Monologue
Thérèse Raquin — Madame
Neal Bell, adapted from the novel by Émile Zola
Madame: What will I say, when they find me? If they find me …
Somebody will find me, sooner or later, I don’t mind waiting ….
Your bodies will teem with maggots, dogs will bark at your carcasses, someone will complain of the smell below this bridge.
I don’t mind waiting ….
When I was a girl a summer night was like an open wound, hot, sticky, wet … sweet —
my husband put his hand inside and hurt my heart.
I had a child.
You killed him ….
I hear him, standing in the current, watching you lie where you fell, Laurent, Thérèse, you twitch, you twitch a final time, you stop, and then —
when he’s certain you’re still …
I know he will come, stepping out of the river, shining wet and happy at last.
I don’t mind waiting.
(Long pause. Madame looks out, uncertain.) Camille?