by Hideki Noda
Scene 23
The Consultation Room.
WOMAN
Where’s my lighter?
What have I done with my lighter?
What have I done?
WOMAN imagines she has burnt her hand. She panics. PSYCHIATRIST turns off tape-recorder.
PSYCHIATRIST
Yumi? How did you burn your hand?
WOMAN smiles.
Who are you today?
WOMAN
I am the happiest woman in the world.
He’s going to leave her, he’s going to marry me.
PSYCHIATRIST
Lady Rokujo?
Scene 24
Enter PROSECUTOR and CHIEF OF POLICE.
Interrogation Room.
PROSECUTOR
Yumi,
Let us tell you about the death penalty:
In this state, when one is sentenced to death,
One is held alone, in a cell;
No visits, no company, no telephone.
Nor is one, nor one’s lawyer, nor one’s family
Told when the day shall be.
So, every morning at five o’clock,
The prisoner must await the knock:
Is that breakfast or is that death?
WOMAN (Feeling her tummy.)
I felt it, I felt it. It’s true! It’s true!
After I lost the first I thought I was through,
Too late, my last chance gone.
I’m sorry gentlemen, I’d love to chat on,
But I must dress myself for the Kamo Festival.
PROSECUTOR
For up to seven years, alone in their cell,
The condemned must live like that –
WOMAN
And Genji’s captaining a team in the games.
CHIEF OF POLICE
And then, when the day eventually comes.
WOMAN
He asked me and not his wife to attend.
CHIEF OF POLICE
It happens so fast.
WOMAN
He’s going to leave her. He’s told her at last,
I’m sure.
CHIEF OF POLICE
The papers signed, you’re taken to the room –
WOMAN
Last night. He sent me a message.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Without ceremony –
WOMAN
And actually, gentlemen, between ourselves, I hope –
No, I dare not say!
CHIEF OF POLICE
So fast, so fast that is but for the final act –
WOMAN
Yes, in fact, I’m sure he’s going to propose to me there.
CHIEF OF POLICE
The last one we hanged took half an hour
To kick and thrash himself to death upon the rope,
His body –
WOMAN
Look what I’ve written on my fan.
CHIEF OF POLICE
– had to be cremated,
It was so bruised and battered when he’d finally done.
WOMAN
‘You and me forever.’
CHIEF OF POLICE
Sign this statement, admit responsibility –
PROSECUTOR
I’ll see that you just get life.
WOMAN
You and me.
The Consultation Room.
PSYCHIATRIST
Yumi?
PROSECUTOR
One last session Doctor, one.
Then you must make your report.
The public demand justice,
The public are outraged.
Scene 25
The Kamo Festival.
GENJI (READING FAN.)
‘You and me forever.’
WOMAN
It’s written on my heart.
GENJI
And I shall return the favour, my dear Rokujo.
(He writes.)
‘Never sundered, never torn apart’
WOMAN
Your wife, Lady Aoi,
Aoi’s Men
Since she had given birth to their first boy,
Seldom ventured into public with her husband.
And, her advanced state of pregnancy
Only added to her reluctance to venture beyond the palace gates.
Rokujo’s men
But her servants and her friends all begged her:
‘Come to the Kamo Festival.’
Aoi’s men
And so Lady Aoi relented. She would, after all,
And unbeknownst to him,
Join her husband at the entertainment.
Rokujo’S MEN
The sun was already high when they set forth.
Aoi’S MEN
But the road was too crowded to let her procession pass.
Rokujo’S MEN
So her men commenced clearing the road, until at last
Only two palm frond-carriages remained –
Aoi’S MEN
Her’s –
ROKUJO’S MEN
And Rokujo’s.
AOI’S MEN
Out of the way for the Lady Aoi.
ROKUJO’S MEN
Who do you think you are talking to boy?
My mistress isn’t someone you push out of the way.
AOI’S MEN
Who are you to tell us who we can push and can’t?
ROKUJO’S Men
Who are you who thinks you can supplant
My mistress’s position? Don’t you know who she is?
Pause.
AOI’S MEN
No, I don’t know who your mistress is.
The carriages crash. ROKUJO’s carriage falls to the ground
GENJI
Lady Rokujo, I must introduce you
To my wife Lady Aoi.
AOI
Pleased to meet you.
GENJI
She is my assistant, at work.
And this is my son Kazu.
WOMAN
Pleased to meet you Kazu too.
AoI
Kazu has just started school.
WOMAN
How nice!
AOI
He’s in the gifted and talented class.
WOMAN
Fantastic.
AOI
And the baseball team, he’s captain, just like his father.
WOMAN
How nice!
Now if you don’t mind, I’ve had rather –
AOI
O, I felt it! I felt it just now!
WOMAN
I beg your pardon?
AOI
You cannot keep a good man down!
I’m pregnant yet again.
I just felt my baby move around.
The feeling, it tickles, it’s quite funny.
Feel it, feel my tummy!
GENJI
Feel my wife’s tummy, Rokujo, do!
WOMAN feels AOI’s stomach. AOI goes to sit. WOMAN passes fan to GENJI.
WOMAN
You and me forever.
GENJI (Shows fan’s other side to WOMAN.)
Never sundered, never torn apart.
GENJI goes to AOI.
WOMAN
Don’t turn away from me,
Don’t break my heart.
You said you’d leave her, not me.
Don’t turn away from me my jewel.
WOMAN telephones GENJI.
