FREEDOM

By

SEAN PATTERSON, JOYCE PULITZER,

DAVID SEELIG, KITTY GREENBERG
 AT RISE: The empty room where a naturalization
ceremony will take place. Folding chairs for the soon-
to-be citizens are assembled in rows on either side of
an aisle. A large American flag is down right. There’s
also an old-style water cooler, with a bottle on top
and paper-cup dispenser, and a wastebasket.
It’s April, 1997, New York City. Rudy Giuliani is
Mayor; George Pataki, Governor; William Clinton,
President.
DANNY MCCABE, early 40s, appears in the doorway to the
room. He looks in from the hallway, and seeing the
room is empty, enters. He has a tense vitality, as
though he has fought and worked his whole life.
He also has a guardedness that eases when he realizes
he can be here alone, and when that guard is let down,
he reveals a kind of deep sadness. He carries a small
paper bag with him. He moves down the aisle, taking in
the room, noticing the flag. He chooses a seat in the
back of the room, where he can see the flag, see the
door, and minimize the chance of someone coming up
behind him. He sits, alone, and ponders the weight of
the moment.
We see an older woman walk past the door. Danny looks
up. The woman walks back to the door, and we see her
framed in the doorway. She is YETTA STRAUS, early 70s
but seems easily 10 years younger, dignified, dressed
in modest, slightly dated clothes. She sees the flag
immediately, but she doesn’t notice Danny in his
chair. Danny watches her quietly as She moves down the
aisle toward the flag. She has purposely sought this
moment of solitude. She goes to the flag and stands
before it. She reaches out to touch it, perhaps, but
then thinks better of it, as if touching it would be
somehow disrespectful. She takes a small personal
instant-flash camera out of her handbag and takes a
picture of the flag. Her instinct is to then get a
picture of herself, but she’s alone. She turns and
sees Danny, which startles her.
YETTA
Oh! You frightened me. I didn’t think anyone else would be
here.
DANNY
You’re early. Hours early, in fact.
YETTA
Do you work here?
 2.

DANNY
Me? No.
YETTA
I came early on purpose. To have some time alone.
Danny considers her a moment. Then he calmly picks up
his bag and rises.
YETTA (CONT'D)
Where are you going?
DANNY
You wanted time alone.
YETTA
I didn’t mean you had to go...
Danny stops at the door.
DANNY
(Not mean, matter-of-fact)
I was hoping for a little time alone myself, and we can’t
both have that, now, can we?
He turns again to go.
YETTA
Are you here for citizenship, too?
DANNY
My name is on the list.

YETTA
Ah, where are you from?
DANNY
I'm Irish.
YETTA
Oh! Well... Would you mind terribly...? For my scrapbook.
Yetta holds up her camera. Danny obliges. He sets his
bag down by the door and goes to her. She hands him
the camera.
Push this, here.
Yetta stands in front of the flag and smiles for the
camera. She does not look like a tourist, but rather
more like someone who has achieved something
remarkable. Danny snaps the picture. Flash. Yetta
blinks.
 3.

DANNY
Uh.
YETTA
Oh, I blinked, didn’t I?
DANNY
I think you might have, yeah.
YETTA
Every time. Would you take another one?
DANNY
Sure. Three, two, one.
Yetta poses again. Flash. Yetta stiffens as she waits
for his okay.
Success.
YETTA
(Relaxing)
Thank you.
DANNY
My pleasure.
He gives the camera back to her and starts to leave
again.
YETTA
Would you let me take one of you? In front of the flag?
DANNY
Nae...that’s not necessary.
YETTA
Please. As a favor to an old woman. I want to remember
everything about today.
Danny goes slowly to the flag.
DANNY
Like this?
YETTA
That’s fine. “And this is the nice Irishman who took my
picture.”
She snaps the shot. Flash. Danny relaxes.
Oh.
DANNY
Hm?
 4.

YETTA
I snapped before you smiled.
DANNY
I didn’t smile.
YETTA
Ah.
An awkward pause.
DANNY
Would you like me to do it again?
YETTA
I just thought, “When Irish eyes are smiling...”
DANNY
That’s what they say.
YETTA
You are a cheerful people, you Irish.
DANNY
Well, not all the time.
YETTA
Isn’t this a happy day for you?
Danny moves toward the door again.
DANNY
I don’t smile in pictures, that’s all.
YETTA
And you keep trying to leave. How come?
DANNY
I thought you wanted some time alone.
YETTA
Please. Stay. I can chat with my fellow soon-to-be American.
Or go, if you want to. But don’t hover.
Danny takes a seat. Maybe he chooses a seat a safe
distance away from her. Maybe they have to shift a
little to see each other comfortably.
YETTA (CONT'D)
Thank you.
She starts to put her camera away in her purse, moving
things around to make room.
Such an ordinary room.
 5.

You think it would be something grand, hm? Important. A room

that says “Welcome to America!” There was a time not so long
ago when public buildings had a kind of beauty to them. But
this, this is not a beautiful building. People wonder why
there is no joy in bureaucracy, and I say look at the
buildings. There is no joy because there is no beauty.
She takes an envelope out, sets it on the chair beside
her, and puts the camera and everything else away.
I mean, how do walls get so dirty? It’s bad enough for them
to be ugly and plain, but to be ugly and dirty. Terrible. You
want a candy?
She pulls out an open roll of Life Savers.
DANNY
Hm?
YETTA
Life Saver?
DANNY
No. Thank you.
Yetta gets up and goes to him.
YETTA
Here, please, take one.
She puts the pack in front of him. He takes one.
DANNY
Yes, ma’am. Thank you.
YETTA
You’re welcome.
She sits again. Danny puts the candy in his mouth.
DANNY
What flavor is that?
YETTA
Cherry.
She looks at the pack.
Hm, excuse me. Wild cherry. My granddaughter picked that.
She puts the candy in the purse, and puts the purse on
the chair, on top of the envelope.
DANNY
She likes cherry?
 6.

YETTA
She likes red.
They laugh.
She’ll be coming later with my daughter Sarah.
DANNY
Good for you!
YETTA
She lives here, my Sarah. Her husband was born here.
DANNY
Ah. Grand.
YETTA
Do you have anyone coming?
DANNY
Aye.
YETTA
Well, that’s very nice. Isn’t that nice?
DANNY
I suppose it is.
YETTA
Oh, suppose! Why would it be anything but nice?
(Beat.)
Well, what you must think of me. An old woman chattering
away, and you with so much on your mind.
Yetta gets up and takes her purse from the chair.
DANNY
It’s all right.
YETTA
No. You need your time? Take it. I’ll take a little walk or
something.
DANNY
Really. You don’t have to.
He rises as if to stop her from leaving.
YETTA
No, I always do this. I meddle. You want to think, in the
ugly room, all by yourself? Sit. I’ll find a bench.
DANNY
You don’t have to...
 7.

