Let Me Hear You Whisper, continued
Scene 3
At rise, MISS MORAY is walking with DR. CROCUS and MRS. FRIDGE to the elevator. She is jotting items down on a clipboard.
Miss Moray. You can be assured the Custodial Engineering Staff is anxious to contribute in every nontechnical way possible. Every non-technical way. (The elevator doors open and HELEN gets off.) Just a moment, Helen. I’d like to talk with you. (To the others as they get on) If you think of anything else between now and morning, please don’t hesitate to call. Extra scalpels, dissection scissors, autoclaved glassware . . . Pleasant dreams. (The doors close on DR. CROCUS and MRS. FRIDGE, and MISS MORAY turns to HELEN.) I hope you’re well this evening.
Helen. When they gonna kill it?
Miss Moray (going with her to her locker). Don’t say “kill,” Helen. You make it sound like murder. Besides, you won’t have to go into the dolphin area at all this evening.
Helen. When they gonna do it?
Miss Moray. They’ll be back, but don’t worry. I’ve decided to let you go before they start, so . . . you won’t have to be in the building when . . .
Helen. What do they do?
Miss Moray (a hesitating laugh). Why, what do you mean, what do they do?
Helen. How do they kill it?
Miss Moray. Nicotine mustard, Helen. Nicotine mustard. It’s very humane. They inject it.
Helen. Just ’cause it don’t talk, they’ve got to kill it?
Miss Moray. There’s that word again.
Helen. Maybe he’s a mute.
Miss Moray. Do you have all your paraphernalia?
Helen. Some human beings are mute, you know. Just because they can’t talk, we don’t kill them.
Miss Moray. It looks like you’re ready to open a new box of steel wool.
Helen. Maybe he can type with his nose. Did they try that?
Miss Moray. Now, now, Helen . . .
Helen. Miss Moray, I don’t mind doing the dolphin area.
Miss Moray. Absolutely not! I’m placing it off limits for your own good. You’re too emotionally involved.
Helen. I’m not emotionally involved.
Miss Moray. Trust me, Helen. Trust me.
Helen. Yes, Miss Moray.
[MISS MORAY exits and HELEN makes a beeline for the DOLPHIN area, which is closed off by portable walls. She opens the area enough to slide in. The lights are out and moonlight from the window casts many shadows.]
Dolphin. Help. (HELEN moves slowly toward the tank.) Help me. (HELEN opens the curtain. The DOLPHIN and she look at each other.) Help me.
Helen. You don’t need me. Just say something to them. Whatever you want. Say “Help.” Anything. They just need to hear you say something. . . . (She waits for a response, which doesn’t come.) You want me to tell ’em? I’ll tell them. I’ll just say I heard you say “Help.” OK? I’ll go tell them. (She starts to leave the area, turning back to give opportunity for a response.)
Dolphin. Noooooooooooo. (HELEN stops. Moves back toward tank.) Noooooooooooo.
Helen. They’re gonna kill you! (Puzzled, HELEN moves a bit closer to the tank. Pause)
Dolphin. Boooooooooook.
Helen. What? (There is a long pause. No response. She moves closer.)
Dolphin. Boooooooooook.
Helen. Book?
Dolphin. Boooooooooook.
Helen. Boooooooooook? What book?
[DANIELLE charges through a door and snaps on the light.]
Danielle. Uh oh. Miss Moray said she don’t want you in here. Said you have to not be in the lab and I’m not to talk to you about what they’re gonna do because I make you nauseous.
[HELEN goes to DR. CROCUS’s desk in the lab and begins to look at various books on it.]
Helen. Do you know anything about a book, Danielle?
Danielle. She’s gonna be mad. What book?
Helen. Something to do with . . . (She indicates the DOLPHIN.)
Danielle. Hiya, fella! (To HELEN) Do I really make you nauseous?
Helen. About the dolphin . . .
Danielle. You talking about the experiment folder? They got an experiment folder they write in.
Helen. Where?
Danielle. I don’t know.
Helen. Find it, please.
Danielle. I don’t know where she keeps that stuff. Sometimes she puts it in the top and other times she puts it in the bottom.
Helen. Please find it. Please. (She steps outside the area.)
Danielle. I’ll try. I’ll try, but I got other things to do, you know. Can’t spend time looking for what ain’t any of my business anyway. I never knew I made anybody nauseous.
