Vanessa:  (close-up of a bouquet on the ground as she kneels to pick it up, speaks to herself, forlornly)  Well I guess there was a wedding today at the club.

Jenna: (crosses from the Gazebo, bottle swinging in hand and holding a glass, wearing long flowing white, hair down, she’s edgy and sarcastically droll)   Yes, I guess there was.  And either the bride was a lousy aim, or the brides maids just weren’t interested.  Either way, it’s pretty pathetic wouldn’t you say.  (lifts glass)  Care for a drink?

Vanessa:  (annoyed and prickly)  No thanks (Jenna takes a swig from her glass)  Actually I walked all the way over here so I could be alone.

Jenna:  Alone, that is a very versatile word.  I mean you can say it, “I vant to be alone” (very Greta Garbo dramatic then sad and wistful) , or you could use it by saying “You feel so alone” and they’re worlds apart in meaning, aren’t they. (now back to sarcastically droll)  But the one thing you and I can  rest assure, they’ll be plenty more aloneness where tonight came from.  Happy Independence Day! (Vanessa looks on a tad concerned)

Scene II: Gazebo, both still standing

Jenna:  (lifts bottle and now kind of falsely jolly)  Sure you won’t have some?  I don’t have a clean glass, but you can sip politely from mine or you can chug the entire bottle. 

Vanessa:  (shakes her head softly)  No thanks

Fireworks illuminate their faces
 
 

Jenna:  (looks up in childlike glee)  Oh there they are.  Fireworks, I do adore them so (both looking up at the sky side by side)  They look like jewels in the sky.

Vanessa:  (gently) I always used to love to watch them when I was little because you could see them right out over the water.  We would go in summer by a little lake.

Jenna:  (rather clipped)  Sounds idyllic. In London when I was a little tiny girl, me and my chums used to run through the Eastend of London celebrating Guy Faulkes Day, with our sparklers and our noise makers and then we’d burn old Guy.  It wasn’t terribly idyllic, but it was fun. (Vanessa looking kind of speechless)  May I ask you a question?  Why aren’t you with your family?  Isn’t this a family sort of holiday? (Jenna still chugging)

Vanessa:  I  was.  I was with Josh and his children, and my son, and then I just, I just decided I needed some time alone

Jenna:  (a thought lights up her face)  You were married here about a year ago?

Vanessa:  (sadly)  Yes

Jenna:  I was a bride about a year ago too.  The Bride to Roger Thorpenstein (Vanessa and Jenna share a very light girlish laugh)  That’s an anniversary I’m mighty proud I missed. (empathic) In fact what I’m probably doing tonight, yes what I’m doing tonight is an anti-celebration, having dinner alone at the club. 

I think it’s wonderful that our paths should cross, given the celebrations.  It reminds me of the night I ran away from my dear husband, the night he was shot.  (sees Vanessa’s drawn face and sincerely says)  I have to tell you, I think the wrong husband went to jail. 

(softly) I was pregnant , awfully frightened.  There was a man with open arms, waiting for me.  (smiling)  I had a Knight on a white charger. (bitterly)  But it seems this Independence Day, though I may not be solitary, I am destined to be quite alone.  (lifts glass, makes air toast)  Cheers! 
 

Scene III:  Jenna sitting in Gazebo and Vanessa looks at fireworks

Jenna:  (opening a tube of lotion, rubs it on her hands)  I don’t suppose you want to try some of this either.  You really should, it’s very lovely and soft.

Vanessa:  (walks over to gazebo and sits near Jenna)  Is that the funny lotion you’ve been hawking all over town? 

Jenna:  (holds up tube)  Jenna Bradshaw’s “Leicester Square Lotion”.  I am very proud of it.  Here take a sniff, it’s quite good.

Vanessa:  (takes tube, breathes in, surprised)   It’s very nice  (puts on hands) 

Jenna:  (smiling) Thank you. 

Vanessa:  (rubbing in lotion)  So, I gather from what you’ve been telling me, that you’re currently romantically unattached and not very happy about it

Jenna:  (emphatic)  Well, it’s not exactly how I saw myself at this point of time in my life, but I am not giving up.

Vanessa:  (smiling)  I know.  I could tell that by the way you were behaving at the Roadhouse the other day.  When you spent most of your time in my brother-in-law’s lap

Jenna:  (gleefully chuckling)  I wasn’t trying to seduce him. 

Vanessa:  Oh, no?  What were you doing?