YETTA
I won’t hear another word. You were here first, that’s all
there is to it.
Yetta leaves the room, pulling the door shut hard
behind her.
DANNY
Jesus Christ.
He sits alone again and crunches what’s left of his
candy. He feels a little foolish now, like maybe he
should go after her. He looks over where Yetta sat and
sees the well worn envelope. He goes over to it, picks
it up and turns it over in his hands. He could call
after her, but he decides to hold it for her. He takes
it back to his seat and puts it beside his bag.
Suddenly, frantic footsteps in the hallway, and Yetta
reappears in the door. She is visibly agitated.
YETTA
Stupid! Stupid!
She rushes to the chair where she sat, searching for
the letter with growing frustration.
DANNY
Lose something?
He holds up the letter, but Yetta doesn’t see it right
away.
YETTA
A letter. From my...from a long time ago.
Danny clears his throat. Yetta turns to him and sees
the letter.
YETTA (CONT'D)
Oh, thank God!
DANNY
Must be a hell of a letter.
YETTA
What?
DANNY
Good thing you came back when you did. I was a few seconds
away from taking it out and soaking up every romantic detail.
YETTA
How dare you?
 8.

DANNY
I didn’t read it, if that’s any consolation.
YETTA
That’s not a consolation. May I have it please?
He holds out the envelope, and Yetta snatches it from
him.
Thank you. Excuse me.
She puts the letter in her purse and starts to go back
into the hall.
DANNY
Now you've got me all curious.
YETTA
It's nothing.
DANNY
Some kind of nothing.
(Beat)
I was just having a laugh.
YETTA
Well, this is not something funny to me.

DANNY
I see that now. (Beat)
YETTA
Do you have kinder, children, Mr...?
DANNY
McCabe.
YETTA
Do you have children, Mr. McCabe?
DANNY
I do. And you have a daughter, right, Mrs...
YETTA
Straus. Yetta Pinsky Straus. And yes. Sarah. You have a
daughter?
DANNY
(A choice)
A son.
YETTA
Then, you know that with children, there’s joy and pain.
 9.

DANNY
Aye.
(Beat)
YETTA
So, what do you do, Mr. McCabe?
DANNY
Danny. And, you know, whatever needs doing. Handyman.
Builder.
YETTA
You make things?
DANNY
I do.
YETTA
My Tata, my father, was a tailor. He always said a man will
survive in this world if he can make things.
DANNY
Smart man. He's right.
YETTA
And where are you from in Ireland?
DANNY
Northern Ireland. Ballymena in Ulster.
YETTA
Beautiful.
DANNY
You know it?
YETTA
No. But it sounds beautiful. “Ballymena.”
DANNY
It is.
YETTA
You miss it?
DANNY
I do. I mean, I left it, but I do. I miss the land.
I miss ... I miss my family.
YETTA
Will you ever go back?
DANNY
I don’t know. Maybe.
 10.

YETTA
Not me. I will never go back. Never.
DANNY
Back where?
YETTA
Lublin, Polski. Poland. Where I was born.
DANNY
Ah. Grand.
YETTA
You know Poland?
DANNY
No, but I’ve heard the jokes.
Yetta just looks at him.
You know. Polish jokes?
YETTA
No. I don’t know Polish jokes.
DANNY
Well, you shouldn’t. They’re feckin’ awful.
YETTA
Please.
DANNY
Don’t worry. There’s plenty of Irish jokes. Why wasn't Jesus
born in Ireland?
YETTA
I don’t want to play.
DANNY
No, come on. Why wasn't Jesus born in Ireland?
YETTA
(To shut him up)
Why?
DANNY
Because God couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.
He laughs. She doesn’t.
Nothing?
YETTA
I don’t think I’m a good person to listen to your jokes.
 11.

DANNY
Can I ask you a question then?
YETTA
I may not answer, Danny.
DANNY
What’s in that letter? I’m not being rude.
YETTA
I think you might be.
DANNY
Look. You want to have a nice chat about the weather and the
family and this ugly room, we can do that. But you almost
fell apart thinking you lost that letter, and I’m guessing
whatever’s in it’s what you really want to talk about.
YETTA
This is...this is not an easy day for me.
DANNY
Don't I know it? All the feckin' questions and the feckin'
test and the feckin’ paperwork--
YETTA
Please stop saying that.
DANNY
What? Feckin’?
YETTA
Yes. Please. If you’re going to talk to me, you going to be
polite, you understand?
DANNY
Yes, ma’am.
YETTA
I mean it, you.
DANNY
Are you sore at me?
YETTA
(A little laugh)
No.
DANNY
(Beat)
So, why isn’t this an easy day for you?
 12.

YETTA
I don’t know why it bothers me.I mean, this. Today. Becoming
American.
DANNY
Well, maybe you’re not sure. ‘Cause maybe you’re not doing it
for yourself, yeah? Maybe, it’s an obligation.
YETTA
Of course, it’s an obligation. But it’s not an obligation
like you have to pay the bus driver.
DANNY
No, ‘course not.
YETTA
It’s an obligation from the heart.
DANNY
(Softer)
Sure.
YETTA
I don’t know about you Irish, but in my world, mishpocheh is
what matters.
DANNY
And what’s that?
YETTA
Mishpocheh? It’s family.
DANNY
Well, then, you know everything about us Irish, because we’re
the same feckin’ way. Sorry.

YETTA
You understand.
DANNY
I do.
YETTA
It makes me think of...I think of what I left behind, you
see? My vorfahren, my ancestors are there. In Poland.
DANNY
It’s home.
YETTA
Well, it was. But not now. And not for a long time. All I
have are memories, and most of them are not good.
 13.

