The Man in the Attic

Setting: An attic in an old house, twisted in darkness. The wood is blue-gray and creaking, almost breathing asthmatically with a terrible, broken life. The windows are smoky and broken, and outside are a few bare trees. The trees themselves have almost seemed to absorb the badness from the house, their trunks and branches gnarled and in pain. There is a chair and table, also well worn, next to one of the windows.

At Rise: There’s a stairwell in one of the corners that leads down, down, down into the rest of the house. A young woman walks up them, dressed in black, looking worn. She crosses the dusty attic with a sigh.

WOMAN
What lives in this house…
(Across the attic, a trap door opens in the floor and a GIRL climbs up into the attic. She sits at the table and mimes drinking tea.)

GIRL
So I told Mabel the other evening, No! I did -not- like her pink laced socks, and that she shouldn't show off her fancy pink laced socks to the other girls because they don't have any of their own. The nerve of some people, going around and showing off their expensive pretty things to people when they know full well that others can't afford such nice things. It's just rude, don't you think, Susan?

WOMAN
My cousin Susan lived in this house once. My dear...dear cousin. Susan Poe.

GIRL
I thought so. What should we do after we have our tea, Susan? Maybe we could go skating out on the lake. It's frozen over completely, Uncle says. Of course I'll help you! I know the ice scares you so. It being so cold and slippery. You could fall and crack your head open. I'd love to help you skate...

WOMAN
I always wanted to be a Poe like my Cousin and my Aunts Lou and Fran. They were Poe women, the most prettiest girls in town. When my parents died, the Dugles, they brought me into their family. I always wanted to be a Poe, radiant and loved. Not a Dugle. An ugly, ugly Dugle. We played so often up here...


GIRL
And look what I found, Susan!
(She produced a conch shell from her pocket.)
I thought it was lost forever…My mother used to go diving, you see, and this was the first thing she ever found under the ocean. Isn’t it pretty? I thought so. We'll always be the best of friends, won't we Susan? Like sisters. Right? I hope so. We'll be together forever, don't you think?...Won't we...?
(As she's pleading with the open air, a woman, AUNT FRAN, comes up, livid as all else.)

AUNT FRAN
Annie?!
(The GIRL, ANNIE, jumps about a mile.)

WOMAN
...I almost convinced myself it was real.

ANNIE
...Aunt Fran...I--

AUNT FRAN
I TOLD you not to come up here! You know Susan hates it when you come up here. You never listen to a thing I say, you stupid girl! Now come down stairs this INSTANT.
(AUNT FRAN. Slams the trap-door shut. ANNIE takes a moment, and then follows timidly after her.)

WOMAN
I played cruel games with myself. Games that made Susan love me like Cousins should. But her family and that Attic...It drove me mad.
(Loud voices come from downstairs.)
I was often in trouble at home with my Aunt Fran. I was sent home from school. A lot.
(Footfalls are heard up the attic steps. ANNIE's aunt starts screaming at her from downstairs.)

AUNT FRAN
GODDAMN IT, ANNIE, WHY CAN'T YOU BEHAVE FOR ONCE?!! IF YOU GET SENT TO THE DEPORTATION ROOMS ONE MORE TIME, I'LL WHIP YOU SO HARD YOU WON'T GO BACK TO SCHOOL EVER AGAIN!!!
(ANNIE bursts through the trap door and slams it shut. She locks it. She runs to the stairwell and slams the door to it.)



WOMAN
One day, it all got to be so much...too much. Susan had the flu, and she was out for days, I was so distraught, I tried to leave. I was caught and sent to what they called the Deportation Rooms for the children that had to be sent home for being bad. Aunt Lou picked me up…and Aunt Fran wouldn’t stop screaming. I held up in the attic for nearly an entire night...
(Her AUNTS are heard at the door, LOU calling sweetly, FRAN screaming obscenities.)
Susan pounded on the trap for hours after the Aunts went to bed. She was so upset. They finally went to bed. And I was alone again.

