Читать книгу Real and Phantom Pains: An Anthology of New Russian Drama - John Freedman - Страница 18

BLIZZARD walks out onto the street. Breathes in the fresh air. Claps himself on the pockets and realizes he forgot his cell phone. Thinks. Decides not to go back. Pulls eye drops out of his pocket and releases drops into his eyes. Wipes off the tears and goes looking for his car. He vaguely remembers where he parked it. Puts on his Gucci sunglasses and checks out the people walking by, hurrying to work in the morning. He smiles at everyone, delights at a simple sunbeam as if he were a paragon of virtue who loves all people and nature too. Big, fat snowflakes hit him in the face.

BLIZZARD: We live in a very severe country. Wherever nature has beauty, it’s a severe beauty. Very severe. If there is friendship, it’s severe. Too. Our people are genuine heroes who live – by living their lives. They are very severe people, I would say they are severe in the extreme. Their life journeys – are very severe. And exalted. No sentimentality. No indulgences. People here have always had hard lives. The guy who founded Moscow. And the guy who founded St. Petersburg. (Smokes. Thinks.) Want me to tell you a story about my life? A real, severe life story. A tale of grief, despair, manic-depressive psychosis, sin, debilitating passions and addictions that have come to us from infernal hell itself. Write it down, give people a chance to read it, a tale of weakness and strength, of tears, my heart, fears, love, Adam and Eve, warmth and cold, black and white. I’ll tell you what real whiteness is; when a man no longer sees his own arms and legs, when the whiteness blinds his eyes and he goes blind, goes blind forever. In order to die right here and be reborn. Pure and innocent. Like the white, newly driven snow.

(BLIZZARD is covered in snow. He comes out of his reverie but can’t find his car. He has no idea where he left it. Keeps looking, finally finds it. Standing next to his Lexus is VOLODYA. He carefully looks over the license plate then carefully looks over BLIZZARD.)

VOLODYA: This your Lexus?

BLIZZARD: Yes

VOLODYA (Shows his badge): May I see your ID?

BLIZZARD: Sure. My pleasure

VOLODYA (Looking over BLIZZARD’s ID): Open up your trunk

(BLIZZARD opens his trunk.

ORANGINA, LENOCHKA, SNOWFLAKE, MANIAC and SNOWSTORM with BUSHY-TAIL. They lie around on rugs and pillows, drink tea from China tea cups and smoke a hookah. The girls’ bared shoulders sparkle with glitter, SNOWSTORM’s head lies on ORANGINA’s stomach, she combs his long locks with her fingers.)

ORANGINA: No matter what you say I’m always the man in relationships. I always make the decisions because men are weak, regardless of how physically imposing they might be

LENOCHKA: They’re all a bunch of unflappable wolves

SNOWFLAKE: They are utter babes

LENOCHKA: They play with their toys and think they are the center of the universe

ORANGINA: A man is a babe is a babe is a babe and then, suddenly, he’s an old geezer

SNOWFLAKE: They are incurably infantile

LENOCHKA: No, I don’t need men at all. I can’t even think about men any more

SNOWFLAKE: Men should not be thought about at all

BUSHY-TAIL: What’s that supposed to mean?

SNOWFLAKE: You have to play with them. If you think they are thinking, think again – they are thinking something else entirely

LENOCHKA: Or they aren’t thinking at all

SNOWFLAKE: A man is not susceptible to being remade. You’ve got to take him in the bag he comes in and then just put him where you need him

ORANGINA: On the other hand, how can you do without a man?

SNOWFLAKE: You can become a lesbian

LENOCHKA: You can give yourself up to total nihilism

SNOWFLAKE: But that’s carrying it too far

(LENOCHKA’s phone rings but she doesn’t answer it.)

MANIAC: Husband?

LENOCHKA: He’s no husband. He’s a cad. A maniac.

SNOWFLAKE: How many times have I warned you? Don’t ever admit anything. We deny everything.

LENOCHKA: But he’s the one who said only the truth can save our relationship (Cries.)

ORANGINA: Lenochka – fresh air and fresh fruit

SNOWFLAKE: Here, I can give you a pill

LENOCHKA: What is it?

SNOWFLAKE: Why can’t a person just have a regular pill, a tranquilizer?

LENOCHKA: Will it help?

SNOWFLAKE: In twenty minutes

MANIAC (To BUSHY-TAIL): People suffer from a lack of understanding of their own sexuality and by the age of 30 they lose their mind incontrovertibly

SNOWFLAKE: Every person thinks in his or her own box

MANIAC: A hotbed of psychic ailments

LENOCHKA: A global failure to communicate

MANIAC: This is horrible, what they’re saying here. Just horrible

ORANGINA: It’s incontestable

MANIAC: A bunch of old wives’ tales and laundromat philosophy. A gaggle of amateurs!

BUSHY-TAIL (Distracted, looking out the window): They predicted it would snow by late morning and, sure enough, it began snowing late in the morning.

SNOWFLAKE: Snow white white

ORANGINA: As white as white can be

LENOCHKA: I have the sensation we are flying upwards

BUSHY-TAIL: Where I come from in the Far North nobody ever clears the snow away. They just clear out narrow passages. The snow drifts stand higher than a person’s head. And people there don’t walk like they do here. There they kind of shuffle their feet. Because they are used to spending so much time walking on ice. It’s always cold and dark and people light fires and they don’t ever complain to anyone. That’s because they think it’s like that the whole world over. Life there’s hard.

