"NEIGHBORHOODERS" "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" "There's a gold fish tied to your wings..." "If you fly away her heart will stop..." "Listen, little bird, your cage ain't that bad... ifs only bad when you lose your will to live." "Hello there, neighbor!" "How's that unemployment of yours?" "Why?" "My dear..." "Work is nowhere to be found but the unemployment rate is falling." "Soon, we'll all fall down." "I couldn't kill a rabbit on my own." "Nor a hare." "Me neither!" "But a chicken..." "Though recently my old man and me go hungry." "More him than me." "More than anyone, these pots go hungry." "He seems a bit skinny." "But a fish..." "I'd kill one of those." "Did you save up for a carp like you're supposed to'?" "She didn't save up for a carp, like you're supposed to." "Now?" "You want me to buy a carp?" "Never!" "And if I do, it'll cost too much!" "Bring a big, live one!" "It's not the holidays without a carp." "The wife sent me to buy two carps." "For me and for her." "For me to kill." "She doesn't know how." "But I got to thinking, if she kills her's..." "then she'll kill mine, too." "What?" "!" "Easy!" "With What?" "!" "Who?" "!" " Who?" "!" " No one!" "What do you mean no one?" "!" "I..." "I..." "I didn't..." "I thought so!" "Cutting in line!" "In front of us!" "Which way?" "No one will say." "And if they do, who knows, if they know or they don't or just don't want to say." "What the hell!" "Get out, you old malnourished bastard!" "You know how to deal with the hungry and unemployed?" "Let the hungry eat the unemployed!" "There was supposed be soap, not head cheese!" "You're wrong in the head." " I know this." " Happy Holidays." "I don't know anyone here." "Come on, decide." "Why?" "Others are waiting!" "Happy Holidays?" "Not likely!" "Fm hereto get a carp." "Ifs a good thing, taking the head cheese." "People!" "They brought bones!" "But ifs carp that they have at the liquor store!" "It's the best snack!" "There isn't anything better!" " One or two?" " Two!" "Can it be a black one?" "Pay up right away." "Or others will complain." "Happy Holidays!" " Who's that wishing me a happy holiday?" " Your change!" " And she gave me change for free." " Your change." "She must have made a mistake." "Power Liquor Store." "Happy Holidays!" "Happy Holidays!" "Took it right out of my hands!" "They think I don't know them." "Took it out of my hands." "They think I don't know them." "Took it out of my hands." "I'll put it in the tub!" "Tomorrow you'll go to church with a basket." "We'll kill 'em when you get back." "One for each of us." "I'll kill mine." "You'll kill yours." "Alright?" "No." "You can kill them by yourself!" "It won't be Easter if I don't kill at least one carp!" "She's so sweet on me." "Like a wife to a husband." "You know what you're starting to look like?" "A carp." "The one in tub..." "he laid two Easter eggs." "We'll be swimming in eggs." "You keep working at it, too." "You know what I heard?" "That people will be devouring each other." "FURNITURE" "Are you my son's wife now?" "My daughter-in-law..." "Ruth or Rutha?" "Just like the one in the Old Testament." "He was mad at himself for a while now." "Didn't say a word." "He didn't need to talk." "A wife always knows best." "He was never a good husband to me." "He never could say, "I'm sorry"." "You probably think I've never said a bad word to him." "But last Sunday, he got back in the evening." "Didn't take off his jacket." "Just came into the kitchen." "He sat down at the table on stool." "I didn't even ask where he was." "I just stood behind him, so that he would know I thought about him all day." "He sits there without a word." "Looks at the table." "At the pots and pans." "And as though he was sitting on a chair, he leaned his back against me." "He leaned." "He sat." ""He must feel sorry," I thought." "He didn't need to say anything." "A wife always knows best." "And then I felt even more sorry for him." "I stood behind him, so that he had something to lean on." "He got up and hung his jacket up." "And I gave him his dinner." "The next day, I wanted