JILL ROBBINS
I sent them up to the bathroom. I'll have a job getting them off with you here tonight. It always upsets them.

MRS. CRAWFORD
More likely because it's Michael's birthday tomorrow.

JILL
(gasping)
Lord!

MRS. CRAWFORD
What now?

JILL
I'd forgotten.

MRS. CRAWFORD
Forgotten?

JILL
Oh, it's all right. I've got everything. It's just that I'd forgotten...his birthday.

MRS. CRAWFORD
(referring to the dishes to be washed)
Look, I'll finish these. You go and sit down somewhere. You're getting that hunted look.

JILL
Am I?

MRS. CRAWFORD
You were sparkling when I came this morning. Shopping wear you down?

JILL
Ah, it's the damn buses. They're always so crowded these days.

MRS. CRAWFORD
Derek still flying regularly?

JILL
Yes, he's got seven more ops to do before the end of his tour.

MRS. CRAWFORD
Back still troubling him?

JILL
Now and then. A lot of them seem to get it...something to do with flying, I suppose. He doesn't sleep very well. When he comes back from a raid, he sometimes doesn't sleep at all. He lies on his back, looking at the ceiling.

MRS. CRAWFORD
Does he ever talk about what he wants to do after?

JILL
After? I don't think there's going to be any after for people like Derek, Mum. It's going to be with him always, I think.

MRS. CRAWFORD
Well, wouldn't it help him perhaps to talk about the future?

JILL
Well, he's talked about going back to teaching a couple of times.

(She chuckles ironically.)

JILL
Gosh, it seems like another age...the time when he used to come home with his little brown case and that...that old raincoat that always looked as if it needed cleaning.

(Suddenly, a serious thought strikes her.)

JILL
You know what I regret most? That holiday we nearly had in 1939 and the carpet we bought instead. We needed that holiday! All the stresses of having the kids...

MRS. CRAWFORD
Things are all right, aren't they?

JILL
Things aren't normal, are they, Mum?

 

(from "Breaking Point" by John Finch)