OLD TIMES

Harold Pinter
Losada, Argentina, 2006
Pages 1-31
9789500363389
This work is protected by copyright and its reproduction and
public communication, in the mode of availability, has been
carried out with authorization of law 23 of 1982, article 32 and literal j)
from Article 22 of Andean Decision 351 of 1993, as well as Concept
National Copyright Directorate, No 2-2004-10732 of the 13th
November 2004, issued by the Legal Division, page 6.
 OLD TIMES

Harold Pinter
(1960)

Translation by Rafael Spregelburd

(2006)
For Editorial Losada
 OLD TIMES
(OLD TIMES)

Old Times was premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre,
from London, on June 1, 1971, with the following cast:
DEELEY Colin Blakely
KATE Dorothy Tutin
ANNA Vivien Merchant

All of them in their early forties.

Address: Peter Hall

The work was produced for television by the BBC in October 1975, with the following
cast:
DEELEY Barry Foster
KATE Anna Cropper
ANNA Mary Millar

Address: Christopher Morahan

It was performed at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, in April 1985 with the
next distribution:
DEELEY Michael Gambon
KATE Resident Pagett
ANNA Liv Ullmann

Address: David Jones

A renovated country house.

A long window at the back, in the center. The bedroom door at the back, on the left.
The street door is at the back on the right.

Modern furniture.
Two sofas. An armchair.

Autumn. Night.
 Old times
First act
Penumbra. Three figures can be distinguished.

DEELEY slumped in an armchair, still.

KATE curled up on a sofa, still.
ANNA stands by the window, looking outside.

Silence.

The lights rise on DEELEY and KATE, who are smoking cigarettes.

ANNA's silhouette remains motionless, bathed in dim light, next to the window.

KATE: (Thoughtful.) Brunette.

Pause.

DEELEY: Fat or thin?

KATE: More chubby than me. I think.

Pause.

DEELEY: At that time too?

I think so.
DEELEY: Maybe not now.
Pause.
Was she your best friend?
KATE: What does that mean?
DEELEY: What?
KATE: The word friend... when reminiscing... so much time.
DEELEY: Don't you remember what you felt?

Break.

KATE: A long time ago.

DEELEY: But you remember her. She remembers you. If not, why would she come?
tonight?
KATE: I suppose it's because he remembers me.

Break.

DEELEY: Did you wash like your best friend?

KATE: She was my only friend.
DEELEY: The best and the only.
The only one.
Pause.
If you have only one of something, you can't say it's the best of anything.
DEELEY: Because you have nothing to compare it to?
KATE: Mmnn.

Pause.

DEELEY: (Smiling.) It was incomparable.

KATE: No, I'm sure not.

Pause.

DEELEY: I didn't know you had so few friends.

KATE: I had none. Absolutely none. Except her.
DEELEY: Why her?
KATE: I don't know.

Pause.

She was a thief. She was going around stealing things.

DEELEY: Who?
Me.
DEELEY: What things?
Little things. Underwear.

DEELEY lets out a chuckle.

DEELEY: Are you going to remind him?

KATE: Y... it doesn’t seem that way to me.

Pause.

DEELEY: Is that what attracted you to her?

KATE: What?
DEELEY: That she was a thief.
KATE: No.

Break.

DEELEY: Do you want to see her?

KATE: No.
DEELEY: Yes, it is going to give me a lot of interest.
KATE: What?
DEELEY: You. I will be watching you.
KATE: Me? Why?
DEELEY: To see if it is the same person.
KATE: Am I going to help you figure that out?
DEELEY: Definitely.

Pause.
KATE: I just remember her. I have almost completely forgotten her.

Pause.

DEELEY: Do you have any idea what he takes?

Not at all.
DEELEY: She is a vegetarian.
KATE: Ask her.
DEELEY: It's too late. You cooked a stew.

Pause.

Why isn't she married? I mean, why doesn't she bring her husband?
KATE: Ask him.
DEELEY: Do I have to ask everything myself?
KATE: Do you want me to ask the questions for you?
DEELEY: No. Not at all.

Pause.

KATE: Of course she is married.

DEELEY: How do you know?
KATE: Everyone is married.
DEELEY: So why doesn't she bring her husband?
KATE: Ah, don't you have it?

Pause.

DEELEY: Does she mention any husband in the letter?

KATE: No.
DEELEY: What do you think he will be like? I mean, what kind of man do you think he will be?
Married? After all, she was your best - your only - friend. You must have some idea.
to have. What man would he be?
No idea.
DEELEY: Doesn't it make you curious?
KATE: You forget. I know her.
DEELEY: You haven't seen her in twenty years.
KATE: You never saw her. There is a difference.

Pause.

DEELEY: At least the stew is enough for four.

KATE: You said you were a vegetarian.

Pause.

DEELEY: But... did she have many friends?

Y... the usual, I guess.
DEELEY: Normal? What is normal? You didn't have any.
KATE: One.
DEELEY: Is that normal?

Pause.

She did... have a lot of friends, didn't she?

Hundreds.
DEELEY: Did you get to know them?
KATE: Not everyone, I think. But after all, we lived together. Visitors would come over from time to time.
When. I saw them.
DEELEY: To your visits?
KATE: What?
DEELEY: To your visits. Your friends. You didn't have friends.
KATE: Their friends, yes.
DEELEY: You saw them.

Pause.

(Abruptly.) Did they live together?

KATE: Mmmnn?
DEELEY: Did they live together?
KATE: Of course.
DEELEY: I didn't know that.
KATE: No?
DEELEY: You never told me. I thought they just knew each other.
KATE: It's just that we knew each other.
DEELEY: But in reality, they lived together.
KATE: Of course we lived together. Otherwise, how was she going to steal my underwear?
On the street?

Pause.

DEELEY: I knew you had shared with someone at one time...

Break.

But I didn't know it was her.

KATE: Of course it was.

Pause.

DEELEY: In the end, none of this matters.

ANNA steps away from the window while talking, and approaches them, to finally
sit on the second sofa.

ANNA: All night waiting in line, the rain, do you remember?, my God, the Albert Hall,
Covent Garden, what were we eating? Now that I think about it, we used to spend half of the time
from the night doing what we liked, we were young, of course, but what
Hang in there, and in the morning to work, and to a concert, or the opera, or the ballet, that
night, you haven't forgotten, have you?, and then going by bus until
 Kensington High Street, and the bus drivers, and then running to seek
matches for the stove and then I imagine some scrambled eggs, or
No? Who was cooking? The two tempted to laugh and chatting, the two.
snuggled up in the warmth, then to bed and to sleep, and in the morning to the
running the bus again to go to work, the lunches at the
Green Park, exchanging news, with the sandwiches we made for ourselves,
innocent girls, innocent secretaries, and then the whole night ahead,
who knows what delights await us, I mean, pure expectation, how eager
crazy to do everything, and so poor, but being poor and young, and a girl, in
London back then... and the bars we discovered, almost private, right?
where artists and writers would gather and sometimes actors, and others with dancers,
we sit quietly, almost hesitant to breathe, with our little coffee, our heads
gacha, so that they wouldn't see us, so as not to disturb, so as not to distract, and
we listened and listened to all those words, all those bars and all that
People, creative, there is no doubt, and will it still exist, I wonder?, do you have any idea?
Can you tell me?