DANNY
That’s the funny thing about memories, isn’t it? You can’t
even hold ‘em in your hand, but they’re heavy bastards.
YETTA
But it wasn’t always that way. There were good times. When I
was a girl. We had a big mishpocheh –
DANNY
A big family.
YETTA
Ah, you learn! My mishpocheh, my people, they kept us in our
own separate neighborhood, a ghetto, but we were all
together. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...
DANNY
Sounds like Ballymena.
YETTA
How is that?
DANNY
We didn't have walls like they do in Belfast and some of the
other cities. But we were kept separate too.
YETTA
In Ireland?
DANNY
Northern Ireland. Ireland fought for its independence.
Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom.
YETTA
I think of Ireland as a green land with lovely people.
DANNY
Well, we're not all Leprechauns dancing jigs in pubs.
YETTA
And- who was kept separate?
DANNY
The Catholics and the Protestants. The Protestants are loyal
to the Crown and want to remain a part of the U.K. The
Catholics are loyal to their own country and want a unified
Ireland.
YETTA
And which one are you?
DANNY
Catholic. But we were the minority in Ballymena, and it was
dangerous if we didn't keep to ourselves.
 14.

I never understood it myself until I got older. I remember,

when I was wee, the back of our house jutted up against a
Protestant neighborhood. On the other side of the lot lived a
lad, same age as me, probably couldn't tell the two of us
apart. But his family wouldn't let him have anything to do
with me.
YETTA
He never played with you?
DANNY
Him and his mates beat me up a few times. Does that count?
YETTA
But you were all Irish?
DANNY
Well, you were all Polish, weren't you?
YETTA
Yes.
DANNY
But you knew why you were different.
YETTA
No, I knew I was a Jew. But I didn't know why that made me
different. Tata told me we were as good as everyone else, and
I believed him.
DANNY
But you still had to live in a ghetto.
YETTA
Well, that didn’t make sense to me, but we were together, and
I didn’t know any other way.
DANNY
And your Da was a tailor, you said?
YETTA
Mm-hm. Tata’s shop was in the back of our ghetto, along a
wall. We all worked in that shop. Me and Mama, and Stefan, my
brother, my cousin Rachael. All of us.
DANNY
So you made things, too.
YETTA
Oh, yes. And there was this loch, this hole in the wall where
these people from outside the ghetto would sneak in to have
us do work for them. Tata would do work for anyone, and he
was good.
 15.

DANNY
That’s why they came.
YETTA
Well, that, but they would say things like, “If you were
really good, we wouldn’t have to crawl through a wall to find
you.” What do you say to that? They never paid him what he
deserved. But a little money is better than none. You take
it.
DANNY
The history of the world is people putting up with other
people’s shite.
YETTA
It is strange to think of how things were before. Every
Friday night, we went to Shule, you know, for the Sabbath. I
remember my cuzeen Rachel, she was two years older than me,
but she was my best friend.
We hear the beep of a digital watch alarm. Yetta
reaches for her purse.
May I have some water, please?
DANNY
Sure.
Danny fills a cup. Yetta pulls a digital watch from
her purse and stops the alarm. She takes a pill from a
pillbox.
And we were so bad, Rachel and me. We were always peeking
down at the men, which we were not supposed to be doing. And
there was this cantor! Oy. He was so handsome.
Danny hands her the water.
DANNY (CONT'D)
Here y’are.
She takes it, pops the pill, and drinks.
YETTA
Thank you. My pressure. Don’t get old.
DANNY
I wouldn’t dream of it.
She puts the pillbox back in her purse and picks up
where she left off.
YETTA
Rachel would drag me to the stairs with her just to catch a
glimpse of him. And then to actually see him. And hear him.
 16.

That voice! He was...Oy!...he was a distraction. I loved

Shule.
DANNY
Well, I didn't love Mass, but then again we didn’t have any
good lookin’ singers. The ugliest choir in all of
Christendom. But, my Mam would make us go every Sunday, and
halfway through, right before the homily, my Da would slip
out and head down to the pub. One time, I asked Mam why she
even bothered to make him go with him sneaking out halfway
through. She said, “Well, I’d rather have half of him in
Heaven than none of him at all.” Anyway, we all went. It was
all Catholics for a couple hours on a Sunday. Nobody bothered
us. We were safe.
YETTA
I always felt safe in our Shule.
She stops.
DANNY
Y'alright?
YETTA
We shouldn’t speak about these things.
DANNY
What do you mean, ever? Or just today?
YETTA
They burned it. They came in the middle of the night and they
took all the men and all the older boys, they took Tata, they
took Stefan, they locked them all inside the Shule, and they
burned it.
DANNY
Jesus. What’d you do?
YETTA
A bunch of women and children in the middle of the night?
What could we do? We watched it burn. I remember the robe I
was wearing. Pale blue, almost gray, and I looked down, and
there was a little tear, right here, on the wrist. And I
remember thinking, I have to sew that. Isn’t that funny? My
world burning before my eyes. “I have to sew that.”
(Beat)
You are a very good man to listen to the ramblings of an old
woman.
DANNY
'Course.
YETTA
So, enough. Now, you tell me about that family of yours.
 17.

DANNY
Noooo.
YETTA
(Thinking he’s kidding
somehow)
What do you mean, noooo?
DANNY
We all have things we don’t want to talk about.
YETTA
I never met a man who wouldn’t talk about his family.
DANNY
Well, how do you do!
YETTA
Do you ever talk about them?
DANNY
What's it matter to you?
YETTA
That means you don't.
DANNY
I'm sorry. Excuse me.
Danny heads for the door.
YETTA
Again with the leaving?
DANNY
I can’t do this. I thought I could, but I can’t.
YETTA
Can’t do what?
DANNY
This. This ceremony. I can’t go through with it, all right?
Thanks for the lifesaver.
YETTA
Look. We don’t know each other. You can walk out there, and
you never have to say another word to me. But if you want to
talk to me, I will listen.
(Beat)
DANNY
My wife and my daughter left one morning to have a girls' day
out in a town called Bangor, County Down. They went out, and
there was a bomb, and they didn’t come back.
 18.

YETTA
When was this?
DANNY
Almost six years ago.
YETTA
Oh, you poor man.
DANNY
Don't pity me.
YETTA
That's not pity.
DANNY
We used to like going to Bangor just to get away, you know?
No one knew us there, so we could pass for Protestant if we
needed to. My daughter was always so happy there. It was
right on the sea. They were running late. I had made a
spaghetti dinner. There was news of the bomb on the radio. I
drove down there. The peelers didn't have a body count yet.
But they had found a foot. Still in it's little purple shoe.
A couple weeks later, the marketplace was practically
business as usual. A few boarded windows, but most of the
rubble was gone. People were talking, laughing, shopping as
if nothing had happened.
YETTA
I don’t know what to say.
DANNY
There’s nothing to say. It is what it is.
Danny is done with it for now, but he doesn’t try to
leave again just yet.
The bodega next to my building makes a great egg sandwich,
you want half?
YETTA
No, thank you.
DANNY
Well do you mind if I…
Yetta waves permission. Danny eats.
So what now? I don't normally talk much without a pint in my
hand, but I'll give it a go.
YETTA
Oh! Well. Then we can be two Americans having a normal
American conversation. So what do we say?
 19.

