Journey Through the Impossible (14 page)

Valdemar: Ouf! Those two horrible creatures are out of sight. Where
am I now? A forest! I didn't expect to find a forest under water.
(He stops in front of an immense oyster13) Well, well, an oyster. And
what a fine oyster! A dozen of that size would make a nice appetizer for lunch. Maybe I'll have a taste. But no, this is August.
There's no "R" in this month, so it can't be fresh. ( fust then a
gigantic octopus appears. Valdemar notices it) Oh my goodness!
What now? An octopus. A horrible octopus. What? It's chasing
me, too. I'm done for! Where can I run? Where can I hide? Ah!
The oyster! The hospitable oyster. (Valdemar rushes toward the
open oyster and crawls inside. The two halves suddenly close. The octopus
disappears)

(Enter Tartelet. He looks around carefully. From time to time he stops
and calls out)

Tartelet (shouts): Valdemar! Valdemar! (He moves downstage) No one
there. But I saw him sink at the same time as I did. There's no use
calling and looking around. There's no one there. I've been
looking for a long time, and I'm really tired. (He sits on the large
oyster in which Valdemar is hiding) Let's take a little rest. What has
happened to my fellow passengers? Doctor Ox? I'm not worried
about him, but what about Mr. George, and especially Miss Eva?
(As he is speaking, the oyster slowly begins to open) What a strange
effect weariness has on me. The rock I'm sitting on seems to be
rising. (He feels himself being lifted by the upper half.) Hey! What's
going on underneath me? No, I'm not mistaken, it's really rising.
It's moving. It's definitely rising. (Trembling) Oh my goodness! What's that? (He presses down and the oyster closes again) There's a
creature in there. It's rising. It's still rising.

Valdemar (inside the oyster, which is partly open): Who is pressing down
on my shell? Hey! You up there!

Tartelet (trembling): Now it's talking. It's talking!

Valdemar (opening the shell wider and putting his head out): Tartelet!

Tartelet: It knows my name. It's an oyster that I've met before.

Valdemar: It's me, Mr. Tartelet.

Tartelet: Valdemar!

Valdemar (kneeling inside the oyster): Here I am, Mr. Tartelet.

Tartelet: It was you!

Valdemar: In person!

Tartelet: Inside an oyster?

Valdemar: Why yes. I was quite comfortable in there. I felt right at
home. Oh, I'm so happy to see you again. Is everything all right,
Mr. Tartelet?

Tartelet: Perfectly all right.

Valdemar: And what about Mr. George? And Mis Eva? And Dr. Ox?

Tartelet: I hope we'll see them again soon.

Valdemar: That's better. But I'd rather see them on terra firma, or, as
we say in Copenhagen, on the calves' floor.14

Tartelet: Ah! What kind of floor did you say they call it in Copenhagen?

Valdemar: The calves' floor, Mr. Tartelet.

Tartelet: In our country, when we talk about dry land, we call it the
cows' floor. But I was just thinking.... What were you doing in
that seashell?

Valdemar: I was hiding from a crab.

Tartelet: From a crab?

Valdemar: And from a shark.

Tartelet: A shark?

Valdemar: And from a giant octopus.

Tartelet (gesturing): An octopus? Ali, yes, an octopus.

Valdemar: All three of them were chasing me, and I can imagine what
they had in mind.

Tartelet: What did they have in mind, Valdemar?

Valdemar: Well, you see, Tartelet, on dry land, people eat fish, but I
think, at the bottom of the sea, fish eat people.

Tartelet: You're making me nervous, Valdemar.

Valdemar: Ali! I had a bad scare. I'd really like to get away from here
and go back up to the surface.

Tartelet: We'll go back up, but first we have to find our fellow passengers.

Valdemar: Ah! If only that ungrateful Babichok hadn't married the
traitor Finderup, I'd be in Copenhagen now. I'd be married and
living in my own house. What am I saying? In my palace! And
eating six meals a day.

Tartelet: Six meals?

Valdemar: Of course! I used to eat three when I was poor. The least
I can do, now that I'm rich, is eat six or eight.

Tartelet: That's reasonable.

Valdemar: I can afford it.

(A tentacle of the octopus appears above the rock)

Tartelet: Yes, indeed. And if your stomach can also afford it....

(The tentacle waves back and forth above Valdemar's head.)

Valdemar: My stomach? Oh, I'm quite sure it can.... Hey! What's this
I feel? (The tentacle has wound itself around his waist.) Help, Tartelet,
help me! (The tentacle drags him behind the rock) Tartelet! Tartelet!

Tartelet: Oh, good heavens! The poor fellow!

Valdemar (reappears in the grip of the tentacle, which is waving him
around) Help! Help! It's choking me! Help!

Tartelet: What can I do? Help! Help!

(Tartelet draws back at first, overcome by a powerful fear Then he
rushes at the octopus in order to pull Valdemar free. But another tentacle knocks him down, and he is unable to move)

(Enter Ox, George, Volsius, and Eva from the back. Volsius and
George rush at the monster. Eva, terrified, dashes toward Tartelet,
who has stood up and now holds her Ox joins his friends, who are
attacking the octopus with their daggers. At this moment, several other
octopuses appear and attack them. Everyone joins in the fight. Then the
octopuses emit a blackish liquid which completely obscures the water The
combatants can be seen through a kind of heavy fog and eventually disappear completely)

The fog lifts and the stage represents coral caves.

(Enter Valdemar, Volsius, Tartelet, Ox, George, and Eva)

Valdemar (still only half conscious): Where am I?

Eva: You're safe here.

George: You have nothing to fear now.

Valdemar: Really? Ah, sir! Ah, my friends!

Volsius: You're quite safe now.

Valdemar (distraught and weeping): Yes, yes, quite safe. I want to get
away. I want to get away.

Eva: You've had a bad fright, Mr. Valdemar.

Valdemar: Oh yes, miss. Yes, I've been frightened a great many times
in my life. In fact, I think I can say without boasting that no one
has ever been frightened more often than I have. But a fright like
this one? Ah! Never, never! Please let me get away from here.

Volsius: But, as I told you before, here amongst these coral reefs,
under so much pressure, you're safe from all sea monsters.

Valdemar: That may be, but I'd rather leave.

Volsius: There's nothing to keep you here now. We've reached the
very bottom of the sea.

Eva: And this is the spot, no doubt, from which we'll be heading back
up to dry land?

Ox: Back to dry land? Not yet.

George: Are there any more unknown wonders down here, any still
unsolved mysteries?

Volsius: None, I guarantee you.

Ox: And I guarantee the very opposite. Anyone can come here and
live, at least for a few moments. This is almost the possible. But
let's go on farther and the impossible will rise up before your eyes,
and the past, the irrevocable past itself, will spring up and take
shape again before you.