Brief pause.

DEELEY: We go to London very little.

KATE stands up, goes to a small table, and pours herself coffee from a coffee maker.

KATE: Yes, I remember.

He puts milk and sugar in a cup and takes it to ANNA. He brings a black coffee to
DEELEY then sits down with his own coffee.

DEELEY: (to ANNA) Tomás brandy?

ANNA: I would love a cognac.

DEELEY serves brandy to everyone and hands out the glasses. He stands with his own.

ANNA: Listen. What silence. Is there always so much silence?

DEELEY: It's quite quiet here, yes. Normally.

Break.

Sometimes, if you listen carefully, you can hear the sea.

ANNA: How great it was to choose this part of the world, and how sensible and brave of
part of both staying permanently in this silence.
DEELEY: My job takes me far away quite often, of course. But Kate stays.
here.
ANNA: No one who lives here would want to go very far. I wouldn't want to go far, it would make me
fear of leaving far away, what if the house was no longer there to return to.
DEELEY: Is that so?
ANNA: What?
DEELEY: The word perhaps. A lot that I hadn't heard it.

Pause.
KATE: Sometimes I walk to the sea. There aren't many people. It's a very long beach.

Pause.

ANNA: But I would miss London, still. But of course I was a girl in London.
We were girls together.
DEELEY: I would have loved to have met them then.
ANNA: Really?
DEELEY: Yes.

DEELEY serves more cognac.

ANNE: You have a great stew.

DEELEY: What?
ANNA: I mean, a wife. Sorry. A great wife.
DEELEY: Ah.
ANNA: I was thinking about the stew. I was referring to how your wife cooks.
DEELEY: So you're not a vegetarian?
ANNA: No. Of course not.
DEELEY: Yes, in the field you have to eat well, hearty food that gives you strength,
with so much air... did you see?

Pause.

KATE: Yes, I really enjoy all that kind of stuff, doing it.
ANNA: What kind of things?
KATE: Well, you see, all that kind of thing.

Pause.

DEELEY: Do you mean to cook?

KATE: All that stuff.
ANNA: We weren't very elaborate in cooking, we didn't have time, but every once in a while we...
we sent a huge stew that was unbelievable, we devoured it, and
after many times we would stay almost the whole night there sitting and reading
Yeats.

Pause.

For herself. Yes. Almost always. Always. Or almost.

ANNA stands up, walks towards the window.

How still the sky is.

Pause.

Do you see that tiny strip of light over there? Is it the sea? Is it the horizon?
DEELEY: You live on a very different coast.
ANNA: Ah, yes, very different. I live on a volcanic island.
DEELEY: I know her.
ANNA: Oh, really?
DEELEY: I was.

Pause.

ANNA: I'm so glad to be here.

DEELEY: For Katey –I know– it’s very nice to see you. She doesn’t have many friends.
She has you.
DEELEY: He didn't make many friends, and look at all the opportunities he had.
ANNA: Maybe he has everything he wants.
DEELEY: He lacks curiosity.
ANNA: Maybe he is happy.

Break.

KATE: Are they talking about me?

DEELEY: Yes.
ANNA: She was always a dreamer.
DEELEY: He likes long walks. All that. Did you see? He puts on the coat. He leaves for the
little path, hands in the pockets. All that kind of thing.

ANNA turns to look at KATE.

ANNA: Yes.
DEELEY: Sometimes I take her face in my hands and I look at her.
ANNA: Really?
DEELEY: Yes, I look at it, holding it between my hands. Then I let it go, take my hands out,
I leave it there, floating.
KATE: My head is well fixed. I have it on.
DEELEY: (to ANNA) As if floating adrift.
ANNA: She was always a dreamer.

ANNA sits down.

Sometimes, when we were crossing the park, I would tell him, you're dreaming, you're dreaming,
Wake up, what are you dreaming of?, and she turned to look at me, shaking her
melena, and she looked at me as if I were part of the dream.

Pause.

One day he said to me: I spent all of Friday sleeping. No, I said, what do you mean?
I spent all day Friday sleeping, he told me. But today is Friday, I said.
All day was Friday, and now it's Friday night, you weren't sleeping.
All Friday. Yes, he said, I spent it sleeping, today is Saturday.
DEELEY: Do you mean that you literally didn't know what day it was?
ANNA: No.
KATE: Yes, I knew. It was Saturday.
Pause.

DEELEY: What month are we in?

September.

Pause.

DEELEY: We are forcing her to think. We should see you more often. You are a
healthy influence.
ANNA: But it was always a lovely company.
DEELEY: Was it fun to live there?
ANNA: A pleasure.
DEELEY: Beautiful to see you, a pleasure to meet you1Lovely to look at, delightful to know.
ANNA: Ah, those songs. We played them all the time, all of them, all the time, from
night, very late, lying on the floor, beautiful old things. Sometimes I looked at her
the face, but she did not realize that I was scrutinizing her.
DEELEY: Were you counting?
ANNA: What?
DEELEY: The word scrutinize. I don't hear it very often.
ANNA: Yes, she didn't realize. She was completely absorbed.
DEELEY: It's beautiful to see you, a pleasure to meet you2?
KATE: (to ANNA) I don't know that song. Did we have it?
DEELEY: (singing, to KATE) Lovely to look at, delightful to know…
ANNA: Yes, we did have it. Of course. We had them all.
DEELEY: (Singing.) Blue moon, I see you standing alone...3
ANNA: (Singing.) The way you comb your hair…4
DEELEY: (Singing.) Oh no they can’t take that away from me...5
ANNA: (Singing.) Oh but you’re lovely, with your smile so warm…6
DEELEY:(Singing.) I've got a woman crazy for me. She’s funny that way.7

Brief pause.

ANNA:(Singing.) You are the promised kiss of springtime…

1NdelT:DEELEY refers to the lyrics of the song 'Lovely to Look At' by Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh.
by Jerome Kern, popularized by Eddy Duchin and the movie 'Roberta' from 1935. The text in English is:
Lovely to look at, delightful to know
2DEELEY remembers the title wrong, as it is simply: 'Lovely to see you'

look at
3Blue moon, I see you standing and so alone.