[DANIELLE rummages through the desk, mumbling to herself, and finally finds the folder. She hands the folder out to HELEN as the elevator doors spring open and MISS MORAY enters. DANIELLE exits quickly through a door in the DOLPHIN area as HELEN conceals the folder.]
Miss Moray. Helen?
Helen. Yes, Miss Moray?
Miss Moray. Would you feel better if we talked about it?
Helen. About what?
Miss Moray. Helen, you’re such a nice person. I understand just what you’re going through. Really, I do. And . . . well, I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone else . . . my first week at ABADABA, I fell in love with an animal myself. An alley cat. Pussy Cat. That’s what I called it—Pussy Cat.
Helen. Did they cut the head off it?
[MISS MORAY removes a plastic covering from an object on a shelf to reveal an articulated cat skeleton. As she talks, she sets it in view and gently dusts it with the feather
duster.]
Miss Moray. I sense a touch of bitterness in your voice, Helen, and don’t think I wasn’t bitter when I saw what had happened to Pussy Cat.
Helen. I’ll bet it didn’t sit well with Pussy Cat either.
Miss Moray. But when I thought about it for a while, I had to realize that I was just being selfish. Before . . . what happened to Pussy Cat happened, I was the only one benefiting from her—whereas now she’s borrowed at least once a month. Last week she went to an anatomy seminar at St. Vincent’s Medical School.
Helen. It’s nice you let her out once in a while.
Miss Moray. In life, she was unnoticed and worthless except to me. Now she belongs to the ages. (Then, solemnly) I hope that’s some comfort to you.
Helen. Oh, it’s very comforting.
Miss Moray. Well, Perk-You-Up time will be here soon.
Helen. Yes, Miss Moray.
Miss Moray. We have ladyfingers.
Helen. Oh, good.
Miss Moray. Such a strange thing to call a confectionery, isn’t it? It’s almost macabre.
Helen. Miss Moray . . .
Miss Moray. Yes, Helen?
Helen. I was wondering . . .
Miss Moray. Yes?
Helen. I was wondering why they wanna talk with . . .
Miss Moray. Now now now! I was the same way about Pussy Cat. Right up to the final moment I kept asking, “What good is
vivisection?” “What good is vivisection?”
Helen. What good is vivisection?
Miss Moray. A lot of good, believe me.
Helen. Like what?
Miss Moray. Well, like fishing, Helen. If we could communicate with dolphins, they might be willing to herd fish for us. The fishing industry would be revolutionized. Millions of fish being rounded into nets by our little mammal friends.
Helen. Is that all?
Miss Moray. All? Heavens, no. They’d be a blessing to the human race. A blessing.
Helen. What kind?
Miss Moray. Oh. Why, oceanography. They would be worshiped in oceanography. Checking the Gulf Stream . . . taking water temperatures, depths, salinity readings. To say nothing of the contributions they could make in marine biology, navigation. Linguistics! Oh, Helen, it gives me the chills.
Helen. It’d be good if they talked?
Miss Moray. God’s own blessing. God’s own blessing. (MISS MORAY exits and
HELEN returns to scrubbing for a moment. When she feels safe, she sets the folder in front of her and begins reading. Commence fantasy techniques to establish that the ensuing events are going on in HELEN’s
mind concerning the benevolent utilization of dolphins. Relate to what
MISS MORAY had told her about uses. Sound: Sonar beeping underwater. It has the urgency of a beating heart. Sweet strains of
“Let Me Call You Sweetheart” in. Projection: Underwater shot, dolphins and fish gliding by. All voices echo. Doors open and
MISS MORAY, DR. CROCUS, and MRS. FRIDGE appear
phantasmagorically.) And if we could make friends with them, talk to them, they might be willing to herd all those fish for us. . . .
Dr. Crocus (lovingly). All right, little mammal friends—today we want swordfish. Fat, meaty ones suitable for controlled portion sizing. Go and get ’em!
[Projection of dolphins swimming, a school of large fish panicking in the water]
Mrs. Fridge. My dear dolphin friends. My dear, dear dolphin friends. We’re most curious about seismographic readings at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. But do be careful. We’re unsure of the weather above that area.
[Projection of dolphins racing, deep underwater shots, sounding bell noises]
Miss Moray (sweetly). Our linguistics lesson today will consider the most beautiful word in the English language: love. Love is a strong, complex emotion or feeling causing one to appreciate and promote the welfare of another. Do you have a word like it in dolphinese? A word similar to love? (The fantasy disappears, leaving MISS MORAY and HELEN in the reality of the play.) It has a nice sheen.
