by Nicholas McInerny

Synopsis

Henry Cobb tries to rub the warmth back into his hands. He has just presided over a funeral in which he has gone through the motions. Now he is enjoying a moment’s respite when he is confronted by Simone, oblivious to the cold and almost relishing it.

She watched Henry take his funeral, and for a moment, Henry mistakes her for a mourner. She is, but not for the coffin just lowered in the ground. No, Simone was Duke’s lover, a charismatic and violent criminal who has recently committed suicide in prison by hanging himself with electrical cable.

She heard Henry visited Duke, and now she wants to know what might have made Duke take his life. She believes Henry may have the answer. Under her persistent questioning, Henry dances around his relationship with the guarded Duke, admitting they met on many occasions. But Simone is convinced that something Henry said unlocked a depth of self-loathing in Duke he felt unable to live with.

Henry suggests they pray, in order to calm an increasingly fractious atmosphere. As they do so, Duke is summoned from memory to explain the circumstances of the brutal murder he was found guilty of, which involves admitting to repressed gay sexual desires he cannot handle, and so found release in violence.

Simone is left with only scraps of intimacy that bind her to Duke and, as she finally leaves Henry, the ghost of Duke emerges out of the falling snow. 

Characters

• Henry Cobb – early twenties
• Simone  – late twenties
• Duke – early forties