She FADES into the background, pouring WATER from a pitcher.
PURL
You’re happy in the garden, then?
JACK
Very.
PURL
This recent weather must have spoiled your work somewhat.
JACK
It comes back, though. That’s what I like best about flowers.
PURL
The triumph over Death.
JACK
Facilely enough, yes. It’s what we all strive for, isn’t it? Cut and burn and inoculate as we may, eternity remains in all its vastness, uncharted: decay, rot, nothing left over. The end of all flesh.
PURL
Ah, but then we can serve as fertilizer.
JACK
I’ve had worse ambitions.
PURL is slightly taken aback by this revelation. Luckily for him, MRS. BENTHAM intrudes.
MRS. BENTHAM
(Placing the flowers on his desk)
Here we are. Very nice, aren’t they?
PURL
Indeed. I hope—
The door BANGS open. BOWKER, LEAN, POACHER and SECOND BOY enter.
PURL
Has knocking become a foreign concept, Bowker?
BOWKER
(Surly)
These men want a word, is all. They say they’ve found
something—