THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER
Jenny : How does he look?
Margaret : He looks . . . he looks like a soldier. He went out there into the garden with me . . . like a boy . . . without a care in the world. You know, it was like that. He felt just like a boy . . . when he was with me. All this . . . he didn’t believe in it . . . really . . . he couldn’t. He was . . . happy . . . like that, and I had to break his heart for him. We went down to the pond . . . he loved the water so . . . and I showed him the toys . . . and talked to him . . . about his boy and my boy. Oh, it was awful . . . seeing it all come back into his eyes. He was so frightened . . . he held on to me and kept saying, “What does it mean? What does it mean?” But he knew. He looked back at the house . . . and it was . . . different. It meant something else to him now.
Jenny (low) : A prison.
Margaret : And his child. I saw him touch the jersey and remember. It was like he was touching the boy’s body.
Jenny : What did he say?
Margaret : He didn’t say anything. He just looked. And his mouth went . . . sort of funny. Oh, Chris! (She moans a little.) Then he spoke of her . . . his wife. He said, “How I must have hurt her.”
Jenny (muttering) : Her pride . . .
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