Night Train
by Rachel White
CHARACTERS
ERNIE, 20s, Peruvian American, a banker.
ANNALISE, 20s, white, an artist.
PLACE
The 2 Train heading toward Brooklyn.
TIME
3AM, the present day.
At Rise: ANNALISE and ERNIE sit next to each other on the train. ANNALISE is dramatically made up but disheveled now, makeup smeared. ERNIE wears a T-shirt, tailored jeans, and a blazer. They are both boozy, but the drink is wearing off and it makes them listen to each other intensely.
ERNIE
I don’t have memories.
ANNALISE
What does that mean?
ERNIE
What I was trying to tell you at the party, like I don’t remember when I was a kid really.
ANNALISE
Not at all?
ERNIE
I have flashes—
ANNALISE
Flashes . . .
ERNIE
Flashes of things.
ANNALISE
That’s strange.
ERNIE
Yeah. I remember this little girl in a veil on her bike across the street from our apartment in Queens and my mom’s bald head when she had cancer, just images.
ANNALISE
I wonder why—
ERNIE
Probably my dad—
ANNALISE
Your dad—
ERNIE
Hit me a lot.
ANNALISE
Oh.
ERNIE
A lot a lot.
ANNALISE
Like you were abused.
ERNIE
No. I mean sort of—
ANNALISE
But that was abuse if he hit you—
ERNIE
Immigrant dads—
ANNALISE
Immigrant—
ERNIE
Immigrant dads are—
ANNALISE
Are—
ERNIE
Are . . . it’s different.
ANNALISE
Different how?
ERNIE
We beat the shit out of our kids.
ANNALISE
All immigrant dads?
ERNIE
Not all . . . most . . . maybe not most.
ANNALISE
Probably not most.
ERNIE
No.
ANNALISE
But you don’t remember things.
ERNIE
No.
ANNALISE
So that’s like trauma, right?
ERNIE
Right. I guess.
ANNALISE
So, you were abused.
ERNIE
I was—I wouldn’t call it that . . . everybody did it.
ANNALISE
So that makes it not abuse if everybody did it?
ERNIE
How can I explain?
ANNALISE
Did he hit your sister?
ERNIE
No, she was a girl.
ANNALISE
So, he didn’t hit girls.
ERNIE
Only sometimes.
ANNALISE
Sometimes.
ERNIE
Mostly the boys. Mostly me.
ANNALISE
Why mostly you?
ERNIE
I was difficult.
ANNALISE
Difficult how?
ERNIE
I got bad grades.
ANNALISE
He hit you because you got bad grades?
ERNIE
Yeah.
ANNALISE
That sounds really unfair.
ERNIE
Yeah, I guess, I don’t have anything to compare it to, so . . .
ANNALISE
So . . .
ERNIE
So, you gotta look at it like . . . his mom had eleven kids, right? So, if somebody did
something wrong, like spill milk or something, she’d drag their ass down to the river and hold their head down in the water, because if you spill milk in that world . . .
ANNALISE
You starve.
ERNIE
Or somebody does, right?
ANNALISE
Right.
ERNIE
So, I’d rather get beaten than starve to death, wouldn’t you?
ANNALISE
I guess I would, but—
ERNIE
And my dad, he went to college and everything, but he never left that world, you know?
ANNALISE
Right . . . but beating you over your grades . . .
ERNIE
I’m fine.
ANNALISE
You can’t remember your childhood.
ERNIE
(Frustrated.)
Annalise . . . never mind.
ANNALISE
No, I want to know.
ERNIE
He wanted me to do better.
They ride for a while.
ANNALISE
My grandfather hit me once. He was a vet, fought in Vietnam, and I guess I said something sort of flip one day about the war, something I heard in class, and he backhanded me. It was strange, like standing in front of a different person.
ERNIE
I’m sorry that happened to you.
ANNALISE
It was only one time.
ERNIE
Still.
ANNALISE
He was from Iowa. Very stoic. I didn’t see it coming.
The train jerks along. ANNALISE shivers.
ERNIE
You cold?
ANNALISE
A little. The rum’s wearing off, I think.
(ERNIE takes his jacket off and offers it to her.)
