"NIGHT GAMES" "It's darker." "You've gone back twenty years." "Back to my indescribabIy happy childhood." "Wait here." "And no cheating." "Did you hear what I said?" "Where's Mummy?" "You mean my wife." "In Vienna." "I've just shot her." "Wrong, my friend." "Last seen in Athens and murdered by the undersigned." "That's nice!" "Oh no, she's outside StockhoIm." "At a party." "Waiting for something to happen." "She's drunk." "Shoot!" "Go on, shoot!" "You've spoilt my map." "It was spoilt centuries ago." "Kiss it." "Kiss the ring." "What can I do for you, my poppet?" "I'm looking for my mother." "And of Adam's rib, Eva was created." "Won't I do?" "Don't you also wish you were dead?" "I'm dead already." "Curtain up!" "The performance is about to begin." "Laugh!" "Dance!" "Try to be amusing." "This'II be no ordinary birth." "We'II have the funeral at the same time." "I'm going to bring another idiot into the world." "One idiot among the many." "Fun, eh?" "Why don't you laugh, you bores?" "!" "Where's Jan?" "Here I am." "You like the circus." "Come and see the fine tricks your mother can do." "No, Astrid, you're only in the way here." "I ordered music." "I'm not having the brat born in silence." "I've had enough silence." "You bloody nitwits." "AII that ever comes out of you is vomit and compliments." "You like compliments, darling." "I prefer vomit." "More honest." "Look, I'm a doll." "They lay me on my back, I shut my eyes and squeak." "Happy or sad, it's the same squeak." "Come, boys and girls, pull my pants off." "Learn, Jan, learn." "Say you love me." "It's her nerves." "tell me a story." "Who loves me?" ""It came to pass that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus" "that the world should be taxed..."" "Do you want a brother or a sister?" "Or a little biIIy-goat to play with?" "Why not?" "Bruno has horns and a beard and never stops bIeating." "Lecherous old goat." "There were nights I took him for a man." "How wrong I was." "No one's likely to take you for a real woman either, my sweet." "cruel, and in bad taste." "But true, thank God!" "She's in pain." "Pain?" "You idiot!" "This is sheer delight to what usually torments me." "What a beautiful motif." "Any gas left for me?" ""Unto you is born this day in the city of David" "a Saviour which is Christ the Lord..."" "What is your dotty aunt mumbling?" "About God." "About God, Mummy." "Why wasn't he invited if he's your friend?" "Wizards are always welcome." "Come on, God, be nice to me." "Let me start all over again." "Let me give birth to myself." "That's all I ask." "I've never said or done a thing in earnest." "Every day has taken nine months and turned out rubbish." "Snotty bill, play something for us on your nose." "Such tender scenes are too much for me." ""... praising God and saying:" "glory be to God in the highest" "on earth peace, good will toward men..."" ""AII who heard were astonished at what the shepherds said" "but Mary kept these things and pondered them in her heart."" "Why is everything such a mess?" "Why did it have to be like this?" "Because this is no hospital." "Because you're stupid and stubborn." "The child was stiII-born." "Don't you think I knew?" "Your son caught sight of you, Bruno, and died laughing." "A short and happy life." "Christen him in champagne." "Bury him." "What shall we do now?" "It's her idea." "So you cheated after all." "But I didn't look." "Take this, then." "Let's look around." "We'II go sightseeing." "The house is wonderful." "So are you." "Let me introduce you to one of my ancestors." "Have you brought many girls here?" "Don't start that, or I won't tell you my secrets." "Don't be childish." "You're marrying a child." "You're a man." "A man?" "I don't even know what that is." "I'm an expert at being a child." "A child with a beard." "I couId perform with a circus." "May I introduce you?" "What's this, then?" "Go in." "Is there someone in here?" "Oh, it's completely black." "Jan!" "You beast!" "Open up!" "There's such a Iot of stuff here." "You're right." "Things I've learnt to trust." "Pictures don't burst into tears and run away." "Fourposter beds aren't unfaithful." "You'II feel extremely safe." "And you'II be bored to death in their company." "Oh no, I won't." "You don't know what you've let yourself in for." "Money builds a kind of wall round you." "Do you find that funny?" "Or are you going to cry?" "I never quite know with you." "Perhaps that's why you're the first girl I bring