Mother, We Never Knew You

by Diane Helliker

Setting: A morgue, sparse white room. One body laid out on table, covered with sheet. Only one exit. Only one light.

Characters:

Coroner –
Man, 50 years old, slightly bald, plump. Wears green cotton pants, white lab coat.

Sibling A –
Woman in mid 30’s – dressed in black, as if in mourning. She wears a black hat with veil over her face.

Sibling B –
Man in late 30’s – wears a well tailored dark suit, with white shirt and subdued tie. His shoes are laced and well polished. He too, appears as if he were in mourning.

Coroner:
(Pulls back sheet covering head and shoulders.)
Can you identify corpse 3479A?

Sibling A:
It looks like her. Only she had red hair.

Sibling B:
Her hair was brown. It’s the eyes. She had blue eyes. Yes, I’m sure of it.

Sibling A:
Maybe she’s wearing coloured lenses.

Coroner:
There are no attachments on any of our corpses.

Sibling B:
The nose. This looks like a Jewish woman.

Sibling A:
She was Jewish

Sibling B:
She was Irish Catholic

Sibling A:
You never knew her

Sibling B:
You insult me.

Coroner:
(Goes to cover the corpse.)
We are to presume the deceased is not your mother?

Sibling A and B:
We presume nothing.

Sibling A:
No one else has it

Sibling B:
No one. May we see the left leg?

(Coroner lifts sheet to bare the leg.)

Sibling A:
The mole in the shape of a scorpion. That is her

Sibling B:
Yes. Our dear mother, Marion Wheatley.

(Coroner covers body with the sheet.)

Sibling A:
What was the cause of death?

Coroner:
Liver complications due to life long alcohol abuse.

Sibling B:
That’s not possible. She never had a drink in her life. She was Methodist.

Sibling A:
She drank like a fish. I don’t remember her sober

Sibling B:
You never knew her

Sibling A:
You insult me.

(Sibling A and B leave. Coroner is left with the corpse.)