Let Me Hear You Whisper
Paul Zindel
Characters
Helen, a cleaning woman
Miss Moray, her briskly efficient supervisor
Dr. Crocus, a dedicated lady of science
Mrs. Fridge, her assisstant
Danielle, a talky porter
A Dolphin, the subject of an experiement
Setting: the play is set in the laboratory of a building near the Hudson River in lower Manhattan - the home of the American Biological Association Development for the Advancement of Brain Analysis.
Scene 1
Curtain rises on DR. CROCUS and MRS. FRIDGE, conducting an experiment on the DOLPHIN
in the laboratory. The DOLPHIN is in a long, narrow tank, with little room to move. A head sling lifting his blowhole
out of the water and several electrodes implanted in his brain further the impression of a trapped and sad animal.
DR. CROCUS is observing closely as MRS. FRIDGE presses various buttons on cue. An oscilloscope
is bleeping in the background.
Dr. Crocus. Pain. (MRS. FRIDGE presses a button. No response from the
DOLPHIN) Pleasure. (Another button) Anger. (Another) Fear.
[There has been no satisfactory response from the DOLPHIN, but an automatic recorder starts to play a charming melody. When the accompanying vocal commences, however, it is an eerily precise enunciation of the words.]
Record.
Let me call you sweetheart,
I’m in love with you.
Let me hear you whisper,
That you love me, too.
[Disappointed at the lack of response, DR. CROCUS crosses toward MRS. FRIDGE.]
Dr. Crocus. Resistance to electrodic impulses. Possibly destroyed tissue. Continue impulse and auditory suggestion at intervals of seven minutes until end of week. If no response by Friday, termination.
[The DOLPHIN’s special discomfort at this word is unnoticed by others. DR. CROCUS and MRS. FRIDGE head toward elevator on other side of the stage. The elevator doors open and MISS MORAY emerges with HELEN.]
Miss Moray. Dr. Crocus. Mrs. Fridge. I’m so glad we’ve run into you. I want you to meet Helen.
Helen. Hello.
[DR. CROCUS and MRS. FRIDGE nod and get on elevator.]
Miss Moray. Helen is the newest member of our Custodial Engineering Team. So if you two “coaches” have any suggestions, we’ll be most grateful. We want everything to be perfect, don’t we, Helen?
Helen. I do the best I can.
Miss Moray. Exactly. The doctor is one of the most remarkable . . . (The elevator doors close and MRS. FRIDGE and DR. CROCUS are gone.) Remarkable.
Helen. She looked remarkable.
[HELEN looks like a peasant, kerchief and all. As they walk, HELEN begins to remove the kerchief and she would like to fold it properly, for that to be her only activity, but she is distracted by a shopping bag she carries, a bulky coat, and the voice of MISS MORAY.]
Miss Moray. Dr. Crocus is the guiding heart here at the American Biological Association Development for the Advancement of Brain Analysis. We call it ABADABA, for short.
Helen. I guess you have to.
[They stop at a metal locker.]
Miss Moray. This will be your locker and your key. Mrs. Fridge has been with ABADABA only three months and already she’s a much endeared part of our little family. Your equipment is in this closet. (She opens a closet next to the locker.)
Helen. I have to bring my own hangers, I suppose. . . .
Miss Moray. Although it was somewhat embarrassing to me, it was Mrs. Fridge’s inventorial excellence that uncovered what Margaurita—your predecessor—did and why she had to leave us. She’d been drinking portions of the ethyl alcohol—there’s a basin under the sink for rag rinsing—the denatured ethyl
alcohol, and she almost burned out her esophagus. (Pause) I wouldn’t have minded so much if she had only asked. Didn’t you find Personnel pleasant?
Helen. They asked a lot of crazy questions.
Miss Moray. For instance.
Helen. They wanted to know how I felt watching TV.
Miss Moray. What do you mean, how you felt?
Helen. They wanted to know what went on in my head when I’m watching television in my living room and the audience laughs. They asked if I ever thought the audience was laughing at me.
Miss Moray (laughing). My, oh my! What did you tell them?
Helen. I don’t have a TV.
Miss Moray. I’m sorry.
Helen. I’m not.
Miss Moray. Yes. Now, it’s really quite simple. That’s our special soap solution. One tablespoon to a gallon of hot water for ordinary cleaning, if I may suggest. I so much prefer to act as an assist to the Custodial Engineering Staff. New ideas. Techniques. I try to keep myself open.
