4.
Alla's Voice. September 19, 1956. I never thought I'd remember your voice. And then one day, sitting in the lab, I heard it. Yes, yes, your voice! It caressed me, and I trembled at its sound. Everything was the same. The same long pauses when he answered, the same muffled beginnings of his sentences, and it still seemed like he was speaking at the top of his voice and was about to say something very important. I paced the room. The classroom was behind the wall; Gerka couldn't possibly be there. But the voice, the voice... the voice!
5.
1.00
It's getting even darker. Alla and Lyuska are illuminated only by the light near the house.
Lyuska. (Whewing a stick, it's clear he's been talking for a long time) ...you see, Dad left, everything went to hell. She couldn't handle it, the aunt. Three of them, all hungry, asking for a boob, Shirley Myrli resting. Kolyan's been in jail for three years, for car theft, Katya got married at 18, my nephew was three years old, Petya, but "the blues got to me," and they all ran away. And I, I'm no warrior in the field.
Alla. (She answers unexpectedly, hurt by something in his story.) No one's a warrior.
Lyusek. I'm a man (sings.), a vagabond, the Casanova of lonely love...
Alla. You're the child.
Lyusek. Yeah. The child.
Alla. The correct pronunciation is "the."
Lyusek. You're funny. I had a yellow "English" textbook at school... I loved it, but the boys and I burned it while roasting sausages. The fire wasn't going well.
Alla. You should say "you" to older people.
Lyusek. Okay. You're funny.
Alla. You're stupid. Lyusek. You're a fool. They say Dad is a fool. He never called. It's like a cow licked us off. Suddenly, it was gone. Not me, not Katya, not Kolyan. And Mom. Katya cried. But we didn't. We're used to shit.
Alla. Can you get used to it?
Lyusek. Ha, you're funny, I told you it's easy. Are you used to sitting here? Yeah, right. It's brutal, it's, well, shit. Fuck, romantic, sitting here, dispersing us sinful bridge-lovers. Bullshit. A childhood dream. Horror, flying on the wings of the night. Almost like cleaning toilets. I couldn't do it. Better to spend three days unloading train cars, chug-chug-chug. But you can't get used to this. (Points to the sky full of stars.) I never could. How is it that they shine in the past, but you can see it now?
Alla. It's like that with everything. (He gets up with difficulty and begins to stretch his legs.) It happened there, and now we see what happened.
Lyusek. And you. Husband. Do you have any?
Alla is silent.
Lyusek. And the husband?
Alla is silent and locks the window, indicating she doesn't want to continue the conversation. Lyusek doesn't see her take notebooks out of the closet one by one and arrange them around her. There are many notebooks, sheets of paper fall out, and Alla struggles to gather them up. A wind rushes in through the window and swirls them.