DANNY
How 'bout those Mets?
YETTA
Ah. Baseball! My son-in-law, he loves the Yankees!
DANNY
They all do, don't they? So many hats! I'm a football man
myself. Not American football. Soccer they call it here, of
course. I'm trying to get my son interested in it, but he
doesn't seem to care. It's hard when you can't even find a
game on the telly.
YETTA
Maybe one day he will play. I don't know much about games.
And my granddaughter is too little to play. But sometimes we
sit, and I try to teach her to sew.
(Beat)
DANNY
Did you ever fix your robe?
YETTA
What?
DANNY
The tear in your robe. Did you ever sew it?
YETTA
Oh. No. After the fire, we went back to the house, but in the
morning, they came for us. They came after all the women. We
never saw our house again.
DANNY
Where’d they take you?
YETTA
A factory, where they made us make their uniforms. Mama and I
were in the same factory, but we couldn’t talk to each other
or comfort each other. We...we had to work. And do what they
said.
DANNY
The whole war, then?
YETTA
No. Maybe a year. And then...then...
DANNY
You all right?
YETTA
It’s just... these things. I think them, but I don’t say
them. The words.
 20.

DANNY
I understand.
YETTA
Early one morning they put us in cattle cars and they sent us
to a camp.
DANNY
You were in a camp?
YETTA
Ravensbruck. When we got there it was night. There were
blinding lights, screaming guards, and barking dogs. They
herded us like animals. They stripped us, they shaved us,
they gave us uniforms. Two yellow triangles, one for the
front, one for the back. This meant we were Polish Jews. But
it didn’t matter who I was or who any of us were. They made
us all exactly the same. They wanted to take everything from
us, so they did.
DANNY
Was your Mam still with you?
YETTA
When they put us in the cattle car, she got close to me, and
she pinched my sleeve to stay together. So I knew she was on
the train. But at the camp, I didn’t see her until they put
us to work. And there she was. You didn’t want them to catch
you together, you see, because they would separate you and
you maybe would never see each other ever. We had to act like
strangers. So, she saw me, and she looked at me for only a
second, enough to tell me she knew I was there, and then she
went on with her work.
DANNY
What kind of work was it?
YETTA
We reconditioned clothes. The clothes of the dead. The
murdered. So the Germans could wear them.
DANNY
Sick bastards, yeah?
YETTA
Sometimes I found things in pockets. Keys, pictures,
handkerchiefs. Things that belonged to a world that no longer
was. I would think about what those people must have been
like. One time, I found a little candy wrapper in a boy’s
pocket. I pretended to drop it, and when I bent down to pick
it up, I put it to my lips to try to remember candy.
DANNY
Could you taste it?
 21.

YETTA
I could smell it. It had been so long since I smelled
anything sweet. That little whiff was...oh! It was everything
in a second. My whole life coming back to me on a little
scrap of paper. I didn’t want them to take it from me. So I
folded it up really small and put it inside my cheek, so they
couldn't find it. And I went back to work.
DANNY
It’s funny the things you remember, isn’t it?
YETTA
Or the things you can’t forget.
(Pause)
YETTA (CONT'D)
Do you carry them with you?
DANNY
What?
YETTA
Their pictures?
DANNY
Whose?
YETTA
Your family.
DANNY
You want to see pictures?
YETTA
Will you show me?
DANNY
If you show me yours.
They move fast to pull out their pictures. Danny’s are
in his wallet. Yetta’s are in a small album in her
purse.
DANNY (CONT'D)
(Mock indignation)
You have a whole book?! No fair! Out of your Mary Poppins
purse!
YETTA
Are you always this rude?
DANNY
That’s not rude! That’s defeat. I can’t compete with that.
 22.

YETTA
Sh! Come see.
He moves closer. She shows him.
This is Mama, our dear friend Jacqueline, and her housekeeper
Nicole. We had been in Nice about a year when this picture
was taken.
DANNY
Nice? Fancy!
YETTA
This was after the war.
DANNY
Now who are they?
YETTA
We met Jacqueline in the displaced persons’ camp after we...
DANNY
After you got out.
YETTA
Mm-hm. And this is Josef and me, that’s my husband. That was
our first visit to New York.
DANNY
Handsome fella.
YETTA
He was. And this is my Sarah, with her husband Sam.
DANNY
She looks like you.
YETTA
She looks like my brother, Stefan. And my granddaughter
Becky, Rebekah, the one who likes red candy.
DANNY
I can see it in her eyes!
YETTA
(Laughs)
I could show you more, but I don’t want you to fall asleep on
me.
DANNY
Fall asleep on ya? If falling asleep is the game, then
Macabe is our name. You better tuck in.
He pulls out some pictures from his wallet
This is Kate and Megan.
 23.

YETTA
Oh! Kate was your wife?
DANNY
Aye. Megan was our girl.
YETTA
They're beautiful.
DANNY
Thanks. And this one's her birthday party. See the clown?
YETTA
Is that you?
DANNY
That’s me. If you need a terrible clown for a party, I’m your
man.
YETTA
No! I bet she loved it.
DANNY
She was thrilled. And terrified.
They laugh.
And our boy wasn’t born yet in that one. That’s him.
YETTA
Oh, all that hair!
DANNY
He came out like that, and it just kept growing.
YETTA
What’s his name?
DANNY
Seamus. After my old man.
YETTA
And...where is...I mean, is he...
DANNY
He’s fine. He's here in the city. My brother Liam’s takin’
him out for a pancake breakfast or something, before they
come see the old man get his stars and stripes. He’ll be six
soon.
YETTA
Six!
She smiles at the picture, and then it hits her.
Oh, he must have still been a baby when...
 24.