This is a distortion of the lyrics of the song 'Blue Moon' by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers.
which Deeley probably remembers with great imprecision. The original says: 'Blue moon, you saw me
standing alone…("Blue moon, you saw me standing and so alone…")
4The way you style your hair.

Probably a verse from the song Sixteen Reasons Why I Love You, by Bill and Doree Post.
5They can't take that away from me.

Most likely a verse from the song 'They can’t take that away from me' by George and Ira.
Gershwin, popularized by Frank Sinatra.
6Oh, you are so adorable, with such a warm smile.

Verse from the song 'The Way You Look Tonight', by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields.
7NdelT: "I have a woman who is crazy about me. That's how fun it is."

It is the title of a song by Charles Daniels and Richard Whiting, whose most famous version is the
recorded by Billie Holliday in 1937. DEELEY seems to quote singing the title of the song, since the
The exact verse would be: 'I’ve got a woman who’s crazy ‘bout me. She’s funny that way.'
DEELEY: (Singing.) And someday I’ll know that moment divine,
When all the things you are, are mine!8

Brief pause.

ANNA: (Singing.) I get no kick from champagne,

Alcohol doesn't thrill me at all.
So tell me why it should be true–
DEELEY: (Singing.) That I get a kick out of you?9

Pause.

ANNA: (Singing.) They asked me how I knew

My true love was true,
I of course replied
Something here inside
Cannot be denied.
DEELEY: (Singing.) When a lovely flame dies…
ANNA: (Singing.) Smoke gets in your eyes.10

Pause.

DEELEY: (Singing.) The sigh of midnight trains in empty stations...

Pause.

ANNA: (Singing.) The park at evening when the bell has sounded…

Pause.

DEELEY:(Singing.) The smile of Garbo and the scent of roses…

ANNA: (Singing.) The waiters whistling as the last bar closes...
DEELEY: (Singing.) Oh, how the ghost of you clings11…

8You are the promised kiss of spring. / And one day I will know the divine moment / in which
All the things that you are be mine!
Both fragments - the one from ANNA and then the one from DEELEY - correspond to different moments of the
song "All the Things You Are" by Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern, composed in 1939 for the
"Very Warm for May". The musical was not a great success, but this song became very popular.
9The champagne doesn't make me feel anything / the alcohol doesn't dazzle me at all / so tell me then

why it will be / that you really make me feel.

From the song by Cole Porter 'I Get a Kick Out of You', popularized by Fran Sinatra.
10They asked me how I knew / that my true love is true / I answered of course

/ that something here inside / cannot be denied” / “When a beautiful flame dies... / your eyes fill up
of smoke.
It is about two distinct moments of the song 'Smoke gets in your eyes' by Jerome Kern and Ken
Harbach, popularized by The Platters.
11NdelT: It is about five different verses - and in total disorder - from the song 'These foolish things'

(Remind Me of You), by Holt Marvell, with music by Jack Strachey and Harry Link:
The sigh of midnight trains at deserted stations / The park, at night, when it has already sounded
la campana” / “La sonrisa de Garbo y el aroma de rosas” / “Los camareros silbando al cerrar el último
"Oh, how your ghost persists..."
Pause.

They don't make them like that anymore.

Silence.

What happened to me was this. I had gone into a dive to see

The night is long12One terrible summer afternoon, I was walking to the
drift. I remember thinking that something about the neighborhood seemed familiar to me and
suddenly I remembered that it had been in this very neighborhood that my dad me
I bought my first tricycle, the only tricycle, to be truthful, that I have ever had.
Finally, there was the bike shop and there was this dive where they played 'Long is the
"night" and there were these two ushers standing in the lobby and one of them
she was caressing her breasts and the other one said to her: "scruffy whore," and the one who was
she touched and said "mmnnn" with the most sensual delight, smiling at the other one
accommodating, so I got into this extremely summer afternoon.
suffocating on the hill of the ass and I saw 'Long is the Night' and Robert Newton me
It seemed great. And it still seems great to me. And I would be capable of committing murder.
for him, today itself, even. And there was only one person in the cinema, just one.
person in absolutely all of cinema, and there she is. And there she was,
penumbras, very still, located more or less I would say in the center of the auditorium
dead. I was not in the center and I have always stayed there. And I left
when the movie ended, noticing, despite the fact that James Mason was dead, that
the first usher seemed completely exhausted, and I stayed there.
standing in the sun, thinking—I suppose—about something and then this girl came out and
I think I half looked at her and said, 'Wasn't Robert Newton great?'
she said some things, only God knows what, but she looked at me, and I thought
God, I got it, I just had a pickup, this is a top-notch pickup, and
As we sat in a bar in front of a cup of tea, she looked inside.
from the cup and then looked up at me and told me that it seemed to him that Robert
Newton was remarkable. So it was Robert Newton who brought us together and Robert
Newton is the only one who can separate us.

Pause.

ANNA: F.J. McCormick was also very good.

DEELEY: I know that F.J. McCormick was doing well too. But he didn't bring us together.

Pause.

DEELEY: So you saw the movie?

ANNA: Yes.
DEELEY: When?
ANNA: Oh... it's been a long time.

Pause.

12Such is the Spanish title by which the mentioned film "Odd Man Out" was known, directed by
Carol Reed, with James Mason and Robert Newton.
DEELEY:(to KATE) Do you remember that movie?
KATE: Yes, of course. Very well.

Pause.

DEELEY: I believe I'm not mistaken in stating that the next time we met already
we were holding hands. I held her hand, cool, while walking to the
next to me, and I said something that made her smile, and she looked at me, right?, tossing her hair to
back, and it seemed to me that he was even cooler than Robert Newton.

Pause.

And then, barely shortly after, our naked bodies met, the
its fresh, warm, enormously pleasant, and I wondered what he would think of
This is Robert Newton. What would he think of this, I wondered as I caressed it.
deeply everywhere.
(A ANNA.) What do you think I would think?
ANNA: I didn't know Robert Newton, but I do know what you mean. There is
things that one remembers even though they may have never happened. There are things that I
I remember that they may never have happened, but since I remember them, then
they really happen.
DEELEY: What?
ANNA: This man who was crying in our room. One night, late, I arrived and found him
found sobbing, covering his face with his hand, sitting on the armchair,
slumped in the armchair and Katey sitting on the bed with a bowl of coffee and
no one spoke to me, no one talked, no one looked up. I could not
do nothing. I undressed, turned off the light, and got into my bed, the curtains were
finite, the street light entered, Katey still in her bed, the man
I sobbed, light came in and flickered against the wall, there was a very light breeze,
from time to time the curtains shook, nothing could be heard but the
sobs suddenly stopped. The man came quickly to my bed, looked at me,
above me, but I didn't want to know anything about him, nothing.

