Zeynep Ankara: Radio play

War Baby I

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:19:56 GMT

(*)

W A R B A B Y

EFECT - (War noices. War noices fade away. Some footsteps on the hays. Footsteps gathered speed and stopped. Some agitated flaps.)

WOMAN – Here it is!.. I got hold of you by the wing! Stow it, you can’t fly! Be good... So what, you seem tired as me. Don’t, you can’t fly!.. Look at you... Be good... I have to do it. Otherwise, I will die and the baby inside of me too... I have to do it even so hard. For my baby... For myself... Beautiful bird... You can’t imagine how I feel. I am nourished with wild grass or garbage for months! I am exhausted anymore. My knees... I have to... kill you!

EFECT - (Some agitated flaps.)

WOMAN – (Hopeless) No, no... I can’t do this! Never. How could I think like that?.. But... I have not to think this now. Either it will alive or me!.. (Decided) Either it will alive, or me! Either it, or me!.. (Hopeless) Either it, or me!.. Don’t look askance at me like that... What some beautiful eyes you have... What a beautiful head... What a dainty neck you have... It is just as much as my finger... as a pinkie pinky... I have to do it! It will be as easy as winking. I have to close my eyes and break your neck... with a little finger act. It happens in a flash. Yes...

EFECT - (Some agitated flaps).

WOMAN – (Hopeless) I can’t... I will never be able to do it!.. (Scary) Ah!.. Who is that?!..

EFECT - (Brush noices).

I.SOLDIER – (Fade in) (Scary) Do, do, don’t move, I shoot you!

WOMAN – A solgier!.. But you... How do you hold the gun like that?.. Its barrel looking at the ground.

I.SOLDİER – (Uneasy) Don’t close, I shoot you!.. I don’t want to shoot... anyone.

WOMAN – (Suggestive) A soldier who doesn’t like the war... Or, are you on the run? Did you run from your troop?

I.SOLDIER – If you close one more step, I will shoot you!

WOMAN – How I can hurm you?.. Look at me, I will pass out nearly, I even can’t kill this bird.

I.SOLDIER – Are you hungry?

WOMAN – Who is not hungry in this damned war?

I.SOLDIER – Don’t close! Stay there!

WOMAN – Don’t you understand, I don’t harm you. Besides, the one who has gun is you... (Gobsmacked) How scary you are.

I.SOLDIER – Will you... kill that animal?

WOMAN – I don’t know what will I do... I have no effort on my knees anymore. A side of me is hunger, the other side also a great drive... Besides, this poor being inside of me...

I.SOLDIER – Don’t incure the bird. I give you some food... and to the bird also...

WOMAN – Really, will you? Good for you soldier!

I.SOLDIER – Close here slowly... Look at me, if you try to do something, I shoot you! I don’t keep a stiff upper lift.

WOMAN – (Suggestive) You will, I believe it... Do not worry.

EFECT – (There are some war noices from behind. Some supplies noices)

I. SOLDIER – Here it is for the bird at first... Yeees... (Tender) Lo and behold, you will like these pieces.

WOMAN – (Ne kadar da acıkmış) It is so starving. It is the same as me... You may caress its head... What a sweet thing, isn’t it?

I.SOLDIER – (Timid) Yes...

WOMAN – It wants to go... I have to let it go.

EFECT – (Some flaps)

I.SOLDIER – (Calling after it) Be free always! May no one can’t do harm to you!

WOMAN – Fly beautiful bird...

I.SOLDIER – And now, for you... May you hold the gun?

WOMAN – (Confused) Your gun?.. Okay...

EFECT – (Bag zipper, some mixed voices.)

I.SOLDIER – Some rusks and... preserved meat... There was some canned beans but completely exhausted.

WOMAN – What the hell. Even it will be a banquet for me... Get your gun. It is so heavy. I didn’t know what they were so heavy. (Having an appetite, champings and gulpings.) I was eating some weeds that I could find about since long time. If it is called aliment... There are no plant, no flower anymore, huh... Everything is burning down at the double. Aren’t you hungry?

I.SOLDIER – No... Actually, I am trying to extend my accomodations period.

WOMAN – You gave me from your food. You are a good man.

I.SOLDIER – I had always some food for the others. And for the animals also... I want to give food to the all hungry animals.

WOMAN – To all of them?..

I.SOLDIER – Yes... I was cheek by jowl with cats and dogs even before the war. They never made a hostile demonstration against me... I would like to save all animals. No one shouldn’t famish. Neither people nor animals...

WOMAN – What will happen when you use up all your provisions? It is war... A time will come, you will not be able to feed on, even for yourself. And also, what can you do by yourself?.. You simply talk your head off with sorrow. You can’t give food to the all hungry animals in the world. You can’t give food to the all hungry people. You can’t be God!..

