Contemporary One-Act Plays - LightNovelsOnl.com
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[_Kneeling opposite each other, their lips meet._ OHANO _instantly gives a piercing scream and recoils from him_. NIJO _sinks into a heap_.
OHANO. [_Rising and turning toward the sea, weeping._] Oh, oh, oh!
ZAMA. [_Rus.h.i.+ng in from right._] What is it? What is it, Ohano?
OHANO. [_Still weeping._] Oh--ooh.
ZAMA. What do it be, my little Ohano?
OHANO. [_Turning._] His kiss--Nijo's kiss!
ZAMA. Yes?
OHANO. Cold as white marble--_cold_!
ZAMA. Cold as white marble?
OHANO. Oh, Nijo, why do you kiss me like a thing of stone?
NIJO. [_As he looks up, pitifully._] Into that kiss I tried to put all the love I've thought these many years.
OHANO. The love you've _thought_?
NIJO. [_Despondently._] Yes, I've only thought it--_thought_ it!
OHANO. But your heart----?
NIJO. [_Rising._] My heart feels no more! Only my head thinks.
ZAMA. You love no more?
NIJO. Only with my head, it seems. I see things, know things, understand things; but I no longer feel anything. And my thirst for glory has done it all--killed my love of life and turned my very kiss to stone. Oh, glory, why do men give the essence of their lives to you--you who last no longer than the glow of gold above the place of sunset!
OHANO. [_Superbly._] Because glory gives you the world--everything!
NIJO. It takes everything away--strips you--and leaves you nothing to believe. Oh, I could have become a common soldier here, marching shoulder to shoulder with the island men going out to war--but no--I must be a great warrior, a hero in position. Had I known then what I know now, how gladly would I have gone as one of the thousands who are known as--just soldiers. They are the ones who know the throb of life and love!
OHANO. You bring back such a message to me? You who have climbed and climbed to heights till I have believed you to be as constant in your quest as the light that s.h.i.+nes upon the gazing globe?
NIJO. I--a light?
OHANO. Why not? I've always likened your feet unto the disks of two luminaries, lighting the way for all the world to follow. [_Looks at gazing globe, which is now a ball of gold against the black sea and sky._] And now you tell me I was wrong. Perhaps the light upon the gazing globe itself is the only one to follow.
NIJO. I--a light? Why, Ohano, if I'm anything, I'm a gazing globe!
OHANO. What do you mean--you a gazing globe?
NIJO. That without I'm all fair, all wonderful--but within I'm empty as a gazing globe.
OHANO. [_Scornfully._] But a gazing globe shows men the way to their heart's desire.
NIJO. It reflects to men what they see into it. So does glory.
OHANO. I can't believe that--now.
NIJO. Behold what it has done to me! Already as a child I gazed at that globe, longing to grasp the glory of which it was a symbol. It filled me with a red madness, surged with an unbearable music, giving me a riotous pain! Oh, it made me drunk for the wine of glory!
OHANO. I know! I know! Now you talk as the man I thought you were.
NIJO. I'm not a man. I'm dead.
OHANO. But you have known the glory of life. Shall I never know the way to it? [_Appealingly, to the globe._] The way--the way is what I seek!
ZAMA. Look not so upon the evil ball, child. It do be enchanted for one thousand years! [OHANO _moves nearer the globe_.] Go not so near, child!
Evil will fall--and you will be enslaved!
OHANO. What care I, if it shows me the way? [_Hands outstretched to the globe._
ZAMA. [_Appealingly to_ NIJO.] Sir, I pray you do be stopping her. She do be always gazing at that golden ball; and slowly it do be drawing her within its enchanted grasp. And it do be an enchanted ball!
NIJO. Perhaps there's more to its enchantment than I thought. It claimed me for a victim--and now it's freezing her life's warmth to the falseness of Orient pearl.
OHANO. [_Murmuring to the globe._] The way--the way! I must have the way!
NIJO. [_Swiftly drawing his sword._] I will not show you--but I'll save you! [_Starts toward the gazing globe._
ZAMA. [_Barring his path._] Nijo, sir, what do you be doing?
NIJO. [_With a flourish of his sword._] I kill the thing that freezes another heart!
ZAMA. That do mean ruin! It be an enchanted ball!
NIJO. [_Brus.h.i.+ng past_ ZAMA.] It will enchant no longer!!
OHANO. No! No, Nijo!
NIJO. [_Running up pedestal steps._] Yes!!
[_With a mighty blow he strikes the gazing globe with his sword.
Frightened_, OHANO _shrinks to one side, facing right, as a thunder-like crash follows the blow, and pieces of the globe tumble to the ground--all but one piece that remains upon the pedestal.
Then from a moon off stage right s.h.i.+nes a straight golden path across the sea to the bit of gazing globe on the pedestal._
OHANO. [_Triumphantly._] The moon--The way! At last the way! From the gazing globe--the golden path to the moon of glory. Now I am free!
[_Rushes wildly down the moonlight path to the sea._
ZAMA. Stop her!
NIJO. No, it is better to let her go.