Pause.

No, no, I'm wrong... it wasn't quick, it came... it's not true... it came... very slowly, the
faint light, and stopped. He stood still in the center of the room. He looked at us.
the two, looked at our beds. Then she turned to where I was. She approached me
bed. He leaned over me. But I didn't want anything to do with him, nothing.
you're welcome.

Pause.

DEELEY: What kind of man was he?

ANNA: But after a while I heard him leave. I heard the door close and footsteps in the
street, then silence, then the footsteps that faded away, and then silence.

Pause.
But later, at some point during the night, I woke up and looked to the other side.
from the room, where her bed was, and I saw two lumps.
DEELEY: He had returned!
ANNA: He was lying on her lap, on the bed.
DEELEY: A man in the dark on my wife's lap?

Pause.

ANNA: But then early in the morning... he had left.

DEELEY: Thank God.
ANNA: It was as if I had never been.
DEELEY: Of course he was. He left twice and came back once.
Pause.
Well, what an exciting story that is.
Pause.
What was this guy like?
ANNA: No, I never got to see his face clearly. I don't know.
DEELEY: But was it - ?

KATE stands up. She goes to a small table, takes a cigarette from a box, and lights it.
Lower your gaze towards ANNA.

KATE: They talk about me as if I were dead.

ANNA: No, no, you weren't dead, you were so lively, so animated, how you laughed–
DEELEY: Of course. I used to make you smile, right?, when we walked down the street, from the
Dude. You were dying of laughter.
ANNA: Yes, she could be so... lively.
DEELEY: Animated is not the word. When she smiled... how do I describe it?
Her eyes would light up.
DEELEY: I couldn't have said it better myself.

DEELEY stands up, goes to the cigarette case, raises it, and smiles at KATE. KATE him
look, she watches him light the cigarette, takes the cigarette case from his hands, goes
towards ANNA, he offers her a cigarette. ANNA takes one.

ANNA: You weren't dead. Never. In any sense.

KATE: I said they talk about me as if I'm dead. Now.
ANNA: How do you say that? How do you say that when I’m looking at you, now, so shy,
leaning above me, looking at me...
DEELEY: Enough of that!

Break.

KATE sits down.

DEELEY pours a drink.

DEELEY: For my part, I was a student at that time, juggling with

my future, wondering if one of those times it wouldn't be good for me to carry on my back
with a little girl who had just stopped wearing diapers and whose only virtue was
silence but the one that lacked all sense of axis, all sense of decision, and
 on the contrary, she let herself be carried away by any capricious wind, a weather vane facing
any wind, but not to the winds in general, and certainly not against me
winds, rather I imagine winds that only she understood, if it is
that understood them after all, at least as I interpret that word,
At least that's how I imagined it. A classic feminine figure, I told myself.
for me, or is it a classic female stance? be that as it may, either of
they are already completely overcome.

Pause.

That's how I saw it back then. That is to say, that is my categorical pronouncement on the
particular just as I saw it then. Twenty years ago.

Silence.

ANNA: When I found out that Katey had gotten married, my heart leaped with joy.
DEELEY: How did you hear the news?
For a friend.

Pause.

Yes, it jumped with joy. Because, you see, I knew that she never did things like that.
because yes or at random, carelessly. Some people throw a stone into the river to see if
the water is too cold before the splash, others, a few, wait
always waiting for the waves to pass before jumping.
DEELEY: What do some people do? (To KATE.) What did he say?
ANNA: And I knew that Katey would always wait for not just the first little waves, but
especially that the little waves spread across the entire surface, since by
Assumedly, as you will know, the ripples on the surface indicate a dazzling
shock deep through every particle of water to the bed
same of the river, but even when she felt it happening, when she was
sure that it was happening, still it might not jump. But in this case it does.
he jumped, and then I realized that he had truly fallen in love and I
happy. And I deduced that it would have happened to you too.
DEELEY: The little waves, you mean?
For example.
DEELEY: Do men also make little waves?
ANNA: Some, I would say.
DEELEY: I see.

Pause.

ANNA: And then, when I found out what kind of man you were, I was glad for it.
double because I knew that Katey had always been interested in the arts.
KATE: At some point I was interested in the arts, but now I can't remember.
which ones.
ANNA: Don't tell me you forgot about our days at the Tate.13? And how
we roamed London and the ancient churches and the old buildings, that is to say those that
they were saved from the bombs, through the center and along the southern bank of the river in
Lambeth and Greenwich? My God. Yes. The Sunday newspapers! I couldn't stand it.
take out from the art criticism pages. He devoured them, and then insisted that
we would go to such and such gallery, or such and such theater, or to some chamber concert, but
Of course, there was so much to see and hear in London at that time, what a city.
wonderful, that sometimes we would miss things, or we didn't have any more money, and
then we missed things. For example, one Sunday I remember that he raised
the view of the diary and he said to me: let's go quickly, quickly, come with me, and we'll grab
the wallets and we took a bus to a completely dark neighborhood, totally
strange and, practically alone, we watched a fabulous movie called Long
It is night.

Silence.

DEELEY: Yes, the truth is that I travel quite a bit for my job.
ANNA: Do you like it?
DEELEY: An atrocity. An atrocity.
ANNA: Are you going far?
DEELEY: I travel the globe for my work.
ANNA: And poor Katey, when are you leaving? What is she doing?

ANNA looks at KATE.

KATE: Well, I continue.

ANNA: Are you going for a long time?
KATE: I think so, sometimes. (TO DEELEY.) Don't you?
ANNA: And you leave your wife alone for so long? How is that?
DEELEY: I have to travel a lot for my work.
ANNA: (TO KATE.) I think I have to come keep you company when he leaves.
DEELEY: Aren't you going to miss your husband?
ANNA: Of course. But I would understand it.
DEELEY: Do you understand it now?
ANNA: Of course.
DEELEY: We had made him vegetarian food.
ANNA: It's not vegetarian. In fact, it's quite gourmet. We live in a house of the
more packed and for many years. It is very high up, on the cliffs.
DEELEY: The food is good up there, huh?
ANNA: The truth is yes, I would say.
DEELEY: Yes, I know Sicily somewhat. Just somewhat. Taormina.
Do you live in Taormina?
ANNA: On the outskirts.
DEELEY: Outside, yes. Up high. Yes, I'm sure I saw the house where you all live.
when passing.

Pause.