Helen. What?
Miss Moray. It has a nice sheen. The floor. Up here where it’s dried.
Helen. Thank you. Miss Moray . . . ?
Miss Moray. Yes, dear?
Helen. You sure it would be good for us if . . . dolphins talked?
Miss Moray. Helen, are you still thinking about that! Perhaps you’d better leave now. It’s almost time.
Helen. No! I’m almost finished.
[DANIELLE opens the DOLPHIN area and yells over HELEN’s head to MISS MORAY.]
Danielle. I got everything except the head vise.
Miss Moray. I beg your pardon?
Danielle. The vise for the head. I can’t find it. They can’t saw through the skull bone without the head vise.
Miss Moray. Did you look on five? They had it there for . . . what they did to the St. Bernard . . . they had.
[The record plays again and the others try to talk over it.]
Record.
Let me call you sweetheart,
I’m in love with you.
Let me hear you whisper,
That you love me, too.
Danielle. Can’t hear you.
Miss Moray. The St. Bernard. They used it for the St. Bernard.
Danielle. On five?
Miss Moray. That’s what I said.
Danielle. I looked on five. I didn’t see any head vise.
Miss Moray. You come with me. It must have been staring you in the face. Just staring you right in the face. (DANIELLE tiptoes over the wet portion of the floor and she and MISS MORAY get on the elevator.) We’ll be right back, Helen.
[The doors close and HELEN hurries into the DOLPHIN area. She stops just within the door and it is obvious that she is angry. There is a pause as she looks at the silhouette of the tank behind the closed curtain. Then]
Dolphin. Boooooooooook.
[HELEN charges to the curtain, pulls it open, and prepares to reprimand the DOLPHIN.]
Helen. I looked at your book. I looked at your book all right!
Dolphin. Boooooooooook.
Helen. And you want to know what I think? I don’t think much of you, that’s what I think.
Dolphin. Boooooooooook.
Helen. Oh, shut up. Book book book book book. I’m not interested. You eat yourself silly—but to get a little fish for hungry humans is just too much for you. Well, I’m going to tell ’em you can talk. (The DOLPHIN moves in the tank, lets out a few warning bubbles.) You don’t like that, eh? Well, I don’t like lazy, selfish people, mammals, or animals. (She starts away from the tank, half intending to go and half watching for a reaction. The DOLPHIN looks increasingly desperate and begins to make loud blat and beep sounds. He struggles a bit in the tank, starting to splash water.) Oh, you’d do anything to avoid a little work, wouldn’t you?
[In his most violent gyrations to date, the DOLPHIN blasts at her.]
Dolphin. Boooooooooook!
Helen. Cut it out; you’re getting water all over the floor.
Dolphin. Boooooooooook!
[HELEN is a little scared and stops moving toward the door. As she stops, the
DOLPHIN calms down. She waits a moment and then moves closer to the tank again. They experience a sustained visual exchange.
HELEN’s anger and fear subside into frustration. When it appears the DOLPHIN
is going to say nothing else, HELEN starts to leave the room. She turns around and looks back at the
DOLPHIN. Then she looks at the folder on the desk. She is going to leave again when she decides to go to the folder once more. She picks it up, opens it, closes it, and sets it down
again.]
Helen. I guess you don’t like us. (Pause) I guess you don’t like us enough to . . . die rather than help us. . . .
Dolphin. Hate.
Helen (picking up the folder and skimming reflexively). Yes.
Dolphin. Hate.
Helen. I guess you do hate us. . . . (HELEN stops. She returns to the folder. Reading) Military implications . . . plants mines in enemy waters . . . useful as antipersonnel self-directing weapons . . . war . . . deliver atomic warheads . . . war . . . nuclear torpedoes . . . attach bombs to submarines or surface vessels . . . terrorize enemy waters, beaches . . . war . . . war . . . war . . .
HELEN’s voice becomes echoed in the middle of the last speech, theatrical effects creeping in to establish fantasy sequence like the first except now the characters enter and appear sinister. Their requests are all war oriented.]
Miss Moray (demanding). And if we could talk to them, we'd get them to herd fish all right. One way or another, they'd do exactly as they were told!
