SCENE TEN

SCENE TEN

Hilary’s office.

Leo comes in, carrying a folder, containing all the raw data from the experiment. He dumps it on Hilary’s desk, sits down, sighs. Hilary waits.

Leo Did you think of keeping quiet?

Hilary No.

Leo Did she?

Hilary I’m very, very sorry, Leo.

Leo I’m sorry, too. The data sheets for ninety-six test subjects. It took me a while to work it out. You can’t get there by taking out two from each group. With group one, the youngest kids, you have to eliminate the three at the high end for egoism, selfish little bastards. With group four, the oldest kids, you eliminate the one at the high end for altruism, annoying little Mother Teresa. With the two middle groups, you have to eliminate from both ends and further in, or the curve goes back on itself.

Pause. Hilary waits.

Start with Bo, then. I’ll talk her down, she can have some paid leave, but she’s toast.

Hilary I’m the principal investigator.

Leo That’s a title, not a fact. Necessarily. You were in Italy for nearly three weeks.

Hilary What are you talking about? It’s my paper.

Leo Bo is first-author.

Hilary And I’m senior author. I’m mentoring her. She’s one year in, and I gave her first author as a gesture because she works hard, and I like her, I wanted to encourage her – but it’s my paper.

Leo It was her show, though, wasn’t it?

Hilary No, it’s mine. She contributed, she did a decent job caretaking, but it was all ready to go. There isn’t a line in the paper which didn’t come across my desk. I wrote the paper!

Leo So which of you took out eight –

Hilary I did. (Beat.) I cleared it. After she... What’s the difference? What we’re discussing here is Bo, and whether you’re going to drag down with me a beginner who took a big pay cut to work here, and had nothing in the paper I didn’t sign off on. She was milking the family buffalo when she was eight, and she’s the best mathematician in the house. Do you want to lose her? She can survive this.

Leo (pause) Why? Why are you wasting my time with this fan dance? Are you in love with her?

Beat.

Hilary She’s in love with me.

Leo (taken aback) Well! Finally, something I understand.

Pause.

All right.

Hilary All right what?

Leo All right.

Hilary Thank you.

Leo She gets a formal warning.

Hilary Thank you.

Leo All right.

Hilary Thank –

Leo Stop saying that. It’s you I don’t want to lose.

Hilary I’m going back to school.

Leo What does that mean?

Hilary I want to do a degree course. Philosophy.

Leo Don’t get ahead of yourself, Hilly. There’s some wiggle-room here –

Hilary I’m retracting a paper from a major journal with the Krohl Institute’s name on it.

Leo A correction, not a retraction. An addendum, not a correction.

Hilary You’re not seeing straight, Leo. I’m packing. Watch your own back is my advice.

Leo (beat) Jerry said the paper was wrong.

Hilary He read it?

Leo It pissed him off that his daughter’s group scored low on nice, and high on not so nice. He said Cathy was the nicest person in his family.

Hilary You’d think Jerry would approve of a bit of egoism in his genes.

Leo His genes don’t come into it – Cathy’s adopted.

Hilary (pause) Since when?

Leo Since when? She’s twelve, I think.

Hilary Does she know?

Leo Jerry’s wife is Japanese, so – probably.

Hilary Oh.

Do you know Catherine’s birthday?

Leo gets up to leave.

Leo I’d like to tell him his daughter was eliminated for being too nice, but with the data sheets being coded, and the questionnaires shredded...

Hilary We don’t shred them now.

A beat. She stands up.

She’s thirteen.

Leo You don’t? Why not?

She walks calmly to the box-files.

Hilary In case they’re useful. Leave the data sheets... I’ll cross-reference...

Hilary finds the right box.

Leo (nods) I’ll wait to call Jerry. Listen...

Hilary digs into the box-file among several generations of sheaves of filled-in questionnaires.

I’m going to have to write you a formal letter. Transparency. It’s a damnable thing, and I’m sorry about it, I can’t tell you how sorry.

Hilary continues searching.

Hilary Thank you.

Leo leaves.

Hilary finds the sheaf, and brings it to her desk.

Hilary finds Cathy’s questionnaire, and stares at it. She lays it down.

(Mutters.) Thank you.

Scene Eleven follows without interruption: a light change.

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