I.SOLDIER – (Sigh)

WOMAN – Anyway, it is non of my business. (Laugh) Plainly, my stomach had becamed small because of not to eat so much for a long time. I couldn’t eat this piece of rusk. Get it, maybe you find a hungry animal.

EFECT – (A bomb explosion around)

WOMAN – Oh, my god! I have to run! (Hiccup).

I.SOLDIER – We haven’t to forget the field bag! There! Hurry up!

EFECT – (Running; footsteps.)

WOMAN – (Hiccup) I have always hiccup when I dread... I hope, my babe doesn’t come to harm...

I.SOLDIER – I saw a gate... Come on!

EFECT – (Original music fade in, passing, the music fade out, firefly noises.)

WOMAN – It is weird, there are still some fireflies, isn’t it?.. What a silence... As if the war never began. As if, I will never hear some machine gun noises anymore... If there wouldn’t be some smell of burning, what a nice night.

I.SOLDIER – I got used to that sharp smell... Some people or animals can’t run away from the bombs and they are burning while alive... And trees, wild grasses, lonely houses... I hate all of these!

WOMAN – Do you run away from war?.. (Silence) Okay, I shouldn’t ask. But I have to say that you are so weird. (Happy) Ah, my babe moved!.. While I run, I was scary if something happen to my babe.

I.SOLDIER – Where are you going?

WOMAN – If you want the truth, I don’t know... Somewhere at the far away from this blood and fire... (Doubtful) Is there anywhere like that in the world now? There is war in everywhere. As if, I am in this damned war since I was born... (Hopeless) Will it go on like that always? Will I be able to raise my babe in somewhere away from war?

I.SOLDIER – Where is its father?

WOMAN – Its father?.. No father.

I.SOLDIER – Is he dead?

WOMAN – Something of the kind... We are... with him... I mean, its father and I... To tell the truth...

I.SOLDIER – If it is so sticky, you may not tell. I asked it cursorily.

WOMAN – No, no... I see no harm in it. It is a story just like thousands of the others in this war. Ah, it moved again!.. I will always keep watchful eye upon my babe after its birth. I will save it at any price. It will not be a missing child, it will not be a child who is left on its own, it will not be one of abandoned children.

I.SOLDIER – Children who have suffer... They hadn’t deserved it too.

WOMAN – My babe! I will always be with you. It is feeling me, when I palm my abdomen like this... We were collaborating in a work with its father, before the war... Actually, our relation is not a kind of thing which has a hopeful future... We were windowed at the outbreak of hostilities. One day, I knocked up against him at an uprecedented place. And we came up skin to skin soon. In other words, it happened in a flash. Then, each of us went to the other sides.

I.SOLDIER – War... The human being is doing up so many things which will not to do in normal life. Apres moi le deluge. Depredation, fire, rape... Who knows, how many war baby in the abdomens of women now...

WOMAN – Me... Aaaa... Well... Can you give me some rusk please?

I.SOLDIER – Bacon is came to an end. Now all rusk.

WOMAN – Thank you. One or two is enough. (Chewing and gulping soon) Fortunately I ran against you. Otherwise, it would be awful... I had no effort anymore. Do you tell me about yourself a little?

I.SOLDIER – I have not such an interesting story worth mentioning.

WOMAN – (Gulping) So both of us are ordinary people. But still it must be something that you mention about... Frankly, you don’t look like a warlike person.

I.SOLDIER – So many people like me guess the war is consisting of some showy uniforms and rapturous marchs. I can’t say anything for uniforms but while saying that marchs... in chorus, heart to heart, to the seventh heaven... As if I was growing different. My blood was streaming different, my heart was beating different... As if, all people under the uniforms, were all same to each other anymore. It was just one purpose for all us: To wipe out the other kind of uniformed people. It was easy to think like that with marchs.

Copyrighted by Zeynep Ankara.

To be continued on the following entry:

War Baby II

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:18:46 GMT

EFECT – (A melody with harmonica rather slowly)

WOMAN – You seem have fear to blow your harmonica.

I.SOLDIER – Maybe one day, I blow it as a free citizen. Who knows...

WOMAN – (Sigh) I want to survive till my old age. May my hair get grey, my skin be wrinkled, my teeth are shed... (Laugh) Besides, I reconcile myself to be a harridan, who has rheumatism, has a long tongue...

I.SOLDIER – Did you ever kill someone?

WOMAN – What?!.. No!

I.SOLDIER – I did.

WOMAN – You are a soldier.

I.SOLDIER – I did... I have killed him!