[Her mouth pauses wide open. HELEN has been busy familiarizing herself with the contents of the closet. She has culminated a series of small actions which have put things in order for her by running water into a pail which fits into a metal stand on wheels.]
Helen. She left a dirty mop.
Miss Moray. I beg your pardon?
Helen. The one that drank. She left a dirty mop.
Miss Moray. How ugly. I’ll report it first thing in the morning. It may seem like a small point but if she ever tries to use us as a reference, she may be amazed at the specificity of our files.
Helen. It’s not that dirty.
Miss Moray. I’ll start you in the main laboratory area. We like it done first. The specimen section next. By that time we’ll be well toward morning and if there are a few minutes left you can polish the brass strip. (She points to brass strip which runs around halfway between ceiling and floor.) Margaurita never once got to the brass strip. (HELEN has completed her very professional preparations and looks impatient to get moving.) Ready? Fine. (They start moving toward the DOLPHIN area, MISS MORAY thumbing through papers on a clipboard.) You were with one concern for fourteen years, weren’t you? Fourteen years with the Metal Climax Building. That’s next to the Radio City Music Hall, isn’t it, dear?
Helen. Uh huh . . .
Miss Moray. They sent a marvelous letter of recommendation—how you washed the corridor on the seventeenth floor . . . and the Metal Climax Building is a very long building. My! Fourteen years on the seventeenth floor. You must be very proud. Why did you leave?
Helen. They put in a rug.
[MISS MORAY leads HELEN into the laboratory area as DANIELLE enters.]
Miss Moray. Danielle, Helen will be taking Margaurita’s place. Danielle is the night porter for the fifth through ninth floors. Duties you might find distasteful.
Danielle. Hiya!
Helen. Hello. (HELEN looks over the place.)
Miss Moray. By the way, Danielle . . . there’s a crock on nine you missed and the technicians on that floor have complained about the odor. . . . (Back to HELEN) You can be certain we’ll assist in every way possible.
Helen. Maybe you could get me some hangers . . . ?
Danielle. I’ll be glad to do anything. Just say the word and . . .
Helen. What’s behind there? (Opening the DOLPHIN area)
Miss Moray. What? Oh, that’s a dolphin, dear. But don’t you worry about anything except the floor. Dr. Crocus prefers us not to touch either the equipment or the animals. That was another shortcoming of Margaurita’s. Recently the doctor was . . . experimenting . . . with a colony of mice in that cage . . . (She indicates cage.) . . . and she was incessantly feeding them popcorn.
Danielle. Kinda a nice lady, though. Lived in the East Village.
Miss Moray. Yes, she did live in the East Village.
Helen (attention still on the DOLPHIN). Do you keep him cramped up in that all the time?
Miss Moray. We have a natatorium for it to exercise in at Dr. Crocus’s discretion.
Helen. He really looks cramped.
Miss Moray (closing the DOLPHIN area). Well, you must be anxious to begin. I’ll make myself available at the reception desk in the hall for a few nights in case any questions arise. Although my hunch is that before you know it, I’ll be coming to you with questions. . . . Coffee break at 2 and 6 A.M. Lunch at 4 A.M. All clear?
Helen. I don’t need a coffee break.
Miss Moray. I beg your pardon?
Helen. I said I don’t need a coffee break.
Miss Moray. Helen, we all need Perk-You-Ups. All of us. Perhaps you never liked them at the Metal Climax Building, but you’ll learn to love them here. Perk-You-Ups make the employees much more efficient. Besides, Helen——
Helen. I don’t want one.
Miss Moray. They’re compulsory. Oh, Helen, I know you’re going to fit right in with our little family. You’re such a nice person.
[She exits. HELEN immediately gets to work, moving her equipment into place and getting down on her hands and knees to scrub the floor. DANIELLE spots a ceiling bulb out and prepares to remove it by using a long stick with a grip on the end of it, designed to unscrew bulbs one cannot reach.]
Danielle. Margaurita wasn’t half as bad as Miss Moray thought she was.
Helen. I’m sure she wasn’t.
Danielle. She was twice as bad. (She laughs. Pause) You live in the city? . . .
Helen. Yes.
Danielle. That’s nice. . . . My husband died two years ago.
Helen. That’s too bad.
Danielle. Yeah, two years in June. He blew up.
Helen. Oh, I’m sorry.
Danielle. When you want that water changed, just lemme know. I’ll take care of it.
Helen. Thanks, but I just like to get the temperature right so my hands don’t get boiled. You must miss your husband.
