ACT II: Distance

Stage: The same two chairs. Dim light. A little closer than before, but still a gap.

They sit. Silence. Neither looks at the other.

She stares at him, unblinking. He looks down, fidgets with his fingers, avoids her gaze.

Her breathing grows louder, measured. He scratches his knee nervously. Long silence.

HER (suddenly, cutting): You vanished.

Silence. He shifts, but says nothing.

HER (louder): Again and again.

He swallows, adjusts his chair slightly, but still avoids her eyes.

HER (standing, voice sharp): You vanished!

Her voice echoes in the silence. She folds her arms tightly across her chest, pacing a few steps. She stops. A pause. Then, lower:

HER: You always vanish… You are never there.

Silence. He finally looks up for the first time, meets her eyes briefly, then looks down again.

HER (accusing): Even when you were here…
(beat)
…you were already gone.

He opens his mouth as if to speak, closes it. Silence stretches.

HER (moving closer, intense): Say something.
(beat)
Anything.

HIM (very quietly, almost inaudible): I was still there. I am.

Silence. She laughs bitterly, a dry, humourless sound that hangs in the air.

HER (mocking his quiet tone): “I was still there.”
(beat)
You call this “there”?

(she gestures at the empty space between them)

You call this… being there?

He rises half out of his chair, as if to speak, then sits again, head in hands. Silence.

HER (a whisper now, but fierce): You were nowhere.
(beat)
And you left me in the empty.

Long silence. She stands still, arms crossed, breathing hard. He sits motionless, staring at the floor. The distance between them is palpable, they are an ocean apart.

Blackout.