The Plays
The Four Seasons
by C H A R L E S L . M E E
Sunlight.
A sidewalk café,
surrounded by trees,
with a dozen tables out front on the sidewalk.
Trees with buds on the branches,
and, then, later on,
there will be summer leaves,
and then,
fall foliage,
and, at the end,
bare branches,
and then,
finally,
spring blossoms.
And the clothes the actors wear:
at first the clothes of spring,
then—if they are not all naked,
like a nineteenth century French painting of a picnic—
then they are in bikinis and summer shorts,
and then the sweaters of autumn,
and, finally,
winter overcoats and gloves and scarves.
Fabulous gypsy music.
And, as the music plays,
the actors rush through
on the sidewalk in front of the café:
A five year old girl (or a thirty year old woman),
eating an ice cream cone, smiling,
sitting in a red wagon pulled by her father,
enters and leaves, smiling.
A golf cart, driven like crazy by a caddy,
while, in the back,
a couple embraces passionately,
enters and leaves, as the couple continues to embrace.
A couple being pulled along on a picnic blanket
with food and a champagne bottle in a bucket,
and she is drinking and drinking and drinking the champagne
enter and leave.
An electric wheelchair—
a man driving,
a woman sitting on the handlebars,
she running her fingers through his hair over and over and over—
enters and leaves.
A skate board,
with a woman lying on her back on the skate board
as a man twirls it round and round in ecstasy,
enters and leaves.
A silk sheet, with silk pillows,
she lying back in her lingerie
he taking photos of her,
enters and leaves.
A homeless guy with cart of stuff
enters and leaves.
A man and woman on a bicycle built for two—
one peddles while the other eats pizza—
enter and leave.
There are as many of these entrances and exits
as there are vehicles with wheels
and actors in the cast who can do a quick change and come through again.
Finally,
one at a time,
the comers and goers,
enter,
stop,
get off or out of their vehicles,
sit at one table or another in the café,
and order coffee.
The cast should be radically diverse—
in terms of race, class, style (and cost) of clothing, body type,
way of moving and general physicality.
There might be an immensely obese man or woman,
a body builder,
an aged wreck of a person,
and/or other radical diversities of physical type.
ARIAN
Do you come here often?
YVETTE
Oh, yes
all the time
ever since I left home to follow the man I love
when he came here
ARIAN
and you're together?
YVETTE
oh, no, he doesn't know I'm here
ARIAN
he doesn't know?
YVETTE
and my mother doesn't know I've left home
ARIAN
well, she sees you're not there any more
YVETTE
no, because I'm still at home in bed
ARIAN
home in bed?
YVETTE
because my spirit has split in two...
ARIAN
so you mean, as a metaphor, your mother doesn't know you've left
YVETTE
she sees me still every morning when I wake up in my bed at home
ARIAN
she sees you....
so your mother....
YVETTE
you think she's crazy
ARIAN
I think someone may be a little bit living in a dream
YVETTE
this is how it is to love someone
ARIAN
indeed
YVETTE
yes
ARIAN
I wonder:
would you marry me
or
would you have a coffee with me
and think of having a conversation
that would lead to marriage?
YVETTE
Oh.
Oh.
Well,
a coffee with you
I would have a coffee with you.
ARIAN
You are free now?
YVETTE
Free now? No, well, no
right now
I am busy.
ARIAN
OK then maybe later this evening?
YVETTE
Well, later this evening also I am busy.
ARIAN
Or late supper.
Or breakfast tomorrow
or lunch or tea in the afternoon
or a movie
or dinner the day after
Thursday for lunch
or Friday dinner
or perhaps you would go for the weekend with me
to my parents' home in Provence
or we could stop along the way
and find a little place for ourselves
to be alone.
YVETTE
I don't think I can be alone.
ARIAN
With me?
Or by yourself?
You don't like to be alone by yourself?
YVETTE
No, I mean with you this weekend.
ARIAN
Oh.
Or then just we could
have coffee over and over again
every day
until we get to know one another
and we have the passage of the seasons
in the café
we could celebrate our anniversary
and then perhaps you would forget
that you are not married to me
and we can have a child.
