Curtain.

A nursery. A crying baby. Night.

I enter.

ME: You must close your eyes.

BABY: (stopping, brandishing his fists, at the top of his voice) God have pity on me!

ME: (vexed) And me?

BABY: On me! On me! Pity! On me!

Baby returns to crying. I try to soothe him.

BABY: Don’t touch me! Don’t question me! Don’t speak to me! Stay with me!

ME: Did I ever leave you?

BABY: You let me go.

Crying.

ME: I can’t go on like this.

BABY: That’s what you think.

More crying, then

BABY: Charming evening we’re having.

ME: Unforgettable.

BABY: And it’s not over.

ME: Apparently not.

BABY: It’s only beginning.

ME: It’s awful.

Now choking, then, again crying.

[…]

ME: (groaning, clutching my head) I can’t bear it… any longer… the way he goes on… you’ve no idea… it’s terrible… he must go… (I wave my arms) I’m going mad… (I collapse, my head in my hands) I can’t bear it… any longer…

Loudest cries yet.

ME: (calmer) I don’t know what came over me. Forgive me. Forget all I said. (More and more my old self) I don’t remember exactly what it was, but you may be sure there wasn’t a word of truth in it. (Drawing myself up, striking my chest) Do I look like a man that can be made to suffer? Frankly?

Full-out sobbing.

[…]

A breath.

BABY: That passed the time.

ME: It would have passed in any case.

BABY: Yes, but not so rapidly.

Pause.

BABY: What do we do now?

ME: I don’t know.

BABY: Let’s go.

ME: We can’t.

BABY: Why not?

ME: We’re waiting for Dodo.

BABY: (despairingly) Ah! How long have we been together all the time now?

ME: I don’t know. Fifty years maybe.

Depleted sobbing.

[…]

Sunrise. Suddenly smiling baby.

BABY: You must be happy too, deep down, if you only knew it.

ME: Happy about what?

BABY: To be back with me again.

ME: Would you say so?

BABY: Say you are, even if it’s not true.

ME: What am I to say?

BABY: Say, I am happy.

ME: I am happy.

BABY: So am I.

ME: So am I.

BABY: We are happy.

ME: We are happy.

(Silence)

BABY: What do we do now, now that we are happy?

ME: Wait for Dodo.

He groans. Silence.

BABY: That’s how it is on this bitch of an earth.


Curtain.