WOMAN – People are killing to each other. It is awful, even in war... But, you... You can’t harm to a being, never... I can’t believe it!.. Was it an enemy?

I.SOLDIER – (Wry smile) I was an enemy for him too.

WOMAN – When? How? Tell me some more...

I.SOLDIER – Was it one week ego, or one month?.. I am confused about time anymore. When is the night coming to an end, when is the day beginning; day and night are melding lately... But, I think, it was some time of the day’s obsolescent hours. We had just come to the march but we were dying at the double. Our only solution was to silence the machine gun wheel of the enemy. We should survive just like that way... Our commander began to one of the enthusiastic march. We joined him one by one... Then, I was the first at the zone of attack. Maybe I will be able to take a glorious war medal to my family.

WOMAN – But, if you don’t die...

I.SOLDIER – Frankly, I never thought that I could die that moment. As if a taliman had begun to save me. I was herculean... I was... like a... God. I found myself behind of the soldier who is in the machine gun wheel. I blew his brains out on the first impulse! (Confused) I killed him!

WOMAN – With this gun?

I.SOLDIER – (Anxious) Yes... The machine gun wasn’t disgorging anymore. Was everything becomed silent at that moment?.. While the soldier is tumbling on the mountain site, I was running after. I don’t know why but I was running. He stopped at the end of the side, with knock against an wizened tree. His hair got dusty. The blood in stream and some brain had run out of the hole of his head. The blood was streaming to the ground.

WOMAN – (Fearful) Stop it! Don’t tell anymore!

I.SOLDIER – There was no expression of him. That moment... I felt a displacement with him. He was an alive human being a few minutes ego, and that moment, what was a distance is it... Distant and inaccessible!.. If I give my hand, I would touch, but he... He was so far and unattainable!.. I suddenly realised a respect about him inside of me. But why was that respect, I can’t find even now... His hair was dusty. The blood which mixed with dirt... There was some crumble into dust in his eyes... His eyes were open...

WOMAN – Enough! Stop it! Stop, stop, stop!

I.SOLDIER – I am tired... I am so tired. I killed a man.

WOMAN – And yo can’t start from this fact! But... Why to me too...

I.SOLDIER – You asked me to tell. However, you had caught on that I was a draft resister at first sight. Besides, do you think that was easy to relive that all moments for me too?.. Anyway, never mind.

WOMAN – (Sigh) We have better to begin to walk anymore.

I.SOLDIER – (Blow off steam) Where will you walk?!.. There are always blood and smell of burning everywhere. Do you guess that the place where will you go is different from here?!

WOMAN – Maybe there is a place like that. Maybe! Why are you undoing my hopes?!

I.SOLDIER – Pipedreams!.. Bull shit! I had some dreams till yesterday too! Yes, I never lost my hopes till yesterday but it always hurt me. If there is no hope... The hopes must be lost, there is no point in waiting!.. (Cynical) I have hopes!..

WOMAN – (Weepy) But... If there is nothing nice that waits us tomorrow... How can you drag me into pessimism?! Was it you the one who acts free the bird?! What kind a man you are?!

I.SOLDIER – (Angry) Don’t you understand?! There is no future anymore, either for you or me, or the bird, or the baby! Everything is coming to an end, don’t you see?!

WOMAN – (Hopeless) My hopes... But... I will not listen you anymore. It must be a place without war. I will find it and bear my babe there. Now, I am going. Whether come with me or stay here.

II.SOLDIER – (Fade in) Don’t move! Both of you!

WOMAN – (Scary) (Whoop) My babe... (Hiccup)

II.SOLDIER – (On mike) Hands up! Move! No false!.. You, soldier, lay down your gun. Easy! Very easy!..

EFECT – (A voice while be left a gun to the ground)

II.SOLDIER –That’s good!

EFECT – (Footsteps on the hay)

II.SOLDIER – What is in that bag?

I.SOLDIER – Some rusks... and a daily book.

II.SOLDIER – Map and compass?

I.SOLDIER – I have map but compass...

WOMAN – Great!.. Add to my work! The soldier who lost his bearings! (Hiccup)

II.SOLDIER – Shut up! You, soldier, hurl the bag to my feet. Don’t any false!

EFECT – (A voice which the bag is falling down. Some voices while the bag is mixing.)

WOMAN – If you take all of the rusks, what will we do then?

II.SOLDIER – I am taking captive you. You will keep my commandments!

WOMAN – What of it if you take captive us in this godforsaken hole? You had lost your bearings also... Where do you expect to take away us?

II.SOLDIER – (Explode with rage) Shut your f’n mouth up! If I shoot your potatosack paunch, you will see!

WOMAN – (Scary) No, no!.. Please!..

