Contemporary One-Act Plays Part 36

[_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. [_Rushing 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 shines 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. [_Brushing 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 shines 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.