Moving Target

Characters:

a swarm.

: She’s changed.

: How do you mean?

: I think that lately she’s changed.

: She’s grown.

: That’s not what I mean.

: She’s been growing since she was born.

: No, it’s her face.

: I hadn’t noticed.

: Has she still got the dimples?

: Dimples?

: Yes, the dimples.

: Did she have dimples?

: When she smiled, yes. She had dimples then.

: When she laughed.

: It looked nice.

: Have the dimples gone?

: I’m not sure.

: But you think her face has changed.

: Because I’m just wondering, when was the last time she laughed.

: When you bought the cat.

: That’s two years ago.

: Last week, in the shopping centre, when the forklift took the pallet of citrus fruit to the underground garage.

: That wasn’t a laugh.

: It was more of a squeal.

: I think that’s it.

: What?

: I think her face has grown harder.

: Has a taken on a harder expression.

: That’s it.

: Indicating an inner hardening?

: Don’t know.

: You don’t seem alarmed.

: Alarmed?

: Maybe she simply didn’t have a reason to laugh.

: Isn’t that rather naïve of you —

: We didn’t think—

: That you’re not even remotely alarmed?

: We didn’t think it was that bad.

: All things considered it’s quite a slight change.

: An inner hardening.

: Yes.

: That’s what you’d call a slight change?

: Well—

: Your daughter is hardening inside.

: Nothing to report, anyway.

: That’s what we thought.

: Naïve.

: But you are worried?

: Maybe a bit.

: Otherwise you wouldn’t have mentioned it.

: You’re worried.

: In the sense that parents are worried when their kids get older.

: That’s what I meant. Naïve. Where have you been? Yesterday the sun was so low that the shadows from the hospital chimneys reached the residents’ parking lot, they replaced all the canned peaches at the supermarket and disinfected the subway stations.

: You’re obviously not taking this seriously enough.

: You obviously have no idea where you’re heading and what the consequences might be.

: Your carelessness is dangerous.

: I saw a twelve-year-old girl feeding pigeons in front of the church.

: But that has nothing—

: I saw an eleven-year-old boy searching for coins left in the lockers at the swimming pool.

: Of course, those things happen.

: I saw a ten-year-old girl putting up an elastic rope between two bollards by the barrier.

: But—

: I saw an eight-year-old-girl burying her doll in the sandbox.

: But those cases are different.

: How long were you planning to wait before you did something?

: What are we supposed to do?

: I saw a nine-year-old boy putting a pole in the ground right in the middle of the traffic island.

: I felt it.

: Me too.

: I felt it very clearly.

: When she stepped into the room I got a really strong feeling.

: I already felt something when she touched the door handle from outside.

: The handle turned warm—

: From her hand.

: On the outside at first, but the metal channeled the heat inside.

: I got a strong feeling.

: Me too.

: Even before I saw her.

: I didn’t feel anything.

: From deep inside.

: Like an earthquake announcing itself.

: But not unpleasant.

: Like a storm brewing.

: I didn’t say it was unpleasant.

: I think we all felt it.

: I didn’t, to be honest.

: It was really strong.

: At first I thought: I’m going to be sick.

: I didn’t know what it was.

: I’d never felt anything like it.

: But it was very clear that it was there.

: And that it came from her.

: But not unpleasant.

: How she does it is a mystery.

: But it’s there.

: We all felt it.

: I didn’t, I didn’t feel anything.

: It was like a wave taking hold of us.

: From the inside. Deep from our guts.

: Everyone felt it in his or her body.

: I didn’t.

: But nonetheless it was a shared feeling.

: An all-encompassing feeling.

: That made us into...