Etiquette and Vitriol (46 page)

PHYLLIS:
No. I love you. But see what I made.

BISHOP:
I can't.

PHYLLIS:
You can. You said it. It feels wonderful. It feels like running and running.

BISHOP:
Don't make me.

PHYLLIS:
Make me proud. Please, Bishop.

(Bishop and Phyllis embrace.)

BISHOP:
I love you, Phyllis.

PHYLLIS:
I love you, Bishop.

(They kiss. It is long and romantic. As they kiss, he lowers her to the ground; there is no overt act of violence, but she is dead. Bishop rises and addresses the audience.)

BISHOP:
I am Bishop Hogan, that is my name, I am not a deacon of the church. I killed my father and his mistress and the next day, my mother, whom I loved. . . . It was the judgment of the court that I was mentally ill at the time of these acts. . . . And it was my mother's fault. And my father's. And my own. Because I am what I create: And I understand that I must stay awake all the time, because when I sleep, when I shut my eyes, the monkeys come again. And it is no one's fault. It is the nature of the monkeys.

END OF PLAY

*
Substitute actual elapsed time since Act II killing of Howard.