to wait in the hallway for him." "So that he would know that I thought about him all day." "The evening passes." "Dinner got cold." "He wasn't home." "I stood there all night." "I went to bed when it got light out." "And then..." "I waited for him at the kitchen table." "Day after day." "And I felt sorry for him even more." "I think that he felt bad." "He was never a good husband to me." "He never could say, "I'm sorry"." "I think he left because he felt so bad." "He's not some big man." "He just likes looking like one in front of people." "What will become of him?" "How will he manage on his own?" "He came back!" "He came back!" "He came back!" "He always comes back like this." "A man like this, a man like this should not live amongst us." "My son!" "My baby boy!" "My son." "My love." "My beautiful boy." "Where you going, traitor?" "You see how God punished you?" "!" "For sending me to church as a little boy!" "You made me give money during collection!" "Made me pray with you!" "God gave us free will." "And that's why I don't believe in Him!" "Because monsters like you want to ruin this world." "And take our free will!" "My wife's beating me..." "Everyone, look!" "My son, come back." "God, why?" "!" "That's not my son." "That's some stranger." "Yes, mother." "Of course." "THE END OF THE WORLD" "What do they need all that sugar for?" "Stop!" "You stop!" "Smoking those cigarettes." "What happened to you after you got shocked?" "Why didn't you tell me about this before we got married?" "It makes me feel good for a moment." "Stop!" "Get some sugar." "I like it in my tea." "I don't have any sugar." "Won't even say "Hello"?" "Maybe they'll have some downstairs." "You don't have any sugar?" "Everyone's been buying it for a week." "He must be knee deep in it." "Have you read the paper recently?" "The paper?" "I don't remember the last time I held the paper." "I remember now." "When they wrote that they stop rationing sugar, they'll need to write that ifs the end of the world." "No more papers." "No more." "No more!" "Excuse me." "Could you lend me 5 or 10 zloty?" "Please don't get closer." "I stink." "Maybe you could offer me a kind word'?" "Jesus!" "If only one neighbor, from the top floor, lent me some sugar." "May I?" "Just enough for one cup of tea." "Ifs not good to steal," "when catastrophe is upon us." "What do I care about the end of the world, since the last time I... sweetened my tea was when..." "I had a newspaper in my hands." "What do I have for knowing that." "And I was stupid enough to want a divorce." "You're such a deep thinker since you got shocked." "You're enlightened." "She'll never say a good word to me." "People want sugar." "But it's sweet words they need." "THE WINDOW" "The guy from across bought himself a car." "I didn't water the plants." "So they wouldn't see me in the window, thinking that we're looking." "He bought it..." "And he thinks everyone in the yard will say "hello..." "Well..." "There's something to look at when he beats his wife." "Always beats her after dinner on Sunday." "No!" "I just want to look." "What could anyone say about us?" " And to whom?" " You're right." "Everyone will stop to greet him now." "They'll greet him, but not you." "He's got it as good as it gets." "I don't beat my woman." "Meaning, you." "There's no reason." "All I can do is look with my hungry eyes." "Beats her every Sunday and all you do is look." "What'?" "I'm talking to you!" "He beats her and you just look." "What's the matter?" "It's the third time and you do nothing." "You just look!" "Hello." "Let him know he doesn't stand a chance against my man." "Looks like he doesn't want to beat his wife anymore." "For everything that I've suffered." "Because I miss him!" "Here." "And now for real, not like by the window." "Without pretending." "Go on." "Without mercy." "How strange!" "And here I thought you didn't love me anymore." "More!" "Don't stop!" "More!" "Enough!" "Want some tea?" "THE MAN FROM ACROSS THE WAY" "It was night when I saw four men running up to him..." "I saw everyone looking at him during the procession..." "Once