"Love" she says, using her dry tongue to flick the word from her mouth, "is a two body problem."
She takes a stubby point of chalk from her sagging pocket and drops to her knees.
"The pull of each body directs the other. The greater body leads but both have equal importance in the solution"
She scrawls an equation across the scraped, fading black paint of the stage floor. The wood below shows through in scratches; from dragged chair legs, the steel tips of tap dancers, the pressured pin at the base of a cello.
Each journey of chalk reverberates through the theatre and, as she shuffles along, her supporting palm and the loose ankles of her trousers scuff the numbers a little, like a sloppy left-hander. She reaches the side of the stage and then climbs down. She sits, front centre.
"Now solve it"
The dancers stare down at the floor.
"What about music?"
"It is the music, you fucking idiots"
He takes his partner by the waist and she shakes out her legs.
"Ready?"
"Yeah...wait. Who's x and who's Y?"
"It doesn't matter"
"But she.."
"It's insoluble"
"God. Typical. Think they'll sort things out?"
He shrugs and straightens out.
She scrawls an equation across the scraped, fading black paint of the stage floor. The wood below shows through in scratches; from dragged chair legs, the steel tips of tap dancers, the pressured pin at the base of a cello.
Each journey of chalk reverberates through the theatre and, as she shuffles along, her supporting palm and the loose ankles of her trousers scuff the numbers a little, like a sloppy left-hander. She reaches the side of the stage and then climbs down. She sits, front centre.
"Now solve it"
The dancers stare down at the floor.
"What about music?"
"It is the music, you fucking idiots"
He takes his partner by the waist and she shakes out her legs.
"Ready?"
"Yeah...wait. Who's x and who's Y?"
"It doesn't matter"
"But she.."
"It's insoluble"
"God. Typical. Think they'll sort things out?"
He shrugs and straightens out.
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