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LIZY – So you’re against us getting married?
FADRIUS – I’m against the speed of this matter.
LIZY – Mr. Fadrius! You can judge me, but I have made my decision! I’m going after him. If his journey is as dangerous as you say, I want to be with him. Tell me where he went? I know he needs me. I’ll try to help him. You see I love him very much, more than life itself! I can’t just sit here and wait, not knowing what is going on with him, where is he?! At this very moment he might urgently need my help, my support, and my love…
FADRIUS – (Sighing) I cannot forbid you to go. And even if I try, you will act on your own account. So do, as you know. But remember what I told you. Help him to succeed with his mission and fulfill his dream, only then can you make him happy. Because his vocation is his destiny!
Music plays. Blackout. Curtains.
* * * * *
Scene Two.
Somewhere in the mountains, inside the cave of Hermit. Gelo lies wounded. He sleeps, though moans and repeats Lizy’s name. Hermit is cooking something on a hearth. In the center of the stage there is table and chairs. Gelo regains his consciousness and looks around the cave with bewilderment. Hermit notices this.
HERMIT – Ah, I see you’re awake? In a minute I’ll give you something to eat.
GELO – Where am I? What happened to me? Who are you? How did I get here?
HERMIT – You’ve just woken up and you are interrogating me already.
GELO – Sorry, but I don’t remember anything. The last thing I remember is the landslide in the mountains. I was walking along the mountain path, and then all of a sudden rock started falling down…
HERMIT – And from this landslide I rescued you. You were very badly hurt, but luckily, you’re still alive. You could have died.
GELO – How long have I been here?
HERMIT – I found you in the morning collecting wood, three days ago.
GELO – Three whole days! I lost three days!
HERMIT – You could have lost your life. Be happy that I found you.
GELO – Thank you very much! You saved my life. But I’m in a hurry. I have a very important matter. And I have wasted so much time!
Gelo tries to get up quickly but grimaces with pain. And with difficulty walks to the table to sit down.
HERMIT – Maybe you should eat first, and regain your strength? And then you can hurry to your worthless matters.
GELO – Why do you say that? You don’t even know why and where I am going.
HERMIT – And I don’t particularly want to know. And I don’t want to know you either.
GELO – Then why did you save me?
HERMIT – To leave someone in the mountains to die is a sin.
GELO – It seems that you are not very hospitable.
HERMIT – Yes, I don’t like guests. No matter how much you feed them they always end up drunk. And try to get under your skin or throw all their problems at you. That’s why I left people and came to live here.
GELO – Don’t you get lonely by yourself? If you don’t have no one to talk with, won’t you become dull?
HERMIT – Nothing of the sort. Whenever I want to hear something intelligent, I just talk to myself. It saves me from other people’s stupidity and idiocy.
GELO – And do you consider stupidity contagious?
HERMIT – No, but the boundaries of stupidity of one man overlaps those who are around him.
GELO – Do you really think the world only consist of stupid people?!
HERMIT – There are many who are just half-stupid, they are even worse. You never know when to deal with them or when to avoid them. And anyway, when a person is stupid, he will remain stupid forever.
GELO – Why?
HERMIT – Because stupidity is not like a woman, it won’t leave you for another man.
GELO – You have a very dark view of humanity. They don’t always act distortedly on purpose, a lot of the time they just make mistakes.
HERMIT – I agree, its human nature to make mistakes, and they use this quality to their advantage.
GELO – Why do you hate people so much?
HERMIT – But I don’t, I’m just indifferent to them. That’s just the essential condition of my loneliness.
GELO – But have you always felt that?
