HEALING, Scene 1, "The Unjust Judge"
Setting: A large hospital in Syracuse, NY, in November 1910. Reception area outside the hospital president's office. Secretary at center, visitor's chair to stage right, office door and (scrim) wall to stage left. Sign on door says "PRESIDENT."
[Curtain]
[Secretary is seated at desk. Head Nurse paces back and forth nearby.]
HEAD NURSE: Does the man not believe
in his own appointments?
SECRETARY: The president is very busy.
We must all work around
his official activities.
HN: What activities
are more important than the patients?
What kind of hospital is he running
if he cannot even talk to his head nurse?
SEC: Have patience!
HN: Oh, I have patients--
nine hundred PATIENTS!
But I do not have the nurses,
I do not have supplies
I do not have the time
to waste standing here
for a phantom appointment.
[Enter PRESIDENT at right, briskly, carrying hat and overcoat.]
PRESIDENT [nodding to Head Nurse as he passes]:
Mrs. McElderry.
HN [archly, more like a command than a greeting]: President
Melrose!
PRES [startled, then remembering]: Nurse McElderry,
you're about to tell me
we had an appointment?
HN: Sir, we did. We do.,
PRES [coaxing, cheery]: I'm late from breakfast at my club.
Surely, what you have can wait
another day?
I have meetings with our donors and....
[Sudden chord from orchestra. DR. ALISON JAMES appears at right and all eyes jerk up to see her. She marches past the three, shoves open the president's office door, and gestures for him to enter.]
ALISON JAMES [in a voice of doom]:
President Melrose!
Good morning.
I want a word with you.
[President glances from one tormentor to the other, then looks heavenward comically.]
PRES [to secretary]: Sylvia, bring us coffee, please.
Put arsenic in mine.
[To AJ:] Dr. James.
I hope it's a good morning.
[AJ and PRES enter office. SECR leaves toward right, tossing a disgusted glance at office door and at HN. HN smiles at her and at office door, raising her eyebrows as if to say, "Serves him right!" She sits to wait.]
AJ: Another week has passed
with no head surgeon.
When will you appoint
a new chief of surgery?
PRES: Every week you come, doctor,
every week I tell you
that the pressures and priorities
are very complicated, and ...
AJ: And every week I hear
the same dry rot!
I am your best surgeon, and you know it.
After these months you ought to appoint me,
or find someone better!
[Some time in the following duet, SECR re-enters with coffee, followed soon by TOBY, carrying a tray on an errand. He stops to join SECR and HN in listening to the battle.]
DUET
PRES: Surgeons are not as easy to find
as Boy Scouts.
Rarer yet is the surgeon with authority.
AJ: Authority!
PRES: Trustees want authority, the patients want authority
AJ: Authority! Authority!
PRES: in any head man.
AJ: --Head man! [Exchange hard looks]
PRES: The problem here is . . . . . confidence.
AJ: Attitude!
PRES: The problem is . . . . . consensus.
AJ: Bigotry!
PRES: Be practical.
AJ: Every hospital is an Old Boy's Club.
PRES: Consider. . .
AJ: The jobs go to men, the fame goes to men.
PRES: how things get done in this world.
AJ: How can a talent be recognized
PRES: Your talent . . . . your talent
AJ: when men refuse to see . . .
PRES: is considerable.
AJ: . . . past the end of their cigars?
PRES: But give the world time. The world is not ready
AJ:
PRES: for a woman head surgeon, a woman president,
AJ: Then
PRES: a woman . . . prime minister.
AJ: the world is very to be pitied,
PRES: The system . . .
AJ: throwing away half its talent,
PRES: . . . the system, as I say,
AJ: the female half! Half the doctors!
PRES: the system . . . isn't perfect
AJ: Half the leaders!
PRES: but it works! And if it works,
AJ: --So badly!
PRES: don't fix it!
AJ: Profound male wisdom.
PRES [exasperated]: Well??
AJ: It's a good thing
a woman did not invent fire--
we would never be allowed to use it!
PRES [giving up on stalemate]:
Doctor. You begin to weary me.
The job as head surgeon is not a woman's job
and I will not discuss it again.
AJ: You will do what needs doing, sir--
and I will be back to discuss it.
