Play: Leaving

ROBERT and LILY are sitting at a café table. He seems slightly dazed, while her hands are fidgeting with a white and glass-lidded box.

LILY
Please, try to understand what it’s like since I’ve been back… Imagine sitting at a table with your friends and everyone’s talking and you smile but you don’t understand and suddenly it seems as if the air itself is filled with noise, and all you want to do is to stop smiling, and walk away so you can breathe without taking in the noise…

Robert shakes his head, and Lily stops fiddling with the box. She leans forward, her hands helpless.

LILY
And then you made this, and you made dinner, and you tried, you tried so hard, and all I could think about was how lost you were, and all I could feel was… pity…

Robert stares at her like a bewildered child. Lily reaches out to hold his hand, but he jerks away.

LILY
I’m sorry… I look at you and everyone else along this street and all I want is to see the people I knew, but I can’t, I can’t help it. I want to run, I want to go up to people and shake them and ask them why they’ve changed, but I can’t, because they’ll ask questions, and I’ll tell them where I’ve been, and what I’ve been doing, and all those words will only take them even further away… Please, try to understand what I’m saying…

A moment hangs in the air, caught, but suddenly Robert stands and walks away.