DANNY
Six months. Barely. It’s been him and me against the world
since. I try to show him these as often as I can. He’s got a
lot of questions, ya know?
YETTA
Well, he’s six.
DANNY
It’s not just six. He’s relentless. If he gets his mind set
one way, there's not much to do to change it. He's a stubborn
little man.
YETTA
I wonder where he get's that?
DANNY
Fair enough. But Kate was no wallflower either. Our DNA mixed
up together made our kids cute as hell and full of the devil.
YETTA
Oh, don’t say that.
DANNY
It's true. Megan was an absolute mental person. Just willful
and wild. We fought all the time. We adored each other. But
she was the boss. I remember, even the night before
the...before, Kate had to go to her sister’s for something,
so I stayed home with both the kids. And Seamus was teething
so I had spent an hour trying to get him down. And Megen
still wasn't used to having to share all the attention with
him, and she was being such a handful. She refused to eat,
refused to take her bath- well, she always hated her bath.
Just contrary for the sake of contrary. And I was trying to
calm her down and tell her a good-night story, but she
wouldn’t have it. She wanted to be the storyteller. So we lay
down on her bed, and she stroked my hair and made up this
funny little tale about a lost dog on a beach who was taken
by a sea-monster. And this little lass transforms into a
mermaid and swims down to the monster's lair and slays him
with a magical sword. Then she turns the dog into a sea-pup
and they swim back to shore. And her parents were there
waiting for her on the beach, and they admit to the girl that
they were a family of mer-people all along. And then they all
swim off together, the sea-pup included, to have an
underwater party. And then she said, “I'm not joking around,
Da. This needs to happen." I thought to myself, this person
just might kill me in my sleep one day. She said "I'm not
going to sleep, I'm just going to close my eyes. Isn’t it a
wonderful world, Da? Isn’t it wonderful?” And then I kissed
her goodnight, and...
YETTA
(Rescuing him)
That’s a good memory.
 25.

DANNY
Yeah. One of these days, I hope the world proves her right.
Silence. They start to put the pictures away. Yetta's
Letter falls out of her book. Danny picks it up and
offers it to her. She considers him, then accepts the
letter graciously.
YETTA
This came a few weeks ago. I have read this to myself a
hundred times, and I still have not found the courage to say
the words out loud. May I read it to you?
Danny nods. Yetta gestures for him to sit again. He
does. She opens the letter and reads.
Dear Ms. Pinsky/Straus: My name is Hilda Strug. I have
researched many years to find you. I think you are my birth
mother. As an infant, I was taken from Ravensbruck and placed
in an orphanage in Munich, where I was adopted by a family
from Lutz. I am married, and the mother of 3 grown sons. I
will be visiting New York City in April, and I would like to
see you. Life has been kind to me, and all I want is to meet
you and thank you for allowing me to be born. With prayers of
meeting you, Hilda. And then she gives me her
itinerary...hotel, planes...everything.
DANNY
Jesus.
YETTA
Yes.
DANNY
Is it true?
She puts the letter away.
YETTA
Yes.
DANNY
Does your family know?
YETTA
No.
DANNY
You had another kid.
YETTA
My first.
(Beat)
Listen. I have never told this. To anyone. One night, a Kapo
came to my barracks and ordered me to follow her.
 26.

DANNY
What’s a Kapo?
YETTA
A Jew who worked for the Nazis. They were mumsers - bastards.
The Kapo takes me outside, and there is Mama with another
Kapo. And they just order us to follow them. Mama is
shaking...and I want to hold her hand, but we keep walking.
And there is this big light ahead of us and this officer is
there, waiting under the light. And when we get to him, he
looks at me...for so long...like he is making me smaller with
his eyes. Then, he walks around us...slow...
We hear the sound of boots on gravel: crunch, crunch,
crunch...
...and he stops behind me. And it is so quiet. I do not even
breathe. And then...he comes back into the light. And he
looks at Mama like she is nothing, and he says, “Geh zuruck
zu deiner kaserne." "Go back to your barracks.” And they took
Mama away and left me alone with him.
DANNY
What did he want?
YETTA
I was to replace his dead nafke.
YETTA (CONT'D)
A mistress! His whore! He said if I pleased him, Mama and I
would live. If I didn’t, we wouldn’t. Simple.
DANNY
Then he knew you were mam and daughter?
YETTA
He knew everything. I had no choice but to do what he wanted.
So, I did. And that was the beginning. I was sent to him
every night.
DANNY
For how long?
YETTA
Too long. Long enough. I don’t know. I did what I had to do.
Pause.
His name was Gluber. Franz Gluber. I was made pregnant by him
two times. The first was a miscarriage. And the second, I
prayed it would end the same way. But then she came into the
world. I gave birth to a baby girl. In his bed. She was
beautiful. She was perfect. She was mine. I was with her only
a few hours. I tried to nurse her. She was so little. Her
tiny hands touched my breast. I listened to her breathing,
her sighs. I still remember the sounds she made.
 27.

And then Gluber came. He stood over the bed and I saw the
most frightening thing in his eyes. It was like a reflex in
him. He saw that child, and he softened. But then when he
looked back at me, it was gone, like he remembered to hate.
He took her from me. She did not cry. He stopped at the door,
and said very quietly over his shoulder, “Du wirst leben.”
“You will live.” I don't know whether he said it to me or to
the child. Maybe both. And I never spent another night in his
bed. The next day, I was back in the factory. And Mama was
there. As promised.
DANNY
Did your mam ever know about the baby?
YETTA
Never. I told no one. Until today.
DANNY
Do you plan to meet her?
YETTA
I don't know. What if I see this woman, and she looks just
like him? Do I hug her? She knows her Mama was a Jew in a
camp. What does she think her father was? What if there was
no “adopted parents” at all, and she was raised by him? How
this man can find his way into my life again after all these
years...
DANNY
You think he’s still alive?
YETTA
I hope he’s dead. I never saw him again. He was an engineer,
maybe they sent him to another camp. He used to brag to me
that the commandant at Auschwitz was so brilliant, that they
could gas 14,000 Jews in a day. Their only problem was
getting rid of the bodies. Maybe he went to help. Maybe he
went to Lutz to see his wife and sons. I don't know where he
went. But if there is a hell, I hope he’s there. There has
been so much pain because of him. Because of him, I have this
letter. Because of him, a daughter I have never known is
coming to New York to meet me!
DANNY
Well, that's just it. She's coming all this way to meet you.
And yeah, there's a chance she looks like him. But there's a
chance she looks just like you. She's an innocent in all of
this. Doesn't that count for something?
YETTA
Is that any concern of yours?
 28.