[As she opens the door, the SECR, HN, and TOBY, who have been leaning and listening, snap back. AJ smiles ruefully and starts across stage. She pauses at HN.]
AJ: Are you waiting for a turn with the Unjust Judge?
HN: Maybe you've worn him down for me!
AJ: Why don't they let us do what we can?
HN: Why don't they give us the tools we need?
AJ & HN: Why, in a place of healing,
do they tie our hands?
Why is the gift of healing
only a man's to give?
AJ: Good luck. And good morning.
HN: Good morning. And have patience.
AJ [leaving]: Oh, I have patients--
nine hundred of them.
[Exit AJ Toby, smiling, carries his tray out, left. HN, plucky, goes to the president's door. ]
[Curtain]
HEALING Scene 2, "I Will
Soar"
Setting: Scene is Dr. Alison James's cluttered office. AJ is wearing her glasses and prowling her books, keeping three or four open on the desk while scanning the shelves for the next one. Her back is to the door when a knock comes.
[Curtain]
AJ [without turning]: Come in!
[Enter TOBY, the orderly. He closes the door, pats his hair into place, and waits respectfully, hands clasped. Getting no invitation to speak, he then folds his arms and cocks his head. Finally, feeling ignored, he rolls his eyes, twirls his moustache, and takes out his yo-yo. He zings it up and down and does a trick or two, waiting to be spoken to. AJ blinks, coming out of her reverie, frowns at the noise, and turns slowly from the bookcase. Recognizing T., she smiles. He smiles back.]
AJ [crossing to shake hands]: The legendary Toby, I presume.
Finally I meet you!
[Toby can't get the string off of his finger, so he shakes hands with string and all, as yo-yo slips down and dangles]
TOBY: Yes, ma'am, I am him.
I am honored to meet you, Dr. James.
I transferred up to Surgery today.
AJ: I saw you take a ringside seat this morning,
the umpteenth round for the president and me.
I think you were on my side, Toby,
or you would not be here now.
TOBY: He is a mighty stubborn man, Dr. James.
You're a wizard of a surgeon
if he would just admit it.
The whole hospital knows,
'cause the nurses and the doctors
tell the patients, and the patients tell me!
That's why the orderlies know everything.
AJ [laughing]: No doubt!
Thank you for the compliment.
If I am not a good surgeon,
it is not through lack of trying.
[removes and cleans her glasses]
You even found me at my reading
when you came in
[smiling at yo-yo]
with that implement!
[gestures to books]
There's nothing written here
that a woman cannot read as well as a man.
There is no procedure here
that a woman cannot do as well as a man.
[back in high dudgeon]
But try to tell it to that toad,
that emperor of all the male bigots!
[laughs in exasperation, shaking her head; then,comically:]
Do you mind if I am candid?
TOBY: I know how you feel, Dr. James.
The president treats orderlies like dogs.
But I want to keep my job
for all the patients.
I've got to be with people,
and I love to see them getting well.
That's why I love to josh'em
and I flirt with all the ladies
and I tell my crazy stories.
When they're happy, they heal.
What keeps you hear, Dr. James?
You never seem to get discouraged.
What makes you such a dedicated doctor?
AJ [wry]: How have I been led to this?
How did I become this
vastly-skilled surgeon--so little used?
This softly-spoken, diplomatic--holy terror?
This arm-twisting, wallpaper-rending, nail-eating, petticoated
member of the teaching faculty?
When I was Little Alison,
I'd rescue birds.
I'd spank the cats and bandage the birds
and make them well. I called myself
Alison Rescuer!
Other little girls played at nurses or wives,
expecting all their lives
some good man would tell them what to do.
But I knew that I knew,
and I for one did not need any rescue
from a man.
Later I thought I did,
and offered one my hand.
We were students and interns together,
and the sum of our parts should have been
grand, I thought. Our mission would meld us
and we would bring healing--together.
Stupid! Mr. and Mrs. Rescuer.
Stupid. There is no way to heal but alone.
The patient must be yours alone.
The credit must be yours alone.
Alone, then is what I am.
If I fail, I will fail like an eagle
that dies for too much daring.
I would rather plummet from glory
than sit weak and wasted, timid and safe,
waiting for my lungs to clog with modesty.
I would die despising myself
if I had not first soared.