13One of the most important museums in London. The now renamed 'Tate Modern' does not
it existed at the time when the piece was written, so it is obvious that Pinter refers to the old, now
called "Tate Britain."
I was in Sicily for work. My job has to do with life everywhere, can you
Do you understand?, in every part of the globe. With people from all over the globe. I use the word globe.
because the word "world" is pretentious and evokes emotional associations,
political, sociological and psychological matters that to tell the truth I prefer to do without, or
Better said, I want to dodge, or reject if you think it's better. And what about the yacht?
ANNA: Oh, very good.
DEELEY: Is the captain keeping the course straight?
ANNA: As straight as we want, whenever we want to go straight.
DEELEY: Don't you think England is very damp, upon returning?
ANNA: Yes, subjugatingly humid.
DEELEY: Subjugatingly wet? (To himself.) What the hell could he mean?

Pause.

Well, on any occasion if your husband happens to be heading this way

my little woman is simply going to be delighted to heat the old pot over the fire
the old burner and serve him something tasty from nothing, if not voluptuous. No problem.

Pause.

I suppose he couldn't make the trip because his business affairs wouldn’t allow him to.
They allowed. What is his name? Gian Carlo or Per Paulo?
KATE:(To ANNA.) Do you have marble floors?
ANNA: Yes.
KATE: And do you walk barefoot?
ANNA: Yes. But to walk on the terrace I wear sandals, so I don't
hurt the soles of my feet.
KATE: Because of the sun, right? The heat.
ANNA: Yes.
DEELEY: I had an excellent team in Sicily. A fabulous cameraman. Irving
Schulz. The best there is. We made some very discreet shots of the women in black.
The old women in black. I wrote the script myself and directed it. My name is Orson Welles.
KATE:(TO ANNA.) Did Tomás have orange juice on the terrace tomorrow, and cocktails at the...
afternoon, looking at the sea?
ANNA: Sometimes, yes.
DEELEY: To put it bluntly, I am at my best level within
profession, to say it in full, and I have been associated with a large number
of sensitive and capable people, mainly prostitutes of all kinds.
KATE: (To ANNA.) And do you like the people from Sicily?
DEELEY: I was there. There is nothing more to see, nothing to investigate, nothing. Not anymore.
There is nothing left to investigate in Sicily.
KATE:(TO ANNA.) Do you like the people of Sicily?

ANNA looks at her fixedly.

Silence.
ANNA: (Calmly.) Let's not go out tonight, let's not go anywhere,
Let's stay at home. I'm going to prepare something to eat, you can wash up.
Head, you can rest, we are going to listen to records.
KATE: I don't know. We could go out.
ANNA: Why do you want to go out?
KATE: We could go for a walk in the park.
ANNA: The park is a mess at night, full of horrible people, of men
hidden behind the trees and women with terrifying voices, shout at you when
you pass by, and people suddenly come out from behind the trees and the bushes and there are
shadows everywhere, and police, and it's going to be a horrible walk for you, you are going to
seeing so much traffic, and the noise of the traffic, and you will see the hotels, and you already know how you
it disgusts you to see through those revolving doors, it disgusts you, to see all that, all that
people with all that light from the lobbies, everyone talking and going back and forth... and the
spiders...

Pause.

If you go out, you're going to want to go back home. You're going to want to run back home... to get into
your piece.

Pause.

KATE: What do we do, then?

ANNA: Stay. Do you want me to read you something? Would you like that?
KATE: I don't know.

Pause.

ANNA: Are you hungry?

KATE: No.
DEELEY: Hunger? After such a stew?

Pause.

KATE: What should I wear tomorrow? I can't decide.

ANNA: The green one.
KATE: It's just that I don't have anything for the top part.
ANNA: Yes, you have it. The turquoise blouse.
KATE: Do they look good?
ANNA: Of course they look good. Absolutely.
KATE: I'm going to try it on.

Pause.

ANNA: Do you want me to invite someone?

KATE: To whom?
ANNA: A Charlie... or to Jake?
KATE: I don't like Jake.
ANNA: Well. To Charlie or ...
KATE: Who?
ANNA: McCabe.

Pause.

KATE: I'm going to think about it while I shower.

ANNA: Should I start filling the bathtub?
KATE: (Standing up.) No. Tonight I'm going to fill it myself.

KATE walks slowly to the bedroom door, goes out, and closes the door.

DEELEY stands up, looking at ANNA.

ANNA turns her head towards him.

They look at each other.

GRADUAL BLACKOUT
 Second act
The bedroom.
Long window at the back, in the center. The door to the bathroom at the back to the left.
door to the room at the back on the right.

Two sofas. An armchair.

The sofas and the armchair are arranged in exactly the same relationship between
Yes, the furniture from the first act, but placed in the opposite position.

Dim lights. ANNA is seen sitting on the couch. A faint light reflection.
it crosses the glass of the bathroom door.

Silence.

The light goes up. The other door opens. DEELEY enters with a tray.

DEELEY enters the room, places the tray on a table.

DEELEY: Here it is. Nice and warm. Strong and warm. Do you like it with milk and sugar,
not?
ANNA: Yes, please.
DEELEY: (Serving.) Nice and strong, warm with milk and sugar.

He/She gives him/her the cup.

Do you like the piece?

ANNA: Yes.
DEELEY: Here we sleep. These are beds. The great thing about these beds is that they accommodate
all kinds of permutations. They can be separated as now. Or placed in
right angle. Either perpendicular to each other, or you can sleep foot to foot, or
head to head, or one next to the other. It's because of the bearings that make
possible all this.

He sits down with his coffee.

Yes, I remember very well about you, from that bar, The Wayfarers.
ANNA: Which one?
DEELEY: From the bar on Brompton Avenue: The Wayfarers Tavern.
ANNA: When was it?
DEELEY: Years ago.
ANNA: I don't think so.
DEELEY: Yes, it was you, there's no doubt about it. I never forget a face. You used to sit in the
corner, very often, sometimes alone, sometimes with others. And here you are, sitting in my
 country house. The same woman. Incredible. A boy named Luke.
I was going to this place. You knew it.
ANNA: Luke?
DEELEY: Big guy. Redhead. With a red beard.
ANNA: Honestly, it doesn't seem that way to me.
DEELEY: Yes, they were a bunch, poets, movie doubles, jockeys, bar comedians, that
a certain class of people. You would put on a scarf, yes, that, a black scarf, a black sweater
and a skirt.
ANNA: Me?
DEELEY: And black stockings. Don't tell me you forgot about that bar. It could be that you
you may have forgotten the name, but you have to remember the place. If you were the queen
from the place.
ANNA: I wasn't rich, you can imagine. I didn't have money to go out for drinks.
DEELEY: But you had companions. You didn't need to pay. They took care of you. I myself...
invited more than once.
ANNA: You?
DEELEY: Sure.
Never.
DEELEY: Really. I remember it very clearly.

Pause.

ANNA: You?
DEELEY: I paid for several drinks.

Pause.

Twenty years ago... more or less.

ANNA: Are you telling me that we know each other from before?
DEELEY: Of course we know each other from before.