(The street. VOLODYA and BLIZZARD stand by the Lexus. VOLODYA looks through the trunk. BLIZZARD looks at his watch and at VOLODYA. He clearly has begun to be nervous.)

VOLODYA: You can close it now

(BLIZZARD closes the trunk.)

Take off your glasses

(BLIZZARD takes off his sun glasses. They stare each other in the eye. VOLODYA puts BLIZZARD’s ID into his pocket.)

You’re coming with me down to the station.

(They go.

LENOCHKA, MANIAC, SNOWFLAKE, ORANGINA, BUSHY-TAIL and SNOWSTORM. They meandered and danced and talked but they never got tired. Finally they begin collecting their things, putting on their coats, paying the bill, looking at their watches.

MANIAC (To the girls): Want some candy?

LENOCHKA: Is it good?

ORANGINA: The colored ones taste better than the solids

MANIAC (Studying the wrapper): The colored ones are more interesting

SNOWFLAKE: It’s all chemicals and nothing else

MANIAC: What is benzoate nitrate?

ORANGINA: What is modified starch?

SNOWSTORM: Just what I wanted

LENOCHKA: The first time I ever ate these things I nearly gagged on all the sugar, I just gagged on it

MANIAC: And if you leave them out a little bit then they really get like rubber

SNOWSTORM: I had these friends who were taking some concoction for bodybuilding and they mixed something else in there, too. You’d drink that stuff and, man, you’d instantly love everybody, ’cause everybody was suddenly so smart and so cool

SNOWFLAKE: Try drinking that alone

LENOCHKA: I can’t do it

MANIAC: I did and I threw up

SNOWSTORM: Everybody throws up at first

MANIAC: Basically, there is no reason to love people

LENOCHKA: Yeah, but you have to

MANIAC: By nature people are vile and greedy

BUSHY-TAIL: I love people, though

ORANGINA: Those are your rose-colored glasses talking

MANIAC: My friends would take those tranquilizers they give cats before taking them on a trip. Turns out those things are really strong psychotropics

SNOWFLAKE: Man, what people won’t take

LENOCHKA: And why, is what I want to know

ORANGINA: I read about this one guy who specially raised jellyfish in an aquarium and then he’d dry them and eat them

SNOWSTORM: This other guy would catch scorpions, rip off their tails, dry them and smoke them

LENOCHKA: The historical record shows that there were people who ate nothing but clay

SNOWFLAKE: Or nothing at all

LENOCHKA: I’ve read that clay is teeming with life

MANIAC: Everything is teeming with life

ORANGINA: I used to eat dirt when I was a kid. To win bets

MANIAC: I still do that all the time

SNOWSTORM: We’re all of us all just the same

(The police station. BLIZZARD is being searched. They unzip his pants and search down his underwear. They pull out a small packet, call over witnesses, run tests, take fingerprints, collect a urine sample – in short, they found drugs.)

BLIZZARD (For the hundredth time): I’m a musician. I’m not an addict. I’m a good guy. I don’t deal. It’s for my own personal use. I bought it off an Armenian. I’ll give you a written pledge not to leave town

VOLODYA: A musician you say

BLIZZARD: I’m just a DJ

VOLODYA: A DJ you say

BLIZZARD: Well, a VJ, actually

VOLODYA (Sighs): A VJ

BLIZZARD: If you let me go I swear I’ll never do it again

VOLODYA: But maybe you will

BLIZZARD: No, I won’t. I mean, I don’t know if I will or I won’t. But I don’t want to

VOLODYA: We’re going to have to search you

BLIZZARD: I don’t have anything on me

VOLODYA: You know for sure you don’t?

BLIZZARD (Thinks): For sure

VOLODYA: If you don’t then maybe I’ll let you go

(MANIAC’s apartment. SNOWFLAKE and MANIAC enter and walk around. They lie down on the bed without taking off their coats or shoes. They are very far from each other. And silent. SNOWFLAKE closes her eyes, it’s like she’s already asleep. MANIAC gets up, turns on the television.)

SNOWFLAKE (Opening her eyes): Oh God, only not that

MANIAC (Turns off the television): What then?

SNOWFLAKE: Well do something. You’re the jaded one. You know what to do in moments like this. You have such intelligent eyes (Smiles. Begins to laugh.)

MANIAC: It’s cold. Listen, it’s cold in here (Wraps himself in a blanket and walks around the room.)

SNOWFLAKE: Want something to drink?

MANIAC: No

SNOWFLAKE: Eat?

MANIAC: No

(Cell phones ring. MANIAC gathers them up and turns them off.)

I’m just not ready to communicate with anyone right now (Walks around, looks through the compact discs and picks one. Turns on some music.)

SNOWFLAKE: Oh, that’s nice. That’s nice

(Maniac lies on the bed. They both lie on the bed listening to music. Silence.)

MANIAC: Transcendental meditation. Quasi-physical state

(SNOWFLAKE smiles, eyes closed.)

Almost like we’re floating. Such clear thoughts. And so noble. Next to that all these body movements don’t mean a thing.

SNOWFLAKE: More illusions

MANIAC: It’s been like that for ages. People have known that forever. Our feeble minds can’t get a grasp

SNOWFLAKE: Beethoven?

