock the possibility in others. I understand. Believe me.

(Pause.)

ANN
: Where is Althea?

CATHY
:
Put it down
. Don't you see? You are chained to the past. When you can be free. This is the lesson of The Christ. To let the dead bury the dead. That is all that it means, Ann, to be reborn. It is not “mystical” that you need be frightened of it. It is not an “ordeal” it is a
gift
. The end of regret. It's faith. It is the holy ghost.

ANN
: What is the Holy Ghost?

CATHY
: It is that Spirit which unites the Father and the Son. It is a mystery. Which is the essence of Faith. Ann: Neither God nor human worth can be proved. That, finally, there is nothing but Spirit. In time. I could by Reason, Ann, bring you to Faith. I know your heart is heavy.

ANN
: Why is my heart heavy?

CATHY
: Because it is stone. Which must break to be opened. Will you break open your heart? You can lay your burden down. And He will
take
it from you.

(The phone rings again.)

I can't do it for you, Ann. I wish I could. He can.

(The phone rings again.)

But it requires an act of courage.

(Ann picks up the phone and holds it.)

ANN
: Where is Althea?

CATHY
: Are you
sure
? Are you
sure
?

ANN
: I . . .

CATHY
: If I can
help
you. I'll
help
you. Why would I not? You
know
I've helped others. You
know
I have.

(Ann picks up the phone.)

ANN
(Into the phone)
: Thank you. I understand.

CATHY
: . . . what do you think that I've been
doing
here? . . . Is it impossible that I was sent here? Or, finding myself here found that I might do good, might that not be called the intercession of God? Whose only worldly influence, Ann, is through the human soul. Which is to say, through sinners. “There was a young girl who killed. And was confined to prison. And a man gave her a book.”

ANN
: Where is Althea?

CATHY
: I don't know.

ANN
: But you wrote to her.

CATHY
: I wrote
of
her.

ANN
: Oh yes.
(Reading)
“I thought she was dead. And searched for her. In other women . . .”

CATHY
: . . . all right . . .

ANN
(Reading)
: “Assured that their outward form was but a necessary veil. To keep the mystery from profane eyes. A common reaction, I learned, of the widow.”

CATHY
: For all I know, she is dead. For all I know, she is somewhere in Custody.

ANN
: And someone has been holding her? All of these years.

CATHY
: You say it doesn't happen? . . .

ANN
: Does it?

CATHY
: That the State . . .

ANN
: Are you an Enemy of the State?

CATHY
: I was.

ANN
: And now? Are you an Enemy of the State?

CATHY
: No.

ANN
: But you were.

CATHY
: Yes.

ANN
: What are the ways in which enemies may be reconciled?

CATHY
: . . . all right . . .

ANN
(Reads)
: “These are the ways in which Enemies can be reconciled.”

CATHY
: I was young. And I was a fool.

ANN
: “Surrender of life, of property, of land, or of Prejudice,” which I understand to mean, of a previously held belief.

CATHY
: Have you done nothing, in your youth . . .

ANN
: “Or, in plainer English, Enemies may be reconciled if one or both recant, revise or surrender their position.” Which do we find here?

CATHY
: I don't know.

ANN
: How can I know unless you tell me?

CATHY
: Do you enjoy my discomfort?

ANN
: You chose to come here. To see me.

CATHY
: That's right.

ANN
: Seeking approval for your request. Which request may only be obtained through my endorsement.

CATHY
: Which may only be obtained from
you
.

ANN
: That's right.

(Pause.)

CATHY
: All right, “why?”

ANN
: Because I have been delegated that power.