DANNY
Fine, it's not my business. But after everything you've just
told me? All you've been through? I can't believe the same
woman would run from this.
YETTA
Run?
DANNY
Yeah, run.
YETTA
How dare you! I did not tell you these things so you could
use them against me.
DANNY
I'm not.
YETTA
I am not the same woman who went through all those things.
Fifty years is a very long time. I did not have a husband
then, or a family, or any of the things that make my life
what it is now. I did not run from anything. I crawled
through it until I learned to walk again, until I could hold
my head high, until I found my dignity. I do not have to run
from anything.
DANNY
Listen…
YETTA
What good will come of this? Hm? To tell my Sarah she's not
my only child? To tell this Hilda she was born from a rape?
What good?
DANNY
All I’m trying to say is this might be a chance to have
something beautiful come from all that ugliness.
YETTA
I am something beautiful that came from that ugliness! I
survived to become a wife, and a real mama, and an old woman.
Hitler and all the rest of those mumsers, they are dead and I
am still here. I triumphed! I prevailed! I did not run, you
ran. You want beauty out of something ugly? Go plant flowers
on your family’s grave.
DANNY
Now wait a damn minute-
 29.

YETTA
Why aren't you there, in Ireland, finding the animals who
killed your family? I did not run! You ran.
DANNY
Are you trying to make me out to be a bloody coward? How
fuckin' dare you? I know exactly who killed my family. It was
my mates, it was our side.
YETTA
The Catholics?
Danny closes the door.
DANNY
The Provisional Irish Republican Army. You've heard of the
I.R.A.?
YETTA
Yes. On the news they say they're terrorists.
DANNY
Aye. That's what they say. My Da was a County Antrim
Quartermer all my life. When I was seventeen, British
soldiers kicked in our door one morning and dragged my Da
away. Slapped my Mam around and put a gun to the side of my
my sister's head for good measure. They called it operation
Demetrius. Shakespeare, apparently. They arrested hundreds of
people with suspected ties to the cause. My Da wasn't
innocent, but many of them were. It didn't matter one way or
the other 'cause they were all imprisoned without trial. And
that felt like the last shred of our human decency. Riots
erupted across the country. Then came 1972, the craziest
fucking year you could imagine. Well, maybe not you, but most
people. Bloody Sunday happened. Limey troops mowed down
twenty-eight unarmed civilians at a fucking civil rights
march in Derry. That's when we gave up on protests and
marches and we started calling it what it was: war. Then
Bloody Friday happened, when the IRA made clear what they
were truly capable of. Twenty bombs over the course of eighty
minutes. The I.R.A. placed warning calls to the peelers
beforehand so civilians could evacuate. But most of those
calls were ignored. The more blood on our hands, the easier
for the Brits to sell the story that we were the monsters and
they were the peace keepers. Meanwhile the U.V.F, the Ulster
Volunteer Force, the loyalists, were murdering Catholic
civilians left and right. Women, kids, didn't matter. Walk
right up to you on the street and shoot you in the fucking
face for being Catholic. Around five hundred people died that
year, another five thousand or so injured. "The Troubles" we
call it. A bit of an understatement, but that's pure fucking
Irish.
 30.

YETTA
My God.
DANNY
Then in November of '72 my Da died in prison.
YETTA
Did they beat him?
DANNY
They said he died of pneumonia. So, yeah. The bastards
wouldn't even turn his body over to us so we could bury him
proper. They put him in a pauper's grave. And my Da's mates,
you know, whenever they’d see me on the streets after that
they’d say things like, “Just you wait, Danny-boy. You’ll do
right by him.”
YETTA
What did that mean?
DANNY
I didn’t know. I thought they meant stepping up and helping
Mam, and being the man of the place, you know? And I was
doing my damnedest. Mam went mad when my Da died. Truly out
of her mind. She had held it together for as long as she
could. Then a heart attack. Forty years old.
YETTA
So young.
DANNY
Aye. And it was all on me then. Liam was wee still, and Mary
and Bridget weren’t much bigger. At Mam’s wake, Da’s mates
pulled me aside and told me, “Now its time.”
YETTA
Time for what?
DANNY
To finish what he started. To fight for our freedom.
YETTA
And so you joined them?
DANNY
They promised that if I went along with them, they'd give me
work and make sure my family was taken care of.
YETTA
What did you do?
 31.

DANNY
In the beginning I just drove a car. Picked people up,
dropped them off, sat there looking at a newspaper while they
negotiated with some politician. But it became clear to them
that I had certain aptitudes. And they started to train me
up. They taught me how to make bombs. And I became damn good
at it.
YETTA
You made bombs?
DANNY
Well, you don't buy them in a shop.
YETTA
Danny...
DANNY
We had very specific targets. We hit them where it hurt. And
it felt fucking good to me. It felt noble, secret, powerful.
It felt righteous.
YETTA
How can you say that?
DANNY
I was a fucking kid then.
YETTA
A kid who felt noble and righteous and powerful. I saw kids
like that set a Shule on fire.
DANNY
You hear “bombs” and you’ve got me in a Nazi uniform, burning
down your shule and stealing your baby. I was never there
when they went off. I would only see the aftermath later on
the telly. We worked hard to make sure the bombs got the
people that they were meant for. But then, one day, we got a
tip that there was going to be a U.V.F. meeting at a flat
above a fish shop. They planned to meet in the evening after
the shop was closed. But I fucked up, and mis-set the timer.
The bomb went off right before noon the next day. Dozens of
people were injured, and two people were killed. Two old
ladies. And none of it made sense anymore. And I must be out
of my fucking mind telling you this, because you could walk
out that door right now and tell anybody what I just told you
and that would be the end of me.
YETTA
No. I'm not going to do that, Danny.
DANNY
Well. That is truly appreciated. So, after that, I got out.
Walked away from it.
 32.

The fact that they didn't kill me, with everything I knew,
still baffles me. Some sort of respect for my Da, I imagine.
So I just kept my mouth shut, put my head down and got to
work. And I didn’t look up for a long time.
YETTA
That is a lot for you to live with.
DANNY
Aye. But I paid it back, right? An eye for an eye. My bomb
killed two women, and somebody else’s bomb killed my wife and
daughter.
YETTA
You think about this all the time, don’t you?
DANNY
Every day. I think about what I could have done to change it,
you know? Like, if I had stayed in it. Because I would have
been able to tell Kate and Megan to stay the fuck home that
day.
YETTA
No, Danny. You want it to be different, because you lost so
much, but no it would not have been better if you had stayed
in it.
DANNY
How do you know? You wouldn’t go back and undo what you did,
because you know if you did, you and your Mam would be dead.
But if I go back and do it over different, maybe my wife and
daughter live.
YETTA
And how would it be different? You would blow up more
innocent people?
DANNY
I would blow up the whole fucking world if it would bring
them back.
YETTA
And you think Kate would want that?
DANNY
No. She hated the fighting. She loved our home. But she hated
the risk, how unstable everything was. She wanted us to leave
and come live here with Liam and make a new life for us in
America.
YETTA
Liam lived here?
 33.