here." "Are you a witch?" "I'm a child, just like you." "Then it's time you grew up." "This is a house with a past that's not so easy to live with." "Icons that don't answer you." "Statues that can't love, coins you can't buy sweets with." "Dust and empty packing cases." "And almost no life left." "only me haunting the place." "Perhaps the future will be better?" "With you here." "I Iike the way you look at things." "The dirt falls off as if they'd been cleaned." "Jeer at these treasures that have made us so unhappy." "Unhappy?" "Did I say that?" "Yes." "I meant happy, of course." "I said I was a child!" "And I said you should grow up." "I'm going to sleep in there." "Was this your mother's room?" "I'II have your luggage brought up." "You mean it's still your mother's room?" "She's dead." "Don't hurry to unpack, there's little else to do." "There are plenty of servants." "Aunt Astrid!" "Who's this?" "That's a frightfully wise egg." "An owl, I think." "You do obey your tutor, don't you, Jan?" "Of course, aunt Astrid." "Who's this?" "Who can that be?" "With such a big mouth." "And always laughing." "A magpie." "Horrid birds, always stealing from others and leaving the nest." "Why doesn't Mummy write?" "No, wait." "Why can't I do it too?" "No, you must be more sensible than me." "careful, so they don't notice." "First we knock the top off the egg." "Then they can't think." "Then..." "Then we dig out the innards." "Then they can neither think, nor eat nor drink any more." "Nor amuse themselves any more." "They do far too much of that." "kill them!" "kill them!" "Dear boy!" "Let's not kill them, there's something left in them." "They're notjust shells." "There's something in them we can't see, but it's there." "The most important of all." "What?" "You shouldn't talk about it, because then it vanishes." "If you don't talk about it, how do you know..." "There's nothing." "They're all empty." "So you don't like them, Bruno?" "I'm glad you have an opinion for once!" "Whose little doggie is that, then?" "We'II give him a lump of sugar." "delightful." "That will do." "There's always someone pawing me." "TaiIors, lovers, undertakers..." "They'II probably paw at me in my coffin!" "They'II expect me to open my legs for the coffin lid." "I'II be your coffin lid." "You're certainly wooden enough." "I'II be glad to see you dead." "The same to you." "But I want you to suffer first." "I'm suffering now." "I'II bite your big mouth to pieces." "I can crush you if I want." "Too late." "It was done long ago." "You know what you are, my sweet?" "A cheap, vulgar, useless troIIop." "A rival!" "He's sharper than you, doesn't waste time talking." "Dirty little brat!" "Today's mail." "A card from Paris!" "Greetings from Paris." "Paris!" "Give me a hand, Jan." "Look." "What does she say?" "Not much." "She's printed in big letters:" ""Greetings from Paris"." "Not bad." "Paris is a big city." "What's it like?" "Big houses..." "Let's see..." "First of all..." "No, you're in the way now..." "Good girl." "Is this Paris?" "It could be anywhere." "It looks like our house." "exactly." "Your mother could be anywhere." "Let's set light to it all." "Don't you think she'd Iike that?" "What is it you're checking?" "How long it takes." "What?" "It's just a game of mine." "That you play with your guests?" "usually on my own." "No girls allowed." "You wouldn't understand." "I do understand one thing, you could easily have it all." "Stop." "Stop!" "You're mad!" "Are you trying to kill me?" "What the hell is this?" "Let me out!" "Have a nice time." "Practice your butterfly stroke!" "Damn and blast!" "hallo!" "Nice of you to come!" "Do you Iike this kind of party?" "A cigarette?" "filthy weather, but it could be worse." "How about some champagne?" "Jump up behind, so we can drive home." "You can't marry him." "He's mad." "He tried to lay me." "The truth!" "And then kill me." "Leave, Mariana." "Money's not everything." "He'II kill you." "That's all he wants, to kill and destroy." "Bravo!" "I didn't think you had it in you." "She looks good in your mother's dress." "The image of your mother." "Hadn't you seen the likeness?" "Take my mother's dress off." "will you take it off, please?" "!" "Don't think you're the only one who can play games." "You broke it!" "Jan..." "Don't be such a baby." "Must you break everything you touch?" "I don't want you here!" "You siIIy-biIIy!" "I can't bear to look at you." "Go away." "melissa said you tried to