Tales of Freedom Read Free Page B

opposite direction.

Book Three

One
    IN ANOTHER CLEARING , in the forest, a young man and a young woman sat at a distance from one another. They were surrounded by a dense screen of trees and shrubs. There were muted bird calls in the air, and the faint noise of a baby crying. On a tree there was a sign which read ‘Eden to Let’.
    The young man and young woman, with their hands outstretched on the ground, barely touched one another. The sky was clear.
    ‘I wish you wouldn’t be so cruel to me,’ said the young man.
    ‘I’m not being cruel to you,’ replied the young woman.
    ‘Yes you are.’
    ‘No I’m not.’
    ‘Do we have to argue again?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Why do we have to argue and argue?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said the young woman. ‘I suppose it’s the most important part of our relationship.’
    ‘No it’s not.’
    ‘Stop telling me what is and what isn’t.’
    ‘I’m not telling you anything. I’m just disagreeing, that’s all.’
    ‘Well, stop that as well.’
    ‘We don’t have to go on like this, you know.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Because we are married. Much more than that, we have been together for a long time and we should have reached a deep under standing by now.’
    ‘Well, haven’t we?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said the young man. ‘It’s just that we argue and fight and hurt each other so much.’
    ‘And don’t you find any satisfaction in that?’
    The young man smiled with pleasure, and then said:
    ‘I can’t say that I don’t.’
    ‘Then what are you blathering about?’
    ‘It’s just that, you see, we are here all by ourselves. There’s nobody else around. We have no need to pretend that we don’t get on with one another. You know how people used to envy us our passion and how, because of that, they used to spoil things for us, and how, because of that, we had to disguise our feelings. Well, now that we’ve been wandering about together there is no need for all that. I mean, I really want to discover you again.’
    ‘God, you’re a moaner,’ said the young woman.
    ‘Why do you say that?’
    ‘Well, for the past many years we’ve been discovering each other again and again. After a fight we discover each other. After you’ve gone away to live with someone else and you’ve run back, we’ve discovered each other. After I had the baby we discovered each other again. Don’t you get tired of these discoveries?’
    ‘No, I think discoveries are wonderful.’
    ‘You mean like discovering our capacity for cruelty?’
    ‘That as well.’
    ‘And discovering our insecurities?’
    ‘Yes. Yes.’
    ‘And that it is our cruelty and weaknesses that bind us together?’
    ‘Yes. Wonderful symbiosis.’
    ‘And secretly discovering how much we hate each other’s strengths and beauties?’
    ‘It’s all part of it.’
    ‘And that we’ve made a tolerable hell for each other?’
    ‘A tolerable hell is better than an impossible heaven.’
    ‘You are a fool,’ said the young woman.
    ‘So I am.’
    ‘But I love you.’
    ‘I love you too.’
    ‘I feel a lot of tenderness for you.’
    ‘I feel a volcanic warmth for you.’
    ‘You seducer.’
    ‘You … I don’t know what.’
    ‘Do you love me?’
    ‘Do you promise,’ said the young man, ‘that if I answer honestly we won’t get into another argument?’
    ‘Yes. I just want to know.’
    ‘Well then, yes. You know I do. We wouldn’t have stayed together all this time if I didn’t.’
    ‘You stupid fool!’ cried the young woman.
    ‘What?’
    ‘I said you stupid fool.’
    ‘What did I say wrong?’
    ‘You know perfectly well why we’ve stayed together all this time.’
    ‘I know,’ said the young man, perplexed. ‘I’ve just said it.’
    ‘You bloody moron.’
    ‘Look, I’m sorry if I didn’t say it with enough tenderness.’
    ‘Who cares about your idiotic tenderness?’
    ‘It’s just that I thought you’d be bored by it.’
    ‘We stayed together precisely because we did not really