Act 1, Scene 18

FEDE

Meli slept in the Corpses’ house while I tried to sleep in her head, which was obviously a failure. Some of my jitters I had washed away with some tequila, but the wrongness remained. 

I could still smell that tiny room in the theater: sweat, paint and iron. The boy held his wound, a knife wound, with indifference. He told me: “It’s the price of the Fight, isn’t it?”

He was talking about the same Fight I had inherited. 

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”.

My insides twisted. ¿What were the conditions for victory? Chernobyl had been a couple of months ago and the Soviet Union found itself undeniably debilitated. By each step forward we seemed to be taking six back.

I tried distracting myself with Meli’s dreams. I could see them in the glint of the chandeliers and the shine of the bronze statues.

She dreamt of being a fish at sea. She set out to hunt something as her hunger was great. She was curious about tasting something much bigger than herself, perhaps a ray or an octopus would suffice. She changed her mind when she found a swordfish which cut off her left fin with a single slash. The pain blinded her. In a moment everything had been painted red and she saw the swordfish’s head floating down into the dark. A great white shark was gorging on the body. Meli trembled, but in its immensity, the shark ignored her. Then, in that way one remembers things in dreams, she remembered she was a remora. When the shark was done it swam away and there was nothing left to do but to eat the crushed scraps.

If I am honest, I’m not sure who dreamt that, Meli or I.

            END OF SCENE

           END OF FIRST ACT