Resurrection Blues (9 page)

FELIX,
aroused and confused:
I am . . . I am . . . I . . . I . . .
Disarming himself
. . . . must talk to you . . . I can come to New York, I have money there and an apartment . . .

 

EMILY: Why wait? Like if you feel you really don't wish to pursue this fellow, just don't do it and see what happens.

FELIX: Darling, the General Staff would tear me apart, they are hungry lions . . .

 

EMILY,
reaches for his hand:
Felix dear . . . I don't know where this is going between us, but I must tell you now—if you go through with this outrage you'll have to find yourself another girl.—Not that I'm promising anything in any case.

 

FELIX: But what are your feelings toward me? You never speak of them.

 

EMILY: I like a man to be a man, Felix—which you are. And I have enormous curiosity.

 

FELIX: About men.

 

EMILY: Yes. Powerful men, especially . . . to tell the truth.

 

FELIX: About what in particular?

 

EMILY: Well, frankly, for one thing—how they are making love.

 

FELIX: I have never known a woman with such courage to speak her mind.

 

EMILY: One needs it when one is not marvelous to look at.

 

FELIX,
kisses her hand:
You are more marvelous to look at than . . . than six mountains and a waterfall!

EMILY: That's very sweet of you, Felix.—I'd love to walk along the beach. Could we, without all these guards?

 

FELIX: I'm afraid not. But come, we can take a few steps through the garden.

 

 

EMILY: Who exactly would want to kill you, Communists?

 

FELIX: The Party is split on this question. One side thinks somebody worse would replace me if I am eliminated.

 

EMILY: And I suppose the Right Wing people love you . . .

 

FELIX: Not all—some of them think I am not hard enough on the Communists . . . those might take a shot at me too. Then there are the narco-guerillas; with some we have an arrangement, it's no secret, but there are others who are not happy for various reasons.

 

EMILY: It all seems so utterly, utterly futile. Or do you mind?

 

 

FELIX: I mind very much, in these hours since I know you. Very much. You have made me wish that I could live differently.

 

EMILY: Really!

 

FELIX: Emily, I will confess to you—when I imagine myself making love to you, entering into you, I . . . I almost hear a choir.

EMILY: A choir! Really, Felix, that is beautiful!

 

 

EMILY: What is it? You all right? Felix?

 

 

EMILY: What is it?

 

FELIX: I will divorce.

 

EMILY,
blurting:
Oh no, you mustn't do that! . . . I mean you're a Catholic, aren't you?

 

FELIX: I am ready to go to hell! I cannot lose you!

 

EMILY: But my dear, I'm not prepared for . . . I assume you're talking commitment?

 

FELIX,
striking his chest:
You have exploded in my mind like a grenade! I have never had such a feeling . . . it is like all my windows have blown out and a fresh breeze is passing through me . . . I must not let you go, Emily—what can I give you! Anything! Tell me!

 

EMILY: Ralph!

 

FELIX: Ralph?

 

EMILY: Let him go!

FELIX,
at the height of tension—dives:
That is what you truly wish?

 

EMILY: Oh yes, Felix—yes! It would solve everything for me! And he sounds like such a dear person!

 

FELIX: And you will surely see me in New York.

 

EMILY: Of course, I'll be happy to!—I mean not necessarily on a permanent basis . . . I mean I travel a lot, but . . . yes, of course!

 

FELIX: All right, then—it is done!

 

EMILY: Done! Oh, Felix, I'm overwhelmed!

 

FELIX: I have fallen in love with you, Emily! Come—let me take you to my best house.

 

EMILY: Your best?

 

FELIX,
solemnly:
It was my mother's. I have never brought anyone there before. It is sacred to me. I haven't been there since I was seven.

 

EMILY: That's very touching. But first could we go into the mountains? I would like to see one of those high villages where they love this Ralph fellow so. It's just an experience I've never had, have you?—to walk in a place full of love?
Up close to him, face raised
. Take me there, Felix?

 

FELIX,
sensing her distant surrender:
My god, woman—yes, anything! Come . . . come to the mountains!

 

SCENE 6

 

HENRI: Jeanine!

 

 

JEANINE: I don't understand it. I woke up, and I was standing.

 

HENRI: And the pain?

 

JEANINE: It seems much less. For the moment anyway.

 

HENRI: This is absolutely astonishing, Jeanine. This is marvelous! How did this happen?

 

JEANINE: The lightning this morning shot a lot of electricity into the air—

 

HENRI:—Could that have affected you?

 

JEANINE,
cryptically:
I . . . don't know, really.

 

HENRI: I'm sorry, dear, but we have to talk about Felix.

 

JEANINE: Oh god, why?

 

HENRI: He called me this morning—woke me at dawn. He's convinced you can lead him to this god-fellow.

 

 

He'll be here to see you this morning. He insisted.
Coming to his point
. . . . Do you know a fellow named Stanley?

 

JEANINE,
hedging:
Stanley.

 

HENRI: They have him.

 

 

He has apparently told Felix you and this . . . god-fellow are lovers.

