The Anarchist (7 page)

CATHY
: And why
you?

ANN
: As a representative of the State.

CATHY
: “With all your imperfections.”

ANN
: Did you assume: your request, might be effected without, at the
least
some discomfort? I will not say anger, shame or hatred on your part? Did you assume I would not probe you.

CATHY
: Delegating
power
. . .

ANN
: Oh, yes. As we find, in your book . . . May be understood as
cowardice
, both on the part . . .

CATHY
: . . . delegating power . . .

ANN
: . . . in your
letters
. No. I beg your pardon. In your
talks
. In your
pamphlet
. . . in . . .

CATHY
: And they're hardly “talks,” and, “delegating power,” yes,
must
imply superior, superior . . .

ANN
: . . . but wasn't that the essence of your Movement? Teaching the ignorant that “they have the power.”

CATHY
: The power wasn't ours to give. It was theirs.

ANN
: And you were simply “reminding” them.

CATHY
: We . . .

ANN
: Is that what you were doing?

CATHY
: We thought we were “awakening” them.

ANN
: How had you been awakened?

CATHY
: I hadn't been awakened.
Now
I . . .

ANN
: Yes. But I'm asking you now. What did you think then? How could you wake them, if you, if . . .

CATHY
: My political views of that time . . .

ANN
: By what superiority on your part? Do you see?

CATHY
: . . . ah-hah . . .

ANN
: . . . had you been granted that revelation?

CATHY
: My political views, of that time.

(Pause.)

ANN
: Go on . . .

CATHY
: Having been convicted, and those views offered in . . .

ANN
: “Illegally”?

CATHY
: . . . whether illegally or not, in support of my guilt, they, after my conviction, must become moot.

ANN
: Yes?

CATHY
: According to the Law.

ANN
: All right.

CATHY
: And you debarred from interrogating me concerning them.

ANN
: All right.

CATHY
: No, it's not all right. Or am I meant to be perpetually persecuted . . .

ANN
: But . . .

CATHY
: No. No. What does it mean? That someone has “said” this or that? Or “mouthed a doctrine”? It's words. It's sounds. It changes nothing.

ANN
: It's mere words.

CATHY
: That's right.

ANN
: But you acted upon them.

CATHY
: That's not what I was tried for. Unless it was a political crime. Was it a political crime?

ANN
: . . . I.

CATHY
: No, if my “views” could not be adduced in mitigation of my crime they cannot be adduced
now
to extend my . . .

ANN
: I . . .

CATHY
: . . . to extend my punishment. Separate the speech, which you declare was mere foolishness.

ANN
: . . . except . . .

CATHY
: . . . and I
agree
with you.

ANN
: . . . except . . .

CATHY
: No. There is the
pamphlet
. And there is the
crime
. If they are
linked
, then I am being persecuted. If I am only being punished for the crime
with which I was charged
. I have served my term. I beg your pardon. You were speaking.

(Pause.)

ANN
: When you
taught
. In Algeria, all right . . .

CATHY
: No. It's
not
all right. Who, God knows, has paid for her actions.

ANN
: When you, at the Farm, at the Apartment, “strove to awaken” the Masses . . .

CATHY
: They lived, as many do, contentedly, in ignorance of their state. As many do today. As
you
do. In their relationship to the Divine. We live in ignorance.

ANN
: But you did not live in ignorance.

CATHY
: We felt that we did not.

ANN
: Then how had you been elevated? Do you see? As, you say,
again
, you have been?

CATHY
: I have been raised by Christ.

ANN
: Yes. But they . . . If they lived in contentment. Then . . .

CATHY
: If they “lived in contentment”? They were
oppressed
.

ANN
: But what raised you? To that understanding? A Book? A Man?
(She reads)
“A moment of enlightenment, the religious would say the experience of Grace.”

CATHY
: I was not writing about the Man.

ANN
: No, you were writing about Christ. But: the language you used, in your “talks,” it's the same
language
. . . “Hov'ring at the margins of the real . . .”

CATHY
: You don't have to demean them, by calling them “talks.”

ANN
: What are they, “Speeches”?

CATHY
: But they're hardly “talks.”

ANN
: What are they?

CATHY
: Interactions. Or, “Thoughts,” perhaps, “Meditations” . . .

ANN
: Well, yes, but you see, the inability to call things by their names, may lead, in you and in your, what did you say? “Revolution”? No less than in the State, to imprecision. And, in our case, certainty has led to error. Or, did you act in Error? Did you act in Error?