YVETTE
A child?
ARIAN
Because
don't you think
after we have been together for a year
it will be time to start to think of these things?
YVETTE
We haven't been together for a day.
ARIAN
You know, I have known many women.
I mean, I don't mean to say....
YVETTE
No.
ARIAN
I mean just
you know
my mother, my grandmother
my sisters
and also women I have known romantically
and then, too, friends,
and even merely acquaintances
but you know
in life
one meets many people
and it seems to me
we know so much of another person
in the first few moments we meet
not from what a person says alone
but from the way they hold their head
how they listen
what they do with their hand as they speak
or when they are silent
and years later
when these two people break up
they say
I should have known from the beginning
in truth
I did know from the beginning
I saw it in her, or in him
the moment we met
but I tried to repress the knowledge
because it wasn't useful at the time
because,
for whatever reason
I just wanted to go to bed with her as fast as I could
or I was lonely
and so I pretended I didn't notice
even though I did
exactly the person she was from the first moment
I knew
and so it is with you
and I think probably it is the same for you with me
we know one another
right now from the first moment
we know so much about one another in just this brief time
and we have known many people
and for myself
I can tell
you are one in a million
and I want to marry you
I want to marry you
and have children with you
and grow old together
so I am begging you
just have a coffee with me.
YVETTE
OK.
ARIAN
When will you do this?
YVETTE
Right now.
ARIAN
Oh.
Oh, good.
Good.
[he kisses her hand]
Good.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
Music.
And, as we listen to the music,
passersby of all sorts stroll through
a solitary young woman walks through with a huge overnight bag
a transient for sure
still in college?
a young woman selling her own handmade jewelry
or T-shirts with stuff on them?
a dog walker with several dogs on leashes
a girl dances with her computer held close to her head
listening to the music that comes to her from her computer
a human statue enters and takes his place
—wearing a sign that says "available" ["available for parties"?]
A while later, the human statue will just drop his pose
when he's grown bored by it
and sit down and have a cup of coffee.
And then maybe he'll join in the conversation,
or maybe he'll get up again and take up his statue pose.
A guy rides in on a bike.
He kicks his kickstand and parks the bike.
Then he turns and leaves.
In a moment he rides in on another bike,
parks it,
turns and leaves,
carries in another bike,
puts it down on the ground,
goes off,
comes back in carrying bike parts,
goes off,
comes back in carrying more parts,
goes off,
comes back in carrying a tool kit,
goes off,
comes back in carrying a sign that says:
"going somewhere?
we can fix it"
and mounts his sign on the pile of ruined bikes.
And an astronaut descends slowly from heaven.]
DEBARGO
Hi.
ASTRONAUT [removing his helmet]
Hello.
DEBARGO
Would you like a coffee?
ASTRONAUT
Thank you.
DEBARGO
What brings you here?
ASTRONAUT
I'm just passing through.
ELLEN [at another table]
Well.
Isn't everyone?
CHEN CHI [at yet another table]
Whose woods are these?
DEBARGO
I don't know.
CHEN CHI
So.
I guess you could say we're lost in the woods together.
DEBARGO
I guess you could.
[Chen Chi can be a new character,
or she could be The Astronaut
if The Astronaut isn't wanted as a separate character.]
CHEN CHI
I've never been lost in the woods.
DEBARGO
Neither have I.
CHEN CHI
I'm glad I'm not alone.
DEBARGO
So am I.
I like nature,
but I'm a little bit afraid of it.
CHEN CHI
Well, sure.
DEBARGO
Of the dark parts especially.
I'd like nature better if it were better lit.
I think everyone is, you know,
basically afraid of the dark.
Even amoebas.
I mean, every life form,
you take them out of the light
and they begin to feel some anxiety.
I do.
CHEN CHI
I do.
DEBARGO
Light, basically, is how you orient yourself
and a person without a sense of orientation
I mean, if you don't know where you are
and where you're going
and about where you are on the line of the place where you are
and the destination where you're going
a person begins to freak out.
I think that's why
in jazz
they always play the melody at the top
and then
once you know the tune
you think: right, let them riff
because I know where I am
and I know that, in the end,
they're going to come back to the melody
You know what I mean?