[“Let Me Call You Sweetheart” plays in background in a discordant version, with projection of dolphins swimming.]
Dr. Crocus. All right, you dolphins. Today we want you to herd fish. Herd all the fish you can away from the enemy's waters. Remove their food supply. Detonate underwater poison bombs and foul the enemy coastline. Make the water unfit for life of any kind.
[A map is imposed over projection of dolphins.]
Mrs. Fridge. Enemy fleets are located here and here and here. You'll have twenty-seven hours to attach the nuclear warheads before automatic detonation. Our objective: total annhilation.
[Projection of dolphins racing off, deep underwater shots, frogmen examining ships’ hulls, planting
mines]
Miss Moray (fanatically). Our linguistics lesson today will consider the most basic word in the English language: hate. Hate is a strong emotion which means abhorrence, anger, animosity, detestation, hostility, malevolence, malice, malignity, odium, rancor, revenge, repugnance, and dislike. Do you have a word like it in dolphinese? If you don't, we'll teach you every nuance of ours. Every nuance of the word hate.
[The fantasy sequence evaporates, leaving HELEN alone on stage with the DOLPHIN. She sadly closes the folder and moves slowly to the tank, a bit ashamed about the way she had reprimanded the DOLPHIN. They look sadly at each other. She reaches out her hand and just pets his head gently.]
Helen. They’re already thinking about ways to use you for . . . war. . . . Is that why you can’t talk to them? What did you talk to me for? You won’t talk to them but you . . . you talk to me because . . . you want something . . . there’s something . . . I can do? Something you want me to do?
Dolphin. Hamm . . .
Helen. What?
Dolphin. Hamm . . .
Helen. Ham? I thought you ate fish.
Dolphin (moving with annoyance). Ham . . . purrrrr.
Helen. Ham . . . purrrrr? I don’t know what you’re talking about?
Dolphin (even more annoyed). Ham . . . purrrrr.
Helen. Ham . . . purrrrr. What’s a purrrrr?
[HELEN is most upset and recalls that MISS MORAY is due back. Confused and scared, she returns to scrubbing the floor just as the doors of the elevator open, revealing MISS MORAY, DANIELLE, and MRS. FRIDGE. DANIELLE pushes a dissection table loaded with shiny instruments toward the lab.]
Miss Moray. Clean the vise up, Danielle. Immediately.
Danielle. I didn’t leave the blood on it.
Miss Moray. I’m not accusing you. I just said whoever was the porter the night they did you know what to the St. Bernard was . . . (To MRS. FRIDGE) It’s the first dirty vise since I’ve led the Custodial Engineering Department! Is the good doctor in yet?
Mrs. Fridge. She’s getting the nicotine mustard on eighteen. I’ll have to see if she needs assistance.
Miss Moray. I’ll come with you. Oh, Helen. You can go now. It’s time. (She smiles and the elevator doors close on MRS. FRIDGE and MISS MORAY.)
Danielle (pushing the dissection table into the DOLPHIN area). I never left a dirty head vise. She’s trying to say I left it like that. I know what she’s getting at.
Helen. Did you ever hear of Ham . . . purrrrr?
Danielle. Wait’ll I get my hands on Kazinski. Kazinski does the fifth floor and he should be cleaning this, not me. It’s all caked up.
Helen. Would you listen a minute? Ham . . . purrrrr. Do you know what a ham . . . purrrrr is?
Danielle. The only hamper I ever heard of is out in the hall. (HELEN looks toward an exit indicated by DANIELLE.) Five scalpels, large clamps . . . small clamps . . . bone saws . . . scissors . . . dissection needles, two dozen . . . Kazinski left the high-altitude chamber dirty once and I got blamed for that, too. And that had mucus all over it. (DANIELLE exits.)
Helen (rushing to the DOLPHIN). You want me to do something with the hamper. What? To get it? To put——You want me to put you in it? . . . But what’ll I do with you? Where can I take you?
Dolphin. Sea . . .
Helen. See? See what?
Dolphin. Sea . . . ham . . . purrrrr . . .
Helen. See ham——I saw the hamper.
Dolphin. Sea . . .
Helen. See what? What do you want me to see? (She walks about the room, mumbling, looking for what the DOLPHIN could want her to see. Finally, she looks out the window.)
Dolphin. Sea . . . sea . . .
Helen. See? . . . The sea! That’s what you’re talking about! (There is almost an atmosphere of celebration.) The river . . . to the sea!
