Scene Five
from The Bells of Amersfoort
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2019
Summary
Tumi's world. She is not there. Only her trombone and an empty glass. KATJA and MARTIJN enter. He is carrying a drum.
MARTIJN: I see she takes her music seriously.
KATJA: Not really. She takes her wine seriously. She only uses the trombone to annoy the neighbours.
MARTIJN takes the trombone and tries to blow it.
KATJA: Don't touch that. She gets annoyed when anybody touches her instrument.
But MARTIJN continues to blow discordant notes.
MARTIJN: An odd choice of instrument. You don't find many women playing the trombone.
KATJA: She took it up when she came here. Self-taught. She's still not that good at it, although she thinks she is.
MARTIJN: Drumming and trombone. That is a ridiculous combination, isn't it?
KATJA: Drumming and storytelling, that's what I had in mind. And maybe singing African songs. Of course, she may insist on playing the trombone. I am sure you'll find a way around that.
MARTIJN: Can she sing then?
KATJA: I thought every black person could sing.
MARTIJN: Just like every black person can dance? Katja, I thought you brought me here for something serious. Something meaningful.
KATJA: It may turn out to be more meaningful than you think. She is beautiful.
MARTIJN: Are you saying what I think you are saying?
KATJA: She often says she is a seeker. Has been looking for something since childhood. But never really knew what it was. Her loneliness is the loneliness of a seeker. I think she looked in the wrong places. Maybe you are it.
MARTIJN: It?
KATJA: The thing she has been looking for.
MARTIJN [laughs]: Does she know you are trying to be a matchmaker?
KATJA: Not quite. She thinks my interests lie only in setting up a small band that will keep her busy and take her mind off the wine. MARTIJN: What makes you think Fd want to go out with an alcoholic?
KATJA [adamantly]: She is not an alcoholic. She is just lonely, that's all. And thinks that wine will give her happiness. She needs a beautiful strong man like you. She is an intelligent woman. Someone you could be serious about.
MARTIJN: Serious? So you have you already set the wedding date?
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- Information
- Fools, Bells and the Habit of EatingThree Satires, pp. 132 - 134Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2002