Plays

Scene 1.

He has broken his backbone and will spend the rest of his life on a bed, staring into a window through which the only thing to be seen is the sky. The only thing that the SKYWATCHER can do is reach to the nightstand with his hand. On the stand are many books. However, more often than reading, he reaches for a photograph and carefully examines it for minutes. His mind starts singing: "When you wish upon a star". Soon, it becomes, "when a red squirrel is far". Then, "what the grayest songs are". Finally, it reaches the farthest corner of stupidity: "when the rowboats row through tar". Meanwhile, the SITTING WOMAN periodically appears in the room. She wipes the dust off the furniture with a damp cloth. Meanwhile, she hums another song to herself. Like this, minutes pass until she finally addresses the lying man.

SITTING WOMAN: So, tell me.

SKYWATCHER: You can see yourself. Not a single cloud. I was so bored, I actually read one of these books.

SITTING WOMAN: It's August. And it's scorching.

SKYWATCHER: July was better. Many clouds. But, anyways, weather doesn't make a difference for Her. When it's hot, her Iceland may be the only one. On a cloudy day, she may not appear at all.

SITTING WOMAN: It could be the other way.

SKYWATCHER: It could be totally different.

SITTING WOMAN: What do you mean?

SKYWATCHER: I don't know. A person can be alive, dead, or a Skywatcher...or, a woman on a cloud.

SITTING WOMAN: You think she is a human?

SKYWATCHER: She looks like one.

SITTING WOMAN: So? Ghosts sometimes also look like humans.

SKYWATCHER: She isn't a ghost. Here she is. [shows photo]

SITTING WOMAN: [skeptically] Well...

SKYWATCHER: Are you still jealous of her?

SITTING WOMAN: Jealous? Only humans experience jealousy. Do you really think I'm human?

SKYWATCHER: Of course. Who else could you be?

SITTING WOMAN: I'm a sitting woman. Humans have names. I do not.

SKYWATCHER: You had a name.

SITTING WOMAN: Yes, once. Then, it floated away and that was that.

SKYWATCHER: [raising his voice with each word, screaming by the end and flailing his hands, while holding the photo] You had a name. You have a name. But I never call you by name because I forgot it. I forgot both names: yours and mine. I remember only one name. One single name. [flailing the photo] Hers! Hers! Hers!

SITTING WOMAN: [after calming his hands and gently putting them down] Calm down, my boy, and don't lie. If we don't remember our own names, we cannot remember hers. But forget about the nicknames. At least our feelings are still in tact.

SKYWATCHER: They broke. Like my backbone. They lay on the bed and look into the clear blue sky.

SITTING WOMAN: Too bad my backbone is in one piece. I could never be your...but forget about that. Now, you have a new romance. With this ghost from Iceland .

SKYWATCHER: [laughing] But what a strange romance!

SITTING WOMAN: You're tired. Fine. Put her on the nightstand and sleep. {she takes the photo out of his hands and puts it on the stand]

SKYWATCHER: I don't want to miss her.

SITTING WOMAN: It is only one o'clock in the afternoon. She doesn't come this early, you know that. Do you want to eat before bed?

SKYWATHER: Thank you, my girl, but I'm not hungry.

SITTING WOMAN: To drink?

SKYWATCHER: No. Can you wake me up in two hours?

SITTING WOMAN: Fine.

SKYWATCHER: Bend down. [she bends down and he caresses the top of her head] "Out on the street there's light, but there's no street in sight. "

SITTING WOMAN: [purrs of happiness as she continues his poem] "Out the window, there's rain. It patters on the window pane."

SKYWATCHER: [suddenly lifts his arms] Go. And wake me up at three!

SITTING WOMAN: [sings as she leaves] "When you wish upon a star..."

Lights dim. After a few seconds, the SITTING WOMAN comes back smiling into the room and lights go up. The SKYWATCHER immediately wakes up.

SKYWATCHER: I slept so soundly.

SITTING WOMAN: I'm so happy for you.

SKYWATCHER: The sky is absolutely clear! How boring!

SITTING WOMAN: Read.

SKYWATCHER: I don't want to.

SITTING WOMAN: I'll read to you.

SKYWATCHER: No.

SITTING WOMAN: Let's play the cities game. You name a city, I name one that starts with your city's last letter.

SKYWATCHER: Bujumbura !

SITTING WOMAN: Antananarivo !

SKYWATCHER: Oagadugu!

SITTING WOMAN: Ulan-Bator!

SKYWATCHER: Reykjavik, my girl, Reykjavik ! Go to your room, dear, she is here!

SITTING WOMAN: I'm leaving, I'm leaving...

Out the window, nothing can be seen or heard. However, the SKYWATCHER is definitely talking to someone.

SKYWATCHER: Yes, I made up a new poem. It's not good, though. Of course, I'll read it anyways...here: "Moles cannot see the wonders of the sky for they live underground and cannot fly. But when underground, they fly like arrows. They fly like black arrows no worse than black sparrows." You liked that? I don't...Come tomorrow! I'll write more! [getting angry] Why, why can't you be sure that you can come tomorrow?Do you have a boss or something? You're a free bird. You sit on your cloud and fly to me. By the way, why is the cloud in the form of Iceland ? [worrying] Why don't you ever answer any of my questions? Who are you? A fairy? A ghost? A woman? [listens for a long time and then answers calmly] I know. Of course, the important thing is that you love me. But you can't come down to me. Maybe someday, I'll be able to come up to you. When I die, right? What do you mean, maybe sooner? I can't get out of this bed when I'm alive! What do you mean, I'm lying? Aaaaaah!

Suddenly, he jumps out of bed as if he has been stung He convulses and moves in a rhythmic dance. Soon, the fast jerks become slow and he moves in a waltz. He spins, holding his hand out toward the window as if he holds Her, invisible Iceland . However, the dance ends and the SKYWATCHER returns to bed. He cannot get up.

SKYWATCHER: [calls] My girl!

The SITTING WOMAN appears immediately.

SITTING WOMAN: Has she left?
SKYWATCHER: Yes. We danced. Can you imagine? I got up from this bed, danced some crazy disco. Then, we danced the waltz.

SITTING WOMAN: [half to herself]...you poor thing...

SKYWATCHER: You don't believe me?

SITTING WOMAN: No. But let's not talk about it.

SKYWATCHER: But, look! My shirt is all wet!

SITTING WOMAN: [touches his shirt] I will give you a new one. You said Reykjavik , yes? Koatsakoalkos!

SKYWATCHER: Sevastopol !

[lights dim]

Scene 2

VITALY FRANTOV's kitchen. You can see a hallway with the telephone on a high stand.SVETLANA is at the oven. FRANTOV himself(he's about 40 years old), sitting at the table, chops vegetables.

SVETLANA: Let's go to Sevastopol on vacation. My uncle lives there.

FRANTOV: What about Koatsakoalkos? You want to go there? I have an Indian friend there. He has a feather on his head and a bag of arrows on his back.

SVETLANA:Koatsakoalkos? Where's that?

FRANTOV: Ask the Indian! I think it's either in Mexico or Chile . Somewhere in that basic area, anyways.

SVETLANA: So we're not going to Sevastopol ?

FRANTOV: Of course, we'll go. Tomorrow. I just have to make sure Gena leaves before we go.

SVETLANA: I have another idea. How about we leave everything and fly to Los Angeles ?

FRANTOV: No, dear. Los Angeles isn't for me. I like it here. My roots are here.

SVETLANA: But you're an orphan!

FRANTOV: Not those roots! My soul's roots! In America , I could never write you my phenomenal poems.

SVETLANA: [leaves what she was doing, goes up to Frantov and puts her arms around him] Read me one. But hug me tighter and read with a gentle, gentle voice.

FRANTOV: [in a gentle, gentle voice] Oceans have depth. Mountains have height. You have depth in your eyes and your body takes flight. What more could I need when you are so right?

SVETLANA: My god, how I want to go to Koatsakoalkos! [returns to the stove and Frantov continues chopping the vegetables]. You know, I understand Gena.What does he have here? A room in a dorm? He doesn't even have anywhere to invite people for his going away dinner. He had to ask you. The thing he needs is to run away from this crazy place. That is exactly what he's doing.

FRANTOV: He himself is crazy. He can't run away from the craziness because it is inside him. We're all crazy...They're ready, dear. You can make your salad.

[he gets up and, during Svetlana's next line, rummages around the kitchen murmuring "now where did I put them"? In the end, he finds a pack of cigarettes behind the bread on the bread rack]

SVETLANA: [making the salad] Now I just have to bake the pizza and dress. Then, I'll be ready to go...whether to Gena's going away dinner, or Sevastopol , or to your Indian friend. It's not a bad idea! Picture it: us riding in a carriage with horses down a prairie past cowboy saloons. Oh, and past short trees and gigantic cactuses! So gigantic that we'd need three days to get past just one...listen, Vitia. There are no eggs for the pizza.

FRANTOV: [yawning and smoking] Go to the market and buy some. It's only three minutes away.

The telephone rings.

FRANTOV: [picking up the phone] Yes! Oh...no, my friend is flying away and we're bidding him goodbye at my house...No, I can't.I'm not the one inviting the guests, he is! Tomorrow? Yes. Call me in the morning...what? I told you, I can't today! But...[the person on the other line drops the phone]. Women!

SVETLANA: What women dare call and make my love sad?

FRANTOV: Oh, it's nothing. Just my new girlfriend.

SVETLANA: Oh...well, I'm going to the market.

FRANTOV: Like that? In your bathrobe?

SVETLANA:It's only a three-minute walk. [she pecks him on the cheek and runs off]

FRANTOV: The last thing I want is for them to meet. It'll be like a soap opera. Oh, women, women...she'll still come, you see. Nothing will happen if there's an extra person at the dinner...oh, women!

The doorbell rings. Frantov's FRIEND walks in.

FRIEND: You're alone? Where's Svetlana?

FRANTOV: They'll come soon. Both of them.

FRIEND: [sees the potatoes lying on the table, grabs two, and starts juggling] Whop, whop! Catch! [throws one to Frantov who catches it and puts it back on the table] Who's the second? [throws the remaining potato from hand to hand]

FRANTOV: Inness

FRIEND: [juggling with the potato and a pickle now] A princess?

FRANTOV: She's a modern woman. I call her Inna. She has a wasp's waist, a dragonfly's eyes. But, when she's in bed, she hops like a gazelle.

FRIEND: [drops the potato and pickle onto the floor but doesn't pick them up. Instead, he picks up a table knife and twists it back and forth in his hand] What are you going to do with them both here? You think they'll get along?
FRANTOV: They'll have to. It's not like I invited her. The gazelle wanted to come herself. She doesn't know what she's in for.

FRIEND: Do you think they'll drive each other crazy?

FRANTOV: They're both crazy for me.

FRIEND: Right...

FRANTOV: Well, it's not like it's the first time that I'm stuck between a crocodile and tiger. We'll just have to put them in separate corners and get them away from each other.

The doorbell rings. In half a minute, Frantov, shocked, appears in the kitchen. Behind him is INNA in a bathrobe and with a carton of eggs.

INNA: [puts the carton on the table] What on earth happened here? Why are there vegetables on the floor? [picks up the potato and pickle]

FRANTOV: What are you wearing? There'll be people here! And...why the eggs?

INNA: There wasn't enough to make the pizza!

FRANTOV: How did you know that? Explain everything.

INNA: Of course I knew that you needed eggs. A woman must always know what her man needs.

FRANTOV: Not to the extent of eggs for a pizza, though!

INNA: To every extent, my boy. [She smiles and Frantov is stunned from her smile and stops what he is doing]

FRANTOV: [he has her in his embrace and kisses her hungrily, saying the next line between kisses] Things were so boring here without you! It's so good you're here. You smell so amazing. What an aroma! Oh, how your breaths get urgent when you're in my paws! You're the only one for me, the only woman in the world...

FRIEND: How about postponing the intimacy?

FRANTOV: [calmly pulls himself away from Inna] But why are you dressed like that?

INNA: I wanted to please you. [happily] And I got what I wanted.

FRANTOV: Listen...did you see another woman in a bathrobe at the market?

INNA: Why, everyone there was in bathrobes and everyone was buying eggs.

FRANTOV: Nothing else was being sold?

INNA: Oh, there were tons of things sold. Everyone was just buying eggs.

FRIEND: [juggling eggs] It must be a before Easter sale.

FRANTOV: Easter? What are you talking about? It's August!

FRIEND: Exactly. It's before next Easter.

FRANTOV: [smiling] Oh, you two...always driving me crazy.

FRIEND: [turning to Inna and stopping the juggling] Have we drunk champagne together yet, madam?

FRANTOV: Gena, don't scare the lady.

FRIEND: But we really haven't drunk champagne together yet! Nobody poured or offered us any.I distinctly see a bottle right behind you.Open it up! We still have two hours until the others get here.

FRANTOV: That's not for the guests.Get one from the table.

FRIEND: I can't. That's for the others. Why don't you go out and buy one?

FRANTOV: For your money?

FRIEND: Of course not. Come on, pal. Make your friend's last wish come true!

FRANTOV: [unhappily] Oh, fine. [he leaves]

FRIEND: [to Inna] Now, sit down on that stool. Let's get to know each other.

INNA: [unkindly] We already do. [she sits down]

FRIEND: As the classics say, once he sends his friend for a bottle, the bad guy starts flirting with his woman. Like this. [he puts his hand on her leg]

INNA: [not moving, calmly, smiling] Take off your claw before I bite it off.

FRIEND: [removing his hand] But I don't care about the classics. I'm a foreigner now. I can litter you with thoughts and ideas without caring if you take them in or not.

INNA: Litter somewhere else. This isn't your home. There will be people here, and they wouldn't want to walk into a littered house.

FRIEND: [juggling a carton of cigarettes and pack of matches] Don't worry. The kitchen hasn't been cleaned yet...you know, the first woman in the bathrobe is also his girlfriend. She went to get eggs for the pizza and hasn't come back.

INNA:[raising her eyebrows] I wonder where she is.

FRIEND: After you called, she left for the market and hasn't returned.

INNA: We need to find her! Someone must call her. I didn't want to...

FRIEND: She's probably at some sauna or pool somewhere. Or maybe she's sipping a martini off in the Caribbean.

INNA: I couldn't have caused that.

FRIEND: [stopping his juggling] She really loved him.

INNA: Do you know her phone number?

