(Derek Robbins and his wife, Jill, have been sitting in silence, getting "ginned up.")

JILL ROBBINS
Why don't you go to bed?

DEREK ROBBINS
(annoyed)
I'm not tired.

JILL
You've been flying.

DEREK
It was a training flight...a piece of cake. You can fuss over me tomorrow.

JILL
It may not be tomorrow.

DEREK
It'll be tomorrow.

JILL
Well, I still think a good night's sleep would help.

DEREK
Sleep? Who are you kidding?

JILL
Try! Go on. I'll bring you up a hot drink.

DEREK
Oh, for God's sake, Jill. I had enough fussing from Peter today.

JILL
He only meant well.

DEREK
(very cross)
He may have meant well, but it was damned impudent!

JILL
Derek, I don't follow. You used to be glad when an op was scrubbed.

DEREK
Oh, do shut up, Jill.

JILL
Well, just be reasonable. It's no disgrace to go to the M.O.*

*[Medical Officer]

DEREK
(rising to his feet in anger)
Are you trying to upset me...on the night before an op? Do you know where they went yesterday? Leipzig...right the other side of Germany. Four hundred bloody miles of flak!

JILL
Look, Derek, I don't want you to go any more.

DEREK
You don't understand.

JILL
You're being a hypocrite. You don't want to go, either.

DEREK
You don't know what it's like.

JILL
(rolling her eyes)
Oh, I know what it's like. I know what it's like to be here with the children every day when you go off. Wondering...

(They turn away from each other.)

JILL
...keeping up the bright chatter, for their sakes.

DEREK
Well, it isn't any better for me...having their faces in front of me every time I went.

JILL
Then in heaven's name, do what Peter says.

DEREK
Do I have to spell it out for you? I'm going. I'm flying.

JILL
(angrily)
Why are you so pig-headed? Can't you think of me?

DEREK
You?

JILL
The other night, before you got back, they rang...said you hadn't come in. I sat there numb for hours.

DEREK
Well, I'm sorry, Jill, but don't ask me to cry. I brought home a plane with two engines on fire for the sake of a dying gunner...who happened to be already dead.

JILL
And you love it. You love it so much you want to go again.

DEREK
No, I don't. But I have to.

JILL
Why?

(Again they turn away from each other.)

JILL
Oh, you're mad. You're all mad. You and your dead men.

DEREK
(softening)
Jill, I...

JILL
I knew them. I knew them so well. They used to come here. They'd play with the children. And they've gone and gone and gone. You think, "He's nice. He's good." But you never see him again.

(Derek does not respond, sensing that there is little point in arguing any further, and he leaves the room.)

 

(from "The Lost Ones" by Alexander Baron)