I would rue the gleaming peaks of mountains,
had I not first flown there, rising
to the rising sun to feel its flare--
And I will soar! Mark me.
(Up from among these pompous, shriveled men,
up from this throng of pygmies OMITTED)
I will soar. I will
seize the sun!
[Toby's expression has grown more solemn. He frowns and is troubled during her last declaration. When she finishes and looks back at him, he clears his face but can manage only a half-smile.]
TOBY: I believe you will, ma'am.
I hope you will, ma'am.
I'd hate to see frustration break your heart,
ma'am.
[To himself, turning away]
I'd hate to see your heart
too hard to break,
Dr. James.
[Curtain]
HEALING, SCENE 3, "In My Time"
Setting: Hospital room in early December. Door, stage left, bearing a Christmas decoration that shows to the audience whenever it swings inward; bed at center, w/ chair between it and door. Window, stage right, with wardrobe and dresser between it and bed.
[Curtain]
[TOBY is cleaning up. Carries out dirty sheets, returns with
huge suitcase and a pair of crutches. SKYE is brought in by wheelchair
by NURSE PATRICK. She smiles, exits to bring the doctor, leaving
him to look over the room. S. seems weary and distracted until
he notices the window; he smiles, motions a request for Toby to
draw the curtain.]
[Enter AJ, reading clipboard, with Nurse Patrick.]
AJ: Mr. Skye. Let's see. Mr. John Skye.
[To him:]
I'm Dr. Alison James.
[He smiles. She's preoccupied with her usual problem, the patients'
assumption that any woman on the hospital staff must be a nurse.]
Just call me Dr. James. I'm your doctor.
[He smiles, doesn't speak. Mischief.]
Here's Toby, the orderly.
He and Nurse Patrick will make you comfortable.
[Pause. He smiles. Finally she makes eye contact, is pulled up
short, and smiles back.]
Would you like to say something, Mr. Skye?
Having a woman doctor may be new to you.
Are you displeased?
JS: Displeased? No, ma'am!
I just took you for a politician--
you talk so much!
[Winks at Toby. AJ smiles.]
You just doctor away, ma'am.
Try to fix my heart
without wearing out my ears.
[AJ and Toby smile to each other.]
AJ: What's your occupation, Mr. Skye?
JS: In my time I have been
a soldier, a cowboy,
a stock-market prince,
a company president,
and a source of disappointment
to many love-sick women.
Now retired, I occupy myself
as a traveler
and a praiser of my own past.
AJ: You may teach me a thing or two, Mr. Skye.
Welcome.
[Enter PRESIDENT and DUPONT. AJ's smile fades. She and DUPONT size each other up. He's smug, she's on her mettle. The PRESIDENT is pleased with himself.]
PRES: Dr. James, Nurse Patrick, Toby,
I'm pleased to introduce our new surgeon.
Dr. William DuPont, late of Columbia!
[AJ and DP, standing on either side of JS, exchange a chilly handshake in front of him. JS makes a wry face. Toby and Nurse Patrick glance to each other, raising eyebrows.]
DP: Doctor, I'm Doctor Bill DuPont.
AJ: Doctor, I'm sure you are.
PRES: Always a pleasure to welcome new colleagues!
Oh, and a new patient!
[Noticing Skye, he turns half to the nurse and whispers to find
out his name.]
Welcome, Mr. Skye. Such a fine staff
of doctors you've chosen!
JS: They look fit enough--all these medicine men.
[Glances at AJ]
Pardon--medicine woman!
[smile]
How do you practice, though?
What can you do for me?
DP: Whatever's latest in medicine, Mr. Skye,
whatever's modern, ingenious, technical.
We're on the cutting edge of research.
JS: Surgeons on the cutting edge!
Aha! A little joke!
[Aside to Toby]
VERY little!
DP: Medicine is fascinating.
Always new data. Always new techniques. . . .
JS [abruptly]: Fine for your data. Fine for your techniques.
Do you also do healing?
I'm not a contraption, DuPont, I'm a human.
Tinkering with vessels and
tinkering with valves won't do.
I've been a slave
to a fist-sized muscle in the body's cave.
I'm ready for death when it comes
but I would as soon that it did not yet!