FRIEND: No. Vitaly knows, but he would never call. So what? So she left. If Vitia kept track of all of his girlfriends, it would become the only activity of his life. So, forget about Svetlana and make sure that the same thing doesn't happen to you. And to do that, you'll need my help. Point of advice number one: how to keep your man from finding a new girlfriend.

INNA: This should be interesting.

FRIEND: It's simple. Put a noose around his neck and don't let go of it until he vows to marry you.

INNA: I think our love...

FRIEND: [continuesher sentence]...is stronger than any noose, right? I've heard that phrase in this home more times than I've heard my name. Believe me, Vitaly is like Don Juan. If you want to keep him, make him marry you with force while he's still crazy about you. Tell him that either he marries you or you leave right now and leave him alone in bed tonight. It always works. If only one woman had listened to my advice, we would have been able to stop many the tears from having been shed in this house.

INNA: There is no way...

FRIEND: Hey! I'm just giving you a suggestion. Anyways, I know you'll do what I said. You're like that.

INNA: Oh, how I want to scratch your face off right now...

FRIEND: You wanted to bite off my face? Happily. [he extends his face towards her]

Suddenly, the door open and Frantov comes in, carrying a bottle of champagne.

FRANTOV: [opens the bottle] Opa!

INNA: First, call Svetlana.

FRANTOV: [to Friend] What a talker you are! You already told her about Sveta.

FRIEND: Of course.

INNA: If you won't call her, give me her number and I will.

FRANTOV: The phone book is by the phone. Her last name starts with the letter "Q".

INNA: [walks to the phone, finds the number, and dials. The men watch quietly.] Hello? Is this Svetlana?...Who is it then? Her sister? Can Svetlana come to the phone?...Oh...Well, thank you. [puts down the phone] Svetlana told her sister to say that she immigrated to the far north if anyone called.

FRIEND: What does that mean?

INNA: I wasn't told anything else.

FRIEND: What, did she freeze herself in the fridge?

FRANTOV: [smiling] It's not such a bad thing. Now, Inna and I can live happily with no girlfriends in our way. Inna, my dear, let's drink to us!

INNA: Sure, let's drink to your previous girlfriends. [she grabs the bottle and pours all of it down the sink]

FRIEND: Wow! Now, you've impressed me. [kisses her hand] Now that we don't have anything to drink, can I ask one last favor? The guests will arrive in an hour. If you live close, could you please run and change?

FRANTOV: He's right, dear. You shouldn't intimidate the guests.

INNA: Well, since you both want me to, sure. I live three blocks from here. I'll be right back. [she kisses Frantov and leaves]

FRANTOV: Should we start setting the table? [he gets up and starts towards the dining room]

FRIEND: There's no hurry. Sit on the stool and have a cigarette with me.

[they sit and smoke]

FRIEND: What a gazelle you have!

FRANTOV: They were all gazelles. But I should probably stop on this one. It's about time I stop, marry, and have little Frantovs, don't you think? I'll be old soon and I still need to have enough time to continue the family name.

FRIEND: So I'm leaving for Los Angeles without getting to see the event I've been waiting for for the last twenty years? Is Vitaly Frantov really going to marry? Or is this some joke?

FRANTOV: This isn't the situation for jokes.

FRIEND: So you suddenly want a wife?

FRANTOV: I have to get one sometime. It might not be a bad idea. Just flowing on a sweet, steady river with no surprises along the way.

FRIEND: I just think you're afraid that you're getting older and if you don't hitch your girlfriend now, there'll be no one else.

FRANTOV: That's not true.

FRIEND: But, you know, it's not like you'll have a choice. Take my word for this, soon, she'll lasso you and make you marry her or else.

FRANTOV: Don't over exaggerate. Inna is a great woman. I've come to the age where that's what I need: a great woman. With her own faults. Sveta was too much. She was like adding thirty spoons of sugar to your tea.

FRIEND: Well, that's your decision. But if she forces you to marry her, remember me.

[the doorbell rings]

FRIEND: Open the door for your girl. [when Frantov leaves] She bought the eggs, but is she ready to make the pizza?

[Frantov returns with Inna, who is now stylishly dressed. Blackout. When the lights come back on, we are in the same kitchen late at night. INNA, still in her stylish clothes, washes the dishes. FRANTOV dries them and puts them on the table.]

FRANTOV: How I love the time of the day when the night comes closer and closer!

INNA: Well, I love the early, early morning on a weekend. You're half awake and so relaxed. You can cuddle for a long, long time and then go back to sleep for a while. Love is better in the morning too. It's warm and velvety like a river at the same hour.

FRANTOV: My favorite part of the day is when the night is ahead. Everything is ahead: the caresses, the fire, and the delicious sleep. No, sleep isn't part of it. The best part is when your love is close, she's still dressed, and it's like I don't know what's under her clothes. I guess what she's like naked...

INNA: Well, I love the early, early morning.

[suddenly, the glass Inna is holding slips out of her hands and crashes to pieces onto the floor]

FRANTOV: Oh, Inna, Inna...it was a crystal glass.

INNA: I'm sorry. It slipped out by itself.

FRANTOV: Oh, forget about it. It broke by itself so it'll mend by itself. [he comes up to Inna and starts rapidly kissing her. Between kisses, he talks with a passionate voice] How I love the upcoming of our nights, my girl, my dearest gazelle. How I can't get enough of your caresses, your aromatic body, your biting teeth, your scratching claws, your rhumba dancing legs, your...

INNA: [slowly breaks free of his embrace. Sternly.] First marry me, and then dance the rhumba. [nicer] You're too used to winning women over all the time...

FRANTOV: [stares at her in shock] W...what are you talking about? What wins? What strange humor you have!

INNA: It's not humor, it's sarcasm. First sign the documents, then scratch me. For now, let's finish washing the dishes, and then you can walk me back home. [in a whining voice] To mo-oomy...

FRANTOV: M...mommy? D...documents? What is this?

INNA: If you don't want to marry me, you can find yourself another gazelle.

FRANTOV: Of course I want to marry you! [he tries to hug her again] But, right now, don't leave, dear. Don't leave me alone, don't kill me, don't...

INNA: [walking away] After our wedding, I won't leave you alone. So, are we washing or not?

FRANTOV: [calmly] Well, sure. Walk away. I don't need you. You're right, there are so many gazelles out there!

INNA: [her eyes suddenly fill with blood and she starts shaking as if she's in a trance. She screams and hisses.] Oh, but you won't leave me! Sssss! You won't get away! Sssss! You'll either marry me or die! Sssss! I'm the daughter of the viper and I have poisonous saliva! [she licks his cheek] You kissed me and now you're under my rule.I'm also the daughter of the boa-I'll suffocate you on this dirty floor, in the midst of these pieces of glass, in this puddle of spilled wine! [she kicks him down onto the floor and squeezes his throat. Frantov doesn't struggle, he just looks at her helplessly] Will you maaarry me? SSSSS!

FRANTOV: [in a coughed up voice] Yes...

INNA: Swear on your backbone!

FRANTOV: [coughing] I swear...

INNA: [lets him go. He slowly gets up and she, as if nothing had happened, continues washing the dishes] You're not hurt, right?

FRANTOV: No, but what does my backbone have to do with anything?

INNA: [jokingly shakes her wet finger in front of his face] Just try not marrying me and you'll find out!

FRANTOV: So you won't leave today?

INNA: No. You swore.

FRANTOV: [happy] Oo-la-la! How I love the upcoming of the night!

INNA: [dreamily] How I love the early, early morning...[they leave with their arms around each other]

[blackout. The lights come back on to a dim and we see FRIEND and SVETLANA sitting across from each other]

FRIEND: [he's juggling something, but you can't see what] What would you do if you were the daughter of a viper and boa?

SVETLANA: I'd hiss in the bushes.

FRIEND: You're very modest. In the bushes...most would hiss on their lover's neck in the situation.

SVETLANA: No, no. That could lead to suffocation. I wonder...with whom will I go to Koatsakoalkos now?

Scene 3.

[The SKYWATCHER, fixed to his bed, and the SITTING WOMAN. She reads to him.]

SITTING WOMAN: [puts down the book] There's no point to me reading this. You already know this whole book by heart.

SKYWATCHER: But I love listening to Pushkin in your voice.

SITTING WOMAN: Well, I'm glad to make you happy. Now, tell me. What's on your mind?

SKYWATCHER: I was just thinking. What if Iceland is just a dream like Koatsakoalkos?

SITTTING WOMAN: But she doesn't come to you on a cloud in the form of Koatsakoalkos. Or even in the form of Mexico or Chile- you never did find out where it is located.

SKYWATCHER: You think that the answer to who she is is in her form?

SITTING WOMAN: Maybe.

SKYWATCHER: But we can't solve her. And she won't tell us the answer. Even you, the one who cleans after me, can't tell me who you are.

SITTING WOMAN: I'm a sitting woman.

SKYWATCHER: See? So, then, how do you know about Koatsakoalkos?

SITTING WOMAN: [laughing] What if I'm the daughter of a viper and boa?

SKYWATCHER: Maybe you are. You just don't know.

SITTING WOMAN: Calm down. You're getting too nervous. Sometimes you shouldn't think about these things too much.

SKYWATCHER: I'm already nervous...look, it's night already.She didn't come today.

SITTING WOMAN: Maybe she'll come tomorrow at sunrise.

SKYWATCHER: How I love the early morning. You wait to see if there'll be clouds in the sky or not. If there are clouds, you create their personalities. Today there was one that looked like a straw house with a ballerina dancing on top of it. Then there was a wooden soldier on another cloud. And then, there was one of a man reading Hans Christian Andersen. I could see the book cover very clearly.

SITTING WOMAN: Well, I love the time of day when the night is ahead. You just lay and imagine what tomorrow will bring and nothing is there to disturb you.

SKYWATCHER: Let's play a game before bed.

SITTING WOMAN: Cities?

SKYWATCHER: No. Associations. You name a word or phrase; I'll associate it with something. Then we switch. The first to stop to think loses.

SITTING WOMAN: Pizza!

SKYWATCHER: A whole market in bathrobes!...Boa!

SITTING WOMAN: The love of a viper!...here's a hard one, Blue Whale!

[Skywatcher stops to think]

SITTING WOMAN: [clapping her hands] You lost!

SKYWATCHER: But there was no Blue Whale.

SITTING WOMAN: What about the rest of the things we said?

SKYWATCHER: They were there.

SITTING WOMAN: Are you sure?

SKYWATCHER: Positive

SITTING WOMAN: And you're positive there was no Blue Whale?

SKYWATCHER: There wasn't.

SITTING WOMAN: Will there be one?

SKYWATCHER: I don't know.

SITTING WOMAN: Are you sure?

SKYWATCHER: About what?

SITTING WOMAN: [pause] Well, then, let's have you use the pot and then go to bed.

SKYWATCHER: What about the Blue Whale?

SITTING WOMAN: "Whales cannot see the wonders of the sky..."

SKYWATCHER: "...for they live underwater and cannot fly. But when underwater, they fly like arrows. They fly like blue arrows no better than blue sparrows."

[they both laugh, like children]

Break

Scene 4.

SKYWATCHER: [talking to the invisible woman on the cloud] Can you at least answer one question? One single question? Is it true that you're the daughter of a viper and boa? Or were you her before?...What does that mean? Everything on earth is both truth and a lie?...I know, I know. The important thing is that you come to me almost every day and that you love me. Or is that too both truth and a lie? No, that is only the truth. I know that for a fact...what do you mean, partly? Who am I supposed to remember? The Blue Whale? How on earth do you know about the Blue Whale?...you're right. But how would the sitting woman know about Koatsakoalkos? Hey, hold on! How do you know about the sitting woman? I never told you about her. You accidentally saw her through the window?...right. The important thing is that you love me. Shall we dance?...What poetry? Oh, yes! I dedicated my new poem to you. "I don't know any words, but I believe in love. I don't know any words, but I believe in love. I don't know any words, but I believe in love." Did you really like it? Oh, I...hey! Where are you going? What about a dance? My girl, don't float beyond the horizon! [bawls like a small child] I want to dance, dance, dance! [cries]

[the Sitting Woman enters the room]

SITTING WOMAN: [strokes him on the head and calms him like a child] Don't cry, my little boy, she'll definitely dance with you next time. She wanted to, really. She just didn't have enough time. Don't be angry with us...

SKYWATCHER: [he is calm now] What do you have to do with anything?

SITTING WOMAN: I always have to do with everything when you're sad. What can I do to make you happy again?

SKYWATCHER: It's horrible: she already knows about the Blue Whale! It was only a night ago! She knows about you too. Do you two secretly keep in contact?

SITTING WOMAN: No, dear. She can just see a lot from her cloud.

SKYWATCHER: She probably hated my poetry.

SITTING WOMAN: I don't think so. I just think she was in a hurry.

SKYWATCHER: She always says that she loves me.

SITTING WOMAN: How can we not love you?

SKYWATCHER: "We" again! Admit it, you secretly talk with her. Tell me, who is she?

SITTING WOMAN: A woman on the cloud of Iceland . I do not know anything else. I swear, I've never seen her. And I don't think she's seen me. I just say "we" since she loves you and so do I.

[the doorbell rings. The Sitting Woman winces and the Skywatcher's hands start shaking.]

SKYWATCHER: Don't open it. It's a mistake. Nobody would come here.

[doorbell]

SKYWATCHER: There's no one home. This house is completely empty. Nobody lives here.

[doorbell]

SKYWATCHER: They're ringing for nothing. They could have as well rung the bell in front of a grave.

[doorbell]

SITTING WOMAN: Oh, I'll go. I'll send them away. [she quickly leaves]

SKYWATCHER: Don't!

[we hear the door being opened and a quiet conversation far away]

SITTING WOMANS VOICE: I don't know who he is, but he insists on seeing you, dear.

SKYWATCHER: Bring him in.

[the Sitting Woman comes into the room, followed by Frantov]

FRANTOV: [to the Skywatcher] So. Do you recognize me?

SKYWATCHER: You know, I don't right away...say your name, maybe I'll remember...

FRANTOV: Vitaly Frantov.

SKYWATCHER: [he picks up the photo from the stand and turns it in his hands] I've heard that name somewhere before...but where have we met? When? Please remind me...

FRANTOV: I would prefer to have this conversation without bystanders.

SITTING WOMAN: No you don't, dear gentleman! He's glued to the bed and can't defend himself. I'm his only defense. Even if he tells me to go too, I will not. Either talk with me in the room or...we lived just as well without you.

