Queen of Swords – the end of the Tarot play by Alysse Aallyn

SCENE 7

(Lights up on Hamptons cottage, as before. WHITNEY assaults the door.)

WHITNEY
Charmayne!! Charmayne!!

(Her stepmother opens the door. Slower, less confident; accusatory)

CHARMAYNE
You’ve been avoiding me, Whitney. Why haven’t you returned my calls? I thought we were besties.

WHITNEY
I wanted to bring you something.

CHARMAYNE
(Haughty, but momentarily excited in spite of herself)

And what could you possibly give the woman who has everything?

WHITNEY
Just this.

(Tenders a bullet)

CHARMAYNE
Ooooo, scary! And what’s this supposed to represent?

WHITNEY
It’s a bullet, Charmayne. It matches the bullets in your gun, the bullets all over this beach and the bullets in your stepfather.

CHARMAYNE
My stepfather!

WHITNEY
Yup. I’ve been to visit his grave.

CHARMAYNE
Well, thank you for this –

(Mockingly, as she throws it out to sea)

I was never was two-faced as you, Whitney. My stepfather – who’s in hell, as you very well know from the personal, confidential disclosures that I made to you during a Girls Night Out – doesn’t have a grave. Anyway, nobody cares about that old stuff anymore.

WHITNEY
There’s no statute of limitations on murder.

CHARMAYNE
(Tries to grab her)

Statute! Limitations! Whit, do you need cash to go to law school?

WHITNEY
(Evading her neatly)

It’s time to answer for what you’ve done.

(CHARMAYNE walks past her towards the ocean – crossed arms, thinking)

CHARMAYNE
Your father wouldn’t want this.

WHITNEY
I’m not doing it for him. I’m doing it for me.

CHARMAYNE
This feels so odd. It’s not what I expected, at all. You never fail to surprise me, Whitney. Your enmity is so flattering. I feel… courted.

(Turns around to face WHITNEY, back in control)

So you think you know everything about me now?

WHITNEY
I know all I need to know. For example, that you’re wondering right now whether it’s worth your while to get rid of me. Whether I have a partner in my researches who knows everything I’m doing. And the answer is yes.

CHARMAYNE
I was not wondering how to get rid of you, Whitney! As if! I couldn’t get rid of you if I tried. You’re one of the Immortals.

WHITNEY
Am I supposed to know what that is?

CHARMAYNE
We Immortals have been here since time immemorial. We recognize each other. We are transformable, but essentially indestructible.

WHITNEY
Wow, that’s so comforting. Lucky for us! And now it’s time for my second gift. I’m going to tell your fortune. 


(Sits at the patio set table and starts shuffling cards)

CHARMAYNE
(Approaching nervously, interested in spite of herself)

You can’t tell my fortune.

WHITNEY
I’m the only one who can.

CHARMAYNE
But that’s not my deck. So you can’t use it.

WHITNEY
No. It’s my deck. You have to play the cards the goddess deals, right? Sit down. First, I’ll tell you your past.

(Produces a card – Hermit leaps up on the screen. Cards seemingly tremble, shimmer in the air)
Recognize him?

(CHARMAYNE sits down)

CHARMAYNE
It’s the Hermit.

WHITNEY
There he is, with his broom and his light. Don’t you recognize him?

CHARMAYNE
That’s a staff.

WHITNEY
It’s a broom. It’s holding him up more than he’s holding it up. I saw him. I spoke to him. Mr. Butterbatch.

CHARMAYNE
(Sounds delighted)

Old Butterbatch! Is HE still ticking! I can scarcely believe it – he was a hundred when I knew him.
How is the old geezer?

WHITNEY
Fine and dandy. I must say he remembers you very well, Destiny. He told me all about how the police have been longing to find the source of the female DNA all over the frog gigger they found sticking out of Burt’s throat. You must have cut yourself! Imagine that! Probably just a little nick. How would you even have noticed it, when there was so much blood?

CHARMAYNE
Burt was vile, Whitney. Vile. Anyone would have done it. He needed to be put down.

WHITNEY
Maybe, Charmayne. Who can judge? O, right, this guy! Justice!

(Tarot card leaps up to screen and trembles in the air)

CHARMAYNE
Justice is female, Whitney. But I have faith in you. You’ll figure it out.

WHITNEY
Must be where the phrase “stings like a bitch” comes from. And see that box she’s sitting on? That’s the box they’re going to put you in.

CHARMAYNE
No one’s putting me in a box. Never.

WHITNEY
Oh, they’re going to put you in a box, Charmayne. They’re going to put you in a series of boxes, like some kind of dangerous Matrushka doll. That’s three separate states you’ve unleashed mayhem in and they’re all going to want a crack at you.
And who’s this? The Lovers!

