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when we first started dating… we were inseparable. We couldn’t stand being apart from one another. He had this infectious energy. He made me feel like I could do anything. Like anything was possible.
    But you get older… you change and your relationship isn’t the way it used to be… and you’re not the way you used to be. You don’t mean for it to happen. It just does.
    Beat.
    And then you have a child… a family… and everything just…
    Beat.
    I know we’ve grown distant. I can feel it. I’ve felt it for a long time now. But I don’t… I don’t know how to reach him… I don’t know how to reach across the table… or the bed even to let him know that I’m still here… that I’m still…
    MARION looks at TERESA.
    How did you do it?
    TERESA
    What?
    MARION
    You found a way to get close to him. What did you do?
    TERESA
    I didn’t do anything.
    MARION
    You did. You connected to him. How?
    TERESA
    I don’t know. I listened to him.
    MARION
    And?
    TERESA
    And what?
    MARION
    What else?
    TERESA
    Nothing.
    MARION
    No. You figured something out.
    TERESA
    I didn’t figure anything out.
    MARION
    You did.
    MARION looks at her.
    MARION
    Give me a way to connect to him. Give me a way to…
    MARION goes to the binder.
    This… is this what he likes?
    TERESA
    What?
    MARION
    Please. This is my marriage. You’ve only known each other a couple of months. We’ve been together for twenty-four years.
    TERESA
    I—
    MARION
    I was there when he got his first job. I was there when his mother died… when our son was born. We have shared an entire lifetime together. I know him in a way that no one else will. Please! Give me a way to—
    TERESA
    Stop! What you’re asking me… I don’t understand. How can you not know how to connect to your own husband? If you’ve had so much time together… why has it taken you so long to…
    She looks at MARION.
    No… it is not my fault that you needed something like this to happen in order for you to see how lucky you are… how lucky you are to have the life that you have.
    Curtis has been so good to me. You have no idea what that means.
    MARION
    You care about each other.
    TERESA
    No. You have no idea what my life has been like. For the past few years… I couldn’t be touched. I couldn’t let anyone get close to me. I had difficulty leaving my house, I didn’t socialize, I had to take a break from teaching. Everything about my life changed.
    Having such a huge part of me… just taken out. Like somebody came along and just scooped everything out. I have this giant hole inside me. I can feel it. When I lie down… when I bend over… there is this huge part of me that is missing.
    He is the first person that I have been able to stand being around. The first person I let into my life… that I can actually talk to about it without—
    MARION
    Is there no one else you can—
    TERESA
    Trust me. I’ve tried to talk to them. I have. But I see that look in their eyes… that glazed look they get if I start talking about it. No one wants to hear about it. No one wants you to talk about it. Everyone wants you to just move on but… I can’t. It’s all I think about. It consumes me.
    I see women… ordinary women walking down the street… women with their children and I just… I lose it. I break down on the sidewalk. Just seeing a baby carriage, I…
    TERESA buries her head in her hands.
    MARION
    (quietly)
I understand.
    TERESA
    How can you possibly understand?
    MARION
    I can imagine.
    TERESA
    You’ve had a child. I will never be able to…
    They kept telling me… they did… at the hospital. They tried to prepare me for it. They told me what they were doing… what they were taking out. That there would be no way for me to…
    Beat.
    I’m going through menopause. Menopause!