SKYWATCHER: Calm down, my girl. Nobody's telling you to go.

FRANTOV: Here, on your photo, is Svetlana with the last name that starts with a "Q".

SKYWATCHER: [he turns the photo to the back] What about now?

FRANTOV: What the...it's Inna the gazelle!

SKYWATCHER: Yes, it's a double sided photograph. But you're naming strange names once again.

FRANTOV: If it's not them, who is on these pictures?

SKYWATCHER: You saw for yourself.

FRANTOV: Are you saying that these women have different names?

SKYWATCHER: If they're women and if they have names.

SITTING WOMAN: And that depends on who is viewing the photos.

FRANTOV: My name is Vitaly Frantov.

SKYWATCHER: How interesting!

FRANTOV: You're lying, right? You're lying that you didn't recognize me?

SKYWATCHER: Everyone lies...I lie, you lie, we all walk as we lie

FRANTOV: Fine, then. Does this ring a bell: [starts singing] "when a red squirrel is far, when a rowboat rows through tar..."

SKYWATCHER: Oh, I understand! You're spreading propaganda about your new album! You're a singer, right? You want me to buy a CD or something like that! Probably yours.

FRANTOV: So that's who I am?

[a silhouette of Svetlana appears in the door]

SVETLANA: What did you think? [she disappears]

FRANTOV: [to the sitting woman, his voice shaking] Let me out of here!
SITTING WOMAN: Happily. [she leaves with Frantov. We hear the lock click and soon, she returns] What strange people live on planet Earth!

[both laugh. blackout]

Scene 5.

[a dead place. Either a field, a bog, or a cemetery with no graves. There is steam coming out of the ground. Through the steam, we see the WITCH and EYE. Further away, the dust covering him, is FRANTOV.]

EYE: [swings his crutch forward] Oh, stop it, witch. How can you possibly tell what the future will bring? You don't see the most important part of a person: the eyes.

WITCH: [points her long fingernails to his eyes] Well, I'm just about to push yours out! You old no good fake! I see a person as a whole, not as certain body parts like noses, ears, or eyes.

EYE: What's with you today, witch? [turns to audience] The eyes, so you may know, are the most important body parts! If you want, I'll tell you how old you are just by your eyes. Or, I can tell you all how you'll die just by looking into your eyes. You shrug away? You're scared!

WITCH: Don't bother the people...sheesh, you old useless fake. Don't bother people's heads! [moves forward, stretching out her fingers to his eyes] Oh, how I do want to scratch them out!

EYE: [taking a step back, frightened] Hey, hey, hey! Hey, witch! This isn't humorous anymore!
WITCH: [about to strike] Oh, I'll scratch them out. How I'll scratch them out!

[suddenly, out of nowhere, FRIEND appears in a vivid, colorful circus robe]

FRIEND: What the toadstools! [both the Eye and freeze and then stand up straight, side by side] Why did you bring a person here this late at night?

EYE: You see, boss, I saw something in his eyes that I could only tell him here. We were walking calmly when, suddenly, this witch started complaining.

WITCH: He's lying, Chief. You know he's an old useless fake. I just wanted to tell the person the truth. That's when this whole fight started. [points to Eye]He said I didn't know the truth.

EYE: Just listen to her, boss! She's so sure that she has a talent that she doesn't!

WITCH: Just look at him, Chief! How can you trust anything he does or says?

FRIEND: Quiet, both of you!

EYE: But, boss...

WITCH: But, Chief...

FRIEND: Silence! Now, Eye, go up to the person and tell him what you wanted to.

WITCH: [mumbling unhappily] Of course! Eye, go there, Eye, tell him that...it's always Eye!

FRIEND: [threateningly] What are you mumbling, grandmother?

WITCH: Oh, nothing, nothing. I was just counting crocodiles...

FRIEND: Talk, Eye.

FRANTOV: [his voice shakes] Gena! I was terrified when I tried to flee and couldn't. My legs were like cotton. Where am I?

FRIEND: See, toadstools, this person is going crazy with you two around. He called me, the Chief of all the souls, the God of juggling, Gena! What have you done to him? You will both be punished. Now, Eye, speak!

EYE: [peers deeply into Frantov's eyes. It's obvious that Frantov is uncomfortable, but he cannot look or move away] In your eyes is immobility. And, at the same time, a longing...for something light, pure, and puzzling. Probably for love. However, you will only be able to feel it when you're immobile. That is your fate.

FRANTOV: Could you say that more clearly? Without any fog?

EYE: You will have a huge soul movement while your body is not movable.

FRIEND: You never did marry Inna. You swore on your backbone, remember?

FRANTOV: All of that is a stupid thing, Gena or the God of juggling or whoever you are. I am so careful now that there are more chances that I'd give birth than fall.

FRIEND: You don't have to fall. One perfect morning, you could just wake up with a broken backbone.

EYE: And with a huge movement of the soul.

WITCH: [to Frantov] They're lying. Both of them are lying!

FRIEND: [angrily] You will be punished severely if you keep talking.

WITCH: I don't care. I just want to tell him the way things will really occur.

EYE: Shut her up, boss!

FRIEND: Why? Let's hear her myths and useless words out.

WITCH: [to Frantov] Well, when you break your backbone...

FRANTOV: Again?!

WITCH: Why "again"? You'll only break it once. Only there won't be anything [mimicking Eye] "light, pure, and puzzling". There will only be strong discoordination, craziness, and a confusing mixture of feelings and memories. And no love will cure you from the torture, numerous questions without answers, and many days and nights of staring at the ceiling. It will seem like it's endless, endless, endless...

FRANTOV: Get this angry witch away from me! I'd much rather have the Eye.

EYE: She's just gone crazy from anger. Everything will be like I said because love has the power to break all torture and terror.

WITCH: [spitting on the ground, turns to Frantov again] He's just making you feel better. Such a philosopher! No. Everything will be just as I said.

[Suddenly, Svetlana appears in a bathrobe]

SVETLANA: The Blue Whale agreed.

FRIEND: Oh? Fine, then. [to Frantov] Now, listen to me carefully. The Blue Whale, the God of the Ocean, which is the source of all life on Earth, agreed to let you see yourself a few years from now. You can see yourself, lying on a bed with a broken backbone. However, I'm not sure if the you in the future will recognize the you right now. You in the future will be a different person with different thoughts and feelings.

FRANTOV: Don't worry. I think I'll be able to recognize myself. Well, why not? This sounds like an exciting opportunity. Who could say no to excitement?

FRIEND: Fine, then. At least you'll be certain that we're telling you the truth, not just some made up predictions.

EYE: Maybe he shouldn't. I don't know how the future Him will react.

WITCH: Of course he should! It is very rare to be allowed to see yourself through time during life. He shouldn't just let go of this opportunity.

SVETLANA: And the Blue Whale did say yes.

FRIEND: Did he tell you how this is to happen?

SVETLANA: Yes. First, you must leave us alone.

FRIEND: Why?

SVETLANA: Otherwise, nothing will work out. So fade away.

FRIEND: Never! Why should I?

[sound of thunder]

SVETLANA: See? The Blue Whale is angry.

FRIEND: [frowning] Oh, fine. We're disappearing. [he, along with the Witch and Eye disappear]

SVETLANA: [throws herself on Frantov] Remember this and never forget: Iceland will float beyond the horizon and will one day take you along with her. I don't know who will be on her. It might be me, it might be half-me, or it might not be me at all. Iceland is the North while we dreamed of the South, of sizzling Koatsakoalkos. Don't be offended, dear, but it is true that you threw away our Mexico, our Chile . You sent me to the North like this, in a bathrobe. In the North, I'm helpless. I don't own Iceland . But you didn't give me any other choice...

FRANTOV: I don't understand. What Iceland ? What are you talking about?

SVETLANA: [steps back and gets serious] Fine, then. Let's start. I don't care how repulsive this will be to you, but you will have to kiss me very strongly and passionately. The way only you can kiss. After that, you must turn your back to me and walk, without looking back, to your home. Don't unlock the door. Instead, ring the doorbell. He will be there. Let's not linger. The Blue Whale hates that.

[they kiss passionately for a long time. Then, Frantov turns his back to her and quickly leaves.]

SVETLANA: [shaking her head] Oh, how wonderful, how wonderful, how wonderful...

[blackout. The lights come on to a dim and all the characters, excluding the Skywatcher and Sitting Woman, hold hands and run in a circle. In the center is a small circle of light. After some time, one of the characters leaves the circle, walks into the light, and says their line. Then, they return to the circle and constant movement. In the background sounds an old tango. When someone speaks, the music is brought down to almost silence. The lines are as follows:]

FRANTOV: [smoking worriedly]"Moles cannot see the wonders of the sky for they live underground and cannot fly. But when underground, they fly like arrows. They fly like black arrows no worse than black sparrows."

SVETLANA: [cuddling herself in her bathrobe] Don't be offended, dear, but it's true that you threw away our Mexico, our Chile .

FRANTOV: [smoking worriedly and singing] "When you wish upon a star..."

FRIEND: [juggling eggs] The Blue Whale, the God of the Ocean, which is the source of all life on Earth, agreed to let you see yourself a few years from now.

FRANTOV: [smoking worriedly and singing] "When a red squirrel is far..."

WITCH: [laughing wickedly] It's endless, endless, endless...

FRANTOV: [smoking worriedly and singing] "What the grayest songs are..."

EYE: [shaking his crutch] However, you will only be able to feel it when you're immobile. That is your fate.

FRANTOV: [smoking worriedly and singing] "When the rowboats row through tar..."

INNA: [jokingly shakes her wet finger in front of his face] Just try not marrying me and you'll find out!

FRANTOV: [thinking, with a cigarette in his dropped hand] "I don't know any words, but I believe in love. I don't know any words, but I believe in love. I don't know any words, but I believe in love."

Scene 6.

[The Skywatcher sleeps while the Sitting Woman sits nearby and reads a book]

SKYWATCHER: [wakes up and calls] My girl!

SITTING WOMAN: [quickly putting her book down on the stand] I'm here, dear!

SKYWATCHER: [beaming] Now I know everything.

SITTING WOMAN: What?

SKYWATCHER: Everything. About her, about you, about that strange man that came here today. And also, about pizza, bathrobes, Koatsakoalkos, and the Blue Whale.

SITTING WOMAN: What sort of a dream did you have?

SKYWATCHER: Oh, it wasn't a dream! I wasn't dreaming at all. At least, I don't remember dreaming. I just woke up and understood that I know everything. I understood everything right away.

SITTING WOMAN: So tell me!

SKYWATCHER: Tell you? Did you ever tell me anything about yourself? [mimicking her] "I'm a sitting woman, my boy, a sitting woman..."

SITTING WOMAN: But it is like that.

SKYWATCHER: Of course, who else could you possibly be? No, now, I've deciphered everything. I know everything. Plus, I know exactly what will happen to me in a half hour. [falls asleep again, but only for about half a minute. After he wakes up] My girl!

SITTING WOMAN: I'm here! So, what will happen in a half hour?

SKYWATCHER: [surprised] In a half hour? What's supposed to happen in a half hour?

SITTING WOMAN: You're asking me? You're the one who was saying that you suddenly understood everything about everyone.

SKYWATCHER: It's impossible to know everything about everyone. I would never say anything like that. You're pale. Maybe you fell asleep by my bed.

SITTING WOMAN: [softly and somewhat sadly] Maybe.

SKYWATCHER: Let's play associations.

SITTING WOMAN: No. You always lose at that as soon as things come to the Blue Whale.

SKYWATCHER: I won't lose now!

SITTING WOMAN: Fine. Blue Whale!

SKYWATCHER: Iceland floats beyond the horizon!

SITTING WOMAN: I don't understand.

SKYWATCHER: Didn't you know that Blue Whales live in northern seas?

SITTING WOMAN: That's not an association!

SKYWATCHER: It's close enough.

SITTING WOMAN: Well, what if I say this room in a half hour?

SKYWATCHER: [laughs] Iceland floats beyond the horizon!

SITTING WOMAN: What about me?

SKYWATCHER: It's enough that I love you.

SITTING WOMAN: Maybe for someone it's enough...but I have one last association

SKYWATCHER: Oh, no you don't! It's my turn! The daughter of a viper and boa. Your association?

SITTING WOMAN: I don't know. I give up. Tell me about the clouds.

SKYWATCHER: Today they don't have any form. Or maybe I've just forgotten how to read them.

SITTING WOMAN: That's impossible.

SKYWATCHER: [echoing] That's impossible.

SITTING WOMAN: What if we look together?

SKYWATCHER: [echoing] What if we look together?

SITTING WOMAN: See? There's a two-humped camel!

SKYWATCHER: It's a whole caravan of camels!

SITTING WOMAN: No. It's only one.

SKYWATCHER: They float one after the other. Then, they form a straight line and come together. They get closer and closer...it's a spinning circle! Yes, a spinning circle of camels! Of two humped whales that circle around some island...it's Iceland ! Iceland !

SITTING WOMAN: Should I leave?

SKYWATCHER: Run, fly away!

[the Sitting Woman quickly leaves]

SKYWATCHER: [talking to the invisible woman outside the window] You came to invite me to a dance?...No? I didn't guess right? Can I guess? If I do guess, will you tell me the truth? You came so that I could read a poem to you? No? Then you came to explain something to me? Not really? Well, maybe you came just to be with me? I'm getting warmer? What?...Not you with me but I with you? We'll ride on a cloud? Really? [he gets out of bed and walks to the window] Will the ride be long? Should I dress warmer?...You're right. I won't need clothes. The important thing is that you love me. [he extends his hand to the invisible woman and disappears out the window]

[Blackout. When the lights come back on, we see the same room. Only now, the bed is made and the nightstand is empty. Inna sits on a chair. Svetlana stands and leans on the windowsill. On the edge of the bed is the Sitting Woman in a white coat. The Friend enters.]

FRIEND: In ten minutes, we can leave. The body is in the car. Now we just have to fill out the death certificate and we'll be off. Any minute now, the chief doctor and Andrew Matveevitch should come in here. And there they are!

[the Eye and Witch enter]

EYE: You can leave soon.

INNA: Andrew Matveevitch, thank you so much for watching him, for your hard work...

EYE: Oh, no need to thank me. It's my job. Thank her. [he points to the Sitting Woman]

WITCH: Your friend was lucky. Andrew Matveevitch is the best doctor in our clinic and Irina is one of the best nurses.

SVETLANA: [sighs] If only he was saved...