Danielle. Biggest mistake I ever made, getting married. . . . You married?
Helen. No.
Danielle. Good, if a woman ain’t suited for it, she shouldn’t do it.
Helen. I didn’t say I wasn’t suited for it.
Danielle. My husband was set in his ways, too. . . .
Helen. If you’ll excuse me, I have to get my work done.
Danielle. Guess I’d better see about that crock on nine. You don’t like to talk, do you?
Helen. I’m used to working alone and that’s the way I get my work done. (DANIELLE exits. Not realizing she’s already gone) What do you mean, your husband blew up?
[But DANIELLE is gone. She glances at the curtain shielding the DOLPHIN, then continues scrubbing. After a beat, the record begins to play.]
Record.
Let me call you sweetheart,
I’m in love with you.
Let me hear you whisper,
That you love me, too.
[HELEN eyes the automatic machinery with suspicion but goes on working. When the song is finished, she looks at the curtain again and again until her curiosity makes her pull the curtain open and look at the DOLPHIN.
He is looking right back at her. She becomes uncomfortable and starts to close the curtain again. She decides to leave it partway open so that she can still see the
DOLPHIN while she scrubs. She glances out of the corner of her eye after a few moments of scrubbing and notices that the
DOLPHIN is looking at her. She pretends to look away and sings “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”
to herself—missing a word or two here and there—but her eyes return to the DOLPHIN. She becomes uncomfortable again under his stare and crawls on her hands and knees to the other side of the room; she scrubs there for a moment or two and then shoots a look at the
DOLPHIN. He is still looking at her. She tries to ease her discomfort by playing peekaboo with the DOLPHIN
for a moment. There is no response and she resumes scrubbing and humming. The DOLPHIN
then lets out a bubble or two and moves in the tank to bring his blowhole to the surface. Any sounds he does make, including words, are like a haunting whisper and never enunciated so that they are
absolute.]
Dolphin. Youuuuuuuuuuuu. (HELEN hears the sound, assumes she is mistaken, and goes on with her work.) Youuuuuuuuuuuu.
[HELEN has heard the sound more clearly this time. She is puzzled, contemplates a moment, and then decides to get up off the floor. She closes the curtain on the DOLPHIN’s tank and is quite disturbed. The elevator door suddenly opens and MISS MORAY enters.]
Miss Moray. What is it, Helen?
Helen. The fish is making some kinda funny noise.
Miss Moray. Mammal, Helen. It’s a mammal.
Helen. The mammal’s making some kinda funny noise.
Miss Moray. Mammals are supposed to make funny noises.
Helen. Yes, Miss Moray.
[HELEN hangs awkwardly a moment and then continues scrubbing. MISS MORAY exits officiously to another part of the floor. A moment later, from behind the curtain, the DOLPHIN is heard.]
Dolphin. Youuuuuuuuuuuuu. (HELEN is quite worried.) Youuuuuuuuuuuuu.
[She apprehensively approaches the curtain and opens it, when DANIELLE barges in. She goes to get her reaching pole and HELEN hurriedly returns to scrubbing the floor.]
Danielle. Bulb out on ten.
Helen. What do they have that thing for?
Danielle. What thing?
Helen. That.
Danielle. Yeah, he’s something, ain’t he? They’re tryin’ to get it to talk.
Helen. Talk?
Danielle. Uh-huh, but this one don’t. They had one last year that used to laugh. It’d go heh heh heh heh heh heh heh. I’d be in here doing something and it’d start heh heh heh heh heh hehing. He died a year ago May. Then they got another one that used to say “Yeah, it’s four o’clock.” Everybody took pictures of that one. All the magazines.
Helen. What’d it say “four o’clock” for?
Danielle. Nobody knows.
Helen. It just kept saying, “Yeah, it’s four o’clock!”
Danielle. Until it died of pneumonia. (Pause) They talk outta their blowholes, when they can talk, that is. Did you see the blowhole?
Helen. No.
Danielle. Come on and take a look. Look at it.
Helen. I don’t want to look at any blowhole.
Danielle. You can see it right there. (HELEN gets up and goes to the tank. As she and DANIELLE stand at the tank, their backs are to one of the entrances, and they don’t see MISS MORAY open the door and watch them.) This one don’t say anything at all. It bleeps, beeps, barks, and blats out of the mouth, but it don’t talk out of the blowhole. They been playing that record every seven minutes for months and it can’t learn beans.
