- 16 -
"The thing about hearing
is, though, you can never be sure you are hearing correctly. Whereas
with other senses we have or used to have . . ."
"Or thought we had."
"The simple fact is, if you
weren't dead you wouldn't be here. Because there is no other access
to here. So be a sport, be deferential to the waiter too."
"When all we had was thought."
"Don't appear to be staring."
"At what?"
"Are we being watched?"
"We're being watched alright.
What do you think is going on anyway?"
"Use the corner of your eye.
If you are the slightest bit suspicious. I like that. I saw most of
my life out of the corner of my eye."
"The way they have the lights,
I feel like I'm not even here."
>"Dim go the lights.
I am but a shadow of my former self."
"I thought we were in the
dining room, now I see, if I see clearly, which I don't, we are back
on the ruins of that patio again. God this is interminable. Not knowing
where you are and what is going to happen next. I'm almost ready to
give in and play golf!"
"The thing about listening
is, as I've said before, you can't be sure you are hearing things
right. How can you be sure? It's gone as soon as you hear it. Whereas
seeing, it's pretty clear you are seeing that those trees are walking."
"You mean like you can double-check
it?"
"And that the clouds being
horseheads are figments of speech. For real clouds are made of such
transitory stuff as no artist could . . . configure."
"Martinis have olives, sunken
like a war-torn planet in the mix. Mint Julips, on the o`other hand,
have a floating mint in them. And on the stereo, it's Bobby Cole singing
. . . "
"You'll get it reassembled."
"Bo Jangles! He could dance!"
"What bothered me about the
theater was, it was more like life than life itself. Which put the
audience in a position of--"
"Observers."
"Exactly."
"Weird!"
"So like you're saying the
people in the audience are watching the play like the play was life,
which would put them in . . ."
"Some kind of afterlife."
"Unless the play was the
afterlife. Then they could breathe a sigh of relief. After it was
over."
"But they don't want it to
be over."
"Alright, so let's tell them
more about what we know. Get loose. Call for an intermission. See
how many come back. I'll tell you, if someone tries to wander out,
they'll die. Ha!"