Jenna:  Oh, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.  I thought he’d be a good candidate to invest in my lotion.

Vanessa:  Oh...it was his wallet you were after.  I guess it didn’t hurt though, that he’s a very nice looking man.

Jenna: (wickedly sparkling)  Hmmm, hmmmm.

Vanessa:  (now serious)  Jenna, he’s also a  sweet, darling, wonderful man and I don’t want anyone trying to use him.  You understand?

Jenna:  I think he’s capable of taking care of himself, but you don’t have to worry.  I don’t have designs on him or his assets.  I worked out my own problems, found a way to keep my investor in line.  Brrrr, it’s getting rather chilly out here (reaches for bottle and uncorks it) I think I need to warm up a bit.

Vanessa:  Can I have a sip.

Jenna:  (laughs)  Absolutely!  You want to sip (holds glass) or you want to chug? (lifts bottle)

Vanessa:  Ahhhhr.... chug. (lifts bottle to her mouth)

Jenna:  Atta girl.  Can I ask you another question?

Vanessa:  (nods head) Mmm, mmm (fills Jenna’s glass)

Jenna:  (they toast)  OK, since it doesn’t look like I have my hands in your bother-in-law’s pockets , and I have not been chasing after Henry, adorable as he is, and I have let go of just about everything that belongs to you...why do you dislike me so much?

Scene IV:  Jenna sitting down, Vanessa now standing

Jenna:  You can take your time answering that one.  We have at least a couple of swigs left of cherry (swings bottle up to Vanessa)

Vanessa:  (thoughtful)  I don’t know.  I mean I don’t know why I dislike you.  I’m not even, I’m not even really sure that I do. (sits down next to Jenna)  I know I did.  But that was because you were rammed down my gullet as my younger sister.  But now...I don’t know.  I guess I have a lot of old habits that I keep in place.  There’s no real reason for them. 

Jenna:  (also thoughtful) I was forced to let mine go along the way.  You see, you don’t form habits unless you have continuity in your life, and that’s been something that I’ve been sorely lacking.  (wryly laughing)  I start a new life every six months or so.

Vanessa:  Well, I think there are a lot of people that would envy you that.

Jenna:  Till they tried it, then they’d get tired of it. (emphatically drives cork in bottle and now animated and chipper)   I don’t know why it’s so hard for me to have what every other woman in this world wants.  A lovely house, precious children, fabulous career with wealth and security, and the most gorgeous man to share it all with.   Why is that so much to ask for?

Vanessa:  I don’t know.  They say you can’t have it all.

Jenna:  They say that about women, have you noticed, not men. (laughing)

Vanessa:  (smiling) Maybe, you’re right

Jenna:  What are you going to do next?

Vanessa:  I don’t know.

Jenna:  When I met the Chamberlains, I idolized Henry as the father I never had, and I was also drawn to you, (Vanessa questioning) as the most perfect big sister.

Vanessa:  (laughing in disbelief)  I don’t know how you could. I was terrible to you.

Jenna:  (smiling)  I know.  It didn’t matter.  I thought once you saw how I felt, you’d accept me immediately.  And besides, you were what I saw as complete beauty and poise (Vanessa gets up rather abruptly, overwhelmed and uncomfortable)  No, I know exactly what it would have been like growing up together.  (Now chirping and getting up) I would have welcomed your hand-me-downs and you would have lent me money and earrings in a pinch, and you would have stood up and defended me to the nth degree no matter who it was against (Vanessa turns smiling)   But the thing I would never think I would hear you say was “I don’t know”. 

Vanessa:  (shrugs her shoulders) Sorry if I disappointed you.

Jenna:  I’m so damned relieved to hear you admit it.

Vanessa:  (sighs and smiles and  Jenna  laughs)  Well, I guess what I should do, the logical thing to do, is to immerse myself in work.

Jenna:  (gently) Well, I don’t see what the rush is.  You have got a fabulous family to immerse yourself in.  (emotionally ) Don’t forget you and I are in a very different situation.  I don’t have a family... yet...and work is something I tell my friends is a great distraction for me, and the majority of the time that really works well for me (pulls out cork in bottle, pours drink)  Except on nights like this, when I see the stars and I see my future along with it, and all I want to so is pull the covers up over my head, and have a good long drink (presses cork back in)

Vanessa:  Sorry...

Jenna:  (emphatically)  If you want to throw yourself into your work, you do it.  But don’t think for one minute it’s going to be enough. (chugs down drink)

Fade to black....