2018

Characters:

CLAUDIO – 22 years old

DAIVA – 27 year old

GIEDRIUS – 22 years old

ERASMUS QUESTIONNAIRE VOICE – played by DAIVA or GIEDRIUS

TROLLEYBUS VOICE – played by DAIVA or GIEDRIUS, depending on the situation

Before scene I

ERASMUS QUESTIONNAIRE VOICE:

What were the criteria for you to choose your receiving institution?

CLAUDIO

Country, city and culture, social life.

Scene I

CLAUDIO

Second day in Vilnius. It’s raining. The trolleybus arrives in the station. Doors open. I take the first step. I freeze. There is blood on the stairs. There’s a body in a puddle of blood in front of me. People are entering the trolleybus through the other doors. I move my head to the right. A man shows me his phone. He’s calling the ambulance. Nobody else in the trolleybus notices the body. The blood is dripping on the stairs. I can finally move my body and step out of the trolleybus. Two boys talk in Russian about Iniesta’s rating in Fifa 18. The driver comes to the door. He says something and everybody comes out of the trolleybus through the other doors. He lowers the trolley poles. Another nr.2 arrives in the station and I automatically follow the people inside. Doors close.

TROLLEYBUS VOICE

Kiita Vinco Kudirkos Aikste

CLAUDIO
I had a headache. I don’t think I have it anymore. I have never seen a dead body. I have to meet Ausra at the train station. six stops. I get out at the sixth. I am meeting Ausra.

Scene II

GIEDRIUS

Damn I only have 20 minutes! He will be late. I am just waiting to meet Justas. This city is not the same without him. Vilnius is our city, we own it.

There’s an abandoned hospital right there, behind that building. Once we smoked and Justas just wanted to see how the medical files burn. All the hospital caught on fire. The best laugh I ever had. The documents actually burned nicely, turning into colorful flames. Then we walked down here under the bridge and heard all the firefighters and police cars going to the hospital.

When I was little, I could see the top of the Opera house from my window. I was proud I had the privilege of seeing it. I have never been to the opera in Vilnius. I moved out, and now I can only associate the Opera with the led advertisement on it. I guess I got more practical, just like the Opera owners. I used to notice the importance, the symbol it is, and now I only see ways of making money out of it.

TROLLEYBUS VOICE

Vinco Kudirkos Aikste

GIEDRIUS
LSD Aikste. LSD is all I see when the bus stops in Vinco Kudirkos. My first encounter with it. together with Justas, I bought 50 stamps on the dark web. Well, it’s a meeting point right? Where else would you do a drug deal? But I won’t talk about drugs, I am sure half of you use them, and the other half just had enough.

Too bad Justas moved to Germany.

TROLLEYBUS VOICE

Kiita Centro Poliklinika

Scene III

DAIVA

The stove was off, fridge checked, everything unplugged, Karolis will get home in one hour and it’s ok. Why should I? Paavo will take care of everything, he is good to me. The best thing is to just leave. It will make no difference for Adomas if I’m dead or gone. This way, he gets at least one parent.

A new start, Paavo is there for me, he said it. I can’t stay here anymore. I need a life, Finland is a good choice. Not a sunny one, but a good choice. Paavo’s new job will be good. It is good I left the car. The neighbors didn’t notice. They will understand, they saw my scars, they heard everything.

Did I unplug the laptop? I must return. I must return now. Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! It’s the best decision you took in years! A new life. This time it is me who chooses, not my mother. I know what she’d say now... I can’t return! Not after what happened yesterday. That was it.

It’s good they put the alcohol limit to 8, you manage to get a good spanking before 9. I just have to get on the bus. There will be some seats left, I will get a seat. The flight was fully booked, but there will be some tickets for the bus.

TROLLEYBUSS VOICE

Centro Poliklinika.

DAIVA

I had to take some clothes with me… No, no clothes, it’s a fresh start. Nothing to remind me. I just have to leave. Why is it moving so slow? For fuck sake, drive!!!

