MARGARET ASHTON
What were you talking to John about?

PHILIP ASHTON
Oh, this and that.

MARGARET
He seemed a bit quiet. You weren't going on at him, were you?

PHILIP
(annoyed)
What do you mean, going on at him?

MARGARET
All right. There’s no need to bite my head off.

PHILIP
No, I’m sorry. No, I wasn’t going on at him. All right?

MARGARET
I hear there was a set-to this morning about gas masks and getting the air-raid wardens a list of people living in the house and so on. If Mother had seen it, she'd have had a fit. We don’t know there's going to be a war. Why do they have to go around scaring people?

(She looks at the newspaper.)

MARGARET
Oh, all this revolting talk about gas and blast and splinters!

(A thought occurs to her.)

MARGARET
Were you in any air raids when you were in Spain?

PHILIP
(smiling)
A couple.

MARGARET
What were they like?

PHILIP
Well, the planes were German Junkers. They passed right over us. You could see the bombs falling. Then some of ours, Russian fighters, came over the roofs after them, and they got so mixed up you couldn’t tell one from another. It was exciting.

MARGARET
(indignant)
Exciting...!

PHILIP
Yeah.

MARGARET
How can you possibly find something that...

PHILIP
Yeah, I’m sorry. I know you don’t approve, but it was exciting.

(Realising that she will never convince him otherwise, Margaret changes the subject.)

MARGARET
What time is it?

PHILIP
(glancing at his wristwatch)
Half past ten.

MARGARET
Hey, I don't seem to be able to drop off on these warm nights unless I have a book. You haven’t got anything that I haven't read, have you?

PHILIP
Nothing that you'd be very interested in, I think.

MARGARET
Oh, you mean within my capacity!

(Playfully, she pushes his head to one side.)

PHILIP
(still serious)
Well, of course I don't mean that.

MARGARET
All right. I was joking. You’re a bit touchy tonight, aren't you?

(Rather than having to explain himself, Philip arises from the sofa and walks across the room.)

PHILIP
Uh, there's this, if you like. It's called Grey Children. "A Study in Humbug and Misery," it says.

(He hands the book* to her.)

*[This is Grey Children: A Study in Humbug and Misery in South Wales by author James Hanley, a 1937 documentary about the plight of coal-minters in the 1930s.]

MARGARET
(laughing)
Oh, I see. Some nice, light bedtime reading. Well, you can keep your humbug and misery.

(She hands the book back to him and begins to go.)

MARGARET

Good night.

PHILIP
Good night.

(But as she turns to leave, Philip takes Margaret's arm and gives her a brotherly kiss on the cheek.)

MARGARET
(smiling)
Good heavens! What was that for?

PHILIP
(at a loss for words)
You're quite happy these days, aren't you?

MARGARET
Well, that's a funny sort of question...

PHILIP
Is it?

(Margaret is puzzled by his behaviour, so he feels compelled to agree.)

PHILIP
Yeah, I suppose it is. Good night, then.

MARGARET
Good night.

(Still a bit puzzled, she leaves.)

(Philip has one last look around the room, ultimately gazing upon a wooden collection box that bears the label, "ARMS FOR SPAIN.")

 

(from "To Die for Spain" by John Finch)