AJ [smiling]: Bully for you, Mr. Skye!
I love a patient who stays in the ring
and battles for life.
Half of health is determination.
JS: Then half of healing is hope?
[Extending a handshake]
Come with me, then, Dr. James.
I think I hear good medicine.
AJ: You are my personal challenge!
JS [smiling]: How many women have said that to me!
[a little somber]
But you're the first one
that I hoped would succeed.
Good luck to us, Doctor.
[Curtain]
HEALING, Scene 4, "I Have
Seen"
Setting: John Skye's hospital room, January 1926. Christmas decorations are gone, a new calendar hangs near the bed. An easy chair and lamp have been added, stage right of bed.
[MUSIC as Skye sits in the chair, crutches leaned against the wall. At his right, Toby lounges against the dresser. Skye has a wooden chest of souvenirs on his lap. He shows off each item to Toby, then lays it on the bed. Toby is delighted as Skye shows him Army medals, a lady's garter, a lanyard with a compass (Skye demonstrates the flip-up sights), small binoculars, tin Army cup. Then a beaded Indian necklace, which Skye holds up to his chest with a grin. Finally a fringed leather bag, decorated with Indian beads, which he lifts more solemnly.]
JS: Medicine.
TOBY: Medicine?
JS: Medicine bag.
TOBY: From a frontier pharmacy?
This is what Geronimo
gives you for a headache?
JS: If I were in Montana,
a medicine man would lead me.
Body and soul would walk together
back toward health--
(or on to death. OMITTED)
[Looking away]
Perhaps.
If this tottering body, (this European brain OMITTED)
would cooperate! [Smiles.]
But to be there, on a prairie vast as life,
Where death is a wind,
a thundering terror, until
it breaks itself against the mountains,
and all its howling makes nothing change.
Could you see what I see!
I have seen geysers
flung up like towers!
I have seen mountains
belch out their floods--
(trees like a ship's mast flung like a fish bone
out of the mountains' granite gullet. OMITTED)
I have seen sunrise bringing light
to drench the forest like life itself.
I have watched clouds heaping like cordwood
to torch with the sunset,
all the day's leftover glory
flaring up in orange and gold
(winks his eye] so as not to waste it.
[More slowly]
And how tenderly its citizens are taught,
how wise the Indians' speech with nature.
Our tough mercantile hearts have never caught
that gift of reading in nature's features
the glory and the nobleness of God.
[Put medicine bag around neck]
I have known Indians wicked as serpents.
I have know Indians wiser than saints.
Somewhere in the middle, I have even known myself.
[Hangs bag around his neck]
The shaman who gave me this medicine bag
told me I had a long trail to walk.
"Keep yourself pure," he said.
"Care for the weak," he said.
"Read what the Great Spirit
writes on your heart,
writes on your heart."
[Music down. Then brisk rapping, and AJ enters cheerfully, carrying her notepad and a medicine journal.]
AJ: Afternoon, Mr. Skye.
[glancing at his medicine bag]
Souvenir?
JS: Medicine.
AJ: I have found
[tapping the journal]
a new medicine.
JS: There is no new medicine.
Probing and dosing, day upon day,
and nothing heals. Chemicals
is all you go, not medicine.
AJ: [losing her good humor] Science is "all I got."
Give me time, I'll get the cure.
JS: "I'll get the cure! I!!"
You never beckon health,
[rising, grabbing his crutches]
you drag it with a lasso.
You and Dr. DuPont --
[sideshow barker:]
the Great Eradicators
of Death and Suffering.
AJ: DuPont is a mechanic.
I am a healer.
JS: What airs you give yourself, Dr. James.
God is the healer, you are His servant.
Time is His servant. Death is His servant.
[wry]
We also serve who only stand and wait.
AJ: Then wait for me!
JS: I wait upon the Great Spirit.
He may or may not let me live.
[returns to his chair, puts crutches aside]
These months
as I have wept and slept and wondered,
God has spoken.
Finally I am listening
to the still, small voice,
the murmur in my pain.
[unconsciously begins massaging his left shoulder and flexing
his left hand. AJ notices.]
If he calls me to the West,
that is best. I trust Him.
AJ: Are you resigned to die?
JS [with a grin]:
No, resigned to wait!