[She darts into the hall and returns with hamper, pushes it next to the DOLPHIN. She pulls closed the curtain as . . . MISS MORAY gets off the elevator. MISS MORAY looks very calm. Everything is under control and on schedule from her point of view. She then notices that HELEN is not there, though her mop and pail are. She wonders if HELEN has gone and just carelessly left the items out.]
Miss Moray (sweetly). Helen? (When there is no response, she starts into the DOLPHIN area.) Helen? (HELEN is not there, though her coat is still hanging in her locker. She is little concerned at this point. For a second she assumes it is unlikely HELEN would be in there, since it was strictly placed off limits, but then she decides to investigate. She notices the closed curtain in front of the tank.) Helen? Are you there? (Pause) Helen? Helen? (MISS MORAY moves to the curtain and pulls it open. There is HELEN, with her arms around the front part of the DOLPHIN, lifting him a good part of the way out of the water.) Helen, what do you think you’re hugging?
HELEN gets so scared that she drops the DOLPHIN back into the tank, splattering MISS MORAY with water. MISS MORAY lets out a scream just as DR. CROCUS and MRS. FRIDGE enter.]
Mrs. Fridge. Is anything wrong, Miss Moray? (MISS MORAY is unable to answer at first.) Is anything wrong?
Miss Moray (not wishing to admit an irregularity). No . . . nothing wrong. Nothing at all. (She hurriedly composes herself, not wanting to hang any dirty wash of the Custodial Engineering Department.) Just a little spilled water. Right, Helen? Just a little spilled water. Get those sponges, Helen. Immediately!
[HELEN and MISS MORAY grab sponges from the lab sink and begin to get up some of the water around the tank. DR. CROCUS begins to occupy herself with filling a hypodermic syringe while MRS. FRIDGE expertly gets all equipment into place. DANIELLE enters.]
Mrs. Fridge. Danielle, get the formaldehyde jars into position, please.
Danielle. I didn’t spill anything. Don’t try to blame that on me.
Miss Moray. I didn’t say you did.
Danielle. You spilled something?
Miss Moray. Just do as Mrs. Fridge tells you. Hurry, Danielle, you’re so slow.
Danielle. I’m tired of getting blame for Kazinski.
Mrs. Fridge. Would you like to get an encephalogram during the death process, Dr. Crocus?
Dr. Crocus. Why not?
[MRS. FRIDGE begins to implant electrodes into the DOLPHIN’s head. The DOLPHIN commences making high-pitched distress signals, which send shivers up and down HELEN’s back.]
Miss Moray. That’ll do it. No harm done. Step outside, Helen. (To the doctor) I do hope everything is satisfactory, Doctor.
(DR. CROCUS looks at her, gives no reaction.) The Custodial Engineering Staff has done everything in its power . . . (She is still ignored.) Come, Helen. I’ll see you to the elevator. (HELEN looks at the DOLPHIN as MRS. FRIDGE is sticking the electrodes into his head. His distress signals are pathetic, and HELEN is terrified.) Let’s go now. (MISS MORAY leads her out to the hall. MISS MORAY is trying to get control of herself, to resist yelling at HELEN, as she gets on her coat and kerchief.) You can leave that.
Helen. I never left a dirty mop. Never.
[HELEN gives the mop a quick rinse and puts the things in their place. Cuts to the lab door and the sounds coming out of it show where her attention is.]
Miss Moray. Well, I hardly know what to say. Frankly, Helen, I’m deeply disappointed. I’d hoped that by being lenient with you—and heaven knows I have been—that you’d develop a heightened loyalty to our team. I mean, do you think for one minute that putting vinegar in rinse water really is more effective? If you ask me, it streaks. Streaks.
Helen (bursting into tears and going to the elevator). Leave me alone.
Miss Moray (softening as she catches up to her). You really are a nice person, Helen. A very nice person. But to be simple and nice in a world where great minds are giant-stepping the micro- and macrocosms, well—one would expect you’d have the humility to yield in unquestioning awe. I truly am very fond of you, Helen, but you’re fired. Call Personnel after 9. And I was going to bring you in hangers. I want you to know that.
[As MISS MORAY heads back toward the DOLPHIN area, the record starts to play.]
Record.
Let me call you sweetheart,
I’m in love with you.
Let me hear you whisper . . .
