5.9.2007: Adagio

The Man Who Plays the Saddest Music appears, his instrument in case, hat on, headed (one assumes) to another gig somewhere. He’s whistling a tune (not the saddest music).

The Guy is here. He’s been here since the lights came up.

The Man Who Plays the Saddest Music sees something in the Guy that he recognizes. So he stops.

THE MAN WHO PLAYS THE SADDEST MUSIC
Adagio.

THE GUY
What?

THE MAN WHO PLAYS THE SADDEST MUSIC
Slowly, leisurely. It’s a music thing.

THE GUY
I don’t understand what you’re talking about.

THE MAN WHO PLAYS THE SADDEST MUSIC
You’ve got the look of a man who’s not good with adagio.

THE GUY
(a smile)
Guilty as charged.

THE MAN WHO PLAYS THE SADDEST MUSIC
Hey, no judgment here. I’m just as much a junkie of life in scherzo as the next man. I love the feeling you get when the music starts to move so quickly that you think you might forget to breathe just so you can keep up.

THE GUY
That’s kind of how I like life.

THE MAN WHO PLAYS THE SADDEST MUSIC
Yeah. Me, too.

I had this girl. Shelly. Man, Shelly was a piece of work. She got my juices flowing in ways I never thought possible. She had this way of, like, surprising me with her touch when we were out walking or something. All of a sudden, Bam!, her hand would find my arm or the small of my back and the world would just slam ahead into double time, you know, out of nowhere I’d find myself startled into life.

And she’d just smile at me. This casual little smile. And she’d just keep on walking. Like she didn’t do a thing.

That girl was adagio. The world just washed over her.

The only thing the world ever did to me was move too fast.

THE GUY
She the reason you play?

THE MAN WHO PLAYS THE SADDEST MUSIC
Nah. I broke up with Shelly because she fucked a friend of mine.

I play the saddest music
because too much of what was supposed to be my future
is now just the past.

THE GUY
You know, my guy does the same thing when we’re walking.

THE MAN WHO PLAYS THE SADDEST MUSIC
Adagio…

THE GUY
It’s sweet.

THE MAN WHO PLAYS THE SADDEST MUSIC
It is, it is.

The Man Who Plays the Saddest Music continues on his way.

The lights go down.