I won't leave the ring
till the last bell sounds!
[his breathing becomes labored; AJ motions for Toby]
I'll keep drawing breath
after greedy breath
until . . .
[His eyes open with realization and he grabs his chest as AJ and
Toby help him to the bed. Then she checks him with a stethoscope
as Toby sprints out the door for medicine.]
JS [forcing a smile to AJ]: Good to have you with me, Dr. James.
You've put your heart into it all,
[catches her hand]
good friend and fellow soldier!
[Lies back panting as Toby returns with syringe tray. Then Skye jerks in agony as the full heart attack hits him.]
[Curtain]
HEALING, Scene 5, "Life is Not Yours to Give"
Setting: Evening. AJ in office, poring through a heap of open books on her desk. Knock at door, upper stage left.
[Curtain]
AJ: Yes. Come in.
[Enter DP--languid, irritable.]
DP: Alison. Alison
at the books.
AJ: [glancing up] Hello, Bill.
DP [browsing her bookshelf stage left]: Long day. Long.
[pause] So how's your mountain man, Mr. Skye?
AJ [rubbing her eyes]: Nearly gone. Nearly lost him.
Pain like a stake through his chest.
(Medicine gave him back himself
for a while. Peace
coming back like blood to that pale face. OMITTED)
[shakes her head]
Every organ's giving way.
DP [needling her with a calm smile]:
But you're still at the books. Why?
There comes the time
to shake the patient's hand and leave.
"Old chum, you've had the best I can give.
Better send in your size for a halo,
take a long lease on a cloud."
AJ [trying to smile, used to the badinage]:
Dying's not so casual.
The patient doesn't want a Bon Voyage,
he wants his life.
GP: Life
is not yours to give.
A doctor only puts off death.
You've given
all you can, Life is not yours to give.
Take your pay. Go home.
AJ [suddenly sensing an insult]: You'd love to see me quit!
DP [shrug]: I thought I'd save you from your stubbornness.
Give you a rest from your precious pride.
AJ: Pride?
You swagger in with a lecture on pride?
You, of all people?
DP: Look at yourself. Your heart
is swollen worse than Skye's.
You stand in a boxing ring with Death
and threaten to take off the gloves.
What an ego!
AJ: If we're not fighting death (and crippling OMITTED)
what do we fight?
DP: Fight?
We only do a job.
A carriage-mender's job.
Some paltry goods and services
are all we have.
AJ [flabbergasted--and angry that he's gotten her goat]:
My aching back!
Deliver me from carriage-menders,
scoffers, cynics, medical morons--
present company not excepted!
DP [laughing]: And what did you think you were
all this time--some king of healer?
(Angel of Mercy! Alison Angel, the . . . OMITTED)
AJ [Cutting him off. Seriously]:
Yes. Some kind of healer.
DP [suddenly quite and near tears]:
Some kind of healer.
[He moves toward the door, then turns.]
Isn't that why we came to the job.
[reflectively]
I'm a technician,
but you, you
might be
a healer.
[opens the door]
You're in for a long night, Alison.
God be with you. [Exit.]
AJ [astonished]: Good night, Bill.
[Returns to her desk staring thoughtfully.]
[Curtain]
HEALING, Scene 6, "I Will Arise"
Setting: DR. ALISON JAMES'S office at the hospital, around 3:00 a.m. the same night as scene 5. Her books still heaped on her desk,
[Curtain]
[AJ naps on her couch restlessly. She stirs, blinks, and falls back asleep. The dim natural light on the scene changes to blue as her dream begins. Stage right, light comes up slowly on a platform in AJ's dream, where the HEAD NURSE leans over JOHN SKYE'S hospital bed, working slowly and with stylized movements to revive him.]
HN: Time! Time! Is there no more?
John Skye, we call you back.
[AJ rises in her dream and walks slowly toward the platform.]
HN: Dr. James! Call Alison James.
The world gives way under John Skye.
Rescue!
AJ: I'm coming!
My hands! My hands! [She offers them]
[As AJ joins the nurse beside Skye's body, a light behind them grows to show JOHN SKYE standing erect on a second platform slightly higher than theirs. AJ and the nurse work to revive the body in the bed as SKYE's soul begins its aria:]
JS: I will arise and go now.
This bed's too narrow.
I will arise.
Too great a debt soul owes to body,
this cumbersome rigging,
this thick, anxious flesh--
I will arise.
Past time! Past time!
I'll leap up to my God
and no one shall hinder.
I will arise.
Turn out the darkness!
The darkness is too loud,
for I hear a great Quiet, full of singing.
There the loud darkness shall cease.
There the sun is a word fitly spoken.
There the bright souls soar in a tumult of peace
in ring upon ring of blessing unbroken.
[SKYE's soul vanishes as the light fades. During the aria, the nurse had quietly left the bedside and disappeared. AJ had looked back and forth, then suddenly heard the singing. She has listened, staring forward, wondering. At the end of the aria, she looks down at the body without sadness and walks stage left back to her couch. Pensive orchestral music. As she lies down and closes her eyes, the blue light on Skye's bed stays up and the HEAD NURSE sings unseen.]
HN: Dr. James!
[Then "rat-tat-tat-tat-tat," the sound of knocking on
a door]
Dr. James!
[Knocking sound]
[Orchestra mimics the knocking. Silence. Then the dream ends abruptly: blue lights down, natural lights up, and AJ sits up wide-eyed and panting with fright. She relaxes as she looks around and sees where she is. Then the knocking--this time, real--jolts her:]
HN [calling]: Dr. James!
[Knocking sound]
Dr. James, it's Mr. Skye. We need you.
[Orchestra music up as AJ rushes to the door, grabbing her stethoscope.]
[Curtain]
HEALING, Scene 7, "Everything"
Setting: Cluttered office of the Domina, Dr. Alison James.
[Curtain]
[Enter Dr. James and, behind her, the hospital President. Weary, she wears a soiled surgical gown. The patient she has tended so long has died. She comes down center stage, staring, removing the gown slowly and taking a seat on the couch. The President, dressed in his usual black suit, is ill at ease. For all his prejudice against women surgeons, he wants to be sympathetic.]
PRES: My condolences, Doctor.
Patients do die sometimes.
Comfort yourself: You did everything a man could--
(excuse me: everything a doctor could do. OMITTED)
You were thoroughly professional.
[Claps her on the shoulder gingerly]
Be strong. Take it like a man!
[Grimaces]
Sorry: take it like . . .
[Looks down and turns away]
Sorry.
[Exit President. As the door closes, AJ stares tight-lipped. She rises and flings down her gown.]
AJ: Everything! Everything a MAN could do!
And everything a woman could do, good doctors.
As if it were enough!
As if we should not mind this one!
"Everything a man could do!"
Is Death listening?
Will Death jump up surprised
to hear what I have done
and tell me I have won
after all?
[Calmer]
Everything a man could do:
Week upon week I tracked the pulse,
measured the come and go of breath,
(nursed the spark of clear intelligence,
the soul's alacrity to stay.
I gave him every drug that might
have badgered the soul to keep its home. OMITTED)
And while I fought, he did not fight.
He merely talked with friends.
He merely played at cards or kissed the nurses' hands.
He walked to the garden, as long as he could walk.
He wrote his will.
And lately he would rise to watch the dawn.
[Pause. She lifts her head in realization]
These were his words: "I have done everything a man could
do.
Tomorrow I can rise to watch the dawn."
[Curtain]
HEALING, Scene 8, "All Who Suffer"
Setting: President's office and waiting area, late morning a week later. [Curtain]
[PRESIDENT steps out of office smiling. He has just sealed a business letter and studies it with great satisfaction before giving it to SECRETARY. Then he sees AJ and Toby enter. AJ is in street clothes, carrying a full tote bag and obviously fatigued. Toby follows her with a hand truck loaded with boxes.]
PRES: Just about to call you, Dr. James.
Good morning!
AJ: [weary but catching his good humor]:
Good? I'll buy that. Good morning!
PRES: Do come in. [holds the door for her]
[AJ enters and sits across from Pres.' desk. Toby parks the hand truck and sits in the waiting area.]
AJ: President Melrose, I have a favor to --
no, I have a need.
I must have time off.
Six months. A sabbatical.
[pause. Not sure whether firmness is working]
I need a long rest -- I'll take my books, of course.
[pause]
I am tired.
To the marrow of my bones, I am tired.
