XVIII
Cemetery. A group of girls in long tunics with red ribbons around their necks are dancing near the graves. Next to them are young people in frock coats with walking sticks. They laugh and talk. There is a smell of musk.
SHE 1. You don’t dance?
SHE keeps silent.
SHE 1. I understand that the Jacobins are getting better at handling power. Balls of victims are becoming more and more meaningless. Don’t you think it was more fun at the “Odeon” last time?
SHE keeps silent.
SHE. What a ribbon you have! It’s probably silk.
SHE 1. It is difficult to tie, and constantly slips off the neck. But really, c’est incroyable!
SHE. It’s so thin.
SHE 1. The guillotine is not always brutal. When he was being executed, everything was very neat.
SHE keeps silent.
SHE 1. Just shake your head harder. Then it will be more fun. That’s what we’re here for.
SHE keeps silent.
SHE 1. The revolution made us cruel. But the monarchy is the best thing that happened to all of us. Ma parole d’honneur!
SHE keeps silent.
SHE 1. And your ribbon is very unusual, black. Does it mean something, something new? Fashion is so fast.
SHE touches her choker. Listens to conversations nearby.
SHE. Everything turns black at night. Why don’t they pronounce the letter “r”?
SHE 1 looks at SHE carefully.
SHE 1. You probably lost someone not so long ago. The letter “r” starts the word “revolution”. This is our protest. Royalists, Les Incroyables, or Merveilleuses – you can call it whatever you like, but you know what I mean.
SHE 1 laughs. SHE is silent.