MANIAC: Beethoven

SNOWFLAKE: He’s so good

(They lie there listening to Beethoven.

BLIZZARD and VOLODYA riding in a police car. They look at each other.)

BLIZZARD: What’s your name?

VOLODYA: Volodya

BLIZZARD: How old are you?

VOLODYA: Twenty-five

BLIZZARD: Say, Volodya, why did you single me out?

VOLODYA: Your eyes

(They look each other in the eyes.)

BLIZZARD: I’ve seen you somewhere, but I don’t remember where

VOLODYA: Your face is familiar, too, for some reason

BLIZZARD: Maybe on TV?

VOLODYA: I don’t watch TV

BLIZZARD: Why not?

VOLODYA: Why should I?

(The street. ORANGINA and SNOWSTORM get out of a taxi, go up the stairs, get into the elevator. Their bodies frequently touch – knees, hands – but it’s always by accident. This continues to embarrass ORANGINA as they approach her apartment. ORANGINA is in the full bloom of a crush. She blushes constantly. SNOWSTORM is sweeping her, sweeping her, sweeping her off her feet.)

SNOWSTORM: I once rented an apartment next to St. Isaac’s Cathedral. We dropped a couple of tabs. Basically, popped one or two tabs too many. I headed into the shower but it turned out to be a window. I wasn’t used to the place, you know. Fortunately it was on the first floor. I busted out the window and I’m walking around naked, dripping blood. I went out on the square and struck up a conversation with God. We had a long talk there that day.

ORANGINA: And then what?

SNOWSTORM: What else? They locked me up.

ORANGINA: So what did God have to say?

SNOWSTORM: You ought to knock that shit off, Snowstorm.

(They’re silent. ORANGINA continues to blush from embarrassment.)

You know what was drawn on those tabs?

ORANGINA: What?

SNOWSTORM: Milli Vanilli

ORANGINA: Oh get off it!

SNOWSTORM: It’s true. There was this one time they came up to me after a concert and they said, “Listen, Snowstorm, explain psychedelic trances to us and how to become psychedelic trance stars. We want to know.”

ORANGINA: And what did you say?

SNOWSTORM: Listen up, dudes. The job’s already taken.

ORANGINA: By you?

SNOWSTORM: You’ll see that soon enough.

(ORANGINA stands in front of apt. No. 835. SNOWSTORM pulls out his keys and opens apt. No. 834. Puts down his yellow suitcase. ORANGINA is nervous, she fumbles with her keys. SNOWSTORM helps her open the door. ORANGINA is embarrassed, she doesn’t know whether to invite SNOWSTORM in with her or not. They aren’t finding it easy to part, even though she doesn’t know what to say.)

Remember that guy we were drinking with yesterday?

ORANGINA: Which one was that?

SNOWSTORM: The one with AIDS.

ORANGINA: No, I don’t.

SNOWSTORM: I drank vodka out of his beer mug. I only realized later I shouldn’t have done that.

ORANGINA: It could have been a lot worse

SNOWSTORM: This is no laughing matter

ORANGINA: God forbid

SNOWSTORM: I probably ought to have a blood test

ORANGINA: It’s too early for that

SNOWSTORM: Maybe I can still be cured?

ORANGINA: Your sample will blow people away

SNOWSTORM: They’ll turn it over to the cops. The chemical makeup of my blood is irreversibly altered

ORANGINA: And your brain

SNOWSTORM: Yeah. I’ve got to clean up. Start working out

ORANGINA: Take vitamins

SNOWSTORM: What if they have additives or something?

ORANGINA: Hallucinogenics

SNOWSTORM: Exactly

ORANGINA: Suffering fortifies the soul

SNOWSTORM: I’m a sinner. I don’t like suffering

(BUSHY-TAIL’s apartment. BUSHY-TAIL walks about her apartment in a long night-shirt reminiscing about the evening spent with her new friends.)

BUSHY-TAIL: It’s like I was thrust into a new country where nothing has names yet. Or somebody invited me into a fairy-tale, a real magic kingdom

(VOLODYA and BLIZZARD stand before the door of Apt. 834.)

VOLODYA: This yours?

BLIZZARD: Yes.

(VOLODYA approaches Apt. 835. Music is heard coming from there. VOLODYA rings the doorbell. ORANGINA opens the door. BLIZZARD is rather surprised to see SNOWSTORM.)

VOLODYA (Showing his badge): Police. I need two witnesses

ORANGINA: Where?

VOLODYA: Here

ORANGINA: What happened?

VOLODYA: I have to conduct a search

(ORANGINA, SNOWSTORM, BLIZZARD and VOLODYA enter Apt. 834.

VOLODYA walks about the apartment.)

Let’s get to it

(MANIAC’S apartment. MANIAC and SNOWFLAKE are still lying on the bed with their eyes open.)

MANIAC: You sleeping?

SNOWFLAKE: You can sleep in this state?

(They are silent.)

MANIAC: Somebody told me you went to confession

SNOWFLAKE: Yeah

MANIAC: What did you confess?

SNOWFLAKE: My passionate desire to be liked and to entice and embarrass others. My penchant for listening to narcotic music, for wild dancing, for provocative, voluptuous feelings and for spiritual and psychological obscurantism

MANIAC: Did you explain that that’s your job?