DANNY
Yeah. After university. First he was on a work visa, and then
he applied.
YETTA
So why didn't you leave right away?
DANNY
I wanted us to stay and wait until the kids were old enough
to have real memories, so they'd know where they came from,
what it meant. So we waited the way I wanted, and I lost my
wife, my daughter, my home...everything.
YETTA
Not everything. You have your son. You’re alive and strong.
(Beat)
Tell me something happy. About Kate.
DANNY
Something happy?
YETTA
Yes. You cannot have her die in a bomb every day. She has to
smile sometimes. Tell me something.
DANNY
Like what?
YETTA
I don’t know. Tell me how you met her.
DANNY
She was Liam’s teacher.
YETTA
Oh!
DANNY
Yeah. Literature. She was the one told him he needed to go to
university.
YETTA
He was a good student.
DANNY
Yeah. Little bastard. So, I go to his school, right, to meet
with her and find out what the hell she’s thinking telling
him that. I mean, we had no money. I couldn't afford to send
him to university. He needed to work like the rest of us, me
and my sisters. So, I go to his school, I go to her room, she
says, “Hello, Mr. McCabe,” like I was my Da or something, and
then, I don't hear another word. Because I can't stop looking
at her. She talked for, I don't know, an hour?
 34.

I’m no artist, but I could have drawn every line on her face,
and every hair on her head. And by the time I walked out of
there I was in love with her.
YETTA
Ah, you are a romantic.
DANNY
After that, I was! I told her I wanted to see her again. And
thank all that’s holy, she said yes as long as we talked
about Liam going to university. She saved me. She did. She
showed me that there was more in the world. I just soaked up
whatever she put in front of me. If she said, “Read this,” I
read it. If she said, “Look at this painting,” I stared at it
until I loved it.
YETTA
Ah. You smile. You see, remembering can be sweet.
(Beat)
Listen. Jewish people, we have this thing. It’s called mazel.
You know what mazel is?
DANNY
No.
YETTA
It’s luck.
DANNY
The Irish don’t know anything about that.
YETTA
Even in the worst of everything, there can be mazel. When we
left Ravensbruck, they marched us out, and we knew we were
marching to die. Thousands of us. Women barely able to stand,
moaning, crying, praying. Some just fell and died right there
in the snow, bodies were everywhere.
DANNY
Where’s the mazel in that?
YETTA
We kept going all night, but when the sun came up, the line
stopped. The women in the front realized the guards were
gone.
DANNY
Then you were free?
YETTA
What is free? Freezing, starving women in rags in the middle
of nowhere with nothing. But by God there was Mama, not far
behind me. Like she was waiting for me to come.
 35.

DANNY
That’s the mazel.
YETTA
Oh yes! And then it seemed like other things that happened
were good. Red Cross trucks came. They took us to a displaced
persons’ camp, and fed us real food. The first thing I put in
my mouth was a piece of fresh bread. Oh. I can still smell
it. I can still taste it. When we were in the camp, we were
lucky to have a piece so stale it was like a rock. But here
was bread that was soft and good, and Mama and I were alive
and safe. And for that I was thankful.
(Beat)
And that’s where we met Jacqueline. She too was in the
displaced person camp.
DANNY
From your picture.
YETTA
Yes. When we left the DP camp, she asked Mama and me to go to
Nice to see if anything was left of her house. It was
strange. Nice was...it was like there never had been a war.
German officers had lived in her house and Nicole, their
housekeeper, was still there.
YETTA (CONT'D)
So that’s why we lived there. Mama and I took in sewing to
help. And one day when I was in the yard there was this man
standing at the gate, staring at me. He frightened me. I
called out to Jacqueline, and when she saw him, she froze
like a statue.
DANNY
Who was it?
YETTA
Her brother. She ran to him and hugged him like she’d never
let him go. And then they were laughing. And then crying. And
then laughing. It was the saddest-happiest sight I have ever
seen. And that was my Josef. And that was mazel, too. All
those years, Jaqueline thought Josef was dead. But no, he had
escaped and spent the war with a resistance group, the
Maquis. And then, after that, he joined the Jewish
Documentation Center, hunting war criminals.
DANNY
Brave man.
YETTA
He was. So, anyway, he began coming, back and forth, from
Vienna to Nice, every few weeks or so. I thought he was
coming to see Jacqueline, but then I realized he was coming
to see me.
 36.

DANNY
Very brave man!
YETTA
He was courting me, only I didn’t know it. Jacqueline knew
it. Mama knew it, but I had no idea. And then one week, he
asked me to the seaside. He had something to ask me. So, we
go. And he is very quiet, and Josef was never quiet. So I
said, “Okay, what?” And he started mumbling. I couldn't
understand a word. So, I guessed, I said, “I don’t know what
you’re saying. You want to get married?” And he stops, he
stares at me a minute, and he says, very simply, “Yes, Yetta,
I will marry you.”
DANNY
So you proposed to him?
YETTA
It sounds that way, doesn't it?
DANNY
Why am I not surprised?
YETTA
But If I'd waited for him to do it, we would still be sitting
there!
DANNY
Did you at least get down on one knee for him?
YETTA
Me? No.
DANNY
I did that. The one knee. And it's funny. I took Kate to the
sea, too. In County Antrim, there's a thing called the
Giant's Causeway. Y'ever heard of it?
YETTA
No.
DANNY
Well, it's very famous. It's these great columns of rock
jutting out of the water. Thousands of them. It’s amazing.
And the story goes that the great hero of Ireland, Fionn
MacCumhaill, built the Causeway in order to walk to Scotland
to face the giant Benandonner. Only, the giant came for
MacCumhaill first. So MacCumhaill had his wife dress him up
like a baby and he curls up under a blanket. And Benandonner
shows up, demanding a fight. The wife says that MacCumhaill
is out looking for a fight himself. And then Bennadonner
takes one look this big burly baby, seven feet tall, a full
beard and sledgehammers for hands and thinks to himself 'Fuck
me!
 37.

