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☩ ００９．ＶＩＤＥＯ | ＡＣＴＩＯＮ
Tranquility!
[ Guess who is back in her high spirits. Lucrezia is wearing red silks and is evidently strolling the gardens this morning ]
It is my birthday today, I have decided.
[ a pause in which she just looks pleased with herself and then she explains ]
As I do not know how to count the days here when compared with the count common in Rome, I have chosen today for my birthday. I shall accept my greetings at the garden.
[ prim and proper but those who know her by now can see the jest in her words. ]
And I have decided what I wish as my gift, if you would hear it!
[ wait for it. ]
For the birthday of the one called the illustrious Lucrezia Borgia, me and garden both require - a swing!
[ a beat. ]
And cake.
[ that would actually be all. Lucrezia Borgia, ladies and gentleman. She would be sitting in the garden, reading a book, for those who wish to find her. ]
[ Guess who is back in her high spirits. Lucrezia is wearing red silks and is evidently strolling the gardens this morning ]
It is my birthday today, I have decided.
[ a pause in which she just looks pleased with herself and then she explains ]
As I do not know how to count the days here when compared with the count common in Rome, I have chosen today for my birthday. I shall accept my greetings at the garden.
[ prim and proper but those who know her by now can see the jest in her words. ]
And I have decided what I wish as my gift, if you would hear it!
[ wait for it. ]
For the birthday of the one called the illustrious Lucrezia Borgia, me and garden both require - a swing!
[ a beat. ]
And cake.
[ that would actually be all. Lucrezia Borgia, ladies and gentleman. She would be sitting in the garden, reading a book, for those who wish to find her. ]
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Well. The boy continued to think of her as a good friend but not in any romantic light, until one day, he met a noble soldier. This soldier, it turned out ... was in love with another man's fiancée, not knowing that she was already engaged in a similarly loveless, arranged marriage. When he found out, he was incensed at the unfairness of it all, of forcing people who don't love each other to get married simply for wealth and power. He raged and called the people of the city corrupt, to let such things pass unchecked.
When the young boy heard this, he felt insulted, too. "This city has plenty of good and honest people," he said. "Take back your words, or I shall challenge you to a duel."
And so they dueled. The young boy was holding his own until... one moment, when their swords were locked, he asked the soldier why he cared so much about this. The soldier replied with a question: "Is it true then, that you really do not love your fiancée?" The boy hesitated-- faced with such unwavering loyalty and passion, he was unsure how to reply, and in that moment he had lost.
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[ it is a sad tale, so much unrequited love. Beautiful, beautiful and sad and Lucrezia looks at him and looks less of a child and more of a sad adult. Children are always the happier and her childhood was taken from her the moment she was forced into her own loveless marriage. ]
The boy, did he die that day?
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Happily, he didn't. The soldier was of noble and gentle heart-- when it became clear that he had won, he didn't push it any further.
Though when the boy's fiancée heard about their duel, she chided him for being so hot-headed and stupid as to challenge a soldier to a duel. Then she asked him if he knew why the soldier was angry-- not to know the answer, because she already knew herself, but to see if he understood. But of course, the boy still understanding nothing about love, had no idea. So he asked her what she meant.
She answered, "When someone has feelings for another, there's nothing you can do to stop it."
At the time he assumed she was only talking about the soldier. However, she said it with such a sad look on her face that when he would look back on that moment later, he would realise she was also talking about herself.
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[ yet love does not work this way, she knows, and still. ]
She loved him so fiercely even though he could not love her in return.
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Some time later, they both happened to be at the same dinner party. The girl was invited to play the piano. Now, since they were childhood friends, the boy had heard her play many times before-- but never like this. On that night, it occurred to him that her piano playing had gotten really good over the years. It was the best thing he'd ever heard her play; he was entranced by the beauty of the melody and the skill with which she played it.
He didn't know it then, but at that time she had already decided she was playing that song for him.
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It's said that we don't understand what it is that we have until we lose it. In this case, having his engagement broken off was that catalyst. When the boy thought about his now ex-fiancée marrying somebody else, a strange and unfamiliar weight came over his heart, and he worried about her for several days-- though he didn't understand what had overcome him.
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[ and just when she thought the happy ending was approaching! Albert what have you done to her. ]
Tell me she did not marry the strange man!
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So in the meantime, the young girl's masterful talent was finally recognised, not just by the boy but by the world at large. She had won herself a concert at the Opera House and she gave a ticket to the boy to come see her perform. They were both quite looking forward to it! But when she stood upon the stage that night, she looked out into the audience and saw a completely full house-- except for one chair. The chair he was supposed to be sitting in.