[The record is roughly interrupted. What HELEN is contemplating at that moment causes the expression on her face to turn from sadness to thought to strength to anger and—as the elevator doors open—to fury. Instead of getting on the elevator, she whirls around and marches back to the DOLPHIN area. MISS MORAY, MRS. FRIDGE, DANIELLE, and DR. CROCUS, with hypodermic needle poised to stick the DOLPHIN, turn and look at her with surprise.]
Helen. Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are? I think you’re murderers, that’s what I think.
Miss Moray. Doctor, I assure you this is the first psychotic outburst the Custodial Engineering Department has ever had.
Helen. I’m very tired of being a nice person, Miss Moray. You kept telling me how nice I was and now I know what you meant. (Pause) I’m going to report the bunch of you to the ASPCA—or somebody. Because . . . I’ve decided I don’t like you cutting the heads off mice and sawing through skulls of St. Bernards . . . and if being a nice person is just not saying anything and letting you pack of butchers run around doing whatever you want, then I don’t want to be nice anymore. You gotta be very stupid people to need an animal to talk before you know just from looking at it that it’s saying something . . . that it knows what pain feels like. I’d like to see you all with a few electrodes stuck in your heads. I really would. (HELEN starts crying, though her features won’t give way to weakness.) Being nice isn’t any good. (Looking at the DOLPHIN) They just kill you off if you do that. And that’s being a coward. You gotta talk back against what’s wrong or you can’t ever stop it. At least you’ve gotta try. (She bursts into tears.)
Miss Moray. Nothing like this has ever happened with a member of the Custodial Engineering . . . Helen, dear . . .
Helen. Get your hands off me. (Yelling at the DOLPHIN) You’re a coward, that’s what you are.
[She turns and starts to leave. A sound comes from the DOLPHIN’s tank.]
Dolphin (whispering). Loooooooooooveeeeee. (Everyone turns to stare at the DOLPHIN and freezes for a second.) Love.
Dr. Crocus. Get the recorder going.
[The laboratory becomes a bustle of activity concerning the utterance of the
DOLPHIN. Plans for dissection are obviously canceled and HELEN has a visual exchange with the DOLPHIN.
Then she continues toward the elevator.]
Dolphin. Love . . .
Dr. Crocus. Is the tape going?
Mrs. Fridge. Yes, Doctor.
Miss Moray. I’m enormously embarrassed about the incident, Doctor. Naturally, I’ve taken steps to see this won’t . . .
Mrs. Fridge. He’s opening the blowhole sphincter.
Dolphin. Love . . .
Dr. Crocus. That scrubwoman’s got something to do with this. Get her back in here.
Miss Moray. She won’t be any more trouble. I fired her.
Dolphin. Love . . .
Dr. Crocus. Just get her. (To MRS. FRIDGE) You’re sure the machine’s recording?
Miss Moray. Doctor, I’m afraid you don’t understand. That woman was hugging the mammal . . .
Dr. Crocus. Try to get another word out of it.
Miss Moray. The water on the floor was her fault.
[The record starts.]
Dr. Crocus. Try the fear button.
Miss Moray. She could have damaged the rib cage if I hadn’t stopped her.
Dr. Crocus. One more word . . . try anger.
Miss Moray. The last thing in the world I want is for our problems in Custodial Engineering to . . .
Dr. Crocus (furious). Will you shut up and get her back here?
[MISS MORAY appears stunned momentarily.]
Miss Moray. Immediately, Doctor. (She hurries to HELEN, waiting for the elevator.) Helen? Oh, Helen? (She goes to HELEN, who refuses to pay any attention to her.) Don’t you want to hear what the dolphin has to say? He’s so cute! Dr. Crocus thinks that his talking might have something to do with you. Wouldn’t that be exciting? (Pause) Please, Helen. The doctor . . .
Helen. Don’t talk to me, do you mind?
Miss Moray. It was only in the heat of argument that I distorted the ineffectiveness of the vinegar and . . . of course, you won’t be discharged. All right? Please, Helen, you’ll embarrass me . . . (The elevator doors open and HELEN gets on to face MISS MORAY. She looks at her a moment and then lifts her hand to press the button for the ground floor.) Don’t you dare . . . Helen, the team needs you, don’t you see? Everyone says the corridors have never looked so good. Ever. Helen, please. What will I do if you leave?
Helen. Why don’t you put in a rug?
[She presses the button. The elevator doors close.]
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