SNOWFLAKE: And lots, lots, lots more

MANIAC: And how do you feel now? Did you like it?

SNOWFLAKE: I counted off every man I’ve been with for the last six months. I remembered every one of their names

MANIAC: They all ought to assemble right here in this room. And hold their silence. With this music playing

SNOWFLAKE: They’re all wonderful. I loved every one of them

MANIAC: But the fact is – there are a lot of them and only one of you

SNOWFLAKE: He told me you assimilate into yourself all the people your partners have slept with

MANIAC: You know what telegony is?

SNOWFLAKE: Something to do with television?

MANIAC: You’re better off not knowing

(They are silent.)

SNOWFLAKE: I miss being bold and spontaneous like I used to be

MANIAC: Purse-mascara-lipstick-shoes?

SNOWFLAKE: Well, something like that

MANIAC: What else did he say?

SNOWFLAKE: He said a lot and I cried a lot and I was so confused, the whole room was swimming in tears

MANIAC: What was to cry about?

SNOWFLAKE: I cried because I was so sad, from a sensation of being absolutely alone and abandoned in the world, a complete vacuum, shame, repentance, cold, horror and repulsion

MANIAC: Women are such pious people

SNOWFLAKE: And then he says, “Forget your dream of yourself. God is a jealous God.” And my tears dried up. They dried up instantly. And I say, “What did you say? Forget my dream of myself? How do you do that!?”

(BLIZZARD’s apartment. VOLODYA opens and closes desk drawers and closet drawers. He looks everything over at length. BLIZZARD’s entire life is pulled out for everyone to see. Condoms rain down, CDs, vinyl records, guitars, clothing, a synthesizer and miles of cords tumble out and roll on the floor. Speakers, cognac and whiskey bottles, cigarettes, incense, business cards, photos of Blizzard with Alla Pugachyova and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a photo of a ballerina. VOLODYA picks up the photo of the ballerina in his hands, looks it over at length. Puts it back in its place. VOLODYA sees a yellow suitcase. Approaches it. SNOWSTORM buries his face in his hands. VOLODYA opens the case. From it he removes a towel (puts it on the table), three books (puts them on the table one by one), 200 vinyl records (looks them over carefully), 40 rubles (puts the money on the table). Picks up the books. Leafs through them.)

VOLODYA: Mikhail Chekhov. Anna Akhmatova. Shakespeare.

(A small packet of tablets lies in the Shakespeare volume. BLIZZARD looks at SNOWSTORM, SNOWSTORM at BLIZZARD.)

Wait a minute.

(All sit quietly. All are silent.)

BLIZZARD: Okay. If I throw all that stuff out the window right now he’ll never prove I ever possessed it. These guys will back me up. So I go like this... (Slowly reaches for the tablets.)

VOLODYA: In your place. Sit still.

BLIZZARD: I have a face like a monkey. I’ve got the shakes. Oh my fucking God I’m in shock.

(BLIZZARD leaps up, grabs the packet off the table, opens the window and tries to throw the tablets out the window. They fall on the windowsill and bounce all over the floor. VOLODYA shoves BLIZZARD back onto the sofa, pulls his revolver and points it at BLIZZARD’s head.)

VOLODYA: What are you doing? Why would you do that? You want a buzz, drink vodka. What is wrong with you junkies? You smoke yourself into oblivion and then you’re at each other’s throats

(Removes his belt and ties BLIZZARD’s hands with it. Gathers the tablets off the floor, counts them and carefully puts them back on the table.)

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty... twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight... twenty-nine, thirty... one... thirty-two... thirty-three –

(MANIAC’s apartment. MANIAC and SNOWFLAKE.)

SNOWFLAKE: There’s a golden Buddha in your window

MANIAC: That’s a Buddhist cathedral

SNOWFLAKE: I thought it was a restaurant

MANIAC: You see nothing but restaurants

SNOWFLAKE: Do you go there?

MANIAC: That’s all we need now is Buddhism

SNOWFLAKE: Ooh, look! I can see him sitting there! Is that why you rented this apartment?

MANIAC: Naw, I thought it was a restaurant at first, too

(They are silent.)

You know, someday I’m going to slip some crushed glass in your food. I’ll make you a milkshake for breakfast and I’ll slip crushed glass in there. And then I’ll freeze you up in a block of ice.

SNOWFLAKE: I’m fasting right now. I can’t have milk.

MANIAC: You’re fasting, are you?

(They are silent.)

I should probably fast, too. I’m so totally lacking in energy.

(BLIZZARD’s apartment.)

BLIZZARD: Don’t tie my hands. I won’t do it again. (To the witnesses.) Would you guys step out, please.

(ORANGINA and SNOWSTORM leave. VOLODYA unties BLIZZARD’s hands.)

(Pulling out a $100 bill.) Volodya, please. Take this and don’t do what you were going to do. You want me to, I’ll get down on my knees. I don’t have anything more today, but I’ll get more tomorrow. I’m a famous musician. I can get a lot of money.

VOLODYA: No deal. I couldn’t care less what you’re trying to say to me. Put on your coat. I’m locking you up. You can take off your shoestrings right now.

BLIZZARD: I’m taking off my shoestrings. I’m putting on long-sleeve sailor’s shirt. My raspberry red velvet pants. And my beret on my head. (Blizzard wants to put on a record.) And all this shake, rattle and roll –

VOLODYA: What are you doing?

