IOANA IERONIM
SPECIAL MISSION
or
WHO’S GOING TO OPEN ?
Dramaturg: Roberta Levitow
Characters:
The Visitor:
a woman in her forties
A Lady:
voice only
Neighbors:
most of them interchangeable, most of them
pensioners, and former nomenklatura in the
communist regime
Women: Neighbors 1, 2, 4, 6, 8; Men: Neighbors 3, 5, 7
The Young Man:
in his early twenties
1
The story happens in present day Bucharest, in an apartment building completed
in 1960.
The stage: a long corridor with several doors. No window. The Elevator is at the
end of the corridor.
Beginning: stage completely dark. Sounds can be heard discretely: shuffling of
people moving in their apartments, some kitchen noise, various TV channels.
After a while, a series of distant sounds and a dialogue (between the VISITOR
and the LADY): a door is opened, shuffled steps, then the noise of a small metal
door being opened and slammed (imaginable as the little metal door of a
mailbox, in the entrance hall of the building). Seconds later, one can hear ever
more insistent knocking on the entrance door. Voices only.
VISITOR: Please open up for me! Please! Please o-pen up for me! It’s something
urgent…
THE LADY: I beg your pardon?
VISITOR: I do not know the entrance code. Please do open… an errand.
THE LADY: Who …?
VISITOR: Mrs Daria … I’m not quite sure, Mrs Daria Lupescu... or Lupeanu. It’s
urgent.
THE LADY: What’s she saying there? What’s this all about?
VISITOR: Mrs Daria…
THE LADY: If you don’t even know who… Daria Lupeanu
VISITOR: We’re friends. FRIENDS.
THE LADY: Whatever! Come in, now. (click of the door opening) But don't come
here again just like that!
VISITOR: Thank you so much! My lucky day
THE LADY: If I hadn’t stepped out for the mail…
VISITOR: … I’ve been here before. A dark floor
One can hear the door being locked carefully.
2
THE LADY: All the floors are dark...
VISITOR: Please tell me, ma'am …do you happen to know on exactly which
floor Mrs Daria Lupeanu lives?
THE LADY: Jesus! This is … Aren’t you a little…o !? The SEVENTH floor.
One can hear the elevator going down, stopping, and someone getting on. The
elevator does not start right away, the doors close and open several times,
before it starts at last, squeaking and stopping a little from time to time. The
visitor gets off the elevator at the last floor (stage) - and finds herself in the dark
corridor. Gradually, the visitor's eyes get accustomed and she starts to
distinguish a series of doorways. She rings at the last door, at the other end of
the corridor.
A CHILD’S VOICE (from behind the door): Who is it?
VISITOR: Please tell me, can I find Mrs Lupeanu here?
One can hear the child stomping away.
A CHILD’S VOICE Grannyyyy... ! There's someone at our door...
The door opens, letting out an oily-gray kind of light.
NEIGHBOR 1: Who are you looking for? ... Lupeanu… She lives next door... (she
remains in the doorway)
The Visitor tries to ring at the door nearby, on the right, she pushes the bell, but
cannot hear anything. She starts knocking on the door. Then, suddenly, another
door opens, at her back, and the head of a woman appears, someone about 65
years of age.
NEIGHBOR 2: Who are you looking for? Who is she looking for? But who are
you, anyway?
NEIGHBOR 1: She’s looking for Mrs. Lupeanu
VISITOR: Mrs. Lupeanu. I am a friend of her daughter's, I am supposed to...
NEIGHBOR 2: All kinds of people who come here.
VISITOR (continues knocking on the door and trying to ring the bell): I know
Mrs.Daria Lupeanu. I have been here before…
3
NEIGHBOR 2: Many people come by, here - Lord, yes!
VISITOR: I for one... There is no answer
NEIGHBOR 1: And how many things happen.
VISITOR: That's true, but, as I said... We have known one another …
NEIGHBOR 1: There was that Italian woman, once... are you a Romanian, or
what? You seem to me to have an accent
VISITOR: We have known each other for years. It was a mutual friend who kindly
asked me... Accent? Maybe. Do you think she is at home, Daria?
