The Last Step Page #6

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I said to hell with it

You think you have cancer

Do I have cancer?

Yes.

How long will it take?

What can I say.

I can't say now.

Do you know I have gone to an audition once?

No I didn't.

When I gave entry exam for the university...

...I went to the college of fine arts.

Then...

They'd give you some text...

and you had to memorize and perform it later.

Can I take this with me?

They gave each person one text to rehearse.

They'd give you "The Cherry Orchard" or

"The Hamlet"...

And they gave me a play named...

"The Caretaker".

This guy came into his house and saw

his house is turned into a mess

and he'd yell:

You've made such a mess around here!

I rehearsed it every day.

I was repeating:

you've made such a mess around here!

In short...

It was the day of performance,

all professors sitting around, suddenly...

I forgot everything.

I was saying repeatedly:

"you..."

Then again:
"you..."

They had a pity on me.

They said we will test you again.

And what do you think the test was?

Hearing your Mother's death over the phone.

Seriously?

I took off the phone and said: Really?

They said get lost! You have no talent!

My lie can't be the reason of his death.

People don't fall on earth because

they think they have cancer.

Hello doctor.

Doctor?

Sorry to come without telling you.

I called but couldn't find you.

No, no problem.

Has something happened?

I don't know what's wrong with me.

I laugh suddenly at work.

I can't say my lines.

I laugh with no reason.

Well that's you. You laugh with no reason.

Do you want a pill to stop your laugh?

The day Khosrow fell on earth...

We had a fight...

I stroked his head with something...

Then there was blood on his head...

When he went to open the door

and came back...

why do you look at me like that?

You don't believe me, no?

Yes I do.

Don't you remember you said

there is a scar on his head?

Yes I remember. So?

It has nothing to do with your stroke.

Are you lying?

Why should I lie?

There's no reason for me to lie.

Are you lying for me?

It has nothing to do with your stroke.

You came back to work so soon.

You started your work immediately.

You must have had more rest.

Do you remember that year in Tafresh?...

Khosrow came back from the military

to granny's house on leave?

The morning when

he wanted to go back to the garrison...

You said to him be careful of the bullets.

Right there I wished Khosrow dead.

Sometimes I think I wish

to stand under the rain in night, till I die.

It'd be like the end of my story,

which I had told to Khosrow.

In the end of my story too, you would die...

...From my love.

There is something I have to tell you, Leili.

Goodbye.

The day I went to Mr Asgari's

for that tape...

He said to me that I have to sing for him.

I said to him I don't have the talent...

and he wouldn't believe me.

First I thought he thinks I can sing

because of my grandfather.

But then I understood

he has mistaken me with Amin.

Finally... he made me sing this song.

How was it?

"How would it be if you take a look at me?"

Roohangiz would've chanted this another way.

How was that? Aha...

"How would it be if you take a look at me?"

"You are a moon in the sky

and I am a thorn on the road."

"My bloomed flower"

"You took my rest"

"I won't take my hands off of you..."

"I..."

This sudden "I" here, is so meaningless.

"I"!

Give it to me it doesn't suit you!

Let's make it half!

If you wanted it you would've eaten it!

Eh... you are such a child!

I only need madam to come to office too...

And sign this contract there.

Then there would be no problem for the deal.

That's kind of you.

Take care of this scar.

Thank you very much. Thanks. Bye.

Goodbye.

Sorry, we have finished.

Ok, thanks.

Hi. Why did you leave the clinic suddenly?

Welcome. What would you like?

Such a stupid I am!

...I had read that story, but I forgot.

...The story with the boy

who dies while 17 years old. I had read it.

You won again.

I'm so astound.

Now I'm even more astounded.

Like my hair.

Like my nails and my beard,

which still grow after my death...

...Like they don't know about my death.

Even I sometimes forget that I'm dead.

I always imagine that I'm going to come back.

Think about it, if I came back...

I could've stand beside the camera.

...In my role.

...Your husband's ghost.

Then maybe you would have said

this damn line of yours.

I have even forgotten your face.

I have even forgotten your face.

It seems like you have never been there.

Sometimes I have to look at your picture.

Cut.

Was it good? It was great.

Don't you find his beard too long Reza jan?

No no problem. After your death

they still grow... and nails and...

I thought you wanted to make me laugh.

Make you laugh? No!

How do you think she was?

She said "you were a good-for-nothing".

I said all the lines I had.

Who said that? I didn't know.

They are looking for you. You have to go.

What do we do now?

The Last Step.

Free adaptation from James Joyce's "The Dead"

and Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych"

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