(Tarot card onscreen)

There’s your girlfriend, Charmayne Carr. You must have known the cards would turn on you someday, Charmayne. Why don’t you just tell her family where you stashed that body? The prosecutor’s going to get it out of you, one way or another. After a few weeks of instant mashed potato mix, egg substitute, baloney and wonderbread you’ll tell them anything they want to know.

CHARMAYNE
(Mocking)
Shows what you know! I wonder if your much-vaunted “classical education” isn’t a pair of distortion goggles after all. Dr Carr’s family rejected her and she never gave a damn for any of them! She was free of all that. And for your information, the Lovers was never was her card. She was the Empress.

WHITNEY
You said you weren’t two-faced like me, Charmayne. But you were careful, weren’t you? Did you give her the honor of confronting her the way I’m confronting you now or did wait until her back was turned?

CHARMAYNE
She gave me her life! She was longing for me to absorb her! It was her free choice, one I wouldn’t expect you to understand. I was an Immortal! She recognized it and she yielded.

WHITNEY
Sure, sure. That’s what always happens. The fish throws himself into the boat to save you from spearing it. Tell yourself anything that lets you sleep at night. Oh, wait, you can’t sleep, can you? It’s starting to show on your face.

(CHARMAYNE stands up and turns away, touching her face)

CHARMAYNE
That was just mean, Whitney. That was uncalled for.

(WHITNEY produces another Tarot card – it leaps to the screen and shimmers in the air)
Who’s this? An Emperor with the long white beard! Who can that be, I wonder!

CHARMAYNE
(Turned away from the card, forces herself to sit down, put her feet up and make a show of relaxing)

Let me guess. A certain cardiac surgeon of our acquaintance?

WHITNEY
Thoracic.

CHARMAYNE
Thoracic surgeon. Now we get within sight of your real problem, Whitney, the real fountain of your rage. Your father was such a charming man, even in extreme old age. The Lady of Life met the Lord of Death: it was just the way he wanted it, it had to happen. He was so touchingly eager to enrich me, to pass along his acquisitions. You’re just jealous because he found a new pupil.

WHITNEY
You thanked him by killing him!

CHARMAYNE
I did reward him, Whitney. Your father was suffering. He begged me to put him out of his misery. Would you like me to summon him from the grave so you can ask him? You’ll see I’m right! I think from the first moment our eyes met in the job interview he knew I was the only one who could get the job done exactly the way he wanted. He begged me for that extra dose of morphine. Having a body became a torment to him. He could no longer enjoy anything.

WHITNEY
As your body will torment you, while you rot away in jail. But at least somebody will get to enjoy it – whatever bullies or “Immortals” you’re lucky – or unlucky enough to run into. They’ll pass you around like a pizza.

CHARMAYNE
(Snatches her feet off the table)
I’m not going to jail, silly Whitney! Not ever! I served my time!

WHITNEY
(Pulling herself forcibly together she produces another card – Judgment on screen – hugely vibrating )

Sorry, Pearleen – or whoever you are this week – childhood doesn’t count. Now here’s a lady you’ve never met. She showed me your stepfather’s grave.

CHARMAYNE
(Labored change of tactics)

I like this new you, Whitney. So forceful, so ablaze.

(Pretends to shiver)

It’s so sexy. Pity it’s all wasted, that you’ve been so misled. Judgment is not the card you’ve been looking for all your life.

(Picks it up and sends it spinning – onscreen card – which she avoids looking at – seems to swell)

WHITNEY
But this is the one card we have in common. The lady who tends your stepfather’s grave – saving it for the investigators – she brandished a trumpet and everything. Looks like the goddess has given up on you, Charmayne.

CHARMAYNE
Nice try, but my stepfather doesn’t have a grave. He didn’t deserve one.

WHITNEY
Yeah, he does, and I took a picture of it. See?

(Shows her phone)

The Hidden Glade developers found him when they paved over Dead Lake and they treated him to a nice box of his very own. There he is, just waiting for someone to find a match to those bullets.

(She pulls a bullet from a chain around her neck)

This bullet, for example. I chose it from the many bullets you’ve sprayed around this beach. You’ll never find them all.

CHARMAYNE
(Crossed arms)
I never transitioned anyone that didn’t want it or deserve it.

WHITNEY
Transition! Now there’s a word! But the law doesn’t respect your private language, you know. They have a language all their own. You killed Charmayne Carr to steal her identity. You killed my father to get rich. You killed the night manager to steal his stash. You killed your stepfather to steal his wheels and run away.

CHARMAYNE
(Firing up immediately)

None of that is true and you of all people –

WHITNEY
That’s what they’ll say. I’m just trying to prepare you. That’s what prosecutors always say, based on what they can prove. It’s worst case scenario right at the beginning, Pearleen, so prepare yourself. I’m sure your oh-so-expensive defense attorney will explain to them about your “Immortals” theory. That’ll sound good to the jury. Or maybe he’ll just give up and plead insanity. Possibly you should represent yourself in court – after you’ve had all that plastic surgery you’ve been thinking about.