ANNIE
Aunt Fran Poe, honestly...it was just so I could see Susan. That's all. I didn't mean to leave school, Aunt Fran...I was so worried about Susan being sick, I lost my head and walked off. And she...told on me. It wasn't my fault! Right, cousin? I know you'll help me...Cousin?
(She whirls around, frantic.)
Cousin?! Where have you gone?! Wait, Aunt Fran, she was right here--Cousin?!
(She runs to the window and bangs on it.)
Cousin!! Susan, are you out there?! COUSIN!! COUSIN!!
(She turns back again, crying pitifully.)
...Aunt Fran...?...I'm sorry. I am. I really am. Please believe me...

WOMAN
And then...
(From one of the dark corners of the attic, a MAN comes from the darkness. He crosses to the crying ANNIE and watches her silently. He's ghostly pale with Death, but has a strange warmness about his person, like golden caramel.)
...It couldn't have been real, I know it now.

MAN
...You would make a good Poe.
(ANNIE whips around and faces the MAN. They do not move at first. He extends his hand to her. Hesitantly, she places her hand in his.)

ANNIE
...Are you Susan's?

MAN
Are you?

ANNIE
No.

MAN
Why have you come here?

ANNIE
To hide.

MAN
From what?

ANNIE
All this. All this...


MAN
What is it, Annie..?

ANNIE
Why are you here?

MAN
To hide.

ANNIE
From what.
(Silence.)
How do you know my name.

MAN
I've heard you talking to the dark at night.

ANNIE
How?

MAN
Are you afraid of the dark, Annie?

ANNIE
Very much.

MAN
Why?

ANNIE
Why?

MAN
Is it the creeping shadows? The deep corners that could go on forever? The idea that something might be, just might be living there in the darkness, watching you with a pair of cruel eyes...or are you afraid of the dark for being afraid of the dark?
ANNIE
I don't think I understand.



MAN
Do you fear because they tell you to fear? Because of what you've read in books that all children are fearful without the safety of a night-light?

ANNIE
...No...
MAN
Then why, Annie?

ANNIE
...I...Are you afraid of the dark?

MAN
I live in the dark.

ANNIE
Then I am afraid of you.

MAN
Are you afraid of losing something else? Being lost yourself? Annie?

ANNIE
You've heard me...?

MAN
Yes.

ANNIE
Why listen to me? Why listen to Annie Dugle?

MAN
Your voice was the loudest.

ANNIE
Aunt Lou and Aunt Fran are far louder than I. Fibbing is a terrible habit.

MAN
I enjoy hearing you more.

ANNIE
I?
MAN
Yes. You don't have an edge to your voice. You do not scream. You do not drip with sticky sweetness in your words. You talk to the darkness like an old friend. To my darkness. Like I've known you forever, Annie...
ANNIE
...Do you stay in this house?

MAN
There is nowhere else I can go.

ANNIE
...and you listen to me every night?

MAN
And in the daytime.

ANNIE
And you only choose now to show yourself to me?
(Pause.)
...If I come back tomorrow...will you still be here?

MAN
I will.

ANNIE
You will talk with me?

MAN
I promise.

ANNIE
...Promise. (Nods.) Promise.
(Satisfied with this, she turns and leaves through the trap. The MAN melts back into the shadows.)

WOMAN
I came every day after that. Sit and talk to the darkness.
(ANNIE walks up the steps to the attic and opens the
door. She walks to the windows and closes the shades.)
Talk to someone I thought was real.
(The MAN returns, and smiles down at her. She pulls a trunk from the corner and starts tossing various objects out of it, like costumes and hats and such. They play with them like little children.)
…I used to steal away at least 2 times a day during the summer. Once winter rolled around again, I spent full weekends up there. My Aunts sometimes caught me walking up to the attic, and would punish me. Otherwise…they never knew all the time I spent up there. I used to think this imaginary man protected me from them. He was my safety.

ANNIE
Aunt Lou says it might snow tomorrow. Does it look like snow to you?
(Like routine, she sits at the table. The MAN sits across from her with a smile. WOMAN leaves.)

MAN
It feels like it.

ANNIE
Feel? Can't you see the sky?

MAN
When I want. The wood can feel the cold before the sky starts to show it, Annie.


ANNIE
I thought the wood in houses were dead...

MAN
Annie...there's a breath in every board, still. Even after the tree's been cut down.