BLIZZARD: I just want to put on some music

VOLODYA: How come you let me down? Why did you lie to me like that?

BLIZZARD (Smiling blissfully): Forgive me.

(The witnesses return and leave the door open. BLIZZARD sees that the door to ORANGINA’s apartment is open, too. As is the door to the balcony. BLIZZARD suddenly races across to ORANGINA’s apartment and throws himself off her balcony.

He falls downward as if flying. As if in slow-motion his entire life flashes before his eyes. BLIZZARD thinks he is flying and, as honest, sad, exhausted and utterly free as he now is, he never wants to return to earth again. Free of everything and believing only in God, he is a true saint, a true freak.

MANIAC’s apartment. The following conversation occurs simultaneously to BLIZZARD’s flight.)

MANIAC: There are certain sensations that make you super-aware. And you ride along on them like you’re surfing, skimming over the surface, never sinking below the surface, never stopping

SNOWFLAKE: I used to skim over the surface, too

MANIAC: And now?

SNOWFLAKE: I don’t skim now

MANIAC: Why not?

SNOWFLAKE: Because you can’t skim over the surface all the time

MANIAC: Yeah, you’ve got to shake things up. You’ve gotta jump and fall, too

SNOWFLAKE: And jump back up again

MANIAC: There’s nothing to skimming over the surface

SNOWFLAKE: It’s really supercool

MANIAC: But it’s pointless if you do it all the time

(BLIZZARD flies, doing somersaults in the air.)

SNOWFLAKE: Where do you fall when you jump?

MANIAC: Doesn’t make a bit of difference. It’s the action itself that has meaning, of course. But you can’t attach meaning to it (Smiles.)

SNOWFLAKE: Do you have a goal?

MANIAC: Everybody has a goal. Even if you have no idea what it is, you still have one nonetheless. But if you don’t define it yourself, somebody else will do it for you. Whoever comes up with the best definition

(BLIZZARD flies. A dog walking on the street sees him flying, raises up his head and watches in amazement. Somewhere in the distance his owner calls:)

VOICE: Yo-Yo! Yo-Yo! Yo-Yo!

MANIAC: You want to relay a message of some kind, you want to have some impact

SNOWFLAKE: Why’s that?

MANIAC: To fill in the world void. Don’t you want to?

SNOWFLAKE: Me? No. I already lost my optimism, my youthful sincerity, my faith in people, my ability to think sober thoughts, to properly evaluate situations, to love my brother and orient myself in space

(BLIZZARD flies and the dog’s eyes grow bigger and bigger.)

The only thought that ever comes to me when I wake up in the morning hours is to commit suicide. But now I can’t even do that.

MANIAC: Why not?

SNOWFLAKE: Because you can’t do that

(ORANGINA’s apartment. SNOWSTORM, BLIZZARD and ORANGINA stand just as they had been standing, as though not a second has passed and, indeed, nothing has happened. VOLODYA runs out onto the balcony; a visceral, bloodcurdling scream is heard. ORANGINA’s eyes go dark and she falls in a faint.)

VOICE: Yo-Yo! Yo-Yo! Yo-Yo!

(On the ground beneath the balcony a dog lies dead in a pool of blood.

BLIZZARD runs down one street, another, a third, covered in Yo-Yo’s blood. He runs past red walls, fences, houses of some kind, and indeterminate people. The red ball of the sun, slipping beneath the horizon, reflects in his eyes. BLIZZARD runs to meet it, faster, faster, in order to reach out to it, to touch it with his hand, to catch it before it hides. It seems to him that he succeeds, that he made it in time.

Having reached the horizon, he slips down below the earth, not thinking, asking why or whether this leads anywhere. He goes down, down, down, passing trains resounding in his head. He races into the first open door he sees, pushes his way through a crowd into a corner, sits down in an empty spot, closes his eyes, takes the beret off his head, wipes off his red, wet face, smearing it with blood. He is riding somewhere, racing somewhere on this train so as to have time to think what he should do next in order to catch his breath and get hold of himself.

SNOWSTORM reads a poem to BUSHY-TAIL.)

SNOWSTORM:

There once lived a boy, a timid genius, who lived on the back lot of life

His daddy drank, his momma stank – the family was like that

But the boy was a romantic. He escaped life in dreams

Smelling his bubblegum wrapper he would fly away

From the wrong side of town and the back lot of life

To a light, quiet, cozy world, a land of starry dreams

And this timid little boy swore one day he would leave the back lot of life,

Jump on the trolley of dreams and ride away forever

(BLIZZARD in the subway. Eyes closed, as if in a trance, BLIZZARD thinks Vladimir Vysotsky and Marina Vlady are smiling at him from a black-and-white photograph. A cry is heard in a dream, as if it has no connection to reality. But the cry gets louder and louder. BLIZZARD thinks someone his shouting at him: “Atten-shun! Atten-shun!”

BLIZZARD opens his eyes. A soldier stands over him, screaming at him as if in a horror film.)

SOLDIER: Atten-shun!

BLIZZARD (Making to leave): Attention what?

SOLDIER: Atten-shun!

BLIZZARD (Tired of smiling): I’m out here. This is my stop.

(BLIZZARD looks around. The entire subway car is filled with bald, young men, new army recruits, just like himself.)

SOLDIER: Atten-shun!