CHARMAYNE
I ‘m not bothering with the law, Whitney. Don’t you see that the law’s a charade? A puppet dance for marionettes? I was greedy for life, Whitney. For ecstasy, for joy. For experiences and possessions, so I took them. I’m not ashamed. I’ve had everything I ever wanted.

WHITNEY
Then isn’t it time?

CHARMAYNE
For what?

WHITNEY
To give up.

CHARMAYNE
I’ll never give up!

WHITNEY
(Produces a final card)

Because here’s your future. The Hanged Man. He sees the world upside down. And it’s the last thing he sees.

(Card onscreen)

CHARMAYNE
You’re young, Whitney. Nothing wrong with that! You know nothing about the real world, by which I mean the invisible world that pulses beneath the visible. Your father kept you from it with that “classical education”. You need to take your time figuring out who – and what you really are. I could help you. We could share all this.

WHITNEY
No.

(Throws a card at her – Death appears onscreen)

Death, Charmayne. That’s your future. Your future is Death.

CHARMAYNE
(Upends the table, scattering everything – rises from her chair)

I can’t die. It won’t happen. Didn’t I explain it to you? Listen, Whitney. We make our own reality. You’re my mirror.

WHITNEY
I’m your parabolic mirror, sent to fry you to a crisp.

CHARMAYNE
Don’t say it like that. What if I admit you’ve won? Here, take the dagger. Now you’re the new Queen of Swords.

WHITNEY
Someone told me never to “settle”.

CHARMAYNE
(Kneeling beside her)

It’s breaking my heart that I can’t explain this to you.

WHITNEY
Don’t kid yourself, Destiny. A heart was one of the encumbrances you left behind.

CHARMAYNE
Is this what love feels like? I’m not used to wanting things I can’t have.

WHITNEY
You just tried to convince me you’re immortal, you’ll never talk me into thinking you’re human!

CHARMAYNE
It’s so strange! You feel about me the way I thought about them. Murder kills feeling. And if you can’t feel, you can’t enjoy. If you can’t enjoy, you might as well be dead.

WHITNEY
I guess there’s a limit to everything, and you’ve reached yours.

CHARMAYNE
(Turns to face the audience)

Maybe it is my time to find out my next stage. I’ve always wondered who I really am. Your father called me a “living doll,” Burt said I was cold as ice, the Empress named me “the marble-hearted”. My step-dad said I wasn’t a little girl, I was a cockroach like him.

(Touches WHITNEY)

Help me.

WHITNEY
I’m helping you to see that it’s the end. You’ve had a good run, but it’s over.

CHARMAYNE
You don’t even know what you’re rejecting! Let me show you what you’re missing –

(Tries to embrace WHITNEY who pushes her away)

WHITNEY
(Roughly)

You’re not my type.

CHARMAYNE
Isn’t there anything I can give you to change your mind? Think, Whitney. Aren’t I the only person in the universe who really understands you? Sees you for what you are?

WHITNEY
Actually, you aren’t. But there is something you can give me.

CHARMAYNE
(Such relief)

What? Anything! Name it.

WHITNEY
I want you to prove your immortality.

(Points out to the audience)

Swim out there. Keep swimming. And don’t come back.

CHARMAYNE
Are you sure that’s what you really want?

WHITNEY
(Gesturing)

Challenge your Goddess to a swimming match. Be my guest. Bye-bye.

CHARMAYNE
A swim? That’s all you want? When I am willing to share everything? All the secrets?

WHITNEY
A swim to eternity. That’s all that I want.

CHARMAYNE
(Brittle laugh)

You can see me naked any time, Whitney. No need to go through all this.

WHITNEY
Just swim. I don’t care how.

CHARMAYNE
But it’s freezing!

WHITNEY
You swim here every night.

CHARMAYNE
But the weather’s changed. It’s gone dark and cold. Still, they say beyond the water lies a place where all waters part. I could re-invent myself.

(Looking out)

So once again I’m the initiate, am I? It’s funny how things come around.

(Comes closer peering way, way out beyond the audience’s eyes.)

I wonder what’s out there. A little tequila before I go? For old time’s sake?

WHITNEY
You’ve had all the tequila. Go.

(WHITNEY’S implacable so CHARMAYNE starts undressing.)

CHARMAYNE
Look at my beautiful body, Whit. Won’t it be a shame to waste it?

WHITNEY
Stop begging and save your strength.

CHARMAYNE
(Insulted)

Begging? Is that what you think I’m doing?

(To herself)

The Empress told me that to find your dominant was heaven. I see it now. You’re the goddess who can never be denied.