HERMIT – Some time ago when I lived in a valley among people. I had a friend; our friendship was the most wonderful thing in the world. I was ready to give him my whole world, myself unconditionally, because a real friendship has no egotism and no boundaries. But my world wasn’t interesting enough for him. And I was only needed like an object, which you use and then put on the shelf for the next time. And so, he used me and my friendship, only when he needed it. And then he betrayed me. Threw me away and forgot about me like I was a used handkerchief. I couldn’t stand this betrayal. I was young, and apart from his friendship I didn’t have anything at all…I decided to die. All my emotions, thoughts, and desires had to disappear. And dissolve in loneliness. And so, I went into the mountains. Since then, I have settled down here. At the end of the day my loneliness is my punishment and burden for me being young and gullible. But my loneliness is also my way to peace in mind and happiness.
GELO – Has your soul really become that stale and gloomy? Just because of your friend’s betrayal, you have turned your back on the rest of the world?!
HERMIT – What do you know about my soul, a soul of a lonely man!!! It is covered in wounds like a body of a smallpox sufferer. The soul of a lonely man is unable to create something magnificent, to fly and be joyful! It can only moan and sorrowfully watch the world go by. It doesn’t contain love or hatred. The wound of a lonely soul hurts and itches. This itch changes into emptiness and indifference. You want to peel the scab off, but you’re afraid, what if it becomes even worse. Any human contact is like a gulp of liquid in a desert, but you never know whether it is water or poison. And because of this you want to drown into an immeasurable sadness…and you’re surrounded by anguish and emptiness … But I don’t want to change anything! And I will not!
GELO – And with this heartache you hide yourself here from life and people?
HERMIT – Sometimes I come across people. I go down into the valley to the fair. I wonder among the loud and variegated crowd, peer at their faces and their eyes. Trying to understand what they are thinking and feeling about and why they are hustling and bustling…
GELO – To get lost in a crowd doesn’t mean you are a part of them!
HERMIT – I think you’re right, that’s why I seldom do it.
GELO – And how do you feel when you are doing it?
HERMIT – Lonely, but in a crowd. It is a strange feeling; all around you is commotion, conversations, other people’s lives. I’m at center of it all, but it feels I’m on the outside looking in, at people and myself. I walk around and I don’t know who I am, where I am and why I am here. I’m alive but don’t have a life…
GELO – It seems you’re bogged down in your memories. They drag you like a quagmire. Shake it off! One cannot pity himself all life and condemn others.
HERMIT – What’s it to you?!
GELO – I’m trying to understand you because you saved my life.
HERMIT – It’s not my fault; I didn’t do it on purpose…
GELO – Listen! To live in the past isn’t a life but an illusion. Real life is in the present and in dreams about the future.
HERMIT – You’re wrong. A person’s memories are his treasure, his fortune, and his assets. One can’t throw away life experiences out the window, even if they are sad and sorrowful.
GELO – Why throw it away? Stop living in the past, have a look around.
HERMIT – Where?! At the filth of the world? At the people’s staleness and meanness?
GELO – I agree not all people are kind and nice. It’s hard to live in an imperfect world. But it’s even harder to live alone. Why have you doomed yourself to a life of suffering and anguish?
HERMIT – I’m tired of lies and hypocrisy.
GELO – Maybe that’s because you never learnt to love.
HERMIT – But I’m capable of friendship. Don’t you think sincere friendship is equal to love?
GELO – I don’t know. But in my opinion love is superior to virtue and sin, humiliation and retribution, mercy, and compassion. Genuine love is the ability to forgive.
HERMIT – No, I don’t need friendship or love anymore. It’s burdensome, which means it is dangerous for health. Of course, no one has yet to die of love…and I don’t want to be the first one.
GELO – Nonsense! You could still meet and fall in love with a woman who wouldn’t betray your feelings.
HERMIT – I doubt it. The only love which won’t betray you is the love for yourself. With this love you can live all your life and keep your faith.
GELO – Aren’t you even interested in a woman’s beauty?
HERMIT – Women are complicated creatures. When I lived in the valley, I almost went crazy trying to understand them. But I guess I tried to hard. That’s why when I think of women, I don’t tremble with love but instead I get a nervous twitch.