we went out." "It was night." "He was in a white shirt." "I see four men coming up to him and that shirt..." "Barn!" "Barn!" "Screams in the darkness." "And his shirt's gone." "I ran over and see three men on the ground." "The shirt next to them." "The fourth one went running." "And he's standing by a tree and says, "They crumpled up my damn shirt"." "I saw him help the priest under the baldachin during the procession." "Everyone looked at him, not the priest." " Well, he's something!" " An atheist underneath the baldachin." "What's going on'?" "People keep disappearing in our building." "Maybe they're stuck in the cracks." "Because my place is so big, you couldn't count the rooms." "But no." "Give me some money, darling." "My place is cleaner than a prison." "One of them lives above." "The other lives across the way from me." "No one knows who he is." "How did it happen?" "Our neighbor was there." "Now, he's not." "How'?" "He probably didn't fall into the cracks." "They're only selling soap in the meat store." "But is it only soap in the meat store'?" "Or soap only in the meat store'?" "Both." "There's nothing to buy." "It's all the same!" "You can't." "Just soap and hooks with nothing on them." "They're up to something." "Good day." "Good, good, good, good." "I only say hello to the one from across, because I know what Fm saying." "He answers politely" "But the one upstairs..." "He disappeared." "But he was so certain he wouldn't!" "That nice man from across says hello." "The rude woman doesn't answer." "Good day." "There's this secret." "You can't get anything at the soap shop!" "But you need to stand in line!" "I don't remember the last time they had head cheese or blood sausage!" "You wait and there's nothing!" "We're all dependent on them!" " Good evening." " Evening, evening!" "I said it to my neighbor from across the hall, not the one downstairs who complains." "It's cold, huh?" "Cold." "What are they doing?" "I told him so many times." ""Don't talk on the stairs"." "Stop, stop." "Please, stop." "She could stop crying, because others will start to disappear:" "Move the mattress!" "Move the mattress!" "Why?" "We need to get out of the line of fire." "He just wants to say "hello", but the y..." "Please calm down." "Nothing's happening." "Nothing." "Nothing." "Nothing!" "Stop!" "Stop!" "They lie in the papers." "They lie!" "He's right." "They wrote it would get better." "But it's not." "His look would set the whole building aflame." "He'll lead us!" "Open up!" "I'm leaving." "Don't look for me." "I won't greet him anymore." "I know." "Do you know what I know?" "I know that men like him..." "Barczyk, Lukasz." "Wieczorek, Zofia." "Krélikiewicz, Grzegorz." "Ptak, Krzysztof." "Knop, Piotr." "Warpechowski, Zbigniew" "Kowalczuk, Cezary." "Cieszko, Izabela." "Tumkiewicz, Beata." "Pokromski, Waldemar." "Kfopotowska, Bogumifa." "A GOOD SOUL" "When will you get out of the bathroom?" "In a minute." "In a minute." "Did you hear'?" "Hear what?" "Of course." "How could you, since you never listen." "About the neighbor." "I didn't hear anything." "Didn't I say'?" " Say what?" " That you don't listen." "If you listened, you'd know." "Yesterday, our neighbor walked out of his window." "Through his window?" "Whose do you think?" "No one knows when the funeral is." " Whose funeral?" " Like talking to the wall!" "The neighbor's!" "He was nice and very helpful." "Such a good soul." "It's scary to think he might have fallen by our window." "By our window?" "Finally free." "Well, think!" "He fell from the top floor, so he must have." " Get out already!" " From the top floor'?" "Are you coming out or not?" "What do you mean?" "We live on the top floor!" "Why didn't you tell me earlier?" "!" "There's only the attic above us!" "Why didn't you tell me earlier?" "!" "Enough of this." "Come out." "You'll break a leg in the dark." "You'll break a leg in the dark." "I've been standing here since morning." "Standing like you're petrified." "Hey..." "Where are you exactly?" "How are you here and in there?" "What day is it?" "Somewhere in the middle." "Somewhere