CHEN CHI
Well.
Sure.
DEBARGO
It's like
a love story
you can just get lost in a love story because
we know
whatever happens along the way
we might get confused or we might get lost
or it's on again off again
and it goes down some blind alley
but that's how real life is
that's how it really is to be in love
sometimes you never know
sometimes it seems like it is just drifting
or it becomes hopeless
but it doesn't matter
because in the end
with a love story
you know
either they are going to get together
or they're not.
CHEN CHI
Right.
[silence]
Do you think
you could ever live in the woods?
DEBARGO
You mean, forever?
CHEN CHI
Well, for a long time.
Say, like five years.
[silence]
DEBARGO
Five years.
[silence]
With you?
[silence]
CHEN CHI
Oh.
Oh.
Okay.
With me.
[silence]
DEBARGO
Yes.
[silence]
CHEN CHI
Oh.
DEBARGO
I've thought about it before
living in the country
because that would be beautiful
and I've always found it frightening
cut off from the world
as it seems to me
all alone
and
with nothing to do
but wait to get to be eighty years old
or ninety
and die.
You know, you might have thought you were going to be a doctor
or go to the moon
or just have a nice civil service job
a career and all the ordinary stuff of life
not throw it away on a great sort of romantic gamble
like you think
oh
I'd like to go to the country for the weekend
but to just fling myself out into the universe
and drift among the stars
and have this be my destiny
take the gamble that this would be a meaningful life
and one you would really like forever
the only life you have.
I mean, not that I'm a morbid person
but, you know, it seems to me,
if you're out there alone
maybe with a farm and fields and trees
and the night sky, the stars
you start to think pretty quickly
how you're all alone
and you just have your life on earth
and then it's over
and it hasn't been much more than a wink
in the life of the stars
and you haven't done anything
that you think is worth an entire life on earth
so I've always felt a lot safer living in the city
where you can't see the stars at night.
CHEN CHI
Unh-hunh.
DEBARGO
There you have your friends and things to do
you get all caught up
and it's fun
I'm not against having fun
what I mean is
going to movies, having dinner, hanging out
you can forget entirely that you're a mortal person
it seems: this could go on forever
until, I suppose, you meet someone, and you think:
[silence]
I could live with you forever in the woods.
And that would be a life.
[silence.
She starts to back away from him.]
Or not, you know. Or not.
I didn't mean to come on so strong.
I just start talking, and I don't know when to stop.
CHEN CHI
Stop.
DEBARGO
Right.
CHEN CHI
Good.
Maybe we could just take a walk in the woods.
DEBARGO
Right. Good.
Good idea.
Let's do that.
CHEN CHI
Like,
right after we have a cup of coffee.
DEBARGO
OK.
Good.
[During this next exchange,
between ELLEN and VIKRAM,
the trees change from branches filled with flowering blossoms of spring
to the full green foliage of mid-summer.]
ELLEN
I sometimes wonder:
what would it be like
to have an exquisite sense of things?
An Oriental sense.
You would say, for instance:
there are elegant things—
duck eggs
wistaria blossoms
the Pride of China tree
the Sweet-scented marvel-of-Peru
You would say: there are things that are both near and distant at the same time.
Like the course of a boat across a lake.
Like paradise.
The relations between a man and a woman.
Or things that give a clean feeling.
An earthen cup.
A new wooden chest.
VIKRAM
I wonder:
How can a person set out in life
not knowing at all what he might do
and then end up with something he does
that becomes almost an obsession
because he is trying to attract women
ELLEN
I'm sorry?
VIKRAM
because all the time
he was never trying to do anything
other than attract women
or men it may be
if he was attracted to men
and so
he might have been strong and handsome
or very rich
or glamorous
he might have had a charismatic personality
he might have had great power
or
if he had none of these
he would have gone into the arts
where he would meet loose women
and prostitutes
or not
not prostitutes at all
but women who were drawn to bright colors
or drugs
or excitement of some other sort
late hours
dirty talk
and if he could paint these women
if he could bring them home
and have them take off their clothes
and they would look at his paintings
and think
oh, my
this is different
then he might be able to take them to bed
ELLEN
is this what you had in mind?
