Mikhalych. Please do understand me! I am in a hurry! I have an urgent business.
Cyrill Sumyatov enters.
Mikhalych. Hey, fellow, what’s your last name?
Sumyatov. We have already introduced ourselves to each other. Search your memory, Mikhalych!
Mikhalych. I have no time.
Sumyatov. Well, Sumyatov.
Mikhalych. No, it’s not him.
Sumyatov. Why not me?
Mikhalych. Don’t argue with me. Not you – that’s it.
Sumyatov. Okay, let it be.
Levan. Hey, dear, why are you so sallen?
Sumyatov. My business trip is coming to an end, but my notebook is still blank. Nobody wants to be a hero. There is nothing to write about.
Levan. Please, have a cake. All your worries will fade away, believe me!
Sumyatov. If it could help I would eat a hundred of them.
Victor Mancev enters.
Mancev. Are you a local postman?
Mikhalych. Yes I am, so what?
Mancev. There is nothing for me as usual?
Mikhalych. What is your last name please?
Mancev. Mancev. Victor Mancev.
Mikhalych. Do you have an ID?
Mancev. What for?
Mikhalych. To verify that you are the person you mentioned and not a different one.
Mancev. What do you mean a different one?
Mikhalych. It doesn’t matter. My business is simple – to deliver, hand in and take a receipt.
Mancev. My ID is in my room. Should I get it?
Mikhalych. Yes please. As soon as possible, I am in a hurry.
Mancev. I’ll be right back. Stay here okay!
Sumyatov. This is Victor Mancev in fact. I guarantee.
Levan. Hey, listen, why are you troubling the man? Give him a letter!
Mikhalych. Okay, okay! But only because the people who I know personally guaranteed me that you are Victor Mancev. Put your signature here. And now I am running away! (Leaves quickly).
Levan. You have been waiting for it, guy!
Mancev. You are right Levan. It looks like it’s the long-waited one. (Leaves).
Alla Bokova with a suit case enters.
Sumyatov. Are you leaving?
Аllа. Yes, going home. I just wanted to say good-bye.
Sumyatov. Unfortunately, there is nobody here.
Аllа. I was looking for you. Are you surprised?
Sumyatov. Frankly, not much.
Аllа. Don’t be too much self-confident. I am not going to confess in love.
Sumyatov. I didn’t even think that.
Аllа. Listen, haven’ you quitted your idea yet?
Sumyatov. Which idea? What are you talking about?
Аllа. Do you remember the evening when we met?
Sumyatov. Sure I do. You were sitting at that very table and were getting bored to death. I joined you…
Аllа. You told me that you came here to uncrown the idols.
Sumyatov. I assume those words belonged to you.
Аllа. Okay, let it be my words. But my guess is true, right?
Sumyatov. Well, well…
Аllа. I want to ask you. Do you have an idea about what?
Sumyatov. I suppose that not to do that, right?
Аllа. Vice versa. I pledge you: do fulfill your idea. Go on, write! Write so that those idols, those heroes of crowd would be completely screwed up.
Sumyatov. You are telling this!? I would never think that. But why?
Аllа. Maybe it will help them to recover their sight and get ashamed.
Sumyatov. Are they supposed to be ashamed of those who incense them and make them blind like moles? This is so naïve.
Аllа. No. I want them to be ashamed of themselves. I want them to see that a price for their vanity is a sorrow of their old mothers and tears of their abandoned children… If only something human sill remained in them…
Sumyatov. If…
Аllа. I have thought much during today. Perhaps more than during my whole life. I understood that you were right. There is either all or nobody.
Sumyatov. Was I right?
Аllа. Don’t you doubt it yourself now?
Sumyatov. Who told you that? I don’t change my beliefs so quickly.
Аllа. It just seemed to me. Well, good-bye then!
Sumyatov. Will we see each other again?
Аllа. I doubt it… at least in this life.
Sumyatov. Should I see you off?
Аlla. Oh, no. There is another person.
Sumyatov. Sorry.
Аllа. And please remember: one can’t make his own happiness out of somebody’s sorrow. There is a weak point of all those idols.
Sumyatov. Wait!
Аllа. Good-bye! (Leaving).
Sumyatov. There is either one crazy less in this world or I am going crazy myself
Victor Mancev enters.
Mancev. Levan, do you have anything to drink?
Levan. Sure I do! There is coffee, tea, juice …
Mancev. You misunderstood me. I told you: anything to drink!
Levan. Vitya, dear…
Mancev. Please don’t say useless words. If you have nothing – that’s okay.
Levan. What’s the matter with you?
Mancev. Well, forget it.
Levan. Why are you saying that! You want to hurt me, right?
Mancev. No. I want to get drunk to insensibility.
Levan. I would go to the end of the earth to get a bottle for you, believe me. (Getting out a bottle of cognac). Please, take it, you are welcome!
Mancev. Thank you, Levan.
Levan. Oh, don’t mention it! I’ll just close the door, okay?
Mancev. Yes please.
Levan. Hey, listen guy, get off please! It’s closed.
Sumyatov. As you say.
Mancev. Let him in, Levan. Would you join me?
Sumyatov. Actually, I am not a good drinker.
Mancev. That’s a pity. I would like to drink with you.
Sumyatov. Why with me?
Mancev. Not to drink alone.
Sumyatov. Okay, but with one condition.
Mancev. You are a funny guy, really. Whatever… go ahead!
Sumyatov. You have to tell me to what we are going to drink. I have a right to know that.
Mancev. To good luck. Don’t you mind?
Sumyatov. Actually not. But to what luck?
Mancev. To the one which would let us avoid a delusion of victory including all the related consequences.
Sumyatov. Oh, this is your old song! But you know that it’s a lie and not very successful by the way. You can’t find a delusion of victory in any medical manuals. There is no such a disease!
Mancev. Are you sure?
Sumyatov. Yes. There is no such a disease.
Mancev. I agree, it is not mentioned in any medical manual. But this disease does exist in life.
Sumyatov. Again your paradoxes! I am tired of them.
Mancev. That is life. There are many such things in it which are not mentioned in any manuals.
Sumyatov. But life has nothing to do with it. I know it quite well.
Mancev. Be careful, don’t draw troubles upon yourself.
Sumyatov. I am ready for many things to achieve my goals. But I can stop at any time and turn back.
Mancev. Don’t be so naïve. It’s true up to a certain time.
Sumyatov. So, to your mind, what can happen one day?
Mancev. One day a person realizes that he needs neither fame nor money and adoration of crowd. He is tempted only by a peak.
Sumyatov. Well, he has climbed that peak. What is next?
Mancev. Then he falls down with fatigue putting out his tongue and waits if his heart would burst or not.
Sumyatov. And nothing more? Neither joy, nor satisfaction or pride?
Mancev. He dreams only about a bed with clean cool linens. If there is no bed then wet soil will do. To forget oneself with a sleep – this is a real award. There is no another one and never will be.
Sumyatov. However, awakening is inevitable.
Mancev. Whenever he awakens there is only one thing that drives him – moving forward to another peak. There is no other choice for him because he has lost everything. And frankly doesn’t want to have another one.
Sumyatov. It just can’t be so!
Mancev. You don’t believe me? Well, take it. You will see to what it comes eventually. (Throwing a letter on a table).
Sumyatov. What is in this letter?
Mancev. A verdict which is not subject to appeal.
Sumyatov. Whose verdict? Over whom? Oh, don’t smile like that, please!