Contexto nacional

A pontoon, drifting away in the middle of a mountain lake.

Dusk and Summer.

Michel climbs back on the barge after a long swim, while Laura lies in the sun to read Vogue magazine.

LAURA

What do you mean? What are you talking about?

MICHEL

I am trying to tell you something that matters to me. I find it unfortunate that you don’t understand.

LAURA

What don’t I understand? MICHEL

Well, what I was telling you earlier, before we started this conversation. LAURA

(murmuring) I cannot find the page. What conversation, the story of what? MICHEL

It’s a story that never begins. I don’t know the end, nor how it goes about... LAURA

But the question is: are we still alive? MICHEL

What is the question? LAURA

Who is it? MICHEL

What is happening? LAURA

It’s really simple in fact. MICHEL

What is the second question?

LAURA

Ask me whatever you want. MICHEL

I don’t know. It’s too complex since I don’t know who I am. What am I? Who I am? The one who talks, the one who talks to you?

LAURA Who, me? MICHEL

To whom are you addressing this, to which part of me?

LAURA

The one that only exist here, and now. MICHEL

If only you knew who you were talking to...

LAURA Shred by shred... MICHEL

You must tell me to whom your ad- dressing this because I cannot situate myself. And come lie down next to me. LAURA

Come on! You very well know that you are the lover.

MICHEL The lover? LAURA

Yes, yes, it is written here: “The Lover.” MICHEL

Here... I am here, for your pleasure, for the pleasure you’ve never known be- cause you were forced to live an orderly life, to face your obligations. And me, I am here for your pleasure, to make you forget that life can be sad. I am your lover, I am the one to make you forget, to make you see how life can be something else.

LAURA

What does my mother say of all this? MICHEL

Your mother? She made you, so she knows you too well, but at the same time, she stops you from becoming yourself... Everything she tells you... LAURA

I need to listen to her or to detach myself from her?

MICHEL

You need to listen to her to better detach yourself from her. She belongs to another era. You need to find within yourself the way to escape her without completely contradicting everything she taught you, she gave you... LAURA

Give me some ham.

MICHEL

You want me to give you some ham? LAURA

Give me the beautiful brown ham please. Give it to me or you will be in trouble. Don’t make me say it again. MICHEL

What’s the beautiful brown ham, is it a sexual thing?

LAURA

Stop! Or I will brandish the stick of runes...

MICHEL

Ha ha ha! That’s quite special, but we are just about nowhere, so it won’t change anything.

LAURA

How do you think I will accept you as the master of my home and of my chil- dren if you pursue acting like this? MICHEL

I would have liked to be accepted in your home. Yes, where it’s warm, where we feel secure, but I can clearly see it’s not my place. Your home is made for you alone, and there is no place for me in it.

LAURA

I feel lonely. I can only be sighting after our little game. It’s raining outside. MICHEL

Do you think I should go close my windows?

LAURA

Oh no, it’s not raining a lot, only a few drops. Maybe it’s the beginning of something...

MICHEL

So what do we do now? Should we go now?

LAURA

Yes, let’s just improvise... MICHEL

Yes, let’s move! LAURA

We will stop everywhere we desire, it will be amusing.

MICHEL

The cabin, can I close it before we leave then?

LAURA Why? MICHEL

The cabin where you stayed, you no longer have anything to do there? LAURA

No, but why be preoccupied with that now; are you fearful?

MICHEL Yes I am afraid. LAURA

What are you afraid of? MICHEL

I am scared of getting lost, of loosing myself. I am afraid of my fantasy, I am afraid to abandon myself, to loose myself... LAURA Where? MICHEL In alterity. LAURA In authority? MICHEL

In alterity, in the other. LAURA

Find again your name, find your name please.

MICHEL

You decide of our roles. LAURA

It feels bizarre to try to be someone else.

MICHEL Am I you. LAURA

No, but you killed me with a blast of wind.

MICHEL At what time? LAURA

At midnight, when we should go swim again.

MICHEL How? How? LAURA

Just like last night, in the black lake which appears infinite, and us, com- pletely small and naked.

MICHEL

Did you ever fly in the endless night sky?

LAURA

In the sky? All the time, every night... MICHEL

Have you ever met some birds? LAURA

Birds? Hummingbirds... MICHEL

You ever talk to them? LAURA

Yes, I love hummingbirds, they are

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