ACT IV

(Morning of the next day)

SCENE:  The Morrison’s living room. ADAM and KIMIYO are alone in the room, seated together on the sofa.

ADAM:  (Nervously) Kimi, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. No big deal, really, I can’t think why I’ve never told you before, but –

KIMIYO: (Looking troubled) Is this about last Christmas? I want to ask you last
night, but you were snoring by time I come to bed. You told me last year going home to U. K. for Christmas, so I just think that –

ADAM:  (Laughing) God, no – were you worried about that? I really did come here
last year – I mean, not here, as in to my family, I mean to the U.K.  I’ve got a lot of friends here, you know – I came back to see them.

KIMIYO: (Incredulously) You come home to see friends? Not family?

ADAM:  (Looking uncomfortable) The thing is – it was a last-minute trip. I got the flight at the last minute, and the university were paying for it anyway – I know it sounds awful, but I figured my family'd never know about it anyway, and what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. If they’d known I was back and didn’t pop in to see them, well – but they didn’t, you see, and – well, I went up to Leeds and stayed with friends instead.

KIMIYO:  (Nodding, but still looking troubled) Okaaay. I understand. So what you want to tell me?

ADAM:  (Taking a deep breath) Well, the thing is – it’s about my father. You know how he’s – well, he’s 80 years old now. . .(he falters, lost for words)

KIMIYO:  (Nodding) Yeees?

ADAM:  (Nervously) Well, the truth is, during the war –  (Breaking off as GWEN enters, cup of coffee in hand)

GWEN:  (Standing in the doorway and hesitating for a moment) Oops – I’m not
intruding am I?

ADAM: (Looking flustered, but pretending nonchalance) No, no – Kimiyo and I were
just shooting the breeze.  (He flashes her a quick, nervous smile)

GWEN (Enters room and goes to sit down on one of the armchairs, tucking her feet under her) Oh God, I had too much for breakfast!  Sausages and bacon – never again! At least not until lunch, anyway.

KIMIYO: (Quietly but pointedly) Adam just now was talking about your father, going to tell me something important, something about war.

GWEN: (Cottoning on) What – the POW thing?

ADAM:  (Uncomfortably) Well – yeah. About that.

GWEN:  (Managing to nod and yawn at the same time) Thought so. Stephen was saying earlier that you should have got that out of the way a long time ago.

KIMIYO:  (Curiously) What is P-Oh-Double?

ADAM:  (Gently) Not ‘Double’ – ‘double-U.’ P-O-W, as in Prisoner of War. Our Dad was a prisoner of war. During the – um – war.

KIMIYO: (Beginning to get uneasy) Yeah? Where?

ADAM:  (Avoiding her eyes) Um – Japan, actually.

KIMIYO:  (A look of puzzled dismay settling over her face) Oh. Where Japan? What place?

GWEN: We don’t know, really. When we were kids, he never wanted to talk about it, see. Or about anything to do with Japan, for that matter. All you had to do to get him really angry, was mention anything about Japan or the Japanese. Anything ‘Made in Japan.’ Samurais, flower arranging, Yum-yum, wandering minstrels, the Lord High Executioner – you name it. We didn’t have sushi back then, but if we had –                        

KIMIYO:  (Turning to  ADAM, quietly, incredulously) Why you not tell me this before?     

ADAM: (Miserably) I don’t know. I started to a couple of times, but – well, it’s nothing to do with us, really, Kimi. Is it? (Lamely) We’re the generation that doesn’t know war, you know – it’s got nothing to do with us.

KIMIYO: (Quietly, with carefully controlled anger) Nothing to do with me,
with you, maybe, but the war – it is plenty to do with your father, my parents too. And you have plenty to do with father, and I have plenty to do with my mother, father – so war has plenty connection us children too, really. And if your father was – what? – P-O-double – (throwing up her hands in frustration) – if he was  horyo – then you definitely should tell me. Should have tell me. Because has to do with me, has to do with all – whole family. (

ADAM:  (Quietly) You’re right, Kimi. I’m sorry.

GWEN:  The thing is, Kimi – can I call you Kimi? – Adam and I – all our family in fact – we’re not very good about talking about things. Unpleasant things, that is. Maybe all families are like that a little – maybe all people are, really – but we’re worse than most, I reckon. So our Dad and his POW experience – it’s sort of our skeleton in the cupboard. Along with other things.        