Miss Moray. Helen? (HELEN and DANIELLE turn around.) Helen, would you mind stepping over here a moment?
Helen. Yes, Miss Moray.
Danielle. I was just showing her something.
Miss Moray. Have you attended to the crock on nine?
Danielle. Yes, ma’am.
Miss Moray. Then hadn’t we better get on with our duties? (MISS MORAY guides HELEN aside, putting her arm around her as though taking her into great confidence. She even whispers.) Helen, I have to talk to you. Frankly, I need your help.
Helen. She was just showing me . . .
Miss Moray. It’s something about Danielle I need your assistance with. I’m sure you’ve noticed that she . . .
Helen. Yes?
Miss Moray. Well, that she’s the type of person who will do anything to breed idle chatter. Yes, an idle chatter breeder. How many times we’ve told her, “Danielle, this is a scientific atmosphere you’re employed in and from Dr. Crocus all the way down to the most insignificant member of the Custodial Engineering Staff we would appreciate a minimum of subjective intercourse.” So—if you can help, Helen—and I’m sure you can, enormously—we’d be so grateful. This is science—and science means progress. You do want progress, don’t you, dear?
Helen. Yes, Miss Moray.
Miss Moray. I knew you did.
Danielle. I just wanted to show her the blowhole.
Miss Moray. I’m sure that’s all it was, Danielle. (DANIELLE exits.) Helen, why don’t you dust for a while? Vary your labors.
(She swings open a shelf area to reveal rather hideously preserved specimens. HELEN
looks ready to gag as she sees the jars of all sizes. Various animals and parts of animals are visible in their formaldehyde
baths.) A feather duster—here—is marvelous for dusting, though a damp rag may be necessary for the glass surfaces. But whatever—do be careful. Margaurita once dropped a jar of assorted North Atlantic eels.
[MISS MORAY smiles and exits in the elevator, leaving HELEN alone. She is most uncomfortable in the environment. The sound of music and voice from beyond the walls falls
over.]
Record.
Let me call you sweetheart,
I’m in love with you.
Let me hear you whisper,
That you love me, too.
Scene 2
It is the next evening. HELEN gets off the elevator carrying a few hangers and still wearing her kerchief and coat. She looks around for anyone, realizes she is alone, and then proceeds to her locker. She takes her coat off and hangs it up. HELEN pushes her equipment into the lab. The curtain on the DOLPHIN’s tank has been closed. She sets her items up, then goes to the tank and pulls the curtain open a moment. The DOLPHIN is looking at her. She closes the curtain and starts scrubbing. The thought of the DOLPHIN amuses her a moment, relieving the tension she feels about the mammal, and she appears to be in good spirits as she starts humming “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” and scrubs in rhythm to it. She sets a one-two-three beat for the scrub brush.
This mood passes quickly and she opens the curtain so that she can watch the DOLPHIN as she works. She and the DOLPHIN stare at each other and HELEN appears to be more curious than worried.
Finally, she decides to try to imitate the sound she heard it make the night before:
Helen. Youuuuuuuuuuuuu. (She pauses, watches for a response.) Youuuuuuuuuuuuu. (Still no response. She returns her attention to her scrubbing for a moment. Then)
Polly want a cracker?
Polly want a cracker?
(She wrings out a rag and resumes work.) Yeah, it’s four o’clock. Yeah, it’s four o’clock. (When her expectation is unfulfilled, she is slightly disappointed. Then) Polly want a cracker at four o’clock? (She laughs at her own joke, then is reminded of the past success with laughter in working with dolphins. She can’t resist trying it, so she goes to the DOLPHIN’s tank and notices how sad he looks. She is diverted from her initial intention by a guilty feeling of leaving the scrubbing. She bends down and looks directly into the DOLPHIN’s face. He lets out a bubble at her. She sticks her tongue out at him. She makes an exaggerated smile and is very curious about what his skin feels like. She reaches her hand in and just touches the top of his head. He squirms and likes it, but she’s interested in drying off her finger. She even washes it in her soap solution. She returns to scrubbing for a minute, then can’t resist more fully petting the DOLPHIN. This time he reacts even more enthusiastically. She is half afraid and half happy. She returns to scrubbing. Then, at the tank) Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh. (Beat) Heh heh heh heh. (Beat) Heh heh heh heh heh heh ...
[MISS MORAY enters. She sees what’s going on. Then says, with exaggerated praise]
Miss Moray. Look how nicely the floor’s coming along tonight! There’s not a streak! Not a streak! You must have a special rinsing technique, Helen. You do, don’t you? Why, you certainly do. I can smell something.