II.SOLDIER – That’s better, mend your ways!.. Did you realise, who is your dancing partner?!

WOMAN – Yes, I realised. Please...

II.SOLDIER – Now for it, crouch there. We will stay here, till I rest.

EFECT – (Some cannom shoots away)

WOMAN – It began again...

II.SOLDIER – You say soldier... Are you coming from the place where the cannom shoots?

I.SOLDIER – Me... I don’t belong anywhere... You are trying to understand that your battery or not, but... I am not any side anymore!

II.SOLDIER – (Cynical) That means, you are a rebel... Son of a bitch! Therefore you are not their side too... (Laugh) You have a hard row to hoe buddy... Because, if they snag, both of the two side will kick you.

I.SOLDIER – (Indifferent) Here I am in your hands! Do whatever you want!

EFECT – (Machine gun; shower of lead)

II.SOLDIER – Don’t try to get my back up one more time! Otherwise, you will have no time even regret! Next time, I will zero in on you, not to the sky! Do you want to suicide, ha?!..

WOMAN – (Hiccup) Please, please...

II.SOLDIER – Yeees... You are beautiful, but... Your abdomen is very ugly.

WOMAN – Before you come into the world (hiccup), your mother’s abdomen was like that too.

II.SOLDIER – (Nervous laugh) You are smart... You are beautiful, hummm... Are you sharp witted always; or does your brain shine occasionally, ha?.. I know women such as you. Stupid and nice women... But you can’t get along to use your brain. Your beauty confuses the men just like confuses yourself too. You flicker as a spoiled lamp.

WOMAN – (Uneasy) To be a woman is an inadvertent character... like to be a man...

II.SOLDIER – Aaah, a feminist!.. I always liked to talk to you. Maybe you are qualified to speak but I can’t listen to you now.

WOMAN – (Uneasy) Why you must say that I am a woman at any rate? I don’t understand all these... It was a different war for me, before the war too.

II.SOLDIER – (Cynical) I understand you dear. You should burn the candle at both ends to prove yourself, because you were beautiful. Ah, beautiful women!.. Some of you are too intellectual as much as men but somehow you grub. You don’t know, your biggest enemy are the other women, not us.

WOMAN – However, I wanted to be friendly with my fellows always. But alas!.. My hands which reach for friendship are always kept just so... Maybe they were insistent reaches; so suspended them. But... Nevermore... Why?

II.SOLDIER – (Pedant) It is not difficult to understand this my dear... Jealousy! Tricks, dirty tricks to be first. It is all same. Null!.. Actually, you are what you are, at all events, you all are some critters which take in us employ always! Your beings are just for us... Isn’t it, soldier?

I.SOLDIER – (Quietness)

II.SOLDIER – All right... What I was saying?.. You, beautiful women, spend your energy just for make us happy. Don’t worry about what follows. We solve the worldly issues.

WOMAN – (With a depressed anger) Is that so?! By war?! You looked at women in the way you looked at the world.

II.SOLDIER – (Insulting) Don’t pump your brains for ideas like that dear...

WOMAN – Whenever you see a strong extraordinary woman, all of you try to humble her pride. You stick out like a sore thumb! You lie in wait for her weak moments!.. Yes, I was swindled so much from women in the office but you too cracked down on me to meet your surface partner?!.. (Travesty of their style) “What will you do tonight sweety?” “Let’s play hookey, I am alone at home these days.” “Don’t you want to live like a cat? Don’t flog yourself, you are what you are.” “You are fascinate, come on...”

II.SOLDIER – (Insulting) Fascinate, huh...

WOMAN – And one day, I saw myself a woman who answers to all purposes. Now, it is not difficult to have my body if you have money.

I.SOLDIER – (Frustrated) But you had said... You lay to me!..

WOMAN – (Feel pity) Poor soldier, you have a hard row to hoe in life... Yes, I am playing the role that you created anymore! (Shouting) I am like you anymore but I don’t love you! I don’t love myself too!

II.SOLDIER – Hey, calm down... Easy there! Don’t spew your anger on me! Look my dear, non of your lip. It is a simple rule: The one who poor dissolves in life. The one who strong, continues... Who is strong this moment? Me! If I want, I can destroy both of you in a flash!

I.SOLDIER – (Soliloguy) If you haven’t a gun, could you speak like that?

II.SOLDIER – What do you grumble there?!

I.SOLDIER – Non... Nothing.

II.SOLDIER – That’s better... What happened woman? What is happening?

WOMAN – (Worried) I think... The time is... Babe...

II.SOLDIER – This is the last straw! Women!

Copyrighted by Zeynep Ankara.

To be continued on the following entrie: