The Apple Family. Richard Nelson

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СКАЧАТЬ What does that tell you? What you two just said to each other. You said you could analyze—

      JANE: Nothing. It tells you nothing. Not everything does, Barbara.

      BARBARA: I am so self-conscious now.

       (Tim has returned with a book.)

      TIM (The title): Bundling. We found this in a funky bookshop in Livingston. In a barn for about seventy-five cents. What?

      MARIAN: We were talking about you.

      BARBARA (To Jane): When did you go to Livingston?

      JANE: I don’t know. (To Tim) A couple of days ago?

      BARBARA: I thought you didn’t have a car until . . .

      JANE: We borrowed one. We went to a bookshop. For my work.

      BARBARA: If you’d already borrowed a car, you could have also come here.

      RICHARD (To change the subject): How old is that book? It looks very old.

       (Tim opens it and looks.)

      TIM: “1871.” They didn’t know what they had.

      MARIAN: And you didn’t tell them? They’re trying to make a living.

      TIM (He keeps going): It was published in Albany.

      RICHARD (To Barbara, teasing): “And fuck Albany and . . .”

      MARIAN: What?

      TIM: It’s all about bundling.

      JANE: I’m now thinking of doing a whole chapter on bundling.

      RICHARD: What is—?

      BARBARA: I think I know—When a man and a woman—

      TIM: Here. There’s a definition: “Bundling: a man and a woman lying on the same bed with their clothes on; an expedient practiced in America on a scarcity of beds, where, on such occasions, parents frequently permitted travelers to bundle with their daughters.”

       (It sinks in.)

      RICHARD: What??

      BARBARA: That’s what I thought it was.

      RICHARD: I’ve never heard of this.

      BARBARA (To Richard): I have. (To the others) I have.

      TIM: It says this definition is from The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. It’s sort of—pornographic, this book.

      RICHARD: Let me see—

      JANE: It reads like some sort of bundling “rule book.”

      MARIAN: May I see?

       (Tim continues to look through the book.)

      TIM: How you weren’t supposed to take off all your clothes—you kept on your underwear.

      JANE: And even what happens if the woman gets pregnant.

      BARBARA: What happens?

      TIM: The man’s “obliged” to marry her. And if he doesn’t and doesn’t “abscond,” then he’s excommunicated.

      JANE: So the church seems to be involved too.

      BENJAMIN: Are there any pictures?

      TIM: No.

      JANE: Read them the poem, or song, or whatever it is.

      MARIAN: What poem?

      JANE (To Tim): It’s toward the back . . .

      TIM: Here it is . . .

      JANE (To the others): Sh-sh. Listen.

      TIM (Reads):

       Since bundling very much abounds . . .

      JANE: It’s from the very late 1700s.

      TIM (Reads):

       . . .abounds

       In many parts in country towns,

       No doubt but some will spurn my song . . .

      JANE: It’s actually a song.

      TIM (Reads):

       And say I’d better hold my tongue . . .

       Some maidens say, if through the nation,

       Bundling should quite go out of fashion,

       Courtship would lose its sweets; and they

       Could have no fun till wedding day.

      RICHARD: Case made. I vote for bundling.

       (Laughter.)

      BARBARA: Me too!

      MARIAN: You? You’re an old maid.

      BARBARA: What the fuck does that mean?

      RICHARD: She’s had boyfriends, Marian.

      BARBARA: Don’t defend me.

      RICHARD: What did I do?

      BARBARA: Keep reading.

      TIM (Reads):

       It shant be so, they rage and storm,

       And country girls in clusters swarm,

       And fly and buz, like angry bees,

       And vow they’ll bundle when they please.

       (Reactions: “Ohhh . . .”)

       Some mothers too, will plead their cause,

       And give their daughters great applause—

      BARBARA: Not Marian.

      MARIAN: Be quiet.

      BARBARA (Getting even): She thinks her daughter’s become a slut.

      MARIAN: Shut up!!

       (Short pause.)

      TIM (Reads):

       And tell them, ’tis no sin or shame

       For we, your mothers, did the same.

       I’ll skip . . . (Turns a page)

      MARIAN: СКАЧАТЬ