NEIGHBOR 1: Well, that Italian woman she looked exactly like you also, and she
said that she was a close friend of Mrs. Daria's daughter, you know.
VISITOR: I don't. Do you think the bell can be heard, in there?
NEIGHBOR 2: She said that Daria's daughter had been the one to send her
here, so she said.
VISITOR: In fact me too... (renews her efforts to ring and knock on the door)
NEIGHBOR 1: She was a cheat, you must know - it's nobody who sent her nobody at all. God knows what mission she had, you understand (sign as if this
was a secret). Neither of us is a new-born babe and not know these things. Can
you imagine that there was a guy who came from America, to ask for money from
poor Daria? He said that Daria's daughter wanted a certain icon bought for her,
so he wanted lots of Romanian money from Daria and he said that he would
return the amount in dollars and I don't know what else he said, that he would
come back that evening. And so he was able to cheat Daria. And then that very
evening the daughter herself called from America - this is what happened, and
Daria found out that there hadn't been any talk about an icon. Still they were
happy enough in the end, and thanked God that the thief had not hit Daria over
the head or something.
VISITOR: Do you think she is at home? … I have not come to ask Mrs. Daria for
anything… This bell sure doesn’t ring
Another door opens in the corridor, an aged, but strong man comes out - and one
can see a rather violent neon light behind the man.
NEIGHBOR 2: There are things... which are better not known about, (the
neighbor makes signs indicating that Daria is not at home)
4
VISITOR: So, she is not at home? … But… why didn’t you say so from the
beginning? Maybe she’ll come back soon… Where is she, do you think? Here at
the market?
NEIGHBOR 2: Market? O, no. She hasn’t been out like this for ages
NEIGHBOR 3: Mn-n. She’s left Bucharest.
Neighbors 1-2 make gestures of caution and doubt.
VISITOR: Can I telephone her?
NEIGHBOR 3: They don't have a telephone where they are. They're at their
grandparents' home in the country.
NEIGHBOR 2: Who knows? With her daughter there, too...
NEIGHBOR 1: We simply don’t know, why all these guesses!
VISITOR: Where exactly? I may be able to get the telephone
NEIGHBOR 2: It’s where their family is, up in the mountains,
NEIGHBOR 3: It's the village they originally came from.
VISITOR: When do you think she will be back?
NEIGHBOR 1: Tomorrow evening, something like that.
VISITOR: O God, this is very urgent.
NEIGHBOR 3: But who are you? Who is this person, in fact? How did you
manage to get into our building?
NEIGHBOR 2: It’s not been Daria to let you in, not her, for sure.
VISITOR: I did...
NEIGHBOR 3: It's less than a week ago that I saw that guy I was telling you
about. Please come over here, to see. See what happened over here (he shows
the Visitor Daria's door, with deep chisel marks in the wood)
NEIGHBOR 2: The old woman doesn't leave home more than once or twice a
year, at most and it is exactly at the time that you come looking for her. Isn't that
rather strange?
5
NEIGHBOR 1: The one who tried to force Daria's door open with his chisel... the
same. He showed up exactly when Daria wasn't around. How very nice.
More of the neighbors appear in their doorways and on the corridor.
VOICES:
# I have a sense I met you somewhere before.
# Aren't you the one who runs the little electric appliance shop round the
corner?
# Didn't you work at the Savings Bank here on the ground floor, before
they moved ?
NEIGHBOR 1: What is this all about - you being a friend of Mrs Daria's Daughter,
who left the country for good, at least 40 years ago ?
NEIGHBOR 2: Exactly. And speaking of Daria's daughter, she keeps her youth,
certainly she does - they have the ways and means there in the West. Unlike
here. Can you believe, looking at her, that she is exactly my age And look at me,
already a grandmother and this is how I look now!
NEIGHBOR 1: They know very well why they're leaving, these people.
