ANTIGONE, ✎ says suddenly. ✎ — So it's you? 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —The last face I see. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Can I look at you... 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ moves away, embarrassed. ✎ — It's okay. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —You were the one who arrested me earlier? 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —Yeah, that was me. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —You hurt me. You didn't need to hurt me. Did I look like I wanted to escape? 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —Come on, come on, don't try anything! If it wasn't you, I'd be the one in trouble. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —How old are you? 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —Thirty-nine. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —You have children? 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —That's none of your business. 🔊✎
He start pacing up and down. For a moment, we only hear the sound of his steps. ✎
ANTIGONE, ✎ demands humbly. ✎ — You've been a guard long? 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —Since after the war. 🔊✎ I was a sergeant. Then I reenlisted in the Guard. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —You need to be a sergeant to become a guard? 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —In principle, yes. Sergeant or in the special detail. 🔊✎ Once a sergeant becomes a guard, he loses his stripes. Like, if I meet an army recruit, he doesn't have to salute me. 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —Yup. But usually they do. The recruit knows the guard is really an N.C.O. 🔊✎ So about salary: you get the ordinary guard salary, same as the special detail, and then for six months, to make sure you don't lose out, supplement to bring you up to sergeant's salary. But if you're a guard, you get other stuff. Free lodging, heating, family allowance. 🔊✎ So in the end, a guard with a wife and two kids makes more than an active duty sergeant. 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —Yeah. See, that's why the guards and the sergeants don't get on. Maybe you've noticed, the sergeants say they don't reckon much to the guards. 🔊✎ What they always bring up, that's promotion. Like in a way they're right. Promotion's slower in the Guard than in the army. But don't you forget, an N.C.O. in the Guard is way more than an ordinary sergeant-major. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE, ✎ says suddenly. ✎ — Listen... 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —I'm going to die soon. 🔊✎
The guard doesn't answer. ✎ A silence. ✎ He paces. ✎ After a moment, he starts up again. ✎
THE GUARD ✎ —On the other hand, people have more respect for a guard than for an active sergeant. A guard, he's a soldier, sure, but he's almost a government employee. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Do you think it hurts to die? 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —Depends. During the war, the ones who got wounded in the stomach, they hurt bad. I never got wounded. In a way that's a shame, messed up my chances for promotion. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —How are they going to kill me? 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —I dunno. I think someone said they didn't want to soil the city with your blood, so they're gonna wall you up in a hole. 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —Yeah. Well, to start with. 🔊✎
A silence. ✎ The guard rolls himself a cigarette. ✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —O tomb! O nuptial bed! O my abode beneath the earth! ... 🔊✎ (She is so small in the middle of the great empty room. She looks like she's cold. She wraps her arms around herself. ✎ All alone... 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ who has finished his cigarette. ✎ — In the caverns of Hades, at the gates of the city. In broad daylight. Another weird assignment for the people in the business. 🔊✎ First of all they were going to call in the army. But last I heard, it'll be the Guard again with the detail. 🔊✎ Us guards can do anything! You see why the active sergeants are jealous. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE, ✎ murmurs, suddenly tired. ✎ — Two animals... 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —What do you mean, two animals? 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Two animals can huddle together to stay warm. I'm all alone. 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —If you need anything, that's different. I can call. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —No. I just want you to give a letter to someone when I'm dead. 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —What sort of letter? 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —A letter that I'm going to write. 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —Uh-uh! You gotta be kidding! A letter! Jeez, you like to try it on don't you! That could really get me into trouble. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —I'll give you this ring if you do it. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Yes. It's gold. 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —You understand, if they frisk me we're talking court-martial. But I guess you aren't bothered. 🔊✎ (He looks at the ring again.) ✎ Look, here's what I can do if you like, I can write in my pad what you want to say. Then I'll tear the page out. 🔊✎ If it's in my handwriting it's not the same. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE, ✎ her eyes are closed. She murmurs with a poor, convulsive smile. ✎ — Your handwriting... 🔊✎ (She shivers.) ✎ All of this is so ugly, it's all just so ugly. 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ annoyed, pretends he'll give back the ring. ✎ — Okay, if you don't like the deal then... 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —No. Keep the ring and write. But hurry... I'm worried we won't have time. 🔊✎ Write: "My darling..." 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ who has taken his pad and licks his pencil. ✎ — It's for your boyfriend then? 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —My darling, I have chosen to die, and maybe you don't love me anymore... 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ repeats slowly in his coarse voice as he writes. ✎ — "My darling, I have chosen to die, and maybe you don't love me anymore..." 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —And Creon is right, it's horrible, now, next to this man, I don't know anymore why I am dying. I'm scared... 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ painfully taking dictation. ✎ — "Creon is right, it's horrible..." 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Oh Haemon, our little boy. It's only now I understand how simple it is to live... 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ stops. ✎ — Look, you're going too fast. How'm I supposed to write this down? It takes time you know... 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ rereads. ✎ — "It's horrible next to this man..." 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —I don't know any more why I'm dying. 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ writes, sucking his pencil. ✎ — "I don't know anymore why I'm dying..." You never know why you die. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE, ✎ continues. ✎ — I'm scared... 🔊✎ (She stops and sits up suddenly.) ✎ No. Cross all that out. It's better that no one ever knows. It's like they could see me naked and touch me when I was dead. Just write "Forgive me." 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —So I cross out the ending and write forgive me instead? 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Yes. Forgive me, my darling. Without little Antigone, you would all have been fine. I love you... 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —"Without little Antigone, you would all have been fine. I love you..." That's it? 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Yes, that's it. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Yes, it's a weird letter. 🔊✎
THE GUARD ✎ —And who's it to? 🔊✎
At this moment, the door opens. ✎ The other guards appear. ✎ Antigone rises, looks at them, looks at the first guard who has got up behind her. He pockets the ring and puts away his pad with an important air. ✎ He sees Antigone looking at him. ✎ He yells to cover his confusion. ✎
THE GUARD ✎ —Come on! Move it! No funny business! 🔊✎
Antigone has a poor smile. ✎ She lowers her head. ✎ She leaves without a word to the other guards. ✎ Exeunt omnes. ✎