Pause.

We already talked. In that bar, for example. In the corner. Luke didn't take it very well.
Well, but we acted as if nothing happened. Then we all went to a party.
In someone's department, more or less by Westbourne Grove. You...
you sat on a very low sofa, I sat right in front and looked at you.
under the skirt. The black stockings were darker because your thighs were
very white. Of course, that is something that used to happen before, don't you think?
now it doesn't seem like much, it's gone. But at that time it was worth it. That
the night was worth it. I just sat down to enjoy my beer and to
to contemplate... to contemplate beneath your skirt. You didn't even oppose it, I
I was contemplating and to you it seemed perfectly normal.
ANNA: Did you realize that you were contemplating me?
DEELEY: At that moment, everyone starts arguing about China, or I don't know what, or about
death, or something about Chinayla death, now I don't remember, but I was the
the only one who enjoyed the privilege of those thighs that were like kisses, and you were
the only one who had those thighs that could give those kisses. And here you are. The same one
woman. The same thighs.
Pause.

Yes. Then a friend of yours, a girl, a girl friend of yours, came in. She sat down with you in
the sofa, they were chatting and laughing, side by side, and I settled in a
a little lower to contemplate them both together, the thighs of both,
whispering, speaking in a low voice, you knew, she didn't, and then I was surrounded by one
a multitude of men, and they asked me for my opinion about death, or about China, or
I don't know what, and they wouldn't leave me alone, and to make it worse, they leaned over me with their
disgusting breath and the broken teeth and the hairs in the nose and China and the
death and the asses resting on the arms of my armchair, I had to get up and
I made my way through everyone, and they followed me fiercely, as if I were the
cause of the discussion, and I was looking back through the smoke, heading towards
the small table with the plastic tablecloth to look for another bottle full of beer, I was going
looking back through the smoke, I could make out two girls on the sofa, one
you were there, with your heads very close together, murmuring, and I could no longer see anything,
I could no longer see any stockings or thighs, and then they were no longer there. I made my way through.
again to the sofa. There was no one. I gazed at the traces of the four
Buttocks. Two of which were yours.

Pause.

ANNA: I think I never heard such a sad story.

DEELEY: I agree.
I'm so sorry.
DEELEY: Well, that's fine.

Pause.

I didn't see you anymore. You disappeared from the area. Maybe you moved.
ANNA: No.
DEELEY: I didn't see you anymore at the bar, at the Wayfarers Tavern. Where have you been?
ANNA: Oh, at concerts, I imagine, or in ballet.

Silence.

Katey is taking a long time to take a shower.

DEELEY: Well, you know how it is when he gets into the bathtub.
ANNA: Yes.
DEELEY: He loves it. He dedicates a tremendous amount of time to it.
ANNA: It's true, yes.
DEELEY: A tremendous time. He indulges himself. He soapes himself from head to toe.

Pause.

She really soaps herself all over and then she rinses off the soap, bubble by bubble. So
meticulous. She is detail-oriented and at the same time—I have to say—sensual. She gives herself a
completely revisited and aside when it comes out it's as clean as a new pin. Isn't it?
What do you think?

Very clean.
DEELEY: Really. Not a spot. Not a mark. Shiny like a bubble.
ANNA: Yes, as if I were floating.
DEELEY: What?
ANNA: Floating out of the bathroom. Like in a dream. Not realizing that there is someone.
stopping beside, with a towel, waiting for her, waiting to wrap her.
Completely absorbed.

Pause.

Until the towel is put on his shoulders.

DEELEY: Of course it is completely incapable of drying itself properly, isn't it?
Did you notice? It rubbed well, really. But, is it able to rub itself the same way with
the same effectiveness? As far as I know, I have to say that they are not given.
so it goes. You will always see an inconvenient, unexpected drop on top of it.
some balloon leaking around.
ANNA: And why don't you dry it yourself?
DEELEY: Is that what you're suggesting to me?
ANNA: You would do very well.
DEELEY: With your bath towel?
ANNA: How, if not?
DEELEY: How, if not?
ANNA: How are you going to dry it, right? Without its towel?
DEELEY: I don't know.
ANNA: Well, dry her off yourself, with her towel.

Pause.

DEELEY: Why don't you dry her off with her towel?
ANNA: Me?
DEELEY: You would do very well.
ANNA: No, no.
DEELEY: Are you sure? I mean, you are a woman, you know how, where, and with what.
density accumulates moisture in women's bodies.
ANNA: There are no two women alike.
DEELEY: Well, that is very true.

Pause.

I have a brilliant idea. Why don’t we dry it with talcum powder?

ANNA: Do you think it's a brilliant idea?
DEELEY: Not you?
Getting dressed after the bath is very common.
DEELEY: Getting a wax after a bath is very common but it's very uncommon.
that one gets trampled. Or not? In my country it is not common at all, I swear. To me
mother would have a fit.

Pause.

Stop. I'll tell you what. I'm going to do it myself. I'm going to do everything. The towel and the talc.
After all, I am your husband. But you can supervise the whole matter. And
 give me some hot tips while you supervise. That way we kill two birds
in one shot.

Pause.

(For himself.) My God.

He/She looks at him/her slowly.

You must be around forty... I estimate, at this point.

Pause.

If I were to walk into the Wayfarer Tavern now and saw you sitting in the corner, I wouldn't
would recognize.

The bathroom door opens. Kate enters the bedroom. She is wearing a bathrobe.

Smile at Deeley and Anna.

KATE: (With pleasure.) Aaahh.

Walk to the window and look at the night outside. Deeley and Anna watch her.

Deeley begins to sing softly.

DEELEY: (Singing.) The way you wear your hat...

ANNA: (Singing softly.) The way you sip your tea…
DEELEY: (Singing.) The memory of all that…
ANNA: (Singing.) No, no, they can’t take that away from me...14

Kate, at the window, turns around and looks at them.

The way your smile just beams...

DEELEY: (Singing.) The way you sing off key…
ANNA: (Singing.) The way you haunt my dreams...
DEELEY: (Singing.) No, no, they can’t take that away from me...15

Kate walks towards them and stops, standing, smiling. Anna and Deeley sing.
again faster, more at the heel of the other, and more carelessly.

ANNA: (Singing.) The way you hold your knife –

DEELEY: (Singing.) The way we danced till three–
14It'sabout the song again 'They can't take that away from me.'
that), in the popular version by Frank Sinatra. In this case, Anna and Deeley share entirely the
second verse.
The way you wear your hat / the way you sip your tea / the memory of all that. / No, no, no
they can take that away from me.
15It
is about the third verse.
The way your smile shines / the way you sing out of tune / the way you linger around my
dreams. / No, no, they cannot take that away from me.
ANNA: (Singing.) The way you’ve changed my life –
DEELEY: No, no, they can’t take that away from me…16

Kate sits on a couch.