WITCH: We did everything we could. But it was a hard case. He was locked inside his own world. It seems like it came after a major shock.

EYE: Actually, a situation like this can be curable. Here, though, we had an irreversible brain cutoff. We tried to talk to him, to make him talk, but there were no results. Ira, dear, he never did say a word, did he?

SITTING WOMAN: No. It seems, though, that, ever since he came here, he was thinking very hard about something. He would look out the window or at the photograph so deeply, I'm sure something was going through his mind. He had a photo of you [she gestures to Svetlana] up there. I changed it to try to get him to talk. I changed the photo to a greeting card with a Blue Whale. It didn't work. He just kept staring at the card and thinking. All like before.

SVETLANA: If only we could know what Vitalik Frantov saw before leaving us...

WITCH: I think he saw images that may not have made sense to any of us. Hallucinations, possibly.

SVETLANA: I think he was writing poems. Vitalik wrote poems a long time ago. They were so amazing.

SITTING WOMAN: Oh, I almost forgot! In the pocket of his shirt, we found a piece of paper with poetry. I put it on the on the nightstand, but the patient threw it off immediately. So, I put it away. [she takes out a crumpled piece of paper] Here.

INNA: [takes the sheet and reads] "I don't know any words, but I believe in love. I don't know any words, but I believe in love. I don't know any words, but I believe in love." I think he wrote this right before the trauma.

[Svetlana breaks down crying and quickly walks out of the room. The Sitting Woman follows.]

FRIEND: Sveta really loved him.

EYE: And he loved her?

FRIEND: To tell you the truth, I don't think Vitalik ever really loved anyone. He was a Don Juan. He just stopped his chain of girlfriends on Svetlana. She's still positive that he would have married her if not for what happened.

INNA: She's not positive about anything! She just loved him and that's that. It was hard not to love him.

FRIEND: You hear that? That's why I never showed him my Inna before our wedding. When he saw her at my wedding, I think his eyes sparkled and she too, I think, wasn't heartless towards him.

INNA: [ruffles her husband's hair] Oh, what a talker you are! At least stop for today! It was only a year after our wedding that the tragedy happened with Vitia. You had just come back from Los Angeles . And, anyways, he always acted very calm and held back around me.

FRIEND: Then let's leave it at that.

[Svetlana enters. Her eyes are red.]

SVETLANA: I think he wrote that poem for me, don't you, Gena?

FRIEND: Of course.

INNA: Of course he did. For whom else would he write it?

SVETLANA: So I did manage to wake up some love inside him?

EYE: Of course. Who wouldn't love a woman like you?

SVETLANA: Oh, you don't know him...but, I think he loved me for real! Right, Gena?

FRIEND: Of course, Sveta.

SVETLANA: [crying] Why did he leave our happiness? Why did he have to go?

EYE: Calm down. He's in a better place now than he was yesterday. He's in a better place than us right now, that's a definite. Calm down.

[The Sitting Woman enters with documents and papers]

SITTING WOMAN: Ok. The signatures are there. You may leave. We need to bring a new patient into this room.

WITCH: Someone new has come?

SITTING WOMAN: Yes. They just brought him and are looking for you. Here's his passport.

WITCH: [reading] Frantov, Vitaly...an interesting last name. What's wrong with him?

SITTING WOMAN: A broken backbone and a shutdown of the brain after a shock. Take a look yourself, though.

WITCH: Of course, I'll take a look. [sighs] It's endless, endless, endless...

SVETLANA: [shaking her head warily] What will the Blue Whale say now?

THE CITY PELICAN BEACH, AS WELL AS ALL CHARACTERS AND SITUATIONS, ARE FICTIONAL. THE STORY OCCURS IN AN AFFLUENT SUBURB OF MIAMI, PELICAN BEACH.

SUE

In a city park, bumblebees are bustling over blooming flowers. We watch the bumblebees circling around, as the camera focuses on the figure of a man, who is also observing the bumblebees.
We are now taken to a very dreary room, with almost no furniture, where SUE is thrashing from drug withdrawal. She feels horrible, she sobs, throws herself from wall to wall in the room, and screams explicatives. She's around 25 years old.

SUE. Where the fuck is that bitch? Goddamn asshole. I'm about to fucking die. Why didn't I stash some away yesterday? Idiot, dumbass! I'll kill that bitch, slice her face open, I'll...Fuck, fuck, goddamn, aaaaah!

MEG runs into the room.

MEG. Oh gosh, Sue, I'm so sorry honey, it's not my fault! The traffic was crap! SUE. Stop rambling, bitch, and give me my dose!

MEG. Ok, ok, just a second...here!

The takes out a syringe from an unknown location, already full of a liquid, and injects Sue. Then, she puts her arms around her, stopping Sue's thrashing, and holds her.

MEG. Shh, shh, it's ok, it's all going to be ok. Calm down now, honey. Everything's going to be super now...shhh...don't cry now...

A city park. SUE slowly walks down the path, biting her lip. She sits down on a bench. At a distance, we can see the man from before, who is observing the bumblebees. The man is MAX. But for now, we focus on SUE, who is mumbling beneath her breath.

SUE. Of course you'll go there, dumbass. There's no doubt about it, you'll go there right now. To hell with all the doctors, the three months sober, to hell with it all. What's the point if you're still going to go there right now...and you knew it from the start! You knew you'd end up there. No, no, remember the detox, that hell when Meg was stuck in traffic. Just remember it and head home! You're ok now, it's just a craving. Deal with it! But why? For what? For who? Come on now, Sue, let's get up, one small shot, and you'll forget about it all!

She stands up from the bench and, with determination, starts walking away. Suddenly, she stops behind MAX's back, who has suddenly started chuckling.

SUE. Yo! Are they showing cartoons there or something?

MAX (turning, smiling). Uh-huh. About bumblebees! Check it out!

SUE (walking up to the bush, standing next to Max, observing). Huh. You're onto something, bro! I could stand here and look at these guys for a lifetime.

MAX. Whoa, for a whole lifetime?!

SUE. Why not? Just stand here and watch the bees! (anxiously) Forget about everything the fuck else, don't think, don't see...except I guess I'd get famished, but that's ok, must be nice to just croak of hunger and not...(stopping herself). Sorry. Forget all that. I'm a bit of a freak at the moment...(holding out her hand). Sue.

MAX. Max.

SUE. (almost to herself) Buzzing and buzzing, these striped birdies. Like tiny saxophones. MAX (genuinely amazed). Saxophones? Hey, that's good. Like genuinely really, really good. SUE. I wrote poetry in high school. How did it go? "Bloody petals of a rose and the bees like saxophones. Endless ecstasy, pizzazz, roses gaze as bees play jazz." It's bullshit! But anyways, I guess I've had a long-reaching affair with bumblebees.

MAX. It's not bullshit at all. Bloody petals is a bit cliche, but otherwise...take the word of an English nerd, you've got talent! Do you still write now?

SUE. Right now...I just got done earning a couple of bucks in the Burger King kitchen and am headed to buy a hit of something to forget about the world for a while. I was sober for three months but now....that's it, it's time! (Irritated) What now, English nerd? Are you going to lecture me on the dangers of drugs and all that bullshit?

MAX. Why don't you come with me instead?

SUE. You want me to come over and fuck? Right off the bat? Will you throw me some change in return?

MAX. I haven't eaten since breakfast. And now it's 4pm already. Come with me and grab a bite. My treat.

SUE. Trying to seduce me after all, huh? Well, alright. Let's go.

They leave, laughing.A table at a small cafe. Sue has a gyros platter in front of her, Maks has a platter of dolmades. Both are drinking beer. He's eating and drinking slowly, she's eating awkwardly, sometimes swallowing a few bites at once, sometimes pausing mid-bite for a while.

SUE. So, English nerd, huh? Did you major in that shit in college, or what?

MAX. I knew you'd ask. That's why I brought you to this restaurant. Yes, I majored in English literature, but I teach Greek mythology and literature now.

SUE. You teach it? That's awesome. At a college?

MAX. At a university. In Miami.

SUE. Were you born here?

MAX. No, I grew up in Nebraska. In Omaha. I came to Miami for college. Just as I was about to graduate, the professor teaching Ancient Greek history retired. I happened to be researching translations of Ancient Greek texts into English. I guess I was in the right place at the right time. So they offered me the position.

SUE. You've got to be fucking kidding me! I, Sue Smith...what an original last name, right? You'll find ten Sue Smiths on every corner! Anyways, I, Sue Smith, addict and whore, am sitting in a nice Greek restaurant with a professor of Ancient Greek literature!

MAX (harshly). Sue, stop that bullshit right now! Stop bringing yourself down. If you're just trying to make me pity you, you're failing hard.

SUE (matching his tone). You, pity me? What for? I am what I am! I'm a cliche: I live in a cheap kennel, I rent it basically for free, there's basically no furniture there. I go through detox all the time...to buy a dose, I steal or fuck for money. With men, with women, it doesn't matter. As long as they pay up! I got fed up with this life, checked myself into a clinic, walked around clean for three months - and now I want it again! So fucking bad, I know for a fact I won't resist it. Cross my heart.

MAX. And your parents?

SUE. What parents? Mommy threw the bundle containing me on some random porch, and that was that.

MAX. Fuck. Sue, baby, you've been through so much....

SUE (laughing). Baby Sue? Ha! I've always thought you nerds were a bit loony! MAX: But that porch...someone opened the door and took you in?

SUE. Of course, what do you think? If they hadn't taken me in, I wouldn't be sitting here with you, Socrates! That house belonged to a spinster, a librarian, Margaret. She raised me. She was a good woman, but there wasn't any love.

MAX. Did she hurt you?

SUE. No, never! But we were both secretly looking forward to the day when I would grow up and leave, and we'd set each other free. And when that day came, we both didn't cry much, when we said goodbye. After school, I shot across to the other end of the country, from Seattle to here. To find a new life! Back in Seattle, I even started college. I was a biology major, can you believe it? But then I quit it all. So yeah, I got too fed up with living with Margaret, fled here, bounced around from job to job for a year, and then my co-worker at Burger King, Meg, introduced me to heroin. And that was that, I tried it once and never went back, pathetic dumbass me! MAX. Sue, please, I asked you before...

SUE. Ask your ass! (Suddenly, she catches herself and grabs his hand, stroking it nervously). Max, I'm sorry, please forget that, it's your fault, you knew who you asked out to dinner...I'm sorry, you...you're really a good guy, you know? I...I mean...I haven't met anyone like you since high school.

MAX. I've forgotten it all already. No worries. (They finish eating, he signs the check.) SUE. Will you invite me to come home with you? Maybe then I'll resist, won't run for a new hit right now. Or do you have a wife and kids there?

MAX (smiling). Nope, only a mess and books. But, sure! Let's go.

SUE. Cut the crap, Max. I know you've been sitting there wanting me this whole time. Just sitting and wanting! Admit it!

MAX. Of course. I'm a normal guy, after all. And it's been four months since I last had sex. SUE. Well, I'm not going to pretend I'm some innocent saint. I've fucked all sorts of assholes, and now I actually like a dude, and what? I won't fuck him? Although, maybe we can stop by Meg's first, for a hit? My treat. We'll relax a bit, loosen up...

MAX. Then go. Go back to your kennel. I thought we were planning on relaxing in a different way? In a much less life-threatening way? The opposite of life-threatening, in fact. SUE. Fuck, alright! You got condoms? They gave me all sorts of STD tests at that clinic, I'm all clean, but still, with a girl like me, better safe than sorry!

MAX. You'll find everything in my chaotic apartment. From condoms to a tome of Tennison. SUE (sighing). Socrates! (They both laugh.)

Max's bachelor apartment. It looks pretty spacious and expensive but quite disheveled, with random items strewn around. SUE and MAX are laying in the bed, nude, his arm around her. They smoke.

SUE. But that's impossible!

MAX. What's impossible?

SUE (trying to hide her tears). All dudes, and chicks too, actually, are such assholes when it comes to fucking. My first guy, in 10th grade, he was nice, but we didn't know what the fuck we were doing. Everyone else simply used me as a scapegoat for all of their anger. They did whatever their animal instincts told them to do to me. I was nothing to them - they'd probably treat a doll better - a doll would be more expensive, after all! But you...all gentle, making sure that I - I! - ...felt good. You didn't fuck me, you didn't take me, you...you...I don't even know the word...

MAX. I made love to you. I loved you.

SUE (half crying). Y-you l-l-loved? Yo, Socrates, be careful with your words, I might freak out and throw a fit if I hear such, such explicatives again.

MAX. Want to throw a fit? Throw one! Let yourself explode, don't hold back. I think you need that.

SUE. Max, I just realized...can you believe it? I don't want another hit right now. Like, not at all. MAX. But that's impossible! You were on the edge, could barely get ahold of yourself, and then a little bit of sex, and you're cured?

SUE (sniffling). Turns out it wasn't sex, but...I can't say it out loud...how can anyone say such things out loud, so directly? Not just sex, but...oh God!

MAX. Say it. Not just sex, but what? Say it, Sue. Say it, baby, come on!

SUE. Love! (almost sobbing) Max, my Socrates, I'm 24 years old but this is the first time I feel like saying to myself, "Sue, you goddamn asshole, don't you see now, that happiness, that that fucking fairytale, is actually possible! And hey, you even know now what it looks like!" MAX. I'm 32, I've always been told I'm a good boy, I've seen happiness too...but only now can I say to myself, "Max, man, you only managed to climb to the summit of this Everest the moment someone called you Socrates!..." [after a pause filled with Sue's sniffles] Do you think we're rushing what we're saying here?

SUE. Fuck it. Rushing, not rushing. Who cares? I feel so good right now...and so scared...MAX. You're scared this will end one day and the passion will go away? SUE. I'm scared I'll want it again, you know? Right now, it seems that we'll get through anything together, but I was hooked on the needle for 5 years...I'm so scared...we can't just go through the rest of our lives like this, laying here, cuddling...I'm only 24, of course, I could get a degree, become someone, find a good job...I was a good girl in school, you know? I came up with poems, got only As and Bs...Fuck, Max, what am I going on about out? This is so dumb. MAX. Maybe it's dumb, yes. But let's try it! Together.

SUE. Together? Why the fuck would you want that? Find a nice wife, pop out your babies, and go on and live a cake of a life!

MAX. But you really don't want to take a hit right now?

SUE. I swear to god, no. I swear. I'll die underneath a ratty bridge if I'm lying! MAX. What do you want, then?

