53: To destroy idols and their accessories

The Book of Knowledge
Laws of Idolatry and Paganism
To destroy idols and their accessories (Deut. 12:2)

            An empty expanse

            Long after human time has ended

            Possibly long after time has ended

            MAGDALENA and YAEL

MAGDALENA
I think I used to know you once.

YAEL
Did you?

MAGDAENA
I think so.

YAEL
Are you sure?

MAGDALENA
No.

            silence

YAEL
It’s getting cold out. You should have a jacket.

MAGDALENA
I should shouldn’t I.
            beat
Can one get jackets anymore?

YAEL
I haven’t seen one in quite some time. Won’t you sit with me?

MAGDALENA
Is that all right?

YAEL
If we know each other then yes that is fine.

            MAGDALENA sits

MAGDELENA
You have very beautiful eyes.

YAEL
They used to be prettier. They were violet for a time.

MAGDALENA
I don’t remember that.

YAEL
Then maybe we don’t know one another.

MAGDALENA
Maybe not.

            beat

YAEL
You should really get a jacket. It’s cold.

MAGDAELNA
It’s always cold now.

            beat

YAEL
I haven’t seen another one of us in a long while.

MAGDALENA
One of what?

YAEL
A human being.

MAGDALENA
Are you still a human being?

YAEL
At one time I was.

MAGDALENA
How did that end for you?

YAEL
I began walking. A long time ago. I walked and I lived and I walked on and on. Loved ones grew and died. Cities came and went. I quickly scoured the whole globe. I scooped up all it had to offer. I learned. I explored. I grew rich in experience. Time went on. Time went on and on and grew faster. Time metastasized in my body, ripped me open like a cleaver to meat. Things sped up. Civilization grew and crumbled in an instant. Whole systems of thinking would flicker, light the way for millennia, and be snuffed out all at once. Humans ended. They became something else. That ended. I kept walking. Evolution quickened. Fish flew into the sky. The grass grew red. The sparrows took over. I kept walking. All my knowledge faded. Everyone I had known grew to be too many, and they all faded away. I’m very lonely but my loneliness is unquenchable. Even when I knew a person their whole life, they’re gone in a moment.
            beat
What about you?

MAGDALENA
I became a god for a time. To one group of people and then another. I enjoyed it. People left burnt chrysanthemums on a marble slab to honor me. I grew wings and spiked horns. I became a devil. My slab was smashed. I cut off my wings and my horns and pretended to be human again. But no one knew what that was anymore.

YAEL
I think the world used to be beautiful. Do you remember that?
            beat
What do you think we were? When we knew one another?

MAGDALENA
I had a daughter. And a sister. And many close friends. I’d like to imagine there were people around me. I remember people and I miss them. These are not memories so much as make-believes, but I like them nonetheless.

YAEL
I was an architect.

MAGDALENA
Really?

YAEL
I built houses mostly. Once I made a skyscraper. I was very good at my job.

MAGDALENA
That’s nice.

YAEL
Did you live in a house?

MAGDALENA
Maybe.

YAEL
Maybe I built it.

MAGDALENA
Maybe you did.

            beat

YAEL
Everything is frightening now.

MAGDALENA
I seem to recall it was always that way.
            beat
I don’t think we knew one another. Your hands are ugly. Please put them away.

YAEL
But we’re here now. Now we know one another.

MAGDALENA
Yes. We do.
            beat
What are we now?

YAEL
I can’t sleep anymore. I haven’t slept in three hundred years. I just keep walking.

MAGDALENA
Maybe you’ll sleep tonight.

YAEL
Maybe.

MAGDALENA
And soon enough we’ll all be dead anyway. You can feel it right? How this is coming to an end. It’ll be very quiet then, I imagine. I think all of this can’t go on much longer.

            silence

YAEL
I think we could’ve been better.

MAGDALENA
Perhaps.

            in the distance is an explosion

            the sound of the world ending perhaps

            neither of them reacts

            END OF PLAY