GENJI going to pick up phone, AOI gets there first.
I’ll get rid of it, just like I did the last,
I have decided to –
AOI
Who are you?
WOMAN hangs up. AOI phones her back.
WOMAN
Genji?
AOI
Who are you?
Actions and words are repeated several times. Telephones ring constantly.
GENJI
Okay! Okay! Okay!
I’ll tell you who she is.
She’s Yumi, Yumi Yamanaka,
You met h
er at the Company’s Sports Day,
My PA.
We’ve been having an affair for the last two years.
You can’t say it surprises you.
And please, please, please spare me the tears.
AOI
Bitch! You knew he was married.
WOMAN
I’m sorry, I thought you knew
He told me that he told you
I’m so sorry
These lines are repeated. Silence.
WOMAN performs abortion.
AOI phones ROKUJO.
WOMAN
Genji?
AOI
You are good for nothing, bitch,
But scraping babies from your womb.
WOMAN as ROKUJO becomes Hannya.
AOI heavily pregnant is possessed by the spirit of the Hannya.
GENJI
Who are you?
What spirit are you who has possessed my wife?
Identify yourself.
WOMAN
‘You and me forever’.
AOI dies.
GENJI
Rokujo! What have you done?
Scene 26
Consultation Room.
PSYCHIATRIST
So Rokujo’s spirit possessed Aoi and Aoi died?
Pause.
But you did not possess Sasaki’s wife, Yumi,
And Sasaki’s wife, she did not die.
She gave birth to a second child.
What possessed you, Yumi?
What possessed you to do it?
WOMAN picks up chair and rocks it.
WOMAN
I am a heart that is full of hate,
I am like a bush that has no root,
I am the firefly’s flash and flicker in the dark,
Then I am gone.
My life fades like the dew from the leaf.
My love can never be restored,
Not even in a dream.
It is a gleam glinting up
From the deep, deep waters of the past.
PSYCHIATRIST
What are you doing?
WOMAN appears to enact the murder of the two Sasaki children as her statement is read.
Scene 27
On the steps of the Police Station to the assembled press.
CHIEF OF POLICE
‘In the morning Sasaki leaves the apartment with his wife, she drops him to the train station. I am watching from a car parked opposite as I have watched each morning for the past month, since her calls became too much to bear. The two children I know are still asleep inside.
PROSECUTOR
‘I have only seven minutes. I take the paraffin canister from the car, enter the building and go up to his apartment. I have a spare key. I am careful when I open the door not to leave fingerprints on the handle.
CHIEF OF POLICE
‘I pour the paraffin around the living room and light a cigarette, but I cannot start a fire with it.
PROSECUTOR
‘There are some envelopes on the table, I try to light a fire with them in vain. I see a child in the doorway, I hear a baby crying.
CHIEF OF POLICE
‘The crying grows louder and louder. I listen to the baby crying. I am struck by the sound. So commonplace, and yet to me it is a knife cutting me here, just below my breast. I look down and see –
PROSECUTOR
‘That the handkerchief I hold has caught fire.
CHIEF OF POLICE
‘I run in panic and drop both lighter and handkerchief –
PROSECUTOR
‘A sudden blast of burning air –
CHIEF OF POLICE
‘I am blown away outside of the apartment.
PROSECUTOR
‘I almost faint.
CHIEF OF POLICE
‘I pick myself up as best as I am able –
PROSECUTOR
‘And run away.’
Scene 28
The trial is heard as the execution chamber is prepared.
CHIEF OF POLICE
I am happy to confirm that we have charged Miss Yumi Yamanaka of Fuchu City for the murder of the Sasaki children. We are confident that we have the right person.
PROSECUTOR
I ask you once again, Doctor, does the defendant know who she is?
Pause.
PSYCHIATRIST
Yes. But –
PROSECUTOR
And has she demonstrated awareness of the crime that has been committed?
PSYCHIATRIST
Yes, but –
PROSECUTOR
And does she admit to a role in this crime?
PSYCHIATRIST
She demonstrates awareness of the crime, and admits to causing the death of four children, but –
PROSECUTOR
Thank you.
PSYCHIATRIST
But I believe responsibility, in clinical terms –
PROSECUTOR
The terms of reference are clear, doctor –
Pscychiatrist
The question remains who she believed herself to be when she committed this act –
PROSECUTOR
– and in light of the evidence before me, I have no alternative –
CHIEF OF POLICE
A victory for justice. A victory for the truth.
WOMAN is hanged.
Scene 29
Consultation Room. PSYCHIATRIST listens to the following on his tape recorder.
PSYCHIATRIST
Please sit down Yumi. Do you know why you are here?
WOMAN
I killed four children.
PSYCHIATRIST
You killed two children not four, Yumi.
WOMAN
I killed four children.
PSYCHIATRIST
Why do you insist on four? Who are the other two?
The PSYCHIATRIST goes to the hanged body and takes her down. The PSYCHIATRIST and the WOMAN dive under the sea.
Scene 30
Under the sea, they swim searching for lost treasure. The PSYCHIATRIST leads WOMAN to the red ribbon that was her aborted child. She gathers it to herself. The PSYCHIATRIST takes one end. It resembles an umbilical. The PSYCHIATRIST resembles her lost child. She is reunited with her lost child. She is at peace. The umbilical is cut to release the PSYCHIATRIST. WOMAN remains on the bottom of the ocean as the PSYCHIATRIST resurfaces and gasps for air.
The End.