SUE. I want you. To make love...have sex...to fuck like animals...with you, it doesn't matter. With you, I...(suddenly, she completely breaks down, sobbing loudly, falling into a hysteria. He silently strokes her thrashing body and kisses her...every part of her...)

3.5 YEARS LATER

A January evening. Pouring rain out the window. We are in Max's apartment, but it has changed - there's new furniture, more paintings on the walls, everything is clean, orderly. We are now taken to the kitchen, and we see SUE and doctor JEFF LINDEN having tea and cookies. Dr. Linden is a man around 60 years old, with a very respectable appearance. Sue is speaking, and Jeff is listening attentively, occasionally nodding in understanding.

SUE. You see, doctor, Max and I had so many happy moments. And...other types of moments as well...Especially when I broke two times at first. The second time, we almost had to check me back into the clinic, but no, it all turned out fine in the end. We overcame it ourselves. Both times, Max got me out of it, and I...I tried too, although I screamed at him and thrashed around in hysteria. But he didn't even try to leave me or anything like that...and we did it! We got through it together. And I guess those are also very happy moments!

JEFF. Of course!

SUE. And after that...there were two years of absolute happiness. I worked as a librarian's assistant at first, I was good at it...Margaret was a librarian, and I often visited her at work after school. I studied in parallel, remembered my biology, got into college, and now I'm a sophomore! Can you believe it? But what was I going to say? Ah yes. Back then, on our very first night, when we held each other and I was crying, and then we made love intermittently, I suddenly realized: I can do it! Even if it's not right away, even if the road ahead was going to be full of potholes, I could do it! For the sake of Socrates, this guy who was basically a stranger at that point...but it didn't matter, because it was such happiness, such love, such a goddamn bitch of a thing! It was just...

JEFF. A summit of happiness?

SUE. A summit, yes! (She smiles and engrosses herself in her memories.) BRUCE

We are outside the small but architecturally pleasing Philharmonic building in Pelican Beach. BRUCE approaches, walking quickly with a lively gait. He is a white-haired man, around 70 years old. Near the entrance, a bumblebee suddenly appears. Bruce tries to shoo it away unsuccessfully before walking into the building and closing the door behind him, leaving the bumblebee outside.

BRUCE (muttering to himself). Roy, this is my last chance, really my last...I won't leave you alone, just like that bumblebee. Either I'll convince you or I'll shoot myself in the head out of this clarinet, straight dab in the middle of your office! (He chuckles loudly, catching the attention of the 50-year old woman walking past. She has a flute in her case, and Bruce waves). Hey there, Melissa! Just laughing at my own joke, heh!

MELISSA (smiling). No worries, Bruce! See you at rehearsal!

BRUCE: See you!

The symphonic director's office. ROY is sitting in an armchair with a concerned look on his face, while BRUCE nervously speaks, occasionally sitting down in a chair, occasionally standing up and walking around the office.

ROY. Of course, I would really prefer not to change tonight's programme. BRUCE. Of course! Many of the people who paid for tickets are specifically looking forward to this Saint-Saëns sonata.

ROY. Yes, but many of them were expecting Andy's solo!

BRUCE. But Andy is in the hospital half-conscious after a stroke! An Andy solo tonight is impossible.

ROY. Yes, I know. You don't need to tell me that.

BRUCE. Then what's the problem? I know perfectly that, in the last 25 years of this orchestra, Andy has always been the only solo clarinet. He's our first clarinet, after all! And of course I know that I, a second clarinet, am not supposed to ever have solos at all. But hear me out, Roy! I've been working here for 42 years, I know almost every song, almost every part we've ever played, I memorized them as a boy! I've been playing them for myself my whole life! (With tears.) And Saint-Saëns...is love. It's my soul, my lifelong dream - to play that sonata in front of the entire audience! This is my last chance. My only chance! I'm 69!

ROY. But we only have one rehearsal left, today at noon.

BRUCE. One is more than enough! You'll see, I know this sonata by heart, there won't be any problems. It's the obvious solution, Roy, much simpler than changing the programme and putting in the Haydn symphony that you want to cram in there.

ROY. Haydn's 85th symphony. We just played it a few weeks ago. There shouldn't be any problems.

BRUCE. But just think about it! People are coming to listen to Saint-Saëns, and you throw Haydn at them, who they already heard a month ago! It's foolish, you know I'm right! ROY. You probably are...but...how is your lip?

BRUCE. Excellent! I'm in remission - it might be the last, but it's the longest one yet. Plus, I'll take some painkillers just to be safe.

ROY. Are you certain? You know you play like a buzzing bumblebee when your lip is acting up...With an orchestra, we can muffle it, but with a solo, I'm sure you understand...BRUCE. Roy, I promise you...I've never made promises I couldn't keep, you know that. (Wiping a tear, confidently). I won't let you down. Give me a chance. Give me this one evening. ROY (thinking for a long time, moving his lips silently, shuffling some papers on the desk, spinning the chair around.) The rehearsal is in two hours. Be there.

BRUCE (collapsing onto the chair, muttering, not fully understanding his happiness yet) Yes, of course...Roy...I'll be there...I'll go now...get the clarinet ready for battle...(he scurries out of the room).

ROY (laughing). Save the gratitude for after the battle! Bruce, you old arse.

Fragments of the concert. BRUCE solos in Saint-Saëns' clarinet sonata. We see different snippets of scenes. Bruce on the stage, playing the concert. The musicians of the orchestra, the camera pausing on ROY and MELISSA. The audience. The entrance to the philharmonic building with the bumblebee circling outside its doors, as if awaiting Bruce. The people walking past the building and the cars on the road. For a while, we follow the cars down the highway and see the beach with hotels, large umbrellas, people swimming and sunbathing. Pelicans sit on wooden poles sticking out of the ocean. The camera zooms in on them, and at that moment the sonata ends, and we're immediately taken back to the auditorium, where we see the triumphant BRUCE bowing and the audience standing, applauding loudly.
The audience leaves, and we are taken to the backstage room where BRUCE, standing in the doors, is addressing an unseen person who is on the way out.

BRUCE. Thank you again! I'm so touched! (Almost immediately, MELISSA appears in the door.) Oh, Melissa! Come in!

MELISSA (walking in, kissing Bruce on both cheeks, sitting down on a chair, facing Bruce) Well, congratulations, hero! I see they've smothered you in flowers and kisses! It was incredible, Bruce, I don't remember seeing that much passion even among the most famous superstars! And you know we've had our fair share of them here in Pelican Beach, definitely no less than in Miami, thanks to all the wealthy symphony aficionados in the area.

BRUCE: Meli, cut it out, don't make me blush. I honestly don't fully understand right now who I am, where I am, and what I'm doing.

MELISSA: Well, you know I would never lie to you.

BRUCE. Jokes aside, this is it, Meli. My summit of happiness. I couldn't even dream of it happening like this. I mean, God knows I don't mean anything bad by it, and we're all hoping for Andy's quick recovery! But this solo of mine, it could have never happened - it never should have happened! And now, at the end of my life...

MELISSA. Bruce!

BRUCE. You know, towards the end, I started feeling my lip. Thank god I took the painkillers before the start of the performance. Otherwise, I would have embarrassed myself, would have buzzed like a bumblebee, as Roy says...

MELISSA. Does it hurt now?

BRUCE. Yeah, it's warming up now, ready to take its course. I'll have to take that poison again tonight before bed.

MELISSA. But your eyes...they're so happy! It's like you're 20 and madly in love. You know, Bruce, for as long as I've known you, it's always been just you and a clarinet. Two old-time companions. Your lips, back before they started hurting, did they ever touch anything a bit less...wooden?

BRUCE (laughing): Melissa, you flute witch, what is this? You really are trying to make an old man blush, aren't you? Of course, I've had relationships with women, but I never got married. MELISSA. Will you whisper in the year of an old friend of the trade, why? I'm dying to know...but I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm saying. I've never asked anyone anything of the sort before, and suddenly...forget about it!

BRUCE: It's alright, Meli, since you asked, I'll tell you. I'm going to die soon and otherwise no one will ever know...the truth is, it seems I've truly only ever really loved one woman, but I never told her about it.

MELISSA: Are you serious, Bruce? But how can that be? Or did you see her, fall in love at first sight, and then she vanished, moved away, and you haven't been able to fall out of love? BRUCE: That would be very romantic, Melli, but alas, my story is a bit more pathetic. I saw her - see her - practically every day.

MELISSA: Oh god! She's your neighbor, right?

BRUCE: In some sense, yes...

MELISSA: Has she attended our concerts?

BRUCE: Oh yes! She loves our orchestra. Her and I, we've often talked about music. In fact, it's safe to say we've mostly only ever talked about music...The first time I saw her, she was a young

girl. She was only 25, and she was actively getting ready for her wedding. I had just turned 40 two days before we first met, at the start of July. At that time, I had been living for several years with a schoolteacher from Miami Beach, but that relationship was headed more towards its end than towards a wedding. These things happen. And suddenly, she appears - in a short blue dress, all summery, exquisite! And from that day, she's the meaning of my life. Of course, all sorts of things happened, I won't lie, but I've always loved, and continue to love, only this woman. For 29 years!

MELISSA: No, I simply don't understand! Couldn't you have approached her, told her...! BRUCE: She appeared in my life in July, and the following March she got married. She has a happy family, children, how could I intrude? But her blue dress, the one she was wearing that day, always flashes before my eyes. Every time I'd talk to her about something silly, every time I'd hear her retorts. I even observed her life sometimes in secret, from a distance, when she didn't know I was watching. Just to make sure she was happy.

We see a few short flashbacks. In the flashbacks, we constantly see a WOMAN IN BLUE, but always from the back. Sometimes she talks to BRUCE.

Flashback 1: She is in the park, running towards a young man, they hug, kiss, and fall down, still kissing, onto the same park bench where Sue noticed Max observing the bumblebees.

Flashback 2: In a small room, we hear her conversation with Bruce, who is off camera. WOMAN IN BLUE. I wonder...am I the only human being on planet Earth who doesn't love Mozart?

BRUCE. I'm certain of it. How is it possible not to love Mozart?! Shush. WOMAN IN BLUE. I'm ashamed of it as well, but I can't force myself to! I'm so sorry, Bruce and Wolfgang Amadeus!

BRUCE. We'll forgive you...for now!

Flashback 3: She's strolling down a beach at sunrise. The beach is empty. The pelicans sit on their wooden perches. She is with her husband (the same man from the bench) and two children - a seven year old boy and a four year old girl. We see the husband and children clearly but we see her only from the back, just as before.

GIRL. Mommy, do the pelicans eat fishies?

WOMAN IN BLUE. Yes, they do.

GIRL. What do the fishies eat?

WOMAN IN BLUE. They eat other fishies or seaweed.

GIRL. Mommy, mommy, who eats the pelicans?

Flashback 4. The same situation and setting as flashback 2. The woman in blue converses with Bruce, who is off-screen.

BRUCE. He's too earthly, your Brahms.

WOMAN IN BLUE. Are you insane? Brahms is the heavens - he's entirely celestial! BRUCE. Now Bach - that's where the skies are!

WOMAN IN BLUE. Alright, alright...let's leave the skies to God. We have so much here...clouds, birds, stars...

Flashback 5. The Pelican Beach Orchestra plays. The camera shows them from behind, starting with the back of the drummer, then moving on to the clarinet section, where we recognize the slightly slouched back of Bruce. Everyone is dressed in formal wear, with the exception of the bright blue summer dress of one of the flute players. And even though the audience has long come to understand who it is, the camera slightly turns, and we see the face of that flute player - it's MELISSA. We then zoom out to the entire orchestra, playing Brahms' Third Symphony, but Melissa is now dressed formally in black, like everyone else, and the blue dress floats through the auditorium, stopping briefly outside Bruce's dressing room, and then floating out of view. We return to the dressing room. BRUCE and MELISSA.

BRUCE. Well, that's it. I can't believe I was enough of an idiot to admit all of that to you. MELISSA (in a stupor) But I...I of course suspected it deep in my heart...but I convinced myself such thoughts were lunacy...you never even hinted at it to me.

BRUCE. I'm a Cancer astrologically, a sensitive soul who excels at hiding my feelings underneath my claws. You should have seen yourself then, as you were strolling down the beach. You should have seen your family. Four little lights of joy on a seashore.

MELISSA. And what am I supposed to do with this now? How am I supposed to live with this? BRUCE. Just as you lived before. Very soon, I'll stop flickering before your eyes every day. But in your memories, you'll always have one additional person who loved you. MELISSA. Bruce, but this is...this is...(crying, she quickly kisses him on the lips and just as quickly leaves the room).

BRUCE. Meli! One more thing! You don't know, there was one moment, when we sat next to each other on the plane to Minneapolis!

But she is already fleeing, almost crashing into doctor JEFF LINDEN, who has appeared at the door with a giant bouquet.

JEFF. Oh, pardon me!

MELISSA. No, no, it's my fault! Excuse me! (she quickly leaves, practically running) JEFF. Bravo, bravo, maestro! (He hands Bruce the flowers)

BRUCE. Thank you, doctor, I'm touched! Were you waiting outside the door? JEFF. Yes, for about ten minutes. I didn't want to interrupt your...mmm...confession. BRUCE. You heard it then?

JEFF. It would have been impossible not to hear! I delicately tried to keep my distance, but nevertheless...but today, you'll forgive me, I know! Today you'll forgive everyone for everything, maestro!

DOUG

Happy music plays as the camera spans the beach at Pelican Beach. Waves are high on the ocean. Many people play with the waves by the shore, a few others have decided to go in a bit deeper for a swim. We observe life on the beach. Some are sunbathing on the beach chairs, some are playing cards, a few children animatedly build a sand castle. Seagulls, pelicans, and ibises stroll across the sand or fly over the ocean, periodically swooping down to grab a fish. In the horizon, we see a cruise ship, closer to the shore there are a few small boats, jet skis, small sailboats. A few people surf...
Far from everyone, in a far corner of the beach are OLIVIA and DOUG. They're playing on the waves, sometimes grabbing each others' hands. They're both around 45 years old, but it's clear they're enjoying the waves with the energy and fervor of teenagers. Suddenly, a huge wave comes in and, to the sound of Olivia's laugh and scream "Oh no, farewell, love!", the wave covers them over their heads. Once the wave settles, we see this same couple, but 20 years younger. She is still playing on the waves, standing with her back to him, and he stands by the water's edge and looks out at the ocean and at her. The same far-off secluded part of the beach. A wave pulls off Olivia's swimsuit bottom, she quickly grabs it and pulls it back up.

