CHARACTERS:

Simon

Jacob

SETTING: The setting is almost completely white. The room has little furniture; a couch, a single chair and a coffee table. There is a plain brown vase on the coffee table. Few shelves are mounted on the wall, but every piece is void of colour. JACOB, a skinny black-haired man of about thirty, who is dressed in white, sits on the chair with a book. The book has nothing on the cover except a large, yet simple “5” on it in black. He is near the end of it and wipes a tear from his cheek as he flips through the last few pages. SIMON, a man with a slightly bigger build than JACOB, enters the room through a plain door. He seems surprised to be there at first, but smiles when he sees JACOB. JACOB does not notice, he gets up and places his book on a shelf with four other identical books, numbered 1-5. He stares blandly at the books as though he is too tired to bother walking back to his chair.

SIMON: When I was just a child, I used to bathe regularly.

[JACOB does not seem surprised, he turns to face SIMON.]

SIMON: While I bathed alone, my mother or father would come by at least once during the hour I was in there and call out to me, “Are you alive?”

JACOB: And what would you say?

SIMON: The truth. I was alive. How are you, Jake?

JACOB: I’m… the same. You look different, though, mate. Older, yet very similar to what I remember. I’m sorry for your loss, I hope it didn’t hurt.

SIMON: “One short sleep past, we wake eternally.”

JACOB: I haven’t seen you since…my wedding? [He sighs]

SIMON: You didn’t look at me after the bachelor party, Jacob.

JACOB: Oh, well you can see how well my shitty excuse for a marriage went.

[SIMON takes a seat on the couch and looks around. JACOB sits beside him.]

SIMON: It was her, wasn’t it? She found out about us? Thought she’d take some revenge?

JACOB: I s’pose so.

SIMON: I tried to get her put in jail. There was no evidence against her, she managed fine, and got me put in jail.

[JACOB looks at his hands and doesn’t speak. SIMON moves his hand towards his but stops short and puts them in his lap again.]

SIMON: [He lightens his tone] What is with this place? It looks like a hospital without the Monet reproductions. You don’t even have a colour on the wall...

JACOB: The colour faded. I think it was... what was it called, green?

SIMON: How long have you been here, Jacob?

JACOB: I think it’s been twelve years. She, what, took a gun to me at our honeymoon and the last time I checked the date it was around my son’s 14th birthday, right? Wow, you should have seen my boy; he looks just like his Mum.

SIMON: Twelve years, you were gone? It felt much longer. [He frowns] I think you do need some colour. Green, did you say?

[JACOB nods and SIMON stands and pulls a pail of paint from behind the couch and mumbles to himself.]

SIMON: I didn’t think that would work. [To Jacob] Can you do that too?

JACOB: Yeah, you can do that here. I could at first, but I can’t remember much now, so it’s harder.

SIMON: Surely you remember things after you visit the outside, like at your son’s birthday?

JACOB: That’s how I got that. [He points to the lone, brown vase on his coffee table.] I think it used to have a pattern; it was in his room, so I made myself a copy of it.

[SIMON takes a tray and a paint roller from behind the couch as well and pours the paint into the tray. He paints a section of the wall green and JACOB gets up to look.]

JACOB: I‘d forgotten what that looked like, how it worked. Oh, jeez, I’ve gotten it all over my hand.

[SIMON takes JACOB’S hand and presses it against JACOB’S white pants.]

JACOB: What’d you do that for? It’s gonna stain.

SIMON: I know. With me here, I won’t let the colour fade.

JACOB: What are you doing, Simon? I waited twelve years for you to come for me. I wanted you to save me from this stupid fucking place and you never showed until the last possible moment.

SIMON: But I did come for you; I just wasn’t ready for this place until now. Besides, you married her. You left me. As far as I’m concerned, you took the easy way out.

JACOB: Look where that got me, dead and alone. I think I learned my lesson.

SIMON: I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.

JACOB: It’s not your fault, I should have listened to what I wanted, not what society wanted.

SIMON: But I was the one who got you caught.

JACOB: My widow got you put in jail.

SIMON: Fine. We’re both at fault.

JACOB: Fine.

[They gaze at each other for a moment and then SIMON pulls JACOB into a kiss. They part, both looking slightly awestruck.]

SIMON: Do you remember the night of your bachelor party? Before we went out. Before we got drunk and left your party to be alone. Before all of that, I took a bath in your apartment and you knocked on the door and said-

JACOB: “Are you alive?”

SIMON: Yeah. When I was little, I always thought my parents asked that because they thought it was funny. I realised yesterday that it was never a joke. Unlikely as it was, that I could have drowned myself in the tub, the silence on the other side of the door still frightened them.

JACOB: And so they asked the only thing they could.

SIMON: “Are you alive?” I always wondered what would happen if I remained silent when they asked, but I never got up the courage.

JACOB: How’d it happen, Simon. Why are you here?

SIMON: Yesterday it struck me. I thought to myself, “Can an empty house ask if you’re alive?”

JACOB: And can it?

SIMON: I went under the water and was gone before it had a chance.

[JACOB takes a hold of SIMON’S hand and then glances at the book on his shelf]

JACOB: When I arrived, those books were waiting for me.

SIMON: What are they about?

JACOB: It doesn’t matter. What does is that I read a single page whenever I thought a day had gone by. When I finished it today, I just knew that my waiting must be over and that I wasn’t gonna be alone anymore. I bet there is someone at your door right now, knocking and calling, “Are you alive?” They are just gonna meet the same dead silence that has been plaguing me ever since I left you.

[Exeunt]