APU
(interrupts what might otherwise turn into a long catalog)
So obviously our father should know better than to run after some Russian, let me avoid a word here, some Russian gymnast.
Circling, tight shot, around and around them on the blowing sand, slightly higher than their heads, looking down like a surveillance drone.
D
He’s going to marry her. That’s her plan. She won’t let up and he can’t resist.
PETYA
In the event of a marriage a number of legal issues arise. Next-of-kin status will be problematized, also executorship of a living will, and the broader subject of inheritance. There is also the uncertainty about where they may marry to discuss, the variations between the laws of Florida and the State of New York.
APU
Our father is not a fool. He may be, at present, a fool for her, but in all essentials he is not a fool. He has been a deal-maker all his life. He will see the good sense of a cast-iron prenuptial agreement.
PETYA
(his voice rises to a wail, mirroring the rising sound of the wind)
Who will talk to him about it?
(pause)
I can’t.
(pause)
He won’t like it.
APU
We should all do it together.
D
(shrugs, gets ready to walk away)
I don’t give a damn about the money. Let the old man do what he wants.
He and RIYA turn to leave.
RIYA
(in ECU, to APU and PETYA)
Have you considered that she may make him happy, and actually find it in her heart to love him? But even if she is faking it, this can still be good. Things are good which reduce the amount of global misery, or the quantity of injustice, or both. So if she reduces his unhappiness even for a brief time, even fraudulently, then that counts as good.
I see the life he has made for you all. He is like a great roof and you shelter beneath it. Step away from him and you are caught in the storm, all of you, but right now he is there. He is there until he won’t be there. But he is not only a house in which you live. He is a man and has the needs of a man, to desire and to be desired. Why do you want to deny him? Do you imagine that just because of the calendar, it stops? Let me tell you. It doesn’t matter how old you are. It never stops.
PETYA
(repeats, shamefaced, skipping sadly as the rain comes down)
It never stops, it never stops, it never stops, it never stops, it never stops, it never stops, it never stops, it never stops, it never stops, it never stops, it never stops, it never stops, it never stops, it never stops, it never stops, it never stops….
The downpour begins in earnest. Water on the camera lens. Fade to white.
This is Vasilisa’s best friend, and her personal fitness trainer, and her name is, let’s say, Masha. Masha is petite, smaller than Vasilisa, but very strong, lesbian, and also, inevitably, blond. Masha wants to be a movie actress. When Nero Golden hears this he says, “Darling, with that ambition, you’re the right size, but you’re on the wrong coast.”
The old man has extended his stay on the island and the family and entourage are staying too but there has been a rearrangement of accommodations. Vasilisa is moving into the Nero apartment with her friend and personal fitness trainer and all other persons are to be relocated in the other spaces. Nobody is very pleased except for Nero, Vasilisa and Masha. Then on the night the ladies move in Nero takes them out for a meal. There are good places to eat on the island but Nero wants the best, and the best involves getting into his Bentley sports car with Vasilisa by his side and Masha curled up in the back and taking a ride over on the ferry to the famous Italian place from which he had ordered the uneaten food on the night of the first tryst. At the famous Italian place the ladies in their excitement drink too many vodka shots; Nero, the designated driver, restrains himself. By the time the three of them are back on the island the ladies are laughing loudly and behaving flirtatiously, which is just fine with Nero. Back in the apartment he does a couple of vodka shots himself. But then, a strange turn of events. The personal trainer leans in to Vasilisa the Fair and kisses her on the mouth. And Vasilisa responds. And then a silence in the room as the two ladies embrace and Nero Golden sits in his armchair, watching, not remotely aroused, shocked, feeling like a fool, even more so when the two ladies get up without acknowledging him, turn out the lights in the living room as if he wasn’t there, and go into his bedroom—his bedroom!—and shut the door behind them.
In their absence it is the carelessness about the extinguishing of the lights that first enrages him. In his house! While he is present! As if he were nothing and no one! His anger reveals to him his dreadful error. He sees himself as a deluded old man and now his pride rears up and demands that he come back into his true self, the man of power, the financial titan, the quondam construction and steel magnate, head of his family, the colossus standing in the great courtyard of the golden house, the once and future king. He stands up and leaves the two women in the bedroom to do as they please and walks steadily toward the apartment’s front door.
There is a small closet by the door in which, on a shelf above the hanging coats, there stands a small leather valise. The old man has always believed in the mutability of things; has known that no matter how solid the ground beneath your feet may seem, it can, at any moment, turn into quicksand and suck you down. Always be prepared. He was prepared for the great move from Bombay to New York, and he is prepared for this smaller departure now. He takes down the overnight bag, makes sure the keys to the other apartments are in his trouser pocket where they should be, and quietly leaves. He does not slam the door. He knows that in the apartment next door, where Petya sleeps along with the little cloud of helpers, there is a small maid’s room that is unoccupied. Nero does not need luxury right now. He needs a door to close and a bed behind it and that is enough. In the morning he will deal with what must be dealt with and he will have all his strength then. His head will once more be in control of his heart. He enters the maid’s room, removes his jacket and tie and shoes, doesn’t bother with the rest of it, and is quickly asleep.
He has underestimated her. He has made an incorrect assessment both of his own vulnerability and of her determination. Beneath all his strength there is loneliness and she can smell that as a hunting dog smells its wounded quarry. Loneliness is weakness, and this is Baba Yaga in the skin of Vasilisa the Fair. If she wishes, she can eat him up. She can eat him up right now.
Are you awake? Oh my darling I’m so sorry. I am so ashamed of myself. I was drunk, I’m sorry. I have a poor head for alcohol. I’m so sorry. I always knew she kind of had a thing for me but I never expected. I have sent her away, we will never see her again, I swear to you, she is out of my life, she doesn’t exist anymore. Please forgive me. I love you, please forgive me this one time and you will never have to forgive me again. I will make it up to you in one hundred ways, you will see, it will be my daily business to make you forget this and forgive. I was drunk so I became a little curious, I don’t even like women, I’m not that way, I didn’t even like it, actually I just passed out and went to sleep and when I woke up of course I was horrified, my God, what have I done, that man who has only been good to me, I apologize from the bottom of my heart, I kiss your feet, I wash your feet with my tears and dry them with my hair, I even thought for five seconds that maybe it will excite you, this was stupidity, stupidity caused by drink, I’m so sorry, when I’m drunk I can become a little irresponsible, a little wild, this is why I will never get drunk again except if you want me to, only if you want me a little wild and irresponsible in your arms, then it will be my complete pleasure to please you in that way, forgive me, accept my shame and my humble apology, where are you, let me come to you. Let me just come for one moment and apologize to your face, and then if you tell me to go, I will go, I will have deserved it, I know this, but do not make me go without one chance to tell you to your face that excuse me, I did a wrong thing, a very wrong thing, but I was drunk, and I ask you to see me standing before you in shame, and maybe you can find it in your heart to excuse me, to see in me all the love all the gratitude all the love standing before you and for the sake of that you may let me in, you may not shut the door in my face, you may see the truth in my eyes and forgive me, and if you do not then I have no rights, I will bow my head and go and you will never see me again, never see again my naked shame, never see my body trembling and sobbing before you for my shame, you will never see me, I will never be able to touch you again, so many things, never again, so many things that will never happen again, if you send me away, I will go, but maybe, for you are a great man, you will let me stay, it takes a great man to forgive, and this was a nothing, a mistake, a stupidity, and you may see that and let me stay, but let me come to you, I will come to you now, just as I am, wherever you are, if you want me to kneel naked at your door I will do it, I will do anything, everything, only let me come, where are you, only let me come.