31 Plays in 31 Days, #7 - "She Could Be Everything"

[breakinglight11]

In the course of consulting with Frost, which will be a significant aspect of Mrs. Hawking 6, I want the useful insight that Frost contributes to come with the danger of being exposed to her influence. Mrs. Hawking is not doing great emotionally at this point (hasn't been for a long time now) and is really susceptible to Frost pouring poison in her ear. When she's feeling like this, Hawking wants someone's permission to give in to her pessimism and worst impulses, which Mrs. Frost is happy to do, and push away Mary and Nathaniel, who want to encourage her to work to be better.

If I write them right, the Hawking-Frost scenes should be some of the best parts of part 6. I feel like we've gotten so little interaction between these two powerful figures, our superhero and our supervillain, that we're kind of hungry for it at this point. I really need to execute on that huge amount of promise. Things are still rough yet, but I believe with some editing I can do it.

As a side note, "Dear Boss" is currently the closest I've gotten to settling upon a title for this thing. It was the salutation to one of the (most likely fake) Ripper letters sent to the newspapers, known because of it today as the "Dear Boss" letter. Mrs. Frost will satirically call Mrs. Hawking by that name throughout the piece, which I like because it has a similar quality of a villain taunting the person tasked with stopping them. It also gets to the thematically relevant notions of Mrs. Hawking's role as an authority figure in Mary and Nathaniel's lives and the impact how she's inhabited that role has had. I'm still not totally sold on it, though, for two reasons. One, I find it doesn't really roll off the tongue, and two, I don't love using the same naming convention as a much more famous Ripper story, "From Hell"— which also comes from one of these letters.



Day #7 - "She Could Be Everything"
From Mrs. Hawking VI
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

London, England, 1888

VICTORIA HAWKING, lady's society avenger, late forties
ELIZABETH FROST, former criminal mastermind, now institutionalized, early fifties
~~~

MRS. FROST:

So, dear boss, what’s your next move?

MRS. HAWKING:

We’re looking into records of who served in the workhouses in a medical capacity at the same times Miss Strallan did.

MRS. FROST:

Records? However will you muster the patience? Or the social grace?

MRS. HAWKING:

Not to worry. Mary’s on it.

MRS. FROST:

Ah, yes. Mary. Why don't you tell me about this girl of yours? Miss Mary Stone.

MRS. HAWKING:

Why do you want to know? So you can lock her in a room and torment her too?

MRS. FROST:

No, I leave that to you these days. But it's a rare maid that means so much to a solitary goblin like you, so I must confess I’m curious. Your nephew's history I could read like a newspaper, but that girl's name was hardly known outside her own church.

(Pause.)

MRS. FROST:

I told you. Only the first time was free.

MRS. HAWKING:

(Sighing) She is… fearless. She came to me knowing… nothing, or near to it. Having seen nothing of the world and nor knowing advantage of it, she offered herself up to learn everything, anything that it took to take on its darkness. And not for a moment turning her face from the light. Fearless to learn, fearless to fail, fearless of everything. Even of me.

MRS. FROST:

My goodness.

MRS. HAWKING:

I thought I was the limit of what challenge could be made. But she makes me hopeful. For the first time in twenty years… I had hope.

(Pause.)

MRS. HAWKING:

She could be everything. If she chooses to be.

MRS. FROST:

Fascinating. I can't say I ever thought that for my own daughter.

(Pause.)

MRS. FROST:

What? Does it surprise you to hear about my girl?

MRS. HAWKING:

You mean Miranda, née Cameron, now Mrs. Michael Barrymore of Hong Kong? You're not the only one who does research.

MRS. FROST:

Fair enough. I suppose we were never so close. Honestly, I meant to avoid to the whole business, but Miranda caught us by surprise in '64— same year as yours, I believe. Though to somewhat more permanent effect. I did my best for her, but I suppose I was like you in that regard— not cut out for the softer parts of motherhood.

MRS. HAWKING:

Does she even know what’s become of you? I notice there’s been no letters.

MRS. FROST:

As I said— I brought her up right. Governesses, boarding school, a respectable marriage. Enough that she has no need of me anymore. But I suppose it’s for the best. There are costs to living as you and I have. Why drag them down with us?