ANNIE
Like you.

MAN
Like me.

ANNIE
Do they talk to you?

MAN
Like the dark does.

ANNIE
(Eager:) What do they say?

MAN
Children’s things. Like the things you talk about, Annie.

ANNIE
Like Ice Skating?


MAN
Yes, and snow.

ANNIE
And school.

MAN
From what they can see.

ANNIE
And fall leaves.

MAN
In a melancholy way.

ANNIE
And the spring roses?

MAN
Fountains of them.

ANNIE
I never knew a house could talk about so much.

MAN
A house can talk…you need to listen hard enough. They don’t know how this house talks at all. The Poes.

ANNIE
My aunts don’t listen to anything very much at all. Susan…I think Susan might hear it.

MAN
Susan.

ANNIE
Yes. My cousin.

MAN
…I’ve never seen her here from the dark, Annie. Why do you talk to her so? Do you think she can hear you? Does she even know you exist, Annie? Does she care?
(Silence.)
…Annie.

ANNIE
What does this house say about the rain?

MAN
What it feels.

ANNIE
What does the rain feel like?

MAN
…Like soft, ice-cold kisses. Like droplets of depression. Like angry pattering of forgotten affection. Like warm, deep touch…the world is blurred in sheets of forgiving waters. A speck of the old life when this wood used to grow, and branch, and live.


ANNIE
…She hates me. Susan.

MAN
Why?

ANNIE
…Because I can walk.

MAN
You can walk.

ANNIE
And she cannot. She cannot come up to the attic to play with me. She cannot go to school like a normal girl. She cannot ice skate, she cannot run through the autumn leaves, she cannot pick the roses with me, she must sit and write lessons, and hate me because my legs work correctly, and hers are too small and sickly to work. She’s always so ill, and tired, she does not try to leave the house anymore. I “sadden her”, Aunt Fran says, because I can do the things she cannot. Because Susan wishes to be a Dugle, not a Poe. They hate me for it.

MAN
…Is that all?

ANNIE
Is there more?
(Silence. The MAN turns towards the window.)
…I think I love you.

MAN
…I wish I could run with you. I wish I could pick your flowers. I wish…
(Pause.)
It’s snowing, Annie.
(ANNIE hops up and goes to the window. She pulls the shades apart, flooding the attic in blue light. The MAN disappears into the shadows again.)

ANNIE
It is! Oh, it is snowing…Isn’t it beautiful?
(She turns back and he is gone. Sadly, she walks to the trap door, takes one last look around as if he might reappear, and leaves. The WOMAN returns up the stairs, a box in her hands.)

WOMAN
My visits continued until the early spring. My imaginary man never let me feel plain…I wasn’t Annie Dugle. I was Annie Poe.
(She places the box on the table.)
Then, the Aunts sent me to boarding school.
(She starts to remove various objects from the box.)
I sent them letters every week or so, asking about them and Susan. I never got one back until she died. She was 14. My Aunts died 2 weeks ago…
(She removes a photograph, and a conch shell.)
I loved my cousin.
(She holds the photograph in her hands.)
More than I can say.
(She picks up the conch shell.)
…I wish she could have loved me too. I wish…I wished I hadn’t imagined my childhood in that darkness. I wish I hadn’t bought this damned house. I wish you were real. Why can’t you be real for me?! For one moment, why?! Damn you! GOD DAMN YOU!
(Behind her, the shades close. The WOMAN turns, surprised. The MAN comes from the shadows. She falls into a shocked silence.)

MAN
Annie…do you hate me now?

WOMAN
…No.

MAN
Why do you yell so, then? Why has your tone changed?

WOMAN
I did not…

MAN
Yes?

WOMAN
…I must be mad. Why do you look at me that way?

MAN
Do you still ice skate, Annie. Do you still run through the autumn leaves. Do you watch the snow at night. Do you pick the spring roses, Annie.


WOMAN
…I’ve missed you.

MAN
Do you still love me, Annie.
(ANNIE doesn’t answer. The MAN sits at their table and folds his arms on the surface. ANNIE hesitates, then sits across from him.)
..It’s snowing, Annie.

WOMAN
…It is.

(BLACKOUT.)