between 1945 and 2000-something." "What a world..." "Neighbors call you a simple worker, but you're so much more..." "THE NEIGHBORHOOD DREAM BOOK" "A neighbor emptied a bucket of coal on another's head." "I don't know..." "I don't want to be... smarter than my radio receiver." "I have to go to my neighbor." "She knows about dreams." "Keep an eye on your husband." "But if a woman empties a bucket of coal on her neighbor's head..." "Well, that's different." "Keep an eye on your husband." "Because if anything..." "I'm warning you." "If you threw coal on my head in a dream," "that would be fine." "Even good." "But if I did it to you, that's different." "A bad sign." "Though I threw coal on your head, my husband got flowers from someone." "He wouldn't have bought them for himself." "But it happened as I said it would!" "Who are you taking the coal to?" "!" "Coal!" "Coal!" "I bring it upstairs for the neighbor's wife." "May I?" "We girls need to stick together." "I wanted to be a good neighbor." "We girls need to stick together." "I wanted to be a good neighbor." "Our men just lump around, but we..." "My husband is never home." "But... someone needs to pinch me." "So that I know I'm only dreaming." "Where is your man now?" "My husband... is pregnant." "With whom?" "!" "With whom?" "!" "MORAL AUTHORITY" "Ladies and gentlemen!" "Our conference has ended, but... there is one more attraction:" "a tour of the horrible squalor that's right around the corner." "The head of the conference, Prof. Maria Skowroriska, has resigned to protest the retraction of funds" "for that neighborhood." "But she'll be on the tour with us." "Ladies and gentleman!" "We have an unexpected guest." "The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in economic cardiology." "The world famous doctor and professor." "Professor..." "Will you be so kind and come with us?" "Dear friend, I have other responsibilities." "What if I ask you very nicely?" "I have other things to do." "Really." "Then maybe, let me help you get out." "GRAND CLOSING OF THE CLINIC" "They forgot about me!" "Ladies and gentlemen, Dear friends," "We are here to liquidate this unnecessary so-called health clinic." "On this spot will stand a modern, multi-layered parking structure." "The body is like a mechanism." "That's why it's crucial to make sure our cars are healthy." "Let's move forward!" "This conference is a some kind of joke, Professor." "The media should see... this... adoration of the local natives." "These natives also pay taxes." "They're leeches." "They can survive only with our help." "Everyone here is so sick, that there's no one left to cure." "And healthcare remain above propaganda." "Let me, professor!" "I can't let a Nobel laureate deal with something like this." "This cannot be!" "This place is so squalid!" "Jesus, this man is dying!" "His heart is sick!" "His heart!" "He's got a sick heart!" "A sick heart!" "Let him sober up." "Then he can die." "Film me!" "Of course, for humanitarian reasons." "Professor, that cameraman isn't with us." "You're all supposedly people!" "Show the truth!" "You don't want to film?" "!" "You chickenshits!" "And to that midget with the camera:" "What a lack of humanity." "I don't want him around me." "Where's Stretch?" "That wonderful cameraman?" "Where is he?" "You're not going to be some poet, but the worst one in the world." "You won't be enjoying fine vodkas," "just going to drink yourself to death." "CHANGES" "She always beats me!" "Despite my sick heart!" "But that pencil pusher that recently moved in..." "Hiding all the time..." "Off to work in the morning." "Comes back at night." "I keep tabs on him with my watch!" "Good evening." "An intellectual!" "But a small one!" "That's what I say." "A small one!" "Oh, Jesus!" "Excuse me." "I'm terribly sorry." "If he really is a so-called intellectual, he wouldn't have fallen, right?" "Doesn't even know that it made us hate him more." "Good evening." "Talk to us, will he?" "Cheeky bastard!" " He's flinching!" " He can't let go of his ears!" " Look at the dust coming off him!" " He hung in the closet too