KIMIYO:  (Thoughtfully) So your Dad, then – he knows about me? You do tell him that – that you marry to Japanese woman?

ADAM:  (Sighing) Yes, I told him. Of course I told him.

KIMIYO:  (Nodding slowly) And – he knows that I am here today?

ADAM:  (Miserably) Yes.

KIMIYO: (Quietly) But he does not like Japanese people.

ADAM:  (Pausing a long time) The thing is – it’s not that he –

KIMIYO:  (Interrupting him quietly) I feel nervous.

GWEN:  (With compassion) Can’t say as I blame you. Because the truth is, he doesn’t. And that’s putting it mildly!

ADAM:  (Running his hands over his face)  Kimi – I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you. I was going to tell you, believe me. It’s just that – I figured that since you weren’t going to meet him – because I honestly didn’t know he was going to be coming here over Christmas – well, I figured I had more time. That I didn’t need to tell you until it was really necessary.

KIMIYO:  (In detached manner) Mmmm.

GWEN:  (Drily) It’s a very Morrison thing, Kimi. You’ll soon see. The idea is, if you
ignore something nasty, it’ll go away. And maybe you won’t have to deal with it at all. It’s always been like that, hasn’t it, Adam?

ADAM:  (Not looking at her) Give it a rest, Gwen.

KIMIYO: Kusai mono ni futa.

GWEN: Pardon?

KIMIYO: (Reflectively) Something we say in Japan. Means – something stinks, put lid on it.  Cover up smell.

GWEN: (Laconically) Well, that’s us in a proverbial nutshell. Dad and his wartime experiences, the whole family and Mum –

ADAM: (Angrily interrupting her) Please, Gwen – just leave it. I’ve said I’m sorry – Kimi knows now, so just – let’s take a break from it.

GWEN:  (Leaning forward and addressing Adam) But the thing is, Adam, I can’t. I’m really not like the rest of you. If there’s something nasty – something bad – well, I want to have it out. Just have it out and be done with it.

ADAM:  (In exasperation) Oh, for pity's sake, you're always bringing up every nitpicking little thing and wanting to --

GWEN:  (Interrupting) I’m not talking about the little things – hashing out every little thing – I’m talking about the big things. Like Dad’s POW experience. If that’d happened to me, I’d have wanted to talk about it, to get it out of my system. What's that American expression -- getting closure, isn’t it? Well, that kind of makes sense. Closure.  You look at it – you hold it out in the light where you can really see it – and it doesn’t fester in there, eating away at you, making you sick. Okay, it takes courage, but once you’ve gotten over the horror of actually looking at it – exposing it – it’s not as bad as it was. Not as frightening. And you can close it up.

ADAM:  (Sarcastically) Well, thank you, Dr Morrison.

GWEN:  Go ahead and mock me, Adam, but our whole family could have profited
from some closure back when we kids were growing up, and you know it. Things would’ve been a lot easier on Mum, too. Nobody realized just how hard it was on her. Dad’s attitude, the way he wouldn’t ever talk about it, but the fact that he always exploded any time anyone mentioned buying a Japanese radio or reading a Japanese book – or even stupid things like that tea set I got when I was six. Remember that? How he threatened to smash it to bits, how he actually made me throw it away just because – (She stops as HERBERT suddenly appears at the door)

HERBERT: (Cheerfully) Good morning! Did you all get enough breakfast?

GWEN, KIMIYO, ADAM: (Roughly in chorus, rather distractedly) Yes – yes we did.

HERBERT: (In jocular ‘mein host’  manner) Anyone need anything? More coffee? Tea? Alcohol?

GWEN:  (Smiling) Not for me, but I reckon Adam will want to accept your offer of alcohol once Dad shows up.

ADAM: (Exasperatedly)  Oh for God’s sake –

HERBERT: (Checking his watch) Speaking of which, Simon called about thirty minutes ago from his mobile – they were just about to get on their plane for Amsterdam. Said Dad ought to be here within the hour – that they were in kind of a rush, so they put him in a taxi when they got to Gloucester.

GWEN:  (Sarcastically) Super. We’re all waiting for him with bated breath!

HERBERT: (Eyeing her speculatively and leaning against the door frame) Hmm. Obviously, I've missed something. Everything all right here?

ADAM: (Despairingly) As alright as can be expected, really.

