RAECHKA: Sorry! No!
BORIS: I do know that only you could make me happy. In these times we should be together.
RAECHKA: We never could be on the same page.
BORIS: You never felt sorry for me?
RAECHKA: And were you ever sorry for me, when we were together?
BORIS: Well in some sense… The divorce was your idea. You knew how badly I was taking it, and yet you insisted.
RAECHKA: I waited a long time for you to change..
BORIS: I’m sorry… I didn’t have the right attitude about our relationship.
RAECHKA: What was your “attitude” about your marriage?
BORIS: Back then… When we met, and courted, you so wanted to marry me. You started the ball rolling, and hung in there… In the end I decided OK, I would be your husband, but I would continue to do as I was used to…
RAECHKA (upset): Your reasoning it never occurred to me…
BORIS: I couldn’t tell you. You were so happy. I didn’t want to screw it up.
RAECHKA: Yes, I was happy, when you decided to marry me… I loved you… And you, did you love me then?
BORIS: I loved you then, RAECHKA! And I love you even more now…
RAECHKA: You are joking (she admits a young flirtatious laugh)
BORIS: How do you manage to hide such a flirtatious young laugh?
RAECHKA: I don’t know. Maybe because I so seldom laugh and smile.
BORIS: The divorce ruined the whole of our life. We have lost each other…
(Boris moves chair closer to Raechka) Do you think it was easy for me to leave you and the old familiar nest?
RAECHKA: What «nest» are you talking about? We had only just arrived here and you continued to feel free enough to chase every pretty skirt you saw. I didn’t trust you.
BORIS: Now you can trust me. I promise. All I want is five years in a peaceful comfortable situation, to help you…
RAECHKA: Do you want us to live together again?
BORIS: Why not? We are of the same ilk. You are also a homebody. We both have so much to talk about, so many common memories..
RAECHKA: Maybe I don’t want to remember.
BORIS: I often think about our past… How close our relationship was in Russia…
RAECHKA: Yes, we were joined by our common danger… survival.
(Pause)
BORIS (dream): And do you remember how we used to go camping? We lived in tents… We set out to find firewood in the forest and made a fire… And then we boiled potatoes in a kettle…
RAECHKA: We never boiled potatoes in a kettle… We put them right in the fire…
BORIS: Ah, yes! We argued about how long to wait before taking them out.
RAECHKA: We were ravenously hungry… and burned our fingers opening the potatoes’ hot, black skin…
