An Interview with the Beresfords

The Scene: Meredith Esparza, in the midst of reading The Beresfords, finds herself so utterly absorbed by this brilliant modern-day adaptation of a Jane Austenby Christina Dudley that she one night dreams about the characters from the novel! Having just read the part where Rachel marries Greg Perkins, Meredith dreams she is transplanted to that point of time in the novel and given the assignment of interviewing the characters. Here is what she remembers of that strange dream…

[blurry, wavy image and harp music]

[Meredith, equipped with a pen and pad of paper, enters a wealthy and expansive home. She is shown into the living room where she is introduced to the four Beresford siblings and their stepcousin, Frannie Price.]

Meredith:[takes a deep breath] Hello, everyone. I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me. I hope it is not too much of an inconvenience.

[The cousins murmur polite responses. The oldest cousin, Tom Beresford, is hogging a whole sofa, lying on his back with his legs crossed, whistling “O Sole Mio.” Rachel, despite her enormous wedding gown with puffed sleeves, looks anything but the blushing bride. Her arms are crossed over her chest and her mouth set mulishly. Her sister Julie is crowded to one end of the loveseat by Rachel’s dress and doesn’t look any better pleased. Frannie sits tucked up in a bean bag, her chin resting on her knees. She glances at Jonathan for reassurance, and he winks at her from his perch on the armrest of the loveseat. In fact, Jonathan and Tom seem to be the only relaxed and happy Beresfords.]

Jonathan: We’re glad to meet with you, Meredith.

Julie: [under her breath] Rachel, scoot over. You’re smothering me in your taffeta!

Rachel: [hisses back] Well, get off my dress, and I’ll be able to move over!

Meredith: Thank you…um…well I guess the first thing I’d like to ask you all is, what was it like growing up as a Beresford? You…umm…sort of have a…unique parental unit – a conservative, hardworking father, an indolent stepmother, and a bossy aunt who tries to run everyone’s lives.

Tom: [snorts] Let’s just say, college couldn’t come soon enough. Sweet, sweet freedom.

Rachel: You didn’t get that far away, Tom. Dad brought you home from your first college after you got so wasted you had to be hospitalized.

Tom: Hey–at least I didn’t marry some dumb lunk to get away from him and Aunt Terror.

Rachel: Who says I–

Jonathan: [gives Tom a kick] Sorry, Meredith. I guess you could say Dad was pretty strict–

Julie: Is pretty strict, you mean. At least you three are out of the house now. Frannie and I are still stuck.

Jonathan: Is pretty strict–thanks, Julie. But Dad means well. He wants us to make good choices. So does our Aunt Terri. We’ve been given a lot in life. They want us to appreciate it. But maybe Frannie could answer this better for you, Meredith, since she came to live with us when she was six. What do you think, Frannie? What was it like, growing up an honorary Beresford?

Frannie: [her eyes widen and she gives an infinitesimal shake of her head. Jonathan just grins at her.] Umm…well…like Jonathan said, we’ve been given a lot. Uncle Paul has been very generous to me. Even Aunt Terri has. It was her idea at first to take me in. My own mother–she–she had been having some problems and couldn’t take care of me. The Beresfords have housed me, fed me, sent me to school–

Tom: [interrupts her] …and been all-around awesome. Yeah. That’s about it in a nutshell. If you’re Little Orphan Annie, like our Frannie here, you think you’ve died and gone to heaven, but otherwise it can get a bit much.

Meredith: I can understand that. [nervous pause] This past summer was quite eventful for your family. Now that several months have passed, what are some of your reflections of those summer days?

[Julie and Rachel both start to say something, but then, hearing each other, they exchange a glare and shut their mouths. Rachel bites her lip. Frannie slumps further down in the bean bag.]

Jonathan: It was a great summer, for the most part. We met some new friends. Eric and Caroline Grant. They’re classmates of Tom’s.

Julie: Caroline is wonderful. She’s pretty and funny and fun to be around.

Rachel: I thought you liked Eric pretty well, too.

Julie: Maybe, but probably not as much as other people I know did.

Frannie: [blurts] They weren’t like friends we’d had to the house before. They…made fun of people and wanted to do some things Uncle Paul wouldn’t have liked, like–like drinking or gambling.

Jonathan: [frowning] I don’t know if that’s fair, Frannie. We all know Tom is perfectly capable of coming up with illicit activities on his own–

Tom: Hear, hear!

Jonathan: –and even if anyone encouraged him, I think more of a case could be made for Eric than Caroline.

[Seeing the soft gleam in her cousin’s eye when he mentions Caroline, Frannie clams up.]

Tom: What you all are forgetting is that, the whole reason we could have a better summer than usual, was because Dad was away on business. Once he got home, that was it. Party over.