VIKRAM
yes. certainly.
ELLEN
all you've done is about nothing else?
VIKRAM
oh, no
after a while
in spite of yourself
you become distracted by the bright colors yourself
you become interested in abstract things
the nature of light itself
flat colors and sharp angles
and then even
pain
and despair
desolation and loneliness
hard work
mortality
you don't remember any more
what it was that drew you to this life
until
again
suddenly you see a young woman
you might see her dance
you might see her step onto a tightrope in the circus
and then you remember again
all you ever wanted
was to hold her
and to have her hold you
ELLEN
Things happen in life
but then
they happen so quickly
and then they're gone
before they've ever quite landed
they're gone
and you think
all of it
it's over
it's evanescent
like a breath of life
[And now,
the whole cast,
or a Mongolian choir,
steps forward and sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
sings
And, while they sing,
several people help The Artist
drag in a wrecked car,
a completely filthy, ruined car
[maybe, to make it easier, a small car like a Chevrolet Aveo].
The Artist himself wears a white Andy Warhol wig.
The car is filled with what looks like trash,
but, as we spend a little more time looking at it,
we will see that it is all
Art.
Many, many paintings,
with awful Pollack like random scrawls of paint
and smeared, dirty places on the canvases
and the cloths that have been used to wipe up the paint.
Finally, he puts a sign on the side of the car saying
"Art for Sale."
WAITER
I was once in love with a woman.
I met her in the summer
a married woman.
As she walked toward me
the sun was behind her
her dress was translucent
Her eyes were sky blue
Sky blue
I don't understand it
I fell in love with her at once
so fragile she seemed.
I said to her:
we should have a summer love affair.
She didn't say no,
she said: you're outrageous.
I said: no, it's you who are outrageous.
We met the next day—
and we made love every day the whole summer.
And still
I think of her.
Instantly: An extra high energy classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
classical music piece
and, as we hear the music,
the actors run back and forth and back and forth across the stage
sometimes turning around mid-way and then running ahead
sometimes jumping up and down up and down
leaping
throwing their arms up into the air
spinning around and around
and then
as the music quiets down to loveliness
sinking to the stage,
lying on their backs as the music comes to an end.
The leaves of the trees are still in full summer foliage.
THE ARTIST
When a woman speaks to me
and tells me of her most intimate thoughts and feelings
then I know
that a person can die and go to heaven.
Or,
when a woman sleeps
then she is defenseless
then, if she is naked
and the covers have come down around her waist
THE ASTRONAUT
and one arm is outside the covers entirely
THE ARTIST
the fingers of her hand completely motionless
then it is possible to draw her with red chalk
to render her body
as though nothing stood between her skin and the air
between her skin and the atmosphere of the whole world
THE ASTRONAUT
no clothes
THE ARTIST
no blouse, no undergarment yes
but also
no thought of any sort
no shame
THE ASTRONAUT
no pose
THE ARTIST
no manner
THE ASTRONAUT
no attitude
THE ARTIST
no demeanor
THE ASTRONAUT
no reticence
THE ARTIST
or no flirtatiousness
no hiding and revealing at the same time
THE ASTRONAUT
no resistance
no provocation
THE ARTIST
her body is being put to no use
THE ASTRONAUT
it makes no suggestion
THE ARTIST
nor does it refuse anything
THE ASTRONAUT
it is completely naked
THE ARTIST
it is beyond sexual
beyond merely enticing or arousing
THE ASTRONAUT
it has the allure of her very soul
THE ARTIST
this is how naked she is when she is asleep
she is transporting
What I like to see
I like to see a woman
when she is not expecting to be seen
and in places where ordinarily
she would not be seen at all
when she is at her dressing table
putting color on her cheeks
when she is asleep in bed
when she is sitting alone in a café
when she is asleep in bed with another woman
when she is backstage at the ballet
putting on her pink tights
and I can inhale her perfume
I can inhale the scent of her hair
of the nape of her neck
I can know how it is for me to breathe
when my head is on her breast
and my eyes are closed
I can breath her in
I can sit with her in a brasserie
holding her hand for an hour
my fingers twined among her fingers
while she smokes and talks to her friends
and she doesn't think to notice
that I am playing with her hand all this time
I can sit behind her then
and say
don't look around
don't look at me
just listen to my voice
just form a picture of me from my voice
and listen to my words
let that be all you take in
until you know me
until you have formed all your opinions of me
until your opinions of me are clear and firm and fixed
and then
you can turn and look at me
if you will
if you need to.
