Happy Days Read Online Free PDF Page A

significance we know. [ Pause. ] Raise a finger, dear, will you please, if you are not quite senseless. [ Pause. ] Do that for me, Willie please, just the little finger, if you are still conscious. [ Pause. Joyful. ] Oh all five, you are a darling today, now I may continue with an easy mind. [ Back front. ] Yes, what ever occurred that did not occur before and yet . . . I wonder, yes, I confess I wonder. [ Pause. ] With the sun blazing so much fiercer down, and hourly fiercer, is it not natural things should go on fire never known to do so, in this way I mean,spontaneous like. [ Pause. ] Shall I myself not melt perhaps in the end, or burn, oh I do not mean necessarily burst into flames, no, just little by little be charred to a black cinder, all this—[ ample gesture of arms ]—visible flesh. [ Pause. ] On the other hand, did I ever know a temperate time? [ Pause. ] No. [ Pause. ] I speak of temperate times and torrid times, they are empty words. [ Pause. ] I speak of when I was not yet caught—in this way—and had my legs and had the use of my legs, and could seek out a shady place, like you, when I was tired of the sun, or a sunny place when I was tired of the shade, like you, and they are all empty words. [ Pause. ] It is no hotter today than yesterday, it will be no hotter tomorrow than today, how could it, and so on back into the far past, forward into the far future. [ Pause. ] And should one day the earth cover my breasts, then I shall never have seen my breasts, no one ever seen my breasts. [ Pause. ] I hope you caught something of that, Willie, I should be sorry to think you had caught nothing of all that, it is not every day I rise to such heights. [ Pause. ] Yes, something seems to have occurred, something has seemed to occur, and nothing has occurred, nothingat all, you are quite right, Willie. [ Pause. ] The sunshade will be there again tomorrow, beside me on this mound, to help me through the day. [ Pause. She takes up mirror. ] I take up this little glass, I shiver it on a stone—[ does so ]—I throw it away—[ does so far behind her ]—it will be in the bag again tomorrow, without a scratch, to help me through the day. [ Pause. ] No, one can do nothing. [ Pause. ] That is what I find so wonderful, the way things . . . [ voice breaks, head down ] . . . things . . . so wonderful. [ Long pause, head down. Finally turns, still bowed, to bag, brings out unidentifiable odds and ends, stuff s them back, fumbles deeper, brings out finally musical-box, winds it up, turns it on, listens for a moment holding it in both hands, huddled over it, turns back front, straightens up and listens to tune, holding box to breast with both hands. It plays the Waltz Duet “I love you so” from The Merry Widow. Gradually happy expression. She sways to the rhythm. Music stops. Pause. Brief burst of hoarse song without words — musical-box tune — from Willie. Increase of happy expression. She lays down box. ] Oh this will have been a happy day! [ She claps hands. ] Again, Willie, again! [ Claps. ] Encore, Willie, please! [ Pause. Happy expression off. ] No? You won’t dothat for me? [ Pause. ] Well it is very understandable, very understandable. One cannot sing just to please someone, however much one loves them, no, song must come from the heart, that is what I always say, pour out from the inmost, like a thrush. [ Pause. ] How often I have said, in evil hours, Sing now, Winnie, sing your song, there is nothing else for it, and did not. [ Pause. ] Could not. [ Pause. ] No, like the thrush, or the bird of dawning, with no thought of benefit, to oneself or anyone else. [ Pause. ] And now? [ Long pause. Low. ] Strange feeling. [ Pause. Do. ] Strange feeling that someone is looking at me. I am clear, then dim, then gone, then dim again, then clear again, and so on, back and forth, in and out of someone’s eye. [ Pause. Do. ] Strange? [ Pause. Do. ] No, here all is strange. [ Pause. Normal voice. ] Something says, Stop talking