OLIVIA (turning to Doug). Did you catch a peek?

DOUG. What?

OLIVIA. Did you catch a peek at my butt?

DOUG. Yes.

OLIVIA. What'd you think?

DOUG. Very impressive.

OLIVIA. I'm glad you enjoyed the free show! Only for you, Mister! (She bows and walks over to him). But really, I'm almost a showgirl if you think about it: I show people pretty pictures, charts, and other colorful little things.

DOUG. I don't understand.

OLIVIA. I'm a primary school teacher. (She extends her hand.) Olivia.

DOUG. (Shaking it.) Doug. A boring engineer from a company that constructs bridges. OLIVIA. Bridges? Bridges aren't boring!

DOUG. Well, maybe not if you're talking about the Brooklyn Bridge or the Golden Gate. But we work on those dull bridges that are built by the thousands alongside every highway you've ever been on. For example, our latest project - a bridge over Maple Creek in Georgia. OLIVIA. So what's a hot guy like you doing stuck in some stuffy engineering office? DOUG. If I elaborate, I worry you're going to run away far off into the ocean. Unfortunately, I genuinely really enjoy it. Or, to be precise, it's not like I'm obsessed with bridge building, but it's absolutely the best way for me to make a living. I know how to do it well...Honestly, I much preferred the conversation about your butt. Of course, it's within your rights to accuse me of sexual harassment.

OLIVIA. For sure. I'll call the police now.

DOUG. Go ahead. But grant a man who's about to go away to prison his last wish - I'd love to get something to eat first. (He points in the direction of the boardwalk.) There's a place I love out there, "By the Shore". They have good food, in spite of the cheesy name. Shall we? OLIVIA. Yeah that place isn't bad, I like their crab linguini. But I need to run home and change into something a bit more restaurant-friendly. Seems you do too. Meet you at five outside the entrance?

DOUG. Hold on, does that mean you'll go to dinner with me? Was it really that easy? OLIVIA. You just got lucky. I'm single right now, and I'm bored.

DOUG. Of course, definitely not because I, as you put it, am a "hot guy". OLIVIA. That also influenced the decision. You're my type. Is that better? DOUG. Much better. As for me, I fell in love with you before I even saw your face. OLIVIA. That's just vulgar.

DOUG. Apologies!

OLIVIA. Forgiven.

DOUG. Wanna bet we get married one day?

OLIVIA. Guaranteed. A bridge over Maple Creek is my destiny. And you, I see you're a local? Not a tourist?

DOUG. Yes, of course, I grew up here. In Pelican Beach, in the Little Hills area. OLIVIA. Me too...well, mostly. My parents came here from San Diego when I was three. I live right by the coast, in the Charleys.

DOUG. Whoa, so you're from the rich crew, huh? And those kids, I bet you teach them at a private school?

OLIVIA. Mhm. At the Coastal Private School. For three years now.

DOUG. Cool!

OLIVIA. My dad is a senior manager for the Celebrity Cruise Line.

DOUG. (bowing his head) I accept the position of an unworthy subordinate. I, you see, grew up with my grandparents. My parents had just enough time to give birth to me before they were both thrown off the skiing track up in the Adirondack Mountains.

OLIVIA. I'm so sorry!

DOUG. It was a very long time ago.

OLIVIA (after a pause). You know, before I started college, my parents and I spent two months traveling around South America, I even took a few tango lessons in Buenos Aires. Will you dance the tango with me?

DOUG. But I've never taken lessons, and, if I'm honest, I dance like a rhinoceros! OLIVIA. That's ok! You just have to convince yourself that you know how to do it and, most importantly, that you'll die if you don't dance the tango with me immediately!

The shouts of the beachgoers, along with the entire beach, blur away into the background. Piazzola's Undertango plays. Doug and Olivia, still in their swimsuits, start to dance the tango on the sand. As the dance continues, they are suddenly wearing bright dance costumes and are taken somewhere outside a small restaurant in Buenos Aires. People at the tables observe them. The dance ends and the audience applauds. And suddenly we're back on the beach at Pelican Beach - she kisses him, fervently, deeply.

OLIVIA. (breaking away). No. No, I'm rushing things. What will you think of me? DOUG. "A media luz los besos, a media luz los dos." I studied Spanish a bit in high school, and I also love watching Argentine tango. Surprised?

OLIVIA. Mind-blown! See you at "By the Shore", caballero! (she kisses him on the cheek and quickly leaves)

We return to the present day. 45-year old Doug and Olivia are jumping on the waves, until another large wave covers them over their heads, and we are taken to a time about two years after their first meeting. They are on their honeymoon, dressed in many layers, stepping out onto the street from a small hotel in northern Norway. It's night - Northern Lights are in the sky.

OLIVIA. Isn't it incredible? We've been here for a week, and now this is the fourth out of seven days that we can see the Northern Lights! I thought we might catch a glimpse of them once, and even then if we're very lucky.

DOUG. I promised you, didn't I? It's the end of February now, in this part of Norway they're visible almost every day this time of year. For the entire winter, actually.

OLIVIA. And we still have one more week to go! You and I, we picked the best honeymoon destination!

DOUG. And we'll get to explore the rest of Scandinavia a bit more too. Tomorrow we fly to Oslo, since we're in Norway already. Then to Stockholm and Copenhagen. We were absolutely right - northern countries are best seen in the winter.

OLIVIA. But it's cold as hell!

DOUG. After the humid madness we live in, this cold is curative. That ski trip yesterday was amazing!

OLIVIA. Yeah, no worse than in Colorado!

DOUG. This is completely different. In Colorado, everything is fashionable, touristy. Everywhere you look, you see the lights of another ski resort. But here - these are almost completely uninhabited slopes!

OLIVIA. (pointing to the Northern Lights) Look, it's even bigger now!

DOUG. If I remember correctly, Northern Lights occur when the upper layers of the atmosphere meet the solar wind. I think the charged particles...

OLIVIA. Hey! Bridge-builder! One more peep in this direction, and you'll lose your wife! DOUG. Alright, alright, Olive. I'll admire it in silence!

OLIVIA. That would be a wise decision.

Grieg music plays. Olivia and Doug observe the Northern Lights in silence. She presses herself close to him and he wraps her in an embrace.

OLIVIA. I'll want to go back to the hotel soon! I'm freezing! Let's finish watching them from the window. I know that through glass is not the same experience, but I think I'm going to become an ice sculpture pretty soon! And I've noticed you shuffling your feet too...DOUG. Alright, let's go in. We can observe them from the window.

OLIVIA. (playfully nudging him) And then you'll warm up my frozen butt? DOUG. How could I not? You know I fell in love with your butt even before I fell in love with you!

OLIVIA. (suddenly growing serious, looking at him directly for a long time, then kissing his face) Oh God, Doug, do you have any idea how much I want you? Maybe the Northern Lights can wait a bit? (They hug and head back to the hotel.)

Once again, we return to 45-year-old Doug and Olivia playing on the waves, but this time the large wave covers only Doug, and we see him, in his current 45-year-old form, walking down the beach. This beach is completely abandoned, it's very early, the sunset can be seen peeking through the horizon. Doug is talking on the phone.

DOUG. Hey there, Olive! Why are you up already, you're usually such a sleepyhead!...Come out here to our beach, I'm out on a walk, if you hurry, you'll get to catch a bit of the sunset with me!...Well, as you wish, lazy-bones! Is Chris still sleeping? Well, of course, I forgot he was at a party last night!...Oh, hang on, it seems I'm not the only early bird out at this hour! Do you know who's walking towards me? My doctor! Yep, Doctor Linden. Alright, baby, I'll chat with him and then come home. Bye!

He approaches JEFF.

JEFF (smiling). Ah, Doug! Great to see you! Morning walk?

DOUG. Good morning, Doctor! I walk here every morning on the weekends. Occasionally with my wife or son, but most often alone...

JEFF. That's wonderful! Alas, I rarely have time to partake in such walks. It's either work or laziness...how have you been feeling?

DOUG. Alright so far, although recently I've started feeling my kidneys a bit more often...but forget about that, we have an appointment on Thursday evening, we can talk about my kidneys then. To speak of illness on a morning like this...

JEFF. You're absolutely right, I agree 100%! It is indeed such a beautiful morning!

JEFF

A hospital room. On the bed is STEVEN. He is dying but has become lucid for a short time. Next to him, sitting on a chair, is doctor JEFF LINDEN.

STEVEN. Well, it seems I'm back again through the haze of the pain and the drugs that kill the pain along with my conscience. You know, I taught Philosophy in Miami for 40 years. And I often think about my life through theses. What do you think, doctor, and be honest, is this my last lucid moment? My last moment where the pain isn't too bad, and at the same time I can think clearly?

JEFF. If I'm honest? Probably one of the last. Your liver cancer is now in metastasis in practically every part of your body.

STEVEN. They say only alcoholics get liver cancer, but I barely drank anything in my life, aside from the occasional beer. Not because I was morally or clinically against it or anything like that, I just never really took to the taste of it.

JEFF. Yes, the statistics point in favor of the heavy drinkers, that is, against them, not in favor of them...But you are a philosopher, you understand that life and statistics don't always correlate...STEVEN. Absolutely! But I want to tell you something else. On the very last day, right before I could no longer handle the pain without the drugs, I remembered my classmate Monika. She was

from Poland and was also crazy about philosophy. I believe we spent more time debating about the significance of different phenomena and ideas than we did making love. Very soon, we got married. And as soon as we debated through to the idea that, in a marriage, it would be logical to have some children...that day we were watching some comedy on TV...she cuddled up to me, put her head on my shoulder, and died.

JEFF. Goodness, Steven!

STEVEN. An aneurysm or something like that. She was 29 years years old! But that's not what I was thinking about. In that moment, I saw us on a bench in the city park, here, in Pelican Beach, when our relationship was just beginning, the day before we spent our first night together. The weather was beautiful, not too hot, and there were bumblebees and butterflies fluttering around us...We were discussing Kierkegaard's paradoxes, and in the pauses, we'd kiss until we felt faint. And after that, we would kiss until we felt faint and in the pauses we'd fight over Kierkegaard. That park bench...we nicknamed it Kisslosophy - oh what a happy place that was!

JEFF. I love our park, I also happen to have more than one romantic story associated with it. STEVEN. And then the cancer started taking its toll, my conscience was blocked by painkillers. And I thought...why couldn't I have died then, somewhere in the middle of my memories. To die with my lips pressed to Monika's lips in my mind! And that would be that - from her lips to God...(Grimacing in pain) Alright, doctor, call the nurse, I can't bear this anymore...

SUE

We return to the park where Sue first met Max. MAX is sitting on the bench, SUE is sitting next to him, but she is getting ready to leave.

SUE. Alright, I'm off to the hospital.

MAX. I don't like this. It's all so sudden. It's Saturday morning and suddenly you get this call from the doctor asking you to stop by today...

SUE. Stop freaking out ahead of time, Socrates. Doctor Grace just said she's going on vacation next week.

MAX. But this is about your mammogram results! You refused to have one until your lump started hurting regularly. I begged you!

SUE. But we had more important things to do. I was studying, you took me on vacation to Europe, and then I ran into Meg and almost flew off the hook for the third time...MAX. Just like the first two times. But this time I knew what these meetings with Meg lead to. She has an effect like you, like a red flag on a bull, you just can't say no to her! SUE. Fuck her, let her rot in hell! But my boobs didn't hurt at all - I thought it was some sort of pimple, it'll go away on its own. Anyways, why do all this guessing and panicking? I'll just run over to the doctor's and we'll find everything out. It's just a 5 minute walk, I'll come back in a half an hour. And then we can go party, celebrate our three year anniversary! We have a reservation at a restaurant, right?

MAX. Of course. I reserved a place in Miami two weeks ago. I can't remember the name now, but it's that French place you were saying you really wanted to go to.

SUE. Awesome! Are you headed home now?

MAX. Nah, I'll wait for you here. It's a beautiful day, I'll get some fresh air, check my email...SUE. Cool, I'll come back here then. Alright babe, I'm off! (She kisses him and leaves)

Max sits on the bench, scrolling through his phone. We see Sue talking to Doctor Grace. We can't hear the words, but their faces are both far from happy. We return to Max - Meg is walking past the bench and calls out to him.

MEG. Hey there, Max!

MAX. (Looking up.) Hello and goodbye! Just keep going wherever you were headed. MEG. Ah yes, how could I forget? I'm enemy number 1 to the nerds of the world! I just won't give up on my attempts to get the whores they married back on the needle! SUE. Don't be jealous. If you remember, Sue is over two years sober and is studying at the university now. And she would have been sober for even longer than that, if you hadn't crossed our path. Shoo, Meg. Sue will be back soon, and I don't want her to see you. MEG. I couldn't give a shit about what you want! I miss my friend!

MAX. Your friend is a tailless lizard and not Sue! That and the needle!

MEG. Oops! Here she comes!

SUE appears in the distance on the path, heading towards the bench.

MAX. Shoo, quickly!

MEG. Yeah, yeah! (She waves her hand) Hey there, girlfriend!

SUE. (Throwing herself at Max, sobbing into his shoulder.) Max. Max!

MAX. Sue, baby, what? What??

SUE. (Through tears) Max, it's cancer...at some sort of fucked up late stage...Without treatment, I'll be dead within a month, with treatment, within seven or eight...Max, they're lying...no, it can't be, no, Socrates, no?!! You, you saved me. I just started a good life, a normal life. Tell me, tell me they're lying, they're fucking lying...just say it, and it'll be true! MEG. Well, fuck! What'dya say to that Max? You took her off the needle, all that throwing up and madness, and after all that, you still can't evade death, huh? Guess that's just your fate, girlfriend! To croak young!

MAX. Shut up, bitch!

MEG. Yeah, I'm a bitch. And I'll also croak from an overdose, probably not much later than your Sue, if not before. But the difference is that I get that and have come to terms with it and I'm not trying to go out of my way to change anything.

SUE. Meg, go away now, or I'll strangle you, I swear. Not a single cop can stop me. Leave us alone!

MEG. Alright, alright, I'm gone! Love and happiness to you two lovebirds! I wish you that from the bottom of my ass! (She quickly leaves.)

SUE. That bitch is right, isn't she? I can't evade fate? I should have just stayed with her, died of an overdose, I should never have met you!

MAX. Don't say that, baby. We've been so happy - for three whole years. Do you really want to erase them from your life?