GELO – Looks like you were unlucky. You never met a girl like my Lizy.
HERMIT – You kept talking about her when you were unconscious. What’s so special about her?
GELO – My Lizy is so beautiful, naïve, and innocent. Sometimes I think she is a saint.
HERMIT – It seems dangerous, having a saint for a wife. They usually turn their husbands into martyrs. Are you ready for that?
GELO – For Lizy I am ready to do anything! You wouldn’t imagine what a pleasure it is to hug and kiss my fiancé!
HERMIT – Maybe it’s even better to kiss another man’s fiancé?! Have you tried it?
GELO – I don’t need others! I only love Lizy. Whenever I look at the moon, I remember Lizy. When the wind sings in the sky, I hear Lizy’s voice. Whenever I smell wildflowers, I can smell Lizy too. Lizy is everything wonderful and beautiful about this world. Lizy is like a mighty river and yet tender like a brook. Lizy is like the warmth of the sun’s rays and the freshness of the summer’s rain. Lizy is like the brightness of the day and the calmness of the night. And she loves only me. When she’s near me I am ready to carry out the most unthinkable things and the most unimaginable heroic act. Whenever we’re apart I always remember that she is out there waiting for me, and we will be together soon. And because of that my heart is filled with warmth and pleasure. What could be more wonderful!
HERMIT – If so, why have you left your Lizy, and instead rushing somewhere risking your life?
GELO – This is my duty, my vocation and destiny. The matter is that I’m a future Wizard.
HERMIT – Like I haven’t got enough to deal with! Ah, that’s why you’re so strange.
GELO – No, at the moment I’m only an apprentice. But I hope to become not just a Wizard but a truly great one.
HERMIT – But of course! Young people are always trying to get themselves in the history books. If travelling, it has to be to the end of the world. And if jumping then to reach the moon.
GELO – You don’t understand. It’s not about vanity or pride, believe me. I want to become a great Wizard, because my greatest wish is to make all people happy. To an ordinary Wizard this is impossible.
HERMIT – So you want to make people happy. To give something to someone means that you have to take something away from someone else. Who will you take happiness from, so that you could give it away?
GELO – Nobody.
HERMIT – It doesn’t work like that.
GELO – My teacher Fadrius sent me on a long journey to get the MIRACLE. With The help of this MIRACLE, it is possible to make any wishes come true.
HERMIT – Now I get it. Your kind is a dying breed.
GELO – What do you mean?
HERMIT – You are a romantic idealist, a dying breed.
GELO – I’m not dying. I just have a slight headache. Apart from that I’m alright.
HERMIT – That’s just what you think. In truth you’re incurable. You want to make all people in the world happy by putting yourself at risk! To those people who gave each other anguish instead of joy. To those people whom treachery and lies come easier than truth and sincerity, to those people who won’t even want to thank you. You’re ill!
GELO – It’s not true. In every one of us there is kindness. The problems and burdens of life make us angry. But if you make everyone happy, then the lies, treachery wickedness will disappear. If all the people learn to love each other than the world would become a better place.
HERMIT – You’re definitely ill.
GELO – You are the ill one, not me! But the only thing that will save you is not solitude but the return to people. You saved my life. And that means you saved my and Lizy's love. I’m very grateful to you… If you become my friend, your soul will experience the same emotions.
HERMIT – What do you need me for? You already have Lizy!
GELO – It’s totally different. Love and friendship are like two sisters. But it’s not the same. I cannot give you my love, but I can offer you my sincere friendship. Don’t refuse it. Be my best friend.
HERMIT – But do you know how to be a real friend?
GELO – I don’t know… I never had any real friends. But I think you could teach me, since you seem to know what it is. I will try very hard. The most important thing about friendship, as in love is what you feel in your soul. And I only feel compassion. You’re a good person. I want to offer you the warmth of my heart. I want my joy and happiness to become yours, and your sadness and grief to become mine. I want you to be happy with me… is that not friendship?
