Chapter Fourteen Oscar

Chapter Fourteen

Oscar

Manhattan, New York

1959

In Hammerstein's plays, bad news is always delivered with fanfare. There's a pregnant pause, followed by a great dramatic reveal. But when the news comes for him, there's nothing remotely dramatic about it. Dr. Schwartz simply leans forward in his chair, and for several moments the creaking of metal is the only noise in the room. Then the doctor confirms what Oscar's been suspecting for several months.

"I'm sorry, Ock. But you have cancer."

For him the moment is more of an exhalation than an inhalation; a sudden release after months of wondering. But there has been no foreshadowing for his wife. No way of preparing for this devastating news. Dorothy collapses in Dr. Schwartz's office and Oscar is forced to comfort her as she cries, the patient caring for the woman who will soon be his nurse.

Later, when they're alone together in their apartment, Dorothy asks him if there were warning signs. "A few," he whispers. And when she screams in frustration, demanding to know why he never went to be checked, he shrugs helplessly. "I didn't have the time."

Now not enough time takes on a different meaning. An emergency surgery has been scheduled for next week to remove the tumor that's growing inside his stomach. What happens afterward is no longer up to him.

That same morning he goes to work despite Dorothy's protests. The musical isn't finished and there's at least one more song he needs to write. Since he's always done his best thinking while he walks, he makes for Central Park, where Fran is waiting on a park bench for Maria. He won't see the two of them meet or hear Maria question why the play shows her deeply in love with the Captain, when in reality that wasn't how she felt about marrying him at all. Anyway, he can't think about Maria right now. A song is missing. Something moving and heartfelt for when the family has to bid the only world they've known goodbye.