Meredith: Yes…things definitely changed after your father returned. For each of you, what was your favorite memory from the summer?

Tom: Drinking beer by the pool.

Rachel: [dreamily] The All-Star Carnival at the high school.

[Frannie looks sharply at her.]

Julie: [rolling her eyes] She’s just saying that, Meredith, because her hubby Greg was the main attraction there. The athletics department falls over itself when it comes to Greg Perkins.

Rachel: For your information, Julie, I wasn’t referring just to Greg. That is–of course I meant Greg. And other things. [Clears her throat.] It was a good day.

Jonathan: It was. I think I would pick that day, too.

[Frannie sighs but her cousins don’t hear her.]

Julie: Well, if I had to pick one memory, it would be–[she blushes]–getting to drive up to Tahoe in that 280ZX.

Rachel: Because you drove with Eric?

Julie: [sticking out her chin] Because it was stick shift and fun!

Tom: Was the funnest part running over your aunt with it?

Julie: [whirls on him] Of course I didn’t mean that part! Meredith said our favorite memory, not our favorite whole day. And you’re horrible to bring it up, when she’s fine now.

[Jonathan plays peacemaker again, putting a hand on Julie’s shoulder and grimacing at Tom.]

Jonathan: How about you, Frannie?

Frannie: Oh. I’d say–uh–the drag boat races in Tahoe.

Rachel: [astonished] But that was after Dad came back!

Frannie: Yes. Still. They were…exciting.

Rachel: [muttering] Hypocrite.

Meredith: Yes, that Tahoe trip was something else…and poor Frannie had such a terrible scare staying all alone when everyone went out that first night! [looks at Frannie sympathetically] Now that Rachel’s wedding is about over, what’s next for you all? What do you think the next couple of months will be like? [surreptitiously eyeing Jonathan] Do you think you will be seeing much of Caroline and Eric Grant?

Rachel and Frannie: [emphatically] No!  [Surprised, they exchange glances, trying to guess the other’s motivation.]

Julie: [sighs] Probably not. Frannie and I will just be going to school. Nothing exciting.

Rachel: Greg and I will be looking for apartments in Phoenix so he’ll be ready for Spring Training.

Tom: I dunno about seeing Caroline, Meredith, but the second you wake back up I’ll see Eric again, since the two of us are still in Italy doing our study-abroad. [He makes air quotes around the word “study.”]

Jonathan: I’m back at Westmont. [A slow smile spreads across his face.] No idea when I’ll see Eric, but I suspect I’ll be seeing plenty of Caroline…

[Without Jonathan noticing, Frannie watches him, her hands balling into fists. She looks about to speak, but then–no–she stops herself. Her shoulders slump and Meredith can almost hear the thought passing through Frannie’s mind: How can I say anything? I’m only his younger stepcousin. It’s his own business, after all—who he falls in love with. Isn’t it?]

Meredith: [Casts a quick glance at Jonathan with a tinge of disappointment in her eyes and then looks around at the rest of the group. She realizes that it’s time to wrap up this interview.] My last question is…have you read any novels by Jane Austen? And if so, did any of them strike you as a little bit familiar?

[The Beresfords all look puzzled by the question.]

Tom: You mean Jane Eyre? I had to read that in Freshman Civ. I guess Frannie is a little like her, except not an orphan–

Rachel: Jane Austen didn’t write Jane Eyre, you numbskull. It was–it was–Charlotte Somebody.

Tom: Then what did Jane Austen write, Miss AP English?

[Rachel nails him with her bouquet.]

Jonathan: Frannie’s probably our biggest reader, Meredith. She’s your best bet.

Frannie: [barely above a whisper] Mansfield Park.

Julie: What?

Frannie: [more loudly] Mansfield Park!

Rachel: What is that?

Frannie: A novel Jane Austen wrote that feels familiar to me. It’s about a girl who goes to live with her wealthier cousins.

Rachel and Julie: Never heard of it.

Frannie: It’s not as popular as her other novels. [She looks up at Meredith with a shy smile.]But it’s always been my favorite.

Meredith: [smiles warmly at Frannie] The heroine of that novel has always had a special place in my heart, Frannie, even if she isn’t as universally liked as Elizabeth Bennet.

[Addressing the whole group, Meredith thanks the Beresfords for their time and for allowing her to ask them her questions. As she walks to the door, Meredith smiles to herself, still slightly amazed and excited by all that just took place.]

[a return of the blurry, wavy image and harp music]

Drifting back into a dreamless sleep, Meredith wakes up several hours later with her head full of Frannie and the Beresfords. Seeing that her dear husband is still sleeping, Meredith grabs her handy book-light, snuggles closer to her hubby, and eagerly opens her copy of The Beresfords, anxious to see what happens next…

Don’t you love it when a story just consumes you?