Herman and Olga walk together silently until they start an argument.
You seem pissed.
By what?
I don’t know. I am just sharing my observation.
Your observation or your opinion?
Now I think you are pissed.
You think. So you agree that was an opinion.
Sur… Why does this matter? I just…
Olga interrupts Herman silently.
Never mind. You are being weird.
I am weird.
What’s wrong?
Nothing.
What’s wrong?
Not getting an answer, Herman looks up.
We are here.
No, we are not.
What’s the matter with you? Why do you have to disagree with everything I say?
Oh now I lose my freedom of expression?
No. It’s not about your freedom. I am not talking about your freedom.
Good. Because I care a lot about it.
I don’t understand.
What don’t you understand?
Why are you upset?
I have the right to have emotions.
But why? I am asking for the cause, not questioning your action. Or emotion, whatever.
Can you stop prodding me for one second?
I am tired.
I am tired.
What?
Nothing.
Why don’t you just say it?
Stop.
No. Say it.
They enter a room with a grand piano.
You’re afraid.
The concert is starting. Can we talk about this, or anything, later?
You are afraid.
Olga doesn’t respond. A female pianist comes on stage. She is affectionate, happy to see Herman. Pianist sits on the piano chair.
to Olga
I love you.
Pianist gives Herman a look, then plays the piano for an entire four minutes. Herman and Olga sit still. With unease soft as the whistle of a rock and blinding as the bedside lamp at midnight, they start to dance.
Remorse spreading across the pounding heart, Herman stops and watches Olga move by herself.
He was once a believer.
Olga comes back. They dance together, only this time Herman knows that he has lied - to himself and so many times.
He has forgotten the truth, which now comes back like a slashing rain. Truth is not something stagnant, unchanging.
But to Olga, such distinction between truth and change and lie does not exist.
Pianist finishes, walks up to Herman. Away from Olga, they enter a different space.
Well. Do you want to hear the answer?
I do. I do except that… It doesn’t matter anymore.
Are you sure?
Am I sure… Of what?
You know. What you just said. Of being in love. Or rather, of being in the state of…
interrupts
…love. Yes. I am sure - it doens’t matter anymore.
That’s unfortunate.
Well.
Why did you say it then? Why did you say it to her?
I thought I would feel better.
And you called that love?
fishes in her pocket
Want some chocolate?
Sure. I…
Herman makes attempts to explain, but Pianist stops him by playing a note on the piano every time he tries to do so. Finally, Herman gives up. Pianist and Herman eat chocolate in silence until Pianist starts a poem.
Little by little, and also in great leaps,
life happened to me,
and how insignificant this business is.
These veins carried
my blood, which I scarcely ever saw,
I breathed the air of so many places
without keeping a sample of any.
In the end, everyone is aware of this:
nobody keeps any of what he has…
Herman, knowing this line, joins Pianist.
…and life is only a borrowing of bones.
I’m not happy.
Of course you’re not.
I was afraid of a broken heart.
Answer me this. Do you love her?
…I did.
You did.
points at the chocolate
Can I have another?
Last one.
I wanted to keep what I had. Not to watch them fade. Vaporize. Disintegrate.
Are you keeping any of it, at all?
Pianist says as she goes back to the piano chair. Herman walks back to Olga.
to Herman
Oh. I…
Pianist starts to play another piece. Herman and Olga dance.
Burdened by the waves of words, Olga stops and watches Herman move by himself.
She is reminded of the ocean, from which she has always kept a distance. It is too beautiful and fierce that she cannot imagine an encounter without surrender. She’d like to think that the two entities, the ocean and herself, admire and bypass each other.
Herman comes back. They dance together, only this time Olga knows that she would never be able to utter a word to the ocean - the response would swallow her, too loud and too deep.
Music stops abruptly with a violent separation of the two.
I can’t.
You…can’t.
gets up
You can’t?
What are you doing?
YOU CAN’T.
Stop being such a child.
I am a child? You are a coward.
Pianist looks at them. The ocean washes over them. People murmur.
“You are disrupting the concert, sir,” says a voice from afar.
You ruined it.
I need to leave.
Herman walks out. Murmur submerges. Pianist resumes playing by starting the last piece from the beginning.
Olga dances alone.
She thought she would get to keep the blueness, at least, like a silent stone rounded by the flipping of a book. But there is nothing blue, or green, or black, anymore. There is no longer the smell of the slightly salted wind. There is no wind.
She sits again. Herman comes back and sits next to her.
Pianist finishes, pauses.
I don’t want to hurt you.
I want to know.
I was waiting.
I was waiting.
For you to say -
no | yes
I am sorry.
Music starts. Pianist leaves the piano and joins their dance. One by one, they leave the stage. First Olga, then Pianist. Herman remains on the stage.
I am sorry.