CLOUDLET

On the table there is a spirit lamp, aluminum kettle and two metal soldier’s mugs. OldMac and Enyo are seated on two rickety chairs.

OLDMAC: I'm glad you accepted my invitation. Sometimes it is a diversion to talk to someone without using a library of dictionaries.

ENYO: I guess there are many places where this diversity is routine.

OLDMAC: There are, but they don’t come close to Cloudlet. Extraordinary place. Here time and place are relative. Pray tell me, which one you think is close to reach – the Moon or Sofia? (chuckles slyly).

ENYO: Sofia, of course.

OLDMAC: But from here you can see the Moon and cannot see Sofia. So it is easier to get to the Moon.

ENYO: This is only an illusion.

OLDMAC: No, it's not. When my good friend Stavri died, that evening I sat at the window and watched the village. No electricity, nothing to distract me. And I saw him, all silver, climbing to the moon on silver stairs, and with him a woman I do not know went up. It seemed as though she was persuading him about something and he was gesturing. Up and up they went until they reached the Moon and there in its glow they disappeared, first he, then she. So, from Cloudlet to the Moon one can walk up stairs that even a woman can negotiate.

ENYO: Must have been his wife, Grandma Tsona. They argued about all since I can remember, but otherwise got along fine. He had come here as a young teacher, they fell in love, got married and he never left.

OLDMAC: Have you ever contemplated marriage yourself young man?

ENYO: And be a breeder of sinners? I am somewhat honest… (watching defiantly OldMac)

OLDMAC: “I say, we will have no more marriages: those that are married already, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.”* That explains why you are here, you are taking your own medicine. Oh, well… It may be for the better. I am curious, why are you hiding here?

ENYO: I am not hiding. I have nothing to hide from.

OLDMAC: (fatherly) You are lying. I suspect you are lying to yourself in first place and after that you are trying to convince the others to trust you on this. Cloudlet is a place to hide.

ENYO: This is why you are here? You are also hiding?

OLDMAC: Yes. You guessed it right. This is why I guessed why you are here.

ENYO: How did you guess?

OLDMAC: By your tan. These tan and accent can be acquired in one country only, and I know this because I have been there. On the same dirty work as you were. Only, before you were born. That does not change at all the work’s dirty nature, or what we have seen, you and me.

ENYO: Then, you know, isn’t it a bit late to hide?

OLDMAC: About this you are right. But I am hiding from something else. From the inevitable.

ENYO: From the tax collector or from the Lady-with-the-Scythe?

OLDMAC: My attorneys are dealing with the tax collector and I have met the Lady-with-