CATHY
: When?

(Pause.)

ANN
: What is “murder”?

CATHY
: It is the unlawful taking of a human life.

ANN
: Indeed it is. Did you commit murder?

CATHY
: I was adjudged guilty of murder.

ANN
: Did you commit murder?

CATHY
: I have worked. For thirty-five years, to discharge. My “debt to society.”

ANN
: Which Society still sticks upon the one point. What is that point? And why should I believe that you might be a “member of society,” if you are incapable even of a half-hour's courteous interaction with me in this room? A person from whom you desire a great service—and yet you are incapable of stilling your rage.

CATHY
: That's not true . . .

ANN
: . . . that you should be reduced . . .

CATHY
: . . . it's simply not true.

ANN
: To comply with a requirement of the State. That you divulge the whereabouts of your accomplice. Who killed alongside you. Which legitimate, which is to say “lawful” demand, you characterize as an “inquisition” . . .

CATHY
: . . . my father is dying. Should . . .

ANN
: . . . I'm sorry.

CATHY
: . . . should a person. Not be left. A sense . . . finally . . .

ANN
: . . . go on.

(Pause.)

CATHY
: A sense of dignity.

(Pause.)

ANN
: I have no doubt that you consider yourself, I will not insult you by using the term “rehabilitated” . . .

CATHY
: I don't know that I know the meaning of the word.

ANN
: It means “re-clothed”—its implication being “restored.”

CATHY
: No doubt. But how may one be restored who is, in the eyes of the State, bound or free, always a criminal?

ANN
: “How can the criminal not see that the same sense of entitlement which led him to crime leads him to demand a societal amnesia regarding his conviction.” Who wrote that?

CATHY
: You surprise me.

ANN
: Who wrote it?

CATHY
: Lombroso.

ANN
: And at what conclusion did he arrive, after a lifetime of his studies?

CATHY
: You impress me.

ANN
: At what conclusion did he arrive?

CATHY
: That there is no solution to the problem of Crime.

ANN
: Except?

CATHY
: Deterrence, punishment, and incarceration.

ANN
: And what did he say about “Rehabilitation”?

CATHY
: You impress me, Ann.

ANN
: Yes, you said. “That Criminology . . .”

CATHY
: “Criminology, as any study claiming the imprimatur of science, must rest upon observation, but that all observation in prison is corrupt.”

ANN
: Go on.

CATHY
: “For there all function under unnatural restraint, and one can no more usefully reason from measurements made there than from that of wild animals caged in a zoo.”

ANN
: What is September 25th?

CATHY
: It is the anniversary of the Robbery.

ANN
: How might others understand it?

CATHY
: Who?

ANN
: We have very little time.

CATHY
: It is the anniversary of the death of the two officers.

ANN
: And who might understand it as such?

CATHY
: Their families.

ANN
: Their
families
. Have . . .

CATHY
: I know . . .

ANN
: For thirty-five years.

CATHY
: I know they have.

ANN
: Sat. On these occasions . . . In that anteroom . . .

CATHY
: What do you want?

ANN
: While I, and while my predecessor . . .

CATHY
: Yes. The “Families . . .”

ANN
: And Mrs. Fiske, who is . . .

CATHY
: I know who she is.

ANN
: Who is she?

CATHY
: Officer Shay's . . .

ANN
: Yes. Do you see? Officer Shay's daughter. Which became the definition of her life. She could not attend. Her son could not attend, as he is caring for his mother, who is ill. And they write to say what? What is their request?

CATHY
: Call the guard.

ANN
: To ask . . . what?

CATHY
: Call the guard.

ANN
: To plead, in the name of justice. That you be left to die in Prison.
(Pause) My
task. Is to overcome my feelings.
And attempt to rule, if I can, impartially, upon the case. I understand your feelings . . .

CATHY
: Is that so?

ANN
: . . . and in spite of them, and mine, attempt to employ, yes, I think I . . .

CATHY
: What are they?

ANN
: My feelings?

CATHY
: Yes, what are . . .?

ANN
: Is it beyond you that one might succeed in keeping them in check? And that it's
laudable
? Is there a
name
for this?

CATHY
: All right.

ANN
: Is it called “reserve”? Or “circumspection,” or . . .

CATHY
: . . . all right.

ANN
: Might it be called restraint?
(Pause)
You would like to go free.