ANTIGONE, ✎ runs to Haemon. ✎ — Haemon, I'm so sorry about our fight last night, I'm so sorry about everything. I was wrong. Please forgive me. 🔊✎
HAEMON ✎ —You'd hardly had time to slam the door and I'd forgiven you. I could still smell your perfume and I'd forgiven you. 🔊✎ (He holds her in his arms, he smiles, he looks at her.) ✎ Who did you steal it from, that perfume? 🔊✎
HAEMON ✎ —And the lipstick, the makeup, the pretty dress? 🔊✎
HAEMON ✎ —And who were you making yourself so beautiful for? 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —I'll tell you. 🔊✎ (She holds him to her a little tighter) ✎ Oh! my darling, I was so stupid! A whole evening wasted. A whole beautiful evening. 🔊✎
HAEMON ✎ —We'll have other evenings, Antigone. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Maybe we won't. 🔊✎
HAEMON ✎ —And other fights too. People who love each other are always fighting. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —People who love each other, yes... Listen, Haemon. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Don't smile this morning. Be serious. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —And hold me. Hold me tighter than you've ever held me before. So that all your strength goes into me. 🔊✎
HAEMON ✎ —There. All my strength. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE, ✎ In a whisper. ✎ — That's good. 🔊✎ (They stay there a moment without saying anything, then she starts softly.) ✎ Listen, Haemon. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —There's something I want to say to you this morning... The little boy we would have had... 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —You know, I'd have protected him from the whole world. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Oh! I'd have held him so tight that he'd never have felt a moment of fear, I swear it to you. 🔊✎ Not of the night to come, not of the terrible noonday sun that won't move, not of the shadows... 🔊✎ Our little boy, Haemon! He'd have had a mother who was kind of small and untidy - but stronger than all the real mothers with their big tits and their aprons. You believe me, don't you? 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —And you do know, don't you, that you would have had a real woman? 🔊✎
HAEMON, ✎ holds her. ✎ — I have a real woman. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE, ✎ cries suddenly, pressed against him. ✎ — Oh! Haemon, you did love me, you're quite sure you did love me, that evening? 🔊✎
HAEMON, ✎ cradles her gently. ✎ — What evening? 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —You're quite sure that at the ball when you came to find me in my corner, you didn't find the wrong girl? You're sure you've never regretted it, not thought even once, right deep down, that you should have asked Ismene? 🔊✎
HAEMON ✎ —You little silly! 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —You love me really? You love me as a woman? 🔊✎ Your arms that are holding me aren't lying? Your strong hands on my back aren't lying to me, and not your smell, and not your warmth, and not that feeling I have when I put my head on your shoulder that I'm here, I'm safe? 🔊✎
HAEMON ✎ —Yes, Antigone, I love you as a woman. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —I'm dark and skinny. Ismene is pink and golden like a fruit. 🔊✎
HAEMON, ✎ in a murmur. ✎ — Antigone... 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Oh, I'm blushing, I'm so ashamed. But I have to know right now, this morning. Tell me the truth, please tell me the truth. 🔊✎ When you think that I'm going to be yours, do you feel like there's a great empty hole right inside you, like something that's dying? 🔊✎
ANTIGONE, ✎ presently, in a whisper. ✎ — That's how I feel. And I wanted to say to you I would have been so proud to be your woman, really be your woman that you could reach out and touch when you sat down in the evening, without even thinking, the way you'd touch something that belonged to you. 🔊✎ (She has moved away from him, now she speaks in a different tone of voice.) ✎ Well, there you are. Now I'm going to tell you two more things. And when I've said them, you have to leave without asking me any questions. 🔊✎ Even if what I say seems weird, even if it hurts you very much. Swear you'll do that. 🔊✎
HAEMON ✎ —What are you going to say to me? 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Swear to me first that you'll leave without saying anything. Without even looking at me. If you love me, you'll swear you will. 🔊✎ (She looks at him with her poor face full of pain.) ✎ You see how I'm begging you, swear it, please Haemon... It's the last stupid thing I'll ever ask you to do. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Thank you. Okay. First, what happened yesterday. You asked me just now why I turned up with Ismene's gown, with that perfume and lipstick. 🔊✎ I was dumb. I wasn't sure you really wanted me, and I did all that to be a bit more like the other girls, so that you'd feel that way.. 🔊✎
ANTIGONE ✎ —Yes. And you laughed, and we got into a fight, and I couldn't stop myself from losing it, and I rushed out. 🔊✎ (She adds more quietly.) ✎ But I came to you because I wanted you to have me, so that I would be your woman first. 🔊✎ (He moves back, he is about to say something, she cries.) ✎ You swore you wouldn't ask me why. You swore, Haemon! 🔊✎ (She adds, lower, humbly.) ✎ Please, Haemon. I'm begging you... 🔊✎ (And she adds, turning away and in a hard voice.) ✎ In fact, I'm going to tell you. 🔊✎ I wanted to be your woman all the same because I love you in that way, I do, very much, and I am going to hurt you very much, oh my darling! I am so sorry! but I will never, ever be able to marry you. 🔊✎ (He stands there stupefied, unable to say a word, she runs to the window and cries.) ✎ Haemon, you swore! Leave. Leave right now and don't say anything. If you speak, if you take one step towards me, I will throw myself out of this window. 🔊✎ I swear it, Haemon. I swear it on the head of the little boy we would have had in our dreams, us two, the only little boy I'll ever have. 🔊✎ Go now, don't wait! You'll know why tomorrow. You'll know very soon. 🔊✎ (She ends in such a tone of despair that Haemon obeys her and moves away.) ✎ Please Haemon, leave. It's the only thing you can still do for me, if you love me. 🔊✎ (He has left. She stands without moving, her back to the audience, then she closes the window again and sits down on a little chair in the middle of the stage and says softly, as though strangely comforted.) ✎ Well. That's Haemon done then, Antigone. 🔊✎