THE BIKER
Do I know you?
A DANCER
No.
THE BIKER
That is to say,
have we met before?
A DANCER
Do you think we have?
THE BIKER
You don't?
A DANCER
Do you think
we've made love in the past?
THE BIKER
Wouldn't you remember that?
A DANCER
Would I?
THE BIKER
What would it take for you to remember?
A DANCER
Something extraordinary?
THE BIKER
Some extraordinary night of making love?
A DANCER
Of falling in love?
THE BIKER
The love of your life?
A DANCER
A love you thought you would never have?
THE BIKER
that would never be returned?
A DANCER
that would never last?
THE BIKER
Aren't you an odd sort of person?
A DANCER
That's why I'm drawn to you.
THE BIKER
I have to admit
I like a woman who has
delicate shoulders
and red hair
A DANCER
and a flat nose
THE BIKER
some people would think her plain
A DANCER
or even tough looking
THE BIKER
with her prize-fighter's nose
A DANCER
and her small chest
THE BIKER
but she's sweet, too, and shy
A DANCER
and wants never to be damaged
THE BIKER
and I would never damage her
never raise my hand against her
never raise my voice in speaking to her
I would be as steadfast as she is
I would undress her with great care
A DANCER
and touch her very gently
THE BIKER
and hold her through the night
A DANCER
and let her live exactly as she would like
THE BIKER
I would let her be free
A DANCER
let her choose her own way of living
THE BIKER
and I would dote on her
A DANCER
and be there for her
THE BIKER
whenever she would turn to me
A DANCER
whatever it was that she would ask
THE BIKER
I would give to her
A DANCER
and when the time came that she no longer wanted me
THE BIKER
I would let her go lightly
A DANCER
or if she wished never to leave me
THE BIKER
I would give my life to her
CHEN CHI
Nothing could be easier
than beginning on a bottle of wine at lunch
in a little restaurant somewhere
YVETTE
a simple wooden table out of doors
shaded by a trellis
with several dancers on a break from rehearsal
having coffee
the long summer afternoon
CHEN CHI
smoking a cigarrette
YVETTE
a girl with her chin resting on her hand
elbow on the little café table
CHEN CHI
the half full bottle and the glass
YVETTE
a full skirt
a linen blouse
her hair, slept in
unruly
a country girl who took a wrong turn
some years ago
[silence]
CHEN CHI
So
the conversation slipping sideways again
losing any point other than passing the afternoon
until one has begun to feel a little hopeless and desperate
YVETTE
not knowing whether to go on home for a nap
CHEN CHI
or if it may already be too late for that
YVETTE
and the drinking of the evening ought to begin
CHEN CHI
even though, then,
it will have begun too early
and the night will be shortened at the other end
YVETTE
one will have stayed up too long
CHEN CHI
drunk too much
YVETTE
begun even to feel a little sick
CHEN CHI
so that the rot has already begun to work at the core
of the beautiful afternoon
YVETTE
this is how one comes to lie down
on the bench in the garden for a summer nap
and have a fitful sleep
languorous, luxurious in the shade
anxious that one's entire life
might be consumed in just this way
day after day
feeling not quite pleasure, not quite pain
[And now
people just stand up and sing love songs
and love arias
one person after another might step forward and do a solo
For example, it could be this:]
A Whole New World
I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid
Tell me, princess, now when did
You last let your heart decide?
