MUM: It"s still on. Who is dead?
HENRY: A friend. In the earthquake.
Silence.
MUM: Two years ago?
HENRy: About that.
MUM: Why are you telling us now?
Silence.
HENRY: I don"t know MUM: Has something else happened?
HENRY: Isn"t that enough?
DAD (speaking in background): He never said anything before.
MUM: You never said anything before.
HENRy: I know.
MUM: You should have told us. We"re your parents.
Silence.
DAD (coming back on the phone): Henry, why didn"t you say something?
HENRY: I don"t know.
DAD: We thought you were working away happily with the professor.
HENRY: I was. Or at least I thought I was.
DAD: What did he say about this?
HENRY: I haven"t seen him.
DAD: What do you mean?
Silence.
DAD (with grave concern): Is he dead too, Henry?
HENRY: I don"t think so.
DAD: You don"t think so? Henry, what"s going on?
HENRY: He"s not dead-I just haven"t seen him.
DAD: Where are you?
HENRY: In a phone booth in Piraeus.
MUM (speaking in background): Where is he now?
DAD (in background): In a phone booth somewhere.
MUM (in background): What"s he doing there?
DAD: What are you doing there? Where are you?
HENRY: I came to the museum. I"m in Athens.
DAD: Who is supervising the dig?
HENRY: I haven"t been to the dig for a while.
DAD: Why not?
HENRY: I"ve been traveling.
DAD: Yes, we know that bit, traveling for work.
Silence.
HENRY: I don"t know what to do now with my life, but I"m over the worst.
DAD: We haven"t seen you in years, son.
MUM (in background): Years.
DAD: Years, Henry.
HENRY: I know.
DAD: Do you have any money?
HENRY: No.
DAD: Are you still in your flat?
HENRY: No.
DAD: Where are you?
HENRY: A hotel.
MUM (speaking in background): What happened to the flat?
DAD: What happened to the flat?
HENRY: Someone else lives there.
DAD: Henry, what"s really going on?
HENRY: Since Rebecca died, I"ve been wandering around.
DAD (in background): Some girl called Rebecca died.
MUM (in background): His girlfriend?
DAD (in background): How should I know, Harriet?
DAD: Have you been working?
HENRY: No, just thinking.
DAD: About what?
HENRY: Rebecca. And my brother.
Silence.
DAD: Henry.
HENRY: I"ve thought about it a lot.
Silence.
HENRY: Dad?
Silence.
HENRY: I feel okay about things now.
DAD: I see.
Mum, in background, wants to know what he"s talking about. Dad says he"ll tell her after.
DAD: How long do you need to get everything together?
HENRY: About fifteen minutes.
DAD: Fifteen days?
HENRY: Yes.
DAD: Send us your details a couple of days before you come, and we"ll pick you up from the airport.
Silence.
DAD: Call us anytime, son.
HENRY: Thanks.
DAD: Your mother and I had no idea that someone had died.
Mum grabs phone again.
DAD (in background): Harriet!
MUM: So who was Rebecca? You never mentioned her before.
HENRY: Someone I met.
MUM: A girl?
Silence.
HENRY: Yes.
MUM: A girlfriend?
Silence.
HENRY: I"ve just been drifting.
MUM: Well, we"ve missed you.
HENRY: Really?
MUM: But you"ve been living your own life. We didn"t want to interfere.
HENRY: I feel like I"ve come off course.
MUM (in background to Dad): He feels like he"s been blown off course.
Dad takes the phone.
DAD: Come home, son.
HENRY: Thanks.
DAD: Call us from the hotel with your details.
Silence.