It was not that he hadn't come, you see-- it was that he hadn't been allowed in. The girl's father, not wanting her to socialise anymore with this boy who was no longer to be her fiancé, guarded the entrance closely and had him thrown out upon arrival. Though he struggled with all his might against the guards, it was no good. Luckily, a mutual friend was there to save him!
This mutual friend pretended to escort him out of the building, then took him in the staff entrance instead. Just as the girl took her seat to play, the boy arrived in time to watch-- from the wings of the stage behind the curtains. Though she didn't know it, he was watching the whole time. It was at that moment, watching her passion for her art shine through her on stage, he finally realised that he loved her with all his heart.
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And then? hurry now, I might weep for them both. Did her father finally recognized that his daughter is truly in love with this boy? And did she find out that the boy came to see her play?
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[ Albert turns slightly pink. ]
Then-- he realised what he was doing and pulled away, of course. And apologised. For he wasn't her fiancé anymore. But the girl didn't care, she said. It seemed like... for the first time, they were finally seeing eye to eye. It made him remember something: he had brought her a present for her debut. A bunch of fresh grapes; her favourite. She laughed at him, because of course you're supposed to bring a bouquet of flowers rather than grapes. But she accepted them all the same. She said... even when they were kids, she'd always wanted him to bring her flowers when they played in the meadow, but he always brought her berries instead. Even so, they were always delicious.
Would you believe it, it only struck him then-- how foolish he had been not to notice her feelings all along. For a moment it seemed like they would kiss...
But alas they were interrupted by Evil Himself: the new man she was engaged to. The audience was waiting for their encore, you see, so he had come to find out why his fiancée had been hiding behind the curtain so long. Why, our young hero was fit to be tied at the interference, but the girl held him back. Listen to just one more song, she said. I'll be playing just for you, and only you.
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[ huffing. ]
And she played a beautiful song for him?
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But you see, fortune was not in her father's favour. Some weeks later, every single one of his stocks crashed. All the money he had tied up in investments suddenly amounted to naught. Where before he had been content to let his daughter and her new fiancé take things slow, now his only chance to save his family from ruin was to rush the wedding, for the new fiancé was of course rich beyond words. The young girl tried to refuse, but she was not really given the choice-- unless she wanted her family to die penniless in the gutter, her father said. So, reluctantly, she agreed.
But come the day of the wedding ceremony, she was still reluctant go through with it. As she leant over the legal document about to sign herself away to a man she didn't love forever, she paused, frozen with indecision. At that moment... suddenly! All the lights in the room went out!
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And then? Stop again and I shall hit you!!
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So when the lights came back on again, everyone in the room could see that there was one small difference. The bride was still frozen in place, but... in place of where her signature should have been on the parchment, there was a large, ugly ink splotch! She had hesitated above it with her quill too long, you see. Right then, a maid called out: "That's a bad omen, for sure! You should reconsider this marriage!" And she walked up to the podium, past the shocked couple-to-be, tore the parchment from its' binding, scrunched it up and threw it in the bin! Quick as you please.
This was the moment our young man had been waiting for! The maid was in fact a friend of his, and they had snuck into the wedding disguised as serving maids together. While all the attention was on his friend, he snuck up to his beloved and took her gently by the hand, as a maid might take her lady away from the scene of a scandal. Our young lady had not recognised him in the room earlier, dressed as he was, but the instant he appeared by her side she realised what was happening. So they fled. The guards gave chase moments later, but they were too slow! The young man had come prepared this time. He had planned an escape route and arranged to have a friend waiting at the gates with a car, ready to go. And so they made good their escape.
The happy ending to this story, however, is not that they escaped from the wedding. It is that, on the night at the opera house, the young man had not been the only person to be enchanted with the young lady's performance. In the audience had also been a very important man-- the head of a well-known music school in another country across the sea, famous for producing talented musicians. A few days before her wedding, the young lady received a letter from him, in which he wrote that he would like to offer her a place at his music school-- and a scholarship. All expenses paid. At long last, her talent had been recognised by the world.
The young man encouraged her to go-- after all, he said, he would wait, but dreams did not. So they parted at the airport that same day, but not before finally sharing love's first kiss and exchanging a promise that until they could meet again and be married, they would always be in each other's hearts.
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Give me your hand.
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[He does so, though confused.]
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I pray that when the war ceases and all is done, that the boy would find the girl he loves and remain with her until the end of their days.
[ a smile. ]
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[Well now you've gone and made him blush.]
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Call me that and consider it my birthday wish.
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Of course, m-- Lucrezia. It would be an honour.