Людмила Ансельм - Короткие пьесы

ANNA( ignoring Doctor ): The TV just said that the scientists have identified the gene that makes people lonely.

Annacomes in, throws her purse on the table so as to obscure the small tablet clock from the doctor’s view and flops down in a chair opposite the doctor.

DOCTOR:Yes.

ANNA:I want the gene therapy medicine.

Doctorsmiles pleasantly and turns to Anna.

DOCTOR:Yes, try to relax, what’s the problem?

ANNA:I can’t go out side my house. I’m hurting deep down in my soul, – ‘I feel a desperation. I’m lonely.

DOCTOR:Are you are living alone? Have you called your mother lately?

ANNA( ignore Doctor ): Since I came here to the US. I feel so lonely. You can hardly imagine how hard it is to be lonely.

Doctormoves her purse so he can see the small tablet clock.

ANNA:Take that clock away!

DOCTOR:That’s not very polite… Take your purse away…

Annatakes away her purse in such a way that the tablet clock falls on the floor.

ANNA:Doctor… I…, I…

DOCTOR:Very well, go on.

Doctorglances at his wrist watch.

ANNA:My loneliness is special. I’m like the Liberty Statue: I’m standing alone, and life is boiling around me: people fall in love, go to theaters, restaurants, and I have nobody to go out with. Because no one needs me, I feel desperate and very frightened. I think about doing something drastic actions that could end badly for me.

DOCTOR:Now, now,what do you mean?

ANNA:When I see a couple, a man and a woman, walking along the street, holding hands and showing how good they feel together, I hate them, and I don’t know what to do in order not to see them… I even stopped visiting the Zoo.

Doctor:The Zoo…

ANNA:I don’t want to see almost all animals, even the most thorough predators, sharing a cage together… Especially on holidays and Sundays I literally climb up the wall… When I get up, I immediately remember how lonely I am, and all my thoughts are oriented on how to find somebody… Sometimes I can behave unexpectedly, crazy.

DOCTOR:For example? ( glancing at his magazine again ).

Annajumps up and throws the magazine away.

ANNA:Enough of your “Playboy”…

DOCTOR:( Defensively ) It isn’t “Playboy”. It was…

ANNA:Especially…

Doctorsmiles pleasantly and puts his magazine on the floor.

ANNA:For example, when I go out into the street, I find, it easiest to start conversations with men, and then I talk on and on…

DOCTOR:Do they answer?

ANNA:Yes, they do, and we go along together for a while, then we part…

DOCTOR:And then you part… Your behavior can be interpreted in the wrong way.

ANNA:And they interpret… in the wrong way. It happens in different ways.

DOCTOR:You know this behavior is dangerous.

ANNA:Once I was so scared when a passer-by who I was going along with grabbed my hand, clasped it to his chest and begged: «Come with me, darling!» I could hardly escape from him. On the way home my inner voice used foul language:”You’re a fool, coward. Why didn’t you go with him? It would was your chance? Serves you right.» I ran away because the man looked odd. He was holding my hand, but his eyes were roaming, looking, from side to side.

DOCTOR:You’re telling me that you walk in the streets, and, at the same time, you insist that you can’t leave the house. Let’s get closer to your problem.

ANNA:That’s exactly what I’m doing. So, after the divorce with my husband, I moved into a new house, looked around. It turned out, a single man was living just across from my house. So, I settled down in my new house and started watching him thru the window. I even have made up a biography for him.

DOCTOR:I don’t need his biography, get to the point.

ANNA:I’m just getting to it. I sometimes had walks in front of his house in order to attract his attention. I tried to sell him Girl Scout Cookies, I collected for the United Fund, but he ignored me. Finally, I decided to invite him to my place for a cup of tea. Can you imagine the state of my mind?

DOCTOR:Yes, I can. Did he come?

ANNA:Yes, he came, spick and span: a bow tie a sport jacket, flannel pants… Tall, handsome – I could hardly stand on my feet. He told me that his name was Joe. I was so excited that couldn’t even say to him: “Joe come in, be seated». The words stuck in my throat. He came into the living room, anyhow, sat on the sofa next to me, and started talking. First he spoke about the weather, then passed over to his dog. Then little by little Joe told me about his travels, how many countries he had been to, what he had seen there. Do you know what impressed me greatly in his stories?

DOCTOR:( pensively. ) Go on, go on…

ANNA:Doctor, I can see that you’re not interested in what I’m telling you.

DOCTOR:Go on.

ANNA:I want to emphasize that all I’m telling you is very important.

DOCTOR:What do you think made the greatest impression on you?