seduce her." "I've tried to help you." "But I can't even help myself." "Let's cancel the wedding." "Go now." "please." "I think all this is making me ill." "Jan, what is it?" "It's my duty to look after my poor darling." "It's your duty to listen to me, Irene." "He's ill, but you won't admit it." "You'd rather let him die." "He's no more ill than you are." "Then he's worse than I thought." "Try to stand up now, darling." "Good little boy, proving me right." "Now you can move into my room and let Mummy have you to herself." "What are you doing?" "Nothing." "If you're bored, you can come to me." "Let me do that." "The girls will like you when you grow up." "Be tender and warm and a bit brutal." "If you can find someone worthy." "Let them make an effort." "Let them beg for it." "Up with your arms." "What a nice little thing you have." "Do you know what that's good for?" "Read me something." "Is that what you want to believe in?" "Why not believe in your heavenly mother instead?" ""By night on my bed" "I sought him whom my soul loveth."" ""I sought him, but I found him not."" ""I will rise now and go about the city" "in the streets and in the broad ways."" ""I will seek him whom my soul loveth:"" ""I sought him, but I found him not."" ""The watchmen that go about the city found me."" ""To whom I said:" "Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?"" "I suppose this was Astrid's idea?" "!" "You horror!" "Doing it under the quilt!" "Have they taught you it's dirty?" "Innocent children!" "They're swine, making everything dirty!" "PaIefaces who squeeze a few drops out and turn over and go to sleep." "always the same, always in the dark." "Carry on." "Do it while I watch!" "He is divine, is he not?" "And the divine never speak." "Very practical." "But he's hardly from heaven." "From hell, more likely." "Straight from berlin." "He was third in a Mr Europe contest." "Execution squad ready." "BIindfoId the prisoner." "Music!" "Are you going to shoot him?" "Sex is no good without the kill." "Achtung!" "Squad: forward march." "Fire!" "That was a real pick-up, darling." "One more time." "telephone." "It's the doctor." "You're the one who's ill." "talk to him." "He won't talk to me." "hallo?" "Yes..." "Right." "I see." "well, that's good." "Thanks." "Goodbye." "Worse than I thought." "Nothing wrong with you at all." "I'm not ill anymore." "Not now." "What are you doing?" "You said I ought to do something." "I Iike changing things around." "please put it back." "No." "Don't be childish." "I don't mind being childish if it helps you grow up and take responsibility." "I'm dying here." "I'm killing you, I suppose." "No." "You're dying too." "It's this house." "I can't breathe." "Nor can you." "It's as dead as your friends." "It's as dead as...your mother." "Friends, we are gathered in remembrance of a loved one whom we shall long remember." "Someone who gave the world as much as she took." "That is to say, nothing at all." "She was generous in her suspicion towards others, but mostly herself." "She had nothing to say, but complained bitterly." "Now she is dead." "May she rest in peace." "Are you not going to take leave of your mother?" "IRENE KILLED IN CAR CRASH BRUNO" ""I am the resurrection and the life."" ""Whosoever believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."" "It's better to talk about it." "tell me exactly how it was." "please, Jan." "She didn't die here." "It was somewhere in the South." "It was a game." "Astrid and I made a joke of it all." "It was our way of surviving." "Nothing's changed." "But nowadays I don't laugh." "That'II be fine." "Thanks." "Open it." "Nothing at all." "Do you know what my mother said?" ""The day you decide to become a man, I shall come back."" "Have you decided on it, then?" "No, but you have." "And I'm glad." "But it's painful." "Don't think I'II take responsibility." "No, you won't take responsibility." "Not even for getting married." "If you could learn to take respons- ibility, maybe you'd laugh again." "Fine." "Send for a parson." "Pour the champagne." "No, not quite yet." "A few thing must be thrown out before I make promises in church." "Do you believe in that?" "sufficiently." "Do you believe in me?" "Someone has to be the resurrection and the life." "What about this, then?" "This looks old." "Can't we play it?" "Go ahead." ""A sad love song"..." "I'd Iike to marry you." "Dearest boy!" "I want to be a hundred first." "But you do have good