I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride
A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming
A whole new world
A dazzling place I never knew
But when I'm way up here
It's crystal clear
That now I'm in a whole new world with you
Now I'm in a whole new world with you
Unbelievable sights
Indescribable feeling
Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling
Through an endless diamond sky
A whole new world
Don't you dare close your eyes
A hundred thousand things to see
Hold your breath — it gets better
I'm like a shooting star
I've come so far
I can't go back to where I used to be
A whole new world
Every turn a surprise
With new horizons to pursue
Every moment red-letter—I'll chase them anywhere
There's time to spare
Let me share this whole new world with you
A whole new world
That's where we'll be
A thrilling chase
A wondrous place
For you and me.
and then the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
the whole group sings a song together
and then the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
the café waiter sings
[And now,
the leaves on the trees begin to turn gradually from summer
to the bright colors of a New England autumn.]
VIKRAM
What happened to the summer days
we went to the seashore
and rowed out onto the water in an old skiff to swim
stood up in the boat naked and shouting
tied rags around our heads like turbans
and cooked turbot on the beach
When my mother brought me a glass of rose
in the garden
and we sat in the shade of the lemon trees
where it was cool
and I could lean back in the reclining chair
because I needed nothing so much as sleep
I felt I had carried my body around for years
it had gotten heavier and heavier
hard to lift and carry from place to place
putting it in a chair here
carrying it up the stairs there
so that it was a relief to put it in a garden chair
surrounded by things that sought a resting place in the soil
and were not expected to move
the trees, the potted flowers
the stone walls and footpaths
things that could sink to the ground
and stay there
in their rightful place
no more demands made on them
to lug themselves to a different location
I felt the last resistance drain from my body
as I sat back
and listened to the light voice of my mother
in the summer breeze
telling me of my grandmother
and all those who had never felt the need
to make the tiring trip to the city
but had stayed at home in the country
carried along from year to year by the familiarities of daily life
and taken to the grave by their neighbors
as easily as any other of the everyday events of their lives.
ELLEN
Home
its cove of green sea
its complicated rocks
the little woods
old and new trees
the warm terrace
the rosebushes
my yellow room
(pause)
VIKRAM
and I have a rocky perch
between the sky and the sea
this was the world of my childhood
long gone, long, long gone
ELLEN
what wild orchids
deep purple
growing in the meadows
and roses and medlar trees in blossom
the white rose vine covering the front of the house
so white with flowers
that at night it seemed to trace the milky way
VIKRAM
and the nightingales
that didn't have time to eat or drink
they sang from four in the afternoon
to seven in the morning
and from four in the morning
to four in the afternoon
ELLEN
when did they ever make love
VIKRAM
long
long gone
I remember
the story about
the little boy
six years old
ELLEN [who sits with Vikram at the same table]
who had just lost his first baby tooth?
VIKRAM
right
who was playing one day with the ants in the dirt
when suddenly
he heard the pitch pipes and the gongs and drums
because a young man who lived just next door
was marrying a girl from a neighboring village.
ELLEN
This was not so long ago—
just fifty three years ago,
in a village in Sichuan, in China.
VIKRAM
His mother came out of the house and said to him,
"come along Guojiang
let the bride touch your mouth,
the new tooth will grow straight."
And so,
ELLEN
following the village tradition....
VIKRAM
Exactly.
Following the village tradition,
Guojiang was led to the bride's carriage.
And slowly, a finger,
that was white and smooth
as if crafted out of marble,
slipped out of the curtain,
and into the boy's mouth.
And he got excited, and,
by mistake,
he bit the bride's finger.
And so, she lifted a corner of the curtain
and looked out at him and smiled.
ELLEN
And
when he looked up at her
the beauty and the grace of the bride
stunned him
and he fell in love.
VIKRAM
Right.
And so.
Ten years passed.
Guojiang was no longer a little boy.
He was sixteen.
Every night after his day of work on the farm,
he lay in bed thinking of the woman —
of the the bride.
The bride, whose name was Xu,
was now 26 years old,
with four children age one to nine,
and she was a widow
struggling to bring up her children by herself
standing on street corners
selling home-made straw sandals
for five fens a pair.
And one day
by chance Guojiang saw her.
And so
each day after,
he made his way to the same street again and again
where she was selling sandals
and he would nod to her
and, finally, even he said hello.
And she said hello to him.