 

 

Felix is convinced you would know where to find him.

 

JEANINE: Papa, I have no way of contacting this man, so let's just forget it, will you?

 

HENRI,
a moment; swallows resentment:
According to Felix this Stanley fellow has hinted that your friend may actually welcome crucifixion. In order to accomplish his . . . whatever it is . . . his mission.

 

 

In any case, I'm not sure I can keep you from being arrested for harboring him and failing to turn him in.

 

JEANINE: But how can I turn him in! I don't know how to contact him!

 

HENRI: . . . For one thing, darling—how shall I put it?—he clearly had to have been here last night . . .

 

JEANINE: Why!

 

HENRI,
patience gone:
Well look at you! Felix is not stupid, Jeanine—he knows your spine was crushed, it could only have been this man's hand on you that has brought you to life like this!

 

JEANINE: . . . You believe then!?

 

HENRI: . . . I don't know what I believe! I only know that Felix intends to kill this man and that can't be allowed to happen!

 

JEANINE: Oh Papa, why do you go on caring so much when you know you will never act! You'll never stand up to these murderers!

 

HENRI: Act how! Who do I join! How can you go on repeating that political nonsense? There is no politics anymore,

Jeanine—if you weren't so tough-minded you'd admit it! There is nothing, my dear, nothing but one's family, if one can call that a faith.

 

JEANINE: Late one night you came into my room and sat down on my bed. There was a storm. Tremendous! The wind broke limbs off the oak behind the house. It groaned, like pieces of the sky breaking off! And you said you had decided to go into the mountains and join the guerillas to fight against Felix! Lightning seemed to flash around your head, Papa. You were like a mountain, sitting there. At last you would do something, at last you would answer the idiots and fight against Felix! And I knew I would follow you . . . and high up in the mountains I found you in your tent with a rifle on your lap, reading Spinoza.

 

HENRI: The world will never again be changed by heroes; if I misled you I apologize to the depths of my heart. One must learn to live in the garden of one's self.

 

JEANINE: Even if one has seen god?

 

HENRI: . . . Then you really do believe?

 

JEANINE: I think so, yes.

 

HENRI: Very well. I'm glad.

 

JEANINE: You are!

 

HENRI: I'm happy for the love I see in you, my dear, your hair flowing so gently around your face, and the softness that I haven't seen in so many years in the corners of your eyes. I love you, Jeanine, and if it's he who brought you back to life . . .—Why not? I think now it is no more impossible than the rest of this dream we live in.
Glances at watch
.—Felix will be here soon. I'll wait with you, is that all right?

 

 

HENRI,
embracing her:
Oh my darling, my darling . . . !

 

 

Felix! Miss Shapiro! Good morning! Miss Shapiro, this is my daughter, Jeanine.

 

FELIX,
going to Jeanine in surprise:
Why Jeanine, how wonderfully well you look! My god, this is amazing—what's happened?

 

HENRI: Nothing. She often has more energy in the mornings.

 

FELIX: We must talk, Jeanine . . .

 

HENRI: She's really not up to it, Felix.

 

FELIX: There's a couple of things I'd like this man to understand. It's important.

 

HENRI: But she has no contact with him.

 

FELIX: Well, if you happen to see him—

HENRI,
glancing from one to the other:
—Something's happened, hasn't it . . . with you.

 

EMILY: Oh yes! We hardly slept all night.

 

HENRI: How nice!

 

EMILY: Yes . . . it was.

 

HENRI: Well! May one congratulate the old dog?

 

FELIX: Definitely!—he's back hunting over hill and dale. This is the strangest twenty-four hours I've ever been through.—
Drapes an arm around Emily
. . . . She wanted to drive up and look around in the villages . . .

 

EMILY: It's like walking on the sky up there—the purity of the sunbeams . . . that strangely warm, icy air . . .

 

FELIX: It's been years since I was up there in our last campaigns. I was absolutely amazed—his picture really is everywhere in the villages. They paint halos around his head. I had no idea of the devotion of the people—it's a real phenomenon, he's like a saint.
To Henri:
You remember, Henri—that whole back country was always so . . . what's the word . . . ?

 

HENRI: Depressing.

 

EMILY: They've taken out the ancient instruments that nobody has played for years, and they dance the old dances again. . . . It was so absolutely delightful, we didn't want to leave.

JEANINE: Then you've decided what?—not to kill him?

 

FELIX: I must have a meeting with him. I was hoping you could arrange it.

 

HENRI,
instantly:
She really has no idea where he . . .

 

FELIX,
charmingly to Jeanine:
One thing I'm never wrong about is the face of a satisfied woman.—When he comes to you again I would like him to understand the following: I have talked to a number of his people now and they say he has always told them to live in peace. Some of my own people say otherwise but I'm willing to leave it at that. What I want him to consider—I mean eventually, of course—is a place in the government.

 

JEANINE: In
your
government?
Him
?

 

FELIX: I'm serious. The military is not as stupid as maybe we've sometimes looked, Jeanine. We must get ready for some kind of democracy, now that the revolution is finished. He could help us in that direction.