LOVE SCENES

Scene 1
Time is 6.49 a

The main cha a ter is loo ing h per-vi lant. He has an u us al

sprint-walk. He zig-zags. It looks as though he is wal ing to-
wards a ta get but also avoids it like an u wan ed e ta gl ment
at the same time.

But som thing on the ri er catc es his a te tion. He stops, and

takes out a m bile phone and points at the ri er. He lets out a few
curse words at the phone. O v ou ly, it has lost po er at a very
cr cial m ment.
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 Scene 2
That mor in

Like most nights since J and I broke up, I hadn’t slept much be-
fore I took my walk this mor ing

I opened my eyes and there he was, loo ing to men ed and sleep-
d prived. The words came out, “I am not in love with you any-
more.” It had been three years since those words were u tered.
You would think a pa de ic could put some di tance b tween
the pain and me.

For a p r od J felt r spo s ble. J r my, Llew lyn, Jared and Lo-
gan. They all r ci ed the same lines wri ten out on the page for a
si g lar cha a ter

“You are the most i te es ing pe son I have met.

They boo en ed their pe fo mances by emo ing the same con-

tempt.

Across my o p nent, I played the vi tim who was co ned to the

no man’s land. I had been set up. It was a kind of game that you
won’t win and you can’t leave. The script had ne er r a ly pro-
gressed b yond

ACE!!

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 Scene 3
Dus

The Yarra ri er a ways had a ne tar-like gloss on the su face,

like a lush and ge e ous oil pain ing.

There was a raft mo ing slo ly on the w ter. The ri ples

emerged in a dense and slow-m tion on the w ter as the bow of
the raft pierced through and opened the seam. It tore the s lence
b tween two men on that raft. The c r ous thing about this scene
was that b hind these two men, there were two trees too.

The sy bol of two trees side by side 林 is the Ch nese cha a ter
for L gan’s su name. And the sy bol of two h mans 从 is the
Ch nese cha a ter for the prep s tion from. The vista b came
blurred. I b lieved it was a me sage from him. He hadn’t wan ed
to speak to me at all. Su de ly, this me sage til ed me into the
ri pling thic ness as he was lea ing me b hind.

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 Scene 4
One Su day a te noo

The a d ence and the stage were se ra ed by a thin v neer. I

used to be o stage.

I was loo ing in from the a te life at my fo mer life po la ed by

strange, c r ous and bea t ful cha a ters. The pe son who played
the pr ta nist wasn’t a stand-in. He had been r placed. That sta-
tion was now held by som one else. But I was at peace. The com-
ple ty of li ing a life and the i re o ci abi ty of love and hurt
was a co tract that I was once a pa ty to. But I felt e ther calm or
dead b cause not ing ma tered an more. And yet I was lled
with love for them. Love stayed.

Epilogue
These are the raw wounds stitched and re-stitched in my search
for new i sights into life, worlds and un ver es. Pe haps by mov-
ing my su fe ing to di fe ent places I could su l mate the pain.
And by a strac ing its or gin and for ing the que tion di fe en ly
I would u co er the rem dies. Pe haps art and all that it does is
take over the weight from our hands and hold it above the w ter.

So we can breathe. And we may be set free.

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