taste." "I thought you were a hundred." "No, no." "You'II not have me doddering around here that long." "It's all yours now." "I don't want it." "Your fine friends wouldn't like to hear you say that." "They can have it." "I don't want it." "Perhaps you'd Iike to have it?" "No, I don't want it either." "Why can't people do as they like?" "Mummy didn't like it here either." "She always went away." "Why do I have to stay?" "Yes, why, oh why?" "I think you ought to give it all away." "Dearest boy." "Do you love me just a little?" "Do you want company?" "Make room then." "I know what you're after, you fat Iouse." "I just came to tuck him in." "I'm his new dad." "He's already tucked in." "And I'm his new mum." "Sure." "That hardly looks like motherIy Iove to me." "I'm here to protect him from thieves and scoundrels." "Do you want to wake him up?" "Then he'II see how kind I am." "I have some sweets for him..." "I know who's going to have those!" "darling, don't be like that." "I've got a tummyache and I'm tired." "It's not fair." "There's enough for us both." "Enough of what?" "You know exactly what I mean." "Do you mean love?" "If that's your word for money, there's enough for two." "What are you doing here?" "!" "telling him a bedtime story, aunt Astrid." "Singing him a lullaby, aunt Astrid." "I'II see to her." "The old girl's dotty." "Dotty!" "They're taking me away now." "You'II have to find someone else to help you." "Find someone else." "Come now, my darling." "The first time's awful." "It gets better over the years." "Grit your teeth and shut your eyes." "Don't be silly, she's no virgin." "We haven't had one of those around for over 40 years!" "Jan's mother wouldn't allow it." "darling, believe me." "Every day, every minute, I fight to find myself." "My mother and Astrid were tough on me, but taught me that truth is the only thing to live and die for." "It's worth purgatory." "only then can you share life with someone you love." "Love me." "I'm trying to." "But something's stopping me." "Truth, perhaps." "No, the lies." "AII the lies in this house." "Love me." "I want to, but can't." "darling..." "The little bird fell off his perch..." "If I speak slowly, can you understand?" "really slowly." "You can't fight this alone." "Did you hear?" "Yes, aunt Astrid." "I have more to say." "Try to remember it when you wake up." "Someone must make you stop." "You won't find the truth in a bottle of brandy." "You must get free in order to find it." "If you can't free yourself someone else must do it for you." "Not bad at all." "What we need now is a party." "A party?" "A final party." "The biggest." "The best." "The last brandy bottles in the history of mankind." "Roffe!" "Bring the dynamometer up." "Haven't we met before?" "Yes, I happen to be your wife." "Funny." "That was so long ago." "What is going on here?" "God knows." "I hate surprises." "They're making a TV film." "To show the masses how we live." "So exciting." "I'II have to wave to myself." "You've done it all your life, so why not now?" "Am I your friend?" "No." "hardly." "But I Iike you." "What's the big secret?" "None." "We're blowing the house up." "Oh, is that all?" "I think he means it." "No, no-one ever means anything." "What did he say?" "Everyone happy?" "She asks such innocent questions." "I hope I do." "Must we mix with workers?" "We're blowing up the house." "I never thought they'd dare." "Jan dares." "This is when the fun starts." "Ladies and gentlemen!" "The curtain will soon rise on the Iast gala performance." "This house is a bit too old." "It's suffering from anaemia and clogged arteries." "It doesn't want to live any longer so I thought I'd give it a hand and blow the whole bloody thing up." "This is no joke, I assure you." "Most people only wake up on their deathbed." "That's a bit late." "Oh yes, she's with me on this." "She believes in the resurrection." "I needn't explain more." "The show can begin!" "It'II be well worthing watching." "When the signal is given, the ogres burst and the cesspool empties." "In five minutes." "The tapestry!" "French 1 8th century." "Start the car." "I'II pass them to you." "I liked it all the same." "It had got too easy-going." "And it wasn't ours anyway." "Now we have none at all." "There's always the land." "Come and help me, I've more left." "You're not getting off that lightly." "It's not over yet." "Idiot." "AII set?" "Yes." "Get a move on!" "Ready, boys!" "Strike up the national anthem!"