VISITOR: Don't worry, please. I met the lady's daughter at her place, in the
States. I do need to find her now. Urgent business, as I say
NEIGHBOR 3: Okay, now. Daria's daughter has been here in Romania for over a
month now, and you claim to have brought urgent messages from her, from
America...
VISITOR: This is in connection with a congress…
NEIGHBOR 4: Congress?!
VISITOR: Yes. That is… We need this proxy from the lady’s daughter, you know.
For a congress overseas. Maybe you can help me to…
VOICES:
# Bless my soul, this is something that never happened to me
# NEVER ever, before...
# Something is fishy, here.
# My intuition is always right.
# Fishy! Fishy! That's what Bebe, my grandson, calls it!
VISITOR: Well, what's your problem? Do I look like a crook? Do I? Just tell me. If
I hadn’t had this proxy issue to solve, I would have just left, without bothering
anyone anymore. But as it is, please, couldn’t you…
6
NEIGHBOR 3: We've had our own experiences. We've been cheated in this life,
often enough - there are all kinds of people coming up here, some from the
country, others from overseas, wherever.
NEIGHBOR 5: True, no one can deny that. All these guys, and the women too most of them had some reason to be poking around
NEIGHBOR 3: Around Daria's especially.
NEIGHBOR 1: An innocent woman. An angel. Even her own daughter calls her
that. Her mother's an angel, a real angel!
NEIGHBOR 2 (to the Visitor): Everyone knows why her daughter left. If you're
really her friend, you must know, there's no way not to...
NEIGHBOR 3: Don't we know everything only too well? Don't we also have our
sons and daughters, over THERE ? Like myself, and Mr. Georgescu downstairs
and so many others.
The VISITOR observes the scene. Her voice can be heard exclaiming ironically,
but discretely a few times.
VOICES:
# But then, "they" didn't really look for us so often, we shouldn’t complain…
# They didn't send us all that stuff over here...
# All kinds of rubbish, that she has a hard time to get rig of
# What are you trying to say, now? Your kids are normal, as good as
anyone's - not like poor Daria's...
# Pretexts
# nonsense
# manipulation, there’s no shame left in the world
# haven't we seen a lot? more than the hairs on my head
# appearances are deceptive, who doesn't know that!
# now, we can't deny that there are all these strange unknown people
roaming around our halls here, up and down
# D'you remember the guy who said he had come to fix our windows?
# another one was fixing pipes
# one came around to measure how much electricity was being wasted
# o, no, it was about the wasted water
# oh, these ones who read meters they're the worst of all!
# some others were selling pots and pans
# cleaning rugs
# bringing manure for flower pots
# I haven’t seen any of those for a while. But then, for some reason, there are
more chimney sweepers now than ever before …!
# asking help for building convents
7
# Now here, you must be exaggerating, sir. That was a real monk, wasn't he?
#... oh-well - d'you have any idea what the man had under his skirts?
# O Lord! what these communists were able to do to us - here we are now,
believing in nobody and nothing!
# No, it's only those, the one's we've got now who have done this to us!!
# what nonsense are you mumbling there, neighbor? this has nothing to do
with communism or no communism - aren’t you weird...
# Well now! Can you deny it?
# Don't listen to him. He never denies anything. He isn't such a fool as to
deny, is he?
# We're the fools, since we forget everything overnight and ignore everything
and forgive everything .
# I tell you, I bumped into the gipsy woman myself on these very steps here,
in front of your door: with her kid and the cards to "read" our fortune for us.
# she - all ready to tell your fortune and the kid ready to steal your fortune
# ha-ha...
# and then the others: deaf and dumb
# the blind man too
# the blind woman, you mean, the one who sang that lament, forever and
ever
# the handicapped beggars - I've also come across them, I tell you.
# you mean, they have come across you! What! Can you have missed them?
# not heard and not seen them?
# Well, in this dark hallway ...
# It was those blind ones who came with their chisel to my next-door
neighbor.