TROLLEBUS VOICE

Kiita Traku stotele.

DAIVA
Calm down, calm down, you’ll get there. You won’t be late. It’s good you didn’t take the car, what if there was no parking space? Paavo is waiting and you said you’re coming. Now you are doing it your way. No to abortion, yes to marriage, no to divorce, those were not my choices. In this country everybody decides in your place. Those where not my choices. Four more stops.

Scene IV

TROLLEYBUS VOICE

Traku stotele

GIEDRIUS

It was even more mysterious than Twin Peaks. The disappearance of the century. The door of the flat unlocked, the car keys in the car, nobody knew anything. All the media covered it, but there was still no clue to where could she be. The flat as clean as it gets, no clue, no sign of breaking and entering, nothing missing, weirdest thing ever. Everybody started looking for a killer. Her husband – the main suspect.

TROLLEYBUS VOICE

Kiita Vingriai

GIEDRIUS

The neighborhood slut, that’s what they call her now. What do you expect when leaving your husband and your seven year old son for another man. For a truck driver. Who knows how many truck drivers have been there before. Well her husband is one of them, but I am talking about the other ones. Anyway, he was gone for days, for weeks, making money for the family, but it wasn’t enough for her. She had to leave them all behind. Poor guy. I really don’t get these people. People leaving their homeland. Why, why would you do it. You will never feel like home.

I have visited lots of countries, but never stayed there for more than seven days. I just had to return. I can’t see me living in another country. England was nice, France was nice, Italy was nice, Germany also, Spain was great, but all those people are different. I don’t feel like they would understand me, like you do. You’re the only ones that understand me.

TROLLEYBUS VOICE

Vingriai

Scene V

TROLLEYBUS VOICE

Kiita Geliu stotele

DAIVA

I have never entered a synagogue. But I was in the building across the road. It used to be a hospital. A hospital for low lived Jews. I guess there are just some apartments now. Once, I found an open door, entered and went up the stairs. There are some very nice wooden stairs which creak when you step on them, they must be over 100 years old, and have little curves from the sustained weight. If you go all the way up, you can see the top of the synagogue. It’s a lot better than from the sidewalk. I would stay in a hospital like this, it would make by day better. It would calm me down and make me feel good. Why wasn’t I born Jewish? I want my dad to be alive so I could show him the synagogue the way I know it.

Why didn’t you come to this hospital, you would have been alive! I chose to be a nurse in the cancer department. Every day I say farewell to you. I love you daddy. I want to be 10 years old so you would take me to the carousel, never give up and keep winning at the games we play. I want you to play with little Adomas. I want you to protect us from Nikita.

TROLLEYBUS VOICE

Kiita Stotis

Scene VI

CLAUDIO

The last time I took nr. 2, I barely got in. The station was full. Sunday, eight twenty, that’s when the train from Klaipeda gets to Vilnius. I got of the 5th carriage. The conductor of the 5th carriage let me get on the train in Klaipeda. At the train station desk I found out there were no more tickets left. I walked for an hour through park with statues, next to the train station, without thinking there would be no tickets left. I only walked in Klaipeda, no bus ride. I took the ferryboat to get to Smiltyne. An army of fishermen aligned one next to the other. I got to the beach and saw people jumping into the Baltic Sea, 3rd of December. The Death Valley. I ran, I jumped, I screamed and after that I read I just moved a couple of tons of sand. I saw five deers. You can find 9 euros winter shoes in Maxima. You only need five minutes to get out of the bus and fall head to toes in Nida waters. The road from Smiltyne to Nida is the most beautiful thing I saw in Lithuania. The most beautiful thing I have seen in the last 6 years.

TROLLEYBUS VOICE

Stotis.

After scene VI

ERASMUS QUESTIONNAIRE VOICE

Would you have gone on the Erasmus+ stay abroad in Lithuania if you had not received an Erasmus+ grant?

CLAUDIO

No.