What will you wear?
ERNIE
Thick skin.
ANNALISE
I doubt that will help. Thank you.
(She takes the jacket.)
ERNIE
Sure.
ANNALISE
Empty tonight.
ERNIE
Getting late.
ANNALISE
Creeps me out this late.
ERNIE
Want me to walk you?
ANNALISE
No, I’m okay.
ERNIE
Or call you an Uber?
ANNALISE
I’m fine. I know my way.
ERNIE
Fine.
They ride. The train stops. Doors open for a period, then shut.
ANNALISE
Party okay?
ERNIE
It was good. Thanks for inviting me.
ANNALISE
You should come out more.
ERNIE
Maybe.
ANNALISE
There are better parties than that.
ERNIE
Nah, your friends are fun. Better than the accountants I hang out with.
ANNALISE
I bet. They’re all artists. Fun but flakey.
ERNIE
You do art too, right?
ANNALISE
Ceramics. I like to work with my hands.
(She shows him her hands.)
They’re kind of gnarly now.
ERNIE
I like ’em.
(He takes her hands. She lets him and then takes them back abruptly.)
What is it?
ANNALISE
Ernie, when we were at the party, you said something to me.
ERNIE
I’m sure I was three drinks in by then.
ANNALISE
You didn’t seem like it.
ERNIE
What?
ANNALISE
We were talking about Kara, your roommate, and how she never cleans after parties and how she’s always getting drunk and picking fights with you.
ERNIE
Yeah?
ANNALISE
And how it’s gotten complicated. And I asked what you were going to do, and you laughed and said, “Well, I can’t hit her.” And I brushed it off in the moment because . . .
ERNIE
Because . . .
ANNALISE
Because I thought you were joking.
ERNIE
Right.
ANNALISE
But then you said the stuff about your dad and . . .
ERNIE
What are you asking me?
ANNALISE
Were you joking?
ERNIE
Annalise.
ANNALISE
I mean, would you have . . . if you could?
ERNIE
Would I have hit her?
ANNALISE
If there weren’t like a severe consequence?
ERNIE
I’m not my father, Annalise.
ANNALISE
I didn’t say that.
ERNIE
Then what are you saying?
ANNALISE
I’m not saying anything.
ERNIE
Then what?
ANNALISE
You touched me at the bar like you wanted me.
ERNIE
I was drunk.
ANNALISE
Were you? Because I thought—
ERNIE
It wasn’t anything.
ANNALISE
It was in front of everyone.
ERNIE
Forget it—
ANNALISE
Forget it?
ERNIE
It won’t happen again.
ANNALISE
That’s not what I mean.
ERNIE
What do you mean?
ANNALISE
The last man I dated used to throw objects at my head when he was drunk, whatever was in reach, a stapler, a bourbon bottle. Every time he said “I’m sorry,” I said “Okay.”
ERNIE
I wouldn’t do that to you.
ANNALISE
Okay.
ERNIE
Kara pushed me against the oven last night when we were fighting. I’d never hit her but . . . sometimes I get really scared about what I could do, you know?
ANNALISE
Yeah.
They ride for a while. An announcement calls out Sterling Street and Nostrand Avenue. ANNALISE begins to gather her things.
ERNIE
This you?
ANNALISE
Yeah. You?
ERNIE
Nah, end of the line.
ANNALISE
That’s right.
(She stands.)
Have a good night.
ERNIE
You too.
(He helps her with her purse. The doors open.)
Annalise?
(She turns.)
Stay on with me.
ANNALISE stands facing ERNIE. Doors close behind her. Lights down.
Rachel White's Night Train was produced at the Highview Arts Center in Louisville, Kentucky in 2022. She has had readings and productions with AboutFace Ireland, the Playwrights Gallery, Tangent Theatre Company, and the Ensemble Studio Theatre LA. Her recent plays include Still Life (2023 Roots of the Bluegrass award from the Kentucky Theatre Association), Adjunct (reading Playwrights Gallery, NYC), and Eyes in the Storm (published in The Georgia Review). She has an MFA in Playwriting from the New School for Drama and a BA in English and Drama from Centre College.
Photo by Chris Linnett on Unsplash