(The doors open. BLIZZARD runs out, two soldiers following in hot pursuit.

Street, walls, fences: déjà vu.

Somewhere very near, one or two streets over, SNOWFLAKE is walking and people are turning to look at her. They point at her, but she ceased noticing this long ago.)

SNOWFLAKE: The street is dirty. People try as they may, laying out white rugs beneath their feet. But everything is pointless in this city. Everything is pointless.

(The soldiers catch up with BLIZZARD, a fight starts. BLIZZARD falls. They kick him viciously in the sides and stomach. He has stopped putting up a fight. Lies limply on the asphalt. Blood trickles out his mouth. The soldiers leave. BLIZZARD wipes off the blood with his hand, his hands are all bloody. He smiles exhaustedly. Gets up.

VOLODYA stands in front of BLIZZARD.)

BLIZZARD: What are you, Volodya, James Bond or something?

(VOLODYA hand-cuffs BLIZZARD.)

VOLODYA: You can’t run from yourself

(They get into a police car.)

BLIZZARD: I don’t understand anything at all. I’m screwed now. I’m already on two years parole. What is happening. Why? I must have a concussion. I’m sick to my stomach. They’re probably going to put me in prison. What about my job? What about everything? What about my dreams? My Lord, how did this happen to me? A complete and total breakdown. What I’d really like is to wrap myself in a blanket and go to sleep. So that when I wake up, all of this will be yesterday and not today

(BLIZZARD looks at his bloody hand, sliced in the fight. His lifeline has now been extended. He closes his eyes and slips into an indifferent sleep.

The Office. MANIAC, SNOWFLAKE, LENOCHKA and SNOWSTORM. BLIZZARD’s face has been replaced everywhere by SNOWSTORM’s.)

MANIAC: We all stand neck-deep in darkness. The only difference is that some of us look in the direction of the light. Others look to the dark

SNOWFLAKE (On the phone): Forty days without sex?!

LENOCHKA: That’s unfeasible

MANIAC: Like during the war. You huddle under a flag and defenders appear at your side. You know who you’re fighting for and against. With the whites or the reds. For good or for evil

SNOWSTORM: Most of the time I spend in the space between black and white. It’s rather gray, of course, but at least there’s movement. I know who’s sleeping with who. I know who does what where when and why and I appreciate every one of them equally

MANIAC: It’s nothing more than a mask

SNOWFLAKE: Fifty?!

LENOCHKA: Strange

SNOWFLAKE: I don’t think that’s my style

SNOWSTORM: I don’t use masks at all. I win people over with my extreme sincerity. I achieve results by means of the utmost candor. Basically, I never hide a thing. I don’t fear my emotions

MANIAC: I lead a double life.

LENOCHKA: Really?

MANIAC: I keep my manias and phobias in check. And I’ve got those babies up the ying-yang. Both manias and phobias

SNOWFLAKE: I didn’t know that; that you can’t. I realize that doesn’t justify me

SNOWSTORM: Hey you phobias of mine, you manias, you late anxieties and early fears

SNOWFLAKE: It’s just I’m a very emotional person

LENOCHKA: I confessed for three days

MANIAC: I did two

LENOCHKA: And he looked me so hard in the eyes, with that same kind of insolence I have when I’m showing off, and he had this two-faced smile

MANIAC: He can’t be two-faced

SNOWSTORM: You don’t even have the right to look him in the eye

MANIAC: You’re supposed to lower your gaze

SNOWSTORM: At least bow your head

SNOWFLAKE: This weather is oppressive

LENOCHKA: And he says, “At least bow your head.”

SNOWFLAKE: I’m sick and tired of this black-and-white film

MANIAC: All this Adam and Eve and the apple

LENOCHKA: I mean it wasn’t us that picked it

SNOWSTORM: Well, it’s time to pay up now

SNOWFLAKE: Could it be because I spent so much time on tranquilizers?!

MANIAC: That’s all really useful when you have to define all your shortcomings

LENOCHKA: You know what you’re supposed to do but you don’t do it

ORANGINA: After that it’s a matter of will power

MANIAC: You’ve got to make sense of your will power

SNOWSTORM: See if you have any or not

LENOCHKA: I don’t

SNOWFLAKE: Whenever it’s cold my mood and character go sour

SNOWSTORM: We are really lucky we live in a climate like this

MANIAC: It helps calm us, calm our flesh

LENOCHKA: Which is almost impossible to do in the more southerly countries

SNOWFLAKE (Hangs up the phone. Sighs): Maybe we ought to fly somewhere, huh? Like Bali

MANIAC: It’s a good idea, though

(The jail cell.)

BLIZZARD: I’ve changed lately. I haven’t exactly figured out how yet. All my thoughts on it are still at loose ends. Basically everybody just goes along paying no attention to where they’re going. What the hell is the meaning of life? Career? Fame? Money? I mean, in my mind I know that’s not what’s important. But what is important – I don’t know. But I think about it. Why? Because that’s what everybody talks about. And I know there is love.

(BLIZZARD thinks about ORANGINA. ORANGINA walks down the street, as beautiful as a character from a Bergman movie. Men look her in the eye and watch her pass; she lowers her eyelashes.)

ORANGINA: When will I achieve perfection? When will this sin leave me? When will I quit having all these voluptuous dreams? When will I quit dreaming? When will I become more pure spiritually? When? Lord, purify me of all this filth. Lord, absolve me of my youthful sins.