And then one day
Xu went to fill a container with water from the river,
and she slipped on the stone steps
and fell into the river with the baby on her back.
And he heard her cry out
and he ran to her,
and dove into the water
and brought the mother and baby safely to shore.
And then, ever after,
he would check on her every day
seeing if there were anything he could do to help,
chopping firewood, fetching water.
And, in time,
he grew into a wonderful young man.
Rumors began
and gossip.
And Xu,
afraid that the gossip would keep Guojiang
from finding a decent bride,
decided to disappear from his life.
One day, she said to him,
ELLEN
"You'd better not talk to me again."
VIKRAM
And she turned and walked away.
And then, for days, he couldn't sleep.
Until, one morning,
he went to her and said, simply,
"Marry me!"
ELLEN
"No," she said,
"...it's not fair...to you...."
VIKRAM
But he understood,
it was not fair to her,
to let her be tormented by the gossips of their town.
And so, the next day
the Widow Xu disappeared,
along with her kids and the 19-year-old young man Guojiang.
They went deep into China's heartland in Sichuan province
and climbed a tortuous trail to the summit of a mountain
to where the mountain peak penetrated into the clouds
and the heavens met the earth
and the dense foliage opened out at last
to a broad open field
so the Widow Xu would be safe
from all those who felt her love was wrong.
There, Guojiang built a cottage with his own hands—
carrying the clay soil from the riverbank
up the mountainside to where he built a kiln
and there baked the bricks to build a house.
And then he built a shed to keep the herbs that he collected.
And he planted cornfields and vegetable patches.
And then, in a lush field nearby,
where the trees bore wild fruit
and the howler monkeys perched,
he placed beeboxes in the trees to gather honey.
And next to the house,
he built a playground for the children.
And, in the afternoons, barefoot, Guojiang would go to the stream
and with his quick hands
catch the fish he brought home to his family for dinner.
And then, from time to time,
he would go back down the mountainside
to market in the village
to trade some of his herbs and vegetables
for other things to feed and clothe his children.
And his wife, too,
would sometimes go down the mountain
to visit with her family or to go to market.
And then one day,
Guojiang noticed that his wife,
coming home with a basket on her arm,
slipped on the steep hillside
and only just saved herself from falling down the mountain
by catching hold of a rock ledge.
"All my fault," he said,
"making you suffer here with me..."
ELLEN
"Nonsense," Xu said to him.
"Here is my paradise."
VIKRAM
That night
hearing Xu's moans of pain during her sleep,
Guojiang thought
ELLEN
"Why not build a stone ladder
from the hilltop all the way down to the foot of the mountain?"
VIKRAM
So my wife will be safe
to go down the mountain side
whenever she wishes to visit her family and her friends
and for our children to go up and down the mountainside
to go to school and see their friends
and to come home safely to our cottage on the mountain top.
And so,
without telling his wife,
Guojiang would go off from time to time
over the months that followed
with his hands and a hammer and a small chisel that he had
he carved a stone stairway in the mountain side
a stairway
a stairway of six thousand steps.
For fifty years
they lived in the deepest primeval forest.
Occasionally, Xu would go with Guojiang to the town
to visit their children at school,
and later, when the children got married,
to visit their homes in the villages.
And their children would come back from time to time
to help with some heavy household chores.
But there was never an outsider to intrude into their safe heaven.
ELLEN
"They had no electricity,"
their son Liu recalled,
"and my father made a kerosene lamp from an ink bottle.
And, to keep the steps clear and safe for my mother,
he wore out seven chisels
and as many hammers.
It was his ladder of love."
VIKRAM
And when, at last,
his wife lay dying.
Guojiang said to her,
ELLEN
"What may I bring to you?"
VIKRAM
She said:
"My lover,
I wanted nothing else in the world,
ever,
only to hold your hand
until my last moment....."
[And now,
the autumn foliage gives way to the bare branches of winter.]
DEBARGO
For my part
I never move to a new home
without looking for the place
where my coffin will stand.
ARIAN
I understand exactly.
When my mother died at our home
the staircase turned out to be too narrow for the coffin
so that she had to be lowered out the window
DEBARGO
That sometimes happens.