If that's the wee baby, I don't ever want to meet the Da!'
And Benandonner went running back across the sea to Scotland
in fear, his skirt flapping in the wind, ripping up the
Causeway behind him.
YETTA
Oh, goodness.
DANNY
And the rocks there now are what’s left of it. It feels like
the end of the world. So, I took Kate there, and I was
ridiculous. I packed sandwiches, and some lagers, and all
these things I never bothered to do on any other day.
Flowers.
YETTA
That sounds lovely.
DANNY
It also sounds really obvious. I had Mam's old ring in my
pocket, and after a couple of pints, I was brave enough to do
it. So, I hunkered down on one knee, and I recited a poem I
had memorized.
YETTA
Oh, you learned a poem!
DANNY
I knelt down, and I said:
"Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."
YETTA
That's beautiful.
DANNY
I said, “Katie, that is James Joyce. I learned that for you,
and I only hope it means what I think it does. Because it
sounds like how much I love you. And right about here, I
reached in my pocket for the ring, and I couldn't find it.
YETTA
Oh, no.
DANNY
I panicked. I thought I must have dropped it, so I start
crawling around, feeling for it on the rocks, and Kate's just
laughing her head off.
 38.

DANNY (CONT'D)
And she pulls me up to my feet and turns me square to face
her. And she says, “Danny McCabe. Let me set you straight.
First, that's not Joyce, it's Yeats. Two, it means exactly
what you think it means. And three, the next time you go
proposing marriage to a girl, don't drop the feckin' ring.”
And she held it up right to my face.
YETTA
She had it?
DANNY
It fell out of my pocket while we were eating on the rocks!
She was on to me the whole time! So she put it in my hand,
and she said, “Now, get down again and ask me proper, or I'll
have to say no.”
YETTA
And did you?
DANNY
I never moved so fast in my life. We were married in a month.
YETTA
Josef and I, too, as soon as the rabbi could do it. We had
forty-three wonderful years together.
DANNY
Forty-three. Lucky you. I only had ten with Kate.
YETTA
Oh, but that's mazel, isn't it?
DANNY
How do you call that mazel?
YETTA
Would you rather you didn't have those years at all?
DANNY
No. I just wanted more of them.
(Beat.)
YETTA
It's almost time.
DANNY
(Checks his watch.)
Aye. I'm sure other people will be arriving soon.
YETTA
Are you ready for this?
 39.

DANNY
I don't know. I've been here five years. But I'm always
looking backwards, you know. My heart and soul are an ocean
away. If I take this oath, if I go into that room and say
those words, that "I absolutely and entirely renounce and
abjure all allegiance and fidelity" to the country I fought
for, the country I lost so much for, that I do so "without
any mental reservation, or purpose of evasion, so help me
God?" I think of my Da, my Mam, Kate, Megan...
YETTA
And what about Seamus?
DANNY
I think about him most of all. He doesn't understand why he
doesn't have a Mam, and a sister. And how will he ever
understand if he doesn't even know the land where they lie
buried?
YETTA
Because you will teach him. But you have to admit what's
true, Danny. You came to America because here you can live.
Yes? You can be Catholic. Here, you can raise your son to be
proud of being Irish. Here, you can teach him that bombs are
not the answer, and camps are not the answer. You can teach
him his culture. You can teach him that everyone has value,
no matter what they think or what they believe or how
different they are from him. And he will grow up, and maybe
find someone he can love, and you will have grandchildren who
grow up free in America. And Seamus will teach them what you
taught him. And one day, Danny, you will see your Kate and
Megan again. And they will be smiling. Like they are smiling
with you today. You have to forgive yourself Danny.
DANNY
How?
YETTA
You just do. We both do.
DANNY
So simple?
YETTA
No. It's not simple. But we have to live somehow, and our
lives are here now.
(A realization.)
Ohh.
DANNY
You all right?
 40.

YETTA
Fifty years. I never said anything. For fifty years. I
thought, if I don’t say it, it isn’t true. It never happened.
But it is true. And now it’s here.
DANNY
You mean Hilda?
YETTA
All of it. Oh, all those years of saying nothing. All those
years of pretending.
DANNY
But you had a happy life after the war.
YETTA
Did I? Was I even there for it? Or was I really back in
Lublin? Or Ravensbruck? I can see that Shule right now, but I
cannot tell you the color of the walls in my bedroom, not
unless I think about them. I close my eyes and I don't see
Josef, I see Gluber. I have to tell myself to see Josef, and
then he is there. Oh, what have I done?
DANNY
You haven't done anything wrong.
YETTA
Josef was so good to me, and I kept secrets from him. And my
Sarah. And this woman Hilda, this baby, she grew up and for
all I know, she has joy and happiness and a beautiful life.
And I am terrified of her.
DANNY
Why?
YETTA
Because she is Gluber and Ravensbruck, and she wants to see
me and hug me and thank me. And all I have wanted to do is
forget this letter ever came to me. I want to tear it up, or
burn it, or just ignore it. But for fifty years I have
pretended she is not there. And now she is here. And I cannot
pretend anymore. I have to see her. Yes, I have to see her,
and I have to tell my Sarah. And we have to see her.
She breathes.
Oh. I haven’t slept a full night since I got this letter. Oh,
Danny, thank you.
DANNY
Nothing to thank me for.
YETTA
You made me see this.
 41.

DANNY
No, you figured all that out on your own.
YETTA
But it's because of you, you see? Because even though you
want things to be different, your life is here. And now, so
is mine.
(Pause.)
DANNY
So what now?
YETTA
Now, we become Americans.
DANNY
Irish-American.

YETTA
Yes. And I will be Polish-American. Here, we can be whatever
we want to be.
DANNY
Even a bitter old bastard?
YETTA
Oh, you’re already that. With the not smiling for pictures,
and the terrible jokes, and the feck-feck-feck even when this
old lady asks you not to. Come. Look at the flag.
DANNY
Not another picture.
Danny stands with her and they look at the flag. She
takes his hand.
YETTA
No. We will be like the legend you told me about, the Irish
hero, with the rocks?
DANNY
Fionn MacCumhaill?
YETTA
We will cross the bridge, tear it up behind us, and never
look back.
DANNY
(Laughs)
You got it backwards. The Scottish giant did that. The
coward.
YETTA
Oh, feck.
 42.

DANNY
That’s my girl.
YETTA
And when we are done here, you will take Seamus and your
brother, and I will take Sarah and my son-in-law and Becky,
and we will all go out together to celebrate with Chinese
food.
DANNY
Seamus loves Chinese food.
YETTA
Of course he does! He’s a real American! Come, say it with
me. For practice.
She puts her hand over her heart. She gestures to him
to do the same. He does.
I pledge allegiance...say it with me, Danny.
They speak the Pledge of Allegiance, not in recitation
with the familiar cadence, but as an oath, a vow.
BOTH
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
America. And to the Republic, for which it stands.
They speak together, the weight and care lifting from
them, liberating them.
BOTH (CONT'D)
One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all.
YETTA
Free.
DANNY
Aye. Free.
Lights fade. END OF PLAY.