FOR KATE
Character: Mercy Lott, late 50s, petite, timid, mousy.
From Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones.
MERCY: For what we are about to receive, which none of you really want to eat but which I stayed up until two in the morning to make and I didn't even have any pimentos and had to improvise round them, may the Lord, whether you believe in him or not, I know you don't, Felix, because you're a scientist so you're not allowed to and anyway, I don't know if I do, because of things like James dying in the way that he did and little Felicity not having an identifiable father and the terrible things that Flora has said to me and the little fat bumblebees just dropping down dead from the sky. And I know that what James said about the finite number of heartbeats should be a comfort, but it is not. And maybe I don't have much of a life but up to now God has filled all the gaps but now there do seem to be holes that He can't fill so perhaps you are right, Flora, because even though I still do the flowers in church and my various parish duties really I would say that I was unofficially on a sabbatical from God at the moment because everything is really so unsettling and I'm sick to my heart of trying all the time, trying, trying, trying, and I don't like it, I don't like it at all, so may the Lord, even though we're not on speaking terms, make us all, and I mean all of us, truly thankful.
I think it's about two minutes, maybe a little more if you use lots of nice pauses which are very appropriate.
From Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones.
MERCY: For what we are about to receive, which none of you really want to eat but which I stayed up until two in the morning to make and I didn't even have any pimentos and had to improvise round them, may the Lord, whether you believe in him or not, I know you don't, Felix, because you're a scientist so you're not allowed to and anyway, I don't know if I do, because of things like James dying in the way that he did and little Felicity not having an identifiable father and the terrible things that Flora has said to me and the little fat bumblebees just dropping down dead from the sky. And I know that what James said about the finite number of heartbeats should be a comfort, but it is not. And maybe I don't have much of a life but up to now God has filled all the gaps but now there do seem to be holes that He can't fill so perhaps you are right, Flora, because even though I still do the flowers in church and my various parish duties really I would say that I was unofficially on a sabbatical from God at the moment because everything is really so unsettling and I'm sick to my heart of trying all the time, trying, trying, trying, and I don't like it, I don't like it at all, so may the Lord, even though we're not on speaking terms, make us all, and I mean all of us, truly thankful.
I think it's about two minutes, maybe a little more if you use lots of nice pauses which are very appropriate.