In the Mist---Ezzat Goushegir
In the Mist
A play in three episodes
By: Ezzat Goushegir
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MY ROOM IS EMPTY…THE MAIL BOX IS EMPTY…
NOBODY KNOCKS ON THE DOOR…THE PHONE
Episode 1
Loneliness
Characters:
Woman
A voice
Mirror…Mirror…I don’t want to ask you who is the fairest in the world…No one is the fairest in the world…Mirror, tell me what JONAH did inside the whale? Tell me…
MY ROOM IS EMPTY…THE MAIL BOX IS EMPTY…
NOBODY KNOCKS ON THE DOOR…THE PHONE
NEVER RINGS…
I’m ready to go to work…It’s still down…I’m in the street…The river froze motionless…There is not a soul in the street…Not even a car passes by…Not even a bicycle…Even the sparrows don’t fly…It’s only my feet that move on the pavement silently…
-Hello…Good morning…
My voice stops motionless. There is no wave that can transfer it far away.
I go upstairs…I open the door…
-Hello Good morning…
There is no answer. The glassy eyes don’t turn in the eye sockets. The colorless eyes don’t convey any meaning…
I’m standing behind the table, holding a knife in my hand. I must split open the watermelon’s belly…must slice open the tomatoes’ stomach…must cut the lettuce into pieces…must arrange the strawberries on the plates…I must work very fast…only a voice cracks the glassy air…
-WORK FAST…FAST…FASTER…
I split open the watermelon’s belly…
-Hello…Good morning…
Little black seeds jump out from the red shallow skin…
-Good morning seeds…colors…blacks…reds…greens…
One thousands voices answer me…
-HELLO…BOOG MORNING…
-Tell me black seeds…What JONAH did inside the watermelon?
No…don’t splash water on me…not on my eyes…not on my skin…not on my
clothes…don’t…don’t…
You are laughing cheerfully at me!
-WORK FAST…FAST…FASTER…
I’m standing behind the table…holding a knife in my hand…I slice open tomatoes’ stomach…Their blood paints my hands…Their little seeds play hide and seek in the narrow streets of my fingers…
-Good morning SARA…HAGAR…MUHAMMAD…ISMAIL…
-GOOD MORNING…
-Would you like to play a game with me? O.K…Are you ready? One…two…three…
Where are you? Where are you SARA? Where are you HAGAR? Where are you MUHAMMAD? There you are! Ollie, Ollie, ocean free … Where is SMAIL?
ISSSSMMMMAIIIIL………………WHERE AAAARE YOUUUU?
What happened children?
Suddenly the narrow streets are empty…All the children hide under my nails…
-ISSSSMMMMAIL…Where Are You?
ISSSSMMMMAIL…
Two soldiers are coming…They are playing soccer…with…ISMAIL’S head…His head is smashed…bloody…ISMAIL…ISMAIL…My son…My dear son…
-WORK FAST…FAST…FASTER…!
I’m standing behind the table again…holding the knife in my hand…
-IT’S TIME TO CUT THE MUSHROOMS!
-No…I don’t want to touch the mushrooms…
-I SAID CUT THE MUSHROOMS…YOU HAVE TO…
-No…I don’t want to touch the mushrooms…I don’t want to mushrooms…
I don’t want to touch the mushrooms…
A mushroom grows in my mother’s chest…Mother, mother, I know you suffer from the pain…I know it!
I root the mushroom out of her chest…I throw it on the ground…crush it…crush it…I crush it under my feet…
Suddenly, thousands of cockroaches crawl out from the heart of the mushroom…They are creeping towards my feet…climbing up my body, entering my mouth, my eyes, my ears, my hair…
-Go away, go away, I need my eyes, I need my ears, I need my mouth, I need my tongue…my tongue to scream…..
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The sun is setting in the west…
I say goodbye!
There is no answer…The glassy eyes never turn in the eye sockets.
I’m coming down the stairs. The sun is pale…No trees shovel their hair in the wind…the river doesn’t flow. There is not a soul in the streets, not even a car passes by. Nor a bicycle…not even the sound of feet shuffling on the pavement…my footprints are still on the ground from dawn…all the windows are shut…there are no lights in the houses…
-open your windows…someone must talk to me…I want to talk to you…Something must happen…A color must be scattered on the gray walls…Somebody must break the icy air…somebody must cry out:
-HELLO…………………………………………
Perhaps the glass of the windows would shatter, and suddenly heads would sprout out of the holes and……..
THE WORLD IS FULL NEWS!
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I’m in my room. My room is empty… the mailbox is empty…Nobody knocks on the doors…Nobody calls…
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Mirror, Mirror…I don’t want to ask you what JONAH did inside the whale…I want to tell you: YOU ARE THE FAIREST IN THE WORLD.