(Bows at her feet – WHITNEY steps away in agitation)

WHITNEY
Stuff it. Soft soap won’t work on me. I’ve never had it and I don’t want it. Your goddess is out there. Go find her.

CHARMAYNE
(Kicking her clothes away)

This is all so different from what I imagined. I’m so different. It’s the ultimate surprise.

WHITNEY
You may have more surprises waiting just around the corner.

CHARMAYNE
I can feel myself getting younger. Like a child, begging for that one last story before lights out! Who knew after all this time that sacrifice – that giving up my strength would prove to be the missing fountain of youth! Will the Goddess reveal herself to me unveiled? Whose face will she wear, I wonder?

(Shivers)

WHITNEY
You knew this was coming! You had to know!

CHARMAYNE
I thought if my past ever caught up to me I’d…be destroyed. Disemboweled like the Hanging Man. Poison. The asp. Who knew it would feel so sweet? Relief.

WHITNEY
(Somewhat shaken)

More cons.

CHARMAYNE
What relief to concentrate on the physical challenge ahead. Oh, the blessing of the physical!

(Steps into the “water”, clutching her arms.)

There was always another freedom, right around the corner. What new thing comes next? Freedom’s the lover I pursued all my life, and still she evades me. There’s always a greater freedom… somewhere.

(Steps down into the audience. Swimming)

Suddenly I feel so shy. It’s like being thirteen again. If my stepfather had never existed, who would I have become?

WHITNEY
(Coming down to the water to watch)

Maybe you’ll find out.

CHARMAYNE
The Empress recommended surrender. She said it felt so good! They all told me…or tried to tell me. Who could predict that Death would come to me as a beautiful young woman?

(Breaststroke)

Is this right? Am I doing it right?

(WHITNEY gestures “farther out”. CHARMAYNE blows her a kiss.)

Goodbye, my nemesis.

(Faces outwards.)

Hello, Virginity!

(Swims away through the audience. Exit.)

(WHITNEY drops her “Judgment” pose, leaps to her feet, paces up and down the beach, peering out to sea. Increasingly anxious. Enter EIGHT to stand behind her and put his arms around her. She shakes him loose. Pacing.)

EIGHT
Is she gone?

WHITNEY

I’ll never know!
I thought it was all an act! I never thought it would work! She can’t be gone if I don’t feel she’s gone, can she? I’m so scared she injected herself inside me, like a brainworm!
Am I a murderer now, too?

(Calls loudly)

Wait, wait! I’ve changed my mind! Come back! Let’s talk!

(EIGHT tries to calm her, she collapses into bitter weeping.)

EIGHT
You’re acting like you lost your best friend. Don’t forget she was your bitterest enemy. She was the world’s enemy.

WHITNEY
You confused her with your demon, but she was my demon.

(Shaking her head)

No, no. It was over too fast. What did I say? I blurted out a bunch of lies, just like she did. I had to turn myself into her in order to catch her! What if I can’t change back? I did everything wrong.

EIGHT
(Hugs her)

Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re decompressing. You were in an impossible situation. It worked! You did everything right.

WHITNEY
But I miss her. Now I have nothing. No offense, but now I have nobody.

EIGHT
No offense taken. You’re just feeling the emptiness where the anger used to be. Let it melt away. Of course it’s going to hurt. There’s a whole wide world out there and it needs you. The universe is full of treasure.

WHITNEY
Didn’t I tell you I hate it when you talk about treasure?

EIGHT
No. Sorry. Maybe I need a new expression.

WHITNEY
I need a lot of new expressions. New words. I need a whole new language.

EIGHT
It’s out there, Whitney. When you can’t manage forgiveness, just let go.

WHITNEY
That’s what she said! It’s myself I can’t forgive.

EIGHT
It takes awhile. You’ll figure it out. It’s like being born all over again. I have faith in you.

WHITNEY
She said that too!

EIGHT
She doesn’t own ideas, Whitney. She doesn’t own emotions, or the past, or even the future. She used those things as camouflage for her greed. For her appetites. Come. Walk with me.

WHITNEY
No. No. I can’t leave. She might come back. You’re just trying to re-make me in your image.

EIGHT
Absolutely not. The thing I like most about you is, you’re not me. Take your time, Whitney. This is your chance to be you. You’re telling your own fortune, now.

WHITNEY
(Looking out over the ocean)

If I’m telling my own fortune I might as well give myself a really good one. Do you think she’s really gone?

EIGHT
She’s less than nothing now. Hold my hand.

(Touching her)

You’re cold. Don’t you want to go inside?

WHITNEY
No. I have to stay right here. For awhile.

(Sits down.)

In case she comes back. She might come back. Will you wait with me? At least till dark? Or till I get used to missing her? There were so many things I forgot to say.

EIGHT
Rehearse them. Tell them all to me. I’m here.

(Sits beside her, they clutch hands, staring out into the audience. Lights out)

END