ANNA: (TO DEELEY.) Isn't she beautiful?

DEELEY: Isn't it true that it is?
KATE: Thank you. I feel fresh. The water here is very soft. Much softer than
in London. The water in London always seems very hard to me. That is one of the
reasons why I like living in the countryside. Everything is softer. The water, the
light, the shapes, the sounds. And to live by the sea, too. It is not known where
starts or where it ends. That attracts me. I don't like hard lines. I hate
that type of pressure. I would like to go to the East, for example, or to a more
warm where I could lie down under a mosquito net and breathe very slowly.
Do you know?... any place where one could be in a tent and look at the sand, that
kind of things. The only nice thing about big cities is that when it rains it
It blurs everything, and it blurs the lights of the cars, right?, and it blurs your eyes, and
You have droplets on your eyelashes. That's the only beautiful thing about big cities.
ANNA: It's not the only nice thing. You can have a pleasant room and a good heater and
a warm bed jump and a hot drink, all that waiting for you when
you arrive.

Pause.

KATE: Is it raining?
ANNA: No.
KATE: Well, I decided to stay home tonight anyway.
ANNA: How nice. I'm glad. Now you can have a good cup of black coffee afterwards.
of the bathroom.

Anna stands up; she goes to the coffee, serves it.

I could hem the black dress for you. I could finish it. That way you can try it on.

Mmm.

Anna brings him the coffee.

ANNA: I can also read something to you.

DEELEY: Did you dry off well, Kate?
KATE I think so.
DEELEY: Are you sure? Completely dry?
KATE I think so. I feel very dry.
DEELEY: Are you really sure? I don't want to see you all wet sitting around everywhere.
parts.

16Andfinally the fourth verse of the same song.

The way you hold the knife / the way we dance until three / the way you have
changed my life. / No, no, they cannot take that away from me.
Kate smiles.

Do you see that smile? It's the same smile she used to give me when I walked with her through the.
street, after watching "The night is long", well, a good while after. What do you
seemed?
ANNA: It is a very beautiful smile.
DEELEY: Do it again.
KATE: I'm still smiling.
DEELEY: No. Not like you did just now, not like you did back then.

(To Anna.) Do you know which smile I'm referring to?

KATE: This coffee is cold.
ANNA: I'm sorry. I'll prepare a new one for you.
KATE: No, I don't want it. Thank you.

Pause.

Is Charley coming?

ANNA: If you want, I can call him on the phone.

KATE: And McCabe?
ANNA: Do you really want to see someone?
KATE: It seems to me that I don't like McCabe.
ANNA: Me neither.
KATE: It's strange. He/She says very strange things to me.
ANNA: What things?
KATE: Oh, all strange things.
ANNA: I never liked it.
KATE: But Duncan is really nice, right?
ANNA: Ah, yes.
KATE: I like her poetry so much.

Pause.

But do you know who I like the most?

ANNA: Who?
KATE: Christy.
It's divine.
KATE: He's so kind, isn't he? And he has a sense of humor. Doesn't he have a sense of humor?
Divine? And I find it so... sensitive. Why don't you invite him?
DEELEY: He can't come. He's not in the city.
KATE: Oh, what a shame.

Silence.

DEELEY: (To ANNA) Are you planning to see someone else while you are in England?
Relatives? Cousins? Siblings?
ANNA: No. I don't know anyone. Except for Kate.

Pause.
DEELEY: Do you notice a change in her?
A little. Not too much. (To Kate.) You're still shy, aren't you?

Kate looks at her intently.

But when I met her, she was so shy, shyer than a little squirrel,
truth. When people approached him to talk, he would retreat and even though
she seemed inaccessible to them.
she was being repelled, and they could neither speak to her nor have physical contact with her. I
she attributed it to her education, she is the daughter of a pastor, she really had a lot of the style of
the Brontë.
DEELEY: Were you the daughter of a pastor?
ANNA: But if I thought of the Brontës it was not because I thought I was a Brontë in my
passion but in his privacy, in his stubborn sense of privacy.

Brief pause.

I remember the first time she turned red.

DEELEY: What? What happened? I mean, why did that happen?
ANNA: I had taken off my underwear to go to a party. Then at night I...
I confessed. I was wrong. She kept looking at me, perplexed, that's the word, perhaps.
But I told him that I had actually been punished for my sin, because a man
At the party, they had spent the whole night looking at me under the skirt.

Pause.

DEELEY: Did she blush because of that?

Deeply.
DEELEY: Looking at the underwear under your skirt.
ANNA: But since that night, from time to time, he insisted that I wear his clothes.
interior - had more than I did, and much more varied - and every time I did it
she suggested, she would blush, but she would go and propose it to me anyway. And when
There was something to tell him, upon returning, something interesting to tell him, I would tell him.
DEELEY: And did she blush?
ANNA: I couldn't see her. I would come back late and find her reading next to the
lamp, and I started to tell him, but he told me no, to turn off the light, and he
he told it in the dark. He preferred to be told in the dark. Of course, the darkness
it was never total, due to the light from the stove or the clarity that filtered through the
curtains, and what she didn't know is that, since I knew what she preferred, I...
I chose a position in the room where I could see her face, although she could not.
she could see mine. She could hear my voice, but nothing more. And so she listened,
and I looked at her listening to me.
DEELEY: It sounds like a perfect marriage.
ANNA: We were great friends

Pause.

DEELEY: You say it was Brontë in her sense of privacy but not in passion.
What was it like in passion?
ANNA: I think that's your territory.
DEELEY: Do you think it's my territory? You are completely right. It's territory
mine. I'm glad that finally someone shows a little good taste. For
Assuming it's my land, damn it. I am her husband.

Pause.

I mean, I would like to ask a question. Am I the only one who is starting to feel that this is ...
puts unpleasant?
ANNA: But what do you find unpleasant about this? I flew from Rome to see my
oldest friend, after twenty years, and meeting her husband. What is it
What worries you?
DEELEY: What worries me is thinking that your husband is stumbling alone in that
huge house, feeding on hard-boiled eggs and nothing else, unable to say a damn thing
word in English.
ANNA: I act as an interpreter when it's needed.
DEELEY: Yes, but you are here with us. He is over there, alone, wandering around the
terrace, waiting for a motorboat, hoping for a motorboat
I spilled a handful of beautiful people, at least. Beautiful people and
Mediterranean. Waiting for all that, a kind of elegance that we do not know.
nothing, a flat-belly style like the Cote d'Azur that we know nothing about
nothing, an ideology of lobsters and lobster sauce of what we do not have the
more fucking idea, the longest legs in the world, the loudest voices
extraordinarily soft. I am listening to them. I mean, let's lay the cards on the table.
On the table, I am always attentive to a series of pulses, pulses that come.
of the whole globe, deprivations and offenses, and I don’t see why I have to lose the
more valuable of the spaces listening to two...
KATE: (Quickly) If you don't like it, leave.