SUE. Don't listen to me...I just don't want you to hurt...My love, my Socrates, I know, I know for a fact how much you're hurting right now! My everything! (She throws herself at him again and sobs, sobs...)

BRUCE (flashback)

Inside an airplane. Bruce and Melissa sit next to each other - Bruce in the aisle, Melissa by the window. Over 20 years ago - Bruce is around 50 years old, Melissa is 35. MELISSA. Once we land in Minneapolis, I'm going to lock the hotel room door, plop down on the bed, and sleep like a groundhog. Otherwise there's no way I'm rehearsing tomorrow, let alone performing tomorrow night. Our Tony is of course the greatest kid on planet Earth, but if only he'd go to bed once in a while...

BRUCE. He's a year old now?

MELISSA. Will be at the start of April.

BRUCE. Who is with him now? Your husband?

MELISSAAt nights, after work, yes. Otherwise, usually either my parents or his. Whoever can

take some time off work. That's how it's always been - my husband and I and four grandparents - whoever is free gets Tony.

BRUCE. If everyone's working, wouldn't it make sense to get a babysitter? MELISSA. Maybe, but we're managing for now. Although we're not the poorest of families, we still can't throw our money to the wind.

BRUCE. Does he cry a lot? Tony?

MELISSA. If our orchestra played while Tony cried, it would be no louder than a mosquito in the middle of a stadium.

BRUCE. (chuckling) Get some sleep, Meli. It's still two hours to Minneapolis, and the upcoming concert isn't the easiest. Even if you consider just the Shastakovich!

MELISSA. How's your personal life going? Sorry if it's none of my business, but we're friends, and I'm curious.

BRUCE. No worries, it's not a secret, because I don't have a personal life. That is, not that it's completely empty, but nothing serious.

MELISSA. Got it. Listen, I wanted to ask. I noticed a tome of 19th century English poetry in your dressing room. Are you into that?

BRUCE. Yes, I love poetry, just like I love everything else that comes out of music. MELISSA. That's deep, Bruce!

BRUCE. (laughing) What can I say? I'm a local Socrates!

MELISSA. Can you recite anything from memory?

BRUCE. I doubt it, sadly.

MELISSA. Alright. Then I'm going to get some sleep.

BRUCE. Of course, that was my suggestion too...

Melissa quickly dozes off. Half asleep, she rests her head on Bruce's shoulder and falls into a deep sleep.

BRUCE. (very softly)

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight
Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.
I will make a palace fit for you and me,
Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.
I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,
Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom,
And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white
In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.
And this shall be for music when no one else is near,
The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!
That only I remember, that only you admire,
Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire

(Melissa most likely doesn't hear this, but she smiles in her sleep.)

BRUCE. A roadside fire, Meli. I'm just a roadside fire in your life. You'll sit next to it, chat a while, and move on down the road.

DOUG

A large swimming pool at Doug and Olivia's home. Their 15-year-old son, CHRIS, is swimming laps, training for speed. OLIVIA swims slowly in a corner of the pool that doesn't interfere with Chris's laps.

CHRIS (stopping). This heat is a devil! Even the water doesn't help.

OLIVIA. What do you expect? It's the end of July.

CHRIS. Yep, the thirtieth. Tomorrow is dad's birthday. The last one, huh? OLIVIA. Shut your mouth, Chris!

CHRIS. But Doctor Linden said that there's half a year left at most, and I Googled kidney cancer...and metastasis...

OLIVIA. Chris, I asked you to shut up!

CHRIS. Why? Why can't we talk about it, mom? Are we ostriches with our heads in the sand? OLIVIA. First of all, ostriches don't hide their heads in the sand. Second of all, my fervent teenager, I know all the facts myself, but I don't want to talk about it. Do you want to make me cry?

CHRIS. I don't know, but to hold it all in...I haven't seen you cry a single time since the day we found out...

OLIVIA. You just haven't seen it. To stoop so low as to cry in front of others! That's not for me. Your father saw it, the pillow saw it - that's enough.

CHRIS. In front of others? I'm - others?! I'm your son! It's not my fault that dad has cancer! OLIVIA. That's it, Chris! One more word and I'll seriously get mad.

CHRIS. I couldn't go to school for two days. I was crying in my room. Every time I remember our walks on the beach, our basketball games in front of the TV and at the courts, our trips, the three of us, the Celebrity cruises around the Caribbean, and then to Canada, to Banff park - every time I think of them, I cry! I...I love him, mom, though he drives me crazy and we butt heads all the time. That's just me being a dumb teenager. And you - you don't love him at all! OLIVIA (slapping him in the face) You're not a dumb teenager, you're a fucking little asshole! (slapping him again)

CHRIS (tears in his eyes, but trying to speak with encouragement) Yes! That's right! Good! Take it out on me. Take it out on anyone. Just let it out! Come on, mom! Cry! Break down! You're going to die of a heart attack before dad's even gone - you can't hold it all in inside, I know, I Googled it!

OLIVIA. (suddenly laughing) I wish you'd Google something about your own problems for a change! Here with me, you're so bold and loud. But in class you're silent, always scared of everything.

CHRIS. (getting angry) That's not true!

OLIVIA. I saw you making circles around Emily Jackson, but you couldn't just walk up to her and start a conversation like a normal person!

CHRIS. (turning red) Mom!! You were spying on me?

OLIVIA. Just a little...(She suddenly hugs him) Son...all people are different, have you Googled that? I'm typically a very social person, but when tragedy strikes I become a terrible introvert. Not because I don't want to throw my pain at other people, but because I can't act any other way. When I'm alone with your father, I'm still capable of it. But even with you, I can't. We've always been able to talk, to share secrets, but to share pain...

DOUG. Yeah, I've always known that you love dad more than me.

OLIVIA. Five minutes ago, you were saying the opposite. But that's not the point. Maybe I don't have the strongest maternal instinct in the world, but I'll catch the devil in an instant for you, tie him up, and make him lick his own ass!...Oops, sorry!

They both laugh.

CHRIS. If I'm honest, even a year or two ago, I would get really mad at you guys. Even though you spoiled me all the time, even too much, but when you two look at each other - you should see it! You've been together for so many years, but even when you fight, that glance you give each other still flickers there...there's no way to put it in words, that glance is so...OLIVIA. Loving?

CHRIS. Nah, it's even crazier, deeper...I don't know...

OLIVIA. Why don't you Google it?

CHRIS. (chuckling) Cut it out mom!

OLIVIA. Doug and I...we're one whole. I really hope you have that one day too...(winking at him)...with Emily Jackson!

CHRIS. Moooom!

DOUG enters the pool area and immediately jumps in, splashing his wife and son over their heads.

DOUG. Opa!

CHRIS. Dad, are you allowed to do that?

DOUG. Why not? I promise, I'll try not to get my kidney wet.

CHRIS. That's a really bad joke.

DOUG. I have this dream...maybe it won't work out and I'll be foggy from the painkillers or screaming from pain, but my goal is to end life with some sort of joke. His last words were, "Hey, nurse, it looks like those flies on the ceiling are fucking!"

OLIVIA. Doug! In front of our child!

DOUG. Our child probably wouldn't mind trying it himself, with, what's her name? Emily Jackson?

CHRIS. Are you two in cahoots or something today? (He splashes his parents, they splash him back, a water fight starts in the pool, everyone is laughing)

SUE

MEG approaches the door of Sue and Max's apartment and rings the doorbell. No one answers, even when she persists, continuing to press the button. Then Meg tries the door handle - it's not locked. Meg walks in and shouts.

MEG. Hey, Sue! You home? Guess not...

Meg walks in further, intending to go to the toilet, but then she notices SUE sitting on a chair in the kitchen. Her head is on the table, facing away towards the window.

MEG. Ha! Max steps out and you get drunk? If you're not lying, that is, and you're actually clean. Even so, you may be clean, but you're drunk as a hog! And Max? Where's that nerd gone to? Out on a business trip, since you've let yourself go like this?

She walks up to her and touches her shoulder.

MEG. Wake up, girlfriend! I've got two words to say to you. (No response.) Susan, motherfucker, wake up!

(She moves Sue's head towards her and recoils, screaming. Then she retches and rushes to the toilet, vomiting. Even though Sue is clearly dead, her body hasn't started decomposing yet).
Meg leaves the bathroom and stands, leaning against the wall, pale and shaking. Finally, she grabs her cell phone.

MEG. Wait a second, hold on, Maggie. Think. The cops won't leave you be if you call: how did you end up alone in a stranger's house with a corpse? Who are you, anyways? Uh-huh, Maggie Lowell, druggie, slut, has a record for theft, what a great candidate to throw in jail for murder and get an award! Stop. But it seems Sue died herself, or drank too much, or had an overdose...in any case, no point in calling the cops. I better run - I was never here! Just gotta wash the vomit off the toilet...

Suddenly, Max appears.

MAX. Meg? What the fuck...(he suddenly notices Sue and rushes to the kitchen). Sue, baby! (He feels her pulse, confirms that she's dead, but the shock suppresses his emotions for now.) Meg, what did you do to her?

MEG. Exactly what I thought! If you hadn't caught me here, you would be torn with doubt and guesses, or you would be calling the cops already. But here I am on a silver platter - Meg the whore, culprit of all crimes. How convenient! Bye-bye nerd, hope you don't go bankrupt on the funeral! (She turns to leave)

MAX. You fucking bitch!

He has now fully acknowledged everything, he sobs and is not in control of himself, not understanding anything. A kitchen knife lays on the table. He grabs it and throws it in the direction of Meg, not aiming and not trying to hit her. However, the tip of the knife does hit Meg, right in the neck, and bounces off. Meg falls. (Max rushes to Meg.) No, the knife didn't hurt her, it barely scratched her. There isn't even any blood. Meg, come on, get up! Don't be an idiot! Aaah, fuck you! (He calls 911.) Some time passes. We see the police SERGEANT in Max and Sue's apartment and a DOCTOR. SUE and MEG lay where they were, MAX sits on the floor and observes without seeing, constantly breaking down into sobs.

DOCTOR. Both women are dead. Their hearts stopped.

SARGEANT. For both of them?

DOCTOR. Yes.

SARGEANT. (To Max) What happened here?

MAX. I...I didn't murder anyone, I swear...I...I'm Socrates.

SARGEANT. Your name is Socrates, sir?

MAX. Max Dern. I'm Max Dern. My girl...Sue..the one over there on the table...she called me Socrates...She...She had...cancer, she didn't have long left to live but...but...NOT LIKE THIS! Doctor, her heart...did it stop because she was afraid of dying...from cancer, I mean...from fear...her heart stopped?

DOCTOR. Seems so, but the autopsy will confirm it.

SARGEANT. Who is the second one?

MAX. Maggie Lowell..back when Sue was doing heroin, they were friends...that bitch got her into drugs...I came home from work and saw her...and Sue...DEAD SUE! SARGEANT. And that's why you killed her?

DOCTOR. Hold on, Sargeant. I just told you: their hearts stopped. Although I might hypothesise that mister Dern threw a knife at her, and...

MAX. But she was saying horrible things about Sue, about a dead person! MY SUE! And look at her, the knife only left a small scratch...I'M NOT A MURDERER, I'M NO MURDERER! I'm Socrates...

DOCTOR. True, the knife barely grazed her, but it seems she became very frightened, and her heart couldn't handle it. Although I can't be certain until we do an autopsy. SARGEANT. All right, I'll call in my guys, they'll do their survey of the room and take away the bodies. As for you, Mr.Dern, you'll need to come with me.

MAX. No, I beg you...I need to bury Sue. No one else cares about her.

SARGEANT. And nevertheless, you and I will go to the station now. It's possible that we'll just send you home and tell you not to leave town, and then we'll start the investigation after the funeral...but I can't guarantee anything, it's not my decision. The police in Pelican Beach are a little softer than the ones in Miami, but throwing a knife at another human is definitely outside the realms of the law.

MAX. Thank you, Sergeant. (He throws himself at Sue, wrapping his arms around her). SARGEANT. Hey there! You can't touch anything!

MAX. It's the end of us, baby. The end of us.

BRUCE

MELISSA walks through the hallway towards the exit of the philharmonic building. JEFF appears on the upper balcony and calls to her.

JEFF. Excuse me, ma'am!

She turns.

JEFF. Could you please come back?

MELISSA. What happened?

JEFF. My name is Doctor Jeff Linden, Mr. Bruce Connaway was my patient. He just passed away.

MELISSA. (quickly ascending the stairs) Oh, God! No, it can't be. You misunderstood! Such a triumph, he can't die after such a night. Please check again - he just fainted from all the emotion! JEFF. Mrs...

MELISSA. Just Melissa. the emotion! JEFF.

JEFF. Melissa, unfortunately, I'm a doctor. I am not mistaken. It's possible that his heart couldn't handle such triumph, so many emotions. I just called the police, but they might need you to confirm the identity. I implore you...

MELISSA. But he just...Oh God!

JEFF. He just admitted his love for you, yes. Yet another emotional stressor. MELISSA. Stop it! Do you want me to blame myself for his death?

JEFF. Of course not! But this many emotions in one evening, even positive emotions, and at his age...(they reach Bruce's dressing room.) Let's go inside.

In the room, they see Bruce, laying on the floor.

JEFF. Please try not to touch him.

MELISSA. Bruce! Don't you dare, what have you done? (She carefully brushes her hand across his head and face). I'm sorry, doctor, I'm just...ever so lightly. It's not a crime scene, after all! JEFF. No, but that's the rule.

MELISSA. Did it happen in front of you?

JEFF. Yes. He sat down on the chair and I heard a gasp - and that was it. It seems his heart stopped. Often, if a doctor is nearby at that moment, they can start the heart again. I tried, but alas, in this case it was irreversible. That can also happen, and quite often. MELISSA. (angrily) Was it really an irreversible case, or was the doctor just a so-so doctor? JEFF. If it's easier for you to think that - please do, by all means! But what has happened, has happened.

MELISSA. By the way, you got to touch him, didn't you?

JEFF. I know how to do it carefully. And I wanted to save him, so that gives me some rights. MELISSA. I'm sorry, doctor. I lashed out at you...Bruce and I, we've worked together side-by-side for so many years and also...but I guess you heard?

JEFF. Accidentally, yes. Don't apologize, I understand.