# You wonder how all the jerks in the world are able to get into our building
# You wonder who opens the gate for them
# (to the Visitor) Over there, in America where you say you come from and as you say - you met Mrs.Daria's daughter - do they also get into people's
apartment buildings like this ? (everyone is interested, though they appear to
know the answer beforehand)
VISITOR: Well it's not exactly like this, I mean...
VOICES:
# There you have it. We have also seen a few things in this world!
# You want to find Daria? D'you have any permission to show us? We need to
be careful, we are responsible here for ....
# It's about our conscience. Even her daughter asked us to. And the old
woman herself, too. They give us gifts, now and then.
# Though that’s not why we…
The VISITOR, fascinated and exasperated, tries repeatedly to get their
attention, throwing in such questions as: “May I leave a message with you?”,
“(Should I) write a note?”, “Leave my telephone number here?”, “Maybe you’ll
8
tell me…” She fails. In the meantime, some neighbors have also come up the
stairs.
# This is right in the eyes of God, to protect widows, orphans, handicapped
people. We have to be decent to each other.
# Right. It’s our conscience.
# Years ago, the old woman, who was not that old then, she was able to
manage somehow: she alone knows how she was able to.
# But then she always had a kind word for everyone. Doesn’t she also
deserve some attention now?
NEIGHBOR 2: Fine woman, Daria. Because she too came from the country
somewhere
NEIGHBOR 3: That's not true. She came from another tenement, from
Damaroaia. I am positive. They moved from there, here - as a reward for their
outstanding merits in building a socialist society. Remember?
NEIGHBOR 2: I didn't mean that, I meant where she had come from in the
beginning, where her family was from originally, there, in the countryside. You
came later
NEIGHBOR 6: O yes, yes - I had just forgotten. How they used to pile up goodies
on the table, for the "pig" feast - that they brought. After their parents at their
home up in the mountains had slaughtered the pig
NEIGHBOR 1: And then all of us neighbors got a bite of that pork on New Year's
Eve.
NEIGHBOR 7: You mean, Christmas.
NEIGHBOR 2: O no, never: I do remember: it WAS New Year's Eve.
NEIGHBOR 5: New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve!
VOICES:
# Aren’t they right those guys on TV about us reinventing history?!
# True, Mr Mircioaga. Who dared celebrate Christmas in those days, ever,
here in our neighborhood?
# Here in this building? Oh!!!
NEIGHBOR 7: Right. Now, Mr. Truţă, Sir, listen, I have been thinkin' for years to
ask you and I keep forgetting. How did you manage to keep that fir tree on the
balcony, sticking out for everyone to see - until New Year's Eve: and in the
meantime - maybe - not that I could see it clearly - but maybe I could, though -
9
you did decorate another fir-tree for your kids on Christmas Eve. Weren't you
sorry to spend all that money? Two fir trees
NEIGHBOR 5: T'was worth it, wasn't it, what with his job at the Central
Committee of the Party.
NEIGHBOR 7: Wouldn't it have been better to spend it on some beer...
NEIGHBOR 5: Or rather, hot wine with cinnamon - across the road over there in
the Market Pub - mummmmn!
# Try and go now, to have hot wine with cinnamon, maybe at the Italian
restaurant, or at the Japanese restaurant, round the corner, lots of choices, aren’t
there?
# Do you mean he can’t afford it? He can, allright. It’s still the likes of him,
who can afford it
NEIGHBOR 3: I’ll go and have my hot wine with cinnamon wherever and
whenever I want to! You’re angering me, now. Don’t anger me too much, so I
start remembering what everyone of you were doing in those days… and you
won’t like it a bit! Were you such Angels? Was I the only one to...?
VOICES:
# Sure! He’s right. What could you do… leave him alone… and if you tried
to say something, now, how far could you get?… hard times, who denies it…
NEIGHBOR 5: But then he thought he could fool all of us - playing the
"Revolutionary" at the University in ‘90… yeah, never missing a day in the
University Square.