(The bar at a café. The television is on, showing the BCH news with the sound turned off. The star presenter SNOWFLAKE (no longer smiling) reports on a war. VOLODYA looks her over carefully, drinks beer, chews pistachios.)

VOLODYA: The only thing I can’t figure out is why people wage war. Man, they’re always at war... For what? Why? Money? Principles? I don’t get it. I mean, with Hitler it made sense. But what’s this going on now? Man, live and let live. I just really don’t know. I don’t get this politics. I mean, have these people never felt pain or something?

(“BCH” station identification and an ad for “Eternity is Ahead! Infinity is no Limit!” BUSHY-TAIL appears on screen, says something and smiles. She is framed by the words “Icon of the Season.” VOLODYA turns on the sound.)

BUSHY-TAIL: In the Far North we have icicles like you’ve never seen here. Our icicles flow off the roof over the windows and it’s like the houses are encased in ice. Icicles like that are really dangerous. If an icicle like that falls on your head, it’s all over.

(“BCH” station identification and an ad for “No Fear in Love.”)

VOLODYA: What a stupid death

(SNOWSTORM and ORANGINA drink coffee at the next table. ORANGINA wears a black dress and has a pure expression on her face. She wears no make-up and her hair is pulled back simply. She holds a big Book.)

SNOWSTORM: Look, I have everything. I’ve achieved everything I wanted to achieve. What is there for me to ask of God? I don’t know. I have everything I’ve ever wanted. You see my eyes?

ORANGINA: You have blue, blue eyes

SNOWSTORM: Look into my retinas. What do you see there? Do you even see a hint of sorrow?

ORANGINA: No, there’s no sorrow in them

SNOWSTORM: What about fear?

ORANGINA: No, there’s no fear in them

SNOWSTORM: Love?

ORANGINA: No

SNOWSTORM: Come on, look closer. What do you see there?

ORANGINA: There’s nothing there at all

SNOWSTORM: I even bought the exact car I wanted to have

ORANGINA: What kind?

SNOWSTORM: A Peugeot. Convertible.

(Jail cell. A sunbeam comes through the window and hits BLIZZARD right on the crown of the head.)

BLIZZARD: But love turned out to be something else altogether. Not connected to what I wanted to have. I had hope, I lived in constant expectation of something. But it turns out love is bound up only with whatever you hope to give. You can count on requited love only if fortune smiles on you. But I understand now that’s not essential. It’s as if my tears help me thaw out. I always prayed and I always pray. I’ve begun to believe in God. When I was born I was such a beautiful baby and then stuff got in the way. My head got chock full of filth and I set off down the wrong road –

(The café. SNOWSTORM looks at ORANGINA. Tears run down ORANGINA’s cheeks.)

SNOWSTORM: You’re beautiful. Laid-back and deliberate. I love watching you bring a cigarette up to your mouth

ORANGINA: I simply cannot quit smoking

SNOWSTORM: There’s a dreaminess in your eyes

ORANGINA: Oh, I can’t listen to that anymore

SNOWSTORM: And indifference. To everything happening this very moment

ORANGINA (Puts out her cigarette): In order to quit smoking you just have to not smoke

SNOWSTORM: What are you reading?

ORANGINA: A new book

SNOWSTORM: I had one like that

ORANGINA: I don’t read fiction at all anymore

SNOWSTORM (Taking a call on his cell): Hello. I’m mainstream. Yes, I currently am in demand as never before. (Looks at his image on the television.) Your call has confirmed that once again

(Jail cell.)

BLIZZARD: It’s like my heart iced over and turned to stone. It’s numb, but that’s normal, they say. They say that’s natural. It happens to 94 percent of human beings. Now, of course, I realize I have never loved anyone, that all I ever had was a nagging desire for everyone to love and admire me. I wanted to find that one person who would love me. It’s like I was preparing myself as a gift for someone. I tanned myself in a salon. I love nothing but my own body, never even guessing that love was passing me by at that very moment. We shared nothing but temporary physical pleasures, which we all mistakenly call by one and the same name

(LENOCHKA, MANIAC and SNOWFLAKE enter the café and take off their coats. The girls kiss ORANGINA, take off their coats and other items, taking more and more and more clothing off.)

LENOCHKA: After that I immediately went and had a glass of wine. Then I went and indulged in the seven deadly sins

SNOWFLAKE: How was that?

LENOCHKA: In my thoughts, I mean

MANIAC: I went out and immediately lit up

ORANGINA: When you smoke, your prayers do not reach God

LENOCHKA: Why’s that?

ORANGINA: Because they cling to the earth like smoke

SNOWFLAKE: Angels come flying when you make the sign of the cross

MANIAC: And when you swear they fly away

SNOWFLAKE: A very bad hangover and deep depression

LENOCHKA: You’d think somebody could at least call, some guy of some sort

ORANGINA: You’re off limits. You’re married

SNOWFLAKE: Two men told me they love me today

MANIAC: And you want more, don’t you?

LENOCHKA (Nods towards ORANGINA): Can somebody get her out of her trance?

ORANGINA: I downed a vodka and it had no effect at all. Stone cold sober

LENOCHKA: How can you possibly drink vodka?