ARIAN
And since then I've never been able to look at that window
without wondering which of the two of us
will be the next to go through it.
That's why
I like to sleep with a night light burning in our bedroom
and sometimes at night
looking at you
I see that you are lying awake, too
and I know what you are thinking about
but we never speak
DEBARGO
out of tact
ARIAN
out of a certain tact
There are nights when I suddenly jump out of bed
and stand there for a second in a state of absolute terror.
DEBARGO
I understand.
[As the actors are speaking,
we notice that Arian and Yvette are physically close to one another,
as well as Vikram and Ellen
and Debargo and Chen Chi—
so, those three couples, at least—
and possibly others—
have come together
or stayed together.]
THE ASTRONAUT
How can you tell when a person's been shot?
THE ARTIST
At what hour, you mean?
THE ASTRONAUT
No. I mean if they were shot before or after they died. What does rigor mortis actually mean?
THE ARTIST
That cellular death is complete.
THE ASTRONAUT
What does one do to support the lips if the teeth are missing?
THE ARTIST
A strip of stiff cardboard, a strip of sandpaper, cotton.
THE ASTRONAUT
How does a drowned body look?
THE ARTIST
Discoloration over the face, neck, upper chest. Because the body floats downward in the water, usually.
THE ASTRONAUT
What colors does a body pass through after death?
THE ARTIST
Light pink, red, light blue, dark blue, purple-red.
THE ASTRONAUT
Clever:
the way death gathers its harvests.
Whole generations do not fall at once,
that would be too sad
and too visible.
But bit by bit.
One day, one will go.
another day, another.
One must glance about oneself to notice the empty spaces,
the vast contemporary killing.
CHEN CHI
Let any man get hold of as much pleasure as he can
as he lives his daily life;
the future will always be unknown.
The time of life is short,
and once a person is hidden beneath the earth
he lies there for all time.
A man is nothing but breath and shadow.
Time makes all things dark
and brings them to oblivion.
A cup without a bottom is not put on the table.
First you will see a crop in flower,
all white;
then a round mulberry
that has turned red;
lastly
old age
of Egyptian blackness
takes over.
DEBARGO
In spring I think the dawn is most beautiful.
In summer the nights.
In autumn the evenings when the sun has set and your heart is moved by the sound of the wind and the hum of the insects.
CHEN CHI
In winter the early mornings,
especially when snow has fallen during the night,
or the ground is white with frost,
or even when there is no snow or frost,
but it is simply very cold,
and someone hurries from room to room
stirring up the fires and bringing charcoal or wood,
and then,
as noon approaches,
no one bothers to keep the fires going,
and soon nothing remains
but piles of white ashes.
[Music.
And the actors rush and tumble and careen through.
And, while the actors rush through,
the bare branches of the trees begin
once again
to be filled with spring blossoms.
A five year old girl (or a thirty year old woman),
eating an ice cream cone, smiling,
sitting in a red wagon pulled by her father,
enters and leaves, smiling.
A golf cart, driven like crazy by a caddy,
while, in the back,
a couple embraces passionately,
enters and leaves, as the couple continues to embrace.
A couple being pulled along on a picnic blanket
with food and a champagne bottle in a bucket,
and she is drinking and drinking and drinking the champage
enter and leave.
An electric wheelchair—
a man driving,
a woman sitting on the handlebars,
she running her fingers through his hair over and over and over—
enters and leaves.
A skate board,
with a woman lying on her back on the skate board
as a man twirls it round and round in ecstasy,
enters and leaves.
A silk sheet, with silk pillows,
she lying back in her lingerie
he taking photos of her,
enters and leaves.
A homeless guy with cart of stuff
enters and leaves.
A man and woman on a bicycle built for two—
one peddles while the other eats pizza—
enter and leave.
There are as many of these entrances and exits
as there are vehicles with wheels
and actors in the cast who can do a quick change and come through again.
And,
after they have all vanished,
and the tree branches are filled completely with spring blossoms,
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music
a solo dancer dances to beautiful music.
The End.
Charles Mee's work has been made possible by the support of Richard B. Fisher and Jeanne Donovan Fisher.