HERMIT – You’re asking what friendship is. Friendship is when you have someone to share your grief and joy. For that you have close relatives and neighbors… Friendship is when you have someone to share your dreams, or just be silent with. And it’s not a burden. Friendship is a connection of souls and the ability to share emotions despite distance. A friend can support you or disagree with you, but in all sincerity and honesty. Friendship is not allowed to be sly or to be hypocritical. Friendship is always unselfish and not garish. It’s not dressed up in bright finery of thoughtless carousing. Friendship is like an everyday job, not loud or noticeable. But it’s always a celebration. Even in dire straits it is a medicine for the boundless disappointment in life. It is a safe bay for a shattered soul, wrecked in a storm of life. And at the same time, it is a source of motivation to move ahead in hard times. A sincere friendship, like a genuine love is made in heaven. Only there such a great and elevated feeling could come about, its fills up life not only with meaning, but humanitarianism, because a sense of meaning and purpose also exists in scoundrels. But sincere and genuine friendship is a quality of an honest and kind person. Not everyone in life is destined to have real friends. But everybody could try and be a good friend. You just have to want it though. And remain an honest human being under any circumstances… Even though it is very hard to do so… Perhaps genuine friendship is real happiness and a great miracle itself!
GELO – If you understand all of this, then why don’t you return to people, and open up your soul once again…
HERMIT – What for? So, they could spit in it again! I don’t trust anyone.
GELO – Just try!
HERMIT – I tried so many times and all I received was disappointment! Everyone wants to rummage through your soul.
GELO – But if you don’t search, you will never find anything. It’s the same with love if you never try, you will never fall in love.
HERMIT – But rejection is very hard to take!
GELO – But the joy of acceptance is so wonderful.
HERMIT – Leave me alone! …
GELO – Imagine the heart of your friend or even a loved one beating in unison with yours! For the sake of that kind of love, won’t it be worth the suffering and rejection, because suffering can cleanse your soul.
HERMIT – No! Because suffering makes you depressed.
GELO – You get depressed because you have no faith. If you have faith, then it elevates you and makes you stronger. Believe in love and friendship! Believe in people!
HERMIT – I’m afraid! …
GELO – Please believe me; I swear I won’t betray you…
HERMIT – But you will leave? …
GELO – So what? You said yourself that a friend is not a possession or a commodity which is kept in a closet. Friendship is not based on distance.
HERMIT – If you go, I will be sad and miss you…
GELO – You could move to the town where I live. Lizy and I could live next to you and be neighbours. I know she would be happy.
HERMIT – Thank you Gelo, I will think about it…
GELO – And I will wait, definitely come!
HERMIT – And now you will go?
GELO – Sorry, but I have to hurry. I feel better now. Your herbs helped me.
HERMIT – Maybe you could stay a little longer? … (with despair) I understand…
GELO – I’m sorry to leave you.
HERMIT – And I’m sorry to see you leave.
GELO – But we will surely meet again. I know it. After all I’m a Wizard. Till we meet again!
HERMIT – Goodbye … (Gelo leaves, and Hermit watches him.) Till we meet again.... friend.
There is a sound of a gong. Hermit walks up to the hourglass and turns it over.
Music plays. Blackout.
In a cave lies Lizy, exhausted by the long journey. Hermit appears. He shakes off the snow and rain off his clothes. He discovers Lizy sleeping. He walks around her in astonishment trying to understand how she got there. Lizy wakes up and looks at Hermit with fear.
LIZY – Please forgive me… I didn’t mean to intrude. The weather is so awful out there… And I’m very tired… But don’t worry I haven’t done anything bad to your cave. I will leave now.
HERMIT – Don’t worry about it. Don’t hurry. Strange, how did you get here?
LIZY – Don’t think bad about me, I’m a decent girl. I’m looking for my fiancé.
HERMIT – Stranger still, the last woman I saw here in the mountains was never married.