Helen. Just a little . . . vinegar in the rinse water.
Miss Moray. You brought that vinegar yourself just so the floors . . . they are sparkling, Helen. Sparkling! (Jotting down in a pad) This is going in your file, dear—and from now on, I’m going to requisition vinegar as a staple in the Custodial Engineering Department’s supply list. (She pauses—looks at the DOLPHIN—then at HELEN.) It’s marvelous, Helen, how well you’ve adjusted. . . .
Helen. Thank you, Miss Moray.
Miss Moray. Not everyone does, you know. Just last week I had a problem with a porter on five, who became too fond of a St. Bernard they . . . worked on . . . and . . . (pause) well, Helen, a lot of people can’t seem——
Helen (still scrubbing). What do you mean, worked on?
Miss Moray. Well . . . well, even Margaurita. She had fallen in love with the mice. All three hundred of them. She seemed shocked when she found out Dr. Crocus was . . . using . . . them at the rate of twenty or so a day in connection with electrode implanting. She noticed them missing after a while and when I told her they’d been decapitated, she seemed terribly upset. It made one wonder if she’d thought we’d been sending them away on vacations or something. But I’m sure you understand—you have such insight. (She is at the tank.) It’s funny, isn’t it? To look at these mammals, you’d never suspect they were such rapacious carnivori . . .
Helen. What do they want with it?
[The Let Me Call You Sweetheart record commences playing but MISS MORAY talks over it.]
Miss Moray. Well, they may have an intelligence equal to our own. And if we can teach them our language—or learn theirs—we’ll be able to communicate. (Raising her voice higher over record) Wouldn’t that be wonderful, Helen? To be able to communicate?
Helen. I can’t understand you.
Miss Moray (louder). Communicate! Wouldn’t it be wonderful?
Helen. Oh, yeah.
Miss Moray (with a cutting device). When Margaurita found out they were using this . . . on the mice, she almost fainted. No end of trouble.
Helen. They chopped the heads off three hundred mice?
Miss Moray. Now, Helen, you wanted progress, remember?
Helen. That’s horrible.
Miss Moray. Helen, over a thousand individual laboratories did the same study last year.
Helen. A thousand labs chopping off three hundred mice heads. Three hundred thousand mice heads chopped off? That’s a lot of mouse heads. Couldn’t one lab cut off a couple and then spread the word?
Miss Moray. Now, Helen, this is exactly what I mean. You will do best not to become fond of the subject animals. When you’re here a little longer, you’ll learn—well, there are some things in this world you have to accept on faith.
[She exits. After a moment, the DOLPHIN starts in again.]
Dolphin. Whisper . . .
Helen. What?
Dolphin. Whisper to me. . . .
[DANIELLE barges in, pushing a hamper.]
Danielle. Hi, Helen.
Helen. Hello.
Danielle (emptying wastes into hamper). Miss Moray said she’s got almond horns for our Perk-You-Up tonight.
Helen. That thing never said anything to anybody?
Danielle. What thing?
Helen. That mammal fish.
Danielle. Nope.
Helen. Not one word?
Danielle. Nope.
Helen. Nothing that sounded like “Youuuuuuuuuuuuu.”
Danielle. What?
Helen. “Youuuuuuuuuuuuu?” Or “Whisper?”
Danielle. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I got here an hour too early so I sat down by the docks. You can see the moon in the river.
[The record goes on again, and DANIELLE exits without the hamper.]
Record.
Let me call you sweetheart,
I’m in love with you,
Let me hear you whisper,
That you love me, too.
[HELEN opens the curtain to see the DOLPHIN. He is staring at her. It is as though the DOLPHIN is trying to tell her something, and she can almost suspect this from the intensity of his stare. She goes to her locker, unwraps a sandwich she brought, and takes a slice of ham from it. She approaches the tank and offers the ham. The DOLPHIN moves and startles her, but the ham falls to the bottom of the
tank.]
Dolphin. Hear . . .
Helen. Huh?
Dolphin. Hear me . . .
[DANIELLE bursts back in, carrying a crock, and HELEN darts to her scrubbing.]
Danielle. Ugh. This—gotta rinse this one out. Full of little gooey things.
Helen. What do they eat?
Danielle. What?
Helen. What do dolphins eat?
Danielle. Fish.
Helen. What kind of fish?