GWEN: (To everyone in general) You know what I did a couple months back?  On
my way back from visiting Dad at Simon’s?

HERBERT:  (Cautiously)  What?

GWEN: (Examining her fingernails) I stopped by the old homestead. In Cardiff. I mean, I’d just been to Bristol – I was that close, so I figured, what the hell.

ADAM:  (Watching her) So?

GWEN: So, it’s been – what? – seventeen years?

ADAM AND HERBERT:  (Nod, but say nothing)

HERBERT: (Thinking) Eighteen. We sold it eighteen years ago.

ADAM: (To Kimiyo) She means the house we all grew up in. We had to really push Dad to sell it when Gwen went into uni – it was just too big for one person.  It was a great old house, though.

GWEN:  (Nodding) Yeah – it was. It had trees you could climb and these big hedges you could hide in for ages. The couple who bought it – they had a little kid and the wife was pregnant, I remember. They kept saying they’d take good care of the house, they knew they’d love it as much as we’d loved it and all.

ADAM:  (Glancing ostentatiously at his wristwatch) Jeez, Gwen, you don't get any less long-winded as you grow old --

GWEN:  (Ignoring Adam) So I parked right in front of it and I just sat there and stared at the house for a long time. I thought it would look completely different, but it looked exactly the same. The only thing that was different was that there were all these kids, these totally different kids. I got there just after school had broken up for the day, so I guess they were just getting home from school, and there must have been five or six kids I saw, going in and out of that house. One was this really tall string-bean of a girl with a couple of nose rings and Goth clothes – I reckon she was the one her mother was expecting at the time.  I looked at her and thought ‘There but for the grace of God and a lot of first class contraception go I.’

ADAM: (Looking irritated) Go on and get to the point, would you?

KIMIYO: (Annoyed, obviously hanging on Gwen’s every word) A-dam!

GWEN: (Flashing Kimiyo a grateful look) So – remember the old bag next door we used to call Lady Boom-Boom? Who was always spying on us from across the fence? The one who used to tell Dad when we threw our balls into her garden or cut through her backyard?

ADAM:  Mrs Boomhour.

GWEN:  That’s the one. She’s still there and – get this – she looks just the same too! Just as wizened and nasty. She must’ve been in her fifties back then when we lived there, so she’s in her seventies now, but I knew who she was straight away. I could have picked her out of a line-up (smiling) – now there’s a thought!  (Intercepting disgusted sighs from brothers) Okay, okay. So, there I was, just sitting there in my car, see – and I guess her habits haven’t changed that much and she still doesn’t have a life – ‘cause she came out of her house, obviously making a mental note of my registration number to tell the police. So I got out of my car and said Remember me? And she didn’t! So I had to tell her who I was and explain that I just wanted to come back and take a look at the old place.  

HERBERT: (Says nothing, but lets his eyes flicker to his wristwatch rather obviously)

GWEN:  (Ignoring Herbert) So the minute I told her who I was – the second I’d said my name – she did a double take and her jaw dropped. And she asked if I’d come about the diaries.

HERBERT  and ADAM: (Almost simultaneously) What diaries? (They turn to look at each other for a fleeting moment and smile)

GWEN: (Nodding) That’s just what I said, of course. What diaries? So she says, the ones Mrs Hopkins – Mrs Hopkins being the mother of the family who moved into our old house – found only last year. So I ask her who’s got them, and she’s looking at me like she wants to ask for some I.D. so that she knows that I really am who I say I am and not just some random stranger who will stop at nothing to get their hands on some dusty old diaries. But she just says that Mrs Hopkins’s got ‘em – that she’s been trying to contact us through the solicitor that handled the sale, but he doesn’t know where we are or how to find us – and she was still yakking when I left and went next door, to talk to Mrs Hopkins. And it turns out that they were up in the crawl space. Remember that panel in the ceiling of your room, Adam? How there was a crawl space up there and we were always wondering how we could get into it, what would be up there inside it?

ADAM:  Yeah, I remember. We always figured there would be ghosts and old letters and things.

GWEN:  (Nodding) Turns out we weren’t far off, actually. So these diaries – there were three of them – they were in a box, shoved up under the rafters and – (All three Morrison siblings look up – as does Kimiyo – at the sound of Stephen’s and Diane’s voices outside. Another male voice can be heard as well: low but deep – and rather querulous)

ADAM:  (Quietly) Dad’s here.