ANNA:The most amazing thing is that Joe had traveled in many different countries but told me mainly about the countries where he visited nudist beaches. I believe that there’s no nudist beach in the whole world that he had not visited.

DOCTOR:( with some interest. ) Nude beaches!

ANNA:There’re lots of them.

DOCTOR:Oh?…

ANNA:Is it important?

DOCTOR:No, it’s not important… For instance?

ANNA:I remember only – on Martha’s Vineyard and on the island of St. Martin. Unfortunately, I can’t remember others.

DOCTOR:( With more and more interest ) So? Go on…

ANNA:So, we were sitting and talking. I was going to invite him to the table when he suddenly got up and said: «I’ll leave you for five minutes to have a smoke». I said to him: «Joe, you may smoke in here,». And he replied: “I can’t smoke in your the room. It’ll take me exactly five minutes». And he went out. He left and came back in five minutes. And then he suddenly rushed out of my house and ran across the street to his own house and since then I can’t go out into the street.

DOCTOR:( withwonder. ) I can’t understand what happened to your neighbor?

ANNA:Happened to me, not to him. But, please, don’t laugh at me.

DOCTOR:I won’t laugh.

ANNA:The point is when Joe was going out to have a smoke he cast a long and significant glance at me as if he wanted to explain something. I trembled with excitement. And it was then that my inner voice said: «Strip off your clothes». It said this so distinctly and clearly as I’m speaking to you now. Then repeated insistently, in the form of an order: «Be quick, off with clothes, he’ll soon come back». I decided to cover my body with a sheet, but the voice said: «Risk it, take the sheet away». Then, when I took it away, it said: «Lie down on the sofa and look as if you were lying on a nude beach».

DOCTOR:Your pose?

ANNA( demonstrating ): I simply put my hands behind my head…

DOCTOR:Why?

ANNA( looking at doctor ): You don’t understand? I wanted to show my breasts to advantage…

DOCTOR( withmore interest. ): I see…Show me, please, your pose.

Annaputs her hands behind her head. Doctor reacts.

ANNA:My inner voice ordered me to do it.

DOCTOR:I see… and what did your inner voice say when the neighbor rushed out of the room?

ANNA:Used foul language.

DOCTOR:What did it say?

ANNA:I can’t repeat.

DOCTOR:Don’t repeat all the words.

ANNA:It said: «Hey, you, ninny, so-and-so… Now the whole street will know…». And now I can’t go in the street in daylight.

DOCTOR:Your voice didn’t explain anything to you?

ANNA:Nothing. Now I can’t walk on my street.

DOCTOR:Wrong. You of course can go out in the street.

ANNA:But doctor, I think my neighbor looks at me through the window and laughs.

DOCTOR:He doesn’t laugh at you.

ANNA:He probably has told the neighbors about the incident.

DOCTOR:Why should he tell them? Nothing happened, did it?

ANNA:Doctor, that’s really the point.

DOCTOR:Don’t worry; he told the neighbors nothing, and won’t tell.

ANNA:Doctor, how do you know that he didn’t talk to the neighbors?

DOCTOR:I had similar cases in my practice. Besides, I’m a man myself and understand something about men…

ANNA:Doctor, what shall I do now?

DOCTOR: What’s your inner voice saying to you now?

ANNA:My inner… voice? Now? Cursing…

DOCTOR:Who?

ANNA:You.

DOCTOR:How?

ANNA:I feel embarrassed, I can’t repeat…

DOCTOR:Please, tell me. It’s important.

ANNA:Using the same words?

DOCTOR:Absolutely.

ANNA:It says that you’re a fucking doctor. You know damn well such problems. You put on airs.

Pause.

DOCTOR:I see, compulsive obsessive!.. I can prescribe a medicine for you.

ANNA:The gene therapy medicine?

DOCTOR:This to get rid of your company. Next time come and see me alone, without your inner voice.

Thedoctor starts writing the prescription. Anna comes to the doctor to watch him writing.

ANNA( very definitely ): Doctor, don’t trouble… I’ll never take it.

DOCTOR:Why not?

ANNA:I don’t want to get rid of it… my inner voice…

DOCTOR:But because of it you are having your problems. It doesn’t let you go out into the street. And it also whispers in your ear all sorts of nonsense about your neighbor… and me…

ANNA:All right, I’ve lived without the neighbor, and I’ll live on.

DOCTOR:Here is your prescription.

ANNA:I don’t need it.

DOCTOR:I insist, take it, take it! Gene therapy is not right now…

Doctorholds out the prescription. Anna reluctantly takes it.