PRES [taking it in, shifting his ground]:
Leaving? Six months?
[gazing around, nodding]
Six months. You're leaving.
[suddenly, smiling]
You're not leaving.
The patients cannot wait six month--
for their new chief of surgery!
AJ [amazed and exasperated]: Chief of surgery?
Me? Now? I'm battered, exhausted!
[eyebrows high, nodding]
Your timing stinks.
PRES: It is the job you wanted.
AJ: I know. But then I was the only choice.
Give the job to Bill DuPont
and let me rest.
PRES [enjoying himself]: Destiny!
Your destiny won't let you rest.
Destiny --
calls you to glory,
calls me to Boston!
And I take Bill DuPont.
AJ: What?
PRES: My contract came this morning.
We're bound for Boston,
a Beacon Hill residence --
with Dr. DuPont as my vice president.
My wife is already packing the crystal.
AJ [dazed]: Congratulations.
But making me head surgeon--
isn't that an odd
parting shot?
You dump a woman surgeon
on your successor?
PRES [drops his giddiness]: Hang my successor.
Whoever he is, I do the oaf a favor.
He could not pick a better surgeon.
[offers his hand]
Say you'll take the job.
'
AJ [folds her arms]: President Melrose: Your timing stinks. How
can I believe . . .
PRES [casts up his hands, turns away muttering]: Women!
AJ [who heard him]: What??
PRES: I said: "Doctors!"
[enter DuPont and Nurse Patrick, chatting and smiling. She stops to do business with Secretary. DP raps lightly on President's door and enters immediately. Pleased to find AJ already there.]
DP: Alison! Congratulations.
And wish me luck.
[offers his hand]
AJ [shaking hands]: Good luck, Bill.
PRES: Doctor, she may not take the job.
DP [consternation. To AJ]: Why not?
You wanted the job.
You can do the job.
Call it your destiny . . . .
AJ [out of patience]: Do men rehearse these things??
Gentlemen, thank you for the compliment --
whatever it is --
but let me think it over.
I did so much want to rest.
[goes to open the door]
PRES: Tell me in a day or two.
DP: Take the job, Alison.
The president will give you an assistant!
[PRES reacts but DP signals him to smother it. AJ smiles her thanks and goes into the waiting area.]
[Secretary gathers up phone messages and goes into PRES' office. Office darkens, leaving AJ and TOBY together downstage.]
AJ: They made the offer, Toby.
Chief of Surgery.
TOBY: Amazing! But you're not happy.
AJ: I said I'd let them know.
I'm tired, Toby. And hollow.
TOBY: Take the job, Dr. James.
If you're tired, you'll rest.
And the hollow
is only
[he pauses and swallows]
where your ego used to be.
AJ: Thanks . . . I think!
TOBY: Your friend John Skye would tell you, "Take the
job!" --- Three or four lifetime
he squeezed into one. And he marched from that one
like a conquering king.
John Skye would tell you, "Do all you can."
NP: Our patients all would tell you, "Take the job!"
Think of the lifetimes
your care has made longer. Think of the suffering
you've taken away.
Patients would beg you, "Lend us your hands."
AJ: Do they know
what they are asking?
Healing is a mission, not a job.
All of my lifetime
I've reached for my mission--and now I grasp weakness.
All of my conquering confidence
hesitates here in my hands.
NP: Still, all who suffer
call to you, call to you.
TOBY: Answer them! What else were you made for?
Go to them! What else could you do?
NP: They need you! They need you --------
TOBY: You need them. You need them.
TOBY [puzzled but agreeable]: Okay.
AJ: What holds me down, then? Nothing!
Here is my freedom, binding myself
to bear up the suffering.
Here is my profit, spending myself
in this bright cause.
[Reaches a hand to each of them.]
Chief of surgery. Toby, Helen, you're right.
And, John Skye, you're right.
And all of you stay with me?
If I have help, I will be chief of surgery.
And we will do
everything women and men can do
for healing.
TOBY: Can I take things back to the office?
AJ: Yes. Meanwhile, [smiling]
I have one last chance
to give the old boy fits.
Oh, President Melrose!
[Lights up on the office as she goes in to shake hands with
PRES and DP.
Music swells and . . .]
[Curtain]
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