LIZY – How do you know that?
HERMIT – Because of her face and figure! With a face and figure like hers there is no way that she could be married. Even with a big dowry.
LIZY – (Upset, almost crying) I just got lost, and didn’t know where to go.
HERMIT – Calm down. In a second, I will make something to eat.
LIZY – Thank you, but do not bother… maybe I could help you with something?
HERMIT – Just relax. Instead tell me why your fiancé dumped you?
LIZY – He didn’t dump me! He went on a very important and difficult mission. But I waited for a few days and then decided to follow him. I want to help him with his task… We love each other very much. That’s why I’m a very happy person.
HERMIT – Just don’t say that to every person you meet.
LIZY – Why?
HERMIT – Because people usually take other’s failure with a higher regard then their own success. But what leaves an even worse taste in their mouth is other people’s happiness.
LIZY – But I want to share my joy with the whole world. Especially since my darling confessed that he loved me.
HERMIT – But don’t you know that men’s confessions of love are only valid when they are being said, after that they are history.
LIZY – I don’t understand.
HERMIT – How should I put this…? You see if a man tells you that he loves you, it doesn’t mean that you’re the only one.
LIZY – I still don’t understand you. I know that he loves only me. And I love only him. You probably say this because you live here alone. And you don’t have any friends or loved ones.
HERMIT – No. A few days ago I found a new friend. I trust him. And he is very dear to me.
LIZY – Then you should understand me. My darling is the cleverest man!
HERMIT – My friend is clever too.
LIZY – He is very kind!
HERMIT – Mine too.
LIZY – My fiancé and is honest and brave.
HERMIT – And my friend too.
LIZY – He has a very strong character.
HERMIT – Mine has too.
LIZY – I like his sincere smile very much.
HERMIT – I like it too.
LIZY – And his soul is pure and enlightened…
HERMIT – …Like a ray of light in darkness!
LIZY – My darlings name is Gelo…
HERMIT – …My friend too!
LIZY – So he’s been here?!
HERMIT – Then you must be Lizy?!
LIZY – Tell me, tell me. How is he?
HERMIT – Everything is fine! He was covered with rocks from a landslide…
LIZY – А-а-а! (Falls back in her chair half-unconsciously)
HERMIT – (Rushes to her) But he’s not dead! Not dead! Don’t worry… I rescued him and healed him. He turned out to be a nice guy. We became friends.
LIZY – You scared me so much.
HERMIT – You scared me even more. I don’t know how to do mouth to mouth resuscitation… especially to young girls. And Gelo could get upset with me if something would happen to you. He really does love you so much.
LIZY – So now you’re friends with him?
HERMIT – Yes. And he invited me to come and live in the town, so that I could live nearby.
LIZY – It’s very good. I’m glad you two are friends now.
HERMIT – You know everything is turning out very strange. I saved him from landslide, and he saved me from myself. I hid for a few years from the world and the people in it. He helped me to understand a simple thing. In truth I was hiding from myself, but you can’t hide from yourself! You walk away from people, you can walk away from problems, but you cannot walk away from yourself. I believed in what he said. And that’s how he became my new friend…
LIZY – It’s so good you saved him. But he still has so many obstacles in front of him. I need to help him. He desperately wants to get the MIRACLE.
HERMIT – I’m not sure whether he can get this MIRACLE. But he already has given me a miracle. Peace in my soul – this is a genuine miracle! And he makes me truly happy. Because a real friendship is a miracle!
LIZY – Will you show me where Gelo went?
HERMIT – Not only will I show, but I will guide you through the mountains, so that you won’t get lost. Since you’re very dear to me! You are my friend’s fiancé! But just be careful, in the forest where you will have to go there lives a frightening Cannibal. And I forgot to tell Gelo about him. I hope he will deal with him like a Wizard.
Music plays. Blackout. Curtains.
* * * * *
Scene Three.