long!" " There he is!" " Came out to the shitter!" "A rabbit!" "And he's not hopping to the shitter at all." "Good evening." ""Good evening" he says to us." "A PRIESTLY VISIT" " God bless." " May it be so." "Priests like that." "Does she feed him or the other way around?" "He's quick like the devil!" "Boom!" "Boom!" "He probably gives her absolution right after." "How'?" "She's a nonbeliever." "You don't know if she recanted all of her communist lovers." "She-Judas!" "I'm not a believer." "But I acknowledge you." "The Gospel tells of Jesus sitting with his captors." "With whores, as well." "Not everything is as it seems, Father." "But I see a cross in your house." " Do you take money?" " Don't you?" "You don't take money during carolling?" "I take money as well." "Easy." "I won't take any money from you." "I'll give you something, Father." "Everything you want, but... are ashamed to ask for." "Because I'm not ashamed." "The Gospel also speaks of Jesus expelling the traders from the Temple." "Come..." "Come..." "Come..." "Oh, God!" "No!" "I beg you!" "I beg you!" "A WOMAN WITH TWO HEARTS h' you dream of vastness," "they strip you of your dreams." "h' you walk in the gutter, sit down next to me." "h' they close your trap shut, and tie you up with hope, h' it sparks in your eye, sit down next to me." "Don't be afraid." "Sit with me and talk." "Always bring an answer from the world." "Brother, we're sitting here both." "You, a little sparrow, and I, a man." "He thought that to prove one's faithfulness they need to x-ray their hearts." "The x-rays will show everything." "I'm coming from the clinic!" "They closed it up." "Give it to me." "Give it!" "Jesus!" "She has two hearts!" "One on the left and one on the right." "It's an anomaly!" "An anomaly!" "An anomaly!" "These are the two hearts?" "You'll get another Nobel Prize, professor." "Like Madam Curie." "Call the TV news." "And then that big shot's wife, who was left by him so many times," "and beaten by him so many times, said," "But... if I had two hearts..." ""I would put you between them... like a son... and carry you..." "I'd give my husband my heart." "The one on the left is stronger." "I'm sure it's stronger." "Can you imagine?" "You're so faithful." "I was also always faithful to you." "Quickly!" "Move it!" "The patient's spoiling!" "We don't have time." "Quickly!" "There's no time for anything." "There's squalor everywhere." "I'll clean it up, professor." "'Time is of the essence." "Not dog shit!" " Where's the TV news?" " Where's the TV news?" "Where's Stretch?" "!" "He knows how to do these news pieces." "Where's Stretch?" "!" "Where's Stretch?" "Jesus Christ, where is that man of rubber?" "There's no going back now." "Stretch!" "I beg you!" "Help me, I beg you!" "Disaster is upon us!" "You have to do something!" "Help us!" "Grab it!" "They'll go to heaven." "Him too'?" "How so?" "She's plead for him." "Oh, sweet Lord!" "It was cancer!" "It was a tumor on the right lung!" "Professor, it's not your fault!" "Professor, don't take it upon yourself!" "I'm responsible for everything!" "You're too good to us!" "So noble!" "You're a moral authority!" "You'll rot in jail, you blind imbecile." "I still love you." "I beat him with this." "It's never too late." "I'll put something down for my man." "I want to punish myself the same way Socrates did a thousand years ago." "I demand one million Euros, as compensation for wrongful and false claims going out to the world from Poland... this savage country." "It's because of you, savage natives, that they took away my Nobel Prize!" "I was deceived by crooks!" "I couldn't even nudge anyone." "Not a rabbit nor a carp." "After everything that has happened to us." "Now, I couldn't even kill a mosquito." "There's a gold fish tied to your wings..." "If you fly away her heart will stop..." "Listen, little bird, your cage ain't that bad... ifs only bad when you lose your will to live." "There's a gold fish tied to your wings..." "If you fly away her heart will stop..." "Listen, little bird, your cage ain't that bad... when you lose your will to live."