# Right! Have you gotten a revolutionary certificate? Maybe you tell us the
way to get it…
NEIGHBOR 3: This is nevertheless not what it's all about. … Mind your own
damned business, you ... Let's see about this woman, now.
NEIGHBOR 4: Absolutely. This is not the issue. Everyone should mind their own
business. So things would go better
VISITOR: I would be much obliged… may I leave a note for her, perhaps…
NEIGHBOR 2: Daria? Of course! Our neighborly and human duty is to take care
of Daria, for her not to be disturbed and worried about God knows who. Enough
is enough, see what I mean!
10
NEIGHBOR 5: We too have a son or a daughter abroad, there - we do. But it has
never been like it's been with Daria. No, really! Everyone knows.
NEIGHBOR 2: Nor did the world change that much in the meantime, it didn't. It's
just as bad and wicked. It's even worse, actually.
NEIGHBOR 1: You can see it even with our Daria: they won't let go of her ...
they're still after her, as you can clearly see.
NEIGHBOR 7: Frame-ups upon frame-ups
NEIGHBOR 5: After her... After her daughter... They just don't let go.
NEIGHBOR 7: Call them by their real name, dear Neighbor - Securists.
NEIGHBOR 8: I for one don't believe in these tales. Why! Are you still afraid,
nowadays?
NEIGHBOR 2: Well, I must say - I'm even more afraid.
NEIGHBOR 8: Now, Mrs Bălan, right now, you have to tell me exactly what you
are afraid of.
NEIGHBOR 2: Oh bless my soul! My old age and my sins. Let me say... that I'm
afraid of everything. It seems to me that you don't read the newspapers...
NEIGHBOR 7: Mhm - poor woman - has she ever any money left for
newspapers? They even cut off her TV cable now. A pensioner. Where is she
going to get all that money from?
VOICES:
# Pensioners. What else? And who didn't find some way to get by, some
source…
# That’s clear
# So, they’ve cut off their TV cable too? I didn't notice.
# I be surprised if you could notice in this dark here
# Look, if most of us are now pensioners. Some may have found something
to…
# Maybe you get to stay with those out there on the steps of the store - with
your walking stick to lean on and a begging hand out...
# This is the very image I have of an old colleague of mine, a most
respectable man - yes. The begging hand... I was shocked, truly
# New-fashioned pensioners ...
# 'xept for the lucky ones - with their sons or daughters Abroad
# … who have not forgotten about them altogether
11
# However that may be - I don't see any rhyme or reason in still being afraid
today. It's incredible. Fear - what?! You should be ashamed. You've been left
with this kind of... like hangover, some of you...
# Look, just look into what's happening with our neighbor, Daria herself: and
you'll see what I mean.
# They've confused all of us. Theft and robbery and manipulation, that's all
there is.
# You can see it even on her door, what they did to her - come over here to
see: a helpless old woman. And they forced their chisel into the edges, from
here all the way up.
# You haven’t yet seen that? Well, just go and have a look! See what this
world is like, today
# This one was no professional. A mere amateur - maybe someone from this
very building, who knew her habits.
# What d'ye mean, ma'am? All of this must have happened more than a year
ago, I guess. That’s before I came here, as an admin. For there haven't been
anymore druggies or anyone, forcing their way into our building, ever since.
NEIGHBOR 7 (approaching the VISITOR): Still, I think I know you, somehow
VISITOR: From the television, maybe?
VOICES:
# Television? Wasn't that the program they have "Keep an Eye Open"
# about cheats and swindlers and how they take advantage of old people?
# she looks like she’s fallen from the Moon.
# Has she told us who she really is ? Maybe she’s just acting
# I wonder
VISITOR: I am a colleague of hers... it is about a congress, as I say. So,
please…
VOICES:
# A colleague?!
# Now, truly, - who are you, ma'am?
# Let's listen to what she finally has to say!
NEIGHBOR 5: Everyone knows that Daria’s daughter left Romania 40 years ago.
