IAN MACKENZIE
"Freda Mackenzie, S.R.N." You could have a card printed.

FREDA MACKENZIE
I've passed!

IAN
Of course you've passed.

FREDA
Oh, Ian!

(They embrace.)

IAN
(laughing)
Hang on. It happens every day.

FREDA
Not to me, it doesn't. "Freda Mackenzie, S.R.N., Scourge of All Future Trainee Nurses." You know, Ian, I can hardly see myself as a matron...face like an anvil, grip like a vise, and not a shred of humour. Me?

IAN
No. Or at least I hope not. It depends what you want, doesn't it? I mean, you have a future now as a nurse.

FREDA
Mmm.

IAN
Or as a wife.

FREDA
There has to be a choice?

IAN
Well, that depends.

FREDA
On what?

IAN
Well, you know very well.

FREDA
Children.

IAN
Well?

FREDA
Look, Ian...

IAN
You know, I was very lucky...have been, that is. I mean, if I'd have had children by my first wife, things would have been...well, that much more difficult.

FREDA
Yes, but you didn't.

IAN
No.

FREDA
And you count that lucky?

IAN
Well, in the circumstances, yes.

FREDA
Well, that can't have done much for your marriage.

IAN
No, precisely. And now there's ours to think about. As far as I remember, you used to say you didn't want children cluttering up the place. "Little brats," you called them. You were very keen on being the modern, emancipated woman.

FREDA
Yes, well, that was some time ago. And anyway, brats are other people's children.

IAN
You changed your mind?

FREDA
Oh, look, it's not a question of changing my mind, Ian. I mean, every woman wants a family. Of course I want a family...a home, children...it's not that. It's just a question of choosing the right time...the right moment.

 

(from "A Faint Refrain" by Jonathan Powell)