First Voice: She remembers Ross. A big man, he was. Dug ditches for the town. Whenever there was a heavy load or a big job....

Second Voice: Then she ate a snake.

First Voice: Where’s Lethe now? In the prison. Among the women. She works all day in a room with iron over the windows. Twenty years. When she comes out she’ll be over fifty.

Theodosia: He is a fool that destourbeth the moder to wepen in the death of her child, til she have wept hir fille, as for a certein tyme....

First Voice: They sew all day, to make clothes for the men prisoners to wear. Over and over, a stitch, the same, over and over, never done.

Theodosia: You have to let her weep out her litter of tears. That’s all there is to it.

Third Voice: No more lovers, no more men. She killed her man. Theodosia helping.

First Voice: Why don’t you tell Frank to bring you down food? F—o—o—d. A beefsteak. Give an order. Speak plain this time. Say, “See here....”

Second Voice, a retreating laughter:

That creep or swim or fly or run,