She was no child when she left: she was already a married woman, with her own
family.
NEIGHBOR 2: True. Don’t you remember, those of us who were here from the
beginning? This apartment building had just been completed for us. And as soon
as we had moved in here, the daughter was offered this position in diplomacy, or
whatever it was - somewhere. And away she went - with her husband and all. For
good.
12
VISITOR: Professionally, I didn't mean to imply - colleagues in the same
generation. I am a teacher, too.
NEIGHBOR 5: Does she look like one?
VISITOR: But I am not teaching, maybe that’s why…
VISITOR:
# Ah-Ha-ha. What did I tell you?
# Why do you now change your story, ma'am? A teacher who does not
teach?
# Whatever is the case, you should have called before coming here: that’s
obvious.
VISITOR: I did call, but what could I do, if nobody answered?
NEIGHBOR 3: So, you first checked - and then you came here immediately,
even though you knew nobody was at home.
VISITOR: NO, please don't get me wrong, again! I came like this because of my
need. I am to get an answer as soon as possible. The Congress. We need this
proxy
VOICES:
# Congress!
# Proxy! Do you think you can fool us?
# Total fabrication.
# Another all made up story.
# Just look at yourself, lady. You look to me to be completely confused
# (senile voice) Police!! Call the police! (two or three neighbors step behind
their doors)
# Well, well, don’t worry. We don’t need any police, now.
VISITOR: It's been so hot today... Please kindly…
# What proxy? Nonsense!
# Can we check?
VISITOR: PLEASE!!! … I’ve come for a simple thing: an academic congress.
This is common practice, a proxy. Only it’s urgent. I need to pass on this
message to Canada NOW. That’s why I need Mrs Daria Lupeanu - rather her
daughter or someone in their family, to know…
# Canada?
# Not America?
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VISITOR: Please try to understand me. I have come from work, I am tired, I’d like
to go to the swimming pool at last
# Swimming pool! We make the effort and try to help and she
# This is what she calls URGENT!
# D’ye think you are the only one who’s tired around here?!
VOICES expressing a different trend of opinion:
# Why on earth are you SO SUSPICIOUS? This lady looks like a serious
person to me, nevertheless...
# Are we a bunch of savages now!?
# Well... let's see!
# Let it be said that things are also in keeping with the human heart and soul.
Events are matched to individuals, and how they are. Everyone knows this.
# Utter nonsense. Superstitions. It’s incredible, educated people to…
# It’s trendy, now
# But this has been proven, through experiments. Haven’t you seen, on the
Discovery?
# This is what I mean to say, that there is no way to be sure of anything
anymore, these days. No way. Just think of it: there are some who say that
there is no such thing as progress. They might be right, God knows!
# No progress? Well, this is too crazy! I will never believe that one, for God’s
sake!
# You can't know what kind of world this is
# They have flooded the police with women.
# And politics, too
# And there are all these foreigners everywhere...
# Right you are, Mr. Lawyer.
# Ha-ha hi-hi-hi: The kind of lawyer he is… !
# Don't you remember that guy who said that he was an American, and then
when you asked him more about it he confessed that he was "an American of
Japanese descent". I tell you, he was a Chinese inside-and-out, he was, I can tell
you.
# Mafiosi!
# Leave it alone !... it seems to me that they're now behaving themselves,
these Chinese. We haven't heard any more about blood on the walls and
beheadings and ritual crimes for some time now. It’s rather the Arabs, isn’t it.
# God spare us! Forgive me, Lord, for my sinful mouth.
NEIGHBOR 3 (to Visitor): We're going to tell Daria about you, and check all of
this out: so please tell us, who should we say has come to see her ?
VISITOR: Elena Popescu: Mrs.Daria knows me. I was in America. I'm here now.
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VOICES:
# Wasn't it Canada? Didn't you say Canada?
# Is this Elena Popescu: a… er "pseudonym"?
# Are you a relative? They also have some relatives, the Popescus.
# Some sort of nephews
The noisy chat continues. NEIGHBOR 6 and NEIGHBOR 7 have their separate
dialogue in a corner.