SNOWFLAKE: You can’t

MANIAC: Vodka? There ain’t nothin’ better

SNOWFLAKE: God, what I didn’t drink yesterday

(They all look over the menu.)

SNOWSTORM: Green tea?

LENOCHKA: Jasmine

ORANGINA: And Coca-Cola

SNOWFLAKE: I drank whiskey and martinis yesterday

LENOCHKA: They even have parmesan carpaccio with mushrooms

MANIAC: Parmesan is a no-no

SNOWSTORM: I don’t eat mushrooms

LENOCHKA: Why not?

SNOWSTORM: They make me want to vomit

MANIAC: They remind him of other mushrooms that he can’t eat anymore

LENOCHKA: People who have ingested a lot of mushrooms usually can’t even talk about it

SNOWFLAKE: Let alone eat them

MANIAC: I know

LENOCHKA: Is fish out, too?

ORANGINA: Out

SNOWSTORM: I don’t eat broccoli and I don’t eat carrots and I don’t eat sauerkraut

MANIAC: It’s easy for me, I’m a vegetarian. I don’t even touch meat

ORANGINA: I absolutely love carrots

SNOWFLAKE: You’ve lost weight

ORANGINA: Ten pounds in a week. I keep getting skinnier and skinnier

LENOCHKA: There’s something criminal about that

MANIAC: You just have a complex about it

SNOWSTORM: But a nun’s habit would become you

LENOCHKA: What about me?

MANIAC: You too

SNOWFLAKE: And me?

ORANGINA: It would become anyone

LENOCHKA: And a salad

SNOWFLAKE: How about shrimp?

MANIAC: That’s cheating then

LENOCHKA: Can’t have café glacé

SNOWFLAKE: Should I have a martini?

MANIAC: Against the rules

LENOCHKA: But you know, there’s something to that – abstaining for forty days

SNOWFLAKE: Fifty

MANIAC (Closing the menu): Okay, that’s it. Mineral water and black bread for everybody.

SNOWFLAKE: Only let’s not be fanatics about it.

(The street. SNOWSTORM leaves the café.)

SNOWSTORM:

Today I’m so frivolous,

Gracious and careless.

Melancholically dissatisfied with everything

I sail to meet my fate at midstream

(BUSHY-TAIL comes walking down the street, leading a dog on a leash. She carries a glossy magazine with her photo on the cover.

SNOWSTORM heads toward her; stops by his new car.)

Hey

BUSHY-TAIL: I didn’t recognize you right away in that cap

SNOWSTORM: That’s a pretty coat you’ve got. You remember that movie A Man and a Woman?

BUSHY-TAIL: No

SNOWSTORM: He’s a race car driver and she goes around in this coat

BUSHY-TAIL: How’re you doin’?

SNOWSTORM: I want to buy myself a T-shirt. I want to print a prayer on the back for everybody to read. I’ll write, “Lord, thank You, Lord, for all the beautiful things You have given me.”

BUSHY-TAIL: That’s cool

SNOWSTORM (Looking at the dog): That’s a pretty dog. Boy or girl?

BUSHY-TAIL: Boy

SNOWSTORM: Yeah... Women are more sexy than men, of course

BUSHY-TAIL: I don’t know about that –

SNOWSTORM: Men are more horny, but they’re not as sexy

BUSHY-TAIL: Animals are smarter than we are

SNOWSTORM: They don’t get hung up thinking

BUSHY-TAIL: Yeah

SNOWSTORM: I love animals. Like Churchill

BUSHY-TAIL: Me too. Like Brigitte Bardot

SNOWSTORM (Leads BUSH-TAIL over to his car. Opens the door for her): If I was an animal I’d be a bear. That’s the perfect lifestyle. You sleep half the year.

(VOLODYA comes out of the café. Looks around. Looks at his watch. Looks at BUSHY-TAIL, SNOWSTORM, the Peugeot.)

BUSHY-TAIL: Those little bear cubs are so cute –

SNOWSTORM: Basically, you’ve got to love each other and be cool about it. Main thing is that nobody start a war

(VOLODYA sees BUSHY-TAIL get into the Peugeot convertible. He takes out his pen and writes down the license plate.

He stands and watches the car disappear into the distance as if he has gone blind and deaf and keeps going over something in his mind that he experienced long ago.)

VOLODYA:

Bones lay in the ground

Gloom covers the earth

Everything there was between us

Has drowned in my heart

(The café.)

LENOCHKA (To ORANGINA): When are you coming back to work?

ORANGINA: I’m not

LENOCHKA: Why?

ORANGINA: Do you really want to keep doing all this?

LENOCHKA (Thinks): Well, yes

SNOWFLAKE: Of course we do

MANIAC: As if there were any other choice –

(Kissing, BUSHY-TAIL and SNOWSTORM race down the road at a break-neck speed.

BLIZZARD in his jail cell. He’s drawing a tattoo on his shoulder – the face of Jesus Christ in a crown of thorns.

Dressed in a space suit, MANIAC slips an engagement ring on SNOWFLAKE’s finger.

SNOWFLAKE in a rose dress, peonies in her hair.

LENOCHKA is pregnant, she rubs her big belly.

ORANGINA in a nun’s habit.

VOLODYA still stands there by the café.

With a horrendous crash a huge chunk of ice crashes to the ground just inches from him.

VOLODYA lifts his head.

The sun is warm.

Snow is melting.

Spring has come.)

The End