MELISSA. Our Bruce...it's so wonderful that he got to play that solo...(She cries.) JEFF. You know, Melissa, I was his oncologist. Here's what I can tell you. He was on the last stage. Metastasis had spread to his internal organs. All the treatments that we had been doing for over 10 years would no longer have helped him. One or two weeks maximum, and Bruce would fall into a world of pain, foggy consciousness, hallucinations. He would die among nightmares, not always understanding who he was or where he was. But this way, he died at his summit of happiness. At his peak of positive emotions. He triumphed in his first solo concert, he finally admitted his love to the woman who he had loved his entire life but shielded, not wanting to cause harm to your life and family....He sat down in his armchair with a smile on his face, in a room full of flowers! And that's how he died. Wouldn't everyone dream of a death like that? MELISSA. Well, yes...I agree...yes...He...it's like he didn't fall when he died, but instead he soared...

JEFF. Exactly, Melissa! That's a perfect analogy!

MELISSA. And as he soared, he heard the echoes of Saint-Saëns, of the clarinet sonata that he played today. Bruce, I know you're just not answering us now because you're so immersed in the music, isn't that right?

DOUG

Doug's funeral. In the distance, a priest speaks in inaudible tones. We see people dressed in black, including CHRIS, who is right by the coffin. A bit further away, OLIVIA converses with her brother, NOAH. He is about 15 years older than her, and it is evident that he is not a poor man. Even his black mourning clothing is expensive and well-groomed.

NOAH. I need to apologize for not being around.

OLIVIA. Yes, you do.

NOAH. But you know, my business in Chicago needs me to constantly be there. And when I'm not at work, Jill and the kids also need some of my time...

OLIVIA. Shut up, Noah. I couldn't care less about your excuses. You and I have never been close. You came for Doug - thank you for that. And let's leave it there.

NOAH. But why lil'sis, we don't have to...

OLIVIA. I beg you, please be quiet. I can't stand looking at everyone, at everything right now. Please just step over there and give me some space.

NOAH. I noticed you've been standing so far from...from him...

OLIVIA. From the casket? Yes, I see everyone throwing judging glances at me. I couldn't care less. When they start lowering it, I'll approach. And even then, only because that's what I'm supposed to do...

NOAH. Liv!

OLIVIA. (In tears) There...in the coffin...that Doug is dead. I feel like...the further away I am from his body, the closer I am to him alive...to his soul. Here, far from the grave, the wind will blow...and it's like Doug just touched me...but there, closer, that sensation goes away...Does that make sense?

NOAH. Not really. But you've always had your head a bit in the clouds, Liv. Even when there's a huge tragedy happening...

OLIVIA. (Not too angrily) Fuck off!

NOAH. Liv, I don't even know how it happened.

OLIVIA. Of course you don't. How could you know? Although I guess I told you the jist of it over the phone. Doug went for a walk on the beach, he called me, told me he'd be home soon, but that he saw his doctor, his oncologist, Doctor Linden also taking a walk towards him. And then suddenly the doctor calls me back and informs me that he was having a peaceful chat with
Doug when he suddenly collapsed to the ground and died in an instance. Doctor Linden tried to return him to life, he tried restarting his heart, but nothing worked. Chris and I ran to the beach...there was already an ambulance there, a fire truck...I saw Doug...dead...No, I didn't fall into a shock, I immediately started screaming as loud as I could. But...I just couldn't bring myself to approach Doug, to hold him. Instead, I screamed "Take me away, take me away from here! Please, I can't look at it!" Chris got upset with me, kept accusing me, "How could you, mom?" He ran to his father right away, threw his arms around him. But I cannot, I will not remember him dead! I won't, I won't, I won't!
NOAH. Shhh, shhh, calm down. People are turning to look at us.

OLIVIA. (quieter). Let them look. I don't care. Come on, looks like they're ready to lower it...I'm so sorry Doug, but I need to approach the place, where there's no you...

JEFF

Inside a visiting room at a prison. The prisoner, doctor JEFF LINDEN, has a visitor - MELISSA. We see them in the middle of a conversation.

JEFF. I thought you heard it all at the court hearing.

MELISSA. I just can't wrap my head around it. To take out a syringe, walk up to a person who you're chatting with, and inject them right then and there, out of the blue! And not a single one of them suspected anything!

JEFF. (Smiling) I'm a professional. And the substance that I injected them with acts instantly, the person doesn't have time to understand what's happening. Their heart stops within a maximum of two seconds. Often even faster. Finding any trace of this substance during an autopsy is practically impossible. I'd give it a 1% chance probability.

MELISSA. But you're here precisely because the substance was found during that man's autopsy...Doug was his name, I think?

JEFF. It was bad luck. We happened upon a specialist with a horribly meticulous attention to detail. He analyzed and scrutinized things that are most often ignored even by forensics experts in murder cases...These types of humans are on in a million, I'll tell you. MELISSA. Good-intending specialists are one in a million?

JEFF. That's not good intentions, that's pathology!

MELISSA. (With irony) I understand your point of view. But that's not what I came to tell you. I wanted to tell you that while I consider you a murderer - that's a fact - but I don't condemn you for your actions.

JEFF. Is that so? You don't condemn a murderer?

MELISSA. You see, doctor Linden, I've lived many years and don't hurry to judge even the most horrid of scum without thinking about why they did what they did. And you, you can't be called scum by any sense of the word. In fact, if euthanasia was legal in Florida, you wouldn't have done what you did.

JEFF. Possibly. I don't know. Euthanasia usually requires the consent of a relative, and relatives would usually prefer to watch the people they love writhe and suffer to their last breath. You see, they subconsciously hope...When what they really need to do is to strangle that hope at its root. MELISSA. I agree. Bruce died on the day of his triumph, surrounded by praise and flowers...JEFF. Exactly! And not on a smelly hospital cot in a state of half-madness, surrounded by IVs and frazzled nurses! I am genuinely very grateful to you, that you understand this. MELISSA. But you yourself barely escaped the lethal injection. Thanks to your lawyer. He got you a prison sentence instead...

JEFF. I was prepared for the death penalty. I gave people kindness, helping them avoid suffering. And that is a harsh crime.

MELISSA. Well, I'm not sure that you can call murder kindness...although...can you be sure that, were you to ask these people, they would agree to die early to avoid the torture and suffering?

JEFF. No, of course they wouldn't agree. Almost certainly, they wouldn't. It's all that goddamn hope. It wouldn't let them. It's a nagging kind of thing, you know, not heeding to any reason nor evidence. "I don't care about the rest, but my husband - opa! - tomorrow he will wake up healthy and we'll fly to Hawaii!"

MELISSA. Well then, I won't beat around the bush. Maybe you didn't have the right to make that decision for the others...but for Bruce, I'm grateful to you. I will forever remember his delighted and slightly flustered face...

JEFF. Not just from the concert, but from his love for you! After all, he did finally admit it. MELISSA. Yes, there was that too...So...You probably have many people who scorn you and judge you, who hate you....but I want to thank you once again. You gave Bruce...and me as well, to some degree...and incredible coda! Prison is prison, but let your conscience be at peace. Just know that there's at least one person out there, and I don't believe I'm alone, who understands you and does not condemn what you did.

MAX AND OLIVIA

Max observes the bumblebees in the park. He cries.

MAX. It's just like back then. Exactly like then. But you won't call out to me...GHOST OF SUE. Yo! Are they showing cartoons there or something?

JEFF. Not just from the concert, but from his love for you! After all, he did finally admit it. MELISSA. Yes, there was that too...So...You probably have many people who scorn you and judge you, who hate you....but I want to thank you once again. You gave Bruce...and me as well, to some degree...and incredible coda! Prison is prison, but let your conscience be at peace. Just know that there's at least one person out there, and I don't believe I'm alone, who understands you and does not condemn what you did.

MAX. Sue, baby! (He looks around, but no one is there). How did it go again? "Bloody petals of a rose and the bees like saxophones." I don't remember the next part...ecstasy, pizzazz, jazz...Ecstasy, my girl, ecstasy...

OLIVIA walks by. In addition to the purse on her shoulder, she holds a large cloth bag in her hand with the letters NORGE on it and the picture of a fjord. She stops next to Max and calls out to him.

OLIVIA. Hey there!

MAX. (Abruptly turning with a yelp.) Oh god, Sue!!...Oh, I'm so sorry, I...OLIVIA. I know. You were there at the hearing. You're the husband of a young woman who that bastard murdered.

MAX. Yes, yes. You're the wife of a man who was also killed by him...His name was Doug, right?

OLIVIA. Yes, Doug. You're still able to cry? I can't. Not anymore. I just live on. My son is still in school, he likes staying at home, he's attached to me. That helps a lot. Once he leaves for college, I try not to even imagine that...

MAX. We didn't have kids...didn't have enough time to have kids.

They walk back and forth down the park alley.

OLIVIA. You know, this is probably going to sound horribly wrong. I love Chris, our son, so much, I'd do anything for him. But Doug...we were everything to each other. You know, once the initial passion calmed down, we fell into...some sort of alternate dimension or something, where it was just him and I. Even Chris couldn't find his way inside. At first he was angry, but lately I think he's started understanding, especially once he fell in love himself. Although that, of course, is not the same thing, just first love...

MAX. I understand you perfectly. Sue and I also didn't have it simple. She was an addict.. OLIVIA. Really!

MAX. Yes. When we first met each other, she was basically hooked on heroin. Once the initial passion calmed down, we had to fight together in a battle for that alternate dimension. She broke down twice, but we made it. Can you imagine, without any clinics or rehab centers. We made it together.

OLIVIA. Just with love alone?

MAX. I guess that's how it was, even though it sounds like a cliche. She got into college, started studying biology...(tearing up) Fuck!

OLIVIA. You know what, Max...You're Max, right?

MAX. Yes.

OLIVIA. I'm Olivia, in case you don't remember. I was just headed to the courthouse to bring over these papers (she points to her bag). I want to get them to overturn the sentence...I want them to give him the death penalty. He needs to get what he did to the others - a lethal injection. I'm 99% sure I won't accomplish anything, but it's worth a try at least. Otherwise, I'll never forgive myself...Would you like to sign the petition?

MAX. No, never.

OLIVIA. But why? That bastard decided he was God. He got it into his head that he had the power to decide when people deserve to die.

MAX. Yes, that's correct.

OLIVIA. But every person deserves to finish out their life, see their destiny, their karma if you want, through. With all of the happiness and sorrow that it holds! Even if you don't believe in karma or reincarnation, you can't possibly disagree with the fact that some mad doctor shouldn't take on that type of decision! Not a single religion, nor science, forgives or approves of murder! MAX. He thought he was acting out of the best intentions, ridding people of excessive sorrow or pain.

OLIVIA. I don't think anything is excessive in human life! Doug could have still had a few more remissions - who cares if they would have been short! We knew how to be happy, Doug, Chris, and I. Whenever Doug was feeling better, we tried to have fun and make the absolute most of the time. But the most important thing, Max - the most important thing! If he did die when he was supposed to...the last thing he would have seen...in a fog, not fully conscious, but still! The last thing he would have seen would have been my face and not the face of that bastard! And Sue would have seen you...

MAX. You're absolutely correct, Olivia. Doctor Linden is a bastard. But you mentioned karma. I'm not a Buddhist. But if you're throwing this at him, demanding an eye for an eye, retribution in the form of death...then you're sharing in his bad karma.

OLIVIA. Yes, I understand that, but I...I can't turn back...maybe that's my weakness...(She suddenly starts screaming through tears). I just don't want that asshole to live in a world where my Doug is gone!

MAX. I'm in no place to give you advice...but please calm down and think about it carefully. OLIVIA. And you, you've forgiven him so easily?

MAX. Olivia, I'm just a human being, just like you. And I've also lost the most precious thing I had in my life...I doubt that I've forgiven him. No, of course not. But I don't want to be involved any further in this story.

OLIVIA. You're already involved in this story whether you want it or not. MAX. Of course. But I want to keep living. The light my Sue left behind...let it be warm, soft, gentle, a little absurd and and nervous - just like Susan was herself. I don't know what will happen next. Maybe I'll get married again one day. But I know, that light...OLIVIA. Will never fade?

MAX. Most importantly, it will never become cold.

EPILOGUE

On the beach at Pelican Beach. Among the swimmers in the ocean, we see OLIVIA and CHRIS. Far away, we hear the fragments of Saint-Saëns's clarinet sonata. The space expands, moving the swimming tourists to the side. Only Olivia and Chris are left at the scene, and DOUG swims up to them.

DOUG.

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight
Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.
I will make a palace fit for you and me,
Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.
Do you remember? We had just arrived in Norway, walked out to the fjord - and the entire time that we stood there, there was some sort of bird calling to us. Maybe a seagull....It was there that we built our castle out of birds, forests, seas...And I'm not only talking about nature. You're not quite right, my love, when you say that Chris couldn't enter our dimension. No, he always lived in our castle, he was a part of it, just like you and I.

CHRIS. Thanks, dad. But I know there was one small room in that castle...just for the two of you...

OLIVIA. It's still there. It will always be there.

DOUG. It is and it will.

We return to the crowded beach, the sonata is a bit more clear now. Among the swimmers we see MAX, this time when the space expands, we see him holding SUE in his arms.

SUE.

I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,
Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom,
And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white
In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.
You know, Socrates? When I died, I finally understood your color.

MAX. What?

SUE. We had a very colorful life, but your color - at least, the one I see from here - is white. And transparent. This poem, it talks about a body, but it's not just about that. You were the morning rain, and the night dew, and the bright, scalding white sun over our Florida. I don't need to worry about bodies out here, but I remember those moments that we shared!

MAX. You...are you waiting for me there?

SUE. You won't be able to understand it, but it's so clear to me now, clearer than clear, that we were never apart. Even if we wanted to be, no one would have let us...

For the third time, we return to the crowded beach. The sonata plays loudly, clearly. MELISSA plays with the waves not far from the shore, and when the space expands, BRUCE joins her.

BRUCE.

And this shall be for music when no one else is near,
The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!
That only I remember, that only you admire,
Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.

MELISSA. You read me that Stevenson poem that day and told me that you're just a roadside fire in my life. But from that fire, there was music! So much music.

BRUCE. This place where I am, here the music never stops.

MELISSA. My husband has been very ill lately...Soon I myself will be just a roadside fire that no one needs. It will burn for a while, then fade out.

BRUCE. No, no, it won't fade out! It will erupt.

The sonata becomes loud, beckoning, filling every bit of space. The camera takes us out to sea. Beyond the horizon, a blue dress circles in the air and falls, becoming one with the blue water of the ocean.