The VISITOR moves slowly towards the elevator, at the other end of the
corridor.
NEIGHBOR 6: Listen, I wish to ask you something. Now that I see you… please
tell me, are you interested in some books? I’m going to move to my daughter’s
place. You know, we have already sold my apartment. But I don’t want people to
know…
NEIGHBOR 7: O, no! After a lifetime here?
NEIGHBOR 6: What can I do? My grand-daughter is studying at a private
university... I live here by myself... More than we can afford
NEIGHBOR 7: I am really sorry. But, as they say … new place – new life! I wish
you all the best.
NEIGHBOR 6: Now, that’s it. So that’s why I tell you about the books. For, my
daughter doesn’t want me to take any more books to her house. I hate to throw
them away… The second-hand bookstores didn’t want to have them – they say,
this stuff won’t sell, we already have tons of it, they say, and we’ll need to dump
what we already have… Now, I don’t feel I have the energy anymore…
NEIGHBOR 7: Books ? I don’t have a lot of room left, myself. But, maybe…
NEIGHBOR 6: It’s a pity, for these books. Even if I had been keeping the older
ones in the second row for years … I had even forgotten I had them at all. (she
laughs). They may be old books, but they are good books, especially my
husband’s. Detective stories, a whole library of French pocketbooks. We used to
read a lot, the two of us. We liked that. We used to sit in armchairs, with blankets
on our legs, reading and reading. The little spare time we had. It was all different
from today. Come and see, just have a look… (they are slowly walking towards
her apartment door) We had hardly gotten married, we lived in terrible poverty…
and still, we were able to buy beautiful editions from Engels, Thorez, Bendit …
and how many others. If you don’t want them, you may be able to find some
second hand book dealer who wants them… Tony – my husband, I mean - he
could speak French and German and Hungarian and Russian. Me, too. You
know, I attended the Italian high school - at the Catholic convent, there, in
Transylvania. In my birth place. Can you read Italian? There are books… Just
15
come to have a look, we’re anyway wasting our time around here. Or, maybe
your grandchildren. I have a sense that they have an intellectual passion in them,
I thought… Is that so? Come in, come in, please… no need to take your shoes
off (both of them leave, entering her apartment).
VISITOR: I’ll manage somehow… (she is now near the elevator ).
In the meantime, one can hear the elevator coming up noisily, then it stops,
producing the sounds of an old engine. A young man shows up, in the pale light
of the open elevator. He touches the wall of the corridor, he finds the switch and
switches on the light in the hall: cobwebs, cracks in the walls. He passes by the
group of people: he seems to be floating on his Nikes, with his earphones on,
absorbed in his own rhythm, which manifests itself in his whole body. The
VISITOR looks at the scene, then she exits. The sound of the descending
elevator can be heard.
THE YOUNG MAN (greets everyone politely, without expecting them to answer):
Hello!
A heavy bunch of keys on a ring in his hand. He has difficulty pushing the key
into the locks at Daria's door: he succeeds in the end.
VOICES:
# Look at this one!
# Have you ever seen him before!?
# Who are you looking for, young man?
# Who are you?
# Who is he?
THE YOUNG MAN: I am ADO. I live here. Yes. Hi!
(he greets them with a broad, friendly smile on his face)
VOICES:
# What?
# How come?
# Since when?
Neighbor 7 appears with some old books under his arm, from the apartment of
Neighbor 6; he stays put on the threshold.
THE YOUNG MAN: Starting right now… (He keeps smiling. He looks for some
code for communication): Have a nice day!
The young man enters into Daria’s apartment and closes the door. Music can be
heard that he starts to play in there - trendy meditative music, exotic and
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sensuous, with an outer-space touch - a kind of ethno-universal tune. The
characters in the corridor remain motionless in the growing, searing light.
The
E n d
Translated by the author with Ernest H. Latham Jr.
© Ioana Ieronim
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