Danielle. These. (She opens a freezer chest packed with fish.) Fly ’em up from Florida. (DANIELLE is at the DOLPHIN’s tank.) Hiya, fella! How are ya? That reminds me. Gotta get some formaldehyde jars set up by Friday.
[She exits with hamper. HELEN returns to the DOLPHIN, apprehensive about leaving the piece of ham at the bottom of the tank. She begins to reach her hand into the tank.]
Helen. You wouldn’t bite Helen, would you? Helen’s got to get that ham out of there. I wouldn’t hurt you. You know that. Helen knows you talk. You do talk to Helen, don’t you? Hear . . . hear me . . .
Dolphin. Hear . . .
Helen. That’s a good boy. That’s a goodie goodie boy.
Dolphin. Hear me . . .
Helen. Oh, what a pretty boy. Such a pretty boy.
[At this point, the elevator doors zip open and MISS MORAY enters.]
Miss Moray. What are you doing, Helen?
[HELEN looks ready to cry.]
Helen. I . . . uh . . .
Miss Moray. Never mind. Go on with your work. (MISS MORAY surveys everything, and then sits on a stool and calms herself. As HELEN scrubs) You know, Helen, you’re such a sympathetic person. You have pets, I imagine? Cats? Lots of cats?
Helen. They don’t allow them in my building.
Miss Moray. Then plants. I’m sure you have hundreds of lovely green things crawling up the windows?
Helen. If there were green things crawling up my windows, I’d move out.
Miss Moray. No plants, either?
Helen. Two gloxinias.
Miss Moray. Gloxinias! Oh, such trumpets! Such trumpets!
Helen. They never bloom. My apartment’s too cold.
Miss Moray. Oh, that is a shame. (Pause) You live alone, don’t you, Helen?
Helen (almost hurt). Yes. I live alone.
Miss Moray. But you have friends, of course. Other . . . custodial colleagues, perhaps . . . clubs you belong to . . . social clubs . . . activities?
Helen (continuing to scrub). I’m used to . . . being alone.
Miss Moray. Nothing...?
Helen. I took a ceramic course . . . once.
Miss Moray. Isn’t that nice. A ceramic course ... (Pause) Oh, Helen, you’re such a nice person. So nice. (Pause) It does seem unjust that so much more than that is required. You must feel overwhelmed by this environment here . . . of oscilloscopes and sonar and salinity meters. To have so many personal delicacies and then be forced to behold the complexity of an electronic and chemical world must be devastating. Nevertheless, I can’t——
[DANIELLE rushes in with several large jars on a wheeled table.]
Danielle. ’Cuse me, but I figure I’ll get the formaldehyde set up tonight so I’ll only have to worry about the dissection stuff tomorrow.
Miss Moray. Very good, Danielle.
Danielle. I’m gonna need a twenty-liter one for the lungs and there ain’t any on this floor.
Helen (noticing that the DOLPHIN is stirring). What’s the formaldehyde for?
Miss Moray. That’s what I’m trying to tell you, Helen . . . to make it easier on you. The experiment series on . . . the dolphin will . . . terminate . . . on Friday. Dr. Crocus left the orders with us tonight. That’s why it has concerned me that you’ve apparently grown . . . fond . . . of the mammal.
Helen. They’re gonna kill it?
Danielle. Gonna sharpen the handsaws now. Won’t have any trouble getting through the skull on this one, no sir. Everything’s gonna be perfect. (She exits.)
Helen. What for? Because it didn’t say anything? Is that what they’re killing it for?
Miss Moray (so sweetly). Of course, you wanted to be kind. You didn’t know what harm you might have caused . . . what delicate rhythm you may have disturbed in the experiment. Helen, no matter how lovely our intentions, no matter how lonely we are and how much we want people or animals . . . to like us . . . we have no right to endanger the genius about us. Now, we’ve spoken about this before. And this time, we’re going to remember, aren’t you? Get your paraphernalia ready. In a minute you’re going upstairs to the main specimen room.
[HELEN is dumbfounded as MISS MORAY exits in the direction DANIELLE went. HELEN gathers her equipment and looks at the DOLPHIN, who is staring desperately at her.]
Dolphin. Help. Please help me.
[MISS MORAY returns, pauses a moment, and then takes the mop to relieve HELEN’s burden.]
Miss Moray. Come, Helen. Let me help you up to the main specimen room.
[As they get into the elevator, the record plays again.]
Record.
Let me call you sweetheart,
I’m in love with you.
Let me hear you whisper . . .
(Scenes 1 & 2)
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