Pause.

DEELEY: Leave? Where am I going to go?

KATE: To China. O to Sicily.
DEELEY: I don't have a motorboat. I don't have a white tuxedo.
KATE: To China, then.
DEELEY: You know what they'll do to me in China if they see me in a white tuxedo. They...
They are like that there, you know.

Short break.

You are welcome if you want to visit Sicily, whenever you want, you are my guests.

Silence.

Kate and Deeley stare at her intently.

ANNA: (A Deeley, calmly.) I want you to understand that I came to celebrate and not to
cause annoyance.

Pause.
To celebrate a very old, very precious friendship, something that was forged between us a long time ago
before you knew of our existence.

Pause.

I found her. She got to meet wonderful people that I introduced her to. I took her to bars,
barely private bars, where artists and writers would gather, and sometimes actors,
other times dancers, and we would sit almost breathlessly with our coffee,
listening to all that life around. All I wanted was for her to be happy.
And it still remains the only thing I want for her.

Pause.

DEELEY: (To Kate.) We already know each other, you know? Anna and I.

Kate looks at him.

Yes, we met in a bar, the Wayfarers Tavern. In the corner. He liked me. Of course, I did.
it was a sylph back then. Very elegant. It was quite good, to say
truth. Curly hair. All of that. We had a little scene, she lost control. She
I didn't have a dime, so I bought him a drink. He looked at me with huge eyes,
shy, the typical. She pretended to be you back then. She did it very well.
She also used to wear your underwear back then. With all kindness, she left me.
take a little look. Generous like no other. Admirable in a woman. We went
together at a party. That some philosophers were giving. They weren't bad guys. The bar of
Edgware Street. A great band. I haven't seen any of them in years. Old
friends. Always thinking. They commented on what they thought. That is the people who
strange. They are all dead, anyway I never saw them again. The little group of the
Maida Vale street. Eric the great and Tony the little one. They lived near the
Paddington Library. On the way to the party, I took her to a bar and made her drink.
In a café, there were more beards than faces. She thought it was you, spoke little, almost
nothing. Maybe it was you. Maybe it was you who had coffee with me,
speaking little, almost nothing.

Pause.
KATE: What do you think he liked about you?
DEELEY: I don't know. What?
KATE: She thought your face was very sensitive, very vulnerable.
DEELEY: Yes?
KATE: I wanted to give him comfort, as only a woman knows how to do it.
DEELEY: Yes?
Of course.
DEELEY: Did she want to give comfort to my face like only a woman knows how to do?
KATE: She was willing to offer herself.
DEELEY: How?
She fell in love with you.
DEELEY: About me?
KATE: You were so different from the others. We knew men who were brutish, rude.
DEELEY: So are there really men like that? Rude men?
Very rude
DEELEY: But I was rude too, wasn't I?, when I looked under her skirt.
KATE: That's not being rude.
DEELEY: If it was her skirt. If it was her.
ANNA: (Coldly.) Yes, it was my skirt. It was me. I remember your gaze... very well.
I remember very well.
KATE: (To Anna.) But I remember you. I remember you dead.

Pause.

I remember you lying there, dead. You didn't know that I was watching you. I leaned over you.
Your face was dirty. You were lying there, dead, with your face all scribbled with
earth, with all kinds of inscriptions still fresh, not smudged, and that
they had run all over the face, up to the throat. Your sheets were
immaculate. I was glad. It would have pained me to see your corpse on a sheet
dirty. It would have been ruthless. I mean, as far as I was concerned. Up to
where it concerned my room. After all, you were dead in my room.
When you woke up, I had my eyes above you, and I was staring at you.
You tried to pull your little trick on me, one of the little tricks that you had stolen from me, my
slow little smile, my slow little smile, my shy and slow little smile, my way of
to tilt the head, to squint, that both of us knew so well, but
it didn't work, the grimace cracked the earth at the corners of the lips and
you got stuck there. You got stuck in the grimace. I searched for tears but found none.
I found none. The pupils were not in the eyes. The bones were breaking on you.
inside the face. But everything was serene. There was no suffering. Everything had passed
Elsewhere. I felt no need for final rites. Nor for any celebration.
I felt that it was the right time and season, and that dying alone and dirty
you had acted with the decorum that corresponded. It was time for me to bathe. I took a
long bathroom, I went out, walked around the room, shining, I brought a chair closer, I sat down
naked next to you and I stayed looking at you.

Pause.

When I took him to the room, your body was of course no longer there. What a relief to have a
different body in my room, a man's body, that behaved so
different, that did everything they do and think is right, like
sitting with one leg up on the arm of the armchair. There were two beds to choose from.
Your bed or mine. To lie down covered, or uncovered. To brush against each other with the
noses, covered or uncovered. He liked your bed and thought that in that bed he was
different because he was a man. But one night I said to him: let me do one thing, a
little thing, a little trick. He was lying there in your bed. He lifted his eyes and looked at me
with enormous expectation. He felt gratified. He felt that they had been of great help to me
I took advantage of his lessons. He felt that I was going to take the sexual initiative, something
that he had been waiting for a long time. I started digging in the window flowerbed,
Where had you planted those beautiful thoughts, I bent down, filled a bowl
with soil and covered his face. He was abstracted, stupefied, he resisted, he resisted.
with force. He didn't want to let me cover his face with dirt, to bury it.
she erased, she didn't let me. Instead, she suggested that we get married and that
we would change the environment.
Brief pause.

Neither of the two things mattered.

Pause.

Once she asked me, more or less around that time, who had slept in that bed.
before him. I told him that no one. Absolutely no one.

Long silence.
Anna stands up, walks toward the door, and stops with her back to both.
Silence.

Deeley begins to sob, very softly.

Anna standing, motionless.

Anna turns, turns off the lamps, sits on her sofa, and lies down.

Deeley stops sobbing.

Silence.

Deeley stands up. He takes a few steps, looks at the two sofas.

He goes to Anna's couch, looks at her from above. She is still.

Silence.

Deeley walks towards the door, stops, facing away from them.

Silence.

Deeley turns around. He goes to Kate's couch. He sits on it, settling in.
Kate's skirt.

Long silence.

Deeley joins very slowly.

He gets up from the couch.
Walk slowly to the armchair.
He sits down, slumped.

Silence.
The lights are turned up to the maximum. Very bright.
Deeley on the armchair.
Anna reclined on the couch.
Kate sitting on the sofa.
Rafael Spregelburd
July 2006