A circle of tender summer light, in which ISHTAR appears. She wears light, long, flowing clothes. She is alone, dances by herself, barefoot, to the sound of the barely audible drums. Her head is half bald. Slowly, she caresses her skull, seeming to pluck some of her hair... she lets them drift in the wind... She let's them go... She throws them into a passing river... Slowly, seeming to take a growing fun at what she is doing... She looks at the river in joyous contentment, at the trees, the dappled sun-light, at the sky...
There's a large red fleck on her chest, painted on her dress, where her breast was...
ISHTAR (slowly, dreamily, dancing): Milford, Milford, Connecticut... Milford... Here... Milford... Connecticut... May seventeenth... Sunday... (looks at her watch)... Zero Three forty nine... Milford, Connecticut... Connecticut, Milford... (with increasing rapture)... May... United States of America... Ishtar... Ishtar, the wife of Tony... Ishtar... Ishtar... (with different intonations) Milford... Connecticut... Ishtar... Ish-tar... Ish-tar... May... Seventeenth... May... May... May... The most beautiful woman... I don't deserve such beauty... Your legs, Ishtar... You see this woman, Ishtar, see those legs? Yours are even better, Ishtar... Bill doesn't know whether he should look at your breasts or your cheekbones, so he studies the menu... You embarrass me, Ishtar, wherever we go, people look at you... You make me self-conscious... You have made me vain, Ishtar... Ishtar, I look at myself in the mirror and I wonder if people think: "Is this the nebbish she's married with...? What can he have going for him? Money, surely, it has to be his money..." There's one thing I'll never know, Ishtar: What did you ever see in me...? Sometimes, when I'm with you, I feel like a fraud, Ishtar... Manhattan... Man-hattan... MAN-hattan... twenty-seven Horatio Street... Horatio Street... Twenty-seven... second floor... two one two nine nine six seven eight seven nine... Ishtar, do you live on twenty-seven Horatio Street, second floor? Milford, Connecticut... May seventeenth... Sunday... SUN-day... SUN-day... (She dances)... Manhattan... New York University Hospital... Have you seen the incinerator, Tony... where they burn the tissues... up.... up... gone... gone... Why have you gone sailing, Tony.. You always say, when I am sailing, I don't thing of anything... That's why I go sailing... I can't think when I'm sailing... That's the bliss of sailing... What is it you don't want to think about? MemememeME? Could it be MememememememMEMEEEEE! Haha! Sailing... sailing... sailing... like a seraph drunk with sunbeams...
"My heart, like a bird, fluttered about gaily
Hovering free about the rigging;
The ship pitched and rolled under a cloudless sky,
Like a seraph drunk with sunbeams."
(She peels away the dress where the red spot is. She takes out a false breast and plays with it. \Put it on her knee... On her head... on her shoulder... under her arm... between her legs... on her foot... on her balding head...)
ISHTAR: It's like a jelly-fishtar... fish-TAR...
(She kisses and sucks it...)
ISHTAR: Mummy... Mummy... Mummy....!
(She sits on the ground, her head on her knees, a bright, happy baby.)
AAAhhh! Aaaaah! Nana-na-NA! NA! NA! AhiahanahianahiaNA! Ah-euhhh! Ah-euhhh! Mahmma! MAHmma! MamamamamamaMA! MAAAAHHHH!
(Sings like babies sing:) - abidada.... abidada... dabidada... abidabida... DAAAHHH! DAAAHHHH!
(Laughs like a baby.)
Ahh! Ahh! Ahhh! AHHH! AAAHHHH!